1 of the characters of which the party consisted, as near as possible in the words of my good host, whom I persuaded to favour me with this detail, on the company breaking up. The tête-à-tête, as you may well imagine, was prolonged to a late hour. Í had been particularly struck by the vivacity and brilliant conversation of one individual, whom I should describe as a sort of irregular figure, with dark raven locks staring above his forehead, "like quills upon the fretful porcupine," or, to speak more technically, dressed after the French fashion, as if stiffened up in front with pomatum. His eyebrows were prominent and coalblack, and his orbs of vision full and expressive of intelligence. He appeared to be yet rough from the hand of nature, for his converse bore no marks of having been polished or pruned by the logic of the school. In fact, his forte by no means consisted in the art of unravelling the intricacies of any argument which happened to be on the carpet, but rather in furnishing materials of new subjects, whenever the conversation began to flag; and this was effected by starting the most eccentric notions, which could not fail of attracting the attention, and fascinating the imagination, of his audience. This luckily was no common one, or otherwise such abilities would have been thrown away, and, like the roses of Pæstum, he might have wasted himself upon the desert air, if, indeed, he had been fortunate enough to escape being mistaken for a fool, so closely Genius borders upon Absurdity! "Mr. Carmarthen," said my friend Sterling, "has only lately come up to reside with us. He is an exotic from the West Indies, and, as you perceive, does not bely the character of his country men, 'Souls made of fire, and children of the sun.' His education, I believe, was chiefly derived from a grammarschool in Kent, and I cannot say that he was well-grounded there in the essentials for the attainment of classical learning. Minerva only knows who was in fault, he or his Orbilius. I am often half-inclined to suspect the former of the blame, when I see the inveterate fastidiousness with which books of rudiments are treated, and the precipitate eagerness which is evinced in this desperado's attacks upon the deepest mysteries of knowledge. Mr. C. is a man after your own heart. His metaphysical turn has long been the amusement of the College. It does not matter what may be the subject of discourse'; metaphysics are sure to come in. It is neck or nothing' with them. I recollect getting well lectured at a large breakfast party, for the improper application of the word idea,' when I ought to have substituted that of ' notion.' I deny not but that he was right; idea' signifies the mental conception of a substantial essence, as, the idea of a horse; while notion' can only properly be applied to an imma terial, as the notion of a virtue. This promising Baconian is a next-door neighbour of mine; and one day he came running into the room, as I was brooding over my Eschylus, and requested my assistance in a definition which he had been puzzling over for the last five hours, while composing an Essay on the difference between Envy and Jealousy. It was at last determined that Envy would never allow of a superior, while Jealousy could not endure the presence of an equal. Oh, if the Old Bridge had remained to our days! But perhaps you are not acquainted, Le Blanc, with the tradition I allude to. The celebrated Bacon pursued his studies in a room which was attached to the arch of one of those bridges which bestride the many branches of the Isis in different parts of the city of Oxford; and there was an antique prophecy, that whenever a man, as clever as the philosopher who dwelt there, should pass beneath the said arch, the structure would fall. Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove."" The next individual, of whom I made bold to inquire, was one who had given the most decided proofs of solid scholarship during the evening. His ideas had not that original stamp which had characterized Mr. Carmarthen; they were, however, prompt at call, apposite for the occasion, and apparently derived from an abundant reservoir. I should be inclined to classify them all under the head of what the Greeks denominated the εTINTYTAI (or acquired); and whether the doctrine be true or not, that we bring nothing into this world of intellectual possessions any more than of the other sort, with the exception of the capacity for acquirement, I do not venture to determine. But certainly all the knowledge which this gentleman displayed might be readily traced to the books which he had studied. In person, he was of the common size, with something of the Grecian bend; contracted, doubtless, from sedentary habits: his eyes were dimmed of half their lustre from constant use; and there was an appearance of mental absence about him, likely to be unfavourably construed by a stranger, as it might easily be taken for hauteur, though, in fact, it was chiefly owing to a defect of hearing; from which I understand he experienced occasional annoyance. Sterling confirmed the opinions which I had formed. "Mr. Thompson," said he, " is a select specimen of the fruits of Dr. Valpy's system of Classical Education. No man in the University can discuss the merits of the digamma with greater fluency or point. His Latin prose composition is the pure Ciceronian, and a false quantity in the pronunciation of a word would be death to him. The treasures of the various Grammars which have been edited from time to time; the Port Royal, Eton, Westminster, &c., are as his A B C; and few can so well appreciate the importance of the Greek accents. In spite of all this, there is no one who has so little pedantry about him. It is true that he is rather authoritative in his literary decisions, but he has the fairest right to be so. He has cultivated, with no small assiduity, other branches, which are more calculated to give eclat to general conversation. His admiration of our own elder Bards has led him to investigate the deepest principles of their genius. The change of public taste, which was introduced by the present school of Poetry, has recalled to favour many authors who were left to slumber upon the shelf for ages. Sir Walter Scott and Leigh Hunt have respectively turned the attention of their countrymen home again to old Dan Chaucer, and Spenser. These same Worthies are mighty favourites with Mr. Thompson; and I believe he is only praying for the time of his Examination to be over, that he may surrender himself to the quiet enjoyment of his English Classics. His scholastic learning is evidently superinduced, for he has long been a suitor of Nature's. A romantic tinge of this description first taught him to practise that delightful art which preserves for him the image of scenes, the spell of whose beauties has not yet passed away from his imagination. I need not add that he has showed himself no mean proficient; for, in my opinion, the zeal with which we pursue any study is generally compensated by an equal proportion of success. One trait more, and my character will be complete. Mr. Thompson is not content with that mere inert sort of antiquarianism which I see Mr. Bellamy is famous for-I mean the stocking a cabinet with curiosities in this line. His (Mr. Thompson's) research is an active one. There is not an old Church, ruined Abbey, or Field of Battle in the neighbourhood, within twenty miles, which he has not visited, and of whose traditions he has not made himself perfectly master. He has the very spirit of Columbus in exploring the various streams with which this well-watered county abounds. He has pursued the course of the Cherwell till it has become no wider than a brook; and, not satisfied with a day's expedition up the Isis, during which he was several times obliged to draw his skiff over certain disagreeable impediments denominated wiers, he has lately been talking of penetrating as far as Cheltenham, and entertained sanguine hopes of crossing the range of hills in which the river takes its rise, and then dropping down, by some stream, into the Bristol Channel." The limits of a letter will prevent me from giving you several other portraits with which Mr. Sterling favoured me last night. I shall take a further opportunity of introducing them. At present I can only find room for a bare allusion to our conversational bill of fare. The wine and dessert were of course secondary considerations; merely the excuse for meeting. I don't believe we drank two bottles, and there were six of us if we did, you may fairly score down one third to my share. The break-ice subject, or substitute for discussions on the weather, as introductory to more intimate converse, is the progress of the Examinations at the Schools. They are not open at present I find; but there were various speculations afloat on the proposed candidates I for the honours. This naturally brought on some mention of Divinity; and Mr. Carmarthen entangled us in a most abstruse inquiry, by wondering what would have been the consequences if Adam had fallen into a river deep enough to drown him previous to the fall. This question was at length quashed, by the interposition of a Mr. Jeffrey (of whom I shall have much to say hereafter), who reminded the company of the danger of pretending to be wise above that which is written. He coolly settled the present argument by asking whether the providence of the Deity was not sufficient for all the purposes of Adam's preservation. By the way, it was odd we had none of us thought of this. Mr. Thompson then addressed me, by asking if I had yet paid a pilgrimage to the celebrated picture of the Queen of Scots in the Bodleian. My friend Sterling answered that we had not yet had time for lionizing, as I had only arrived in the afternoon. Now came on an animated discussion of the styles of the different schools of painting; an admirable review of the excellencies of modern artists; and some clever conjectures on the probable merits of the ancients. In the meanwhile, the history of the lovely, but unfortunate Mary Stuart, was the topic on the other side the table, and the question soon became general. But my paper is full, and I must abruptly conclude. Your's sincerely, Gog: А РОЕМ, BY FREDERICK GOLIGHTLY, ESQ. CANTO I. "A most delicate monster!"-SHAKSPpeare. KING ARTHUR, as the Legends sing, A. L. B. His crown and cup, his feasts and fights, Rang through the land! for there were duels. One of these worthies, in my verse, |