"What is Milton's chief work?" "Milton wrote a sensible poem called the 'Canterbury Tails.'"
"The gamut is a musical scale. The name is derived from gamut or catgut, the material from which the strings of musical instruments used to be made."
"An optimist is a man who looks after your eyes, and a pessimist is a man who looks after your feet."
"A man who looks on the bright side of things is called an optimist, and one who looks on the dull side is called a pianist."
Dr. Charles Wilson, in his general report on the Scottish Training Colleges, gives several curious answers which he had received from candidates and pupil-teachers. A young lady in commenting on the proverb, "Penny wise and pound foolish," wrote—"This proverb clearly shows that for every wise and good action a man does, he will commit two hundred and forty foolish bad ones."
Under examination by Dr. John Ker, a boy wrote regarding Oliver Cromwell—"Oliver Cromwell's eyes were of a dark grey, his nose was very large and of a deep, red colour, but underneath it was a truly religious soul."
Another wrote—"By the Declaration of Indulgence people were allowed to worship God in their own way. Seven Bishops refused to do so. They were accordingly put on their trial and found not guilty."
Another declared that the Salic Law says—"No one can be made King who was descended from a woman."
Speaking there of Oliver Cromwell, recalls the story of a boy's school essay which the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone was fond of telling—albeit, the great Commoner had no very lively sense of humour. The "G.O.M.'s" comically-mixed youthful historian wrote—"Oliver Cromwell began his career by cutting off the head of his king, and when he was dying he said, 'Had I served my God with half the zeal I have served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.'"