1831.] Paragraphs from a PortJ olio. 411 



group who passed. At length one man threw himself from his horse, 

 knelt down^ and approached him on his knees. The bard was in rap- 

 tures. Was there ever a more striking deference to genius? — it was 

 actual worship ! — " No, no, my good friend," he exclaimed, rising, 

 " you must not offer this homage to me. I acknowledge your taste. 

 Yet remember that, though I am the author of the ' sixteen sonnets' 

 on the Lottery, I am still no more than a man." 



The worshipper looked astonished, but proceeded in his homage. The 

 bard could no longer resist ; this delightful disobedience mastered him. 

 He rushed forward, and flung himself in tears on the worshipper's neck. 

 The man started up, and they both rolled on the ground together. As 

 the bard happened to cast up his eyes, he saw that, on the bank 

 behind him, was an image of the Vii-gin. The secret of the general 

 bowing and uncapping was suddenly revealed to him. He rose, brushed 

 the dirt off his culottes, shook the dust off his feet against the good city 

 of Paris, went his way, and wrote verses no more. 



Old Selden has some curious remarks on the manners of courts. He 

 compares the different styles of the English royal life to the succession 

 of dances at a ball. — which, by the by, seem to have been a curious and 

 rather formal ceremonial in themselves. " First, you have the grave 

 measures ; then the corrantos and galliards ; then French-more and the 

 cushion-dance ; — and then all the company dances — lord and groom, 

 lady and kitchen-maid — no distinction. 



" So, in our court, in Queen Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were 

 kept up. In King James's time, things were pretty well ; but, in King 

 Charles's time, there has been nothing but French-more and the cushion- 

 dance — omnuim-gather%nn, toUij-poUij, hotly -cum-loity." 



Julius Cffisar, the prince of gazette-writers, has undergone the torture 

 of the wits in his Latinity. " Venit summa diligentia" is translated 

 " come on the top of a diligence ;" proving that, in his time, they tra- 

 velled by public coaches in France. Tacitus is authority for the Roman 

 invention of telescopes; for it is said of the same Cassar that, in his inva- 

 sion of England, he examined the country posi/is speculis — ■" by fixing 

 his glasses ;" though another translation pronounces it — " putting on 

 his spectacles." And Suetonius is equal authority for attributing 

 the trial by jury to the Romans. Speaking of Ca?sar's death, he 

 says, " Jure ccesiis videlur," which is translated — " he appears to have 

 been put to death by jury;" a proof unanswerable, and which may 

 lower the crest of our Anglo-Saxon law-makers. 



It is singular to see a phrase making the tour of the world. O.xen- 

 sticrn'g celebrated remark, " My son, see with what little wisdom tlie 

 world is governed," was probably made a thousand years before Oxen- 

 stiern, and uttered by a thousand lips before his. Selden relates it of 

 one of the popes : — 



" He was a wise pope that, when one, who used to be with him before 

 lie was advanced to the popedom, refrained afterwards to come at him 

 (presuming him to be too busy in governing the Christian world). The 

 pope sends for him, bids him come again, and says, ' We will be merry 

 as we were before ; for thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs 

 tlic whole world.' " 



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