The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-01-20


ECcENrmcITrEs or THE GREAT. -
Queen Elizabeth, at her death, left
three thousand different dresses; and
for long period during the last years
of her life, "she could not bear the
look Of a mirror, dreading to behold
the traces of the terrible ravages which
time had made Walter Raleigh was
perhaps the most elegant of all cav
alters known to us On the days Of
reception at court his shoes were
adorned with magnificent precious
stones, the value of which lid not
amount to less than six thousand
guineas. He wore armor Of massive
silver; his sword and his baldric were
likewise enriched with precious stones
of the rarest kind The great philoso-
pher, Descartes, devoted immense at
tention to his periwigs, and had al
was four as reserve in his cabinet,
an example off worldly vanity imi-
tated by Richard Steel, who did not
spend less than forty guineas on one
Of his huge black periwigs. Mozart,
whose blonde hair was very beautiful,
wore it long and floating on the shout
ders. A ribbon of bright color some
what restrained its exuberance be-
hind. The harmless vanity of poor
Goldsmith, and the history of his
peach-blossom coat, have become al
most proverbial. II we may believe
Samuel Johnson, Pope went so far in
his exalted opinion of himself as firm
ly to believe he was one Of the pivots
of the system of the world. The van
ity Of Allen Ramsay was excessive.
On certain occasion he very modest
ly placed himself above Peter the
Great Proud Gar" he cried, "you
may be a very fine fellow, but am not
willing to exchange my celebrity for
yours" Napoleon the First was not
above being vain about the smallness
of his foot. He seems also to have
been induced to turn snuff taker from
learning that Frederick the Great con
stunned enormous quantities of snuff
One day Sylyater Rosa was heard
putting himself in parallel with Mich
ael Angelo and Raphael, and affirm
ing that the former had no delicacy,
and that the latter was dry and angu-
lar. Raphael, SO great, seems to have
been jealous Of the glory and talent
of Michael Angelo Bolardo, the Itll-
ian poet, attributed SO much impor-
tance to his productions that when he
found a suitable name for one of his
heroes he ordered the bells of the Will
age TO be rung Kotzebue was so vain
and enyious that he could not suffer
near him any celebrated parsonage,
even if represented by n statue or
picture. The life of Lord Byron was
one long example of boastful egotism
from beginning to end. He was vain
of his genius, of his rank, of his mis-
anthropy, and even of his vices, and
especially proud of the beauty of his
hands and of his skill as q horseman
anda swimmer. The celebrated critic
Peler Bayle, escaped often from books
and wrapping himself in his mantle
ran with the gladness of schoolboy
to public places, where mountebanks
were amusing the multitude. Spin
OLA amused himself watching the
habits of spiders, and never was so de-
lighted as when watching their bat
ties. Cardinal Richelieu sought re-
Taxation from his political labors in
violent exercise. The Count dc
Grammont found him leaping in com
pany with one of his domostics to see
who could rise the higher. Tycho
Brahe's favorite recreation was polish
ing optical glasses Salvador Rosa
freqr entity played in imI revised com
edies, in which he took the parts Of
mountebanks, and in the custom of the
mountebank he ran through the
streets of Rome Cowper made favo-
rites of hares, and found refuge from
gloomy thoughts in making bird
cages. Goethe had, as the compan-
ion of his studies, tame snake, but
had an aversion to dogs, aud also to
spectacles, as also to those who wore
them. Thompson had Garden at
Richmond. OF this poet there is a
well known story to the effect that he