P. 49. Burnet. "I will not enter farther into the military part; for I remember an advice of Marshal Schomberg, never to meddle in military matters. His observation was, Some affected to relate those affairs in all the terms of war, in which they committed great errors, that exposed them to the scorn of all commanders, who must despise relations that pretend to exactness, when there were blunders in every part of them." Swift. "Very foolish advice, for soldiers cannot write."

P. 5. Burnet. "Upon the king's death, the Scots proclaimed his son king, and sent over Sir George Wincan, that married my great aunt, to treat with him while he was in the Isle of Jersey."-Swift. "Was that the reason why he was sent ?"

P. 63. Burnet. (Speaking of the Scotch preachers in the time of the civil wars.) "The crowds were far beyond the capacity of their churches or the reach of their voices."Swift." And the preaching beyond the capacity of the crowd. I believe the church had as much capacity as the minister."

P. 163. Burnet. (Speaking of Paradise Lost.) "It was esteemed the beautifullest and perfectest poem that ever was writ, at least in our language."-Swift. "A mistake! for it is in English."

P. 189. Burnet. "Patrick was esteemed a great preacher, ** but a little too severe against those who differed from him-* He became afterwards more moderate."-Swift. "Yes, for he turned a rank whig."

P. 263. Burnet. " Ånd yet, after all, he (K. Charles II.) never treated her (Nell Gwyn) with the decencies of a mistress." -Swift. Pray what decencies are those?"

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P. 327. Burnet.

It seems, the French made no great account of their prisoners, for they released 25,000 Dutch for 50,000 crowns."-Swift. "What! ten shillings a-piece! By much too dear for a Dutchman."

P. 483. Burnet. "I laid open the cruelties of the church of Rome in queen Mary's time, which were not then known; and I aggravated, though very truly, the danger of falling under the power of that religion."-Swift. "A BULL!"

P. 525. Burnet. "Home was convicted on the credit of one evidence.-Applications, 'tis true, were made to the duke of York for saving his life: but he was not born under a pardoning planet."-Swift. "Silly fop!"

P. 586. Burnet. Baillie suffered several hardships and fines, for being supposed to be in the Rye-house plot; yet during this he seemed so composed, and ever so cheerful, that his behaviour looked like the revival of the spirit of the noblest Greeks and Romans."-Swift. "Take notice, he was

our cousin"

P. 727. Burnet. "I come now to the year 1688, which proved memorable, and produced an extraordinary and unheard of revolution."-Swift. "The devil's in that! Sure all Europe heard of it."

P. 752. Burnet. (Doubting the legitimacy of the pretender, and describing the queen's manner of lying-in.) "All this while the queen lay in bed; and in order, to the warming one side of it, a warming-pan was brought; but it was not opened, that it might be seen whether there was any fire in it."-Swift. "This, the ladies say, is very foolish."

P. 799. Burnet. "When I had the first account of king James's flight, I was affected with this dismal reverse of fortune in a great prince, more than I think fit to express."Swift. "Or than I will believe."

P. 816. Burnet. "It was proposed that the birth of the pretended prince might be enquired into, and I was ordered to gather together all the presumptive proofs that were formerly mentioned: it is true these did not amount to a full and legal proof; yet they seemed to be such violent presumptions, that when they were all laid together, they were more convincing than plain and downright evidence, for that was liable to the suspicion of subornation, whereas the others seemed to carry on them very convincing characters of truth and conformity."-Swift. "Well said, bishop."

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Vol. II. p. 669. Burnet. (Speaking of the progress of his own life.) The pleasures of sense I did soon nauseate."Swift. Not so soon with the wine of some elections."

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MISS SEWARD'S ENIGMA.

The

A FEW years ago, the newspapers amused the public with publishing an enigma, which we were assured was composed by Miss Seward, and found in her will, with directions to her executors to pay £50 to the person who should discover the true solution. The unmeaning puzzle immediately set the small wits, who indulge in such trifles, at work, and the periodical journals and newspapers teemed with answers. enigma stating that the solution would give the name of an ancient and renowned city, all the classical towns of any note that could be thought of were fixed for the identical one meant. Persepolis was a favourite city with more than one Edipus. Others contended that Hecatompylos was the lucky town. Some were for Heliopolis; Alexandria had a few adherents, and Athens was mentioned; while others took a sudden leap down the tide of ages, and descended at once to

Rheims and Wirtemberg, while an arch wit wrote a most elaborate essay, to prove that the words "ancient city" had been substituted for "ancient thoroughfare," and that the subject of the enigma was actually "MUTTON LANE."

When competition for the prize, or the complaisance of editors, was exhausted, it was discovered that the enigma was but a curtailed copy of a rebus published in the Gentleman's Magazine in March 1757. It was then attributed to Lord Chesterfield, and could scarcely have been the production of the lady named, as she was at that time only ten years of age. The following is a copy of the original bagatelle:

The noblest object in the works of art,

The brightest scenes which nature can impart;
The well-known signal in the time of
The point essential in a tenant's lease;

peace,

The farmer's comfort as he drives the plough,
A soldier's duty, and a lover's vow;
A contract made before the nuptial tie,
A blessing, riches never can supply;

A spot that adds new charms to pretty faces,
An engine used in fundamental cases;
A planet seen between the earth and sun,
A prize that merit never yet has won;
A loss which prudence seldom can retrieve,
The death of Judas, and the fall of Eve;
A part between the ancle and the knee,
A papist's toast, and a physician's fee;
A wife's ambition, and a parson's dues,
A miser's idol, and the badge of Jews.

If now your happy genius can divine,
The correspondent words in every line;
By the first letter plainly may be found,
An ancient city that is much renowned.

ON PURGATORY.

WHEN God Almighty had his palace fram'd,
The glorious shining place he heav'n nam'd;
And when the first apostate angel fell,
He doom'd him to a certain place call'd hell:
There's heav'n and hell confirm'd in sacred story,
But there I ne'er read word of purgatory;-

That cleansing place the priests of late have found,
For crazy souls to flux in till they're sound.
The priest found that for the good Roman race,
For God's Word ne'er mention'd such a place.
Oh Rome! we own thee for a learn'd wise nation,
To add a place wanting to God's creation.

Bibl. Sloan 1691.

A RECIPE FOR THE PAINS OF PURGATORY.

Or lay ignorance seven drachms, as many drachms of monk's devotion as you can get, half a score plenary indulgences, and a dozen of well-contrived equivocations; venial sins as many as you please, and a pocket full of dispensations. Boil these in a Jesuit's brain-pan, and put thereto the doctrines of probable opinions and seminary priests' loyalty. After fermentation, clap in nine modern miracles performed as by the asines of Father Crespie. To give it a tincture, sprinkle a small dash of penance, and roll up the whole in a mass of the pope's infallibility, and take it in a cup of absolution at the hour of death. Probatum est.

Ibid.

ANAGRAMS.

The writing of anagrams, trivial as this recreation may now appear, was once the favourite amusement of men of learning and ingenuity, and has found an advocate in one of the most learned of our English writers, Camden, who in his "Remains" has bequeathed to the world a treatise on this curious subject.

"The only quintessence," says this learned writer, “that hitherto the alchymy of wit could draw out of names, is anagrammatisme, or metagrammatisme, which is a dissolution of a name, truly written, into the letters as its elements, and a new connexion of it by artificial transposition, without addition, subtraction, or change of any letter, into different words, making some perfect sense applyable to the person named." He then proceeds to observe, that "the precise in this practice" adhere strictly to the rules in the definition here laid down, with the exception only of omitting or retaining the letter H, according to their convenience, "for that it cannot challenge the right of a letter." But the "licentiats,

on the other hand," he adds, "think it no injury to use E, for Æ; V, for W; S, for Z; and C, for K, and contrariwise." The same author calls the difficilis que pulchra, the charming difficulty of making an anagram, a whetstone of patience to them that shall practise it; for some have been seen to bite their pen, scratch their heads, bend their brows, bite their lips, beat the board, tear their paper, when the names were fair for somewhat, and caught nothing therein." Such was thecharming agony" of anagrammatizing; yet, adds the venerable author, notwithstanding "the sour sort of critics, good anagrams yield a delightful comfort and pleasant motion in honest minds."

Of the antiquity of this invention there can be no doubt. Camden seems disposed to refer its origin even to the time of Moses, and conceives that it might have formed some share in the mystical traditions, afterwards called cabala, communicated by that divine lawgiver to the chosen Seventy. Another writer on this subject observes, that the cabalists among the Jews were professed anagrammatists; the third part of their art which they called themuru, that is "changing," being nothing but the art of making anagrams, or of finding the hidden and mystical meaning in names; which they did by transposing, changing and differently combining the letters of those names. Thus, of the letters of Noah's name in Hebrew, they made grace; and of the Messiah, they made he shall rejoice. But, leaving this question to be settled by others more deeply conversant in biblical learning, it may be sufficient to state, that the art of anagrammatism may be traced to the age of Lycophron, a Greek writer who flourished about three hundred years before the Christian era. In his obscure poem of "Cassandra," which is on the subject of the war of Troy, he has recorded two of his anagrams. One is on the name of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in whose reign Lycophron lived, and is as follows:

Πτολεμαις. Απο μελιτος-Made of honey.

The other on Ptolemy's wife, Arsinöe, was thus:

Apoivon. Ep25 10-Juno's violet.
Αρσινόη. Ερας

means

We are also informed by Eustachius that this practice of anagrammatism was by no uncommon among the Greeks. Of some examples which he gives, the transposition of the word ApETY, virtue, into Epary, lovely, is the best.

Among modern nations, the French appear to have most cultivated this species of wit, which Camden says "they exceedingly admire, and celebrate for the deep and far-fetched antiquity and mystical meaning thereof." In the reign of Francis the First, when learning began to revive, they “began