them his reflections on other writers. Among the former he has inserted several, which have no title to a place in such a collection; and many of the latter are as just, as they are severe. To follow this writer through all his animadversions would neither be useful nor entertaining. Like most other commentators, he appears to be sometimes right, and frequently wrong, in his criticisms on Horace. He was a good schoJar, but an execrable critick. He had not taste enough to discover the value of many of Bentley's conjectural corrections, though his extensive reading enabled him to point out several of the great critick's errors. In addition to the emendations which we have already transcribed, we must add one or two more : Horat. Ars Poet. 121. Honoratum si forte reponis Achillem, For honoratum, Bentley, with a chus. "Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, The son of Peleus, indeed, was dreaded on account of his courage, but if we consider his story, we do not find that honours were often showered down upon him. On the contrary, Agamemmon takes away his mistress, Βρισηίς καλ. zapris, or, as Horace stiles her, Briseis niveo colore; and tho' he had plundered so many cities, yet id the commander in chief always carry off the richest spoils, and enjoy the treasures which were acquired by his labours: —δια πατρα δασασηείο, πολλαδ' εχεσκεν. In Serm. II. Lib. 2, v. 120, Bentley corrects the punctuation of a passage, in which he supposes that Horace refers to an inedited a Some of Johnson's remarks on the Latinity of Bentley's notes are just and acute. They display great knowledge of the language, and insight into the modes of expression adopted by the best RoBut let it not be man authors. supposed that our critick is the only modern, who deserves censure on this account. Scioppius wrote a book against the Latinity of Strada, and the learned H. Stephens another of uncommon excellence on that of the great Lipsius. Markland, in more modern times, is not always equally correct in his annotations and it would be found that even the great Toup, who is the Corypheüs of Grecian See Bentley's note on the passage Horat. P. 674. Ed. Amst. The author of the preface to the Oxford edition of Cephalas, in a note, mentions this passage, but does not scem thoroughly to conceive the force of Bentley's correction. There is an account also of this celebrated passage in Foster on Accents, which the curious reader may consult. literature, in the present age, if his preface to Longinus were examined by a rigid grammarian, can sometimes, as well as criticks of inferiour rank,write inattentively, and adopt a style "So Latin, yet so English all the while." Why does he use the ambiguous if not unclassical phrase of Longinum non uno in loco restituimus, which may mean not once, as well as more than once? In another place he says, non semel, Publi casse is used by Pliny, in the sense of publishing a book, but, we believe, not by the writers of the Augustan age. Adeone often begins a sentence, but not adeo ut, which requires a subj. mood after it. Toup is wrong, when he puts an Indic. Cicero says: « Remp. funditus amisimus, adeo ut Cato adolescens nullius consiliivix vivus effugeret." Ad Q. frat. et alibi. In page 4. Vocat should be vocavit, as the other verbs in the sentence are in the perfect tense. Ut erat should be ut esset.-Johnson censures Bentley's alliteratio, what would he have said to Toup's in textum*, and to some other slips, which may be discovered in this preface. Do not, however, let it be suspected, that we mean to detract from Toup's splendid abili ties, as a critick. He has few readers who look up to him with higher veneration, or who would praise him with more sincerity; but we were willing that his Herculean shoulders should bear some portion of the load which has been placed on those of Bentley. the Augustan age, for the text of a book. Used by Am. Marcell., but not in To be continued. THE LIBERAL ARTS. For the Arthology. MR. HUME has asserted, "That it is impossible for the arts and sciences to arise, among any people, unless that people enjoy the blessings of a free government." This, with many other positions assumed as the foundation of his reasoning, inclines one to believe that,in his essays, the primary object was not the discovery of concealed, or illustration of known truths; but rather to exercise his faculties in the construction of plausible theories, and in framing ingenious arguments on controverted subjects. An impartial attention to the history of the rise and progress of arts will convince us, that they depended much more upon other causes than political institutions. They originally arose No. 2. in Egypt, which was a monarchy, and frequently a very despotic one; from thence they were transplanted to the free states of Greece; from thence to Rome, where they flourished in the time of the Emperours; they were then involved in the same darkness with every other species of human learning and ingenuity, and restored under papal and despotick power in the reign of Leo the Tenth, his immediate predecessor and successor, with the surrounding contemporary potentates. It appears, therefore, more consonant to reason, as well as fact, to lay their foundation in the wants of mankind, and the perfecting of the superstructure to their superstitions, religion,and ambition. Necessity first gave birth to architec ture, which the desire of building suitable habitations for various deities brought to perfection. Sculpture arose from, and was matured by the universal prevalence of polytheism. Painting most probably was principally indebted to the same cause; and when they arose again in Italy, they were cherished, protected by, and it may be said in corporated with the religion of the times, which then possessed the greatest influence over the reason and passions, as well as the temporal estate of man. To describe and illustrate the wonderful events, sublime nature, and important objects of christian theology, was at once the pride, the labour, and the nutriment of historical painting; and the reason why its progress was so long retarded in England may be found in that intolerant bigotry which accompanied the reformation. It is evident, therefore, that other causes, besides the possession of a free government, are requisite to produce the arts among us; and if we depend on that alone, we shall continue without those sources of intellectual elegance and refinement, to which other nations are indebted for their brightest points of superiority. But seeing that neither our religious nor political institutions are calculated to hold out much inducement, how are we to transplant them into our soil? How shall they be nourished, and be made to produce scyons of native growth? That they may grow, when transplanted, let the soil (as was observed before) be fitted to receive them; for what Hume observes generally, may justly be particularly applied to the imitative arts; that they cannot make much progress, or produce eminent men, except a share of the same spirit and genius be antece dently diffused through the people among whom they arise. The means,by which this spirit may be generated and diffused, it is worth while to consider. The first step, is to induce artists of eminence, or men of genius promising to arrive at eminence, whether foreigners or natives, whenever they appear, by such encouragement, as will make it worth their while to remain and exert their talents in this country = and this encouragement must not only be of a pecuniary nature, but must also consist in that respectful attention, which will give them a due degree of consequence in so ciety; and which, if they possess that elevation of mind which the arts are calculated to inspire, and which they never fail to inspire in men of real genius, will be always esteemed as the most grateful and congenial reward of their labours. It is also equally essential to the adequate compensation of real genius, that all unqualified pretenders should be universally discountenanced; for there are quacks among artists as well as among physicians, and when such persons are able successfully to practice their impositions, the arts themselves suffer a temporary disgrace, and artists of merit are defrauded of their just portion of respectability and profit. Persons, who have laid out their money in what they believed were works of art and exertions of ta lent, finding themselves imposed. upon by gaudy daubings, or the re fuse of European auctions, are too often disposed to doubt all they have heard of the dignity of art, and to withhold, indiscriminately, from every professor, that liberali ty which they once bestowed in vain. This renders it necessary·· to be able to discriminate between good and bad, between the works of a master and the feeble imita vation of the mind, which leads to an habitual preference of the better to the worse. The invisible sceptre which sways and fixes the morals of a people, is held by the hand of taste.' This faculty is in every person's power to possess, in a greater or less degree, according to the strength & cultivation of his understanding. Those, whose circumstances do not absolutely require all their time to provide the necessaries of life, have sufficient,many have abundant leisure for this purpose; and they who neglect it, not only lose a great and enviable source of rational pleasure, but assuredly leave unperformed a duty to the author of their being, who gave them faculties above the brutes, not to “rust unused," but to be improved by all opportunities to the utmost of their power, that they may be the better enabled to perform the various parts of their character, as it respects their maker, their fellowcreatures, and themselves. Aug. 24th. E. E. SILVA. Nec cibi canarum quivis temerè arroget artem, Non prius exacta tenui ratione saporum. VOLTAIRE. It is very difficult to ascertain the truth of particular events in history, or in the lives of celebrated men. The death of Voltaire is an instance of this; names are given, and circumstances mentioned to prove his having demanded a confessor; and, after having expressed his remorse, that he recanted the opinions contained in his works. I was present one evening, in a small circle, at the house of Mr., in Paris. A mong the company were the marchioness de Villette, the adopted HOR. EPIST. No. 18. daughter of Voltaire, whom he used to belle et bonne," and Mr. Robert, the landscape painter,' who was one of his intimate acquaintance. The conversation turned upon Voltaire, and many Some anecdotes were related. person asked madame de Villette, whether the common account of Voltaire's death was true. She answered, that she was with him during his last sickness, and in the room at the time, or a few moments before he died; that he was importuned to receive a confessor, and that his only answer was, “je vous prie de me laisser tranquille"; and that he died without any confession. That Voltaire should have written against the Catholick religion, may be palliated in considering its excessive abuses; but the vanity of displaying his wit led him much farther, than he probably intended. His opinion of the necessity of a religion may be known from this famous line "Sr Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." OSSIAN AND HOMER. There are in Ossian many pleasing passages; but the perpetual recurrence of the same images and a continual effort to effect the sublime, so wearies the mind that I can never read but a few pages at a time. Ossian resembles a tremendous rock, overhung with waving woods, where you may discover foaming cataracts, gloomy caverns, and dismal precipices. Homer is like a fertile country, in which you may at once contemplate the variegated beauties of woods and waterfalls; torrents, which rush with impetuosity from lofty mountains, and streams, which murmur through Arcadian vales. Like the shield of Achilles, the poems of Homer present the whole world to our view. DEFINITION OF MAN. The best, which has ever been given, is anonymous. "Man is a cooking animal." Disquisitions upon man are among the most abstruse that perplex metaphysicians. Much of the difficulty has arisen from establishing a wrong definition. Men are naturally mad; different individuals approximate in different degrees towards reason. Many are completely mad, none are perfectly rational. Whatever distance some few, more Vol. III. No. 8. 3E fortunate than the rest, may have passed in the attainment of rationality; still every day of their life will discover some symptoms of their original state. Every man occasionally finds deviations from the path of reason, in every one of his acquaintance, which cannot be accounted for on any other position, than the one I have assumed, that men are naturally mad. PAINTING. Many circumstances, highly affecting in narration, are glaringly improper for the tablet of the painter. Of this class is the circumstance of the Grecian Daughter affording nutriment to her aged parent. The story is barely tol erable in the hands of the serious dramatist; but on canvas, the figure of an old man, placed in the situation of an unconscious infant, is perfectly disgusting. TASTE. To assign correct rules for taste is not easier than to give a definition of beauty. It has puzzled polite scholars, metaphysicians, and artists. The standard in different individuals and different nations is widely different. The gout of the French varies as much from the gusto of the Italians, as from the taste of the English, and they are all equally remote from the onderscheidend vermoogen of the Dutch. I am led to think,that the most accurate standard will be to decide by taste in eating. A treatise upon the progress of the culinary art would be very interesting. The advances of society towards perfection, and its gradual decline, will be found to keep pace with the advancement and decay of the art of cooking. What a number of gradations between the roaming Tartar, inebriated with fermented |