"Francis," said Luther, "was no doubt an honest and just man. He little thought that such superstition and unbelief should proceed out of his life."--_Tischreden._ Berington says of St. Francis: "In an age of less intemperance in religion, miracles and the fancied intervention of peculiar favours from heaven, would not have been deemed necessary to stamp worth and admiration on a character which in itself possessed the purest excellences that fall to the lot of man. But this circumstance, and more than this, the reception which an institute so peculiarly framed met with, serve to manifest the singular taste of the age."--_Berington's Henry II._, p. 629. "It is scarcely possible," says Mr. Massingberd, "to read the history of St. Francis of Assisi, without believing that there was in him a sincere and self-devoted, however ill-directed, piety." We must not let the foolish legends afterwards written of him lower him in our estimation, nor cease to regard him as a sincere and devoted Christian. MARICONDA. * * * * * Minor Notes. _Charles Lamb's Epitaph._--Perhaps the following lines, which I have copied from the gravestone of Charles Lamb, who lies in the churchyard at Edmonton, may be interesting to those of your readers who are among the admirers of the witty and gentle Elia:-- "Farewell, dear friend; that smile, that harmless mirth, No more shall gladden our domestic hearth; That rising tear, with pain forbid to flow, Better than words, no more assuage our woe; That hand outstretch'd from small but well-earn'd store, Yield succour to the destitute no more. Yet art thou not all lost; thro' many an age With sterling sense and humour shall thy page Win many an English bosom, pleased to see That old and happier vein revived in thee. This for our earth, and if with friends we share Our joys in heav'n, we hope to meet thee there." I have heard it conjectured that the above were written by Wordsworth. I shall feel obliged if any of your readers will inform me whether the late laureate was the author of them or not? MARIA S. Edmonton. {323} _M. or N._ (Vol. i., p. 415.; Vol. ii., p. 61.).--There have been several suggestions as to the origin of the use of these letters in the services of the church, but I do not think that any correspondent has hit upon the very simple one which I have always considered to be most probably the true explanation; which is, that as these services were compiled when algebra stood much higher in the rank of sciences than it does at present, it is by no means unlikely that these two letters should be used to signify indefinite and variable _names_, as they are in algebra to represent indefinite or variable _numbers_, in the same manner as A. B. C. are as signs of known or definite, and X. Y. Z. of unknown sums. E. H. Y.