HUMANITY OP MK. DAY. 



287 



serving the class to laugh, the mas- 

 ter said, " Person, you seem to me 

 to be reading on one side of the 

 page, while I am looking at the 

 other ; pray whose edition have 

 you ?' Porson hesitated. " Let 

 me see it," rejoined the master ; 

 who, to his great surprise, found it 

 to be an English Ovid. Porson 

 was ordered to go on ; which he 

 did easily, correctly, and promptly, 

 to the end of the ode. 



PUNCTUATION. 



When Lord Timothy Dexter, of 

 Newburyport, wrote his famous 

 book, entitled A Pikelfor the Know- 

 ing Ones, there happened to be 

 many heresies, schisms, and false 

 doctrines abroad in the laud re- 

 garding punctuation, and as many 

 diverse systems appeared, for the 

 location of commas, semicolons, 

 periods, dashes, &c., as there were 

 works published. To obviate this 

 diificulty, and to give every one an 

 opportunity of suiting himself, his 

 lordship left out all marks of punc- 

 tuation from the body of his work, 

 and at the ending of the book had 

 printed four or five pages of nothing 

 but stops and pauses, with which 

 he said the reader could pepper his 

 dish as he chose. 



PASCAL. 



It is reported of that prodigy of 

 parts, Monsieur Pascal, that, till 

 the decay of his health had impaired 

 his memory, ho forgot nothing of 

 what he had done, read, or thought 

 during any part of his rational 

 age. 



SIDNEY SMITH. 



Sidney Smith had an extraordi- 

 nary memory, always ready. He 

 could repeat pages of poetry, Eng- 

 lish, Latin, and French ; when, 

 where, or how he learned them no 

 one of his family pretended to 

 know; but they were always ready 

 and appropriate in company, when 



conversation turned that way. He 

 was equally ready in enlivening a 

 party of young ladies, by eveiy va- 

 riety of charades and conundrums, 

 generally made on the spur of th& 

 moment, by cutting paper into cu- 

 rious figures, and by a display of 

 clever tricks ; for all which his 

 demand in payment was a kiss from 

 each. His company was much 

 sought after. He was always lively 

 and agreeable, and his conversation, 

 full of variety and interesting anec- 

 dotes. 



SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH AND 

 MADAME DE STAEL. 



Sir J. Mackintosh, who spoke of 

 Madame de Stael as the most cele- 

 brated woman of this, or, perhaps,, 

 any age, said : " She treats me as 

 the person whom she most delight* 

 to honour. I am generally ordered 

 with her to dinner as one orders 

 beans and bacon. She is one of 

 the few persons who surpass ex- 

 pectation ; she has every sort of 

 talent, and would be universally 

 .popular if, in society, she were to 

 confine herself to her inferior ta- 

 lents pleasantry, anecdote, and 

 literature which are so much more- 

 suited to conversation than her 

 eloquence and genius." 



HUMANITY OF MR. DAY. 



While Mr. Day, the eccentric au- 

 thor of Sandford and Merton, was 

 visiting his friend, Sir William 

 Jones, at his chambers, the latter, 

 in removing some books, perceived 

 a spider fall from them ; on which 

 he cried hastily " Kill that spider, 

 Day ; kill that spider ! " " No," said 

 Mi-. Day, with that coolness for 

 which he was conspicuous, ''I will 

 not kill that spider, Jones ; I do 

 not know that I have a right to kill 

 that spider! Suppose when you 

 are going in the coach to West- 

 minster 11 all, a superior being who, 

 perhaps, may liavo as much power 

 over you as you have over this in- 



