pitable and valuable edifice into which they are received, and in which they are destined, for the remainder of their immortality, to dwell. Straws and insects, preserved in amber, become both precious and lasting; and I am content to leave it to their authors to pronounce, whether the ingredients, which I would recommend to have incorporated in your perspicuous work, be not richer, rarer, and of more intrinsic value, than either flies or straws.

Neither do I conceive that you are bound to wait for those communications, which, however, only re quire your encouragement, to be made: or that you are in the mean time precluded from inserting what has already been in print. It is the privilege and duty of an author such as you, to ennoble the neglected, and illustrate the obscure: to enable that sub luce videri, which can bear, and merits a broad light; but which has hitherto been smothered in the rubbish of some worthless collection.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

SIR,

Your Reader and Admirer,
VEREKER VERSELEY.

To the same.

I beg to know whether you propose to follow, into the paths of criticism, those predecessors, in whose other steps you tread, so much to your own honour,

and the entertainment of your numerous readers. I shall, probably, hereafter, if your answer be what I expect, explain my motive for giving you the trouble of this question. In the mean time I remain, With much esteem, your very humble servant, ANDREW ANALYSE.

To the same.

SIR,

Excuse the liberty which we take in desiring to be informed, whether the admission of short hints, or essays on scientific subjects, be within the scope of your very agreeable and useful undertaking.

We are, Sir, your obedient servants,

MATTHEW MATHESIS,

CHARLES CALORIC,

HENRY HERBAL,

LIONEL LANCASTER.

Answer.

I have first to thank my correspondents for their enquiries; and for the flattering testimonies in my favour, by which these are accompanied.

In the next place I have to express my unqualified assent to every thing that is advanced in the letter of Mr. Verseley; and to assure all whom it may concern, and to whom these presents shall come greeting, that in my Work more than a corner shall be re

served for the Muse; that I shall thankfully receive any poetical communications which may be made me, and insert such of them as, to my judgment, shall appear entitled to be submitted to the public eye; and, lastly, that I do not scorn the office of a compiler; on the contrary, whatever I discover in print, which has been overlooked, and which I consider as deserving of attention, shall, if it suit the genius of these essays, appear here. Let no critic reader smile prematurely at my supposed vanity. I do not mean to promise that this "latent gem" "will be raised from earth," and made "to glitter on the diadem," by my assistance. But though, in common with the rest of my paper, it should be unheeded, still it would be but where it was before; neither served nor injured by my attempted introduction of it to public notice.

In answer to Messrs. Analyse, Mathesis, Caloric, Lancaster, and Herbal, I announce, that I hold critical discussion, especially when applied to subjects of literature, to be clearly and strictly within my province; and that those "short hints and essays," adverted to by the four latter, I also consider as admissible. But I would lay a qualifying emphasis on "short," and would also annex to my concession a proviso, that the subject be so chosen and so treated, as to suit the character of a work like this.

As to Mr. Mathesis (whom I beg to accept my demonstrations of respect) though he had not given

me the true quantity of his sur-name, I yet should have been certain, that he was neither lineally nor equilaterally descended from that eccentric lady, whom we read of in the Dunciad: and I am equally confident that he is not of the same family with that Geometrician, whose sole pleasure in reading the Æneid arose from the opportunity which it gave him, of tracing the hero's voyage on the map ;—and whose fine taste has been deservedly recorded by the Spectator.*

Mr. Caloric, I am persuaded, will not be too free or warm, in his communications; and as often as he is disengaged during the winter, I shall be happy to receive him.

Mr. Lancaster will pardon me for not being certain who or what he is. For even though his name had not been Lionel, I should doubt his being the gentleman, whose beaver I so awkwardly discomposed, while I was helping him to Soda-water, the last time I attended as one of his Grace's domestics, at the Park.t

* See his Paper on TASTE.

+ Mr. Joseph Lancaster, the Schoolmaster, received much flattering attention from the highest circle of the day in Ireland; and frequently had the honour of dining with the Lord Lieutenant and Duchess of Bedford, at the Lodge in the Phoenix Park. The Author appears (while under the disguise of an attendant; see No. I.) to have remarked that wine and soda water formed

For Mr. Herbal, my pages shall be very much at his command, in Spring. Until then, (unless perhaps amongst the inhabitants of this flourishing metropolis,) it would be vain to look for vegetation.

L.

her Grace's usual beverage at dinner.-As for the beaver, the *reader of the present day need not be informed that this was no pet animal of Mr. L.'s; but that this notorious gentleman professed to be one of the people called Quakers.

NUMBER VI.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28th, 1807.

positâ fallacis imagine Tauri.

OVID.

No more the Bull's illusive figure used;
That wide o'er Europe Erin's fame effused.

THE race of Bulls is so nearly extinct in Ireland, that Sir John Carr* complains, that during his stay

* The celebrated Itinerant; whom, in allusion to his travels, the Irish (a nicknaming race,) denominated Jaunting Car. It is said to have been partly with a view to shuffle off this title that Sir John solicited the dignity of knighthood. But scarcely had our hero obtained the seeming protection of this honour, when