rich; flatter the weak; and listen to the calumnies, which every unworthy knave, if he has not the baseness to invent, has the constructive baseness to circulate, without a look of abhorrence, or a smile of contempt! We must be rich; and, above all, we must not aspire to independence of character!

V.

The

Three of the principal reasons, why men of enlarged and liberal minds are beloved so little by the world in general, arise from a certain degree of fear, with which they are regarded by the vulgar; an acknowledged sensation of awe, with which the great observe them; and from the circumstance of their being so difficult to be played upon by ordinary minds. They frequently require a master's hand to draw from them harmony, melody, or even euphony. touch of vulgar fingers elicits nothing but the discord of sincerity. For, measuring every object by its proper standard, it is with difficulty they conceal their utter contempt of pride and vanity, vulgarity and ignorance. Independence of character is a quality, therefore, which few have the magnanimity to forgive; though few are so base, but they are capable of admiring. Whither, in this wilderness, shall men of such superior order turn for comfort? For they have virtues, which prompt them to love mankind; sympathies, which need only to be awakened to draw most exquisite music; and though they respect, admire, and love but few, those they do respect, admire, and

love, may play upon their nerves just what stop they please.

In this world of selfishness and error, where all the homage of a general respect is usurped by the rich and the dignified, whither shall they turn for comfort? Is any comfort to be found, my Lelius? You pause! -Yes! Even in this world comfort-excellent comfort-can be found. For though, for the most part, men, who are lost in hopeless insignificance, hate genius with as much cordiality as the ugly and deformed hate beauty,' there are nevertheless a few,a noble and discriminating few,-scattered through the world, to cultivate whose esteem; to deserve whose love; and to excite whose admiration; who would not climb Mount Etna, even in the midst of winter? or toil through all the sands of Ethiopia, even in the midst of summer? The esteem of such men as these-one friend-one mistress-and one God'! Oh! this world, this vain and anxious world, my Lelius, is a paradise after all !

Six things my heart abhors.-A treacherous lawyer; a proud priest; a partial magistrate; a man of low cunning; a woman of a flatulent tongue; and one who speaks irreverently of his benefactor. Seven

1 We may compare the conduct of persons of this description to that of an ourang-outang: a species of beings, who shew no mercy, when they unfortunately get a MAN into their power. While they are kept in awe and subjection, they are tame and submissive; but the moment an opportunity arrives, their malice is inveterate, and their vengeance is complete.

Tria in uno.

orders of men my heart respects.-A peasant, who loves his children, regards his master, and his interests, and honours his God:-the prince, who loves his people's ease, better than false glory:-a highminded man, steeped in misfortune:-a man of genius, undeformed by eccentricity :-the man who fights for liberty in the senate; he who bleeds for it in the field; and he who, in the midst of obloquy, still pursues an honourable purpose.

CHAPTER IV.

Gifted with an exalted fancy, the admirer of Nature feels all the raptures of a poet, though ungifted with his inspiration; and, without the talent for poetry, possesses, at intervals, something of the vatticinatio furentis animi, which, in all moments, elevated the genius of Plato and of Cicero. Those elegant men were lovers of the sublime and beautiful, to an unlimited extent. But Cicero, though he combined the most refined taste with the noblest genius; and though he was one, who, as Quintilian observes, received not the waters of heaven, but whose waters flowed from himself, as from a living fountain, was ungifted with poetic fire.' Plato, whose writings formed two of the finest of poets, arrived at no eminence as a poet himself:-and Burke, that splendid but eccentric genius, who, in many of his works, displayed a mind superlatively gifted; and

1 Virgilium illa felicitas ingenii in oratione solutâ reliquit: ciceronem eloquentia sua in carminibus destituit,

Seneca, Controv., lib. iii.

who joined to the nicest sensibility an imagination, at once grand, vigorous, and creative, confessed his inability to aspire to the soft and delicate touches of the muse. Thus we find, that though one art may have a necessary connexion with several others, as oratory has with poetry, and poetry with music, yet a different genius is required for each. Handel could never equal Gray in poetry; nor could Virgil equal Hortensius or Cicero in eloquence.

But though all admirers of Nature are not poets; all poets are admirers of Nature. They people every grove; deck every object, whether animate or inanimate, in glowing colours; and having formed a captivating picture, become, like Pygmalion the sculptor, enamoured of their own creations. For this faculty they are indebted to the powers of a brilliant imagination ;—that noble quality of the mind, which gives alluring colours even to the most abstruse of sciences; and which in consequence exalts its possessor far above the common standard of humanity. The imagination is the mistress of the mind; reason its sovereign-the powers and pleasures of the former of which, as Plato said of the soul, are like the harmony of an harp, invisible, immaterial and divine. And in personifying which, Apelles would have selected Urania for his model; in describing her, Ariosto and Spenser would have employed the utmost power of their genius; and Palladio, in erecting to her a temple, would have laid the foundations on a rock, commanding, on one side, the Ionian Islands; while the shades of Athens, the ruins of Corinth, and the plains of Argolis, decorated the other. In delineating her charac

ter, Maximus Tyrius would have dwelt, with enthu siasm, on the brilliancy of her colours, the intensity of her feelings, the beauty of her sentiments, and the nobleness of her designs.

As a foil to these beauties, and to these virtues, Locke would sometimes have doubted her representations; suspected that her mansion is a labyrinth ; her charms meretricious; her plans visionary; and her brilliant promises so many harbingers of disappointment. Not insensible to the objections, which may be raised to the cultivation of the fancy, the deference which we pay to the judgment of Locke, we will not extend to his taste; and since the imagination, well-governed, ameliorates inquietude, enlivens retirement, and expands the affections; since it mellows love, dignifies friendship, and sublimes virtue, who would not be proud of possessing so admirable a quality?-A quality, like Chloris, scattering roses, travel where it will.

While indulging its poetic attributes, a hermitage seems more beautiful than a palace; visions of happiness melt into the heart like marmalade; affection acquires a more dignified impression; every scene is converted into a sentiment; the heart glows with a mild and contemplative rapture; and the world's pleasures and the world's jargon sink into ridicule: while the sober and satisfying delights of the mind lengthen in effect, as shadows acquire longitude the nearer the sun approaches the horizon in the west. And while