[114] They must have wonderfully improved since the days of Erasmus. "Advenientem nemo salutat, ne videantur ambire hospitem.... Ubi diu inclamaveris, tandem aliquis per fenestellam æstuarii (nam in his degunt fere usque ad solstitium æstivum) profert caput, non aliter quam e testa prospicit testudo. Is rogandus est an liceat illic diversari. Si non renuit, intelligis dari locum," &c.—"Erasmi Colloquia. Diversoria."—Ed.
[115] Servites, or Servants of the Blessed Virgin, a religious order, first instituted in Tuscany in 1233.—Ed.
"You see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, and stares, and a' that."
—Burns.—Ed.
[117] One is reminded of Gulliver in Lilliput. "I took all possible methods to cultivate this favourable disposition. The natives came, by degrees, to be less apprehensive of any danger from me. I would sometimes lie down, and let five or six of them dance on my hand."—Ed.
[118] A song written by Garrick.—Ed.
[119] When Paoli makes the Romans have dealings with the great king of Assyria, we may well say, as Mrs. Shandy said of Socrates, "He had been dead a hundred years ago."—Ed.
"Ce fier Saxon, qu'on croit né parmi nous."
—Voltaire, "Poëme de Fontenoi."—Ed.
[121] "Do not hope wholly to reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your mind."—Johnson to Boswell, March 5, 1776.—Ed.