and doze, and doze and pore, till their temples throb with application, and their senses like the Pythia's disappear in a smother; though without enlightening the world by the delivery of an oracle, and without the intervention of inspiration or prophesy. Lastly, in this way we may account for the existence of the Hypercriticks; their brains have become addled by perpetually jading them in the pursuit of imperfections, and never suffering a genial effusion to enliven their, lucubrations. With empty hearts, and overcharged heads, they set about scrutinizing an author whom they want sentiment to relish, and measure his contents by the dogmas of the schools, with the same degree of deliberateness with which a mechanick employs his mensuration upon the dimensions of timber. They are ever seen siting absorbed in the contemplation of some mighty nothing, like an assiduous old tabby at the entrance of a mouse-hole, though their joy is in no shape declared, or their sessions interrupted by the purr of applause. All without them is disconsolate as a December's afternoon, and all within them equally barren and bleak. The small portion of wisdom which falls to their share, is continually beating about its tenement for a perch, or fastening on some little irregularity to mope and to hoot. Though Milton flash on them in all the glories of verse, they pause with your Bentleys to pick a flaw in his grammar. Like the critical cobbler, they would inadvertently pass over the exquisite proportions of the statuary, to detect the omission of a stitch in the seam of his shoe. Incapable of taking in the magnificent, they stoop by the seaside, with old Ocean at his highest, to trace the veins of a pebble-stone,

or decypher the amours of a muscle. They follow Art with the servility of lacqueys, and instead of making use of her only to become acquainted with Nature, forget the nautical oath, and take up with the handmaid, when they should carry the mistress. If you tell them of the natural sublimity, and vigorous simplicity of Shakespeare, they drop an icicle in your bosom, as it were, by some frigid remark, that the excellences of your favourite are counterbalanced by his faults, and that though his departure from the schools in many par ticulars may have brought him much nearer to truth, yet whereever he is unclassick according to them, he is of course an offender, and must suffer by the statute. Nothing will please them, nothing will do, but what bears to be tested by the level and rule; and a writer must be as prim and precise in his manner, as a young master in his maiden essay, or an attorney in his draught of a special plea. Obedience to the canons, obedience to the canons, is the thing, though the critical code is as unnecessary to true genius, perhaps, as the criminal is acknowledged to be to the exemplary and ingenu

about which we are treating, was once dissected in the course of anatomy by the fellows of the institution; in whom the appearances were so different from those of subjects in general, that it was resolved in full meeting to make report of the same, to be registered as monstrous in the history of dissection. By this account it appears,that upon opening the body the pericardium, or purse in which the heart is contained, it was found so contracted and shrivelled, that some doubts were entertained as to the identity of the part. Numbers were of opinion, that they had mistaken the situation of the fountain of life, and were inclined to believe with the Mock Doctor, that it quartered its streams in the right cavity of the chest. How long this persuasion suspended the lecture, or what learning was discovered in support of the same, unfortunately for the world, we are left to conjecture. All that the statement gives us to know respecting the operators is, that after removing the pericardium, with the doubts it occasioned, they expressed as much surprise at its contents, as had been shown for the membrane,in which they were contained. That interesting muscle,the heart, it seems, was so contracted and indurated,as to make it next to impossible to perforate it with the instruments for the occasion; and several went far enough to affirm, that during the dissection they conceited that it rattled. Whether this was the case, they were not assured, though, from the nature of the substance, they conceive it presumable. But what may better be depended on is, both the ventricles of this organ were so exceedingly small, it appeared a mystery with the faculty how the subject had existed. It is affirmed, incredible as it may seem, that

they resisted the insertion of the most delicate probes, and looked hardly large enough to sustain the vital functions of a sparrow. In raising the heart between the fin-. gers, it was found to be heavier than any solid of its size, and to possess such a benumbing property, as to communicate a torpor to the person that touched it. The pillars, walls, and in fact all the parts of this organ were petrified and colourless, and when held up in sections for examination, reminded the spectators of some specimens of marble. But, as the whole account of this muscle might weary our readers, and enough, perhaps, has been brought to support our position, we will just take a peep into the head, and then conclude with the college.

The state of this department was precisely the reverse of that of the heart. The vessels appeared here to be crowded with extravasated fluid, and the brain, instead of being either contracted or hard, seemed extremely distended and soft. The pineal gland, which is considered by Des Cartes as the seat of the soul (though we are of opinion with the ancients, that it resides in the diaphragm) was so astonishingly enlarged beyond its natural dimensions, that, had the wits of the man gone along with its growth, he might have been said to have sprung from the temples of Jupiter himself. addition to these peculiarities, owing no doubt to the enlargements we speak of, the sutures of the cranium were found evidently divided, and there appeared no question in the minds of the physicians, but that the gentleman had been removed by a fit of the apoplexy. So interesting altogether were the appearances of the subject, that a committee was deputed to investi

In

gate his history, and report a summary of the same for the edification of the collegiates. From this epitome, which immediately follows the statement here given, we gather, how, several days antecedent to the one of his death, the deceased had been so immersed in the depths of meditation, as not only to neglect the calls of his friends, but to be unable to take either sustenance or sleep. The subject which interested his attention thus forcibly during this period, appears to have been, A Dissertation on the Elements of our Tongue; in which it is ingenious ly insisted, that the Alphabet has been reversed, in the order it now stands, and ought for the honour of letters to be restored to its native position; that A unquestionably was situated, originally, on its head, not on its legs, and that the deformity of Z proceeded from a hurt which it received at the time of the topsy-turvy, having fallen through a greater arch, than any one of the characters, with the single exception of its friend at the antipodes. For what term this captivating treatise might have occupied our student, or the glosses, additions, and amendments it would have received, unhappily for science, can now never be known; for on the morning following the final day of his incomplete labours, he was found stiff, by his attendant, in an old-fashioned arm-chair, the dormitory of his family time out of mind. Such, alas, is the effect of inordinate application, and the consequence of wishing to be wise at the expense of the heart!

But there is another and a more serious mischief attending this neglect of the heart, which induces me to alter my tone, and to deliver myself after a less trivial and fanciful strain. I allude to the grow

ing want of refinement in society with regard to the subject of mar riage, or the fashion of suffering interest to determine the proprie ty of a connexion, which nature in tended should be left to the affection. We are informed this covenant of old was regarded as holy, and that the heart was conceived to be conferred with the hand. But the ceremony now-a-days of tying the knot is considered by some parties as nothing more than affixing their seals to the articles of settlement. It is sufficiently mortifying to observe the influence of this spirit of speculation (if spirit it may be called) upon the operations of taste; but it is a more sorry sight to perceive it in prospect gradually chilling the source of domestick confidence and love, and checking in its spread the bet ter feelings of the age.

Perhaps it may be thought by some that the Remarker is ascribing a disposition to the times, which has no existence but in his own ugly imagination, with a view of showing his readers with what dexterity he can quarrel with shadows. But the evil in question, though limited at present, is too evident, he fears, to pass among the imaginaries. Others, who have more philosophy than feeling, may charge him with affecting to be violently sentimental, and place him in the division of high-flying novelists: and, perhaps, with some shew of justice; for he is so tired of much of the common-place of life, that he has thought seriously of stepping forth in support of romance. Indeed, it has been laughed at long enough, and it is how time,he suspects, to be amused at the expense of its opposite. A little care must be used in expos ing a foible, lest another of contrary cast take occasion to triumph.

Our propensities must be governed, like princes, by a balance, or common sense will be continually in danger from some aspiring folly. However, as we are not like to be overpowered with sentiment at present, it may be as well for us to retain what we have, for the sake of good fellowship. Some tempers of mind are more easily got rid of than resumed, and the time probably may arrive, when, disheartened by the coldness of the world, we shall sigh for those emotions, which we assisted to suppress. Among the vexations which I pray to be delivered from, is the vexation of indifference; for next to a bad character, in my estimation, is no character at all.

By thus consulting our interest before our affections, and sacrificing to lucre in preference to love, we are unwisely neglecting that which makes poverty rich, and without which riches, at best, may be regarded as poor. Like Midas, whose touch it is fabled afforded nothing but gold, we are exposing ourselves to repine in the midst of unprofitable plenty. Were the punishments, attending this mercenary spirit, only felt by the sordid, one might sit down contented and see them inflicted. But, in forming the connexion which we are considering, there are many who are guided by motives of affection, and it frequently happens, that such fall a sacrifice to the insensible and mercenary. And when this is the case, it is but natural in us to feel both resentment and pity; resentment for the counterfeit, who assumes the appearance of love to conceal the intent of a traitor, and pity for the unfortunate, who, deceived by professions of tenderness, submits her fortune and destiny to the confrol of a niggard. A crime com

mitted in the moment of passion may sometimes be palliated. And the libertine, though unpardonable, may plead the warmth of his feelings to extenuate his excesses; but to what sophistry, even, can they resort to soften their conduct, who, with their spirits collected, profane the ordinance of marriage by hollow promises, and forfeit their integrity to serve their convenience. Hence originate half the calamities in society: hence cold-heartedness, inconstancy, and lying servility. Hence the domestick fire-side becomes the insipid region of infectious yawnings and mutual oscitancy. Hence entertainment, excluded from Ler native residence, and pursued through the crowded circles of fashion and folly, is seldom perceived returning, excepting on the giddy wheels of visitation, or in the discordant summons of the knocker.

Hence-but something too much of this, Horatio.

In attributing the evils which I have mentioned to our neglect of the heart, I expect to be thought more fanciful than wise: but, let my readers regard me in what light they choose, I am convinced that my hypothesis is correct in the main. I am not prepared to think contemptibly of the head, or to disturb its speculations when rightly indulged, though I will not consent, that Sir Gravity shell preside as chief arbiter alone. I would, were it admissible, correct the head by the heart, the heart by the head, so that one should be held in check by the other, and both be improved by a mutual dependence. In this way, each organ would answer the design of its, formation, and produce that healthfulness of mind, which gives nobility to the individual and sentiment to society.