Ut mens fida sibi non ullos accipit ictus, Quæ tamen obfirmet monitis animosque ferendo "These, elegant, and poetical as they are, have "more of paraphrase than many, and most of the "rest, which are close to the original.— "This work is quite new to me; but you can per"haps tell me something more of the book, and of the 66 man." The sixth Letter marks that he was acquainted with Dr. Bentley-for he says in the Postscript, " Salter, "who was with me when Bentley digammatized, has "given Mr. Say a more circumstantial account of "that Eolian Exile*." To resume the widow of Mr. WRAY: she died in 1803, and was buried in the same vault with her husband. With a delicacy of judgment and feeling habitual to the current of her life, she gave his * In allusion, I suppose, to the tempest of his mind, and of his habits. "In Memory of MARY WRAY, Widow of DANIEL WRAY, Esq. and Daughter of ROBERT DARELL, Esq. of Richmond, Surry. Died March 10th, 1803, aged 78 years. portrait, portrait, by the late Sir Nathaniel Holland *, a chef d'œuvre, to Queen's College, and his Library to the Charter-house. In memory of his regard for our family, and from a personal regard for my aged mother, who survived her four years, she left her a legacy. It gave me the highest pleasure to see her happy, as well as revered, long after she had lost her husband, and continuing to rejoice in the society of his friends. This lady had a most amusing talent, that of drawing profiles, and figures, cutting them out in paper, and putting them together in what might be called conversation-pictures, which made them alive. They filled one of her apartments, and I lament that none of them have reached me, except a figure of her husband, which accompanies this memoir, and is a perfect resemblance. Here my account must end; and I feel it as a miracle of good fortune to my feelings, that I have collected so many of the relicks, which, but for my zeal in collecting them, would soon have been lost, as being dispersed into so many hands, and in such minute portions. But out of my last acquisition, that of the Letters to Lord Hardwicke, I cannot forbear to select a few passages, which characterize the genius, and the virtues of the Writer. In his affection to Lord Hardwicke, we have not only the uniform zeal of disinterested esteem, and prepossession, but a turn of graceful attentions, in the midst of playful manners, which could not easily be surpassed. I have touched already upon his "Athenian Letters," in allusion to Lord Hardwicke's marriage. I recollect another instance of a similar compliment, and most happily introduced under * Better known as an Artist by his original name of Dance. the G 2 the veil of a partial taste for one of the Dii minorum Gentium in the Epic Pantheon, Statius. "You and "I did not read the best of Statius together. I 66 spent one evening in Essex upon him, and found "many fine strokes towards the end of the 4th and "in the 5th book. The following verses in Sylv. "v. 2, I cannot help transmitting: they are the "character of a young man, a friend of the Poet: "At tibi Pieriæ tenero sub pectore curæ, "Et pudor, et docti morem sibi dicere mores, "Tunc hilaris probitas, et frons tranquilla, nitorque "Luxuriæ confine timens, pietasque per omnes "Dispensata modos, æquævo cedere fratri, "Mirarique patrem. "Charles, perhaps, will not allow the cedere fratri, "but it is a trait as like as the rest of the picture.' The ingenuity of this compliment is above all praise, Charles was the celebrated Mr. Yorke; that frater to whom his eldest brother submitted, from the high opinion which he entertained of him; so that here both of them share the wreath; and their admired parent is the Chancellor. The next light in which these letters present him is that of an acute, and sound critic, with an accuracy of taste, as well as learning, seldom attained. There is a short, but a masterly comment upon the Merope of Voltaire, which I think, if it stood alone, would serve to shew the tact of his critical wand. "There is a thought near the beginning of this "Play, which appears to me, I confess, a most fla"grant example of the false wit which the author "properly condemns in a letter upon that very topic. Polifonte is arguing that his military merit " is a sufficient claim of title to the crown: "Je n'ai plus reçu du sang que m'a donné la vie, "Ce sang est éparsé, versé pour la patrie, "Ce sang coula pour vous. "Now |