men, fresh from North Britain, full of blood, full of fpirits, and full of fun. Vive la bagatelle is their maxim; and away they fcribble, away they publish; freely abandoning their names, and their fame, with the fruits of many an idle hour, to the morfure of criticism, and the mercy of the wide world!

Promifing young Geniufes as they are, we would not, however, difcourage them by any feverity of animadverfion on their light and airy labours. They are pretty fellows in literature; and must not be roughly dealt with. We fhall, therefore, add only this brief information, for the fatisfaction of our Readers, that the agreeable publication before us confifts of about thirty or forty fprightly Epiftles in profe and verfe, written, perhaps, on purpose to make a book, in order to inform the world, that there are fuch perfons as the Hon. Andrew Erfkine and James Bofwell, Efq; that they are men of wit, and men of letters and that they can amuse themselves and their Readers with an hundred and fifty pages about nothing, as well (no, pardon us, not quite fo well) as the facetious Author of Triftram Shandy. For example, Letter XXX.

"Dear BosWELL,

IT has been faid, that few people fucceed both in poetry and profe. Homer's profe effay on the Gun-powder-plot, is reckoned by all Critics inferior to the Iliad; and Warburton's rhyming fatire on the Methodists, is allowed by all to be fuperior to his profaical notes on Pope's works. Let it be mine to unite the excellencies both of profe and verfe in my inimitable epiftles. From this day, my profe fhall have a fmack of verfe, and my verfe have a fmack of profe. I'll give you a fpecimen of bothMy fervant addreffes me in these words, very often

The roll is butter'd, and the kettle boil'd,
Your Honour's newest coat with grease is foil'd;
In your best breeches glares a mighty hole,
Your wash-ball and pomatum, Sir, are stole.
Your Taylor, Sir, muft payment have, that's plain,
He call'd to day, and faid he'd call again.

There's profaic poetry: now for poetic profe-Univerfal Genius is a wide and diffufed ftream, that waters the country, and makes it agreeable; 'tis true, it cannot receive fhips of any burthen, therefore it is of no folid advantage, yet it is very amufing. Gondolas and painted barges float upon its furface, the country Gentleman forms it into ponds, and it is fpouted out of the mouths of various ftatues; it ftrays through the fineft fields, and its banks nourish the most blooming flowers. Let me fport with this ftream of fcience, wind along the vale, and glide through

Ii 3

the

the trees, foam down the mountain, and fparkle in the funny ray; but let me avoid the deep, nor lofe myfelf in the vaft profound, and grant that I may never be pent in the bottom of a dreary cave, or be fo unfortunate as to ftagnate in fome unwholefome marfh. Limited genius is a pump-well, very useful in all the common occurrences of life, the water drawn from it is of service to the maids in wafhing their aprons; it boils beef, and it fcours the stairs; it is poured into the tea-kettles of the Ladies, and into the punch-bowls of the Gentlemen.

Having thus given you, in the most clear and diftin&t manner, my fentiments of genius, I proceed to give you my opinion of the ancient and modern Writers; a fubject, you must confefs, very aptly and naturally introduced. I am going to be very ferious, you will trace a refemblance between me and Sir William Temple, or perhaps David Hume, Efq;

"A modern Writer muft content himfelf with gleaning a few thoughts here and there, and binding them together, without order or regularity, that the variety may pleafe; the ancients have reaped the full of the harvest, and killed the noblest of the game in vain do we beat about the once plenteous fields, the dews are exhaled, no fcent remains. How glorious was the fate of the early Writers! born in the infancy of letters; their talk was to reject thoughts more than to feek after them, and to felect out a number, the moft fhining, the moft ftriking, and the moft fufceptible of ornament. The Poet faw in his walks every pleafing object of nature undefcribed; his heart danced with the gale, and his fpirits fhone with the invigorating fun, his works breathed nothing but rapture and enthufiafm. Love then fpoke with its genuine voice, the breaft was melted down with woe, the whole foul was diffolved into pity with its tender complaints; free from the conceits and quibbles which, fince that time, have rendered the very name of it ridiculous; real paffion heaved the figh; real paffion uttered the moft prevailing language. Mufic too reigned in its full force; that foft deluding art, whofe pathetic ftrains fo gently feal into our very fouls, and involve us in the fweetell confufion; or whofe animating ftrains fire us even to madness: how has the fhore of Greece echoed with the wildeft founds; the delicious warblings of the lyre charmed and aftonifhed every ear? The blaze of rhetoric then burft forth; the antients fought not by falfe thoughts, and glittering diction, to captivate the ear, but by manly and energic modes of expreflion, to rule the heart and fway the paffions.

There, Bofwell, there are periods for you, Did not you imagine that you was reading the Rambler of Mr. Samuel Johnfon; or that Mr. Thomas Sheridan himself was refounding the praifes

praifes of the antients, and his own art? I fhall now finish this letter without the leaft blaze of rhetoric, and with no very manly or energetic mode of expreffion, affure you, that I am,

Yours fincerely,

ANDREW ERSKINE."

From this fpecimen our Readers will form fome idea of the Honourable Mr. Erfkine's manner; and if from thence they venture to guefs at the turn and ftyle of his friendly Correfpondent, James Bofwell, Efq; they will, probably guefs not very wide of the mark. The Gentlemen are kindred Geniuses; as like as the two Sofios in Amphytrion: or, rather, as we mean not a perfonal comparifon, as like as the twin-brothers in poetry, Meffrs. Beaumont and Fletcher, of the laft century.-Propitious be the omen to the jocund pair now prefent! may their friendship remain as inviolable, their fame prove as lasting, and their works make as many volumes, as thofe of the two celebrated Playwrights we have just named !

An Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, adapted to the ancient British Mufic: viz. the Salt-box, the Jews-Harp, the Marrow-bones and Clearers, the Hum-flrum or Hurdy-gurdy, &c. With an Introduction, giving fome Account of thefe truly British Inftruments. By Bonnell Thornton, Efq; 4to. is. Becket.

TH

HERE is fomething fo peculiar even in the extravagancies of true genius, fomething fo feductive in its wildeft flights and vagaries, that the fruits of its very diffipation are more efteemed by Readers of tafte, than the most elaborate lucubrations of plodding induftry. We have a fingular inftance of this in the little feu d'efprit before us, written fome years ago in the genuine fpirit of true English humour, and lately fet to mufic in as mafterly a train as it was written. It is held, we know, by your double-refined and formal Critics, a kind of violation thus to fport with the fublime and tranfcendent beauties of the fine arts, The Mufes, however, like other modeft Ladies, tho' they blufh more, are lefs offended, at a hearty fmack on their ruby lips, given them by a flufhed and favourite Lover, than they would be at the formal falute of their quaint Admirers, coldly imprinted on their lilly-white hands. Quaintnefs and formality are almoft infeparable attendants on mediocrity of tafte; while thofe, who cannot do honour to the art they cultivate, by their genius, muft fhelter the poverty of their genius under the dignity of their art.

What an infult, cry the pedantic Verfifier and conceited Fidler, on the divine Cecilia and her feraphic ftrains! What a pro

a profanation of the fublime arts of poetry and mufic! to have her facred Odes burlefqued by paltry catches, and the voice of her own-invented organ mimicked by a wretched hurdy-gurdy, or drowned amidst the clattering of a falt-box, or the difcordant clanging of marrow-bones and cleavers! What an indignity to arts and science !-Very true, Sirs! Stand up for the honour of your profeffion; you have nothing else for it: for, as before observed, if you are no credit to that, you must make that, if you can, a credit to you. We would not advise you, however, to carry this predilection too far, left the world fhould begin to imagine you to be as much the mere tools and implements of your profeffion, as are your goofe-quills and fiddle-sticks. But, to give our Readers a fpecimen of this humourous performance.

RECITATIVE, accompanied.

The meaner melody we fcorn,

Which vulgar inftruments afford;
Shrill flute, fharp fiddle, bellowing horn,
Rumbling baffoon, or tinkling harpsichord.
AIR, to the Salt-box.

In ftrains more exalted the falt-box fhall join,
And clattering, and battering, and clapping combine:
With a rap and a tap while the hollow fide founds,
Up and down leaps the flap, and with rattling rebounds.
RECITATIVE, to the Jews-harp.

Strike, ftrike the foft Judaic harp;
Soft and sharp,

By teeth coercive in firm durance kept,
And lightly by the volant finger fwept.

AIR.

Buzzing twangs the iron lyre,

Shrilly thrilling,

Trembling, trilling,

Whizzing with the wav'ring wire.

AIR. After a grand Symphony accompanied with Marrow-bones

and Cleavers.

Hark, how the banging marrow-bones,

Make clanging cleavers ring,

With a ding dong, ding dong,

Ding dong, ding dong,

Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong ding.

Raife your up-lifted arms on high;

In long prolonged tones

Let cleavers found

A merry merry round,

By banging marrow bones.

RECS

RECITATIVE. To the Hum-ftrum, or Hurdy-gurdy.

Ceafe, lighter numbers: hither bring
The undulating ftring

Stretch'd out, and to the tumid bladder,

In amity harmonious bound;

Then deeper fwell the notes, and fadder,

And let the hoarse base flowly folemn found,

AIR.

With dead, dull, doleful, heavy hums,

With mournful moans,

And grievous groans,

The fober hurdy-gurdy thrums.

Our Readers will fee from this fpecimen, that the Poet hath ftrictly adhered, as he profeffes, to the rule of making the found echo to the fenfe. It happened a little unfortunately, indeed, in the late performance of this Ode, that the public ear, vitiated by being fo long accustomed to foreign inftruments, and foreign mufic, was not properly affected by the delicate and harmonious founds of the Jews-harp and the Hum-ftrum. When this Ode is performed again, therefore, we would advise it to be done in a lefs tumultuous affembly; or that an additional number of Harp-Trillers, and hurdy-gurdy Strummers, may be added to the band.

The Effufions of Friendship and Fancy. In feveral Letters to and from feveral Friends. Small 8vo. 2 vols. 4s. fewed. Becket.

OOLASTON, or Locke, or fome other of our English Philofophers, hath obferved, that nothing is fo likely to render a man's company generally acceptable, as a competent proficiency in the art of agreeable trifling.-Sterne is confeffedly a great master in the exercife of this art, upon paper; and the fuccefs he has met with, hath prompted numbers to tread in the fame fteps. Among the reft, a Writer whom we have often applauded, for his ingenious poetical productions, has taken a fancy to ftray into these alluring paths, and has prefented the public with a couple of Shandyan volumes of epiftolary effufions, in verfe and profe, which may ferve to unbend the mind from more ferious contemplations, and innocently while away a vacant hour in a cool arbor, or a fhady walk. In fine, if the expreffion had not loft its novelty, we might, with no impropriety, at this feafon of the year, recommend the prefent publication to our Readers, (after Mr. What's his name,