It appears that the revenue would be very slightly affected, by government allowing a quantity of malt, proportioned to the number of his family, to be issued to the peasant, free from those duties which it is now judged expedient to make it pay. The parish-officer, with Comparatively little trouble, might superintend the distribution; and render an account to the exciseman, or person named for that purpose, of the receipts and issues of malt taken from the adjacent malt-house, for the use of the poor. The same money, or less than the sum, now paid by the labourer for what the country dealer thinks proper to name tea, would enable him to purchase quite sufficient malt for the use of his family, if free from the enormous duties to which it is subject. It is almost needless to remark that the health, the comfort, and the manners, of the peasant, (as the possession of beer at home might, at length, wean him from the habit of visiting the ale-house of the village,) would be benefited by this indulgence. When a certain senator projected plans for ameliorating the state of the poor, I publicly submitted to him this idea, in a more detailed form. He thought it futile, for he paid no attention to it. Possibly the reader may think so I. N. B. too. IN SIR, N the cause of humanity, no effort is lost; for whatever excites public attention, must eventually contribute its share towards the improvement of the public mind. On this principle I was pleased with the saggestion of T. C. communicated by last January's Magazine, on the advantages of an ice lifeboat, which certainly on first consideration appears a plausible and praise-worthy invention. There are however some objections which I fear will overthrow its proposed utility, but which I would not attempt to bring forward without stating what I think to be a more simple and practicable expedient. In the first instance, however perfect the thing may. be in itself to answer the desired purpose, is it likely that such an expensive apparatus should be prepared at every place where humanity might wish the precaution, considering the great uncertainty of its ever being wanted? Its size and weight would render it too unwieldy to serve for an extensive district; and if every pool where danger is apprebended, or every two or three hundred yards of river or canal, which may pass through a populous neighbourhood, is required to have its boat, where shall the ardour be found to promote the design? Another objection which strikes me forcibly, is the probability of its becoming from its weight so entangled with the broken ice, as to render it difficult, if not impracti cable, for the operator to return without assistance, but which could not always be calculated upon; added to this must be the difficulty which the distressed sufferer would have to contend with, in grappling any thing so unsteady or so much out of his reach as the edge of the boat, and the danger also of so small a boat being upset by lifting an almost helpless creature into it from the water. All these difficulties would, I conceive, be effectually removed, and every security given, by the simple expedient of using a common ladder, which might be procured at a very inconsiderable expense, or which, from its easy carriage, almost any neighbourhood might quickly supply. Its length would give security, by furnishing so long a bearing on the ice it may be slided across the hole so as for the sufferer to grasp some of its rounds; and any person may walk on his hands and feet close up to, and even over the spot, with as little hazard as can well be imagined. It would instantly become an easy and safe deposit for the body, and the operator might drag his charge to a distance from the hole; or, if time and opportunity should serve, a rope might be attached to one or to each end of the ladder, for the spectators to lend a hand, and it would then become an effectual and expeditious sledge. I was once unfortunately a witness to a scene where I was instantly struck with the idea, how readily a life might have been preserved by the mode here recommended; and have since procured a ladder for the spot, made lighter than for common use, with the uprights the same strength throughout, and the cross bars two or three inches longer: and to this I can conceive neither objection nor improvement. Birmingham. J. L. of reading off minute divisions on the tables of philosophical instruments, a method presented itself to me, by which apparently the present way of graduating instruments might be much improved. The method I mean, and which, as far as I know, is perfectly new, is, instead of engraved or black lines with spaces between them, to use lines of the dimensions required, of different colours, in contact with each other: thus the spaces, which in the present way occupy room, without forming a part of the calculation, would be entirely done away, and every set of divisions upon an equal scale would be comprized in at least half the compass. The divisions in present use, are to the tenth, twentieth, or fiftieth of an inch: a greater minuteness than this quickly becomes irksome in practice. The divisions above-mentioned, are afterwards subdivided by means of a vernier, so as to extend to the hundredth, thousandth, and even ten-thousandth of an inch, by means of a good magnifier; and here the difficulty I have alluded to, of calculation, is increased. My method is, to use ten lines, each of a different colour, contrasted in the best manner, each being as strongly tinted as possible, and placed in contact with each other. The order of the colours I have adopted, is represented in the following sketch: 10.9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. the whole running in the order here exhibited; and assigning the number specified, respectively to each of the several colours, so that each colour shall signify or express that number. Having found some difficulty in procuring such lines of colour, drawn with the required exactness, I succeeded completely to my wish, by placing together laminæ of card, paper, or tin-foil, compressed together, as it were, into one substance, the edge of each lamina having been previously prepared with the proper colour. By this method, experience has proved to me that divisions to the number of a hundred in an inch can be easily read off by an ordinary eye, unassisted by a magnifier; and to two thousand by a magnifier of ordinary power. It will be obvious that this method by coloured lines, is applicable chiefly to the purpose of subdividing other divisions by means of a moveable scale; hence it might commence where divisions in the present way are found to become irksome to reckon, viz. at the hundred in the inch, dividing in this instance any tenth of an inch into ten, thus giving hundredths; any hundredth of an inch into ten, giving thousandths; and so on to any required or possible extent.* It will be apparent, that having previously assigned a specific number to every different colour, which after a little practice would be recollected, but which might at all times be instantly known by referring to a similar scheme upon a scale of convenient size ready for the purpose, the trouble or irksomeness of reckoning minute divisions would be entirely obviated; the line of colour pointed 2, indicating at once the number of subdivision. In descending to extremely minute divisions, the moveable scale, instead of containing ten lines of colour, might have one-half only, in coloured lines; which would be sufficient for indicating any number of the ten, the blank space of the scale indicating five occasionally. This mode of division admits in course the use of the vernier, consisting in this instance of coloured lines, as well as in the usual method, and with at least equal advantage. A scale of division consisting of 10,000 in the inch, is sometimes required in practice; and doubtless minuter divisions still might be desirable, were they made so as to be seen and reckoned with facility; which, I flatter myself, the method here proposed will be found perfectly adequate to. In my experiments I made use of card, paper, and tin-foil, as I have mentioned above, merely by way of trial; and having found them answer, I should recommend the use of lamine of brass, copper, or silver, which, compacted together into I am informed from unquestionable authority, that microscopes are made for sale which magnify the diameter of an object 600 times: hence it will follow that such divisions as I have mentioned, might be extended to the number of 60,000 in the length of an inch, provided coloured laminæ suffi ciently thin could be procured, or an artist had dexterity enough to draw such coloured lines. + Whenever five colours only are used, perhaps the following arrangement might be the best: white; 2 blue; 3 red; 4 yellow; 5 black. one substance, would form an uniform series of coloured lincs, without any space between them. It appears, from what I have stated before, that it might be possible, by the method here proposed, to exhibit even the difference of the 60,000th part of an iuch, on a scale; but for ordinary use, I believe from one hundred to one or two thousand are sufficient; and this, I can venture to say, a scale formed on this principle will give with the utmost perspicuity, without the use of a vernier, but which, when minuter divisions are required,might be conveniently adapted to it. Hlaving given an account of my expe. riments on this subject, which were made merely for the sake of putting my plan to some kind of practical test, I shall leave it to others to determine on the practicability and utility of it in general application, Queen-street, Oxford. April 5, 1810. RICHARD WALKER, P. S. I first contrived this new mode of division for the purpose of measuring small variations in the barometer, to which instrument it seems particularly applicable. LYCEUM OF ANCIENT LITERA- PERSIUS. AVING already in a late numH ber trespassed so largely upon the field of satire, we hasten to close this part of our subject with an account of Persins, the only remaining poctical satirist of autiquity. Upon his merits it will not be necessary to descant much at large; his life was short, and his remains are unusually scanty. There is a life of A. Persius Flaccus, supposed to have been written by Probus, which, though abounding in errors ac. cording to Casaubon, yet seems to be the source from which every account of him has been taken. He was born in the 22d year of Tiberius, and of Rome 787, while Fabius Persicus and Lucius Vitellius were consuls. The place of his birth has been contested; some assigning Volaterra, a town of Etruria; and others, the province of Liguria, but apparently upon no other authority than these lines, which occur in the sixth of his Satires: mihi nunc Ligus ora Intepet, hibernatque meum mare, quâ latus ingens Dant scopuli, et multâ litus se valle receptat. At all events, he continued in the former place till he was removed to Rome in his twelfth year, where he studied under Palæmon the grammarian, and Virginias Flaccus the rhetorician. He imbibed those austere principles of the stoice which are so frequently displayed in his writings, from Cornutus, his friend and master in philosophy. He is said to have written many things in very early youth but it was by reading the tenth book of Lucilius that he was led to the pursuit of satire. He was the intimate friend of Lucan, and shared with that young and interesting poet a just detestation of the arrogance and tyranny of Nero. The character of Persius appears to have been very amiable. Contrary to what might be expected from the harsh style, sarcastic severity, and the indecent allusions, which too frequently occur in his Satires, he was mild in his manner, warmly attached to his family and friends, and of a disposition so reserved and modest as to excite the wonder of his licentious contemporaries. His state of health was generally weak, and he died of a complaint in his chest (vilio sto machi") before he had attained his thirtieth year. Six Satires are all that remain of this young and rigid poet. They appear to have been well received in his own time, and admired by those whose serious tempers and virtuous dispositions inspired them with a love of study and a contempt for pleasure. That they were not calculated to please the greater part of his countrymen, may be readily supposed. The fastidious Romans, among whom vice and corruption were completely naturalized, might be laughed into decency by the delicate raillery of Horace, but they turned with fear and disgust from the keen invectives and harsh pictures of Persius. Severity was foreign to Horace; he disclained it al together. His sharpest touches were comparatively innocent. Admissus circum præcordia ludit. He endeavoured to laugh men out of their vices; and, to use a homely expression of Creech,the did not lance or cauterize the sores, but tickled till he healed. But the stern maxims of Persius, his rigid virtue, his insulting sneers, and cutting reproaches, alarmed without correcting, and provoked instead of amending. And if he failed as a moralist, still less was he likely to please as a poet. Superior to Horace, * See Casaubon in Vit. Pers. and and perhaps to Juvenal, in virtue and learning, he was inferior to both in elegance and wit. His style, which is sometimes noble, figurative, and poetical, was suited to the dignity of his sentiments; which have all the grandeur that the philosophy of the stoics, when judiciously applied, could give them. But he was equally a stranger to the delicacy of Horace, and the majesty of Juvenal. It was seldom indeed that he permitted himself to unbend the severity of his muse, and he is always unsuccessful in his attempts to assume a lighter style. Energy, acuteness, and spirit, are his characteristic features: though his lan guage is rude and uncouth, his sense is always manly and bold. These qualities made him a favourite with the few whose virtue and learning rendered them su perior to the prevailing follies of the age. Considering the very scanty efforts of his pen, he obtained a greater share of applause than many others whose works were more numerous. Quintilian and Martial have borne testimony to his merit, and to the reputation he enjoyed. Modern critics have however censured him for defects of composition, from which it is not easy to defend him. Even Casaubon, his fondest admirer and best interpreter, admits that his style is ob scure. But if any apology can be made for this first sin against good writing, it is in the case of a satirist, and above all of one who dared to reprobate the follies of a tyrant. If Persius be obscure (and we acknowledge that he is), let it be remembered that he wrote in the time of Nero. It has been remarked indeed that this author is not merely obscure when he lashes and exposes the Roman emperor. It was very well, say the critics, to employ hints and half sentences while he censured the vices of a cruel and luxurious despot; but there could be no occasion to envelope himself in obscurity, Stoicam denique professionem nunquam obliviscitur, adeo exactè et doctè aliq. winw, ut ne Zeno quidem ipse aut Chrysippus porticum illam melius fuerit fulsurus. -Cas Prolog. in Pers. Sed Persius jam tum in illâ suâ adolescentiâ gravis, totusque ad severitatem factus, Xenocratis quàm Menippo familior, Gratiis rarò litavit.-Ibid. ↑ Multum et veræ gloriæ quamvis uno libro Persius meruit. Quinct.-Sæpiùsin libro memoratur Persius uno. Mart. Sed Poetæ, says Casaubon, facilè ignosco, cùm cogito crudelissimi et ponihærariu tyranni.-Prolog. in Pers. MONTHLY MAO, No. 198 while he expounded the doctrines of the stoics to his friend Cornutus, or expa tiated to the poet Bassus on the true use of riches. In answer to this last objection, the common argument may be used, that what is obscure or unin telligible now, was not so at the time in which he wrote, particularly to the learned persons to whom his satires are addressed. Many allusions, and hints of circumstances then universally known, are lost to us. Though satirical writings may be preserved from the injuries of time, and be read in after-ages, their views were present, and intended for the age in which they were written. While therefore we admit the charge of obscurity, we do not allow it that weight which it might have in other cases. We may as well complain of the rust upon an ancient coin, as of the obscurity of an ancient satirist. The brevity of style which Persius affected, and his close philosophical turn of thought, may have contributed to his obscurity; and there was perhaps a melancholy in his temper that infected his writings, and made them want the spirit, though they abounded in the gall, of satire. * Considered merely as a poet, it must be confessed that Persius has little claim upon the admiration of posterity. His verse is unpolished, his comparisons are coarse, his allusions indecent and low. His ungraceful transitions from one subject to another, betray his contempt or his ignorance of elegant composition. His great merit is in the zeal, the earnestness, with which he inculcates maxims of virtue, and discovers his abhorrence of vice. For this he seems to have willingly sacrificed all the graces and fastidious delicacy upon which the reputation of poets is too often founded, His poetry is a strong and rapid torrent which pours in its infracted course over rocks and precipices; and which occasionally, like the waters of the Rhone, disappears from our view, and loses itself under ground.† Persius is therefore no favourite with the critics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Scaliger is vehement in his condemnation, attributing his obScurity to the silly affectation of choosing to convey by hints what he did not think proper to unfold at large. Bayle ascribes it to a defective taste; and that singular turn of mind which delighted in enig matical figures, even when it was necessary only to propound a moral maxim. Vossius contends that he knew nothing of the common rules of satire; and Va. vassor censures his Latinity, which he says is unworthy the age in which he flourished. The elder Casaubon, on the other hand, is as warm in his praise, and boldly places him in the same line with Horace and Juvenal: Cum autem trium Romana salire poetarum, Horatii, Persii, et Juvenalis, idem sit propositum, idem scopus, quem antè diximus; magna tamen inter ipsos differentia; omnes esse eximios, omnes lectu dignissimos, at qui diversis virtutibus tandem propè parem sint consecuti.† Juvenal and Persius are generally printed together. The first edition is, Juvenal and Persius, fol. Romæ per Uldalricum Gallum, no year. fol. Brixiæ, 1473, very rare. Venet. apud Ald. 1501. Persius alone. H. Casaubon, 12mo. Par. 1607. For the Monthly Magazine. Of ATTENDANCE ON GREAT MEN among the ROMANS. into FLATTERY and servility came the world at the same time with power; and though a generous spirit may refuse compliance with them, yet they have obtained among all ranks in all nations, and with greater success than any thing else that can be named. It is difficult to express to what a degree they were carried by the poor, the candidates for offices, the clients, and the dependants, among the Romans; that people so celebrated for magnanimity, The modern ceremonies of courts, the respect of vassals for their lords, are familiarity and neglect, compared with their assiduity and debasement. Attendance among the Romans was expressed by the word assectatio: and included three parts, called salutatio, deductio, and assiduitas; all three indispensable duties to be paid to those from whom any thing was expected. The first of these ceremonies was the salutatio; See the animated note, where, addressing himself to Scaliger, he exclaims, Pax! vir Incomparabilis, &c. + Ibid. In vain we poor to levies early run: These legacy-hunters could stoop to make their bows at the houses of widows, and of such as had no heirs; and these salutations, being usually paid at or before the dawn of day, were termed officia antelucana. The servile crowd, till their idol appeared, amused themselves in the court or adjoining chambers, which from thence were called cubicula salutatoria. But in the houses of the eminent persons there was a distinction of chambers ac cording to rank; the visitants of quality who probably wanted relief and assist. going into the anti-chamber, whilst those auce remained below. the house, the apartment rang with salve At the appearance of the master of or ave: at first the title of dominus was considered sufficient, but afterward that in turns, and with the most respectful of rer was more generally used. Then, and services; their compliments generally gestures, they offered him their persons meeting with favourable answers from their patron, who sometimes condescend ed to bestow a kiss upon those of a higher order; and, after taking a turn in had fallen under the patron's displeasure, the court, withdrew. When any one he was denied admittance, or made to wait, or answered only with a nod, or first visit, some hastened away to pay & was altogether unnoticed. From this similar homage to other men in power, from whom also they had or fancied they had expectations; others staid to attend their patron when he went abroad. The second way of paying court was the |