By which frail youth is oft to folly led,
Through false allurement of that pleasing bate,
That better were in virtues discipled,

Than with vain poem weeds to have their fancies fed.

Operas.

Fairie Queen, 4th book.

Much inconsiderate abuse has been thrown on these compositions by ignorant persons, and pedants under the bondage of classic lore. Yet fittle do these latter critics recollect how much the modern opera resembles the Greek dramatic pieces, in which the poet seems often to have vailed his head to the musician. Many single lines in the plays of Euripides seem entirely subjugated to the musical performer; as their construction, from being single lines, is often very crabbed, and their metrical melody, unassisted by music, seems much obstructed. The reader, if he has any prejudices against an opera, well composed both by poet and musician, attended with all its proper accompaniments, will lay them aside on reading a modern writer. See Essay on the Opera, by Count Algarotti, F.R.S. F.S.A. London, 1767, in English.

Hint' to Modern Philosophers.

A very appropriate censure on the writings of David Hume may be found in a passage of a very

learned and ingenious Pagan, that ought to have been a caution (as it is a damning clause) to this wily, acute, and unfair writer on religious subjects: "Mala et impia consuetudo est contra Deos disputandi, sive ex animo id fit, sive simulatè." It it a very bad and impious habit, that of raising disputes in matters of religion, whether it be done seriously, or by inuendo.-Cicero de Natura Deorum, b. xi. c. 67.

Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Madame Neckert conjectures that Ovid founded his " Metamorphoses" on natural history, and explained natural phænomena by poetic fables. She instances the story of Alcyone turned into a bird, and who goes in search of her husband's corpse. Some particulars belonging to the natural history of the kingfisher are indeed mentioned there, but do not seem applicable to that story in particular. Dr. Darwin's "Loves of the Plants" are a fine specimen of the union of poetry and natural history, and make Ovid, compared with. our poet in this respect, very obscure, feeble, and contemptible in both characters.

* Melanges Extraits des MSS. de Madame Necker: edit. 1783, Paris, 3 tomes, 8vo.

Old Age.

An ingenious and amusing writer has given as a reason for the diminution of respect paid to old men in modern times, viz. the art of writing, which enables the young to have recourse to those sources of information, which formerly were sought in the memory of old persons. But if books are now the sources of our knowledge, the older a man is, it may be presumed that the more learned he is; and so he may still be looked up to by his inferiors in years and erudition. A more obvious cause of the want of respect to old men is the modern education of young people; who, being too early brought forward in the world, assume an equality with all persons, whatever their ages may be.

Female Society

Is at all times so necessary to the enjoyment of life, that the marriage of persons late in life is not to be wondered at, nor ridiculed, as it often is unjustly, unless the old man affects the character of a lover. Let such persons consider the attachment as friendship, and choose persons equal, or nearly so, to their own ages, and comfort may be the product of it; for surely, when reason, and not folly, which love generally is, makes the bargain, the result is likely to be more satisfactory to both * Sketches of the History of Man.

parties. To reason in love is allowed by prose men, as well as poets, to be hardly compatible with the nature of poor mortals, at least in youth.

Mythology, a convenient one.

Gibbon, the historian, has shrewdly observed, that self-love has great dexterity in advancing her favourite positions. An example of the truth of this observation may be adduced in that mythological doctrine, which inculcates the belief of an evil genius governing human actions. All our errors, follies, and even vices, may be put on the back of this evil genius, and men may plead for their miscarriages, as a witty Poet* has done for those of the fair sex, upon his system in astrology, not dissimilar to this

That when weak women go astray,
The stars are more in fault than they.

Hints to Reformers.

When Pacuvius Calavius proposed to the people of Rome to elect a new senate, and to nominate those whom they would wish to put in the places of the members which they should dismiss, the great Roman historian relates, that, at the mention of every nominee, some objection was stated to the moral or political character of the persons nominated, till P. Calavius grew tired of so many

* Prior.

cavils at the persons named; and the result of his consideration on the experiment made by him was, that known ills were easiest to be endured; and that the old senators, whom they had kept in custody during this appeal, should be set at liberty, and restored to their former dignity and situations. -Livy, b. xxiii. sec. 5.

Hints to Agriculturists.

As poets are considered as a race most liable to anger, so are agriculturalists famed for their propensity to complain of the weather, seasons, &c. A farmer does not consider, or does not perhaps know, that wheat and oats were imported into this country, and where they are native plants they require no cultivation, as oats in some parts of America. In Sicily, as Diodorus Siculus relates, wheat grew wild without any culture. About Mount Tabor, in Palestine, barley and oats grow spontaneously; and in some parts of India, wheat will grow unaided by culture. The English farmer, therefore, who complains of his bad harvest and crops, should recollect that it is not the fault of England that it does not thrive in plants which were imported into it from other climes more adapted to them.-Lord Kaimes? Sketches of the History of Man, p. 71, note..