bust of the reigning King, and on the reverse this inscription: Valore e lealdade, (valour and fidelity).

In PRUSSIA, the Order of the Red Eagle had for a device: Sincere est Constantu; and since 1814 they have substituted for the golden medal, its ancient decoration, a silver cross suspended to a white ribbon embroidered in orange.

The Order of the Iron Cross had for its principal attributes a silver cross and a ribbon, sometimes black embroidered in white, and sometimes white embroidered in black.

Fi

In the KINGDOM OF NAPLES, the Order of Saint Ferdinand, and of merit, bore on the escutcheon of the cross the inscription:Fidei et merito; that of Saint Georges de la Réunion marked its great cross by this inscription: In hoc signo vinces. nally, the Order of Francis I., of which a gold medal for the Commanders and a silver medal for the Knights were the distinctive emblems, had these words for a legend: De rege optimo merito.

In the STATES OF THE CHURCH the celebrated Order of the Gold Spur recalled by the cross of its Knights that of the Hospitallers of Jerusalem, the spur suspended between the two lower points, being the only distinction. The new Order of Saint Gregory had for a signal an octagonal cross enamelled in red; on the shield was the effigy of Gregory the Great, and on the reverse the following device: Pro Deo et principe, with this inscription: Gregorius XVI., P. M., anno 1; the ribbon is red and yellow.

In SWEDEN the Order of Wasa bore on the oval medallion, in which the decoration was set, the symbolical sheaf, (Wasa en Suédois), and this inscription: Gustaf den tredie, iustiktere, 1770. The Order of L'Etoile polaire had for the motto of its decoration, these words: Nescit occasum.

The Order of the Seraphim had for an insignia, a cross suspended to a blue ribbon, and presenting on its surface the letters I. H. S. (Jesus Hominum Salvator), whilst on the reverse were the initials of these words: Fridericus rex Sueda.

In DENMARK the knights of the Order of the Elephant or of Holy Mary, bore a collar composed of several elephants, interwoven with Towers, and to which is suspended a golden elephant enamelled in white, the back laden with a silver castle built of sand (noir), on a raised terrace enamelled with flowers, a mantle of velvet striped with white satin, bearing, embroidered in gold, on the left side, a cross encircled with rays, is the ceremonial dress. Finally, in BELGIUM, where we have but the Order of Leopold, the decoration consists in a cross enamelled in white, of which a crown of laurel and of oak reunite the rays. The shield enamelled in black with a red border between two circles of gold, bearing on its face the cipher of the king, and on the back the coat-of-arms, with the device: L'union fait la force. A last word, apropos of a chivalric ensign, which played a prominent part in the middle ages. It is the l'emprise. By this word, which is nothing more than an abbreviation of d'enterprise, consecrated both in the Italian emprese, and the Spanish empresas, by which was designated in the middle ages, these adventures which the knights bound themselves by oaths to perform either in honor of, or to give pleasure to, their ladies. The valiant knight who undertook an emprise bore the ensign on his arms. This was a ring, a bracelet, a manacle, chains, or other symbols attached to the hands by their mistress herself. Of this they were not to be dispossessed, until after the lapse of one or several years, according to the conditions of the oath, and never without having accomplished the feat of arms which was the object of this chivalreus vow. If after bearing it for some time, the knight met some other valiant knight, who offered to cross a lance with him, and strip him of his emprise, that is to say, bear off the gage that he bore, this would be to him a serious disgrace.

We see in Monstrelet a squire of Aragon who having challenged some English Knights, and who carried on his right leg un tronçon dé grève, never resigned this emprise till he was released from it by one of the knights. Sometimes several knights engaged to run the same venture and take the same emprise. We see in 1414, the Duke de Bourbon, and sixteen of his Lords, Knights, and Squires, made a vow to carry during two years, every Sunday on their left leg, a manacle in gold for the knights, and in silver for the squires, until they had found an equal number of valiant knights to combat. Whilst the knight bore the emprise he was inviolable and sacred. The squire who was devoted to his service was obliged to take an oath not to touch the emprise, et soy agenomillant bien bas. To take away the emprise, it was necessary the permission of the Lord of the Court where it had been found should be obtained.

VERSIFIED WORKS. - The mania of versification has been at times so great amongst some writers completely devoid of

imagination, that sooner than relinquish this style of writing they have even transformed prose works into verse, and were not content to versify literary works;* they versified works on history, law, theology, science, and of the monastic rules. Thus in the third century Richard D'Annebaut, an Anglo Norman poet, versified the Institutes of Justinian, and Nicholas Dourbault published in 1280 la Coutume de Normandie, in metre of eight syllables. The Old and New Testaments have been versified very many times.

Much later a Spaniard versified the treatise Adversus omnes hareses of the Archbishop of Compostello, Castro, who died in 1568. The celebrated Italian lawyer, Gennaro, who died in 1761, translated the Digest in Latin verse. Garnier Deschènes is author of la Coutume de Paris put into French verse 1768, in duodecimo, a work which passed through three editions. A lawyer, Flacon, published in Paris in 1805, le Code civil,

mis en vers.

In retaliation, some writers of the latter Empire amused themselves by putting Esop's fables into prose, Babrius having versified them. In the latter ages of latinity they did likewise with the fables of Phedrus. We are not aware whether it was the same motives that inspired a Protestant minister, Ducommin, who had put into prose the fables of la Motte, in giving as a reason that all did not like verse, and that besides prose seemed better adapted than poetry to the simple and natural style of fables.

The technical works in verse are sufficiently numerous. Among the treatises on Grammar, that most known is le Jardin des Racines grecques, of Lancelot, preceded by this advice to the reader :

• The Festin de Pierré, of Moliere, has been put into verse by Th. Corneille; the Précieuses Ridicules, by Somaize. Telemaque has been put into verse in almost all European languages. The following is a specimen of Pelletier's style, who towards the end of the last century rhymed the seventh book of this last work ;

"Mais quel est ce Mentor? Par sa simplicité
Sans peine on le croirait né dans l'obscurité :
Mais attentivement quand on le considère,
Il semble d'un mortel bien surpasser la sphère."

Mais de racines nourrissantes
Qui rendent les âmes savantes."

The elegance of the versification of the Jardin des Racines Grecques has been at least equalled, if not surpassed, in la Géométrie en vers techniques, published in Paris, 1801, in octavo. "L'Angle dont le sommet à la courbe se rend, A moitié des degrés de l'arcque qu'il comprend; Lorsqu'il est au dehors, le cas devient complexe, Du concave moitié moins moitié du convexe.

Le triangle rectangle et son hypoténuse
Ont des propriétés que pas un ne récuse;
La perpendiculaire allant à l'angle droit,
De nous le démontrer aura bientôt le droit."

*

We do not know if it was in the same work that this definition of parallels which we had formerly read appears : "A l'abri de l'envie, en compagnes fidèles,

On voit marcher de front deux lignes parallels."

If not found there, it certainly deserved to be there. Amongst the most recent works, we must not forget la Géographie de la France, in technical verse, divided into Kingdoms, with notes written in the style of inscriptions, by Balestrier. We regret not knowing this work, the poetry of which would afford strange specimens.

FECUNDITY OF WRITERS.-There are some writers, according to Vigneul Marville, who have extreme difficulty in beginning, but when that point is once achieved, and the way open, they go on rapidly. The first lines of the history of M. de Thou cost him more trouble than all the rest, but that difficulty once surmounted he sped on with great rapidity. Others have great facility in writing, but take a long time to polish their works. In this category we may class Horace amongst the Romans, M. de Rabutin with ourselves; such in fact are the greater number of prudent people, who, born writers, follow at first the impulse of nature, which subsequently requires both correction and finish. Others, in fine, but that is their misfortune, write in a hurried manner, and do not revise their works. M. de Saumaise was of this description: a dangerous character which uniformly suffers; but which serves no point either as a model or example to any one. "Fabius Léonida, an Italian poet, dwelt a long time on his works; and retouched

them more than ten times in order to give them the perfection he was desirous they should possess. Pierre Mafée, who hsa writtenso wellin Latin, composed only fourteen or fifteen lines a day. Paulus Emilius Sanctorius, who had undertaken to write a Latin history of his time, was so long polishing what he did, that another would in less time have written a history of the whole world. M. de Vaugelas was thirty years engaged in the translation of Quintus Curtius, changing and correcting it unceasingly.* M. Habert, of the Academy, author of the Temple de la mort, which is one of the most beautiful pieces of French poetry, changed and rechanged during three years the metre of this work, in order that it might attain the beauty, polish, and elegance which he ambitioned. It was not without much vigilance and very hard labor that Malherbe produced his divine poetry. M. de Balzac passed days and nights arranging his thoughts to attain that perspicuity of style and choice of words for which we admire him at the present day.

The manuscripts of Ariosto are full of erasures. This may be seen in the autograph manuscript preserved at Florence, the celebrated stanza in which he described a tempest, written in sixteen different ways.

Petrarch re-made one of his verses forty-six times.

The manuscripts of Tasso are illegible in consequence of all the corrections.

Pascal re-made as often as sixteen times one of his Provinciales.

Buffon re-copied eleven times the manuscript of the Epoques de la nature.

Bucquet, an erudite Frenchman ofthe eighteenth century, reread fifty times, and copied himself fourteen times one of his works, Sur la Justice.

In the dedication of the first book of the Silves, addressed to Stella, the author dwelt with complacency on the rapidity with which he had composed these poems, "a rapidity," writes he, "which was not to me without pleasure; none had cost me more than two days; some even of the most imaginative but one day. I feared much that they would not carry with them the proofs

• Voiture said to him on this subject, "you will never finish it, for whilst you are polishing one part, our language will undergo a change; you will then be obliged to do all the other parts over again:" Altera lingua subit (application of the epigram of Martial on the laziness of a barber: Altera barba subit).