'neille composes much nobler verses than mine; but no ' one notices him, and he only pleases by the mouths ' of the actors. I never allude to my works when with men of the world; but I amuse them about matters they like best to hear. My talent with them consists, not in making them feel that I have any, but in show'ing them that they have.'

It must be confessed, that Racine was no novice in the affairs of life.

CCXLVI.

WHO FIND FAULT WITH BEAUTIES.

SOME critics, amongst whom we may instance Servius,-censure the following line :—

Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.'

They censure this line because it ends with a monosyllable, which is the very beauty of it; for it makes the sound an echo to the sense.

How many pedants have censured Milton's introduction of the allegory of Sin and Death into his Paradise Lost, because it is an allegory; when the whole poem is nothing less than a tissue of allegories. True critics, however, have had more consideration. 'I 'challenge you,' wrote Atterbury to Pope*, to show me in Homer any thing equal to this allegory, either as to the greatness and justness of the invention, or the height and beauty of the colouring.' Pope was, doubtless, a critic of the first class.

* Bromley, Nov. 8, 1717.

CCXLVII.

WHO CAN ADORN DRY SUBJECTS.

SAW miniature copies of the Hercules, the Gladiator, the Antinous, the Apollo, and the Medicean Venus. Darwin has immortalized them :

'Hence wearied Hercules in marble rears

His languid limbs, and rests a thousand years;
Still, as he leans, shall young Antinous please
With careless grace and unaffected ease;
Onward with loftier step Apollo spring,

And launch the unerring arrow from the string;
In Beauty's bashful form, the veil unfurl'd,
Ideal Venus win the gazing world.'

To adorn dry subjects demands great imaginative powers. The first eminent instance we have, I think, is Lucretius. His De Rerum Naturâ, is, indeed, a wonderful example. Quintilian's Institutes are, also, poetical; and Blackstone's Commentaries would almost gratify a reader of romance. The finest instance in modern times, however, is Darwin, his Economy of Vegetation, and his Temple of Nature, being, perhaps, unequalled in point of splendour, elicited from what is generally esteemed the dryest of subjects. The highest triumph of a poet is, perhaps, exemplified when he succeeds in detaining the soul in a pleasing state of captivity, when describing subjects, which the major part of mankind consider sterile and abortive.

Reading this to a friend, he reminded me of the 'Loves of the Triangles :'—but I cannot value what I never read.

CCXLVIII.

WHO KEEP FAITH IN LITTLE THINGS IN ORDER TO BETRAY IN GREAT ONES.

'Anthonio. This Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind. Bassanio. I like not fair terms, and a villain's mind.'

Merchant of Venice.

TRAVELLERS tell us, that along the road, which winds through the valley of Muotta, in the canton of Schweitz, there are many shops established, in which the articles are ticketed, and left for the inspection of any person that passes by; who, if he choose to purchase, leaves the amount, takes the merchandize, and the owner calls in the evening to take away the money. I believe, no similar instance can be cited; nor do these honest Switzers seem honest in one thing the better to deceive in others.

Plain, blunt men, however, are sometimes as deceptive as smooth, insinuating, ones:

ones.

'Harbouring more craft, and more corrupted ends,
Than twenty silly, ducking observants,

That stretch their duties nicely.'

But these are nothing so deceptious as those, who keep faith in little things, to betray more safely in great Melmoth sketches a character of this kind in that of Mezentius, who, at the time in which he was unjustly keeping a neighbour out of possession of an estate, resigned a post he held under Lord Godolphin, under pretence of indulging the delicacy of his conscience. And yet it seemed to many as if—

''Twere worse than plotting to suspect his plot.'-Dryden.

There are some engagements, however, which, as they never ought to have been entered into by the fathers, entail no obligations on the sons. Thus Lord Grenville in the House of Lords*:- Great is the im'portance to every country; inestimable is the value of 'Great Britain's maintaining inviolate its public faith. 'But no contract is binding whose performance is un'lawful. To fulfil such engagements is in itself a dis' regard and breach of prior and stronger obligations.' This his Lordship said in regard to the slave-trade. Fathers having countenanced the slave-trade was no reason why the same trade should have been tolerated by the sons. Thank Heaven-the season is past!

CCXLIX.

A CHARACTER IN ANCIENT TIMES.

WE have no character in modern times,—at least I think not,-whom we may associate strictly with the Hippias, mentioned by Plato.

This person appeared at Olympia, and was taken great notice of. He deserved such distinction. At least we may presume so, for he appeared in a dress of his own weaving, a zone of his own embroidery, and buskins of his own cutting out; the ring on his finger, and the seal he carried in his writing-desk, were, also, of his own engraving. Added to all these, he brought dithyrambics, orations, and tragedies, all of his own composing. And not only these, but three epic poems!

* June 27, 1814.

CCL.

WHAT IS NECESSARY TO A SUCCESSFUL TRAITOR.

SOME men's fortunes resemble the Mardus, a river which rises in the recesses of the Caucasus, flows in a serpentine manner through a multitude of picturesque ravines; and, after forming many cataracts, loses its waters in the Caspian Lake, the waters of which have no outlet.

Thus, the Earl of Manchester, in answer to Cromwell, who advised a particular motion in the field, answered: If we meet with a defeat, there is an end to ' our pretensions. We shall be robbers and traitors; our lands will be forfeited by law; and our heads 'doomed to the axe.'

Audacity, decision, promptitude, intrigue, and a reckless disposition, are as necessary to a successful traitor, as perspicuity, precision, purity, unity, harmony, and strength are to the combination of a perfect sen

tence.

Excuse this instance of the bathos, my dear friend, and pass on with as much good-humour as such an anti-climax will allow you to assume.

CCLI.

WHO DO AS THEY LIKE, AND GIVE NO REASON.

ON an eminence, everlooking a beautiful valley in South Wales, commanded by the Brecknockshire bea