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O si sic omnia!-N.B. An edition of Martial, with proper selected passages, is much wanted.

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M. Rousseau.

When this ingenious but fantastic writer endeavoured to prove the superiority of savage over eivilized man, he exhibited, by his own example and manners, the falsehood of his system. He wishes to prove that savage man is more happy and content than a civilized one; yet the writer himself was un grand sauvage par son temperament;" and no man felt less content and happiness. When he tried to cry down the Arts, as corrupting the human mind, he was gaining his subsistence by copying music, and cultivated that fascinating art with all possible assiduity and delight so far is the practice of a soi-disant philosopher removed from his theory!

Account of Savage Nations and Customs.

M. Buffon has thrown out an observation on the relation by travellers of these subjects, well worthy of our regard. "Those authors who have recorded the customs of savage nations have not been aware that they only described the actions of individuals, directed by caprice or selfishness. Some nations, say they, eat their enemies whom

they take prisoners; others burn or maim them. Some nations expose their old parents, or kill them some eat their children," &c. Now, in barbarous nations, no settled manners or customs, no more than established laws, prevail; and therefore these enormous practices cannot be the conduct of the whole of any one nation so described as barbarous, and therefore under no general rules or established customs.-Genie de M. Buffon, 12mo.

Schools of Virtue, Good Manners, and Religion.

Till the time of Queen Elizabeth, and further "till the days of chivalry were gone by," the mansions of the nobility were the asylums of poor gentlemen's sons, and the schools of younger nobles; where arts and arms, and honourable lessons in war and peace, were taught them under the eyes of their august masters. It is related of Archbishop Sheldon, who lived in the reign of Charles I. that his house was frequented by many young persons of high rank, that they might reap the advantages of his learned and pious conversation. The Bishop's discourse to his pupils was, "Do well and rejoice: let it be your principal care to become honest men, and afterwards be as devout and religious as you will. No

piety will be of any advantage to yourselves or any body else, unless you are honest and moral men." These precepts the Archbishop always uttered to his noble audience with a kind of exultation and joy.-Parker's Comment.

Benefits Conferred.

It is rightly observed among men of education and feeling, that the mode of conferring a benefit greatly enhances or diminishes the joy with which it is received. What shall we think, then, of the polite manners of the Romans, who, when they emancipated a slave, gave him a cuff in the ear, as a sign of his liberty? Phædrus mentions this custom in an anecdote of facetious humour related of Cæsar Tiberius, book ii. fable 5.

Phædrus

Seems to have written his fables with an epigrammatic smartness, very different from his great archetype in this mode of composition, Æsop, whose style is particularly simple, and by no means jocose. On the contrary, in the prologue of Phædrus to his fables, the author proclaims his intention of raising a smile on the face of his reader, as well as to communicate instruction. He very ingeniously guards himself against the grave critics on fabulous tales. "The materials

which Æsop furnished I have endeavoured to set forth in verses of six feet. My book contains mirth and instruction, and should any one object that I make trees speak as well as animals, let them recollect that such is the license of the mirthful fabulist."

Mere Scholars and Men of Genins.

What a difference is seen in the powers of these two characters, when brought into argument and discussion! In this colloquial skirmishing, the mere scholar is embarrassed by his baggage waggon, and his great guns impede him in his offensive and defensive manoeuvres; whilst the man of genius is light armed, confident in his native vigour, and makes his attacks everywhere with great promptitude. Dr. Johnson among the S- Professors, as recorded by Boswell, routed their heavy troops and unwieldy artillery, and spiked their guns.

Satire and Hate founded on Interest.

It seems an inconsistent practice among mankind, that the world palliates and sometimes justifies the extravagance of spendthrifts, whilst they heap censure on the miser, whose conduct in society seems so much less replete with folly and

evil consequences. Yet on second thoughts the mystery is laid open. Mankind gain by the prodigal man, and despair of any advantage from the miser. One is an open and free port, and the other is shut against all traders.

Electors and Candidates.

The following passage from Cicero's Offices cannot be too strongly impressed on the minds of candidates and electors. Speaking of the mutual services and benefits given and received between man and man, and the motives which actuate the parties, he says, "lastly, some persons are influenced by rewards and gifts, which motive of receiving or granting benefits reflects equal disgrace, and raises equal contempt, on those who give and those who receive. Ill fares any cause, where money shall gain the preponderance which should alone be the privilege of virtue to produce." The orator, a few sentences beyond this passage, frankly declares the prevalence of bribes in the Roman Republic, of whose virtue we hear so much from their own historians.

The Olympic Games.

In a taste for amusement the ancients rise superior to the moderns. The Olympic Games, certainly, in splendour of exhibition, and multitude

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