LXXIII. WILLIAM DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.

WILLIAM, Duke of Cumberland, gave promises of talents that were never accomplished. One day he had given some offence to his royal mother, and was remanded to the confinement of his chamber. After what the queen thought a sufficient duration of his punishment, she sent for him. He returned in a very sullen humour. "What have you been doing?" said the queen." Reading." -"What book?"- -"The New Testament."-" Very well. What part?"Where it is said, Woman, why troublest thou me ?"

LXXIV. DANTE.

DANTE is a difficult author. I wish we had a complete translation in prose, with the original on the opposite page, like the French one of the Inferno, printed at Paris in 1776.

LXXV. DE CALLIERES.

THE book of de Callieres, De la Science du Monde, is very well written. It was the foundation, I believe, of the pamphlet called the Polite Philosopher.

LXXVI. DE COUCY.

Ir was Raoul Chatelain de Coucy, and not a lord of Coucy, who was the famous lover and Poet. The lady

* Reminiscences, page 65.

was Gabrielle de Levergies; the husband Albert, lord of Faïel. See the Poems of de Coucy, with the old music, printed at Paris, 1781. The truth of this horrible tale seems certain: the date A. D. 1191. The poetry is very good for that period.

LXXVII. DEMOCRATS.

A FIG for our democrats! [1792]. Barking dogs never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous action. They said nothing, and did every thing-ours say every thing, and will do nothing.

LXXVIII. LATE QUEEN OF DENMARK.

THE poor Queen of Denmark was certainly very imprudent. I learn that she would even appear in full court in breeches; and those northern countries are rigid in the bienséance.

LXXIX. THE DEVIL.

IN the time of Louis XIV. several ladies of rank were accused of magical practices. A duchess among them was examined by a magistrate of celebrated ugliness. She confessed that she had conversed with the devil. "Under what resemblance was he?" said the magistrate gravely. "In his own person-and he resembled you as much as one drop of water does another." Then, turning to the clerk, she desired him to write down her answer. The magistrate, apprehensive of the ridicule, took care to stop and suppress the examination.

LXXX. DEVOTION OF LOUIS XIV.

In his old age Louis XIV. was either led by his own superstition, or by the artifices of his wife Maintenon, to an excess of devotion. His courtiers, as usual, rivalled him in weakness; and some of them, it is said, would take the sacrament twice in a day.

LXXXI. D'HANCARVILLE.

THAT book of d'Hancarville's is very foolish. He is puzzled why all barbarous nations have similar idols and customs; and yet is not puzzled at their all having two eyes and a nose. The human mind and the human form are every where similar. All nations find milk very useful; yet d'Hancarville is deplorably wise on the universal veneration paid to bulls and cows. A little good sense is worth all the erudition in the world; And, though no science, fairly worth the seven.

LXXXII. DIVINE FAVOUR.

IN Italy, when they make processions to procure rain, and a tempest and deluge follow, they say that when Dominidio is good he is too good. A Venetian trying to mount a horse, prayed to our Lady to assist him. He then made a vigorous spring, and fell on t'other side. Getting up, and wiping his clothes, he said, "Our Lady has assisted me too much."

LXXXIII. DON QUIXOTE.

Don Quixote is no favourite of mine. When a man is once so mad as to mistake a windmill for a giant, what more is to be said, but an insipid repetition of mistakes, or an uncharacteristic deviation from them*?

LXXXIV. DOUBLE PUN.

A GOOD pun is not amiss. Let me tell you one I met with in some book the other day. The Earl of Leicester (that unworthy favourite of Elizabeth) was forming a park about Cornbury, thinking to enclose it with posts and rails. As he was one day calculating the expense, a gentleman stood by, and told the earl, that he did not go the cheapest way to work." "Why?" said my lord. Because," replied the gentleman, "if your lordship will find posts, the country will find railing."

LXXXV. MADAME DU BARRY.

A GREAT French lady, who was one of the first to visit Madame du Barry, after she was known to be the royal mistress, justifying herself to her niece on that account, said, "It is reported that the king gave a hundred thousand livres to countenance her; but it is not true." 'No, madam," replied the niece nobly, "I dare say it is not true; for it would have been too little."

* This judgment was surely too harsh.

LXXXVI. DUBOIS.

THE infamous abbé, afterwards Cardinal Dubois, was a proper coadjutor for the Regent Orleans. When the latter was young, Dubois was introduced by St. Laurent to teach him Latin; and the abbé availed himself of this opportunity to flatter his pupil's passions, and give him lessons of early depravity.

Soon as d'Estrées, archbishop of Cambrai, died, Dubois ran to the regent, whom he found in bed with Emily, an opera girl. The duke immediately consented to appoint this worthy ecclesiastic to the vacant archbishopric; and a solemn oath by all the charms of Emily sanctioned the claim of Dubois.

LXXXVII. EASY WRITING.

EASY writing is not easy reading. An author was praised, in the presence of a good judge, for the facility with which he composed; and it was added, that he was not the less modest on that account. "No," answered the critic, "that is not enough; he should be the more humble on that account."

LXXXVIII. ECCLESIASTICAL SQUABBLE.

A VICAR and curate of a village, where there was to be a burial, were at variance. The vicar not coming in time, the curate began the service, and was reading