PERILS OF FREE TRANSLATION. A NUMBER of works by Dôtet were all at once condemned to the flames, at Paris, by order of parliament, 14th February, 1543. The unfortunate printer himself was afterwards sentenced to be hanged and burned, as a relapsed atheist. The principal charge made against Dôtet was founded upon his translation of Plato's Dialogues. In a passage there, the translator, instead of saying "After death, you will be nothing," says " After death, you will be nothing at all." The Faculty of Theology determined, that the words "at all" were not authorized by the original, and that they smelt of heresy and an attachment to the sects of Sadducees and Epicureans. The true cause of poor Dôtet's fall appears to have been the hatred previously conceived against him by the Sorbonne. He is said to have discovered a design which the doctors had formed of extinguishing the art of printing in France; and with an esprit de corps, as excusable in printers as divines, he turned his press into an engine of constant hostility against them. SEXTUS THE FIFTH'S BIBLE. LECLERC, in his "Universal Library," says, "They speak of the murmurs excited by the Italian version of the Bible made by order of the Pope. Olivares, the Spanish ambassador, thought it shameful that the example of heretics should be followed at Rome."-" Oh, sir," said the pope, "do not trouble yourself: we made it for you, who do not understand Latin." This minister wrote concerning it to his master; many cardinals added letters, in which they represented to his majesty that his interest was more concerned than that of the other powers in the suppression of this Bible, because of the great states the king of Spain possessed in Italy. Olivares accordingly went again to the pope, and made a long remonstrance upon this subject. Receiving no answer, he at last said, "Your holiness makes no reply; I know not what I am to think."—" I am thinking,” replied Sextus, " of throwing you out of the window, to teach you the respect due to the sovereign pontiff." What authority is there for the truth of this story? or even for the existence of this pretended Italian version? Leclerc gives none; and the work, if it ever existed, has hitherto eluded the research of the curious. BELLARMIN'S "VINDICATION OF POPEDOM." In this celebrated work, which was published at Rome in 1610, Bellarmin asserts the prerogatives of the church of Rome, in a style of bold pretension never perhaps exceeded by any votary of that establishment. According to him, the pope is not only absolute monarch of the universal church, but likewise the complete master of crowns and kings; he is the source of all ecclesiastical jurisdictions, the infallible judge of the faith, superior even to general councils. Bellarmin treats as heretics those who maintain that princes, in temporal things, have no superior but God. A decree of the parliament of Paris, 26th Nov. 1710, suppressed this book, because the positions which it contained were false and detestable, tending to the overthrow of the sovereign powers ordained and established by God, and encouraging the insurrection of subjects against their princes. The pope caused his nuncio to make strong remonstrances against this decree, which, he said, brought great detriment to the papal authority;" but the French monarch was inexorable; and "Bellarmin on the Power of the Popes" remained a suppressed book throughout the dominions of his most Christian majesty. 66 pro MONTESQUIEU'S SPIRIT OF LAWS. FEW circumstances in literary history are more remarkable than the suppression of Dupin's "Observations on a book entitled the Spirit of Laws." This work, which is said to have been one of the best replies ever made to Montesquieu, was suppressed and burned by the author, at the request of Madame de Pompadour. The family and friends of Montesquieu had used their utmost influence with that lady, then allpowerful at court, to prevail upon her to take this step. She accordingly sent for Dupin, informed him that she took the author of the Spirit of Laws under her immediate protection, and persuaded him to withdraw all the copies and burn the edition. It is not stated what share Montesquieu himself had in this unphilosophical mode of refutation. THE DUTY OF WIVES. ONE of the most curious specimens of the literature of the Hindoos is a poem, supposed to have been written fourteen centuries ago, entitled the "Teroo-Vaulaver-Kuddul, or the Ocean of Wisdom." The following is a prose translation of a portion of this poem: "On the Duty of Wives. "She is the true helpmate, who, possessing an amiable temper and prudent disposition, proportions her husband's expenses to his income. "The goodness of her heart will manifest itself, in feeding holy hermits, in graciously entertaining her husband's guests, and in shewing mercy to the poor. Her prudence will be displayed, in providing, personally, for the future wants of her family, in preparing her husband's meals with regularity, and in maintaining the just reputation of a good manager. She will take care so to arrange the current expenditure, as not to encroach on the capital of her husband's property. "Where such a conduct in the wife is wanting, though the house should overflow with gold, yet shall it prove to the owner no better than an empty hovel. "Where an amiable heart and a prudent disposition are united in the wife, no want will be felt in that house: her judicious management will create a sense of abundance in all its happy inhabitants. Therefore, the first qualities in a wife are temper and prudence. 66 'If you desire earthly blessings, let a good wife be your first object: be assured, no wealth is to be compared to her. Such a wife as above described, is worth enduring a life of penance to obtain. "A chaste woman, who, considering her husband as the more immediate object of her devotion, dedicates her first waking thoughts to him, is so superior a character, that the very rain will descend at her requisition. "A good wife will rise early to perform her devotion to the gods, a service she will delight in she will guard her chastity; prepare her husband's food with care; will conduct herself with such judicious caution, as to secure his good fame, no less than her own; and, finally, she will cultivate a kind, no less than a prudent disposition. "What avails it to a husband, to guard his wife's honour with spies and bolts? His best security will be, so to conduct himself, as to induce her to be on her guard. Alas! when once a woman's heart is unhappily set upon strange men, bars and chains will not prevent their guilty intercourse. "Good wives shall, at death, be born again unto the world ́of Daivers, and there assist at the heavenly feasts and processions. "The man whose wife is not correct in her demeanour cannot, like a lion, fearlessly face those who slander and contemn him. "The highest bliss on earth, consists in possessing a faithful wife and obedient children." FUNERAL ORATION OF FRANCIS THE FIRST. PIERRE DUCHATEL, in a funeral oration on the death of Francis I. published 1547, took upon himself to affirm, that the soul of the king had gone direct to Paradise. This passing over of purgatory gave offence to the doctors of the Sorbonne, who sent a deputation to warn him of his error. The prelate being absent, one of his friends received them, and, in reply, gaily said" Be not uneasy, gentlemen, every one knows that the late king, my master, never stopped long in any one place, however agreeable. Supposing, then, that he went to purgatory, be assured that his stay would be very short." This pleasantry disarmed the severity of the doctors, and the affair went no farther. THE JESUITS. BLANDIUS AQUAVIVA, general of the Society of the Jesuits, published at Rome, in 1686, a work entitled "Method and Institutes of the Studies of the Society of Jesus." The book has become excessively rare, because, being denounced as heretical to the Inquisition by the whole body of Dominicans, it was condemned as such by that tribunal. The reason of its suppression was, that in a chapter "On the choice of opinions in the exercise of theses," advice is given to follow St. Thomas, but with the exception of a few points. For instance, it is said, "we are not obliged to believe, with St. Thomas, that second causes, when they act, have God for their immediate and moving cause." In the second edition, the Jesuits were obliged to omit that chapter, though in the preface they express their hope that they may be allowed, at some future time, to give it. In all the subsequent editions, however, neither preface nor chapter durst ever make their appearance. MAID OF BALDOCK'S MILL. THE real name of this celebrated rustic beauty was Mary Cornwall. She has been dead about fifty years, and her remains lie buried in Baldock church-yard. She had at one time four lovers,-" the grave and the gay, the clown and the beau." The "grave" lover was a young clergyman; and it was he who wrote the song of "The Maid of Baldock's Mill," which soon became so popular, that the maid was obliged for many years to avoid the neighbouring market-places and fairs, where it was constantly sung by ballad-singers. It appears that the divine, though he might have been the most learned, was not the favoured lover. The "Maid of Baldock's Mill" married Henry Leonard, a carpenter, of Baldock. Her father only gave her a portion of £100 or £150, so that she was indebted entirely to her beauty and worth for her celebrity. The following is the song, once so popular: "Who has e'er been at Baldock must needs know the mill, The man of the mill had a daughter so fair, But, looking again, I perceiv'd my mistake, Prometheus stole fire, as the poets do say, Since first I beheld this dear lass of the mill, |