TE4 
do nothing towards the likenefs, which 
muft entirely depend upon fymbolical ad- 
ditions. 
I fhall begin with the exhibition of a 
being much celebrated by modern poets, 
who have, however, eftablifhed a con- 
ception of him fomewhat different from 
that of their immediate predeceffors. 
This is Fancy, who, by the earlier 
Englith writers, was confidered rather as 
the genius of caprice, levity and mutabt- 
lity, than, as now, under the character of 
the power of poetical iafpiration and in- 
vention. The former is the idea evi- 
dently entertained by Spenfer, in hts 
beautiful picture of Fazcy, as he marches 
firft in the Mafque of Cupid. 
The firft was Fancy, like a lovely boy, 
Of rate afpe@t, and beauty without peer. 
His garment neither was of filk nor fay, 
But painted plumes in goodly order dight, 
Like as the fun-burnt Indians do array 
Their tawny bodies in their proudef plight: 
As thofe fame plumes, fo feem’d he vain and 
light, 
That by his gait might eafily appear, 
For ftill he fared as dancing in delight, 
And in his hand a windy fan did bear, 
That in the idle air he mov’d fti!l here and 
there. Hi. Ooi hy: 
. 
In the next ftanza he is made the parent 
of Defire ; and common language ftill re- 
prefents fancy as the caufe of that love 
which has no foundation in fober reafon. 
A reprefentation of this being, very 
different in figure, but formed upon a 
fimilar conception of character, is given 
by Addijon, in his Vifion or the Moxz- 
tain of Human Miferies : 
«¢ There was a certain lady of a thin airy 
fhape, who was very active in this folemnity. 
She carried a magnifying glafs in one of her 
hands, and was clothed in a loofe flowing robe, 
embroidered with feveral figures of fiends 
and fpectres, that difcovered themfelves ina 
thoufand chimerical fhapes, as her garment 
hovered inthe wind. ‘There was iomething 
wild and diftrated in her looks. * Her name 
was Fancy.” Speéfat. No. 558. 
The employment of this phantom was 
2o aggravate every one’s misfortunes or 
deformities in his own eyes, and fo in- 
fpire a reftlefs and capricious inclination 
for change. ; 
It is the fame idea of Fancy, as prompt- 
ing a trivial and irrational eltimation of 
things, that forms the fubject of the mo- 
nitory fong in the Merchant of Venice, 
where Baffanio is to make his choice of 
the myitic caikees. 
Account of the Public Schools in the French Republic. 
[Feb. 
Tell me, where is Fancy bred, 
In the heart, or in the head? 
How begot, how naurifhed ? 
It is engendered in the eyes, 
With gazing fed, and Fancy dies 
In the cradle where it liés. 
J. Pa te 
eee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT OF THE SCHOOLS FOR THE 
PUBLIC SERVICE, IN THE FRENCB 
REPUBLIC. 
oe DER this general denomination 
are comprifed the following new 
inftitutions : 
The Polytechnic School, 
The School of Mines, 
The Artillery School, 
The School for Military Engineers, 
The Bridge and Road School, 
The Geographic School, 
The School for Naval Architeéts, 
The Navigation School, 
The Marine School. 
All thefe fchools are dependent on the 
general crganifation of the public in- 
ftruction: they have for their objeéts the 
different public works for the fervice of 
the ftate, and efpecially a univerfal ac- 
quaintance with the {ciences and the arts. 
None will be admitted into them as pu- 
pils, except fuch as have, on a compe- 
tition of candidates, exhibited proofs of 
preliminary knowledge: and thefe pu- 
pils are to be maintained at the public 
charge. 
POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL. 
The preient government, in the firt 
months of its adminiftration, ereSted te 
itfelf 2 glorious monument by the efta- 
blifhment of this univerfal. inftru€tion. 
The polytechnic {chool occupies a great 
part of the quondam Palais Bourben: 
there live the dire¢tors, the teachers, and 
even the pupils: there are the halls of in- 
ftruction, the laboratories, the celleStions 
of beoks, of models, of inftruments and 
toois of all the arts, which belong to this 
fchool. ‘The object of this eftablifhmert 
is to improve all thofe branches of natura} 
and mathematical knowledge which bear 
relation to the fciences and mechanic 
arts. 
The inftruStion is 
prineipal branches, 
phyfics. 
tr. The mathematical department 
comprehends the. analytic and graphic 
defcription of matter, with the applica- 
tion of the analyfts by means of geometry 
and mechanics. Deferiptive geometry, 
as the firft part’of the graphic develope- 
; ment 
divided into two 
mathematics and 
