1807.] Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 469 
TO LEAD APES IN HELL. 
It is well known that our ancestors be- 
lieved those women who die unmarried 
were to lead apesin hell. At least in 
the London Prodigal, (act 1, scene 2) these 
words occur: 
*¢ * fis an old proverb, and you know it well, 
That women, dying maids, lead apes in 
hell.” 
And Ben Jonson also alludes to the su- 
perstition : 
¢* Fear not; in hell you'll never lead apes.” 
But the origin of the superstition, or of 
the expression, is not yet ascertained. 
There is a passage in Chaucer’s prose ser- 
mon, which runs thus: 
“¢ After this cometh the sin of japery, 
that bin the devil’s apes, for they make 
folk to laugh at her japeries, as at the 
gaudes of an ape.” 
The verb to jape (from the old French 
gaber to taunt) often occurs; so does 
the derived substantive jape, a taunt, or 
gibe. | 
May not, “to lead japes” have ori- 
ginally meant “ to sutfer taunts,” “ to 
bear reproach :” and have gradually been 
corrupted into the expression “ to Jead 
apes.” Yo lead is collateral with the 
German /ezden to suffer. 
STUBBORNNESS OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES. 
Dryden discusses the test-laws in the 
very words of modern disputants: how 
little hope of amendment does the. his- 
tory of the past supply! 
*¢ Conscience or Interest be’t, or both in one, 
(The Panther answer’d in a surly tone) 
The first commands me to maintain the 
_ crown, 
The last forbids to throw my _ barriers 
down. 
Think not my judgment leads me to comply 
With laws unjust, but hard necessity. 
Possess your soul with patience and attend ; 
A more auspicious planet may ascend. 
Hold (said the Hind), “tis needless to ex- 
plain; 
You would postpone me to another reign 5 
Till when, you are content to be unjust 5 
Your part is to possess, and mine to trust. 
Few words will serve to finish our dispute ; 
Who will not now repeal, wou!d persecute.” 
The controversy was renewed in the 
next and the after-next reign, and always 
with the same unrelenting spirit in the 
ruling power, and the same confidence of 
the sectaries in the ultimate prevalence of 
equity. . 
GEOGRAPHIC SECTIONS OF THE WORLD. 
The habitable earth is commonly deli- 
heated on feur distinct sheets, one of 
which contains Enrope, one Asia, one 
Africa, and one America. In order to 
include each division on a single sheet of 
paper, a different scale is adopted for 
every map. By this method of delinea- 
tion, an erioneous estimage of the rela- 
tive magnitude of countries is impressed 
on the memory. Europe and its subdi- 
visions all pass for larger, and Asia and 
its segments for smaller, than they really 
are. Why not make six less unequal 
sections ot Europe Africa, Asia, Poly- 
nesia, North America and South Ame- 
rica? 
By habitually including Arabia, Syria, 
Natolia, and the whole Caspian, ia the 
‘maps of Europe, a great convenience 
would be attained. These countries hare 
always been involved in the revolutions 
of European policy. Whether we are 
reading ancient, middle, or modern his- 
tory; whether we are following the pro- 
gress of Alexander, Mahomet, or Bona- 
parte, we have occasion to look soath- 
ward as far as the tropic, and eastward 
as faras Persepolis. Besides the Russians 
have enacted mount Ural to be the boun- 
dary of Europe in the north; it seems ob- 
vious to continue the line down through 
the Caspian to the Persian gulf. ~The pri- 
meval seat of European religion should 
not be severed from the residences of the 
votaries. . 
Africa makes a next separate sheet: 
but maps of Africa should include the 
Arabian peninsula, which is much con- 
nected with egyptian history. To about 
sixty degrees west of London, both the 
European and African mapéshould al- 
ways extend. 
Continental Asia, on account of its 
great breadth, must be lopped of Kam» 
chatka by the engravers. If the whole 
course of the Ob is visible in the west, 
and all the Japanese islands in the east, 
a sufiiciently coinprehensive map for or- 
dinary purposes would be traced, whose 
southern boundary may best be the equa- 
cor. he map of imsular Asia, at Poly- 
nesia, as it is well named by Mr. Pinker- 
ton and the French geographers, would 
have New Hollaad, or Qolimarra (so the 
natives gall their land) for its central ob- 
ject, and would stretch further eastward, 
and less far westward, than the map of 
northern Asia. 
The fitness of dividing North ‘and 
South America, and the place of separa- 
tion, are hardly liable to question. 
On this plan, six maps of equal scale, 
three for the northern, and three for the 
southern sections, would nearly comprize 
the 
