that the world is a wilderness to him who is destitute of a friend. A wilderress, too, not of flowers or of plants, of rocks and of mountains, wild, yet not remote from beauty or sublimity; but a wilderness of weeds, or a sterile, parched, and burning desert. In the deepest recess of Nature, he, on the contrary, who feels the fine impulses of the heart, wanders not alone. In the midst of a Court, the Statesman nauseates the smile and the whisper, which invade him, unless his heart acknowledges to his judgment, that his glory is not wanting in the applause of those, for whose interests and happiness it ought to be his pride and his glory to labour.—I know that our expectations are vain, and our hopes idle, when we presume to expect common men to concentrate their hopes, wishes, and interests, in the duties of a Patriot! But I would whisper in the ear of a Minister of State, that if he would satisfy his hopes, his wishes, and his interests, completely and to the consummation of them all, he will divest himself of every thought that has not a collateral, if not an immediate direction, for the interests of the Country whose Minister he is. If he perform this imperative duty, rewards of every kind are sure to follow: rank, riches, and honour. Rank, conferred by his Prince; riches, in the gratitude of his fellowcitizens; and honour, that will carry him through the heart of an Enemy's country. Like the ebryso-magnet of Strada, he will attract iron and gold wherever he goes: for as is the diamond among stones, roses among flowers, and the bird of Paradise among birds, so is Patriotism the best and most beautiful of all the virtues."

-

We pass on to the article of “ Literature," which contains much that is curious. Here, too, we find the old and hackneyed complaint, that Talents are not properly rewarded.

"One of the principal causes why Genius, in this cold and calculating world, succeeds so ill, may be traced to that indifference with which men, whose lives are occupied in a contemplation of the beautiful and the sublime, regard all temporary advantages. Knowing but little of the baseness of men, till experience teaches it in misfortune; easily cheated by others, and too easily deluded by their imaginations, and the excellence of their natures, they feel at length the value of wealth, by becoming dupes to the cunning, and martyrs to the mean and contemptible villainy of others. Such is the principal cause that contributes to make such men indigent, and

Erasmus lived with

to keep them so. difficulty, and died in poverty. Cervantes perished in the streets of Madrid. Camöens, to the eternal disgrace of his age and country, died in an hospital in misery and ruin. Chatterton, the finest youthful genius that ever adorned a country, was left to suicide. Artedi was buried at the cost of another; — and Castell, who devoted a large fortune, and seventeen years of unremitted application, to his Lexicon Heptaglotton, and who assisted in the formation of the Walton Polyglott Bible, was rewarded neither in proportion to his learning, his abilities, or labour. Butler received no profit for his Hudibras from the profligate and worthless Charles: he lived in want, and received interment at the cost of a friend. Linnæus never received more than a ducat a sheet for any of his writings, though he wrote forty different works. 'I have tried,' said that illustrious character, whether diligence and unremitted labour can create respect. In this attempt I have enfeebled my frame; and what is worse than all, I am killing myself without the satisfaction of leaving a provision for my children.' In this distressing condition he remained for several years. Here let us stop it is a subject too painful to be dwelt upon! A Judge is permitted to enjoy his perquisites; a Bishop his rents; a Rector his tenths; a General his pay; and the Statesman his salary: but the Poet-Oh, spirit of the immortal Spenser!-the Poet is doomed to drink the bitter cup of poverty and sorrow. Such is the fate of the Poet! Let no one, therefore, of inferior qualifications, complain, if he receive no compensation for his merits, and no reward for his industry.

"But indigence is not the only evil that literary merit has to dread. The envy which assails it is far beyond the calculation of a good man, and equally beneath the attention of a wise one; yet it operates on the happiness of both! Parmenides, whose code of laws was an honour to Eleà, screened himself from the envy of the multitude in the retirement of philosophy. Pythagoras was the victim of a party at Crotona, and died in wandering from town to town. Thucydides was banished from Athens for a period of thirty years; and Libanius was driven from city to city by the envy and jealousy of rivals. Few men were more pestered with the malice of their contemporaries than Cicero ;while Galen was so envied by his brother Physicians, that he became at length apprehensive of his life.-Galileo was imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition;

quisition; Copernicus was screened from persecution only by his death; Ramus, whose writings contributed so much to banish Aristotle from the schools, was twice obliged to quit Paris, to avoid the vengeance of Bigotry, and perished at last in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Dr. Harvey, who taught the circulation of the blood in animals, and Dr. Hales, who proved the circulation of the sap in trees, both encountered the opposition and envy of their contemporaries. Linnæus struggled long against the prejudice of his opponents, while his writings were suppressed at Rome, and condemned to be burnt! The Clergy of the Parliamentary Army heightened the death of the excellent Chillingworth by their meanness and barbarity. Campanella encountered a host of enemies at Rome, Naples, and Bologna; was imprisoned, tried as a criminal, and put seven times to the rack. The reputation of the Cid armed all the wits of Paris against Corneille; and Domenichino was so envied by the painters at Naples, that he became utterly weary and disgusted with life. It is enough to bring the moon from Heaven!These instances, worthy of occupying a page in Valerianus's Treatise on the Infelicity of the Learned, are sufficient arguments, with the weak and the worldly, to reconcile their vanity to the measure of their ignorance. With opportunities to know, and to feel, the force of all this, who can peruse without indignation the following sentiments of Horace Walpole? A Poet and a Painter,' said that Right Honourable Personage, may want an equipage and a villa, by wanting protection; but they can always afford to buy pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil.' Pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil! And pray, my Lord, where is the satisfaction of having pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil, if a man has a large family, and little to eat and little to drink?— Could Vanity ever have so measured its folly as, for one moment, to let you suppose, that you were equal to Homer, to Camöens, to Tasso, to Cervantes, to Erasmus, and to Butler? And yet, I tell you, my Lord of Orford, that every one of those illustrious men not only lived, but died, and were buried in want! One work of genius ought to make one man's fortune. You, my Lord, had meat, and drink, and fine clothes, and fine houses-ab, and you bad also talents! Yes, my Lord, you had talents, but you had no genius: neither were you a lover of genius. May Heaven defend the sacred Republick of Letters from such a proud, conceited, superficial

6

coxcomb as this! A man who, because want never reached him, seems to have supposed that want could never reach the good!"

All this reads well, and there is too much truth in it. But, if we could whisper so much in the ear of the genus irritabile, however great the merit of a Poet, it can rarely be expected, in the ordinary course of the world, that he should acquire riches. A Pope, a Byron, a Southey, or a Scott, are not of every day's occurrence. Nor is POETRY to be considered as a trade, by which a man is to maintain his family. We speak not this in disparagement of a talent for which we entertain the profoundest veneration; but as a hint that an Author may now and then be too sanguine in his expectation of pecuniary remuneration.

We turn with satisfaction to "Instances of Esteem with which Lite

rary Men have been honoured." "The whole city of Athens went into mourning for Euripides: on his monument was placed the following epitaph: The glory of Euripides has all Greece for a monument.' Eschylus was loaded with honours and benefactions by Hiero; and the Sicilians performed theatrical pieces at his tomb every year. Pindar and Bacchylides divided the favour of the Sicilian king; the figure of Sappho was imprinted on the coins of Mytilene; the Ephesians desired to place Heraclitus at the head of their Republick; the Agrigentines offered Empedocles a throne; Theocritus was valued in the Court of Ptolemy; and three hundred and fifty statues were erected at Athens in honour of Demetrius Phalereus. The EleanS extended their bounty to the descendants of Phidias; Alexander spared the house of Pindar; Archelaus, king of Macedon, erected a magnificent tomb over Euripides on the banks of a river, the waters of which were so cool, so limpid, and delightful, that they invited every traveller to drink and quench his thirst. Lucius Accius was so much esteemed as a Poet at Rome, that a Comedian was fined for ridiculing him on the stage; Marcellus paid every honour to the body of Archimedes, though an enemy; and few men were more honoured, when living, than Livy. Pliny and Tacitus were the friends of Trajan; Arrian was the preceptor and friend of Marcus Aurelius; Carthage, and several other cities, erected statues in honour of Apuleius; while Ausonius was made Questor by Valentinian, Consul by Gratian, and

that the world is a wilderness to him who is destitute of a friend. A wilderness, too, not of flowers or of plants, of rocks and of mountains, wild, yet not remote from beauty or sublimity; but a wilderness of weeds, or a sterile, parched, and burning desert. In the deepest recess of Nature, he, on the contrary, who feels the fine impulses of the heart, wanders not alone. In the midst of a Court, the Statesman nauseates the smile and the whisper, which invade him, unless his heart acknowledges to his judgment, that his glory is not wanting in the applause of those, for whose interests and happiness it ought to be his pride and his glory to labour. — I know that our expectations are vain, and our hopes idle, when we presume to expect common men to concentrate their hopes, wishes, and interests, in the duties of a Patriot! But I would whisper in the ear of a Minister of State, that if he would satisfy his hopes, his wishes, and his interests, completely and to the consummation of them all, he will divest himself of every thought that has not a collateral, if not an immediate direction, for the interests of the Country whose Minister he is. If he perform this imperative duty, rewards of every kind are sure to follow: rank, riches, and honour. Rank, conferred by his Prince; riches, in the gratitude of his fellowcitizens; and honour, that will carry him through the heart of an Enemy's country. Like the ebryso-magnet of Strada, he will attract iron and gold wherever he goes: for as is the diamond among stones, roses among flowers, and the bird of Paradise among birds, so is Patriotism the best and most beautiful of all the virtues."

We pass on to the article of " Literature," which contains much that is curious. Here, too, we find the old and hackneyed complaint, that Talents are not properly rewarded.

"One of the principal causes why Genius, in this cold and calculating world, succeeds so ill, may be traced to that indifference with which men, whose lives are occupied in a contemplation of the beautiful and the sublime, regard all temporary advantages. Knowing but little of the baseness of men, till experience teaches it in misfortune; easily cheated by others, and too easily deluded by their imaginations, and the excellence of their natures, they feel at length the value of wealth, by becoming dupes to the cunning, and martyrs to the mean and contemptible villainy of others.Such is the principal cause that contributes to make such men indigent, and

to keep them so. Erasmus lived with difficulty, and died in poverty. Cervantes perished in the streets of Madrid. Camöens, to the eternal disgrace of his age and country, died in an hospital in misery and ruin. Chatterton, the finest youthful genius that ever adorned a country, was left to suicide. Artedi was buried at the cost of another; and Castell, who devoted a large fortune, and seventeen years of unremitted application, to his Lexicon Heptaglotton, and who assisted in the formation of the Walton Polyglott Bible, was rewarded neither in proportion to his learning, his abilities, or labour. Butler received no profit for his Hudibras from the profligate and worthless Charles: he lived in want, and received interment at the cost of a friend. Linnæus never received more than a ducat a sheet for any of his writings, though he wrote forty different works. I have tried,' said that illustrious character, whether diligence and unremitted labour can create respect. In this attempt I have enfeebled my frame; and what is worse than all, I am killing myself without the satisfaction of leaving a provision for my children.' In this distressing condition. he remained for several years. Here let us stop it is a subject too painful to be dwelt upon! A Judge is permitted to enjoy his perquisites; a Bishop his rents; a Rector his tenths; a General his pay; and the Statesman his salary: but the Poet-Oh, spirit of the immortal Spenser!-the Poet is doomed to drink the bitter cup of poverty and sorrow. Such is the fate of the Poet! Let no one, therefore, of inferior qualifications, complain, if he receive no compensation for his merits, and no reward for his industry.

"But indigence is not the only evil The that literary merit has to dread. envy which assails it is far beyond the calculation of a good man, and equally beneath the attention of a wise one; yet it operates on the happiness of both! Parmenides, whose code of laws was an honour to Elea, screened himself from the envy of the multitude in the retirement of philosophy. Pythagoras was the victim of a party at Crotona, and died in wandering from town to town. Thucydides was banished from Athens for a period of thirty years; and Libanius was driven from city to city by the envy and jealousy of rivals. Few men were more pestered with the malice of their contemporaries than Cicero ;while Galen was so envied by his brother Physicians, that he became at length apprehensive of his life.-Galileo was imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition;

quisition; Copernicus was screened from persecution only by his death; Ramus, whose writings contributed so much to banish Aristotle from the schools, was twice obliged to quit Paris, to avoid the vengeance of Bigotry, and perished at last in the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

sap

in

Dr. Harvey, who taught the circulation of the blood in animals, and Dr. Hales, who proved the circulation of the trees, both encountered the opposition and envy of their contemporaries. Linnæus struggled long against the prejudice of his opponents, while his writings were suppressed at Rome, and condemned to be burnt! The Clergy of the Parliamentary Army heightened the death of the excellent Chillingworth by their meanness and barbarity. Campanella encountered a host of enemies at Rome, Naples, and Bologna; was imprisoned, tried as a criminal, and put seven times to the rack. The reputation of the Cid armed all the wits of Paris against Corneille; and Domenichino was so envied by the painters at Naples, that he became utterly weary and disgusted with life. It is enough to bring the moon from Heaven!These instances, worthy of occupying a page in Valerianus's Treatise on the Infelicity of the Learned, are sufficient arguments, with the weak and the worldly, to reconcile their vanity to the measure of their ignorance. With opportunities to know, and to feel, the force of all this, who can peruse without indignation the following sentiments of Horace Walpole? A Poet and a Painter,' said that Right Honourable Personage,' may want an equipage and a villa, by wanting protection; but they can always afford to buy pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil.' Pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil! And pray, my Lord, where is the satisfaction of having pen, ink, and paper, colours and pencil, if a man has a large family, and little to eat and little to drink?Could Vanity ever have so measured its folly as, for one moment, to let you suppose, that you were equal to Homer, to Camöens, to Tasso, to Cervantes, to Erasmus, and to Butler? And yet, I tell you, my Lord of Orford, that every one of those illustrious men not only lived, but died, and were buried in want! One work of genius ought to make one man's fortune. You, my Lord, had meat, and drink, and fine clothes, and fine houses-ah, and you bad also talents! Yes, my Lord, you had talents, but you had no genius: neither were you a lover of genius. May Heaven defend the sacred Republick of Letters from such a proud, conceited, superficial

coxcomb as this! A man who, because want never reached him, seems to have supposed that want could never reach the good!"

All this reads well, and there is too much truth in it. But, if we could whisper so much in the ear of the genus irritabile, however great the merit of a Poet, it can rarely be expected, in the ordinary course of the world, that he should acquire riches. A Pope, a Byron, a Southey, or a Scott, are not of every day's occurrence. Nor is POETRY to be considered as a trade, by which a man is to maintain his family. We speak not this in disparagement of a talent for which we entertain the profoundest veneration; but as a hint that an Author may now and then be too sanguine in his expectation of pecuniary remuneration.

We turn with satisfaction to "Instances of Esteem with which Lite

rary Men have been honoured." "The whole city of Athens went into mourning for Euripides: on his monument was placed the following epitaph :

The glory of Euripides has all Greece for a monument.' Eschylus was loaded with honours and benefactions by Hiero; and the Sicilians performed theatrical pieces at his tomb every year. Pindar and Bacchylides divided the favour of the Sicilian king; the figure of Sappho was imprinted on the coins of Mytilene; the Ephesians desired to place Heraclitus at the head of their Republick; the Agrigentines offered Empedocles a throne; Theocritus was valued in the Court of Ptolemy; and three hundred and fifty statues were erected at Athens in honour of Demetrius Phalereus. - The Eleans extended their bounty to the descendants of Phidias; Alexander spared the house of Pindar; Archelaus, king of Macedon, erected a magnificent tomb over Euripides on the banks of a river, the waters of which were so cool, so limpid, and delightful, that they invited every traveller to drink and quench his thirst. Lucius Accius was so much esteemed as a Poet at Rome, that a Comedian was fined for ridiculing him on the stage; Marcellus paid every honour to the body of Archimedes, though an enemy; and few men were more honoured, when living, than Livy. Pliny and Tacitus were the friends of Trajan; Arrian was the preceptor and friend of Marcus Aurelius; Carthage, and several other cities, erected statues in honour of Apuleius; while Ausonius was made Questor by Valentinian, Consul by Gratian, and