ins, in Merry-Cock land,
It hails, it rains, both great and small,
And all the little children in Merry-Cock land,
They have need to play at ball.
They toss'd the ball so high,
They toss'd the ball so low,
Amongst all the Jews' cattle
And amongst the Jews below.
Out came one of the Jews' daughters
Dressed all in green.
"Come, my sweet Saluter,
And fetch the ball again."
"I durst not come, I must not come,
Unless all my little playfellows come along,
For if my mother sees me at the gate,
She'll cause my blood to fall."
She show'd me an apple as green as grass,
She show'd me a gay gold ring,
She show'd me a cherry as red as blood,
And so she entic'd me in.
She took me in the parlour,
She took me in the kitchen,
And there I saw my own dear nurse
A picking of a chicken.
She laid me down to sleep,
With a Bible at my head, and a Testament at my feet;
And if my playfellows come to quere for me,
Tell them I am asleep.

S. P. Q.

* * * * *

{321}

"OF THE BENEFIT OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST," BY AONIO PALEARIO.

The total, or almost total, disappearance of books at one time largely
circulated, is a curious fact in the history of literature. One cause of it
may be found in the efforts made by the Church of Rome to suppress those
works which were supposed to contain unsound doctrine.

"Heretical books," says Mr. T. B. Macaulay, "were sought out and
destroyed with unsparing rigour. Works which were once in every house,
were so effectually suppressed, that no copy of them is now to be found
in the most extensive libraries. One book in particular, entitled _Of
the Benefit of the Death of Christ_, had this fate. It was written in
Tuscan, was many times reprinted, and was eagerly read in every part of
Italy. But the inquisitors detected in it the Lutheran doctrine of
justification by faith alone. _They proscribed it; and it is now as
utterly lost as the second decade of Livy._"

This book was published without a name. But the author was Aonio Paleario.
It was translated into various languages, as French, Spanish, English, and
possibly others; and within six years after its first appearance, 40,000
copies are said to have been circulated.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to meet with a copy of the English
version, which was made from the French, not from the original. This copy
was printed in 1