M. de Velayer also caused to be printed certain forms of _billets_, or notes applicable to the ordinary business among the inhabitants of great towns, with blanks, which were to be filled up by the pen with such special matter as might complete the writer's object. One of these _billets_ has been preserved to our times by a pleasant misapplication of it. Pelisson, Mde. de Sevigné's friend, and the object of the _bon mot_, that "he abused the privilege which men have of being ugly," was amused at this kind of skeleton correspondence; and under the affected name of _Pisandre_, (according to the pedantic fashion of the day,) he filled up and addressed one of these forms to the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scuderi, in her _pseudonyme of Sappho_. This strange _billet-doux_ has happened, from the celebrity of the parties, to be preserved, and is still extant: one of the oldest, we presume, of penny-post letters, and a curious example of a pre-paying envelope--as well as a new proof of the adage, that "there is nothing new under the sun." ------------------ CHARACTER IN WORKS. Telford, the engineer, relates that he came to London in 1782, and got employed at the quadrangle of Somerset house-buildings; he soon became known to Sir William Chambers and Mr. R. Adam, the two most distinguished architects of that day; the former haughty and reserved, the latter affable and communicative; and a similar distinction of character pervades their works, Sir William's being stiff and formal, and those of Mr. Adam, playful and gay. ------------------ BRINDLEY, THE ENGINEER. Though one of the most successful engineers of his age, Brindley was so illiterate as to be scarcely able to read or to write. By his unrivalled powers of abstraction and memory, he often executed his plans without committing them to paper; and when he was engaged in any difficult or complex undertaking, he was in the habit of retiring to bed, where he often remained for two or three days, till he had thoroughly completed his design. So singular, indeed, was the structure of his mind, that the spectacle of a play in London, disturbed to such a degree the balance of its mechanism, that he could not, for some time, resume his usual pursuits. ------------------ REASON FOR SILENCE. Some one asked Fontaine, the celebrated geometrician, what he did in society where he remained almost perfectly silent. "I study," replied he, "the vanity of men, in order to mortify it occasionally." ------------------ ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU ALP. In 1841, Professor Forbes, along with M. Agassiz, and others, made a successful ascent of the great Swiss mountain, the Jungfrau, whose summit is 13,720 feet above the level of the sea.