ed that '_he had lost a Day_.' If the commonwealth of
Massachusetts were to _lose two Days_, it would not be the cause of much
lamentation!' A correspondent elsewhere observes, that in a procession on
a certain solemn occasion in this city, the place of the physician was
immediately before the corpse; which, he adds, was 'exactly consonant with
the etiquette observed at capital executions in ancient times; the
_executioner_ always going before!' By the way, 'speaking of STEVENS;'
perhaps the reader of good things at second-hand may not be aware how much
he is indebted to this author's '_Lectures on Heads_' for amusement and
instruction. They were very popular throughout Great Britain; and as
illustrated by the author, after the manner of 'OLD MATTHEWS,' they are
said to have been irresistible. It was in this collection that the
law-cases of 'BULLUM _vs._ BOATUM' and 'DANIEL _vs._ DISHCLOUT' had their
origin. They are familiar to every school-boy, not less for their wit than
the canine Latinity in which they abound; '_Primus strokus est provokus_;
now who gave the _primus strokus_? Who gave the first offence?' Or, 'a
drunken man is '_homo duplicans_,' or a double man, seeing things double,'
etc., etc. We annex an example or two of the writer's _individuality_. The
first is a sketch of a _nil admirari_ critic and amateur, who has
travelled long enough abroad to fall in love with every thing foreign, and
despise every thing belonging to his own country except himself: 'He
pretended to be a great judge of paintings, but only admired those done a
great way off, and a great while ago; he could not bear any thing painted
by any of his own countrymen. One day being in an auction-room where there
was a number of capital pictures, and among the rest an inimitable
painting of fruits and flowers, the connoisseur would not give his opinion
of the picture until he had examined his catalogue; when, finding it was
done by one of his own countrymen, he pulled out his eye-glass,
exclaiming: 'This fellow has spoiled a fine piece of canvass; he's worse
than a sign-post dauber; there's no keeping, no perspective, no
fore-ground, no _chiar'oscuro_. Look you, he has attempted to paint _a
fly_ upon that rose-bud! Why, it is no more like a fly than I am like an
----' But as the connoisseur approached his finger to the picture, the fly
flew away. It happened to be the _real_ insect!' Is not the following a
forcible picture of a mercurial, hero-lovi