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ing, the porter, as soon as he had opened the gate, and without waiting for what he had to say, dismissed him with these words: "Sir, his lordship is gone out, the clock stands, and the monkey is dead.”—Churchill's Poetical Works, 1804, vol. ii. p. 183.

MIND YOUR P'S AND Q'S.

There are several explanaticns given as to the origin of this term. Some have thought it to be derived from the ancient custom of hanging a slate behind the alehouse door, on which was written P. or Q. (i. e. pint or quart) against the name of each customer, according to the quantity which he had drunk, and which was not expected to be paid for till the Saturday evening, when the wages were settled.

The expression so familiar to schoolboys of "going tick," may perhaps be traced to this, a tick or mark being put for every glass of ale.

Others have thought that this phrase was, originally, "Mind your toupées and your queues," the toupée being the artificial locks of hair on the head, and the queue the pigtail of olden time. There used to be an old riddle as follows:-Who is the best person to keep the alphabet in order? Answer: A barber, because he ties up the queue, and puts toupées in irons.

But the most plausible explanation as to origin, seems to be the following, by Charles Knight, who says:

I have always thought that the phrase, "Mind your P's and Q's," was derived from the school-room or the printing-office. The forms of the small "p" and "q,” in the Roman type, have always been puzzling to the child and the printer's apprentice. In the one, the downward stroke is on the left of the oval; in the other, on the right. Now, when the types are reversed, as they are when in the process of distribution they are returned by the compositor to his case, the mind of the young printer is puzzled to distinguish the "p" from the "q." In sorting pie, or a mixed heap of letters, where the "p" and the "q" are not in connection with any other letters forming a word, I think it would be almost impossible for an inexperienced person to say which is

which upon the instant. "Mind your p's and q's "—I write it thus, and not "Mind your P's and Q's" has a higher philosophy than mind your toupées and your queues, which are things essentially different, and impossible to be mistaken. It means, have regard to small differences; do not be deceived by apparent resemblances; learn to discriminate between things essentially distinct, but which look the same; be observant; be cautious.

DE GUSTIBUS, &c.

A clergyman in the south-west of England, calling lately on one of his parishioners, who kept a public house, remarked to her how sorry he was, when passing along the road, to hear such noises proceeding from her house. "I wonder," said he, "that any woman can keep a public house, especially one where there is so much drunkenness and depravity as in yours." "Oh, sir," she replied, “that is the very reason why I like to keep such a house, because I see every day so much of the worst part of human nature."

THE ROSE.

Lines supposed to have been addressed, with the present of a white rose, by a Yorkist, to a lady of the Lancastrian faction.

If this fair rose offend thy sight,

It on thy bosom wear,

"Twill blush to find itself less white,

And turn Lancastrian there.

But if thy ruby lip it spy,

As kiss it thou may'st deign,

With envy pale 'twill lose its dye,

And Yorkist turn again.

The origin of the blush imparted to the rose is most beauti

fully described by Carey :

As erst in Eden's blissful bowers

Young Eve surveyed her countless flowers,

An opening rose of purest white

She marked with eye that beamed delight;
Its leaves she kissed, and straight it drew
From Beauty's lip the vermeil hue.

A CHAPTER ON PLANTS AND FLOWERS.

Christians in times past loved to think that as all created nature shared in man's fall, so did she sympathize in his Redemption; that she hailed with glad welcome the nativity of the Saviour; and that, after the Incarnate Deity had risen and ascended on high, inspired with a mysterious joy, she looked up once more, and

The lonely world seem'd lifted nearer heaven.

As Adam of St. Victor sings:—

Mundi renovatio

Nova parit gaudia
Resurgenti Domino
Consurgunt omnia.

Then the flowers "gladlier grew," shed a grateful fragrance to their risen King, and with silent aspirations whispered of love, and peace, and hope.

There is the beautiful Legend of the Tree of Life. In the words of Evelyn

Trees and woods have twice saved the whole world; first by the Ark, then by the Cross; making full amends for the evil fruit of the tree in Paradise by that which was borne on the Tree in Golgotha.-Silva, p. 604: York, 1776, 4to.

And of Calderon :

Arbol donde el cielo quiso

Dar el fruto verdadero

Contra el bocado primero,

Flor del nuevo Paraiso.

The ancient botanists have handed down to us many an allusive name and legend, and even yet

Many a sign

Of the great Sacrifice which won us heaven,
The woodman and the mountaineer can trace

On rock, on herb, and flower.

Wood Walk and Hymn, by Mrs. Hemans.

Thus we have Holy Rood Flower, Passion Flower, St. Andrew's Cross, St. James's Cross, Cross of Jerusalem, Cross of Malta, Cross Flower, Cross Wort, Cross Mint, Crossed Heath. The legend of the Aspen-tree (Populus tremula) is thus beautifully told by Mrs. Hemans :—

Father. Hast thou heard, my boy

The peasant's legend of that quivering tree?
Child. No, father: doth he say the fairies dance
Amidst the branches?

Father. Oh! a cause more deep,

More solemn far the rustic doth assign

To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves.
The Cross, he deems, the blessed Cross, whereon
The meek Redeemer bow'd His head to death,
Was form'd of aspen wood: and since that hour
Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down
A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe

Making them tremulous, when not a breeze
Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes
The light lines of the shining gossamer.

Wood Walk and Hymn.

Lightfoot ascribes this legend to the Highlanders of Scotland. Another legend runs thus :

At that awful hour of the Passion, when the Saviour of the world felt deserted in His agony, when

The sympathising sun his light withdrew,

And wonder'd how the stars their dying Lord could view,

when earth, shaken with horror, rung the passing bell for Deity, and universal nature groaned; then from the loftiest tree to the lowliest flower all felt a sudden thrill, and trembling, bowed their heads, all save the proud and obdurate aspen, which said, "Why should we weep and tremble? we trees, and plants, and flowers are pure and never sinned!" Ere it ceased to speak, an involuntary trembling seized its every leaf, and the word went forth that it should never rest, but tremble on until the day of judgment.

With regard to the Passion Flower, it is only necessary to refer to Mrs. Hemans' lines in the poem above quoted. The legend of the Arum maculatum is similar to that of the Robin Redbreast:

These deep inwrought marks

The villager will tell thee (and with voice
Lower'd in his true heart's reverent earnestness)
Are the flower's portion from the atoning blood,
On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew,
And in the vase-like hollow of the leaf,
A few mysterious drops transmitted thus
Unto the groves and hills their sealing stains-
A heritage for storm or vernal wind

Never to waft away.-Wood Walk and Hymn.

The beautiful shrub, Cereis silignastrum, or Arbor Judæ, Is thought to be that whereon Judas hanged himselfe, and not upon the elder-tree as it is vulgarly said.—Gerarde's Herbal (by Johnson): Lond. 1633, folio.

Of Adam's Apple-tree, or West Indian plantain (Musa serapionis), the same writer says:

If it (the fruit) be cut according to the length, oblique, transverse, or any other way whatsoever, may be seen the shape and forme of a Crosse, with a man fastened thereto. Myselfe have seene the fruit and cut it in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo in pickle. The Crosse I might perceive as the forme of a Spred Egle in the root of Ferne; but the man I leave to be sought by those who have better eies and judgment than myselfe. . . . The Grecians and Christians wh inhabit Syria, and the Jews also, suppose it to be that tree of whose fruit Adam did taste.

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