THE IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY-CRANMER.

I am not aware that the fact of Cranmer's holding his right hand in the flames till it was consumed has been questioned. Fox says:

He stretched forth his right hand into the flames, and there held it so stedfast that all the people might see it burnt to a coal before his body was touched.-P. 927: ed. Milner, London, 1837, 8vo.

Or, as the passage is given in the last edition,

And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face), that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched.-Acts and Monuments, ed. 1839, vol. viii. p. 90.

Burnet is more circumstantial.

When he came to the stake he prayed, and then undressed himself: and being tied to it, as the fire was kindling, he stretched forth his right hand towards the flame, never moving it, save that once he wiped his face with it, till it was burnt away, which was consumed before the fire reached his body. He expressed no disorder from the pain he was in; sometimes saying, "That unworthy hand;" and oft crying out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He was soon after quite burnt.-Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 429, ed. 1825.

Hume says:

He stretched out his hand, and without betraying, either by his countenance or motions, the least sign of weakness, or even feeling, he held it in the flames till it was entirely consumed.-Hume, vol. iv. p. 476.

It is probable that Hume believed this, for while Burnet states positively as a fact, though only inferentially as a miracle, that "the heart was found entire and unconsumed among the ashes," Hume says, "it was pretended that his heart," &c.

I am not about to discuss the character of Cranmer: a timid man might have been roused under such circumstances into at

tempting to do what it is said he did. The laws of physiology and combustion show that he could not have gone beyond the attempt. If a furnace were so constructed, that a man might hold his hand in the flame without burning his body, the shock to the nervous system would deprive him of all command over muscular action before the skin could be "entirely consumed." If the hand were chained over the fire, the shock would produce death. In this case the fire was unconfined. Whoever has seen the effect of flame in the open air, must know that the vast quantity sufficient entirely to consume a human hand, must have destroyed the life of its owner; though, from a peculiar disposition of the wood, the vital parts might have been protected.

The entire story is utterly impossible. May we, guided by the words "as the fire was kindling," believe that he then thrust his right hand into the flame-a practice, I believe, not unusual with our martyrs, and peculiarly suitable to him-and class the "holding it till consumed" with the whole and unconsumed heart?

In the accounts of martyrdoms, little investigation was made as to what was possible. Burnet, describing Hooper's execution, says, "one of his hands fell off before he died, with the other he continued to knock on his breast some time after." This, there is high medical authority for saying, could not be.

INVITATION BY BEN JONSON.

IMITATED FROM MARTIAL

INVITING A FRIEND TO SUPPER.

To-night, grave sir, both my poor house and I

Do equally desire your company:

Not that we think us worthy such a guest,

But that your worth will dignify our feast,

With those that come; whose grace may make that seem
Something, which else could hope for no esteem.

It is the fair acceptance, Sir, creates

The entertainment perfect, not the cates.
Yet shall you have, to rectify your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better salad,
Ushering the mutton; with a short-legged hen,
If we can get her, full of eggs, and then,
Limons, and wine for sauce: to these, a coney
Is not to be despair'd of for our money;

And though fowl now be scarce, yet there are clerks,
The sky not falling, think we may have larks.
I'll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come :
Of partridge, pheasant, woodcock, of which some
May yet be there; and godwit if we can ;
Knat, rail, and ruff too. Howsoe'er my man
Shall read a piece of Virgil, Tacitus,

Livy, or of some better book to us,

Of which we'll speak our minds, amidst our meat;
And I'll profess no verses to repeat;

To this if aught appear, which I not know of,
That will the pastry, not my paper, show of.
Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be;
But that which most doth take my muse and me,
Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine,

Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine:
Of which had Horace or Anacreon tasted,
Their lives, as do their lines, till now had lasted.
Tobacco, nectar, or the Thespian spring,
Are all but Luther's beer, to this I sing.
Of this we will sup free, but moderately,
And we will have no Pooly', or Parrot by;
Nor shall our cups make any guilty men :
But at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met. No simple word,
That shall be utter'd at our mirthful board,
Shall make us sad next morning: or affright
The liberty, that we'll enjoy to-night.

INSCRIPTION AT PERSEPOLIS.

It is said that the following puzzling inscription was found by Captain Barth, graven on marble, among the ruins of Persepolis, and by him translated from the Arabic into Latin and English:

The spirit of the thing (a sort of verbal magic square) seems to require the repetition of the same words in all three pairs of parallel columns. Therefore the last two columns might have consisted of precisely the same words as the two middle ones (excepting, of course, the bottom row), without injury to the sense: a circumstance that appears to have been lost sight of by whoever framed the Latin version.

The key consists in taking the words of the bottom row alternately with any of those of the upper rows in the same pair of columns. Thus, the first sentence is, " Non dicas quoddamque scis, nam qui dicit quodcunque scit, sæpe dicit quod non scit."

The following English version-in which the bottom line is transposed to the top, for the sake of clearness-will give some

idea of the arrangement. The last word sees, in the last column, must be understood as sees into or comprehends.

In an appeal to the Privy Council of Madras, are the two following words, which appear to be names of estates: Arademaravasadeloovaradooyou; Kaminagadeyathooroosoomokanoogonagira. In the island of Mull, Scotland, is a locality called Drimtaidhvrickhillichattan. Llanvairpwllgwyngyll, a living in the diocese of Bangor, became vacant in March, 1850, by the death of its incumbent, the Rev. Richard Prichard, æt. ninetythree. The labor of writing the name on his benefice does not seem to have shortened his days.

The following are the names of two employés in the finance. department at Madrid: Don Epifanio Mirurzururdundua y Zengotita; Don Juan Nepomuceno de Burionagonatotorecagogeazcoecha.

There was, until 1851, a major in the British army named Teyoninhokarawen (one single name).