piece of butter as large as a nutmeg is put, and upon it a spoonful of brown sugar, &c. The butter, being soon heated by the heat of the pudding, mixes with the sugar and forms a sauce, which being confined in the excavation, occupies the middle of the plate!"

Thus for the array-now for the battle!

"Dip each spoonful in the sauce, before it is carried to the mouth, care being had in taking it up to begin on the outside, and near the brim of the plate, and to approach the centre by gradual advances, in order not to demolish too soon the excavation which forms the reservoir of the sauce?"

Essays Phil. by Count Rumford, v. 1, p. 254.

WE read of a wretched poet who was employed by Alexander the Great to sing his praises, on the condition that for every good line he was to receive a hundred pieces of gold, and for every bad one a hundred lashes. Tradition says that the poor poet did not long survive the bargain, which proved as bad for him as the sentence of a modern courtmartial. Had the same bargain been struck with our poets laureat, the country would have saved many an annual hundred pounds.

Epics of the Ton, p. 69.

NIEWENTYT has computed, that in a second of a minute, there flies out of a burning candle, particles of light ten millions of millions times, more, than the number of the grains of sand, computed to be contained in the whole earth!

The imagination is not worth a microscope! it

has incalculable calculations! Lewenhock startles even a philosopher, when he calculates the eggs of a female fish at 9,334,000, every one of which to fecundate, the male must have 10,000 spermatic animalculæ, so that the male fish contains 90,334,000,000, that is, eighty-four times more fish than human creatures on the face of the globe! Malezieu says, he has seen living animalculæ twenty-seven millions of times smaller than mites!!!

Phil. Mag. v. xiii. p. 374.

THE negligence of Campistron, in answering the letters that were written to him, was so notorious, that one day, when he was burning a large packet of letters, M. de Vendome, who saw him very carefully thus employed, observed to those present, "Campistron is very busy answering his letters. Collectanea, p. 37.

THE learned Fleury mentions a curious custom observed in the election of popes :-The new-made popes were seated on night-chairs, called Stercoraria, from whence they threw money among the people. The design of this elegant throne was to intimate, in a delicate way, to the apostolical sovereign, that he was a man, subject like others to the wants of nature, and all the infirmities of humanity. Flim-Flams, v. 2, p. 69.

A certain justly celebrated songstress and her caro sposo, during their musical tour in the north of England, arrived one evening at an inn, not remarkable for the excellence of its accommodations;

but as there were no fresh horses to be had, it was impossible to proceed another stage. This circumstance being mentioned to a nobleman who resided in the neighbourhood, he very politely invited them to pass the night at his house, where he treated them with that hospitality for which he is so eminently distinguished. The travellers appeared to be much gratified by his lordship's polite attention, and were easily persuaded to prolong their visit, during which they were shewn all the beauties of the surrounding country. In the evening madame naturally requested to favour the company with a few songs, to which she readily assented. On the fifth morning lord, at their request, ordered his carriage to take them the next stage of their intended journey, when, after bidding adieu, and thanking his lordship for his civilities, monsieur

was

with that modesty which marks his character, presented a slip of paper containing the moderate demand of five hundred guineas, for the exertion of his wife's musical talents, saying, "My lor, my vife is sing five nights.-dis is de price, van hundred guineas chaque night." We have not heard if his lordship submitted to the abominable imposition of this avaricious and insolent FrenchSatirist, p. 180.

man.

WE have a picture of Sterne, drawn by himself, in the attitude of feeding an ass with macaroons: "and at this moment," says the sprightly and whimsical writer, " that I am telling it, my heart smites me that there was more of pleasantry in the conceit of seeing how an ass would eat a maca

roon, than of benevolence in giving him one, which presided in the act." It would be hard to say what figure an ass would make while thus engaged; but we are told by Valerius Maximus that a similar entertainment caused the death of Philemon. This poet, on entering a room to refresh himself with some figs, observed that an ass had been before-hand with him, and was leisurely devouring them one by one. Philemon, wishing to complete the repast, courteously ordered a slave to present his dumb guest with a goblet of wine. This curious symposium provoked the comedian to such a fit of laughter, that he was suffocated in the struggle. Translations from the Greek Anthol.

pref. p. xlix.

NELL GWYN, the celebrated mistress of Charles the second, maintained a considerable sway over him, in spite of that licentious monarch's unbounded passion for variety. She was a person of infinite good humour, and bore the rubs incident to her situation with perfect composure. It is told of her coachman, that, being one day insulted by a brother-whip with the jeer, that "he served a he stript and asserted his honour in a sound bruising match. Nell was attracted by the noise of the scuffle; and on learning the affair from her coachman, "Pugh!" said she, "why do you get yourself bruised for what every one knows!" "Zds, ma'am," replied the coachman, "every one may know that you are a w but every one is not to say that I serve a w

Epics of the Ton, p. 91.

THERE is so little true feeling in the herd of the world, that I wish I could have got an act of parliament when Tristram Shandy first appeared, that none but wise men should look into the work. It is too much to write books and find heads to understand them!" Sterne's Letters, cxxv.

FONTANA, the late Italian naturalist, declares that he has found the means of giving eels a ser at pleasure. While they are hermaphrodites, if they die, he can give them a resurrection, but when he converts them into a male or a female, once dead they can no longer be revived.

Phil. Mag. v. 12. p. 26.

I took a large locust off the Cape, opened its belly, and pulling out its intestines, filled the cavity with cotton! and in that state I fixed it to the bottom of a box with a pin, which passed through its thorax! It remained there for five months, and at the end of that period it still moved both its legs and its antenna.-I transfixed other locusts in the same manner, without opening their bellies—to try if I could stifle them!"

Vaillant's Tour in Africa.

BEING at a public garden, observes our traveller, on the Boulevards, and in search of that temple which the English expect to find half concealed, I soon saw, for it was open to all eyes, the inscription-Cabinet d'aisance. By one token it might have been a cabinet council, for a guardian was seated at the door, and strange as it may be