Mr Cogan said that PORSON said to him, " Bp Pearson would have been a greater man than Bentley, if he had not muddled his head with theology, at least, as great."

At the Cyder-Cellar as he was drinking a glass of ale, he observed to a gentleman whom he had never met before, that the liquor was known to the ancients; the stranger said, Perhaps theirs was whiskey. This led to a conversation in which the stranger manifested profound learning and judgment, and excited PORSON's surprise and curiosity. He in vain tried to find him out.

Some one mentioned to PORSON WAKEFIELD's ability to repeat Homer, etc. and the latter said that he would undertake to get the Morning Chronicle by heart in a week.

DR BARNES wrote an article on THIRKELD's memory in the Monthly Repository.

MR DEWHURST, complimented about his memory, modestly said that he never forgot what he particularly wished to remember.

MR COGAN, referring to a conjecture of the REV. F. Howes, said that DOBREE in his Adversaria had the same conjecture, KAI MHN. He considered MR HOWES to be a liberal minded man, and said that, if they met, they would quarrel about neither creeds nor cæsuras.

On the digamma he thinks that THIERSCH in his GREEK GRAMMAR has exhausted the subject: he is surprised that SPITZNER should reject the digamma. If HOMER uses 'ergon 100 times with the digamma, and 10 times without, the inference is that the latter are corruptions, or mere exceptions to a general rule. He observed that HOMER is not to be compared with HOMER, but with APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, etc.

LIII. Epitaph on Shakespeare.

"We shall conclude our notice of this interesting volume, by giving the best epitaph on Shakspeare that ever was written;

by whom composed does not appear: we met with it in a very clever work, and it will form a good motto for Mr Collier's new edition.

IN THIS HERE place the bones of Shakspeare lie,
But THAT ERE form of his shall never die :

A SPEEDY END AND SOON this world may have,

But Shakespeare's name shall BLOOM beyond the grave."

Notice of J. P. Collier's NEW FACTS regarding the Life of Shakspeare, in Gent. Mag. Sept. 1835. p. 289.

LIV. DR COGAN.

London, Sept. 11, 1835. I drank tea with the REV. Jos. HUNTER, who said of DR COGAN that he had heard him tell the story about the old lady, who refused to receive him as physician in the place of her regular medical attendant, whom he had engaged to assist during his absence. Oh, said he, I have a wig and cane at home, I will step home and fetch them! In early life he was a Minister to a small congregation of English Prcsbyterians at Southampton, and he said of them that their souls were so few, that they were not worth saving! Some time before MR HUNTER said that DR HARRINGTON got great credit by putting up the Inscription at Bath 'áriston mèn húdor, which was in fact an old Inscription at KNARES

BOROUGH.

LV. Gaisford-Burgess, &c.

LONDON, Sept. 21, 1835. At Mr DYCE's rooms I met a Mr JOHNSTONE OF JOHNSON, a Clergyman I think of DORSETSHIRE, who expressed a desire to call on me. He said that the conjecture on HORACE by BP. BURGESS at the end of DAWES about stagna lacusque he had found to be confirmed by the ALDINE edition. DYCE said that WYTTENBACH said of GAISFORD, that

he was the only ENGLISHMAN, whom he had seen, that could not talk Latin or French. GEO. BURGES had said the night before, that, when PORSON was asked his opinion about something, it was not safe to speak, as peradventure eavesdroppers might be present, and he seems to have alluded to ELMSLEY.

LONDON, Sept. 25, 1835. The REV. ARTHUR JOHNSON, whom I met at MR DYCE's, said that RICHARD SHARP ESQ. told to him this story about TWEDDELL: He took him to a club one night, when he had come up fresh and blooming with University-laurels, and there he met some eminently intellectual men; he was foiled in arguing on every topic. When he came from the club, he said to SHARP with reference to it, that he was considering whether he ought to shut himself up and study hard for 10 years or throw himself into the Thames. So much mortified was his vanity at his defeat.

LVII. Statues worn away by kissing.

Cicero speaks of a bronze statue of Hercules, which had the features worn away by the frequent osculations of the devout. Several instances of the same have occurred in modern times. The face of the figure of the Saviour, among the bronze bas-reliefs, which adorn the Casa Sancta at Loretto, has in this ways been quite kissed away. The foot of the famous statue of St Peter in the Vatican has lost much of its metal by the continual application of the lips and foreheads of votaries; and it has been found necessary to protect the foot of the statue of the Saviour by Michael, in the Minerva, from similar injury by a brass buskin." The Globe, Oct. 3, 1835.

LVIII. "HERACLITUS RIDENS:

AT

A Dialogue between Jest and Earnest, concerning the Times. Numb. 72. Tuesday, June the 13th, 1682.

JEST. I'M glad I have met with you. Do you hear of any Committees re-erected at Haberdashers-Hall, or Goldsmithshall? any plunderings, Sequestrations, Decimations, Imprisonments, in the Ships, Peter-house, Lambeth-House, or so? any body that has lately been turn'd out of his House, forc'd to fly, or starv'd for doing the duty of a Christian, and of a Loyal Subject?

EARN. Not a word; I can't guess what you would be at.

JEST. Why, the Town rings of Persecution; the Whigs talk of nothing but the tyrannies of Nero and Dioclesian, and the sad State of things in the Primitive times.

EARN. I wish any thing could make them Primitive Christians, i. e. obedient and loyal. But if by Persecution you intend the late Essays that have been made towards a Prosecution of Dissenters upon the Penal Laws of the Kingdom, let me tell you, though I am of a Temper tame and mild enough, and, as you know, of no persecuting Spirit, yet to speak a bold Truth to a Friend, I would be heartly glad to see a vigorous Execution of the Laws upon the Persecutors of the Government. JEST. How so! how d'ye mean Persecuters of the Government ?

EARN. Why, I would appeal to any indifferent man, whether the generality of Dissenters, by banding with the Faction, have not given His Majesty more trouble and greater Affronts than any foreign Enemy the Nation has had these many years? whether 'tis not very probable, the Citizens of Rotterdam would have given more deference to the Inclinations or Aversions of the King, than our Whigs have of late done? and whether they do not still do their utmost to perplex the Publick Administration of Affairs ?

JEST. That's manifest.

EARN. Then I'm sure House-breakers, Highway-men, or any other Malefactors have as just ground for Clamour as they. JEST. Whatever our opinion be of the matter, I can assure you, the Whigs are strangely taken off their wonted briskness; they now walk the streets as demurely as men in debt, with Clouds on their Faces and nothing but Calamity in their Mouths. Nay, they'd almost threaten to flee the Land and put themselves under the protection of the French King in greater numbers than the Hugonots lately came over to implore his Majesties Pity. And a fair swop, cry I.

EARN. And I. But with what face can these fellows eat Venison-Pasty and drink Pontaque till their Paunches are as hard as a Drum, and their Eyes start out of their Heads, and yet all the while complain of Persecution. I am confident that those empty squeaking Puppets, their Preachers, are generally more plentifully allow'd by the fond Prodigality of their deluded Followers than most of the Orthodox learned Clergy would expect.

JEST. 'Tis very true, as you say, and 'tis methinks as strange; for I have heard some of 'em, whose abilities could not among understanding men advance them above a Groom or Thresher, and yet their maintenance has been more comfortable than an ordinary Bishoprick. I have often admir'd by what method they acquire these advantages? How do they make one of these Pulpit-thumpers ?

EARN. A little matter does it. Without fetching the tedious compass of a long expensive Education, they can at any time turn short upon the business; or to humour their Trading way with a suitable Phrase, upon a small Apprenticeship they have liberty to set up. For Gifts, you know, come easier than acquired Learning and Knowledge. The latter are the leisurely effects of Labour and Sweat and Reading, the former are only sudden strong Impulses and fortunate Incomes.

JEST. Troth, Brother, bating that you decline the Cant, methinks you have much of the obscurity of a Non-Con. Parson in this talk. I don't fully take you.