plified, has never been very popular in this country. It would appear that such painted air-bubbles are too childish for our taste, and that the marvellous is only relished here when linked to the higher and more serious feelings. Macbeth is deeply and universally understood; but there is reason to suspect that the Midsummer Night's Dream is more talked of than read, and talked of chiefly by persons who wish to lay claim to an uncommon share of fancy. The ancients had their fauns, satyrs, and nymphs, with which they peopled the more sequestered retreats of nature; and whose casual intercourse with mortals supplied a thousand beautiful fables. The fairies and mermaids of modern times cannot be compared with them. To be sure, some very pretty stories are told of mermaids drawing nigh to solitary shores, under the guidance of tender impulses, and making their sentiments known to the favoured mortal in the form of a song; but surely their long fish-tails are insufferable, whatever may be thought of them by the young Highlanders in the Island of Skye, or the shepherds of the Orkneys. The whole conception of a mermaid is displeasing, and savours of the coarse taste of Northern mythology. On the other hand, nothing can be more beautiful than the ancient conception of wood nymphs, whose tenderness was by no means so obtrusive as that of the northern mermaids; so that persons taking a walk in a forest were frequently shunned by them, and left to find their way home again without ever having a second sight of them. The fairy tribe of later times is a fiction without interest, and seems hardly capable of answering any purpose as a species of poetical machinery. It is evident that gay and lively fictions, founded on popular superstitions, admit of much greater variety than serious and terrible ones. The objects by which superstitious terror is excited, being always obscure and indefinite, present but a limited range to the poet, and should be sparingly used, in order to avoid monotony, and prevent the disgust which is always sure to be felt, when they are no long er regarded with astonishment. Ob servation and reflection can be fed for ever by the infinite variety of particulars and their relations; and the sen timent of love possesses the divine privilege of dwelling upon its objects with increasing delight; but fear and wonder are transitory movements of the mind, and depend for the most part on the suspension of curiosity. Upon the whole, romance writers ought to look jealously after their privileges, and prevent the use of apparitions from incurring prescription in these latter days of the scoffers, who think it no great matter to take the bread out of the mouths of an hundred industrious persons in Grub Street, for the sake of shewing themselves above vulgar prejudices. Surely romance writers are far more numerous than philosophers, and might be well able to mob any prating son of Epicurus who attempted to undermine the credit of their machinery. Athenæus was born at Naucratis, in Egypt, in the second century of the Christian era. He was considered as a man of great learning-had read much, and possessed an extraordinary memory, as the numerous anecdotes he relates, and the pieces of poeeditions of his Deipnosophists have appeartry he quotes, abundantly testify. Several ed on the Continent; the last in fourteen volumes octavo, by Schweighauser of Strasburgh, in 1807. The translation of select passages from this entertaining author, from which we mean occasionally to give a certain portion, was the work of an elegant scholar, and an amiable man, who, alas! is no more: he occasionally entertained and instructed his countrymen, but never intruded his name on public notice; and it is from that consideration alone we feel it right now to with. hold it. EDITOR.] TIMOCRATES ȧsks Athenæus, whether he was present at the banquets of the learned, or whether he trusted to the report of others, in the account he had given of them? Athenæus assures him that he was present, then speaks warmly of Laurentius, and the elegant entertainments given at his house, during which the most curious questions were proposed and discussed. He likewise informs him, that Laurentius had been appointed to superintend the religious ceremonies and sacrifices, by that excellent prince, Marcus Aurelius, because he was acquainted with the customs of the Greeks and Romans, and spoke both languages with equal purity; on which account he had the name given him of * Αστροπη, or ambidexter. He then speaks of the library of Laurentius, which contained such a number of the best Greek authors that it would bear a comparison with the most celebrated public collections of antiquity. He was so distinguished for his urbanity, that at his table every one felt himself at his ease, and Rome appeared to be the country of the human race. The hospitality of his house was such, as to justify the application of the following description from the comic poet, Apollodorus:† 66 Approaching a friend's house, we see at once A welcome at the gate. The porter stands With open cheerful face to meet the guests; Old Keeper wags his tail: as he proceeds, Some kind domestic, with officious zeal, Places his chair unbidden ;-all is done Prompt, and at once, from feeling, not direction."+ To Laurentius might be applied these lines of Antiphanes : *In allusion to this line in Homer's Iliad, 1. 163. σε Ηρως Ατεροπαίος επει περιδέξιος ηε + Apollodorus, a comic poet of Gela, in Sicily, of the age of Menander. He is said to have written forty-seven plays. Donatus intimates that Terence took from him his Phormio and Hecyra. This fragment of Apollodorus reminds us of the following beautiful passage in the Heauton of Terence. "Domum revortor mastus, atque animo fere Perturbato, atque incerto præ ægritudine; Adsido; accurrunt servi; soccos detrahunt ; Video alios festinare; lectos sternere ; Cœnam apparare; pro se quisque sedulo Faciebat, quo illam mihi lenirent miseriam." Act 1. S. 1. "Books, and the Muse's love, his sole delight: With them true wisdom lies." As well as the following from the Theban bard: "As in the sweet society of friends The author then gives the examples of other great men who had distinguished themselves by their liberality and magnificence-such as Alexander, Conon, Alcibiades, &c. and cites the following passage from Antiphanes :* "Good gods! why seek we riches and abundance, If not to succour our poor friends withal, And show Heaven's bounties in the fairest light? To eat and drink are but the common wants The Cynic (Cynulcus), who had acquired the name of Texeduvos, or the Supper-hunter, said, that Clearchus related, that Charmus of Syracuse applied mottos to almost every dish that was served up. For instance, if a fish: Ηκω λιπων Αιγαῖον αλμυρον βαδος. Τ * 66 Antiphanes of Smyrna, or, as some say, of Rhodes, was born in or about the ninety-third Olympiad. His father's name people of servile degree. However, he so was Demophanes, and his mother's Enoc; signalized himself by his genius, and was held in such respect by his Athenian patrons, that a public decree was made for the removal of his remains from the Isle of Chios, where he died at the age of seventyfour, and for depositing them in the city of Athens, where his funeral honours were state. sumptuously performed at the charge of the "He ranks very high in the middle comedy. The lowest list of his plays amounts to two hundred and ninety; and some contend that he actually composed three hundred and sixty five. He is said to have obtained the prize for thirty comedies. Several fragments of his have been selected by various authors of the lower ages; but they do not comprise such a portion of the dialogue, as to open the character, style, and manner of this writer, so as to enable us to pronounce upon his comparative excellence with any critical precision."-Cumberland's Observer, vol. iv. p. 78. + It is not mentioned from what author this is taken. It appears to be a parody on the first line of the Hecuba of Euripides: Ηκω νεκρῶν κευθμώνα και σκοτε πουλας Porson refers, in his note upon this passage, to two other parodies in Athenæus, but not to this. And so on to others, which, though in the original the terms bear some analogy, would be entirely lost in translation. Athenæus relates, that it was customary with many of the guests who frequented the table of Laurentius, to bring sentences of this kind as the price of their admission, but that Charmus, who was a man of great learning, excelled them all, as scarcely a dish was served up to which he did not apply some pointed allusion. He then speaks of the munificence of Tellias of Agrigentum, who, in the middle of winter, entertained five hundred knights of Gela, and presented to each a tunic and a mantle. The greater part of the guests praised very highly the lampreys and eels of the Straits of Sicily-the paunch or stomach of the tunny from Cape Pachynus-kids from the Isle of Melos -mullets from the Simæthus (a river in Sicily) oysters from Cape Pelorus -pilchards from Lipara-turnips from Mantinea, and beet from Asora. Archestratus of Syracuse, or Gela, composed a poem on good eating. Chrysippus says it was called rasgovou, others gave it different titles. It began thus: "To universal Greece these rules I give, 99 Athenæus supposes that Archestratus was ignorant that at the banquet of Plato there were twenty-eight guests. Antiphanes says there are persons, "Who know for certain where a feast is held, And, uninvited, sit them down as guests." He adds further: " "Twere well if fellows of this sort were fed * "Men of this description were, by the Greeks, called uña-by the Latins, muscæ, flies, which was a general name of reproach for such as insinuated themselves into company where they were not welcome. In Plautus, an entertainment, free from such unwelcome guests, is called ⚫ hospitium sine muscis.' In Egypt, a fly was the hieroglyphic of an impudent man."- Vide Potter, of Miscellaneous Customs of Greece. Other authors are then mentioned, who had written on good cheer, with several quotations and anecdotes. Amongst otners, he speaks of a glutton called Philoxenus, after whom certain cakes were named. Chrysippus speaks of him thus:-" I knew a glutton, a fellow of consummate impudence, who paid so little regard to the accommodation of others, that it was his practice, in the bath, to immerse his hands in water heated to a great degree; to continue them for a long time, and wash his mouth with the same, to prevent, by use, their being injured by the hottest food, and to enable him to endure a greater degree of heat than others." It is moreover said, that he used to bribe the cooks to serve up the dishes as hot as possible, so that he might devour what he pleased before the other guests could touch any thing. "Clearchus says, of Philoxenus of Cythera, that having one day embarked for Ephesus, he no sooner arrived than he went to the fish-market. On finding it empty, he inquired the reason. The people told him that all the fish were bought up for the celebration of a wedding. He immediately goes to the bath, from thence to the house of the married couple, and, without invitation, takes his place at the table. After supper he sings an extempore epithalamium, for he was a dithyrambick poet. The company were delighted, and the bridegroom gave him an invitation for the next day. 'Yes,' said Philoxenus, if there be no fish in the market.' "We should not," says Theophilus, "imitate Philoxenus, the son of Eryxis, who, not content with the common gifts of nature, complained that he had not the neck of a crane, to prolong the pleasure of tasting his food. If he had petitioned to be transformed to an ox, a camel, a horse, or an elephant, he would have done bet ter. These animals have more voracious appetites, and the enjoyment is augmented in proportion to their strength and avidity." "Phanias relates the following anecdote of this Philoxenus of Cythera, who was a poet, and a notorious lover of good eating. Supping one evening with Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, he observed a large mullet served up to the prince, and a very small one placed before him. In sight of Dionysius he took up the little fish, and held it to his ear. The prince asked him why he did this? Philoxenus answered, that he was then engaged in the composition of his Galatea, and was inquiring of the little fish for some particulars relating to Nereus, but could obtain no satisfaction; he therefore supposed the fish was too young to give him the necessary information; but I am persuaded,' added the poet, 'that the elder one, which stands before you, is fully acquainted with what I wish to know.' Dionysius smiled at the jest, and ordered the large mullet to be placed before Philoxenus.”* "This prince often drank freely with Philoxenus; but having detected him in an illicit amour with his mistress, Galatea, he sent him to prison, where he composed his Cyclops, taking his own misfortunes for the argument. The Cyclops was Dionysiusthe flute player Galatea, and the poet himself Ulyss.s." "There lived at Rome, in the time of Tiberius, a voluptuary of great wealth, named Alpicius, after whom certain cakes were called. In the gratification of his appetite he spent immense sums. He usually resided at Minturnum, a town in Campania, * In an old book, under the title of "Wits, Fitts, and Fancies, &c. printed at London, by Richard Johnes, at the sign of the Rose and Crowne, next above St Andrewe's Church, in Holborne," 1595, 4to, in the chapter which treats of "Table matter," many ancient witticisms are given; and, amongst others, the following, which is evidently borrowed from this anecdote of Philoxenus. "At a nobleman's banquet, a ship of marchpane stuffe was set upon the board, wherein was all manner of fishes in the like stuffe. Every one snatched thereat-a sea captain, sitting far off, could not reach thereunto; but one of the company gave him a sprat, which hee receiving, helde it a good space to his ear. The nobleman seeing it, asked him his conceipt therein. He then, in reference to the little portion that came to him out of that marchpane, thus merrily answered: And like your grace, my father before me (as your honour knows), was sometimes a sea captain; and it was his mischance, and my hard hap, that since his last undertaken voyage at sea, which was some twelve years ago, I never since could heare what was become of him; wherefore of every fish that falleth into my hands I still aske, whether it can tell me any news of him? and this pettie sprat (my lord) saith he was then a little one, and remembers no such matter." where he regaled himself with shrimps, or prawns, which he bought at a great price. They were so very large, that neither those of Smyrna, nor the crayfish of Alexandria, were to be compared to them. When he was informed that prawns of an immense size were to be had in Africa, without delaying a single day, he embarked for the coast of Lybia. As he approached the land, where his fame had arrived before him, having experienced a dreadful storm in the course of his voyage, the fishermen came on board his vessel, and offered him the best of their fish. 'Have you none of a larger size?' said he.-' None larger are to be met with on this coast,' they replied. Recollecting the delicious prawns of Minturnum, he ordered his pilot to steer immediately for the coast of Italy, without approaching nearer to that of Africa." "Aristoxenus of Cyrene, a voluptuous philosopher, used to sprinkle the lettuces in his garden every evening with wine mixed with honey; and gathering them early in the morning, called them the green cakes which the earth produced for his use." "Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, being at a great distance from the sea, expressed a desire to eat the small fish called agun, or anchovy; his cook, not being able to procure them, contrived to imitate this fish so well, that he deceived his master; which, by a fragment from the comic poet, Euphron, was thus accomplished: He took a turnip, and cut it into small pieces, imitating, as much as possible, the form of the anchovy. These pieces he fried in oil, with a sufficient quantity of salt, then sprinkled them with the seed of twelve black poppies. By this ingenious artifice he deceived and gratified the palate of the king, who was at that time on the confines of Scythia, so that he boasted to his friends of the excellent anchovies which he had eaten." DAVID HUME CHARGED BY MR COLERIDGE WITH PLAGIARISM FROM ST THOMAS AQUINAS. IN that rambling, confused, and inconclusive work, Mr Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, there is, nevertheless, to be found a vast quantity of singularly acute metaphysical disquisition; and there occur many very amusing illustrations and. anecdotes. In his sixth chapter, where he treats of Hartley's system, and undertakes to shew that, as far as it differs from that of Aristotle, it is neither tenable in theory, nor founded on facts, he relates the following curious instance of delirium, in which, according to his belief, the ideas, or relicks of longbefore-received impressions, exactly imitated the order of those impressions, the will and reason being to all appearance wholly suspended. "A case of this kind occurred in a Catholic town in Germany a year or two be fore my arrival at Göttingen, and had not then ceased to be a frequent subject of conversation. A young woman of four or five and twenty, who could neither read nor write, was seized with a nervous fever; during which, according to the asseverations of all the priests and monks in the neighbourhood, she became possessed, and, as it appeared, by a very learned devil. She continued incessantly talking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in very pompous tones, and with most distinct enunciation. This possession was rendered more probable by the known fact, that she was or had been an heretic. Voltaire humorously advises the devil to decline all acquaintance with medical men; and it would have been more to his reputation, if he had taken this advice in the present instance. The case had attracted the particular attention of a young physician, and by his statement many eminent physiologists and psychologists visited the town, and cross-examined the case on the spot. Sheets full of her ravings were taken down from her own mouth, and were found to consist of sentences, coherent and intelligible each for itself, but with Of little or no connexion with each other. the Hebrew, a small portion only could be traced to the Bible; the remainder seemed to be in the rabinical dialect. All trick or conspiracy was out of the question. Not only had the young woman ever been an harmless, simple creature; but she was evidently labouring under a nervous fever, In the town, in which she had been resident for many years as a servant in different families, no solution presented itself. The young physician, however, determined to ace her past life step by step; for the patient herself was incapable of returning a rational answer. He at length succeeded in discovering the place where her parents had lived travelled thither, found them dead, but an uncle surviving; and from him learnt, that the patient had been charitably taken by an old protestant pastor at nine years old, and had remained with him some years, even till the old man's death. Of this pastor the uncle knew nothing, but that he was a very good man. With great difficulty, and after much search, our young medical philosopher discovered a niece of house-keeper, and had inherited his effects. the pastor's, who had lived with him as his She remembered the girl; related, that her venerable uncle had been too indulgent, and could not bear to hear the girl scolded; that she was willing to have kept her, but that after her patron's death, the girl herself refused to stay. Anxious inquiries were then bits; and the solution of the phenomenon of course made, concerning the pastor's hawas soon obtained. For it appeared, that it had been the old man's custom, for years, to walk up and down a passage of his house into which the kitchen door opened, and to read to himself with a loud voice, out of his favourite books. A considerable number of these were still in the niece's possession. She added, that he was a very learned man and a great Hebraist. Among the books were found a collection of rabinical writings, together with several of the Greek and Latin fathers; and the physician succeeded in identifying so many passages with those taken down at the young woman's bed-side, that no doubt could remain in any rational mind concerning the true origin of the impressions made on her nervous system." Mr Coleridge observes, that this authenticated case furnishes both proof and instance that relicks of sensation may exist, for an indefinite time, in a latent state, in the very same order in which they were originally impressed; for, it cannot be supposed that, in a case like this, the feverish state of the brain would act in any other way than as a stimulus. Mr Coleridge therefore thinks it probable that all thoughts are in themselves imperishable, and that if the intelligent faculty should be rendered more comprehensive, it would require only a different and apportioned organization, the body celestial instead of the body terrestrial, to bring before every human soul the collective experience of its whole past existence. "And all this," he adds, 66 perchance is the dread book of judgment, in whose mysterious hieroglyphics every idle word is recorded.' We fear that this extraordinary story will not greatly benefit the science of metaphysics; for, in the first place, all we know of it is, that it is said to have occurred in a Catholic town in Germany, a year or two before Mr Coleridge's arrival at Göttingen, and on such a vague and indefinite statement, no true philosopher could, we think, venture to found any serious specula |