FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  
beach like a stranded vessel. Leaving him and them, I ran along the beach for half a mile to regain Zela's tent." * * * * * RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS. WITCHES. (_From Howell's Letters, 1647_.) We need not cross the sea for examples of this kind, we have too many (God wot) at home: King James a great while was loth to believe there were witches; but that which happened to my Lord Francis of Rutland's children, convinced him, who were bewitched by an old woman that was servant at Belvoir Castle, but being displeased, she contracted with the devil, who conversed with her in form of a cat, whom she called Rutterkin, to make away those children, out of mere malignity, and thirst of revenge. * * * * * A RICH MAN. "Among the many and various hospitals," says Sir William Temple, "that are every man's curiosity and talk, that travels their country, I was affected with none more than that of the aged seamen at Enchuysen, which is contrived, finished, and ordered, as if it were done with a kind of intention of some well-natured man, that those who had been their whole lives in the hardships and incommodities of the sea, should find a retreat with all the eases and conveniences that old age is capable of feeling and enjoying. And here I met with the _only_ rich man that I ever saw in my life--for one of these old seamen entertaining me a good while with the plain stories of his fifty years voyages and adventures, while I was viewing the hospital and the church adjoining; I gave him, at parting, a piece of their coin, about the value of a crown; he took it and smiled, and offered it me again; but when I refused it, he asked me 'What he should do with money?' I left him to overcome his modesty as he could; but a servant coming after me, saw him give it to a little girl that opened the church door, as she passed by him; which made me reflect upon the fantastic calculation of riches and poverty that is current in the world, by which a man that wants a million, is a prince; he that wants but a groat is a beggar; and this was a poor man that wanted nothing at all." * * * * * THE GATHERER. _Nicknames_.--John Magee, formerly the printer of the _Dublin Evening Post_, was full of shrewdness and eccentricity. Several prosecutions were instituted against him by the government, and many "keen encounters of the tongue" t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   >>  



Top keywords:

church

 

children

 

servant

 

seamen

 

parting

 

viewing

 

hospital

 

stranded

 

adjoining

 

refused


offered
 

adventures

 

smiled

 
enjoying
 

conveniences

 

capable

 

feeling

 

stories

 
vessel
 

overcome


entertaining

 

Leaving

 
voyages
 

coming

 

printer

 
Dublin
 

Evening

 

GATHERER

 

Nicknames

 

shrewdness


encounters
 

tongue

 
government
 
eccentricity
 

Several

 

prosecutions

 

instituted

 

wanted

 

opened

 

passed


reflect
 

million

 

prince

 

beggar

 
current
 

fantastic

 

calculation

 

riches

 

poverty

 
modesty