and in two magnificent Bibles (the price of one was above thirty pieces of eight !) this was so plainly practised as a mere evasion, that the commentary consisted in a single line, in every sheet, printed in the smallest type, and so close to the bottom of the leaf that it must be pared off in binding. These books are truly magnificent, and honourable to the state of arts in the country. But there is a set of booksellers in London, whose main business consists in publishing worthless and catch-penny works for the ignorant in the country, and these have always a great folio family Bible as they call it-in course of publication, ornamented with pitiful engravings, and published periodically, because most of the deluded people who purchase it could not afford to pay for it in any other manner. The cover of one of these numbers was wrapt round some trifling article which I bought the other day at a stationer's: it professed to render the most diffi

cult passages clear and familiar, to rectify mistranslations, reconcile the doubtful, fix the wavering, confound the Infidel, establish the peace and happiness of Christian families in this world, and secure their eternal salvation in the next!

LETTER LV.

Curiosity and Credulity of the English.The Wild Indian Woman.-The Large Child. The Wandering Jew. - The Ethiopian Savage.-The Great High German Highter- Flighter.-The Learned Pig.

My morning's walk has supplied me with two instances of English credulity. Passing through St. George's-fields I saw a sort of tent pitched, at the entrance of. which a fellow stood holding a board in his hand, on which was painted in large letters "The Wild Indian Woman.""What," said I to my companion, “do you catch the savages and show them like wild beasts? This is worse than even the slave

trade!" "We will go in and see," said he. Accordingly we paid our sixpence each, and, to our no small amusement, found one of the lowest order of the worst kind of women, her face bedaubed with red and yellow, her hair stuck with feathers, drest in cat skins, and singing some unintelligible gibberish in the true cracked voice of vulgar depravity. A few passers-by, as idle and more ignorant than ourselves, who had in like manner been taken in, were gazing at her in astonishment, and listening open-mouthed to the rogue wha told a long story how she came from the wilds of America, where the people are heathen folk and eat one another.-We had not gone a mile further before another showman, with a printed paper on his show-board, invited our attention again— "To be seen here, the surprising Large Child." This was a boy who seemed to be about four years old; and because he was stupid, and could only articulate a few

he was only of eighteen months-and were showing him for a prodigy.

A few years ago there was a fellow with a long beard in London, who professed himself to be the Wandering Jew. He did not adhere to the legend, which was of little consequence, as his visitors were not likely to be better informed than him→ self, but laid claim to higher antiquity than the Jerusalem shoe-maker, and declared that he had been with Noah in the ark. Noah, he said, had refused to take him in; but he got in secretly, and hid himself among the beasts, which is the reason why his name is not mentioned in the Bible; and while he was there the hegoat had given him a blow on the forehead, the mark of which was visible to this day. Some person asked him which country he liked best of all that he had visited in his long peregrinations: he answered "Spain," as perhaps a man would have done who had really seen all the world, But it was remarked as rather ex