The devil is said to have practised such a delusion on Pope Silvester II.; having, on consultation, assured his holiness he should die in Jerusalem, and kept his word by taking him off as he was saying mass, in 1003, in a church of that name, in Rome.

IN ANCIENT GREECE, when a person was prosecuted for any crime however heinous, even that of murder, he had full liberty, even after having made his address to the judges, to make his escape, and to avoid, by expatriating himself, the consequences of a capital

condemnation. Demosthenes gives the following reason for a lenity which in modern times appears so singular :"Those original institutors of our laws," says the orator, whosoever they were, whether men, or heroes, or gods, superadded not to the misfortunes of human aberrations the inflictions of a severe legislation, but humanely, so far as they could, alleviated the misfortunes of mankind by the gentleness of their legal forbearance."

ON the hill of the Areopagus at Athens, stood an altar to Minerva, near which the judicial proceedings took place, whereto the place was, from the days of Orestes, dedicated. Beside this altar lay two large stones cased over with silver, upon which stood the accusing and accused persons; the one stone was called the Stone of Inquiry, the other, The Stone of Impudence; two most emphatic titles, characteristic of the dispositions and passions that lead men to litigations.

THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF SILK INTO FRANCE. It is said that the first introduction of silk into France was accomplished by Louis XI., who obtained workmen from Genoa, Venice, and Florence, and established them at Tours in the year 1480, under very extensive privileges. It does not, however, appear that much progress was made in the manufacture until the reign of Francis I. During the time that the French possessed the duchy of Milan (1521,) artisans were thence procured, who introduced the manufacture into Lyons under the fostering protection of the monarch. The people of France made a rapid progress in this pursuit; and, in addition to those of Lyons, many manufactories were speedily established in others of the southern provinces, supplying sufficient for their own consumption, and soon afterwards even a superabundance for competition in foreign markets, furnishing many parts of Europe with the

fruits of their newly cultivated art. In particular, France for many years derived considerable wealth from prosecuting this branch of trade with England. Cab. Cyc.

KAMSCHATKA HOSPITALITY.-When the Kamschatdale is in a peculiarly hospitable humour, or is anxious to conciliate a fellow-countryman, whose hostility he dreads, he heats his subterraneous dwelling until the temperature becomes almost past endurance; then, undressing both his guest and himself, he sets a profuse supply of food before cial care that the heat be nowise slackhim, and during the regale, takes speened. Succumbing under the double assault of roasting and gourmandizing, the visitor at length avows that nature can no longer withstand either the one assailant or the other; "mine host" is admitted to have done all that the most punctilious civility can exact; and he then proceeds to levy a contribution on his honoured guest in retaliation of the hospitable greeting which he has enjoyed.

THE KNOUT. - This instrument of torture is composed of a piece of leather about eighteen inches in length, rather thicker than a man's finger at one end, from which it tapers to a very small point; this leather is fixed by a cord about twice its length, to a wooden handle. The man who inflicts the punishment is called the "Knout Master," and as it requires great skill and dexterity to use this instrument with proper effect, considerable practice is required to render him capable of filling this important post. When the punishment is about to be inflicted, the culprit is placed in a sort of frame, which, bending down the head and back, draws the skin tight. The Knout Master then retreats about thirty paces, and having leisurely measured his distance, rushes, brandishing his weapon over his head, towards his victim, upon whom he inflicts a blow with all his force, drawing the knout down the back, so that it presents an appearance of having been as it were cut by a knife: this sort of advance and retreat is kept up with every blow. The severity of this mode of punishment, unlike our flogging, does not depend upon the number of stripes inflicted, but the method of the stroke; as a man may be able to bear above 100 blows, and again by striking near the heart, six are sufficient to cause immediate death. A person receiving the punishment of the

knout, is invariably marked by having a piece of flesh cut from each nostril. W. S. C.

Anecdotiana.

BEN JONSON AND RALPH THE WAITER. This great dramatist, being solicited to say grace before "gude King Jamie," gave the following extempore, Our King and Queen the Lord God blesse, The Palsgrave and the Ladye Besse; And God blesse ev'ry living thing, That lives, and breathes, and loves the King; God blesse the Council of Estate, Aud Buckingham the fortunate;

God blesse them all, and keep them safeAnd God blesse me, and my friend Ralph. His majesty requested to know who his friend Ralph was, and was told by Ben, that he was the drawer at the Swanne tavern, at Charing Cross, who drew him good Canarie. Upon hearing which, the king langhed heartily, and for the above piece of spontaneous drollery, presented rare Ben with £100.

THE WAY TO TREAT LIBELS. James I. with all his faults, had good-nature. A lampoon, in which there were reflections upon the court, was read by him once with some indignation; but as it conclu ded with

"God bless the King, the Queen, the Prince, the Peers,

And grant the author long may wear his ears," his features relaxed into a smile, and he said, with his usual good humour, 66 By my faith, and so he shall for me; for though he be an impudent, he is a witty and a pleasant rogue."

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.-When Sir John Owen, who fought for Charles I. was tried by the parliamentary judges, he told them, that he was a plain gentleman of Wales, who had been taught to obey the king; that he had served him honestly during the war; and that, finding that many honest men endea voured to raise forces, whereby he might get out of prison, he did the like, and concluded like a man who did not much care what they resolved concerning him. In the end, he was condemned to lose his head; for which, with a humorous intrepidity, he made the court a low reverence, and gave his humble thanks. A by-stander asked what he meant he replied, aloud, "It was a great honour to a poor gentleman of Wales to lose his head with such noble lords; for, by God, he was afraid they would have hanged him."-Sir John, by some good fortune, was disappointed of the honour he was flattered with, being as his epitaph says, Famæ plusquam

vitæ solicito. He neither solicited for a pardon, nor was any petition offered to parliament in his favour; which was strongly importuned in behalf of his fellow-prisoners. Ireton proved his advocate, and told the house, "that there was one person for whom no one spoke a word, and therefore requested that he might be saved by the motive and goodness of the house." In consequence, mercy was extended to him; and, after a few months' imprisonment, he was, on his petition, set at liberty. He retired again into his country, where he died in 1666, and was interred in the church of Penmorva, in Caernarvonshire, where a small monument was erected to his memory.

SEEING NOT ALWAYS BELIEving.In making a collection at the French Academy, a dollar of six francs was found wanting. One of the members, a great miser, was suspected of not having contributed. He maintained he had. The person who had made the collection said, "That he had not seen him, but he believed he had.”—M. Fontenelle settled the discussion, by saying, "I saw it, but I did not believe it."

POPE'S INSENSIBILITY TO MUSIC.Handel used frequently to meet Pope at the Earl of Burlington's. The poet one day asked his friend Arbuthnot, of whose knowledge in music he had a high opinion, what he really thought of Handel as a musician? Arbuthnot replied, "Conceive the highest you can of his abilities, and they are far beyond any thing you can conceive." Pope, nevertheless, declared, that "Handel's finest performances gave him no more pleasure than the airs of an itinerant ballad-singer."

A LITTLE ABSURDITY.-Tintoret, in a picture portraying the Israelites gathering manna in the Desart, has armed the Hebrews with guns; and a modern Neapolitan artist has represented the Holy Family during their journey to Egypt, as passing the Nile in a barge as richly ornamented as that of Cleopatra.

CONUNDRUM.-Why is a man going to be married like the principal agitator in a mob?-Because he's a Ringleader.

EARLY ADVICE TO A SON.

Be good with spirit, and with parts be just;
Let prudence seize whate'er is learning's boast,
But oh! for learning be not virtue lost.
Let mild humanity her aid extend;
and thou shalt travel to those bless'd abodes,
God will repay what to men's wants you lend;
Where virtuous men are only less than Gods.

Be kind to all; love few, and fewer trust;

Tuesday, August 30.

St. Pammachius, Conf. A.D. 410. Moon's Last Quar. 48m after 10 Morn. The Harvest.-The end of August is generally

the usual time of Harvest, and hence the beginning of sporting has, from time immemorial, been fixed for September. In fine weather the Harvest Home, as it is called, is a scene of great cheerfulness, and it is peculiarly pleasing to see the wheat carried, accompanied by the cheerful sounds of the Harvest-horn, an emblem of the horn of Plenty. But the many rustic ceremonies formerly belonging to the carrying of the Harvest, are fast going out of use.

Brand observes, that the Harvest Home is call. ed Mell Supper, Kern, Churn Supper, or Feast of In-gathering; and quotes Macrobius, who tells us that, among the Heathens, the masters of families, when they had got in their Harvest, were wont to feast with their servants, who had laboured for them in tilling the ground. In exact conformity to this it is common among us, when the fruits of the earth are gathered in and laid in their proper repositories, to provide a plentiful supper for the harvest-men and the servants of the family. this entertainment, all are, in the modern revolutionary idea of the word, perfectly equal. Here is no distinction of persons, but master and servant sit at the same table, converse freely together, and spend the remainder of the night in dancing, and singing, in the most easy familiarity.

At

Bourne thinks the original of both these customs is Jewish, and cites Hospinian, who tells us that the Heathens copied after this custom of the Jews, and at the end of their Harvest, offered up their first fruits to the Gods. For the Jews rejoiced and feasted at the getting-in of the harvest. Wednesday, August 31.

St. Cuthburge, Queen, Vir. & Abbess, 8th Cent. High Water 25m after 7 Morn-57m after 7 Aftern. August 31, 1422.-Expired at or near Rouen, in France, ÆT. 34, Henry V. the celebrated conqueror of France. His remains were conveyed to England, and interred in Westminster Abbey.Henry was a native of Monmouth, which at that period belonged to Wales; a country which also gave birth to two other Kings of England, namely, Edward II. and Henry VII. The former was born at Caernarvon; the latter at Pembroke.

Thursday, Sept. 1.

St. Giles, Abbot, 1st Century.

Sun rises 13m after 5-sets 46m after 6. Sept. 1, 1503.-Return of Vasco de Gama to Lisbon. Vasco de Gama immortalized himself by a discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. Don Emanuel, King of Portugal, sent him to India in the year 1493, upon a voyage of discovery. He first ran down the eastern coast of Africa, and landed in various parts, with intention to make treaties with the chiefs. He also sailed upon the eastern coast of India. On his return, he was made Admiral of the Indian, Persian, and Arabian seas, a title which his descendants preserved to the latest period. Gama sailed on a second voyage on the 10th of February, 1502, and, after having revenged the insults he had received in his first voyage, by destroying the vessels of several barbarous princes, he returned with thirteen ships, richly laden. To distinguish this happy expedition, Don Emanuel built the fort of Bellemo, honoured Gama with the title of Don for himself and his posterity, and created him a Grandee of Portugal.

"It was the 2nd of September, 1666, that the anger of the Lord was kindled against London, and the fire began: it began in a baker's house, in Pudding Lane, by Fish Street Hill; and now the Lord is making London like a fiery oven in the time of his anger, and in his wrath doth devour It was in the and swallow up our habitations. depth and dead of the night, when most doors and fences were locked up in the city, that the fire did break forth, and appear abroad like a mighty giant refreshed with wine."

Saturday, Sept. 3.

St. Vepe, in Cornwall.

Sun rises 16m after 5-Sets 43m after 6. Charles Lamb, in his Mirror of the Months, says, "The apple-harvest of the cider counties, takes place this month, and though I must not represent it as very fertile in the elegant and picturesque, let me not neglect to do justice to its produce, as the only one deserving the name of British wines; all other liquors so called being, the reader may rest assured, worse than poisons, in the exact proportion that specious hypocrites are worse than open, bold-faced villains."

Sunday, Sept. 4.

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Lessons for the Day.-Jeremiah, 5 chapter Morn. Jeremiah, 22 ch. Evening.

The first week in September is more often calm on an average than the last of August: hence the well-known proverb

September blows soft till the fruit's in the loft." In an early volume of Black wood's Magazine, we find the following beautiful sonnet, entitledAutumnal Twilight.

I stood at sunset on a little hill,

O'erhung and garlanded with tall beech trees, The west was clothed in gold and not a breeze Disturbed the scene-all was unearthly still; And pleasant was the air, though somewhat chill, As wont upon a clear September eve. Methought 'twas then impossible to grieve, For placid thought o'ercame the sense of ill, And a deep Lethe o'er the senses brought.

I gazed upon the waters-on the flowersThe sky-the stirless woods-the silent leaves, Flashed back departed boyhood on my thought, And all the joys that then, loved friend, were

ours.

Monday, Sept. 5. St. Laurance Justinian, Pat. of Venice, A.D. 455. High Water 7m aft 1 Mor-32m aft 1 After.

Sept. 5, 1638.--Born at St. Germain-en-Laye, Louis XIV. King of France, surnamed Dieudonne. A modern historian says that this monarch "Had all common virtues and talents in perfection, without any of those striking and salient attributes which constitute the hero, or in history's eye, the great. There are few mortals to whom a more glorious epitaph might be inscribed; but his career was neither of that astonishing or interest. ing class which claims and wins apotheosis."

Illustrated Article.

THE FORCE OF CONSCIENCE.

AN EPISODE OF REAL LIFE.

Jul.-As little by such toys as may be pos-
sible,

But sing it to the tune of light o' love.
Luc-It is too heavy for so light a tune.

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

I am sure, Cleveland, you have been astonished at my silence, and I cannot say that either amusement or occupation has withheld me from performing the chief duty and pleasure of my existence. One entire and absorbing interest has lately taken possession of my whole soul, and drawn, as it were, all my powers into itself. It has been said that love is the business of woman's life-but only an EPISODE in that of man. Though my youth has sobered into manhood, and manhood is gliding imperceptibly into old age, yet one "episode" of my early days has been treasured up with but too faithful a remembrance. Judge then, my chosen VOL. VIII.

H

friend, my second self in all, except the weakness of my nature, what my feelings must have been some weeks ago, when in a ghastly and attenuated being, who leaned his head languidly on the velvet lining of a splendid landau, as it crept along Pall-mall, I recognized the once handsome and animated B-. An uncontrollable impulse led me to remain near the door of the United Service Club, which he was about to enter. His trembling frame was supported at either side, by two footmen as he ascended the steps,-Good God! how painfully altered he appeared!-his cheeks yellow and wrinkled-his teeth were broken and decayed-his eyes, once so brilliant, black and penetrating, darting and catching light, now were sunken and changed both in colour and size, and unmeaningly strayed from object to object. It was only when their dullness rested upon me, that any thing like a feeling of life passed over his countenance then he paused, pressed the servants' arms with his gloved hands, and raised himself to his full

204

height as he peered into my face, with a wandering, undefined expression of dread and uncertainty. This was the action of a moment, his grasp relaxed, and he proceeded up the staircase, with the same restless and bewildered air. My heart ached within me, at the full tide of recollections that rushed upon it; I literally gasped for breath, and involuntarily hastened towards the Park, eager to escape from the vision that you will readily believe my imagination conjured up at this strange meeting. I walked rapidly onward, as if memory could be obliterated by violence of motion. I had scarcely turned the corner of St. James's, when a powdered menial arrested my steps and politely inquired if my name were not Leyden. I replied in the affirmative, and he requested that I would accompany him back to the United Service Club, as his master wished particularly to see me. I retraced my path, and was shown into a private room, at the upper end of which B- sat, or rather reclined, upon a sofa. On entering I felt a chilliness steal over my frame, as if the atmosphere I breathed was tainted. As I approached, he endeavoured to stand up, but the effort was unavailing, and while extending his hand he buried his face in the cushions that supported him. For many minutes we were both silent, but when he did speak, his delivery was slow and broken, yet he was the first who acquired self-possession enough to articulate.

"Years have passed, Mr. Leyden," he commenced, "since we have looked upon each other.-Years, sir, yes, years have passed-years of worldly prosperity-of mental anguish-anguish anguish," he repeated, in a low and monotonous voice that sounded like a death wail; "anguish-more than that -years of feelings, that have rendered this bosom," and he struck it with his clenched hand, "a living, an eternal hell!"

What could I say, Cleveland? had you seen him at that moment, as I did, you would have forgotten the injuries he heaped upon your friend, in witnessing the misery he endured. You could not have looked upon, and not have pitied him.

"Tell me," he continued, reading, doubtless, the softened expression of my countenance, for you must remember how fatally skilled he was in every movement of the human face, as well as in every winding of the human heart, "tell me, where they have buried

her?" Little as I had anticipated such a question, I felt it was one that he ought to ask, and without faltering, replied:

"A small black marble urn, supported on a slight pedestal, in the south corner of Old Windsor church-yard, marks the spot; it is near the vault of her ancestors."

"Who," he inquired, "who raised the tablet?"

"I did." He gazed, Cleveland, as if into my very soul, and then muttered in an under tone, “Black, why made you it of black marble? She was pure as God's own light; I ought to know it best, and I say it; and why did they exclude her from the vault?-was her flesh less fair than theirs?" After one of those distressing pauses, which come when the mind is too full for utterance, he continued:-" Leyden, you are not changed as I expected; your brow is smoother than mine, though you are an older man, and there is a look of peace -inward peace-about you. Strange that, after an absence of twenty years, you were the first of my old acquaintances to meet me,-you, whom I would have most avoided, and yet most wished to see-there is only one other

"There is no other," I interrupted; "her father died broken-hearted within a year after her fatal act was known."

Cleveland, I cannot describe to you the shudder that passed through his frame, as I uttered these words; it was a positive convulsion, and, sensible of the hideous effect it produced, he covered his face with his hands, while his limbs quivered as if in mortal agony; when the paroxysm had subsided, I collected myself sufficiently to say, that having communicated the information he seemed so anxious to obtain I would now leave him, sincerely hoping that he might experience a return of the tranquillity he had lost; he raised his eyes to mine, and though they instantly sank to the earth, in that one look there was more of despair, more of hopelessness, than I ever beheld conveyed by human expression; there is something like it in a fine picture I once saw, but cannot remember where, that represented with fearful reality the betrayer of his Saviour flinging back to its purchasers the price of his Master's blood.

He then rang the bell, and with forced composure inquired my address; I presented my card, and he bowed with somewhat of his once courtly air, as the servant conducted me to the door.

During the remainder of that day,