In consequence of this unexpected acquirement, it is expected that he will yet be able, by devoting the whole of his time to the pursuit, to raise the language of Balnibarbi to the very acme of perfectibility. He has not yet divulged the mighty secret, but he certainly possesses too much philanthropy to think of letting it die with him. Merit seldom escapes the sneers of envy; some of this gentleman's rivals have insinuated that he has more than once been observed to doze in the chimney-corner; but his friends are anxious for a refutation of this calumny, which may easily be effected by elucidating the mystery. The last mentioned discovery is a most valuable one, but it is nothing to the one which follows:-if they could be united indeed— but the perfectibility of human nature is not yet sufficiently developed. A learned professor,* who has amused the public for a length of time with certain dramatic efforts, has at length discovered the art-not of preserving the unities, nor of living without food; but the more sublime art of living for ever!-Happy man! a thousand times happier than the wretched Struldbruggs, the inmortals of Luggnagg! They must pine in fretfulness and despair! They must forego the soul's sweet converse! the dear delights of mental sym◄ pathy! the rapturous hopes of paradise to come! Deprived of all their joys, of all their pleasures, they must still mourn their dying relatives; they must still envy the buried corpse which they can never follow; whilst thou-Oh happy! transcendently happy man! whilst thou shalt greet new joys with every rising sun! shalt feast upon the vernal sweets of life! shalt revel in a boundless sea of bliss, and live for ever in eternal youth! Exalted state! My soul now swells with phenzied rapture at the thought that she may emulate thy vast infinitude of joy! Pardon me, gentle reader-I go beyond myself: the prospect of such happiness dazzles the sense, and quite overpowers the spirits.

Having rested, let me proceed to make my readers as happy as myself; let me acquaint them with this ever-to-be extolled discovery; let me instruct them in the art of living for ever. It is not many days since this important mystery was first developed. The learned professor has long declared himself to be in possession thereof, and he has at length deigned to impart it to the society. Perhaps some my less penetrating readers may suppose that the transfusion of blood is about to be revived: O no! the process is incomparably de lightful!-The inventor has arrived at that stage when vulgar mortals are, in general, p.epared to bid adieu to life; but he has checked

of

Mr. Holcroft.

the bolt of Fate-has taken to his arms a blooming damsel of seventeen! O blind and stupid world! O vain philosophers of antiquity ! where roved your bewildered senses, not to learn that in love consists the renovation and eternal continuance of life?

By the execution of this discovery our academy will lose one of its ablest supporters, for, by one of the laws of Balnibarbi, a law which was made in the barbarous ages of the world, but which, it is hoped, this enlightened age will revoke, it is decreed that a man shall love and cherish his wife, in sickness and in health, in youth and in age, and that he shall not put her away, nor take unto himself another until death do them part. Owing to the existence of this law our professor intends retiring to a neighbouring and more illuminated republic, where, it is presumed, in the course of three or four years he will profit by its improved code of laws, and take unto himself another damsel, as blooming and as lovely as the one he now possesses. By this means he will preserve a perpetuity of vigour, and teach the astonished world how to live for ever.

This gentleman, no more than his successful friend and contemporary, has not been able to elude the shafts of scurrilous malignity. Some of his opponents have endeavoured to prove that he stole the hint from an anecdote in a certain Jewish history now grown almost obsolete; but I can venture the assertion of its being an arrant falsehood, for it is well known that our learned professor has never perused this history, or even an abridgment thereof.

To enumerate every occurrence that has taken place since the days of Captain Gulliver, is a task that would require a volume for its completion. In the present paper 1 shall be as concise as possible; it will be necessary, however, to inform my readers that a wonderful alteration has taken place in the magnetic power by which the motion of Laputa is governed. Whether it be by some mineral revolution in the bowels of the earth, or by the influence of the celestial bodies, is not at present determined: but the locomotive power of the loadstone is no longer confined to the atmosphere of Balnibarbi; in consequence of which the island of Laputa, if requisite, is now capable of making an aeronautic expedition round the globe.

To do away the inconvenience resulting from the peculiar formation of the Laputians, I have invented a medicine, by the swallowing of which I am enabled to assume the appearance of a native in whatever country I may take a temporary residence. Being at present employed by my royal master in a voyage of research, this recipe will be of inestimable utility.

Politics, Religion, Morality, and Literature are the grand o je ls

of my expedition. The island is at my sole command, and whether we skim, with rapid flight, the burning wastes of Africa or the chilling regions of Lapland; whether we slowly pass, with deep regret, the late fertile, but now desolated, gardens of Italy; or fly with terror from the sanguinary fields of France and ravaged plains of Germany; or whether we traverse with secret pleasure the happier realms of Britain, the result of my observations shall be submitted to the candid review of the public.

WAS EDMUND BURKE JUNIUS?

T. H.

THOSE HOSE who impute the Letters of Junius to Burke may probably reason in some such manner as the following:-They are evidently the production of very considerable talents. There were very few writers of the times equal to the task. They must have been written by a person inimical to the Grafton Administration, and to the secret influence by which it was believed to be guided. In the general opinion, and in the particular circumstances of Burke, we can find probable motives which might have induced him to commence and continue the attack. The Duke of Grafton had been brought into Administration by the Rockingham party, and was represented as having betrayed that nobleman and his friends. Either on that account, or because he succeeded to the Ministry, he was very obnoxious to the friends of the Marquis. Hence it was natural to impute a severe attack on him to one of that party, in which the preeminence of genius unquestionably belonged to Burke,

In considering the intellect of Junius, it was very easy to see that not many of that or of any other party were equal to the letters.In all there is closeness and pungency; but in some there is richness of classical allusion and fertility of imagery. The imagery, besides, frequently resembles that for which Burke's writings are so eminently distinguished. In one of his letters to the Duke of Grafton, Junius borrows metaphors from a source very usual with the orator. Lord Bute's views and situation required a creature void of all these properties, (abilities, judgment, and integrity); and he was forced to go thro' every division, resolution, composition, and refinement of political chemistry, before he happily arrived at the caput mortuum of vitriol in your Grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state; but brought into action, you became vitriol again.' Afterwards, but you have, discovered your purposes too soon; and instead of the modest reserve

of virtue, have shewn us the termagant chastity of a prude, who gratifies her passions with distinction, and prosecutes one lover for a rape, while she solicits the rude embraces of another.' The rapidity of Burke's genius often hurries him into a mixture of figures. This too is frequently the case with Junius: thus in a letter to the Duke of Grafton, With what countenance can you take your seat at the Treasury Board, or in Council, when you feel that every circulating WHISPER is at your expence alone, and STABS you to the heart!'

From both the reasoning and style of some of Junius's letters, many think there a.e grounds for believing Burke to be the author, Those, on the other hand, who conceive him not to have been Junius, may probably reason in the following manner :-On considering the intellectual qualities of Burke and of Junius, it would appear that there is so great a dissimilarity between the one and the other, as to justify us in disbelieving Burke to be the writer. As to the intellectual character of Junius, although we must allow it very considerable excellence, we may easily perceive that it is of a different kind and inferior degree to Edmund Burke. In Junius we have more of perspicacity than of expansion; more of pungency than of force. His weapon is the sharp arrow of Teucer, not the massy sword of Achilles. He rapidly penetrates into particulars, but does not rise to great general views. He is rather an expert lawyer, speaking closely to his own side, than a philosophical politician, embracing the interests of kingdoms and of mankind. Whatever Burke has spoken, or avowedly written, goes beyond the mere object of the hour; and makes accuracy of detail and acuteness of reasoning subservient to the establishment or confirmation of some general truth. Junius keeps directly to his subject: the rapidly associating mind of Burke pursues his thoughts through a train of combinations not always necessary to the specific object, though always pleasing, interesting, or instructing. Junius is thoroughly acquainted with the road in which he chuses to steer, but attends little to its bearings, any farther than they are necessary for piloting his bark: Burke surveys the whole coast. In Junius there is neatness and justness of allusion; in Burke, richness, beauty, and g andeur of imagery. The style of Junius is clear, correct, and precise, with no great variety: the style of Burke copious, brilliant, forcible, with wonderful variety, appropriate to the diversity of subjects and objects. Either Burke did not write Junius's Letters, or wrote very differently from his general manner; and employed a strict, watchful, and uniform attention, for which we can assign no adequate motive in restraining his intellectual powers from their usual exertions and expatiations.

MODERN REFORM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE,

ILLUSTRATED BY THE POLITICAL CAREER OF CESAR, OF CATILINE, AND OF A ROMAN CORRESPONDING SOCIETY.

FROM BISSET'S SKETCH OF DEMOCRACY.

A PERSONAGE was in Rome taking the lead in the popular party,

whose extraordinary talents fitted him for being a leading member in the senate, or in any assembly of the first rank and ability which the world had seen. Julius Cæsar was sprung from a noble family; but was, first by affinity, and afterwards by inclination and ambition, attached to the popular party. He was nephew to the wife of Marius, and had married the daughter of Cinna. The Roman law allowing to a husband an arbitrary power of divorce, Sylla commanded Cæsar to repudiate his wife, because she was Cinna's daughter. Cæsar refused. He with difficulty, by the intercession of friends, escaped proscription. Sylla, whilst he pardoned him, manifested the penetration of his own character in the judgment he gave of the youth, not eighteen years of age. My 'friends,' said he, 'I see in this young man many Mariuses.' Cæsar, during the dictatorship, retired into Asia, and devoted himself to improving his extraordinary talents by literature. In that time, he incidentally exhibited specimens of the boldness and self-possessing decision which marked his future character. Captured by pirates, instead of soliciting their mercy, or courting their favour, he assumed an imperious tone, and by his magnanimous policy, awed those desperadoes into the most submissive reverence, and was released on his own terms. Returning to Rome, he distin guished himself for his eloquence. Whilst he was so eminent for oratorical abilities, and for talents in general, he was no less remarkable for extravagance and profligacy. He was not twenty-five years of age, when be bad spent an ample fortune, and became deeply involved in debt. His vices were accompanied by an apparent openness and affability, by winning manners, which tended to render them more dangerous. His seeming good nature, his frank, obliging and unassuming deportment rendered him highly agreeable to the people, on whom such manners in their superiors pass for unequivocal proofs of benevolent dispositions. To some of the young

VOL. I.

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