The title-page is not always a distinct intimation of what is to follow. "The Diversions of Purley" is one of the toughest books in existence. "Apes Urbanæ" (Urban bees), by the great scholar, Leo Allatius, is not about bees, but is devoted to the great men who nourished during the Pontificate of Urban VIII., whose family carried bees on their coat-armorial. "Marmontel's Moral Tales" has been found to give disappointment to parents in search of the absolutely correct and improving; and Edgeworth's "Essay on Irish Bulls" has been counted money absolutely thrown away by eminent breeders. "MacEwen on the Types" is not a book for printers, but for theologians. Ruskin's treatise "On the Construction of Sheepfolds" treats about Popery and Protestantism.—The Book Hunter.
A Carmelite Friar's Poem.
In the seventeenth century a carmelite friar named Jean Louis Barthelemi, but who always called himself Pierre de St. Louis, composed (in twelve books) a poem entitled, "The Magdaleneide; or, Mary Magdalen at the Desert of the Sainte Beaume in Provence, a Spiritual and Christian Poem." Some idea of it may be obtained from a literally translated extract. Having treated at large of the Magdelen's irregular conduct in the early part of her life, and of her subsequent conversion, he says:—
"But God at length changed this coal into a ruby, this crow into a dove, this wolf into a sheep, this hell into a heaven, this nothing into something, this thistle into a lily, this thorn into a rose, this impotence into power, this vice into virtue, this caldron into a mirror."
The poem cost him five years of close application, and he concludes it by egotistically saying: "If you desire grace and sweetness in verses, in mine will you find them."
Striking Parallel Passages between Shakspeare and the Bible.
Othello.—Rude am I in speech.—I. 3.
But though I be rude in speech.—2 Cor. xi. 6.
Witches.—Show his eyes and grieve his heart.—iv. 1.
Consume thine eyes and grieve thine heart.—1 Sam. ii. 33.