POPE JOAN.

The influence at Rome during the ninth century, of two sister prostitutes, MAROZIA and THEODORA, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues; the most strenuous of their lovers was rewarded with the Roman mitre, and their reign may have suggested to the darker ages the fable of a female pope. The bastard son, the grandson and great grandson of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were seated in the chair of St. Peter; and it was at the age of nineteen years that the second of these became the head of the Latin church. His youth and manhood were of suitable complexion; and the nations of pilgrims could bear testimony to the charges that were urged against him in a Roman synod, and in the presence of Otho the great. As John the XII. had renounced the dress and decencies of his profession, the soldier may not perhaps be dishonoured by the wine that he drank, the blood that he spilled, the flames that he kindled or the licentious pursuits of gaming and hunting. His open symony might be the conséquence of distress, and his blasphemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could not possibly be serious. But we read with some surprise that the only grandson of Marozia lived in public adultery with the

matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was turned into a school for prostitution, and that his rape of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the shrine of St. Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor. The protestants have dwelt with malicious pleasure on those characters of anti-christ; but to a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELEY,

Archbishop Chicheley made an extraordinary and unfortunate mistake in 1415, when, to reform the barber-surgeons, he strictly enjoined that their shops should not be opened on the Lord's day, namely, the seventh day of the week, which the Lord blessed and made holy, and on which, after his six day's works, he rested from all his labour. The Jews were much gratified at this error, but their triumph was of short duration.

CARDINAL DU BOIS.

M. Boudon, an eminent surgeon, was one day sent for by the Cardinal du Bois, prime minister of France, to perform a very serious operation upon him. The cardinal on seeing him enter the room, said to him, "You must not expect to

"treat me in the same rough manner as you "treat your poor miserable wretches at your

hospital of the Hotel Dieu." "My lord," replied Mr. Boudon with great dignity, "every one "of those miserable wretches, as your eminence "is pleased to call them, is a prime minister in my eyes,"

PULPIT FLATTERY.

One of the first acts performed by George the Third, after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order, prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him, from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His majesty was led to this from the fulsome adulation which Dr. Thomas Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the chapel royal; and for which, instead of thanks he received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his majesty observing, "that he came "to chapel to hear the praises of God, and not "not his own." This circumstance operated wonderfully on the reverend orator, as from that moment he became a flaming patriot. The Doctor took part with Wilkes, was made liveryman of the joiner's company and lavished large sums. upon Mrs. Macauley, the republican historian, in whose honour he caused a small statue to be

erected in his church at Walbrook; though before he died, he ordered it to be removed, not indeed so much from a sense of the impropriety of the thing, as out of resentment to the lady, who had displeased him by her marriage.

DR. BERKELEY.

As Berkley, the celebrated author of the immaterial theory,was one morning musing in the cloisters of Trinity College, Dublin, an acquaintance came up to him, and seeing him wrapt in contemplation, hit him a smart rap on the shoulder with his cane. The Doctor starting, called out "What's the matter?" His acquaintance look+ ing him steadily in the face, replied, "No matter Berkeley."

ST. POL DE LEON.

The miracles, which are reported by tradition to have been performed by St. Pol de Leon, far exceed those of any other saint in the calendar. He flourished towards the close of the fifth century, and England is said to have been the country which had the honour of giving him birth.

Saints for the most part have not begun their career of wonders till somewhat advanced in life; but St. Pol, even when a lad at school, gave an

earnest of the future exploits which might be expected from him. The field of the monastery in which he was a student, was ravaged by such a number of birds, that the whole crop of corn was in danger of being destroyed. St. Pol summoned the sacrilegious animals to appear before the principal of the monastery, who also was a saint, called Hydultus, that they might receive the correction they merited. The birds, obedient to his summons, presented themselves to him in a body, but St. Hydultus being of a humane disposition, only gave them a reproof and admonition, and let them go. The grateful birds never after touched the corn of the monastery. In a a convent of nuns hard by, situated on the sea shore, and extremely exposed to the tempestuous wind of the north, lived a sister of St Pol. She represented the case of the convent to her brother, when he ordered the sea to retire four thousand paces from the convent, which it did immediately. He then directed his sister and her companions to place a row of flints along the the shore for a considerable distance; which was no sooner done, than they immediately increased into vast rows, which so entirely broke the force of the winds, that the convent was never after incommoded by them.

These two first essays of St Pol's miraculous