In all countries, this sure-footed and faithful animal is adopted as an emblem of stupidity, from the patience with which it submits to punishment and endures privation. A pair of ass's ears is inflicted upon a child in reproof of his duncehood; and through life we hear every blockhead of our acquaintance called an ass. Whereas the ass is a beast of great intelligence; and we often owe our safety to its sure and unerring foot beside the perilous precipice, where the steps of the man of science would have faltered. The Fathers of the Church, and the Disciples of the Sorbonne, persuaded of the universal influence of the Christian faith, believed the dark cross on the back of the ass to date only from the day on which our Saviour made his entry into Jerusalem. The ass of the desert was an animal of great price. Pliny mentions that the Senator Arius paid for one the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces. Naturalists have frequently remarked the extraordinary dimensions of an ass's heart, which is thought an indication of courage; and it is the custom of the peasantry of some countries to make their children wear a piece of ass's skin about their person. The ass's skin is peculiarly valuable, both for the manufacture of writing-tablets and drums; which may be the reason why a dead ass is so rarely seen. It is too valuable to be left on the highway. In many places, the ass serves as a barometer. If he roll in the dust, fine weather may be expected; but if he erect his ears, rain is certain. Why should not these animals experience the same atmospheric influences as man? Are we not light-hearted in the sunshine, and depressed in a heavy atmosphere? CHOICE RECEIPTS FROM "PHYSICK FOR THE POOR. LONDON, 1657." _To make any one that Sleepeth answer to whatsoever thou ask._--Take the heart of an oul, and his right legg, and put them upon the breast of one that sleepeth, and they shall reveal whatsoever thou ask them. _To know any Man or Woman's minde when they are Asleep._--Take the hart of a dove, and the legg of a frog, dry it well, and beat them to powder in a morter, put this up in a linnen cloth, with three or four round pibble stones, as big as wallnuts, then lay this upon the parties pit of their stomach, and they shall tell you all things that they have done, if there is anything remarkable that troubles them. _To make the Nose Bleed._--Take the leaves of yerrow, put it up in thy nose; this will make the nose bleed immediately. _To make a Tooth Drop out._--Mizaldus saith that if you make a powder of earth-worms and put it in the hollow of a rotten tooth, it will immediately drop out. How strange must have been the education and intelligence of the period, when people could write, publish, and practice such incredible trash! SHOCKING DEPRAVITY. The following account, from an old magazine, affords a strange and lamentable instance of a wretch just about to die, being only intent with his latest breath to defame his own mother:--