that the actors, to be heard, were obliged to
have recourse to metallic masks, contrived with tremendous mouths, in
order to augment the natural sound of the voice. This mask was called by
the Latins _persona_, from _personare_ (to sound through); and
delineations of such masks as were used in each piece were generally
prefixed to it,(as we now prefix the names of the characters in our
modern plays), as appears from the _Vatican Terence_. Hence
_dramatis personae_ (masks of the drama); which words, after masks
ceased to be used, were understood to mean _persons of the drama_.

J.E.J.

* * * * *

_Punctuality_.--The late hospitable Colonel Bosville had his
dinner on the table exactly two minutes before five o'clock, and no
guest was admitted after that hour; for he was such a determined
observer of punctuality, that when the clock struck five, his
porter locked the street-door, and laid the key at the head of the
dinner-table. The time kept by the clock in the kitchen, the parlour,
and the drawing-room, and the watch of the master, were minutely the
same. That the dinner was ready, was not announced to the guests in
the usual way; but when the clock struck, this superlative time-keeper
himself declared to his guests, "Dinner waits." Boileau, the French
satirist, has a shrewd observation on this subject: "I have always been
_punctual at the hour of dinner_," says the bard, "for I knew that
all those whom I kept waiting at that provoking interval would employ
those unpleasant moments to sum up all my faults."

THOMAS GILL.

* * * * *

_Volcanoes_.--According to Dr. Ure, there were, in 1830, 205
burning volcanoes on the globe. Of these, 107 occur in islands, and 98
on continents, but ranged mostly along their shores.

* * * * *

_Former Junction of England and France_.--From the correspondence
pointed out by Mr. William Phillips, the geologist, between the strata
of Dover and the hills west of Calais; and by M. de la Beche, between
the strata of the coast of Dorset and Devon, and those of Normandy, it
may be inferred that the English Channel is a submarine valley, which
owes its origin in a great measure to diluvial excavation, the opposite
sides having as much correspondence as those of ordinary valleys on the
land.

* * * * *

_Soldiers_.--English soldiers were at one period dis