introduced to the Greeks by Xenophon himself.’’ Tn another part of the same article the oldest method of shorthand extant, entitled ``Ars Scribendi Characteris,’’ is said to have been printed about the year 1412—­that is, long before printing was invented.  In the Biographie Univer

selle there is a life of one Nicholas Donis, by Baron Walckenaer, which is a blundering alteration of the real name of a Benedictine monk called Dominus Nicholas.  This, however, is not the only time that a title has been taken for a name.  An eminent bookseller is said to have received a letter signed George Winton, proposing a life of Pitt; but, as he did not know the name, he paid no attention to the letter, and was much astonished when he was afterwards told that his correspondent was no less a person than George Pretyman Tomline, Bishop of Winchester.  This is akin to the mistake of the Scotch doctor attending on the Princess Charlotte during her illness, who said that ``ane Jean Saroom’’ had been continually calling, but, not knowing the fellow, he had taken no notice of him.  Thus the Bishop of Salisbury was sent away by one totally ignorant of his dignity.  A similar blunder was made by a bibliographer, for in Hotten’s Handbook to the Topography and Family History of England and Wales will be found an entry of an ``Assize Sermon by Bishop Wigorn, p 67in the Cathedral at Worcester, 1690.’’ This was really Bishop Stillingfleet.  There is a reverse case of a catalogue made by a worthy bookseller of the name of William London, which was long supposed to be the work of Dr. William Juxon, the Bishop of London at the time of publication.  The entry in the Biographie Moderne of ``Brigham le jeune ou Brigham Young’’ furnishes a fine instance of a writer succumbing to the ever-present temptation to be too clever by half.  A somewhat similar blunder is that of the late Mr. Dircks.  The first reprint of the Marquis of Worcester’s Century of Inventions was issued by Thomas Payne, the highly respected bookseller of the Mews Gate, in 1746; but in Worcesteriana (1866) Mr. Dircks positively asserts that the notorious Tom Paine was the publisher of it, thus ignoring the different spelling of the two names.

In a French book on the invention of printing, the sentence ``Le berceau de l’imprimerie’’ was misread by a German, who turned Le Berceau into a man{.??} D’Israeli tells us that Mantissa, the title p 68of the Appendix to Johnstone’s History of Plants, was taken for the name of an author by D’Aquin, the French king’s physician.  The author of the Curiosities of Literature also relates that an Italian misread the description Enrichi de deux listes on the title-page of a French book of travels, and, taking it for the author’s name, alluded to the opinions of Mons. Enrichi De Deux Listes; but really this seems almost too good to be true.