12 Extracts from the Port-folia of a Man of Letters. - [Sept. 1 
conquest of the Sangreal, which was in 
the keeping of his kinsman. 
The story of his enterprize, which 
completely succeeded, forms the subject. 
of one -.of the most exreneie romances of 
chivalry...}The prose edition of the ro- 
mance of Percaval le Galois, printed at 
Paris in 1530, ascribes the previous me- 
trical romance to one Messenier. The 
only known.-manuscripts of the metrical 
original ascribe it to Chretien de Troyes, 
who flourished about 1190. The Ger- 
man translator ascribes it to Guyot. 
ROLLIN, AND BISHOP NEWTON. 
Two books have lately been reprinted 
very undeserving of that honour. Rol- 
lin’s Ancient History, and Bishop New- 
ton’s work on the Prophecies. Both 
these authors hold up Herodotus as a 
fabler; Xenophon’s Cyropedia as history ; : 
Isaiah's Oracles as applying to the siege 
of Babylon by Cyrus, and not to that by 
Darius; and Darius as having preceded 
Astyages: four notorious and fundamen- 
ial historic blunders. 
OBERON. 
How much nonsense the annotators of 
Shakspeare would read, in order to ex- 
plain phrases which were obsolete be- 
cause they were improper. How little 
pains they have taken to trace the sources 
of his plots and to complete the fables of 
his mythology. What do the notes to 
the Midsummer Night’s Dream tell us 
about Oberon? Hardly any thing. Yet 
Oberon is mentioned in three diiferent 
romances of chivalry, Huon de Bordeaux, 
isaye le Triste, and Ogier le Danois, 
ANECDOTE OF FOX. 
’ Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was in 
the habit of attending public worship at 
the established church; but when the 
preacher uttered seutiments which he dis- 
approved, he would most solemnly put on, 
his broad brimmed hat, and take it off 
again when a welcome train of doctrine 
recurred. If he had sitfen ieng with his 
hat on, and the ill-souniding propositions, 
or fulminations, continued, he would 
slowly rise, and silently walk out. Tt was 
for purposes of habitual protest that the 
quakers first learned to sit in places of 
worship with their hats on. This is a de- 
corous protest; and it might not be amiss, 
now that sermons so horribly intolerant 
aré daily dinning in our ears, if the friends 
ef political equity were occasionally to 
neighbours, 
put their hats on at church, or in obsti- 
nate cases quietly to walk out. 
INGENIOUS QUOTATION. + 
One, who had an inflammationin hiseyes, 
sent for a surgeon to bleed him, and so- 
licited the operation in these words of 
Gray :-— pu 
Dear is the light, that visits these sad eyes 5 
Dear as the ruddy drops, that warm my 
heart. 
z PYM AND POPERY. ; 
At the beginning of the Long Parlia- 
ment a cry of “ No Popery” was much 
heard inthiskingdom. One ofthe oddest 
expressions of alarm was the following si- 
mileof Pym. “ Popery,” said he, “may 
be compared to the dry bones of Ezekiel; 
which first came together from afar, then 
sinews and flesh grew upon them, ‘after- 
wards the skin covered: them, and ‘lastly, 
breath and life was put into them.” The 
comparison is yet more applicable now. 
Popery is indeed become a heap of dry 
bones; and the very priests are at a loss 
which to select as worthy to become the 
skeletons of areanimated church. Sinews 
and flesh will not grow upor them, with- 
out long industry and governmental patro- 
nage. 
sume a new, a glossy, a glorified skin, 
And the whole apprehended process re- 
sembles more the imagery of a visionary 
than the foresight of a prophet. 
Nature is wonted to supersede decay by 
analogous reproduction: what has bees 
comes no more. 
THE PASSIONS. 
Sober passions make common men: 
says Diderot. If l await the enemy when 
my country is in danger, [am an ordinary 
citizen. If the peril of a friend leaves me 
aware of my own, I have but a circum- 
spect friendship. Is my life dearer to 
me than my mistress, I leve but like my 
Governed passions degrade 
extraordinary men, Constraint. annihi- 
jates the grandeur and energy of nature, 
The superstitions, which society calls in 
to controul and moderate the impulse of 
our feelings, are impediments to excel- 
lence. Behold yon tree, it is to the lux- 
uriance of its branches that you owe the 
freshness and extent of its shade: you 
will enjoy it until winter shall strip away 
its foliage. Had it been ‘pruned, when 
young——— on a 
The eventual recreation must as- ~ 
