O YES! O YES !.-Few persons would suppose, that a crier, when bawling in our courts of justice, or in country towns, "O yes! O yes!" was commanding the talkers to become hearers in the old French phrase Oyez, (listen,) which has been retained by this officer ever since legal pleadings were conducted in that languagethis, however, is the fact.

SIGN OF THE CROSS.-The custom of making a cross, when a person cannot write his name, is of great antiquity. In those times which are very properly called the dark ages, not only persons of the highest rank, but even many of the clergy, were unable to write or read. "It was usual," says Dr. Robertson, "for persons who could not write, to make the sign of the cross, in confirmation of a charter." Several of these remain, where Kings and persons of great eminence affix Signum crucis manu propria pro ignoratione literatum (unacquainted with letters, they made the sign of the cross with their own hand.) From this is derived the phrase of signing instead of subscribing a paper.

TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.-As the manner in which the translation of the Holy Scriptures, now in use, was performed, is not generally known, the following short account may prove acceptable, and will show the great care which was taken to render it as complete as might be within the reach of human intellect to accomplish. The translation was made at the command of James I. The translators were fiftyfour of the most learned men of that time, whose names are mentioned by Seldon.→→ They were divided into six bodies, of which each was to labour on a particular part. The Pentateuch and books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings, were assigned to one division; from the Chronicles to Ecclesiastes to a second; all the Prophets and Lamentations to a third; the Epistles to a fourth; the Gospels and Acts to a fifth; and the Apocrypha to a sixth. They met at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge, as it proved convenient to each body. The method in which they proceeded was this:Several translations of each part were drawn up by the members of that body to which it was allotted, who then, in a joint consultation, selected three of the best, or compiled them out of the whole number. Thus, in three years, three translations of the whole were sent to London : then six deputies, two from each place, were appointed to extract one translation, out of the three, which was finished and printed in the year 1611.

COALS. This useful fossil was known to the Britons before the arrival of the Romans, who, says Pennant, had not even a name for coals, though Theophrastus describes them very accurately, at least three centuries before the time of Cæsar, and even says that they were known to workers in brass. Brand says that they were burnt by the Romans. The Anglo-Saxons knew, and partly used them. Brand, however, observes, that they were not mentioned under the Danish usurpation, nor under the Normans; but were known in the reign of Henry III. In 1306 they were prohibited in London, as a nuisance, but used in the palace in 1321, and became, soon after, an important article of commerce. In 1512 they were not always used, because not having got to the main stratum, people complained that they would not burn without wood. The best was then sold at 5s. a chaldron; a bad sort at 4s. 2d. Except blacksmiths, they were confined in the 17th century, under the name of sea-coal, to the lower orders, who could not afford to buy wood; and were hawked about the streets in sacks, upon men's backs.

PIPING HOT. This expression is taken from the custom of a baker's blowing his pipe, or horn, in villages, to let the people know his bread is just drawn, and consequently "hot" and light.

CORAL REEFS. The growth of Coral reefs is among the most extraordinary operations of nature. It is caused by the agency of several small animals, or, more accurately speaking, insects of various species and sizes, which, at certain times, give an appearance of animation to the surface of the ocean for a considerable space. The reefs are never seen, however, to rise much above the water, but spread laterally to a great extent, and that too in equal dimensions from the top downwards, which occasions their sides to be so precipitate, as to cause the approach of vessels, from their inability to take soundings, to be attended with great danger.

GONE TO POT. This phrase appears to have been imported from the extremity of the globe. We are told that a tailor of Samarcand, the metropolis of Tartary, who lived near the gate which led to the burial-ground, whenever a corpse was carried by threw a little stone into an earthen pot, in order to ascertain the number of deaths in a given time: hence the saying, when any one is dead, "he is gone to pot."

ALL FOOLS' DAY.-This day is celebrated both in ancient and modern times. The Romans celebrated a festival in honour of Venus on that day, when they presented her with baskets of flowers, interspersed with sprigs of myrtle. The Hindoos have a day of fooleries, attended with every species of silly witticism, similar to our own. Our volatile neighbours, the French, have their " April fools" also; the person on whom the joke is successfully played off is called "un poisson d' Avril," an April Fish. The practice also obtains in Scotland, where the unlucky wight who happens to be the object of the practical joke, is called a gowk-that is, a cuckoo, the silliest of birds.

DIAMONDS IN BRAZIL.-Diamonds were discovered in Brazil, in 1727, but they were only sought for on the king's account in 1777. They were then found in the Sierra Saint Antoine, and on the left bank on the river Saint Francois; in the rivers Indaia, Abota, Sono, Prata, Paracatu, and Saint Antoine. These places were all surrounded with guards, as well as the District of Sierra de Frio, which has a surface of 100 square leagues. They have since been discovered in several other rivers and districts. The earth in which the diamonds are found is said to be an hydrate of iron, derived from ferruginons schistus.

COCHINEAL.-There are three kinds of cochineal. The first is the American, which is most used at present; superior in quality, and higher in price than the others. By Linné it is called coccus cacti. The second kind is found chiefly on a species of oak, the quercus ilex, in the Levant, Spain, France, and other southern countries, and is therefore called occus ilicis, coccus arborum and kermes. The third comprehends that saleable cochineal, found on the roots of several perennial plants, which is known commonly under the appellation of Polish or German cochineal, or coccus radicnm. The second species of it seems to have been used by all the nations of antiquity, and Professor Tychsen conceives it to have been known to Moses under the name of Iola. It was then used for giving the ground to cloths intended to be dyed with the rich purple. The following etymologies present themselves from the history of this insect. From its Latin apellation, coccus, the Spanish diminutive coccinella, cochineal; from its Arabic name kermez, the colour cramaisi; in French, crimsan. In the middle ages it was called vermiculum, whence vermiel and vermilion, though now applied to pulverized cinnabar.

HUZZAS. The huzza, as an accompaniment in drinking healths, appears to have been introduced in the joyous reign of that merry Monarch, Charles II., and first at the bacchanals of the Tories, of which the Whigs, "who liked not such music," took advantage to charge them with brutality and extravagance.

TRUE BLUE.-Coventry had formerly the reputation for dyeing blues: insomuch that true blue came to be a proverb, to signify one who was always the same and like himself.

INFLUENZA IN THE 16TH CENTURY.-Of this malady we have the following account in a letter from Randolph, the English Ambassador at the Court of Mary Queen of Scots, to Cecil (afterwards Lord Burghley,) dated Edinburgh, Nov. 30, 1562 :—“ May it please your Honour, immediately upon the Queen's arrival here she fell acquainted with a new disease, that is common in this town, called the 'New Acquaintance.' which passed also through her whole Court, neither sparing lord, lady, nor damsel, not so much as either French or English. It is a pain in their heads that have it, and a soreness in their stomachs, with a great cough; it remaineth with some longer, with others shorter time, as it findeth apt bodies for the nature of the disease. The Queen kept her bed six days. There was no appearance of danger, nor many that die of the disease, except some old folks. My Lord of Murray is now presently in it, and I am ashamed to say that I am free from it, seeing it seeketh acquaintance at all men's hands."

APOTHECARIES.—It is not easy to determine in what respects the pigmentarii, seplassiarii, pharmacopole, et mendicamentarii of the Romans agreed with, and in what respects they differed from, our modern apothecaries or each other :-but, when did physicians begin to give up entirely the preparation of medicines to apothecaries; and when did the latter acquire with their name an exclusive title to their business? Conring asserts that the first took place in Africa as early as the first century, whence it was introduced into Spain and Italy. The word apotheca signified any kind of store, magazine, or warehouse; and its proprietor was styled apothecarius. We must not, therefore, in writings of the 13th and 14th century, consider apotheca as a medicinal repository, but as a common shop; which is evident from its derivatives bottega in Italian, and boutique in French.

ROB PETER TO PAY PAUL.-This proverb had its origin in the time of Edward VI., when such of the lands of St. Peter, at Westminster, were invaded by the great men of the Court, who, therefore, allowed somewhat out of them towards the repair of St. Paul's Church.

CHIMNEYS.-If the houses of the ancient Romans had been furnished with chimneys, Vitruvius would not have failed to have given a description of their construction. Yet not a word about them is to be found in his works. Nor does Julius Pollux, who made a collection of the Greek names of all the parts of habitations, give a word for them any more than Grapaldus, who in more modern times formed a vocabulary of all the Latin words used in architecture. That there were no chimneys in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, seems proved by the curfew, couvre feu, of the English and Normans. In the lower ages the fire was made in a sort of stove, which the law required should be covered up on retiring to bed. The most ancient allusion extant as made to chimneys, is not earlier than the year 1347, a period at which an earthquake, which threw down a great many, happened at Venice. De Gatans, in his history of Padua, on going to Rome in 1368, and not finding a chimney in the hotel in which he lodged, was obliged to have some built by masons and carpenters whom he had sent after him. These were the first erected in that city, and the arms of the Signor of Padua were affixed to them, to commemorate the great event.

SALT.—In warm climates there are inlets of the sea, shut off occasionally from the parent ocean, and where, after the sun's rays have drank up all the water, the deposited salt remains to be carried away in loads for the uses of man, as sand is carried from any ordinary shore. There are in the bowels of the earth prodigious accumulations of salt, formed doubtless in the same way, during the revolutions of the antediluvian world, and now explored as salt mines. When the Nile overflows its banks with waters, dissolving, although in almost imperceptible proportion, mineral substances brought from central Africa, and fills reservoirs afterwards dried up by the sun's heat, it leaves in these a rich store of crystallized natron or soda.

THE PIG AND WHISTLE.-In almost every large town there is sure to be a public house with the sign of the "Pig and Whistle." The term is a corruption of the "Peg and Wassail." In the wassail bowl the liquor was divided into equal quantities by pegs placed one above the other, to make those who partook of the beverage drink fairly.

PAPER HANGINGS.-The invention of these is ascribed to England. An artist, named Jerome Lanyer, obtained from Charles I., a patent for affixing woollen and silken shreds on linen cloth, &c., for hangings; which, it is stated, preceded and suggested the use of paper for that purpose.

RICHARD THE THIRD'S CREST.-Richard's crest was a white boar. Ratcliffe, Catesby, and Lovel, giving the King their advice, gave rise to the following rhyme :—

The Cat, the Rat, and Lovel our Dogge,

Rulen all England under a Hogge.

A gentleman named Collingborne was executed on Tower Hill for the above effusion. He was hanged, cut down immediately, and his bowels cast into the fire, which torment was so speedily done, that when the butcher of an executioner pulled out his heart, (to use the words of the historian, Stow), "he spake and said, 'Jesus, Jesus!'"

THE DEATH-WATCH.-The male spider is supplied with a bottle or bladder, somewhat similar to a drum, and that ticking noise which has been termed the deathwatch, is nothing more than the sound he makes upon this little apparatus, in order to serenade and allure his mistress.

PRINTING.-Printing is but a modern invention, having been providentially discovered by Laurentius of Harlem, in consequence of cutting some letters on trees in a wood; afterwards rubbing them with ink, impressing a piece of paper upon them, and taking off the impressions, to amuse his grand-children. He first made use of separate wooden types, about 1430. Faustus of Mentz, and Guttemberg of Strasburg, acquired and improved the art, in consequence of his original invention. This important discovery has been attended with the most beneficial and wonderful results; for to it are owing chiefly our deliverance from ignorance and error, the progress of Learning, the revival of the Sciences, and numberless improvements in Arts, which, without this noble invention, would have been either lost to mankind, or confined to the knowledge of a few.

VOL. 10-No. 1-G.

SHAKSPERE.

BY JOHN BOLTON ROGERSON.

How shall we speak of him whose cherish'd name
Is link'd to glorious and undying fame;

Poet of every clime, and class, and age,

The worshipp'd wonder of the world's wide stage!
What pen can write, what tongue can speak of him
In terms that seem not lustreless and dim?

Yet turn we ever wondering to the past,

To pierce the shroud round Shakspere's greatness cast.
How look'd he in his mortal life, how spoke
Those lips that passions numberless have woke?
How fashion'd was the temple that enshrined
The rare and matchless jewel of his mind?
What was the seeming of his human form,
Ere it became a dweller with the worm?

What were the sources from whose founts he drew
His draughts of knowledge, ever fresh and true?
What volumes came before his studious sight,
Whose leaves for him bore fruits of wise delight?
Who were the co-mates of that wondrous man,
Who knew alike both prince and artizan ?
With equal skill he painted mirth and woe-
What joys were his, what sorrows did he know?
Alike he knew the smallest, greatest things,
The schemes of pedlars, and the plots of kings,
The buoyant hopes of youth, the cares of age,
The quips of jester, and the saws of sage.
With fairy elves he fill'd the mystic green,
Or cast his spells o'er some enchanted scene;
For him the past gave up its mighty dead,
And heroes paced again with mailed tread;
He waved at will his ever-potent wand,

And forms appear'd from known and unknown land :
His genius and his life must ever be

At once a miracle and mystery!

Great Shakspere !-at the name each bosom thrills,
And every heart with fond emotion fills-
Glory of nations! 'tis our boast and pride
To say on England's shore he lived and died!
In his own birth-place did his eye-lids close,
In native earth his "honour'd bones" repose.
No high ancestral lineage did he trace,
He was the best and greatest of his race,
Noblest of nobles, king sovereign men,
Who sway the soul, whose sceptre is the pen.
Wherever mind curbs might, or thought is free,
The people own his heart-throned majesty.
We have the dwelling where his childish eyes
First learn'd to look upon the blessed skies,
Where once he clung around the parent knee,
And lisp'd the words of guileless infancy.
There pass'd the morning of his life, whose prime
Pour'd quenchless splendour o'er his land and time;
And near that home came on his eve and night—.

To him the heralds of immortal light.
And shall we suffer then to pass away

Our Shakspere's home like things of common clay
Shall ruin desecrate his loved retreat,

The hallow'd shrine of thousand pilgrim feet?
It must not be !-those lowly walls shall stand,
Guarded with reverent care, to grace the land;
And countless suns shall yet a radiance shed
O'er that dear roof which shelter'd Shakspere's head!

THE DUTCH SLEEPER.

1.

THE MAN.

KAREL PIETREHL was an honest, round little man, sedentary and phlegmatic, pensive and patient, following the respectable and profitable trade of breeches-maker, in the town ofin the province of

His face was the index of his mind, there being nothing very remarkable or sagacious in it. A joke or a witticism being as foreign to his understanding as to his utterance, for he could neither give nor take, always measuring his periods, and clipping his words, with the same exactness as he did his cloth.

In his gait there was neither gentility nor firmness; for his legs, small and slender in proportion to his bulk, being rather inclined to bow, occasioned him to waddle and trundle along, to the great diversion and mockery of every little scapegrace in the town. But the breeches-maker was a man of too much solidity to be moved by a trifle; and although he never laughed at their derision, or indeed at any thing else in the whole course of his life, their satirical remarks were wholly disregarded, and puffing forth the fumes of his pipe, with his hands thrust in the capacious pockets of his nether coverings, he made his way with the precision and diligence of a trekschuyt.

Yet, notwithstanding all the mental and personal peculiarities of Karel Pietrehl, he was a general favourite with all who knew him, In fact, it was doubtless to those very peculiarities he owed their favour, and most of his associates being shrewd fellows, and fond of cracking a joke, in a good-humoured way, they regarded Karel as a most eligible butt for their raillery; and the more so, as their wit, however broad, was very unlikely to give offence where its point was neither felt nor understood. Yet, like the concussion of flint and steel, the meeting of Karel and his comrades, was always productive of some bright sparks.

II.

HIS DWELLING

Was that of his forefathers, where, even in the remembrance of Karel, his grandfather Markus, and his own father, Gerrit Pietrehl, had manufactured coverings for the lower parts of the grandfathers and fathers of half the town of ; and here did he more diligently pursue his sedentary labour after the good and excellent example of his breeches-making and industrious progenitors, following their cut and fashion as the thread followeth the needle; and every body, not without reason, reckoned him a man of tolerable substance; for Karel was no rolling stone, though he might certainly look one, having (never travelled further than from one end of the town to the other.

like

III

AN OBSERVATION.

A man's fame is very often his misfortune; for no sooner doth fortune or favour aise man above his proper level, than he is immediately rendered uneasy by those