I write this in full hope, that ere long, the teaching to scan, the making of nonsense verses, and the composing of Latin verse, at least upon given subjects, will occupy a few hours twice or thrice a week in every school of America. When this is effected, the next generation will not be anxious to abolish the languages which have conveyed already so much taste, so much learning, and so much science.

Carlisle, April 1, 1813.

T. C.

THE FINE ARTS.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

Their various uses meaner toils commend,
And Commerce finds in every want a friend;
Like plants of bold and vigorous growth, they bear
Spontaneous fruit, and ask but room and air;
But ARTS, a tribe of sensitives, demand
A hot-house culture and a kinder hand;

A TASTE to cherish every opening charm,

A shade to shelter, and a sun to warm.

CONTINUATION OF THE MODERN FRENCH SCHOOL.

MARCUS SEXTUS, BY GUERIN.

MARCUS SEXTUS, escaped from the proscriptions of Sylla, discovers on his way home his daughter in tears, beside the body of his deceased wife.

This picture is the first work of a young artist, and exhibits such traits of excellence, as to render the admirers of the art solicitous that such extraordinary talents may advance, with regular steps towards perfection. It attracted, during its exhibition, uncommon attention and applause. It was praised in all the public journals, and celebrated by poets in complimentary verses to the artist, whose extreme modesty cast considerable lustre on his fame.

This picture cannot be contemplated without emotions of terror and of pity. A wife expiring through affliction and want, at the moment when the presence and the attentions of her husband might possibly have preserved her life; a young girl clasping the knees of her father, her mind divided between

the grief of losing her mother, and the satisfaction she experiences on beholding her persecuted sire; and a proscribed warrior, escaped from the oppression of a sanguinary tyrant, finding, on his return to his dwelling, only a spectacle of horror and despair, present a scene capable of interesting the most obdu

rate heart.

Such is the subject of the picture, in treating which, Guerin has been particularly happy. In a style grand and simple, he has united great sensibility, expressions eminently correct; and to purity of design and vigour of colouring, added a peculiar charm, and all the graces and naïveté of the pencil. But it is impossible, by this feeble outline, to convey a just idea of the beauties of the original; which it is universally acknowledged, says a French critic, are of the first order.

For this picture, which does honour to the French school, M. Guerin was adjudged a prize of the first class; and to prevent its falling into foreign hands, a memorial was presented, by a body of artists, to the president of the academy, that government might make the purchase, which, by some fatality, was neglected. It is now the property of Mr. Decretot de Louviers, and has been engraved by Blot.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LATIN COMEDY.

THERE is not, properly speaking, any Latin comedy, since the Latins did no more than imitate or translate Greek compositions; they never exhibited a single Roman on the stage; and a Greek village is always the scene of action. How then can they be called Latin comedies where nothing is so but the language? Undoubtedly that cannot be called a national spectacle. The French comedy does not merit such a title until the time of Moliere: before him, every thing was Spanish, because Lope de Vega, Calderon, Roxas and others were the models. This is a tribute which every nation pays when she is the last in

the career of improvement; but when they overtake them they may surpass them, and the French writers have acquired this glory over the Romans.

Ennius, Nævius, Cæcilius, Aquilius, and many others, all imitators of the Greeks, have not reached our time. We have twenty-one pieces by Plautus, who wrote in the time of the second Punic war. From Epicharmus, Diphilus, Denophilus and Philemon, he borrowed most. If we judge from his imitations we shall entertain no very exalted opinion of his originals. The comedy of Plautus is very defective: he is so limited in his means; so uniform in his tone, that he resembles one of those Italian exhibitions, of a dramatic canvas of various fashions, but which shows only one person. We have always a young courte

zan, an old man or woman who sells her, a young man who buys her, and who makes use of a knavish valet to steal the money from his father. Add to these a parasite, one of the most contemptible of human beings, whose trade it was, both at Athens and Rome, to do every thing which the patron should desire; and a blustering captain, which has served as a model for all the braggadocios of the old French comedy; these are the characters which uniformly appear in the scenes of Plautus.. This uniformity in the personages and intrigues is tedious; that of the style and dialogue is disgusting. All the persons speak the same language in their various situations, it is that of buffoonery, often the most insipid and vulgar. The old, the young, women, slaves, soldiers, parasites-all are jesters. It seems that Plautus and those whom he imitated, entirely mistook the sort of gayety which should sparkle in comedy, and the pleasantry which is suited to a theatre. It should be conformable to the situation and the persons: they are not a mere collection of actors whose business it is to excite laughter, no matter in what manner. The poet should make them act and speak in such a way as to provoke our risibility, without the least appearance of design in them; if he cannot do this, there is no delusion. The humour of the Misanthrope, and the mystical and hypocritical jargon of Tartuffe make us laugh; because neither of them ap pear to wish us to be so affected; it is because they are themselves pleasant and risible. But for a lover who is about to lose