declare that, in the rapidity of writing, I should not wonder if you or I, or any other man of genius, was to overlook the orthography of his own name. Shakspear, Shakspur, Shakspere, will do in common talk; but, for Heaven's sake! let us be so decent as to give our immortal bard his genuine name, when his ideas are too much engaged in better business to tell us that his name is Shakespeare. Another word or two and I have done. How Mr. Gibbon -for so it is-should have written a universal, a union, &c. and how Mr. Wraxall and others should have talked about a uniform, a unicorn, a ugly face, &c. is past my comprehension on any other grounds, than that they were writers of things, and forgot, in their career, the mechanical affair of letters whether vowels or consonants. Joking apart, however, these little things are not to be neglected; and a Johnson, who was to castigate others, should have been peculiarly correct himself. We want not a standard in our language, but some one to erect and display the standard; and we may say of verbal deductions, as of greater matters, that he who despises small things may fall by little and little. My compliments to brother Kuster, 1787, June. L'ABBE. XCV. Melancholy, Despair, and Grief, as described by the Poets. April 6. MR. URBAN, THE passions of the mind, like the appetites of the body, are eager in the pursuit of objects adapted to their gratification. Nor is this natural propensity peculiar to passions of the more chearful kind, as Love, Joy, Hope; those which are of a darker complexion and more serious cast, are equally prompt in searching out means of self indulgence. We dwell with fondness on circumstances, which may tend to heighten the force of that impression by which we are immediately influenced. Hence in a state of MELANCHOLY most welcome are, Folded arms, and fixed eyes; Fountain heads, and pathless groves, (See Beaumont and Fletcher's Nice Valour.) The more distracted and forlorn condition which brings on DESPAIR, is finely drawn by Spenser, in the passage which allegorizes that passion. Whoever is the victim of that woeful and irresistible tyrant, is found, low sitting on the ground Spenser, Fairy Queen, B. I. C. 9. 35. Few, however, are those who suffer extremely from these violent perturbations of mind, in comparison with the many who, in this "Vale of Tears," are afflicted with MODERATE GRIEF. This passion also has its gratifications, and indulges its feelings by modes of the following kind. It weeps for the lost object of its affection-hence says MOSCHUS, Εγω επι πενθεί τῳδε Δακρυχέων τεον οιτον οδυρομαι. And Horace, in that pathetic eulogy on QUINTILIus Varus, Quis desiderio sit pudor, aut modus Tam cari capitis? Præcipe lugubres Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit. Hor. B. I. Od. 24. It takes a melancholy pleasure in recollecting scenes at which the lost person lamented was present, and employments in which he was engaged with us. Hence MILTON, passionately and poetically, Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd Under the opening eye-lids of the morn, Toward Heaven's descent had slop'd his west'ring wheel. The contrast, which soon after follows, is wonderfully striking. How could Dr. Johnson be such an apathist as to slight this first Monody in our language!-TICKELL, in his verses on the death of ADDISON, and Lord LYTTELTON, in his truly elegiac Monody, have not forgotten to introduce the effect of scenes once frequented, and employments once pursued, by the "dear lost companion.". It gratifies MODERATE GRIEF to shew, speak of, admire, and prize any thing which may have been left by the deceased, whether it be a work of the departed person's own ingenuity, or a garment, or other relick, which the lamented relation or friend once frequently used. There is no where a more beautiful or pathetic instance of this than in the fact recorded by St. Luke, in the Acts, C. ix. 39. Παρέτησαν αυτω πασαι αι χήραι κλαίεσαι, και επιδεικνυμεναι χιτώνας και ἱματια όσα εποιες μελ' αυτίων ὅσα ἡ Δορκας. A poet or painter, who would wish to interest the attention and gain the heart, must be careful to select, and place in proper point of view, the LITTLE circumstances of REAL life. Among all the aggravations of grief, there is no one more powerful than the sight of things worn by the deceased. It added to the sorrow, and heightened the rage, of Electra, that she saw EGYSTHUS wearing the very garments of AGA MEMNON: Έπειτα ποιας ημερας δόκεις μ' αγειν, Soph. Elect. On the latter words the scholiast remarks, ovxquosa Bacshina, αλλα τα εκεινο πανυ γας τετο περιπαθες, και τις υπομνησιν αγον την μετά ρακα το πατρος. It is well imagined by Virgil, to make Dido dwell some few moments on the sight of the Trojan robes, which haḍ been received from Eneas: -ILIACAS VESTES, notumque cubile En. IV. The circumstance of the "Notum Cubile," and the affecting speech, "Dulces Exuvia," &c. are manifestly imitations of Euripides, in his ALCESTIS, and of SOPHOCLES, in his TRACHINIÆ. The belt, which PALLAS had once worn, was no sooner accidentally observed by ENEAS, than the humanity, which had bugun to incline the Trojan hero to compassion, was converted into rage, mixed with sorrow, for the death of that brave youth: Et jam jamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo Æn. XII. That these remarks on the manner in which the more gloomy passions gratify themselves, may be turned to some end more useful than barren speculation, let it be considered, that the DEITY has abundantly furnished the human mind with sources of happiness. If MELANCHOLY, DESPAIR, and GRIEF, can find a peculiar pleasure in self-indulgence, and can delight in seeking objects congenial with their immediate feelings, then are men, who apparently to spectators are plunged into the deepest distress, not in reality so miserable as inexperienced judges may imagine. GOD of his mercy hath provided a remedy which may alleviate the pangs of sorrow; he hath ordained that the very passion, which "harrows the soul," should have in it some ingredients not altogether unpleasant to the subject which that passion affects. It is thus the Almighty vouchsafes to consult for the GOOD of MAN; amidst clouds and darkness there yet shineth a light; amidst storms and tempests there is still a saving plank; amidst affliction and woe there is even a "sad luxury" in giving way to tears, and in reviewing again and again objects which tend to aggravate our distress of mind. 1787, April. H. I. C. XCVI. Strictures on the use of the Interjection on! MR. URBAN, I RECOLLECT that many years ago, on reading in Dr. Johnson's criticisms upon Pope's epitaphs, this assertion, "the particle O! used at the beginning of a sentence, always offends," several instances suggested themselves to me which prevented my acquiescence in the justness of the remark. I have since seen it, however, adopted by other writers of reputation; and enforced by general observations on the bad effects of exclamatory sentences, which are represented as the poor artificers of frigid and tasteless rhetoricians, inconsistent with true chastity of style, and unauthorized by the best models of antiquity. But, upon examining these positions, I could not discover any other foundation for them, than that bad writers most commonly expose themselves by an injudicious imitation of beauties; and that every attempt to produce extraordinary efforts should be employed sparingly, and only upon suitable occasions. The interjection O, common to so many languages, seems applicable to exactly the same purposes in all. It is a sort of intonation, by which some extraordinary energy or emotion of the mind is expressed. The propriety of its use, therefore, depends entirely upon the correspondence of the subject and accompanying words with the affection thus denoted; and may be compared with the connection of sound and sense in musical compositions. If Dr. Johnson's observation of its ungraceful effect at the beginning of a sentence have any foundation, it is, that the mind not being yet sufficiently prepared, it cannot at once strike into the sentiment of which this interjection is the mark or note. And this is really the case, where the immediately subsequent words are not clearly expressive of the occasion which is to excite the emotion. Thus, in the particular passage which leads him to the remark. O born to arms! O worth in youth approved! These clauses are not at all indicatory of the sorrowful event to which the exclamation is directed. The first of them, especially, has no obvious connection whatever with pathetic emotion. But where the proper cause of the mental affection immediately appears, the whole readily coalesces into one effect, and the mind, without difficulty, follows the impression first raised. Dr. Johnson asserts, "that exclamation seldom succeeds in our language." Yet its use is just the same in ours as in any other: we employ it abundantly in common conversation; and it is to us, as to other people, the natural vent of strong emotion. Perhaps, indeed, our feelings may be more cold and sluggish than those of the southern nations; or a stern philosophy may have made us unyielding to attempts to |