cries an infpired writer-while Milton gives the following confirmation of our meaning:

Thou art my father, thou my AUTHOR-thou
My being gav'ft me-whom fhould I obey
But thee?

One other example from our great dramatic poet, Rowe, will point out better than I could to foreigners, the difference betwixt AUTHORITY and POWER.

The refty knaves are over-run with ease,
As plenty ever is the nurse of faction.

If in good days like thefe the headstrong herd
Grow madly wanton and repine ;-it is
Because the reins of POWER are held too flack,
And reverend AUTHORITY of late

Has worn a face of mercy, more than justice.

AWEFUL, REVERENTIAL, SOLEMN.

THE last of these epithets begins the climax -A Gothick cathedral (fay we) is a SOLEMN place; its gloomy greatness disposes one to REVERENTIAL behaviour, infpiring fentiments more fublime, and meditations much more aweFUL, than does a ftructure on the Grecian model, though built for the fame purposes of piety.

The word aweful fhould however be used with caution, and a due sense of its importance; I have heard even well-bred ladies now and then áttribute that term too lightly in their common converfation-connecting it with fubftances beC 2

neath

neath its dignity-fuch mefalliances offend the sense of high birth natural to a Saxon.

AY AND YES.

THE first of these affirmatives, derived from the Latin aio, is of the higher antiquity in our language, and ftill keeps fome privileges of fuperiority, enforcing that which the other lefs decidedly afferts. It used to be represented in Shakespear's time by the fingle vowel I; fee the long scene between the nurse and Juliet, when told of Tybalt's death; but I recollect no later author who fo corrupts i t.We say in familiar talk, that Diana counsel'd her fifter Flora against such a match; did fhe not, Sir? Yes, I believe she did.-Counsel'd her! exclaims a ftander-by-Ay, and controuled her too, or she had been his wife now.

AZURE, SAPPHIRE, BLUE.

THESE are all preffed into the fervice as adjectives, each being able to ftand alone as nouns well fubftantiated,—at least two of the number, -our first being that lapis LAZULI from which the painters ultramarine is made, L'AZUL in Spanish, and in English AZURE; the fecond a well known gem; the third, if we ask for dyers BLUE, will be found a powder prepared from indigo,

indigo, &c.: we use them adjectivially, and al moft fynonymously however.-Minerva's AZURE eyes, so often mentioned by Pope in his exquifite tranflation of Homer, have fastened those two words for ever to each other, as long as our language lafts-and if a foreigner should take the next instead of it, all would laugh. The SAPPHIRE main and SAPPHIRE fky are both permitted and approved in poetry meantime, while it would be pedantry to use any word but BLUE when speaking of furniture or drefs.

BASE, LOW, SORDID; PALTRY, SORRY, POOR.

THESE wretched epithets would be perfectly fynonymous in their application to intellectual depravity, did one not difcern inherent worthleffness in fome of them, acquired poverty of spirit in the others. A man may be born a Low, a PALTRY, and, as we fay, a POOR creature; an Englishman muft however learn to be SORDID, SORRY, and BASE I believe :-which laft word, though it leads the way here in a new letter, being the vileft of its class, may be confidered as the moft diftant of all deviations from good, in every fenfe it is used. BASE birth in human creatures; BASE fruits in horticulture; BASE metals in the mineral kingdom; BASE dialects, fuch as that of St. Giles's, in our English language.

EXAMPLE.

EXAMPLE.

Mifellus was a lad of Low extraction, and ftudious of BASE practices even in his fchooldays; but now grown rich, it was a SORDID thing that they relate of his corrupting an ignorant maid to fell her wealthy, inexperienced miftrefs; and when he offered the wench a PALTRY prefent, it should at least have been, what fhe confidered it—a gold ring, but it was only BASE metal, and not worth half a crown. This feemed a SORRY trick even in him, and beneath the natural narrownefs of even fo POOR a creature.

BEAUTIFUL, HANDSOME, GRACFUL, ELEGANT,

PLEASING, PRETTY, FINE,

ARE however defirable epithets, by no means ftrictly fynonymous; and though, upon a curfory view, the fix laft appear included in their principal, which takes the lead, conversation will foon inform us to the contrary, while, talking of a GRACEFUL dancer now upon the ftage, we shall find in her perfon, if not put into motion, no claim at all upon our first attributive; nor does that firft neceffarily comprehend the other excellencies-for though the fituation of Mount Edgecumbe be confeffedly more BEAUTIFUL than Shenftone's Leafowes, tafte would lead many men to prefer the latter, as more PLEASING: and at the time when true perfection

3

perfection of female beauty appeared among us in the form of Maria Gunning, I well remember hearing men say that other women might juftly be preferred to her as PLEASING, and perhaps GRACEFUL too, in a far more eminent degree; and fo true was the obfervation, that her inferiors made it their amufement to fteal away lovers from her, who commanded admiration they had no chance to attain.

The word ELEGANT can fcarcely be used with more propriety than on fuch occafions, when people clec as PLEASING what produces a train of ideas most congenial to our own particular fancy. Pearls are, on this principle, accounted by many people to be more ELEGANT than diamonds; which we all allow to be FINER, HANDSOMER, and infinitely more BEAUTIFUL. And one fays popularly, that Pope's Rape of the Lock is an ELEGANT poem, and Milton's Paradife Loft a FINE one. Greville's Stanzas to Indifference are however exquifitely PRETTY, and fome parts of Mr. Whalley's Ode to Mont Blanc, uncommonly BEAUTIFUL. Burke-whofe own compofitions include every fpecies of excellence-fays, that BEAUTIFUL objects are comparatively fmall, but to minute. perfection I should give the adjective PRETTY. Infects of various colours, and delicate formation, butterflies above all, are justly termed PRETTY. Some fhells too, flight in their texture, and of tints as tender, claim this epithet, and can claim no more; for, while the apple

and