such a position may be fixed, and the babbler is silenced; he knows that his recollection of detail constitutes all his talk; and the parrot would as soon be able to converse, as the babbler to reason; so well sings our poet of reason:

The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave,

That from his cage cries cuckold, whore, and knave,
Tho' many a passenger he rightly call,

You hold him no philosopher at all.

Pope's Moral Essays, epist. 1, line 5.

Arguments.

Many persons unaccustomed to the restraints of more polished society are always ready to resist the sentiments of the last speaker by opposition, or what they choose to call arguments. Let the subject be what it will, interesting or not to either party, these gentlemen are ever ready to "play a fit of argument." When it happens among young lawyers, the reason of this practice is obvious, as it sharpens their wit, and strengthens their nerves for the Courts of Law; but it may be a matter of surprise, why a man without any fee or reward should raise the anger of a dull neighbour, by proving to him that his positions are absurd, and his expressions confused, and his sentiments altogether untenable. Silence in such company would

sink nonsense in oblivion, and the peace of society be freed from this gratuitous pleader and demon

strator.

On either hand he would dispute,

Confute, change hands, and still confute;
He'd undertake to prove, by force

Of argument, a man's no horse.

Hudibras, canto 1.

Samuel Butler.

The history of this inimitable bard, whose witty genius the heavy weight of politics could not discourage or depress, fills the reader's mind with melancholy reflections. Charles the Second, to whose father" Hudibras" was so useful, in making the cause of his enemies ridiculous, continually quoted, and taught his courtiers to repeat, his favourite passages; yet never patronized the author. We feel more for Butler, than if he had uttered the severest and the justest complaints; and we read, with admiration of the man, the following couplets, allusive to himself and his. feelings, as a true subject:

For loyalty is still the same,

Whether it win or lose the game;

True as the dial to the sun,

Although it be not shone upon.

Nouvelle Heloise, &c.

J. J. Rousseau, like other madmen, had many lucid intervals and many ingenious devices. As a literary man, he knew that romances had had their day, and could attract no more, though the love of the marvellous was as much alive as ever. He then drew characters, and described moral events, and founded sentiments, as much out of the way of nature and common sense as he could. His pencil was bold, his imagination warm, his colouring brilliant; and his pictures attracted all those who exercise their fancy more than their reason, and their morality not at all. With the cunning of a madman, he knew that what was new and striking would be attractive to many readers, so he exhibits himself in his confessions a vile compound of lewdness, roguery, cowardice, and ingratitude. Most of his heroines are fitted for a brothel, and his heroes would shine in the Newgate Calendar.

Extra Boswellism, and a singular Comparison.

Such was the strong prejudice and reverence which Pope entertained for the extraordinary abilities of Lord Bolingbroke, that he used to speak of him as of a superior being; and at the

appearance of the comet, he told his friends that "it was sent to convey Lord Bolingbroke home again," just as a stage-coach stops at your door to take up a passenger.-Essay on the Gen. and Writ. of Pope, v. ii. p. 178.

A Happy Analogy.

Hume, speaking of the obscene and disgusting poems of Lord Rochester, and allowing him vigour of thought and energy of diction, compares his liberty of speech to that of the ancient satirists. "Yet," says the ingenious author, "their freedom no more resembles the license of Rochester, than the nakedness of an Indian does that of a common prostitute."-Hist. of Eng. v. ii. p. 234.

Pictures and Epitaphs in Churches.

The reader, whether a Papist or Protestant, will agree with the taste and good sense displayed in the following passage from one of Pope's letters: "I know you will join me (who have been making an altar-piece) that the zeal of the first reformers was ill placed in removing pictures (that is to say, examples) out of churches, and yet suffering epitaphs (that is to say, flatteries and false history) to be a burden to church walls, and the shame, as well as the derision, of all honest men."-Pope's works, Letter to Allen, v. ix. let, 89.

Knights.

Who would not suppose that the following strictures on some persons who are so ambitious of these titles, had been the production of some modern author? "Mean fellows there are, who break their winds in straining to appear knights; and topping knights there are, who, one would think, die with desire to be thought mean men. The former raise themselves by their ambition, or by their virtues; the latter debase themselves by their weakness and their vices; and one had need of a good discernment to distinguish between these two kinds of knights, so near in their names, and so distant in their actions."--Don Quixote, v. iii. p.60.

Portable Property.

The following testimony in favour of learning is well, though quaintly, expressed. "This patrimony of liberal education you have been pleased to endow me withal, I now carry with me abroad as a sure inseparable treasure, nor do I feel it any burden or incumbrance to me at all; and what danger soever my person or other things I have about me do incur, yet I do not fear the losing of this, either by shipwrecks or pirates at sea, or by robbers, or by fire, or any other casualty, on shore; and at my return to England, I hope, or at least