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Prototypes.

HE mysterious authorship of the Letters of Junius; the views of
Camming and Macaulay. Gray's Elegy, corrections of the original
MS.; omitted stanzas; incidents; imitations of the elegy.-Pope's
alterations and emendations shown in a passage of the translation of the
Iliad.—Mechanical structure of Pope's versification.—Importance of
punctuation, and the serious errors that may arise from its neglect.—
Indian heraldry as pointed out by a genealogical enthusiast.-Shaks-
peare's anachronisms; his heroines; his familiarity with typography.
His sonnets. Hamlet's age.-Hamlet's insanity.-Additional verses to
Payne's Home, Sweet Home.-The stereotyped falsities of history.-
Conflicting testimony of eye-witnesses of a transaction.—The distinction
between wit and humor.-A rhyming newspaper.-Ruskin's comfort

ton's strategy of Satan borrowed at Austerlitz.-Personal appearance

of Napoleon as described by Maitland; his opinion of suicide.-Frank-

lin's frugal wife.-Major Andre's Cow chase.-An English view of Andre

and Arnold.-Flamsteed's involuntary magic. Lord Nelson's imper-

turbable coolness.-Martin Luther, the dreamer and the man of action;

the Marsellaise of the Reformation.-Queen Elizabeth as described by

Sir John Hayward and Paul Heintzner.—Shakspeare's orthodoxy as

shown in his writings.-Oliver Cromwell; character sketched in a

letter to Governor Winthrop; embalmed head in possession of a lady.—

Pope's skull in a private museum.-Wickliffe's ashes not scattered be-

yond recall.-Talleyrandiana.-One of Porson's diversions. . . . . 763

Historical Memoranda.

HE first blood of the Revolution shed thirty-seven days before that

Tof Lexington. The tea-burning at Annapolis two months before

the tea-party at Boston.-Preliminary estimates for the United States
Navy.-Cotton Mather desirous of capturing William Penn.-A peti-
tion for an American monarchy.-The symbolic significance of the flag
of the Union.-The French tricolor not a revolutionary flag.-Bona-
partean newspaper scale.-The flight of Eugenie from France to Chisel-
hurst.-Predictions in a sonnet.-L'Empire c'est la Paix. Jefferson's
impressions of Marie Antoinette.-Blucher's delirium.-The atrocious
treatment of the mother of Charles V.-The traditional Mary Mag-
dalene. The original Mother Goose.-How history is modified by
fiction.-Contemporary criticism in the light of subsequent revelation.-

Historical illustrations of the manner in which great events frequently
result from little causes. The story of the ballads Annie Laurie and
Robin Adair -The doubts as to the alleged execution of Joan of Arc.—
The death of Amy Robsart accidental.-The William Tell series of
stories. The extremes of society in Europe in the time of Louis XIV.—
Cromwell's chaplain married against his will.-The last night of the
Girondists.-Queen Elisabeth and the ring given to Essex.

COM

Multum in Parvo.

782

COMPREHENSIVE fact and striking sentiment compressed into
the narrowest forms of expression..

Life and Death.

823

ISHOP HEBER'S illustrations of the voyage of life.-Aphorisms

B of Bishop Horne.-Peters' rule of living. Franklin's moral code.

The proper distribution of time.-Sir Thomas Browne on living life
over again.-Rhyming definitions.-Answers to the question, what is
Earth?-Rhyming grant of William the Conquerer.-Puzzling questions
for lawyers. The bone denominated Luz.-Dying words of distin-
guished persons.-The last prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots, before her
execution.-A remarkable case of suspended animation.-Questions for
the discussion of the learned.-Preservation of dead bodies.-The folly
of embalming corpses.-A whimsical will.-The life tripod.-The impre-
catory epitaph of Shakspeare paralleled in Iceland.-The significance
of the Fleur-de-lis.-The plagues of Egypt.-Jean Ingelow's story of
long ago. The earth not man's abiding place.-Ill success in life.-
Futurity. Pity for the sin and the suffering of the erring.-Evening
prayer.-Echoes of a heavenly home.-Life's parting.-Destiny.-
Sympathy. After.-Death's final conquest.-The common heritage;

euthanasia.

826

Glean not in barren soil these offal ears,
Since reap thou may'st whole harvests of delight.

That which we garnered in our eager youth

SOUTHWELL.

Becomes a long delight in after years.-ETHEL CHURCHILL. To the man of robust and healthy intellect, who gathers the harvest of literature into his barn, thrashes the straw, winnows the grain, grinds it in his own mill, bakes it in his own oven, and then eats the true bread of knowledge, we bid a cordial welcome. SOUTHEY.

A hope has crossed me, in the course
Of this self-pleasing exercise, that ye
My zeal to his would liken, who, possessed
Of some rare gems, or pictures finely wrought,
Unlocks his cabinet, and draws them forth,
One after one, soliciting regard

To this and this.

WORDSWORTH.

Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have neither time nor means to get more. Let every book-worm, when in any fragrant scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it.-COLERIDGE. Mislike me not that I've essayed to please ye:

Some things herein may not offend.-FLETCHER.

What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.-SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

E fontibus eorum, judicio arbitrioque nostro, quantum quoque modo videbitur, hauriemus.-CICERO.

Quidquid agunt homines votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli.-JUVENAL.
Even shavings of gold are carefully to be kept.-FULLER.

24

Alphabetical Whims.

LIPOGRAMMATA AND PANGRAMMATA.

[graphic]

N No. 59 of the Spectator, Addison, descanting on the different species of false wit, observes, "The first I shall produce are the Lipogrammatists, or letter droppers of antiquity, that would take an exception, without any reason, against some particular letter in the alphabet, so as not to admit it once in a whole poem. One Tryphiodorus was a great master in this kind of writing. He composed an Odyssey, or Epic Poem, on the adventures of Ulysses, consisting of four-and-twenty-books, having entirely banished the letter A from his first book, which was called Alpha, (as lucus a non lucendo,) because there was not an alpha in it. His second book was inscribed Beta, for the same reason. In short, the poet excluded the whole four-and-twenty letters. in their turns, and showed them that he could do his business without them. It must have been very pleasant to have seen this Poet avoiding the reprobate letter as much as another would a false quantity, and making his escape from it, through the different Greek dialects, when he was presented with it in any particular syllable; for the most apt and elegant word in

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