they are ever like to be, and as capable then as ever. A soul that has not by that time given evident earnest of its force and virtue will never after come to proof. Natural parts and excellences produce what they have of vigorous and fine within that term, or never:

as they say in Dauphiny."]

Inscription at Lyons.

—In Bishop Burnet's Travels (1685), he mentions a monumental inscription which he saw at Lyons, of a certain lady, "Quæ nimia pia"—"Facta est Impia," whom he conjectures, and with some probability, to have been a Christian lady, declared impious because she refused to confess the "Gods many and Lords many" of the heathen. The conclusion of the epitaph is perplexing: it states that her husband dedicated it to her and her son's memory—under "the axe"—"Sub asciâ dedicavit." I have looked in vain for any explanation of this expression, in any account within my reach of Roman funerals: possibly some of your correspondents may help me to an explanation. Burnet, while he is acute in noting the contradictory expression above, wholly overlooks this. It may mean that her husband performed this act of piety in the face of danger and persecution,—as we should say, "with the axe hanging over his head;" but then the epitaph commences with the letters D. M., signifying "Diis Manibus," leading to the conclusion that the husband was not himself a Christian, though respecting Christianity in the person of his wife. I had not originally intended to copy the epitaph; but as it is not long, and may help the speculations of your readers who have not access to Burnet's Travels, p. 5., now a rare book, I subjoin it:—