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Chap. Lxxix

CURIOSITIES IN HISTORY, ETC. (Concluded.) Great Events from Little Causes-Dreadful Instances of the Plague, in Europe-Fire of London-Vicar of Bray-Curious Account of the Ceremonies at Queen Elizabeth's Dinner- A Blacksmith's Wife become a Queen-Swine's Concert.

GREAT EVENTS FROM LITTLE CAUSES. - The most important events sometimes take place from little and insignificant causes. 1. Sir Isaac Newton's sublime genius, set a-going by the fall of an apple, never stopped till it had explained the laws of nature. 2. Hospinian (who wrote so successfully against the Popish ceremonies) was first convinced of the necessity of such a work by the talk of an ignorant country landlord, who thought that religious fraternities were as old as the creation, that Adam was a monk, and that Eve was a nun. 3. Metius was led to the discovery of optic glasses, by observing some schoolboys play upon the ice, who made use of their copy-books, rolled up in the shape of tubes, to look at each other, to which they sometimes added pieces of ice at the end, to view distant objects. 4. Luther's quarrelling with Pope Leo. X. and bringing himself into difficult and dangerous circumstances, perhaps led him to search, think, and judge for himself, and consult the scriptures; by which he overthrew errors, which had been received as truths for ages. 5. To this we may add the marriage of Henry VIII. with Ann Boleyn, which was the occasion of England's renouncing the supremacy of the Pope, and of bringing about the Reform. ation.