from noontide till midnight it was unfortunate.

If a man sneezed at the table while they were taking away, or if another
happened to sneeze upon his left hand, it was unlucky; if on the right
hand, fortunate.

If, in the undertaking any business, two or four sneezes happened, it was a
lucky omen, and gave encouragement to proceed; if more than four, the omen
was neither good nor bad; if one or three, it was unlucky, and dehorted
them from proceeding in what they had designed. If two men were
deliberating about any business, and both of them chanced to sneeze
together, it was a prosperous omen.--_Archaeol. Graec._ (5th ed.), pp. 339,
340.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

The custom your correspondent MEDICUS alludes to, of wishing a person "good
health," after sneezing, is also very common in Russia. The phrases the
Russians use on these occasions are--"To your good health!" or "How do you
do?"

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346.)

To the list of these literary _auto da fe's_ we may well add the burning of
Bishop Burnet's famous _Pastoral Letter_, which was censured by the House
of Commons, January, 1692, and was burned by the common hangman. The
offence contained in it was the ascribing the title of William III. to the
crown of England to a right of conquest. A recollection of this gives
additional point to the irony of Atterbury in attacking Wake:

"William the Conqueror is another of the pious patterns he recommends,
'who would suffer nothing,' he says, 'to be determined in any
ecclesiastical causes without leave and authority first had from
him.'... His present majesty is not William the Conqueror; and can no
more by our constitution rule absolutely either in Church or State than
he would if he could: his will and pleasure is indeed a law to all his
subjects; not in a conquering sense, but because his will and pleasure
is only that the laws of our country should be obeyed, which he came
over on purpose to rescue, and counts it his great prerogative to
maintain; and contemns therefore, I doubt not, such sordid flattery as
would measure the extent of his supremacy from the Conqueror's
claim."--Atterbury's _Rights, Powers, and Privileges of Convocation_,
pp. 158--160.

Atterbury never misses a hit at Burnet when he can conveniently administer
one, a