4807.] Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 16) 
Mon ceur de ce baiser frissonne 3 
Etc’est trop tard qu’il s’apperco it, 
Que c’est l’amitié qui te donne, 
Que c’est Vamour qui le recoit. 
MILDNESS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS 
TOWARDS SLAYES. 
In the Spanish West Indies the slaves 
have Saturday to work for themselves, and 
Sunday to passin recreation, or in wor- 
ship. This practice is imitated from 
that of the primitive Christian church, 
Pseudo-Clemens, Constitut, Apostol. lib. 
vii. c. $8. thus records the order: “ Ego 
Petrus et ego Paulus constituimus, ut 
servi quingue diebus operentur, Sabbato 
vero et Dominic& guiescant, vel ferientur 
in ecclesia propter doctrinam pietatis. 
Sabbatum enim diximus crationis habere 
rationem, Dominicam  resurrectionis ” 
Further, a great annual holiddy is con- 
ceded to the slaves: “ Magna hebdo- 
mate tota, et ed que illam sequitur, servi 
otientur, 
All the steps, by which slavery or vas- 
salage was abolished in the antient world. 
deserve close notice; as it may be hoped 
that our colonial possessions will ere long 
be engaged in conferring a similar benefit 
by a speedier process. 
PROPHECY OF CARDANUS. 
Cardanus wasthe bastard son ofa woman 
of condition, and born at Pavia, in 1501. 
{twas said that his mother, in order to con- 
ceal her shame, attempted in early infan- 
cy to destroy him by a poisonous beve- 
rage which injured hisintellects. Hewas, 
however, expensively educated, and be- 
came a proficient in judicial astrology, and 
mathematical science. He published 
many books, obtained a pension from 
the pope, and died in 1576. He calcu 
lated his own nativity, found he should 
die of hunger, and starved himself to ful- 
fil the horoscope. In his book De Re- 
rum Varietate, which was printed at Basil 
in 1557, the following prophecy occurs: 
“* Necesse est anno Christi MDCCC. 
magnam mutationem futuram esse in 
Christi lege.” = This announcing before 
hand a revolution in the Ciristian church, 
a second reformation, for the boginning 
of the nineteenth century, is one of those 
curious coincidences between expectation 
and event which superstition might mis- 
take for preternatural, 
SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY, 
Tt is of no consequence to a man who 
is going to be married what words the 
priest mutters over him: whether the be- 
nediction be in the name of thie Virgin 
_ Mary, or of the guest at Cana, or of the 
 wollective Trinity, Butit is of much con- 
Sequence to a conscienticus maa what 
| Mentuzry Mac., No. 163, 
words he is called upon to use, In the 
following passage, if aman has made a set- 
tlement on his wife, or happens to be an 
Unitarian, his tongueanust faulter, With 
this ring I thee wed; with my body I thee 
worship: and withall my worldly goods I 
thee endow, in the name of the Father, of 
the Son and ot the Holy Ghost.” 
ANECDOTES RELATIVE TO THE PEDIGREB 
OF THE PERCIVALS, 
To the readers of chivalrous legends it 
is weil known, that Joseph of Arimathea 
came to settle in Brittany, and brought 
with him from Jerusalem the very cup, 
which Jesus Christ employed at the fare- 
well-supper, and handed round with the 
celebrated words: ‘ This is my blood.” 
The cup was never dry; but aiways con- 
tained some of the Sunguis realis, or real 
blood of Christ; and for this reason came 
to be calied the Sang-real, or Sangrale, 
The descendants of Joseph of Arimathea 
had the guardiauship of thiscup, and alse 
of the real lance, which the centurion 
Longinus plunged into the heart of Jesus, 
while he hung upon the cross. A supers 
natural power was inherent in both these 
relics; in so much that they could be 
kept only by such as preserved their vir- 
ginity. A miraculous disease always fell 
upon the keeper of them, as soon as he 
had broken the vow of chastity: and it 
was only by transferring them to pure 
hands of the same sacred family, that a. 
recovery could be obtained from heaven, 
Tn the tme of our King Arthur this sa- 
cramental cup and this deicidal spear 
were in the keeping ofa king of Armorica, 
who, having fallen in love with a fair pil- 
grim, that caine to worship the precious 
relics, was punished for his frailty, by 
the spear’s falling upon him, and inflicting 
a wound, whence blood and water inces- 
santly trickled. 
Arthur was desirous of possessing these 
relics, which were known to bring spi- 
ritual blessings on the country to which 
they belonged, to preserve its churches 
from pillage and pollution, and to 
strengthen the authority and reputation 
ofits prince. In order to learn how te 
procure them, Arthur went to consult. 
the dead body of Merlin, which retained 
the appearance of life, and uttered ora« 
cles from the tomb. Merlin declared that 
the time for the conquest of the Sangreal 
was come; and that one of the knights 
of Arthur was the predestined proprietor. 
A curious catechism was proposed; and 
it was found that of all.the knights of the 
Round Table, only Sir Percival of Wales 
had preserved his chastity inviolate; aad 
that he alone could hope to achieve the 
eongues¢ 
