CHRISTIANITY. 



227 



his art of poetry. His verses are 

 something below the pitch of Stern- 

 hold and Hopkins. But if he learnt 

 there to make bad verses, he en- 

 tered fully into the spirit of its bet- 

 ter parts, and received that spirit 

 into as resolute a heart as ever beat 

 in a martyr's bosom. (Southey.) 



EDWARD IRVING. 



Mr. P. invited a party to supper. 

 Some of his guests had three miles 

 to walk home after the meal. Butfe- 

 fore its commencement, Mr. P. re- 

 quested Irving, who was one of the 

 party, to read the Bible and expound. 

 He began and continued a discourse 

 which manifested not even a tend- 

 ency towards termination until 

 midnight. The supper was, of 

 course, either burnt up or grown 

 cold. When the clock struck twelve, 

 IJr. P. tremblingly and gently sug- 

 (1 to him that it might be desir- 

 able to draw to a close. " Who art 

 thou" he replied with prophetic en- 

 ergy, "who darest to interrupt the 

 man of God in the midst of his admi- 

 nistrations ?"' He pursued his com- 

 mentary for some time longer, then 

 closed the book, and waving his 

 long arm over the head of his host, 

 uttered an audible and deliberate 

 prayer that his offence might be 

 forgiven. 



WRITING HISTORY. 



When Leti, the historian, was 

 one day attending the levee of 

 Charles the Second, he said to him, 

 " Leti, I hear that you are writing 

 the History of the Court of England. 

 "Sir, I have been for some time 

 preparing materials for such a his- 

 tory." " Take care that your work 

 give no offence," said the prince. 

 Leti replied, " Sir, I will do what 

 I can ; but if a man were as wise 

 as Solomon, he would scarcely be 

 able to avoid giving offence." 

 "Why, then," rejoined the king, 

 " be as wise as Solomon ; write 

 proverbs, not histories." 



SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S HUMOUR. 



Sir James Mackintosh had a 

 great deal of humour ; and, among 

 many other examples of it, he kept 

 a dinner-party at his own house for 

 two or three hours in a roar of 

 laughter, playing upon the simpli- 

 city of a Scotch cousin, who had 

 mistaken the Rev. Sidney Smith 

 for his gallant synonym, the hero 

 of Acre. 



HISTORICAL OMISSIONS. 



In Goldsmith's History of Eng- 

 land no mention is made of the 

 great plague or the great fire of 

 London. 



BERZELIUS THE CHEMIST. 



This devoted chemist continued 

 to labour in the cause of science 

 when the lower part of his body 

 was paralyzed, and he was dying 

 by inches. His death took place in 

 1848, in the 69th year of his age. 



CRITICIZED POET. 



An indifferent poet, who had 

 been severely handled by the cri- 

 tics, yet continued to go on pub- 

 lishing his crudities, said one day 

 to an acquaintance, that he had 

 found out a way to be revenged of 

 his reviewers, and that was by 

 laughing at them. " Do you so ?" 

 said the other ; "then let me tell 

 you, you lead the merriest life of 

 any man in Christendom." 



CHRISTIANITY. 



Sir Humphry Davy observes 

 " Of all the religions which have 

 operated upon the human mind, 

 Christianity alone has the consis- 

 tent character of perfect truth ; all 

 its parts are arranged with the 

 most beautiful symmetry ; and its 

 grand effects have been constantly 

 connected with virtuous gratifica- 

 tion, with moral and intellectual 

 improvement, with the present and 

 future happiness." 



