of his own house. His last words were to the surrounding multitude. "When will ye, Romans, have again a citizen equal to me?" When his architect promised to build his house free from the vicinity and the overlooking of any neighbour, "Build me," says Drusus, "a house (if your art can do it) in such a situation, and of such form, that every man may see what I am doing."Velleius Pat. lib. ii. c. 14.

Anecdotes of Painting, &c.

The very lively writer and compiler of these anecdotes of Artists, amuses by his vivacity as well as he instructs by his accuracy and industry. In his History of Ancient and Modern Gardening, he speaks of the invention of the Ha Ha! and the excellent use which Mr. Kent, our first landscape gardener, made of the invention; and the vivacity of his style exuberates in this place into the sublime. “The genius of Kent leaped the Ha Ha! and found all nature was a garden.”—Anecdotes of Painting, &c. 4 vols.

Ancient Philosophers.

Many sayings and observations of these reputed sages of antiquity are of very doubtful merit, and some of very dangerous tendency. Some that

are worth remembering shall be laid before the reader.

Socrates

Said well to one who asked him which was the easiest and shortest road to obtain an honest name, "Be that very character which you wish your neighbours to believe you to be."--Cicero de Offic.

Solon.

This eminent legislator of the Greeks was asked, "Why he did not enact a law against parricide?" I could not suppose it to be possible," replied the philosopher. With commendable caution he acted in regard to imposing penalties on crimes unknown to his countrymen: Such notices,' said the sage, are more calculated to put these things into people's heads, than to restrain the commission of them.*

Plato.

He observed of governments that that commonwealth would flourish most, where a philosopher was at the head, or where the head of the state was a philosopher, that is, a wise man.- Cicero ad Quin. Frat."We are not born for ourselves alone," said this philanthropical sage; "part of our time and talents our country demands, part

our parents and relations, and the remainder is due to our friends."

Dingenes, the Cynic.

The opinions and sayings of this philosopher en dishabille are only sometimes producible. He claimed a superiority over the Great King of Persia (as the flattery of the time called him). "My wants and desires," said the philosopher, "are moderate and few; the king's are many and inordinate; mine are easily obtained; his difficult, and in some cases impossible."-Cicero's Tuscul. Questions. 5. These just opinions of human felicity and its abode are well described in the excellent old song beginning

"My mind to me a kingdom is."

Timotheus.

An Athenian citizen of a most respectable character, having dined with Plato the philosopher, praised the entertainment very highly, and meeting his host the next morning exclaimed, "Plato, your feasts are not only grateful at the time, but next morning are delightful on reflection." Such a feast our great moral poet has nobly described

The feast of reason, and the flow of soul.

Pope.

Theocritus.

A late learned and ingenious writer on "Taste" has given a most singular opinion of the poems of Theocritus. "There is another description of erotic poets, who combined the refinements of sentimental love with the manners of primæval simplicity and the imagery of pastoral life, as we see in the love-sick and sentimental savages, shepherds, and ploughmen of Theocritus." It would be a difficult task to find, amidst the strains of the Sicilian Bard, any love but l'amour physique, as the French term it; and that often expressed in very coarse diction, and thoughts very remote from the sentimental.

Good-Nature and Good-Humour.

1

In marking the distinction of these terms, so often confounded, Mr. Knight shews an acute mind and an attentive observation of life. "Goodnature is that benevolent sensibility of mind which disposes us to feel both the happiness and misery of others, and to endeavour to promote the one and mitigate the other. Failures, in both cases, often produce in the countenance and demeanour of the good-natured man a seeming melancholy * An Analytical Enquiry into the Principles of Taste, p. 187, by R. P. Knight, 8vo. 1805.

and austerity. Good-humour, on the contrary, is that prompt susceptibility of every kind of social festive gratification which a mind void of sorrow in itself or about others, from want of thought and sensibility, will ever exhibit.”—Analytical Enquiry, &c. p. 417.

Old Age.

Though this state of human existence is sufficiently calamitous and wretched by its own evils, yet do the licentious tongues and inconsiderate brains of others augment its penalties. Avarice, in many instances, is charged upon old persons unjustly, as their love of old furniture, baubles, &c. which they continue to retain and hoard up from their associations of ideas concerning them. "This sofa," says an old man, "was given me by a particular friend; this carpet I bought on the day of my marriage; this bookcase I had when at college"; &c. Thus the pleasure of old recollections store an old man's house with old-fashioned things, that modern times will wag their heads at.

A Bon-Mot on the French Music.

M. D'Alembert, who, among his other accom plishments, possessed a considerable knowledge and skill in music, wrote a treatise, called the "Liberty or Rights of Music." This is a learned