rather to follow those vices, than to leave them," &c., and by which penalties are inflicted, not only on the bards themselves, but on all those who shall entertain them.

But the Irish bards, in this period, were not wholly employed in offering incense to the unworthy; they frequently exercised their talents with zeal, to preserve their country from the chains which were forging for it; and hence, the true reason of the jealousy with which they were regarded by the government of Elizabeth. They flung themselves into the midst of the armies of their much-injured countrymen, striking their harps with

"A louder yet, and yet a louder strain,"

till they raised the martial fury of the soldiery to such an elevated pitch, that they often rushed on their enemies with the impetuosity of a mountain-torrent, sweeping all before them, till they heard the shout of victory.

POPE'S HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES.

MR. POPE's life was in danger several times; and the first, so early as when he was a child in coats. A wild cow, that was driven by the place

where he was at play, struck at him with her horns, tore off his hat, wounded him in the throat, beat him down, and trampled on him.

His second escape was, when he was about two-and-twenty. He was travelling in a coach by night, and with a coachman that did not know the road so well as he should have done. They went to cross the Thames, and the coachman drove into the water; but after they were a little way in, the horses stopped short, and all his swearing and whipping could not make them stir a foot on. Some passengers, that happened to come by, just at the height of his endeavouring to force them to go on, called to the man, and told him that his horses had more sense than himself; that the Thames was not fordable there, that they were just on the brink of a hole twice as deep as the coach; and that, had they proceeded a step farther, they must all have been lost; so he drew back, and got out of the river again, and they were very glad to go to a little alehouse on the bank that they had just quitted.

His third danger was in a coach, too, with six spirited horses. They took fright, ran away,

and overturned the coach, with him only in it, into a ditch full of water. He was almost suffocated there, and broke the glass with his hand to let in the air: but, as the coach sunk deeper in, the water gained very fast upon him, and he was taken out but just time enough to save him from being drowned.

Besides these, his perpetual application (after he set to study of himself) reduced him, in four years' time, to so bad a state of health, that, after trying physicians a good while in vain, he resolved to give way to his distemper, and calmly sat down in a full expectation of death in a short time. Under this thought, he wrote letters to take a last farewell of some of his particular friends; and, among the rest, one to Abbé Southcote. The Abbé was extremely concerned, both for his very ill state of health and the resolution he said he had taken. He thought there might yet be hopes, and went immediately to Dr. Radcliffe, with whom he was well acquainted; told him Mr. Pope's case; got full directions from him and carried them down to Mr. Pope, in Windsor Forest. The chief thing the Doctor ordered him, was to apply less to study, and to

ride every day: the following his advice soon restored to him his health.*-SPENCE.

MINSTREL CHALLENGE.

ARNAUD DANIEL, a troubadour, highly celebrated by Dante and Petrarch, about the year 1240, made a voyage into England, where, in the court of King Henry the Third, he met a minstrel, who challenged him at difficult rhymes. The challenge was accepted, a considerable wager was laid, and the rival bards were shut up in separate chambers of the palace. King, who appears to have much interested himself in the dispute, allowed them ten days for composing, and five more for learning to sing, their respective pieces; after which, each was to exhibit his performance in the presence of his majesty.

The

The third day, the English minstrel announced that he was ready. The troubadour declared that he had not wrote a line, but that he had tried, and could not as yet put two words together. The following evening, he over-heard the minstrel practising his chanson to himself.

* This was when Mr. Pope was about seventeen, and, consequently, about the year 1705.

The next day he had the good fortune to hear the same again, and learned the air and words.

At the day appointed, they both appeared before the King. Arnaud desired to sing first, and the minstrel, in a fit of the greatest surprise and astonishment, suddenly cried out, "C'est ma chanson," (This is my song). The King said it was impossible; but the minstrel still insisted upon it, and Arnaud, being closely pressed, ingenuously told the whole affair. The King was much entertained with this adventure, and, ordering the wager to be withdrawn, loaded them both with presents. But he afterwards obliged Arnaud to give a chanson of his own composition.

VIRGIL.

THE fame of Virgil's poetry has continued, from the time of his death, to delight each succeeding age; but, that he actually passed, in the 13th century, for a conjurer of the most terrific nature, and that the most astonishing supernatural powers were ascribed to his bones, are circumstances with which comparatively few may be acquainted.

A celebrated German prelate, Conrade, Bishop