this name for the following reason;-when God had created the world, he threw down from heaven twelve baskets filled with prattle; the woman picked up nine of them, whilst her husband had hardly time to collect the other three.

Segur on Women, v. 1, notes.

DOCTOR MEAD had his rise in life, from being called to see the duchess of at midnight. She unfortunately drank to excess,--the doctor also was very often much in liquor, and was so that night. In the act of feeling her pulse, slipping his foot, he cry'd "Drunk by G-d," meaning of himself. She, imagining he had found out her complaint, which she wished to conceal, told the doc tor, if he kept it secret, she would recommend him. She did so, and made his fortune.

M. S.

RAY the naturalist was of a very amiable and meek disposition. He had long hair, and would frequently sit for an hour at a time, to have it combed by a child. Ray's Life.

JOSEPH VILLA, a native of Malta, not satisfied with having amused a considerable part of Europe, during several years, that he had recovered the lost works of Livy in an Arabian manuscript, and with persuading an English lady to offer with British generosity, in the year 1794, a sum sufficient for the publication of that part of the Roman History so much revered, he availed himself of the arrival of an ambassador from Morocco; who, re

turning from Naples, was by contrary winds detained during some days at Palermo. He declared that the African minister had found in the abbey of St. Martin, near Palermo (whither Villa accompanied him) a curious Arabian M. S. containing the history of Sicily, during the period of the Arabic dominion.

As the tradition of these times is extremely defective, this report was popularly sanctioned. An opulent bishop of Palermo expended considerable sums on the translation of the work in six volumes, which appeared in the course of ten years; and it was not till the greatest part was completed, that the manuscript was discovered to be a forgery.

Dr. Hager's Picture of Palermo, p. 112.

DURING the siege of Gibraltar, a paper merchant offered the Spanish commander, the duke de Crillon, an immense kite, at the tail of which a man in a sack was to ascend and to pour aquafortis over the officers and soldiers on parade. The duke had the kite sent over the rock-luckily for the inventor, who had put himself into the sack, the string broke just as he was lifted off the ground. Public Characters, 1803,4. p. 234. Marg. Anspach's Life.

BUONAPARTE was not quite satisfied with Massena's giving up Genoa before every soul in the city had perished, or, as he wrote, until "toute la ville etoit un tombeau;" yet, from policy, he trusted him with the command over the army of Italy after the battle of Marengo. But Massena did not preserve this command longer than a month;

in which short time, however, he added to his fortune another million of livres. After repeated complaints, he was disgraced and recalled to give an account of his financial transactions both at Genoa and in Lombardy. On his arrival at Paris, he was strongly reprimanded by the first consul, in the presence of several general officers as pure as himself; but his droll, and not ironical answer, calmed the anger of Buonaparte, and silenced the envy of his enemies and fellow-plunderers.*

Revolutionary Plutarch, p. 317.

IN a considerable portion of North America it is a fundamental principle of education never to beat a child, whether male or female. When the child commits a fault the mother begins to cry, and her tears have a more powerful effect than every other sort of correction. When the fault recurs, the greatest correction is, to throw a glass of water in the child's face.

Segur on Women, v. 2, p. 326.

JULIUS CAESAR.-As he passed along through a little poor towne situate within the Alpes, his familiar friends about him, merrilly asked one

• When Buonaparte had finished his philipic, Massena told him with a submissive air: Je suis un voleur; and, fixing him, he said, Tu es un voleur. Looking next at general Murat, he continued, Il est un voleur! then, regarding the whole circle of generals, he exclaimed, Nous sommes des voleurs; bowing to them ail, he added, Vous etes des voleurs; and in retiring, he said, Oui, Citoyen Consul, ils sont des voleurs Des republicains Francois tel est le caractere! See Les Nouvelles a la Main, Vendemiaire, an x. No. iii. p. 7.

another whether there were any factions and contentions in that burrough, about superioritie, and, namely, who should be the chief? whereupon he staid suddenly; and after he had studied and mused a while within himselfe; I had rather (quoth he) be the first here than the second in Rome.

Holland's Plutarch, p. 441.

CAROLUS PUGNAX, the great duke of Burgundy, made H. Holland, late duke of Exeter, exiled, run after his horse like a lackey, and would take no notice of him.

Burton, from Comineus.

PHOCION, the son of Phocus, who had often headed the armies of his country, was condemned to die, and was about to drink the cup of hemlock, in prison; when, on the lictor handing it to him, his friends asked him if he had any charge to his son?"Yes," he replied, "I command him not to remember, against the Athenians, the cup which I am going to drink."

Elian's Various History, p. 398.

BESIDES the common fiacres and two-wheeled calessini, drawn by a single horse, sedan chairs were used in Palermo, where, however they were not only employed for the living but the dead. The observer meets almost every day a funeral (consisting merely of a sedan chair) of which there is scarcely any appearance externally. When I first arrived at Palermo, I looked into one of them, in the eager expectation of seeing a well dressed girl,

or a lovely woman; but my consternation was infinite, when I beheld a ghastly and livid corps! I hurried back as speedily as I was able, and never was again tempted to examine any other of those vehicles during my stay at Palermo, much less to be borne in one of them.

Dr Hager's Picture of Palermo, p. 37.

JOHN DE MEDICIS, that rich Florentine, when he lay upon his death-bed, calling his sons Cosmus and Laurence before him, amongst other sober sayings, repeated this: It doth me good to think yet, though I be dying, that I shall leave you, my children, sound and rich: for wealth sways all.

Burton's Anat. Melan.

An official report, published at Genoa, by citizen Goffredini, in July 1800, mentions, that during the blockade and siege of that city, and in sixtytwo skirmishes and sorties, 4266 Frenchmen were made prisoners, 5052 were killed, and 6012 wounded; 9544 Austrians were made prisoners, and upwards of that number killed. Of an epidemic fever which raged in the city, 3706 Frenchmen died in the hospitals, and 216 in private houses; of the inhabitants, 6384 died by the fever; 20,493 by famine, and 196 were killed or wounded from the fire of the besiegers. So numerous were the ill-fated victims of a cruel duty, which forced Massena to regard with seeming indifference the ravages of pestilence, famine, and death within, and the assaults, bombardments, and firing from without. It would scarcely be possible to

H