e 
due to the liberatrefs of the town. She 
was acknowledged by both her brothers, 
Jean and Pierre d’Arc. On their tefti- 
mony fhe was married by a gentleman of 
the houfe of Amboife, in 1436. At their 
folicitation her fentence was annulled, in 
1456. The Parilians, indeed, long re- 
mained incredulous ; they muit elfe have 
_punithed thofe ecclefiaftics, whofe huma- 
nity, perhaps, confpired with the Bifhop 
of Beauvais to withdraw her from real ex- 
ecution down a cenfral chimney of brick 
and mortar; or, as the executioner called it, 
a {caffolding of platter. The king, for the 
woman feems to have fhunned no confron- 
tation, is ftated to have received her with 
thefe words: “Pucelle, mamié, foyex la 
tres bien revenue, au nom de Dieu.” She 
is then faid to have communicated to him 
kneeling, the artifice practifed. Can this 
woman be 2n impoitor ? 
® 

For ihe Monthly Magazine. 
THE PROGRESSIVE LATENESS OF 
-HOuRS KEPT IN ENGLAND. 
MONGST other artificial modes of 
life, the increafing latenefs of the 
fafhionable hours in London is a juft 
ON 
caufe of wonder and complaint to thofe : 
who wifh to regulate their lives by the 
digtates of reafon and the laws of nature. 
The Englifh have always been remark- 
able for this predilection to Jate hours ; 
and it is well known that Louis XII. was 
fuppofed to have fhortened his days, by 
putting off his dinner hour to eleven, in 
_ complaifance to his young Englifh queen ; 
fo that, in this cuftom at leaft, we have 
the honour of taking the lead ; and if it 
is a proof of greater civilization to dine 
two or three hours later than all Europe 
befides, we certainly are in poficfion of 
that mark of pre-eminence. I have often 
> 
wondered within myfelfto what this pecu-_ 
liar tafte is owing ; whether we contract it 
from our northern fituation,whichobliging 
us to content curfelves with a very fcanty 
portion of day-light during great part OF 
the year, and that, tco, coming to us 
tinged and cleuded by the {moke and va- 
pour which loads our atmofphere, we lofe, 
by degrees, the natural pleafure every 
one has in fun-fhine; and, like the poor 
Greenlanders, who, from the neceflity of 
burying themfelves under ground with the 
feent of train oil during the long win- 
ter months, come at leneth to think it 
pleafant ; fo we grow accuftomed to tal- 
low and fpermaceti, and prefer the poor 
fubftitute to that glorious Heme, whole 
abfence only it was meant to fupply :—or 
whether it be that the Englifh, from their 
natural taciturnity and referve, are very 
flow to mix in free converfation, and for 
On the prosrefive Latenefs of Hours kept in England. « 
that very reafon wonderfully loth to part 
when they find themfelves fairly engaged 
in it. Whatever be the caufe, the fact 
is, that we have quite altered the natural - 
courte of life, turned day into night, and 
confounded many of the plaineft and moft 
ordinary purafes. The noon is now fo 
far from being fynonymous with the mid- 
dle of the day, that it hardly ftands in 
the middie of the morning ; and the even- 
ing, inftead of being limited to the {oft 
hours of dubious twilight, includes in it 
the deepeft thades of dead night, When 
the fafhion of undrefling prevailed amongft 
the ladies, the Spectator complained that 
the neck was furprifingly grown, and 
ftretched out to half the body; m hke 
manner the morning has increaied upon 
us fo rapidly of late years, that there is 
no faying what portion of the four and 
twenty hours it may not in time fwallow 
up; it already, in winter, fees the fun rife 
and fet, and is lengthened out to fuch a de- 
gree, that, to borrow the phrafe of the 
Hebrew hiftorian, “‘ the evening and the 
morning make the whole day.” Thefe 
figures of {peech occafion a Judicrous con- 
fufion in a plain head. ‘There circulates 
a pleafant ftory of a certain ducheis, re- 
mmarkable for leading every -fafhionable 
caprice, who ordered her fhoe-maker to 
ap 
call on her the next morning at four. 
, 7 J - . 
orclocx. The honeft man, net being 
aware of the extent of the term, obeyed 
her commands according to the moft 
liberal interpretation, and difturbed the 
family feveral hours before fun-rifing, 
But whatever may be indulged to lazi- 
nefs, or pardoned to caprice, we cannot 
allow people to derive vanity from their 
follies. What can be more abfurd than 
for a man to be proud of dining when his 
neighbours are going to bed? ‘That one 
man is able to provide a more elegant . 
entertainment than another, though not a 
juftifiable reafon tor the {welling of pride, 
may, perhaps, be a natural one ; but that 
ne thould-valne himfelf becaufe he eats it 
fome hours later, is a moft whimfical per- 
yerfion of even vanity itfelf; yet fuch is the 
{pell offafhion, that the inhabitant of Grof- 
venor-{quare, who dines at five, looks down 
on the citizen who eats his mutton at three, 
and is himielf obliged to ftrike fail to the 
man of high ton, the fuperlatively fafhion- 
able, -wnoie table is not covered till after 
the opera. I have confidered whether the 
glory may not arife from a man of fafhion 
being more abfemious than the common 
run of mortals, and capable of fafting to 
a later hour; but I was obliged to aban- 
don this idea, by calculating that more 
waking hours do not intervene between 
his 
