GASSENDI, HALE, ETC. 



241 



wards, however, they were allowed 

 to return. Several persons of dis- 

 tinguished merit joined these her- 

 mits, and from these the Society, 

 which afterwards received the title 

 of Port-Royal, was formed. Among 

 its members were the celebrated 

 Arnauld, M. de Suylin, M. de Sacy, 

 Arnaud d' Andilly, de Luzanzy, De 

 Pomponne, De Beaurepaire, S te ' 

 Marthe, Nicole, and Lancelot, who 

 afterwards turned Benedictine. 



The Society had no rules, no 

 vows, no constitution, no cells, nor 

 anything of the kind. They em- 

 ployed themselves assiduously in 

 prayer and study, and in the in- 

 struction of youth in the sciences 

 and the practice of virtue. Racine 

 was educated there, and requested 

 to be buried in the cemetery of 

 Port-Eoyal, at the feet of his old 

 master M. Hamon. (Matanasiana.) 



GREGORY VII. 



We find, in Machiavel and Car- 

 dan, that Pope Gregory VII. caused 

 most of the valuable works of the 

 ancients to be burned. It was this 

 Pope who burned the works of the 

 learned Varro, to prevent St. Au- 

 gustin from being accused of pla- 

 giarism, the saint having stolen 

 from him the greater part of his 

 Treatise de Civitate Dei. 



AN ARACHNOID GARMENT. 



Chapelaiu, the author of the Pu- 

 celle, was called by the academicians 

 the Knight of the Order of the 

 Spider, because he wore a coat so 

 patched and pieced, that the stitches 

 exhibited no bad resemblance of 

 the fibres produced by that insect. 

 Being one day present at a large 

 party given by the great Conde, a 

 spider of uncommon size fell from 

 the ceiling upon the floor. The 

 company thought it could not have 

 come from the roof, and all the la- 

 tiies at once agreed that it must have 

 proceeded from Chapelain's wig ; 

 the wig so celebrated by the well- 



known parody. He was so avari- 

 cious, that though he had an income 

 of 13,000 livres, and more than 

 240,000 in ready money, he used to 

 wipe his hands on a handful of 

 rushes, in order to save towels. 

 His avarice was the cause of his 

 death ; he preferred crossing the 

 street, while inundated with water, 

 to paying a liard for the use of a 

 plank which was laid across. He 

 caught a cold and oppression of 

 breathing, of which he died. (Char- 

 pentier.) 



The Talmud has been com- 

 posed by certain Jewish doctors of 

 the kingdom of Pontus, who had 

 been summoned for that purpose 

 by their own nation, in order that 

 they might have something to op- 

 pose to the Christians. These doc- 

 tors were descendants of the ten 

 tribes of Israel, who were carried 

 into captivity from Samaria by 

 King Psalmanazar, the father of 

 Sennacherib, in the time of Hosea. 

 The " Talmud " was valued at 100 

 livres during the time of Joseph 

 Scaliger. This book is a mixture 

 of Syriac, Hebrew, and the Vulgar 

 Hebrew, which was the language 

 of the school of the Rabbis, and 

 which differs as much from the 

 other as the Latin of Bartolus from 

 that of Cicero. 



GASSENDI, SIR MATTHEW HALE, AND 

 OTHERS. 



Gassendi was accustomed to read, 

 throughout the greater part of the 

 night, by the lamp in the parish 

 church, his parents being too poor 

 to supply him with caudles. 



Sir Matthew Hale relates, with 

 regard to himself, that he laboured 

 for sixteen hours in the day during 

 the first two years that he spent in 

 the Inns of Court. 



William Prynne was exceedingly 

 diligent; he read or wrote about 

 sixteen hours in the day. To pre- 

 Q 



