perceived by mortal eye, or recorded in the very fhort space of what we call hiftory, let it be ever fo ancient. Perhaps, too, the whole deftruction I have been defcribing, may have proceeded fimply from the exhalations of confined vapours, generated by the fermentation of fuch minerals as produce volcanoes, which have efcaped where they met with the leaft refift. ance, and muft naturally in a greater degree have affected the plain than the high and more folid grounds around it. When the account of the Royal Academy of Naples is published, with maps, plans, and drawings, of the curious fpot I have defcribed, this rude and imperfect account will, I flatter myself, be of ufe; without the plans and drawings, you well know, Sir, the great difficulty there is in making one's felf intelligible on fuch a fubject.

I have the honour to be, &c.

THE TOUCHSTONE.

NUMBER II.,

TH HE following letter may perhaps be fatisfactory to many perfons who have entertained doubts fimilar to those which are expreffed by the intelligent correfpondent from

whom it was received.

TO SOLOMON SAGEBARO, ESQ.

SIR,

I HAVE read with much attention

your first paper, and confefs myself greatly delighted with the originality of the fatire it contains: but, Sir, though I acknowledge myself highly pleafed with the general execution, you will excufe me if I obferve, what is ftrictly true, that though I have thrice three times perufed, with unabated pleafure, the entire number, I am still at a loss thoroughly to comprehend the plan which you mean to purfue. Indeed, after the most minute analyfis of the whole, I cannot avoid thinking, that nothing more is meant, by this formal establishment of the Court of Common Senfe, and decifion or decree by ToUCHSTONE, than the

erection of much fuch another tribunal as that which was originally inftituted under the appellation of the SPECTATOR, and gave rife to feveral other fimilar courts, the decifions of which are not, in general, likely to be controverted.

Under this idea, the formality which has puzzled me, and probably many others, inftantly vanishes: the Court of COMMON SENSE appears merely figurative of the good fenfe which all effays admitted into your papers are expected to contain; and the TOUCHSTONE itself, or feal of office, only to fignify the power with which the worshipful Solomon Sagebaro, Efq. is fo worthily invefted, of promulging, under that title, fuch opinions as may to him seem deferving of public attention, either from their pe culiarly interesting nature, their novelty, or their entertainment.

In short, I have repeatedly tried my opinion, like the folution of an Œdipean ænigma, (for fuch, I affure you, it has been to me) on every particle of your paper; and, unless I hear from yourself, that cafes are to be stated in form, and formal decrees to be pronounced, I will never believe that any thing fo dull and abfurd can be intended to iffue from the office of Solomon Sagebaro, Efq.

If, as I fincerely think, my fuggeftions turn out to be juft, you may expect to hear from me occafionallyremember, I difclaim all formality, and every attempt at connection in the different effays-under the fignature of

MOST TREMENDOUS SIR!

THE ftanzas which I have the honour to inclofe in this addrefs*, were written by my order, and at my expence, by a poet who either has, or thinks he has, no fmall pretenfions to merit in his line. If, by the bye, his pretenfions are merely ideal, he muft at least be allowed as great a fhare of vanity as any individual of his tribe; and poets, Sir, as you well know, are feldom deficient in that home-manufactured commodity.

Be this as it may, he was pretty well paid for his trouble; for, not to mention a good dinner, at which he was by no means an idle fpectator, he received ten fhillings and fixpence fterling, according to previous agreement. He even begged hard for an additional half-crown; in order, as he said, to refresh his Pegafus at a neighbouring tavern, where a fociety of his rhyming brethren meet, if not regularly, at least whenever credit or cash will allow. This requeft, however, I refused to comply with, till time should have proved the efficacy of his production.

Now, Sir, you must know, these verfes were written with a view of reclaiming my wife from a vicious habit of drinking ftrong waters, which

Clodio had wit, and reason too:

was contracted fome years fince, during my absence in the country on bufinefs.

The poet, (who of courfe was in the fecret) fenfible, I fuppofe, how ufelefs an attempt of this nature must prove, where not only a woman's will, but her appetite, was to be conquered, went away in difguft, and has never fince troubled me. I would willingly have perfuaded him, at the time, to make a few alterations in the compofition, in order to render it more immediately applicable to the bufinefs in queftion: for instance, I wanted the name of Clodio to be erased, and that of Margery inferted; the one belonging to my wife, (faving your worship's prefence) and the other, as Iconceive, to no woman on earth. But he, more than half-affronted that any perfon fhould prefume to correct a fyllable in what came from his pen, infifted on the propriety of every word; urging, in fupport of his opinion, that a woman was a man, though a man was not a woman; by the fame rule, and for the fame reafon, as a mare is a horfe, though a horfe is not a mare. He farther added, with much feeming importance, that in Latin, (a language which he understood better than any man on earth) the word HOMO was used to exprefs both the fexes, or either, as moit convenient. It was in vain for me to argue on fo abftrufe a point with a man of fuch deep erudition: I therefore was-or rather affected to feem-convinced by his reafoning; well knowing that your very learned men are paflionate as well as wife.

Now, Sir, if you pleafe, we will return to my wife; who, by this time

it is now ftriking ten-would have been at least half-feas-over-to use a

The first may still be living;. The laft in Port, 'midft riot's crew, He drown'd beyond reviving. Indignant Heaven, who faw the deed, Indulg'd him in his fwallow; Then ftruck him from the human breed, And left the brute to wallow.

vulgar phrafe if the awe in which the ftands of your newly-established tribunal did not keep her within the bounds of reafon and decorum.

To explain this mystery, as well as to exprefs my gratitude for the bleffings I owe to your Touchstone, was the occafion of my writing this epiftle. Previous to the scrap of poetry already mentioned, you will naturally fuppofe, every effort of perfuafive, or rather diffuafive, verbal reclamation, had been found ineffectual. Thefe likewife failing, I fairly took advantage of the law; not by fuing my wife, but to own the truth-by repeatedly beating her with fticks within ftatute-fize that is, not thicker than my thumb.

This laft remedy, for a fhort time, feemed to promise the defired effect: but, I do not know how it happened, either the fenfe of pain was deadened by ufe, or obftinacy got the better of it; for, after breaking feveral bundles in this method of difcipline, I found myself exactly in ftatu quo, and her, ifpoffible, much worfe. She at laft began to threaten, and even attempt, retaliation, with fuch spirit and refolution, that, egad! I ftood no chance with her. Indeed, the dif parity of our weapons gave her a decided advantage: for, whilft I was cautious of keeping within law, to prevent all fears of a profecution; the, who confidered me as the aggreffor, and herself not tied down to any reftraint whatever, made no fcruple of feizing on the mopftick, broom, or poker, as they came firft to hand, to the imminent danger of my limbs and life.

Thus, defpairing of redrefs, and fhe, from mere revenge, as the faid, continuing to drink more than ever; I had fet myfelf down in painful refignation to my fate; that is, to be fairly ruined by her vicious extravagance. In this temper of mind, I accidentally took up the first number of your Touchftone, where I found the relief I had fo long fought for in vain from every other quarter.

I had often threatened Margery

with the ufual courts of justice; but fhe conftantly defpifed thefe threats, from the fulleft conviction, that a tongue naturally flippant, and a face far from difgufting, would prejudice the judge and jury in her favour. But the unbiaffed impartiality of your court left no room for fuch apprehenfions, fince every caufe is there to be tried by Reafon and You.

I read, with great emphafis, the first number of the Touchstone to my wife; making comments, in my way, on fuch parts as required amplification. She liftened with more attention than women ufually do to good fenfe, and feemed greatly agitated by what he heard. I repeated my lecture again and again, with redoubled energy; and, if not Felix, I affure you, Margery trembled. Perceiving my victory, I determined to render it compleat, by explaining, in terms of the utmoft exaggeration, the eternal infamy that must follow conviction in a court like yours: hor did I forget to enforce the utter impoffibility of efcaping from juftice; fince, on ap plication of the Touchstone, every crime, or folly, would be seen in it's true colours.

Never, Sir, did any father-confeffor harangue a more fincere, or at least a more terrified, penitent. Had I, indeed, like that fraternity, threatened her with hell and the devil, the triteness of the menace, in this refined age, might probably have been loft on her, as on many others: but the Touchstone!-Solomon Sagebaro, Efquire!

carry a terror in their very found, which finks her to earth, and almoft to annihilation! Nay, fo great is her averfion to your worship's name, that he has torn out the whole book of Salomon from the Family Bible; and committed feveral depredations in our houfhold and garden-furniture, merely because they bore a refemblance to it in found; particularly, in the demolition of a barrow in which I used occafionally to wheel pot-herbs, and among the rest fage.

In a word, Sir, the is continually afking me a hundred questions rela

4

tive to your drefs and perfon; and whether I do not think you may be a defcendant of some giant of old: in which laft idea I have endeavoured to confirm her, and not a little to my purpose.

Inftead of being haughty and imperious, he is now all fubmiffion; and when the tones of her voice, naturally fhill, rife above the pitch that fuits the drum of my ear, I can inftantly reduce it to any key I please, or what is more, confidering I have a woman and a wife to deal with, even to filence itself.

It is true I found greater difficulty in reducing the quantity as well as quality of her liquids: but even both thefe reductions have already been fo far effected, that instead of half a pint of neat French brandy-why should I difguife the truth!he only allows herfelf half a jill of fhrub or ufquebaugh a day, with now and then a fingle giafs of cherry or raspberry.

Such, Sir, is the amazing power of the Touchstone, and fuch are the ufeful reformations to be expected from it in the domeftic world! For

my part, I take this opportunity of communicating fo miraculous an inftance of it's virtue with true pleafure; and fhould gladly fign my real name, if it would not immediately reveal that of my wife; who has intreated me with tears, and for Heaven's fake, not to make known her former misdemeanors to the world, and particularly to Solomon Sagebaro, Efq.

I have now only to add my fincere with, that the Touchstone may prove equally efficacious in every other inftance; in which case, pedantry, vice, and folly, (in every fenfe of these words) like my wife's cordials, will be reduced to their proper ftandard, and a lafting ftatue of reafon and common fenfe be erected on their ruins.

I am, Sir, with much gratitude and refpect, your obliged fervant, (F.)

SEPT. 25, 1783.

A CITIZEN.

P. S. I advise you to get knighted the firft opportunity. It gives a magiftrate double confequence: witness Sir S-pf-n Wt, and others,

not appear, in one inftance, to have taken up and continued any fingle story from another. It is, however, certain, that these poets have derived their general fable from various books and poems on the wars of Charlemain, and the actions of his Paladins, and other fubjects of chivalry; and that both have frequent allufions to incidents recorded in thefe books.'

With refpect to the feparate merits of Boyardo and Ariofto, the celebrated Le Sage, author of Gil Blas, who in the year 1716 published in French a profe tranflation, or rather paraphrafe, of the Orlando Innamorato, under the title of Roland L'Amoreux, has furnished us with the following character of thefe two poets.

Thefe authors have given a free fcope to their imagination, which in both was equally noble and lively: if Boyardo has the merit of invention, Ariofto, in return, has every advantage of ftile and manner, and the copy is doubtless greatly fuperior to the original. Ariofto is far more polished, his diction is chafter, and he poffeffes all the elegance of language: his verfes are ftrong, and fonorous; his defcriptions are admirable, and often fublime. On the contrary, Boyardo is always grovelling and feeble. Ariofto, whether ferious or pleafant, is every where entertaining, and preferves a degree of majefty even in his pleafantry: he is the only author who has found out the art of blending the ferious with the comic, and the heroic with the familiar; by which means he is truly original, and fuch an original as no one has yet fuccefsfully imitated.'

On examining the poems of Boyardo and Ariefto, it will appear that the laft, with respect to the Epic part, the wars of Charlemain and Agramant, is not defective in point of unity, as it fets forth one great action, the invafion of France by the Saracens, and concludes with the victory of the Chriftians by the death or defeat of all the Pagan leaders, though this great action is interrupted occafion ally by an infinity of epifodes and romantic adventures, artfully con

nected with each other, and interwoven with the general fable. But Boyardo has no pretence to unity in any part of his vaft and heterogeneous compofition; which, befides the leffer incidents, confifts of three diftin& great actions: the invafion of France by Gradaffo, for the conqueft of Du. rindana and Boyardo; the fiege of Albracca, by Agrican King of Tartary and the other enemies of Galaphron and his daughter Angelica; and the invafion of France by Agramant, to revenge the death of Troyano. However, though Ariofto has undoubtedly a better claim to unity of action, and regularity of defign, than his predeceffor, it is very plain that he never intended to write a regular Epic poem, but that he adopted the fashionable mode of that time, when the wild and defultory narratives of romance were prevalent. From the romantic turn of his fable, and the motley character of his writing, many of the French critics, and fome others, have been induced, in the cool phlegm of criticifm, to pass the feverest cenfures on Ariofto; but fuch cenfures are in general futile, being founded on the miftaken opinion, that the Orlando is to be tried by the rules of Ariftotle and the examples of Homer and Virgil. An Italian critic of great taste and judgment gives the following opinion of Ariofto.

After Boyardo, Ariofto took up the fame ftory, but in a far more exalted ftrain of poetry, and gave a compleat ending to the unfinished invention of his predeceffor, interfperfing every part of his narrative with strong and masterly pictures of the paffions and habits of mankind, infomuch that the Furiofo may be confidered as an affemblage of all that actuates the human mind, love, hatred, jealoufy, avarice, anger, and ambition, in their natural colours, with an infinity of examples of the punishments attendant upon vice, In Boyardo and Ariollo is to be feen the true fyftem of honour known by the name of chivalry. I fhall not dwell upon the philofophical and theological doc