122 
ceeding generation: the fathers exercife 
over them a monarchic power, but not des 
fpotic. x | 
- Tt becomes a man to employ greater at- 
tention in rendering his family virtuous 
than in feeking the poffeffion of riches, 
which ere inanimate objects. A wife is 
. weak, a child imperfect, a flave void of 
deliberation. A building requires the di- 
yestion of an archite&t : the direétion here 
required is that of reafon. Although 
Plato makes no difference between the 
virtues of the man and thofe of the wo- 
man, they are ‘neverthelefs ‘different, fince 
the functions of both cannot be the fame. 
In’ order that the commonwealth be 
virtwous, the families of which it is com- 
pofed mutt be fo, and order muft reign in 
it: Hence the neceffity of a good educa- 
tion. . ity 
-°(To be continued in fome of our future 
Numbers.) 
a 
To ihe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, + 
HAT Thomfon is indebted to the 
ae ‘Georgics of Virgil; is generally ad- 
mitted; but I believe his particular obli- 
vations ‘havé’ not been’ pointed out. I 
fail fele& a few from his figns or pro- 
Snoltics of the weather, in his Winter: 
Seen thro? the turbid fu€iuating air, 
The ftars obtufe ensit athivered ray 5 
Or frequent feem te fhoot athwart the gloom, 
And long behind them trail the whitening 
1 blaze. 
Sxpe etiam ftellas, vento impendente, vi- 
siow edebis 
Precipites c@lo labi; nottisque per um- 
bram : 
Flammarum longos a tergo albefcere traCtus. 
Geora. I. 1. 365—367. 
Snatch’d in fhort eddies, plays the wither’d 
; leaf ; 
And'on the flood the dancing feather floats. 
Sepe levem paleam et frondes volitare ca- 
: ducas, 
Aut fumma nantes in aqua colludere plumas. 
With broadened noftrils to the fy up-turn’d, 
The confcious heifer fnuffs the ftormy gale, 
Bucula celum 
Sufpiciens, patulis captavit naribus auras. 
. “ances Fsip. 5.375, '376. 
Even as ithe matron,/at her nightly tatk, 
With penfive labour draws the flaxen thread, 
The watted taper; and the crackling fame, 
Foretell the blaft.. 
‘ ‘ : ~*~ 
- homfin’s Imitation of Georgics. | 
Isrp. 1. 368, 369. 
mead to a tranflator. 
[M arch 1, 
Nec noctupnas'quidem carperites penfa puella 
Nefcivére hyemem:. tefta cum ardente vide- 
rent 
Scintillare oleum,et putres concrefcere fungos. 
. Inip. 1. 390—392. 
Ocean, unequal preft, with broken tide 
And blind commotion heaves; while from 
the fhore, 
Eat into caverns by the reftlefs wave, 
And foreft-ruftling mountain. 
Continuo ventis furgentibus aut freta ponti 
Tacipiunt agitata tumefcere, et aridus altis - 
Montibus audiri fragor. 
Ipip.. 1. 355—353: 
The voice 
That, folemn founding, bids the world pre- 
pare, SStherel ec 
is awful, and infinitely fuperior to 
iain Refonantia longe 
Littora mifceri, et nemorum increbefeere 
murmur, Aah ne 
which probably fuggefted the idea. 
The cormorant on high 
_ Wheels from the deep, and {creams along the 
Jand. 
Loud fhricks the heron. 
Cum medio‘celeres revolant ex zequore mergi, 
Clamoremque ferunt ad littora; cumque ma- 
rine ; 1 
Tn ficco ludunt fulice : notasque paludes 
Deferit, atque altam fupra volat ardea nuber 
Inip. 1. 360— 364. 
I could proceed, but I prefume the in- 
ftances which I have adduced will be fuffi- 
cient to dire& the notice of a future com- 
mentator on The Seafoxs to the fource 
whence Thomfcon drew fome of the moft 
admired beauties in that delightful poem. 
His dramatic obligations to an Italian 
writer have been pointed out in a recent 
publication*, © 
As the fuccefsful labours of the Abbé 
de Lille have turned the public attention 
to rural poetry, I truft we fhall fhortly fee 
a good verfion of Alamanni’s fine poem, 
entitled Della Colttvazione; and I hope 
the Apiarian Society of this city will in- 
troduce to the public, under their aufpices, 
the fhamefully negleted poem of Le Api, 
by Giovanni Rucellai. As a fpecimen of 
this beautiful poem is givenin the Hiffori- 
cal Memoir on Italian Tragedy, p- 444. it 
* Hifi. Memoir on Ital, Trag. (prmted by 
Harding, Pall-Mall), Append. No. I? — 
+ Mr. Walker mentions only. two editions 
of the dpi. There was a third by Zatta, im 
the Paraajo Italiano; but that of Ven. 175%, 
is the moft valuable, or, at leat, the moift 
fatisfattory, as it is enriched with notes. | 
is therefore the edition which 1 would recom= 
yas 
— 
