~ 
$28 From the Port-folio of a Adan of Letters, 
er in the Medea fuch puppyifm as 
Jafon ne fit jamais de communes maitretfes ; 
TL eft né feulement pour charmer des princefies. 
or in the Oedipus fuch extravayance as 
Perifle univers, pourva que Dircé vive! 
Periffe le jour méme avant qu’elle s’en prive! 
or in the Rodogune fuch Quixotifm as 
Liamour, l’amour doit vaincre, et la trifte 
amitié 
Ne doit etrea tous deux qu’un objet de pitié. 
Un grand ceur cede un trone, et le cede avec 
~ giloire; 
Cet effet de vertu couronne fa memoire : 
Mais lorfq’ un digne objeét a fG nous enflam- 
mer, 
Oui le cede eft un lache. 
Pope never flumbers thus, and never lays 
afide the file; he is not content to {mooth, 
he muft burnith every line ; he intombs his 
very flies in amber, and marks with equal 
anxiety 
A hero perifh, or a fparrow fall. 
Corneille on the contrary clofely refem- 
bles Dryden, by the habitual redundance 
and occafional impetuofity of his manner, 
by a lofty and fometimes bloated ftrain of 
fentiment, by a profound ftatesmanthip of 
reflection, and by an intuition rather of 
the head than of the heart of human nature. 
Dryden has left as many good tragic fcenes 
as Corneille, and his dramatic charaéters 
are more various. 
Il. When I read an epigram of Martial, 
fays Hume, the firft line recalls the whole ; 
and I have no pleafure in repeating to my- 
felf what I know already ; but each line, 
each word in Catullus has its merit; and I 
em never tired with the perufal o of hima. 
This panegyric. induced a reading of 
Catullus; the Elegy on a dead Sparrow, 
a few of the voluptuous odes,the Complaint 
of Atys, and the Vigil of Venus, gave 
hich plealure ; but in general the poems 
have neither the grace, nor the neatnefs, 
nor the elegance of Anacreon or Horace ; 
there is plenty of naftinefs,and plenty of in- 
finidity. So far from each line and each word 
having its merit, nearly half the compiaint 
of Atys might be omitted with advantage; 
and in particular the image of Atys drum- 
ming is repeated fix times ina page. The 
ode to fome fuperior who had propoled 
himfelf as a guett to the poet, beginning, 
Caenais bene, mi Fabulle, may be fuperier 
to Horace’s Vile potabis modicis Sabinum, 
which had a fimilar provocation; but it 
is a very imperfeét compofition. The 
zibi dit favent of the fecond line, if not an 
ex letive; is an incivility. The fi tecum 
attiuleris bonam alque magnam cenam is 
sold profe; the pvet fhould have felected 
[Nov. 1, 
the more pleafing component parts of a 
good and great fupper, and have prefented 
finely to the imagination the Ortolans and 
the Falernian, which he intended to have 
fet on. He does, indéed, afk, in anti-climax, 
for a girl and wine, and falt and laughter $_ 
if he means mineral falt, this fubftance is 
not encugh pleafing to the fenfes to become 
beautiful when defcribed ; if he méans At- 
tic-falt, this he ought himfelf to furnifh : 
Catullus, fince he is not vifited for his feaft, 
is vifited for his converfe. The bac fi: 
inquam, attuleris is a feeble tautological 
fentence, a repetition, in fo fhort a poem, 
not excufable. And in return for the ex 
acted entertainment, phyfical and intellec~ 
tual, what does the poet promife? love 
and goodwill, and fome foft pomatum, be- 
longing to his miftrefs, which was to make 
Fabullus with himfelf all nofe! How a 
reviewer would laugh at a modern poet for 
fuch a compofition; yet this is a favoura- 
ble fpecimen of Catullus. ° 
HIf: It ts fufficient, (ays Hume, zo run 
over Cowley once : but Parnel after the 
jiftieth reading is as frefo as at the firft. 
Parnel writes, no doubt, with unaffected 
propriety, but, furely, with hacknied tri- 
viality. How little wit, vivacity, or in- 
genuity is difplayed in the attempt to mo-= 
dernize the ftory of Pandora: and how ab- 
furdly, or unintelligibly, conneéted is the 
death of Hefied.. The tranflations ares 
only, pretty well done. The night-piece; 
on Death, has been fuperfeded by Gray’s 
Elegy. Edwin. of the Green, and the 
Hermit, are ftill read: yet even there, how 
frequently are the epithets unpicturefque, 
and the confiruétions ungrammatical ! Par- 
nel was the friend, the admirer, the ftudier, 
the imitater of Papas but what in Pope 
is ftrong tea, is in Parnel colourlefs flop ; 
he weakens by diffufion the fame flavour 
into mavkifhoefs. 
SAYING OF HOBBES. 
The fatirical faying is fuppofed to have 
originated with Hobbes, * Thatreligion is 
a fuperftition in fafhion ; and fuperttition 
a religion out of fafhion.”’ For a political 
philolopher, the criterion is ill chofen ; 
more in character would have been the de- 
finition : Religion is uféful fuperftition, and 
fuperflition is ufelefs religion. 
DOUBTFUL SENTIMENT OF JEREMY 
TAYLOR. 
Thofe moralifts pleafe me beft, who take 
it for granted, that a benevolent God mult 
delight in the felicity of his creatures ; who 
teach man to be happy in this world, in 
order to fit him for the next ; and who 
maintain, with the poet, that to enjoy is 
to obey. Gratifications, which interfere 
with 
