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LETTER XII.

MMIANUS MARCELLINUS informs

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us of an observation, which Hormifdas, a prince of Perfia, made on Rome; and which is fomething remarkable, namely, That one thing only had there pleafed him, to find that 'men died at Rome as well as elsewhere.'

MR. GIBBON in his History has told us to read difplicuiffe for placuiffe, difpleafed for pleafed; a correction to which thofe of Bentley are innocent. He fays the contrary fenfe would be that of a mifanthrope; whereas his affords a reproof of Roman vanity.

THE fenfe that ftrikes me is very different from either of thefe; and is this, that the prince's envy at the pleasures of the inhabitants of Rome could only be moderated by the reflection that their pleasures were tranfitory.

How would the miferable envy the happy, were not the grave the equal termination of pleasure and of pain!

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LETTER XIII,

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OUR character of our deceased friend is undoubtedly juft. The goodness of his heart atoned even for the prejudices and caprice of his head,

FOR what defects will not benevolence atone? Is not that virtue fuperior to every qualification? Muft not genius itself hide its • diminished head' before the fuperior splendor of humble and uncelebrated worth?

How contemptible do the brightest pursuits of fame appear when oppofed to the modest merit of doing good to mankind! How much sweeter are the foft whispers of gratitude than the loudeft plaudits of popular praife!

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THERE is not surely a confideration that can be more productive of contempt of fame in a virtuous mind, than this, that the madman who ravages kingdoms, and puts whole nations to the fword, is looked on as a deity; while he who rewards induftry, and relieves diftrefs, lives without renown, and dies without pity.

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To real goodness, my friend, even the praise of real and innocent greatnefs, which is that of the mind, muft yield: for there is certainly more genuine merit in doing one good action than in writing an Iliad.

LETTER

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LETTER XIV.

N opinion that is oppofite to virtue is always oppofite to truth. This maxim, which, tho expreffed in few words, is the fruit of much obfervation, I have in no cafe found more applicable than in that moft abfurd popular error, that extravagance, and inattention to economy, always accompany genius.

We all flatter ourselves, in our youth especially, that we are poffeft of that non-defcript jewel called genius. Indeed, if the term genius have fo extenfive a meaning as to imply capacity in general, or capability, as Brown the celebrated layer-out of grounds used the phrase, we cannot deny that every one has genius of one kind or another. A man may, if you will, have a very fine genius for ftupidity: a fort of genius, which, tho I have not obferved to be mentioned in any treatife on the fubject, is yet at this day the most lucrative fpecies of genius one can be poffeft of.

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GENIUS is in my eftimation a word of ineffable reverence. The Gnoftic Abraxas itself is not to be weighed with it. Sometimes one man of genius rifes in the space of one thoufand years only: fometimes, indeed, when nature is unufually rich, three or four will appear in one country in the courfe of a century; as was the cafe when Bacon, Cromwell, Milton, Won Newton, illuminated England together, or at fhort fucceffions. But now, good heaven! every man, every woman, every child, has genius. I will venture to prophefy that, in the year 1883, from a natural progreffion of the word, genius will imply folly. The fact is, I have met with no man who in defcribing genius did not tacitly paint himself.

BUT, to difcufs the opinion mentioned in the beginning of this letter, we fhall, for the prefent, confider genius in the popular fenfe, as merely opposed to want of capacity for any art or fcience; and allow that middling quality which we imply, when we call a perfon, or a work, ingenious, to fall under the grand clafs of GENIUS. Even allowing this, we must ftill, to form a proper judgment, reafon from the

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