stoundrel, now I understand you; so you have been dressing the sallad all this time with it. But harkee, John, for God's sake do not mention it." The truth is, all the company were highly pleased with the sallads, and had often spoke in their praise; and the gentleman and his family had never in their life a better summer's health, nor the people that visited him.

It is strange that the magistrates of Edinburgh, who are, in general, men of parts and discernment, should appoint any one to the office of towncrier that can read neither Scotch nor English. I heard one of them, when reading an advertisement, blunder almost at every word, and pronounce the very first word advertisement, laying the accent on the third syllable, when it should have been on the second, and confounding the word shops, where goods are sold, with the word chops, meaning the mouth and jaws. Indeed, at Aberdeen, till lately, they generally pronounced both these words the same way. Upon the eve of a king's fast day there, about a year ago, one of the towncriers proclaimed, that, as to morrow was a fast day, by order of the magis trates, no one within the liberties of the city, under pain of fining and imprisonment, should open their shops, but he pronounced it chops, from morning till night. An Englishman, who happened to be there, imagining that the magistrates had ordered that none should open their mouth to eat all that time, left the city, swearing, for his part, he would not obey them; and that, as the magistrates were fools for issuing such an order, so he thought the people would be fools if they obeyed it.

ANECDOTE OF MILTON.

[Not generally known.] The freedom and asperity of his various attacks on the character and prerogative of Charles I. rendered him peculiarly obnoxious when the

restoration was accomplished. To save himself, therefore, from the fury of a court which he had so highly incensed, and the vigilance of which, from the emissaries employed, it was become so difficult to elude, he connived with his friends, in effecting the following innocent imposture :The report of his death was indus-' triously circulated, and the credulity of the people swallowed the bait prepared for them. The coffin, the mourners, and other apparatus of his burial, were exhibited at his house, with the same formality as if he had been really dead. A figure of him, as large and as heavy as the life, was actually formed, laid out, and put in a lead coffin, and the whole funeral solemnity acted in all its parts. It is said, when the truth was known, and he was found to be alive, notwithstanding the most incontestible evidence that he had been thus openly interred, the wits about the court of king Charles II. made themselves exceedingly merry with the stratagem by which the poet had preserved his life. The lively and good natured monarch discovered too, himself, not a little satisfaction, on finding, that, by this ingenious expedient, his reign had not been tarnished with the blood of a man already blind, by application, infirmity, and age, and who, under all his dreadful misfortunes, had written Paradise Lost.

A sapient question, put to Miss Taylor, on her examination at the bar of the house of commons, relative to the charges against the duke of York:

Question. Might not your father take the name of Chance, without your knowledge?

Answer. Then how should I know that he did?- -[a laugh.]

In a debate on the same business, in the house of commons, Mr. Fuller, a warm advocate for the duke of York, said, that he had received a number of anonymous letters, calling him a black hearted fellow, and this

thing, that thing, and t'other thing. [Loud Laughing.] He did not like to have the duke of York sent away like a whale, with a harpoon stuck in his side. Many complaints, he said, were made against this country; but, in his opinion, the country was better than any country upon earth; and "he that don't like England, d-n him, let him leave it." [A roar of laughter and groans.] He apologised for the last expression; said he had heard it as a toast in a publick company!

REPARTEE." I cannot"-said a lady, who was leaning upon a rail at

YE flowery banks o' bonie Doon,
How can ye blume sae fair;

How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae fu' o' care!

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird,
That sings upon the bough;
Thou minds me o' the happy days
When my fause love was true.
Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird,
That sings beside thy mate;
For sae I sat, and sue I sang,
And wist na o' my fate.
Aft hae I roved by bonie Doon,
To see the woodbine twine,
And ilka bird sang o' its love,
And sae did I o' mine.
Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose
Frae aff its thorny tree,
And my fause luver staw the rose,
But left the thorn wi' me.

Translation by Cowper of a Latin Sonnet by Milton.

Fair Lady! whose harmonious name the Rhine,

Through all his grassy vale delights to hear,

Base were indeed the wretch who
could forbear

To love a spirit elegant as thine,
That manifests a sweetness all divine,
Nor knows a thousand winning acts

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

By Hopkins and Earle, Philadelphia, Republished,

Hurd on the Prophecies, $2. By A. Findley and W. H. Hopkins, Philadelphia, Republished,

The Life of Petrarch, collected from Memoires pour la vie de Petrarch, by Mrs.

Dobson.

By John Bioren, Philadelphia, Published,

The Acts of the last Session of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,

Also, a New Drawing Book, from the studies of the best Masters.

By the Booksellers, Philadelphia, Published, Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical. Prescribed for the purpose of purging the publick, of Piddling Philosophers, of Puny Poetasters, of Paltry Politicians, and Petty Partisans. By Peter Pepper-Box, Poet and Physician.

By F. Nichols, Philadelphia, Republished, Elements of General History, ancient and modern. By Alex. F. Tytler, late Professor of History in the University of Edinburgh, &c. $2 37.

By Coale and Thomas, Baltimore, Published, Letters supposed to have passed between St. Evermond and Waller. To which is prefixed a biographical sketch of St. Evermond, Waller, and several of their cotemporaries. By a gentleman of Balti

more.

1 vol. 12mo. $1.

By Zadok Cramer, Pittsburgh, Penn. Published,

The United States Spelling Book, with appropriate Reading Lessons: being an easy standard for Spelling, Reading, and Pronouncing the English Language, according to the rules established by John Walker, in his Critical and Pronouncing Dictionary. By sundry experienced Teach.

ers.

At the Office of the Boston Patriot, Boston, Published,

The inadmissible principles of the King of England's Proclamation, of October 16, 1807, considered. By the late President Adams.

By Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss, Boston, Published,

Monthly Anthology and Boston Review for May 1809. Vol. VII. No. V.

By Isaiah Thomas, Boston and Worcester, Published,

In 8 vols. price $18. The Complete works of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, Minister of the Gospel in Northampton, Massachussetts, and afterwards President of the College in New Jersey.

By Edmund M. Blunt, Newburyport, Published,

The sixth edition of the American Coast Pilot.

PROPOSED

AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

Hopkins and Earle, Philadelphia,

Propose to publish immediately-Helps to Composition; or, Skeletons of Sermons. By the Rev. Charles Simeon, M. A. in 5 vols. 8vo.

To publish-A translation from the French of Mons. Bichat on Membranes. By Dr. George Williamson, of Baltimore.

Bartholomew Graves, Philadelphia, To publish A new and interesting work, entitled "Christian Correspondence," being a collection of Original Letters, written by the late celebrated John Wesley, and several of the first class of Methodist Preachers in connexion with him, to the late Mrs. Eliza Bennis, with many of her

answers.

A. Finley, Philadelphia,

To republish-A History of the Apostles and Evangelists, writers of the New Testament By Nathaniel Lardner, D. D.

William Hall, jun. and George W. Pierie,

Philadelphia,

To publish-A pamphlet containing Evidence of the Corruption and Treason of General James Wilkinson, commander of the army of the United States, and of his connexion with Col. Burr; together with a refutation of the charges brought by the General against Daniel Clark, of New Orleans.

Mathias James O'Conway, Philadelphia,

To publish by subscription—A Practical Anglo Spanish Grammar, wherein will be exhibited the whole variety of Spanish Construction, illustrated with copious examples, consisting of familiar and commercial phrases.

John Morgan and Thomas S. Manning,

Philadelphia,

To republish-Dr. Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, in 2 vols. quarto, into which will be introduced Mason's Supplement, and Walker's Pronunciation.

Collins and Perkins, New York,

To publish-In a handsome duodecimo volume, A Dissertation on the Mineral Waters of Saratoga, second edition, enlarged; including an account of the Waters of Ballstown, embellished with a map of the surronding country, and a view of the Rock Spring at Saratoga. By Valentine Seaman, M. D. one of the surgeons of the New York Hospital.

E. Sargeant, New York,

To republish-Universal Biography, containing a copious account, critical and historical, of the life and character, labours and actions of eminent persons of all ages and countries, conditions and professions, arranged in alphabetical order. By J. Lempriere, D. D. author of the Classical Dictionary.

E. & E. Hosmer, Albany, New York,

To publish by subscription-A work, entitled the Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing; containing a general statement of all things pertaining to the faith and practice of the church of God in this latter day. Published by order of the ministry in union with the church.

"Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ."-Revelation.

RECENT BRITISH PUBLICATIONS.

Bakewell's Observations on the Influence of Soil and Climate upon Wool, pointing out a certain and easy method of improving the quality of English Clothing Wool, and preserving the health of Sheep, with Hints for the management of Sheep after shearing, and Remarks on the method of retaining the best qualities of the Spanish breed of Sheep, unchanged in different climates. With occasional Notes and Remarks. By the right honourable lord Somerville.

Poems, Sacred to Love and Beauty, by Hugh Downman, M. D. 2 vols. with two engravings, price 10s. 6d.

The new Annual Register; or, General Repository of History, Politicks, and Literature, for the year 1808.

Chancery, by E. Vesey, Esq. of Lincoln's Reports of Cases in the High Court of Inn, Barrister at Law. Vol. XIV. part II. 7s. 6d.

PROPOSED BRITISH PUBLICATIONS.

Mr. S. Parkes, author of the Chymica1 Catechism, has in the press the Rudiments of Chymistry, with familiar illustrations and experiments, in a pocket volume, illustrated by neat copper plates.

The Rev. Mr. Belfour has collected his papers, entitled The Lyceum of Ancient Literature, with the intention of forming them into three volumes.

Mr. John Carey has in a state of great forwardness, large four sheet Maps of Europe, Asia, Africa and America; on which will be delineated the most recent divisions, and every geographical improvement, to the present time.

The right honourable George Rose will shortly publish in a quarto volume, A Narrative, by sir Patrick Hume, of the Events which occurred in the Enterprise under the command of the Earl of Argyle, in 1685; from an original manuscript. With Observations on the Posthumous Historical Work of the late right honourable C. J. Fox

Dr. Adam's work on Epidemicks, is nearly finished at the press. It is an Address to the Publick, on the Laws that govern those Diseases, and on the late Proposals for Exterminating the Smallpox.

Letters of Mrs. Elizabeth Montague, with some of the Letters of her Corrspondents, will shortly be published by Mathew Montague, Esq. M. P. her ne phew and executor.

THE period in which sir Philip Sidney flourished, considered, as it relates to manners, is reproached with a fondness for the fopperies of chivalry. But we must not confound the fugitive customs of the age, with that spirit which fashions the minds of men, and reaches beyond the date of those artificial customs that rather disguise than produce it. The passion of arms, gallantry, and devotion, in its minutie and excess, may make men fight more than they need, love more than they ought, and pray, perhaps, at unsuitable times; but valour, sensibility, and patient suffering, are the noble results.

The universal favourite of this age was sir Philip Sidney, the most accomplished character in our history, till lord Orford startled the world by paradoxes, which attacked the fame established by two centuries. Singularity of opinion, vivacity of ridicule, and polished epigrams in prose, were the means by which this nobleman sought distinction. But he had something in his composition more predominant than his wit; a cold, unfeeling disposition, which contemned literary men, at the moment that his heart secretly panted to share their fame; while his peculiar habits of

VOL. II.

society deadened every impression of grandeur in the human character.

Three volatile pages of petulance, however, have provoked the ponderous quarto before us. Biassed as we are in favour of Sidney, we find this a case of criticism somewhat nice to determine; for though we are willing to censure his lordship for being much too brisk, we do not see that, therefore, we are to excuse his antagonist, for being much too saturnine.

The materials of these memoirs present scarcely any thing new. They have already been used by Arthur Collins, in his account of the Sidney family, prefixed to the Sidney papers; and by Dr. Campbell, in the Biographia Britannica. The only novelty, is a long and uninteresting manuscript in the British Museum; a kind of biographical homily, containing an account of Sidney's death.

The life of Sidney, who died at little more than thirty, was chiefly passed in his travels; and had no claims on a volume of this size. Dr. Zouch has the merit, however, of giving a luminous disposition to his scanty materials. With these before us, we shall track him in his work, and ascertain whether his industry