"Nam mihi cum multa eximia, divinaque videntur Athenæ tuæ peperisse, atque in vitâ hominum attulisse, tum nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique vitâ exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati sumus: initiaque ut appellantur, ita reverâ principia vitæ cognovimus; neque solùm cum lætitiâ vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi."—De Leg. lib. ii. c. 14.
"For amongst other excellent and divine things which owed their origin to your Athens, and in which we participate, nothing is more admirable than those mysteries which have caused us to pass from a wild and uncivilised condition to one of amelioration and humanity: or, to speak more correctly, they first brought us to life, as indicated by the term initiation (beginning), which the mysteries have retained; since this new kind of life (regeneration) is not only attended with happiness, but is succeeded by the hope of a better destiny after death."
T. J. BUCKTON.
Lichfield.
Sterne at Paris (Vol. v., p. 105.).
—In Mémoires d'un Voyageur qui se repose, by Mons. Dutens, or Duchillon, as he also called himself, is an amusing account of a scene between Sterne and him, at Lord Tavistock's table at Paris, on the 4th June, 1762.
M. S.
The Paper of the present Day (Vol. iii., p. 181.).
—A. GRAYAN'S note on the "First Paper Mill" reminds me of a too long neglected remark of your correspondent LAUDATOR TEMPORIS ACTI on the inferiority of the paper made in the present days as compared with that of olden times. As a matron, whose proper business it is to be curious in such matters, I venture to suggest that the universal use of calicos and printed cottons in the place of linen articles of dress, is the true cause of the deterioration of the paper of our books. The careful inspection of the rags of present days on their arrival at a paper-mill, will, I think, confirm my statement, if any gentleman who still clings pertinaciously to the linen shirts of "better times" is disposed to doubt the fact.
MARGARET GATTY.