for I am much beholden to
you for it. We have had a very dry season; and now I hope we shall have
rain. I never saw the glass so _low_ in my life." Every one was pleased
with the humour and pleasantry of the turn; and the more so, as the Doctor
was then more than eighty, a time of life when the infirmities of old age
make most men peevish and hasty.

A Test.--A cobbler at Leyden, who used to attend the public disputations
held at the academy, was once asked if he understood Latin? "No," replied
the mechanic, "but it is easy to know who is wrong in the argument." "How?"
enquired his friend. "Why, by seeing who is first angry."

Casaubon, in his "Treatise on the Passions," relates the following pleasing
anecdote of Robert, one of the greatest monarchs that ever swayed the
sceptre of France. Having once surprised a rogue who had cut away the half
of his mantle, he took no other notice of the offence than by saying
mildly to him, "Save thyself, sinner, and leave the rest for another who
may have need of it."

Garrick once complained to Sir Joshua Reynolds of the abuse with which he
was loaded by Foote, when Sir Joshua answered, that Foote, in so doing,
gave the strongest possible proof of being in the wrong; as it was always
the man who had the worst side who became violent and abusive.

TIME, VALUE OF.

Spare Moments.--The great French Chancellor D'Aguesseau carefully employed
every moment of his time. Observing that Madame D'Aguesseau always delayed
ten or twelve minutes before she came down to dinner, he began to compose a
work to which he intended to devote these few minutes, which would
otherwise have been lost. The result was, at the end of fifteen years, a
work in three large quarto volumes, which went through several editions.

Buffon thus relates the manner in which he acquired a habit of early
rising. "In my youth," says he, "I was excessively fond of sleep, and that
indolence robbed me of much time. My poor Joseph (a domestic who served him
for sixty-five years) was of the greatest benefit to me in overcoming it. I
promised him a crown for every time he should make me get up at six
o'clock. He failed not the next day to rouse me, but I only abused and
threatened him. He tried the day following, and I did the same, which made
him desist. 'Friend Joseph,' said I to him at last, 'I have lost my time
and you have gained nothing. You do not know how to manage the matter.
Think only of my promise,