To put an end to this silly, pernicious, frivolous way at once, I will give the reader one late instance of a bite, which no biter for the future will ever be able to equal, though I heartily wish him the same occasion. It is a superstition with some surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned malefactors, to go to the gaol, and bargain for the carcase with the criminal himself. A good honest fellow did so last sessions, and was admitted to the condemned men on the morning wherein they died. The surgeon communicated his business, and fell into discourse with a little fellow, who refused twelve shillings, and insisted upon fifteen for his body. The fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like a man who was willing to deal, told him, 'Look you, Mr. Surgeon, that little dry fellow, who has been halfstarved all his life, and is now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose. I have ever lived highly and freely, my veins are full, I have not pined in imprisonment; you see my crest swells to your knife, and after Jack Catch has done, upon my honour you will find me as sound as ever a bullock in any of the markets. Come, for twenty shillings I am your man.' Says the surgeon, Done, there is a guinea.' This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it in his fist, cries, 'Bite, I am to be hung in chains.'

From the Spectator.

THE PLAYTHINGS OF MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS. HERE follow the instructions of Cornelius Scriblerus concerning the plays and playthings to be used by his son Martin.

Play was invented by the Lydians, as a remedy against hunger. Sophocles says of Palamedes, that he invented dice to serve sometimes instead of a dinner. It is therefore wisely contrived by nature, that children, as they have the keenest appetites, are most addicted to plays. From the same cause, and from the unprejudiced and incorrupt simplicity of their minds, it proceeds, that-the plays of the ancient children are preserved more entire than any other of their customs. In this matter I would recommend to all who have concern in my son's education, that they deviate not in the least from the primitive and simple antiquity.

'To speak first of the whistle, as it is the first of all playthings. I will have it exactly to correspond with the ancient fistula, and accordingly to be composed septem paribus disjuncta cicutis.

'I heartily wish a diligent search may be made after the true crepitaculum, or rattle of the ancients, for that (as Architus Tarentinus was of opinion) kept the children from breaking earthenware. The China cups in these days are not at all the safer for the modern rattles; which is an evident proof how far their crepitacula exceeded

ours

I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus, which was recommended by Cato, be really our

present tops, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick. Neither cross and pile, nor ducks and drakes, are quite so ancient as handydaddy, though Macrobius and St. Augustine take notice of the first, and Minutius Fœlix describes the latter; but handy-daddy is mentioned by Aristotle, Plato, and Aristophanes.

'The play which the Italians call cinque and the French mourre, is extremely ancient ; it was played at by Hymen and Cupid at the marriage of Pysche, and termed by the Latins digitis micare,

:

Julius Pollux describes the omilla or chuckfarthing though some will have our modern chuckfarthings to be nearer the aphetinda of the ancients. He also mentions the basilinda, or King I am; and mynda, or hooper's-hide.

'But the chytrindra, described by the same author, is certainly not our hot-cockles; for that was by pinching, and not by striking; though there are good authors who affirm the rathapigismus to be yet nearer the modern hot-cockles. My son Martin may use either of them indifferently, they being equally antique.

'Building of houses, and riding upon sticks, have been used by children of all ages, Edificare casas, quitare in arundine longa. Yet I much doubt whether the riding upon sticks did not come into use after the age of the centaurs.

"There is one play which shows the gravity of ancient education, called the acinetinda, in which children contended who could longest stand still. This we have suffered to perish entirely; and, if I might be allowed to guess, it was certainly lost among the French.

'I will permit my son to play at apodidascinda, which can be no other than our puss in the corner.

‹ Julius Pollux, in his ninth book, speaks of the melolonthe, or the kite; but I question whether the kite of antiquity was the same with ours: and though the OpTuyoxoniα, or quail-fighting, is what is most taken notice of, they had doubtless cockmatches also, as is evident from certain ancient gems and relievos.

'In a word, let my son Martin disport himself at any game truly antique, except one, which was invented by a people among the Thracians, who hung up one of their companions in a rope, and gave him a knife, to cut himself down; which if he failed in, he was suffered to hang till he was dead; and this was only reckoned a sort of joke. I am utterly against this, as barbarous and cruel.

'I cannot conclude, without taking notice of the beauty of the Greek names, whose etymologies acquaint us with the nature of the sports; and how infinitely, both in sense and sound, they excel our barbarous names of plays.'

Notwithstanding the foregoing injunctions of Dr. Cornelius, he yet condescended to allow the child the use of some few modern playthings; such as might prove of any benefit to his mind, by instilling an early notion of the sciences. For example, he found that marbles taught him percussion, and the laws of motion; nutcrackers, the use of the lever; swinging on the ends of a board, the balance; bottle-screws, the vice; whirligigs, the axis and peritrochia; bird-cages, the pulley; and tops, the centrifugal motion.

Others of his sports were further carried to im

prove his tender soul even in virtue and morality. We shall only instance one of the most useful and instructive, bobcherry, which teaches at once two noble virtues, patience and constancy; the first in adhering to the pursuit of one end, the latter in bearing a disappointment.

Besides all these, he taught him, as a diversion, an odd and secret manner of stealing, according to the custom of the Lacedæmonians; wherein he succeeded so well, that he practised it to the day of his death. Pope.

DIVERSITY OF GENIUS: OR, CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BATHOS.

I SHALL range these confined and less copious geniuses under proper classes, and, the better to give their pictures to the reader, under the names of animals of some sort or other; whereby he will be enabled, at the first sight of such as shall daily come forth, to know to what kind to refer, and with what authors to compare them.

1. The Flying Fishes: These are writers who now and then rise upon their fins, and fly out of the profound; but their wings are soon dry, and they drop down to the bottom. G. S. A. H. C. G.

2. The Swallows are authors that are eternally skimming and fluttering up and down; but all their agility is employed to catch flies. L. T. W. P. Lord H.

3. The Ostriches are such, whose heaviness rarely permits them to raise themselves from the ground; their wings are of no use to lift them up,