318 
might be a difference. Alas! there 
was, indeed. : 
My precognoscent gran now called 
Louisa to the cabin, to prove other 
scenes without my care. 1 soon tot- 
tered after, hid, the odious view from 
my eyes ina musty birth, and sought 
in sleep to forget disgust, 
Decidedly, then, lovers should not 
take a voyage by sea: it is, indeed, a 
space ample eneugh for sympathy, but 
each one has too much to suffer on it, 
for selfishness to allow pity. Matri- 
mony may be, as it is termed, a damper 
of extacy, but the ocean is a perfeet 
obliterator of grace, of charm, of de- 
cency. Wretchedly sick myself, I 
must have looked somewhat as I felt; 
but Louisa, she whom I never had 
contemplated but as an angel; what 
an object was she when I went tohand 
her from the lady’s cabin! She reeled 
into my arms, with a pale check, 
sunker eyes, the tremor of sickness 
through every limb; while my gran,— 
oh! my poor gran! 
Thus, upon the night I arrived, did 
my Irish friend O”’Pallan, whom I had 
not seen sinee we left college toge- 
ther, describe to me, over a bottle of 
Burgundy at Calais, his debarkation 
from Dublin, He has all the warmth 
and impetuosity of his country ; some 
talent, not the better for the master’s 
inconsideration, and far too much ec- 
ecntricity for it. I liked him a boy, 
and value him a man. We toasted 
the days gone by, and drank to as 
happy a futurity. And now, he add- 
ed, before we go to bed, take from me 
one word of advice. Put patience in 
your pocket; you'll want her company 
at every turn. Expect nothipg; un- 
less, like me, it be to be disappointed ! 
You're in a fortress, and you'll see in 
the morning what a narrow dirty place 
itis. You sit upon velvet, lie under 
silk, and, up stairs and down stairs, 
have your feet frozen on a tiled floor, 
Gran’s got the rheumatism already, 
and Louisa’s getting it for the firsttime. 
They serve us for dinner half a dozen 
small dishes of sfewed and fricaseed 
morscls,—not so bad to taste, but the 
look—T can’t bear it; the sightof plenty 
is itself a meal, and, when I sit down 
here to eat, I always fear I shall not” 
have enough. And there is the noise 
of that waiter,—words, and manner,— 
is it endurable?—talk of politeness 
here! _I’ve to call the raseal a dozen 
times before he'll come to listen to my 
Notes during a Visit to Paris. 
[Nov. 1, 
orders ; and then the fellow does half 
a dozen other things under. my nose 
before he proceeds to what I want. 
But, worse than all, is anew and pecu- 
liar sort of peevishness & feel, as L only 
half understand what the strange peo- 
ple about me utter ; but good night,— 
you'll soon complain, and regret with 
me, that French, as we studied it at 
school ina book is one language, and 
French here in conversation another. 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LYCEUM OF ANCIENT LIFERAPURE, 
NO. XXXVI. 
MARTIAL. 
N commencing our notice of this 
most extensive, and, in some re- 
spects, most celebrated writer of*cpi- 
grams ainong the ancients, it appears 
proper to make some remarks upon 
that species of composition by which 
he has distinguished himself. It is not 
our intention to enter at length into 
every thing relating to the epigram ; 
its celebrity, construction, and variety ; 
such a discussion is too tedious for our 
plan, although to be wholly silext as 
to its origin and nature, when speak- 
ing of the works of Martial, would be 
an unjustifiable omission. We shall 
therefore briefly notice the first intro- 
duction of the epigram; shewing, at 
the same time, in what it consists, and 
the principal requisites for its success+ 
ful composition. 
The literal meaning of the word 
epigram is simply au inscription or 
title. Accordingly, in its primitive 
and true signification, the term was 
applied to any inscription oh a monu- 
ment, statue, trophy, or image, though 
sometimes consisting ef a single word 
only. It was afterwards employed in 
a more extended meaning ; and those 
inscriptions, to which we have alluded, 
often became themselves the titles or 
subjects of short peems, which conti- 
nued to receive the name of epigrams, 
till, by degrees, this kind of composi- 
tion began to be applied indifferently 
to a variciy of subjects, and tle term 
epigram acquired ihe meaning which 
has Jong been attached to it, namely, 
a short poem, sometimes of a simple 
nature, containing merely the mention 
of athing, a person, or cireumstance ; 
and sometimes complex, where ‘a con- 
clusion is deduced fren:some' previous 
statement, . 
The first of these, though hardly 
considered as an epigram im our time, 
was’ 
