tained this distinguished mark of the admiration of their fellow citizens by the following incidents:

Both the father and the son were, for some offence against the state, condemned to die. Some favourable circumstances appearing on the side of the son, he was granted a remission of his share of the sentence, under certain provisions; in short, he was offered a pardon, on the most cruel and barbarous condition that ever entered into the mind of the most uncivilized savage; namely, that he would become the executioner of his father! He at first resolutely refused to preserve his life by means so fatal and detestable. This is not to be wondered at ; for I hope, for the honour of our nature, that there are but few, very few sons, who would not have spurned with abhorrence, life sustained on conditions so horrid and unnatural. The son (though long inflexible) was at length overcome by the tears and entreaties of a fond father, who represented to him that, at all events, his (the father's life) was forfeited, and that it would be the greatest possible consolation to him, in his last moments, to think, that in his death he was the instrument of his son's preservation. The youth consented to adopt the horrible means of recovering his life and liberty; he lifted the axe-but as it was about to fall, his arm sunk nerveless, and the axe dropped from his hand! Had he as many lives as hairs, he could have yielded them all, one after the other, rather than again even conceive, much less perpetrate such an act. Life, liberty, every thing vanished before the dearer interests of filial affection-He fell upon his father's neck, and embracing him, triumphantly exclaimed, 'My father! my father! we will die together!!" And then called for another executioner to fulfil the sentence of the law.

Hard must their hearts indeed be, bereft of every sentiment of virtue, every sensation of humanity, who could stand insensible spectators of such a scene. A sudden peal of involuntary applauses, mixed with groans and sighs, rent the air. The execution was suspended and on a simple representation of the transaction, both were pardoned: high rewards and honours were conferred on the son; and finally, those two admirable brazen images were raised to commemorate a transaction so honourable to human nature, and transmit it for the instruction and emulation of posterity. The statue represents the son in the very act of letting fall the axe.

A crooked gentleman on his arrival at Bath, was asked by another what place he had travelled from. 'I came straight from London,' replied he. Did you so? (said the other) then you have been terribly warped by the way!'

When Paddy Blake heard an English gentleman speaking of the fine echo at the Lake of Killarney, which repeats the sound forty different times, he very promptly observed, Poh! faith that's nothing at all, at all, to the echo in my father's garden, in the County of Galway; there honey if you were to say to it, how do you do, Paddy Blake? it would answer, very well, I thank you sir!

An Irish sailor having fallen from the mizen-top of a British ship of war, was supposed by every one on the quarter-deck, to have been killed by the fall; the poor fellow however got up, apparently but lit

tle hurt. The first lieutenant, who was near him, enquired Where he came from? Please your honour,' replied Paddy, all the while rubbing his arm, 'I came from the north of Ireland!'

Dr. Sheridan, the celebrated friend of Swift, had a custom of ringing his scholars to prayers, in the school-room, at a certain hour every day. The boys were one day very devoutly at prayers, except one, who was stifling a laugh as well as he could; which arose from seeing a rat descending by the bell rope in the rooin The poor boy could hold in no longer, but burst out into an immoderate fit of laughter, which set the others a going, when he pointed to the cause. Sheridan was so provoked, that he declared he would whip them all if the principal culprit was not pointed out to him, which was immediately done. The poor pupil of Momus was immediately hoisted, and his posteriors laid bare to the rod; when the witty schoolmaster told him, if he said any thing tolerable on the occasion, as he looked on the boy as the greatest dunce in the school, he would forgive him. The trembling culprit, with very little hesitation, addressed his master with the following beautiful distich :

There was a rat, for want of stairs,

Came down a rope-to go to prayers. Sheridan instantly dropped the rod, and instead of a whipping, gave him half a crown.

A gentleman having engaged to fight a main of cocks, directed his feeder in the country, who was a son of the sod, to pick out two of the best, and bring them to town. Paddy having made his selection, put the two cocks together into a bag, and

B

brought them with him in the mail coach. When they arrived, it was found that upon their journey they had almost torn each other to pieces; on which Paddy was severely taken to task for his stupidity, in putting both cocks in one bag. Indeed,' Said the honest Hibernian, 'I thought there was no risk of their falling out, as they were going to fight

on the same side.'

·

Inured to hardships, to dangers, and to a perpetual change of companions, the seaman contracts a species of stoicism which might raise the envy even of a Diogenes. 'Avast there!' cried a sailor to his comrade, who was busy in heaving overboard the lower division of a messmate, just cut in halves by a chain-shot; avast! let us first see if he has not got the key of our mess-chest in his pocket!'

An eccentric barber some years ago opened a shop under the walls of the King's Bench prison. The windows being broke when he entered it, he mended them with paper, on which appeared'Shave for a penny,' with the usual invitation to customers; and over the door was scrawled these lines:

Here lives Jemmy Wright,

Shaves as well, as any man in England,
Almost-not quite.

Foote, who loved any thing eccentric, saw these inscriptions, and hoping to extract some wit from the author, whom he justly concluded to be an odd character, he pulled off his hat, and thrusting his head through a paper pane into the shop, called out, Is Jemmy Wright at home? The barber

immediately forced his own head through another pane, into the street and replied, 'No, sir, he has just popt out! Foote laughed heartily, and gave the man a guinea.

The learned Shichard relates the following affecting story from R. Abraham Levita. Jus Regium Hebr. p. 169.

A Saracen commander of a fleet from Corduba, in Spain, cruising on the coast of Palestine, took a vessel bound to Sebaste, with some learned Jews on board-there was one eminent Rabbin among the rest called R. Moses, the father of Enoch, together with his wife, whose name is omitted in the story, though it well deserved to be recorded. It is only said of her that she was a woman of exquisite beauty; and the brute of a captain being about to commit violence on her person, she calls to her husband (who was within hearing, but in chains) and asks him in Hebrew, whether they who were drowned in the sea, should revive at the resurrection of the dead? He replied, in the words of Psalm 1xviii: 22, "The Lord said, I will bring again from Basan, I will bring again from the depths of the sea. Upon which she immediately threw herself into the sea and was drowned.

The favourite of a sultan threw a stone at a poor dervise who asked him for alms. The insulted dervise durst say nothing; but he gathered up the stone, and carefully preserved it, determined sooner or later to throw it back again at his proud and cruel oppressor. Some time afterwards he was told that the favourite was disgraced; that by an