244 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



and Shakspeare. His last two 

 years at college were especially con- 

 secrated to historical and philoso- 

 phical studies. Philosophy, in par- 

 ticular, had powerful attractions 

 for the young man. His mind, 

 endowed by nature with a remark- 

 able degree of logical strength, was 

 just the one to unfold and ripen in 

 the little Genevan republic, which 

 has presented something of the 

 learned and inflexible physiognomy 

 of its patron John Calvin. 



ROBERT HALL. 



Rev. Eobert Hall, when a boy 

 about six years of age, was sent to 

 a boarding-school, where he spent 

 the week, coming home on Saturday 

 and returning on Monday. When he 

 went away on Monday morning he 

 would take with him two or three 

 books from his father's library, to 

 read at the intervals between 

 school-hours. The books he select- 

 ed were not those of mere amuse- 

 ment, but such as required deep and 

 serious thought. Before he was nine 

 years old, he had read over and 

 over again, with the deepest inter- 

 est, Edwards on the Affections Ed- 

 wards on the Will, and Butler's Ana- 

 logy. 



THE DOCTORS MATHER, OF BOSTON. 



Dr. Cotton Mather, who died in 

 Boston, in 1728, was a man of un- 

 equalled industry, vast learning, 

 and most disinterested benevolence. 

 No person in America had at that 

 time so large a library, or had read 

 so many books, or had retained so 

 much of what they had read. It 

 was his custom to read fifteen chap- 

 ters in the Bible every day. He 

 wrote over his study-door, in capi- 

 tal letters, " BE SHORT." In one 

 year he kept sixty fasts and twen- 

 ty vigils, and published fourteen 

 books. His publications amounted 

 in all to 382, some of them being of 

 huge dimensions. His Magnolia 

 -was the largest; it consisted of 



seven folio volumes. His Essays to 

 do Good are read with pleasure 

 and profit even now. He lived to 

 the age of sixty-five years. 



His father, Dr. Increase Mather, 

 was also a man of great industry 

 and erudition for the age in which 

 he lived, and but little behind the 

 son in point of mental activity and 

 usefulness. He is said to have 

 spent sixteen hours a-day in his 

 study ; and his sermons and other 

 publications were very numerous. 

 In a volume entitled, Remarkables 

 of the Life of Dr. Increase Mather, 

 is a catalogue of no less than eighty- 

 five of his publications, not inclu- 

 ding many learned and useful pre- 

 faces written for other books. He 

 died in his eighty-fifth year, having 

 been a preacher sixty-six years. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH'S MANUSCRIPTS. 

 In 1825, the son of Mr. Leruon, 

 the keeper of the state-papers, dis- 

 covered, on examining some of the 

 papers of the reign of Elizabeth, a 

 paper in the handwriting of the 

 queen, and marked "The Third 

 Booke." Conceiving this to belong 

 to something of importance, he 

 placed it carefully aside, and, by a 

 diligent search, at length obtained 

 the papers of four other books, 

 which proved to be an entire trans- 

 lation of Boethius de Consolatione 

 Philosophice. In "Walpole's Royal 

 and Nolle Authors, it is men- 

 tioned that Queen Elizabeth had 

 translated this work ; but no ves- 

 tige of it was known to exist. 

 Nearly the whole of the work is in 

 her majesty's own handwriting ; 

 but there are parts evidently 

 written by her private secretary, 

 and by the secretary of state at the 

 time. All the difficult passages 

 and all the poetical portions are in 

 the queen's own hand, and it is not 

 a little curious, that in the transla- 

 tion of the latter she had imitated 

 all the variety of metre which is 

 found in the work. It is therefore 



