tenants provide for the due payment of their particular rents? Surely it is not too much to say, that the business of Laureat to his Majesty is, under such provision, to the full; as ingenious, reputable, and regular a trade, as that of Almanack Maker to the Stationrer's Company. The contest therefore for so excellent an office, having been warmer in the late instance than at any preceding pe- : briod, is perfectly to be accounted for; especially too at a time, when, from nobler causes, the Soul of Genius may reasonably be supposed to kindle into uncommon enthusiasm, at a train of new and unexampled prodigies. In an age of Reform; beneath the mild sway of a British Augustus; under the Ministry of a pure immaculate youth; the Temple of Janus shut; the Trade of Otaheite open; not an angry American to be heard of, except the Lottery Loyalists; the fine Arts in full Glory; Sir William Cham bers, the Royal Architect; Lord Sydney a Cabinet Minister!What a golden æra!

From this auspicious moment,, Peers, Bishops, Baronets, Methodists, Members of Parliament, Chaplains, all genuine Beaux Esprits, all legitimate heirs of Parnassus, !

rush forward, with unfeigned ardour, to devis light the world by the united efforts of liberal genius and constitutional loyalty The illustrious candidates assemble the wisest of Earls sits as Judge the archest of› Buffos becomes his assessor the Odes are read the election is determined how justly is not for us to decide. To the great TH20 bunal of the public the whole of this im-^^i portant contest is now submitted.Every" document that can illustrate, every testimony that tends to support the respective merits of 1 the Probationers, is impartially communicated to the world of letters. Even the di Editor of such a collection may hope for! some reversionary fame from the humble, but not inglorious task, of collecting the scattered rays of Genius.-At the eve of a long laborious life, devoted to a sister Muse (vide my History, printed for T. Payne and Son, at the Mews-Gate), possibly it may not wholly appear an irregular vanity, if I sometimes have entertained a hope, that my tomb may not want the sympathetic record of Poetry-I avow my motive.

It is with this expectation I appear as an Editor on the present occasion.The Au

thors whose compositions. I collect for public notice are twenty-three. The odds of sur vivorship, according to Doctor Price (are, that, thirteen of these will outlive me, my+ I self being in class III, of his ingenious tables. -Surely, therefore, it is no mark of that sanguine disposition which my enemies have been pleased to ascribe to me, if I deem it possible that some one of the same thirteen will requite my protection of their harmo nious effusions with a strain of elegiac gratitude, saying, possibly (pardon me, ye Survivors that may be, for presuming to hint: the thought to minds so richly fraught as yours are) saying, I say,

*Said Survivors are not bound to said Rhime, if not agreeable.

[THE FOLLOWING excellent observations on the LYRIC STYLE, have been kindly communicated to the EDITOR by the Reva THOMAS WARTON. They appear to have been taken almost verbatim from several of the former works of that ingenious author; but chiefly from his late edition of Milton's Mi ora. We sincerely hope, therefore, that they may serve the double purpose of enriching the present col" lection, and of attracting the public attention to that very critical work from which they are principally extracted.]

> THOUGHTS ON ODE WRITING.

QAH MCA Carmen, Cantus, Cantilena; Chanson, Canzone, all signify what, Anglice, we denominate ODE-Among the Greeks, Pindar; among the Latins, Horace with the Italians, Petrarch; with the French, Boileau; are the principes hujusce scientiæ -Tom Killegrew took the lead in English Lyrics; and, indeed, till our own Mason, was nearly unrivalled-Josephus Miller too hath penned something of the Odaic, inter his Opera Minora. My grandfather had a M.S. Ode on a Gilliflower, the which, as our family had it, was an esquisse of Gammer Gurton's; and I myself have seen various Cantilenes of Stephen Duck's of a pure relish-Of Shadwell, time hath little impaired

the fame-Colley's Bays rust cankereth notDr. Casaubon measures the Strophe by Anapæsts In the Polyglott, the epitrotus primus is the metrimensura. I venture "tó récommend" Waly, waly, up the Bank," as no bad model of the pure Trochaic-There is also a little simple strain," commencing "Saw ye my father, saw ye my mother ;” which to my fancy, gives an excellent ratio of hendecasyllables. Dr. Warton Indeed prefers the Adonic, as incomparably the neatest, ay, and the newest μολπης μέτρον A notion too has prevailed, that the Black Joke, or M λæμpuññai Aapai, is not the “cosa deta in prosa mai, prosa mai, ne in rima; ine ne in rima; whereas the Deva Cestrensis, or Chevy Chase, according

to Dr. Joseph Warton, is the exemplar of

Vide Nashe's Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600, 200 10*29)

observe that Ravishment is a favourite word with Milton, Paradise Lost, B. V. 46. Again, B. IX. 541. Again, Com. V. 245.