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make a tooth-pick, and that a tortoise might make the tour of his house in a quarter of an hour."

XCIX. ANAGRAMS.

The best anagram I have met with, is one which was shown me by the Duchess de la Tremouille. She was the sister of the Duke de Bouillon and of Marshal Turenne, and her name was Marie de la Tour; in Spanish, Maria de la Torre, which a Spanish anagrammatist found to be exactly Amor de la Tierra.

C. SONNET OF PETRARCH.

A physician of Padua, well known for his attention to his worldly interests, meeting a philosopher in the street very indifferently dressed, accosted him with the well known line of Petrarch,

"Povera e nuda vai Filosofia ;"*

to which the philosopher, without hesitation, answered by the succeeding line.

"Dice la turba al vil guadagno intesa."+

CI. THE SWISS DOCTOR.

The Duke de Rohan, while travelling in Switzerland, found himself indisposed in a village, the name of which I forget, and sent for the most celebrated physician of the Canton. Doctor Thibaut was immediately called to visit the noble stranger. He entered the Duke's chamber, and saluting him, gravely asked him what was the nature of his complaint. M. de Rohan looked at him attentively: "Doctor," said he, "I know not how it is, but I have a vague recollection of having seen

• Poor and naked dost thou go, oh Philosophy!
+ Says the crowd, who think of nothing but vile gain.

you before." "Very probably, Monseigneur," said Doctor Thibaut, gravely, "for I had the honour to be your Grace's farrier." "What!" said the Duke, "and you play the physician here! How do you treat your patients ?" Doctor ThiDaut replied without hesitation, that he was considered the most eminent physician in the Canton, and that he treated his patients the Swiss, very much in the same manner as he had treated his Excellency's horses; that, it was true, a good many of them died, in consequence of his remedies, but that he had also had the good fortune to effect some cures. He concluded with begging his Grace not to expose him, but to allow him to make his living at the expense of the lives of the Swiss.

CII. SIR THOMAS MORE.

The greatest of men are sometimes seized with strange fancies at the very moment when one would suppose they had ceased to be occupied with the things of this world. Sir Thomas More, at his execution, having laid his head upon the block, and perceiving that his beard was extended in such a manner that it would be cut through by the stroke of the executioner, asked him to adjust it properly upon the block; and when the executioner told him he need not trouble himself about his beard, when his head was about to be cut off, "It is of little consequence to me," said Sir Thomas, "but it is a matter of some importance to you, that you should understand your profession, and not cut through my beard, when you had orders only to cut off my head."

CIII. ELOQUENCE OF CICERO. Hegesias the philosopher, it is said, one day dis

and did not return to release me till it was almost night. But I never recollect having passed a more agreeable evening.

LXXXIX. MURDER IN STOCKHOLM.

A few days before our journey to Sweden, a strange incident occurred in Stockholm. A young man, by no means deficient in fortune, and whose conduct had always appeared extremely correct, laid hold of a child in broad day-light, as it was playing before its father's shop, and cut its throat. He was instantly seized and carried before the judges. Being interrogated as to his motives for the commission of such a crime, "Gentlemen," said he, "I confess my guilt, and admit that I am deserving of death: far from seeking to justify my conduct, or to obtain pardon for my crime, you would yourselves be guilty were you to pardon me. I have looked on life with attention-I have studied death. The one appeared to me a source of misery and crime, the other a state of innocence and peace. After much reflection, seeing that I could attain my object only by the commission of a crime, I determined on that which I have perpe trated, as the most excusable. I have killed a child during his period of innocence, and thereby insured his salvation. I have relieved his father, who is burdened with a numerous family, and has not the means to provide for them. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that I am guilty; I only hope that the punishment to be inflicted upon me, and the manner in which I shall receive it, will procure from God the pardon of my crime." He went to the scaffold singing, and suffered with a firmness and serenity that astonished every one who was present.

XC. CONTAGION.

Neither naturalists nor physicians have yet been able to inform us why certain diseases are contagious, while others are not so. The gout, the stone, the epilepsy and apoplexy, are not communicated from one person to another; the plague, on the contrary, dysentery, flux, small-pox, &c. are easily communicated, become epidemical, and cause the greatest ravages by their infection. Whence does this difference in these effects proceed? I think I can imagine a cause, which, though not apparent, is very far from being on that account improbable. I would say, in general, that all those diseases which are contagious, produce certain small insects contained in abscesses, ulcers, or pustules, on the surface of the body, some more, some less, and of different kinds. I do not at present inquire into the cause that produces these insects, but the effect is common, constant, and frequently visible. We know that these insects, by a natural revolution, change into flies or gnats. As soon as they can manage their wings, they hasten to use them, and to fly about in the air. Then spreading themselves on all sides, and entering into the human body by respiration, they carry thither the same venom by which they have been engendered, and communicate the corruption which has given them birth. This is the reason why, during great contagions, large fires have been successfully employed in different places to purify the air. This is done, not by rarefying and changing its constitution, as seems to be imagined, but by burning and destroying these creatures with which the atmosphere is filled, and which, attracted by the glare of the fire, are drawn to death like moths

round a candle. Another cause, totally the reverse of this, produces the same effect, I mean severe frost, which either totally, or in a great measure, destroys these insects; for sometimes their number is so great that some escape the rigour of the season, and keep up the contagion, as was the case during the black plague, which desolated Denmark and the neighbouring countries some centuries ago.

XCI. FIDELITY OF A DOG.

In a village between Caen and Vire, called the Bocage, a countryman of a savage temper was in the custom of maltreating his wife so severely, that his neighbours, attracted by her cries, had frequently been obliged to interfere for her assistance. The husband, tired of her society, determined to get rid of her at once. He pretended to be reconciled to her; changed his conduct entirely, and on holidays indulged her with walks and pleasure parties. One summer day, after severe heat, they sat down together on the brink of a fountain, in a very solitary and retired situation. The husband pretended to be very thirsty, and, attracted by the clearness of the water before them, lay down and drank largely, praising the coolness of the fountain, and wishing his wife to follow his example. She believed him, and had just placed herself in the same situation, when the husband seized hold of her and plunged her head into the water, with the intention of drowning her. She fought hard for life, but would infallibly have perished, but for the assistance of her dog, who was greatly attached to her, and had followed her hither. He threw himself upon the husband, seized him by the throat, com

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