646 
and moss, &c.; though writing-paper was 
her sole material—her scissars her only 
implement. ‘The former, previously co- 
Joured by herself, in complete shades of 
every tint, was never retouched by the 
pencil after the flower was cut out; nor 
did she ever make a drawing; but, as 
her specimen lay before her, she cut from 
the eye. The easy floating grace of the 
stalks, the happiness with which the flower 
or flowers, their ieaves and -buds, are 
disposed upon those stalks, is exquisite; 
while the degree of real relief which they 
possess, besides that which arises from 
the skilful deception produced. by light 
and shade, has a richness and natural 
effect, which the finest pencil cannot 
hope to attain. What a lesson of exertion 
does the invention and completion of 
such a work, after seventy-five, give to 
that hopeiess languor, which people are 
so prone to indulge in the decline of life? 
When I bad the honour of a visit from 
Dr. Parr, he staid two days and nights 
at Wellsburn. I was prepared to expect 
extravrdinary colloquial powers, but they 
exceeded every description I had received 
of them. -He is styled the Johnson of 
the present day. In strength of thought, 
in promptness and plenteousness of allu- 
sion; in wit and humour, in that high- 
coloured eloquence’ which results from 
poetic -imayination—there. is. a very 
striking similarity to the departed despot. 
That, when irritated, he can chastise 
withthe same overwhelming force, I can 
believe; but unprovoked, Dr2Parr is 
wholly free from the caustic acrimony of 
that splenetic being. Benign rays of 
ingenuous urbanity dart in his smile, and 
from -beneath the sable shade of his large 
and masking eyebrows, and from the fine 
orbs they overhang. The characters he 
draws of distinguished people, and of 
suchof his triends, whose talents, though 
not yet emerged, are considerable, are 
given with a free, discriminating, and 
masterly, power, and with general inde- 
pendence of party’ prejudices. If he 
throws into deepest shade the vices of 
those, whose hearts he thinks corrupt, his 
spirit luxuriates in placing the virtues and 
abilities of those he esteemsin the fairest 
sand «fullest lights; a gratification which 
the gloomy Johnson seldom, ifever, knew, 
. Dr.-Parr is accased of egotism ; but, 
if he i talks of himself, all he says on 
that, aSon every other theme, interests 
-theattention,‘aud charms the fancy. Tt 
is surely the dull and the envious only 
who-deem his frankness vanity. Great 
sminds. must feel, and have a right wo 
3: we 
Letters of Anna Seward. 
avow their sense of the high ground om 
which they stand. Who, that has a soul, 
bur is gratified by Milton’s avowals of 
this kind, when, in the civil wars, ex= 
horting the soldier to spare his dwelling, 
the poet declares his power to requite, 
the clemency; to spread the name of 
him who shewed it, over seas and lands, 
‘<Inevery climethesun’s brightcircle warms.” 
Dr. Parr isa warm whig, loves our 
constitution, and ardently wishes its pre~ 
servation; but he says, malignant and 
able spirits are at work to overthrow it, 
and that with their efforts a fatal train of 
causes co-operate. 
I saw him depart, with much regret, 
though his morning, noon, and evening, 
pipe involved us in clouds of tobacco 
while he staid, but they were gilded by 
perpetual: vollies of genius and wit. 
STUDY OF POETRY. 
I am convinced that the poetic talent 
is a blessing to its possessor, and that to 
cultivate it habitually, is an. incessant 
suurce of delight, Since you do me the 
honour, on Miss F. Cayley’s account, of 
consulting me on the best means of cul- 
tivation, I advise our young friend to get 
by heart, at every leisure interval when 
she reads or walks aloné, a portion of 
poetic writing from our best authors, ob- 
serving what are those life-aaie 
bring its pictures to our eye, and what 
the. arrangement of those accents which — 
give smoothness, and of those. which ener- 
gize the numbers: that the iambics give 
perfect melody, while the trochaics gain ~ 
in spirit and picturesque effect, w 
they may lose in smoothness, and that 
to use them both, in judicious variation, 
completes the perfection of verse, whe- 
ther blank or in rhyme. If she is not 
familiar with these technical terms, you 
will explain them to her. Here are four 
beautiful lines, whichareall pure iambics : 
‘© These head the troops that rocky Aulis 
yields, ; 
And Eteon’s hills, and Hyrie’s watery fields, 
Where Python, Daulis, Cyparissus, stood, 
And fair Lilewa, views the rising flood.” 
; Pope's Homer. 
Lines where the trochaic accent chiefly 
prevails— 
66 Gnd@nes, how you gaz’d, when from her 
: ounded side,: 
Now, where the south sea rolls its waste of 
; tide, : ; 
Rose, on swifewheels, the moon’srefulgent car, 
Circling the salar orb, a sister star, ; 
Dimpled with vales, with shining hills em- 
boss’d, 
Rotling round earth her aisless realms of 
frost.” Darwin. 
es inc it, Pgh. ‘The 
okes which — 
a 
seal all 
