AUTOGRAPH LETTERS. 129 



in a butcher's shop a bullock that has been flayed, its entrails taken out, 

 its head separated from the body ? The flesh you must have observed 

 palpitates for half an hour afterwards : so, in some instances, it is with 

 man, particularly if he have met with a violent death. 



" The most certain indication of absolute death is a peculiar odour, re- 

 sembling, in a slight degree, that which proceeds from the mouse,* a 

 smell different from any other in the world, and which, from my expe^. 

 rience, I never mistake. It is a commencement of decomposition of 

 putrefaction ; but differing entirely from the odour arising from a gan^- 

 grenous wound. Place the hand between a lighted candle and your- 

 self; if the blood is in motion, the fingers will seem transparent ; if dead, 



the palms assume a horny and yellowish appearance Cetera 



desunt." 



The remainder of this letter is in the possession of the translator, but 

 he cannot, at present, find it, 



A FRAGMENT PROM ONE OF BEAUMARCHAIS' LETTERS. 



In the legends of our saints, we read of some very extraordinary 

 circumstances, which are not only not true that I care nought about 

 because fiction, at all events, is often more amusing than truth; but 

 these tales are not even well invented. How superior in this respect 

 are the turbaned writers. One of them, for instance, wishing to show 

 what inexpressible power was given to the angel Gabriel, upon an occa- 

 sion when he paid a visit to Mahomet, expresses himself thus The 

 heavenly messenger found the prophet in bed he seized him by the 

 arm, dashed out of the window, (a pretty clatter, unless, perhaps, they 

 went like a bullet through a pane of glass,) and flew (a second edition 

 of his Medina or Mecca affair, I forget which) away with him, to give 

 a friendly call upon certain distinguished inhabitants of the sun, the 

 moon, and the stars, yea, even those of the seven heavens. This inte* 

 resting aerial and land voyage I wonder which was the longer, the 

 one by land or the one by air ; I should also like to know, how many 

 geometrical leagues that would make, and also, what fraction of a 

 minute each league had taken in performing. Well, this interesting 

 promenade was accomplished with such rapidity, that the bed from 

 which he had been dragged, was quite as warm as when he left it (a. 

 bad thing in a climate like Arabia) but this inspired writer, fearing 

 that his readers might think his lady had taken care that it should not 

 remain cold during his absence, and then the miracle would be simply 

 an every day one, takes good care to add that a pitcher, filled with 

 water, which Gabriel struck violently with this foot, as he was taking 

 his departure, had not had time to fall upon the ground, and did not 

 inundate Mahomet's bed-chamber, until he had got snugly into bed 

 again. 



Another. A dervise who could not swim, but who daily took his 

 ablutions, came to the side of a lake : he saw a large bird stan'ding in it; 

 the water did not reach higher than the half of its leg the dervise 

 undressed, and was about to take his bath, when a voice from Heaven 

 cried, " Enter not, rash mortal, a carpenter let his axe fall into it six 

 years ago, and it has not yet reached the bottom," 



* Odour fie souris. 

 M. M. No. 80. K 



