more and more heated by the idea which he had formed of his unknown admirer; and it is, in some degree, to her, that the world is indebted for several of the most powerful and highlywrought passages in "Paradise Lost."

BELL-ROCK LIGHT-HOUSE.

LATELY, a small party visited the Bell-Rock Light-house, and were highly gratified with its majestic appearance.

In the library, the strangers found the appropriate volume of Robinson Crusoe;' and in the Album, which is presented to all visitors for the insertion of their names, remarks, &c., they distinguished the following lines, inscribed by the hand of the popular author of the 'Lady of the Lake:'

"PHAROS LOQUITUR.

"Far in the bosom of the deep,

O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep ;

A ruddy gem of changeful light,

Bound on the dusky brow of night:
The seaman bids my lustre hail,

And scorns to strike his timorous sail.

VOL. I.

WALTER SCOTT, July 30, 1814."

I

RELIQUE OF BURNS.

THE following verses, in the hand-writing of Burns, are copied from a bank-note in the possession of Mr. James F. Gracie, of Dumfries. The note is of the Bank of Scotland, and is dated so far back as the 1st of March, 1780. The lines exhibit marks of the poet's vigorous pen, and are, evidently, an extempore effusion of his characteristic feelings. They bear internal proof of their having been written at that interesting period of his life, when he was on the point of leaving the country on account of the unfavourable manner in which his proposals for marrying Bonny Jean,' (his future wife) were at first received by her parents.

ડેર

Wae worth thy power, thou cursed leaf!

Fell source of a' my woe and grief;—

For lack of thee, I've lost my lass
For lack of thee, I scrimp my glass.

I see the children of affliction
Unaided, thro' thy cursed restriction ;—
I've seen th' oppressor's cruel smile
Amid his hapless victim's spoil,
And for thy potence vainly wish'd
To crush the villain in the dust ;-

For lack o'thee, I leave this much-lov'd shore,
Never, perhaps, to greet old Scotland more.
RB- Kyle."

AMBROSE PHILLIPS AND SWIFT.

AMBROSE Phillips was a neat dresser, and very vain. In a conversation between him, Congreve, Swift, and others, the discourse ran a good while upon Julius Cæsar. After many things had been said to the purpose, Ambrose asked, what sort of person they supposed Cæsar was? He was answered, that, from medals, &c., it appeared that he was a small man and thin-faced. "Now, for my part," said Ambrose, "I should take him to have been of a lean make, pale complexion, extremely neat in his dress, and five feet seven inches high;"-an exact description of Phillips himself. Swift, who understood good breeding perfectly well, and would not interrupt any body while speaking, let him go on, and, when he had quite done, said:" And I, Mr. Phillips, should take him to have been a plump man, just five feet five inches high, and very neatly dressed in a black gown with pudding-sleeves."

SPENCE.

PETRARCH.

SALMASIUS says, in his Notes upon Pliny, that the Ægyptians made their clothes from the inner bark of the Papyrus. For the same reason, Pliny admires the custom of the Parthians, who used to write upon their clothes, preferring that method of writing to the making use of paper.

wore.

This act of respect to antiquity was imitated by Petrarch, who wrote occasionally his thoughts in gilt letters upon a cloak of leather which he This anecdote is mentioned by two authors, who observe, at the same time, that the cloak was not lined, but, according to them, was so contrived, that he might be able to write on both sides of it his verses, which appeared full of corrections and notes.

It is said, that La Casa, Sadolet, and Buccatello, (who was in possession of this precious relique,) when they retired to the country house of the latter, to take refuge from the plague, which, in 1527, was desolating Italy, took this cloak with them, to consider it at their leisure, and to attempt to decipher what it contained.

BENSERADE.

"Diseur des bon mots, mauvais caractère," says the amiable Pascal. Vanity, and a desire of saying something rather brilliant than solid, constitute the basis of his character. When Benserade, who was a man of great wit, did not find the company sufficiently numerous to stimulate the efforts of his imagination, he used to request that the servants might be called in, to afford him larger scope for his exertions.

Benserade was a priest, and used to dine abroad in company every day. Some one wrote these lines upon him:

"What makes our lively bard to-day
Look in so dull and sad a way?

Does aught portend his fatal doom?

No: he's oblig'd to dine at home."

He had satirized a Knight of the order of St. Michael, in some of his verses, and was well thrashed by the Knight himself. Some witling of the day wrote,—

"Our bard is in a wretched way,
And destin'd to each horrid evil;

St. Michael met him t'other day,

And beat him like the very Devil."