last more clearly. Swift, in one of his letters to Stella and Mrs. Dingley, has (to use a very vulgar phrase) given himself a good slap in the face. "I had a letter from Mrs Long, that has quite turned my stomach against her, no less than two nasty jests in it with dashes to suppose them. She is corrupted in that country town with vile conversation."-Letter ii. vol. 4. This, from the author of "Gulliver's Travels," is a very singular, or at least a very strong, instance of what are the contents of the wallet behind.

Income.

When a man has dismissed his follies, discovers his real friends, and has gotten in general a correct view of life, how much is his opinion improved with respect to what his quantity of pecuniary expenditure in the year must be. A person thus advanced in the knowledge of the world and himself, soon begins to find that the world, if well understood, is not worth courting his attention, or his labour; and he himself is as a little world within his own mind, and his wishes require as little of care and anxiety. He will soon agree with the Poet on the insignificance of worldly goods, as well as the shortness of their continuance

Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.

Goldsmith.

Patronage and Patrons.

The miseries of this state have been described by satirists, ancient and modern, from Seneca to Dr. Johnson; but by none better than the Dean of St. Patrick's. Swift had felt what he described:

Suppose my lord and you alone,

Hint the least interest of your own,
His visage drops, he kuits his brow;
He cannot talk of business now.

Or mention but a vacant post,

He'll turn it off" with name your toast;"

Nor could the nicest artist paint

A countenance with more constraint.

Dean Swift to Dr. Delany, on his Epistle to his
Excellency Lord Carteret.

Virgil,

Though he is allowed to be a bard of pathos, yet possesses little stores of invention, and his similies are often neither apt, nor beautiful, nor sublime. In the eleventh Eneid, his hero is surrounded by the enemy's darts and spears, and is compared by the poet, as he protects himself by his huge shield, to a traveller concealing himself in the fissure of a rock, or under some ruined gateway, at the coming on of a pelting and pitiless shower. This, surely, is not placing his hero in an attitude of warlike dignity. A true commen

tator, and no one else, might say, it was to shew that Æneas cared no more for the "arrowy shower" of the enemy than he did for a natural one in April.

Quizzing a Critic.

Many would-be scholars praise whatever is written in Greek or Latin; whether because they can praise authors long since dead without envy or jealousy, or whether they wish to be thought very conversant with these ancient worthies, may be doubtful. Montaigne says that he often borrowed from Plutarch and Seneca without mentioning them, and then laughed at those crities who thought that they were abusing him, when in fact they were uttering severe strictures on their favourite ancients; or as the lively old writer expresses it, “giving Seneca and Plutarch a flip on the nose, when they aimed at me."

Classical Literature.

There is not a more effectual and pleasing introduction to the study and taste for classical erudition than the works of the late Mr. Harris, of Salisbury. His "Hermes" will introduce the

young student to a relish for grammar, by developing the rational grounds of that study: his "Philosophical Arrangements" will give a young person a clear and excellent notion of the art of logic: and his "Philological Enquiries" will inform him very pleasantly of much classical erudition, seldom to be met with in other authors. His "Three Treatises" have not only great merit in themselves, but will give a double delight to the scholar, by his very happy imitations of the style of that great master of reasoning, Aristotle. Mr. Harris writes. in the style both of a man of erudition and a polite gentleman, and a man of piety; and by the courtesy of his writings, he invites young students to pursue his track; for

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep search'd with saucy looks.
Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books.

Love's Labour Lost, act i. scene 1.

Poetical Critics.

When poets turn critics, they are liable to be influenced more by their imagination than their judgment; and to describe what the sculptor and painter, in their opinions, ought to have done, rather than to consider what their respective arts are capable of doing. Those who have examined

soberly the group of the Laocoon will not see further than that the attitudes of the parent and children exhibit very finely indeed their various agonies in the embraces of the serpent. A Poet goes much further---

On the rapt eye th' imperious passions seize;
The father's double pangs both for himself
And sons convulsed, to heaven his rueful fook
Imploring aid, and half accusing, cast
In fell despair, with indignation mixt,&c,

Thompson's Liberty, part iv. 1. 195.

Rules of Contraries.

These seem the safest principles on which to form our knowledge of mankind according to their own assertions. If a man talks of his courage, you may put him down as a coward, when danger is near; should man or woman talk of their tenderness of heart, do not trouble yourself to solicit charity of either; if a woman talks much of her chastity, do not be surprised at a trial in Doctors' Commons on that lady's account; if a man should make honourable mention of his own integrity and love of right, it would be very prudent not to trust your affairs in the hands of this self-approving man.