BURNET'S OWN TIMES. "Did you ever read that garrulous, pleasant history? He tells his story like an old man past political service, bragging to his sons on winter evenings of the part he took in public transactions when his 'old cap was new.' Full of scandal, which all true history is. So palliative; but all the stark wickedness that actually gives the momentum to national actors. Quite the prattle of age and outlived importance. Truth and sincerity staring out upon you perpetually in alto relievo. Himself a party-man, he makes you a party-man. None of the cursed philosophical Humeian indifference, 'so cold and unnatural and inhuman.' None of the cursed Gibbonian fine writing, so fine and composite. None of Dr. Robertson's periods with three members. None of Mr. Roscoe's sage remarks, all so apposite and coming in so clever, lest the reader should have had the trouble of drawing an inferBurnet's good old prattle I can bring present to my mind; I can make the Revolution present to me."-Charles Lamb: Letters. ence. An Epigram on the Reverend Mr. Lawrence Eachard's and Bishop Gilbert Burnet's Histories. By Mr. Matthew Green, of the Custom-House. Gil's History appears to me A case of skeletons well done, And malefactors every one. His sharp and strong incision pen, Historically cuts up men, And does with lucid skill impart Their inward ails of head and heart. Their hands are fair, their faces fresh; And from his sweet'ning art derive A better scent than when alive; He wax-work made to please the sons, From a Collection of Poems by several hands. London: Dodsley, 1748. THE LAST OF THE PALEOLOGI. About two centuries ago, lived and died in England, Theodore Paleologus, the immediate descendant of the Constantine family. He is buried in the church of St. Landulph, near Saltash, in the county of Cornwall. The following is his epitaph: Here lyeth the body of Theodoro Paleologus WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS. Ennui "Cleland (voc. 165) has, with his usual sagacity, and with a great deal of trouble, as he himself acknowledges, traced out the true meaning and derivation of this word; for after he had long despaired of discovering the origin of it, mere chance, he says, offered to him what he took to be the genuine one. "In an old French book I met," says he, "with a passage where the author, speaking of a company that had sat up late, makes use of this expression, 'l'ennuit les avoit gagnés,' by the context of which it was plain he meant that the common influence of the night, in bringing on heaviness and yawning, had come upon them. The proper sense is totally antiquated, but the figurative remains in full currency to this day."-Lemon's Etymological Dictionary. Tandem.-A practical pun is now naturalized in our language in the word "Tandem " (at length). Brown Study-Surely a corruption of brow-study, brow being derived from the old German, braun, in its compound form aug-braun, an eyebrow. Scamp. The word means literally a fugitive from the field, one qui ex campo exit. Luncheon.-Our familiar name of luncheon is derived from the daily meal of the Spaniards at eleven o'clock, termed once or l'once (pronounced l'onchey).-From Ford's Gatherings in Spain. Geho!-A learned friend, whose communications I have frequently had occasion to acknowledge in the course of this work, says the exclamation "Geho! Geho!" which carmen use to their horses, is probably of great antiquity. It is not peculiar to this country, as I have heard it used in France. In the story of the Milkmaid, who kicked down her pail, and with it all her hopes of getting rich, as related in a very ancient collection of apologues, entitled Dialogus Creaturarum, printed at Gonda in 1480, is the following passage: "Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum quantâ gloriâ duceretur ad illum virum super equum dicendo gio gio, cepit percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus."-Brand's Popular Antiq. Hip, Hip, Hurrah!-Originally a war-cry, adopted by the stormers of a German town, wherein a great many Jews had taken their refuge. The place being sacked, they were all put to the sword, under the shouts of Hierosolyma est perdita! From the first letter of those words (H. e. p.) an exclamation was contrived. There are two English words, in pronouncing which not a single letter of them is sounded; namely, ewe (yo), and aye (I). Runic Names.-Sir William Temple, in his Essay on Poetry, says, speaking of the old Runic : The remainders are woven into our very language. Mara, in old Runic, was a goblin that seized upon men asleep in their beds, and took from them all speech and motion. Old Nicka was a spirit that came to strangle people who fell into the water. Bo was a fierce Gothic captain, son of Odin, whose name was used by his soldiers when they would fight or surprise their enemies. Lack-a-daisy.-In Todd's Johnson it is explained as "a frequent colloquial term implying alas; most probably from the forgotten verb lack, to blame. The expression, therefore, may be considered as blaming, finding fault with, the day on which the event mentioned happened." Banyan Day.-A marine term for those days in which the sailors have no flesh meat; and is probably derived from the practice of the Banians, a caste of Hindoos, who entirely abstained from all animal food. Snooks. This name, so generally associated with vulgarity, is only a corruption, or rather a contraction, of the more dignified name of Sevenoaks. This town is generally called Se'noaks in Kent; and the further contraction, coupled with the phonetic spelling of former days, easily passed into S'nooks. This is no imaginary conclusion, for Messrs. Sharp and Harrison, solicitors, Southampton, have recently had in their possession a series of deeds, in which all the modes of spelling occur from Sevenokes down to Snokes, in connection with a family now known as Snooks. VIOLIN INSCRIPTION. This distich is said to have been inscribed on the violin of Palestrina, the "Musica Princeps" of the sixteenth century: Viva fui in sylvis; sum dura occisa securi; Dum vixi tacui; mortua dulce sona. Thus translated into French : La hache m'arracha mourant du fond des bois; Palestrina's violin was made by a great musical instrumentmaker at Bologna, who had the same lines graven on his lutes, bass-viols, &c. STORY OF A RELIC. The following curious story is in a rare little Portuguese book. The work was printed at Vienna in 1717, and is an account of the embassy of Fernando Telles da Sylva, Conde de Ville Mayor, from the Court of Lisbon to that of Vienna, to demand in marriage, for the eldest son of King Pedro II., of Portugal, the hand of the Archduchess Maria Anna, of Austria. It was written by Father Francisco da Fonseca, a Jesuit priest, who accompanied the ambassador in quality of almoner and confessor, and is full of amusing matter, particularly in reference to the strange opinions concerning our laws, government, and religion, which the worthy padre appears to have picked up during his short stay in England. The original of the annexed translation is to be found at pp. 318, 319, 320, § 268, of Fonseca's Narrative. As we are now upon the subject of miracles wrought by Relics in Vienna, I shall proceed to relate another prodigy which happened in the said city, and which will greatly serve to confirm in us those feelings of piety with which we |