adroitly in a similar affair. A manuscript of Plutarch's Apothegms of the Ancients having fallen into his hands, he selected those parts he liked best; but thinking that a mere translation would do him but little credit, and at the same time anxious to avoid the clumsy and inartificial imposture of Aretin, he adopted a more refined, but scarcely more conscientious expedient. He wrote a Life of Castruccio Castracani, and introduced into the mouth of his hero the greater part of Plutarch's good things of the Ancients.

Quinctilian was redeemed from the hands of a parchment-maker at Basle, during the sitting of the Council there. And it is the only manuscript of the original which has yet been seen.* The governor of the late Marquis de Ronville, playing at rackets near Saumur, happened to read what was written on the parchment of his rackets, and perceived that it was a part of the Second Decade of Livy. He immediately ran to the shop of the maker, who informed him that he had just used the last sheet of the manuscript.

XXXVI. FORTUNATE IMPOSSIBILITY.

An Italian, who was very poor, and very much addicted to play, used to apostrophise Fortune "Treacherous goddess! Thou canst make me lose, but thou canst not make me pay.”

thus:

XXXVII. MARY DE MEDICIS.

At an audience which Mary de Medicis gave to the Swiss ambassadors, after the speaker had concluded his address, the Queen asked of Melson,

Menage must have forgot himself; for, in his AntiBaillet, ch. xii. Vol. I. he shows clearly that the MS. of Quinctilian was found during the sitting of the Council of Constance, by Poggio, in an old tower of the Monastery of St Gall.

what had been said, in order that she might reply. Melson, who, although he acted as interpreter, did not understand a word of the Swiss language, answered boldly,-" Madame, these ambassadors say that your Majesty is the greatest, the most beautiful, and amiable princess in Europe," &c. &c. Those who understood the Swiss language, astonished at this translation, assured him the ambassadors had said nothing of the kind. The enraged ambassador replied, "Did they not?Well, if they did not, they ought to have done so."

XXXVIII. SERVANTS.

In France, servants always walk before their masters. It is otherwise in Italy. Masters walk before their servants in summer, on account of the dust, and in winter behind them, on account of the badness of the roads.

Bergerac was an admirable fencer. His nose, which was extremely disfigured, had caused the death of several persons. He never allowed any one to look at it without challenging him on the spot. Having quarrelled with Mondori, the actor, he forbade him to make his appearance on the stage, on pain of his displeasure. "I interdict you," said he, "for a month." Two days after, he went to the Theatre, and found Mondori, who had set the prohibition at defiance, about to commence his part, as usual. Bergerac immediately got up, and ordered him, in presence of the audience, to retire, with so terrible a voice, that Mondori, for fear of worse consequences, was glad to make his exit. Bergerac used to say of Mondori, "The fellow gives himself airs, forsooth, because he is so tall and stout, that one can hardly beat him from head to foot in a day."

XL. CIPHERS.

The Arabian numerals, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, which we at present employ, began to be used in Europe for the first time in 1270, in the Alphonsine Tables, drawn up by order of Alphonso, son of Ferdinand, King of Castile, who employed for the purpose, Isaac Hassan, a Jew, clerk of the Synagogue of Toledo, and Aben Ragel, an Arabian. The Arabs borrowed them from the Indians, in the year 900.* The other western nations soon imported them from the Spaniards. The first Greek writer by whom they are used, is Planudes, in a work which he dedicated to Michael Paleologus, in 1370. Thus the Greeks borrowed not from the Arabs, but from the Latins. The first occasion on which they were used in Paris was in 1256, in the SPHERE of Jean de Serbois, (Sacro-bosco.)

XLI. THE FOUR P's.

Four P's were placed over the gate of the first President of Bourdeaux, whose name was Pierre Pontac; meaning Pierre Pontac, Premier President. A litigant who had one day waited two or three hours in his antechamber, was surprised by the entrance of the President, while attentively contemplating these four P's. "Well, my friend," said the President, "what do you suppose these letters mean?" "By my faith," replied the litigant, "they can mean nothing but Pauvre Plaideur, prenez patience. "+

* The original article in the Menagiana is full of errors, particularly in the dates. The opinion expressed by Menage as to the original derivation of these ciphers from India, is also very successfully combated by Huct and Vossius. Vide the subsequent article in the Huetiana.

+ Poor pleader, practise patience.

XLII. AGESILAUS.

I was once required to write to the President in favour of one of my friends, who was involved in a troublesome affair. After puzzling myself for a long time how to make the application, I could remember nothing better than the letter of Agesilaus on a similar occasion. “If Cinias is not guilty, set him at liberty for your own sake; if he is, for mine: but be it as it may, set him at liberty."

XLIII. LITERARY ENTERTAINMENTS.

I knew a person who occasionally gave entertainments to authors. His fancy was to place them at table, each according to the size and thickness of the volumes they had published, commencing with the folio authors, and proceeding through the quarto and octavo, down to the duodecimo, each according to his rank.

XLIV. SCARRON.

M. Scarron was one day attacked so violently by hiccup, that his friends were apprehensive for his life. When the violence of the attack was a little abated, "If I survive," said he, turning to his friends, "if I survive, I shall write a tremendous satire against the hiccup." His friends certainly expected some very different resolution.

A little before his death, seeing his relatives and servants in tears; "My children," said he, “ you will never weep so heartily as I have made you laugh."

XLV.

PERIPATETIC PHILOSOPHY.

The worst parts in the Peripatetic Philosophy are not the work of Aristotle, but of his disciples, and particularly his modern disciples. The logic of the University of Paris, and others, where Aristotle is taught, is the art of talking unintelligibly on subjects we know nothing about.

XLVI. M. D'USEZ.

COMPLAISANCE.

M. d'Usez was gentleman of honour to the Queen. This Princess one day asked him what o'clock it was. He replied, "Madam, any hour your Majesty pleases.” *

XLVII. THE JESUIT.

A Jesuit who had been particularly recommended to the captain of a vessel, was sailing from France to America. The captain, who saw that a storm was approaching, said to him, "Father, you are not accustomed to the rolling of a vessel, you had better get down as fast as possible into the hold. As long as you hear the sailors swearing and blaspheming, you may be assured that there are good hopes: but if you should hear them embracing and reconciling themselves to each other, you may make up your accounts with heaven." As the storm increased, the Jesuit, from time to time, dispatched his companion to the hatchway to see how matters went upon deck.— "Alas! Father," said he, returning, all is lost, the sailors are swearing like demoniacs; their very blasphemies are enough to sink the vessel.". "Oh! heaven be praised," said the Jesuit, "then all's right."

XLVIII. PROOF POSITIVE.

M. de having been wounded in the head at the siege of Rochelle, by a musket ball, the surgeons, as they applied the first dressing, told him the wound was very dangerous, and that they saw the brain distinctly. "Ah!" said he, "gentlemen, do take out a little of it, wrap it in

* A similar story is related of Frederick of Prussia, and it is also introduced by the author of La Fausse Clelie into that work, in another and more ludicrous form.