over the same region of thought, and the difference may be seen be tween nervous simplicity, and harsh conciseness and often swelling obscurity. The aim of Young and of Blair was probably the same, and no two authors can more fairly be put in comparison; but the single jewel of the latter has more increased the treasures of poetry, than the overflowing coffers of the former with all their riches; for rich they undoubtedly are in valuable thought, in elegant illustration, and often in the best style of nervous conciseness. There is in some authors a fe licity of expression, that art can never acquire, and which, if not im mediately natural, must be the fruit of an exquisite quickness, and delicacy of taste. This felicity has been applauded in Horace: it has been often remarked, and as often denied in Gray. None however ever refused the praise of it to Shakspeare, and impartial posterity will be equal These coincidencies are casual, but in general, as has been well observed, Blair wrote, not exactly as Shakspeare has written, but as he would have written on the same subject. His poem is short, and therefore did not admit of a very methodical plan. We may observe, however, that, beginning with the description of his immediate subject, the Grave, with all its sombre pomp and circumstance, he is led to lamently unanimous in allowing it to Blair. the separations it occasions, to paint In criticism assertion is nothing the sorrows of parted love, and to without example, but, unless I am recal with pathetick enthusiasm the much deceived, the following exdelights of former friendship. Then pressions, among many others, are launching forth into a description sufficient proofs. of the triumphs of Death, he shows how little all our best perfections avail against his power, and describes power, and describes the various classes, who have been compelled to submit to his order. The natural succession of thought in a christian mind suggests the sweet consolation of a future existence, and gives a joyful conclusion to his sombre poem. This plan af fords sufficient regularity to the arrangement, and assigns a sufficiently definite place to every descrip tion. The qualities of Blair's style, as was observed above, are strength and boldness: compare it with that of Young, whose subject led him Dark night, Dark as was Chaos, ere the infant sun Was rolled together, or had tried his beams Athwart the gloom profound. Who made even thicklipped, musing To gather up her face into a smile, Before she was aware. And the following at once of felicity and tenderness; Fast by his gentle mistress lays him down, his kindness, or interested expectaUnblasted by foul tongue. Tenderness is a quality, that distin- petition with Young, and with tions from his surviving relations, or a want of some better subject plunges some misguided pen into the mist of panegyrick. The prolixity and dulness of these performances have at length become so disgusting to the publick, that they seem with one accord to have lifted up their voice in favour of a more than laco nick brevity, and we hear "Alas, poor Yorick!" and "O rare Ben Johnson" cited as the ultimata of perfection. Epitaphs have been often made the vehicle of humour and satire, for it is found by experi ence much more easy to sport on delicate points with the dead, than with the living. An epitaph too is a convenient form for introducing ■ stroke of satire, as its nature excludes the necessity of inventing an introduction, and awkwardly tacking a quaint witticism to a stale incident. "Hic jacet" brings the writer at once to his subject. This convenience has not passed unob. served the noble army of poets; insomuch that, to save the labor of invention, they have often made use of something like what are called law fictions, and though the subject may be very quietly enjoying the comforts of life, by simply supposing his death, burial and a tombstone, they have a fair passage to his character through the medium of “Mea molliter ossa quiescant, an epitaph. It has been a fancy Perhaps it is fortunate for the reputation of Blair, that his writings were not numerous. One only he added to "the Grave," and that gives no increase to his poetical reputation. This however is enough to establish his glory. His poem the has already inserted him anong bards of honoured name, and, if I may be allowed the use of one of Shakspeare's worst puns, if we could take a glance at posterity some fif. ty years hence, we should find them all" Grave" men. EPITAPHS. "Sint modo carminibus non onerata ma lis." An epitaph is perhaps the most difficult composition, that human ingenuity ever contrived; at least that conclusion seems to follow from the immense number, that have been attempted, and the very few attempts that have been successful. Scarce a human being can quit the stage of action, but either respect for his memory, or gratitude for with some to write their own epitaphs, and if that were any security from the "onus carminum malorum," the expedient would be worth consideration. The publick however would be no great gainers by the exchange, for, generally speaking, a man will say as civil, and as dull things of himself, as any body else will say for him. We have all heard of the epitaph on the Provost of Dundee by his three executors, the following is a much more indecorous attempt from the same motive. The Abbe de la Riviere, a French ecclesiastick of the sixteenth century, left twenty crowns to any one, that would write his epitaph: an unlucky wag produced the following: . Ci gît un très grand personnage, Qui fut d'un iliustre lignage ; Qui posseda mille vertus, Qui ne trompa jamais, qui fut toujours Je n'en dirai pas davantage, In Petrarch's epitaph on his Lau ra we discern considerable delicacy, but, at the same time, a mind suffi ciently at ease to sport with the double meaning of his fair one's name: Qui reposan quei caste e felici ossa, El vero honor, la fama, e belta scossa. Felice pianta in borgo d' Avignone O delicati membri, o viva face, Ciascun preghi il Signor t' acetti in pace. TRANSLATION Here rest its chaste and sad remains, A purer soul than earth could boast; Rude rock, within thy opening veins Fair fame and smiling love were lost. The verdant Laurel wither'd lies, Its root uptorn, its branches sere ; Thus fades the long expected prize, The cherished hope of many a year. Fair plant, in fields of Avignon That rose so fresh, so soon that fell, With thee the poet's art is gone, And gone the lyfe's enchanting swell. O lovely limbs! O beauteous face! Whose tender thought recals my woes; Full many a prayer for heavenly grace Shall waft the soul to long repose. CIS-ATLANTICK ANOMALIES. THE following letter contains a curious specimen of Americanisms, as all the word in Italicks are peculiar to our country, or employed in a different sense from what they would convey in pure English. Dear Sir, be happy to wait on you at my house. When you come to town, I shall I am sorry to inform you, that the store, you desired me to engage is improved by another tenant, the owner having misremembered my application in your favour. You will, however, find no difficulty in suiting yourself, as rents are not likely to appreciate during the embargo. Our caucus terminated in a town-meeting, in which a petition to the President to remove it was ably advocated by our best speakers, and a committee of our most approved composuists were appointed to draught the petition. You will be so good as to let me know where your friend keeps, when he comes to town, as I was not at home to wait on him, when he called. We had a nice time last night at club, though we were rather slim in the article of wine. Some of your good old Madeira would have been a considerable addition to the pleasure of our entertainment. I must beg you to engage your correspon dent to send me a pipe, though I can illy afford it, if business should thus continue slack. May kind providence succeed our petition, and may the spirit of an opprest people progress, till the governmental sages of our country discover their errour, and redress our grievances. I have secured the span of horses you requested me to purchase for you, though I am afraid you will find them too spirited, since one of them yesterday broke the whiffletree of the shay, as I was driving him out of town. I am sorry to hear of the mischief done in your neighbourhood by the late freshet, which I understand has overflowed a great deal of valuable intervale and drowned your bogreef. Your son continues to conduct well, is a great applicant, and tells me, that he shall go into Virgil before the next congressional meeting. Lest this letter should grow too lengthy, I hasten to conclude by assuring you that I am, &c. A. Z. WHEN a great people, to borrow the words used in a late publick debate by an accomplished orator and statesman, "rices like Spain in the tremendous majesty of its strength," and loosing itself from the toils and shackles of foreign usurpation, dares to think and to act for itself, it is hardly possible for an American to restrain from revelling in full and almost wanton indulgence those generous sentiments and sympathies, which are justly ranked among the highest and most sacred principles of human opinion and conduct. To that once proud and pow. erful nation, which is at this moment struggling, and perhaps by its last efforts struggling to rescue itself from a tyrannical domination, the circles of whose vortex are every day sweeping to a wider sphere, and whirling with a swifter speed, and attracting and devouring by a stronger and a more resistless force, and in a deeper and a more insatiable gulph; to Spain,the first to acknowledge the "RIDE, SI SAPIS." In this laconick admonition, I am inclined to think, that more is meant than at first meets the ear. Laugh, if you are wise, is to be sure good and seasonable advice; but it is much more important, if we understand it to be intended exclusively, that sapience should be a condition of laughter; and that the opposite of this sentence should be equally true, Laugh not, if you are not wise; "For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool." If mankind are to be divided into two classes, those that laugh, and those that are laughed at, the precept of the Roman moralist ought to be strictly observed in the distribution of the respective parties; wisdom ought to be considered the essential requisite for the exertion of that noble power, that distinguishes man from the brutes.' Among many reasons, that could be given for this arrangement, is that obvious one, that none but a wise man can know how, when, and where to laugh. Laughter is a powerful instrument, and, like other powerful instruments, should be managed with great judgment. By simply laughing in the right place, many a man has secured to himself the reputation of being excellent company, without a single other pretension to scciability. Subriculus, on the contrary, is one, that by merely exhibit BELLA, magosque cano, et sævis metuenda periclis Solis ad occasum, pelagique in fine suprema, 5A 1. Bella.] Neptunum inter et magos. Alii corruptè legunt bowia. 2. paterisque invisa, &c.] Quia in saxa sæpe pateræ franguntur. De naturâ pateræ vide. v. 26. 6. Gotama.] De situ hujus insulæ acerrimè inter se jurgant annotatores. Asserunt alii, insulam quandam barbaricam nomine Owbybee indicatam esse. Alii Lilliputiam fuisse censent, quia patera parva tres homines continuit. Innuit vir doctissimus spectatissimusque T. Mc Fungus non insulam, sed partem continentis occidentalis locum fuisse. Hujus argumenta colentium indole deducuntur. 8. philosophis.] Vocis hujusque syllaba prima necessariò per diastolen longa fit. |