RECREATIONS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 147, 22 December 1871, Page 6

RECREATIONS.

Xo. Y.—A CHAPTEB OF BtTODEBft ANI> MISTAKES. (Continued from our latt.J

ABSENCE OF MIKD. The following instance is recorded of Sir Isaac Newton, who, from his habits of abstraction, often did things unconsciously, and was aware of this thimself. Dr. Stukely, the antiquarian, going once to visit him, was shown'into the private parlor, where he waited for more than an hour without anyone coming. Beginning to feel very hungry, and not knowing how long it would be before Sir Isaac made bis appearance, the antiquarian sat down and made his dinner upon a fowl which the cook • had prepared for her master. / At last Newton came down. He was much surprised on seeing, the fowl half-eaten, and after a moment's reflection, exclaimed, " I declare, titukejy, I've dined to-day without knowing it!"

Some odd mistakes are made through inadvertence or forgetfulness. ißourienne, in his " Life of Napoleon " records the following incident in connection with Pope Pius VII.: •—■ Several Presidents of Cantons who came to be presented, being; too poor to pay coach hire, put on gaiters to save their silk stockings from the mud. One bad put his gaiters into his pocket, and at a melting part of the Pope's address, pulled them out and besmeared his entire visage with mud. The Pope could not restrain himself, but laughed outright. MISAPPREHENSIONS. In another class of cases the mistake results from misapprehension. A doctor who had allowed himself one day to drink too much was sent for to see a fashionable lady who was ailing. He sat down by the bedside, took out his watch, and begau to count her pulse; but he was not himself. He counted " One—two—three " —then he got confused, and began again. " One —two—three—four j" confused, and began again. "One—two"—no, he could not do it. Thoroughly ashamed of himself, he shut up his watch, muttering—" Drunk, I declare, drunk!" He told the lady to keep her bed and take some hot lemonade to throw her into a perspiration, and he would see her next day. In the morning he received the following note from the lady, marked « Private":—

" Dear Doctor,—You were right., I dare not deny it. But I am thoroughly ashamed of myself, and will be more careful for the future. Please accept the enclosed fee for your visit (a £\o note), and do not, I- entreat of you, breathe a word about the state in which you found me." The lady, in fact, had herself been taking too much, and, catching the doctor's murmured words, thought they referred to her. He had been too far gone to see what the matter was with his patient, and she too far gone to see that the doctor was in the same condition. (To be continued.)