youth blessed with all the benefit of experience; well knowing that it would be as impossible to prescribe limits to the winds, as to forbid a second-form boy now and then to smoke a quiz. All I request is, that next time my nose and I come through Eton, the thistle may be omitted; and as missile weapons are now out of fashion among civilized nations, I particularly deprecate the dirt and stones.

Eton has long been the distinguished seat of politeness as well as learning. One lash from you may perhaps have more effect in softening these last remains of barbarism in your republic, than all the birch within ten miles of the precincts of the college. We may all be easily convinced that external appearance is by no means a just criterion by which the merit of a man can be judged. You, Mr. Gregory Griffin, well know, that Alexander the Great, although conqueror of the world, had a personal defect; that Demosthenes had not an agreeable figure; that Mr. Pope was awry; that Horace was a short punch-bellied fellow, in short a tough one; that Voltaire was a good one; and that Socrates himself was a quiz. I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

London, May 4.

VIR BONUS.'

My correspondent's complaint is by no means without foundation; and as censor-general, it is a subject which would not so long have escaped my animadversion, had I not considered that it would come with more propriety from one who had materially suffered from it, and could therefore more feelingly point out its ill consequences.

Every nation has its peculiar antipathies, political or religious; which, on the smallest commotion of the body politic, may be observed to take the lead, and

in a great measure direct the fury of the multitude; as in the natural body, the constitutional disease is roused from its dormant state, and is the first to evince its malignity, when the irregularity of the blood gives advantage to its attacks.

But these may generally be traced to their origin; a long series of wars; the dissension of families; a bigoted persecution; and frequently natural rivalship, have established the most rooted aversion for each other, in the very genius of nations apparently at peace; and hereditary hostilities have been kept up in the minds of the populace, by connecting them with every idea which naturally has the strongest hold on their feelings. The strange antipathies of our republic to the inoffensive race of Quizzes can be attributed to none of these causes; and it is impossible to account for the persecution of these beings, unless we suppose, that nonresistance only sharpens that rage which ugliness originally provoked. The Quiz, like the Eskimaux, generally seems contented with his humble lot; he eats, drinks, and sleeps, and has, no doubt, in some respects a reasonable soul, which is a privilege many naturalists have denied to the latter.

But, alas, I fear it is more than a Herculean labour to undertake the justification of a bottle nose; or rescue a suit of dittos from revilings! the populace will still be what it always was, and in spite of the admonitions of Gregory Griffin, a Jackass and a Quiz be persecuted with the same unrelenting severity.

No 30. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1787.

Quanto rectius hic.--HORACE.

How much superior he, &c.

FROM the time that I first promised my fellow-citizens I would point out a set of books to their observation, from the perusal of which, if substituted in the place of novels, they might derive at least equal advantage and entertainment, there has scarce a day passed, in which some attempt has not been made by different correspondents, either by letters of inquiry or conjecture, to forestall my good advice, and anticipate my intended recommendation. Some have been so good-natured, as to cloak counsel under the garb of conjecture, and under pretence of guessing my intentions, have recommended their own favourite studies to my notice, as fit objects for my recommendation to the notice of my fellow-citizens; and furnished me with arguments for the support of their own propositions. Others have contented themselves with forming a variety of conjectures; and some of them have so far piqued themselves on their sagacity, that they have confidently offered me wagers of ten to one, which, I can assure my readers, I expect no small applause for not having accepted; when they consider, that had my views been at all mercenary, I might here have taken the opportunity to pick up a very comfortable sum in a very honourable way. Others again have been so conscious of their unbounded attachment to the study I have laboured to depreciate as to think themselves particularly pointed at, in that sentence, where I complained of the unmerited contempt with which the objects of my intended recom

mendation are treated; and have sent me the most affecting assurances of better behaviour for the future. Historiophilus cannot help being surprised that I should know he had never read his Bible,' which he doubts not is the book to which I propose calling his attention; but he promises me faithfully henceforward to read a chapter of it every night going to bed, and never to devour at most above three novels in a month. Latinus's conscience has been equally busy in informing him, that the books I mean for his perusal can be no other than the Classics, to which though, he owns, he has hitherto neglected them, to gratify his taste, for sentiment, he has now determined, in compliance with my advice, to give the most ardent attention; and as an earnest of his amendment, he tells me, he has already struck out his name from the list of subscribers to the circulating library; for which he adds, rather archly, my bookseller, he believes, will not consider himself under any great obligation to me.

Though I must assure these gentlemen, that all their suppositions are very erroneous, I cannot but confess myself very much pleased, at the abovementioned salutary, and I will add unforeseen, effects of my censorial exertions. Not but I am a little surprised, that any of my correspondents could for a moment suppose me so devoid of delicacy, as to propose, as a substitute for sentiment, the dull perusal of the unpolished ancients, and a study so unfashionable as religion.

There are, besides those already mentioned, another set of correspondents, of whom I must take some notice, before I proceed to the discovery of my purpose. These are some who have continued to send me frequent assurances of the little credit they give to my professions of disinterestedness; and who resolve, in spite of my declarations to the

contrary, to persevere in believing the studies, to which I wish them to give so much application, to be no other than my own lucubrations. One gentleman in particular, has taken the trouble to be extremely witty on the subject; and has had the art, by a course of the most apt and pointed observations, to turn my own declaration against me. He adduces the example of a highwayman, with great success; and tells an interesting and affecting story (but rather of the longest), extracted as it seems from the Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors' Bloody Register,' by which it appears, that the highwayman ' denied this murder before he was accused of it, and so got himself found out.' This my gentleman considers as exactly a case in point, and proceeds accordingly through a long series of logical divisions, and some very nice and subtle distinctions of 'whys' and 'wherefores' to argue, that my disavowal of any sinister view to my own advantage, could have been derived from nothing, but a perfect consciousness of the same; and consequently must be ascribed to precisely the same motives, as the unsolicited protestations of his hero the highway

man.

Ingenious as are the arguments, and conclusive as are the inferences, of my worthy correspondent, I must beg leave to differ from him very decidedly on the present question; and however sure the grounds of the indictment preferred against me may appear to him at present, I doubt not, but the very material evidence which I shall produce on my part, will, ere long, induce him to alter- his opinion, and to give a verdict in favour of my disinterestedness.

I shall now therefore no longer delay to bring forward, as substantial and satisfactory witnesses of my disinterestedness, the books, which I think