W.G.C.

_Turning the Back_.--In this and all countries of Europe, to turn the
back upon persons of rank or in authority, is considered highly
improper; a striking instance of which may be seen in the mode in which
messengers from the Lords retreat along the floor of the House of
Commons. In the interior of Africa it is quite otherwise. There the
court assemble round the sovereign invariably with their backs to him.
T. GILL.

A gentleman having frequently reproved his servant, an Irish girl, for
boiling eggs too hard, requested her in future, to boil them only three
minutes by the clock. "Sure, sir," replied the girl, "how shall I do
that, for your honour knows the clock is always a quarter of an hour too
fast." W.G.C.

_Unhappy Fate of Camoens_.--Camoens the celebrated Portuguese poet, was
shipwrecked at the mouth of the river Meco, on the coast of Camboja, and
lost his whole property; but through the assistance of his black
servant, he saved his life and his poems, which he bore through the
waves in one hand,[4] whilst he swam ashore with the other: his black
servant begged in the streets of Lisbon for the support of his master,
who died in 1579. It is said that his death was accelerated by the
anguish with which he foresaw the ruin impending over his country. In
one of his letters (says his biographer) he uses these remarkable
expressions: "I am ending the course of my life; the world will witness
how I have loved my country. I have returned not only to die in her
bosom, but to die with her." He was buried as obscurely as he had closed
his life, in St. Anne's Church, and the following epitaph was inscribed
over his grave:--

"Here lies Lewis de Camoens,
Prince of the Poets of his time.
He lived poor and miserable, and died
such, Anno Domini, 1579."

P.T.W.

_The Philosopher's Stone_.--Sir Kenelm Digby was relating to King James
that he had seen the true Philosopher's Stone, in the possession of a
hermit in Italy; and when the king was very curious to understand what
sort of a stone it was, and Sir Kenelm being much puzzled in describing
it, Sir Francis Bacon, who was present, interposed, and said, "Perhaps
it was a _whetstone_."

N.B. There is an old _proverbial_ expression, in which an excitement to
a lie was called a _whetstone_. P.T.W.

[4] Precious Salvage.

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_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand. (near Somerset
Hou