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clusion of it, at the age of ninety-seven, is extremely artful. Under the pretence of abusing the Lacedæmonians in order to exalt the Athenians, his auditors, he introduces one who combats his opinions, and in such a manner that it is evident he does not wish them to be considered as his own, and that he designedly gives the advantage to his adversary. Thus, at the same time that he speaks to gain the favour of the multitude, he takes care to let the more intelligent part of his hearers understand that he is not in earnest; a mode of manœuvreing that must have raised indignation and disgust in the minds of plain and honest men. The vanity of Cicero (as I recollect it now) appears modesty in comparison of the vanity of Isocrates; but perhaps it is in some measure because the newest impression is the strongest.

Read the seventh book of Paradise Lost. nued Anacharsis, to p. 259, with Jane.

Conti

February 16. Continued Anacharsis to p. 314, with Jane. Proceeded in Dante, Purgatorio, canto iii. 17. Continued Anacharsis, to p. 353, with Jane. Finished Dante, Purgatorio, canto iii.

Read the

18. Finished Anacharsis, with Jane. Ipermestra of Metastasio. The cowardice of Danao is below the dignity of tragedy; and the pompous display of fine sentiments made by Ipermestra is sometimes disgusting. The plot, as usual, is conducted with such address as to keep the interest powerfully alive.

February 19. Began Henry VI., Part i., and read to Act iii., with Jane.

20. Finished the first part of Henry VI., with Jane. 21. Read the second part of Henry VI., with Jane. Continued Dante and began Purgatorio, canto iv.

22. Continued Henry VI., and began the third part, with Jane. Began remarks on a passage in Anacharsis, chap. lxxi.

23. Concluded the remarks.

Finished the third

part of Henry VI., and began Richard the Third, with Jane.

24. Finished Richard the Third, with Jane.

25. Began Beloe's Herodotus, and read to s. 141 of Clio, with Jane.

27. Finished Clio, with Jane.

28. Read Euterpe, to s. 18, with Jane.

March 1. Finished Euterpe, with Jane.

2. Read Thalia, to s. 59, with Jane. Finished Dante, Purgatorio, canto iv.

5 to 9. At Lichfield with Miss Seward. Read Sappho, and Curan and Argentile, two dramatic pieces, with some other new poems lately published by Mason.

10. Began Southey's Joan of Arc, and read the two first books, with Jane.

11. Continued Joan of Arc, and read the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books, with Jane.

13. Concluded Joan of Arc with Jane. About four hundred lines in the second book on "preter

natural agency," by Coleridge, are in the Lucretian manner, and much superior to the rest. The poem on the whole is spirited, and keeps alive the attention, though it contains few passages admirable either for sublimity or beauty. The writer I remember sometimes to have met in company at Oxford.

March 14. Read part of Les Femmes Sçavantes of Molière, with Jane. Continued Dante and began Purgatorio, canto v.

15. Concluded Les Femmes Sçavantes, and read six of the Epistles of Boileau, with Jane. We are delighted with his Epistles to his Gardener, to the Marquis de Seignelai, and to M. de Lamoignon. Read the first act of Shakspeare's Troilus and Cressida, with Jane.

16 and 17. Finished Troilus and Cressida, with Jane. This play, though miserably lame in its plan, has lines in which all the genius of Shakspeare burns out. Read the three remaining Epistles of Boileau, with Jane.

18. Finished Dante, Purgatorio, canto v.

22. Resumed Herodotus, and finished Thalia, with Jane.

23. Read the Alcestis of Euripides. The pusillanimity of Admetus in suffering his wife to die for him is a blemish in this beautiful and pathetic play. The imagination is awakened by the peculiar situation of Alcestis, who, without any previous malady,

falls a prey to death in order to deliver her husband from his immediate intention of destroying himself. Continued Herodotus and read Melpomene to s. 95, with Jane.

March 24. Translated a sonnet by Nicolo Gaetano in Crescimbeni.

25. Translated a sonnet by Angelo Firenzuola, the twenty-second in Crescimbeni, and began a translation of Smith's verses on the Platonic system. Continued and finished the Melpomene, with Jane.

27. Read "Discours sur cette Question: Si le rétablissement des Sciences et des Arts a contribué à épurer les mœurs," by Rousseau. "Réponse au Discours précédent par le R. D. P.," and "Observations de Rousseau sur cette Réponse."

28. Read "Autre Réfutation de Discours de M. Rousseau, par M. Gauthier de l'Académie de Nancy." "Lettre de Rousseau au sujet de la Réfutation de M. Gauthier." "Discours sur les Avantages des Sciences et des Arts, ou l'on réfute celui de Rousseau, par M. Bordes, de l'Académie de Lyon," and "Réponse de Rousseau au Discours précédent." Rousseau has the advantage of all his antagonists, both in ingenuity of argument and eloquence of style, though the opinion he upholds is very problematical. Continued Herodotus, and read Terpsichore, with Jane.

29. Read "Première partie d'un Discours sur l'Origine et les Fondemens de l'Inégalité parmi les Hommes," by Rousseau, with Jane.

The

March 30. Finished the Discours, and read on to p. 304 of vol. iii. of Rousseau's works, and the Devin du Village and Pigmalion in vol. ii., with Jane. Essay on the Inequality among Mankind displays the usual whim and ingenuity of Rousseau. The picture of the happy state of savage life is, on the first view, seductive; but it is the happiness of the brute creation, except in one point, the feeling of pity, which he attributes in a higher degree to the human animal in this wild state, though perhaps it owes as much to the state of society as the other feelings.

31. Began Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, and read to p. 119 in vol. iii. of his works, with Jane.

April 1. Continued Burke to p. 168, with Jane.
3. Continued Burke to p. 211, with Jane.
4. Continued Burke to p. 250, with Jane.

5. Continued Burke to p. 295, with Jane.

6. Concluded Burke's Reflections, with Jane. Began the Memorabilia of Xenophon in the edition of Ernesti, and read to book ii. chap. iii. Resumed

Herodotus, and read Erato, with Jane.

7. Read Polymnia to s. 100, with Jane. Finished the first book of the Memorabilia, and read Burke's Speech on Mr. Fox's East India Bill.

8. Read to book ii. chap. iv. of the Memorabilia. Finished Polymnia, with Jane.

9. Finished book ii. of the Memorabilia. Read

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