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[ In plain English, the “great go-to-bed,” and the “little go-to-bed.” There may be a portion of our readers who are not aware that the word “levee,” meaning a morning reception by a great man, is derived from the French “lever,” which means “to rise,” or “to get up.” The kings of France were in the habit of receiving homage at their morning toilets; a strange custom, that doubtless had its origin in the empressement of the courtier to inquire how his master had slept; which receptions were divided into two classes, the “grand lever” and the “petit lever”—the “great getting-up” or the “little getting-up.” The first was an occasion of more state than the last. Even down to the time of Charles X., the court papers seldom went a week without announcing that the king had signed the contract of marriage—a customary compliment in France, among friends of this of that personage—at the “grand lever,” or at the “petit lever;” the first, I believe, but am not certain, being the greater honour of the two.—EDITOR.]
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[ Doortje—pronounced Doort-yay—means Dorothea. Mr. Littlepage uses a sort of corruption of the pronunciation. I well remember a fortune-teller of that name, in Albany; though it could not have been the Doortje of 1758.—EDITOR.]
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[ It is quite evident, that Mr. Cornelius Littlepage was, to agree at least, a believer in the fortune-teller's art. This was, however, no more than was common, a century since. Quite within my recollection, the Albanians had a celebrated dealer in the black art, who was regularly consulted, on the subject of all lost spoons, and the pilfering of servants, by the good housewives of the town, as recently as my school-boy days. The Dutch, like the Germans, appear to have been prone to this species of superstition; from which, even the English of education were far from being free, a century since. Mademoiselle Normand existed in the present century, even, in the sceptical capital of France. But, the somnambulist is taking the place of the ancient soothsayer, in our own times.—EDITOR.]
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[ This might have been true, in 1758; but is not true for 1845.—EDITOR.]