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In judging others we can see too well Their grievous fall, but not how grieved they fell; Judging ourselves, we to our minds recall, Not how we fell, but how we grieved to fall. — George Crabbe, “Boys at School,” 1819

Dante’s 1577 essay “De vulgari eloquentia” contains a 27-letter word, sovramagnificentissimamente, “supermagnificently.” Life Savers candies were invented by Hart Crane’s father. (Colin Rose) RETROSUSCEPTION is an anagram of COUNTERRIPOSTES. “Of all the reciprocals of integers, the one that I best like is 1/0 for it is a titan amongst midgets.” — Sam Linial Lord David Cecil called Samuel Johnson “an outstanding example of the...

Visiting Orchomenus, Greece, in 1810, Lord Byron discovered this entry in the travelers’ book: Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart To trace the birth and nursery of art: Noble his object, glorious is his aim; He comes to Athens, and he — writes his name. Beneath this Byron wrote: The modest bard, like many a bard unknown, Rhymes on our names, but wisely...

Visual proofs of the formulas for the difference (left) and sum (right) of two cubes. By CMG Lee.

“When I stop drinking tea and eating bread and butter I say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ But when I stop reading poems or novels I say, ‘No more of that, no more of that.'” — Chekhov

In the church of St. Mary Magdalen in Mulbarton, Norfolk, is mounted a copper diptych, a memorial to resident Sarah Scargill, who died in 1680. The left panel remembers Scargill as “a Person of unimitable Devotion, of a most nice and tender Conscience, of sweet Behaviour, and in all Things so faithfull a Servant of God, that I dare contest the Divine Goodness to...

Two evenings spent at La Scala, Milan, one of them standing up, the other sitting down. On the first evening, I was continuously conscious of the existence of the spectators who were seated. On the second evening, I was completely unconscious of the existence of the spectators who were standing up (and of those who were seated also). — Simone Weil, quoted in W.H....

Describing this fish (Holocanthus Alternaus), which was caught off Zanzibar, a correspondent of the ‘Times of India’ wrote: ‘… On the one side of the tail are the words, La-ilaha-illa Allah’ — ‘There is no God but God.’ On the other side, ‘Shan Allah’ — ‘God’s Work,’ or ‘An Act of God.’ … Many of our readers who know Arabic will be able to...

Palindromes submitted by correspondent Henry Campkin to Notes and Queries in 1873: A milksop jilted by his lass, or wandering in his wits, Might murmer STIFF, O DAIRYMAN, IN A MYRIAD OF FITS! A limner, by Photography dead beat in competition, Thus grumbled: NO IT IS OPPOSED, ART SEES TRADE’S OPPOSITION! A nonsense-loving nephew might his soldier-uncle dun, With NOW STOP, MAJOR GENERAL, ARE...

In Eric Cross’ 1942 book The Tailor and Ansty, Irish tailor and storyteller Timothy Buckley recounts the wisdom held by the old Irish, before “the people got too bloodyful smart and educated, and let the government or anyone else do their thinking for them.” They had a way of reckoning time that advances from the lifespan of a rail, a type of small bird,...

A phonetic mnemonic for the first 32 U.S. presidents, by Edwin C. Silvey: I don’t know where this first appeared, but every source I can find faithfully credits the composer.

In 1999, a letter in New Scientist noted that randomizing letters in the middle of words has little or no effect on readers’ ability to understand text. Noam D. Plum responded with a poem: The suggetsoin taht chrilden slhuod laern how to sepll Is a tmie-watse we ohgut to rjeect. Sicne a jlumbe of leertts raeds pertlecfy wlel If the frist and the lsat...

In 1899 the Strand invited 13 British celebrities to draw a pig with their eyes closed. Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts: Judge Sir Francis Jeune: Mary Jeune, Baroness St Helier: Hugh Jermyn, Bishop of Brechin: Astronomer Sir Robert Ball: Chemist William Ramsay: Stage actor Henry Irving: Illustrator Sir John Tenniel: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Novelist Walter Besant: Organist Sir Frederick Bridge: Inventor Hiram Maxim:...

A puzzle by Lewis Carroll: Dreaming of apples on a wall, And dreaming often, dear, I dreamed that, if I counted all, How many would appear?

This chess problem, from Wolfgang Pauly’s 1912 Theory of Pawn Promotion, is a selfmate in two: How can White force Black to deliver checkmate within two moves, despite Black’s best effort to avoid doing so? White moves first.

I take delight in history, even its most prosaic details, because they become poetical as they recede into the past. The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are to-day, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all...

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to...

Two perceptive entries from the journals of English naturalist Gilbert White: “December 4, 1770 – Most owls seem to hoot exactly in B flat according to several pitch-pipes used in tuning of harpsichords, & sold as strictly at concert pitch.” “February 8, 1782 – Venus shadows very strongly, showing the bars of the windows on the floors & walls.” Between these he makes what...

It is true we do not often see the stars in broad daylight, but they are there nevertheless. The blaze of sunlight makes them invisible. A good telescope will always show the stars, and even without a telescope they can sometimes be seen in daylight in rather an odd way. If you can obtain a glimpse of the blue sky on a fine day...

At age 18, James Joyce wrote a play, A Brilliant Career. He began it with an inscription: To My own Soul I dedicate the first true work of my life. It’s the only one of his writings that bears a dedication.

In “Short Notes of My Life,” Horace Walpole records an alarming experience: One night in the beginning of November, 1749, as I was returning from Holland House by moonlight, about ten at night, I was attacked by two highwaymen in Hyde Park, and the pistol of one of them going off accidentally, razed the skin under my eye, left some marks of shot on...

Index entries in John Carey’s The Violent Effigy: A Study of Dickens’ Imagination, 1973: babies, bottled, 82 begging-letters, 67 beheading, 21 caged birds, 44, 46, 116-19 cannibalism, 22-4, 175 cleanliness, excessive, 36-7 climbing boys, 72 coffins, walking, 80-1 combustible persons, 14, 165 dolls’ houses, 34 dust heaps, 109-11 fire, seeing pictures in, 16 furniture, live, 102-3 grindstones, 129 home-smashing, 17 junk, enchantment of, 49-50...

Marksman A hits a certain small target 75 percent of the time. Marksman B hits it 25 percent of the time. The two of them aim at that target and fire simultaneously. One bullet hits it. What’s the probability that it came from A?