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TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



properly upon the block ; and when 

 the executioner told him he need 

 not trouble himself about his beard, 

 when his head was about to be cut 

 off, " It is of little consequence to 

 me," said Sir Thomas, " but it is a 

 matter of some importance to you, 

 that you should understand your 

 profession, and not cut through my 

 beard, when you had orders only 

 to cut off my head." 



ANAGRAMS. 



The best anagram I have met 

 with, is one which was shown me 

 by the Duchess de la Tremouille. 

 She was the sister of the Duke de 

 Bouillon and of Marshal Turrenne, 

 and her name was Marie de la 

 Tour; in Spanish, Maria de la 

 Torre, \vhich a Spanish anagram- 

 matist found to be exactly Amor de 

 la Tierra. (Chevreau.) 



DR. CHALMERS BUTLER'S "AN- 

 ALOGY." 



In the memoir of Dr. Chalmers, 

 inserted in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, it is 

 said that, on one occasion, when 

 some person present was animad- 

 verting upon the wealth of the 

 Church of England, and gave as an 

 example of its over-abundance the 

 revenues of the see of Durham, the 

 Dodtor exclaimed, with character- 

 istic eagerness : 



" Sir, if all that has been received 

 for the bishopric of Durham, since 

 the foundation of the see, were set 

 down as payment for Butler's An- 

 alogy, I should esteem it as a cheap 

 purchase." 



P. CORNEILLE. 



Pierre Corneille, who has given 

 such splendour of expression to the 

 thoughts and sentiments of his 

 heroes, had nothing in his external 

 appearance that gave any indication 

 of his talent, and his conversation 

 was so tiresome, as to weary every 

 one who listened to it. A great 



princess, who had felt much curi- 

 osity to see him, used to say, after 

 the visit was over, that Corneille 

 ought never to be heard but at the 

 Hotel de Bourgogne.* Nature, 

 which had been so liberal to him 

 in extraordinary gifts, had denied 

 him more common accomplish- 

 ments. When his friends used to 

 remind him of these defects, he 

 would smile gently, and say, " I am 

 not the less Pierre Corneille." 



SCEPTICISM. 



The sceptics, who doubt of every- 

 thing, and whom Tertulliau calls 

 professors of ignorance, do affirm 

 something, when they say we can 

 affirm nothing, and admit that 

 something is certain, when they 

 maintain that nothing can bs 

 certainly known. (Chevreau.) 



CARMELINE THE DENTIST. 



Carmeline, the famous tooth- 

 drawer, and maker of artificial 

 teeth, had his portrait painted and 

 placed in his chamber window, with 

 a motto taken from Virgil's line on 

 the Golden Bough, in the sixth 

 book of the JEneid. 



" Uno avulso, non deficit alter." t 

 The application was extremely 

 happy. 



HELEN. 



Every one speaks of the beautiful 

 Helen, but few are aware that she 

 had five husbands, Theseus, Meue- 

 laus, Paris, Deiphobus, and Achilles ; 

 that she was hanged in the Isle of 

 Rhodes by the servants of Polixo ; 

 and that, in the war of which she 

 was the cause, 886,000 Greeks and 

 670,000 Trojans lost their lives. 



A QUID PRO QUO. 



Masson, Eegent of Trinity Col- 

 lege, had asked one of his friends 

 to lend him a book, which he 

 * The theatre. 



t When one is drawn out, another 13 

 never wanting. 



