by G. Trederic Meier, Professor of Philosophy at Halle, Member of the Royal Academy at Berlin, &c. London, 1765, 12mo.

N. B. As this treatise of the Merry Philosopher is very dull, and replete with wretched jests, perhaps the title was considered by the author, or the editor, as a facetious misnomer.

Naturalists.

Some of the ancient secretaries of nature often raise a smile of doubt and surprise in their readers, by assuming more knowledge of the habits and dispositions of animals, than cool experience can justify. Pliny, the historian, hazards a singular comment on an occurrence frequent among bees. Nocte deprensa in expeditione excubant supinæ, ut alas a rore protegant. When night overtakes their excursions, the bees are found lying on their backs in a state of watchfulness, in order to protect their wings from the dew. Had the philosopher or his informant been sufficiently awake, they would have found the poor bees were dead.

1

TheR etort Courteous.

Surprise, say grave philosophers, is very often a source of pleasure... A play of words is often

surprising and amusing. M. Boileau having heard an indifferent preacher praised in too high terms, "Father *** preached most excellently last Sun

day," observed the eulogist. replied the satirist,

He did better still,'

'the

Sunday before." "Father *** did

Why," returned the eulogist,

not preach at all on that day."

what I meant,' retorted M. Boileau.

Grammar.

It is the cant, and perhaps the interest, of blockheads, to decry the importance of the rules of grammar; and it is their constant practice to wander from them. They are not aware, perhaps, that those who break "the head of Priscian," raise a strong suspicion that their own is far from being sound. Without those "auxiliaries," conjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs, rightly arranged, the logician would not dare to enter the field of controversy, and the orator could not trust his fancy in building the lofty sentence, unless he was assured of the strength of those particles in language, which are as tacks or strong fastenings to his splendid edifice. All the errors in writing which obstruct its great end, perspicuity, arise from the neglect and ignorance of the philosophy of grammar. Bishop Lowth, and Harris in his Hermes, will confirm the praises of these 'indis

pensable elements of all composition, the rules of grammar.

Singular Thought of a Grammarian.

The following comparison will no doubt raise a smile in the face of many a reader. The imperative, says the sententious philologist, having no first person, resembles the many among the sons of men. Such persons speak always in the second person, and command you to do what they themselves had no thought or intention of doing. Exempli gratia, ama tu hanc legem, love thou this law.

Physiognomy.

Had Lavater considered the features in the human face as indicative of the disposition only, fewer objections had been to his theory. We see a proud man's disposition in the turn of a single feature, he

Is seen to ply

The superb muscle of the eye,*

rendered more prominent by his passions. When the same philosopher extends this doctrine to judge of intellect by the same token, many exceptions arise against his theory. One very remarkable is to be seen at the seat of Earl

The Spleen, a Poem, Dodsley's Collection.

Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, viz. a picture of Sir Isaac Newton, in middle age, representing a face of uncommon vacancy and imbecility.

Reason.

As this faculty is the offspring of long expe rience, we cannot expect it in our early days to shew much light; and indeed it shines brightest at the latter end of life, and reminds one of a fire at an inn, in travelling, which flames highest, and gives most warmth, when the guests are going "We learn to live," said an old man,

away.

"just as we are going to die."

Love of Change, or Variety.

This affection of the mind is ascribed by Aristotle to the general infirmity of the human mind. The sensible Plutarch has well discoursed on this subject. "The several changes of life do only shift, and not wholly extirpate, the causes of our trouble; and these are, our want of experience, the weakness of our judgment, and a certain impotence of mind, which hinder us from making a right use of what we enjoy. The rich man is subject to this uneasiness of humour, as well as the poor; the bachelor, as well as the man in wedlock. This makes the pleader withdraw from the bar, and

then his retirement is altogether as irksome," &c. As the great secretary of nature has finely said on this subject

Oh heaven! were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error
Fills him with faults.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, act v, scene 4. N. B. The second line seems elliptical, it means the " error of being inconstant."

Cupid.

The French are certainly a very gallant people, and even the ornaments of their books exhibit in many cases this devotion to the god of love. One can hardly take up a French book with prints in it, that does not contain a portrait of "Dan Cupid" either in the frontispiece, or some of the vignettes. This gay nation seems to be incessantly under the influence of that passion, and reminds us of the city of Abdera, as mentioned by Lucian and Sterne, when all the inhabitants wandered about the town, singing, "Cupid, King of Gods and Men," from the Andromeda of Euripides, whilst a fever reigned in the city.

Happiness of a Literary Man.

I think that Mr. Pope, with his usual "pregnant brevity," has described the happiness of a man of letters in one line

To read what books, and see what friends, he likes.