this Mr. Beedell also wrote, as anot minute penmanship, the Lord's Pr two verses of the third Psalm, in th of a common-sized pea.

There is said to be a portrait among the treasures of the Briti which appear a number of mi scratches, which, when examined t scope, are discovered to be the ent small folio book in the library. A the way of microscopic caligraphy some years ago by a gentleman at a sale a pen-and-ink portra Pope, surrounded by a design Examining this through a gla possible, to discover the artist astonished to find that the fi surrounding scroll were nothing 1 the poet, so minutely transcrib legible by the aid of a mag believed to be an imitation of the way of portraiture which w the library of St. John's Colle a head of Charles I. was dra acters, so fine as to resemb engraving, but which, when cl

ALLITERATION.

HE curious phase of Literary Frivolity called Alliteration is the composition of

sentences or lines of verse with words beginning with the same letter, and has been considered by some critics a "false ornament in poetry," by others has been looked upon as frivolous, while a third class have sanctioned its use as a worthy and impressive embellishment. It is a somewhat mechanical aid to the rhythm of verse, and in the reciting or reading of a long piece of poetry, the reciter or reader might find his organs of speech aided in some degree by the succession of similar sounds, and this might also have a pleasant cadence to those who listened. However, this could only apply for a short time, as alliteration too long continued would weary and become ridiculous, and suggest that a laborious effort had been made to keep up the alliterative strain, while the pleasure derived would only be as transitory as

B

that derived from witnessing the clever feats of an acrobat, with a corresponding sigh of relief when the performance was over.

""Tis not enough no harshness gives offence;

The words must seem an echo of the sense."

Alliterative writing does not imply, however, that each word or syllable must commence with the same letter, it being sufficient that a repetition of similar or imitative sounds are produced, so as to give a certain degree of harmony and strength; and in the sense of having utility in this way, alliteration has been used by the whole range of poets. In the early ages such a feature in poetry might have been welcome, and in some degree necessary, when, as in Scandinavian, Old German, and Icelandic verse, "the harmony neither depended on the quantity of syllables, like that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, nor on the rhymes at the end, as in modern poetry, but consisted altogether in alliteration, or a certain artful repetition of the sounds in the middle of the verses. was adjusted according to certain rules of their prosody, one of which was that every distich should contain at least three words beginning with the same letter or sound. Two of these corre

This

spondent sounds might be placed either in the first or second line of the distich, and one in the other; but all three were not regularly to be crowded into one line. This will be best understood by the following examples:

6 Meire og Minne

Mogu heimdaller.

'Gab Ginunga

Enn Gras huerge.'"*

The writers of the early Teutonic and Celtic tongues revelled with great effect in this trick of speech-not only in solemn legal formularies, in spells of horror, as well as in the flights of the poet, but also in ordinary descriptions and in their common proverbs-the Celtic especially readily lending itself to this device of jingling repetition. Several early English poems, written in this kind of alliterative metre, without rhyme, are extant, among which that entitled "Piers Plowman's Visions" (written about 1350) is the one most generally known; but few readers except those whose delight is in musty tomes, and who are deep in the mysteries of black-letter lore, are acquainted with more than the name of that poem.

"Percy's Reliques.”

When our more ancient poetry was, towards the end of last century, drawn forth from the oblivion to which it had been too long consigned, the public was seized with a kind of Gothic fever, and was so delighted with the novelty of the feast, that one and all declared everything was excellentantiquity became a sufficient passport to praise, and much ingenuity was exercised in discovering fanciful beauties in even the most worthless productions. That excitement soon passed away, but it produced excellent effects; and, freeing the mind from the shackles of a prevalent artificial style, gave a liberty to appreciate and enjoy the truer poetry of nature. But it must be granted that the diction and style of many of our elder poets are so rude as to render the perusal of their works distasteful to modern readers. Few, we believe, except enthusiastic antiquaries, have had the courage to travel through "Piers Plowman,” or would think their trouble repaid by the snatches of true poetry interspersed; and yet in this poem, and many others equally rugged, passages of great poetical power and beauty are to be found, which deserve to be rescued from oblivion.

The following lines are quoted by Dr. Percy from a manuscript supposed to be older than