which he has in view; that his pale complexion reddens in a decisive action; that his body is all nerve like that of the lion; that he fights in the same way; that he is indefatigable, and flies like lightning towards the enemy, before whom he never knew fear: this fire is concentred; he reserves it for great and strong explosions, and it does not imprint on his motions that restlessness, natural to men who are only ardent, and who have not the faculty of self-possession.

PAMPHLETS.

Extracted from a scarce Work entitled, Icon Libellorum, or, a Critical History of Pamphlets.

FROM pamphlets may be learnt the genius of the age, the debates of the learned, the follies of the ignorant, the maxims of government, the oversights of statesmen, the mistakes of courtiers, the different approaches of foreigners, and the several encroachments of rivals. In pamphlets, merchants may read their profit and loss, shopkeepers their bills of parcels, countrymen their seasons of husbandry, sailors their longitude, soldiers their camps and enemies; thence schoolboys may improve their lessons, scholars their studies, ministers their sermons,

and

and zealots their divisions. Pamphlets furnish beaux with their airs, coquets with their charms: pamphlets are as modish ornaments to gentlewomen's toilets, as to gentlemen's pockets: pamphlets carry reputation of wit and learning to all that make them their companions: the poor find their account in stall-keeping, and in hawking them: the rich find in them their shortest way to the secrets of church and state; in fine, there's scarce any degree of people but may think themselves interested enough to be concerned with what is published in pamphlets, either as to their private instruction, curiosity, and reputation, or to the public advantage and credit; with all which, both ancient and modern pamphlets are too often over-familiar and free. To remedy the dangerous excrescences whereof, the whole constitution has hitherto struggled in vain; though its frame has been often threatened with convulsions thereby, yet both church and state have been thought to have been often cleared up by a seasonable display of the better sort of such pamphlet rays, and paper lumi

naries.

Whence it is no wonder, that pamphlets being poised up with their good and bad tendencies and sequels, pretend to unravel the whole creation, to lay open the springs of the universe, to turn upon the hinges of the world, to dive into the in

terest

terest of sovereigns, to foretell the declensions and vicissitudes of kingdoms, to touch upon the biass of republics, to expose the falsity of brethren, the treachery of friends, the tricking of nations, the buying of countries, the giving new kings to the earth, to examine treaties executing themselves, to satirize the frankness of Tories, the reservedness of Whigs, the restlessness of parties, the uneasiness of courts, and the designs of all parties, which they dare not own. In short, with pamphlets the booksellers and stationers adorn the gaiety of shop-gazing; hence accrues to grocers, apothecaries, and chandlers, retailing usefulness, as well as reasonable furniture and supplies to necessary retreats and natural occasions. In pamphlets, lawyers will meet with their chicanery, physicians with their cant, divines with their shibboleth. Pamphlets become more and more daily amusements to the curious, idle, and inquisitive; pastime to gallants and coquets, chat to the talkative, stories for nurses, toys for children, fans for misses, food to the needy, and practisings to newsmongers, ketchwords to informers, instructions to the ignorant, help to the wise, fuel to the envious, weapons to the revengeful, poison to the unfortunate, balsam to the wounded, employment to the lazy, opportunity to enemies, condemnation to the wicked, speculations

VOL. I.

P

lations to the godly, trials of skill to the quarrelsome and proud, a comfort to the afflicted, appeals from the injured to the public, poverty to their authors, gain to the lucky, fatal to the unlucky, a satisfaction to the oppressed, a vent to melancholiness, heart-ease to censurers, fabulous materials to romancers and novelists; in a word, pamphlets literally unite contradictions, and are occasional conformists in all manner of acceptations and capacities, as well as in vicissitudes of matter and style.

MY OPINION, BY LORD DORSET.

AFTER thinking this fortnight of Whig and of Tory,
This to me is the long and the short of the story;
They are all fools and knaves to keep up this pother,
On both sides designing to cheat one another.
Poor Rowley, whose maxims of state are a riddle,
Has plac'd himself just like the pin in the middle;
Let which comer soever be tumbled down first,
Ten thousand to one but he comes by the worst.
"Twixt brother and bastard, those Dukes of renown,
He'll make a wise shift to get rid of his crown;
Had he half common sense (were it ne'er so uncivil),
He'd have 'em long since tip'd down to the devil.
The first is a prince, well fashion'd, well featur'd,
No bigot to speak of, not false, or ill-natur'd;

The

The other for government can't be unfit,
He's so little a fop and so plaguy a wit.

Had I this soft son and this dangerous brother,
I'd hang up the one, and kick down the other;
I'd make this the long and the short of the stories,
The fools might be Whigs-none but knaves should
be Tories.

BABYLON.

Ex Epistola in Calcem scripta Libri MS. in Bib. Coll. Trin. Cant. de Matrimonio et Divortio, ded. Jacobo Regi, per Johannem Racster.

Ex MSS. Baker.

Qui te vidit, O Babylon, qui aliquandiu vixit in te, tibi qui valedixit, vere te de vixit, graphicèque mores.

Josephus Scaliger discedens scripsit.

SPURCUM cadaver pristinæ venustatis!

Imago turpis puritatis antiquæ !

Nec Roma Romæ compos, sed tamen Roma,,
Sed Roma quæ præstare non potes Romani :
Sed quæ foveris fraude, quæ foves fraudeni
Urbs prurienti quæ obsoletior scorto,
Et exoleti more pruriens scorti.

Quæ pene victa fæce prostitutarum,
Te prostitutam vinces, et tuum facta es
Tibi lupanar, in tuo lupanari.

Vale pudoris urbs inanis, et relicti
Tui pudoris, nominisque decoctrix !