362 THE BEE, OR March 2, 



rhimes, is one of the cafiefl and at the fame time the moft inP'Tiifi- 

 cant. Young people, in general, think it a proof of extraordinary ge- 

 nius, if they can put two or three lines together, that fhall run, in any 

 nieafure, like verfts; and whenever they can do this, they think fo 

 much of it, as never to he fatisfied, till they fee it in print. In this re- 

 fpeift, they judge erroneoufly. The faculty of mcafuring a few fyllables, 

 is a thing that any pcrfon, with a tolerably juft ear, can eafily attain. 

 But a poetic talent, which confifts in a lively imagination, an ardent vi- 

 gour of mind, a quicknefe of perception, and a faculty of combining ob- 

 je<Sls together, fo as to form new and ftriking images, is as rare as the 

 other is common ; but it is this lall alone, whidh forms the poet. Would 

 our youthful rhimers attend to this diftiniSlion, it would check their va- 

 nity in fome degree, and make them hefitate, before they became candi- 

 dates for the title of poets, merely becaufe they had made a few fmooth 

 and uninterefling lines. 



Thcfe general remarks premifed, the editor proceeds to the talk he 

 Las afligned to himfclf under this department. 



J'iator, who writes from Berwick, as if on his return from a tour 

 through Scotland, complains of the low flate as to food and wages of the 

 labourers in Scotland, and contends, with great warmth, that their wag- 

 es fhould be augmented. But has he adverted to the fituation of thole 

 who have the wages to pay ? Before reformations of this fort can be 

 prudently attempted, many particulars require to be adverted to, thit 

 d I not occur to a hafty traveller. And in every country, where pcr- 

 fedl freedom is allowed to individuals, to follow what bufinefs they 

 incline, things of this fort will inevitably find their natural level, 

 without the regulating efforts of any man. 



7. offers an hypothelis concerning the human foul that is not intelli- 

 gible to us ; which, for that leafon, we decline offering to our readers ; 

 Mctaphifical difquifitions, unltfs very fhort and very clear, will be fpar- 

 ingly admitted, as tending only to engender difputes, without leading 

 to any ufcful condufions. 



J. S vitU propofes as a query, whether, if a perforation were 



made through the centre of this earth, and a flone dropped from the 

 furface of the globe into that vacuity ; the flone, by its increafed velo- 

 city, when it reached the centre, would not have acquired fuch an im- 

 petus, as to enable it to rife, on the other fide, as at firft ; and fo on 

 continue vibrating for ever i 2. He alks, what is the nature of the gela- 

 tinous fubflance, called by country-people, a (hot ftar .' 



Vcrtis obferves, by way of anfwer to a remark in The Mirror, that 

 Dean Swift did not know the favourable opinion the Duchefs of Marl- 

 borough had entertained of the author of Gulliver's Travels, otherwife it 

 was not propable, he would have left a fevcre inve<Sive againfl her 

 to be puhlifhed after his death. But in this conjciSure, he alleges the 

 elegant writer of that elTay has been miftaken ; for Swift was really in- 

 formed of this circumflance by his friend Gay, who writes thus to Swift, 

 17th November, 1726. " The Duchefs dowager of Marlborough is in 

 raptures with it, (Gulliver's Travels). She fays (he can dream of nothing 

 cll'e Cnce flic read it. She declares, that flic hath now found gut that 



