to describe the person. He seized a pencil, and delineated the features from memory, with such strength of resemblance, as amazed and delighted his affectionate parents! The applause that he received from this accidental performance, excited him to draw with more serious application."*_ So apparently insignificant was the circumstance, which laid the foundation of the future painter's fame and fortune!

An incident, in some respects similar, but of a nature which is usually denominated unfortunate, inspired Dr. Beddoes with a taste for that profession, in which he became the means of rescuing so many of his fellow-creatures from pain, and an early grave. As I do not possess Dr. Stock's valuable Life of this distinguished practitioner, I cannot quote the circumstance in the elegant language in which his biographer has recorded it, and must therefore content myself with simply stating, that the incident itself, was a fractured limb of a beloved relative. While young Beddoes was anxiously watching the progress of its restoration to its usual functions, he was insensibly ac quiring a taste, which finally induced him to devote the powers of his ardent and active mind, to the alleviation of human sufferings..

Hayley's Life of George Romney, Esq. page 13,

1

In contending that Genius is the accidental direction of a mind of great general powers, the origin of those powers is left undetermined.Whether they are generated by the circumstances, in which the individual has been placed; whether they are the result of a superior mental organization, or whether both these causes combine in their production, I should hesitate to assert. It is probable, that the majority of my readers may conclude, that the last of these suppositions is the most correct. For myself, I shall candidly avow, that with great respect for this opinion, a regard to that beautiful simplicity, which is the characteristic of nature in all her productions and operations, would incline me to consider, that the first supposition approaches the nearest to truth.

L

THE PONDERER. No. 12.

Parva leves capiunt animos.

"Trifles please light minds."

Ovid.

THE dull and sober Antiquary, who sits secluded in his closet, hanging over the mutilated relics of a worm-eaten folio, still glittering in the barbaric pomp of gothic types, and splendidly illuminated capitals-who esteems the worthless rubbish of his regard, not for its intrinsic merit, and the fund of information which it may contain, but merely from the celebrity of the press whence it issued; or, he who strains his vision in attempting to decypher the half-obliterated legend of a broken coin, profusely covered with the rust of age; and that infallible proof of originality, the 'verde antique', whose fertile imagination will convert a cookmaid's skewer (raked from a neighbouring dungheap) into a Roman stylus, or, like Baron Otranto, from the simple appellation H. I. C. K. S. will. frame, "hic jacet corpus Kenelmi Sancti❞—has long been regarded with unrestrained contempt, and deserves, perhaps, the reprehension so freely levelled against his pursuits.

For unfortunately for the general interests of learning, the promotion of useful knowledge, and the dissemination of probity and truth, the enquiries of our antiquarians have been too frequently confined to subjects, the most trivial and jejune; and, instead of endeavouring to remove the mass of fiction which disgraces our national history, we are inundated with details of Phoenician mysteries, and Celtic nonsense. One visionary steps forward with all the zeal of a Highland seer, and gravely tells us, that the various fables, and numerous legends, once the solace of our warlike ancestors, are replete with dark allusions to the hidden ceremonies of Druidical worship, and that the sweet romantic tale of "Tristram and fair Ysylt," which the vaticinating rhymer of Eildon Hills made the theme of his early song, can only be considered as an allegorical description of Noah and his Ark. Another, with no less ardour, and an equal degree of inconsistency, would willingly persuade us, on the supposititious authority of the Welsh Triads, that the Cymri, who emigrated into Britain, were originally seated upon the scite of the present Constantinople, because that city formerly contained a street called Phanarium, and these wandering tribes are said to have proceeded from Diffrobani or Diffrophani.

Yet, whilst we admire the good sense of those, who make these quackeries of antiquarianism, an object of derision, and good-humouredly endeavour to extirpate the seeds of this growing mania, by laughing at the sapient discoveries of its subjects, we ought not to extend our animadversions to the labours of those, who engaged in historical investigations, are necessarily compelled to introduce similar topics of discussion. To such men, the neglected tomb, the rusty coin, and decayed marble, are all of indispensible importance: all serve to repair the chasms so frequent in our early literature; and insignificant as it may appear, the recovery of a date, even by such assistance, has often determined the truth or fiction of an interesting event, which the most persevering had else been unable to effect.

It should also be remembered, that the only portion of our history requiring the aid of these remains, is deplorably immersed in a chaos of obscurity, by the contradictory narrations of senseless monks, and drivelling priests; who, sole possessors of the little learning of the times, and, perhaps, anticipating a continuance of similar ignorance, committed their vague accounts to the inspection of future ages, regardless of their veracity or reputation. To this corrupted source,