The holy ensign of the Cross was often used in dress in order to command a homage the wearer would not otherwise have received. In 1363, the father of the Doge of Venice preferred always going bareheaded to pulling off his cap to his son, until the Doge thought of placing a golden cross in front of his cap. The father then re-assumed his cap, and when he met his son pulled it off, saying, “It is not him I salute, but the cross;” and from that time the cross became an ornament of the ducal cap. ❦ [Sidenote: Solitude.] Solitude is the nurse of all that is good within us. The world stains what it touches, and the more we withdraw from it the better we are. ❦ [Sidenote: Voltaire’s Prayer.] O Dieu! qu’on méconnait, O Dieu! que tout annonce, Entends les derniers mots que ma bouche prononce: Si je me suis trompé, c’est en cherchant ta loi; Mon cœur peut s’égarer, mais il est plein de toi. Je vois sans m’alarmer l’Eternité paraître, Et je ne puis penser qu’un Dieu qui m’a fait naître; Qu’un Dieu qui sur mes jours versa tant de bienfaits, Quand mes jours sont éteints me tourmente à jamais. ❦ _Method of obtaining the figure of a Plant._ A piece of paper is to be rubbed over with powdered dragon’s blood, in the manner practised by engravers, and then the small branch or leaf of which the design is required, is to be laid upon it. By means of slight friction it soon takes up a small quantity of the powder, and being then laid upon moistened paper, an impression is taken in the manner practised for lithography without a machine. ❦ [Sidenote: Misfortune a crime.] Misfortune was his crime.--_Success_ would have silenced censure. ❦ [Sidenote: Grecian Tablets.] Les Tablettes des Grecs étaient des tables de bois, minces et deliées, et enduites de cire. On y écrivait avec un petit stylet de cuivre, de fer, ou d’or, pointu d’un côté, et plat de l’autre: ce dernier bout servait à effacer. Les Grecs portaient à la ceinture un étui nommé _graphiarium_ où étaient renfermés le stylet et ses tablettes. ❦ [Sidenote: Christmas Day.] The feast of our Saviour’s nativity was undoubtedly celebrated in the early ages of Christianity. It is named _Christmas-day_ from the Latin “Christi missa,” the mass of Christ, and thence the Roman Catholic liturgy is called their Missal, or Mass book. About the year 500 this day became generally observed in the Catholic church. _Christmas Boxes._ The mass was called Christmas, the box, Christmas-box, for the collecting money that the priests may say masses to the Saints for those who presented them. ❦ [Sidenote: George IV.] Mr. Croker asked the king why he was styled “George the _Fourth_.” His Majesty replied, because his father was George III. Not at all, observed Mr. Croker, it is because Your Majesty is king of England, France, and Ireland, and _so forth_. ❦ [Sidenote: Ton of the French.]