That all at once it falls.--DRYDEN.

There are two English proverbs relative to rain; the first is, "_It
rains by Planets._" "This the country people (says Ray) use when it
rains in one place and not in another; meaning that the showers are
governed by planets, which being erratic in their own motions, cause
such uncertain wandering of clouds and falls of rain. Or it rains by
planets--that is, the falls of showers are as uncertain, as the motions
of the planets are imagined to be." The second--"_It never rains but it
pours:_" which appears to be the case at present. In the year 553 it
rained violently in Scotland for five months; in 918 there was a
continual rain in that country for five months; a violent one in London
1222; again 1233, so violent that the harvest did not begin till
Michaelmas; 1338, from Midsummer to Christmas, so that there was not one
day or night dry together; in Wales, which destroyed 10,000 sheep,
September 19th 1752; in Languedoc, which destroyed the village of Bar le
Due, April 26th, 1776; and in the Island of Cuba, on the 21st of June,
1791, 3,000 persons and 11,700 cattle of various kinds perished by the
torrents occasioned by the rains.

P. T. W.

* * * * *

CURIOUS SCRAPS.

_(For the Mirror.)_

The first dissection on record, is one in which Democritus of Obdera,
was engaged, in order to ascertain the sources and course of the