THE BED OF PROCRUSTES. Procrustes, called by Pausanias Polypæmon, was, in my thology, a robber of ancient Greece, who placed on an iron bed the travellers who fell into his hands, which their statue was made to fit by cutting off the projecting limbs, or by stretching them to suit its dimensions: whence the metaphorical expression of the Bed of Procrustes. UTOPIAN SCHEMES. Sir Thomas More, in his curious philosophical work, Utopia, has delineated his ideas of a perfect commonwealth, which he places in the imaginary isle of Utopia, where the society is constructed on the principle that no one in the state shall have a right to separate property, since separate property is said to involve the unequalled distribution of property, and thus occasion great suffering to those who are obliged to labour, and mental depravation to those who live on the labours of others. In this imaginary island all are contented with the necessaries of life; all are employed in useful labour; no man desires in clothing any other quality besides durability. Since wants are few, and every individual engages in labour, there is no need for working more than six hours a-day. Neither laziness nor avarice find a place in this happy region; for why should the people be indolent when they have so little toil, or greedy when they know that there is abundance for each? It is, however, difficult to determine whether the opinions expressed in the Utopia are to be considered as More's real sentiments. But the work has added a word to the English language: schemes of. national improvement founded on theoretical or visionary views being since then termed Utopian. Sir Thomas More's Utopia is written in very good Latin, and was first published at Louvain, 1516. It has been translated into English by Robinson, by Bishop Burnet, and by A. Cayley. "TENTERDEN STEEPLE THE CAUSE OF GOODWIN SANDS." "Here, by the way, I will tell you a merry toy," said Latimer one day in the pulpit. "Master More was once sent in commission into Kent to help to try out, if it might be, what was the cause of Goodwin Sands and the shelf that stopped up Sandwich Haven. He calleth the country afore him, such as were thought to be men of experience; and among others came in an old man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little less than one hundred years old. So Master More called the old aged man unto him, and said: Father. tell me, if you can, what is the cause of this great arising of the sands and shelves hereabout that stop up Sandwich Haven? Forsooth, sir' (quoth he), 'I am an old man, for I am well-nigh an hundred; and I think that Tenterden Steeple is the cause of the Goodwin Sands. For I am an old man, sir, and I may remember the building of Tenterden Steeple, and before that steeple was in building there was no manner of flats or sands.""-Latimer's Sermons, vol. i. p. 251. ERASMUS, HIS EARLY LOVE OF PEARS. When, in 1486, the youthful Erasmus made his profession at Gouda, in the convent-garden grew a pear-tree, which the prior had reserved for his own proper use; but Erasmus had taken a private survey of the forbidden fruit. The consequence was, that the pears began to vanish, and the moment a jargonelle had reached the melting point, it was sure to evaporate overnight. The prior was in despair; and, unable to put trust in any brother, he resolved himself to be the watchman from a window which looked into the orchard. Towards morning, he thought he saw something in his favourite tree, and was delighted at having caught the depredator. But just then, perhaps it was the cold of morning which made his reverence sneeze; thus scaring the thief, who dropped from among the branches, and limped off to his cell, imitating to the life the gait of a lame brother. That morning, after matins, and when all the inmates were assembled in the refectory, the prior called up the cripple-monk, and charged him with the theft. The poor fellow was thunderstruck, and protested his innocence; but all his asseverations only made the prior furious, and added penitential psalms to the next week's bread and water. At last suspicion turned towards the right quarter; and it was not long before the cunning novice found it expedient to quit the convent. EARLY ROMAN ART. In the middle of the fifth century A.U.c. the arts began to flourish in Rome; and the celebrated group still extant of the she-wolf nurturing the twin-founders of the city was set up in the Capitol. "Let no one," says Niebuhr, "suppose that the Romans before they adopted the civilisation of the Greeks were barbarous. That people which under its kings constructed such gigantic sewers, and which at this time possessed a painter like Fabius Pictor, and a sculptor able to produce a work like the Capitoline she-wolf, cannot have been without some kind of literature.' To this era belongs the sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio, the oldest sepulchral monument yet discovered in Rome,-an existing proof of the excellence of sculpture in the fifth century of the Roman age. INDEX. AARON'S Breastplate, 2. Agesilaus, How disabled from the Agricultural Labour in 14th Cen- Alexander and Diogenes, 26. "All for the best," 141. "All is lost, save Honour," 168. Amphion and his Lyre, 18. Ants, Colossal, producing Gold, 76.. Appeal, Reasonable, 25. Apsley House and Wellington, 149. Archimedes and the Lever, 177. Argus and his Hundred Eyes, 57. Army terrified by an Eclipse, 29. "As rich as Croesus," 23. Atlantis, the Isle, 72. BALBEC, who built ? 214. "Babes in the Wood," Ballad of Babylon, How it fell, 29. Bacon, Friar, his Brazen Head, Bail, First, in Rome, 37. Bed of Justice, the, 201. Beetles, Egyptian Worship of, 8. "Begin at the Beginning," 169. Belisarius, Escapes of, 81. Britannia, Origin of, 192. British Museum, Magna Charta "Broad Devonshire," 172. R Bruce's Travels, 78. Brutus and his Mother, 42. "Cabala with the Stars," 62. Capitol, the, How saved by Geese, Cæsar and the Bird of Omen, 42. Cages and Stocks in London, 203. Caroline and George II., Tomb of, Carthage, Founding of, 49. Carthage, Lamartine on, 51. Cats, Egyptian Worship of, 8. Centaurs, Origin of the, 56, 67. Charles I., Bernini's Bust of, 133. Charles I., Handkerchief of, 135. Charles V. and History, 172. Charon, Fable of, 67. Charter Oak of Connecticut, 197. "Cimmerian Gloom," 56. Circus, Roman, Sports of the, 38. City of London and the Peerage, Clarence, Was he drowned in Classic Charms, 58. Cloaca Maxima of Rome, 46. Cock, Omen of the, 23. Corioli, Site of, 34. Cowards, Lacedæmonian Law a- Coronation Stone in Westminster Coronation of George IV., 213. Crescent of the Turks, 195. Crocodiles, Egyptian Worship of, 8. Cromwell's Fortunate Day, 139. Jelly- Pardons" of Boston, 126. Crowns of Triumph, Roman, 188. DEDALUS, Exploits of, 67. Damien's Bed of Steel, 87. Dauphin of France, 209. "De Imitatione Christi," Who Deaths, Mysterious Royal, 219. Deucalional Deluge, the, 68. Diadem, Origin of the, 188. Dinners, Public, at Athens, 160. EAGLE, the, a Bird of Omen, 34. Edward V., Death of, 219. Eleanor's, Queen, Crosses, 120. Eleusinian Mysteries, the, 66. Embalming, Egyptian, 10. Emperors of the East, State of, 79. Epic Poetry of Early Greece, 214. Erasmus, his Early Love of Pears, Erasmus and the New Testament, Errors in Print, 214. "Ex Pede Herculem," 160. FABULOUS Localities of Classic 128. Fifth-Monarchy Men, 137. Flaying Alive, 90. Forest, the New, Hants, 117. France, Succession to the Throne Frederick the Great and Arnold Free Trade, Origin of, 183. GASCONADES, 177. Generals, Illustrious, Uncrowned, Genius, Regality of, 174. Geometry, No Royal Road to, 161. Glaucus, How saved from Drown- Gordian Knot cut by Alexander, 26. Greece and Egypt, 12. Gustavus III., Secret Chests of, Guy Fawkes's Lantern, 139. HALCYON Days, 180. Hampden the Patriot, 126. |