bus ætatis suæ regnare in judiciis dictus est; apud posteros vero id consecutus, ut Cicero jam non hominis sed eloquentiæ nomen habeatur."

CIV. M. DE BASSOMPIERRE.

The Marechal de Bassompierre used to examine every evening the amount of his expenditure for the day; and having one day given to his maître d'hotel a hundred crowns to provide a sumptuous entertainment for seven or eight guests, whom he expected, the maître d'hotel carried his account to him as usual, at night. On examining it, he found that it amounted only to ninety crowns, and putting it into the hand of the maître d'hotel, he said calmly, "Make the sum even before I vouch it.” The servant walked down stairs immediately, and returned in a few minutes with the account, to which he had added at the bottom, "Item, ten crowns to make up the hundred." This puts me in mind of an anecdote of Ismael Bouillan, who had been sent by his father to Paris to study. In the account of his expenditure, which his father demanded of him, in order to see how he employed the money he had given him, the young man, after exaggerating as much as possible the amount of every article, down to the minutest trifle, found that a large sum still remained, of which he could give no good account, and therefore added at the close of the account, "Item, father, one must live."

CV. LA MOTHE LE VAYER.

The friends of La Mothe le Vayer, who are acquainted with his character, are aware that accounts of foreign countries were his principal amusement and delight. When on the point of death, and when not a moment was to be lost in endeavouring to prepare himself for the approaching change, he was visited by his friend M. Bernier,

the traveller. As soon as he saw him enter, he raised his head, and exclaimed, "Well, what new. of the Great Mogul ?" These were almost the las words he had strength to utter, for he expired almost immediately after.

CVI. JULIAN THE APOSTATE.

I have read the works of Julian, with the remarks of Petau, and putting out of view the apostasy of that emperor, I find in his orations and letters the marks of the greatest learning and talent. Although I have spoken of him elsewhere, I cannot omit noticing his admirable reply to Delphidius, who had accused of bribery Numenus or Numenanus, the former governor of Gaul. Delphidius, a harsh and vehement speaker, seeing that the proofs were not sufficiently strong to convict Numenanus, exclaimed, as he cast his eyes at Julian, “If a criminal is to be acquitted upon mere denial, who can ever be proved guilty ?" Julian immediately answered, "And if he is to be condemned upon mere assertion, who can ever be proved innocent ?"

CVII. PAINTING A FEVER.

I have read somewhere that Raphael and Titian painted a man in a fever, and that the painting was so naturally and artfully executed, that a physician, on looking at the picture, declared at once, that the original must have been sick of a quartan fe

ver.

CVIII. CHINESE PHYSICIANS.

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The physicians of China, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the circulation of the blood, have only to feel the arm of their patient in three places, and to observe the rate of the pulse, to form an opinion on the cause, nature, danger,

and duration of the malady. Without the patient having occasion to speak at all, they can tell infallibly, what part is attacked, whether the brain, the heart, the liver, the lungs, the intestines, the stomach, the flesh, the bones, and so on. As they are both physicians and apothecaries, and prepare their own medicines, they are paid only when they effect a cure. If the same rule were introduced with us, I fear we should have fewer physicians.

CIX. CURE OF FEVERS IN SWEDEN.

One thing which I saw in Sweden surprised me. The peasants who have fever, take a quantity of beer, into which they put ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, and having heated it as much as their mouth and stomach will bear, they drink it off. The remedy is found to be very effectual.

They have also another remedy which would appear a startling one to inhabitants of our climate. They have dry stoves which they call Bastou, into which they enter naked, and when the perspiration is profusely produced on all the body by the heat of the stove, they immediately come out, and lie down among the snow, or, if they can swim, throw themselves into the water. Our physicians may judge how far their aphorisms agree with the experience of these peasants.

CX. SCEPTICISM.

The sceptics, who doubt of everything, and whom Tertullian calls professors of ignorance, do affirm something, when they say we can affirm nothing, and admit that something is certain, when they maintain that nothing can be certainly known.

CXI. THE GASCON.

A Gascon officer in the regiment of the Duke de Roquelaure, dining one day with the Duke, the

conversation turned on Aristotle. Some one maintained, that there were a great many admirable things in Aristotle which were to be found nowhere else. "Well," said the Duke, turning to the Gascon, who was the butt of the company, "what do you think of the matter ?"-" My opinion is," replied the Gascon, "that a great many people talk of having been at Aristotle, who never were there in their lives." He took the philosopher for the name of a town.

CXII. CARMELINE THE DENTIST.

Carmeline, the famous tooth-drawer, and maker of artificial teeth, had his portrait painted and placed in his chamber window, with a motto taken from Virgil's line on the Golden Bough, in the sixth book of the Eneid.

"Uno avulso, non deficit alter."*

The application was extremely happy.

CXIII. RUY SOUza.

The judgment of the people is in their eyes; the mere appearance of good or evil is sufficient to deceive them. John II., King of Portugal, the son and successor of Alphonso V., was asked by Ruy Souza to have the goodness to speak to him in the street, and the King granted the favour. Souza left the palace in company with the king, who continued talking with him for a considerable time, and then asked him if that honour would suffice. Souza returned him the humblest thanks, and took his leave. The next day, the Portuguese merchants, who no longer entertained any doubt, that he was in high favour at court, lent 5 or 6000

• When one is drawn out, another is never wanting.

crowns, of which he stood in the greatest need, to liberate him from his embarrassments.

CXIV. A GASCON.

A Gascon, who had gone to a ball, danced so indifferently that all the company laughed at his performance. Observing the merriment he had caused, he turned round to a person near him, and said haughtily, that though he might dance indifferently, he could fight well. "Then, sir," replied the other, "I would advise you always to fight, and never to dance.'

CXV. HELEN.

Every one speaks of the beautiful Helen, but few are aware that she had five husbands, Theseus, Menelaus, Paris, Deiphobus, and Achilles; that she was hanged in the Isle of Rhodes by the servants of Polixo; and that, in the war of which she was the cause, 886,000 Greeks and 670,000 Trojans lost their lives.

CXVI. LOUIS XII.

The speech of Louis the XII., to those who were apprehensive of punishment for the outrages they had committed against him, under the government of La Dame de Beaujeu, when he was only Duke of Orleans,-" That the King of France did not remember the injuries of the Duke of Orleans," is assuredly a noble sentiment, and worthy of a king, whose virtues deservedly acquired him the surname of the Just, and the title of Father of his Country. But it has not, I think, been observed, that the Emperor Hadrian had said nearly the same thing, though in other words, when, after his elevation, he met with one who had been among his chief enemies, while a subject, and said, "Fellow, you are safe, for I am Emperor."

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