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Four in Hand.

Though this volunteering system of men of fortune, in driving their own carriages of various denominations, may seem a new method of gaining some elevation above their fellows, yet Horace, in his first ode, seems to have alluded to it with a prophetic eye of taste:

Sunt quos CURRICULO pulverem Olympicum
Collegisse juvat, metaque fervidis

Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis,

Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos.

Ode 1.

The editor has ventured to translate, or rather imitate, the above passage, for the sake of country gentlemen, who may have lost their Latin amidst more active employments than their libraries could have supplied them with, or their inclinations, perhaps, suggested to them:

Lo! some to curricles repair,
And take the dust as well as air.
The skilful coachee makes his boast
Closely to pass, yet miss, the post;
And on their boxes plac'd so high,
These landlords seem to reach the sky.

Chaucer vindicated.

"From the accidental circumstance of Dryden and Pope's having copied the gay and ludicrous parts of Chaucer, the common notion seems to

have arisen that Chaucer's vein of poetry was chiefly turned to the light and ridiculous. In a word, they who look into Chaucer will soon be convinced of this prevailing prejudice, and will find his comic vein to be only like one of Mercury, imperceptibly mingled with a mine of gold."Warton's Essay on Pope, &c. vol. ii. p. 70.

Envy in Authors.

We can easily excuse a poor poet, who writes for his subsistence, shewing some degree of envy and jealousy at the success of a rival bard; but lament this failing in a man of true genius. "Old Jacob Tonson used to say, that Dryden was a little jealous of rivals. He would compliment

Crown, when a play of his failed; but was very cold to him, if it met with success. He sometimes used to say, that Crown had some genius; but then he added always that his father and Crown's mother were well acquainted." Mr. Pope to Mr. Spense. -Dr. Warton's Essay on the Genius, &c. of Pope, vol. ii. p. 310, note.

Example and Precept.

How many things obtain consequence by being placed in comparison. Thus, when precept is said to be inferior to example, the latter gains a seem

ing eminence; yet alas, how little do either prevail, especially in politics. I could mention a nation, where some great men and nobles have been taught very little prudence of conduct from the sad examples given them by a neighbouring nation on a late sad Revolution!! Till men act by reason, and not by passion, precept and example will be equally ineffectual, by being equally misapplied and neglected.

Learned Languages.

The "veil of a learned language," to use a term of Gibbon, is very useful to some writers, especially commentators, whose sense is often disputable in their interpretation of an author's meaning, though their Latin may be very erudite in idiom. Let the reader consult an English translation of Dr. Bentley's Dedication to Lord Halifax, of his Horace, and also of the notes on that author by the same most learned Doctor. The translation seems intended to expose the poverty of sentiment concealed in the pompous verbosity of the original Latin of the commentator.-Odes in English of Horace, 12mo.

Tragedies and Comedies.

It seems a matter of wonder, at the first consideration of the subject, that tragedies should be

preferred by strolling actors and their audiences to comedies. Yet we must recollect, that the language of passion is known to all minds, whilst the fashions and the foibles, of which comedies are composed, are variable and short-lived, and perhaps only known to those persons who live in what is called the "beau monde." Wit and folly are often local, but passion is universal.

Plato's Dialogues.

Though there are many passages in this author which are very sublime, yet there are also many trifling arguments and disputations; so that Warton* is well justified in speaking of Plato's countrymen, when he says that they were fond" of declamatory disputation, which they frequently practised under an earnest pretence of discovering the truth, but in reality to indulge their native disposition to debate, &c. Some of Plato's dialogues," adds the learned and ingenious critic, "professing a profundity of speculation, have much of this talkative humour."-Warton's History of Poetry.

Advice.

The frequent failure of this salutary medicine in the disorders of life may be ascribed to the

* History of English Poetry, Part 1, vol. iii. p. 459.

different ages of the doctor and his patient. Advice is generally given from the older person to the younger, and of course on subjects which each party views with very different optics. A man who stands on higher ground than another must see further; so fares it with the adviser, whom long experience has elevated beyond the contracted view of early life. Spenser the poet speaks earnestly on this subject:

Let me entreat

For to enfold the language of your heart..
Mishaps are master'd by advice discreet;
And counsel magistrates the greatest smart ;

Found never help who never would his hurts impart.

Spenser's Fairy Queen.

Hints to Licentious Poets.

Classical mythology has afforded the moderns an useful instruction, by the dedication of the Muses to a state of virginity; and the first poems of antiquity were sung in the Temple of the Gods. But times degenerated, and the harp of Apollo was quartered with the quiver of Cupid. A Greek epigram, said to be written by Plato, in the true style of a moral philosopher, is no mean caution to erotic bards, not to write out of Venus addresses the Muses:

pure idleness.

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