the month of June in the sober, cheerful tranquillity of Sandleford. But in this working-dayworld one can have but few holidays: the house I am building, and an estate I am purchasing, created many occasions for my going to London; to the busy world, therefore, business brought me back, and from thence I am but just returned to peace and sunshine, and the rural joys of July. The animated scene of hay-making is very delightful to me; and I passed my morn ings in the grove, to contemplate the gay labour of the hay-makers, who, to the number of forty, of different ages and sexes, were all busy • in the field below me. The men were gay, the women chattering, and the boys and girls sporting and playing amidst their work; so that labour seemed rather a brisk exertion than a painful task. The reaper's employment is more serious and more laborious, as if, the nearer the approach to wealth, the less gay the condition; their wages are greater than those of the haymakers, but the occupation is not so delightful, nor performed with such careless ease; and is it not the same in the business of civil life? At this juncture, particularly, I think the highest

offices in our state must be the most laborious, and full of seriousness and care. Public danger used to beget public union; but I am sorry to say, that our leaders of faction have not seemed to forget their private objects for the general interest. This summer will probably bring very important events to England. Daily rumours of invasion, in some part or other of our country, seem very alarming to ears, unaccustomed to such reports; but if the chastisements of Heaven will restore those virtues, which prosperity seems to have impaired, such corrections must be reckoned amongst the favours of Providence. Resignation to Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence becomes creatures, not only weak, but blind; so I endeavour to keep my mind in tranquillity.

"I am very glad you were pleased with Mr Potter's Eschylus.' I think he has made a great addition to the English literature. At my request he has since added some notes, which I will send you if you have not got them. He is very cautious in explaining ancient mythology: I wished he had given his conjectures on the allegory of Prometheus. Mr Potter is now tran

slating Euripides;' and, if he succeed as well as in the other translation, the world will owe him a great deal; and I heartily wish, that, in some shape, it would pay him part of the debt; he is a man of great merit, small preferment, and large family. I hear of few new works to come forth; in the din of arms, not only the laws, but the muses are silent.

"I cannot conclude my letter, without exhort ing you to collect together those things you have written for the young people who attend your lectures. I am convinced they would be useful to the world, and much approved by it, if you would publish them. In all your essays there is much to be learnt; observations and deductions perfectly new, and at the same time just. With such conditions, I account essays to be pleasant and profitable; but most essay-writers give mere common-place observations, and a great deal of trite matter."

LETTER CXXXVIII.

DR BEATTIE TO MAJOR MERCER.

Aberdeen, 1st October, 1779.

"I betook myself to the reading of Cæsar when I was at Peterhead, for I happened to have no other book. I had forgot a great deal of him; and scarce remembered any thing more than the opinion which I formed of his style, about twentyfive years ago. But when I began, I found it almost impossible to leave off. There is nothing in the historical style more perfect; and his transactions are a complete contrast to the military affairs of these times. I know not which of his talents I should most admire: his indefatigable activity and perseverance; his intrepidity and presence of mind, which never fail him even for a moment; his address as a politician; his ability as a commander, in which he seems to me to have no equal; or the beauty, brevity, clearness, and modesty, of his narrative. I understand all his battles as well as if I had seen them: and, in half a sentence, he explains to me the grounds

and occasions of a war, more fully than a modern historian could do in fifty pages of narrative, and as many more of dissertation. In a word, as the world at that time stood in need of an absolute sovereign, I am clearly of opinion, that he should have been the person. Pompey was a vain coxcomb, who, because a wrong-headed faction had given him the title of Magnus, foolishly thought himself the greatest of men; Cassius was a malecontent, and a mere demagogue; and Brutus was the dupe of a surly philosophy, operating upon an easy temper. I ask pardon for troubling you with this, which you understand, so much better than I do but I am quite full of Cæsar at present; and you know, what is nearest the heart 'is nearest the mouth."

LETTER CXXXIX.

DR BEATTIE TO DR PORTEUS, BISHOP OF CHESTER.

ແ

Aberdeen, 17th December, 1779.

About three months ago, a lady, who is a great admirer of Bishop Butler, put into my hands

a manuscript-charge of that excellent prelate to