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what an admirable effect this must produce, were he only to shut up a few criminals in it, and make a fire under them.-Phalaris, struck with so horrid an idea, and perhaps curious to try the experiment, told the goldsmith that he himself was the only person worthy of imitating the bull: that he must have studied the note that made it roar to the greatest advantage, and that it would be unjust to deprive him of any part of the honour of his invention. Upon which he ordered the goldsmith to be shut up, and made a great fire around the bull; which immediately began to roar, to the admiration and delight of all Agrigentum.

Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta, v. 2, p. 22.

METAPHYSICAL writers, says Voltaire, are like minuet-dancers; who being dressed to the greatest advantage, make a couple of bows, move through the room in the finest attitudes, display all their graces, are in continual motion without advancing a step, and finish at the identical point from which they set out. Moore's View of Society and Manners in France, v. 1, p. 251.

THE following relation I had from my lady Russell, in Southampton house, (now Bedford house) where the accident happened.

"As I was sitting in my closet, the door being bolted, on a sudden the candle and candlestick jumped off the table, a hissing fire ran on the floor, and after a short time left some paper in a flame, which, with my foot, I put into the chimney, to prevent mischief; then sat down in the dark to

consider whence this event could come. I knew my door and windows were fast, and there was no way open into the closet but by the chimney; and that something should come down there and strike my candle off the table in that strange manner, I believed impossible. After I had wearied myself to no purpose, I rang my bell; the servant in waiting, when I told him what had happened, begged my pardon for having by mistake given me a mould candle with a gunpowder squib in it, which was intended to make sport among the fellow-servants on the rejoicing day."

Her ladyship bid him not be troubled about the matter, for she had no other concern about it than that of not finding out the cause.

THOMAS SELLWOCD.

Lady Rachael Russell's Letters, p. 216.

GENERAL PESCHLIN has been surnamed the Wilkes of Sweden. But he resembled Wilkes more in his venality than in his talents. M. de Vergennes said of that general, that he had no other defect than that of preferring imperials to louis-d'ors. It was observed by a well known scholar, on seeing the epitaph designed by Wilkes for himself, "A friend to liberty," that he was happy to see him grateful, for liberty had certainly been a great friend to him.

Life of Catharine 11. v. 2, p. 456.

LORD O was an imperious rough man, and had the misfortune to be deaf. As he was sleeping one day on the road in his post-chaise, he was

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stopped by a robber on horseback, who awoke him. "What do you want?" said lord Oangrily. "Money, my lord." What money Are you a robber? Are you the rascal who has just awoke me so suddenly?" Come, be quick!" said the other, "I have no time to lose; I must have your purse." "My purse!" exclaimed lord O

"indeed you shall not; really you carry on a fine trade." He then pulled out his purse, which was full; and with his finger and thumb deliberately took out two or three guineas, which he gave to the robber, saying: "There, that is enough for a scoundrel like you: I hope to see you hanged some of these days." The robber was enraged to observe the indifference of lord O-; who put

up his purse, calling the man all the time rascal and scoundrel, and repeating that he hoped to see him hanged soon: but was so much awed by his manner, that he did not dare to insist in his demand of the purse, though he had a pistol in his hand to enforce it. This man's name was Boulter, and he was hung some time after (in 1778.) His fate excited pity, because he had shewn several traits of humanity, which however are not rare among that class of men in England.

Dutens' Memoirs, v. 2, p. 41.

THE invention of gunpowder in Europe, is usually attributed to one Schwartz, a German Monk, about the year 1354, which, however, is very doubtful, as there is every reason to believe that cannon was made use of at the battle of Cressy, which happened in the year 1346. And Mariana,

in his account of the siege of Algeziras by the Spaniards, in the 1342, or 1343, as quoted by Bishop Watson, observes, "that the Moors very much annoyed the christians with their iron shot;" and he further adds, that "this is the first mention made in history of the use of gunpowder and ball.” It is therefore extremely probable, that the first introduction of gunpowder into Europe was by some Mahomedans from the eastward, and that Schwartz was not the inventor, although he might perhaps have been the first publisher of the discovery.

Barrow's travels in China, p. 301.

DR. FULLER informs us, that when Alabaster's latin tragedy of Roxana was acted at Trinity College, in Cambridge, the last words "sequar, sequar" were so "hideously pronounced," that a gentlewoman present fell distracted, and never afterwards recovered her senses.

"Worthies" in Suffolk, p. 70.

THE following is a conversation of Socrates with Alcibiades. The latter, when young, was greatly disheartened and distressed with the thoughts of addressing an assembly of the people. Socrates encouraged him and raised his spirits. "Don't you despise," says he, "that leather-cutter?" pointing to one by name. Alcibiades replied, "Yes." Socrates replied, "Don't you think very lightly of that auctioneer who is haranguing the croud; and of that tent-maker?" The youthful son of Clinias owned he did. "Well," said Socrates, "the whole assembly of the Athenians consists of a num

ber of such characters collected together; and if, when taken singly, you have a low opinion of each, you should not think much of them when they are hurdled together." In this way the son of Sophroniscus and Phænaretes instructed the son of Clinias and Deimonasehes.

Elian's Various History, p. 399.

WHEN two of the judges from the Chatelet demanded an audience of the queen, to inquire of her what she knew about the plots on the 5th and 6th of October, 1789, they received this noble and generous answer: "I have seen every thing, I have known every thing, but I have forgotten every thing (J'ai tout viie, J'ai tout süe, mais J'ai tout oublié.) It is well known, that if two of the king's garde du corps had not stopt the assassins sent by Orleans to murder the queen, in the morning of the 6th of October, by calling out to her to save herself, and sacrificing their own lives to give her time to escape, she would certainly have perished that day. In her journey the same day, from Versailles to Paris, the cruel Parisian mob carried the heads of those two garde du corps upon pikes before the queen's carriage!!!

Revolutionary Plutarch, v. 1, p. 175.

A French gentleman asserted that the marking feature of the English was dullness. He had visited England, and gave the following proof of the truth of his remark.

"I entered the Mall in St. James's Park, sat down on one of the benches by the side of an Eng

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