Debellata; monet Sithoniis non levis Evius, Sub divum rapiam. Sæva tene cum Berecynthio Since at Tivoli, Varus, you've fixed upon planting Of all trees, O my friend! let the Vine be the first. On no other condition will Jove lend assistance Chagrin, and the cares that accompany thirst. No one talks after wine about "battles" or famine;" The praises of love and good living are rife. Though once the Centaurs, 'mid potations too ample, Of a banquet dishonoured by bloodshed and strife, Far removed be such doings from us! Let the Thracians, Confound all the limits of right and of wrong; I never will join in their orgies unholy- The rites that to ivy-crowned Bacchus belong. Let Cyběle silence her priesthood, and calm her Away with such outbursts, uproarious and vain! Displays often followed by Insolence mulish, To be seen through and through, like this glass that I drain. In the first decade of Horatian songs, it became my duty to supply in the original Latin, from the Vatican Codex, a long-lost effusion of the Sabine farmer, commencing "Virent arundines;" or, as the Scotch have it, “Green grow the rashes, O!" I am equally happy to be enabled, owing to the late Sir Humphry Davy's experiments on the calcined volumes found at Herculaneum, to supply, in concluding this second essay, another lost ode of Horace, which has been imitated both in French and English (unconsciously, no doubt) by two modern versemongers. Alcæo potior lyristes ipso."-SIDON. APOLLIN., Ep. viii. "Le seul Horace en tous genres excelle De Citharée exalte les faveurs, Chante les dieux, les héros, les buveurs ; Des sots auteurs berne les vers ineptes, Nous instruisant par gracieux préceptes, Et par sermons, de joie antidotès."-J. B. ROUSSEAU, Horace, in one small volume, shows us what it is To suit the grave, the sad, the grave, the gallant: And not unfrequently with sarcasm slaughters THE "diffusion" of knowledge is, we suspect, somehow irreconcileable with its condensation; at least, we see no other way of explaining the notorious fact, that one old standard author contains (either in the germ or in full development) more ideas than a whole modern "Cyclopædia;" furnishing more materials for thought and feeling than are now accumulated during a whole Olympiad in the warehouses of Paternoster Row. It is for this reason that we gladly revert with Prout to the small Elzevir which, towards the close of his earthly career, formed the subject of his vesper meditations, and cheerfully accompany him through another "decade" of his classic rosary. We know not how it will be with us next month, or whether we shall be tempted to take up a newspaper after the fatal ides of September 1836. The removal of the stamp-duty on the 15th, bids fair to open the floodgates of " diffusion," so as to swamp us altogether. Then will begin the grand millenium of cheap knowledge; from that auspicious day will be dated the hegira of Hetherington. The conquest of China by the Tartars will find its parallel in the simultaneous rush of writers over the great wall, which the sober wisdom of former reigns had erected to restrain such-like inroads of Calmuc vagrancy. The breaking down of the dykes of Holland, and the letting in of the Zuydersee, is to be rehearsed in the domains of literature. The Dutchmen were drowned by a rat-we are to be inundated by Rice.* SOAP, it is true, will continue to be as dear as ever, but the * The Right Hon. Spring R., chancellor of the Exchequer, 1836. "waters of instruction" are to be plentifully supplied to the unwashed. "Venit vilissima rerum Hic aqua."-Iter Brundis. One cannot help imagining, that a concomitant reduction on the former most useful article would prove as beneficial to the Radicals as the cheapening of brimstone (for example) would be to the writers and readers of the Caledonian Mercury; but the Whigs, probably, wish to monopolise yet awhile the staple manufacture of Windsor, for the exclusive purpose of blowing bubbles to delude the rabble. We observe, by a recently discovered process, that flints have been found less hard-hearted than the Chancellor, and actually yield soap from silica. : To the press, as hitherto constituted, we acknowledge ourselves exceedingly indebted. On a late occasion,* the unanimous expression of cordial sympathy which burst from every organ of public opinion, in reprobation of a brutal assault, has been to us consolatory and gratifying. We shall hazard the charge of vanity, perhaps, but we cannot help replying to such testimonies of fellow-feeling towards ourselves in the language of a gifted Roman:"Est mihi jucunda in malis, et grata in dolore, vestra erga me voluntas; sed curam de me quæso deponite." (Catilinar. iv.) The interests of literature are still uppermost in our thoughts, and take precedency of any selfish considerations. We will be ever found at our post, intrepidly denouncing the vulgar arrogance of booby scribblers, unsparingly censuring the obtrusion into literary circles of silly pretenders ignorant horse-jockies, and brainless bullies. We took up a number of the " Carlton Chronicle" for last month, in which we read with some astonishment the assertion that Marc Antony "was justified" in causing M. T. Cicero to be waylaid and butchered in cold blood, as some atonement for his "wounded feelings" on reading that glorious oration called the SECOND PHILIPPIC. The Carlton Chronicle is conducted by a young barrister of eminent attainments, and we therefore experience some surprise at the views of Roman law, or the laws of civilized society (as * The brutal assault of Grantley Berkeley on the publisher Fraser. EE contradistinguished from the laws of "LYNCH," the American Lycurgus) put forth in this startling announcement. Our illustrious namesake, Oliver, was not very scrupulous in his respect for the "baubles" of legal arrangement; yet even he took alarm at the title of a pamphlet, called, “Killing no Murder." We are not exactly members of the Inner Temple, but we beg to question the propriety of the above decision, which we cannot otherwise qualify than as "A sentiment exceedingly atrocious, Not to be found (we trust) in Puffendorff or Grotius." We rejoice, however, at the introduction of Tully's immortal speech, and are thankful for being thus reminded of a classic precedent for intrepidly exposing to the scorn of all rightly thinking men those blunders and follies which force themselves into public notice, and, baboon-like, exhibit their shameful side by a false position of their own choosing. Cicero had to reply to an elaborate composition of his stupid adversary, published by Marc Antony himself, at his own expense, at the bookshop of the Roman Bentley of the day; need we add, miserably deficient in literary value, and rich only in absurdities-" hoc ut colligeres homo amentissime tot dies in aliena villá scriptitasti?" (Philip. ii.) In that production the booby had touched upon points which he should have been, of all other men, careful to avoid. Mark, we pray you, gentle reader, the words of Tully: " Maximé miror mentionem te hæreditatum ausum esse facere cum ipse hæreditatem patris non adisses."-It. ibidem.* We need not point out the passage, of which this is the exact prototype; neither is it necessary to indicate where may be found a fac-simile for the subsequent exclamation of the indignant orator-" O miseræ mulieris fæcunditatem calamitosam!" (it. ibidem); nor the allusion contained in the words by which he reproaches his opponent for the confirmed stupidity evinced in his literary production, albeit he had enjoyed certain advantages of family wit-" aliquid enim salis ab uxore mima trahere potuisti" (it. ibid.). The following picture of his adversary's personal appearance, and the This refers to the lawsuits of the Berkeley family. |