* * * * *


The Duc de Laval has the character of being a perfect fool. It is said
that on one occasion he talked of having received an anonymous letter,
signed by all the officers of his regiment; that on another, he ordered
ottomans to be placed in the four corners of his octagon
saloon!--_Josephine's Memoirs_.

* * * * *


CAUSE AND EFFECT.


Infinite are the consequences which follow from a single, and often
apparently a very insignificant circumstance. Paley himself narrowly
escaped being a baker; here was a decision upon which hung in one scale,
perhaps, the immortal interests of thousands, and, in the other, the
gratification of the taste of the good people of Giggleswick for hot
rolls. Cromwell was near being strangled in his cradle by a monkey; here
was this wretched ape wielding in his paws the destinies of nations.
Then, again, how different in their kind, as well as in their magnitude,
are these consequences from anything that might have been _à priori_
expected. Henry VIII. is smitten with the beauty of a girl of eighteen;
and ere long,


"The Reformation beams from Bullen's eyes."