my intreaties, they proceeded to extremities, and stripping me of my Bath surtout, discovered, to their infinite surprise and amusement, a scarlet coat, apparently turned; a spangled satin waistcoat, an evident reduction of one that had been worn by my father when under-sheriff; white cotton hose; large plated buckles fashioned in the previous century; and a pair of large black silk stockings, transmuted by my nurse's patience into breeches, with the clocks standing eminently conspicuous on the centre of the little flap. The effect was intantaneous. I and the costume were hailed with universal applause, as the original Beau Mordecai, and Love à la Mode was triumphantly ordered into immediate rehearsal.

"Thus bad begins, but worse remains behind.' Feeling that this ordeal must be nothing to that of the entry into school, I hoped 'to screw my courage to the sticking-place,' by a night of repose. But the bedroom scene surpassed even German horrors. After enduring an inundation of ink from every squirt in the room, till I and my fine clothes were of an universal blackness; after performing various aerial evolutions in my ascents from a blanket, managed by some dozen pairs of hands insensible of fatigue in the perpetration of mischief; and after suffering the several torments of every remaining species of manual wit, I was at length permitted to crawl into my bed. There I lay, comforting myself with the assurance that torture had done its worst, till I gradually sobbed myself into a sound sleep.

"Scarcely, however, had the deep tones of the Abbey bell, tolling the awful hour of midnight, awakened me, when I was alarmed by the loud screams of several of the younger boys. Starting up in a paroxysm of terror, I saw at the foot of the bed a horrid spectre bearing a large cross, on which was written in flaming characters, Think on to-morrow. I gazed, till stupified by fear, I mechanically closed my eyes, and hid myself under the bedclothes. But the spectre drawing them aside, and pointing to the burning letters, thrice shook its solemn head, and then vanished; leaving me in a doldrum of terror, which slowly, but gradually subsiding, restored me at length both my mental and corporeal faculties." pp. 45, 46.

Our next extract, though it has already appeared in some of the newspapers, is too amusing to be passed over.

"August the 14th-Wanting to walk on the pier, I asked the garçon (who spoke English very tolerably) the French for it. He, thinking as Milord Anglais, I could mean nothing but peer, a lord, replied paire. Away I then went, and passing over the market-place and draw-bridge, stumbled on the pier; without

เ

having had occasion to inquire my way to it, by the garçon's novel appellation. There I remained, strutting my half hour,' till dinner-time.

"At the table d'hôte, the commandant of the troops of the town sat next me; and among other officers and gentlemen at the table, were the President of the Council at Ratisbon, a Russian Count, and several Prussians; in all amounting to about twenty, not one of whom (as it appeared to me) spoke a word of English, except a remarkably pretty Irish woman.

"I thought I could never please a Frenchman so much as by praising his town; Monsieur,' I said, condescendingly, to the commandant, 'J'ai vu vôtre paire;' meaning, 'I have seen your pier; but which he naturally understood, 'I have seen your père, father.' This address from a perfect stranger, surprised him ; 'Il est beau et grand, Monsieur,' I continued. The commandant examined me from head to foot with an astonishment, that imparted to me an almost equal share. I saw there was a mistake, and I attempted to explain, by pronouncing very articulately.

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'Oui, Monsieur, j'ai vu vôtre paire, vôtre paire sur le havre.' "Eh bien, Monsieur," replied the commandant, "et que disait il?'

"I was astounded, and looking round the room for the keeper to the supposed madman, I discovered the eyes of the whole company

were upon me.

"Monsieur,' I cried, again attempting to explain, with as much deliberation and precision, and in as good French as I could command, Monsieur, est-il possible que vous residez ici, et que vous ne connoissez pas vôtre paire-votre paire si-si long!'

6

This speech naturally only increased the incomprehensibility of the whole conversation; and the commandant beginning, in rather haut en bas terms, to demand an explanation, like all cowards, when driven into a corner, I became desperate.

"Messieurs,' I cried, somewhat boisterously; il faut que vous connoissez vôtre paire! Le paire de vôtre ville qui est fait de pierre, et a la tête de bois, et à ce moment on travaille à lui racommoder sa fin, à laquelle le vent a fait du mal!'

"This was the coup de grace to all decorum; every Frenchman abandoned himself to his laughter, till the room fairly shook with their shouts; and even the astonished commandant himself could not help joining them.

"Allow me, Sir,' said a gentleman, sitting by the side of the Irish lady, and whom I had not previously observed.

"My dear Sir,' interrupted I, 'you are an Englishman, pray, pray explain.'

"Sir,' he replied, you have just told this gentleman,' pointing to the commandant, that his father is the father of the whole

6

town; that he is made of stone, but has a wooden head; and at this moment the workmen are engaged in mending his end that the wind has damaged.'

"I was paralyzed.

'Tell me,' I cried, as if my life had depended on his answer, 'what is the French for pier?' "Jetée, or, according to the common people, pont,' he replied.

"I had scarcely sense enough left to assist the Englishman in his good-natured attempts to unravel the error. He succeeded, however, and then commenced in French, an explanation to the officers. At this moment, the waiter informed me the St Omer Diligence was about to depart. I rushed from the scene of my disgrace, and stepped into the vehicle, just as the termination of the Englishman's recital exploded an additional éclat de rire, at my expense." pp. 111-113.

The following is a specimen of those practical jokes, which seem to have been somewhat fashionable in the younger days of our author.

"Soon after my arrival from France, my father received an invitation from my travelling companion, Mr. Watkins, to dine with him at his uncle's house in the city. I also was invited, and as we read on the card, that we were to meet, amongst others, the celebrated Dr Franklin, who had suddenly arrived in England, on a pacific mission, my father felt peculiarly gratified by the idea of once more shaking hands with the venerable patriot.

"The important day being arrived, my father, as he descended from his carriage, eagerly demanded whether Doctor Franklin had arrived? The servant replied in the affirmative, and then added, that he was at that moment in the drawing-room.

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Now, Fred,' my father exclaimed, 'you'll see what a reception I shall have.' Up stairs he ran, and I, post-haste, after him. On entering the room, we beheld the Doctor seated at a table near the fire, with a large folio volume lying open before him. His dress, considering the time and the occasion, appeared to us rather direspectful; a large, wrapping, morning gown, slippers, nightcap, and spectacles.

"However, this surprise was nothing to that which followed; for when my father, with much self-satisfaction, exclaimed, 'How do you do, Doctor?' he made not the slightest reply. Probably, you do not recollect me,' rejoined my father, after a considerable pause, my name is Reynolds.' Again, neither answer nor action. My father, checked and disappointed, strutted towards the window, expressing, in rather an alto tone, his unlimited disappro bation of American manners.

"I endeavoured to exculpate the Doctor by pointing out to my father, how intent he was on his book; though, at the same time, I could not help wondering that he could see to read on a misty October evening solely by the light of the fire. Yet the chief cause of my surprise was, that during the whole time we had been in the room, I had never seen him turn over a single leaf; but such was my respect, I was afraid of approaching to a close inspection, lest I should give offence.

"More visiters entered, and were received with the same con. temptuous silence. All were whispering and complaining together, when Mr. Watkins entered, and bowed respectfully to the Doctor, advanced towards us, and shaking us by the hands, loudly expressed his hopes that we had found his Excellency entertainingNot at all,' was the general reply, though in a low tone-' Indeed!' exclaimed our host, with assumed surprise; 'then I must try if I cannot make him entertaining;' and rapidly approaching him, to our sudden dismay, he seized his nightcap, threw it up to the ceiling, knocked his spectacles from his nose, boxed his ears, and then, to prove that even dull Yankies can impose on credulous cocknies, undid his garment, and discovered a Man of Wax.

"Yesterday, gentlemen,' said Mr. Watkins, I purchased this curious and extraordinary resemblance of our illustrious friend, of Mrs. Wright, of Cockspur-street, for fifty guineas; and I believe, gentlemen, you will all agree with me, that I may venture to assert with Charles in the School for Scandal, "This is the first time the Doctor was ever bought or sold."'

"Some laughed, some pouted, particularly my father; however, all was soon forgotten and forgiven; Mr Watkins at last wholly re-establishing the general good humor, by laughingly saying, Having heard that a London dinner was nothing without a lion, I thought it better to offer you a waxen one, than no lion at all.'" pp. 148, 149.

The Greek Lexicon of Schrevelius, translated into English, with many Additions. Boston. Cummings, Hilliard, & Co. Cambridge University Press, by Hilliard & Metcalf. 1826. 8vo. pp. 896.

A GREEK and English Lexicon has long been a desideratum; but it is somewhat remarkable, that several independent efforts, nearly simultaneous, should have been made, to supply so important a deficiency in the means of education. Such a work was

projected nearly thirty years ago, by the celebrated Gilbert Wakefield, who made considerable collections; and though he advanced in the business under very unfavorable circumstances, and then abandoned it, yet it is not improbable, if his life had been prolonged, that he would have resumed and completed the undertaking; for, had he lived till this time, he would have lived only his threescore years and ten. It may be doubted, however, whether he would have been encouraged to proceed on the extensive plan which he proposed to himself. In his correspondence with Mr. Fox, he threatened to add twenty thousand words, not usually found in Greek Lexicons; and when Mr. Fox ex- • pressed his incredulity, he replied; "You would cease to wonder at my twenty thousand words, if you saw my Lexicons; words good and true. You may cease also, when I mention that there are at least as many words of Nicander as that poet has verses, in no common Lexicon; two or three hundred in Oppian; as many thousand in Nonnus; and when I mention further, that in a day, one day with another, when I am occupied with this work, I at least add twenty from my reading, for months together; some original words; the generality compounds."

It is very manifest that Wakefield's plan went beyond the immediate wants of the public. A vocabulary was needed only for approved Grecian classics in common use; not for Nicander, nor especially for works comparatively so modern as those of Oppian and Nonnus. The complaint against the common Greek Lexicons has not regarded so much the defects of the vocabularies, as the indirect method of coming at the meaning of the words, through another dead language. In this last particular, there is probably but one voice among the scholars of our country; for no one can doubt the reasonableness of affording such a facility for learning the Greek language, as is now offered by a Lexicon translated into our vernacular tongue. If merely the saving of time were the intention of such a work, the reason for its production would be sufficiently strong; but when we add to this, that it will be the means of removing much of the vagueness, which hangs over the original words, in the minds of those who are unskilled in the comparison of different languages, and who have hitherto been obliged to view those words through an obscure and unnatural medium, it seems to be an extraordinary fact, that pupils should have been so long compelled to grope their way in a dim twilight.

Since two Greek and English Lexicons, from the other side of the Atlantic, besides that which is named at the head of this