1 of composition. After the acqui- would hardly expend on an octavo. sition of ideas, which have been The author of the Æneid was twenstrengthened by reflection and ty-seven years in perfecting that chastened by purity of taste, he beautiful mental fabrick, which,like submits them to a correct arrange- the Grecian temples, happily comment and embodies them in a per- bines simplicity with grandeur, and a spicuous and barmonious expres- dignity with taste. Even some of the sion. From their continued atten- moderns have been convinced of tion to these three constituents, this truth. The celebrated author thoughts, arrangement, and style, of “ Les Lettres Provinciales” reresults the interest with which the cords, that he was agitated ten works of some authors are read. whole days in fixing the significaWe are hurried along by a pleas- tion of a single word. The whole ing violence, and mistake the effect life of the musing Gray afforded of the taste, the judgment, and the the world, but a small bouquet of profound exertions of the writer, intellectual flowers, and even some for the unaffected, spontaneous of these were culled from the rich flow of nature. We seize the pen fields of ancient literature. These with a desire to imitate, but soon examples are sufficient to prove, resign it in despair, convinced how that by those, who have most exnear the perfection of art and the celled in literary composition, fine effusions of nature approach each writing has been considered an other. These are the authors one art, the acquirement of which dedelights to read. These are the pended on a profound and continsublime souls, that seem to have ued exertion of intellect. Ideas caught a ray of inspiration from undoubtedly form the first object heaven to conduct their fellow, of attention, but language, though mortals through mazes of erroui, a subordinate, is still an essential to the sacred bowers of eternal part. Indeed the effect of the fortruth and happiness. mer results,in a great degree, from The ancients, more honest than the character of the latter. It is by the moderns, acknowledged the the union of these, that the entrapdifficulty of acquiring the art of tured soul is fired by writing well. They never imagined, that tardiness of composition “Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." necessarily implied poverty of ideas, nor that application damped We cannot but admire, therefore, the mental flame. They prefer- the pains that our authors take to send forth to the world their imred the steady blaze of intellect to a meteorous brilliancy, which ex becile productions, which survive pires in the effort that gave it but a day, and then lie dusty and birth. For examples we might neglected on the bookbinder's shelf, mention the poet Euripides, who till they are transported, with other was employed three days in the literary trash, to the pastry cook's composition of as many verses ; or the trunkmaker's. To these and the orator Isocrates, whose At writers, thus infected with the catick taste found exercise for ten coethes scribendi, we would recom mend the observation of an ancient years on a single oration. The illustrious Cicero could not pen even a painter, who, when he was accused familiar epistle, without bestowing Diu pingo,quum in æternum pingo. of tardiness of execution, replied, , PHILAUTHOS. economy of our modern writers a DOMINI, For the Monthly 'Anthology. 4 Si hic flosculus, in vestrâ Anthologiâ positus, boni aliquid vel “narībus vel oculis haberet, inserite, ac alios mittam. AD JULIUM, ACADEMIAM PRO MERCATURA LINQUENTUM. Eheu! quam miseri sunt Avaritiæ Vidi, eheu! miseros, Lucifero duce, Juli, in hoc numerari grege sordido, Merces, Virgilii, judice Julio, Apparet melior versibus optimis Vasto in gurgite ávarûm i, puer ebrius, Vestrum oblivius ac tui. For the Monthl; Anthology. PASTORAL. fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis LUCIUS. Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus.VIRGIL. BETWEEN those sister elms with ivy boar How pure that brook limps o'er its pebbly bed, 'Tween banks of thyme where 'willows hang the head, On yonder hills, that skirt the eastern sky, Oft have I view'd in still and sultry hours, No seeming friend beside his bosom laid, But faithful WATCH who guards the checker'd shade; With crimson hand to flesh the murderous sword. His tuneful groves that gratulate the dawn, Skims o'er the plain and through the greenwood sings, When Day retiring fires the glowing west And through the naked woods when cold winds blow, GENTLEMEN, 'PETER PASTORAL. To the Editors, of the Monthly Anthology. If the following be too trifling for insertion in the Anthology, it is requested, that it may be laid by without notice. ON LISTENING TO A CRICKET. I LOVE, thou little chirping thing, Thou canst not now drink dew from flowers, For the Monthly Anthology. GENTLEMEN, Several susceptible youths of your city having been lately employed in making woeful ballads to their mistress' eye-brow, it entered my noddle to attempt something after their manner upon the interesting object of my tenderest attachments,.... Dolly. EPISTLE TO DOLLY. FROM the dark gulf of comfortless despair Oh suffer me, thou Empress of my soul, With trembling hand and gizzard" titillating, And heart that beats in unison with yours, Like some twin cherry, by sweet zephyr mov'd, Jostling in concert with its ruby brother, To write to you, your sex's nonpareil. ... * Lately discovered Those gooseberry eyes with emerald lightnings big 1 How pleasant sitting at my cottage door NEDDY NITRE, |