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In the fourth chapter the difference is well marked concerning the exercise of any art, and that of virtue. See also book vi. chap. 6.

There is nothing I have met with in this book so irreconcileable to Christian ethics, as what is said concerning the μiкpóνxos, the mean-spirited, who is blamed because, deserving much, he thinks himself worthy of less.-Book iv. chap. 4.

The μeyadóvxos, the magnanimous man, does not like to hear of benefits conferred on him, but of those which he has conferred on others. Thetis, therefore (in Homer), does not remind Jupiter of what she has done for him, but of what he has done for her.-Book iv. chap. 5. This is a fine observation. What follows in the next paragraph is also excellent.

In book iv. chap. 8, the difference is marked between those who are too complaisant and too much given to praise every thing, and those who are too difficult to be pleased.

"Neither Hesper nor the morning star is so splendid and admirable as justice."-Book v., chap. 1. He seems willing to exceed Plato, who, in his encomium of the same virtue had called it πрâуμа πολλῶν χρυσίων τιμιώτερον.*-De Republ. 1. 1, p. 336, ed. Bipont.

There is an admirable passage on the immutability

* "A thing more precious than much gold."

of natural right.-Book v. chap. 10, par. 2. The definition of equity very clear and good.-Book v. chap. 16.

Phidias and Polycletus are praised.-Book vi. chap. 8. The sayings of the experienced, the advanced in life, and the prudent, though unaccompanied by demonstration, to be trusted equally with demonstrated truth itself.-Book vi. chap. 12.

It is not by knowledge or prudence that we are good, any more than we are healthy by knowing what conduces to health.-Chap. 13. Understanding, however, and prudence (he answers) are parts of perfection; and indeed (he says), it is not possible that prudence should subsist without other virtue.— Ibid.

The poets Theodectes and Carcinus mentioned. -Book vii. chap. 12.

He owns that something he has advanced was said for the sake of argument.-Chap. 13.

'Akoλavía, intemperance, is compared to the dropsy or phthisis, akpaoía to the epilepsy; the former continual, the latter intermittent.-Ibid.

The last chapter of the seventh Book, in which he gives the preference to mental over bodily pleasures, is excellent— αἱ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡδοναὶ ταῖς σωματικαῖς μάχονται· καὶ οἷς ἡ ψυχὴ πράττουσα χαίρει, ταῦτα τῷ σμатι паρà púow;"* is like St. Paul-" These are

* "The pleasures of the soul oppose those of the body, and those actions in which the soul delights, are contrary to the nature of the body."

contrary the one to the other."* There is much more to the same effect, admirably said. Book ix., chap. 5—“ Τὸ δὲ ἐν ποιεῖν, μὴ ἵνα ἀντιπάθῃ, καλόν.” Book viii. chap. 17.-This is Christian.

Honour and profit not to be expected at the same time by a public character in a commonwealth.Chap. 18.

The tenth chapter of the last book (the tenth) is admirable.

Galat. v. 17.

"To be beneficent, not with the view of being requited, is honourable."

CHAPTER VII.

1813-1815.

Mr. Cary resigns the readership of Berkeley Chapel.-Version of Dante completed and published.-Letters to Mr. and Mrs. Price.-Literary Journal for 1813.-Letter to Mr. Price.-His Dante little noticed.-His means; education of his children.— Translation from Pignotti of the Friar-Ass.-Takes the curacy of Chiswick.-Letters to Mr. Price and Mr. Birch.-Literary Journal for 1814 and 1815.

In the spring of 1813, Mr. Cary resigned the readership of Berkeley Chapel, and the term for which he had taken his house at Alpha Cottages having expired, removed to Kensington Gravel Pits.

us,

His translation of Dante, as his Journal informs

had been completed on the 8th of May, 1812; the intermediate period was almost entirely occupied in appending notes to it. Nearly eight years had elapsed since the publication of his version of the Inferno: but the work had attracted very little notice, by no means sufficient to induce a publisher to embark in the expense of printing the whole. My father, therefore, though his means would ill afford such an undertaking, resolved on publishing his translation at his own expense; but, from the same cause, was under the necessity of having it

printed in a cheap form, one little calculated to attract the notice of critics or the public.

The following letters to his friend Price, and his sister Mrs. Price, make us acquainted with the progress of the work. The whole was completed in December of this year, 1813, and in its title-page purports to be “printed for the author, by J. Barfield, 1814.”

TO THE REV. THOMAS PRICE.

MY DEAR PRICE,

Kensington Gravel Pits, April 8, 1813.

I hope to get a frank to-morrow, and will say a few words to you. We moved a few days ago to the place whence I have dated, and have got a good house opposite nearly to the door into Kensington Gardens, through which, and Hyde Park, I can walk into town, a distance of a mile and a half. We can accommodate you comfortably if you can come to us this spring; as we have much more room than in our last habitation.

My father arrived here last night, and talks of leaving us on Monday morning. He is as well as I have ever seen him.

You did not tell me how you approve of the books I bought you. Among those I have in hand is Bowles's edition of Don Quixote, in Spanish. It seems to contain a treasury of Spanish learning in the notes. Would you choose to have it? If not, I will keep it. The cost was one guinea.

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