1807.] 
expences’ attendant on an_ institution 
of this nature, and in providing and 
keeping in repair such apparatus, as is 
found requisite for the elucidation of 
many questions requiriug experimental 
proof. Should such subscription fall 
short of defraying the expence, each 
member is to contribute an equal addi- 
tional sum ; the same to be made known 
by the committee for the time being, 
A room is fitted up for the members, 
who meet every Wednesday evening. A 
spirit of emulation prevailing ainongst 
them, those who possessed apparatus 
suited to the intent of the establish- 
anent, with marked pleasure lent it to the 
Society till provision shall be made for 
procuring the proper instruments by the 
funds of the encreasing Society, For 
the better conducting its affairs, a Pre- 
sident, Secretary, and Treasurer, are 
appointed; a Committee is also formed 
which sits six months. Before the Society 
reduced itself to that-systematic regula- 
rity which now characterizes its meetings, 
any member voluntarily lectured on such 
subjects as he was most familiar with, or 
thought proper to descant upon. But 
now the Coumittee for the time being 
appoints the Lecturer for the next even- 
wig, who 1s expected to lecture at the time 
appointed, or become liable to a fine. 
The Lecturer, when nominated, an-. 
nounces the subject of his intended lec- 
ture, which must be elucidated by ac- 
tual experiments made during the lec 
ture. Your's, &c, 
Leeds, JouN NORTHERN. 
August 4, 1807. 
—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LYCZUM OF ANCIENT LITERA- 
TURE.—No. IX. 
LUCAN. 
FTER the great names of Homer 
and Virgil, ‘the next in succession 
among the epic poets is Lucan. ifis 
Poem of the Pha usalia, the only work 
by which he is known, abounds equalg 
ly in beauties and in faults. But it 
would be a waste of the reader’s time, 
and of our own, to revive the question so 
often agitated, whether it be entitled to 
the name of an epic poem. Those who 
deny its claim to that distinction, assert 
that it is nothing more than a history j in 
verse, a dry and uninteresting detail of 
military events, seldom relieved by the 
intervention of episodes, or by splendour 
Montuty Mae. Ne, 161, 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature.— Lucan, 137 
of imagery. 
there is very little of invention discovered 
im the conduct of the poem, and that its 
general plan is tod historical to be ac- 
counted a regular epic. But the boun- 
daries of the epopma are not suificiently 
ascertained, to authorize us to exclude a 
poem founded on great and heroic events, 
merely because it does notalways coincide 
with the plan and formation of the [liad 
and /Eneid. 
an adherence to rules to reject it entirely 
from that class of Poems. It possesses 
most ofthe properties and features of the 
epic. The subject is highly susceptible 
of yrandeur and dignity; and the unity 
of object, the triumph of Cesar over the 
Roman liberty, 1s uniformly preserved. 
The severity of critics has so tar blinded 
their justice, as to make themt forget that 
the Pharsalia is an unsinished poem, and 
that the detective state in which we now 
behold it, must be lamented as the mis- 
fortune, rather than censured as the fault, 
of its luckless author, who died in hig 
27th year. 
M. Anneus Lucanus, the son of M. 
Anneus Mela, and of Acilia, the daugh- 
ter of Acilius Lucanus, a celebrated ora 
tor, was bern at Corduba in Spaia, in the 
consulship of C. Czsar Germanicus, 
and L, Castanus. But when only eight 
months old, he was removed to Rome, 
and there received his education, pro- 
bably under the inspection of his uncle 
Seneca. Ilis progress was so rapid, that 
his extraordinary talents soon introduced 
him to the notice of Nero, who appointed 
him. quxstor, before he was qualified 
by age to accept that great office. He 
married Polla Argentaria, the daughter 
of a Roman senator, who was gifted “with 
such uncommon endowments, that she is 
said to have revised and corrected the 
three first books of the Pharsalia. Her 
beauty and accomplishments are cele- 
brated by Statius. 
Lucan lost the favour of Nero, “by 
too vain and eager a display of his 
menial superiority, by which that cruel 
and arrogant Prince was mortified and 
offended. He was imprudent enough 
to dispute with his master, the prize of 
poetry, and acquired the dangerous ho- 
nour of obtaining it, At the celebration 
of the Quinguennalia, it was proclamed, 
that Nero intended to recite the Story of 
Niobe, ina peem of his own composition. 
The style of the imperial poet may be 
estimated by the following bombastie 
specimen, exhabited in Persius. 
7 Torre 
It may be admitted that 
It would be too scrupulous 
; 
at irene is 
