Had there been no historical evidence of the former existence of Herculaneum; had its covering of ashes and lava never been removed; had a wood grown over the identical spot, and a spring of water burst forth from the ground, which in many similar instances has been actually the case in Italy; five hundred years hence the proprietor would probably laugh, as at an idle dream, were he to be told that underneath his cascade and cascade and shrubbery, there still existed the entire remains of a large city; that within sixteen feet of the roots of his favorite trees, perhaps exactly under the villa which afforded him amusement and relaxation, priests had sacrificed, orators had pleaded, gladiators had fought, and patriots died.

If in such an instance belief should be withheld, it would be one of the numerous examples in which philosophical scepticism leads its votaries as much astray into the land of error, as credulity and ignorance.

Some of the positions with respect to the total alteration of the face of a country, civil, geographical, and political, are remarkably illustrated by comparing the present with the former state of the United Provinces.

as a collection of sand banks and morasses, over which the waters of the great rivers of Germany were sometimes diffused and sometimes stagnated; unhealthy, and for the most part uninhabited.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that industry and love of freedom, conveying the water in dykes, and excluding the inroads of the sea, by artificial mounds, has converted the same place into terra firma; inhabited by a rich, a mercantile, and, till cursed by French fraternization, a powerful republic, possessing populous cities, large towns, iortresses, colonies, seainen, and shipping, which render them the second maritime people in Europe.

Mingreli, described by a modern writer (Chardin) as for the most part a collection of unwholesome morasses, inhabited by a scanty population, and supported with difficulty by an unproductive soil, was at a certain time, according to Pliny, Arrian, and Strabo, and then called Colchis, a fertile district, re-paying the husbandman's toils with plentiful crops, adorned with magnificence, and blessed with science, arts, and wealth.

is described by an antient writer,

lated by Phillips, from the French of Petit de la Croix.

Pope,

Pope, a literary Sultan, who, to use his own words, could bear no rival near his throne, disliked

Phillips, who had been exalted as the first and best pastoral writer in England, by the whigs, and under their patronage, had commenced a translation of Ho

'mer.

This party preference was never forgiven by the author of Windsor Forest, and the English Had and Odyssey, confessedly superior to Phillips; it laid

the foundation of a coldness between Pope and Addison, produced the memorable and severe character of the latter, and occasioned the tory poet to abuse Phillips, because he "turned a Persian tale for half a crown."

Did this splenetic remark arise from the trifling nature of the work, or from Phillips doing it at too cheap a rate? Having himself got rather more than half a crown for turning the Tale of Homer, Pope probably thought working at so low a rate was establishing a bad precedent.

POLYCARP, said to be a

carp replied, " I do salute thee as the first born child of Satan."

POPE, ALEXANDER, In

the article assigned to this English poet, in my third volume, the Epistle to Abelard is censured, as one of those productions which most fathers of families would wish to remove from the shelf of a modern library: mention is also made of the literary eminence which the seducer of his pupil had attained.

A lady whose opinions have been frequently introduced in this collection, feels disposed to doubt whether a man guilty of so flagrant a violation of duty and so criminally weak as Abelard avowedly was, could be a man of considerable abilities.

I have on many occasions lamented that splendid talents were too often obscured by moral turpitude; proofs of it perpetually occur; and there cannot be a doubt that the unfaithful tutor of Eloisa was a man of a strong and well-cultivated mind; that in the instance here recorded and

Meeting on a certain occasion with the backslider Marcian, he passed him unnoticed: the Heretick complaining that he did not return his salutation, Poly

to sensuality, is a question of another species.

The celebrity of Abelard as a teacher is proved by his own works, and the collateral evidence of other writers. The fol

lowing

lowing is part of a letter addressed to him by a respectable contemporary, who gave him wholesome advice in the days of prosperity; and when he was wretched, did not withhold from this unhappy man the consolations of real and disinterested friendship.

I have several reasons for not laying a translation of this extract before my readers; one of them is that the person I wish to convince of the learning and abilities of Abelard, an accomplished woman, a good mother, and an excellent wife, is able to read or write Latin, English, French, and Spanish, with equal facility.

"Roma suos tibi transmittebat alumnos, et quæ olim omnium artium scientiam auditoribus solebat effundere, sapientiorem te, se sapiente, transmissis scholaribus, monstrabat.

Nulla terrarum spatia, nulla montium cacumina, nulla concava vallium, nulla via difficilia licet obsita periculo et latrone, quominus ad te properarent, retinebat.

Anglorum turbam juvenum, mare interjacens, et undarum procella terribilis, non terrebant; omni periculo contempto, audito tuo nomine ad te confluebant.

Remota Britannia sua animalia erudienda destinabat; Andigavenses, eorum edomita feri

After thus describing the crowds of scholars who followed Abelard from almost every part of Europe, the writer laments that so unexampled a popularity rendered him presumptuous and vain, and as he possessed a good person, with pleasing manners, exposed him more particularly to female snares.

"Illud quod te præcipitem dedit, singularem scilicet faminarum amorem, et laqueos libidinis quibus sectatores capiunt, prætereo, quod ordini nostro et regulæ nostræ non concordat.”

The writer pointing.out the ruin of soul, body, and estate, which his criminal indulgences would produce, and in some degree had produced, endeavours to prove that some degree of salutary consolation may be drawn, on this account, from the evils he has undergone.

Hæc corporis particula quam perdidisti, quantum tibi nocue

rat,

rat, ac nocere quamdiu permansit, non desistebat, melius marum diminutio rerum quam mea oratio monstrat; quicquid præter quotidianum victum et usum necessarium, acquirere poteras, in voraginem fornicariæ consumptionis demergere non cessabas; avaritia meretricum cuncta rapuerat.

"Ergo frater ne doleas nec contristeris perturbatione hujus incommodi cum tantum utilitatis.

afferut. Nullo nunc suspectus ab hospite recipiaris; maritus, quamvis sit absens, nec violationem uxoris, nec lectuli concussionem formidabit.

"Turmas virginum, venustate et juventute splendentium, transibis, sine inflammatione libidinis et sine peccato; nocturnas somniorum illusiones, non senties, aut, quod certum est si voluntas aderit, nullus sequetur effectus.

"Blanditiae uxoris, corporumque contactus, curaque liberorum te nil longius aut a templo Dei, aut re literaria retardabunt.”

I doubt if this writer be morally or anatomically correct in one part of his description of the good effects of this misfortune.

word, a political bugbear rung in the ears and presented to the imaginations of the good people of England, without any real foundation. The following well authenticated story has been related, which may serve to throw some light on the subject.

Only a few months before the death of Queen Anne, Archbishop Sharp meeting accidentally with the Marquis of Wharton, thus addressed him:

"My Lord, the measures which the present ministry pursue are such as I by no means approve; they seem to be going unwarrantable lengths; I have hitherto joined with them, because I thought they had their country's interest and the welfare of the church at heart; but whatever they or you may think, I am no Pretender's man, no Jacobite, nor ever shall be one; but will oppose that interest to the utmost of my power.

"In short, I suspect there is some design to bring in the Pretender; but they shall never have my concurrence. If your Lordship therefore will join forces with me, as I flatter myself with possessing considerable interest, particularly among my own order, we may form a party, strong enough to break all their mea

sures."

"Is your Grace in earnest ?" replied

replied the Marquis. "I was never more so." "I beg leave then to tell you a story. Not many months ago, I had a pointer given to me; she was excellent and staunch, and in due time produced me a litter of puppies, which I pleased myself with supposing would be equal in goodness.

"I went every day to see them, but when the time came that little dogs generally have their sight, these puppies continued still blind; I visited them the tenth, eleventh and twelfth days, and they continued the same. At length, having no hopes, I ordered them to be thrown into the horse pond. Would your Grace believe it, just as they were sinking, their eyes opened." With these words the Marquis turned on his heel.

RINTERS AND COMPOSITORS. In return for their making me sometimes talk nonsense, I have occasionally recorded a few of their mistakes. A curious one is produced by Mr. Malone.

My readers need not be told that whift was the ancient inter

In this sense it is used by an old translator of the Eneid of Virgil, at the commencement of the second book. Conticuere

omnes are the words of the Roman poet, which are thus done into English:-" They whisted all;" but the compositor, either a humourist or too fond of ale, by adding a letter, has given the passage a laughable turn, "They whistled all!"

To many laughable errors of the press the following may be added. The Potatoes of Europe have been called on to resist the ambitious views of France; and the Dog of Venice once gave audience to an English Ambassador. A British senator has asked leave to bring in a Bull, and the House of Commons has proceeded to the order of the Dey; an Irish officer received a Confusion in his head; and an advertisement in a newspaper once announced an effectual cure

for Raptures. Rice has been made an ingredient in a cure for the plague, instead of Rue; and a professional man rendered ridiculous, by publishing a Syllabub of his lectures.

the name of a favourite game, or rather a science at cards, is supposed to be derived, as requiring mute attention.

FILLED.-The following

passage being the eleventh verse in the 29th chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel, and applied by the

Jewish