
a 
346 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
SIR, : 
KNOW not that'the life of Pym, the 
early leader of the long parliament, 
has ever been compofed in all the detail, 
and with all the attention due to fo refpec- 
table and efficient a friend of civil and reli- 
gious liberty, to oratorical talents fo emi- 
nent, to ftatefmanfhip fo mafterly, and to 
integrity fo inflexible. For abundance of 
argument, his fpeeches approach the more 
deliberate compofitions of Lord Bacon: 
a {cholaftic formality, a homiletic fubdi- 
vifion of topic, an exceflive recurrence to 
the Hebrew claffics for decoration, may 
diminifh their value in the eye of modern 
tafte; yet they are fuch as the'times re- 
quired and confented,—fuch as Selden 
could delight to hear, and only Milton 
was fitted to furpals. 
The chara&teriftic merit of Pym con- 
fifts in the energy with which he attacked 
and unmafked the anti-jacobins of his age: 
a fastion, which, under the pretence of 
fecuring the church againf the fcorn and 
violence of mifcreants and anabaptilts, 
was, in fa&t, deliberately promoting the 
afcendancy of fuperftition and Catholi- 
cifm ; and, under pretence of guarding 
the ftate againft confpiracies of republicans 
and levellers, was gradually fubjecting 
every civil authority to military defpo- 
tifm, and abufing the forms of a free con- 
ftitution to confer on the king an arbitrary 
power. 
There is one part of Pym’s hiftory, 
efoecially, concerning which, if any of 
your readers can indicate the means of 
information, they may render a curious 
fervice to biography by tranfmitting it.— 
‘IT mean the object of his intercourfe with 
the EleGtor Palatine. Shortly before the 
death of Pym, the elector determined to 
fend letters to the parliament, declaring 
his fatisfaction with the covenant, and be- 
moaning the conduct of his brother, prince 
Rupert, in fighting again the legiflative 
body. ‘This very conititutional allegiance 
obtained indeed eventually for the elector 
a penfion from the parliament more than 
equivalent to that which he had been ac- 
cultomed to réceive from the king. But 
it is probable, that fomething more than 
this grant had been fecretly in agitation, 
and that Pym had originally contemplated 
the introdu&tion of this electoral prince, 
as the founder of a new royal dynafty, if 
it became neceflary to depofe Charles I. 
Jn this cafe Pym would be the real author 
of that very plan of fettlement which the 
friends of conftitutional liberty afterwards 
Queftion concerning Pym. 
Killing of the Nemzan lion. 
[ May_rs, 
recurred to in 1688. The prior tranfac- 
tions with the Ele&or Palatine, or, at 
leaft, their fcope and drift, might well be 
known to fome of the conductors of the 
revolution. The death of Mirabeau is 
thought to have coft royalty to France ; 
that of Pym may have deprived it, no lefs 
critically, of a leading ‘fupporter in Great 
Britain. 
Among the {cholaftic philufephers oc- 
curs the name of Hervzus Natalis: Can 
any of your correfpondents inform me 
where and when he flourithed ? ’ 
—— ee 4 
To the Editor of the Monthly. Magazine. 
SIR, 
N one of the papers concerning the 
IL fimiles of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, 
inferted in your Magazine, I feleéted paf- 
fages from the firft of thefe poets, in 
which many circumftances of the natural 
hiftory of the doz were defcribed with 
great force and accuracy. In another 
Greck poet, not lefs original in his way 
than Homer, namely, Theocritus, I have 
lately been ftruck with a defcription rela- 
tive to this noble animal, containing fome 
circumftances not noticed by Homer, 
and perhaps more charaéteriftic than any 
of his. Hercules, in the 25th Idyll, 
gives an account of the firft of thofe ex- 
ploits, called his Jadours, which was the 
‘© T armed 
myfelt (fays he) with my bow and arrows, 
and my ftout ftaff, made of a wild olive- 
tree torn up by the roots; and repaired 
to the place where the lion frequented. I 
bent. my bow, applied an arrow to the 
firing, and looked, all around, that I 
might get fight of him before he fhould 
difcover me. It was now mid-day; but 
neither could I anywhere difcern his foot- 
fteps, nor hear his roaring 5; nor was any 
man to be found tending cattle, or work- 
ing in the fields,.who could give me infor- 
mation; terror kept them all at home. 
At length, I defcried him returning to his 
den at the approach of evening, gorged 
with flefh and blood; his mane, his face, 
and breaft were all ftained with gore, and 
with his tongue he licked his chin from 
fide to fide. Lurking behind the thicket, © 
I watched his approach; and when he was 
near, [Jet fly an arrow which ftruck his 
lett flank, but did not penetrate the ikin. 
Surprifed, he lifted up his head from the 
ground, glanced his eyes to every part, 
and, yawning, difplayed his terrible teeth. 
I difcharged a fecond arrow, which (truck 
him full on the cheft, but fell harmleis at his :! 
 feets 
