Difcedunt, totum video per inane geri resand Catullus had exhibited the strong picture of Atys, before the ufurpation of Auguftus. Virgil and Horace reached the fummit of their glory under the patronage of that Emperor: Tibullus and Propertius wrote during his govern-, ment, but were difaffected towards his arbitrary and cruel meafures. Ovid received fome favours, but at length was iniquitously banished by that tyrant. Livy the hiftorian was in habits of intimacy with Auguftus; and Vitruvius dedicated to him his Treatife on Architecture.

5. In the fame century lived authors of fome note indeed, but by no means to be ranked with thofe of the Julian and Auguftan ages. Such are, Velleius Paterculus, Seneca, Perfius, Lucan, Petronius, Quintus Curtius, Quintilian, Pliny the Elder, Silius Italicus, Statius, Martial, Valerius Flaccus, Juvenal, Terentianus Maurus, Pliny Junior; who are all mentioned as they are prior or fubfequent to each other in point of time. And thefe, in the next century, were followed by Tacitus, L. Florus, Suetonius, A. Gellius, Juftin.

6. Though Suidas, Stobæus, and Euftathius wrote between the third and thirteenth centuries, yet thefe middle ages were in general dark and unlettered in the Western world. The feat of Literature was neither at Rome nor

Conftantinople. We must look for Poets, Critics, Hiftorians, Phyficians, and Philofophers, in a quarter where we should little expect to find them, among the Saracens at Bagdat in Afia, and Cordova in Spain. The feven Idylia, which are faid to have been hung up in the temple at Mecca, are monuments of their poetry. The names of Averoes, Alpharabi, Avicenna, Abulfeda, Avulpiaragus, and Bohadin, are celebrated in the Hiftories of Arabian learning. The Bibliothecæ Arabico Hifpanæ Efcuralienfis Recenfio et Explanatio" enumerates a great multi

head:

Then Sculpture and her fifter-arts revive, Stones leap'd to form, and rocks begantolive; With fweeter notes each rifing temple rung; A Raphael painted, and a Vida fung.

Elfay on Criticifm.

In Leo's enlightened age, Strozza, Naugerius, Bembo, Sadolet, Flaminio, Sannazarius, Fracaftoris, and Vida, were restorers of claffical learning; Michael Angelo and Kaphael introduced, one a fublime, the other a correct, ftyle of painting. Taffo happily imitated the ancient epic poetry; and Guicciardini wrote his much-efteemed Hiftory. Ma chiavel too was patronised by the Medicis; but every writer, who can be fo inimical to the natural rights of mankind as to teach a tyrant how to opprefs his fubjects, ought to be detefted as a curfe to the nation and age in which he

was born.

8. In the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries lived many critics, commentators, and editors, of profound erudi

to

tion. Such are thofe triumviri in the republick of letters, Lipfius, Cafaubon, Scaliger fuch are Robert Stevens, and Henry his fon, Fulvius Urfinus, Gruterus, Cauterus, Grævius, Gronovius, Heinfius, Meurfius: all writers whom the fcholars of the prefent age are infinitely indebted. But the glories of these centuries were Spenfer, Shakefpeare, and Milton, in England; Corneille, Racine, and Moliere, in France. Since the time of thefe illuftrious poets, there has been, in both countries, a fuc ceflion of ingenious and learned men, whofe names need not be enumerated to those who know the hiftory of Louis the XIVth, and are converfant with the fate of learning in this country from the days of King William to the prefent reign.

Nor are the United Provinces and Germany excelled by either of the two kingdoms juft mentioned, in producing laborious, accurate, and extenfive fcho

lars.

ftroke-thefe are circumftances which create a finished picture of forrow, and command both our attention and our commiferation.

But, unhappily for my book, the narrative came too late. When your letter arrived, the laft fheets of both were fent to the prefs; and I have obliged myfelf, by a public promife, not to make any more additions to the work. This was judged a needful precaution, to obviate, in fome measure, any outcry that might be occafioned by the prefent enlargements, and prevent any fufpicion, that poffibly fome future enlargements might depreciate this copy alio. The misfortune of a lady's dying in child-bed is touched in the new cdition; but not touched with fo dark a pencil, nor caft in fo deep a fhade, as yours. I was afraid to mix too much of the melancholy with this feene, left it fhould have a terrifying effect on thole who are drawing near this perilous crifis.

In

My Defcant upon Creation fhould have been ftyled an Evangelical Deicant upon Creation. But an ingenious and worthy friend advifed me to omit that epithet, alledging, that many of the polite and fashionable world (in which number he himself not long ago made a diftinguished figure) would be difgufted at that expreflion, having conceived a prejudice against the Gospel as invete race as it is unhappy But the whole tenour and only scope of the little effay is to difplay the glory and the grace of Chiif, from fome of the most obfervable phænomena in created nature. the procedure of thefe remarks one fpecies of the caterpillars, the filk-worm, is tranfiently introduced, but not fo exactly described and pertinently obferved, as your own finely-fruitful fancy has fuggefted. According to the plan. fkerched out by your ready pen, the caterpillar may not improperly be confi dered as an emblem of the natural, the regenerate, the glorified man: of the natural, in her reptile; of the regenerate, in her nymphal, of the gloimed, in her winged flate. In her reptile condition, the crawls on the ground, delights in grofs aliment, and appears with an alpect both loathfome and hideous; to the carnal wretch grovels amcft low and earthly views; he knows no higher fatisfa&tica than the fordid Tatil.cations of lente; the righteous behold him with horror, and he is had I a omination before the Lord. Soon

as the worm becomes a n continues her mean purfu..». into the retirement of feems as one fick of, o the world: fo the perfo grace, renounces his foolish attachments and shameful pleasures; is often in fecrecy, and communes much with his own heart; he is weaned from the things that are feen, he is dead (to the world), and his life is hid with Christ in God. When the nymph is transformed into a butterfly, the fpurns the earth, and mounts the air; her form is beauty, and her motion agility itself; the roves along the flowery gardens, and fips their dews, and fucks their ho ney: the glorified believer likewife is no longer confined to this vale of tears, but fprings to his native Heaven; immortal beauty adorns his body, and his foul is ftamped with the illuftrious image of the Deity; his understanding is all light, and his affections perfect love; he lives on the beatific vifion, and his joys are exquifite, because they are eternal. I cannot but with, Ma dam, that I had been favoured with your correfpondence before my little volumes had received the laft corrections: I am perfuaded your thoughts would have enriched the piece, and rendered it lefs imperfect. I acknow ledge myfelf obliged for the kind parti ality with which you are pleafed to perufe my writings, and beg of you to add to that amiable candour your frequent prayers for them and for their author, who is, Madam, your respectful, and most humble fervant, j. HERVEY..

II. To MRS. DICKINS.

MADAM, Weflon, May 6, 1748.. I Perfectly remember, and with pleafure recolicct, the improving afternoon, I spent in your company fome years ago, at our friend Mr. Chapman's houfe. Interviews of this nature, where fefined fenfe and undiffembled piety mingle their charms, are too rare and too valuable easily to be overlooked, or fpeedily forgot. To the fatisfaction I then received you have added a fresh favour by your obliging le ter, which, with another from the ingenious Mr. Drake, came to my hands laft night.

With regard to the verfes*, I aflure

* The first copy prefixed to his "Meditations," written [it can be no difparagement to him to fay] by the rev. Dr. Drake, ton of the hiltonian, now vizar of Beverley.

you,

ground very late in the fpring, with the leaves rolled downward into a ball, a kind of foliation called by Linnæus Circinal, which is peculiar to Ferns and fome forts of Paims. At this moft fcarce feafon of the year for vegetables, both for man and beaft, the induftrious cottagers in Hampshire boil the young fhoots for their bogs; and this food, they fay, makes them thrive and fnode* well (change their coat of hair). Man, in a ftate of nature, hath recourfe to the roots of this plant for fuftenance, as the late circumnavigators obferved among the natives of New Zealand. The principal part of their food, which to them is what bread is to the inhabitants of Europe, is the roots of the Fern, which grows upon the hills, and is nearly the fame with what grows on our high commons in England, and is called indifferently Fern, Bracken, or Brakes." Hawkejworth's Account of

Cook's Voyage, vol. III. p. 55.

The inhabitants alio of more fruitful iflands were found to make use of this root in times of fcarcity; and in feveral parts of Europe men have been driven by hunger to the fame refource. It is probable that armies have often fuffered from famine, who have been encamped over this plant, ignorant of its efculent quality. Swine in a wild ftate fubfift on Fern-roots in Winter, as we have been informed by an intelligent perfon who formerly lived on the verge of the foreft of Beret, near Portsmouth; but, fince the bushes have very improperly, on account of the young Oaks which they reared, been aliowed to be cleared away there, he thinks the brood is deftroyed.

Fern becomes bro vn with the earliest froft, and when dry is much the moft preferable covering to defend tender vegetables from the feverity of Winter. Parkinfon's remark is worthy to be recorded, for the benefit of frugal families, who live where wood-afhes are not cafily procured. "They ufe in Warwickshire, above any other country in this land, infleed of fope to wash their clothes, to gather the female Fern, for that is moft frequent with them about Midfomer, and to make it up into good big balls, which, when they will use them, they burne them in the hre, untill it become blewifh, which

being then lay'd by, will diffolve into powder of itfelf, like unto lime, foure of thefe balles being diffolved in warme water is fufficient to wash a whole bucke full of cloathes." Herbal.

It is obfervable, that our native animals, who reft on the ground, have their cloathing exactly of the colour of Fern when withered; as the Stag or Hart, and Hind (Cerous Elaphus), Hare, and Partridge. All thefe would be expofed, in the nakednefs of winter, to the ravages of their enemies, were they not fkreened by the fimilar colour of this, plant while it harbours them. For the fame reafon, in Northern countries, Hares and Ptarmigans (Tetrao Lagopas) turn white at the approach of winter, that they may not be diftinguifhed in the fnow. In these two initances we have a glimpfe of the admirable regulations of Providence, which takes care to prevent the carnivorous animals preying too feverely on the graminivorous.

In the curious Anglo-Saxon fong, quoted in Burney's very valuable "Hiftory of Music," vol. II, p. 405, which mentions the note of the Cuckoo among other rural incidents attendant on the return of Summer, "Buckè verteth" (the buck brouzeth on the new-fprung foliage) is explained by frequents the green "Fern." This must be an erroneous interpretation; for the Cuckoo ceafes to fing while the Fern is fcarcely above ground; neither does Manwood allow Fern to be vert. "There are two forts of Vert in every foreft; that is to fay, Over Vert and Nether Vert. Over Vert is that which the lawiers doe call Hault Boys, and Nether Vert is that which the fawiers do call South Boys; and in the Foreft Lawes Over Vert is all manner of Hault Boys, or green wood, as well fuch as beareth fruit, as fuch as beareth none. Athes and Hollie-trees they are accoinpted Over Vert. Nether Vert is that which the lawiers doe call South Boys, and that is, properly, all manner of Underwood, and alfo Buthes, Thornes, Gorfe, and fuch like; and fome men do take Ferne and Heath to be Nether Vert; but it cannot be fo, unlefs that the fame be underwood, or of the kind of underwood as Mafter Serjant Fleetwood faith;

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