"that he presumed it must be at Cambridge, as he had never heard of it at Oxford."

And now, having taken this cursory survey of the work itself, we return our heartfelt, our enthusiastic thanks to the author for the inestimable service he has thus rendered to the cause of indolence. The big ideas that have long wandered aimless, valueless, and purportless for want of a resting-place on which to settle, he has now collected into one harmonious whole; he has given to airy nothing a local habitation and a name; he has substituted demonstration for speculation, and, in his own words, that will now be done on principle which was before done at random. This treatise is the text-book of a science which is now in its infancy, but which, we feel confident, will extend its influence and shoot forth its ramifications through the whole of the educated world. The Genius of Pluck will take his stand on the very apex of the temple of fame, supported on either side by the guardian spirits of Phrenology and Homœopathy. To say that it is now treated with contempt and derision, is no argument against its truth or its excellence; for when has not learning been subjected to the ridicule of fools,-when has not science been opposed by ignorance,-when has not the fire of genius been damped by the wet blanket of popular obtuseness? We have now the sketch of a system of the Art of Pluck given by an author who is peculiarly qualified for the task by deep and accurate thought, and we hope, too, by personal experience. But, it must be recollected, that however great an effort this treatise may be, it contains but the rudiments of the science; and we conclude by exhorting future writers to fill up, to colour, and to illustrate this outline, by their thoughts, their observations, and their experiences.

THE MODERN LEMPRIERE.

NEW EDITION.

Revised up to the present time for the use of the paulo-post-futurum.

THE subjoined selections are offered as specimens of an edition of Lempriere, about to be put forth by our enterprising publisher, which will be seen to contain a mass of important information not to be found in the American edition of Professor Anthon, or the formidable English reprint of Mr. E. H. Barker. O.T.N.

This work is designed chiefly to supply to posterity that certainty of knowledge in the biography of eminent Modern characters, which is so often sought for in vain in the meagre accounts left us of the lives of the great men of the Ancient world. Many facts have been lost, and many more misstated, from the want of a Lempriere or a Barker contemporary with the heroes of Athens and Rome. Nor has antient Geography and Topography suffered less from the want of a like eminent authority on the particular subject-matter of each.

Whether indeed it has been the fault of his Dictionaries, or his masters, or himself, the Editor must acknowledge that similarity of names has often led him into perplexities, which, if a mistake in matters so serious could ever be an object of ridicule, would be amusing enough.

He is forced in sincerity to confess that he could never well distinguish between the river Tiber and the modern Tivoli, nor correctly lay down the position of the

various Antiochs. He had once, which his better knowledge has since enabled him to overcome, an unhappy knack of making Phocis a town of Asia Minor, and Phocæa a country to the west of Boeotia, while some indistinct notion of sea-calves hovered between the two.

Then with respect to names of people. Who has not, in his researches into ancient history, experienced an "addle” in his attempts to discriminate accurately between the various Cæsars, Herods, Fabii, Scipios and Catos, (if my memory serve me right, even Horace himself has not escaped confusion in the case of the latter family) and found the difficulty of attributing to each individual his own proper act and deed? Many a little boy is believed to have been whipped for calling Pluto the God of riches, and for locating the Heathen representative of Mammon in a much hotter place than Classical ethics admit of.

Nero, before now, has been assigned a conch and seagreen hair, and Nereus been accommodated with the Emperor's fiddle. Most young ladies believe-and some may perhaps doubt whether it is worth while to disturb their bliss-that the Brutus who murdered Cæsar, and sacrificed himself, was the same man who acted idiot, and expelled the Tarquins; and once to his shame-for at the time he was not confident enough in his knowledge to contradict it—the Editor heard an old lady unhesitatingly affirm before a large tea party that Philip the eunuch was the father of Alexander the Great. But if in these cases several gentlemen have been rolled into one, there are not wanting instances on the other hand where a single individual has been chopped up into many pieces. Thus we find that even Diodorus has made as many as three Hercules, Cicero six, and one writer-he

must surely have been a dogs'-meat-man-has had the audacity to cut him up into mere mince-meat, and fritter him away into forty-three! Of these, however, the son of Jupiter and Alcmene is allowed on all hands to have been (as the Chinamen say) first chop. But we must haste to our specimens.

BRIDGEWATER, Duke of.-An engineer of obscure birth and most eccentric habits, but by his great talents raised at length to the Bishopric of Bristol. When his great success in Canal surveying caused him to be called to the house of Peers, he was so little ashamed of his occupation that he took his title from the subject-matter of his trade. He was a munificent supporter of Cruelty to Animals, and at his death left eight posthumous Treatises to be published by Lord Francis Egerton, which have been wrongly assigned to various authors. A ninth is altogether spurious.

BUONAPARTE.-Chiefly known as the writer of an Epic in twenty-four books. Though a man of some consequence in his day, for he was successively King of Spain, Naples, Sweden, Rome, France and Holland,— yet he left behind him little but his literary works. He retired into private life sometime before his death, the date of which is uncertain; but the last time we read of him in history is in an abortive attempt at an insurrection in the reign of Louis Philippe, King of the French. For further account of him see the Life of Wellington.

BURKE. An enlightened philanthropist of the nineteenth century. He was the happy originator and eloquent advocate of a new and capital mode of punishment, which superseded the guillotine in the French revolution. He was remembered for the dignity of his carriage and his chivalrous attachment to his unfortu

nate but not less celebrated contemporary, the accomplished but too profligate Hare. The splendour of their characters and the ardency of their affection caused the two friends to be named "The Sublime and Beautiful." His statue formerly existed in the Tussaud Gallery in the attitude of the orator holding a pitch-plaster over the recumbent figure of Marie Antoinette.

CARLTON.-A celebrated Club-house no longer existing, its site being occupied by the offices for the new hotel of the "Whole Hog." It was long presided over and enlivened by the suppers of George IV. when Prince Regent. It was remarkable for the extreme beauty of its Portico, which was afterwards converted into a sort of stone parapluie to cover a well, with this inscription, "All's well that ends well."

CAROLINE STATUTES.-Answering to the lex Julia of the Roman law. They were passed by Convocation at Oxford in the time of George the Fourth out of compliment to his Queen, and were renewed again in 1836 to spite Dr. Hampden.

CHARTERHOUSE.-Latine, Tabularium. A building of considerable size and antiquity upon Eel-pie island, in the Hall of which King John on his way to his palace of Westminster stopped to knight several citizens of London, and to sign the Magna Charta. Hence its name. Subsequently it was converted into a Nunnery, and several of its innocent inhabitants who survived the Plague were during the Great Rebellion (proh pudor!) brought to the block! Some have derived its name from the Cartularies and Charters which are said to have once existed there, but they have not been lately observed. It is still however used as a depository for many curious deeds, Black-letter books, Latin MSS., Cods., &c.; and