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THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE,

For FEBRUARY, 1815.

FIND

Feb. 11.

Mr. URBAN, INDING from Mr. Belsham's second Paper in your Magazine, that he had a third in reserve for your Supplement, I have waited for the perusal of its contents, before I sent you any reply to his auswer to my Address. Of this last production I will only say at present, that, in return for your indulgence, he should have sent you something with the grace of novelty to recommend it. But this is nothing but a re-rechauffée (if I may be allowed to coin a word for the occasion) of what he first included in his Calm Inquiry, and afterwards in his Claims of Dr. Priestley; and, instead of being a Review of Bp. Horsley's Controversy with Dr. Priestley, is an imperfect and unfair statement of a single fragment of the controversy. But of this more hereafter. At present I shall advert only to his reply to my Address, which is no answer to it, but a mere re-assertion of his opinion of Bishop Horsley's defeat, as he calls it, and a re-stated summary of the Bishop's reasons for the existence of an orthodox Hebrew Church at Elia in the time of Adrian, without any attempt to disprove the existence or the orthodoxy of the Hebrew Church. He leaves to his Postscript, what ought to have been

the chief subject of his Paper. And even there, instead of explaining why the Jews could not answer our Saviour's question, he gives a very insufficient answer of his own; which is no reply to me, because it does not account for the silence of the Jews. An impartial solution of their difficulty would have shewn why the question respecting Christ," whose Son is he?" is not a plain matter of fact. But I need not say more here, as I have given a full account of the defects of Mr. Belsham's answer, in a Lecond Address to Persons calling themselves Unitarians. Yours, &c.

T. ST. DAVID'S.

Mr. URBAN,

SEVER

Feb. 11.

EVERAL Correspondents who have lately favoured you with observations on what are called the Imprecatory Psalms, or others who have scruples concerning the use of these Psalms, would find their account, I think, in consulting a letter of the late Dr. Townson on the subject, printed in his Life, p. lxxi. The letter was addressed to a living ornament of the Peerage. The learned Author regards these Psalms as either monitory or prophetic; and observes, that the three most remarkable of this sort, the xxxvth. Ixixth. and cixth. may on the best grounds (as he shews) be considered as prophetic. I will only add, that when St. Peter cites two clauses of these Psalms, as fulfilled in the case of Judas, and cites them in the imperative form, "Let his habitation be desolate," "His Bishopric let another take," Acts i. 20. this does not seem to favour the hypothesis of those critics, who would translate them in the future, however justifia ble they may be in understanding them as equivalent to the future, or predictive of impending evils. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

R. C.

Feb. 13.

the introductory description of the Prayer, p. 37. b. It should have been called, "A Morning Prayer for young people of all classes and descriptions, except Christians," There is no acknowledgment of sin in it, no petition for pardon, no mention of that name in which Christians are commanded to pray. It is introduced under the signature B. and perhaps comes from the Essex-street school. It is clearly fit only for, and excusable in, those who never heard of Christ, or those who have rejected him, and say, "We will not have this man for our Lord and Advocate." R. C. Mr.

HERE is a material omission in

COM

Mr. URBAN, Feb. 15. NOMMON as the thing is, there are few subjects which stand in greater need of illustration than that of PUNNING; which I will endeavour, through the medium of your publication, to elucidate.

Some are proud of punning; others affect, or have worked themselves up to such a contempt of it, that they lose their patience when it is attempted, and bestow the overflowings of their scorn, not always unmixed with hatred, on the unhappy Punster. Both are perfectly wrong. What then is it? Is it wit? Certainly not. Is it stupidity? As clearly not. What then is it? In one word, it is playing the fool. "Dulce est desipere in loco," it is delightful to be foolish at fit times so thinks the witty man, and does it for his own amusement; but he times it well, and he amuses others also. It is a fine thing to do any thing which a witty man does; so thinks the dull man, and he labours to pun: but he does it right or wrong, without discerning the time, and he puts people out of patience, and out of humour. Nothing can be more correct than the following distinction, which I have often tried to inculcate, but without much effect, because the ground of it was not rightly understood: "A dull man aspires to pun; a witty man condescends to do it." But, as the latter does every thing with more ease than the other, so he puns with lightness

and grace. As he knows the real value of the thing, which is none, so he lays no stress upon it; he calls no attention to it; he does not even desire a laugh. If it take,-well: it is so much added to the gaiety and good humour of the company. If it miss, there is no loss; unless any one be stupid enough to notice it, and to cry out, "Oh, how bad!" which is much more stupid than making the worst

of puns.

A witty man may be intemperate in his puns; he may not distinguish the proper times, and in that case he will appear exactly like a dull man. But why? Not from any fault in the thing itself, but from its being illtimed. Who would dance the rope at a funeral, or play monkey-tricks in a Committee on the State of the Nation? Punning is playing the fool, It is applying words according to

their sound, instead of their meaning, or rather, as well as their meaning. It is turning them wrong side upwards, and viewing them in a strange light. But it is a kind of antick which is natural to the witty man. He can do much better things, but he does this too; from a redundancy of good humour, which he wishes to communicate. Was there ever a wittier man than Swift? Yet who punned more? Cicero puuned beyond all bounds of discretion: but the man who should call him stupid, would have much more courage than discretion. The wittiest man now living, whose name is currently put to all the good things that are said, puns abundantly: but it is only his small change; he has much better things for higher oc

casions.

There may be men of so much dignity of wit, that they never stoop to a pun. They have sources of amusement without it, for themselves and friends. Very well. No one demands it of them. But, as good humour is more attractive than dignity, perhaps they would be more beloved if they did sometimes condescend. There are few who do not, however exalted may be their talents. Those few may, perhaps, have taken up the false idea that punning is stupid, which this Essay is intended to cure.

It is this idea of punning, as being a mode of playing the fool, which accounts for the obvious fact, that it is, almost always, a proof of good spirits and good humour: for who would play the fool, to amuse his friends, under any other circumstances? Hence also it is, that a punning epigram is generally inferior to any other. For what is formed into an epigram has been the subject of thought and con sideration; and who would seriously consider how to play the fool? Yet there are puns so whimsical, and so unexpected, that they are amusing even when written down. As in this old epigram:

Tom prais'd his friend, who chang'd his For binding fast himself and Kate [state, In union so divine.

"Wedlock 's the end of life," he cried; "Too true, alas!" said Jack, and sigh'd, "Twill be the end of mine!"

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Was it a stupid man, think you, who made that epigram? He would be much more stupid who should affirm it. Yet clearly it is a pun. This also,

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on Dr. Trapp's Translation of Virgil: Mind but tby preaching, Trapp; translate no further: [murder?"

Is it not written, "Thou shalt do no Or this,

What wonders brave Hawke and Boscawen have done, [the Sun. When that burnt the Ocean, and this sunk

But there would be no end of quoting epigrams, from all languages, founded on puns. The following, by Owen, has ever borne the test of translation:

Cornutum te, Corneli, scis esse, tacesque:

Non Cornelius es tu modo, sed Tacitus. I do not remember the whole of the translation, but it ends,

"but he's Cornelius Tacitus."

So the very similar one, on old Philemon Holland's perseverance in translating :

Philemon with translations does so fill us, He will not let Suetonius be tranquillus. It is necessary, indeed, to know something of Latin, even to understand these Epigrams in English. Yet does any one call them stapid, and wish they had never been written? I envy him not: except for thinking himself wise, which, with so very little foundation for it, is wonderful! Here then I shall close my Essay: in which the things to be remembered, for the sake of correcting the ideas of the world on the subject, are only these:"that Punning is playing the fool;" and that, therefore, while a wise man condescends to pun, a foolish one aspires to do it."

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R. T.

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x. O! puer, virgineum tuens, te quærito, tu verò non auscultas; parum conscius te animæ meæ fræna moderari. Hoc παρθένιον βλέπων ipsum illud est inus. Pro vulgata

Tux's scripsi, levi mutatione, T

Tux; ut postulat ratio grammatica: oxɛuw enim, nisi vehementer erro, nou nisi cum accusativo reperitur. Sic in Antholog. edit. H. Steph. p. 370. Terpanópos alios nóλιν, Θεόδωρος, ἐγείρας, Αξιός ἐστι πόλιν xal réτpatov nov. Orphic. TIVEUματα δ' ἡνιοχεῖ, περί τ' πέρα, καὶ περὶ χεῦμα. Similiter etiam ἡνιοστροφέω apud Euripidem in Phoeniss. 175. ös apμa λeuxò noσroteî Beßws, et, quod pluris momenti est, nox apud Aristoph. Vesp. 1022. Oux dhhoτgiwv, dλn' οἰκείων Μουσῶν στόμαθ ̓ ἡνιοχήσας. Her rodot. iv. 193. ai yuvaînes noxeÛOT τὰ ἄρματα ἐς τὸν πόλεμον.

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Eleganter hoc fragmentum numeClass Journ. Vol. IV. ris Anglicis expressit vir doctus M. K. p. 203.) Sweet boy, a very girl to view, Long have I spread my toils for you, But you elude my art You do not, will not understand, That all the reins are in your hand,

That regulate my heart.

2. Si, ut referunt hodierni quidam, uuds propriè idem significavit quod

ag, nunquam idem quod xíɑg, quamobrem notum illud ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων, πάτον ανθρώπων αλεείνων Latinè reddidit vetus poeta. Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans? Huc respiciant, quorum fronti hæreat pileus.

3. Ut pictura pöesis, inquit vates Venusinus. Recté. Sed non semper ut

poësis

poësis pictura est. Multa sunt, quæ optimè quidem exprimantur carminibus; penicillo non item. Adeas, lector, si placet, Cookianæ editionis poëmatum Addisonianorum p. 88. Tabulam contemplare. Quovis pig nore contenderim hanc illam ipsam esse Afram, cujus de mammis tatisque tam bellè cecinit Martialis (Epigr. i. 101). Dii me eradicent, si talis Invidiæ figura unquam impressa fuerit in animo scriptoris ! Quod ad te attinet, pictor, non possum cum Nobili viro Dorsetio non exclamare;

For thy dull faney a muckender is fit, To wipe the slabb'rings of thy snotty wit.

4. Epigramma ex Boileavio

Anglicè redditum.

One clock, two watches, dials three,
Stand proofs of Lubin's industry;
But these bave cost the hapless wight
Full thirty years of long daylight.
What profit? does this timepiece-miser ·
Than other folks grow one whit wiser?
Yes; that he does,-in all Pall Mall
There's not a man knows time so well.

5. Erravit, qui dixit in Ephemeride Classicâ (Num. xviii. p. 346.) nullum prorsus solutæ orationis specimen extare ab Addisono conscriptum, præter Tentamen de Poëtis Romanis Elegiacis illic loci datum. Exstat prætereà Epistola Latina ad Honoratissimum virum Carolum Montague, postillà Comitem de Halifax. "Cum tanta auribus tuis obstrepat vatum nequissimorum turba, nihil est cur queraris aliquid inusitatum tibi contigisse, ubi præclarum hoc argumentum meis etiam numeris violatum conspexeris. Quantùm virtute bellicâ præstant Britanni, recens ex rebus gestis testatur gloria; quàm verò in humanioribus Pacis studiis non emineamus, indicio sunt, quos nuper in lucem emisimus, versiculi. Quòd si Congrevius ille tuus divino, quo solet, furore correptus, materiam hanc non exornâsset, *vix tanti esset ipsa Pax, ut illâ lætaremurtot perditissimis Poëtis tàm miserè decantata. At, dum alios insector, mei ipsius oblitus fuisse videor, qui haud minores forsan ex Latinis tibi molestias allaturus sum, quàm quas

* If the concernment of this battel had not been so exceeding great, he could scarce have wished the victory at the price he knew he must pay for it, in being subject to the reading and hearing of so many ill verses, as he was sure would be made on that subject. Dryden.

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illi ex vernaculis suis carminibus attulerunt; nisi quòd inter ipsos cruciatus lenimentum aliquod dolori tribuat tormenti varietas. Nec quidem unquam adduci possem, ut poëma patrio sermone conscriptum oculis tuis subjicerem, qui ab istis conatibus cæteros omnes scribendo non minùs deterres, quàm favendo excitaveris. Humanitatis tuæ cultor devotissimus, JosEPHUS ADDISON. A.D. 1697. Præclarum certè specimen adulatiouis!

6. Qui Græcè poëtam agunt, ii sumant tria sequentia Epigrammata, propriè sic dicta, Græcis numeris imitando exprimenda. Prius reperietur in Ecclesiâ apud Eboracences Richmondiensi; alterum, quod Sapphicum appellari potest, in cœmeterio, quod apud Cantabrigienses est, in vico (sic vocant) Fen-Ditton; tertium, credo, scriptum fuit a Wartono.

I. As careful mothers do to sleeping lay Their babes, that would too long the wanton play;

So, to prevent my youth's approaching crimes,

Nature, my nurse, had me to bed betimes.

II. The storm, that † wracks the winter sky,

No more disturbs their soft repose, Than summer-ev'ning's latest sigh, That shuts the rose. III. Somne levis, quanquam certissima mortis imago,

Consortem cupio te tamen esse tori: Alma quies, optata veni; nam sic sine

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Mr. URBAN,

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Cheshire, Feb. 16. S an admirer of the "renowned" Utopia of Sir T. More, and the elegant Variorum edition of the Rev. Mr. T. F. Dibdin, I observed with pleasure the communication of A.R.F.

*Rationem vocis wrack (sive, ut malunt quidam, rack) quæ propriè de nubibus usurpatur à vento actis, parum intellexit Auctor hujusce Inscriptionis. Verbum est neutrum, non activum. Dixit Shakspeareius wracking clouds; Miltonus, wracking whirlwinds. Quin et, de Lunâ loquens, decus illud temporum hodiernorum;

And, wracking o'er her face, the cloud Varies the tincture of her shroud.

+ Duorum infantum scilicet.

in your last Volume, Part ii. p. 528, and am happy that the curiosity he excited respecting the translations of Sorbiere and Aneau should have enabled me to furnish him with the following additional particulars from that valuable source of literary history; “Memoires pour servir à l'histoire des hommes illustres," par le Rev. Père Niceron.

In his Life of Sir T. More he gives the following account of the French Translations: (Tome 25.)

«Trois Auteurs ont traduit l'Utopie en François. Barthelemi Aneau, dont la traduction a été imprimée vers l'àn 1550, à Paris in-8. et à Lyon in-16. Samuel Sorbiere, qui a donné la sienne en 1643, à Amsterdam in-12. Gueudeville, qui a publié la sienne à Leyde en 1715, in-12. réimprimée à Amsterdam en 1730, avec des figures."

In his list of the works of Sorbiere, vol. IV. he informs us that

"Il traduisoit l'Utopie de Thomas Morus en François, à la prière du Comte de Rhingrave, Gouverneur de l'Ecluse, qui ne pouvoit se resoudre à la lire dans les traductions surannées faites par Barthelemi Aneau, auteur de l'Alector, et par (Jehan le Blond) le Seigneur de Branville. Cette traduction (de Sorbiere) a été imprimée à Amsterdam 1643,

in-12."

And the following title of Barthelemi Aneau's translation is given in the bibliographical account of his writings, Tonie 22.

"La Republique d'Utopie, œuvre grandement utile, demonstrant le parfait état d'une bien ordonnée Police, traduicte du Latin de Thomas More, Chancelier d'Angleterre. Paris in-8 et Lyon in-16."

It is the more remarkable that I should find this information in an Au

thor whose eulogy the learned editor of the Utopia has so eloquently drawn in his interesting "Bibliomania.""Frank, amiable, industrious, communicative, shrewd, and learned, Niceron was the delight of his friends, and the admiration of the publick !”

But in his description of these rare volumes be has committed errors, sufficient almost to lead us to infer that he had never really inspected them. He states (Bibliom. p. 71,) that "they were published from the year 1729 to 1740, in 40 cr. oet. vofumes; a Supplement, of 3 volumes (the latter of which is divided into two parts) renders this very useful

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and absolutely necessary work in 44 volumes.”

Now the truth is, the first volume was originally published in 1727, and the rest successively, during Father Niceron's lifetime, up to the 39th, which appeared in 1738. The first three volumes were afterwards reprinted in 1729, and the fourth was reprinted in 1737, with the date of the first edition, 1728. The 40th, 41st, 42d, and 43d, were posthumous, published from his own MS. (they cannot be called supplementary); and appeared in 1739, 40, 41, and 45. Instead of the "latter" volume being divided into two paris, it is the 10th Valume which was published in that form, containing "Changemens, corrections, et additions" to the first nine; and the size instead of being cr. oct. is 12mo. We have to regret that the materials for other lives, which the publisher says, in the last volume, still remained in his hands, were never given to the world.

Allow me, Sir, before I close this letter, to refer to another valuable reprint of an esteemed Author, Dr. Earle's Microcosmography" edited by Mr. Philip Bliss. On referring to prised that no mention should be made, it the other day, I was not a little sur

in the "Chronological List of Books of Characters from 1567 to 1700,

Appendix, No. 11, of the Characters

contained in a little work intituled "A Miscellany of sundry Essayés, Paradoxes, and Problematicall Discoveries, Letters, and Characters, &c. by Francis Osborn, Esq. London, 1659," 12mo. It contains a Character of Honour, a deboshed Souldier, a Cook, and a Host.

In the enumeration of the editions informs us that in 1732 appeared of "Microcosmography" Mr. Bliss the ninth, which was a reprint of the sixth, executed with care and judg ment." But a copy of the Ninth Edition of this curious volume in my possession is dated 1669, of which the

following is a copy of the title-page:

"Microcosmographie, or a piece of the World discovered, in Essayes and Characters. The Ninth Edition. London: Printed by Thomas Radcliffe, and Thomas Daniel, for Philip Chetwind, 1669. 12mo."

The Address to the Reader is signed Edw. Blunt, and it contains 78 Cha racters. N. H. L

Mr.

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