where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly; but when he came to the seats to which he was invited, the jest was to sit close and expose him, as he stood out of countenance, to the whole audience. The frolic went round the Athenian benches. But on those occasions there were also particular places assigned for foreigners. When the good man skulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that honest people, more virtuous than polite, rose up all to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians being suddenly touched with a sense of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applause; and the old man cried out, The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lacedemonians practise it.

STEELE.

Ridiculous Superstition.

GOING yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected. Upon asking him the occasion of it, he told me that his wife had dreamt a strange dream the night before, which they were afraid portended some misfortune to themselves or to their children. At her coming into the room, I observed

signe de venir s'asseoir auprès d'eux. Le bon vieillard se glissa, avec beaucoup de peine, à travers la foule, jusqu'à l'endroit où ils étoient; alors ils se serrèrent tellement, qu'il n'y eut plus de place; de sorte qu'il fut contraint de se tenir debout sans contenance, et de rester exposé aux yeux de toute l'assemblée, ce qui étoit le but qu'ils se proposoient. Mais il y avoit dans ces spectacles des places destinées pour les étrangers. Quand le vieillard s'avança tout confus vers les loges des Lacédémoniens, ceux-ci, d'une nation plus vertueuse que polie, se levèrent tous à son approche, et le reçurent avec le plus grand respect. Les Athéniens, frappés tout-à-coup de la vertu des Spartiates et de l'indignité de leur propre conduite, les applaudirent d'une commune voix ; et le vieillard s'écria: Les Athéniens savent ce qui est honnête, mais les Lacédémoniens le pratiquent.

Superstition ridicule.

STEELE.

ÉTANT allé dîner hier chez un de mes anciens amis, j'eus le déplaisir de trouver toute sa famille dans une grande consternation. Sur ce que je lui en demandai la cause, il me répondit que sa femme avoit eu, la nuit précédente, un rêve fort extraordinaire, qui les menaçoit, eux ou leurs enfans, de quelque malheur. Dès que la dame entra dans l'ap

a settled melancholy in her countenance, which I should have been troubled for, had I not heard from whence it proceeded. We were no sooner sat down, but after having looked upon me a little while, 'My dear,' says she, turning to her husband, you may now see the stranger that was in the candle last night.' Soon after this, as they began to talk of family affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the table told her, that he was to go into join-hand on Thursday. Thursday!' says she, 'No, child, if it please God, you shall not begin upon Childermas-day; tell your writingmaster that Friday will be soon enough.' I was reflecting with myself on the oddness of her fancy, and wondering that any body would establish it as a rule, to lose a day in every week. In the midst of these my musings, she desired me to reach her a little salt upon the point of my knife, which I did in such a trepidation and hurry of obedience, that I let it drop by the way; at which she immediately startled, and said it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and observing the concern of the whole table, began to consider myself with some confusion, as a person that had brought a disaster upon the family. The lady, however, recovering herself after a little space, said to her husband with a sigh, 'My dear, misfortunes never come single.' My friend, I found, acted but an under part at his table, and being a

partement, elle me parut d'une si profonde mélancolie, que son état m'auroit inquiété, si je n'avois su déjà ce qui le causoit. Nous ne fûmes pas plus tôt assis autour de la table, qu'après m'avoir un peu envisagé, elle se tourna vers son mari, et lui dit : Mon ami, vous pouvez reconnoître à présent l'étranger qui étoit la nuit passée dans la chandelle. Bientôt après, comme ils commençoient à parler de leurs affaires domestiques, un petit garçon, qui étoit au bas de la table, dit à sa mère que, le jeudi suivant, il devoit commencer à écrire des syllabes et des mots entiers. Jeudi? répliqua la dame; non, mon fils; vous ne commencerez pas, s'il plaît à Dieu, le jour des Innocens; dites à votre maître d'école que ce sera assez tôt de commencer vendredi. Je réfléchissois sur cette bizarrerie, étonné de voir qu'il y eût quelqu'un qui voulût établir, comme une règle, la nécessité de perdre un jour toutes les semaines, quand la dame me pria de lui donner un peu de sel sur la pointe de mon couteau. Je lui obéis avec tant de distraction et de promptitude, que je laissai tomber le sel à moitié chemin. A cette vue, elle frémit, et dit que le sel s'étoit répandu vers elle. J'en fus moi-même tout interdit; et, honteux de voir que tout le monde s'alarmoit de cet accident, je crus avoir attiré quelque désastre sur la famille. Cependant la dame, revenue à elle-même un instant après, dit à son mari, en jetant un soupir: Mon cher, un

man of more good nature than understanding, thinks himself obliged to fall in with all the passions and humours of his yoke-fellow. Do not you remember, child,' says she, that the pigeonhouse fell the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the table?' 'Yes,' says he, my dear, and the next post brought us an account of the battle of Almanza.' The reader may guess at the figure I made, after having done all this mischief. I dispatched my dinner as soon as I could, with my usual taciturnity; when to my utter confusion, the lady seeing me quitting my knife and fork, and laying them across one another upon my plate, desired me that I would humour her so far as to take them out of that figure, and place them side by side. What the absurdity was which I had committed 1 did not know, but I suppose there was some traditionary superstition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the lady of the house, I disposed of my knife and fork in two parallel lines, which is the figure I shall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reason for it.

It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an aversion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the lady's looks, that she regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an'