121 ideas to be "the immediate, or nearest Mallebranche was treated as a visionary Pythagoras and his disciples understood 66 122 rists expressed themselves with regard to Heraclitus adopted those first principles. Democritus also taught, that the images Plato, who, of all the ancient philoso- Mallebranche would not have been railed against as impious, had his antagonists known to whom he was indebted for his opinions and reasonings; and that St. Augustine himself had said, "Ideas are eternal and immutable; the exemplars, or archetypes of all created things; and, in short, exist in God." In this respect he differs somewhat from Plato, who separated them from the divine essence: but we may easily discern a perfect conformity between the father of the church and the modern philosopher. Leibnitz was in some measure of the opinion of father Mallebranche; and it was natural that he should be, for he derived his principles from the same ancient sources. His "monads" were "entities truly existing; simple substances; the eternal images of universal nature." noble fortune in acts of benevolence, fell into poverty in his old age, and was refused admittance into an hospital which, in his better days, he had himself paid for building. In Spain, the great Cervantes died of hunger; and Camoens, equally celebrated in Portugal, ended his days in an hospital. In France, Vaugelas was surnamed "the Owl," from having been obliged to keep within all day, and only venturing out by night, through fear of his creditors. In his last will, he bequeathed every thing towards the discharge of his debts, and desired his body to be sold, to that end. Cassander was one of the greatest ge niuses of his time, but barely able to procure his livelihood. In England, the last days of Spenser, Otway, Butler, and Dryden are our national reproach. ON 'CHANGE. For the Table Book. S. S. S. NOAH is now a tailor, No. 63, Pall-mall. HAM, a watchmaker, No. 47, Skinner-street, Snow-hill. ISAAC, a fishmonger, No. 8, Cullum-street. JACOB, an umbrella and parasol maker, No. 42, Burlington Arcade. ISRAEL is a surgeon in Keppell-street, Russel-square. JOSEPH is a pencil manufacturer, No. 7, Oxford-street. JOSHUA, a grocer, No. 155, Regent-street. SIMON, a ship broker, No. 123, Fenchurch street. THE GRETNA GREEN PARSONS. The first person that twined the bands of Hymen this way is supposed to have been a man named Scott, who resided at the Rigg, a few miles from the village of Gretna, about 1750 or 1760. He was accounted a shrewd, crafty fellow, and little more is known of him. George Gordon, an old soldier, started up as his successor. He always appeared on marriage occasions in an antiquated full military costume, wearing a large cocked hat, red coat, jack boots, and a ponderous sword dangling at his side. If at any time he was interrogated "by what authority he joined persons in wedlock?" he boldly answered, "I have a special license from government, for which I pay fifty pounds per annum.' He was never closely examined on the subject, and a delusion prevailed during his life, that a privilege of the kind really existed. " Several persons afterwards attempted to establish themselves in the same line, but none were so successful as Joseph Paisley, who secured by far the greatest run of business, in defiance of every opposition. It was this person who obtained the appellation of the "Old blacksmith," probably on account of the mythological conceit of Vulcan being employed in rivetting the hymeneal chains. Paisley was first a smuggler, then a tobacconist, but never, at any time, a blacksmith He commenced his mock pontifical career about 1789. For many years he was careful not to be pub- licly seen on such occasions, but stole through by-paths to the house where he was called to officiate, and he there gave a certificate miserably written, and the orthography almost unintelligible, with a feigned signature. An important trial arose out of one of his marriages; and on being summoned to London in consequence, to undergo an examination, he was so much alarmed that he was induced to consult a gentleman of the Scotch bar on the occasion. His legal adviser stated as his opinion, that using a feigned name was decidedly a misdemeanour, and recommended the mock parson to effect, if possible, the destruction of the original certificate, and substitute another in which he should appear by his own name, and merely as a witness to the parties' declaration that they were married persons. Afterwards, he invariably adopted the plan of merely subscribing his own name as a witness in future; and this has been the usual course of his successors. From that period he made no secret of his profession, but openly After the decease of Paisley, the field There are two principal practitioners at present, one of whom was originally a chaise-driver; the other, David Laing, an old soldier, who figured as a witness on the trial of the Wakefields. At home they exhibit no parade of office; they may be seen in shabby clothes at the kitchen firesides of the pot-houses of the village, the companions of the sots of the country, and disrespected by every class. A BLACK DREAM. A number of years bygone, a black man, named Peter Cooper, happened to marry one of the fair towns-women of Greenock, who did not use him with that tenderness that he conceived himself entitled to. Having tried all other arts to retrieve her lost affections in vain, Peter at last resolved to work upon her fears of punishment in another world for her conduct in this. Pretending, therefore, to awake one morning extravagantly alarmed, his helpmate was full of anxiety to know what was the matter; and having sufficiently, as he thought, whetted her curiosity, by mysteriously hinting that "he could a tale unfold," at length Peter proceeded as follows:-"H-11 ob a dream last night. I dream I go to Hebben and rap at de doa, and a gent'man com to de doa wid black coat and powda hair. Whoa dere?-Peeta Coopa.-Whoa Peeta Coopa? Am not know you. Not knowa Peeta Coopa! Look de book, sa.-He take de book, and he look de book, and he could'na find Peeta Coopa.-Den I say, Oh! lad, oh! look again, finda Peeta Coopa in a corna. He take de book, an he look de book, an at last he finda Peeta Coopa in lilly, lilly (little) corna.- Peeta Coopa,cook ob de Royal Charlotte ob Greenock.' Walk in, sa.-Den I walk in, and dere was every ting—all kind of vittal-collyflower too-an I eat, an I drink, an I dant, an I ting, an I neva be done; segar too, by Gum.-Den I say, Oh! lad, oh! look for Peeta Coopa wife. He take de book, an he look all oba de book, many, many, many a time, corna an all; an he couldna finda Peeta Coopa wife. Den I say, Oh! lad, oh! look de black book; he take de black book, an he look de black book, and he finda Peeta Cooopa wife fust page,-PeetaCoopa-wife, buckra-woman, bad-to-her-husband.'"* A MUCH-INJURED MAN. George Talkington, once a celebrated horse-dealer at Uttoxeter, who died on the 8th of April, 1826, at Cheadle, Cheshire, in his eighty-third year, met with more accidents than probably ever befell any other human being. Up to the year 1793 they were as follows:-Right shoulder broken; skull fractured, and trepanned; left arm broken in two places; three ribs on the left side broken; a cut on the forehead; lancet case, flue case, and knife forced into the thigh; three ribs broken on • Times, July 7, 1827, from Greenock Advertiser. the right side; and the right shoulder, elbow, and wrist dislocated; back seriously injured; cap of the right knee kicked off; left ancle dislocated; cut for a fistula; right ancle dislocated and hip knocked down; seven ribs broken on the right and left sides; kicked in the face, and the left eye nearly knocked out; the back again seriously injured; two ribs and breast-bone broken; got down and kicked by a horse, until he had five holes in his left leg; the sinew just below the right knee cut through, and two holes in that leg, also two shocking cuts above the knee; taken apparently dead seven times out of different rivers. Since 1793, (when a reference to these accidents was given to Mr. Madely, surgeon, of Uttoxeter,) right shoulder dislocated and collar-bone broken; seven ribs broken; breast-bone laid open, and right shoulder dislocated; left shoulder dislocated, and left arm broken; two ribs broken; and right thigh much bruised near the pope's eye. In 1819, then in his seventysixth year, a lacerated wound in the calf of the leg, which extended to the foot, mortification of the wound took place, which exposed all the flexor tendons of the foot, also the capsular ligaments of the ancle joint; became delirious, and so continued upwards of three weeks: his wonderful recovery from this accident was attributed chiefly to the circumstance of a friend having supplied him with a quantity of old Madeira, a glass of which he took every two hours for eight weeks, and afterwards occasionally. Since then, in 1823, in his eightieth year he had a mortification of the second toe of the right foot, with exfoliation of the bone, from which he recovered, and at last died from gradually declining old age. He was the father of eighteen children, by one wife, in fifteen years, all of whom he survived, and married again at the age of seventy-four.* GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION. A farmer's son, just returned from a boarding school, was asked "if he knew grammar ?"-" Oh yes, father!" said the pupil, "I know her very well;-Grammer sits in the chair fast asleep." P. Oxford and University Herald, April 29, 1826. "Communicated by J. J. A. F. |