and facetious defence of J. J. Rousseau, who had attacked the French style in music, and recommended the Italian goût. J. Rousseau's attack occasioned much dissension and sensation at Paris; and the writer was considered as the "disturber of the public repose." "This expression," says D'Alembert, "well accords with J. J. Rousseau's intention, which was, by abolishing the flat music of the French, to introduce a species which for the future should keep the audience awake.

An excellent Turn in a person who was no Orator.

When the Athenians were meditating the erection of some grand public monument, they summoned before them two of their most eminent architects. One was a great orator, the other a man of few words. When the former had harangued a considerable time on his art and his own talents, the other was expected and called on to produce what he had to say for his art and himself. "Gentlemen," replied the man of few words, "I promise to do all that the great orator has talked about."

On Tragic Theatrical Exhibitions.

It is a singular observation of a sensible and acute writer, that men must have exhausted a large

source of amusement, before they invented the representations of the evils and misfortunes of their fellow-creatures upon a public stage, and to make them spectators of sorrows (they were too well acquainted with), in order to assuage them, and to relieve their sufferings.-D'Alembert's Letters to J. J. Rousseau.

Missionaries.

These persons being commissioned to convert adult persons (whose habits, be what they may, are already fixed and uncompliant) must often fail; for. though ignorance of their grown-up pupils may be very profound, yet their obstinacy and prejudice are equally unpromising objects of instruction and amendment. In religious and moral subjects, as in medicine, means of prevention in a disorder are easier than the cure of it. Schools established in barbarous countries seem the only methods of propagating religious and moral truth in youthful minds.

Seneca.

The style of this author seems more congenial with that of our lively neighbours the French, than with our own. The French language, though precise, is not rich and various, like the English; and is therefore more indebted to lively turns for

the support of their thoughts than our own. Seneca, whatever may be his subject, aims at a brilliancy of expression, and is fond of using what the French call" une tour de phrase," and "une façon de parler;" which modes of writing make Seneca, on the first reading, rather impressive, and in the second tiresome. But simplicity in writing bears a strong analogy to the pleasure which we receive in the other arts of composition by the pen or the pencil; and we accord with the poetical critic

Poets, like painters, thus unskill'd to trace
The naked nature, and the living grace;

With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part,
And hide with ornaments their want of art.
Pope's Essay on Criticism.

A Modern Plagiarism, taken from Bion the Poet.

It is said that the late George Stevens, (one of the commentators of Shakespeare,) on reading the poem of the "Pursuits of Literature," said they were verses made as pegs to hang the notes on. An ancient writer on superstition, describing a superstitious man, who, thinking his misfortunes in life to be the effect of divine vengeance upon him, represents the poor man as surrounded by old women, collecting all his sins and transgressions, and making him as a nail or peg to hang them all upon.-Plutarch of " Superstition."

Difference between Reading and Disputing.

Men who are fond of argument, very often are seen not only to raise their voices too high for easy utterance, but to work up their minds by this violent exercise of their lungs. An excellent author recommends reading aloud as a relaxation from the former laborious elocution; and his comparison is very singular and happy. "What riding in a coach is to exercise, so is reading in respect to disputing; for in reading you carry your voice softly and low, and, as it were, in the chariot of another man's language."--Plutarch's Rules for the Preservation of Health.

Retort Courteous.

A gentleman who was rather an admirer of literature than a man of letters himself, praised the abilities of a literary friend in terms rather beyond what he himself was able to appreciate. 4 My friend" (says the eulogist) "talks so correctly, and at the same time so fluently, that one would think that he was reciting out of a book.” A man in company, who knew this pedant alluded to, and also that he possessed a great memory, and was a very stupid fellow per se, replied, Your

friend, Sir, most probably, did recite out of a book."

Obscure Writers.

Those writers, as Lycophron in Greek, and Tacitus in Latin, who attempted to recommend their works by the obscurity of their style, must have supposed that their readers had eyes like a cat, which sees objects better in the dark than in the light. Authors of riddles and enigmas give you warning that they mean to be obscure, and you may read them or not, as your inclination may be towards these "works of darkness." When a

writer of history, and of an epic poem, entraps you in their subterraneous caverns and shades below, you have a right to complain; as you would of a bad cook, who not only balks the indulgence of your appetite, but injures your digestion by his ill-dressed dishes.

The Arabian Nights.

By superficial readers and soi-disant philosophers these most amusing tales have been decried as fit only to amuse children. Without going over the grounds of their literary merit, such objections to them will be obviated by stating, that modern travellers in the eastern countries have borne