ie 
an 
the day have asserted, that the Mar- 
quis. D’Argens received the Sacraments 
before his death—that he read the Bible 
during his last illness—and that he caused 
himself to be admitted as a member of a 
society of Penitents:—facts, which but 
little accord with the character of a man, 
who, always occupied by religious chi- 
canery, theological disputations, and dis- 
courses of incredulity, had, however, a 
strong predilection in favour of supersti- 
tion, and the errors to which it gives 
rise. 
In all that we have said here of the 
584 L£xtracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
[July 1, 
Marquis D’Argens, we have scarcely made 
any mention of his works; they are, 
however, very numerous; but if we ex- 
cept ‘* The Jewish Letters, ar, as it was 
called in English, “ The ‘Sich Spy,” 
none of them appears tohave given him - 
any great title to Frederic’s recommen- 
dation; and of all that he has written, 
his Memoirs are at this day the most in- 
teresting, and offer an agreeable fund of 
amusement, which, at the same time, 
makes you acquainted with both the Men 
and Manners of the time in which he 
lived, 
Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
[Communications to this Article are always thankfully received. ] 
"a Gi 
THE LATE KING OF PORTUGAL. 
HE king, one day,. speaking of the 
earthquake of 1755, which. de- 
stroyed the greater part of Lisbon, ob- 
served, with a degree of superstition, 
natural to the Portuguese, that a house, 
belonging to the Marquis of Pombal, 
situated near the church of Santa Ma- 
delina, remained unhurt, while all around 
it were buried in the ruins, which proved 
the integrity of his minister, and that he 
was pretected by Heaven. The Count 
d’Obidos jocosely observed, that the 
Rua Suja (a street in which ladies of 
easy virtue resided) was also unhurt. 
This lively sally stung his most faithful 
majesty to the quick, and the count 
- expiated his imprudence by an imprison- 
ment of several years. 
-. PERON. 
A bishop, not generally suspected of 
writing his own sermons, accosted Piron 
one day: with, “ Well, Piron, have you 
read my Charge to the Clergy?” Piron in- 
Stantly replied, “No, my lord, have you 2” 
BENSERADE. 
This sublime poet, speaking 8 the: 
general deluge, observes: 
Dieu lava bien la téte 4 son image. 
WIcs. 
The old French poets used to give 
those gods and heroes wigs, on whom 
we bestow golden locks. The sun was 
called, Le Dieu Perruquier, or the God 
Wigmaker: The curls. of Apollo’s wig 
often flowed in verse; and Hecuba, 
speaking of the manner ain which 
Pyrrhus slew Priam, says : 
Le bon homme il tira par sa perruque grise. 
‘He took the good manby his wig so grey. 
IT IS ONL¥ POISON. 
In one of the tragedies under that 
name, Sophonisbe says to herself, when 
the poison is presented to her, 
Sophonisbe, tu crains! ta face devient pale! 
Ce n’est rien qu’un poison—-bon Ceur, avale, _ 
avale. . 
-Sophonisbe, thou fearest! thy face will be 
sallow! 
*Tis nothing but poison—good heart, swale 
low, swallow. 
HENRY COCKRAM. 
Ie published, the “English Dicti- 
onarie, on an Interpreter of Hard En- 
glish Words, &c.” 12mo, 1632, 4th edit. 
It is a. most extraordinary per ‘formance, 
in the premonition to the reader, the 
modest author says, ‘‘ without appro- 
priating to my own comfort any interest 
of glory, the understanding readers will 
not, the ignorant cannot, and the mali- 
cious dare not, but acknowledge that, 
what any before me in this kind have 
begun, I have not only fully finished, 
- but thoroughly perfected. To write an - 
apology of justification, would argue 
‘rather of distrust of my work, than a 
confidence of merit.” The object of his 
work, is to teach persons to write and 
speak elegant English, for which, as he 
observes, that alphabetical arrangements 
of words soon enlighten the meanest 
capacity; he gives two vocabularies, one 
of his refined English into the valgar, the 
other, vice versi. Such a mass of pe- 
dantry was never before brought. toge- 
ther. (A few extracts, will perhaps ‘be 
gratifying.  Ablecticke, garnished for 
sale; Acerote-bread, brown bread; Acer- 
secomicke, one whose hair was never cut ; 
Acetarr,a sallad. of small herbs; Ante- 
lucidate, to work. by candle-light mere 
ay 
