ing eminence; yet alas, how little do either prevail, especially in politics. I could mention a nation, where some great men and nobles have been taught very little prudence of conduct from the sad examples given them by a neighbouring nation on a late sad Revolution!! Till men act by reason, and not by passion, precept and example will be equally ineffectual, by being equally misapplied and neglected.

Learned Languages.

The "veil of a learned language," to use a term of Gibbon, is very useful to some writers, especially commentators, whose sense is often disputable in their interpretation of an author's meaning, though their Latin may be very erudite in idiom. Let the reader consult an English translation of Dr. Bentley's Dedication to Lord Halifax, of his Horace, and also of the notes on that author by the same most learned Doctor. The translation seems intended to expose the poverty of sentiment concealed in the pompous verbosity of the original Latin of the commentator.-Odes in English of Horace, 12mo.

Tragedies and Comedies.

It seems a matter of wonder, at the first consideration of the subject, that tragedies should be

preferred by strolling actors and their audiences to comedies. Yet we must recollect, that the language of passion is known to all minds, whilst the fashions and the foibles, of which comedies are composed, are variable and short-lived, and perhaps only known to those persons who live in what is called the "beau monde." Wit and folly are often local, but passion is universal.

Plato's Dialogues.

Though there are many passages in this author which are very sublime, yet there are also many trifling arguments and disputations; so that Warton* is well justified in speaking of Plato's countrymen, when he says that they were fond " of declamatory disputation, which they frequently practised under an earnest pretence of discovering the truth, but in reality to indulge their native disposition to debate, &c. Some of Plato's dialogues," adds the learned and ingenious critic, "professing a profundity of speculation, have much of this talkative humour."-Warton's History of Poetry.

Advice.

The frequent failure of this salutary medicine in the disorders of life may be ascribed to the

* History of English Poetry, Part 1, vol. iii. p. 459.

different ages of the doctor and his patient, Advice is generally given from the older person to the vounger, and of course on subjects which each party views with very different optics. A man who stands on higher ground than another must see further; so fares it with the adviser, whom long experience has elevated beyond the contracted view of early life. Spenser the poet speaks earnestly on this subject:

Let me entreat

For to enfold the language of your heart.
Mishaps are master'd by advice discreet;
And counsel magistrates the greatest smart ;
Found never help who never would his hurts impart.

Spenser's Fairy Queen.

Hints to Licentious Poets.

Classical mythology has afforded the moderns an useful instruction, by the dedication of the Muses to a state of virginity; and the first poems of antiquity were sung in the Temple of the Gods. But times degenerated, and the harp of Apollo was quartered with the quiver of Cupid. A Greek epigram, said to be written by Plato, in the true style of a moral philosopher, is no mean caution to erotic bards, not to write out of Venus addresses the Muses:

pure idleness.

Ye Nymphs, to Venus be due honours paid,
Or Love on you his potent darts shall try.
Hence with your threats, the smiling Muses said,
The idle boy we studious maids defy.

Vanity.

"He knows little of vanity," says an eminent writer, "who does not know that it is omnivorous; that it has no choice in its food; that it is fond to talk even of its own faults and vices, as what will excite surprise and draw attention, and what will pass at worst for openness and candour. It was this abuse and perversion which vanity makes even of hypocrisy, which has driven J. Rousseau to record a life not so much as chequered or spotted here and there with virtues, or even distinguished by a single good action."-Maxims, Opinions, &c. of the late Edm. Burke, esq; v. 2, 1815.

From the same, on the Writings and Designs of Rousseau.

"Mr. Hume told me, that he had from Rousseau himself the secret of his principles of composition. That acute and eccentric observer had perceived, that, to strike and interest the public, the marvellous must be produced; that the marvellous of the heathen mythology had long lost its effect; that giants, magicians, fairies, and heroes of romance

which succeeded, had exhausted the portion of credulity which belonged to their age; that now nothing was left to a writer but that species of the marvellous which yet might be produced, and with as great an effect as ever, though in another way, that is, the marvellous in life, in manners, in characters, and in extraordinary situations, giving rise to new and unlooked-for strokes in politics and morals."

Gray the Poet.

We are surprised that so accurate a scholar and sublime a poet, as Gray must be esteemed by all the lovers of poetry, should write two such couplets as follow:

Gay Hope is theirs, by Fancy fed,

Less pleasing when possess'd.

This elliptical expression exceeds poetic licence : the object of hope is less pleasing when possessed, no doubt; but can it be said so of hope itself? Again,

This the force of Erin hiding,
Side by side as proudly riding.

Triumphs of Owen.

That a man of genius, as Gray was, should describe a ship as hiding instead of containing her troops, is wonderful, except he wanted a rhyme.