kin, Avoda Zara, iv, 7, on idolatrous worship, translated by Wotton.

Some Roman senators examined the Jews in this manner:-If God had no delight in the worship of idols, why did he not destroy them? The Jews made answer,-If men had worshipped only things of which the world had had no need, he would have destroyed the objects of their worship; but they also worship the sun and moon, stars and planets; and then he must have destroyed his world for the sake of these deluded men. But still, said the Romans, why does not God destroy the things which the world does not want, and leave those things which the world cannot be without? Because, replied the Jews, this would strengthen the hands of such as worship these necessary things, who would then say,-Ye allow now that these are gods, since they are not destroyed.

RABBINICAL STORIES.

The preceding article furnishes some of the more serious investigations to be found in the Talmud. Its levities may amuse. I leave untouched the gross obscenities and immoral decisions. The Talmud contains a vast collection of stories, apologies, and jests; many display a vein of pleasantry, and at times have a wildness of invention which sufficiently mark the features of an eastern parent. Many extravagantly puerile were designed merely to recreate their young students. When a rabbin was asked the reason of so much nonsense, he replied that the ancients had a custom of introducing music in their lectures, which accompaniment made them more agreeable; but that not having musical instruments in the schools, the rabbins invented these strange stories to arouse attention. This was ingeniously said; but they make miserable work when they pretend to give mystical interpretations to pure non

sense.

These rabbinical stories, and the LEGENDS of the Catholics, though they will be despised, and are too often despicable, yet as the great Lord Bacon said of some of these inventions, they would serve for winter talk by the fire-side;' and a happy collection from these stories is much wanted. In 1711, a German professor of the Oriental languages, Dr Eisenmenger published in two large volumes quarto, his Judaism discovered,' a ponderous labour, of which the scope was to ridicule the Jewish traditions.

I shall give a dangerous adventure into which King David was drawn by the devil. The king one day hunting, Satan appeared before him in the likeness of a roe. David discharged an arrow at him, but missed his aim. He pursued the feigned roe into the land of the Philistines. Ishbi, the brother of Goliath, instantly recognized the king as him, who had slain that giant. He bound him, and bended him neck and heels, and laid him under a wine-press in order to press him to death. A miracle saves David. The earth beneath him became soft, and Ishbi could not press wine out of him. That evening in the Jewish congregation a dove, whose wings were covered with silver, appeared in great perplexity; and evidently signified the King of Israel was in trouble. Abishai, one of the king's counsellors, inquiring for the king, and finding him absent, is at a loss to proceed, for according to the Mishna, no one may ride on the king's horse, nor sit upon his throne, nor use his sceptre. The school of the rabbins however allowed these things in time of danger. On this Abishai vaults on David's horse, and (with an Oriental metaphor) the land of the Philistines leaped to him instantly! Arrived at Ishbi's house, he beholds his mother Orpa spinning. Perceiving the Israelite, she snatched up her spinning-wheel and threw it at him, to kill him; but not hitting him, she desired him to bring the spinning-wheel to her. He did not do this exactly, but returned it to her in such a way that she never asked any more for her spinning-wheel. When Ishbi saw this, and recollecting that David, though tied up neck and heels, was still under the wine-press, he cried out, There are now two, who will destroy me! So he threw David high up into the air, and stuck his spear into the ground, imagining that David would fall upon it and perish. But Abishai pronounced the magical name, which the Talmud1sts frequently made use of, and it caused David to hover between earth and heaven, so that he fell not down! Both at length unite against Ishbi, and observing that two young ions should kill one lion, find no difficulty in getting rid of the brother of Goliath.

Of Solomon, another favourite hero of the Talmudists a fine Arabian story is told. This king was an adept in nearomancy, and a male and a female devil were always in

waiting for any emergency. It is observable, that the Arabians who have many stories concerning Solomon, alwave describe him as a magician. His adventures with Aschme dai, the prince of devils, are numerous; and they both (the king and the devil) served one another many a slippery trick. One of the most remarkable is when Aschmedai, who was prisoner to Solomon, the king having contrived to possess himself of the devil's seal-ring, and chained him, one day offered to answer an unholy question put to him by Solomon, provided he returned him his seal-ring and loosened his chain. The impertinent curiosity of Solomon induced him to commit this folly. Instantly Aschmedai swallowed the monarch, and stretching out his wings up to the firmament of heaven, one of his feet remaining on the earth, he spit out Solomon four hundred leagues from him. This was done so privately that no one knew any thing of the matter. Aschmedai then assumed the likeness of Solomon, and sat on his throne. From that hour did Solomon say, 'This then is the reward of all my labour,' according to Ecclesiasticus, i, 3; which this, means, one rabbin says, his walking staff; and another insists was his ragged coat. For Solomon went a begging from door to door; and wher ever he came he uttered these words: I the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.' At length coming be fore the council, and still repeating these remarkable words without addition or variation, the rabbins said; 'This means something; for a fool is not constant in his tale! They asked the chamberlain if the king frequently saw him? and he replied to them, No! then they sent to the queens, to ask if the king came into their apartments? and they answered, Yes! The rabbins then sent them a message to take notice of his feet; for the feet of devils are like the feet of cocks. The queens acquainted their. that his majesty always came in slippers, but forced them to embraces at times forbidden by the law. He had attempted to lie with his mother Bathsheba, whom he had almost torn to pieces. At this the rabbins assembled in great haste, and taking the beggar with them, they gave him the ring and the chain in which the great magical name was engraven, and led him to the palace. Aschmedai was sitting on the throne as the real Solomon entered; but instantly he shrieked and flew away. Yet to his last day was Solomon afraid of the prince of devils, and had his bed guarded by the valiant men of Israel, as is written in Cant. iii, 7, 8.

They frequently display much humour in their inventions, as in the following account of the manners and morals of an infamous town which derided all justice. There were in Sodom four judges, who were liars, and deriders of justice. When any one had struck his neighbour's wife and caused her to miscarry, these judges thus counselled the husband; 'Give her to the offender that he may get her with child for thee.' When any one had cut off an ear of his neighbour's ass, they said to the owner, Let him have the ass till the ear is grown again, that it may be returned to thee as thou wishest.' When any one had wounded his neighbour, they told the wounded man to 'give him a fee, for letting him blood.' A toll was exacted in passing a certain bridge; but if any one chose to wade through the water, or walk round about to save it, he was condemned to a double toll. Eleasar, Abraham's servant, came thither, and they wounded him.-When before the judge he was ordered to pay his fee for having his blood let, Eleasar flung a stone at the judge and wounded him; on which the judge said to him,-What meaneth this? Eleasar replied,-Give him who wounded me the fee that is due to myself for wounding thee. The people of this town had a bedstead on which they laid travellers who asked to rest. If any one was too long for it, they cut off his legs; and if he was shorter than the bedstead, they strained him to its head and foot. When a beggar came to this town, every one gave him a penny, on which was inscribed the donor's name; but they would sell him no bread, nor let him escape. When the beggar died from hunger, then they came about him, and each man took back his penny. These stories are curious inventions of keen mockery and malice, seasoned with humour. It is said some of the famous decisions of Sancho Panza are to be found in the Talmud.

Abraham is said to have been jealous of his wives, and built an enchanted city for them. He built an iron city and put them in.-The walls were so high and dark the sun could not be seen in it. He gave them a bowl full of pearls and jewels, which sent forth a light in this dark city equal to the sun. Noah, it seems, when in the ark had no other light than jewels and pearls. Abraham in

travelling to Egypt brought with him a chest. At the custom-house the officers exacted the duties. Abraham would have readily paid, but desired they would not open the chest. They first insisted on the duty for clothes, which Abraham consented to pay; but then they thought by his ready acquiescence that it might be gold.-Abraham consents to pay for gold. They now suspected it might be silk. Abrabam was willing to pay for silk, or more costly pearls; and Abraham generously consented to pay as if the chest contained the most valuable of things. It was then they resolved to open and examine the chest. And behold as soon as the chest was opened, that great lustre of human beauty broke out which made such a noise in the land of Egypt; it was Sarah herself! The jealous Abraham, to conceal her beauty had locked her up in this chest.

The whole creation in these rabbinical fancies is strangely gigantic and vast. The works of eastern nations are full of these descriptions; and Hesiod's Theogony, and Milton's battles of angels, are puny in comparison with these rabbinical heroes, or rabbinical things. Mountains are hurled with all their woods with great ease, and creatures start into existence too terrible for our conceptions. The winged monster in the Arabian Nights,' called the Roe, is evidently one of the creatures of rabbinical fancy; it would sometimes, when very hungry, seize and fly away with an elephant. Captain Cook found a bird's nest in an island near New-Holland, built with sticks on the ground, six-and-twenty feet in circumference, and near three feet n height. But of the rabbinical birds, fish, and animals, it is not probable any circumnavigator will ever trace even ..e slightest vestige or resemblance.

One of their birds, when it spreads its wings, blots out the sun. An egg from another fell out of its nest, and the white thereof broke and glued about three hundred cedar-trees, and overflowed a village. One of them stands up to the lower joint of the leg in a river, and some mariners imagining the water was not deep, were hasting to bathe, when a voice from heaven said,-Step not in there, for seven years ago there a carpenter dropped his axe, and it hath not yet reached the bottom.'

The following passage concerning fat geese is perfectly

in the style of these rabbins. A rabbin once saw in a desert a flock of geese so fat that their feathers fell off, and the rivers flowed in fat. Then said I to them, shall we have part of you in the other world when the Messiah shall come? And one of them lifted up a wing, and another a leg, to signify these parts we should have. We should otherwise have had all parts of these geese; but we Israelites shall be called to an account touching these fat geese, because their sufferings are owing to us. It is our iniqui ties that have delayed the coming of the Messiah, and these geese suffer greatly by reason of their excessive fat, which daily and daily increases, and will increase till the Messiah comes!!

Their detestation of Titus, their great conqueror, ap pears by the following wild invention.-After having narrated certain things too shameful to read, of a prince whom Josephus describes in far different colours, they tell us that on sea Titus tauntingly observed in a great storm that the God of the Jews was only powerful on the water, and that therefore he had succeeded in drowning Pharaoh and Sisra. Had he been strong he would have waged war with me in Jerusalem.' On uttering this blasphemy, a voice from heaven said, Wicked man! I have a little creature in the world which shall wage war with thee! When Titus landed, a gnat entered his nostrils, and for seven years together made holes in his brains. When his skull was opened the gnat was found as large as a pigeon: the mouth of the gnat was of copper and the claws of iron.

That however there are some beautiful inventions in the Talmud, I refer to the story of 'Solomon and Sheba,' in the present collections.

ON THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING AFTER SNEEZING,

It is probable that this custom, so universally prevalent, originated in some ancient superstition; it seems to have excited inquiry among all nations.

Some Catholics, says Father Feyjoo, have attributed the origin of this custom to the ordinance of a pope, Saint Gregory-who is said to have instituted a short benedio tion to be used on such occasions, at a time when, during a pestilence, the crisis was attended by sneezing, and in most cases followed by death.

But the Rabbins who have a story for every thing, say, that before Jacob, men never sneezed but once, and then immediately died: they assure us that that patriarch was the first who died by natural disease, before him all men died by sneezing; the memory of which was ordered to be preserved in all nations by a command of every prince to his subjects to employ some salutary exclamation after the act of sneezing. But these are Talmudical dreams, and only serve to prove that so familiar a custom has always created inquiry.

Even Aristotle has delivered some considerable nonledgment of the seat of good sense and genius-the headsense on this custom; he says it is an honourable acknow to distinguish it from two other offensive eruptions of air, which are never accompanied by any benediction from the by-standers. The custom at all events existed long prior to Pope Gregory. The lover in Apulieus, Gyton in Petronius, and allusions to it in Pliny, prove its antiquity; and a memoir of the French academy notices the practice in the New World on the first discovery of America. Every where man is saluted for sneezing.

An amusing account of the ceremonies which attend the sneezing of a king of Menomotapa, shows what a national concern may be the sneeze of despotism.-Those who are near his person, when this happens, salute him in so loud a tone that persons in the antichamber hear it and join in the acclamation; in the adjoining apartments they do the same, till the noise reaches the street, and becomes propagated throughout the city; so that at each sneeze of his majesty, results a most horrid cry from the salutations of many thousands of his vassals.

When the king of Sennaar sneezes, his courtiers imme turn their backs on him, and give a loud slap on their right thigh.

With the ancients sneezing was ominous; from the right it was considered auspicious; and Plutarch, in his life of Themistocles, says, that before a naval battle it was a sign of conquest! Catullus, in his pleasing poem of Acme and Septimius, makes this action from the deity of Love from the left the source of his fiction. The passage has been elegantly versified by a poetical friend, who finds au thority that the gods sneezing on the right in heaven, is supposed to come to us on earth on the left.

Cupid sneezing in his flight
Once was heard upon the right,
Boding wo to lovers true;
But now upon the left he flew,
And with sportive sneeze divine,
Gave of joy the sacred sign.
Acme bent her lovely face,
Flush'd with rapture's rosy grace,
And those eyes that swam in bliss,
Pres't with many a breathing kiss:
Breathing, murmuring, soft, and low,
Thus might life for ever flow!
'Love of my life, and life of love'
Cupid rules our fates above,

Ever let us vow to join

In homage at his happy shrine.'
Cupid heard the lovers true,
Again upon the left he flew,
And with sportive sneeze divine,
Renew'd of joy the sacred sign.

.BONAVENTURE DE PERIERS.

A happy art in the relation of a story is, doubtless, a very agreeable talent-it has obtained La Fontaine all the applause his charming naiveté deserves.

Bonaventure de Periers, Valet de Chambre de la Royne de Navarre,' of whom the French have three little volumes of tales in prose, shows that pleasantry and sportive vein in which the tales of that time frequently abound. The following short anecdote is not given as the best specimen of our author, but as it introduces a novel etymology of a word in great use.

A student at law, who studied at Poitiers, had tolerably improved himself in cases of equity; not that he was overburdened with learning, but his chief deficiency was a want of assurance and confidence to display his knowledge. His father passing by Poitiers, recommended him to read aloud, and to render his memory more prompt by continued exercise. To obey the injunctions of his father he determined to read at the Ministery. In order to obtain a certain assurance, he went every day into a garden, which was a very secret spot, being at a distance from any house, and where there grew a great number of fine large cabbages. Thus for a long time he pursued his studies, and repeated his lectures to these cabbages, addressing them by the title of gentlemen; and balancing his periods to them as if they had composed an audience of scholars. After a fortnight or three weeks preparation, he thought it was high time to take the chair; imagining that he should be able to lecture his scholars as well as he had

before done his cabbages. He comes forward, he begins his oration-but before a dozen words his tongue freezes between his teeth! Confused and hardly knowing where he was, all he could bring out was-Domini, Ego bene video quod non estis caules; that is to say-for there are some who will have every thing in plain English-Gentlemen, I now clearly see you are not cabbages! In the garden he could conceive the cabbages to be scholars; but in the chair, he could not conceive the scholars to be cabbages.' On this story La Monnoye has a note, which gives a new origin to a familiar term.

" The hall of the School of Equity at Poitiers, where the institutes were read, was called La Ministerie. On which head, Florimond de Remond (book vii, ch. 11,) speaking of Albert Babinot, one of the first disciples of Calvin, after having said he was called The good man,' adds, that because he had been a studert of the institutes at this Ministerie of Poitiers, Calvin, and others, styled him Mr Minister; from whence, afterwards, Calvin took occasion to give the name of MINISTERS to the pastors of his church.

GROTIUS.

The life of Grotius has been written by De Burigny; it shows the singular felicity of a man of letters and a statesman; and in what manner a student can pass his hours in the closest imprisonment. The gate of the prison has sometimes been the porch of fame.

Grotius was born with the happiest dispositions; studious from his infancy, he had also received from Nature the qualities of genius; and was so fortunate as to find in his father a tutor who had formed his early taste and his moral feelings. The younger Grotius, in imitation of Horace, has celebrated his gratitude in verse.

One of the most interesting circumstances in the life of this great man, which strongly marks his genius and fortitude, is displayed in the manner in which he employed his time during his imprisonment. Other men, condemned to exile and captivity, if they survive, they depair: the man of letters counts those days as the sweetest of his life.

When a prisoner at the Hague, he laboured on a Latin essay on the means of terminating religious disputes, which occasion so many infelicities in the state, in the church, and in families; when he was carried to Louvestein, he resumed his law studies, which other employments had interrupted. He gave a portion of his time to moral philosophy, which, engaged him to translate the maxims of the ancient poets, collected by Stobæus, and the fragments of Menander and Philemon. Every Sunday was devoted to

read the scriptures, and to write his Commentaries on the New Testament. In the course of this work he fell ill, but as soon as he recovered his health he composed his treatise, in Dutch verse, on the Truth of the Christian Religion. Sacred and profane authors occupied him alternately. His only mode of refreshing his mind was to pass from one work to another. He sent to Vossius his Observations on the Tragedies of Seneca. He wrote several other works: particularly a little Catechism, in verse, for his daughter Cornelia: and collected materials to form his Apology. Add to these various labours and extensive correspondence he held with the learned and his friends; and his letters were often so many treatises. There is a printed collecfor every classical author of antiquity whenever they pretion amounting to two thousand. Grotius had notes ready pared a new edition; an account of his plans and his performances might furnish a volume of themselves; yet he never published in haste, and was fond of revising them; we must recollect, notwithstanding such interrupted literary avocations, his hours were frequently devoted to the public functions of an ambassador. I only reserve for my studies the time which other ministers give to their pleasures, to conversations often useless, and to visits sometimes unnecessary;' such is the language of this great man! Although he thus produced abundantly, his confinement was not more than two years. We may well exclaim here, that the mind of Grotius had never been imprisoned.

Perhaps the most sincere eulogium, and the most grateful to this illustrious scholar, was that which he received at

the hour of his death.

When this great man was travelling, he was suddenly struck by the hand of death, at the village of Rostock. The parish minister, who was called in his last moments, ignorant who the dying man was, began to go over the usual points; but Grotius, who saw there was no time to lose in exhortations, turned to him, and told him, that he needed them not; and concluded by saying, Sum Grotius-I am Grotius. Tu magnus ille Grotius? What! are you the great Grotius?' interrogated the minister.-What an eulogium! This anecdote seems, however, apocryphal; for we have a narrative of his death by the clergyman himself. On the death of Grotius a variety of tales were spread concerning his manner of dying raised by different parties.'

In the approbation of the censeur to print this Vie de Grotius,' it is observed that while his history gives us clear idea of the extent of the human mind, it will further inform us, that Grotius died without reaping any advantage from his great talents.'

NOBLEMEN TURNED CRITICS.

I offer to the contemplation of those unfortunate mortals who are necessitated to undergo the criticisms of lords, this pair of anecdotes

Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of Florence, having had a statue made by the great Michael Angelo, when it was finished came to inspect it; and having for some time sagaciously considered it, poring now on the face, then on the arms, the knees, the form of the leg, and at length on the foot itself; the statue being of such perfect beauty, he found himself at a loss to display his powers of criticism, but by lavishing his praise. But only to praise, might appear as if there had been an obtuseness in the keenness of his criticism. He trembled to find a fault, but a fault must be found. At length he ventured to mutter something concerning the nose; it might, he thought, be something more Grecian. Angelo differed from his grace, but he said he would attempt to gratify his taste. He took up his chisel, and concealed some marble dust in his hand; feigning to retouch the part, he adroitly let fall some of the dust he held concealed. The cardinal observing it as it fell, transported at the idea of his critical acumen, exclaimedAh, Angelo! you have now given an inimitable grace.'

When Pope was first introduced to read his Iliad to Lord Halifax, the noble critic did not venture to be dissatisfied with so perfect a composition; but, like the cardinal, this passage, and that word, this turn, and that expression, formed the broken cant of his criticisms. The honest poet was stung with vexation; for, in general, the parts at which his lordship hesitated were those of which he was most satisfied. As he returned home with Sir Samuel Garth he revealed to him the anxiety of mind. Oh,' replied Garth, laughing, you are not so well acquainted with his lordship as myself; he must criticise. At your next visit read to him those very passages as they now stand; tell him that

vou have recollected his criticisms; and I'll warrant you of his approbation of them. This is what I have done a hundred times myself.' Pope made use of this stratagem; it took, like the marble dust of Angelo; and my lord, like the cardinal, exclaimed- Dear Pope, they are now inimitable !'

LITERARY IMPOSTURES.

Some authors have practised singular impositions on the public. Varillas, the French historian, enjoyed for some time a great reputation in his own country for his historic compositions, but when they became more known, the scholars of other countries destroyed the reputation he had unjustly acquired. His continual professions of sincerity prejudiced many in his favour, and made him pass for a writer who had penetrated into the inmost recesses of the cabinet; but the public were at length undeceived, and were convinced that the historical anecdotes which Varillas put off for authentic facts had no foundation, being wholly his own inventing:-though he endeavoured to make them pass for realities by affected citations of titles, instructions, letters, memoirs, and relations, all of them imaginary" He had read almost every thing historical, printed and manuscript; but he had a fertile political imagination, and gave his conjectures as facts, while he quoted at random his pretended authorities. Burnet's book against Varillas is a curious little volume.

Gemelli Carreri, a Neapolitan gentleman, for many years never quitted his chamber; confined by a tedious indisposition, he amused himself with writing a Voyage round the IVorld; giving characters of men, and descriptions of countries, as if he had really visited them; and his volumes are still very interesting. Du Halde, who has written so voluminous an account of China, compiled it from the Memoirs of the missionaries, and never travelled ten leagues from Paris in his life; though he appears, by his writings, to be very familiar with Chinese scenery.

Damberger's travels, more recently made a great sensation-and the public were duped; they proved to be the ideal voyages of a member of the German Grub-street, about his own garret! Too many of our Travels' have been manufactured to fill a certain size; and some which bear names of great authority, were not written by the professed authors.

This is an excellent observation of an anonymous author:- writers who never visited foreign countries, and travellers who have run through immense regions with fleeting pace, have given us long accounts of various countries and people; evidently collected from the idle reports and absurd traditions of the ignorant vulgar, from whom only they could have received those relations which we see accumulated with such undiscerning credulity.'

Some authors have practised the singular imposition of announcing a variety of titles of works as if preparing for the press, but of which nothing but the titles have been

written.

Paschal, historiographer of France, had a reason for these ingenious inventions; he continually announced such titles, that his pension for writing on the history of France might not be stopped. When he died, his historical labours did not exceed six pages!

Gregorio Reti is an historian of much the same stamp as Variilas. He wrote with great facility, and hunger generally quickened his pen. He took every thing too fightly; yet his works are sometimes looked into for many anecdotes of English history not to be found elsewhere; and perhaps ought not to have been there if truth had been consulted. His great aim was always to make a book: he swells his volumes with digressions,tersperses many ridiculous stories, and applies all the repartees he collected from old novel-writers, to modern characters.

Such forgeries abound; the numerous • Testamens Politiques' of Colbert, Mazarine, and other great ministers, were forgeries usually from the Dutch press, as are many pretended political Memoirs.'

Of our old translations from the Greek and Latin authors, many were taken from French versions.

The travels written in Hebrew, of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, of which we have a curious translation, are, I believe, apocryphal. He describes a journey, which if ever he took, it must have been with his night-cap on; being a perfect dream! It is said that to inspirit and give importance to his nation, he pretended he had travelled to all the synagogues in the east; places he mentions he does not appear ever to have seen, and the different people he

describes no one has known. He calculates that he has found near eight hundred thousand Jews, of which about half are independent, and not subjects to any Christian or Gentile sovereign. These fictitious travels have been a source of much trouble to the learned; particularly to those whose zeal to authenticate them induced them to follow the aerial footsteps of the Hyppogriffe of Rabbi Benjamin.' He affirms that the tomb of Ezekiel, with the library of the first and second temples, were to be seen in his time at a place on the banks of the river Euphrates; Wesselius of Groningen, and many other literati, travelled on purpose to Mesopotamia, to reach the tomb and examine the library, but the fairy treasures were never to be seen, nor even heard of!

The first on the list of impudent impostures is Annius of Viterbo, a Dominican, and master of the sacred palace under Alexander VI. He pretended he had discovered the genuine works of Sanchoniatho, Manetho, Berosus, and other works, of which only fragments are remaining. He published seventeen books of antiquities! but not having any Mss to produce, though he declared he had found them buried in the earth, these literary fabrications occasioned great controversies; for the author died before he had made up his mind to a confession. At their first publication uni versal joy was diffused among the learned. Suspicion soon rose, and detection followed. However, as the forger never would acknowledge himself as such, it has been ingeniously conjectured that he himself was imposed on, rather than that he was the impostor; or, as in the case of Chatterton, possibly all may not be fictitious. It has been said that a great volume in Mss anterior by two hundred years to the seventeen folios of Annius, exists in the Bibli otheque Colbertine, in which these pretended histories were to be read; but as Annius would never point out the sources of his seventeen folios, the whole is considered as a very wonderful imposture. I refer the reader to Tyrwhittt's Vin dication of his Appendix to Rowley's or Chatterton's Poems, p. 140, for some curious observations, and some facts of literary imposture.

One of the most extraordinary literary impostures was that of one Joseph Vella, who, in 1794, was an adventurer in Sicily, and pretended that he possessed seventeen of the lost books of Livy in Arabic: he had received this literary treasure, he said, from a Frenchman who had purloined it from a shelf in St Sophia's church at Constantinople. As many of the Greek and Roman classics have been translated by the Arabians, and many were first known in Europe in their Arabic dress, there was nothing improbable in one part of his story. He was urged to publish these longdesired books; and Lady Spencer, then in Italy, offered to defray the expenses. He had the effrontery, by way of specimen, to edit an Italian translation of the sixtieth book, but that book took up no more than one octavo page! A professor of Oriental literature in Prussia introduced it in his work, never suspecting the fraud; it proved to be nothing more than the epitome of Florus. He also gave out that he possessed a code which he had picked up in the abbey of St Martin, containing the ancient history of Sicily, in the Arabic period comprehending above two hundred years; and of which ages, their own historians were entirely deficient in knowledge. Vella declared he had a genuine official correspondence between the Arabian governors of Sicily and their superiors in Africa, from the first landing of the Arabians in that island. Vella was now loaded with honours and pensions! It is true he showed Arabic Mss, which, however, did not contain a syllable of what he said. He pretended he was in continual correspondence with friends at Morocco and elsewhere. The King of Naples furnished him with money to assist his researches. Four volumes in quarto were at length published! Vella had the adroitness to change the Arabic Mss he possessed, which entirely related to Mahomet, to matters relative to Sicily; he bestowed several weeks lahour to disfigure the whole, altering page for page, line for line, and word for word, but interspersed numberless dots, strokes, and flourishes, so that when he published a fac simile, every one admired the learning of Vella, who could translate what no one else could read. He complained ho had lost an eye in this minute labour; and every one thought his pension ought to have been increased. Every thing prospered about him, except his eye, which some thought was not so bad neither. It was at length disco vered by his blunders, &c, that the whole was a forgery; though it had now been patronized, translated, and extracted throughout Europe. When this as was examined

by an Orientalist, it was discovered to be nothing but a history of Mahomet and his family. Vella was condemned tc imprisonment.

The Spanish antiquary, Medina Conde, in order to favour the pretensions of the church in a great lawsuit, forged deeds and inscriptions, which he buried in the ground, where he knew they would shortly be dug up. Upon their being found, he published engravings of them and gave explanations of their unknown characters, making them out to be so many authentic proofs and evidences of the contested assumptions of the clergy.

The Morocco ambassador purchased of him a copper bracelet of Fatima, which Medina proved by the Arabic inscription and many certificates to be genuine, and found among the ruins of the Alhambra, with other treasures of its last king, who had hid them there in hope of better days. This famous bracelet turned out afterwards to be the work of Medina's own hands, and made out of an old brass candlestick !

George Psalmanazer, to whose labours we owe much of the great Universal History, exceeded in powers of deception any of the great impostors of learning. His island of Formosa was an illusion eminently bold, and maintained with as much felicity as erudition; and great must have been that erudition which could form a pretended language and its grammar, and fertile the genius which could invent the history of an unknown people; it is said that the deception was only satisfactorily ascertained by his own penitential confession; he had defied and baffled the most learned. The literary impostor Lauder had much more audacity than ingenuity, and he died contemned by all the world. Ireland's Shakspeare served to show that commentators are not blessed, necessarily, with an interior and unerring tact. Genius and learning are ill directed in forming literary impositions, but at least they must be distinguished from the fabrications of ordinary impostors. A singular forgery was practised on Captain Wilford by a learned Hindoo, who, to ingratiate himself and his studies with the too zealous and pious European, contrived among other attempts to give the history of Noah and his three sons, in his Purana,' under the designation of Satyavrata. Captain Wilford having read the passage, transcribed it for Sir William Jones, who translated it as a curious extract; the whole was an interpolation by the dextrous introduction of a forged sheet, discoloured and prepared for the purpose of deception, and which, having served his purpose for the moment, was afterwards withdrawn. As books in India are not bound, it is not difficult to introduce loose leaves. To confirm his various impositions this learned forgerer had the patience to write two voluminous sections, in which he connected all the legends together in the style of the Puranas, consisting of 12.000 lines. When Captain Wilford resolved to collate the manuscript with others, the learned Hindoo began to disfigure his own manuscript, the captain's, and those of the college, by erasing the name of the country and substituting that of Egypt. With as much pains, and with a more honourable direction, our Hindoo Lauder might have immortalized his inverted invention.

The

We have authors who sold their names to be prefixed to works they never read; or, on the contrary, have prefixed the names of others to their own writing. Sir John Hill owned to a friend once when he fell sick, that he had overfatigued himself with writing seven works at once! One of which was on architecture, and another on cookery! This hero once contracted to translate Swammerdam's work on insects for fifty guineas. After the agreement with the bookseller, he perfectly recollected that he did not understand a single word of the Dutch language! nor did there exist a French translation. The work however was not the less done for this small obstacle. Sir John bargained with another translator for twenty-five guineas. second translator was precisely in the same situation as the first; as ignorant, though not so well paid as the knight. He rebargained with a third, who perfectly understood his original, for twelve guineas! So that the translators who could not translate feasted on venison and turtle, while the modest drudge, whose name never appeared to the world, broke in patience his daily bread! The craft of authorship has many mysteries. The great patriarch and primeval dealer in English literature, is said to have been Robert Green, one of the most facetious, profligate, and indefatigable of the scribleri family. He laid the foundation of a new dynasty of literary emperors. The first act by which he proved his claim to the throne of Grub-street has served

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as a model to his numerous successors-it was an ambi dextrous trick! Green sold his Orlando Furioso' to two different theatres, and is supposed to have been the first author in English literary history who wrote as a trader; or as crabbed Anthony Wood phrases it in the language of celibacy and cynicism, he wrote to maintain his wife, and that high and foose course of living which poets generally follow. With a drop still sweeter, old Anthony describes Gayton, another worthy; he came up to London to live in a shirking condition, and wrote trite things merely to get bread to sustain him, and his wife.' The Hermit Anthony seems to have had a mortal antipathy against the Eves literary men.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

The present anecdote concerning Cardinal Richelieu may serve to teach the man of letters how he deals out criticism to the great, when they ask his opinion of manuscripts, be they in verse or prose.

The cardinal placed in a gallery of his palace the portraits of several illustrious men, and he was desirous of composing the inscriptions to be placed round the portraits. That he intended for Montluc, the marechal of France, was conceived in these terms: Multa fecit, plura scripsit, vir tamin magnus fuit. He showed it without mentioning the author to Bourbon, the royal professor in Greek, and asked his opinion concerning it; He reprobated it, and considered that the Latin was much in the style of the breviary; and, if it had concluded with an alleluyah, it would serve for an anthem to the magnificant. The cardinal agreed with the severity of his strictures; and even acknowledged the discernment of the professor; for,' he said, it is really written by a priest.' But however he might approve of Bourbon's critical powers, he punished without mercy his ingenuity. The pension his majesty had bestowed on him was withheld the next year.

The cardinal was one of those ambitious men who foolishly attempt to rival every kind of genius; and seeing himself constantly disappointed, he envied, with all the venom of rancour, those talents which are so frequently the all that men of genius possess.

He was jealous of Balzac's splendid reputation; and offered the elder Heinsius ten thousand crowns to write a criticism which should ridicule his elaborate compositions. This Heinsius refused, because Salmasius threatened to revenge Balzac on his Herodes infanticida.

He attempted to rival the reputation of Corneille's Cid,' by opposing to it one of the most ridiculous dramatic productions; it was the allegorical tragedy called Europe,' in which the minister had congregated the four quarters of the world! Much political matter was thrown together, divided into scenes and acts. There are appended to it keys of the Dramatis personæ and of the allegories. In this tragedy. Francia represents France; Ibere, Spain; Parthenope, Naples, &c.and these have their attendants:-Lilian (alluding to the French lilies) is the servant of Francion, while Hispale is the confident of Ibere. But the key to the allegories is much more copious:-Albione signifies England; three knots of the hair of Austrasie, mean the towns of Clermont, Stenay, and Jamet, these places once belong ing to Loraine. A box of diamonds of Austrasie, is the town of Nancy, belonging once to the dukes of Loraine. The key of Iberia's great porch is Perpignan, which France took from Spain; and in this manner is this sublime tragedy composed! When he first sent it anonymously to the French Academy it was reprobated. He then tore it in a rage, and scattered it about his study. Towards evening, like another Medea lamenting over the members of her own children, he and his secretary passed the night in uniting the scattered limbs. He then ventured to avow himself; and having pretended to correct this incorrigible tragedy, the submissive Academy retracted their censures, but the public pronounced its melancholy fate on its first represen tation. This lamentable tragedy was intended to thwart Corneille's Cid.' Enraged at its success, Richelieu even commanded the academy to publish a severe critique of it well known in French literature. Boileau on this occasion has these two well-turned verses :

En vain contre le Cid, un ministre se ligne;
Tout Paris, pour Chimene, a les yeux de Rodrigue.'
To oppose the Cid, in vain the statesman tries
All Paris, for Chimene, has Roderick's eyes.

It is said that in consequence of the fall of this tragedy