212 
air, and water, the principle of gravita-’ 
tion, and the like, though fo beneficial on 
the whole, are often converted into caufes 
of mifchief and deftruétion. He would 
therefore conclude, that the general. fyf- 
tem was an infeparable mixture of good 
and evil; but he would (or I greatly mif- 
take) difcern that the good is intentional 
andpreponderant,the evil contingent and {u- 
bordinate. He would receive it as a complete 
proof ofa wife and well-arranged plan,that, 
notwithftanding all adverfe and deftructive 
proceffes, every {pecies of being maintains 
itfelf in exiftence, and preferves the rank 
in the creation it was deitined to occupy. 
On turning his view upon the moft dif- 
tinguifhed and interefting figure among 
animated forms—the human fpecies—he 
would fee moderate powers of body, in- 
{pired by an unknown fomething, which 
renders them capable of the moft wonder- 
ful exertions, and every where eftablifhes 
a complete fuperiority over the other ani- 
mal tribes. He would obferve this crea- 
ture agitated by a vaft variety of paflions 
and defires, precipitating him into actions, 
fome injurious to his own happinefs and 
that of his fellow-creatures, others pro- 
moting the felicity of both ; he would fee 
him building with one hand, and over- 
throwing with another, cultivating and 
defolating, adorning and defacing, ca- 
reffing and murdering; but upon the 
whole, he would find no reafon to doubt 
that he alfo followed the general law of 
creation, and that his exiftence was a 
leffing to him, probably the greater in 
proportion to the fuperiority of his facul- 
ties. Comparing different tribes and in- 
dividuals of this fpecies, he would be fen- 
fible of a wide {cope for improvement, 
general and particular, and would proba- 
bly expect, from the ready inter-commu- 
nication of ideas, that it would foon take 
place. But a clofer view of the me- 
chanifm of human focieties, and the. na- 
tural tendencies of things, efpecially if 
ftrengthened by a knowledge of paft events, 
would be too apt to lead him to fulpeét 
that there exifted infuperable obftacles to 
an extenfive melioration, ‘Taking the 
human race, however, as he found it, he 
could icarcely conceive that it had under- 
gone any corruption or deterioration, which 
yendered it a different agent in the great 
fy{tem of nature from what its Author in- 
tended it to be. Such a fuppofition would 
only enhance to him any difficulty anfing 
from the inadequate employment of the 
faculties beftowed upon man; and he 
would fooner reft fatisfied in that univer- 
fal analogy which thews evil every where 
mixed with good, defeé& with excellence. 
Mr, Wakefield and Mr. Dyer. 
j O&ober IT; 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR correfpondent, E Cogan, at 
p. 137 of your laft Number, prefers 
the reading jmularit in Virg. En. vi. 
590. tothat generally received. I venture 
to differ from this writer on any fubjeét 
In 
my notes, however, on Lucretius, v. 744, 
with diffidence and circumfpeétion. 
I propofe fmularet, as the genuine reading 
of the paflage; nor do I repent recom-. - 
mending that tenfe in preference to fmmula-_ 
rat commonly adopted, or even helitate to 
undervalue fimularit, approved by Mr. 
Cogan, in comparifon with this authorized 
reading, for thefe reafons : 
The perfe& tenfe fimularit, equivalent 
to fmulavit, and fubitituted for it in com- 
pliance with the rejative, implies a comm- 
plete a&tion; namely, that Salmoneus imi- 
tated the thunder with efficiency and fuc- 
céfs; a fuppefition wholly mcompatible 
with the language and fpirit of the paf- 
fage: whereas the imperfect tenle fmularet 
conveys a fignification of an inadequate 
and zucomplete performance, and exhibits, 
with grammatical exaétnefs, in conformi- 
ty with the obvious purpofe of the poet, a. 
bungling attempt of infatuated (demens) 
impiety to reprefent that criterion of the 
fupreme Deity, which was inimitable (non 
imitabile) by any contrivances of human 
ower. G. WAKEFIELD. 
Dorchefier Goal, Sep. 4, 1800. 
——_ Se 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N a former number ef your Maga- 
zine was inferted a tranflation of the 
Icolnpa, or verfes containing equal numbers. 
The hint that-an explanation would fol- 
low, ‘* not as a teflimony to their value, 
but as an example of tuneful trifling, or, 
at belt, of unprofitable induftry,”” refpect- 
ed thofe verfes only, or, at furtheft, others 
like them, unconneéted either with the 
fenfe or melody of the verfe: fuch are 
thoie conftru&ted in the fhape of eggs, al- 
tars, hatchets, and fyrinxes, contained in 
the minor Greek poets; the ‘crab verles, 
that read the fame way backwards as for- 
wards, in thefixth bock of the Greek An- 
thologia, and ike werfes containing equal 
numbers, in the fame book. Our bufinela 
is only with the laft. 
The Greeks, it is wel! known, ufed let- 
ters for figures. If then the letters con- 
tained in the firft diftich of the four lines, 
which I communicated, be added together ~ 
as figures, and afterwards the laft diftich be 
added in the fame manner, their fums will 
be 
