music and dancing, were it only upon the ground that they cannot " leave a joy for memory." This is somewhat too serious a strain to be introduced by Vestris, the royal professor, and the Duke of York; but they who understand the process of the associations of thought may see how I have slipt into this moralizing mood, by writing slowly, idly, and letting thought ramble on. If further exemplification be needful, go and read Montaigne.

42. The Virgin Mary's Milk.

The relicks of the Virgin Mary's milk are well explained by Pietro della Valle. They shew a cave at Bethlehem where she is said to have hidden herself and the child from Herod. The soil is a soft white stone, which is of course excellent in all diseases, but has a special virtue to bring back the milk to a mother who may have lost it. For this reason the powder is called by the monks who administer it

in water, the Virgin's Milk. It would be brought to Europe as a treasure, and the origin of the name is quite as likely to have been mistaken by pious credulity, as to have been concealed by fraud.

43. Omar II.

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Mogiouschon, an author famous for his visions, asserted that he had seen Omar II. in Paradise, reposing upon the bosom of the Prophet, having Abubeker at his right hand, and the first Omar at his left. Astonished to see this preference over the two first Caliphs given to Omar-ebn Abdalazis, Mogiouschon asked an angel the reason, who replied that Abubeker and Omar had exercised justice, and practised the law in the first age and fervour of their religion; but that Omar-ebn Abdalazis had surpassed them in merit, because he exercised the same virtues in an age of injustice and corruption.

44. Tomb-flies.

When the French, in their war with Pedro of Aragon, took Gerona, a swarm of white flies is said to have proceeded from the body of St. Narcis, in the church of St. Phelin (I copy the names as they stand in the Catalan* author) which stung the French, and occasioned such a mortality, that they evacuated the city. This is so extraordinary a miracle that there is probably some truth in it, because miracle-mongers have never the least invention, and because a curious. fact in confirmation of it is to be found in the Monthly Magazine for December, 1805. "In preparing for the foundation. of the New Church at Lewes, it became necessary to disturb the mouldering bones of the long defunct, and in the prosecution of that unavoidable business a leaden coffin was taken up, which, on being opened, exhibited a complete ske

*Pere Tomich. ff, 39.

leton of a body that had been interred about sixty years, whose leg and thigh bones, to the utter astonishment of all present, were covered with myriads of flies (of a species, perhaps, totally unknown to the naturalist) as active and strong on the wing as gnats flying in the air, on the finest evening in summer. The wings of this non-descript are white, and for distinction's sake, the spectators gave it the name of the coffin-fly. The lead was perfectly sound, and presented not the least chink or crevice for the admission of air. The moisture of the flesh had not yet left the bones, and the fallen beard lay on the under jaw."

Such a swarm of white flies very probably proceeded from the Saint's coffin; that he produced them by virtue of his saintship, and that they produced the infection among the French, would be believed in that age by all parties.

45. Thomas O'Brien Mac Mahon.

I have a book, the author of which must have been in a violent passion during the whole time that he was writing it, and certainly had not cooled when he penned the title page,—for thus it is entiled,

The Candor and Good Nature of Englishmen exemplified in their deliberate, cautious, and charitable way of character izing the Customs, Manners, Constitution, and Religion of Neighbouring Nations, of which their own Authors are every where produced as Vouchers: their moderate, equitable, and humane mode of governing States dependent on them; their elevated, courteous, and conciliating Stile and Deportment, on all occasions ; WITH, IN PARTICULAR, a true and wellsupported specimen of the ingenuous and liberal manner in which they carry on Religious Controversy. By Thomas O'Brien Mac Mahon.

This book contains one very amusing