Amusements of some Learned Men.
Tycho Brahe polished glass for spectacles, and made mathematical instruments; D'Andilly delighted in forest trees; Balzac, in manufacturing crayons; Pieresc, in his medals and antiques; the Abbé de Marolles, in engravings. Rohault's greatest recreation was in watching different mechanics at their labor; Arnauld and Warburton read trashy novels for recreation; Montaigne fondled his cat; Cardinal Richelieu enjoyed leaping.
Kant's Eccentricity.
Kant was probably the profoundest of metaphysicians that the world has yet seen. It was his custom, when deeply engaged upon some abstruse topic, to walk backward and forward, upon a moonlight evening, along the avenue (bordered on each side with magnificent trees) approaching his house. He was observed, on one occasion, as he slowly, in deep meditation, moved backward and forward along the avenue, to leap over the shadows of the trees as they cast themselves before him in his meditative walk. The delusion was strong upon him that these same shadows were ditches, and that it was incumbent upon him that he should clear them, and that precisely in the way he did. Such are the occasional abberrations of true genius.
Death Warrant of the Saviour.
Of the many interesting relics brought to light by the researches of antiquarians, none could be more interesting to Christians than the following, which is faithfully transcribed—
"Sentence by Pontius Pilate, acting
Governor of Lower Galilee, stating that
Jesus of Nazareth shall suffer death
On the cross.
In the year seventeen of the Emperor Tiberius Cæsar, and the 27th day of March, the city of the holy Jerusalem—Annas and Caiaphas being priests, sacrificators of the people of God—Pontius Pilate, Governor of Lower Galilee, sitting in the presidential chair of the prætory, condemns Jesus of Nazareth to die on the cross between two thieves, the great and notorious evidence of the people saying—
1. Jesus is a seducer.
2. He is seditious.
3. He is the enemy of the law.
4. He calls himself falsely the Son of God.
5. He calls himself falsely the King of Israel.
6. He entered into the temple followed by a multitude bearing palm branches in their hands.