266 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



a comedy, either on a subje6l given to him, or on one he drew 

 from his fertile imagination : he sele6led the performers from 

 among those who were assembled, and happily suggested to 

 each of these adlors and a6lresses, what was best adapted to 

 his extemporaneous drama. He engaged with men of genius 

 and talents, in the composition of verses answering to each 

 other in succession (carmina ainoebceaj, and constantly obtained 

 the superiority and triumph. Mythology supplied him with 

 ornaments, history offered to him a store of subje6ts, the 

 sciences endowed him with mental illumination, and he pro- 

 fited by the whole to display his inexhaustible facility. He 

 played on various instruments : his common mode of versifying 

 was to touch a guitar, and at the close of the day, to recapi- 

 tulate all that he had done, said, treated, disputed, and dis- 

 cussed, without omitting any of the circumstances, which he 

 constantly realized with grace and ingenuity, and preserved, 

 in the intervening personages, their language and character. 

 On this account, there was not any fashionable assemblage, 

 any festival, banquet, rejoicing, or meeting, to which he was 

 not invited and earnestly solicited. 



The following case of mania, although it may not be singu- 

 lar in its kind, is interesting, inasmuch as it presents an addi- 

 tional beacon to those who, in attempting to accomplish that 

 which is impracticable, incur the risk of an alienation of their 

 reason. 



Don Diego Lopez, a native of Pontevedra in Gallicia, re- 

 sided many years in Lima, and died there at an advanced age. 

 He possessed more than a common share of mathematical 

 knowledge ; and having heard that the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences offered a considerable premium to him who should 



discover. 



