society, would sometimes never for a dozen years be out of Kildare! Foxhunting husbands finding no necessity to leave excellent sport on account of a wife's fancy! These stories would make a little collection, best appreciated, perhaps, by women-stories of men thoughtless and indifferent, of careless husbands, and unthought-ofsacrifices. They rose in Lady Cloncurry's delightful talk, darting from subject to subject, like little vivid scenes, each distinct as a picture, sometimes tragic, sometimes amusing. There comes to my memory of the lighter kind, a wonderful little tale of one of those ladies, whose freemasonry of fun and suffering was so quaint and engaging, which contained a question which Lady Cloncurry ever propounded, and which was never solved. This lady was kept on a meagre allowance, every household claim of necessary expenditure received with grumbling and yielded with a grudge. She and her husband were out together walking up a hill towards the sunset, he a step or two before, she as much behind in the steepness of the ascent. My lord took out his handkerchief as he walked, and with it drew out unawares a bundle of notes, which dropped upon the turf at my lady's feet. She picked them up to return them to him; but when she felt the money in her hand a sudden temptation, inspiration, seized her, and in a moment she had thrust them into her own pocket, instead of his! Was it theft? was it a justifiable advantage taken of the windfall? The uses to which with a gasp she mutually appropriated that windfall, were his uses as much as hers. We could never settle the question; but the bush hillside; the man, unconscious, dropping the money which he had refused to his wife's request; the gleam of sudden surprise, doubt, laughter, and greed, how innocent! in the lady's eyes-these remain as real and as amusing a scene as any painter of genre ever drew. To ease the reader's mind, I may add that the notes were humble Irish one-pound notes, not extravagant fives or tens.

Sweet malice and mischief danced in

her bright eyes as she told such tales. She was, perhaps, too indulgent always, in her long experience of life, of the sinner; recognizing that most wonderful of problems, that in those who err most, there is often the most to love. Thus the softening of age mingled with the quick movements and generous impulses of youth. This was almost the only sign of years in her when, at eighty or more, she went from us, the other day-May of last year-into the unknown, a woman of the fairest semblance and the truest heart, one of the distinctive glories, perhaps never sufficiently noted in the clamor of less lovely characteristics, of the country which she loved.

M. OLIPHANT.

From The Churchman.

FAUST, THE NECROMANCER.

In the year 1457 the Latin Psalter was printed separately, in folio, by John Fust and Peter Schaeffer at Mentz, and is the first printed book that bears a date. Five years after, in 1462, Fust and Schaeffer, who seem to have worked together, published a Latin Bible, in two folio volumes. This is the first edition with a date, and is of extreme rarity and value. The copies of this Bible on paper are even more rare than those on vellum, of which last probably more were printed, that they might have the greater resemblance to manuscripts, which the first printers endeavored to imitate as much as possible. M. Lambinet, in his "Recherches sur l'Origine de l'Imprimerie," says: "It is certain that from the year 1463, Fust, Schaeffer, and their partners sold, or exchanged, in Germany, Italy, France, and the most celebrated universities, the great number of books which they had printed, and, whenever they could, sold them as manuscripts. As they were on parchment, and the capital letters illuminated with blue and purple and gold, after the manner of the ancient

manuscripts, he sold them as such at sixty crowns! But those who first purchased copies, comparing them together, soon found that they exactly resembled each other; afterwards they learned that Fust had sold a great number of copies, and had lowered the price, first to forty, and then to twenty, crowns. The fraud being thus discovered, he was pursued by the officers of justice, and forced to fly from Paris and return to Mentz; but not finding himself safe, he again quitted Mentz, and withdrew to Strasburg, where he taught the art to Mentelin." The facility with which Fust, or Faust, thus supplied Bibles for sale is said to have brought upon him the unenviable reputation of being a necromancer, and to have given rise to the well-known story of the Others have devil and Dr. Faustus.

called the truth of this in question, and have remarked that there was a Faustus living at the same period, who wrote a poem, "De Influentia Syderum," which, with a number of other tracts, was printed at Paris "per Guidonem Mercatorem, 1496." His proper name was Publius Faustus Andrelinus Foroliviensis, but he called himself, and

his friends in their letters to him called him, Faustus,

There were many other editions of the Latin Bible executed about the same time by other printers in different places, most or all of whom had learnt the art from the original inventors; and so indefatigable were these early printers, that nearly a hundred editions of the Latin Bible were printed before the end of the fifteenth century, sixteen of which were accompanied by the Postilla, or Notes, of Nicholas de Lyra, a great Flemish commentator, who lived about 1340. Besides these, there were upwards of thirty editions of the Latin Psalter, many of them with commentaries; three editions of the Latin New Testament, with Lyra's Notes; and several editions of the Prophets, the Gospels, or other portions of the sacred volume. The first printed edition of the Bible in any modern language was in the German, supposed to be printed by John Mentelin, a disciple and co-worker of Fust, but without date, place, or printer's name. also printed a German edition of the Scriptures in 1462 in two folio vol

umes.

Fust

Tricks Played by Plants.-Dr. Lundström has recently described some cases of alleged plant mimicry. The cultivated plant known as calendula may in different conditions produce at least three different kinds of fruit. Some have sails and are suited for transportation by the wind. while others have hooks and catch hold of passing animals, but the third kind exhibits a more desperate dodge, for it becomes like a caterpillar! Not that the fruit knows anything about it, but if it be sufficiently like a caterpillar, a bird may eat it by mistake, the indigestible seeds will be subsequently dropped, and so the trick succeeds. The next case is more marvellous. There is a very grace ful wild plant, with beautiful, delicate flowers, known to many as the cow-wheat. Ants are fond of visiting the cow-wheat to feast on a sweet banquet spread out upon the leaves. Dr. Lundström has observed one of these ants, and was surprised to see it making off with one of

saw

the seeds from an open fruit. The ant took the seed home with it. On exploring some ant-nests, the explorer soon that this was not the first cow-wheat seed which had been similarly treated. Many seeds were found in the ant nurseries. The ants did not eat them or destroy them; in fact, when the nest was disturbed the ants saved the seeds along with their brood, for in size, form, color, and weight, even in minute particulars, the seeds in question

resemble ant-cocoons. Once placed among the cocoons, it requires a better than an ant to distinguish the tares from the wheat. In the excitement of flitting, when the nest is disturbed, the mistake is repeated, and the seeds are also saved. The trick is found out some day; for the seeds, like the cocoons, awake out of sleep. The awakening displays the fraud. The seeds are thus supposed to be scattered; they germinate and seem to thrive in the ant-nests.