to each his due merits. As a regular poem, according to the acknowledged rules of the critics, Tasso is superior; and must also bear the bell, as to workmanship. Ariosto, on the contrary, has many passages very superior to any in Tasso; but they are ill arranged; and the fable of his poem is not sufficiently agreeable to the Aristotelian taste. The scholars of Italy admire Tasso, and love Ariosto. Dante is too gloomy for any reader but who is, or wishes to be, a monk of the Monastery of La Trappe.

Men of mere Memory.

This is a faculty, which, when attached to a feeble mind, may prove hurtful, or of little use. A young person who has been praised for his strengh of memory, is very apt to content himself with his powers of quoting the product of other intellects, rather than labour in the cultivation of his own. From this circumstance arise many babblers and few philosophers. A man of genius may be possessed of little force of memory, he therefore cultivates his own mind like a skilful gardener, who knows if he cherishes the root, the branches and flowers will sprout and flourish of themselves. Ask a mere man of memory on what principle

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

Suicide.

The Marquis Beccaria treats this unhappy state of mind with great lenity and caution; and considers the punishment of the suicide, as it cannot be personal to him after death, therefore to be more properly assigned to God than man. To those who would punish the suicide by inflicting any penalty on his family as a means of preventing a man from slaying himself, his answer seems conclusive. "If a man prefers death to life, and considers it as a burden instead of a state of the most moderate enjoyment, the consideration of the future welfare of his family will not stop his murderous hand."

Rage for the "Nude.”

I should advise the ladies, not as a moralist, but as one of their most sincere though frank admirers, to dress themselves more modestly. Imagination is more alive, and a more active agent in love, than the eye. Habit soon makes the pleasures of sight to grow weary and be disgusting; whilst the pleasures of imagination are never to be satiated. I do not doubt that a young Chinese beauty, who shews only the tip of her foot, would gain more admirers than all the ladies in an eastern seraglio dancing at an "undressed ball," or in their baths.