The planets, those apparently little wandering points in the heaven, yet affect, by their attraction, the motion of our earth in her orbit, quickening it when she is approaching them, retarding it when she is receding.--_Arnott's Natural Philosophy._ * * * * * THE GATHERER "I am but a _Gatherer_ and disposer of other men's stuff."--_Wotton_. * * * * * CITY FEASTING. The following is the bill of fare for the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful the Company of Wax Chandlers, London, 1478:--Two loins of veal, and two loins of mutton, 1s. 4d.; one loin of beef, 4d.; one dozen of pigeons and one dozen of rabbits, 9d.; one pig and one capon, 1s.; one goose and a hundred eggs, 1s. 1/2d.; one leg of mutton, 2-1/2d.; two gallons of sack, 1s. 4d.; eight gallons of strong ale, 1s. 6d.--7s. 6d. * * * * * The fathers of the church considered the earth as a great ship, surrounded by water, with the prow to the east and the stern to the west. We still find in Cosmas, a monk of the fourteenth century, a sort of geographical chart, in which, the earth has this figure. Even among the ancients, though many of their geometricians had acknowledged the sphericity of the globe, it was for a long time imagined that the earth was a third longer than it was broad, and thence arose the terms of _longitude_ and _latitude_. St. Athanasius expresses himself most warmly against astronomers. "Let us stop the mouths of these barbarians," he exclaims, "who, speaking without proof, dare assert that the heavens also extend under the earth." * * * * * Augustus gave an admirable example how a person who sends a challenge should be treated. When Marc Antony, after the battle of Actium, defied him to single combat, his answer to the messenger who brought it was, "Tell Marc Antony, if he be weary of life, there are other ways to end it; I shall not take the trouble of becoming his executioner." * * * * * An Irish gentleman, whose lady had absconded from him, cautioned the public against trusting her in these words:--"My wife has eloped from me without rhyme or reason, and I desire no one will trust her on my account, for I am not married to her." * * * * *