Together twin'd, his learned brow displays 2560 The lover's myrtle and the poet's bays. Though each fair science stor❜d his fertile mind, Still rov'd his copious fancy unconfin’d. The late Earl of Chesterfield's morality with respect to women, is rather more lax than Ovid's. In his Art of Love, the Roman says, Tuta frequensque via est, per amicum fallere nomen. Tuta frequensque licet sit via; crimen habet. The English Chiron, like the pirate who erased the eighth commandment from his decalogue. seems to have adopted the convenience of the couplet, leaving out the assertion contained in the final words. By what casuistry a man of unblemished reputation in his publick character, and of strict honour in private, as his lordship certainly was, could confound the same principles, by the mere distinction of sexes, I am unable to discover. It is surely to be lamented, that a few exceptionable passages in his system, which cannot be perused without severe reprehension, should have so tarnished the. whole, that no publication extant has been treated with so little candour. It abounds however with good sense, and contains many excellent rules and maxims to form the manners and regulate the conduct of youth, conceived with great temper and judgment, and communicated with the utmost perspicuity, elegance, and purity of language. Though his letters are addressed to a young man of a particular character, and destined to a particular walk in life, they cannot fail of being generally instructive and useful. The characters by Lord Chesterfield, of a few of his contemporaries, are written in the spirit of Sallust, without his partialities; terse, comprehensive, and appropriate, and equal, if not superior, to any of those drawn by our best historians, from Lord Clarendon to this hour. * Sulmo mihi patria est, gelidis uberrimus undis. OVID. Trist. 1. iv. el. 10. Το Ff To fix his thoughts on Themis' crabbed book, What fruitless pains his anxious father took! 2565 While softer Cytherea smiling cry'd, "To learn my laws, be all thy care apply'd." As sudden corruscations quick and bright, His wit surprises with a dazzling light; Whate'er the subject, barren, rude, or mean, 2570 That fire emits its rays, and gilds the scene: On Pontus' dreary shore his breast it warms, Nor loses e'en in banishment its charms. In vain thy plaintive numbers were address'd, To soften one unmitigable breast; But be thy crime what malice may believe, Worse was his crime, who knew not to forgive. 2575 Few points have been left in more doubt and obscurity by the Ancients than the cause of Ovid's banishment. It has been commonly ascribed to his having been discovered in an intrigue with the emperor's daughter, Julia; but his own reference to his misfortune, in one of his poems, does not countenance that supposition; nor was the licentiousness of his writings, as some have imagined, likely to give offence to Augustus, who expresses his own affection for Horace in terms of the most gross obscenity. Led Led from his boyhood through the Cyprian school, The lover's eye, your breasts when passions swell, In adamantine links THIS charm will bind,— 2591 A graceful outside, with a cultur'd mind; And half your care, the former to improve, Turn'd to the heart, secures the soul of love. 2595 Rapture's a hasty transient flame at best, But warm esteem an ever-biding guest: 'Si quis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, Me legat; et lecto carmine doctus amet. OVID. de Art. Amator. 2600 Rapture, a meteor, at its birth expires, 2605 2610 A mien, compos'd with all an artist's care, To |