returning before eight o'clock. He was fond of athletic exercises, and very much attached to yachting. He had an enormous black cat, which was a great favourite with him; and he would often divert himself after dinner by the perplexity exhibited by pussy at the sight of some half-dozen automaton mice which he would set running about the room.

When the news of his death reached Edinburgh, the professor of surgery, who owed much to the friendship of Liston, was too much affected to announce the event verbally to his pupils, but by an effort he wrote the words "Liston is dead" in chalk upon a board which usually stands in the lecture room.

MENTAL ARITHMETIC. Some years ago a German of the name of Dase exhibited his wonderful powers of calculation and memory before the Queen. I once met him at the house of a friend, but unfortunately arrived too late to witness more than a few of his feats. Sixty-four figures were chalked upon a board, at which Mr. Dase gave what I thought a cursory glance, and, immediately turning his back upon them, he stated the order in which they were placed, and he repeated them backwards. He was then, without altering his position, dodged by one of the company who asked, "what is the twenty-third figure?" He answered at once and correctly. Again a vast amount of dominoes-I wondered where they got so manywere distributed on the table among several ladies, who arranged them in squares of various dimensions, while Mr. Dase stood with back to the table. He was then requested to turn round, and in an incredibly short space of time he told us the number, not of the dominoes, but of the spots. Thus far for the evi

dence of my own eyes and ears. For the rest I was told that he can multiply in his mind one hundred figures by the like number. He is an hour about it, but the result is always correct. I was told that he can extract the square root of one hundred given figures in fifty-two minutes.

RESPONSIBILITY.

He

I do not remember to have experienced a more onerous sense of responsibility than on the occasion of a visit to my friend Mr. Nield, of Dunster, in Lancashire. had just added to his stable a pair of magnificent young carriage horses, behind which it was my misfortune frequently to be seated by the coachman, who said, and said truly, that he had them well in hand, but did not go so far as to assert that they were perfectly broken to harness; and there were times when the tension of the reins was so great that, had a fiddlestick been "to the fore," any variety of tunes might have been executed upon them. On one occasion, on the return from a drive to Blackstone Edge-one of the drives of the country, and the artificial lakes on the top of which look as sullen as if they had been transported thither against their will-we were descending a steep hill, and the daughter of my host was cantering on a beautiful chesnut pony by the side of the carriage, followed closely by a groom. On a sudden the pony came down on his nose, and my dear little friend was rolling in the dust. The coachman instantly pushed the reins into my hands, and left me feeling pretty much as if I were holding two devils by a pack-thread. The sense of the suddenly transferred responsibility, and anxiety for my fair little friend, amounted to perfect agony. The groom had thrown himself

from his horse and raised his young mistress, happily unhurt, but most anxiously inquiring about the pony's knees, and weeping lest her father should part with the animal, as he had threatened to do if it fell with her a second time, it having already transgressed once in that fashion. For myself my agony was cut short by the lady of the house peremptorily and wisely ordering the coachman, whose name John Bull, back to his box; and oh! the sense of relief when he resumed the reins!

was

a silver dish. What a delightfully meritorious twelvemonths Mr. and Mrs. Briggs must have passed! Leigh Hunt's "Jar of Honey" is a feeble type of their felicity, for they have had the honey without a jar.

DON QUIXOTE.

It is wonderful to me how the large majority of readers regard his character as a subject only of ridicule, whereas he was, in fact, the flower of chivalry and the purest type of romance in the realm of fiction-the gallant, the gentle, the free hearted, the graceful scholar, and the gentleman in his inmost heart and minutest action. True it is that through the haze that clouded his brain he saw soldiers where others saw sheep, and giants in the place of windmills; but the delusion did not diminish the gallantry which urged him single-handed to the combat. His Dulcinea, too, was a dream— a bright figment of his fevered fancy; but the fidelity and devotion with which he clung to the beautiful vision were genuine and pure. His distressed damsels were unreal, but not so the compassionate courage which led him to the rescue. "Yes! he of La Mancha was a true knight, without fear and without reproach."

THE SIEGE OF ACRE.

The last attack on this once deemed impregnable fortress will be in the recollection of the present generation. Some were so bold as to predict that it would last a year. I believe it fell in less than three days. Yusef Aga (his proper name was Joseph, and he was, I believe, an Italian), who commanded the defence, said to a naval officer of my acquaintance : "Talk of a shower of shot," referring to the

A friend of mine, temporarily resident in Constantinople, was in company there with some English gentlemen and a German physician of great repute in that city. The doctor left them early, pleading an appointment with a Jew who had solicited his professional assistance in the case of one of that persuasion. On rejoining the party, he told them that he had been met at the landing place (he had proceeded in a boat) by the Jew who had applied to him, and who conducted him to a large house, the exterior of which, from its dilapidated condition, indicated anything but wealth in the interior. Nor did the room in which he found himself contradict the impression of poverty. It was a miserable hole. Thence he was taken to a larger one, but little better in point of furniture; and there he was requested to wait until the patient had been prepared for his visit. In a short time his guide returned, and ushered the doctor, through a small door, into an apartment made perfectly dazzling by the magnificence of its illumination and furniture. He was received with polished courtesy by the family, among whom were some splendidly dressed females.

He

was then introduced to the sick man. A Jewess, the style of whose beauty, the doctor said, reminded him of Rebecca, in "Ivanhoe," was standing by the bedside. The

physician had brought a case of medicines in his pocket, and not only administered the remedies, but waited to see the result. He

remained for three hours, and had the satisfaction of finding that his treatment had been so far successful that he could leave the patient with safety. The imminence of the danger had passed. As he was leaving the house a purse was put into his hand. He rejected it, alleging that he came on a visit of charity, and could take no fee. The other persisted in pressing it upon him, explaining that the appearance of poverty which he had remarked on his entrance was only a mask to conceal their wealth from the cupidity of the Government, adding that the fee had been well earned, and could be as well afforded. The doctor yielded at last, and found the purse full of gold coin.

NINEVEH BULL AND LION.

Hearing of the arrival at the British Museum of a great lion and bull from Nineveh, we paid our respects one morning in October, 1851, to the illustrious strangers. Not, however, knowing the habits of Orientals, I was a little too early in my call. The bull was not up; indeed, he was lying on his side under the colonnade of the building. The lion, however, was ready to receive us at the foot of the grand staircase in the hall, and to him, therefore, we were first introduced. The immediate impression on our mind was surprise at the marvellous freshness and delicacy of the carving. It seemed as if the last blow of the chisel had only just been dealt upon it. The material is said to be alabaster, but to me it appeared to be conglomerate, inasmuch as in the opaque mass I observed a transparent substance about the size of a walnut, and crystalline profusely mixed with the staple of the slab (for such it is) which is about eleven feet, and square, and the figures of