* * * *

THE POETS IN A PUZZLE.

Cottle, in his Life of Coleridge, relates the following amusing
incident:--

"I led the horse to the stable, when a fresh perplexity arose. I removed
the harness without difficulty; but, after many strenuous attempts, I
could not remove the collar. In despair, I called for assistance, when
aid soon drew near. Mr. Wordsworth brought his ingenuity into exercise;
but, after several unsuccessful efforts, he relinquished the achievement,
as a thing altogether impracticable. Mr. Coleridge now tried his hand,
but showed no more grooming skill than his predecessors; for, after
twisting the poor horse's neck almost to strangulation and the great
danger of his eyes, he gave up the useless task, pronouncing that the
horse's head must have grown (gout or dropsy?) since the collar was put
on; for he said 'it was a downright impossibility for such a huge _os
frontis_ to pass through so narrow a collar!' Just at this instant, a
servant-girl came near, and, understanding the cause of our consternation,
'La! master,' said she, 'you don't go about the work in the right way.
You should do like this,' when, turning the collar completely upside
down, she slipped it off in a moment, to our great humiliation and
wonderment, each satisfied afresh that there were heights of knowledge
in the world to which we had not yet attained."

* * * * *

SALE OF MAGAZINES.

Sir John Hawkins, in his "Memoirs of Johnson," ascribes the decline of
literature to the ascendancy of frivolous Magazines, between the years
1740 and 1760. He says that they render smatterers conceited, and confer
the superficial glitter of knowledge instead of its substance.

Sir Richard Phillips, upwards of forty years a publisher, gives the
following evidence as to the sale of the Magazines in his time:--

"For my own part, I know that in 1790, and for many years previously,
there were sold of the trifle called the _Town and Country Magazine_,
full 15,000 copies per month; and, of another, the _Ladies' Magazine_,
from 16,000 to 22,000. Such circumstances were, therefore, calculated to
draw forth the observations of Hawkins. _The Gentleman's Magazine_, in
its days of popular extracts, never rose above 10,000; after it became
more decidedly antiquarian, it fell in sale, and continued for many
years at 3000.

"The veriest trifles, and only such, move the mass of minds which
compose the p