“Keswick, Feb. 21, 1829. “Robert Southey.”
The laureate had his wish; for in duty, he was bound to say, that worthier strains than his bore inscribed the name of Caroline connected with his own—and, moreover, she was something more than a dear friend and sister poetess.
“The laureate,” observes a writer in Fraser’s Magazine, “is a fortunate man; his queen supplies him with butts (alluding to the laureateship), and his lady with Bowls: then may his cup of good fortune be overflowing.”
DEVOTION TO SCIENCE.
M. Agassiz, the celebrated palæontologist, is known to have relinquished pursuits from which he might have been in the receipt of a considerable income, and all for the sake of science. Dr. Buckland knew him, when engaged in this arduous career, with the revenue of only 100l.: and of this he paid fifty pounds to artists for drawings, thirty pounds for books, and lived himself on the remaining twenty pounds a year! Thus did he raise himself to an elevated European rank; and, in his abode, au troisième, was the companion and friend of princes, ambassadors, and men of the highest rank and talent of every country.
DISADVANTAGEOUS CORRECTION.
Lord North had little reason to congratulate himself when he ventured on an interruption with Burke. In a debate on some economical question, Burke was guilty of a false quantity—“Magnum vectĭgal est parsimonia.” “Vectīgal,” said the minister, in an audible under-tone. “I thank the noble lord for his correction,” resumed the orator, “since it gives me the opportunity of repeating the inestimable adage—“Magnum vectīgal est parsimonia.” (Parsimony is a great revenue.)