x801.] 
of age, as that in Ecclefiaftes, 12.—When 
the grynders fall be few in number, and 
they «wax darke that looke out of the win- 
dowes, &c. and the daughters of fimging 
feall be abafed, and more to like purpofe. 
=-The Queen, as the manner was, opened 
the window ; but fhe was fo farre from giv- 
ing him thanks or good countenance, that 
fhe faid plainly—* he fhould have kept his 
arithmetic for him(elfe, but I fee the great - 
eft clerks are not the wifeft men,” and fo 
went away difcontented. He 
«© The Lord Keeper Puckering, to af; 
fuage the Queen, commanded the Bifhop to 
keep his houle for atime. At laft, to fhew 
how the good Bifhop was deceived, in fup- 
pofing that fhe was fo decayed in her 
limbs and fenfes as himfelf perhaps and 
others of that age were wont to be, fhe 
faid fhe thanked God, that neither her 
ftomack, nor ftrength, nor her voice for 
finging, nor fingering inftruments, nor, 
faftly, her ficht, was any whit decayed ; 
and to prove the laft, before us all, fhe pro- 
duced a little jewell that had an infcrip- 
tion of very {mall letters, and offered it 
firft tomy Lord of Worcefter, and then to 
Sir James Crofts, to read, and both pro- 
tefted boza fide, that they could not, yet the 
Queene heslelfe did find out the poefie, and 
made herfelf merrie with the ftanders-by 
upon it.” 
RELIGION, 
Jonathan Richardfon, the fon of the 
painter, has recorded the opinions of 
Bithop Fleetwood, which that worthy ec- 
clefiattic delivered to his father. Old Ri- 
chardion was once full of doubts and 
fcruples in matters of faith ; the Bithop 
faid, ** Where myftery begins, religion 
ends.—-Make a truce with texis and fa- 
thers, and read Don Quixote. In your 
prefent-ftuation of mind and weaknefs 
of fpirits, you are not capable of doing 
them juitice, nor are you equal to fuch 
points of f{peculation.”.—* Ah Doégtor,” 
replied Richardfon, ** but if I fhould be 
miftaken, and put up with an erroneous 
faith ?—‘* Well,” replied Fleetwood,‘‘ and 
if you fhould ?’°—<* If I fhould !"* faid the 
old man in furprife ; “if, after the utmoft 
diligent inquiry I can make, I fhould be 
miftaken, am I not fure to make my God 
my enemy ?7°—** Are you!” faid Fleet- 
wood warmly, §* then he is no God for 
me!’’"——This expreflion (thefe were his 
very words) he proceeded to explain and 
‘foften, by giving his religious patient a 
jalt and reafonable idea of the common 
Father of mankind, ; 
From the Port- Folio of a Adan of Letters. 
419 
RUSSIAN TRANSLATION of @ SCOTCH 
PROPHECY. 
Do&or Laughlan Taylor, a profeffed - 
prophet, and minifter of the church of 
Scotland, about the year 1770 publifhed 
a, book, in which he ftates that the Turkifh 
Empire was to be deftroyed (in the war 
between the Turks and Ruffians), by 
the late Emprefs, who, this Divine adds, 
is reprefented in the Revelation of St.John 
the Divine, as the angel that is to pour out 
the fevenib vial upon the earih. 
The Emprefs, although fhe probably 
did not believe in the infpiration or divine 
miffion of the prophet, yet, knowing the 
effect which @ good prophecy has on the 
mob, had this book tranflated into the 
Ruffian language, and difperfed it among" 
her troops. 
AN INDEX, 
The ufe of anindex is, one would think, 
to direct the reader to any particular paf- 
{age he may with to refer to; yet, in 
law-books, which ought to be at leaft 
clear, you find fome curious references, 
not to the object of your inquiry, but to 
fomething of fo difimilar a nature, that a 
plain unlettered man is led to fufpe& that 
the writer of the volume, and the writer 
of the index, are playing at crofs purpofes. 
For- example, fuppofe we feleét two or 
three inftances, by way of fpecimen, from 
Hawkins’s Pleas of the Crown, where we 
find, under the article MIDDLESEX, wide 
LOnDON.—PiCK POCKET, vide CLER- 
GY¥e—PRiIsONER, vide GAOLER. 
There are fifty others equally allufive. 
Query, do net thefe come under the de- 
{cription of law-fiétions, or do they arife 
from the glorious uncertainty of the law? 
The COINAGE of WOOD'S IRISH 
HALFPENCE. 
Were we to judge by the accounts ge- 
nerally given of this tranfaction, it would 
appear a monfter of defpotifm and fraud 5 
that the halfpence were deficient in weight 
and goodnets, and that the circulation of 
them would have been followed by the 
total ruinof Ireland. But the fa& is, that 
the inimitable humour of Swift, which 
places the kingdom on one fide, and Wil- 
liam Wood oa the other, mifled the judg- 
ment, and captivated the imagination ; 
and moft perions, even in the prefent day, 
have formed their opinion of Wood’s 
halfpence from his Drapier’s Letters and 
fatyrical poems, rather than from auchen- 
tic faéts, which may be ftated in a few 
lines. 
There being a great deficiency of cop- 
per-currency in Irejand, the King granted 
to 
