DIOGENES was one day dining in a tavern; and as Demosthenes was passing by, called him in. As the other took no notice of his invitation, he said, "Demosthenes! are you afraid of entering a tavern? Why your lord and master comes in here every day :" meaning the people in general and individually. By this he broadly hinted that the leaders of the assembly and the orators were the slaves of the multitude. ANOTHER. When Diogenes came to Olympia, and saw in the assembly of that festival certain young men of Rhodes richly dressed, he said, laughing, "this now is pride.". He then fell in with some Spartans in mean and shabby clothes: "Aye," said he, "this is another sort of pride." SIMILAR SAYING OF SOCRATES. C. 35. Socrates, observing that Antisthenes always exposed to sight the threadbare part of his cloak, said to him: "You will never make an end of displaying your vanity." EXTRAORDINARY OBESITY. C. 13. I have heard that Dionysius of Heraclea, son of the tyrant Clearchus, owing to his daily gluttony and luxury, grew by little and little out of all proportion in flesh. and fat. As the fruit of his great size and mass of flesh, he reaped for his pains a difficulty of breathing. The physicians, as rumour goes, prescribed for his malady that they should provide a number of the largest taper needles which were to be thrust into his sides and belly, whenever he chanced to fall into a heavy sleep: they were to be careful to do this till the needle was inserted in his flesh, which was quite callous, and in a manner foreign to his body. He lay, however, all the time like a stone. But when the needle reached that part of his body which were sound and natural, and not too much changed from its proper state by fat, he was at last sensible of feeling, and roused up out of his doze. He received those who sought his conversation with a chest placed before his body: some say it was not a chest but a turret, so contrived that the rest of his person should be concealed, and his face only appear above, for the sake of conversing. Heavens! this was a miserable sort of garment to wrap himself in, and more like a beast's den than a man's cloak. WEAK FONDNESS FOR ANIMALS. B. viii. c. 4. They tell of Poliarchus the Athenian, that he carried his weakness to such a pitch, as to give his favourite dogs and cocks a public funeral. He invited his friends to the burial, had the animals interred with pomp, and erected stone pillars to their memory with monumental inscriptions. FEAST OF ALEXANDER. Extract from B. viii. c. 7. The apartment where the guests were received and feasted had a hundred couches: each couch was raised on feet of silver; that of Alexander himself had golden feet. All the couches were decorated with coverings of purple, and embroidery of superb barbaric tissue. The feast was regulated by sound of trumpets: the flourish of assembly announced to the company that they were to place themselves at table; and that of retreat was the signal for them to rise. This feast was held five days in succession. There came to the banquet a vast number of musicians, and players, both in tragedy and comedy; and there were also present some capital jugglers from India, who appeared to surpass those of any other nation. SPECIMENS OF MINUTE WORKMANSHIP. These are those wonderful tiny works of Myrmecides of Miletus and Callicrates of Sparta. They have framed chariots adapted for four horses, which might be covered by a fly; and inscribed an elegiac distich on a grain of sesame. Το my mind, a man of sense will not commend either performance. For what are they but a waste of time, in "much ado about nothing?" say LOVE OF FISH A PROOF OF HIGH BIRTH. B. i. c. 28. I wish to mention an opinion of the Rhodians. They that in Rhodes, if a man is curious and nice in his fish, and prefers them for his eating beyond any thing else, he gets credit for being well born and distinguished from the dregs of the multitude. But whoever is fond of butcher's meat, is branded by the Rhodians as a churl and a glutton. I have no mind to canvas the right or wrong of this judgment of theirs. LUXURY OF THE ATHENIANS. The ancient Athenians wrapped themselves in a purple cloak and wore embroidered tunics. They gathered up their hair in braids at the top of their head, powdering it with gold grasshoppers; and they had gold studs and clasps fastened about their persons; and this was the dress in which they walked abroad. They had boys too who carried folding-seats after them, that they might not sit down on any chance-spot that offered itself. It is pretty plain that their table, and their way of living in other respects, exhibited still greater refinement of delicacy. Yet such as they were, they conquered in the battle of Marathon. GRÆCULUS. Local Communications. JOHN LEWIS THE ANTIQUARY, A NATIVE OF BRISTOL. IN SIR, To the Editor of The Bristol Memorialist. your first number, a correspondent enquires whether John Lewis, the antiquary, was a native of your city. I think there can be little doubt of the fact; for the Rev. Thomas Broughton, vicar of Redcliffe, who wrote his Life in the fifth volume of the Biographia Britannica, says that he was born on the 29th of August 1675, at Bristol, his father being a wine-cooper in that city. It is then added, that Mr. Lewis received his education at the Free Grammar-School of Winborn in Dorsetshire; from whence he removed to Exeter College, Oxford, where he certainly is entered as a native of Bristol. After taking one degree, he was ordained in 1698, by Bishop Compton, of London, and was some time curate to the Rev. Mr. Russell, rector of St. John's, Wapping. The year following, Lord Chancellor Somers gave him the rectory of Acris in Kent; and in 1705 he was appointed minister of Margate. He resigned Acris the next year, on being collated to the rectory of Saltwood in the same county, with the chapelry of Hythe annexed. The same year Archbishop Tenison gave him the rectory of Eastbridge in Kent, of which the church is a complete ruin. In 1708, the same prelate presented him to the vicarage of Minster |