of fashion?

JARLTZBERG.

_Milton's Lycidas._--In a Dublin edition of Milton's _Paradise Lost_
(1765), in a memoir prefixed I find the following explanation of than
rather obscure passage in _Lycidas_:--

"Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."

"This poem is not all made up of sorrow and tenderness, there is
a mixture of satire and indignation: for in part of it, the poet
taketh occasion to inveigh against the corruptions of the
clergy, and seemeth to have first discovered his acrimony
against Arb. Laud, and to have threatened him with the loss of
his head, which afterwards happened to him thorough the fury of
his enemies. At least I can think of no sense so proper to be
given to these verses in Lycidas." (p. vii.)

Perhaps some of your numerous correspondents will kindly inform me of
the meaning or meanings usually assigned to this passage.

JARLTZBERG.

_Sitting during the Lessons._--What is the origin of the congregation
remaining seated, while the first and second lessons are read, in the
church service? The rubric is silent on the subject; it merely directs
that the person who reads them shall stand:--

"He that readeth so standing and turning himself, as he may best
be heard of all such as are present."

With respect to the practice of sitting while the epistle is read, and
of standing while the gospel is read, in the communion service; there is
in the rubric a distinct direction that "all the people are to stand up"
during the latter, while it is silent as to the former. From the silence
of the rubric as to standing during the two lessons of the morning
service, and the epistle in the communion service, it seems to have been
inferred that the people were to sit. But why are they directed to stand
during the gospel in the communion service, while they sit during the
second lesson in the morning service?

L.

_Blew-Beer._--Sir, having taken a Note according to your very sound
advice, I addressed a letter to the _John Bull_ newspaper, which was
published on Saturday, Feb. 16. It contained an extract from a political
tract, entitled,--

"The true History of Betty Ireland, with some Account of her
Sister Blanche of Brittain. Printed for J. Robinson, at the
Golden Lion in Ludgate Street, MDCCLIII. (1753)." {2