During the first visible eclipse _Saturn_ is retrograde: for which reason the crabs will go sidelong, and the rope-makers backward. Mercury will have his share in these affairs, and so confound the speech of the people, that when a _Pennsylvanian_ would say _panther_, he shall say _painter_. When a _New Yorker_ thinks to say _this_, he shall say _diss_, and the people in _New England_ and _Cape May_ will not be able to say _cow_ for their lives, but will be forced to say _keow_, by a certain involuntary twist in the root of their tongues. No _Connecticut man_ nor _Marylander_ will be able to open his mouth this year but _sir_ shall be the first or last syllable he pronounces, and sometimes both. Brutes shall speak in many places, and there will be about seven and twenty irregular verbs made this year if grammar don’t interpose. Who can help these misfortunes? This year the stone-blind shall see but very little; the deaf shall hear but poorly; and the dumb sha’n’t speak very plain. As to old age, it will be incurable this year, because of the years past. And toward the fall some people will be seized with an unaccountable inclination to roast and eat their own ears: Should this be called madness, doctors? I think not. But the worst disease of all will be a most horrid, dreadful, malignant, catching, perverse, and odious malady, almost epidemical, insomuch that many shall seem mad upon it. I quake for very fear when I think on’t; for I assure you very few shall escape this disease, which is called by the learned Albromazer—_Lacko’mony_. GEORGE WASHINGTON. His papers which have been preserved show how he gained the power of writing correctly—always expressing himself with clearness and directness, often with felicity and grace.—_George Bancroft._ No one who has not been in England can have an idea of the admiration expressed among all parties for General Washington.—_Rufus King, 1797._ * * * The great central figure of that unparalleled group, that “noble army” of chieftains, sages, and patriots, by whom the revolution was accomplished.—_Edward Everett._ He had in his composition a calm which gave him in moments of highest excitement the power of self-control, and enabled him to excel in patience.—_Bancroft._ Account of the Battle of Trenton. HEADQUARTERS, MORRISTOWN, Dec. 27, 1776. _To the President of Congress_: SIR—I have the pleasure of congratulating you upon the success of an enterprise which I had formed against a detachment of the enemy lying in Trenton, and which was executed yesterday morning.