Lords, and et ceteras of meaner things,
Forget the road to fortune--or to jail,
And Morpheus all their equal guardian hail!
When each forgets each 'vantage or mishap.
And all are equal in one common nap!
At that dread hour...
Caetera desiderantur.


_Carshalton_ W. P----n.

* * * * *


ON OATHS.

(_For the Mirror_.)


Since lately we have had a great deal of prevarication in our courts
of justice about receiving the oaths of deists, &c., I have thought it
meet to furnish the MIRROR with an account of the first usage of the
words, "So help me God." The word oath is a corruption of the Saxon
_eoth_. An oath is called corporal, because the person making an
affidavit lays his hand upon a part of the scriptures.

At the conclusion of the oath the above words are used, which may
perhaps have originated in the very ancient manner of trial by battle
in this country, when the appellee, laying his right hand on the book,
takes the appellant by the right hand with his left, and maketh oath