The Belleisle, Captain Haywood, when dismasted, was attacked by five ships at once. Captain H. finding himself thus assailed, looked over the gangway, and, shaking his head at his enemies, involuntarily ejaculated, “I’ll not strike for any of you--no, that I won’t.” A dauntless old quarter-master, who was the captain of the foremast gun on the quarterdeck, hearing what his captain said, immediately remarked, “Who the devil asked you?” MACPHERSON. When Macpherson’s Homer came out (a book universally decried for a bombastical, affected style), a lady remarked one evening, in a large company, to Dr. Johnson, that she had been endeavouring to read it, but the style appeared so _old_, she could not go through it with any satisfaction. “You are perfectly right, madam,” says Johnson; “it is as _old_ as the _building of Babel_.” WRITING DOWN A CHARACTER. Much about the time of the universal damnation of the above book, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, being in company with a number of _beaux esprits_, after haranguing with great vehemence and nationality on the general talents of Mr. Macpherson, he asserted there was not a man in England had ever the knack of _writing down a character_ more than he had. “I believe it most sincerely,” says a gentleman present; “and I think he has given a very recent proof of it, by _writing down_ one of the _first characters of all antiquity_.” APT QUOTATION. Dr. Paris, author of the well-known work on Diet, observing many of the miners in Cornwall to be deprived of legs and arms, and otherwise maimed, inquired the cause, and was shocked to learn that these men had been exposed for ages to the greatest dangers, from their using a metal in their excavations, which sometimes struck fire, and exploded the blasts prematurely. He immediately suggested a metal which was equally fitted for their trade, and was not liable to this dreadful objection. The poor men, truly grateful for his kindness, afterwards presented him with a piece of plate; on which was the following singularly apt and happy quotation from Virgil:-- “--------- Manet altâ mente repostum Judicium Paridis, spretæque injuria formæ.” A DYING WIT. An English judge, when about to administer the oath to a dyer, observing his hand to be dark, called out, “Take off your glove.” The dyer, whose hand only bore the usual stain of his profession, promptly rejoined, “Put on your spectacles.” DRAWINGS OF CORK. Jack Bannister, praising the hospitality of the Irish, after his return from one of his trips to the sister kingdom, was asked if he had been in Cork. “No,” replied the wit, “but I saw a great many _drawings_ of it.” RELIGION OF SEA CHAPLAINS.