the artificial ornaments of style. Yet have and with more sublimity in the parts, is these four unlearned men effected, by their therefore a fact which can be accounted for artless simplicity, a work to which the tal- only by admitting the constant and immeents of the two greatest writers of antiquity diate guidance of the Holy Spirit, the real were not more than equal.

existence of Christ's perfections, and the They have exhibited a character far more strong and lasting impression they made lovely in itself, and far more venerable, than upon those who conversed with him. Those fiction has ever painted ; and in their mode perfections themselves were, indeed, extraorof exhibiting it, they surpass the fidelity, dinary both in kind and degree. In their the distinctness, and precision which two kind they are admirable patterns for the conof the most celebrated writers have been duct of Christ's followers; and in their deable to preserve, when exerting the whole gree, they are eminently and indisputably powers of their genius, and actuated by the proportioned to the transcendent and unrifondest attachment, they were endeavouring valled dignity of his own mission. to do justice to the noblest pattern of real Sermons before the University of Oxford, at virtue of which antiquity can boast. In the Bampton Lecture, 1784. Jesus have the Evangelists described brighter and more numerous virtues than Socrates is said even by his professed admirers to have possessed. In their description they have, ALEXANDER FRASER TYTwithout effort, and under the influence, it

LER, must be allowed, of sincere conviction only, maintained a greater uniformity than the most born in Edinburgh, 1747, was from 1780 to prejudiced reader can discover in the beauti- | 1786 Conjunct Professor (with John Prin. ful compositions of Plato and Xenophon. gle), and from 1786 to 1800 sole Professor, If the desire of communicating their own

of Civil History and Greek and Roman An. favourite opinions, or the mutual jealousy tiquities in the University of Edinburgh, of literary fame, be assigned as a reason Judge Advocate of Scotland, 1790, raised for the diversity of representation in the to the Bench of the Court of Session as Lord two Greek writers, we allow the probability Woodhouselee, 1802, Lord of Justiciary, of both suppositions ; but we contend that 1811, died 1813. He was the author of each of these motives is inconsistent with Supplement to Lord Kames's Dictionary of that love of truth which is necessary to es

Decisions to 1778, Edin., 1778, fol., 2d edit., tablish the credibility of a biographer. We 1797, fol., Supplement to 1796, 1797, fol. ; also contend that the Evangelists were really Plan and Outlines of a Course of Lectures possessed of this excellent quality; that they on Universal History, Edin., 1782, 8vo; never deviated from it in order to indulge Lectures, Lond., 1834, 6 vols. 18mo; Essay their enmity or envy; and that, with appa

on the Life and Character of Petrarch: to rent marks of difference in their language, which are added Seven of his Sonnets, transtheir dispositions, and, perhaps, in their lated from the Italian, Lond., 1785, 8vo, abilities, they have yet exhibited' the char- Edin., 1810, p. 8vo, 1812, 8vo; Essay on thó acter of Christ the most striking, if their Principles of Translation, Lond., 1791, 8vo; narratives be separately considered; and the England Profiting by Example, Edin., 1799, most consistent, if they be compared with 8vo; Essay on the Military Law and the each other. Be it observed too, that the Practice of Courts-Martial, Édin., 1800, 8vo; difficulty of preserving that consistence in Elements of General History, Ancient and creases both with the peculiarity and mag. Modern, Edin., 1801, 2 vols. 8vo; Memoirs nitude of the excellences described, and with of the Life and Writings of the Ilon. Henry the number of the persons who undertake Home of Kames, Edin., 1807, 2 vols. 4to, the office of describing them.

large paper, r. 4to, Supplement, 1810, 4to, If it be said that the superior pretensions large paper, r. 4to, 2d edit., Edin., 1814, 3 of Christ, as a divine teacher, required more

vols. 8vo. He contributed to The Mirror, splendid virtues than what are expected from The Lounger, etc. Socrates, who taught morality upon princi- “Mr. Mackenzie returning from his lordship's ples of human reason only, whence is it that literary retirement, meeting Mr. Alison, finely the unpolished, uncultivated minds of the said that he hoped he was going to Woodhouselee; Evangelists should even conceive a more

for no man could go there without being happier, magnificent character than the imagination

or return from it without being better." of a Plato or a Xenophon? What aids did

SUFFERINGS UNDER AN ECONOMICAL WIFE. they apparently possess for representing it more advantageously? That those four un- TO THE LOUNGER. lettered men should have drawn such a char- Sir,-I am a middle-aged man, possessed acter, with more uniformity in the whole, I of a moderate income, arising chiefly from

a

the profits of an office of which the emolu- theirs, or in the tavern. I found myself, likement is more than sufficient to compensate wise, a very welcome guest in many respectthe degree of labour with which the dis- | able families, where, as the humour struck charge of its duties is attended. About my me, I could go in at any hour and take my forty-fifth year I became tired of the bach- part of a domestic meal without the forelor state; and taking the hint from some mality of an invitation. I was a member little twinges of the gout, I began to think too of a weekly club, which met on the Satit was full time for me to look out for an urday evenings, most of them people of agreeable help-mate. The last of the juve- talents, and some of them not unknown in nile tastes that forsakes a man is his admi- the world of letters. Here the entertainration of youth and beauty; and I own I ment was truly Attic. A single bottle was was so far from being insensible to these the modicum, which no man was allowed to attractions, that I felt myself sometimes exceed. Wit and humour flowed without tempted to play the fool, and marry for reserve, where all were united by the bonds love. I had sense enough, however, to re- of intimacy; and learning lost her gravity sist this inclination, and, in my choice of a over the enlivening glass.

0 Noctes coewife, to sacrifice rapture and romance to the næque Deum ! prospect of ease and comfort. I wedded the As my profession was a sedentary one, daughter of a country gentleman of small I kept, for the sake of exercise, a couple of fortune, a lady much about my own time good geldings, and at my leisure hours con. of life, who bore the character of a discreet, trived frequently to indulge myself in a prudent woman, who was a stranger to fash- scamper of a dozen miles into the country. ionable folly and dissipation of every kind, It was my pride to keep my horses in ex. and whose highest merit was that of an ex- cellent order; and when debarred by busi. cellent housewife.

ness from riding them, I consoled myself When I begin by telling you that I re- with a visit to the stable. Shooting was pent of my choice, you will naturally sup- likewise a favourite amusement; and though pose, Mr. Lounger (a very common case), I could not often indulge it, I had a brace of that I have been deceived in the idea I had springing spaniels, and a couple of excellent formed of my wife's character. Not at all, pointers. In short, between my business Sir: I found it true to a tittle. She is a and amusement my time passed most deperfect paragon of prudence and discretion. lightfully; and I really believe I was one Her moderation is exemplary in the highest of the happiest bachelors in Great Britain. degree; and as to economy she is all that I Alas, Sir, how little do we know what expected, and a great deal more too. You is for our good! Like the poor gentleman will ask, then, of what it is that I complain? who killed himself by taking physic when I shall lay my grievances before you with he was in health, I wanted to be happier out reserve.

than I was, and I have made myself misA man, Sir, who, with no bad disposi- erable. tions, and with some pretensions to common My wife's ruling passion is the care of sense, has arrived at the age of five-and-forty, futurity. We had not been married above may be presumed to have formed for himself a month before she found my system, which a plan of life which he will not care hastily was to enjoy the present, was totally incon: to relinquish, merely to gratify the caprices sistent with those provident plans she had of another. I entered the matrimonial state formed in the view of a variety of future with a firm resolution not to quarrel with contingencies, which, if but barely possible, my wife for trifles; but really, Sir, the sac- she looks upon as absolutely certain. The rifices daily exacted on my own part, and prospect of an increase to our family the mortifications I have been forced to sub-|(though we have now lived five years tomit to, are at length become so numerous yether without the slightest symptom of and so intolerable, that I must either come any such accident) has been the cause of a to a downright rupture, or be hooted at for total revolution of our domestic economy, a silly fellow by all my acquaintance. and a relinquishment, on my part, of all the

Before I married, having, as I already comforts of my life. The god of Health, we informed you, a decent income, I thought are informed, was gratified hy the sacrifice myself entitled to many of those little indul- of a cock; but the god of Marriage, it gences to which a social disposition inclines would seem, is not so easily propitiated : a man who is possessed of the means of for I have sacrificed to him my horses, my gratifying it. The necessary business in dogs, and even my friends, without tho which my office engaged me, occupying sev- smallest prospect of securing his favour. eral hours of the day, it was my highest In accomplishing this economical reforpleasure to pass the evening with a few sen- mation my wife displayed no small address. sible friends either at my own lodgings, at What ways women have of working

m

out their points! She began by giving me repetitions, being smoked by my compan-
frequent hints of the necessity there was of ions, I was forced to vindicate my honour
cutting off all superfluous expenses; and before them by kicking the messenger down
frequently admonished me that it was bet stairs.
ter to save while our family was small, than Matters were yet worse with me when I
to retrench when it grew larger. When she ventured to invite my old cronies to a friendly
perceived that this argument bad very little supper at my own house. In the place of
force (as indeed it grew every day weaker), that ease and freedom which indicates a cor-
and that there was nothing to be done by dial reception, they found, on my wife's part,
general admonition, she found it necessary a cold and stiff formality which repressed all
to come to particulars. She endeavoured to social enjoyment; and the nonsensical pa-
convince me that I was cheated in every rade of a figure of empty show upon the
article of my family-expenditure. It is a table, which convinced them of the trouble
principle with her that all servants are their visit had occasioned. Under this im-
thieves. When they offer themselves to be pression, you may believe there is no great
hired, if they demand what she thinks high danger of a debauch in my house. Indeed,
wages, she cannot afford to pay at the rate my wife commonly sits out the company. If
of a Duchess; if their demand is moderate, it happens otherwise, we have a stated állow-
she is sure they must make it up by stealing. ance of wine; and if more is called for, it is
To prove their honesty, ohe lays temptations so long in coming that my friends take the
in their way, and watches in a corner to hint and wish me a good-night.
catch them in the fact. In the first six But even were I more at liberty to in-
months after our marriage we had five dulge my social dispositions than I unfor-
search-warrants in the house. My groom tunately find myself, there are other reasons,
(as honest a fellow as ever handled a curry- no less powerful, which would prevent me
comb) was indicted for embezzling oats; and from inviting my friends to my house. My
though the sleek sides of my geldings gave wife, Sir, is absolutely unfit for any kind
strong testimony to his integrity, he was of rational conversation. Bred from her in-
turned off at a day's warning. This I soon fancy under an old maiden aunt, who had
found was but a prelude to a more serious the management of her father's household
attack; and the battery was levelled at a and country farm, she has no other ideas
quarter where I was but too vulnerable. I than what are accommodated to that station.
never went out to ride but I found my poor Unluckily her transplantation to town, by
spouse in tears at my return. She had an removing her from her calves, her pigs, and
uncle, it seems, who broke a collar-bone by her poultry, has given her fewer opportuni-
a fall from a horse. My pointers, stretched ties of displaying the capital stock of her
upon the hearth, were never beheld by her knowledge. She still finds, however, a tol-
without uneasiness. They brought to mind erable variety of conversation in the rise
a third cousin who lost a finger by the burst- and fall of the markets, the qualities and
ing of a fowling-piece; and she had a sad pre- prices of butcher-meat, the making of pota-
sentiment that my passion for sport might toe-starch, the comparative excellence of
make her one day the most miserable of Leith and Kensington candles, and many
women. Sure, my dear," she would say, other topics of equally amusing disquisition.
"you would not for the sake of a trifling Seriously, Sir, when alone, I can find refuge
gratification to yourself render your poor in books; but when with her in company,
wife constantly unhappy! yet I must be so she never opens her mouth but I am in
while you keep those vicious horses and terror for what is to come out of it.
nasty curs." What could I do, Sir? A man I should perhaps complain the less of
would not choose to pass for a barbarian. being reduced to this state of involuntary

It was a more difficult task to wean me domestication, if I saw any endeavours on from those social enjoyments I mentioned, her part to make my home somewhat comfortand to cure me of a dangerous appetite I able to me. I am no epicure, Mr. Lounger; had for the company of my friends. If I but I own to you I like a good dinner, and passed the evening in a tavern I was sure have somehow got the reputation of being to have a sermon against intemperance, a a pretty good judge of wines. In this last warning of the too sensible decay of my article I piqued myself on having a critical constitution, and a most moving complaint palate; and this my friends knew so well, of the heaviness of those solitary hours that I was generally consulted when their which she spent in

Those cellars needed a supply, and was sure to be hours, indeed, she attempted sometimes to summoned to give my opinion at the openshorten by sending my servant to acquainting of a new hogshead or the piercing of a ine that she had gone to bed indisposed. butt. You may believe I took good care This device, however, after two or three that my own small stock of liquors should

66

my absence.

not discredit my reputation; and I have Lichfield, 1781, 4to, 2d edit., New York, often, with some exultation, heard it re- 1792, 12mo, with Elegy on Captain Cook, marked, that there was no such claret in etc., Lond., 1817, 12mo; Louisa, a Poetical Edinburgh as Bob Easy's yellow seal. Novel, Lond., 1782, 4to, several editions ;

Good claret, which I have long been ac- Llangollen Vale, with other Poems, 1796, customed to consider as a panacea for all | 4to ; Original Sonnets, etc., 1799, 4to ; Poetidisorders, my wife looks upon as a little cal Works, with Extracts from her Literary better than slow poison. She is convinced Correspondence, edited (against his will of its pernicious effects both on my purse with a Prefatory Memoir by Walter Scott, and constitution, and recommends to me, Esq., Edin., 1810, 3 vols. post 8vo. Letters for the sake of both, some brewed stuff of of Anna Seward Written between the Years her own, which she dignifies with the name 1784 and 1807, Edin., 1811, 6 vols. post Svo. of wine, but which to me seems nothing but Bishop Percy was concerned to find in ill-fermented vinegar. She tells with much satisfaction how she has passed her currant vanity, egotism, and, it grieves him to add, ma

“this voluminous publication such a display of wine for cape, and her gooseberry for cham-lignity, as is scarce compensated for by the better pagne; but for my part, I never taste them parts of her epistles.”—Nichols's Illust. of Lit., without feeling, very disagreeable effects; viii. 427. See also 429. and I once drank half a bottle of her cham- See the Beauties of Anna Seward, by W.C. pagne, which gave me a cholic for a week.

Oulton, Lond., 1813, 12mo. In the article of victuals I am doomed to yet greater mortification. Here, Sir, my On Pope, Milton, Thomson, and Mrs wife's frugality is displayed in a most re

INCHBALD. markable manner. As every thing is to be bought when at the lowest price, she lays in

LICHFIELD, Jury 31, 1796. during the summer all her stores for the To Mrs. STOKES. winter. For six months we live upon salt I have not seen Wakefield's observations provisions, and the rest of the year on fly- on Pope. They may, as you tell me they blown lamb and stale mutton. If a joint is

are, be very ingenious ; but as to plagiarism, roasted the one day, it is served cold the Pope would lose little in my esteem from next, and hashed on the day following. All whatever of that may be proved against poultry is contraband. Fish (unless salt him; since it is allowed that he always rises herrings and dried ling; when got a bar- above his clumsy models in their tinsel draam never allowed to taste.

pery. Thus mortified in my appetites, divorced Poetry, being the natural product of a as I am from my friends, having lost all my highly-gifted mind, however uncultivated, mirth, and foregone all custom of my exer- must exist, in a rude form at least, from cise, I am told that even my face and figure the instant that the social compact gives to are totally changed ; and in place of the

man a superplus of time from that which is jolly careless air of a bon vivant, I have got employed'in providing for his natural wants, the sneaking look and starved appearance together with liberation from that anxiety of a poor wretch escaped from a spunging- about obtaining such provision, which is house, and dreading a dun in every human generally incompatible with those abstracted being that accosts him.-That it should ideas from which poetry results. As this come to this !—But I am determined no leisure, and freedom to thought, arises with longer to endure it. My wife shall read the progress of subordination and inequality this letter in my presence: and while she of rank, men become poets, and this long contemplates her own picture, I shall take before their language attains its copiousness my measures according to the effect it pro- and elegance. duces on her. If she takes it as she ought, The writers of such periods, therefore, 'tis well:—if not, and a rupture is the con- present poetic ideas in coarse and shapeless sequence, still better — I shall be my own ingenuity. In the unskilled attempt to reman again.

fine them they become, in the next stage of Sir, yours, &c.,

the progress, an odd mixture of quaintness Robert Easy.

and simplicity: but it is reserved for genius, The Lounger, No. 63, Saturday, April 15, learning, and judgment in combination, sup1786.

ported by the ample resources of a various, mature, and complete language, to elevate,

polish, and give the last perfection to the ANNA SEWARD,

rudiments of poetry, first so coarse and abor

tive, afterwards so quaint, and so shredded born 1747, died 1809, was the author of out into wearisome redundance. That work Monody on the Unfortunate Major André, I of ever-new poetic information and instruc

gain) 1

I am,

1

tion, T. Warton's Critical Notes to Milton's version is beautifully used, while its author
Lesser Poems, will show you how very is paying, in a simile, the finest compliment
largely Milton took, not only from the class imaginable to the talents and excursive
sics, but from his verse-predecessors in our spirit of his countrymen :-
own language: from Burton's writings, in- “As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,
terlarded with verse; from Drayton ; from Bright over Europe bursts the Boreal morn."
Spenser; from Shakspeare; from the two
Fletchers, and from Drummond. The en-

And what spirit does Pope often give his tire plan, and almost all the outlines, of the lines by using this inversion in the impera

tive mood :sweet pictures in L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, are in Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, or “Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise !" a Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain, in verse, with a passage of his in prose; and

Then, as to the imputed affectation of the these were taken and combined in Milton's word Lyceum, Thomson calls the woods imagination with the fine hints in a song

" Nature's vast Lyceum.”

For his purin Beaumont and Fletcher's play, the Nice pose it was necessary to elevate the term Valour, or Passionate Madman.

by its epithet, for mine to lower it by that In Comus, Milton was much indebted to which I applied, -minute Lyceum ; and in Fletcher's beautiful pastoral play, The Faith- neither place is its application affected. I ful Shepherdess; but Milton and Pope, am allowed to be patient of criticism, and though with excellence different both in trust no one is readier to feel its force, and, nature and degree, were arch-chymists, and when just, to acknowledge and to profit by turned the lead and tinsel of others to the it; but to a censor who does not know the purest and finest gold.

meaning of the word thrill, I may, without

Ι Dr. Stokes is mistaken in supposing Mil- vanity, exclaim, ton my first poetic favourite. Great as I “Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests !" deem him, the superior of Virgil, and the equal of Homer, my heart and imagination Nature and Art? She is a favourite novelist

Have you seen Mrs. Inchbald's late work, acknowledge yet greater the matchless bard

with me. ller late work has improbable of Avon. I thank

situations, and is inferior to her Simple you for the discriminating observations in your letter of April the 24th upon of this composition, to which it is better

Story, which ought to have been the title my late publication. Milton says, that from suited than to the history of Dorriforth: Adam's lip, not words alone pleased Eve; yet we find in Art and Nature the characso may I say, that from your pen praise teristic force of her pen, which, with an air alone would not satisfy my avidity of pleas- of undesigning simplicity, places in a strong ing you. The why and wherefore you are pleased, which is always so ingenious when point of view the worthlessness of such charyou write of verse, from the zest, which acters as pass with the world for respectable. makes encomium nectar. Mr. Haley's [Ilay- She seems to remove, as by accident, their ley's ?] letter to me on the subject is very its removal :' and certain strokes of blended

specious veil, and without commenting upon gratifying: it joins to a generous ardency of praise the elegance, spirit, and affection pathos and horror indelibly impress the of his former epistles. Ah! yes, it is very

recollection. certain that not only some, but all our finest poets, frequently invert the position

JEREMY BENTHAM, of the verh, and prove that the British Critic, who says it is not the habit of good the eminent Law Reformer, born 1748, died writers, is a stranger to their compositions. 1832, was the author of A Fragment on GovWhen Thomson says,

ernment, Lond., 1776, 8vo; Principles of

Morals and Legislation, printed 1780, pub“Vanish the woods, the dim-geen river seems Sullen and slow to roll his misty train,"

lished 1789; Defence of Usury, 1787 ; Traites

de Législation Civile et Pénale, Paris, 1802, it is picture ; which it would not have been, in English by R. IIildreth, Boston, 1840, 2 if he had coldly written,

vols. 12mo; Théorie des Peines et des Ré“The woods are vanished;"

compenses, Lond., 1811, 2 vols. 8vo, in Eng

Jish, as follows: The Rationale of Reward, since in the former, by the precedence of Lond., 1825, 8vo, and the Rationale of Punthe verb to the noun, we see the fog in the ishment, Lond., 1825, 8vo; and other works. very act of shrouding the woods : but to Works Published under the Superintendence these constituent excellencies of poetry the of his Executor, John Bowring, with an eye of a reviewer is the mole's dim curtain. Introduction by John Hill Burton, Esq., Again, in the same poem, Autumn, this in- Edin., 1843, 8vo.