quoted it." It is unnecessary to observe that there was no Greek at all in Sheridan's impromptu.

BALLAD LITERATURE.

John Hill Burton, in his Book Hunter, after speaking of the success with which Surtus imposed upon Sir Walter Scott the spurious ballad of the Death of Featherstonhaugh, which has a place in the Border Minstrelsy, says:

Altogether, such affairs create an unpleasant uncertainty about the paternity of that delightful department of literature-our ballad poetry. Where next are we to be disenchanted? Of the way in which ballads have come into existence, there is one sad example within my own knowledge. Some mad young wags, wishing to test the critical powers of an experienced collector, sent him a new-made ballad, which they had been enabled to secure only in a fragmentary form. To the surprise of its fabricator, it was duly printed; but what naturally raised his surprise to astonishment, and revealed to him a secret, was, that it was no longer a fragment, but a complete ballad,-the collector, in the course of his industrious inquiries among the peasantry, having been so fortunate as to recover the missing fragments! It was a case where neither could say anything to the other, though Cato might wonder, quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem cum vidisset. This ballad has been printed in more than one collection, and admired as an instance of the inimitable simplicity of the genuine old versions!

Psalmanazar exceeded in powers of deception any of the great impostors of learning. His island of Formosa was an illusion eminently bold, and maintained with as much felicity as erudition; and great must have been that erudition which could form a pretended language and its grammar, and fertile the genius which could invent the history of an unknown people. The deception was only satisfactorily ascertained by his own penitential confession; he had defied and baffled the most learned.

FRANKLIN'S PARABLE.

Dr. Franklin frequently read for the entertainment of company, apparently from an open Bible, but actually from memory, the following chapter in favor of religious toleration, pretendedly quoted from the Book of Genesis. This story of Abraham and the idolatrous traveler was given by Franklin to Lord Kaimes as a "Jewish Parable on Persecution," and was published by Kaimes in his Sketches of the History of Man. It is traced, not to a Hebrew author, but to a Persian apologue. Bishop Heber, in referring to the charge of plagiarism raised against Franklin, says that while it cannot be proved that he gave it to Lord Kaimes as his own composition, it is "unfortunate for him that his correspondent evidently appears to have regarded it as his composition; that it had been published as such in all the editions of Franklin's collected works; and that, with all Franklin's abilities and amiable qualities, there was a degree of quackery in his character which, in this instance as well as that of his professional epitaph on himself, has made the imputation of such a theft more readily received against him, than it would have been against most other men of equal eminence."

1. And it came to pass after those things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun.

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, came from the way of the wilder

ness, leaning

on a staff.

3. And Abraham arose, and met him, and said unto him, Turn in, I pray thee, and warm thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on

the morrow, and go on thy way.

4. But the man said, Nay, for I will abide under this tree.

the tent; and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly; so he turned, and they went into

6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most High God, Creator of Heaven

and Earth?

7. And the man answered and said, I do not worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a God, which abideth always in mine house, and provideth me with all things.

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose and fell upon him, and drove him forth into the wilderness.

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham, saying, Abraham, where is the stranger?

10. And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not worship Thee, neither would he call upon Thy name; therefore have I driven him out from before my face into the wilderness.

11. And God said, Have I borne with him these hundred and ninety and eight years, and nourished him and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against Me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night?

12. And Abraham said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot against His servant: Lo, I haved sinned; forgive me, I pray Thee.

13. And he arose, and went forth into the wilderness, and sought diligently for the man, and found him:

14. And returned with him to his tent; and when he had entreated him kindly, he sent him away on the morrow with gifts.

15. And God spake again unto Abraham, saying, For this thy sin shall thy seed be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land:

16. But for thy repentance will I deliver them; and they shall come forth with power, and with gladness of heart, and with much substance.

THE SHAKSPEARE FORGERIES.

In 1795-96 William Henry Ireland perpetrated the remarkable Shakspeare Forgeries which gave his name such infamous notoriety. The plays of "Vortigern" and "Henry the Second" were printed in 1799. Several litterateurs of note were deceived by them, and Sheridan produced the former at Drury Lane theatre, with John Kemble to take the leading part. The total failure of the play, conjoined with the attacks of Malone and others, eventually led to a conviction and forced confession of Ireland's dishonesty. For an authentic account of the Shakspeare Manuscripts see The Confessions of W. H. Ireland; Chalmers' Apology for the Believers of the Shakspeare Papers; Malone's Inquiry into the Authenticity, &c.; Wilson's Shakspe riana; Gentleman's Magazine, 1796-97; Eclectic Magazine, xvi. 476. One of the original manuscripts of Ireland, that of Henry the Second, has been preserved. The rascal seems to have felt but little penitence for his fraud.

Interrupted Sentences.

A JUDGE, reprimanding a criminal, called him a scoundrel. The prisoner replied: "Sir, I am not as big a scoundrel as your Honor"-here the culprit stopped, but finally added "takes me to be." "Put your words closer together," said the Judge. A lady in a dry goods store, while inspecting some cloths, remarked that they were "part cotton." "Madam," said the shopman, "these goods are as free from cotton as your breast is”—(the lady frowned) he added-"free from guile.”

A lady was

reading aloud in a circle of friends a letter just

received. She read, "We are in great trouble. Poor Mary has been confined"-and there she stopped for that was the last word on the sheet, and the next sheet had dropped and fluttered away, and poor Mary, unmarried, was left really in a delicate situation until the missing sheet was found, and the next continued-"to her room for three days, with what, we fear, is suppressed scarlet

fever."

To all letters soliciting his "subscription" to any object Lord Erskine had a regular form of reply, viz.:-"Sir, I feel much honored by your application to me, and beg to subscribe" here the reader had to turn over the leaf-" myself your very

obedient servant."

Much

note to his friend, Dr. Fisher, of the Charter House:-"Dear Fisher-I cannot to day give you the preferment for which you ask. Your sincere friend, Eldon. (Turn over)-I gave it to

more satisfactory to the recipient was Lord Eldon's

you yesterday."

At the Virginia Springs a Western girl name Helen was familiarly known

among

her admirers as Little Hel. At a party

given in her native city, a gentleman, somewhat the worse for his supper, approached a very dignified young lady and asked:

"Where's my little sweetheart? You know,-Little Hel?" "Sir?" exclaimed the lady, "you certainly forgot yourself." "Oh," said he quickly, "you interrupted me; if you had let me go on I would have said Little Helen." "I beg your pardon," answered the lady, "when you said Little Hel, I thought you had reached your final destination."

The value of an explanation is finely illustrated in the old story of a king who sent to another king, saying, "Send me a blue pig with a black tail, or else." The other, in high dudgeon at the presumed insult, replied: "I have not got one, and if I had." On this weighty cause they went to war for many years. After a satiety of glories and miseries, they finally bethought them that, as their armies and resources were exhausted, and their kingdoms mutually laid waste, it might be well enough to consult about the preliminaries of peace; but before this could be concluded, a diplomatic explanation was first needed of the insulting language which formed the ground of the quarrel. "What could you mean," said the second king to the first, "by saying, 'Send me a blue pig with a black tail, or else'Why," said the other, "I meant a blue pig with a black tail, or else some other color. But," retorted he, "what did you mean by saying, 'I have not got one, and if I had 'Why, of course, if I had, I should have sent it." An explanation which was entirely satisfactory, and peace was concluded accordingly.

ייי?

-?" " 66

It is related of Dr. Mansel, that when an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, he chanced to call at the rooms of a brother Cantab, who was absent, but who had left on his table the opening of a poem, which was in the following lofty strain :

"The sun's perpendicular rays

Illumine the depths of the sea,"

Here the flight of the poet, by some accident, stopped short, but Mansel, who never lost an occasion for fun, completed the stanza in the following facetious style: