To spur three leagues towards the Apennine;
Come down, we pray thee, ere the hot sun count
His dewy rosary on the eglantine"
G. N.
"God takes those soonest whom He loves the best."—Where shall we find the origin of this expression, so frequently occurring on tombstones in almost all parts of the country? Or how far back can it be traced? The following, in Rainham church, Kent, is of the year 1626:
"Here slepes my babe in silence, heauen's his rest,
For God takes soonest those he loueth best."
T. H. K.
Malew, Man.
Quakers' Attempt to convert the Pope.—At what period, and in what author besides Veryard's Tour in the Low Countries, is the story of two Quakers being imprisoned in the Lazzaretto in Rome, for attempting to convert the Pope, to be found? Were they persons of any standing in the Society?