430 ANECDOTES OF MEN OF LETTERS. DIDEROT AND THE BLIND. Diderot wrote a work, in which he said that people who are born blind have some ideas different from those who are possessed of their eyesight. This assertion is by no means improbable, and it contains nothing by which any one need be startled. The men, however, who then governed France, discovered in it some hidden danger. Whether they imagined that the mention of blindness was an allusion to themselves, or whether they were merely instigated by the perversity of their temper, is uncertain; at all events, the unfortunate Diderot, for having hazarded this opinion, was arrested, and without even the form of a trial, was confined in the dungeons of Vincennes. Yet Dugald Stewart, who has collected some important evidence upon the subject, has confirmed several of the views put forward by Diderot. Since then, greater attention has been paid to the education of the blind, and it has been remarked that "it is an exceedingly difficult task to teach them to think accurately." These passages unconsciously testify to the sagacity of Diderot, and they also testify to the stupid ignorance of a Government which sought to put an end to such inquiries by punishing the author.-Buckle's History of Civilization in England, vol. i. p. 681. CLERICAL LIFE. SHORT PRAYERS. DR. KING relates that, in 1715, at a dinner-party at the Duke of Ormonde's, at Richmond, a jocular dispute arose concerning short prayers. Sir William Wyndham said, the shortest prayer he bad ever heard was the prayer of a common soldier, just before the battle of Blenheim-" O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!" This was followed, indecorously, by a general laugh. But Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, who was present, addressing Sir W. Wyndham, said: "Your prayer, Sir William, is indeed very short: but I remember another as short but much better, offered up likewise by a poor soldier in the same circumstances—'O God, if, in the day of battle, I forget thee, do thou not forget me.' This, as Atterbury pronounced it with his usual grace and dignity, was a very gentle and polite reproof, and was immediately felt by the company. AN OLD STUDENT. Soon after Louis XIV. had collated the celebrated Bossuet to the bishopric of Meaux, the king asked the citizens how they liked the new bishop. "Why, your majesty, we like him pretty well." "Pretty well! why, what fault have you to find with him ?" "To tell your majesty the truth, we should have preferred having a bishop who had finished his education; for, whenever we wait upon him, we are told that he is at his studies." VIRTUES OF TAR-WATER. Bishop Berkeley having received benefit from the use of TarWater, when ill of the colic, published a work On the Virtues of TarWater; and a few months before his death, a sequel, entitled Further Thoughts on Tar-Water; and when accused of fancying he had discovered a nostrum in Tar-Water, he replied, that, "to speak out, he freely owns he suspects Tar-Water is a panacea." Walpole has preserved the following epigram on Berkeley's remedy: "Who dare deride what pious Cloyne has done! And shepherds heal their rotten sheep with tar." In a letter, written by Mr. John Whishaw, solicitor, May 26, 1744, we find this note of Berkeley's panacea: "The Bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland, has published a book, of two shillings price, upon the excellences of Tar-Water, which is to keep ye bloud in due order, and a great remedy in many cases. His way of making it is to put, I think, a gallon of water to a quart of tar, and after stirring it together, to let it stand forty-eight hours, and then pour off the clear and drink a glass of about half a pint in ye morn, and as much at five in ye afternoon. So it's become as common to call for a glass of tar-water in a coffee-house, as a dish of tea or coffee." A PUNNING ARCHBISHOP. Sir William Dawes, Archbishop of York, was very fond of a pun. His clergy dining with him, for the first time after he had lost his Lady, he told them he feared they did not find things in so good order as they used to be, in the time of poor Mary; and looking extremely sorrowfnl, added with a deep sigh-"She was, indeed, Mare pacificum." A curate, who pretty well knew what she had been, called out: "Aye, my Lord, but she was Mare mortuum first." Sir William gave him a living of 500l. per annum within two months afterwards. AN INTRIGUING BISHOP. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, was the son of a livery-stable keeper, and was educated at Westminster, of which school he was appointed head-master in 1764. He married the sister of his liberal friend and pupil, Mr. Crewe. Hinchliffe had been employed by the latter to persuade the lady not to entertain the suit of an officer in the Guards; and he did this so effectually that the lady graciously listened to his own, and bestowed on him a hand that carried a large fortune with it. The prelate was strongly opposed to the American war he acquired the name of the "Bloody Bishop," in 1774, being the only member of the episcopal bench who supported severe measures against the Arminians. A BISHOP'S HUMOUR. Bishop Marley had a good deal of the humour of Swift. Once, when the footman was out of the way, he ordered the coachman to fetch some water from the well. To this the coachman objected, that his business was to drive, not to run on errands. "Well, then,' said Marley, "bring out the coach and four, set the pitcher inside, and drive to the well;"-a service which was several times repeated, to the great amusement of the village. BISHOP WARBURTON'S MARRIAGE. Pope was on a visit to his friend, Ralph Allen, of Prior Park, near Bath, of whom he wrote "Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame." One day, during the visit, a letter was put into Pope's hands, which appeared to cause him some embarrassment. Allen, making some inquiry as to its contents, Pope informed him that the letter was from" a Lincolnshire parson," to whom he was under some obligation, who proposed to be with him in a day or two at Twickenham. The difficulty was immediately obviated by Allen, who suggested that "the Lincolnshire parson," who was no other but Warburton, should be invited to Prior Park, adding, that a carriage should meet him at Chippenham. The plan was approved of by Pope, and the invitation accepted by Warburton. The latter arrived in a few days, and shortly afterwards succeeded in gaining the affections of Allen's niece, Gertrude Tucker, who, in 1735, became the wife of Warburton; and in right of whom, after their marriage, he succeeded to the possession of Prior Park, and to the bulk of Allen's property. WORLDLY DISTINCTION. It is curious to see Warburton instructing Hurd how to make way in the world. "In your commerce with the great," he says, "if you would have it turn to your advantage, you should endeavour, when the person is of great abilities, to make him satisfied with you; when he is of none, to make him satisfied with himself.” WARBURTON AND LOWTH. Lowth was a match for Warburton, and something more: he spoke of the Bishop contemptuously, as having been " hardly brought up in the keen atmosphere of wholesome severities;" when Lowth, remembering that Warburton had served five years' apprenticeship to the study of the law, replied: "Pray, my Lord, what is it to the purpose where I have been brought up? You charge me with principles of intolerance, adding a gentle insinuation also of disaffection to the present royal family and government; you infer these principles, it seems, from the place of my education. Is this a necessary consequence? Is it even a fair conclusion? May not one have had the good sense, or the good fortune, to have avoided, or to have gotten the better of the ordinary prejudices of education? F F To have made a proper use of the advantages of a good education is a just praise; but to have overcome the disadvantages of a bad one, is a much greater. In short, my Lord, I cannot but think that this inquisition concerning my education is quite beside the purpose. Had I not your Lordship's example to justify me, I should think it a piece of extreme impertinence to inquire where you were bred; though one might justly plead in excuse for it a natural curiosity to know where and how such a phenomenon was produced." WARBURTON AND QUIN. Quin was another match for the Bishop, whom he scorched by the fire of his wit. When Warburton projected his edition of Shakspeare, the matter was mentioned in the greenroom. "He had better," growled Quin, "stick to his own Bible, and leave ours to us!" The prelate and the player met at Prior Park. Warburton, in his talk with Quin before the company, always addressed him in such a way as to remind him that he was but a player; and as some accounts say, took opportunities of admonishing him on his luxury and looseness of life. One evening, however, with much apparent civility, he requested Quin, whom he should never see on the stage, to give him a specimen of his acting, in presence of a large number of guests, in Mr. Allen's drawing-room. Quin replied carelessly, that plays were then almost out of his head, but that he believed he could repeat a few verses of "Venice Preserved," and standing up, declaimed, ore rotundo, the passage in which occur the lines, "Honest men Are the soft easy cushions on which knaves and as he pronounced the words "honest men" and "knaves," directed his looks so pointedly towards Allen and Warburton, that none of the hearers could mistake the intended application. Warburton never afterwards asked the actor for a specimen of his skill.Watson's Life of Warburton. WARBURTONIANA. Warburton when a young man was sometimes exceedingly absent in company. He would often sit silent or doze in the chimneycorner. Öne evening, while the company was very lively, he seemed more than usually thoughtful-not a word dropped from his lips; when one of his acquaintance, with a view to raise another laugh, said, "Well, Mr. Warburton, where have you been? And what will you take for your thoughts?" He replied, with a firmness to which they had thought him an entire stranger: "I know very |