Acanthio was of that sect of philosophers which the generality of mankind term oddities; and by nature formed to answer Democritus's idea of a poet. The mad enthusiasm of genius forced him so far from the centre of common sense, that his character unconsciously comprehended all those singularities which Horace ascribes to the affectation of the Roman poetasters. His beard was not cultivated as the badge of wisdom, or testimony of stoicism; on the contrary, he made frequent attempts to get rid of so unfashionable a companion; and would certainly have effected his purpose, but for the constant interruption of some impertinent idea between the resolution and the operation. When seized with the spouting mania, he gave loose to the rapture of his imagination, in the oratorical artillery of puffs, stamps, and roars, with so formidable an action on his natural crabbed severity of phiz, as frequently to entertain the spectators, not without some mixture of terror.

It was fortunate for him, when he had full space for the overboilings of this phrenzy ; but as he was never entirely secure, very dangerous symptoms of it often attacked him in the narrow compass of his apartment. Upon these occasions, a chorus of Rowley seldom subsided without the demolition of a set of china; the bard of Morven frequently furnished a week's work for a carpenter; and the Dircean swan has been known to commit open acts of hostility against his peaceable neighbours of the shelf, till actually checked in his mid career by the seasonable interposition of a prostrate table.

Being one day earnestly engaged in an argument with Plato, he was so enraged at the obstinate insensibility of a mahogany elbow chair, which was the temporary repre

sentative of that philosopher, that in the height of his resentment, he sprung forward to enforce conviction by the argumentum baculinum, and fell over the object of his vengeance on the floor. Finding himself greviously discomfited by a violent contusion on the forehead, while his hardheaded antagonist still maintained his point with the same phlegmatic coolness, he began to express his sensations, by dancing round the room, and roaring lustily for wet brown paper, in a yell, between pain, rage, and disappointment. Upon the timely application, however of this remedy, a dispute was settled, which might otherwise have terminated in an open rupture.

These, and many other peculiarities, constituted a character of which Soricius is a professed imitator. But unhappily the affected singularity of the latter, has not the excuse of geuius, which palliates the capricious eccentricity of the former. In short, he attempts to effect by art, what nature alone can render agreeable; for an oddity is an animal, whose innate and unconscious qualities are his only recommendation; the moment therefore he has any assumed virtues, he becomes disgusting. Soricius, it is true, has the appearance of absence, but he takes care to inform you that it is real. If you remind him of having forgotten any thing, he will exclaim with a simper, "ke, he, he, laud I am so forgetful!" but is sure upon search to find it carefully deposited: and if ever he ventures a sousing or a broken skin in support of his character, has always clean linen and plaisters in readiness for a thorough repair.

But as no part of an oddity's apparatus is so conducive to his success as his collection of rhapsodies, he has provided himself with a very ample classical budget; and that he

may add the recommendation of novelty, has stored it from those treasures of elocution which no dabbler in the art has ever entered on, such as the interesting narrative of Homer's catalogue; the glorious extravagancies of Lucan's battles; and the instructive softness of Virgil's directions for sowing wheat, and breeding bullocks. Nay, he has even attempted a higher excellence, and undertaken to model the worn-out trifles of Anacreon and Catullus, into novelty, with the as sistance of an heroic deep bass; and to deceive the most competent judges, with Pindar's Olympiads, in a charming piano.

Many such portraits might be drawn, and perhaps from the life, of servile imitation; but I should hope it was suf ficiently evident to every one, whose reason will tell him that he is an independent being, that the imitation of errors is the most glaring proof of a weak understanding. And that the affectation of that eccentricity which is allowable in true genius alone, is in any thing below mediocrity, like an attempt at the bold animation of a Raphael in the Saracen's-Head; or the venerable gloom of a Salvator, in the foliage of the royal oak.

C.

NOTES to CORRESPONDENTS.

ANTISUPERBUS I would advise to lay down the pen he has so hastily assumed; or if the scribendi cacoethes has taken such strong hold of him that he finds that impossible, let him throw his abilities into some other channel, as at present, I fear, he has mistaken their bent. The same hint, taken in time, might save the reputation of his unintelligible associate,

Much as I am obliged to a BARRISTER for his elegant extract, as the circumstances wear an air of truth, and my lucubrations might possibly fall into the hands of the parties, I fear it would too deeply wound the feelings of a distressed family for insertion.

No. 25. MONDAY, MAY 7, 1787.

Interdum populus rectum videt: est ubi peccat,

the people's voice is odd,

It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

PROVER

POPE.

ROVERBIAL expressions and received opinions, have usually been considered as an abridgement of national wisdom, and are perhaps the best guides to the character or genius of a people. And it is not improbable, that the extension of this method of inquiry, to the established opinions and received ideas of mankind in general, may lead us to a more perfect and general knowledge of them.

That the mind of man is not framed for happiness, is a principle, of the truth of which perhaps the most certain criterion is its popularity.

At the revival of learning, the idea of gradual and progressive degeneracy obtained very strongly; and whether it contributed in any measure to the study of the ancients, or

what is more probable, was derived from the inferiority visible in their imitators, its prevalence was unlimited, and its authority unquestioned. How far a servile reverence and scrupulous imitation of antiquity is compatible with the efforts of learning and genius, may be seen in the attempts of an age, whose diligence was unequalled, and whose genius ours has no right to suppose inferior to her own. But it may be objected that the qualities of the heart, if not those of the head, may be improved by a converse with antiquity; that if the science of barbarous nations is rude, their morality at least is pure. To fall into errors authorized by the example of a superior, has frequently afforded a despicable gratification to men of inferior abilities; and the scrupulous stickler for obsolete antiquity, may be pleased to find his error common to the ablest politicians of declining Rome. That great empire in a state of decay, has been aptly characterized by her historian, as the theatre in which the scenes of a more virtuous age were acted over again; but without the principle or spirit of the real personages. This was the error of a physician, who would treat an infirm patient as if he was in youth and health, as the only means of restoring him to both; and the only circumstances which render the former folly the more excuseable, are its greater frequency, and that appearance of earnestness, which the voluntary assumption of more rigid manners carries with it. Perhaps, the result of all serious enquiries on this subject will be, that, in the moral, as well as the physical world, there is a correspondent propriety in every member, as far as its relation to the rest is consdered, and that the manners of every age and nation have as much propriety in their designation, as the passions pe culiar to the different periods of life, and the instinctive qualities of the animal world.