"The Double Mistress," in Martinus Scriblerus.

In some late editions of Pope, this tale is praised for its humour and originality. To the latter recommendation it is not entitled, as it is recorded as an anatomical fact by a French author.* The anatomical record is made a vehicle of much humour and wit by Pope and his friend Dr. Arbuthnot, though the former had totally forgotten his own sensible and modest remark,

Immodest words admit of no defence,

For want of decency is want of sense.

It is certainly too gross for republication on any

account.

The Laurel.

It is the theory of some French critic,† (if I remember rightly, a female,) that much of the ancient mythology, connected with poetry, owed its origin to certain appearances and discoveries in natural history. Whoever has observed the rays of a strong sun reflected from the leaves of a large laurel with excessive splendour, will be led to suppose that this plant was dedicated by the ancient poets to Apollo (or the sun), from this remarkable

* L'Art d'orner l'Esprit, &c., by M. Gayot de Pitaval, à Paris, 1728.

↑ Madame Necker, MSS. p. 304. Paris, edit. 1793,

A. Pope with the prophetic and poetic eye of taste, has designated the future race of Lords and Squires mounted on their own coach-boxes. The goddess Dulness', in her speech to her favourite sons, in assigning to them employments suited to their respective talents and accomplishments, says,

From stage to stage the licensed Earl may run,
Paired with his fellow charioteer, the sun.*

Here the four-in-hand gentlemen drivers are clearly described; and their carriages, made in the style of "stages," accurately pourtrayed.

Dull Men.

It would be the extreme of inhumanity not to make every allowance for the defects of persons of this description, did they demean themselves with any degree of modesty and humility. The opposite of all this is the conduct of these antipodes of genius. They are in general arrogant and assuming, as men of cowardly characters are known to

* Dunciad, b. 4, line 587.

be often bullies and Hectors, till they meet with an Achilles. Our great moral poet says, or rather sings, of them,

What the weak head with strongest bias rules

Is pride, the uever-failing vice of fools;
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,

She gives in large recruits of needful pride.
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find,

What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind.

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,

And fills up all the mighty void of sense.

Pope's Essay on Criticism, 1. 203.

Voltaire

Has with great humour, in his "Candide," described an every-day critic, a man of fastidious turn, without taste or knowledge. "Poco Curante', condemns and disapproves every thing in art or literature. "Surely," says an auditor of these universal censures, "this Poco Curante must be a great man, he likes nothing." La Bruyére, with equal feeling, good sense, and fine taste, has delivered an excellent lesson on this subject :— "Quand une lecture vous éléve l'esprit et qu'elle vous inspire les sentimens nobles et courageux, ne cherchez pas une autre régle pour juger d'ouvrage ; il est bon, et fait de main de l'ouvrier." How different are these sentiments from the affected taste and pedantic dulness wnich characterize the little minds of minor critics.

Logic.

Some knowledge of this science is useful; but pursued too far, it leads to doubt of every thing. Definitions are the great difficulties in all reasoning; and too exact a demand of these is apt to make a Bayle and a Hume; because such persons cannot emerge from the darkness which they have raised about their own minds, and will not rest in revelation. Syllogisms prevent this state of infirming,' as my Lord Bacon* calls it, in opposition to affirming; for the major proposition is built on some acknowledged truths.

Don Quixote.

6

Perhaps there never was a book so replete with wit and humour, in which a strict propriety of diction and thought is so generally preserved: a most undeniable argument of the author's superior genius. The incomparable Le Sage, in his novels, as they treat too much of l'amour physique, has not so well preserved this freedom from indecorum in his narrative. The grave and philosophic John Locke says of Don Quixote, "Of all the books of fiction, I know none that equals Cervantes' History of Don Quixote, in usefulness, pleasantry, and a constant decorum." Then adds,

* See his Advancement of Learning; article, Syllogism.

"indeed no writings can be pleasant, which have not nature at the bottom, and are not drawn after her copy."

The best Practical Philosophers.

It has been observed that persons of mild and gentle dispositions bear the pressure of misfortunes better than those of more obdurate and inflexible minds. The lightning is well known immediately to destroy iron and copper, when they oppose its passage; but to leave untouched large inasses of wax that lie in its way

"Levius fit paticntia

60

• Quicquid corrigere est nefas."

Says a very great moralist and poet of antiquity.

IMITATED,

Patience can make our burdens light,
And soothe misfortune's utmost rage;

This is philosophy's delight,

And marks the blockhead from the sage.

An Elegant Compliment.

One is delighted in seeing a Philosopher of great sense and gravity exhibiting symptoms of playful humour and innocent gallantry. Jolin Locke, in answer to a lady who had invited him to ber house, with much praises bestowed on his merit, replied, as the French say, en galant homme: