The most extenfive reading, and the moft brilliant powers of mind, will not enable a man to produce any elegant performance, till he has worn away the awkwardness which marks every first attempt, and till practice has accuftomed him to the application of that knowledge which he has before received from theory.

But then he who is defirous of improving himfelf by a habit of this kind, muft write with great care. He

must be attentive to the felection of

pure and proper words, and to the graceful collocation of them, and must labour to dignify the general character of his ftile. A haftinels of compofition unavoidably neglects many beauties, and introduces many imperfections; a bold thought lofes much of its force, and a pleafing one no little of its beauty. Nothing is more unadvifed than for a man to accuftom himself to write with rapidity, when he is firt beginning to compofe. His fentences will be either lengthened out into feebleness, or obfcured by concifenefs. The manner to which his genius leads him will be indulged without restraint: a florid one will not be pruned of its redundancies; a dry one will upon no occafion be brightened into elegance. 'It is much more eafy for those to attain to a correctness and neatness of compofition who have never written at all, than for fuch as have ufed themfelves to write in a hafty and careless manner. However ftudious thofe of the latter defcription may be to retrench their imperfections, they are continually betrayed into their former inaccuracies; their old manner is ever foliciting them with charms, which familiarity has rendered too powerful to be refifted. Their faults may be fometimes amended, but are feldom extirpated.

Horace, in his Art of Poetry, has given a direction, which has been more frequently quoted than followed, that all compofitions he fuppreffed until the ninth year: for, fays he, what you have never offered to the public eye. you may at any time correct; but that which is once gone forth, you can never recall

We know, that fome of the most celebrated writers have been extremely cautious and laboured in their produc

tions.

Ifocrates, we are told, fpent ten years in writing his Panegyric.

Amongst our own countrymen, Ad dijen and Goldsmith were particularly

fcrupulous; and Gray was fo much fo, that although his opportunities for writing were unufually favourable, and his talents fingularly fplendid, still he has left but very few performances behind him. A faftidious tardiness of this kind, it is true, is not to be recommended; but, upon the whole, it is certainly to be preferred to a habit of negligent compofition. In this, as indeed in every thing elfe, it is the part of wifdom to obferve the happy mean.

Many spend their time in writing who might be much better employed in reading, and pretend to teach others whilft they ought to be informing themfelves. Their knowledge being in. confiderable, they have, of course, but little to impart. Hence, a certain round of fentiments and images is fo continu ally revolving, that from that, which you at firft regarded with fatisfaction, you foon turn afide with difguft. Start where you pleafe, you are fure to be led over nearly the fame ground; you are always furrounded by the fame objects, and directed to the fame point.

But furely it is for those who know but little, to liften with deference to their fuperiors, rather than demand an audience for themselves. He who arrogates to himfelf the province of an inftructor,fhould certainly prepare him. felf, by collecting together a confiderable fund of knowledge on the subject which he intends to difcufs; fo that thofe who attend to him may not have to reproach him with ignorance and prefumption, and themselves with the lofs of their time. An attempt to elucidate any topic, by a person inadequate to the talk, is extremely difingenuous, and fometimes may be ferioutly injurious. For an unenlightened reader may abandon the moit certain and the moit important truths, under the idea that, as the champion who undertakes to defend it has made ufe of fuch feeble and inconclufive arguments, it furely muft want evidences fufficient to fupport it. Thus that may be imputed to the weakness of the caufe, which is owing to the incapacity of the advocate.

To imitate the pureft models of correct and elegant compofition, is a direction which has been repeatedly preffed upon the ftudent. But it is to be remembered, that this imitation may be carried too far. The beft authors have their peculiarities and their faults: to copy the former is childishness; to run blindly into the latter is ftupidity. No

man

man, fays the learned Dr. Blair, will ever become a good writer, who has not fome degree of confidence to follow his own genius.

Another admonition, which is equally trite with the former, is, to learn the diftinction between that beautiful fimplicity which marks the ftile of a good writer, and that lumid and oitenta tious manner which young authors too commonly affect, miltaking it for ele. gance and dignity.

I fhall not enter into thofe feveral rules which relate to the art of compofition, and which the fuggeftions of different writers have tended fo greatly to multiply. These the student will find plainly and fyftematically brought together, perfpicuously illuftrated, and ably enforced, by the author whom I have already cited, in a treatife which, for its merit, may fafely challenge any other that has ever appeared on the fubject.

I cannot conclude without recommending it to every one, that fubmits his performances to the public, to be

extremely cautious, left any thing fhould escape him which could prejudice the interests of morality and religion. On this point I would with to infift particularly. It is a matter of the greatest importance. In the moment of infolent glee, we may feel ourselves tempted to make the moft precious facrifices to a happy witticifm, or a farcaftic lafh. But thefe temptations the good man will uniformly and firmly relift. He will call to mind the bitter remorfe and penitential recanta-/ tions of many of thofe who have diffeminated the principles of infidelity. The idea will be ever prefent to his mind, that the day will come when the good which he has effected fhall afford him an unfpeakable fatisfaction, or the mifchiefs which he has been inftrumental in propagating fhall overfpread him with the bluth of confufion; when he fhall be either animated by the hope of remuneration, or racked by the dread of vengeance.

Chefter, April 13, 1803.

AURELIUS.

THE impenetrable myftery that hangs over the Author of the celebrated Letters of JUNIUS is fo favourable to the propagation of reports, that we may expect to hear that they have been afcribed, in fucceffion, to every diftinguished character who flourished during the period of their publication. The following article, however, which appeared in a late number of The Wilmington (Delaware) Mirror, is founded upon a stronger affertion than has ever before been made upon the fubject, for it proceeds upon a fuppofed acknowledgment of Junius himfelf! Of Mr. Rodney, or of the degree of credit that may reasonably be attached to his declaration, we know nothing; but the fubject is fo curious, that we think our readers will not be averfe from having their attention once more drawn to it.

"No political writings ever made more noile in the world, or were more celebrated, than the Letters figned JUNIUS, and published in London now more than thirty years ago. And as the Author conveyed thofe letters to the prefs in fuch a fecret manner as to conceal him!elf entirely from the know

ledge of the Public, and every other perfon, the public curiofity has been excited, from time to time, to this-to know who he was. Frequent and various have been the conjectures refpect. ing him; but all have accorded in attri buting thofe letters to one perfon or another of the molt eminent abilities. This, without doubt, does the Author great honour. I have observed in fome of your late papers, that they were attributed to the celebrated Mr. Dunning by one Writer, and to the late Earl of Chatham by another. But, to fatisfy the curiofity of the world, and to preclude all future and uncertain conjectures, I can affure the Public that our celebrated Major-General CHARLES LEE. of the American Army, was the real Author of thefe Letters. And although he had declared that the fecret refted folely with himself, and that he meant to carry it to the grave with him; yet I affirm, and anIwer to the Public, that he revealed it to me, and, perhaps, to no other perfon in the world.

"In the fall of 1773, not long after General Lee had arrived in America, I had the pleasure of spending an after

noon

healthy; and, from the number of burials daily paffing and repaffing, one would think it fo. Such as would with to be informed on this fubject would do well to confult Dr. Menuret's Effay upon the City of Hamburg.

The church-yards are prodigiously crowded, and the coffins heaped one upon another, without an inch of earth to separate them; the oldeft, and molt decayed, are removed to make way for freth ones; and there are fome wanton enough not only to fay, that this wood is applied to the purpose of fmoking their beef, but that their beef owes its fuperiority of flavour alone to this circumstance-for certainly, without this advantage, beef is as good in England.

Each parith has a district chofen about half a mile out of the city-gates, where burial places are now laid out in the most decent and hand fome manner; but, unhappily, it colts twice as much to be buried here as in town: and it is a custom for the citizens to buy their burial places for a certain number of years, for which they give large fums. The late witty Sam. Foote obferved, on a vifit to his native place, Truro, in Cornwall, that it was an excellent place to die in, though a very bad one to live in: in Hamburg, it is alike expensive to live and die.

Thele Reitendieners are perfons of no inconfiderable confequence; they buy their places for life, at the rate of from twelve to twenty thousand marks, and make a great deal of money: they act in various capacities: fometimes they ferve as an escort from the Deputation of the Senate they alfo attend criminals to execution; in thefe cafes they are dreffed in military uniforms, completely armed: at others, they follow the coaches of the Burgomafters to the Senate house and to church, or ferve as matters of the ceremonies at the weddings of fome of the opulent Citizens; upon thefe occafions they are dreffed in long blue cloaks, with fwords by their fides.

Expence commences at Hamburg at the very moment of birth: the appear. ance of a young Hamburgian lays the public under inftant contribution: no fooner does fuch an event take place, than fervant, finely dreffed, and attended by a boy from the Orphan's School, is fent round to the houfes of all their friends (of whom they have a written lift) to inform them of it, each'

of whom gratifies him with a prefent : every thing given is fet down by the boy in a book, which he carries for that purpofe, and is afterwards di vided among the fervants. Where this ceremony happens in a respectable houfe, the collection frequently amounts to three hundred marks, or

more.

Servants' wages are four times what they were in former times: their great objection to live in English families is an English grate or fire-place; as foon as they fee that, nine out of ten will leave the place without affigning any other reafon. It is the custom here to give vails on all occafions; and the fervants are regularly feen posted on the ftairs for receiving them: they vary according to the quality of the perfon vifited: fome, at a dinner party, give two marks, others a fpecie, or five fhillings; fo that accepting an invitation to dinner is to the full as expenfive as dining at a tavern or restoration-honfe. The female fervants drefs remarkably well, are in general pretty, and, of courfe, feldom out of employment. No people are kinder or more humane to their fervants.

This town abounds with French reftauration-houses; and certainly they afford the beft accommodation, have the best eating, and beft wines: they are the order of the day, and to the full as much frequented by the English as others. The coffee-houfes are feldom vifited but in the morning, and are a kind of little exchanges. Tornquifl's and Stuart's, near the Exchange, are always crowded; in the latter, there is ufually a party of the first order among the English to fup and play at cards. In the Conftantine-Brucke there is a beeffteak cellar, upon a cheap plan, where dinners are dreffed much in the ftile of an English chop houfe: many of the English fup and fmoke their pipes here, particularly of an evening. The natives fit up late, but they nevertheless rife early. And here we may obferve a fingularity in their mode of reckoning time: The clocks of their churches announce the hour before it arrives; lo that when it is half past eight, it strikes nine, and they fay, it wants half an hour of nine.

The French, it has been observed, have given the people of Hamburg a tafte for pleafure and dilipation unknown to them before; but their greateft pleafures are their own.

The

The first is that of fmoking, which is univerfal at all hours: if there is a fingle rule without an exception, this is it. A German takes his pipe the firft thing in the morning, and the laft at night; it accompanies him as a conftant companion through the day, whatever may be his employment, bufinefs, or pleasure; the confumption of the boly weed is aftonishing, being alike common to the whole people, from the higheft condition to the lowelt. King James will never be a faint in their calendar; fhould they add another, the chance will be in favour of Sir Walter Raleigh.

No people are fonder of good living, or have more of it. Though great economists in their own houses, they are perfectly indifferent about expence when abroad. They have a great many public fealts. On one particular day of the year, a public dinner is given by the Governors of the Orphan Hospital; upon which occafion they go in procef. fion through the town, and collect money from every houfe, each giving fomething, more or lefs, according to his pleasure. There is a company of markfmen, like that of the English archers, who also give an annual public dinner when aflembled, they fhoot out of very large and long guns at a wooden bird, fixed upon a high pole; the victor has the privilege of being free of all taxes for the year: this dinner is numerously attended.

The tavern is their favourite temple. The Jews frequent public places; but they principally affociate with their own people, having a coffee house and tavern of their own, called "The European Coffee houfe," in the Mueblen-Straffe.

They are fond of mufic and dancing: their concerts and balls, both public and private, are very numerous, particularly the latter. This tafte is univerfal, from the highest order to the lowelt.

Speaking of mufic-the celebrated Czarnovich lives here-a man who is faid to want money, although he certainly has the power of getting it when ever he pleafes, for his name imme. diately fills a concert room; but so it is, however, that he feldom plays.

Their favourite dance is called the Waltz, which it is difficult to defcribe. The Gentleman places his hands on each fide the Lady's waift, and the Lady hers apon his arm or shoulders, with the

Gentlemen's knees between the Ladies', and thus they move round in narrow circles, making many circuits in the room. A dozen, or more, couple thus in motion, each revolving in their own orbit, have a very peculiar and pleasing effect. The people are paffionately fond of this dance. It would be no mifnomer if this was called "The Amorous Dance." From a contact fo exquifite, nothing can be more calculated to excite certain ideas; and it has been obferved, that in cafes of tardy courtships, the belt means of accelerating matters is, giving a public dance, and inviting the parties when the Waltz feldom fails producing the proper and speedy effect.

The Germans are all great cardplayers, and they play deep. They are alfo fond of billiards. In the coffee-rooms contiguous to the Exchange, from one to three, in the midft of bufinefs, crowds of them may be feen every day at billiards, and others fmoking their pipes, and fipping their coffee, looking on, particularly young men. Every place has habits and customs peculiar to itself in England, this would deftroy the credit of a merchant, and ruin a youth altogether. In winter, riding upon fledges is a favourite amufement, in which much money is spent. Thefe vehicles are very handfomely fitted up, have poftillions with two and four horfes, dressed and ornamented with bells, with which they drive with rapidity through the principal ftreets, in large parties. This ferves to make the town alive at a dead feafon of the year, and gives it a gay and joyous appearance. At this time the bafon of the Alfter is covered with fkaiters, exhibiting upon the ice.

The univerfal amufement in fummer is, that of walking, and riding on horfeback, or in carriages, to public gardens at the different villages in the environs of the town. Upon thefe occafions, their countenances indicate content, independence, and happinefs. Moft of them are laid out in the Dutch talte, with arbours, and little banquetting rooms, for felect parties; cards, bil liards, and kettles, constitute their amufements. The roads leading to thefe places are generally planted with rows of trees, which, in fummer, afford an agreeable fhade, and have a moit beautiful effect. In the different little villages as you pafs along, in fine weather, they are feen fitting on benches

at