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with black cloth, placed a skull on the table, and bid his clerk toll the bell at one o'clock in the morning; when having written the following lines, he repeated them in unison to the music of the church tower

The bell strikes one,-we take no note of time
But from its loss; to give it then a tongue,
Is wise in man; as if an angel spoke,

I feel the solemn sound, &c.

Burying in Churches.

So early as the times of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, this abominable practice was complained of, as hurtful to the services of the church. The inconveniences of this ancient practice were so sensibly felt, that several canons were made against it, with an exception in favour of priests, or saints, or such as paid very well for that privilege. It is a pity that Parliament does not issue a law to prevent all such privileges, and that the dead be suffered no longer to infect the living. On the Continent such legal preventions are made.

Anglo-Saxon Ladies.

In the ninth century, there seem to have been ladies of as fashionable a turn of mind as in the nineteenth century. Pope Gregory, in a letter to St. Augustin, the apostle of the English, says, "A certain wicked custom has arisen among

married people, that some ladies refuse to nurse the children whom they have brought forth, but deliver them to other women to be nursed."Henry's History of Great-Britain, 8vo. v. iv. p. 351.

Singular Custom.

In Charles the Second's reign, at the plays then acted from Beaumont and Fletcher, and by the writers of that age, the Ladies, to hide their blushes, wore masks, which at the same time betrayed their shame and consciousness of the impropriety of their attendance on these licentious performances. This absurdity did not

escape Pope; when

The fair sat panting at a courtier's play,
And not a mask went unimprov'd away..

The irony is sufficiently plain and bitter. This expedient of the mask is no less uncleanly than the economy of the housewife, who wears dark gowns to hide the dirt she is too lazy to remove.

What are a Philosopher's Goods and Chattels. When Demetrius besieged Megara, he was desirous of seeing Stilpon who lived near that city, in great reputation for his retired and contemplative life. "Stilpon," said Demetrius, "I hope you have received no ill usage, nor lost any

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My Lord,' replied the Philosopher, with a smile of complacency, I have not met with any of them who have thought knowledge or virtue so valuable as to plunder them from me.'-Plutarch's Life of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus.

Bon Mot of the same Stilpon.

In spite of the great attention paid to Stilpon by Demetrius, his soldiers, like some modern ones, under the promise of giving liberty to the cities which they invaded, and intent on all kinds of plunder, robbed the poor philosopher of the only slave he had. On a subsequent interview, Demetrius shewed his usual marks of friendship to Stilpon, and observed, "Well, Stilpon, I leave your city in perfect liberty and freedom." True, my Lord,' said the Philosopher somewhat briskly, you have left us not so much as one slave among us. - Ibid.

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Anecdote of ancient Gallantry and Politeness.

When the Athenians, in their war with Philip king of Macedon, had intercepted an express sent from the king, they opened all the letters found

It may perhaps be necessary to the English reader, to observe, that among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the great lovers of liberty, slaves were considered as property, and of course transferable.

on the messenger, excepting only those which were directed to his queen Olympia, which they sent carefully and unbroken to the queen.-Ibid.

Beauty.

How very widely men differ in their description of female charms. In the points of other animals, men are decisive, as in the horse, the cow, &c. but of the beauty of a woman there are so many various opinions, that something besides external form must generate this difference. The French phrase, if it does not decide the question of what woman shall be called beautiful, explains, at least, the difficulty of it: the "Je ne sçais quoi,” and the Calia altogether of the English poet, must content us, unless we join the sentimentalist, and attribute our choice to the more or less discovery of the amiable, &c. that we think we alone can perceive in the features, air, gesture, &c. of the beloved object. Shall we settle this question by the opinion of a very amorous Bard-

There's no such thing as what we beauty call,
It is mere cozenage all.

For though some long ago

Like certain colours mingled so and so,

That doth not tie me now from choosing new;

If I fancy take

To black and blue,

That Fancy doeth it beauty make.

Sir John Suckling's Poems.

Different Faculties and Pursuits.

It seems at first difficult to account how three very eminent Architects in the Palladian taste should have failed so egregiously in their attempts in Gothic architecture. Inigo Jones, Sir C. Wren, and the late ingenious Mr. James Wyatt, have left most eminent proofs of their skill in buildings, worthy of Greeks and Romans; but in Gothic structures they have betrayed most gross ignorance or inattention. Inigo Jones erected a Grecian portico to old St. Paul's, and a Grecian skreen in Winchester cathedral. Sir C. Wren's additional towers to Westminster Abbey are sorry proofs of his ignorance of gothic beauty and grandeur. His cupola on the portal of Christchurch college great quadrangle is neither Gothic, nor Grecian, nor Arabesque. The repairs in Hereford Cathedral, and the restoration of many parts of the chapel of New College, Oxford, will convey to posterity no advantageous opinion of Mr. J. Wyatt's taste or skill in Gothic ornaments.

So wide is art, so narrow human wit.

Platonic Love.

Pope.

This great philosopher has been censured by those who never read him; for platonic love is the joke of every one who assumes the character of

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