is very rare, is in the city library. Ainsi va le monde.-Port Folio, Feb. 1810, p. 121.

RICHARD CALEF.-To every liberal mind it is highly grateful to give praise where praise is due, and to rescue a meritorious name from obscurity. I have therefore resolved to devote a few lines to the excellent man whose name is prefixed to this paragraph.

Every nation has had its paroxysms of insanity, in which the "small still voice of reason," justice, and humanity has been for a while stifled by the violence of party passions, prejudice, or bigotry. To resist the public delusion on such occasions, is attended with very considerable danger, and has not unfrequently involved in the common destruction those who have undertaken to advocate the cause of the oppressed. It therefore requires a very high degree of magnanimity and heroism to induce men to make an effort to stem the torrent. For the honour of human nature, however, on most occasions of this description, there have been found heroes who have thus signalized themselves.

In several parts of New England, more particularly Salem, in the year 1692, a most awful delusion prevailed on the subject of witchcraft, which extended its deleterious effects into the highest grades of society. The governor, the public officers generally, and many of the clergy, were numbered among the mass of those who implicitly believed in the guilt of the persons charged with this crime. About twenty were immolated (one of whom was pressed to death with weights) with all the forms, but without the least shadow of the reality, of justice. The evidence was to the last degree frivolous and absurd. Many of the accusers were constantly in a state of delirium, the result of rum drinking. At this frightful period, when the very sanctity of age exposed a superannuated creature to the most imminent hazard of destruction, Richard Calef, a merchant in Boston, signalized himself by the most decisive exertions to arrest the progress of the devouring monster, and was eminently instrumental in opening the eyes of the public, and rescuing many devoted victims from the gaping jaws of destruction. He wrote a number of valuable letters to Cotton Mather, who ranked among the steadfast believers in witchcraft. Mr. Calef had obviously the most decisive advantage over his opponent. He

afterwards collected the whole correspondence, and a portion of the trials of the unfortunate victims, into a volume, to which he gave the title of " More Wonders of the Invisible World,” in reference to the title of one of Cotton Mather's books, called "Wonders of the Invisible World." Calef's book is really very well worth perusal. It throws important light upon the history of the miserable animal, " bipes et implumis." The title operates very much to its disadvantage. Few, but believers in witchcraft, will be tempted to open it, and it is so little calculated to fan the flame of their prejudices, that a few pages will suffice them. I owned it for seven years, without having the curiosity to open it. An accidental want of another book to read, induced me lately to examine the nonsense which I supposed it contained, when I was delighted with the masculine spirit and the strong and unanswerable arguments it contained.

I was somewhat disappointed to find, in a work of considerable merit lately published in Boston, called " An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary," a very cold compliment paid to Calef. It is barely said, that he " was distinguished about the time of the witchcraft delusion, by his withstanding the credulity of the times”—and "as he censured the proceedings of the courts, respecting the witches, at a time when the people of the country in general did not see their error, he gave great offence." This is pretty nearly "damning with faint praise."-Ibid.

SAVAGE BARBARITY.-In Italy, so late as the beginning of the last century, according to Labat, there were numbers of brutal ruffians, who delighted in disfiguring the faces of females whom they met unprotected. They cut them sometimes with a knife, and sometimes with a thin piece of money. In the latter case, a scar was left which neither care nor time could ever efface. Other wretches carried their animosity to the sex no farther than smearing them over with filth and nastiness.-Idem, p. 123.

REFINED AMUSEMENT.-It is stated, in the History of the Female Sex, vol. iv. p. 217, that in Lisbon, during the three last days of the carnival, the front windows of the houses are hardly ever free from "women in their best attire, who are provided with syringes and vessels of different kinds, with and

from which they sprinkle and pelt the passengers with all sorts of matters, solid and fluid, pure and impure."-Ibid.

FREE AND EASY.-Townsend, in his Travels through Spain, mentions that he saw a merchant smoke a cigar, and then present it to a countess. She took it with an obeisance, smoked it half out, then returned it to the owner, and after an interval of some minutes, puffed out a thick cloud of smoke, after she had suffered it to circulate completely through her lungs.—Vol. ii. page 45.-Ibid.

A FREE TRANSLATION.-Miners, a German writer, author of "The History of the Female Sex," states that kisses being entirely banished from the Spanish theatre, the translator of a French operette, entitled "Le Tonnelier," instead of making the hero of the piece kiss his mistress, as is done in the original, "has represented the latter picking the vermin from her gallant, because this is a service which lovers of the lower class in Spain very commonly render one another."-Vol. iv. page 227.-Ibid.

TOO MUCH AND TOO LITTLE READING.It is remarkable how very frequently the old remark, that "extremes meet," is realized. It may be fairly stated that much of the ignorance of the world arises from reading too much, and reading too little.. Of readers, a considerable portion read too much, and too hastily, to digest or avail themselves of what they peruse. Of course, their ignorance arises from falling into the opposite extreme to those who read little or nothing.-Idem, p. 124.

EPIGRAM FROM THE FRENCH.

A swaggering braggadocio swore
He'd travelled all the world o'er,
And wheresoever he had been,

Had kings, and queens, and princes seen,
By all of whom he'd been carest,

And with their choicest favours blest.

A droll old codger sitting near,
Jocosely asked him with a sneer,
"Pray have you seen the Dardanelles,
Those far-famed, lovely, Turkish belles?"
"Seen them?-You surely jest-parbleu!
I've often seen and kissed them too."-Ibid.

EPIGRAM.

Morosus lost a pliant wife,

The joy, the comfort of his life.

He roar'd, he wept, he stamp'd, he swore:
But this could not his spouse restore:
Therefore, his woes to dissipate,
He wooed-and won-a second mate.
"Ye gods and little fish!" their joy
Could never, never, know alloy:
But wo is me, I can't disguise-
(The reader will the tale surmise)
The honey moon at length was past;
The sky with clouds was overcast;
The new wife found-alas! too late-
Her husband prone to fierce debate;
And, on each transient slight disgust,
He'd bitterly bewail the first.

This piqued the dame. She heav'd a sigh:
"You can't regret her more than I.”—Ibid.

MINERAL WATERS.-I hope I do not deceive myself, when I anticipate very salutary results from the introduction of the mineral waters so generally into our cities. I indulge the pleasing hope that they will have a strong tendency to check the use of ardent spirits, which, it is lamentable to perceive, have been for years extending their baleful influence on society, and even in those ranks which a high sense of delicacy ought to have preserved from the dire contagion.

With many men, I make no doubt, here and in the West Indies, the dreadful habits of intoxication owe their origin to the intense heats of the summer weather. At that period, exercise

in any great degree, excites thirst. This at first is appeased perhaps by lemonade-then by punch-then weak grog succeeds the strength of the grog is gradually increased, till at length the water is totally banished-and pure Holland, Cogniac, or Jamaica, closes the scene, and swallows up the ill-fated victim in the yawning gulf of perdition.

When we look round, and examine minutely, we shall see numberless evidences of this regular progression in turpitude. It is lamentable to reflect how many young men, of the most respectable talents, with every advantage of family and education, are degraded by this grovelling vice, only fit for the practice of the rudest savages.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,

As brooks make rivers-rivers swell to seas.

I have no hope that professed drunkards will afford much encouragement to the new establishments. To expect such an event were to be a dupe to one's own credulity. But I think that those whose taste is not depraved by the use of strong drinks, will, when thirsty, gladly have recourse to an elegant, safe, and wholesome beverage, and thus escape the temptation to fall into the deplorable habits to which I have referred, and whose deleterious effects are mourned by many a suffering family.-Idem, April, 1810, p. 318.

FRENCH LEAVE.-The advantages of persons who retire from companies, large or small, more particularly the latter, taking French leave, that is, withdrawing without the ceremony of bidding adieu, are so great, that I am astonished it does not prevail universally. The tastes, inclinations, arrangements, and views of different persons are widely different. To some it may be perfectly agreeable to remain till twelve, one, or even two o'clock in the morning. To others eleven appears late; to others even ten. As relaxation or enjoyment is the object people have in view in going into company, is there any way in which it can be better promoted, than by following one's inclination, in every case where it can be done without offering violence to the inclinations of others? If I wish to retire at ten, why should I, by very ceremoniously taking leave of every person in the company, admonish them that it is time for all to separate. Ibid.