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his time, which he was compelled to beftow on trifles, and in fatisfying the petty requests of the impertinent and obtrufive. Does any want a motto for the hilt of his fword, or a pofy for a ring; a memento for his bedchamber, or a device for his filver veflels, or even his earthen-ware; all run to Politian: fo that there is fcarcely a wall which I have not, like a fnail, befmeared with the effufions of my brain. One teafes me for catches and glees for a bacchana•lian party: another for a grave difcourfe, adapted to fome particular folemnity; a third wants a lamentable ditty for a ferenade; and a fourth a licentious ballad for a carnival. This fool tells me his loveperplexities, which I fit like a fool to hear. Another withes for a fymbol, which, while it is perfectly intelligible to his mistress, may ferve only to perplex the curiofity of others. I 6 pafs by the unfeasonable garrulity of 'pedants; the impertinences of poetafters, who are in the conftant habit of admiring their own productions. Thefe are the plagues I am daily compelled to endure; befides the interruptions I meet with in my walks abroad, from the lower clafs of the inhabitants of this city, and its vicinity, who drag me through the ftreets, on their concerns, like an ox by thenofe "If we may credit Politian's account of himself, it at leaft evinces good nature and urbanity of temper on his part; ill according with those ftories which charge him with a peevishnefs of difpofition that correfponded with his perfonal deformities. The internal evidence of his letters tends to prove, that he was naturally inclined to facetioufnefs and pleaiantry; and capable of malignant irafcibility only when his literary talents and reputation were called in queftion. A vein of humour pervades the greater part of his epiftolary correfpondence: and it feems improbable that he would choofe to affime a character in his fumiliar writings which his perfonal behaviour did not in fome measure fupport." P. 50.

of Paulus Urfinus, who is a gentleman not only of diftinguifhed military celebrity, but partial to letters, and literary fociety. He has a child of the name of Fabius, a youth of eleven years of age, of fingular beauty and endowments. His fine auburn hair falls gracefully on his fhoulders. He has an eye fparkling with intelligence, an open countenance, a perfon elegantly formed, and a moft graceful carriage, which inclines a little to the military. When the party had taken their feats, this child was defired to accompany fome perfons of fkill, in finging feveral airs fet to mufic; which he did with fo melodious a voice, that for my own part I liftened with ecftacy. He afterwards recited an heroic poem ir praife of my pupil Piero de Medici, of his own compoting: for that it really was fo, and not the work of another (as I at firft fufpected), I had afterwards an opportunity of afcertaining by indubitable evidence. And what kind of a compofition do you think it was? Really fuch an one as I myself fhould not need to be afhamed of. His tores were not merely thofe proper to reading, nor altogether modulated as in finging; but formed by a pleafing inflection of voice between both. As the fubject required, they were uniform or varied, with exact regard to connexion and paufe;-acute or grave -eafy or emphatical;-quick or flow: yet always correct,-always distinct,— always agreeable. His action was neither indolent and unanimated, nor yet bold and forward: you would have vowed another little Rofcius stood before you. He was fuddenly requested to turn the verse into profe, and repeat the fame thoughts unconfined by meafure. Accordingly, after a fhort interval of confideration, he began again, in a manner perfectly unaffuming; and I was aftonifhed to hear from his youthful lips, a flow of expression so felect and appropriate, as the pen feldom fupplies. Are you already fur prifed? You will be fill more fo with what followed. The boy had completed this tafk, and was ordered to take his food ftanding; for fuch is his conftant cuftom. After the firft remove, I was requested to propose fubjects to him for epiftolary compofition;

as many as I pleafed; -on which he was to dictate, extempore, to feveral amanuenfes at once. I mentioned

only

Raleigh, Drayton, Drummond, &c. --Thoughts inferted in the Cambridge Intelligencer.

EXTRACTS.

"THOUGH in my attack on the 'Purfuits of Literature' I had intended principally to convey my own thoughts on a greater variety of fubjects than any other fingle opportunity afforded; yet my attention not being fully underftood, has injured the fale of my book, and prevented that extenfive circulation which all opinions déferve relating to the peace and happiness of mankind: on this account I have been induced to alter my defign, and leave the blunders, the quotations, the egotifm, the impudence, and malevolence of the Pursuits of Literature,' in that oblivion to which the public feems now to have configned that book and its anonymous author, and to make no further ufe of him, than as the means of conveying my fentiments on many important topics, on which we moft completely and effentially differ." P.1.

AKENSIDE.

"I WILL add here, that if any young man of genius, claffical learning, and poetical ardour, would prefent the world with a Greek tranflation of Akenfide's Hymn to the "Naiads," and fubmit it to the correction of an experienced Greek fcho'lar before publication, he might efta• blith a learned and honourable repu'tation for himself, and add another compofition worthy of Homer or Callimachus.' p. 191. Yet they had better let the Hymn to the Naiads alone; it is Greek already, in its mythology, its imagery, and turn of fentiment. A poem of more beautiful expretion, more exquifite delicacy of feeling, and more harmonious measure, does not exift in our language, the Lycidas of Milton alone excepted: yet one of these, the unfeeling Johnfon has coarsely derided, and the other he has paffed by in filence. To fay that a tranflation of the Hymn to the Naiads might refemble Homer or Callimachus indifferently, is to say, that these two poets are like each other: they have both written hymns to the gods, it is true, but in a very different ftyle; fo that their resemblance is pretty much

the fame as Fluellen's comparison between Alexander and Harry of Monmouth. (Vide Henry V.) In the first place, their language is different; for though the Greek language has changed lefs than any other in the fame space of time, yet 700 years will make great alterations in any language, and this was nearly the fpace between these two poets. They are both admirable in their kind, yet no more like each other than an old man and a man in the vigour of youth. Homer is diffufely narrative, fimple, familiar, defcriptive, and fometimes tedious; Callimachus is concifely fublime, forcible, pathetic, artificial, and impreffive; and whoever wishes to be convinced of this, need only read the two hymns which they have written most nearly on the fame fubject; that of Homer to Apollo, and thofe of Callimachus to Apollo and Delos: Homer fings the hiftory of the god, Callimachus his praises; the one is all nature, the other all art: fo much for their refemblance. Akenfide is like neither of them exactly; he has more fentiment than Homer, and lefs fublimity than Callimachus; his compound epithets he has borrowed from the Greeks, but his are lefs expreflive than theirs; in harmony of numbers he is little their inferior, but in elegant and appropriate diction he is below them, inafinuch as Greek is inferior to English: for his ufe of heathen mythology, he has been blamed by many taftelefs lovers of propriety, who forget that the names of the heathen deities are but names for the properties of human nature, or the operations of the univerfe. Akenfide has neither the concife fublimity of Calli machus, nor the pleafing prolixity of Homer: he fings of humbler deities than they did, and his ftrain is suited to his fubject: as the Naiads are the fources of health, decency, and comfort, the ftyle in which he celebrates their praifes is pure, equable, and elegant, lefs fimple than Homer, yet more humble than Callimachus. The other works of this author are all admirable, but his Pleafures of Imagination is that on which his fame principally depends; it is one of the finest poems in our language, not merely in its poetical execution, but in its moral tendency: it is meant to exalt the finer feelings of the foul to the perception of moral pleasure, and lead them from tafte to

virtuc.

virtue. The fublime and refined fyftem of Plato is the fource of the au thor's fentiments; but they are arrayed in charms which even Plato failed to give them; and had he lived to fee them fo adorned, he muft, in this instance at least, have relaxed his feverity against poets. It conveys, in every line, the molt refined and exalted ideas; it glows throughout with the love of elegance, proportion, and harmony; yet all these are subservient to the fentiments of virtue and liberty. Whether his fyftem is true or not, I will not venture to decide; that it is grand and beautiful, no one will deny: to me it seems that imagination has added to the charms of truth, and deduced it from an origin, at least doubtful, yet certainly fublime. Though this great poet was my townfman, I have frequently attempted, without fuccefs, to acquire fome information of his early history; nothing more is known of him than Johnfon and Hawkins have related, and one anecdote which the diligent hiftorian of our native town has recorded, in his Remarks on popular Antiquities. That, after him, I have failed to acquire any thing new on a fubject on which he appears to have taken much pains, is not to be wondered: the truth is, our poet was little thought of in his own town; he left it early; for poetry and commerce have no connexion: and after he had left it, his friends probably thought no more of him; they were low people, and could not be fuppofed able to appreciate his worth yet he has left a name behind him which has illustrated the place of his birth, and put to fhame his dull cotemporaries; for of all thofe who inhabited the town in his lifetime, perhaps not one is now remembered. Such is the pre-eminence which genius can bestow.

THE UNIVERSITIES.

P. 18.

Roman Catholic principles, and have fince been adapted to a Proteftant establifhment, it is to be hoped they will ftill keep pace with the spirit of the times, and be ready to accede to what, ever change the ftate, in its wisdom, may think beft fuited for the increase of virtue and happiness: whenever that time comes, I have no doubt its reverend teachers will yield, with that due fubmiflion which becomes Chrif tian minifters, to the will of the fuperior powers. No one will deny, that the defects of our two univerfities, as places of education for public life, are many and great; yet notwithstand. ing the unrefuted remonftrances of individuals, they still remain unreformed, owing to that dread of innovation which has poffeffed all the privileged claffes of fociety, and blinded them to their true intereft. The evils complained of have been frequently enumerated; I will not attempt to do more than repeat them; yet every revival of the fubject may make it more evident. In places where great numbers of young men, in the heat and vigour of youth, are collected together, it is almoft impoffible to prevent fome irregularities, and many follies. Yet ftill it behoves thofe who are concerned in their education, to leffen, as much as poffible, the temptations to vice, to correct the effects of the more dangerous paffions, and to ftrengthen the motives to moral and intellectual improvement; yet inftead of this, a bundle of obfolete statutes fupplies the place of effective regulations; the means of inftruction are few, and the temptations to idlenefs are many and frequent: frivolous ceremonies are more regarded than moral duties, wealth and rank are more honoured than virtue and knowledge. The want of public examinations is feverely felt in many colleges, for they are the only means of bringing forth what young men know, and the beft inducement to add to their ftores; but thefe examinations fhould be fuited to all capacities, and on fubjects generally useful, neither too fimple, nor too difficult, and adapted to the different propensities of thofe for whom they are intended: for this purpofe, young men ought not to be kept at a distance from their tutors; at present thefe gentlemen are much too ftiff and referved. Artificial dignity may fuffer from too near an inspection, from too F 2

great

great a familiarity; but true dignity can never be leffened by intimacy, while it preferves a proper decorum. A fimilarity of purfuits is a bond of union with all ages and all degrees. At prefent young men are left too much together; the company of their tutors, if they knew how to be familiar with out lofing refpect, might frequently reftrain them from vicious indulgences, and give fupport and affiftance in many virtuous purfuits: at least there are many who, I am certain, might have been fo preferved from vice and indolence. Another great evil, in both our universities, is the little attention that is paid, in moft colleges, to the election of fellows, of thofe who are to be the future guardians of our youth: wherever this right belongs to the fociety, they are bound by the ftricteft obligation, by the will of their founder, to elect the moft worthy and fufficient; yet for all this, I am forry to fay, and I fay it from a painful knowledge of the fact, that this is very little attended to: for fome men are elected, merely because they are good companions; others, because they fhow an accommodating difpofition, and are not likely to difturb the affairs of the college, that is, endeavour to recall it to its original principles: others are chofen becaufe they are connected, by intereft or relationship, with the leaders of the fociety; others again, because they are mere ciphers; others, because they are next in feniority, where the fociety wish to avoid the trouble of a conteft; and others, because they are good mathematicians; but few, very few indeed, because they are men qualified by their morals, their manners, and their knowledge, to be the inftructors of youth: yet this is a facred truft, and not to be conferred lightly. In every fociety, therefore, where men are elected with any view to this employment, for all certainly are not, it is the indifpenfable duty of their electors, to confider whether their moral and intellectual endowments enable them, with zeal, affection, and steadinefs, to preferve, in the most dangerous periods of their lives, the unformed youth committed to their vigilance, from the fnares and temptations to which they are expofed. As an ardent admirer of thofe inftitutions, which were at firft founded with the nobleft defign, and with the moft liberal mu

nificence, I have ventured to offer a few remarks on the means of preferving them from that sweeping devastation which will probably one day overtake them, if they are found wanting in the great purposes for which they were intended, for they can finally be preferved only by their own intrinfic worth." P. 22.

JOHNSON AND PARR.

"I HAVE been mifunderstood. I hold up none of Dr. Parr's fefqui pedalia verba to ridicule; it is his verbiage and phrafeology which I reprobate. It would be ridiculous, indeed, to compare the Birmingham Doctor with Dr. Samuel Johnfon. I am not his biographer. It is not his life, but his writings, which I criticise." p. 219. The refemblance between Dr. Parr and Dr. Johnson has been perceived by many who are not very partial to either: there are the fame fefquipedalian words to be found in both writers; the fame pompofity of diction, the fame inverfion of the language: they have equally contributed to with draw us from that fimplicity which Addison and Middleton had taught us to admire, and difguifed the poverty and repetition of their ideas under a heavy load of words. Johnfon has taught us nothing new; he has put the common topics of instruction into a new dress, but he has made no dif coveries either in fcience or morality: he was, therefore, not a man of genius, but of talents; for genius invents, talents only arrange, dispose, and modify, adorn, compare, and compound; genius is the lot of few, talents fall to the fhare of many, in different proportions and degrees; fome men are born to create knowledge, others to acquire it, and teach what they have learnt: Johnson had not the erudition of Parr, nor has Parr all the wisdom of Johnfon; nor do we find in either of them that wisdom which lays down principles, but that which developes them: there is in both the same spirit of domineering, the fame impatience of contradiction, the fame blind attachment to their own belief: the one has the prejudices of a Tory, the other of a Whig; but as the latter are more liberal than the former, they are lefs difgufting, yet equally averfe to improvement beyond their own ideas of