148 LEviracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. {March 1, 
The builder, whose eye sparkled with 
conceit, thus ‘addressed him: “ Don’t 
-be alarmed, sir, you have made a mis- 
take.”——** A mistake ! '” replied the terri- 
fied organist : “* what mistake ?” —“ Why, 
sir, you have drawn all the stops.”— 
<¢ To be sure I have; who ever heard of 
an organ’s sounding when the stops were 
undrawn } ”_ Oh, sir, that is very true ; 
bit my organ, ‘sir, is differently gon. 
structed; when you wish it to sound, 
you’ must push in all the _ stops?” 
—The or ganist, nstructed by this most 
eccentric and ‘original builder, played as 
good a voluntary as the shattered state 
of his wits and nerves would allow; and | 
never forgot the opening of the organ at 
Aylsham. ; 
PAINTED GLASS. 
The art of producing pictures of co- 
loured glass is exercised two ways: (1.) 
Plates of stained glass are cut into the 
shape of figures, and joined by leaden 
outlines ; and on these plates a shading 
is afterwards traced by the painter, 
which gives features to the faces, and folds 
to the drapery :—(2.) Vitrifiable colours 
are attached to plates of white glass, 
which are afterwards replaced in the 
oven, and thus converted ito a trans- 
parent enamelling. The first sort of 
painted glass is cheaper ; but the shading 
wears off by the insensible corrosion of 
the atmosphere. The second sort defies 
every accident, except fracture; but 
the colour of the figures suffers in the 
oven. For small objects the first sort, 
for large objects the second. sort, as 
far as art is concerned, seems most 
adapted. 
Many gentlemen of fortune are at this 
time fitting up their parish-churches with 
windows of painted glass. Armorial 
bearings are too often chosen as the 
theme’ of decoration, These are proper 
in the vestibule, or guard-room, of a pa- 
lace; but they do not excite ideas corre- 
sponding with the purpose of the temple. 
Figures of hovering angels, or personages 
included in the communion of saints, 
‘such as Adam, Eve, Enoch, Noah, Abra. 
ham, Moses, Danici, Ezra, Nehemiah, 
Judas Maccabazus, Jesus, and Paul, are 
“better adapted for church-windows ; be- 
cause they may naturally be supposed to, 
hover in our atmosphere, and to. perch 
with delight on the parapet of the tem- 
ples where their memory is cherished, 
and their actions are commemorated. If 
the circular chasm, which admits the rain 
ef héaven into the pantheon of Rome, 
were iid, by a ceiling of i, glass, 
4 
centrally representing an inaccessibie 
‘glory, surrounded by festoons of cherubs 
and seraphs floating'in varied attitudes 
of adoration, who would not enter the 
long-hallowed precinct with augmented 
awe and admiration? 
Of ovr writers on glass- paintings I. 
know none earlier'than Walter Geddes : 
“ ‘The Manner how to anneal or paint in 
Glass :” London, 1616.—Of our arusts, I 
know none more excellent than Jervis, 
who executed the celebrated window at 
Oxford. , 
The application of painted glass in our 
dwellings, to windows of rooms whose 
inside should be invisible, as water-clo- ~ 
sets, or to windows of rooms whose pro- 
spect is disagreable, which is often the 
case at the back of town-houses, is a 
luxury too much neglected. 
‘ 
In a Century of Epistles of Claud. Bie! ‘ 
Morisoli, printed at Dijon, in 1656, an, 
attempt has been made, to prove, from 
Seneca and Vopiscus Firmius, that the 
ancients were acquainted with the art of 
painting on glass. ‘The oldest preserved © 
specimens of the art are German, and 
of the eleventh century.—See Pezen’s 
Treasury of Anecdotes, p. 131. —Albert 
Durer painted much glass. 
SALAD-SAUCE, _ 
Why do we pour over our lettuces a 
mixture of oil, vinegar, and mustard? 
The practice began i in Judea; where, in 
order to render palatable. the bitter. 
herbs-eaten with the paschal lamb, it 
was usual, (says Moses Kotsensis,) to 
sprinkle over them a thick slabby sauce 
called Karoseth, which was composed of 
the oil drawn from dates, or from pressed 
raisin-kernels, of vinegar; and of musterd. 
Maimonides adds a seasoning of salt and 
pepper, which shows that he had a good 
taste, and deserved to dress salad for 
the prince of the captivity. 
ZENOBIA. | 
Gibbon, in the eleventh chapter of his 
first volume, has related with his im- 
pressive critical eloquence, the political _ 
history of Zenobia. One question he 
leaves undiscussed: What was the per- 
sonal religion of this heroine ? 
The describers of the ruins of Palmyra 
assume, that the chief temple was de- 
dicated to the sun. Even in this case 
the alternative occurs :—(1.) Were the 
sovereigns of Palmyra of the religion of 
the Persian empire, monotheists, who 
worshipped the sun merely as the em- 
lem of God? or, (2.) were they ido. 
laters, who, among other gods, wore 
shipped preferably Apollo, Bel, or Ela- 
" gabalus, 
