Digna Cedro.

A speech deserving to be embalmed, to be preserved to the latest period of time. To be written in letters of gold.

–––«An erit qui velle recuset
Os populi meruisse? et cedro digna locutus
Linquere».
«Who lives, we ask, insensible to praise,
Deserves, and yet neglects, the proffer'd bays?
Who is not pleased that from the bookworm's rage,
The juice of cedar shall preserve his page?»

The ancients were accustomed to varnish the leaves of the papyrus, on which they had committed any thing to writing, with an oil extracted from the cedar, which had the faculty of preserving them from becoming putrid, as well as of driving away noxious or devouring insects; the oil of juniper was used, it is said, for the same purpose and with equal effect. It is probable that Russia leather, used in binding books, owes its power of killing or driving away the bookworm, if it really has that property, to some similar ingredient used in its preparation.