304 
: The general idea, however, has been 
fondly adopted by the fineft writers in 
Europe. ‘The purPLz of the ancients 
is not known tous. What idea, there- 
fore, have the moderns affixed to it? 4d. 
difon, in his verfion of the-« Temple of 
Fame,” de(cribes the country as havin 
<< a purple light.” Grey's beautiful line 
zs well known: 
‘€¢ The dlacm of young defire, and purple light 
of love.” 
And Tafe, in deferibing Godfrey, fays 
Heaven, 
Gii empie d’onor la faccia, e vi riduce, 
Di Giovinezza, i] bel purpureo lume. 
Both Gray and Taflo copied Virgil,where 
Venus gives to her fon Eneas: 
eed 

——Lumengque Fuvente 
Purpuréum. 
Dryden has omitted the purple light in- 
his verfion, nor is it given by Pitt; but 
Dryden, perhaps, exprefies the general 
idea, by 
—————— With heads divine } 
Fiad form’d his curling locks, and sizde his 
‘temples fhine 5 
And given his rolling eyes a Sparkling grace. 

It is probable that Minton has given. 
us his idea of what was meant by this 
purple light, when applied to the human 
countenance, in the felicitous expreflion 
of, 
“* CELESTIAL: ROSY-RED.” 

se 
Tue PorTica, Epiryer “ Laucu-’ 
ING.” 
The natives of Italy and the fofter cli- 
mates, receive emotions from the view of 
their WATERS inthe SPRING, not equally 
experienced in the Britith rovghne's icf 
our fkies. The fluency and foftnefs of 
the water, are thus expreffed by Lucretius : 
66 Tibi fuaveis Dedala tellus 
Submittit flores; tibirynEen ry aequora ponti.”” 
Inelegantly rendered by Creech, 
«< The rougheit fea puts on {mocth looks, 
and -sMIL%s.” 

‘Dryden more happily, 
€« The ecean smiLeEs, and fmooths her wavy 
breatt.” : 
Metaftafio has copied Luerctius, 
A te florifcona 
Gli erbofi prati ; 
Ei flutti R1ipono 
Nel Mar placati. 
Tt merits obfervation, that the norTu- 
ERN poets could not exalt their imagina- 
tion higher, than, that the water sMiLED ; 
while the modern Italian, having before 
Laughing.—Bifpop of Gloucefer. 
[Nox, 
his eyes A DIFFERENT SPRING, found 
no dithculty to agree with the ancients, 
that the waves LAUGHED. Of late, mo- 
dern_ poetry has: made a very free ufe 
of the animating epithet ¢ Laughing.” 
Gray has. “ The LAUGHING FLOW- 
ERS.” LANGHORN, in two very beau- 
tiful lines, exquifitely perionifies Flora: 
«© Where Tweed’s foft. banks in liberal 
beauty lie, 
And Flora taucus, beneath an azure fley.”” 
Sir Williarn Jones, with all the {pirit 
of Oriental poetry, has “ The LaucGH- 
ING AIR.” 
But Dryden has employed this epithet 
very happily in'the following delightful 
lines, which are almoft entirely borrowed 
from his original Chaucer : 
“* ‘The morning lark, the meflenger of day, 
Saluted in her fong the morning gray 5 
And ioon the fun arofe with beams fo bright, 
That ail THE HORIZON LAUGHED to fee 
the joyous fight. ; 
‘Palamon and Arcite, book 2d. 

Fow.er, Bisyor oF GLOUCESTER. 
‘This prelate, who died in 1714, was 
one of the ableft divines of the age 
in which he lived. His reprefentations 
of Chriitianity were fo juft and rational, 
that they made him much difliked by the 
bigots of his own time, He was edu- 
cated at Oxtord ; and his firft preferment 
was the rectory of North-hill in Bedford- 
fhire. He was afterwards rector of All- 
hallows, ‘Bread-flreet, and vicar of St. 
Giles’s, Cripplegate. He was a zealous 
friend both to civil and religious liberty 5 
and his rational fentiments of religion 
gave fo much cftence to fome of his Crip- 
plegate parifhioners, that they commenced 
a profecution againft him in Dodor’s 
Commons: But being puzzled to muf- 
ter up any plaufible charges again him, 
one of their accufations was, ‘* that he 
was guilty of whiggilm.’* He was made 
bithop of Gloucelter by king William, 
His ‘* Defign of Chriftianity,” which has 
pafled through feveral editions, is a work 
of corfiderable merit. He alfo publithed 
“« Libertas Evangelica: or, a Difcourfe 
on Chriftian Liberty ;°? and a vindication 
of the principles and praétices of thofe 
moderate divines of the church of Ene- 
land, who were abufed by the bigots of 
that period. 

FEMALE BENEVOLENCE? 
That intelligent and unfortunate tra- 
veller, Ledyard, pays a very fincere and 
animated tribute ef gratitude to the fe- 
male fex, even in the mof barbarous and 
. uncivilized 
