correct in all their manners, complimented the Doctor on his plan of education. "You have,

no doubt, my dear Doctor, well considered this subject; I should like to hear your system of discipline." My Lord,' replied the Doctor, it is a very short one: I have brought up my daughters in the fear of God and a broomstick."

Metaphors.

"But the greatest art (in poetry) is the forming of metaphors happily; for that alone cannot be acquired from others, but is itself a proof of uncommon genius, since to form metaphors well is to observe the similitude of things," says an eminent critic. This passage is nobly illustrated and verified by our great bard; for how superior is Shakespeare in his metaphors to all his contemporaries, Beaumont and Fletcher, James Shirley, and P. Massinger. Aristotle has well pointed out the reason, and we may justly apply it to our bard, who was a most accurate observer of similitudes in art as well as in nature.

The Poetry of Mr. Hayley and Lord Byron.

On the poetry of Mr. H. being mentioned to an eminent scholar and critict as flat, stale,

* Aristotle's Poetics, c. 22.

66

The late Author of English Poetry.

and unprofitable," and the observer comparing it to capillaire and water, Yes,' says the critic,

it wants brandy, Sir, it wants brandy." Had that excellent and candid critic lived to have read Lord Byron's hot and fiery poems, he might have exclaimed, Why, Sir, here is all sheer home-made brandy, mixed with gunpowder; whilst the bard sports with his crackers and squibs, and mounts in the air like Sky-Rocket Jack.'-N.B. A sailor, who being flung on high by the ship's explosion, escaped with life.

Wigs.

Perhaps there is not a greater proof of the doctrine of association of ideas than that part of our dress called a wig. Having been used to see it on the judge's, the doctor's, and the divine's head, as a type of dignity, we continue to venerate this extraordinary effort of art to make what is strange in itself to become venerable. Before this prejudice in favour of wigs, the first of its family was placed on the head, by way of ridicule, of one Saxton, a fool to Henry VIII. "In an account of the treasurer of the chambers in that king's reign there is entered, paid for Saxton's, the king's fool's, wig, 20s.'"-Anecdotes of Painters in the reign of Henry VIII. v. i. p. 135.

Shenstone.

It seems singular that this poet (whose whole life was a romance) should presume to think slightly of Spencer's great work the Fairy Queen. "When I bought him first, I read a page or two of the Fairy Queen, and cared not to proceed. After that, Pope's Parodies made me consider him ludicrously, and in that light I think he may be read with pleasure." How would poor Shenstone have whined and hung his head, had he known that any of his readers have declared that they read him with most pleasure in a ludicrous light? Yet so it is, his Schoolmistress being esteemed his best poem.-See Shenstone's Letters.

Retort Valiant.

It is very observable in the world how many persons are envious of those acquirements of others, which they do not possess themselves, and cannot conceal their feelings, though they are ashamed of them. Mr. B. an able mathematician, said peevishly to his friend D., an eminently classical scholar, 'Come, D. let us have none of Why,' replied Mr. D. coolly,

your Greek."

should you trouble yourself with this request, for should I quote any Greek passage, you would not know it to be so ?'

Geology.

The bold enquiries into this science, though in its state of infancy, and the hardy theories brought forward, seem calculated to

"Make the unlearned stare, the learned smile;" and induce the serious and diligent peruser of these extraordinary tracts to recollect the lines of the facetious author of Hudibras on some geological author of his time:

As he profess'd,

He had" first matter" seen undress'd;

He took her naked, all alone,

Before one rag of form was on;

The Chaos, too, he had descried,

And seen quite thro', or else he lied.

Cowley the Poet.

Had that excellent critic Dr. Johnson been acquainted with Spanish poetry, he would have added still greater splendour to his Life of Cowley. The "Barnasso Espagnol" would have afforded him many specimens of the "metaphysical" poetry, which Cowley was so much indebted to; as he, like Milton, traversed all regions to collect his stores of erudition. It may appear singular, that Cowley, who in his prose works writes with so

much ease, and natural elegance, and dignity, should have adopted such models as Spanish poets. His ode called "The Garden," addressed to his friend, John Evelyn, esq; the author of "Sylva, or a Treatise on Forest Trees," should not be passed by. The seventh stanza is remarkable for a diffuse yet vigorous expansion of the passage in scripture, where the "lilies of the field" are said to exceed "Solomon in all his glory."

Etymology.

This uncertain study seems, unfortunately, a great favourite with minor scholars and everyday wits. Such persons, with much gravity, put forth their idle and dull conjectures on this very difficult department of learning. The etymologist should be a man of deep erudition and sagacity, and conversant especially with antiquarian researches. The fashion of language is very changeable. Voltaire says with a great deal of truth, as well as very facetiously, that etymologists make very little account of consonants, and none at all of vowels. Perhaps the faculty of punning adroitly would be no small attainment in these ambiguous" pursuits of literature."