unexpectedly great, he regularly ter. It is in the domestick circle, melted into tears.

in the family parlour, in his gown

and slippers, in giving orders to SOCIETY.

his servants, that a man is thor. Man is inconsiderable by his oughly seen. Here he acts withsingle exertions : it is only by uni- out disguise or restraint. Here he ting his efforts with those of his assumes no unnatural airs of imspecies that he produces any thing portance, but calmly lays aside his of consequence. The bee is a foreign manners, and all his exsmall insect, and the ant still smal- travagant pretensions. Whether ler, yet by association they build accustomed to rule in the senate, themselves a name and a monu- to expound in the desk, or to conment more valuable, than the soli- tend in the field, he claims no pritary lion is able to boast.

vilege from his factitious conse

quence, when he enters his own ÇIGARRS.

mansion. The tenderness of a In face of a host of arguments wife instantly arches his brow, and our literary loungers contuma- he gladly exchanges the robe or ciously insist on being indulged the sword, the high-toned voice the gratification of tickling their and the stately port, for the prattle noses and burning their tongues. of his children, and the puerilities If you allege that the practice is and sports of the hearth. Here, vulgar and democratick, you are unpinioned by fashion, he acknowl: answered, Sir W. Raleigh is equal- edges the dominion of nature, and ly famous as a man of fashion and neither a stranger nor a bachelor philosopher, as for his habit of intermeddleth with his joy. smoking. Should you object to He will not blush that has a father's them the ladies' dislike to the

prac- heart, tice, they tell you, that queen

To take in childish play a childish part: Elizabeth, of glorious memory,

But bends his sturdy neck to any toy, was fond of a pipe, and used hu.

That youth takes pleasure in, to please

his boy. morously to say, that all the pleasures of the evening ended in

BEAUTY AND VIRTUE. smoke. If lastly you oppose to it kingly authority, urging that James Not gardens, houses, dress, equia 1. wrote a treatise against the page, nor human faces, nor the smoking of base tobacco, the smoke finest exhibitions of nature or of ers will reply, we burn none but art, are alone entitled to be denomwhat is good.

inated beautiful, as the excellent

Francis Hutcheson has proved, in DOMESTICK PLEASURES.

his inquiry into the original of our Abroad men sometimes pass for ideas of beauty and virtue. But more, and sometimes for less, than

no where is the comparison bethey are worth. The politician tween the grandeur of natural obrolls himself up like a hedge-hog jects, and the superiour sublimity before strangers ; but in private of moral actions, more boldly he shoots his quills. Tiberius was

drawn than in these lines of Aken. celebrated by those who did not

side, know him ; but his rhetorical tutor hesitated not to pronounce him Look then abroad through nature to the Luto et sanguine maceratum. Li. Of planets, suns, and adamanting

rose

arm

among

ART OF READING.

Wheeling, unshaken, through the void the inexorable steel, and bears to

"immense ; And speak, O man! does this capacious it not for certain birds, flying about

the river Lethe ; into which, were scene, With half that kindling majesty dilate

its banks, it would be immediately Thy strong conception, as when Brutus immerged. But these seize the

medals ere they fall, and bear them Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's for a while up and down in their fate,

beaks with much noise and flutter; Amid the crowd of patriots ; and his

but careless of their charge, or Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, unable to support it, they most of When guilt brings down the thunder, them soon drop their shining prèý cali'd aloud

one after another into the oblivious On Tully's name, and shook his crim.

stream. Nevertheless, son steel, And bade the father of his country hail! these heedless carriers of fame, are For lo ! the tyrant prostrate in the dust! a few swans, who, when they catch And Rome again is free. .

a medal, convey it carefully to the temple of Immortality, where it is

consecrated. These swans of late To read, says M. Reytaz, is not have been rare aves. What innuto collect letters and syllables ; it merable names have been dropped is not to pronounce words and sen- into the dark stream of Oblivion, tences ; it is to represent the for one that has been consecrated thoughts of a discourse in their in the temple of Immortality ! appropriate colours. It is to blend The name of Alexander Pope there the different passages in such a shines conspicudus. . manner, as not to injure each other ; but, on the contrary, to give

SWANS to each mutual strength and assis- The swan never frequents the tance. It is to distinguish by the Padus, nor the banks of the Caysaccent, what is only argumentative, ter in Lydia,each of them a stream from what is pathetick and orator- celebrated by the ancient poets for ical ; it is to discern any impor- the resort of swans. Horace calls tant end in a sentence, in order to Pindar Dircæum Cignum, and, in detach it from the rest, and express another ode, supposes himself it without affectation, and without changed into a swan. the appearance of design ; it is to

Virgil speaks of his poetical convey the idea, rather than the brethren in the same manner. expressions, the sentiments rather than the words ; it is to follow the Vere, tuum nomen.

Cantantes sublime ferent ad sidern impulse of the discourse in such

cygni. a manner, that the delivery may be quick or slow, mild or impetu- When he speaks of them figuraous, according to the emotions it tively, he gives to them a power should excite.

of melody ; but when he refers to them as a naturalist, he gives them

their natural uncouth sound. Attached to the thread of every Dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacis man's life is a little medal, where.

cygni. on his name is inscribed, which Time, waiting on the shears of The swan seldom is heard except Fate, catches up, as it falls from when on the wing, and its notes

POPE.

For the Anthology.

Şcribimus indocti......... HOR, EPIST-
We should do injustice to our herald of her presence.

From country to deny, that she is pro- this corrupted source daily fow lifick in authors. Were we to those streams of false taste and litjudge of the progress of the mind erary absurdity, which have inunby the number of works, which dated the republick

of letters, daily issue from the press, we Like the rich ornaments of a might congratulate ourselves on mausoleum, the splendid outside living in this enlightened age, of their works covers a mere cawhen the weakness of humanity put mortuum. Mistaking verbosity no longer presents obstacles to the of expression for fecundity of march of reason, and when authors thought, and the strainings of a çompose with as much facility as witless brain for the deductions of they print their works. We can- reason, we may say with the poet, not complain of want of novelty on any subject. Some quit the They write on all things, but on noth. loom and spindle to wield the historick pen ; others wander from the But we leave these authors, and circle of domestick duties, or the cannot wish them a greater punroutine of mechanick life, among ishment while in this world, than the illusions of a heated imagina. to be continually surrounded by tion, mistaking her distorted fea- their own works, the monuments tures for the scenery of nature ; of their ignorance and vanity. or are humbly contented to glean Love of method is discoverable the sprigs of laurel, which have in all our actions. This principle fallen from the brow of genius. is even extended to works of the Even the stall of the cobbler iş mind and imagination, and we anmetamorphosed into the workshop ticipate with as much pleasure the of the muses, and its inhabitant developement of it in a literary is occupied in the double employ, composition, as we expect it illusment of manufacturing leather trated in a piece of mechanism. and fabricating verses. Conver: Fine writing therefore, to produce sation, one would imagine, would a permanent interest,must discover afford a convenient channel to this that, in the conduct of the whole, superfuity of wit ; and that these order as well as beauty has been minds, contented with the homage consulted. The mind is often of a circle of sycophants, more igno- amused by the vagaries of the rant than themselves, who echo all imagination, or hurried along by their thoughts and imitate all their the aberrations of genius, but she actions, would never burthen the returns with pleasure to dwell on publick with their crude ideas, nor the works of those authors, who seek to gain a height, which their gratify the taste without offending feeble pinions were never meant to the judgment. The art of fine reach. But it is the prerogative writing is acquired by degrees. of folly to proclaim ber character Avec quelque talent, says Rous. to the world ; and, unfortunately, seau, qu'on puisse être né, l'art the press is too often made the d'écrire ne s'apprend pas tout d'eu

coup. Literary excellence is not riodes, dans ma tête,avec des peines the effect of an accidental ray of incroyables. His works are comgenius, nor of a momentary glow posed with such spirit and enthuof enthusiasm ; the former must siasm, that we are disposed to imbe tempered by industry, the latter agine he never took up the pen, by judgment. The mind must but when he glowed with those struggle with her new ideas, and, transports, with which he agitates by reiterated efforts, reduce them the bosoms of his readers.

It to order and arrange them with was, however, only by preserving

, taste. Man is born with an un- a free and tranquil mind, that he wrought mine within him; and, was able so successfully to comwhile he extracts the golden ore bine in his works every circumand refines the precious metal, he stance, which could add strength gives acumen to the very instru- to his ideas, or elegance to his ments, with which he works.

composition. In the imitative No maxim perhaps has done and mechanical arts we find that, more injury to the cause of letters, independent of peculiar talents, than that, by which a writer is di- success is generally proportional rected to feel his subject, before he to the degree of labour bestowed attempts its expression. We are on their objects; and may not the led to believe, that if the sacred observation be extended to the art fame can once be produced, the of writing? Is the exertion of whole composition will glow with mind in the latter less, because its an equal warmth, and that this ex- powers are differently directed ? citement of mind will naturally be or does it require less genius and followed by a correct view of the industry to perfect a literary work, subject, a just arrangement of than is developed in the production parts, and a perspicuous and ele- of a painting, or a statue? A gegant language. Instead therefore nius like Raphael, before be comof suffering the mind tranquilly to mits his images to the canvas, pursue her train of ideas, and by selects from the materials, which patience and perseverance to ar- his imagination had collected from range them in a lucid order and the works of nature ; he contrasts, . clothe them in a just expression, combines, disposes of his light and an artificial warmth is excited, by shade ; he varies with judgment which they are expanded into

expanded into and groups with taste, till having bombast, or dissipated into “thin breath'd over the whole the charm air.” The mind of a writer must of ideal beauty, he seizes the penever be at ease and, like the Alps, cil and with patient industry tower sublime and unmoved amid gradually gives to the fleeting vithe conflict of the passions. No sions of his imagination the permodern writer perhaps discovers manence of real existence. But more warmth of imagination or this is not the effect of mere imrapidity of conception than Rous- pulse. It is the creation of genius, seau.

His success in letters how- aided by study and developed by ever was the consequence of the industry. Hence also the writer, unwearied exertion of a superiour ambitious of literary fame, is conmind. Je les consacrais, says vinced with Pope, that he in speaking of his works, les True ease in writing comes from art, insomnies de mes nuits.

not chance. ditais dans mon lit, à yeux fermés Like the painter, he attends to what et je tournois et rétournois mes pe- may be termed the mechanical part

Je me