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specious and splendid style of composition in order to conceal this "plentiful lack of wit.' They remind us of painters who are deficient in drawing, and hide this deficiency by using the most glaring and gorgeous colouring. Too many writers resemble Butler's hero

For he could coin and counterfeit

New words with little or no wit,

Words, so debas'd and hard, no stone
Was hard enough to touch them on;
And when with noisy haste he spoke 'em,
The ignorant for current took 'em.

Hudibras, canto 1.

J. J. Rousseau's Observations on Women.

When this writer was not hurried into whims by his vanity, no one could think more justly, or express his thoughts with more true feeling and eloquence. "The first and most important quaIty in a woman is sweetness of temper, made to obey so imperfect a being as man, often full of vices, always liable to faults. A wife must very soon learn to suffer even injustice, and bear the wrongs inflicted by her husband without complaint, and preserve her temper, not only for his sake but her own. Ill-nature and obstinacy will but augment her woes, and she will soon find that these are not the arms from which she can expect

victory. Heaven did not give to women a soft and gentle voice to act viragos, or beautiful and delicate features to deform them by anger; nor did Nature make them feeble in their frames that they should aim at power."

Again.

"The influence of woman is a government of gentleness, address, and politeness: her caresses are commands, her tears are her menaces, and her ready compliances her victory. In this state, families are best governed, wherein women have the ascendency; but when a woman disobeys the will of her husband, and wishes to usurp his government, misery, confusion, and evil reports, fall on that house. An agreeable and interesting figure in a female is a better ground of courtship than beauty: the graces of manner, &c. last longer than those brighter charms which inspire our love. A woman with a moderate share of attractions will please longer than a beauty; and such a woman, thirty years after marriage, will have the same attractions as on the wedding-day; whilst a beauty will lose her influence, in a few months, over her husband.

"It is said that women talk a great deal. I admit it, and consider this habit, not as a fault, but as a subject of approbation. Man talks less, because he wishes to give information; women to utter

their sentiments agreeably; but who would wish for a learned woman as his wife, who sets up a tribunal of literature in the house, and appoints herself the lady president? A literary woman soon becomes the plague of her husbaud, her children, her servants, her acquaintance, and her friends.

"Love is not necessary for married persons: integrity, similarity of opinions, humours, and character, though they do not form a love match, yet they make marriage more comfortable and useful. In a situation like marriage, there are many duties to perform, which regard others as well as themselves, and affections which must be participated with others. Two lovers would be always thinking of themselves only, their own feelings, their own pleasures, and their own interests; and what then would become of the welfare of the children, or the peace and good establishment of domestic matters?"-Les Pensées de J. J. Rousseau, citoyen de Geneve; Amsterdam, 1763.

Homer.

Much has been written of late to prove that the Iliad is not only valuable for its poetical beauties, but also a repository of much historical knowledge; but I would ask these asserters of Homer's

historical merit, whether the old bard could have found any where, but in his own fertile imagination, such a state of manners, customs, and characters, as the Iliad exhibits? Can we suppose, in the prose of common sense, such a state of society, wherein heroes, who lived in gilt palaces and slept on beds of ivory and tortoise-shell, would curry their own steeds, and dress their own beef-steaks?

Anecdote of Oliver Cromwell.

The Usurper, when given over by his physicians, still persisted to say that he was certain that he should recover, and that God had given him assurance of it. To his particular friends he disclosed the artifice of his obstinacy: "If I recover," says the arch hypocrite, "I shall be considered by the people as a prophet; and if I die, what signifies to me that the world shall call me a liar and a cheat." This anecdote very much depends on the credit of M. Gayot de Pitaval, in his L' Art d'orner l' Esprit, seconde partie.

The Way of the World.

One would imagine that the world looked upon wealth with a very philosophic eye, by the generosity which they bestow, in report, so many

thousands gratuitously on their prosperous neighbours. If a man or woman has twenty thousand pounds, they give them another twenty very readily, and so on in proportion to the largeness of the real sum. On the contrary, it would seem that the world estimated the powers of genius at a very great price, as they very niggardly allow the possession of superior powers of mind or intellect to any one; nay, will but seldom give the men of talent their real dues. Ovid did not look upon the surface of things, when he sung

Ingenio qui vult cedere nullus erit ;

yet it has been accurately said that men never think they have their share of money, but are quite contented with their allotment of understanding.

Quarrels among Authors.

Gay has very wittily said, and perhaps very sensibly felt, that

Wits are game-cocks to one another.

Fable 10.

The line conveys a very large field of fancy. We e see both authors with pens in their hands, that well represent the spurs which nature, as well as art, has affixed to the heel of their representative, the game-cock. Around the pit stand critics, who take the different sides, and encourage both the

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