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_Watching for the Soul._--Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre,
being present at the death-bed of one of her maids of honour, continued
to fix her eyes on the dying person with uncommon eagerness and
perseverance till she breathed her last. The ladies of the Court
expressed their astonishment at this conduct, and requested to know what
satisfaction her majesty could derive from so close an inspection of the
agonies of death. Her answer marked a most daring and inquisitive mind.
She said that having often heard the most learned doctors and
ecclesiastics assert, that on the extinction of the body the immortal
part was set at liberty and unloosed, she could not restrain her anxious
curiosity to observe if such separation were visible or discernible;
that none had she been able in any degree to discover. She was suspected
of Hugonotism, and was so devout as to compose hymns.
_Harvest-home._--This custom a Correspondent believes to be
exclusively English; and its rapid disuse in many parts of England
cannot be but a source of regret to those who study the moral enjoyment
of the labouring classes of society. The social meal is now recompensed
by a trifling sum of money, which is either the resource of drunkenness
and debauchery, or at best is but comparatively ill-spent.
_All things by Comparison._--Aristippus being reprehended of luxury
by one that was not rich, for that he gave six crowns for a small fish,
answered, "Why, what would you have, given?" The other said, "Some
twelve pence." Aristippus said again, "And six crowns is no more with
me."