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Shenstone:

It seems singular that this poet (whose whole life was a romance) should presume to think slightly of Spencer's great work the Fairy Queen. "When I bought him first, I read a page or two of the Fairy Queen, and cared not to proceed. After that, Pope's Parodies made me consider him ludicrously, and in that light I think he may be read with pleasure." How would poor Shenstone have whined and hung his head, had he known that any of his readers have declared that they read him with most pleasure in a ludicrous light? Yet so it is, his Schoolmistress being esteemed his best poem.-See Shenstone's Letters.

Retort Valiant.

It is very observable in the world how many persons are envious of those acquirements of others, which they do not possess themselves, and cannot conceal their feelings, though they are ashamed of them. Mr. B. an able mathematician, said peevishly to his friend D., an eminently classical scholar, "Come, D. let us have none of

your Greek."

'Why,' replied Mr. D. coolly,

should you trouble yourself with this request, for should I quote any Greek passage, you would not know it to be so?'

Geology.

The bold enquiries into this science, though in its state of infancy, and the hardy theories brought forward, seem calculated to

"Make the unlearned stare, the learned smile;" and induce the serious and diligent peruser of these extraordinary tracts to recollect the lines of the facetious author of Hudibras on some geological author of his time:

As he profess'd,

He had "first matter" seen undress'd;

He took her naked, all alone,

Before one rag of form was on;

The Chaos, too, he had descried,

And seen quite thro', or else he lied.

Cowley the Poet.

Had that excellent critic Dr. Johnson been acquainted with Spanish poetry, he would have added still greater splendour to his Life of Cowley. The "Barnasso Espagnol" would have afforded him many specimens of the "metaphysical" poetry, which Cowley was so much indebted to; as he, like Milton, traversed all regions to collect his stores of erudition. It may appear singular, that Cowley, who in his prose works writes with so

much ease, and natural elegance, and dignity, should have adopted such models as Spanish poets. His ode called "The Garden," addressed to his friend, John Evelyn, esq; the author of "Sylva, or a Treatise on Forest Trees," should not be passed by. The seventh stanza is remarkable for a diffuse yet vigorous expansion of the passage in scripture, where the lilies of the field" are said to exceed " Solomon in all his glory."

Etymology.

This uncertain study seems, unfortunately, a great favourite with minor scholars and everyday wits. Such persons, with much gravity, put forth their idle and dull conjectures on this very difficult department of learning. The etymologist should be a man of deep erudition and sagacity, and conversant especially with antiquarian researches. The fashion of language is very changeable. Voltaire says with a great deal of truth, as well as very facetiously, that etymologists make very little account of consonants, and none at all of vowels. Perhaps the faculty of punaing adroitly would be no small attainment in these ambiguous" pursuits of literature."

Natural History mostly conjecture.

In this very pleasing department of science how little is really known of the animal world, except their external and internal conformations, and some few habits of animals, which minute and frequent attention have enabled the naturalist to make. Among creatures so different from himself, and devoid of any powers to understand their language, the naturalist is every moment travelling through a strange country, and hears and sees the natives, without any faculty to describe the motives. of any one of their actions. To judge of them by his own intellect and passions (and how can we do otherwise?) is but a blind mode of proceeding, and puts the great M. Buffon upon the level of little Æsop.

Ancient and Modern Customs.

Cicero, in his "Orator," mentions a ludicrous story, very applicable to modern times. "Nasica came to the house of the poet Ennius, and when he asked for him, was told by the maid that her master was gone out. Nasica knew well that Ennius was " at home,' but that he had given the maid orders to deny him. A few days after, when Ennius called at Nasica's house, and asked for

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Nasica, Nasica at the gate told him he was not at home. What,' said Ennius, do I not know your own voice?" "Are you not an impudent fellow?" replied Nasica, "when your maid told me you was not at home, did not I believe her? Now you won't believe me, though I tell you so myself."-Guthrie's Translation of the Orator, chap. 68.

Character of Eneas.

Commentators on ancient authors are very apt to form their notions of the manners of antiquity by the times in which they themselves live. One of these ingenious persons has observed the great propriety in Virgil of giving Eneas the title of Dux, Captain, when he entered the cave with the unfortunate Dido, though on all other occasions he calls him Pius. Had this commentator lived in the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, he would not have thought so; as a republican captain was, perhaps, as pious, and certainly as amorous, as any chaplain in the Protector's regiment.

Cicero's Sophism.

One is astonished that so great a man as Cicero should, in serious reasoning, fall into such a verbal

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