the first time on Tuesday, in company with my worthy friend Timothy. We set off early, in order to secure a good place. The streets through which we passed were all alive and the castle was evidently the centre of general attraction. The bearers of blue bags (for green is now discharged) were particularly nimble.

· There, with like haste, by several ways they run Some to undo-and some to be undone.'

CORRESPONDENCE.

PHILOSOPHICAL QUERY.

TO the editor,

SIR, It is a well-known fact, that, when the eye has been fixed for a time upon a luminous object, its image continues to present itself after the eye has been withdrawn.

TO THE EDITOR,

'Wretched, indeed! but far more wretched yet,
Is he who makes bis meal on others' wit!'-POPE.

0.

change his mode of writing, that change will, at least, be one for the better;-let his attacks be directed against the leading vices, and the ridiculous follies of the age; and let him not affix his censures to the backs of his quondam friends, whose real characters are unimpeachable ;—let him do this, and he will add to the number of his present admirers, a majority of his sensible and virtuous townsmen ; the field is an ample one, and the task itself honourable.

If, however, on the contrary, he persevere in the path in which he has set out, he may depend upon one thing, that his labours shall not go unreHis eulogist closes his letter with a fab'e; warded.

I, too, would willingly do the same, but being afraid of extending this letter to too great a length, must content myself with referring this gentleman, to the works of the Phrygian Slave; and, that he may not mistake the fable to which I allude, it may be well to inform him that the moral of it is, that those who have glass-heads, should be careful of throwing stones.'

A few evenings since, having gazed intently upon the setting sun, I closed my eyes, in order to banish its image, which prevented me from distinguishing the objects around me not succeeding, at once, in My friend was in danger of laughing out-recovering the organs of sight from the impression right, when his eye caught a glimpse, of the which they had received, I closed my eyes a second time, and found the sun's image, which was before galaxy of wigs, which make so many foolish of a brilliant red colour, now tinged with yellow: II faces wise, and so many wise faces foolish.' repeated the experiment, and found the image to assume successively the prismatic colours; passing from 'Odds bobins,' said he, ‘but they are a rum- red to a deep violet, when it ceased to be visible. looking set.' And sure enough they are. I An explanation of the phenomenon will oblige, Your's, never look upon them, without being reminded of the Ugly Club at Oxford, mentioned by the Spectator. Some frowned from under deep wigs. These Timothy took to be the Chamber Counsel, of whose unfathomable legal knowledge, he had often heard. Others mounted fierce wigs, and pert wigs. These he doubted not, were the formidable lawyers he had read of, who terrified poor witnesses so in cross-examination. A few sported sly wigs; -and a great many were encumbered with wigs that bore no character at all. All these he set down as the briefless. There were newmoon phizzes and full-moon phizzes; sleepy eyes and sleepless eyes-staring eyes and squinting eyes: sharp noses and snub noseshook noses and long noses-twisted noses and twittering noses :-in short, features differing as much from each other as possible, but all agreeing in that true legal characteristic

ODDITY!

'What formidable gloom their faces wear!

How wide their front!-how deep and black the rear!
How do their threatening heads each other throng!'

as Sir Richard Blackmore says of the clouds.
-Their employments, also, as Timothy re-
marked, were some of them equally comical.

Those who were not concerned in the cases before the Court, were killing their time, and and perhaps smothering their chagrin, by reading a newspaper or French novel-or sketching caricatures—or cracking jokes—or perpetrating puns. One graceless wag was moulding paper pellets with his finger and thumb, and discharging them at his second neighbour, over the shoulder of the first.

Another was scrutinizing through his glass, the faces of a bevy of beauties, who occupied one of the most conspicuous portions of the Court, as conveniently as if they had been placed there for the express purpose of being seen. A third and a fourth were conversing with each other by signs and nods, across the table. It was an awfully pleasant sight, and can only be paralleled by an equal number of grave divines playing at hunt the slipper in their canonicals, in the midst of a public assembly, if such a thing should ever occur."

SIR,--The letter of commendation, to give it a gentle title, with which a correspondent, who has adopted the signature of a 'Clubite,' has favoured the public, in your last uumber, respecting the beautiful essays which appear in the Iris under the title of the Club, has much surprised me; for it is notorious that not one of the elegant compositions' to which your correspondent alludes, is untainted by offensive personalities.

ICHNEUMON.

ADVERTISEMENT.

LECTURES ON POETRY.

ON Monday next, 1st April, at seven o'clock in the evening, the REV. J. J. TAYLER, A. B. will begin a COURSE OF LECTURES, at the Rooms of the Literary and Philosophical Society, George-street, Manchester, on the HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY-Further particulars may be learned by applying to Messrs. Robinson and Ellis, 5, St. Ann's Place; Messrs. larkes', Market-place; Mr. Sowler's, and Mrs. Bancks', S. Ann's Square; or Mr. E. Thomson's, Market-street, who will also receive the names of Subscribers.

THE DRAMA.

MANCHESTER DRAMATIC REGISTER.

An eminent literary character, by far the ablest of the Manchester contributors to a well known northern miscellany—a worthy and inoffensive subscriber to a respectable news-room in this town; and the members of some of our most valuable literary institutions, have successively been the batts against which the wit of this club has been directed. I do not make this assertion because, in the ridiculous portraits with which the author has presented us, any resemblance is to be found to these characters: but because, from numerous incidental circumstances, which he has been careful to introduce, it is impossible to mistake Friday, 29th.- Ivanhoe; with a Chip of the Old the objects of his allusions.

How any one could conceive such essays to be the
production of a learned and accomplished female,'
I am utterly at a loss to imagine. I am, however,
happy to be able to assure such persons, if there be
any who seriously entertain such an opinion, that it
is pretty generally known that the author, however
womanly he may be in certain respects, is still no
female. It is also a matter of equal surprise, that
any one should ever be so infatuated, as to think of
comparing these effusions with the classic productions
of Addison; it is thought by many that this compari-

son is the offspring of gratitude, a Clubite' conceiv-
ing himself to be that modest gentleman who, alone,
has received the encomiums of this junto: if this be
the case,
his motives must certainly be owned to be
praiseworthy: otherwise, as your correspondent has
thought it proper to represent himself to the public
under the gure of a puppy, one might be led to
suppose him to be such a puppy as has not yet ob-
tained the use of his eyes.

There, however, are two opinions advanced in this
letter, in which I certainly coincide, and common
candour requires, that I should name them; the first
is, that the essays alluded to, notwithstanding the
variety of the signatures, are all the productions of a
single genius, long accustomed to niceties of compo-
sition; it may, perhaps, also be added, to those of
publication: the other opinion is, that the attack
made upon the Club' might have been expected
on this latter subject, indeed there cannot be two
opinions.

Monday, March 25th.-Wallace; with Therese.
Wednesday, 27th-Wild Oats; with the Warlock of

the Glen.

Block.

To the author of the Club' I have, at present, nothing particular to say; nor, if be ceases from his personalities, shall I ever trouble bim: he is report- PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HENRY SMITH, ed to be of a very changeable disposition ;-let him

ST. ANN'S-SQUARE.

Or, Literary and

Scientific Miscellany.

PUBLISHED

No. 10.-VOL. I.

FOR THE IRIS.

"THE CLUB."

No. V.-FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1822.
Infelix simulacrum, atque ipsius umbra Creusæ
Visa mihi ante oculos, et notâ major imago:
Obstupui, steteruntque comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit.
VIRG. EN. LIB. 2.

How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you of it?

SHAKESPEARE.

Another member, who, like a certain philosophic personage, usually coughs to prepare his powers of utterance, supported the same opinion contending that if the dead go to a good place it is not likely they should feel any inclination to return; and if they go to a bad one, they would probably not be permitted.

"I have heard," remarked a third member, "of so many instances in which ghosts have, on examination, proved to be evil-minded persons who had a design to terrify others for some mischievous purpose, that I, for my part, am persuaded that almost all ghosts are of the same description."

WEEKLY.

PRICE 34d.

or matter is visible. Therefore there can be no | against which they are applied may, I think,
be still maintained. We have no right to infer
ghosts."
that ghosts have never been seen, because we
cannot explain the mode and nature of their
appearance. We perceive that the mind acts
upon the body, and that the body re-acts upon
the mind; and we do not question their reci-
Other analogous cases
procal influence in this respect, though we
cannot explain it.
might be adduced to illustrate the weakness
of the objection to which I advert. That the
dead either will not, or cannot return, is, I
think, assuming what should be proved. That
mischievous persons, taking advantage of the
credulity of others, have excited alarm by per-
sonating ghosts, I can easily believe; but I
really cannot conceive in what way this fact
can be fairly applied to shew that no ghosts
have ever appeared. I am equally at a loss
upon optical illusions. Such illusions have,
to discover the force of the objection founded
to apparitions. For the appearance of spirits
doubtless, been frequent. But what then?
In proof of
This fact does not imply a negative with respect
from the grave, we have the direct and unequi-
vocal declaration of scripture.
this assertion I need only refer to the raising of
Samuel by the witch of Endor. If she did not
raise the spirit of Samuel, the Bible is false;
lently reprobated must be true. This conclu-
if she did, the opinion which has been so vio-
sion is, I think, inevitable. In what I have
that the objections usually urged against the
said, it has been my object merely to shew
and, therefore, prove nothing. Against such
a mode of attack no doctrine could maintain
visits of supernatural beings are gratuitous,
its ground; not only would religion be rudely

WHEN the landlord of the Green Dragon
Another member thought that spectres were
came into the room last Friday evening, it was
very evident from certain twists of his features, most frequently mere optical illusions. A tree
or a sign-post; a cow or an ass, had, when
"A person,"
and glances of his eye, that there was some-
seen in the dusk of the evening, often, he said,
thing which he wanted an opportunity to com-
municate. We, therefore, invited him to tell been mistaken for a hobgoblin.
us what it was, when he informed us, that the he emphatically added, "who has credulity
servant-maid, who is rather an interesting enough to believe in such nonsense, may be
"I never hear of ghosts," said the first
black-eyed girl of about nineteen, had remain- frightened almost to death by his own shadow."
ed up, on the preceding evening, after the fa-
mily had retired to rest, to converse with her speaker, "without recollecting what Grotius
cousin, as she calls a young man, who some-affirms of the devil, who, as we are gravely told
times comes with her mistress's consent, to vi- by this celebrated theologian, was, in his time,
sit her. When she had parted from him she frequently heard howling in the forests of the
there are no other ghosts but the fictions
was much alarmed, on her way to bed, at meet- Brazils. No, no, gentlemen," continued he,
ing, on the third landing of the stairs, with a
little old woman, dressed in a red cloak, who, which a cheated imagination conjures up.
legends of ghosts in Italy; but Buonaparte's
while the girl was gazing upon her, grew so tall There were, previous to the French revolution,
that her head seemed to touch the ceiling.
police, soon after its establishment there,
completely frightened them away, and, I un-
derstand, they have, since that time, been very
rarely heard of in that country."

Our landlord, who appears very desirous to stand well in our opinions, smiled at the maid's alarm while he was stating the circumstance, but, notwithstanding his address, it was very obvious that his mirth, like that of a certain assailant of the club, was only affected in order to conceal his real feeling.

Those who have seen the Green Dragon, which, having been built in former times, is rather antiquated and singular in its structure, will easily imagine, that it is not unlikely it should share the fate of many other of the old houses in the town, and lie under the suspicion of being haunted.

The landlord had no sooner quitted the room, (for we seldom enter upon a discussion while he is present), than one of the members took up the subject. "How absurd," said he, "is it for people to trouble their heads about specIt is plain that the dead can never return, as no one can conceive of the mode of their reappearance. They cannot appear in the body; for that moulders in the grave. They cannot appear spiritually; for nothing but substance

tres.

66

This

annihilated, but we should not leave for the The president, who was observed to take world, even the Being who framed it. To shew a more than usual interest in the conversation, you that I have authority as well as reason for having been several times appealed to by dif- what may be termed my credulity, I will read to you a few sentences from the productions ferent speakers, put on a look, like that with which he exercises his authority in his own of two distinguished writers, who have always chairman rang the bell, and desired the landschool, and, in a mild, but still peremptory been reverenced by this Club."-Here the tone, made the following observations. is a subject, Gentlemen, upon which I have lord to send to his school for Johnson's Rasse"I think says Addison,* a person who is often reflected deeply, but, I must confess, las, and the second volume of the Spectator. very little to my own satisfaction. I cannot conscientiously admit that, according to my terrified with the imagination of ghosts and judgment, the mass of evidence preponderates spectres much more reasonable, than one who on that side which has been so warmly espous- contrary to the reports of all historians sacred ed. The notion of ghosts has been assailed, and profane, antient and modern, and to the as usual, by ridicule in the place of argument. traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance But this is not the way to convince an unbias- of spirits fabulous and groundless: could not sed, enquiring mind. The objections which II give myself up to this general testimony of have heard this evening, do not appear to me to be conclusive. Even if they were admitted to be just as far as they extend, the notion

Spectator, No. 10.

mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other matters of fact. I might here add, that not only the historians, to whom we may join the poets, but likewise the philosophers of antiquity, have favoured this opinion.'

"Josephus thought that the appearance of departed persons is a most certain proof of the immortality of the soul, and of divine providence.'

66 6

That the dead are seen no more,' observes Johnson, I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails, as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth: those, that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears."-Rasselas, Chap. 31.

When the chairman had finished reading, another member after drinking off his glass, as if conscious that it required more courage than he naturally possessed, to defend a notion which is generally regarded as rather ridiculous, declared that he did believe in super

marrying a common female scold of the last |
class, with a refined male babbler of the first;
and thus effect, by artificial methods, what wis-
dom, with all her old endeavours, could never
work by any means-an improvement of talk-
ers generally.

pug-puppy from Paris that is in the world :' and Mrs. B. a sweet cat in her establishment.' Their talk only breathes honey, essence of Tyre, bloom of Ninon, violet washes, and a thousand essences that are advertized in the newspapers. They die of a rose in aromatic' There is, however, a pleasure in holding up anguish, and are recovered by lavender-water, a few of the first classes of talkers to attentive and other soft appliances' fifty times an hour, notice, somewhat similar to that which a Dutch in their over-exquisite' moods. I would soontulip-fancier feels, when he displays to the cu-er sit at an opera with five Jews in the same rious, wondering eyes of one not in the fancy, box, or be in a small room with three French(who had perceived, on being shewn a bed of men, than talk with one of these. them, that they were all tulips, but did not discern the nicer streaks of difference between them,)

is

'Some faultless tulip which the Dutch ne'er saw.'

composed of common babblers. There are The first and most common class of talkers, several varieties of these; but the most disathem is sufficient to set a whole village at war, greeable is the long-tongued babbler. One of privacy. Rather than be silent, he will wound or disturb the peace and sacredness of virtuous his dearest friend, with a tongue, which, like Laertes' foil, poisons wherever it touches; and sometimes even him who first used it. From Jones's finery, and Miss Jenkins's faux pas; this sort of talker you learn the origin of Miss the state of Mr. Tomkins's embarrassment, &c. &c. Or if you fear what the world thinks of your own character for virtue or folly, you entire dissatisfaction. He publishes a pernicimay have your misgivings confirmed to your several times had appeals made to his senses in and follows the sound of his own rumour, as a ous piece of truth or scandal in the morning, the way in question; and, though very desir-wether-mutton follows his own bell. Another ous to think differently he could not resist a variety is the dull, or harmless babbler. He belief in ghosts. "You may, gentlemen," talks in his turn and out of his turn, in season said he, "smile at the confession," (for some and out of season, and yet has nothing to say; of the members were beginning to titter,) "but You may, perhaps, learn from him that it rained what I have seen and heard, under very pecu- yesterday; and backed by the boldness of his liar circumstances, and without, I may say, fears, you may get some credit for weather wisthe possibility of deception, I cannot disbe- dom, if you doubt whether it will not rain tolieve." He then detailed some very striking morrow. He is Francis Moore's counterpart. particulars. "I have hardly known a family," said he in conclusion, "into whose confidence I have been admitted, who have not had some inexplicable intimation of the death of a near relative, or a bosom friend."

natural visitations. He assured us that he had

Many other remarks were made, during the evening, on both sides of the question; but, as they did not seem to contain much force or novelty, it is not thought necessary to lengthen this paper by repeating them.

The third are those of the objective class. Be your opinions what they may, however undeniable, correct, settled, or well-digested, they will chew them over, and object to them. and beams in the eyes of Truth. I know such water, motes in the brightest rays of the mind, They will find flaws in diamond-wit of the first throw down a bad pun, as burglars toss a bribe an one. If you would take an advantage which he is gaining in argument, out of his mouth, tage ground of them, and he instantly drops of meat to a house dog who is getting the 'vanthe argument, (as that fabulous dog dropped his substantial meat in the river for the shadow of it,) to tear the poor pun to pieces, anathan nothing; and when he has satisfied himlyzing nothing, till he proves that it is no more self to conviction, that a bad pun is not a good one, he is obliged, after all, from politeness, to laugh reluctantly at the joke.

your opinions to-day be to the letter what
The fourth is the contradictory class. Let
their's were yesterday, and they will instantly
you on the mud-bank of their own opinions,
run an opposition-coach against your's, upset
and leave you, sprawling and bespattered, to
get up as you can. When you have run them
to a stand on one point, and they find you are
fixed on agreeing with them, and they cannot
object to the matter of your opinions, they
have still a resource left, in objecting to your
manner of uttering them. You speak unaffect-
nation.
bald plainness, and want of spirit and imagi-
edly, and they censure you for mediocrity, a

These are tea-table appendages, and sometimes The second class are the small talkers. hang by the dexter bend of ladies elbows! and The fifth class consists of the talkers in adare usually 'prim, puss gentlemen,' all pretti-mirations. I heard one of these, the other day. words of no tone,' they lisp, or cultivate some ness and pettiness. Ceaseless tonguers of His conversation, if such it might be called, delicate mispronunciation of one of the four- and was made up of a due jargon of Good-Gods! was all exclamation, like a German drama; and-twenty letters, or of a few well-selected God-bless-mes! Is-it-possibles! Who'd-havesyllables. They have a chicken's perseverence thought-its! You-astonish-mes! &c. The chairman is suspected to be quite a conin picking up the smallest grain or chaff of tea-table intelligence, yet are not greedy in the vert to the notion he supported, though, contrary to his custom, he affected to be dubious; hand nothings at less than the cost trouble. possession of it: you may have their secondin support of the suspicion it was particularly Their wit is as an island in a vast sea of three noticed that, when the speaker last alluded to, months' sail; you may steer round it, and by had concluded, the chairman smiled very kind-it, and never make it or if you think you ly upon him by way of encouragement, and said he should be glad to drink his health over again, which he did accordingly.

ON TALKERS.

J. T.

There are as many varieties of talkers as there are of tulips; to classify them would require the nice discernment and patient perseverance of an ethical Linnæus; and when done, it would be an useless classification, unless, indeed, Taste could be brought to have a love for the cultivation of them, with an ulterior view to the improvement of the several classes, by

descry it in the offing, you may tack for it, and
hope to drift to its shore; but when you really
see it under your bow, you may coast round it,
and cast out your grapple-anchor to hold by it;
but you might as soon tie your hose or your
horse up with a sunbeam, or get a will o' the
wisp to light you like a well-bred watchinan to
your lodgings, as make ground there. The
light of their minds need not be hidden under
a bushel a one-pill box would be a dome of
ample space and verge enough' for it. Like
one good deed in a naughty world,' it might
shine far and wide therein, and yet not glid it's
confines. Their most delicate, prim mouths
are like a perfumer's shop, for they breathe no-
thing but sweets. 'Miss A. has the sweetest

talk is all question: I should think their tongues The sixth are the interrogative class. Their were shaped like a note of interrogation. I know him, as a catechized charity-boy does, when he one of this genus. You feel, in conversing with is asked what his godfather promised not to do for him. Talk an hour dead with one of this class, and you will only hear from him such interrogatory affirmations as these following:

And so Jones is well?-and Johnson's married ?--and you really now prefer Pope to Pomfret?-and you seriously deny that alderman Curtis is the author of Junius ?-and affirm that Dr. Watts did not write The Frisky Songster?

The seventh, and most insufferable class, are the exclusive talkers. One of these will undertake to talk for all the company present. If you impatiently throw in but one little word, it is like flinging a large stone into a quick current-it disturbs, but cannot impede it, and rather impels it, still faster onward :-or_like striking a spark into a barrel of gunpowder

a fresh explosion of words spreads a hubbub and confusion all around it. Though he tells you every thing you already know, you cannot tell him any thing that he does not know. He can tell you what a new book contains that is to come out next Tuesday, as well as if he was himself Wednesday; or anticipate the merits of a great picture on the easel. If you mean to see the new tragedy, he has seen it, and he destroys all the delight you would have in its newness, by repeating the best points of it, and by unravelling its plot. If you set out with an anecdote, he snatches it out of your mouth, as a covetous dog would a desired bone from his best boon companion and dearest puppyfriend, and tells it for you. You object that your's was a different version of the same story, and gently persist in telling it your own way: -he knows the other version as well as you do, and re-relates it for you, but thinks his own the best. If you persist, after all, in telling it for yourself, he will insinuate to-morrow that you are in your anecdotage, and declare that you are the worst teller of a good thing since Goldsmith. You could not have done a worse thing than start an anecdote in his hearing, for that one is too sure of reminding him of a hundred others; and the last one of that first century of good things is so nearly related to the first of the second century, that he cannot choose but relate it, and you dare not choose but hear it. If you commence a favourite quotation, he takes up the second line, goes on with it, and ends by quoting twice as much as you intended. This invariably leads him to recollect another poem by the same author, which no doubt you have heard, but Mrs. Jones, who is present, would perhaps like to hear; and then he begins it without farther prelude, and you can, if you please, go to sleep ad interim, if you have no fear of his reproach for want of taste, &c. before your eyes, to keep them open. You have been to Paris, and he informs you of your expenses on the road:-or you are going to Scotland, and he narrates most pathetically the miseries of a German inn. Of all talkers these are the worst.

MATHEMATICS.

Solution of No. 2, by Mercurius.

Let x the side of the cube; then we have, by the question, x— x3 = a maximum. Hence, dr= 3xzdx, or, 3x2=1.

That is, x =

Answers were received from Mr. W. M. Laurie, and Amicus.

Solution of No. 3, by X. Y.

dancing after a month's gout; or like that
delicious giggle some schoolboy uncorks when
the grim hush-compelling usher turns his
back; or like the laugh, politeness has sup-
pressed, till one has got rid of some trouble-
some puppy or pedantic blockhead; or like an
olive to the palate of a winebibber, sickly in
itself, but giving a gusto to the old port of the
mind, or to the brisk, bubbling champaigne-
wine of wit. I was companied with an exag- the cube required.
gerator but yesterday, who was very seriously
remonstrated with by a sage old maiden lady
for a short indulgence in this lighter sort of
nonsense. Madam,' he replied, any man
arrived at the door of discretion, who would
talk sense and seriousness during the gloomy
month of November, would shew his entire
want of it; and I should either suspect him to
be suicidally inclined, or as insane as my friend
Phipps, who went into Drury-lane theatre
last night, expecting to be rationally amused.
Such a man would light home his mother with
a dark lantern, or read metaphysics to a man-
milliner, or sing Mozart's requiem to a mile-
stone. Amateur nonsense-talkers are your only
sensible men.' There could be no serious re-
plication to such diverting lightness as this; so
my gentleman had his way, and on he went
like a falconer.'

་

A.

M.

.D

Draw the lines AC, CB, MN, and DE; and let b=MD; a=ND; x=CE; and y=DE. Then, by similar triangles,

bx: a:

ах b

EN.

There are several other classes, which I shall
notice in brief. There are the slow talkers, as
tedious as the music of Te Deum; the quick
talkers, as hasty as a postman's knock, and
perhaps not so full of information; the loud
talkers, to a nervous man as agreeable as the
ding-dong din of a dustman's bell, or a death-
knell in November; and the talkers of taste,
whose language is of no country, but is a jargon
of all countries, and consists of parrot-like re-
petitions of virtu, gusto, tout-ensemble, contour,
chiaro oscuro, Titianesque bits of colour, Tur-line MN the curve will be a circle.
nerian crispness and clearness, Claudean mel-
lowness, Tintoretto touches, &c. &c. affecting
term on term to the degrading of taste into a
chaotic cant of words.
N. M. M.

y2 (DE2) + (EN2)= a2 (ND2)
Hence, y2
= × (b2-x2).
Or, y2 a2 b2-x2 : b2, and, since, by the na-
ture of the question a, will evidently represent an or-
from the equation a common property of the Ellipse.
dinate, and b, an abscissa, of the curve, we deduce

MASTER MINASI.

gratify their curiosity. Many persons of distinction,
were present on the occasion. Sig. Barbbiti, an ex-
cellent Italian performer, accompanied the young
musician on the piano. For one piece alone Master

Minasi was encored five times. He was the idol
of the company.
Italian literature, then of London, but now of Edin-
Sig. Bugni, public Lecturer on
bargh, a person distinguished alike by the manners
of a gentleman, and the genius of a scholar, hap-
pened to be one of the party. Having been desired
to deliver a piece of extempore poetry, after the
manner of the Italian Improvisatori, in honour of
the little musical prodigy, he immediately rose, and
placing himself in the middle of the drawing-room,
with his eyes fixed upon Master Minasi, he uttered
the following beautiful Madrigale.

The eighth class are the exaggerators, not the professional, but amateur fibbers. These In the early part of the year 1819, the Countess are a pleasant set of talkers: you must not, to and Lord Oxford, being very desirous to hear this be sure, take them literally. It is a humour juvenile Orpheus, who was then only four years and that even witty persons cannot always appre-a half old, applied to his father, who was willing to ciate; to your thoroughly sensible and oneand-one-make-two sort of minds, it is a stumbling-block and a reproach.' It is, perhaps, as to its conversational value, mere nonsense: it is what an ingenious punster (fracturing a French word in pieces) considers bad-in-age, and not very good in youth. But, most sensible reader, shut not thine ears against it: if thou wouldst enjoy sense at any time, listen sometimes to his less capable brother, Nonsense. After the mind has been wearied by abstruse studies, or worldly carkings, or imaginary ills, or positive griefs, is not nonsense like letting a long-strained bow relax; or giving slackness to a lute-string? Nonsense is to sense, like shade unto light, making, by strong contrast, what is beautiful, still more beautiful:-it is like an intended discord in a delicious melody, making the next concord the sweeter; or like silent sleep after sorrowful wakefulness; or like that calm which succeeds a storm; or like cheerfulness after care; or like condescension after hauteur; or like the freedom of a night-gown or slippers to the cramping of tight boots and bursting buttons; or like a night's

A li-ar, is that despicable thing
You hint at, or I incorrectly sing.
The Ver-ger, is the easy office meant,
If he esteem it such, then I'm content.:
A po-ney, is a very useful beast,

Though sometimes, where most useful, prized least.
The olive, is a symbol of sweet peace,
May that and plenty in this land ne'er cease.
Th' italics shew a place of much renown,
Fair Liverpool, my much lov'd native town.
LIV. NAT.
April 2nd, 1822.

Answer to John Swilbrig's Enigma in our last.

A German Flute.

CHARADE No. 11.

In a considerable town in this country may be found, a national calamity-a pledge of union-and half of a dead sheep.