guage of old English plays of reputation, have given their translations the ease and force of originals. The reader is placed at home among combinations of words to which he has been accustomed, and feels no embarrassment from new combinations of phraseology, the "coinage of the translator's brains;" who, perhaps, is more acquainted with the Greek language than with

his own.

Hypercriticism.

Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, ridicules an affected passage in Hegesias, who had said, "that when the Temple of Diana at Ephesus was on fire, the goddess was employed at the birth of Alexander, and so could not assist to put out the flames." Plutarch adds, "the coldness of this expression is such, that it seems sufficient to have extinguished the fire of the temple." Dr. Smith, the translator of Longinus, commends Dr. Pearce's censure of Plutarch. "Dulness, says the hypercritic," is somewhat infectious, for while Plutarch is censuring Hegesias, 'he falls into his very character." True, if Plutarch was in earnest; but is it not more candid to suppose that Plutarch meant to joke upon Hegesias by mimicking his style?

Critics, indeed, are valuable men,

But hypercritics are as good again.

Brampton's Epist. on Taste.

Low Company, its evils.

Lord Clarendon, the great historian, has observed, "That he never knew one man (of what condition soever) arrive at any degree of reputation in the world, who made choice of, or delighted in, the company or conversation of those who in their qualities were inferior, or in their parts not much superior, to himself." Goldsmith has well illustrated this sentiment in his excellent comedy, She Stoops to Conquer, where Tony Lumpkin, a man of good birth, and heir to a considerable fortune, is represented as being delighted with the company of his inferiors, and by his conduct as totally unworthy of his race and condition,

One who wore

His heart upon his sleeve, for crows to peck at.

Shakespeare.

Commentators and Antiquaries.

These gentlemen, from the nature of their employments, look backwards, and have little concern with the present generation; or their customs and manners are very often rough and unpolished to those who differ from them in their dark surmises. Speaking of one species of these

scholars, says a shrewd and and sagacious writer,* "Like other pedants, they are fierce and stern; for there are many analogies between men and other animals, and none stronger than this, that they get fierce by being kept in the dark."

Dangers of common Compliments.

At our entrance into a friend's house we are greeted with "Pray make yourself quite at home." Should a dull or an impudent man take this invitation au pied de lettre, he would make his visits very uncomfortable to both parties. Every man in his own house has rules that respect the hours of sleeping, eating, &c.: these, if disturbed by the guest, would be great inconveniency to his friend. The best rule for a visiter seems to be to act according to the old saying, "When you are in Rome, do as they do in Rome:" let the visiter conform to the doings of the house in which he resides, and leave his own habits behind him.

Education: an anecdote.

Amidst the long and desultory treatises on this important subject, the following short system of education may be recommended, both for its force and brevity. Lord, observing his neighbour Dr.'s daughters very modest and * Pilkington's pref. to his Study of Medals, London, 1784,

correct in all their manners, complimented the Doctor on his plan of education. "You have, no doubt, my dear Doctor, well considered this subject; I should like to hear your system of discipline." My Lord,' replied the Doctor, it is a very short one: I have brought up my daughters in the fear of God and a broomstick,"

Metaphors.

"But the greatest art (in poetry) is the forming of metaphors happily; for that alone cannot be acquired from others, but is itself a proof of uncommon genius, since to form metaphors well is to observe the similitude of things," says an eminent critic. This passage is nobly illustrated and verified by our great bard; for how superior is Shakespeare in his metaphors to all his contemporaries, Beaumont and Fletcher, James Shirley, and P. Massinger. Aristotle has well pointed out the reason, and we may justly apply it to our bard, who was a most accurate observer of similitudes in art as well as in nature.

The Poetry of Mr. Hayley and Lord Byron. On the poetry of Mr. H. being mentioned to an eminent scholar and critict as 'flat, stale,

*Aristotle's Poetics, c. 22.

The late Author of English Poetry.

and unprofitable," and the observer comparing it to capillaire and water, Yes,' says the critic,

it wants brandy, Sir, it wants brandy." Had that excellent and candid critic lived to have read Lord Byron's hot and fiery poems, he might have exclaimed, Why, Sir, here is all sheer home-made brandy, mixed with gunpowder; whilst the bard sports with his crackers and squibs, and mounts in the air like Sky-Rocket Jack.'-N.B. A sailor, who being flung on high by the ship's explosion, escaped with life.

Wigs.

Perhaps there is not a greater proof of the doctrine of association of ideas than that part of our dress called a wig. Having been used to see it on the judge's, the doctor's, and the divine's head, as a type of dignity, we continue to venerate this extraordinary effort of art to make what is strange in itself to become venerable. Before this prejudice in favour of wigs, the first of its family was placed on the head, by way of ridicule, of one Saxton, a fool to Henry VIII. "In an account of the treasurer of the chambers in that king's reign there is entered, 'paid for Saxton's, the king's fool's, wig, 20s." "-Anecdotes of Painters in the reign of Henry VIII. v. i. p. 135.

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