τὸ εὐκαταφρόνητον."

This is referred to by Warton in his comments on Pope's translation of the Thebais of Statius; and Dr. Croly, apparently unacquainted with the passages in Paine and Blair, describes it, in his edition of Pope, as the anticipation of Napoleon's celebrated remark. It will be seen that the original saying, in its various peregrinations, has undergone a slight modification, Longinus making the translation a gradual one, "κατ' ὀλίγον," while Blair, Paine, and Napoleon make it but "a step." Yet, notwithstanding this disguise, the marks of its paternity are sufficiently traceable.

So much for this celebrated "mot." And, after all, there is very little wit or wisdom in it, that is not expressed or suggested by La Rochefoucauld's Maxims:—

"La plus subtile folie se fait de la plus subtile sagesse."

"Plus on aime une maîtresse, plus on est près de la haïr;"

or by Rousseau's remark—

"Tout état qui brille est sur son déclin;"

or by Beaumarchais' exclamation—

"Que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes!"

or by the old French proverb—

"Les extrêmes se touchent;"

or by the English adage—

"The darkest hour is nearest the dawn;"

or, lastly, by any of the following passages in our own poets:—

I might adduce other instances, but these are sufficient to show that the sentiment owes nothing to Napoleon but the sanction of his great name, and the pithy sentence in which he has embodied it.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, Nov. 1851.

DR. JOHNSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BARETTI'S INTRODUCTION.

Boswell notices Dr. Johnson having in 1775 written the preface to Baretti's Easy Lessons in Italian and English; but neither he nor his editors appear to have been aware of the preface which Dr. Johnson contributed to an earlier work by Baretti, his Introduction to the Italian Language, London, 1775, 8vo. It is accompanied by an Italian translation, and is written with all his usual vigour, and commences:

"Unjust objections commonly proceed from unreasonable expectation; writers are often censured for omitting what they never intended to perform."

The note, p 48:

"Though the design of these notes is rather to teach grammar than morality, yet, as I think nothing a deviation that can serve the cause of virtue," &c.,

and the excellent remarks, p. 198., on Machiavel's Life of Castruccio Castracani, have every internal evidence of Johnson's style, and were no doubt dictated by him to Baretti, for whom Johnson in the same year, 1755, endeavours to obtain the loan of Crescimbeni from Thomas Warton (Croker's Boswell, edit. 1848, p. 91.).

Nothing is more wanted than a good and complete edition of Johnson's Works, in which omissions similar to the above, of which I have a long list when required, may be supplied. His prefaces and dedications to the works of other writers are all models in their way, and not one of them ought to be lost.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

Minor Notes.

Bishop Bedell.

—This divine, to remind him of the need he had of being cleansed and purified in heart by the Spirit, chose an ingenious device, consisting of a flaming crucible, with a Hebrew motto, signifying, "Take from me all my tin," in allusion to Isaiah i. 25. The reason for selecting these particular words was, that the Hebrew word for tin is bedil.

CLERICUS (D.)

Foreign Guide-books.

—The samples of foreign English preserved in your pages are nearly equalled in ludicrous effect by the novel information often found in guide-books and manuals published on the continent for the use of strangers in England. Our metropolis is an inexhaustible subject of blunders on the part of the compilers of these works, of whom not a few deserve to rank with the Frenchman who, having heard something of a coal duty in connexion with St. Paul's, gravely told his readers that the cathedral was built on sea-coal.

The following extract is from a work entitled Londres et ses Environs, Paris, 2 vols. with plates: the compiler states that, having resided fifteen years in London, "il est, plus que tout autre, en état d'en parler avec certitude."

"Ce gouffre majestueux a englouti la ville de Westminster, le bourg de Southwark, et quarante-cinq villages, dont les noms, conservés dans les différens quartiers qu'ils occupaient, sont—

We have here a strange admixture of the names of parishes, streets, and prebends; amongst the last are Portpool, Mora, and Wenlake's Barn, the precise locality of which many old Londoners would be puzzled to state.

I think the following specimen of foreigners' English, which appeared as the address of a huge package received at the Exhibition, is worth adding to your collection:—