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A Singular Critique.

The late Gilbert Wakefield, critic and politician, has made the following panegyric on Mr. P. Knight's poem, "The Landscape:" "A poem which the elegant and ingenious author, by a few lectures on versification, relative to modes of expression too undignified for poetry, and from a languishing imbecility of numbers, would soon polish into greater excellence."-Wakefield's Notes on Pope, epist. iv. page 321. To send a gentleman mature in age to learn his prosody and his poetic phraseology, and to improve the vigour of his numbers, seems one of the day-dreams of that learned, ingenious, and very eccentric writer.

Biography and History well distinguished.

Dryden, whether he treated his subject in verse or prose, loved to sport in the regions of a lively and picturesque fancy. Speaking of history, he says, "There you are conducted only into the rooms of state; here (in biography) you are led into the private lodgings of the hero.* You see him in his undress, and are made familiar

The reader will here recollect an acute and well-known saying, that “no man is a hero to his valet de chambre.”,

with his most private actions and conversations. You may behold Scipio and Lælius gathering cockle-shells on the shore, Augustus playing at bounding stones with boys, and Agesilaus riding on a hobby-horse among his children.”—Life of Plutarch. See Malone's edition of Dryden's Prose Works, vol. iii. 8vo.

Translators.

Dryden was always at the head of these second-hand poets; and the superior genius, which shone forth in an epic poem, did not forsake him in the translation even of an epigram.

Cheronean Plutarch, to thy deathless praise
Does martial Rome this grateful statue raise;
Because both Greece and she thy fame have shar'd,
(Their heroes written, and their lives compar'd.)
But thou thyself couldst never write thy own,
Their lives have parallels, but thine has none.
From the Greek of Agathias, and supposed to have been
inscribed on a statue of Plutarch at Rome,

Crowded Tables.

In large parties," as they are called, little of society is to be enjoyed. Your next neighbour in such a crowd must prove your entertainer or your tormentor. Plutarch, in his Symposiacs, has a very singular and amusing passage relative

to this subject. "The rule I would follow is, to fit the persons, who sit near each other, in such a manner, as the wants of each may be supplied. Next to one who is willing to instruct, I would place one that is desirous of instruction; next a morose guest, I would seat a good-tempered one; next a talkative old man, a patient youth; next a boaster, a man of jest and jeering."

Why Young Men love Tragedies, and Men
advanced in Life prefer Comedies.

This question is very forcibly and philosophically resolved by an excellent French critic: "A man at thirty will prefer the tragedies of Racine to the comedies of Moliere, because his passions are still directing him to relish their representations, SO well imitated by that tragedian. On the contrary, a man at sixty will prefer the comedies of Moliere, because they bring to his recollection many scenes which he has passed through with observation on them, or perhaps been himself an actor in many, which the excellent comedian has copied so happily."-Reflexions Critiques, par l'Abbé du Bos, vol. i. section 49.

VOL. II.

An important Mistake in Terms.

In the valuable volume, "The Chemical Catechism," by Samuel Parkes, the writer apologises for his frequent introduction of moral reflections. Quoting Archdeacon Paley, "Every one has a particular train of thought into which his mind falls, when at leisure from the impressions and ideas that occasionally excite it; and if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is surely that which regards the phenomena of nature, with a constant reference to a supreme, intelligent Author." By this quotation the writer evidently substituted, in haste, moral instead of religious reflections.

Hypocrisy.

When the hero of Butler is under the fear of being killed by the witches, which were set upon him by the widow in her house, he answers without equivocation to the questions they put to him. One of them says,

Why didst thou choose that cursed sin,
Hypocrisy, to set up in?

Hudibras answers very plainly,

Because it is the thrivingest calling,
The only saints'-bell that rings all in ;

In which all churches are concern'd,
And is the easiest to be learn'd;
For no degrees, unless th' employ it,
Can ever gain much, or enjoy it.
A gift that is not only able
To domineer among the rabble;
But by the laws empow'r'd to rout

And awe the greatest that stand out;

Which few hold forth against, for fear

Their hands should slip, and come too near ;

For no sin else, among the saints,

Is taught so tenderly against,

Hudibras, part iii. canto 1, l. 123.

Origin of Language.

The communication of ideas between human beings by words, or certain conventional sounds, though subject to abuse, is yet a most noble and wonderful privilege. The late Dr. Samuel Johnson, not less famous for the warmth of his piety than the sagacity of his intellect, used to say, that he thought that language was one of the great proofs of a Deity presiding over human affairs; "for this extraordinary benefit could not have been devised, and carried forth so far towards perfection, by the powers of mere mortal intellects."

Sublime Answer of an Hermit.

I once, says a Traveller in Italy, was wandering in a most romantic and solitary part of the

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