
Incredibility of Plates Atlantic Hiftory. 
| Readings and Noies, chiefly Rhythmical. 
| By Carpet Lorrr. Thele publications 
illuitrate by facts, not by arguments, the 
mechanical parts of Milton’s blank verte. 
I lament, that the whole of this work has 
not been ,publifhed ; particularly as the 
learned editor fays, in his preface, ‘* that 
the copy from which thefe two books are 
printed, has been revifed and corrected, 
on the fame plan, to the beginning of the 
eleventh.” 
It is not intended by thefe hints, to 
enfeeble the conception, or to retard the 
Operations of genius: and, I hope, what 
has been faid, can offend none but fuch 
as hold the doétvine of p/ezary in{piration 
in poetry: but, even fuch fhould recol- 
‘leét, that thofe poets, who were in{p'red by 
Apollo, and the nine Mufes, were of all 
‘people in the world moft fimple, and moft 
correct; that the evOeoiasixey mafos, was 
followed, by. the. lime labor; the enthufi- 
afm of poetic feeling by the labour of the 
fle. , 
—-——  Allterius fic 
Altera pofcit opem res et conjurat amicé. 
/ Thus each of each 
Affiftance afks, and mutually con{pires 
To make the work complete. 
Horace’s Art of Poetry. 
Thefe hints, being part of a poetical 
work on a larger {cale, are fubmitted to 
the conlideration of your corre{pondent, 
L. I thail be happy, if they are found 
ufeful to him, and I fhall be as happy to 
be fet right, if to any of your intelligent 
correipondents, I feem to be miftaken. 
Iam, &c, . DYER, 


oem SED ioe 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
if Can by no means agree with Mr. 
A TayLor in the affertion which he 
makes, in your latt fupplement, with re- 
mgard to the Atlantic hiltory of Plato, that 
at is atleaft as well attefted as any 
other narration, in any Greek or Roman 
hiltorian.”” : 
. Let us fee what are the teftimonies in 
favour of this extraordinary account of 
an ifland, and of-a people, which are faid 
to haye exifted nine thoufand years before 
Solon ;, but which, although it thus con- 
tuadiéts the beft and moft generally re- 
aceived fyitems of chronology,-is at leaft, 
_we are told by Mr. T, as much deferving 
_of_belief, as any.of the hiftorians of the 
_Greeks.or Romans... ~ ayes 
-. Solon relates this wonderful ftory to his 
Frign fs Dropis (who by the “bye was a 
265: 
poet) ; he tells it to his. fon Critias, who. 
again, at the age of winety tells it to his 
grandfon Critias, who:was then a boy of 
tem years old. Add to this, the original 
{ urce of the whole hiftory was an Egyf- 
tian grief, who related it to'Solon. Such 
is the foundation on which the authenticity” 
of Plato’s Atlantic hiftory is built ; to 
prove the weaknefs of which, and how 
little it can he relied on, little need be 
faid, for the account {peaks. for itfelf. Is 
it probable that a boy, at the tender age 
of ten years old, fhould be able to recol-. 
Je&t, with the precifion with which it is 
related, all the circumftances which Plato 
mentions? But even fuppofing this, and, 
what is not very often the cafe, that the 
ftory was neither increafed or diminifhed 
in its progrels from Solon to Critias, yet 
ftill the original relator of the whole was. 
an Egyptian Priof. "The extravagant and. 
wild notions which the Egyptians had 
concerning: the age of the. world, and of 
the valt antiquity of nations, are well 
known; it is unneceflary, therefore, to 
fay any thing concerning them; but I 
would refer any of your readers, who 
wilh to fee this fubjeét difeufled, to Mr. - 
Maurice's “ Hiffory of Hindoftan,”? and 
his *€ Indian Antiquities,” in. which he 
has ably confuted and explained the claims 
of both the Egyptians arfd the Indians te 
fuch vaft and,tabulous antiquity. 
Can we then pretend to compare the 
Atlantic hiftory of Plato with thofe of the 
Greeks and Romans? Gan it be confi+ 
dered equaliy deferving of credit with the 
narrations of Thucydides and Herodo- 
tus, of Tacitus and Livy? Suzely Mr. 
VY. on confidering the matter, will not 
pretend to defend what he has fo rafhly 
afferted.. OF the internal evidence in fa- 
vour of thetruth cf the hittory in queftion, 
I will only fay, that it fearcely equals that 
ofthe ‘* Arabian Night's Entertainments.” 
Lam, &c, A. Q.Q.L. 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
Ons upon the na- 
tional debt, and projects for paying 
it off, have been fo trequent withswriters 
of every defcription, trom:the minifter 
of itate, to the inhabitant: of a. -garret, 
that readers -of any political: acumen, 
muft,, by this time, -be in tolerable, pof- 
feflion of the fubjest.» It is certain, that 
many, who: camot: pay-their own debts, 
havé-ay peculiar fagility- in’ paying thofe 
of others ; and, while ‘their private.con- 
cers |are i.a cuinous, and ,.embarrafled — 
ftate, through inattention, of indolence, 
Mm 2 we 

