544 
W. alpoliana; No. IX. 
fteps. Difgutted with the Pontiff*s cools Mathematical truths being, fo to fpeak, 
nefs, he at laft demanded an audience of palpable, the moral feelings become lefs 
leave: and being fpeedily admitted, he 
pronounced a long harangue, rather re- 
proaching the Pope for his indifference in 
fo important a bufinefs. The Pope hav- 
ing heard him with great fong-froid, at 
aft anfwered, * Sir, the air of Italy is 
rather dangerous to foreign.conftitutions. 
I beg you will have a reverend care of. 
your health, and I with you a good jour- 
aey.: 
It was faid on this occafion that only 
two things were neceflary to fecure the 
tranquillity of Europe; that the King of 
“England fhould turn Proteftant, and the 
Pope, Roman Catholic. 
CXXXVI. PATRONAGE, 
Patronage of authors is an antiquated 
fafhion, and at preient means nothing. It 
ds ftill repeated by rote among a few 
“young or ignorant writers, as an echo dies 
away by degrees into an unmeaning- 
found. The public favour is deemed a 
fufficient recompence: but after the cafes 
you have mentioned JI think difterently. 
Nothing, for inftance, can be more unjuft 
than that an author, who has profefledly 
written for the general tafte; and has in 
confequence derived great emoluments 
from his works, fhould have a penfion; 
while another, who has confined his toil 
to mathematics, or other abftrufe purfuits, 
confeffedly ufeful and highly meritorious, 
but not adapted to much fale, goes wholly 
unrewarded. This cafe-evincés that a 
penfion is a mere piece of vain-glory in 
- the government, which defires to have it 
recorded that fuch and fuch an eminent 
writer was penfioned. In France things 
‘are very different. Voltaire has no. pen- 
fion; but many a plodding ufeful man 
has. In our national literary focieties the 
members pay an annual fum: in France 
they receive an annual fum. 
In all things we have the mercantile 
fpirit of monopoly. A few fafhionable 
writers monopolize the public favour: and 
merit is nothing if notintroduced to no- 
tice by the fafhionable cabal. Merit is 
ufelefs; it is intereft alone that can pufha 
‘man forward. By dint of intereft one of 
my coach-horfes might become poet lau- 
reat, and the other, phyfician to the houfe- 
hold. ‘They might eafily appoint depu- 
ties, as.was done in the regency bufinefs. 
CXXXVIIl. MATHEMATICS. 
The profound ftudy of mathematics 
feems to injure the more general, and ufe- 
ful mode of reafoning, that by induction. 
fenfitive to impalpable truths. As when 
one fenfe is carried to great perfection, the 
others are ufually lets acute ; fo mathemd- 
tical reafoning feems ini fome degree to 
injure the other modes of ratiocination. 
Napier (who was not a lord, as bam ad- 
monifhed, fince I publifhed my Catalogue 
of Royal and Noble Awthors,) wrotenon= 
fenfe on the Revelations. So did Newton 
on.the fame book, and the prophecies of 
Danicl. Now Bifhop South, you know, 
~ufed to fay, that the Revelations either 
found a man mad, or left him fe. JT fay 
nothing of Newton’s Chronology. . He 
builds, I believe, upon one Chiron, with- 
[Dect | 
out proving that Chiron, or the Argd- 
nauts, ever exifted. Mythology is too 
profound for me. I know not if Chiron 
were man, er horfe, or both. J only 
know he is no acquaintance of mine. 
‘CXXXVIII. SACERDOS.. 
_ Mr. Goftling, a clergyman of Canter- 
bury, was, I am told, the writer of an ad- 
mirable parody on the noted grammatical 
line, | 
Bifrons, argue Cuftos, Bos, Fur, Sus, atque 
Sacerdos. z 
Tt runs thus: é 
Bifrons ever when he preaches 3 
Gujfos of what in his reach is. 
’ Bos among his neighbour’s wives 3. 
Far in gathering of his tithes. 
Sus at every parith-featt 5 
Cn Sunday, Sacerdos, a prieft: 
CXEXIX. ARCHITECTURAL SOLECISM. 
A foleciim may be committed even in 
architecture. ‘The ruin in Kew Gardens 
is built with Aét-of-Parliament brick*. 
CXL. FRENCH CHARACTER. 
I vifit Paris often, and have confiderably 
ftudied the French charaéter. In indivi- 
duals it is often excellent; but taken in 
general it difgufts by its petulance and 
vanity. ‘The French have always beea 
diffoiute in their amours; and are thus led 
to affail the chaftity of foreign women, 
the moft, unpardonable of all affronts te 
fathers, brothers, huibands, and lovers. 
‘This, and their petulant overbearing con- 
duct, prevent their conquefts from being 
lafting. Yes, I {wear to you by the Sici- 
lian vefpers, they can never be of much 
duration. 


* Anat pafied, forty or fifty years ago, 
to fix the precife length, breadth, and thick- 
nefs, of each: brick. The old Roman bricks, 
é&c. &e. are of avery different form. 
ANECDOTES: 
