224 
the omiffion of particulars from a fear of 
not making them harmonious and charac- 
teriftic, refembles the praétice of. certain 
engravers, who have reccurfe to dotting, 
becaufe they cannet draw correctly ; and 
Jeave their outlines vague, leaft they fhould 
be dete&ted in aberrations ftom truth and 
reality. ‘ 
_ _ LESSING’S DRAMATURGY. 
Leffing comments Ariftotle, as di- 
vines the Bible; fo as to extort his own 
critical opinions from the lips -of the 
cracle. 
VOLTAIRE. 
‘ Nicolai was praifing Voltaire for having 
written fo.much that is new, and fo much 
that is good. His good is not new—his 
new is not good: replied Leffing. 
SALUTATION OF SNEEZERS. 
' Strada has written a differtation on 
fneezing : he proves from Petronius and 
Apuleizs that the cuftem of bleffing 
fheezers was eftablifhed among the Ro- 
mans; from Ariftenetus and Hippocrates 
that it prevailed among the Greeks ; and 
from the Bible that it pre-exifted among the 
Jews: but he is content to Jeave in its an- 
tientuncertainty the caufe of a practice, to 
account for whofe origin has vainly puz- 
zied the encyclopedic information both of 
Pliny and of Ariltotle. 
~ Now for a-pinch of {nuff—and fome at- 
tention (chifba!) to the affociated recol- 
JeGtions, which the confequent fternuta- 
tion is calling up. When do I ufually 
fneeze? On applying ftrong odors to the 
nofe. When elfe? -During the acme of 
that Kimulation, which fucceeds to a fea- 
foned dinner and a checrping pint; as 
Clemeiis Alexandrinus alfo had long ago 
dbferved. When elfe? If 1 fit unfcreened 
with my back to the fire—and again, if 
I waik without my hat into the fun-fhine. 
The inference from thefe phzenomena 
feems to be that fneezing indicates. over- 
action, fuper-irritation, hyper-paroxyf{m ; 
and that it is peculiarly characteriftic of 
that exceffive excitement, which is pro- 
duced by the fadden or profufe radiation 
of heat or light on the face, head or 
back. 7 
The difeafe called in France coup-de-fo- 
leil is the after weaknefs, or indirect de- 
bility, which fucceeds to this peculiar 
form of excitement: it isin all hot coun- 
tries very common, and often fatal. If 
therefore fneezing be naturally fymptoma- 
tic of the coup-de-foleil, and a ufual har- 
binger of its approach, it would, in all 
hot countries, almoft inevitably be confi- 
dered as a bad prognoftic—as ominous of 
danger: it would con{cquently provoke a 
-lar unlucky piece of fincerity. 
From the Port-Folig of a Man of ; Letters. [Oaober 15 
with in every humane by-ftander, that the 
head-aches and other fymptoms of heliacal 
injury might not enfue. The ¢1% or falve 
thus addrefled to thefe who fneeze from 
funfhine, being an expreffion of real be- 
nevolence, would foon become a_regular 
form ,of civility. The praétice of fuch 
addrefs would next be extended, by the 
apifh inanity of politenefs, to the volun- 
tarily-provoked fneeze, and to the triume 
phant {neeze of culminating intoxication; 
and would at laft be exported to thofe 
chilly climates, where to fneeze is never 
the fore-runner of danger, but rather the 
mark of a wholefome fenfibility of fibre. 
THE RULING CHARACTER. 
What Pope has termed the ruling paffiony 
is rather, in feveral of the inftances him- 
felf has adduced, character formed by long 
habit. Thus,«his dying courtier, who 
cries, ** If, where 'm going, I can ferve. 
you, Sir!** is a man under the influence of © 
an habitual praétice of making unmean-. 
ing offers and compliments. I was uled 
to think this example quite hyperbolical,. 
till I met with the following flory gravely 
related -in the Saint-Evremondiana :—. 
‘¢ Cardinal Mazarin on his death-bed re- 
quefted an interview with the young king, 
Louis XIV. in which he affured him, that 
it had been his determination very fpeedily _ 
to have refigned his authority into his Ma-. 
jefty’s hands, who was now fo fully capable 
of governing for himfelf.”’ He added, “that 
nothing in the approach of death afflicted 
him fo much, as that he was to be de=. 
prived of the felicity of living under his. 
Majefty’s adminiftration.”” 
NALVETE. | 
Writers fometimes, either through de- 
fect of judgment or excefs of zeal, make 
voluntary confeffions which an adverfary 
could fcarcely have extorted from them. 
Of this kind is a paffage of Tillemont,. 
quoted by Jortin in Rem. on Eccl. Hift. | 
‘* Socrates (the ecclefiaftical hiftorian) was 
alawyer, and very ignorant of the fpirit 
and difcipline of the church. Hence it 
comes to pafs, that he commends equally 
either Catholics or Heretics, when they 
did things which feemed to him to be com=. 
mendable,’? - : 
Perhaps an Englifh prelate, when ina 
charge to his clergy he told them that the 
popith clergy are ‘‘ in very deed nearer 
and dearer to the Church of England than 
certain Proteftant Diffenters,” may be 
thought to have been furprifed into a fimis 
Errata. —inl. 29, p. 114, of lat Number, 
erafe the Comma after gravel-walk.—p. 1155 
1, 3, for ¢*refiection” read §* repletion.” 
4 MEMOIRG 
