The principal events of the Doctor’s life are well known; and it is interesting and not uninstructive to contemplate this master-spirit struggling with the vicissitudes of fortune, and depending frequently for his next meal, on the resources of his genius, till his merit became known.  View him and his cotemporary, Garrick, travelling to London together, mere adventurers, with many plans in their heads, and very little money in their pockets; we see them both rising to the pinnacle of fame; one the majestic teacher of moral virtue, and the other delighting by the versatility of his histrionic powers.  Go one step further.  They are consigned to the tomb, and these men, whom friendship had united whilst living, death has not divided.  Near Shakspeare’s monument, in Westminster Abbey, they lie interred side by side.  Of Garrick it has been said, “that the gaiety of nations was eclipsed at his death,” and of Johnson we may truly say he has given “ardour to virtue and confidence to truth.”

Hen.  B.

* * * * *

ON GOOD AND EVIL DAYS.

(For the Mirror.)

Notwithstanding the ridicule which in later ages has been deservedly thrown on the idea of good and evil days, it is certain, that from time immemorial, the most celebrated nations of antiquity, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, adopted, and placed implicit faith in this superstitious notion, which is still prevalent in all parts of the east.  According to Plutarch, the kings of Egypt never transacted business on the third day of the week, and abstained even from food till the evening; because on that day, Typhon, who was considered by them the cause of every evil, was born.  The seventeenth day of the month was also deemed unfortunate, as on that day Osiris died.  The Greeks, too, had their unlucky days, which they denominated [Greek:  apophrades].  The Thursday was generally considered by the Athenians of so unlucky an import, that the assemblies of the people, which happened to fall on that day, were always deferred.  Hesiod enumerated the days when it might be proper to commence certain undertakings, and those when it was necessary to abstain from every employment; among the latter, he mentions the fifth of every month, when the Infernal Furies were supposed to bestride the earth.  Virgil has the same idea:—­

      Quintam fuge—­pallidus Orcus
  Eumenidesque satae:  tum partu terra nefando,
  Coeumque, lapetumque creat, saevumque Typhaea,
  Et conjuratos coelum rescindere fratres.

1 GEOR. 279.