V/ILEIXS. 



245 



a literal, rather than a poetical 

 translation. There are letters also 

 discovered which identify this 

 translation to have been made by 

 the queen, and it is to be hoped 

 that the public will yet be grati- 

 fied with the publication of this 

 literary curiosity. From a docu- 

 ment accompanying this transla- 

 tion, it appears that her majesty 

 composed the work at Windsor, 

 during five weeks of the winter 

 season ; and from a courtly compu- 

 tation made by the queen's secre- 

 tary, we collect the information, 

 that less than twenty-four hours of 

 labour were actually bestowed upon 

 this manuscript of many pages. 



SHELLEY'S LIBRARY. 

 Shelley's library was a very limi- 

 ted one. He used to, say that a 

 good library consisted not of many 

 books, but a few chosen ones ; and 

 being asked what he considered 

 such, he said, "I'll give you my list 

 catalogue it can't be called : the 

 Greek Plays, Plato, Lord Bacon's 

 Works, Shakspeare, the Old Dra- 

 matists, Milton, Goethe, Schiller, 

 Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, 

 Machiavelli and Guicciardini, not 

 forgetting Calderon ; and last, yet 

 first, the Bible." It is not meant 

 that this was all his collection. He 

 had read few English works of the 

 day ; scarcely a novel except Walter 

 Scott's, for whose genius he had 

 sovereign respect ; Anastasius, by 

 which he thought Lord Byron pro- 

 fited in his Don Juan ; and the 

 Promissi Sposi. In speaking of 

 Hope and Manzoni, he said, " that 

 one good novel was enough for any 

 man to write, and he thought both 

 judicious in not risking their fame 

 by a second attempt." 



THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD. 



A modern writer, in a sketch of 

 Lord Brougham, gives the origin of 

 this popular phrase: 



" No orator of our times is more 



successful in embalming phrases 

 fall of meaning, in the popular 

 memory. The well-known talis- 

 manic sentiment, ' The school- 

 master is abroad,' is an instance. 

 In a speech on the elevation of 

 Wellington, a mere 'military chief- 

 tain,' to the premiership, after the 

 death of Canning, Brougham said, 

 ' Field-marshal the Duke of Wel- 

 lington may take the army he 

 may take the navy he may take 

 the great seal he may take the 

 mitre. I make him a present of 

 them all. Let him come on with 

 his whole force, sword in hand, 

 against the constitution, and the 

 English people will not only beat 

 him back, but laugh at his assaults. 

 In other times the country may 

 have heard with dismay that ' the 

 soldier was abroad.' It will not be 

 so now. Let the soldier be abroad 

 if he will ; he can do nothing in this 

 age. There is another personage 

 abroad a personage less imposing 

 in the eyes of some, perhaps, in- 

 significant. The schoolmaster is 

 abroad,; and I trust to him, armed 

 with his primer, against the soldier 

 in full military array.' " 



POSTSCRIPTS TO LADIES' LETTERS. 



George Selwyn once affirmed in 

 company, that no woman ever wrote 

 a letter without a postscript. " My 

 next letter shall refute you," said 

 Lady G. Selwyn soon after re- 

 ceived a letter from her ladyship, 

 when, after her signature, stood 

 " P. S. Who is right now, you or 1 1" 



WILKINS AND THE DUCHESS'S VOYAGE 

 TO THE MOON. 



Dr. John Wilkins, a man of 

 uncommon parts and abilities, in 

 the reign of Charles II., has been 

 laughed at, together with his chim- 

 eras ; but even these proclaim them- 

 selves the chimeras of a man of 

 genius. 



Such was his attempt to show 

 the possibility of a voyage to the 



