with his most private actions and conversations. You may behold Scipio and Lælius gathering cockle-shells on the shore, Augustus playing at bounding stones with boys, and Agesilaus riding on a hobby-horse among his children."-Life of Plutarch. See Malone's edition of Dryden's Prose Works, vol. iii. 8vo.

Translators.

Dryden was always at the head of these second-hand poets; and the superior genius, which shone forth in an epic poem, did not forsake him in the translation even of an epigram.

Cheronean Plutarch, to thy deathless praise
Does martial Rome this grateful statue raise;
Because both Greece and she thy fame have shar'd,
(Their heroes written, and their lives compar'd.)
But thou thyself couldst never write thy own,
Their lives have parallels, but thine has none.
From the Greek of Agathias, and supposed to have been
inscribed on a statue of Plutarch at Rome.

Crowded Tables.

In large "parties," as they are called, little of society is to be enjoyed. Your next neighbour in such a crowd must prove your entertainer or your tormentor. Plutarch, in his Symposiacs, has a very singular and amusing passage relative

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.

Portable Property.

7.p.60.

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

An important Mistake in Terms.

In the valuable volume, "The Chemical Catechism," by Samuel Parkes, the writer apologises for his frequent introduction of moral reflections. Quoting Archdeacon Paley, "Every one has a particular train of thought into which his mind falls, when at leisure from the impressions and ideas that occasionally excite it; and if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is surely that which regards the phenomena of nature, with a constant reference to a supreme, intelligent Author." By this quotation the writer evidently substituted, in haste, moral instead of religious reflections.

Hypocrisy.

When the hero of Butler is under the fear of being killed by the witches, which were set upon him by the widow in her house, he answers without equivocation to the questions they put to him. One of them says,

Why didst thou choose that cursed sin,
Hypocrisy, to set up in?

Hudibras answers very plainly,

Because it is the thrivingest calling,
The only saints'-bell that rings all in ;

In which all churches are concern'd,
And is the easiest to be learn'd;
For no degrees, unless th' employ it,
Can ever gain much, or enjoy it.
A gift that is not only able
To domineer among the rabble;
But by the laws empow'r'd to rout

And awe the greatest that stand out;
Which few hold forth against, for fear

Their hands should slip, and come too near;
For no sin else, among the saints,

Is taught so tenderly against.

Hudibras, part iii. canto 1, l. 123.

Origin of Language.

The communication of ideas between human beings by words, or certain conventional sounds, though subject to abuse, is yet a most noble and wonderful privilege. The late Dr. Samuel Johnson, not less famous for the warmth of his piety than the sagacity of his intellect, used to say, that he thought that language was one of the great proofs of a Deity presiding over human affairs; "for this extraordinary benefit could not have been devised, and carried forth so far towards perfection, by the powers of mere mortal intellects."

Sublime Answer of an Hermit.

I once, says a Traveller in Italy, was wandering in a most romantic and solitary part of the

Critics, indeed, are valuable men,

But hypercritics are as good again.

Brampton's Epist. on Taste.

Low Company, its evils.

Lord Clarendon, the great historian, has observed, "That he never knew one man (of what condition soever) arrive at any degree of reputation in the world, who made choice of, or delighted in, the company or conversation of those who in their qualities were inferior, or in their parts not much superior, to himself." Goldsmith has well illustrated this sentiment in his excellent comedy, She Stoops to Conquer, where Tony Lumpkin, a man of good birth, and heir to a considerable fortune, is represented as being delighted with the company of his inferiors, and by his conduct as totally unworthy of his race and condition,-

One who wore

His heart upon his sleeve, for crows to peck at.

Shakespeare.

Commentators and Antiquaries.

These gentlemen, from the nature of their employments, look backwards, and have little concern with the present generation; or their customs and manners are very often rough and unpolished to those who differ from them in their dark surmises. Speaking of one species of these