search for Lilliput." It is obvious how much all this must have amused the dean and his friends in connection with the unexampled sale of the volume: the price of the first edition was raised before the second could be printed. As a poetical humorist Swift stands almost alone: all his verses exemplify his own definition of a good style-they consist of proper words in proper places.

GRAY'S "ELEGY."

The scene of Gray's beautiful "Elegy on a Country Churchyard" has been much controverted, but it is settled by the following statement in vol. iii., page 49, of the edition of Gray's Poems by Mason, published in 1778, viz., "That being on a visit to his relations at Stoke, he (Gray) wrote that beautiful little ode which stands first in his collection of poems. He sent it as soon as written to his beloved friend Mr. West, but he was dead before it reached Hertfordshire." To which is added: "This singular anecdote is founded on a marginal note in his commonplace-book, where the ode is transcribed, and the following memorandum annexed: "Written at Stoke the beginning of June, 1742, and sent to Mr. West, not knowing he was dead!"

Rogers thought the stanza which Gray threw out of his Elegy better than some of the stanzas he retained. Here it is, and most persons will agree with Rogers :

"There scattered oft, the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen, are showers of violets found;
The redbreast loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground."

LETTER-WRITERS.

In all the great English letter-writers of the last century, with the exception of Cowper, it is easy to trace the wish to excel. They wrote a letter to do them credit, and to keep up their reputation. Horace Walpole knew that no one would light a candle with one of those careful productions of epigrammatic malice which he delighted to scatter around him. Gray wrote his letters as he wrote his poems, and they seem as if they had been put by for the nine years recommended by Horace, and then laboriously filed into their requisite polish. Voltaire writes as naturally, though not perhaps as simply, as Cowper did. There is an air of lettered elegance about his correspondence, the style is always light, the subject handled with the art of a man who has learnt not to say too much; but all seems to flow spontaneously from his pen. These letters are not like letters of the present day, because they were written in a different state of society, but it probably cost any one habituated to the society of Paris a hundred years ago no trouble whatever to hit off the happy turns and the little prettinesses with which these letters abound. This is the opinion of the "Saturday Review" about Voltaire's letters, and strangely inconsistent it seems; the latter part of the statement, as to the artificial prettinesses disproving the alleged naturalness of the style.

PRINTING AND SALE OF SERMONS.

The following anecdote is interesting as well as serviceable in showing how apt to run into miscalculation aro persons who found their estimate of the chances of publishing upon the patronage of a circle rather than upon the interest of the circumstances to the public.

A poor vicar, in a remote diocese, had, on some popular occasion, preached a sermon so acceptable to his parishioners, that they entreated him to print it, and he undertook a journey to London for that purpose. On his arrival in town he was recommended to Mr. Rivington, to whom he enthusiastically related the object of his journey. The printer agreed to his proposals, and required to know how many copies of the sermon he would have "struck off." The reply was, "Why, sir, I have calculated that there are in the kingdom ten thousand parishes, and that the majority of the parishes will at least take one, and others more, so that I think we may venture to print about 35,000 or 36,000 copies. The publisher remonstrated, the author insisted, and the matter was decided, and the latter returned home in high spirits. With much difficulty and great selfdenial a period of about two months was suffered to elapse, when his golden venture so tormented his imagination that he could endure it no longer; so he wrote to Mr. Rivington, desiring him to send him the debtor and creditor account, most liberally permitting the remittances to be forwarded at Mr. Rivington's convenience. Judge of the astonishment, tribulation, and anguish excited by the receipt of the following account:"The Rev. —, Dr. to C. Rivington. To printing and paper, 35,000 copies of Sermon.

£785 5 6

By sale of 17 copies of the said Sermon 1 5 6 £784 0 Balance due to C. Rivington 0" The publisher, however, in a day or two sent a letter to the following purport:

66

Reverend Sir, I beg pardon for innocently amusing myself at your expense, but you need not give yourself any uneasiness. I know better than you could do the extent of the sale of single sermons, and accordingly have printed but 100 copies, to the expense of which you are heartily welcome."

There is in Miss Hawkins's "Countess and Gertrude" a similar story of a young lady having written a novel and placed the manuscript in the hands of a printer without inquiring as to the expense of printing it; nor did she ascertain the extent of her liability until the cost incurred was somewhat considerable, and the printing was not completed.

DAMBERGER'S TRAVELS-EXPEDITIOUS PRINTING. The Travels of Damberger through Africa, which consisted of 528 pages in octavo, with three coloured engravings and a large map, was received in London from Germany on a Wednesday morning, and translated from German into English, and 1,500 copies printed, with the coloured engravings and the map of the route, on Saturday morning, the whole being sold and delivered before nine o'clock that evening. The circumstances were these. The announcement of the work had excited great interest in Germany, and Professor Bottiger, of Weimar, had recommended the work to a London bookseller, and had undertaken to transmit an early copy for a certain premium to the German publisher; but the book, though advertised, by some accident did not arrive in time; and in the interim three London booksellers associated to bring out another translation from a copy which had reached them. The first bookseller, therefore, to secure the market, employed

his translators, and himself revised the press; while he employed his engravers on the copperplate; and in the printing-office, sixteen compositors and ten presses, by working night and day, completed the whole in fifty-six hours. On the Wednesday following, the publisher received from Professor Bottiger notice that the work was discovered to be a forgery, a fact which was instantly communicated to the newspapers. But meanwhile a cheap edition had been prepared by a piratical bookseller from the translation published on the previous Saturday. It turned out that Damberger was a journeyman printer at Leipsic, who, as a soldier at the Cape of Good Hope, had seen enough of Africa to confer plausibility on the story of the Travels. The book obtained only a month's currency at Leipsic, but in that time it was translated into most European languages.

SMITH'S "WEALTH OF NATIONS."

Charles Butler, when spending the day with Mr. Fox, at St. Anne's Hill, mentioned that he had never read Adam Smith's celebrated work on the "Wealth of Nations." To tell you the truth," said Mr. Fox, "nor I either. There is something in all these subjects which passes my comprehension, something so wide that I could never embrace them myself, nor find any one who did.”

The stamp-duty on receipts was first introduced during the short reign of the Administration of "All the Talents." Fox was at this time in pecuniary difficulties, which led Sheridan to write :

"I would," says Fox, "a tax devise
That should not fall on me."
"Then tax receipts," Lord North replies,
"For those you never see."

BLAIR'S SERMONS.

Notwithstanding Dr. Hugh Blair's popularity as a preacher, he had nearly reached his sixtieth year before he could be induced to publish a volume of his Sermons. At length he transmitted the manuscript to Mr. Strahan, the king's printer, who, after keeping it for some time, wrote a letter to Dr. Blair, discouraging the publication. Such, at first, was the unpropitious state of one of the most successful theological books that has ever appeared. Mr. Strahan, however, had sent one of the sermons to Dr. Johnson for his opinion, and after his unfavourable letter to Dr. Blair had been sent off, he received from Johnson, on Christmas Eve, 1776, a note in which was the following paragraph: "I have read over Dr. Blair's first sermon with more than approbation; to say it is good is to say too little." Mr. Strahan had, very soon after this time, a conversation with Dr. Johnson concerning the Sermons; and then he very candidly wrote again to Dr. Blair, inclosing Johnson's note, and agreeing to purchase the volume, for which he and Mr. Cadell gave one hundred pounds. The sale was so rapid and extensive, and the public approbation so high, that the proprietors presented Dr. Blair with fifty pounds, and then with fifty more, thus voluntarily doubling the stipulated price. For the second volume they gave him at once three hundred pounds, and for the others he had six hundred pounds each. A fifth volume was prepared by him for the press, after he had completed his eighty-second year, and published after his death.

Varieties.

potash fifteen parts, distilled water 1,000 parts. The feet to be LOTION FOR SWEETENING THE FEET.-Permanganate of washed twice a day with the lotion. They are then to be care fully dried, and powdered either with potato-starch or lycopodium.-Union Médicale.

LIBEL.-Mr. Justice Blackburn, in summing up a recent case of action for libel, against the "Times" for a letter which it had published, said, "The question of what is a libel is a mixed one of law and fact, and it cannot be better defined than in the particular words which have always been considered to be the best: A publication, without justification or lawful excuse, calculated to injure the reputation of another by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule. That is as nearly an accurate When there is a lawful definition of a libel as can well be. been a libel, which we usually call a privileged communication, excuse for writing and publishing what would otherwise have it ceases to be a libel altogether. In the present case there is nothing of that sort. It is a libel, and you have to consider what damages should be given. When libellous matter has been published, and you repeat it and put it in circulation, that repetition is none the less a libel. It is, perhaps, not so bad as originating a libel, but it is giving greater circulation to it. It is, to take a commercial metaphor, not only putting in circulation and passing the libel, but it is also endorsing it so as to give to it the credit of the person so endorsing it. It aggravates the libel, of course, and may give occasion for more damages."

FATHERHOOD OF GOD.-Men dream of their being God's children irrespectively of any new divine birth, being "born of God!" Paul, at Athens, quoted a Greek poet as saying, "We are all his offspring-from him we have our origin, and in him we live, and move, and have our being. Simply as his dependent offspring, we may think that we are entitled to be called his children, and to call him Father. We may speak of God's love in creating and caring for us-his calling us, in that aspect of our relation to him, children-as fatherly love. It is not, however, really so in any valid Scriptural sense. At any rate it is not "the manner of love" which St. John thinks it so amazing a wonder that the Father should have "bestowed upon us in our being called children of God:" divinely born children, deriving from a divine birth a divine nature; children of God, as born of God; children by spiritual regeneration, not merely by creation and natural relation.-Dr. Candlish.

A NEW YORK RAILROAD SIGNAL OFFICE. -The signal office is a little room at the northern entrance of the depôt, about 30ft. above the pavement. It is reached by a narrow passage-way from the west side, and when you get into it you see a sight which made Jones go into an unmistakable surprise. Looking down the depôt there was a space of more than 600ft. extent by 200ft. breadth, covered with an iron roof and lighted from the top. Trains of cars were coming and going incessantly, but no confusion was perceptible, and everything, as my friend said, "went on like clockwork.' There are two operators in service here, relieving each other during a tour of duty which extends from 5 a.m. to 11 at night, their motions being regulated by a large and costly clock. The gentleman in charge received us very politely, but before we had hardly thanked him we heard the sharp and rapid ring of a bell overhead. It was marked "Ninety-sixth to Seventy-fifth street." "You see," said the operator, "there is a train coming in, and it wants to know if we are ready for it." "But how does it ring that 'By electricity," was the reply. This is Hall's patent, which works like a charm." In a few minutes another bell rang. It was marked "Sixty-first to Fifty-sixth street. "The train now reports itself again," said the operator, "and this renews notice either to prepare for it or to signal it to stop." He touched a telegraphic machine, and then said, "This throws up the signal to come in," and sure enough in a few minutes the train arrived. One hundred and forty trains arrive and depart in a day, including the Central Hudson, the Harlem, and the New Haven Roads, and hence the signal service is one of incessant activity. The operator then informed us that each road has four starting-bells of different keys, all of which were rung by him by means of electricity. Three started passenger trains and one ordered out the cars as soon as emptied. "You see," said he, "this train which has just come in. The passengers are gone, and I want to know if the baggage is taken out. He touched a stop and rang a bell (as he said) 600ft. distant. In a moment à bell

bell?" said Jones. 66

overhead struck twice. 'Baggage is out," he said, "otherwise he would have struck once, and I would have waited. I must order the train out. Do you see that locomotive just ahead? Well, now, see it move." He touched a stop, and I saw the letter Z displayed at a window in a side building. "He hears a bell ring also," said the operator. The engine backed down and hitched to the empty train and the Z disappeared. "I shall now send him out," said the operator, as he touched another stop, and the empty train at once moved forward and left the station. The letters X Y Z (I may add parenthetically) designate the locomotives of the Harlem, Hudson River, and New Haven Roads, and are the signals to back down and connect with trains. "I am now about to send out a passenger train," continued the operator; a half-hour ago I struck twice to open the doors and let the passengers pass from the sitting room to the cars. Now I shall soon close that very door, but first I must stop checking baggage." A small knob was touched by his finger. "Now," said he, "the next trunk that comes must wait for another train. There (another touch with the finger), the baggage-car is hauled out and switched on to the right track. Five minutes more and she is off. Here goes the 'close the door bell' (at a touch); no one passes in after this. Now I say 'all aboard'" (a touch), and we hear the distant voice of the conductor echoing through the vaulted roof. "Now it moves" (another touch), and the rumbling movement was immediately perceptible, and in a few moments the train left the station. As the cars go up the road they signal their progress by ringing bells in the same office until they have got through the city streets, and thus give assurance of a clear track for all that may follow.--Correspondence of "Troy Times."

SKYE DESCRIBED BY DR. JOHNSON.-Skie is an island fifty miles long, so much indented by inlets of the sea, that there is no part of it removed from the water more more than six miles. No part that I have seen is plain; you are always climbing or descending, and every step is upon rock or mire. A walk upon ploughed ground in England is a dance upon carpets compared to the toilsome drudgery of wandering in Skie. Here are mountains which I should once have climbed, but to climb steeps is now very laborious, and to descend them dangerous; and I am now content with knowing that by scrambling up a rock I shall only see other rocks, and a wider circuit of barren desolation. Of streams we have here a sufficient number, but they murmur not upon pebbles but upon rocks. Of flowers, if Chloris herself were here, I could present her only with the bloom of heath. Of lawns and thickets he must read that would know them, for here is little sun and no shade. On the sea I look from my window, but I am not much tempted to the shore; for since I came to this island almost every breath of air has been a storm, and what is worse, a storm with all its severity but without its magnificence, for the sea is here so broken into channels that there is not a sufficient volume of water either for lofty surges or a loud roar.-Dr. Johnson's Letters, Sep. 1773.

GHENT SAVINGS BANK.-Seven years ago it occurred to M. Laurent, the Professor of Civil Law in the University of Ghent, that the only way to make a man saving was to teach him the habit as a boy. With this intent, arrangements were made by which, in all the schools in Ghent, the teacher of each class undertook to receive the savings of the children from day to day, each child, as soon as its savings amounted to one franc, receiving a livret d'épargne or savings-bank book of the State Savings Bank, which gives interest at the rate of three per cent. The result of the experiment is as follows:-In the primary schools, out of 7,989 pupils, 7,583 are depositors, and the total of their savings amounts to 274,602 fr. or £10,984, an average of £1 9s. a head. In the infant school, out of 3,039 pupils, 1,920 were depositors, and the average sum deposited is £1 7s. a head. In Antwerp, Bruges, and other places, a similar system has been adopted. Such results are full of meaning. Would not our School Boards add greatly to their utility if some such system were established by them in the schools under their control? It is already done with excellent results in the shoeblack brigades, and in other institutions under philanthropic and sensible management in London.

peas on Christmas-day in plenty for 45 cents., whereas it was thought a triumph of civilisation when the millionaire could get a handful of tasteless things which it cost him a handful of gold to raise in his hot-house. This marks a sure and certain progression towards luxury; but as luxury, kept within bounds, is one of the handmaids of civilisation, this need not be de plored.

A MONSTER VINE.-A vine, situated about three miles and a half from Santa Barbara, California, has a trunk 4ft. 4in. in circumference. It begins to branch out at about six or eight feet from the ground, and is then supported on framework, which it covers as a roof. The whole vine, thus supported, now covers over an acre of ground. Several of the limbs are as much as 10in. in circumference at a distance of 25ft. or 30ft. from the trunk. The annual yield of grapes from this mammoth vine is from 10,000 to 12,000 pounds. The clusters average, when ripe, from 2 to 2 pounds each. This vine, which is about forty years old, is on rather high ground, and it is stated that the soil about it has never been manured at all. This vine, curiously enough, as in the case of Messrs. Lane's vinery at Berkhampstead, has a small stream of water running near it, which probably assists its growth.-Garden.

LONDON.-According to a return issued from the office of the Registrar-General, the estimated population of London within the tables of mortality is 3,356,073. The metropolis has an area of 122 square miles; it extends down the Thames from Fulham to Woolwich, and climbs the hills up to Hampstead on the north, and Norwood on the south side of the dividing tidal river, crossed by seventeen bridges, and partially fringed by a fine embankment. The mean elevation of the houses above Trinity high-water mark at the last determination was thirteen yards; but the elevation ranges from four yards below in Plumstead marshes to 143 yards in Hampstead above that mark. The hills are higher than the hills of Rome, the river at night, reflecting thousands of lights, eclipses the Tiber. The average daily supply of water is 514,269 metric tons, and the annual rateable value of property is £20,000,000 sterling. Last year the number of births was 121,100 in fifty-three weeks, or 2,285 weekly, and as the deaths were 76,634, or 1,446 weekly, the excess of births over deaths was 44,466, or 839 weekly. This excess comes near the estimated increase of population, so the actual agrees with the natural increase; but there is a continual outflow of people born in London, and inflow of people born in the rest of the kingdom or abroad.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN 1826.-Exaggerated statements of the wretched condition of agricultural labourers are not new, as may be seen in the following extract from Cobbett's "Rural Rides :-"In taking leave of this beautiful vale of Avon, I have to express my deep shame, as an Englishman, at beholding the general extreme poverty of those who cause this vale to produce such quantities of food and raiment. This is, I verily believe it, the worst-used labouring people upon the face of the earth. Dogs and hogs and horses are treated with more civility; and as to food and lodging, how gladly would the labourers change with them! This state of things can never continue many years! By some means or other there must be an end to it, and my firm belief is that the end will be dreadful. In the meanwhile I see that the common people know that they are ill-used."