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Clouston, William Alexander, 1843-1896

"Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers"


[81] In a manuscript preserved in the Lambeth Palace Library,
of the time of Edward IV, the height of Moses is said to
have been "xiij. fote and viij. ynches and half"; and
the reader may possibly find some amusement in the
"longitude of men folowyng," from the same veracious
work: "Cryste, vj. fote and iij. ynches. Our Lady, vj.
fote and viij. ynches. Crystoferus, xvij. fote and viij.
ynches. King Alysaunder, iiij. fote and v. ynches.
Colbronde, xvij. fote and ij. ynches and half. Syr Ey.,
x. fote iij. ynches and half. Seynt Thomas of
Caunterbery, vij. fote, save a ynche. Long Mores, a man
of Yrelonde borne, and servaunt to Kyng Edward the
iiijth., vj. fote and x. ynches and half."--_Reliquae
Antiquae_, vol i, p. 200.


IV
MORAL AND ENTERTAINING TALES.

If most of the rabbinical legends cited in the preceding sections have
served simply to amuse the general reader--though to those of a
philosophical turn they must have been suggestive of the depths of
imbecility to which the human mind may descend--the stories, apologues,
and parables contained in the Talmud, of which specimens are now to be
presented, are calculated to furnish wholesome moral instruction as well
as entertainment to readers of all ranks and ages.


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