oto parva quod urna capit."

A second one appears in the pretended lines on the sepulchre of Scipio
Africanus:--

"Cui non Europa, non obstitit Africa unquam,
Respiceres hominem, quem brevis urna premit."

The same reflection we find in Ossian:--

"With three steps I measure thy grave,
O thou, so great heretofore!"

It is very difficult indeed to determine in which of these passages
the leading thought is expressed best, in which is to be found the
most energy, the deepest feeling, the most touching shortness. I
think one should prefer the passage of Shakspeare, because the direct
mention of the corporal existence gives a magnificent liveliness to
the picture, and because the very contrast of the space appears most
lively by it; whereas, at the first reading of the other passages, it
is not the human being, consisting of body and soul, which comes in
our mind, but only the human spirit, of which we know already that it
cannot be buried in the grave.

One of the most eminent modern authors seems to have imitated the
passage of Shakspeare's _Henry IV_. Schiller, in his _Jungfrau von
Orleans_, says:--

"Und von dem maecht'gen Talbot, der die Welt
Mit seinem Kriegeruhm fuellte, bleibet nichts
Als eine Hand voll leichten Staubs."

(And of the mighty Talbot, whose warlike
Glory fill'd the world, nothing remains
But a handful of light dust.)

Albert Cohn.

Berlin.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_True or False Papal Bulls_.--

"Utrum bulla papalis sit vera an non.

"Si vis scire utrum literae domini Papae sint veraces vel non,
numera punctos quae sunt in bulla. Et si inveneris circulum
ubi sunt capita apostolorum habentem 73 punctos, alium vero
circulum 46, alium super caput Beati Petri habentem 26, alium
super caput Sancti Pauli habentem 25 punctos, et punctos quae
sunt in barba 26, veraces sunt; alioquin falsae.--Sir Matthew
Hale's _Manuscripts_, Library of Lincoln's Inn, vol. lxxiii.
p. 176.

To which may be added, that in digging for the foundations of the
new (or present) London Bridge, an instrument was dug up for
counterfeiting the seals or Bullae? Where is it now deposited?

J.E.

_Burning Bush of Sinai._--

"Pococke asserts that the monks have planted in their garden
a bush similar to those which grow in Europe, and that by
the most ridiculous imposture, they hesitate not to affirm
that i