prefer to see the victims immolated at once, and put out of pain by a knife dexterously thrust into the spinal marrow, as is practised in Portugal, to the more barbarous English method of making it stagger and suffer under repeated blows of an axe, and die by inches. To avoid giving pain to such delicate and feeling minds, a skilful dissector must soften vice into folly, and folly into youthful fraillies. He must tickle the great for his own interest, as the great condescend to tickle the little, whenever it suits theirs. Instead of the following virulent decla mation of Lansdowne: Vice, like some monster, suff'ring none to 'scape, Has seiz'd the town, and varies still her shape: Here, like a gen'ral, she struts in state, While crowds in red and blue her orders wait: There, like some pensive statesman, walks demure, And smiles, and hugs, to make destruction sure: Now, under high commodes, with looks erect, Allows all freedom but to see the face: In pulpits, and at bar, she wears a gown, -He should endeavour to soften down matters, and mean more than he expresses, of which mode of writing, we submit the following lines to the judgment of the reader: "In these our moral days, Vice hides it face,- On both sides Temple-Bar, its hideous mien Since all dance hand in hand in one round ring. They hang together just like man and wife; For such a one as Jack, such is his neighbour. As if she'd say: "Like your's, so is my head, Save those male honours which do yours o'erspread. Both roads, it must be confessed, bring us exactly to the same spot; but the smoother one will always be preferred, especially by the feet of the great, which seldom tread on any thing but carpets. We hope, on account of our smoothness, to have some of them travel our way. If it be true, as a certain poet (Oldham) says: "For seldom that ill-natur'd planet rules, That plagues a poet with a dearth of fools." And as another (Farquhar) writes: A fool's the fav'rite plant of Nature, A weed that has to twenty summers ran, Shoots up to stalk, and vegetates to man.”. -If this be true, folly has never, been confined to any age or country, and there is the less room to wonder at the fecundity of the present crop in this country. The vice and folly of human nature are the game of the satirist, who feels an honest indignation at profligacy and depravity. Greece had its Aristophanes; Rome, its Horace, Juvenal, Persius, and Martial; France, its Boileau, Moliere, and Le Sage; Spain, its Cervantes, and Guevara; and England, its Oldham, Dorset, Swift, and Churchill. The latter now enjoys, as we have before said, its Peter Pindar and Colonel Hanger, both great men in their line; and we burn with the same generous desire to reform the depreciated manners of our countrymen, great as well as little, for we are not above giving advice to the former, although we know they are above taking it. The strength of satire consists in this most essential point, that it reaches where neither the fears of the laws of God or man can take effect. To preach religion to the Atheist, who hopes for no future rewards and dreads no future punishments, would be like haranguing a post; human laws are found of very little avail against the corruption of private debauchees, drunkards, and gamesters, especially of high life, al though in an action tried to recover the amount of a note obtained by gaming, a late learned judge (Lord Kenyon) denounced the full severity of the law against all offenders in a similar way, of whatever rank or sex. "It is extremely to be lamented,' said his Lordship, that this vice has descended to the very lowest order of the people. It is to be regretted, that it is so prevalent among the highest ranks of society, who have set the example to their inferiors, and who, it seems, are too great for the law. I wish they could be punished. If any prosecutions are fairly brought before me, and the parties are justly convicted, whatever may be their rank or station in the country; though they should be the first ladies in the land, they should certainly exhibit themselves in the PILLORY!'- As we have never witnessed such an exhibition, although gaming is as frequent and public as ever, we must conclude that those who countenance it are too great for the law; but Nature has implanted in all mankind a love of public estimation, and a dread of its opposite, infamy. Therefore to rouse to virtue by that love, and to deter from vice by this dread, is |