a line in one Mr. Odiorne's poem, “The Progress of Refinement,” is pronounced by the American author of a book entitled “Ante-Diluvian Antiquities,” “the very best alliteration in all poetry.” * * * * * The _Turkish Spy_ is the original of many similar works—among the best of which are Montesquieu's _Persian Letters_, and the _British Spy_ of our own Wirt. It was written undoubtedly by John Paul Marana, an Italian, _in_ Italian, but probably was first published in French. Dr. Johnson, who saw only an English translation, supposed it an English work. Marana died in 1693. * * * * * The hunter and the deer a shade is a much admired line in Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_—but the identical line is to be found in the poems of the American Freneau. * * * * * Corneille's celebrated _Moi_ of Medea is borrowed from Seneca. Racine, in Phœdra, has stolen nearly the whole scene of the declaration of love from the same puerile writer. * * * * * The peculiar zodiac of the comets is comprised in these verses of Cassini— Antinous, Pegasusque, Andromeda, Taurus, Orion, Procyon, atque Hydrus, Centaurus, Scorpius, Arcus. * * * * * Speaking of the usual representation of the banquet-scene in Macbeth, Von Raumer, the German historian, mentions a shadowy figure thrown by optical means into the chair of Banquo, and producing intense effect upon the audience. Enslen, a German optician, conceived this idea, and accomplished it without difficulty. * * * * * A religious hubbub, such as the world has seldom seen, was excited, during the reign of Frederic II, by the _imagined_ virulence of a book entitled “The Three Impostors.” It was attributed to Pierre des Vignes, chancellor of the king, who was accused by the Pope of having treated the religions of Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet as political fables. The work in question, however, which was squabbled about, abused, defended, and familiarly _quoted_ by all parties, is well proved never to have existed. * * * * * The word Τυχη, or Fortune, does not appear once in the whole Iliad. * * * * * The “Lamentations” of Jeremiah are written, with the exception of the last chapter, in acrostic verse: that is to say, every line or couplet begins, in alphabetical order, with some letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In the third chapter each letter is repeated three times successively. * * * * * The fullest account of the Amazons is to be found in Diodorus Siculus. * * * * *