Then comes Talleyrand, who is reported to have said :--
La parole n'a été donnée à l'homme que pour déguiser sa pensée.

The latest writer who adopts this remark without acknowledgment is, I believe, Lord Holland. In his Life of Lope de Vega he says of certain Spanish writers, promoters of the cultismo style :-

Those authors do not avail themselves of the invention of letters for the purpose of conveying, but of concealing, their ideas.

From these passages it will be seen that the germ of the thought occurs in Jeremy Taylor; that Lloyd and South improved upon it; that Butler, Young, and Goldsmith repeated it; that Voltaire translated it into French; that Talleyrand echoed Voltaire's words; and that it has now become so familiar an expression that any one may quote it, as Lord Holland has done, without being at the trouble of giving his authority.

PLUM-PUDDING.

Southey, in his Omniana, vol. i. p. 7, quotes the following receipt for English plum-pudding, as given by the Chevalier d'Arvieux, who in 1658 made a voyage in an English forty-gun ship:-

Leur pudding était détestable. C'est un composé de biscuit pilé, ou de farine, de lard, de raisins de Corinthe, de sel, et de poivre, dont on fait une pâte, qu'on enveloppe dans une serviette, et que l'on fait cuire dans le pot avec du bouillon de la viande; on la tire de la serviette, et on la met dans un plat, et on rappe dessus du vieux fromage, qui lui donne une odeur insupportable. Sans ce fromage la chose en elle-même n'est pas absolument mauvaise.

WILLIAM COWPER.

In the midsummer holidays of 1799, being on a visit to an old and opulent family of the name of Deverell, in Dereham, Norfolk, I was taken to the house of an ancient lady (a member

tea.

of the aforesaid family), to pay my respects to her, and to drink Two visitors were particularly expected. They soon arrived. The first, if I remember rightly (for my whole attention was singularly riveted to the second), was a pleasant-looking, lively young man, very talkative and entertaining; his companion was above the middle height, broadly made, but not stout, and advanced in years. His countenance had a peculiar charm that I could not resist. It alternately exhibited a deep sadness, a thoughtful repose, a fearful and an intellectual fire, that surprised and held me captive. His manner was embarrassed and reserved. He spoke but little. Yet once he was roused to animation; then his voice was full and clear. I have a faint recollection that I saw his face lighted up with a momentary smile. His hostess kindly welcomed him as "Mr. Cooper." After tea, we walked for a while in the garden. I kept close to his side, and once he addressed me as "My little master." I returned to school; but that variable, expressive, and interesting countenance I did not forget. In after years, standing, as was my wont, before the shop windows of the London booksellers (I have not quite left off this old habit!), reading the title-pages of tomes that I intensely longed, but had not then the money to purchase, I recognised at a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard that well-remembered face, prefixed to a volume of poems, "written by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq." The cap (for when I saw "Mr. Cooper " he wore a wig, or his hair, for his age, was unusually luxuriant) was the only thing that puzzled me. To make " assurance doubly sure," I hastened to the house of a near relation hard by, and I soon learnt that "Mr. Cooper" was William Cowper. The welcome present of a few shillings put me in immediate possession of the coveted volumes. I will only just add, that I read and re-read them; that the man whom, in my early boyhood, I had so mysteriously reverenced, in my youth I deeply and devotedly admired and loved! Many, many years have since

passed away; but that reverence, that admiration, and that love have experienced neither diminution nor change.

It was something, said Washington Irving, to have seen even the dust of Shakspeare. It is something, too, to have beheld the face and to have heard the voice of Cowper. GEORGE DANIEL.

SHAKSPEARE'S BEDSIDE.

The accompanying BALLAD originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1797, page 912. The author, fancifully enough, imagines the various editions of Shakspeare brought in succession to the sick-bed of the immortal bard, and has curiously detailed the result of their several prescriptions:—

Old Shakspeare was sick-for a doctor he sent
But 'twas long before any one came;

Yet at length his assistance Nic Row did present;
Sure all men have heard of his name.

As he found that the poet had tumbled his bed;
He smooth'd it as well as he could;

He

gave him an anodyne, comb'd out his head,
But did his complaint little good.

Doctor Pope to incision at once did proceed,
And the Bard for the simples he cut;
For his regular practice was always to bleed,
Ere the fees in his pocket he put.

Next Theobald advanced, who at best was a quack,
And dealt but in old women's stuff ;

Yet he caused the physician of Twick'nam to pack,
And the patient grew cheerful enough.

Next Hanmer, who fees ne'er descended to crave,

In gloves lily-white did advance;

To the Poet the gentlest of purges he gave,

And, for exercise, taught him to dance.

One Warburton, then, tho' allied to the Church,
Produced his alterative stores;

But his med'cines the case so oft left in the lurch
That Edwards* kick'd him out of doors.

Next Johnson arrived to the patient's relief,
And ten years he had him in hand;
But, tired of his task, 'tis the gen'ral belief,
He left him before he could stand.

Now Capel drew near, not a Quaker more prim,
And number'd each hair in his pate;

By styptics, call'd stops, he contracted each limb,
And crippled for ever his gait.

From Gopsal then strutted a formal old goose,
And he'd cure him by inches, he swore ;
But when the poor Poet had taken one dose,
He vow'd he would swallow no more.

But Johnson, determined to save him or kill,

A second prescription display'd;

And that none might find fault with his drop or his pill,

Fresh doctors he called to his aid.

First, Steevens came loaded with black-letter books,

Of fame more desirous than pelf;

Such reading, observers might read in his looks,

As no one e'er read but himself.

Then Warner, by Plautus and Glossary known,

And Hawkins, historian of sound ;†

Then Warton and Collins together came on,
For Greek and potatoes renown'd.

* One Edwards, an apothecary, who seems to have known [more] of the poet's case than some of the regular physicians who undertook to cure him.

+ From the abilities and application of Sir J. Hawkins, the publick is now furnished with a compleat history of the science of musick.

With songs on his pontificalibus pinn'd,

Next, Percy the Great did appear;

And Farmer, who twice in a pamphlet had sinn'd,
Brought up the empirical rear.

"The cooks the more num'rous the worse is the broth,"

Says a proverb I well can believe;

And yet to condemn them untried I am loth,

So at present shall laugh in my sleeve.

RIGDUM FUNNIDOS.

[At page 1108 of the same volume will be found the following reply :

ANSWER TO SHAKSPEARE'S BEDSIDE; OR THE

DOCTORS ENUMERATED.

How could you assert, when the Poet was sick,
None hit off a method of cure;

When Montagu's pen, like a magical stick,
His health did for ever ensure?

NAPOLEON.

The Bonapartes are said to have adopted the name of Napoleon from Napoleon des Ursins, a distinguished character in Italian story, with one of whose descendants they became connected by marriage; and the first of the family to whom it was given was a brother of Joseph Bonaparte, the grandfather of Napoleon I. Many are the jeux de mots that have been made on this name; but the following, in Littérature Française Contemporaine, vol. ii. p. 266, is perhaps the most remarkable.

The word Napoleon, being written in Greek characters, will form seven different words, by dropping the first letter of each in succession; namely, Ναπολέων, Απολεων, Πολεων, Ολεων, Λεων,