copy; and too often, instead of exhibiting the air of the original, they present us with that only which is most agreeable to the taste of the painter. Abolish the originals, and you will soon see the copies degenerate. There are in England two excellent styles of poetical composition. Milton is our model in the one ; Dryden and Pope in the other. Milton formed himself on the ancients, and on the modern Italians who imitated their ancestors of old Rome. Dryden and Pope took the French poets for their pattern,' particularly Boileau, who followed the ancients (of whom he was a passionate admirer) as far as the prosaick genius of the French tongue would permit. If we reject the old authors, and take these great moderns for our standard, we do nothing more than copy after a copy. If we reject both, and set about framing new modes of composition, our success will probably be no better, than that of the projectors whom Gulliver visited in the metropolis of Balnibarbi. Ат ABORIGINAL WIT. a conference held a few years since with some Indian tribes for the purpose of forming a treaty, an old chief related to the commissioners from our government a very remarkable adventure of his son in a hunting excursion. The circumstances were so astonishing as to excite a doubt of their truth in the mind of one of the civilized part of the assembly, who impudently asked the Sachem, if he himself believed what he had related. "Certainly," replied the Indian "for my son told it to me himself, and my son never saw a white man." OLD ENGLISH. THE following passage is from Ascham's schole master, and some idea of the progress of the English language may be formed from comparing Pope's translation with the one here praised. Although sensible of the beauty of Horace, as well as Homer, the author was not struck with the barbarity of his own language, because he had never seen it in a more improved state. "Which verse, (the 3d line 1st book of the Odyssey) because, in mine opinion, it was not made at the first more naturally in Greke by Homere, nor after turned more aptelie into Latin by Horace, than it was a good while ago, in Cambridge, translated into English, both plainlie for the sense, and roundlie for the verse, by one of the best scholars that ever St. John's college bred, M. Watson, myne old friend, sometime Bishop of Lincolne; therefore, for our sake that have lust to see how our English tonge, in avoidyng barbarous rhyming, may as well receive right quantitie of sillables, and trewe order of versifying, (of which matter more at large hereafter) as either Greke or Latin, if a cunning man have it in handling; I will set forth that one verse in all three tonges, for an example to good wittes that shall delite in the learned exercise." Πολλων δ' ανθρωπων ἴδεν 'άσεα, και νόον ἔγνω. HOMER. Qui mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes. HORACE. All travellers do gladly report great prayse of Ulysses, For that he knew many mens manners and saw many cities. Pope's, is WATSON. Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd, Their manners noted, and their states survey’d. Even in this last translation, two lines are given to convey what Homer and Horace more strongly expressed in one. SHAKSPEARE WELL QUOTED. A SINGULAR Story is told about the purchase of a fine copy of the first edition of Shakspeare. A friend was bidding for the Duke of Roxburgh, who had retired to a distance to view the issue of the contest. Twenty guineas and more were offered from various quarters for the book; when a slip of paper was handed to the Duke, in which he was requested to inform his friend, whether he was "to go on bidding." His Grace wrote underneath for answer: Lay on, Macduff! And damn'd be he who first cries, "Hold, enough." FRIENDSHIP. NOTHING is more frequently a topick of conversation and writing than friendship. We are continually hearing its praises, and reading of illustrious friends, who, without inte*rested motives, were faithful to each other in the most perilous extremities, but, after all, it appears to me that it resembles the notion of ghosts :-it is what every body talks about ; but what no body that I ever met with has ever seen. CRITICISM. If there be principles of taste which should be common to all nations, it is almost impossible to ascertain them. The English and French almost deny any excellence to each other in oratory. The Cardinal Maury, in his eulogium of B osset, and Lawson in his lectures on Rhetoric and elocution, cite the same sermons, of Bosset and Tillotson, and their praise and blame in both instances are directly opposite. BURKE MILTON. BURKE was an ardent admirer of Milton. I learn from Mr. Walker, that this great orator was a distinguished member of a literary club, instituted in Dublin in 1747, in which he sometimes held the Secretary's pen, and sometimes filled the President's chair; and that in the original minutes of this Society, his early Miltonick taste is thus recorded. "Friday, June 5th, 1747. Mr. Burke, being ordered to speak the speech of Moloch, receives applause for the delivery, it being in character: then the speech was read and criticised upon, its many beauties illustrated: the chief judged to be its conformity with the character of Moloch: No: let us rather choose, Arm'd with hell flames and fury, all at once O'er heavens high towers to force resistless way.' The words all at once' (the metre not considered) seemed to the whole assembly to hurt the sentence by stopping the rapidity, and checking the fierceness of it; making it too long and tedious. Then was Belial's speech read to the great delight of the hearers; whose opinion was that Homer only can be compared to Milton, not only for the beauties, that shine in every verse, but likewise for the just and lively colours, in which each character was drawn for that none but Homer, Jike him, ever supported such spirit and exactness in the speeches of such a contrast and variety of persons."-These notices, says Mr. Todd, (life of Milton 2d Ed. page 155.-6. in notis) will not seem tedious, for they suggest an opinion, that the finest oratory of modern times might owe its origin and perfection to the poetry of Milton. IMPRISONMENT. THE following anecdote is from a note in Gilbert Wakefield's memoirs.-A Dr. Boldero, one of the masters of Jesus College in the last century, lies buried in the chapel. This gentleman had been treated with particular severity during the Protectorate, for his attachment to the royal cause, in which also the Bishop of Ely, at that time, had been a considerable sufferer. On a vacancy of the mastership, Boldero, without any pretensions to the appointment, in plain English, plucks up his spirits, or, in Homer's language, "speaks to his magnanimous mind," and presents his petition to the Bishop. "Who are you?" says his lordship " I know nothing of you; I never heard of before." you 66 My lord! I have suffered long and severely for my attachment to our royal master, as well as your lordship has. I believe your lordship and I have been in all the gaols in England." "What does the fellow mean? Man! I was never confined in any prison but the Tower." "And, my lord!" said Boldero, " I have been in all the rest myself."-The Bishop's heart relented, and he good-naturedly admitted the claim of his petitioner. CULLODEN. THE Victory at Culloden may be fairly ascribed to the circumstance of Marshal Wade and Generals Hawley and Cope being prevented, by the severity of the season, from advancing with their respective forces to the assistance of the Pretender. The peculiar names of these commanders suggested to the celebrated Mr. Home the following ludicrous lines, which were circulated among the victorious party immediately after the battle. Cope could not cope, nor Wade wade through the snow, TASTE. CARDINAL Maury, in his eulogium of Fenelon, has, I think, an instance of false taste. The sentence is as follows: Il se familiarise avec les idiomes anciens; mais la belle langue des Homere et des Platon n'est encore pour lui que la langue des Basile et des Chrysostome. When eminence is absolutely singular and unequalled, it seems an example of the bathos to diminish it by multiplication. A scholar should no more talk of the Homers, than an American should speak of the Washingtons. ORIGINAL POETRY. HORACE, ODE 22, BOOK 1. THE man, my friend, whose life is pure, Whose soul no conscious crime alarms, Though forc'd to roam o'er Africk's sands, Or 'mid those drear and barb'rous lands, For late, while in the Sabine grove, O'er warlike Daunia's desert land, Place me where no soft zephyr blows, Or place me 'neath those torrid skies, Where'er by fate I'm doom'd to rove, Z. |