Mansfield were in a company of general officers and admirals who have been in service, he would shrink; he'd wish to creep under the table." Boswell. "No; he'd think he could try them all." Johnson. "Yes, if he could catch them: but they'd try him much sooner. No, sir; were Socrates and Charles XII. of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, 'Follow me, and hear a lecture in philosophy;' and Charles laying his hand on his sword, to say, Follow me, and dethrone the czar;' a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, the impression is universal: yet it is strange. As to the sailor, when you look down from the quarter-deck to the space below, you see the utmost extremity of human misery: such crouding, such filth, such stench!" Boswell. "Yet sailors are happy." Johnson. "They are happy as brutes are happy, with a piece of fresh meat, with the grossest sensuality. But, sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness." Scott.* "But is not courage mechanical, and to be acquired?" Johnson. "Why yes, sir, in a collective sense. Soldiers consider themselves only as part of a great machine." Scott. "We find people fond of being sailors." Johnson. "I cannot account for that, any more than I can account for other strange perversions of imagination."

His abhorrence of the profession of a sailor was uniformly violent; but in conversation he always

• The present sir William Scott.

exalted the profession of a soldier. And yet I have, in my large and various collection of his writings, a letter to an eminent friend, in which he expresses himself thus: "My god-son called on me lately. He is weary, and rationally weary of a military life. If you can place him in some other state, I think you may increase his happiness, and secure his virtue. A soldier's time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption." Such was his cool reflection in his study; but whenever he was warmed and animated by the presence of company, he, like other philosophers, whose minds are impregnated with poetical fancy, caught the common enthusiasm for splendid reLife of Johnson, v. 3, p. 287.

nown.

I was warned against visiting the Irish, who, I was told, were so ignorant, that a rebel barber, seeing an artillery-man about to apply his match to a cannon, ran up to the muzzle and thurst his wig into it, exclaiming "By Jasus, I have stopt your mouth, my honey, for this time." But he did not, for " he was blown to atoms.'

Sir John Carr

A man carrying a large beam on his shoulder, and striking, unintentionally, against Diogenes, said to him, "Take care." "How!" said Diogenes, "do you intend to hit me a second time?" Some time after, meeting with a like adventure, he gave a stroke with his stick to him who had hit him, saying, "Take care of yourself."

Fenelon's Life of Diogenes, v. 2, p. 134.

THE original of the following prayer, written about an hour before the commencement of the battle of Trafalgar, is said to be in the possession of sir William Scott, in the hand writing of lord Nelson.

"May the great God, whom I worship, grant to my country, and for the benefit of Europe, a great and glorious victory! and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it. And may humanity, after victory, be the predominant feature in the British fleet! For myself, individually, I commit my life to him who made me; and may his blessing light on my endeavours for serving my country faithfully! To him I resign myself, and the JUST CAUSE which is entrusted to me to defend! AMEN-AMEN-AMEN.

"Victory, Oct. 21, 1805, in sight
of the fleets of France and Spain;
distant about ten miles."

Life of Lord Nelson.

AFTER the conclusion of peace with America, when Mr Adams, as envoy from the United States, obtained his first audience, the king declared, that he anticipated the interview as the most critical moment in his life; but he received the new minister with gracious affability. "I was the last man in the kingdom, sir," said his majesty, "to consent to the independence of America, but now it is granted, I shall be the last in the world to sanction a violation of it." This noble and dignified sentiment, joined with the general deportment of the king, formed such a refutation of the calumnies a

gainst him, by which the revolt had been rendered 'popular, that Mr Adams retired agitated and affected in the highest degree, and ever after expressed and retained a strong attachment to his person and character. MS.

MR WILKES was invited by a young man of fashion at Paris, to sup with him and a lady, who had been for some time his mistress, but with whom he was going to part. He said to Mr Wilkes that he really felt very much for her, she was in such distress ; and that he meant to make her a present of two hundred louis-d'ors. Mr Wilkes observed the behaviour of Mademoiselle, who sighed indeed very piteously, and assumed every pathetick air of grief; but eat no less than three French pigeons, which are as large as English partridges, besides other things. Mr Wilkes whispered the gentleman, We often say in England, Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry, but I never heard Excessive sorrow is exceeding hungry. Perhaps one hundred will do." The gentleman took the hint.

Boswell.

AN Irishman being upbraided with cowardice, said, he had as bold a heart as any man in the army, but his cowardly legs always ran away with it. Edinburgh Budget, p. 120.

NOTHING like travelling.-I used to have my prejudices, but now, since I've been in France, I know that the French are not all lean men, and Ireland has convinced me that an Irishman can

speak for some time without making a bull. If they make more bulls than the English, it is owing to the "quickness of their thoughts," or wit.-An Irishman frequently "discharges his answer," "before the question," and "another is ready to follow," which accounts for his always being beforehand with you. My Pocket Book, p. 120.

ROBERT, cardinal of Genoa, afterwards pope, was a distinguished Italian general about the year 1738. One day surveying some of the inhabitants of Camerino diverting themselves with a mock fight, he received a wound by a random arrow. When they had seized the culprit, and were on the point of cutting off his head, the general interposed, and ordered the man to be dismissed, observing, "That the punishment, to be of any use to him, should have preceded the wound." Hist. of the Popes.

A naturalist's house.-WE entered the house of Gobbo, the naturalist, not without trepidation; we had heard so many bloody stories concerning this great man, that Reynold's folio of "God's Revenge against Murder," records no murderer more red than him; nor the Newgate Calendar more abominable attempts than he had practised.

We found a great snake crawling about the floors, at which we started, but our conductor stroked him on the back, and assured us he was a most excellent mouser-it seems GOBBо preferred a snake to a cat! A number of toads were placed in different parts of the room, and there served instead of so many pots of fly-water-they caught the flies!