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pensable elements of all composition, the rules of grammar.

Singular Thought of a Grammarian.

The following comparison will no doubt raise a smile in the face of many a reader. The imperative, says the sententious philologist, having no first person, resembles the many among the sons of men. Such persons speak always in the second person, and command you to do what they themselves had no thought or intention of doing. Exempli gratia, ama tu hanc legem, love thou

this law.

Physiognomy.

Had Lavater considered the features in the human face as indicative of the disposition only, fewer objections had been to his theory. We see a proud man's disposition in the turn of a single feature, he

Is seen to ply

The superb muscle of the eye,*

rendered more prominent by his passions. When the same philosopher extends this doctrine to judge of intellect by the same token, many exceptions arise against his theory. One very remarkable is to be seen at the seat of Earl

*The Spleen, a Poem, Dodsley's Collection.

Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, viz. a picture of Sir Isaac Newton, in middle age, representing a face of uncommon vacancy and imbecility.

Reason.

As this faculty is the offspring of long experience, we cannot expect it in our early days to shew much light; and indeed it shines brightest at the latter end of life, and reminds one of a fire at an inn, in travelling, which flames highest, and gives most warmth, when the guests are going "We learn to live," said an old man,

away.

"just as we are going to die.”

Love of Change, or Variety.

This affection of the mind is ascribed by Aristotle to the general infirmity of the human mind. The sensible Plutarch has well discoursed on this subject. "The several changes of life do only shift, and not wholly extirpate, the causes of our trouble; and these are, our want of experience, the weakness of our judgment, and a certain impotence of mind, which hinder us from making a right use of what we enjoy. The rich man is subject to this uneasiness of humour, as well as the poor; the bachelor, as well as the man in wedlock. This makes the pleader withdraw from the bar, and

then his retirement is altogether as irksome," &c. As the great secretary of nature has finely said on this subject

Oh heaven! were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, act v, scene 4. N. B. The second line seems elliptical, it means the " error of being inconstant."

Cupid.

The French are certainly a very gallant people, and even the ornaments of their books exhibit in many cases this devotion to the god of love. One can hardly take up a French book with prints in it, that does not contain a portrait of "Dan Cupid" either in the frontispiece, or some of the vignettes. This gay nation seems to be incessantly under the influence of that passion, and reminds us of the city of Abdera, as mentioned by Lucian and Sterne, when all the inhabitants wandered about the town, singing, Cupid, King of Gods and Men," from the Andromeda of Euripides, whilst a fever reigned in the city.

Happiness of a Literary Man.

I think that Mr. Pope, with his usual "pregnant brevity," has described the happiness of a man of letters in one line

To read what books, and see what friends, he likes.

Some men and some books are difficult of apprehension, dull, dogmatical, and treat of subjects that are not congenial with your mind; and some books and some men are too ready to bestow all their tediousness upon your honour. It is surely, then, the summit of happiness to select our companions, both dead and alive, which best suit our understandings and our dispositions.

Characters of Humour.

From that reserve and restraint, which the rules of female education generally impose, it happens that we seldom see in life, or on the stage, the character of a female humorist. The neglect or contempt of decorum and the etiquettes of society, that the self-indulgence of a humorist implies, would disgust in a woman; and no doubt a female Falstaff would attract no admirers, either in real or fictitious representation.

Style of Composition.

The style of modern writers seems too much inclined to bombast and verbosity, and predominates over the matter. Materiam superat opus. A good style is aptly compared to a good sound stomach, which you enjoy without having your attention attracted by its sensations; whilst an unsound one is always drawing you from the

business you are engaged in by its weakness and flatulence.

M. Boileau.

In the Boleana it is recorded, that this elegant and learned critic used to repeat, with many expressions of approbation, the following lines of a love-sick maiden:

La charmante Bergere,
Ecoutant les discours
D'une ménagere,

Alloit filant toujours;
Et doucement atteinte
D'une si tendre plainte,
Fit tomber, par trois fois,
Le fuseau de ses doigts.

N.B. The praises of this accurate scholar and critic, no doubt, arose from the simplicity and natural turn of these lines, so unlike the general puerilities of French erotic poetry. The thought is taken from a short fragment of Sappho on the same subject, and addressed to her mother, .complaining of the difficulty of continuing her task of spinning, from the ardour of the passion which then consumed her.

Bon-Mot of a Fortune-Hunter.

One of these minions of Cupid, being in a ball-room at Bath, heard a gentleman giving an account of the death of a rich and old widow

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