1823.] 
paint. When many of the gay come- 
dies.or other. pieces, which haye. the 
most reputation in France, come to be 
translated into. English, they appear 
to be only tissues. of trifles, agreeably 
expressed, All those very delicate 
thoughts vanish away, when you take 
them out of the words in which they 
are dressed: the kind of wit, in which 
their merit. consists, evaporates as 
soon as they touch this crucible. As 
all the lustre was owing only to the 
turn and polish, it cannot be preserved 
in another tongue, because it is impos- 
sible, to find equivalent expressions 
for all those pretty phrases that supply 
the place of thought. By this proof 
We may, in fact, know the merit of 
every author ; for true wit is the same, 
in all ages and nations. We now read 
Phedrus the Roman fabulist, who 
flourished thirty-three years after the 
birth of Christ, with pleasure; and 
Fontaine’s Fables would have flourish- 
ed at Athens. | Posterity, which two 
thousand years hence will know no- 
thing of Corneille but his works 
translated into a language then spoken, 
will not be able to divine what nation 
he was of, nor in what age he lived. 
Racine, admirable as he is otherwise, 
discovers himself to be a Frenchman. 
—Our Richardson painted nature, and 
will live in all ages; but not so Smol- 
let or Fielding, or the popular Scotch 
novellist,—their’s are local pictures, 
which interest none but natives, and 
die in the age and country that produce 
them. 
LOUIS XVIII. 
The following is an extract from a 
letter of the Earl of Bristol (Bishop 
of Derry,) to Lady Hamilton, dated 
Munich, July 14, 1795:—* All this, 
however, can only tend to facilitate 
peace, but not at all to restore that 
despicable odious family the Bourbons, 
—the head of which is now at Verona, 
where we left him, eating two capons 
a-day (‘tis a pity the whole family are 
not eapons); and, what is more, dres- 
sing them himself in a superb kitchen, 
—the true chapel of a, Bourbon 
prince.”—Lord Nelson’s Leiters. 
7 GEORGE III. 
This king escaped thrice from 
assassination., The first time was 
when, Margaret Nicholson made the 
attempt; the second was in his way 
to the House of Peers, when a. ball 
passed through the carriage, within 
a finger’s-breadth of his Majesty’s 
face. The Earl of Westmoreland and 
Stephensiana, No. XXIV. 
435 
Lord: Onslow, who. were in the car- 
riage, being greatly, agitated, he ex- 
horted them to be composed, and 
refused to enter another vehicle. The 
third was while in the theatre; where 
a pistol was fired by Hatfield, a mad- 
map, from the pit, and the ball en- 
tered the ceiling of the box. 
THE CAUSE OF REFORM. 
The success of eyery cause must 
depend on the conduct of its leaders, 
and on, the unity of its partisans. 
Many persons wonder that the re- 
formers of England, numerous as they 
are, and just and reasonable as are 
their pretensions, have made -so little 
progress, compared with their exer- 
tions and numbers. But the true 
cause of their weakness arises, per- 
haps, from the lead which has been 
conferred upon, or assumed by, Sir F. 
Burdett. The baronet is a good par~ 
liamentary pleader, and understands 
his cause and that of the people ; but 
he stands by himself in society,—acts. 
withno one,—and isso cold, that no one 
is able to act with him.. He is conse- 
quently so remote from the body of 
the people, that the cause itself may 
be compared to many animals, whose. 
heads are so distant from the body, 
that the creature, in spite of other 
advantages, becomes the prey of every 
other animal. From this cause, re- 
form has been retarded during the 
last twenty years, and will continue 
to be so, while the head and the body 
are thus dissevered. Cobbett, in his 
attacks on. the baronet, was partly. 
wrong and partly right. Wrong in“ 
his personal motives, and in his vitupe- 
ration; but right in his general policy, 
as far asit tended to loosen the depen- 
dence of the patriots on one whose 
bad habits of business have always 
bafiled the success of their cause. 
THE IONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 
- The object of its research was to 
find a physical element constituent of 
all things. Thales assumed water as 
the primitive element which had pro- 
duced: all things. .Anaximenes call- 
ed air the infinite, the life of the 
universe. Diogenes of Apollonia 
considered unity as the constituent 
principle of all things. Fleraclitus 
thought every thing was the modifica- 
tion of fire, and that the human souk 
was an emanation from it. Anaxa~ 
goras assumed an infinity of small 
particles as the elements of bodies. 
His disciple Archelaus became. the 
master of Socrates, whose philosophy, 
‘ howeyer, 
