PECULIARITIES AND ECCENTRICITIES. 



11 



FENELON. 



Monsiexir Fenelon, the author of 

 Telemachus, and Archbishop of 

 Oambray, used to say, that he loved 

 his family better than himself, his 

 country better than his family, and 

 mankind better than his country ; 

 for I am more a Frenchman, added 

 he, than a Fenelon, and more a man 

 than a Frenchman. (Chevalier 

 Eamsay.) 



BAYLE'S DICTIONARY. 



His Critical Dictionary is a vast 

 repository of facts and opinions ; 

 and he balances the false religions 

 in his sceptical scales, till the oppo- 

 site quantities (if I may use the 

 language of algebra) annihilate each 

 other. The wonderful power which 

 he so boldly exercised, of assem- 

 bling doubts and objections, had 

 tempted him jocosely to assume the 

 title of the 0eA>jyjgT Zsvs, the 

 cloud-compelling Jove; and in a 

 conversation with the ingenious 

 Abbe (afterwards cardinal) de Po- 

 lignac, he freely disclosed his uni- 

 versal Pyrrhonism. "I am most 

 truly," said Bayle, " a Protestant ; 

 for I protest indifferently against all 

 systems and all sects." (Gibbon.) 



STERNE'S SERMONS. 



Mr. Sterne, it may be supposed, 

 was no great favourite with Dr. 

 Johnson ; and a lady once ventured 

 to ask the grave doctor how he 

 liked Yorick's Sermons. u I know 

 nothing about them, madam," was 

 his reply. But sometime after- 

 wards, forgetting himself, he se- 

 verely censured them; and the lady 

 very aptly retorted, " I understood 

 you to say, sir, that you had never 

 read them." " No, madam ; I did 

 read them, but it was in a stage 

 coach. I should not have even 

 deigned to have looked at them had 

 I been at large." (Cradock's Lite- 

 rary Memoirs.) 



DR. JOHN LEYDEN. 



His chief place of retirement was 

 the small parish church, a gloomy 

 and ancient building, generally be- 

 lieved in the neighbourhood to be 

 haunted. To this chosen place of 

 study, usually locked during week- 

 days, Leyden made entrance by 

 means of a window, read there for 

 many hours in the day, and de- 

 posited his books and specimens in 

 a retired pew. It was a well-chosen 

 spot of seclusion, for the kirk (ex- 

 cept during divine service) is rather 

 a place of terror to the Scottish 

 rustic, and that of Cavers was ren- 

 dered more so by many a tale of 

 ghosts and witchcraft, of which it 

 was the supposed scene ; and to 

 which Leyden, partly to indulge his 

 humour, and partly to secure his 

 retirement, contrived to make some 

 modern additions. The nature of 

 his abstruse studies, some specimens 

 of natural history, as toads and 

 adders, left exposed in their spirit- 

 vials, and one or two practical jests 

 played off upon the more curious of 

 the peasantry, rendered his gloomy 

 haunt not only venerated by the 

 wise, but feared by the simple of 

 the parish. (Memoirs by Sir Wal- 

 ter Scott.) 



DR. OGILVIE 



"Was one of the few Scotsmen of 

 whom Dr. Johnson entertained a 

 favourable opinion. The sanctity 

 of the character of Ogilvie, the re- 

 ligious tendency of his writings, in 

 some measure abated the fierce an- 

 tipathy with which the great Eng- 

 lish critic regarded the nation whose 

 literary 'efforts have raised them to 

 so high a rank in the intellectual his- 

 tory of mankind. It was to Dr. 

 Ogilvie that the unreasonable John- 

 son uttered the sarcasm relative to 

 Scotch prospects. When in Lon- 

 don, Ogilvie one day, in Johnson's 

 company, observed, in speaking of 

 grand scenery, that Scotland had a 

 great many wild prospects. " Yes, 



