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It forms a pretty hard stone when newly raised, but becomes soft, and even crumbles down from exposure to the atmosphere, or the application of moisture. The colour indicates the presence of a considerable portion of iron; and the friability of the stone evinces a more than ordinary portion of calcareous matter. The Bottlework Company of this place have carried off the whole out-put to their works at Leith, finding it a suitable material for the production of bottleglass. Slate-clay, it will be remembered, is composed of siliceous and aluminous earths, the former being the predominant ingredient. On, these, when placed in a furnace, lime, it is well known, acts as a flux; so that the argillaceous shistus of Nicolson Street, containing a good deal of calcareous matter, is naturally a fusible clay. Further, the considerable portion of iron existing in it, must not only promote its fusibility, but is calculated to produce the peculiar dark colour desirable in bottle-glass. The slate-clay seems to form here a considerable bed, dipping to the north-east. No vegetable impressions have been observed in it. The bed appears to be about eight feet thick; the slate-clay beginning to pass into sand-stone at that depth. It is pretty extensive, the

in the works of authors who lived at different periods of time, and in differ ent parts of the world are not unworthy of our notice. I therefore beg leave to mention one with which many of your readers may be unacquainted. Anacreon, in the beginning of one of his odes, has these lines,

in

Χαλεπὸν τὸ μὴ φιλῆσαι,
Χαλεπὸν δὲ καὶ φιλήσω.
Χαλεπωτερον દ πάντων,
Αποτυγχάνειν Φίλοντα.

The very same sentiment appears the following Welsh Pennill, or Epigrammatic stanza:

Blin yw caru yma ac accw,
Blin bod heh, y blinder bwnnw,
O'r blinderau blinaf blinder,
Cur anifyr, caru 'n ofer'.

Which is thus translated by Mr Edward Jones, in his musical and poetical relicks of the Welsh Bards.

A mighty pain to love it is,
'Tis a pain that pain to miss;
Of all pains, the greatest pain,
Is to love, and love in vain.

I am, SIR,

Your most humble servant,

Glotianus.

same bed having, some years ago, Query respecting CASES in GRAMMAR.

been laid open in digging foundations for the houses in Roxburgh Square and Fyfe Street, places situated considerably to the eastward of Nicolson

Street.

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Curious Letter from MAJOR GENERAL

LESSLIE, in 1639.

(From MS. in possession of a Gentleman of Edinburgh)

[In 1639, during the civil wars, the Scots, as is well known, invaded Northumberland, and laid siege to Newcastle. They stationed themselves at Gateshead hill, and, under the command of Sir David Lesslie, began to erect batteries, dig trenches, &c. A gentleman, having a fine house and gardens situated in the place where they began their works, with the view of getting them preserved, invited Major General John Lesslie, cousin to the General, to dine with him, and after shewing him all the conveniencies in his house and gardens, with the horses in his sta les, proposed to make him a present of twenty pounds, if he would use Lis interest with the General, to have

the works carried on from some other place. Soon after which, he wrote the gentleman the following letter :]

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A Correspondent of yours has been kind enough to correct (as he imagines) an error in the Remarks on Dunipace. After a most attentive perusal of his communication, it is not in my power to perceive that he has corrected any error at all; on the contrary, he has established the imaginary error to be a fact.

Vow to God, Sir Thomas, it makes my heart blud blud, to see the orks gaing this gait through sae trim a garden as yours. I have been twa times with my cousin the General, and sae will I sax times mair, before the wark gaes this gait; but I Tow to God, Sir Thomas, you man make the 20%. 30%, and the wea trim Fay thing that stands in the newk of your hall, chirping and chiming at the noon-time of the day, and the tag-gagement, and not the other who died tail'd trooper that stands in the staw, in the Orkneys. and aw the cherrys in your garden, for a present to my lady, (preve you that well Sir Thomas;) and as I am a cavallier of fortune, and a limb of the house of Rothes, as the meickel kist that stands in the auld kirk at Edinbrough can right well witness for this aught hundred years and nair bygane, deil scoup out my gills gin I hurt either ye or yours to the aluedome of a twa-penny chicken. I am yours, John Lesslie, Captain and Major-General of sax score and Sept. 1808.

My words are "Haco's tumulus, who fell at the battle of Largs, is literally a hill." From the very definite and precise import of these words, it is self-evident, that I had only in view that Haco who fell in this en

Had I had occasion to mention Haco who died at Kirkwall, this same error-correcting correspondent would, most probably, have taken the opposite side of the question, and detected me in an error, by proving that Haco did not die at Kirkwall, but fell in the battle of Largs. Had I had occasion to mention Paul who embargoed the British fleet at Petersburgh, and who was soon after murdered by his subjects, this same gentleman would (no doubt) have retorted on

me,

me, "that Paul never saw Petersburgh, or embargoed a British fleet in his life. That Britain had no fleet at that time. That he was not murdered by his subjects, because he had no subjects whatever. That he did not

intermeddle in political affairs, being wholly taken up with the preaching of the gospel, of which he was one of the most zealous propagators.

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Now, Mr Editor, if this mode of correcting errors is brought into fashion, could any man safely mention or allude to any person whatever, without, as a preliminary step, entering into a detail of all who had at any time borne the same name. I said in my communication, that one of the name of Haco fell at the battle of Largs, Your correspondent not only owns, but corroborates the fact, But (says he) Milo must be wrong, because one of the same name died in Kirkwall. If one Haco fell at Largs, (as your correspondent proves) how could it invalidate the fact, tho' three hundred of the same name had died in every town and village of Scotland.

To conclude, your correspondent, in the true Hibernian style, first converts a fact into an error, and then reconverts this identical error into the very fact which he intended to disprove. I am, SIR,

Yours, &c.

15th July, 1808.

cles performed at the tomb of the Abbé Paris, he went one day to examine them more narrowly, in order to obtain materials for his raillery. Here he was touched by grace, and becamo as vehement a defender of Paris as be had been his detractor. In the work of which we speak, he collected every thing which his infatuated imagina tion could suggest, to prove that the Abbé Paris was a real worker of miracles; and on the 29th July, 1737, he went and presented to the king, as his Majesty left the dining-room, his first volume, very well bound. The King took it, and immediately caused a lettre de cachet to be made out, by which Montgeron was sent to the Bastile. After being transferred to different prisons, he died, in 1754, at the age of 68. Such is the spirit of party, that the authors of the Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques were not satisfied with praising the work of Montgeron, but represented him on the fronti piece of their journal, writing his book, with the Holy Spirit above him in the form of a dove, amid a blaze of celestial light, and appearing to inspire what he wrote.

The Abbé Paris, eldest son of a counsellor in the parliament of Paris, fulfilled his ecclesiastical functions with zeal and fidelity. He had attached himself to the party of the Jansenists, MILO. and had joined them in their opposition to the Bull Unigenitus. After his death, some pious Jansenists, who came to say their prayers over his tomb, imagined themselves to be cured of various diseases, upon which crowds began to flock to it. The court, to put a stop to these scenes, ordered a wall to be built, which prevented access to the burying place. It was upon this wall that a wag wrote,

ACCOUNT of BOOKS committed to the
Flames, suppressed, or censured,

(Continued from p. 495.)

MONIGER

NTGERON." Truth of the Miracles wrought at the interces"sion of the Abbé Paris, and others, "By M. Louis Basile Carre de Mont

geron. Vol. I, 1737, II, and III, "1747, 4to.

The first of these volumes procured the author a place in the Bastile.Montgeron, in his youth, had been debauched and sceptical. Having been accustomed to ridicule the mira

De par le Roi defense a Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu*.

Thoughts

* Be order of the king, God is hereby prohibited from working miracles in this place.

Thoughts of Simon Morin, with his spiritual songs, Paris 1647,(with other tracts on the subject.)

This unhappy man was executed on the 14th March, 1663, with all the copies of his work which could be collected, which has rendered those that remain very rare. Simon Morin was a real madman; of this we may judge by the follies scattered through his works. He pretended that he was the "Son of Man," that he held his mission from Jesus Christ himself, who had incorporated himself with him for the salvation of all men.Desmarets de St Sorlin, by a fanaticism equally base and treacherous, procured the punishment of Simon Morin. That he might extract his secrets from him, he pretended to be one of his most zealous partizans, and wrote to him, that he owned the Son of God, and the Son of Man, to be in him as a whole. This letter, dated 1st February 1662, was so agreeable to Morin, that, to testify his gratitude to Desmarets, he wrote an answer next day, in which, by particular favour, he gave him the character of his cursor, calling him a real John the Baptist risen from the dead. The

pre

most intimate connection was thus established between these two men, which continued till the moment, when the treacherous Desmarets went and denounced Morin as a dangerous heretic. When the officers came to seize tpon Morin, he was making out a fair copy of a discourse, beginning with these words: The Son of Man to the King of France. On the testimory of Desmarets, the Son of Man

was condemned to be burnt alive with

bis book, and all his other writings. It would have been equitable, I think, severely to have punished Desmarets, and sent Morin to Bedlam. After the condemnation of the latter, the first President, de Lamoignon, asked him if it was any where written, that the new Messiah was to undergo the punishment of fire. The poor wretch

replied by this verse of the 16th Psalm: Thou hast tried me in the fire, and hast found in me no iniquity. Morin had been clerk to the Revenue, and was afterwards employed by different persons in copying: he wrote a very fine hand.

66

"Treatise on the Virtue of the Pagans, by Fr. de la Mothe le-Vayer." The condemnation of this work is singular. The bookseller was complaining to the author that it did not sell. "Never mind, said La Mothe, I know how to make it sell." In fact, he went and solicited those in power to prohibit the reading of his work.Scarce was this prohibition known, when every one was eager to read it, and the edition was soon sold off. Dr Arnaud refuted this work in his treatise on the Necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ.

"Moulin on the Abuses, Usurpa ❝tions, and Exactions of the Court " of Rome, contrary to the Edicts and "Ordinances of the Kings of France, "Lyons, 1564, 4to."

This work related to the abuses committed by the notaries, bankers, and judges, in relation to benefices, which Dumoulin threw entirely upon the court of Rome. This publication was extremely offensive to that court, though extremely agreeable to that of France. It is certain, that from that time the Pope became more moderate in his demands upon the latter, insomuch, that when Montmorenci presented the work of Dumoulin to the your MaKing, he said: "Sire, what jesty could not do with thirty thousand men, (to oblige the Pope to sue with his little book." for peace) this little man has done

"The Nymyh of Spa to the Abbe "Raynal, a poem ; published in 1781." These verses were written by a young author in compliment to Raynal.They were condemned in the strongest manner by a mandate of the Sovereigu Bishop of Liege; but it does

not

not appear that the author suffered any other inconvenience.

"Panckouke's Encyclopedie Metho"dique." This Encyclopedia, as well as the folio one, met with opposition at first. The chancellor caused the two first volumes to be seized and lodg ed in the Bastile. But this proscription was only temporary, and Panc, kouke afterwards continued the impression at Paris. Yet there are a number of passages still bolder in this than in the other. According to Panckouke's prospectus, this work was to consist of 40 volumes in 4to, or 84 in 8vo, and was to cost nearly 100,000. Even this immense plan, however, has been far exceeded. Sixty-seven livraisons are already published, and the work is far from being finished. Many of those parts which are terminated stand in need of a supplement, on account of the progress which the arts and sciences have made since their publication.

"Funeral oration of the Dauphin, "by Father Pau, a Capuchin." This funeral oration, pronounced at the convent of Capuchins, was stopt and suppressed by the police, which caused 200 copies to be burned at the house of the author. Its proscription was owing, not so much to the matter, as to the style. It is a kind of nonsense, perfectly ridiculous, and which affords great scope to pleasantry. It displays, however, a lively and bold imagination, a rich genius, but not the least judgment to direct these faculties. A funeral oration, nearly in the same style, had been pronounced at the death of the elder Dauphin. It was so diverting, that Madame de Maintenon found no better means of amusing the grief of Louis XIV., than by the reading of this work, at which he could not refrain from laughter.

"Petit Jean. Justification of John "the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, "who caused the assassination of Louis "of France, Duke of Orleans, only broather of King Charles VI." This fa

mous justification, a shameful monument of whatever is most atrocious in political and religious opinion, is found in the fifth volume of the folio edition of the works of Gerson. This event took place on the 23d Nov. 1407, between 7 and 8 in the evening. Next day, John attended the funeral of his victim, and shewed every outward sign of grief; but seeing that a particular enquiry was about to be made, he fled into Ireland. Then returning in force, he dared, to boast of his crime; when Jean Petit, a learned doctor of Paris, who had sold himself to him, maintained, in the great hall of the hotel royal de St Paul, to an audience, at which the Dauphin presided, that the murder of the Duke of Orleans was lawful, since that prince had proved himself impious and tyrannical. He maintained, that it is lawful to use surprise, treason, and all sorts of means, to rid ourselves of a tyrant, and that we are not obliged to fulfil any promise which we may have made to him: he added, that the man guilty of such a murder, not only deserved no punishment, but ought even to be rewarded, as the archangel Michael had been for having expelled Lucifer, and Phineas for having slain Zimbri. A general outcry arose against this musderous doctrine; but Petit was for some time sheltered by the great interest of the Duke of Burgundy. Hi abominable doctrine, however, was denounced by Gerson, and other persons, to Jean de Montaigu, Bishop of Paris, who condemned it as heretical, on the 23d Nov. 1414; the council of Constance anathematised it the year following, at the solicitation of Gerson, sparing, however, the name and work of Jean Petit. Lastly, the king caused the parliament of Paris, on the 16th Sept. 1416, to pronounce a bloody decree against this pernicious libel, and the University censured it. the Duke of Burgundy, in 1418, had interest enough to oblige the Grand Vicars of the Bishop of Paris, who was

then

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