out confidering what he was about, at laft ipit it out. As it fell immediately before him, he obferved that it had a very unutual luftre, which truck him fo much that it brought him out of his fit of the vapours. He took it up and confidered it; and, being a man of reflection, he immediately traced the whole progress of the operation; the grinding between the teeth; the mixture of a clammy liquor, fuch as the faliva; and the performing that in a place neceffarily warm as the mouth. On thefe confiderations he went to work; and following nature as close as he could, in a little time produced those luttered or watered taffetas now fo univerally used. May acquired an immenfe fortune by this incident, and established a manufac ture which has been a continual fource of riches to that city ever fince. SALE (The Tranflator of the Alcoran, &c.). This man, who had both learning and general abilities for his profeffion,is, how ever, unfortunately to be claffed amongft thofe who either did not think fufficiently of the common affairs of life, or, if he did, thought his talents were an excufe for his overlooking them. Having contribated pretty largely to the Volumes of Univerfal Hiftory, the work was ftopped by the delay of a Preface which he had engaged to write for that work. The bookfellers concerned conftantly preffed him, but for a long time could get no fatisfaction; at laft he fent them werd it was finished, and an evening was appointed for the purpofe of delivering it. The parties being all met, Sale prodaced a parcel of loofe Manufcripts, tied up clofe with red tape, and fealed at the edges, which he laid down on the table as the preface. Nobody doubting this, he was paid his balance, and the company fupped together in great good-humour and harmony; when, just before parting, Sale, as if fuddenly recollecting fome. thing, took up the papers, faid he had a few alterations to make, which would not take up two hours, and that he would return them the next day. He accordingly carried home the papers, but did not return them for many months afterwards; and then not till he had laid the bookfellers under fresh contributions. TOPHAM BEAUCLERC. ftrength of mind and univerfality of talents that would have made a moft diftinguifhed figure in life, had his pleasures, or his love of learned leifure, permitted him to mingle more in the bufy haunts of men. He was deeply verfed in antient and modern learning; understood poetry, painting, and mufic; had a taffe, and a liberality equal to that tafte, in the collection of books, manufcripts, &c. and, was a good practical chemift; which laft he for fome years before his death indulged in considerably, at the expence of his private fortune. This Gentleman was nearly related to the Duke of St. Alban's; and poffeffed a He was reckoned by a Noble Lord. now living, a near relation of his, and who is in poffeflion of many private traits of their common ancestor Charles the Se cond, to be more like that Monarch in his pleasures, his purfuits, and fome of his failings, than any of his fuccef-. fors. He had the best library of any private Gentleman of his time, and, perhaps, as well arranged. His method was, when he began a clafs, either in arts or sciences, to continue buying principally in that clafs till he had completed it. By thefe means his collection was very perfect. His conduct to his bookfellers, too, deferves fome notice (and we believe in this refpect not fo fimilar to the general conduct of his ancestor). When he wanted books, he fent in a catalogue, according to the largenefs of the fum they might amount to, to fuch bookfellers as he thought could beft lie out of their money: here the debt refted till either fuch time as his annuities came round, or he had a fuccessful run at play: when either of thefe happened, he punctually called upon his creditors, and dilcharged it with honour. He has often, in thefe inftances, paid fo large a fum as fifteen bundred pounds at a time. This library at his death fold by auction for fix thousand and eight pounds odd fhillings; it was mortgaged to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Marlborough, for fix thousand; fo that it was faid, if his Grace was not an accurate judge of good books, he certainly was of good fecurities. On his outfet in life he had a very fine fortune; but, ardent in the pursuit of elegant and expensive pleasures, he dipt it confiderably. On a review of his af fairs, he wished to fell his eftates for an annuity determinable when he was forty; an age which inexperience, and the intoxication of pleasure, fuggested to him as the extreme bounds of life. The interpofition of his friends faved him from this error; and he lived, principally upon a very confiderable annuity, during the remainder of his life, which, however, did not laft many years after the period of forty. Mr. Beauclerc was one of the early acquaintances of Dr. Johnfon in the meridian of his literary fame, and one to whom he paid great confideration on account of his learning and abilities. He often lamented that his indolence and diffipation prevented him from bringing his talents to fome uteful defignations, faying "What Beauclerc would write would be read with avidity: he fees moft fubjects ftrongly and clearly, and has great tafte in embellishing them;" but his mode of living debarred him from any of the great purfuits of life; fcarcely ever rifing till evening, and then fitting up the best part of the night, either in literary focieties or parties of play. Soon after his death, which happened about fixteen years ago, Dr. John I MY DEAR F. fon gave the following character of him at the Club :-he faid, he was the moft general man in his knowledge, and polfeffed the greatest dexterity of mind in conversation, he ever knew; he hit the foonest, the hardest, and fairest, of any antagonist; and feldom attempted to argue without fucceeding in thote three points. He then continued," he had, however, great ill-nature about him; and at times it feemed to give him the greatest plea fure to lay the mcft malicious things of his best friends; not that I believe he would ad upon this, and do a deliberate mifchief to any one; it feemed to be the mere indulgence of a jealous or petulant moment." "Wyndham too," continued the Dec. tor, "has great comprehenfion of mind, but his exercife of it is different. Beauclerc was like a greyhound, that whipped up his prey on the firft ftretch, whereas Wyndham is more like a bulldog, who fucceeds by perfèverance.” To be continued.) ON POPE'S HOMER. [Continued from Vol. XXX, Page 324.] WAS not ignorant of the allufion to ancient customs, which the old Scholiafts tell us is couched under the words ΑΠΟ ΔΡΥΟΣ, ΟΥΔ' ΑΠΟ ΠΕΤΡΗΣ ; nor any I much affected by it. So long as the fair judges to whom I appealed decide in my favour, I am very little concerned what any grave commentator may urge in oppofition to their decree, which, on a question of this fort, I confider as abfolute and irreversible. If it would not look too much like difrefpect to the acknowledged authority of the court, to offer any thing in their fupport, I might mention that Pope's Annotator himself thinks the reverend father's expofition far-fetched, though ingenious. Add to this the appropriate meaning of the word OAPIZETON, juftifying, as it does beyond all controverfy, the turn which our friend S. has given in his verfion to these interefting lines. Thus much I thought myself obliged to say in defence of our caufe: at the fame time I beg you to believe, that I am very far from undervaluing the labours of learned Critics. It is, I know, cay mon practice with great authors of *i rank to difcredit, as much as may be, the fources from which they derive the better part of their learning: thus by affected contempt endeavouring to either to vain or too proud to acknowconceal the obligations, which they are ledge. To fhew you how distant I am from this disingenuous conduct, I with great pleasure take this opportunity of marking to you two or three inftances of critical fagacity from one the most refpee." table of the order, which have fallen in my way during the courte of thefe obfervations; and which, you will allow, have a just claim to our attention, not to fay admiration. You took notice in Hector's prayer of the word EIIIOI, which stood in my quotation for EINHEI, as it is read in all the copies which I have had an opportunity of contulting. You were right in your conjecture, that I picked up this masterly amendment of the text (for fuch furely it must be deemed) amongst the Mifcellanea Critica of the admirable Richard Dawes, M. A. whofe fortunes every friend to literature muft lament were fa inadequate to his genius and learning. It will not be neceffary to repeat the unanswerable arguments by which he defends the propofed amendment. Mifc. Crit. Burgess, p. 148. You will will confult the book. In purfuing his fubject, you will obferve, he affumes to himself the credit of explaining the conftruction in a manner which had escaped all former expofitors. "Fefellit omnes, quantum fciam, fyntaxis." In the printed copies you read xuPAE, which, as has been fhewn, destroys the metre. On the word EOIKNE, I do not know whether our adınirable Critic, in the confcioufnefs of his own fuperiority, does Ως πότε τις ειποι, ΠATPOS Δ ̓ ΟΓΕ not rather too much enjoy his triumph ΠΟΛΛΟΝ ΑΜΕΙΝΩΝ, Εκ πολέμε ακοντα. The verfe cannot ftand, as it is thus read in all the copies at that time extant, confiftently with the metre and the fuppofed power of the Digamma. How then is it to be corrected? After examining, and, for reasons the most fatisfactory, rejecting feveral other proposed amendments, Dawes, with a knowledge of the language peculiarly his own, propoles the following: ΟΙ ΙΛΑΣΟΜΕΣΘΑ ανακτα ; the very form, in which the verfe appears in the edition mentioned above by Villoifin. Can you forbear exclaiming here, as on a fimilar occafion the learned Taylor does in admiration of the venerable ASHTON?" Singulare iftud ayxveices et felicitatis exemplum!" Under fuch authority you are not furprized that in the two lines quoted in my laft I adopted an alteration, now become obvious. Τεδ' εγω αντίας ειμι, και ει πυρί χειρΕ ECIXED, Εσπυρί χειρ εοικε, + P. 184. "in Cl. Bentleium, tanquam quemlibet "e trivio grammaticum †.” But is it not time to recal my thoughts, which have carried me, perhaps you will think, already too far out of my way? Yet you will not, I truft, be difpleafed with the fmall tribute here paid to departed excellence. We will now return to Pope; and I will treat you with an admired paffage, adduced by a writer of no mean rank or talents, as an instance" in which Pope has improved upon the thought and expreffion of his "original." Ευπ' όρεος κορύφησι Νοτος κατέχευεν ομι Ποίμεσιν ετι Φιλην, κλεπτη δε τε νυκτος xxxx, αμείνω. Τόσσον τις τ' επιλεύσσει, όσον επι λααν νησια "As when the fouth wind pours a thick "cloud upon the tops of the mountains, "whofe fhade is unpleasant to the thep"herds, but more commodious to the thief. "than the night itfelf, and when the gloom "is fo intenfe that one cannot fee further "than he can throw a ftone 1." The ingenious Effayift affirms, that "in "his fimile there is one circumftance "which offends against good taste.""You will be pleafed to read how honour"ably he diftinguishes Pope's verfion. "With what fuperior tafte has the tranf-、 "lator heightened this fimile, and ex"changed the offending circumstance for a "beauty! The fault is in the third line, τόσσον τις τ ̓ επιλεύσσει, &c. which is a "mean idea, compared with that which "Mr. Pope has substituted in its ftead:" Thus from his shaggy wings when Notus fheds A cloud of vapours round the mountain heads, Swift-gliding mifts the dusky fields invade, To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade. While fcarce the fwains their feeding flocks furvey, Loft and confused amidst the thickening day. • Ven. 1788. "But PERHAPS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. A THING OF SHREDS AND PATCHES! [Continued from Page 126. ] LORD MANSFIELD. PON the perfect mudel of elo. quence afforded by Demofthenes"," fays Lord Monboddo, "Lord Mansfield formed a chafte and correct ftyle of fpeaking fuitable to bufinefs, and particularly to the business of a Judge; to whofe office it belongs not only to determine controverfies between man aud man, but to fatisfy the parties that they have got juftice, and thereby give cafe and contentment to their minds, which 1.hold to be one of the great ufes of the Law. In this Lord Mansfield," adds, the learned Critic, "as it is well known, was fo fuccessful, that even the lofing party acknowledged the juftness of his decrees; and I knew myself one example of a man who had loft more than half his fortune by a judgment of his Lordship's, which, neverthelefs, he acknowledged to be juft." HAMLET. of the offender, he held it even more expedient to drop the profecution than to proceed in it. Hence it happened that he never once failed in the con viction of any offender, whom in virtue of his office, as Acufator Publicos, he had brought to his trial. Soon after the publication of Sir William Blackstone's excellent Com mentaries on the Laws of England, Lord M. was afked by a Nobleman, a friend of his, what books he should put into the hands of one of his fons, who "I have was about to fudy the Law. often been applied to," faid Lord M. on this occation before, and have been as often in doubt what books to recommend. However, fince the publication of Sir William Blackftone, my doubts are folved: I can recommend that book, which. from its excellent historical deduction and analytical reafoning, I look upon to be one of the belt inftitutional books ever published on any subject whatever." The Life of Lord Mansfield is at prefent a defideratum in British Biography. His formation of a system of Commercial Law, his methods of afford. ing (as much as poffible) fubftantial justice to the fuitors in his Court, his ready and fatisfactory difpatch of bufinefs, his dazzling yet luminous eloquence, molt amply entitle him to that honourable diftinction. This eloquent Lawyer, when he was Attorney General, was never in a hurry to bring forward any profecutions at the fuit of the Crown; he but too well knew the general obloquy attached to his office, as well as the difgrace that occurred to the Crown from ineffectual profecutions. He told a friend of his, that he thought it of the utmost confequence in the difcharge of his duty, as the principal Law Officer of the Crown, to weigh with great nicety the circumftances of every cafe that was to be brought into a Court of Crimin Law, at the fuit of that Fountain no lefs of Mercy than of Juf tice; and unless the fede molt decifively preponderated towards the conviction Seç Lord Mansfield's Declaration on the merits of Demofthenes, published in the European Magazine fɔr Apul 1793. DON CARLOS, PRINCE OF SPAIN. This ill-fated Prince ridiculed the perpetual journies of his father from Madrid to the Efcurial, and from the Efcurial Elcurial to Madrid, by writing on the first page of a book with blank leaves, "The Hiftory of the wonderful Voyages of the Great King Philip the Second." This, perhaps, joined to other things, might induce his father to put him to death. By what means it was done no one knows; he has been faid to have been bled to death like Seneca; to have been ftifled between two matraffes; and to have been frangled, as his executioner told him, for his good. Some one thus defcribes Don Carlos: "Duræ buccæ fuit, linguofus, Difcordia non homo, So ill-tempered, that he appeared not to be a man, but Dilcord perfonified." The Hiftory of this Prince would make an excellent fubject for a Tragedy. Otway has tried and failed. Much affiftance might be procured in compofing it from the Andronic of Campeftron, written about the beginning of this century. CHARLES THE SECOND, KING OF ENGLAND. “HAD this King but loved business as well as he understood it," fays Sir Richard Buttrode," he would have been the greateft Prince in Europe." Of his own country he fed to lay, that it was the most comfortable climate to live under that he had ever experienced, as there were more days in the year, and more hours in the day, that a man could take exercife out of doors in it, than in any country he had ever known. He faid one day to Sir Richard Bultrode, that during his exile he had feen many countries, of which none pleafed him fo much as that of the Flemings, who were the moft honeft and true hearted people he had ever met with: and then added, "I am weary of travelling, I am refeived to go abroad no more; but when I am dead and gone, I know not what my brother will do; I am much afraid that when he comes to the Throne he will be obliged to travel again." An Addrefs being once prefented from the City to this Monarch by the Lord Mayor, attended by Sir Robert Clayton, Mr. Bethell, and Mr. Cornith, the King returned an answer by the Lord Chancellor, which concluded thus: "The King doth not believe this to be fo unanimous a vote of the City as is pretended, and he commands me to tell you, that if he did believe it were This learned Physician used to call liquors and fweet drims, "Les poisons fucrés, Sugared poifons." He uted to fay, that the only ufe of paffion is to spoil every thing, and that one day Minerva, the Goddess of Eloquence and of Rhetoric, having put hertelf in a paffion, was guilty of a folecitm in difcourfe." He used to fay, that Pliny's Natural Hiftory was one of the best books in the world, and was the library of the poor man; adding, that if you put Ariftotle to Pliny, you had then a complete library; but that if you joined Plutarch and Seneca to thefe, you had then the whole family of good books, the father and mother, the elder and younger brother. He used to fay, after Lucian, that when the Gods hated any one they made him a schoolmaßer, and that to be reduced to teach scholars, was like the ancien punishment of being condemned ad beftias, to be thrown to wild beafts. Of the art of Medicine he said, that it was the art of Divination. Empirics, and Quacks that exercifed the art of medicine without fkill and with great profit, he called the Hawks of the Faculty. "Old age," faid he, " is a very great lady indeed, for the never makes a vifit without a number of attendants," His great hatred to the English Nation was produced in hi mind from their having cut off the head of one of their Kings, and from their giving antimonial wine in fevers. |