field Chase and Hayes, both near the metropolis, were the scenes in which his imagination and skill created beautiful views. The power to see beforehand the effect of fresh plantations in their progress and termination in full growth on the scenery which they were intended to adorn, Lord Chatham possessed in an eminent degree. He with equal felicity expressed the nature and seat of this faculty, by calling it the prophetic eye of taste.

It has been observed by foreigners, that the women in England, if at all handsome, are apt to diminish the effect of their beauty by haughtiness of demeanour, unless when the admirer is a man of rank or opulence. This double charge of avarice and pride I would willingly confute univer. sally, as I certainly can generally. Yet I would have my fair countrywomen recollect, that virtue and severity of manner are as little connected, as austerity of conduct is with our religion. Classical admirers can inform them, that, among the polished nations of antiquity, the Goddess of Love was known for her enchanting smiles and affability. A great admirer of the fair sex, and a great favourite with them, has spoken his thoughts

on this subject in a very gay poem, where every stanza ends with this appropriate burden against cruelty:

Vostre bouche, et vos beaux yeux,

Les rois de ma vie,

Et votre ris gracieux,

Avoient mon ame asservie.

Vous m'aviez gagné le cœur,

Mais quand on a trop de rigueur

Ma foi je m'en ennuye.

Poesies de M. Voiture, 1665.

Love.

The poets, one after another, describe this passion under the figure of a flame, as if they were advising the reader to beware the burning of his fingers, should he come in contact with it. Shakespeare, who could make a metaphor out of the smallest matter, has singularly protracted this figure of speech, and illustrated its brevity of existence,

There lives within the flame of love

A kind of wick and snuff, that will abate it.

Hamlet.

Quarles, in one of his Centuries, has made a happy distinction of this passion, when it possesses a wise or a foolish lover-"It is a wise man's bonfire, and a fool's furnace."-Century iii. ch. 9.

Thoughts on Death. From Montaigne.

The author laughs at all philosophers on this subject in a very happy way. "Philosophy enjoins us, that we should always have death before our eyes, to foresee and consider before the time; and then gives us rules and precautions to provide that this foresight and thought do us no harm. Just so do physicians; who throw us into diseases, to the end that they may have a subject for their drugs and art. If we have known how to live consistently and quietly, we shall know how to die so too. We trouble life with the care of death, and death with the care of life. The one vexes us, and the other frights us. It is not, in fact, against death that we prepare ourselves, but against the preparations of death.”—Montaigne's Essay, vol. iii. c. 12.

Physiognomy. From the same.

"A

This frank and natural writer expresses himself on this mysterious and fanciful subject with his usual penetration, ease, and good sense. man's countenance is but a slender security, yet is something to be regarded too; and were I to lash men, I would most severely scourge the wicked ones who belie and betray the promises that na

ture has planted in their foreheads, I would with great severity punish malice in a courteous aspect. I believe there is an art in distinguishing affable from silly faces, rigid from the stern, malicious from the pensive, the coy from melancholy, and such other bordering qualities.”— Vol. iii. c. 12.

N.B. It is here to be observed, that Montaigne confines this art of discrimination to the discovery of the moral qualities only; and does not, like Lavater, include intellect.

Mason and Hayley.

It is a very ingenious observation of an excellent critic of poetical merit, that "among the fortunate circumstances that attended Homer, it was not one of the least that he wrote before general and abstract terms were invented." The truth of this observation is strongly illustrated by the poetry of Mason and Hayley; wherein the reader is continually involved in the mist of generalities and abstract terms, which are often personified, and fill the scenery with most unsubstantial shadows from the school of metaphysics. Even when these shadowy bards mean to draw visible objects,

* Essay on Pope's Genius and Writings, 2 vols. 8vo.

and indulge their readers with picturesque descriptions, they endeavour to give to

66 airy nothings

"A local habitation and a name."

Cards.

The playing at cards, unconnected with any species of gaming, is innocent, and, in some cases, useful. When companies meet together of men and women with little sympathy, rather gregariously than socially,

"The feast of reason, and the flow of soul,"

is little to be expected. The card-table then removes that of the bottles and glasses; and the tea being taken at the same time in which the games commence, all opportunities for indulging in too much wine is prevented among the men, and the love of prate and scandal intercepted among the ladies. Besides, whist is an employment of the intellect; and among good-mannered people can lead to nothing harmful; as avarice is often excluded by the smallness of the stakes, and the competition of skill.

Adapting Poetry to Music.

"The sound must seem an echo to the sense," says Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, and pro