On the STUDY of the BELLES LETTRES. CHA P. II. HAVING explained what we con ceived to be true tafte, and in fome measure accounted for the prevalence of vitiated tafte, we fhall proceed to point out the most effectual manner in which a natural capacity may be improved into a delicacy of judgment, and an intimate acquaintance with the Belles Lettres, We fhall take it for granted that proper means have been used to form the manners, and attach the mind to virtue. The heart cultivated by precept, and warmed by example, improves in sensibility, which is the foundation of taste; by distinguishing the influence and scope of morality, and cherishing the ideas of benevolence, it acquires a habit of sympathy which tenderly feels refponfive, like the vibration of unifons, every touch of moral beauty. Hence it is that a man of a focial heart, entendered by the practice of virtue, is waked to the moft pathetic emotions by every uncom mon inftance of generofity, compassion, and greatness of foul, Is there any man fo dead to fentiment, so lost to humanity, as to read unmoved, the generous behaviour of the Romans to the fates of Greece, as it is recounted by Livy, or embellished by Thomson in his poem of liberty? Speaking of Greece, in the decline of her power, when her freedom no longer existed, he says: As at her Ifthmian games, a fading pomp! Her full-affembled youth innumerous fwarm'd. On a tribunal rais'd * Flaminius fat; hoarfe, Bad filence o'er the bright affembling reign. Then thus a herald..." To the ftates of Greece The Roman people, unconfin'd, restore Their countries, cities, liberties, and laws; Taxes remit, and garrisons withdraw." The crowd astonish'd half, and half inform'd, [fome exclaim'd, Star'd dubious round; fome question'd, Like Bacchanals they flew, [hills... Each other ftraining in a strict embrace, Nor ftrain'd a fave; and loud acclaims 'till night, Round the proconful's tent repeated rung. To one acquainted with the genius of Greece, the character and difpofition of that polished people, admired for fcience, renowned for an unextinguishable love of freedom, nothing can be more affecting than this inftance of generous magnanimity of the Roman people, in restoring them, unasked, to the full fruition of thofe liberties which they had fo unfortunately left. The mind of fenfibility is equally ftruck, by the generous confidence of Alexander, who drinks without hefitation the potion prefented by his phyfician Philip, even after he had received intimation that poifon was contained in the cup: a noble and pathetic fcene! which hath acquired new dignity and expreffion under the inimitable pencil of a Le Soeur. Humanity is melted into tears of tender admiration by the deportment of Henry IV of France, while his rebellious fubjects compelled him to form the blockade of his capital. In chaftifing his enemies, he could not but remember they were his people; and knowing they were reduced to the extremity of famine, he generously connived at the methods practifed to fupply them with provifion. Chancing one day to meet two peafants who had been detected in thefe practices; as they were led to execution they implored his clemency, declaring in the fight of heaven, they had no other * His real name was Quintius Flamininus. 494 Introduction to the Study of the Belles Lettres. Britift way to procure fubfiftence for their wives cabals of his rival Themiftocles, exiled and children. He pardoned them on the from his ungrateful country, by a sentence fpot, and giving them all the money that of oftracifm. He will be furprised to learn, was in his purse: "Henry of Bearne is that one of his fellow citizens, an illiterate poor (faid he); had he more money to afford, you should have it...go home to artifan, bribed by his enemies, chancing your families in peace; and remembering his perfon, defired he would write to meet him in the street, without knowyour duty to God, and your allegiance to your fovereign." of the fame kind may be selected from delinquents) the innocent patriot wrote Innumerable examples thod thofe plebeians ufed to vote againft Ariftides on his shell (which was the mehistory, both antient and modern, the his own name without complaint or exstudy of which we would therefore ftre poftulation. He will with equal astonishnuously recommend. Fabricius, who preferred the poverty of ment applaud the inflexible integrity of innocence to all the pomp of affluence with which Pyrrhus endeavoured to feduce will approve with transport, the noble him from the arms of his country. He generofity of his foul in rejecting the propofal of that prince's phyfician, who offered to take him off by poison; and in fending the caitiff bound to his fovereign, whom he would have fo bafely and cruelly betrayed...In reading the antient authors, even for the purposes of school education, the unformed taste will begin to relifh the irrefiftible energy, greatness and fublimity of Homer, the ferene majesty, derness of Sappho and Tibullus, the elethe melody and pathos of Virgil, the tengance and propriety of Terence; the grace, vivacity, fatire, and fentiment of Horace. Historical knowledge, indeed, becomes neceffary on many other accounts, which in its place we will explain: but, as the formation of the heart is of the first confequence, and fhould precede the cultivation of the understanding, such striking instances of fuperior virtue ought to be culled for the perufal of the young pupil, who will read them with eagerness, and revolve them with pleasure. Thus the young mind becomes enamour'd of moral beauty, and the paffions are lifted on the fide of humanity. Mean while knowledge of a different fpecies, will go hand in hand with the advances of morality, and the understanding be gradually extended. Virtue and fentiment reciprocally affift each other, and both conduce to the improvement of perception. While the fcholar's chief attention is employed in learning the Latin and Greek languages, and this is generally the task of childhood and early youth, it is even then the bufimefs of the preceptor to give his mind a turn for obfervation, to direct his powers of difcernment, to point out the diftinguishing marks of character, and dwell upon the charms of moral and intellectual beauty, as they may chance to occur, in the claffics that are used for his inftruction. In reading Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch's Lives, even with a view to grammatical improvement only, he will infenfibly imbibe and learn to compare ideas of greater importance. He will become enamoured of virtue and patriotism, and acquire a deteftation for vice, cruelty, and corruption. The perufal of the Roman ftory in the works of Florus, Salluft, Livy, and Tacitus, will irresistibly engage his attention, expand his conception, cherish his memory, exercife his judgment, and warm him with a noble spirit of emulation. He will contemplate with love and admiration the difinterested candour of Ariftides, furnamed the Juft, whom the guilty provement of the scholar in his knowledge Nevertheless, in taking the liberty here granted, we are apt to run into the other extreme, and fubftitute equivalent thoughts and phrafes, 'till hardly any features of the original remain. The metaphors of figures, especially in poetry, ought to be religiously preferved, as the images of painting, which we cannot alter or exchange without deftroying, or injuring, at least, the character and ftile of the original, In this manner the preceptor will fow the feeds of that tafte which will foon germinate, rife, bloffom, and produce perfect fruit, by dint of future care and cultivation. In order to restrain the luxuriancy of the young imagination, which is apt to run riot, to enlarge the flock of propriety of many interefting fcenes, and [To be continued.] Page 541 An Account of New Books, Pamphlets, &c. The Modern Part of an Universal Hiftory, A Complete Hiftory of the prefent War, &c, Pr. 6s. Owen. An Interpretation of the New Teftament, &c. A pofthumous work; in all respects Candid; or, all for the Beft, &c. Part II. It is a question whether this or the former part, or either, was written by Voltaire but whoever may be the au : thor, this must be allowed an entertain- A Complete Hiftory of the War in India. Paultry; and in many places ridiculous. Very flat, and very foolish. Equal your merits! equal is your din! Poetical ESSAYS for SEPTEMBER, 1761. On the Death of a Friend. No mufe I afk for tuneful fighs, Or ode that weeps, when dry the eyes; Melpomere, go, lend thy aid Hence foppish forrow's outward part... Fatal to virtue was the blow Weep, candour, for thy lucklefs child, He never oil'd the pliant tongue Ages of old their flow'rs bequeath, Wail! wail! dark ignorance! for he Is fall'n...who made thy blindness fee; And purg'd the thick impervious shade That round thy leaden eyelids play'd. The orphan's tears, and widow's plaint Embalin the charitable faint And piety, with ftreaming eyes, ...Shrink, ocean, to thy coral bed! SPENCE's SHADE. HAPPY youth! who fortune gives, Not fairer that delicious bow'r, Careft a fwain. Not fairer that...to chafte delights, Of love deny'd." Indulgent to the penfive mind; Lefs friendly kind. Oh! could I fhew...but art denies, Thy charms in due descriptive song & My ftrains among ! From walk to walk my ravish'd muse From glade to glade, Nor unobfervant, where the trees So Adam, when to life ('tis faid) Awak'd in infant Eden's bloom; As when fome lovely nymph, the eye Beholds, where grace and beauty dwell, Ineffable! Such Such the extatical alarms, Amidst thy fweets I raptur'd prove; H. BEVERLY. Unable to defcribe thy charms, WITH eyes of pleasure we have seen thee rove [grove; Through the sweet maze of our poetic And as we heard thy foft, mellifluous lay, Have wove thy garland of eternal bay; This fhalt thou wear....but first thy plan purfae, And give our facred charms to public view. Oxford, Auguft 20. To Mifs M of Edinburgh. Go, leaf, and tell Murrilla fair Her Strephon pines...he dies!... Ah, me! that peerless shone! I look'd, I lov'd. Ah! heedlefs fwain, Ah! tell her too, now Strephon lies, His tears...the ftream with them. Had the the maid to move; And pity thaws her heart. Sad, fad mistake!....why? fifters, why? The maid who fires my ravish'd breast.... To Mifs LOUISA BELVILLE. TRACE not for fplendor yonder starry skies; Brighter the glories of Louifa's eyes. If, before Troy, with beauty's queen engag'd, [rag'd, The breaft divine had then efcap'd from The SEA-VOYAGE. ASONG. invoke ? To aid a fad ftory convey'd in a joke? To make the tale fhort, left you think it On July the feventeenth, fifty and fix, Of actors and fingers, and poets and taylors, Rrr This |