If the sun's excessive heat Roach or Dace We do chase, Bleak or Gudgeon We are still contented, Or we sometimes pass an hour Under a green willow That defends us from a shower, Making earth our pillow; Where we may Think and pray Before death Stops our breath; O the joys Are but toys, And to be lamented. E. Waltoni Piscatore Perfecto Excerptum. Nunc per gramina fusi Dum defenditur imber Nunc instare futuris Nunc summi prece sancta Patris numen adire est Quicquid Quicquid quæritur ultra Cæco ducit amore Vel spe ludit inani Luctus mox periturum. The following preface to Thealma and Clearchus by Isaac Walton, must necessarily be admired by all lovers of simplicity in writing. "The reader will find in this book what the title declares, A PASTORAL HISTORY IN SMOOTH AND EASIE VERSE; and will in it find, many hopes and fears finely painted, and feelingly expressed. And he will find the first so often disappointed, when fullest of desire and expectation; and the latter so often, so strongly, and so unexpectedly relieved by an unforeseen Providence, as may beget in him wonder and amazement. "And the reader will here also meet with passions heightened by easy and fit descriptions of joy and sorrow, and find also such various events of innocent truth, and undissembled honesty as is like to leave in him (if he be a goodnatured reader) more sympathizing and virtuous expressions than ten times so much time spent in impertinent, critical, and needless disputes about religion; and I heartily wish it may do so. "And I have also this truth to say of the author, that he was, in his time, a man generally known, as well as beloved, for he was humble and obliging obliging in his behaviour, a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent and prudent, and indeed his whole life was useful, quiet, and virtuous. God send the story may meet with and make all readers like him. May 7, 1678. I. W." As Walton was ninety years of age when this book was published, the above preface was not improbably the last thing this excellent man wrote for publication, There is no copy of this rare book in the British Museum, and I am indebted to a friend for being able to present the reader with the above account. MEMOIRES Da La Vie du Merechal De Vielleville. Paris. 1757. THESE memoirs contain many curious and interesting anecdotes of the reigns of Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX., and were composed by Vincent Carloix, the Marshal's secretary. When When they first appeared, they contained, what was understood to reflect on the illustrious family of Rohan. As these passages gave great offence they were omitted in the subsequent editions, and it is very difficult to find a copy which contains the exceptionable remarks. They who are curious in French Literature will not be displeased to know that a perfect copy of this work is preserved in the Cracherode Collection. CLASSICAL FRAGMENTS. INSCRIPTION Written by the Earl of Hardwicke, in a copy of` Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters, presented by his Lordship to the Library of Christ Church, Oxford. BIBLIOTHECÆ Ædis Christi Omni librorum copia instructissimæ Edis Edis istius quondam alumni D. D. Memor dierum septem Jucunde simul et utiliter In ista æde celeberrima & inter Oxonienses impensorum Philippus Comes Hardvicensis ་་ THEOCRITUS. A SINGULAR circumstance occurs in the second edition of Theocritus, printed by the elder Aldus, at Venice, in 1495. At Fol. Z. F. III the Poem of гun Hpanλes begins and proceeds as far as the 13th line, when there is an abrupt transition to the 34th line of the Epitaphios Bionis, which is continued to its conclusion. The Epitaphios Bionis is properly printed in its place at Fol. EE III. It seems difficult to comprehend how such an error should escape the attention of so correct a printer, |