Lord Bute, at his taking the lead, was fuppofed to employ writers in his fupport; but in his choice of them did no more honour to his judgment, than his fucceffors appear fince to have done to theirs; for the writers of the Briton and Auditor very foon became effectually foiled by their antagonists; and thofe of the Plain Dealer and Scrutator have never been able to excite the leaft public attention. The two former expired of actual open contempt; and the two latter, have died of the worst of all literary diseases; which is, filent fcorn and neglect.

WIND AND RAIN.

ARISTOTLE is mistaken when he answers this question, "Why rain ftills the wind?" He fays that the waters ftop the pores of the earth. This is a fallacy. If it were true, there could be no, wind in the fea. When it blows in one part of the world, it must then rain in the other. Wind is nothing elfe but the air in agitation, caused by the expanfion of the clouds; which, to make room for themselves, drive it onward. On the contrary, the condenfation of those vapours ftops the wind and makes it fall; which happens in the time of rain defcending, according to the faying, "a little rain ftills a great wind."

THE PREVAILING PASSION.

M. T- on his death-bed, when the priest had given him abfolution, and was defcribing the joys of Paradife; inattentive to his pious office, the expence attending his illnefs being uppermoft in his mind, he exclaimed, "Father, I tell you, these physicians and apothecaries are a fet of vultures, preying on their patients; and it is impoffible to efcape ruin, if you are under their hands for any time."

POPPAA,

POPPAA, THE WIFE OF NERO,

in

TACITUS records a curious inftance of coquetry Poppaa, the wife of Nero. She used to cover a great part of her face, in order to raise an high idea of her beauty. "Velata oris parte, ne fatiaret afpectum;" veiling part of her face, that the might not glut the eyes of the fpectator with her charms.

THE POPES.

THE Cardinal Oregio used to beg alms in the streets of Rome. It is nothing furprifing in that country to fee a poor priest rise to great dignity. Pope Sextus V. was a swineherd, yet he bore a very high character as Pope. He was magnanimous, liberal, and inflexible. He had every quality of a great man.

Thofe popes who have had children feem to have been the best popes. Paul III. was a great character, and an able politician. Eneas Sylvius, alias Pius II. had a son, of whom he speaks highly in one of his letters. Gregory XIII. who was a very excellent Pope, had a fon, of whom he was very fond.

LORD BACON.

FRANCIS Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, was the greatest genius of his age; and a perfon endued with extraordinary talents and inclination to promote the cause of literature. The pity is that he had no one to fecond his endeavours. He died at the age of fixtyfix; and fo poor, that there remains a letter of his to the king, praying his bounty, left he who had only wifhed to live to ftudy, might be obliged now to study to live." He was born to inftruct others, and to fer them in the right way to be teachers themselves. In literature, improvement, and not innovation, is the path to the advancement and benefit of letters.

VOL. I.

T

NYPHUS.

NYPHUS.

AUGUSTUS Nyphus, a native of Sueza, in the kingdom of Naples, whose books of Morals were published at Paris in 1645, lived at the time of Charles V. Being vifited by the Emperor, he shewed him into a room, where there was only one chair, on which Nyphus placed himself; obferving to the Emperor, that a man of his rank could order another to be brought. In converfation with Charles, he faid, "You are an Emperor of foldiers, and I am an Emperor of books,"

FATHER ADAM.

FATHER Adam was a Jefuit of Limofin, who was filenced afterwards for preaching against St. Auftin. The Queen-Mother, coming out from one of his fermons, asked a courtier who was near her, what he thought of the difcourfe. "Madam," replied the gentleman, the fermon convinces me of the truth of the doctrine of Preadamites." "How fo?" fays the Queen. "Becaufe, Madam, I am now certain that Father Adam is not the first of men."

ATHEISTS,

"THERE are three kinds of atheists," observes Sor. biere; "perfons of fubtle understandings, men of pro, fligate principles, and ignorant pretenders to thinking. The two laft are generally converted by misfortunes, or the approach of death, the great touchstone of the foul. As to the former, it is impoffible for me to ima, gine how they can, as men of knowledge, reject so many evidences of a first cause.

THE

THE PLAINTIFF.

[No. II.]

To the Conductors of the Monthly Vifitor.

WH

HETHER, Gentlemen Editors, you shall think fit to place my disappointments in your list of PLAINTIFFS whether you will devote to me a third number of THE REFLECTOR; or grant me, like your affociate Doboick, the honours of a philofophical exhibition; I fhall proceed to specify my cares and my croffes.

Phyfiognomy has been my favourite research. For a long time, I have enlifted myfelf in private theatricals, in order to feel and to understand the varieties of the human countenance: I have performed Macbeth, Shylock, Hamlet, and Othello; and performed them with confiderable fuccefs: but there is not a paffage in either, better known to my mind, than are known the principles of Lavator. But phyfical phyfiognomy is not inexhaustible; at least it is not fo to me. After compaffing, I have endeavoured to enlarge the purposes of phyfiognomical science; and the extent of my improvements are at your fervice.

Even this age of illumination, has not, as far as I can perceive, enlightened the fubject of my attention ; which fubject is, The PHYSIOGNOMY OF PENS. Shenftone had a glance at this fcience. He profeffed to decypher in the hand-writing of a perfon, the inflexions of his difpofition, 'Tis for us to improve on Shenstone ; to carry his indeterminate hints into a wider field of enquiry. Surely it would be fomewhat interesting could we trace in the writings of authors the identity of their featural-characters. This difcrimination has been attempted, oftener than fome theorists would imagine; and fometimes with fuccefs. We will now embody what experience hath enabled us to do.

T 2

Half

Half a century has not elapfed, fince the literati of the day were alarmed and amufed with fome practical demonftrations of my thefis.-A literary gentleman, on perufing the pieces of a literary lady, and conceiving from fuch a perufal that her beauty muft equal her genius, formed a moft ardent affection for the aforefaid lady. In the moft melodious and foul-rending accents, did he reply to the fictitious griefs of his beloved poetefs. He was diftracted, and could no longer exist in abfence from the invaluable fair one. He saw her -and he ceased to love: he had misread the lines of her compofition. About this time occurred another inftance, not lefs fingular and important. A blackfkinned gentleman, fo we are informed, whose mind was fairer than his complexion, compofed a variety of beautiful Tonnets, to which he affixed a moft lady-like name. They were not loft. They were received as the productions of a lady, by a poet of fome note; who answered them in a becoming ftrain. The first gentleman was highly entertained; he continued the correfpondence and thus, through a pleafing deception, he won the affections of a man, who might not have regarded a black with the best complacency. Perhaps humanity will regret, that many of our British fenators were not poets, and every negro a poetefs. Were I to mention one third of the examples which history and experience afford respecting the Phyfiognomy of Pens, to those who have never attended to fimilar difquifitions, they would almost appear incredible. Judging from moft hiftorians, we fhould estimate Cleopatra as one of the most beautiful women that ever exifted; whereas, fhe was a little creature, of no great perfonal charms, who could be locked up in a trunk and carried on the fhoulders of a foldier into Cæfar's tent. Depict the unfortunate Queen of Scots, from the verses fabricated by her enemies, and fhe muft appear the most disgusting of figures.-Yet have not fome authors, in this particular, been guided by the in

fluence