tragick accent, and the new degree of probability that the strict observance of costume gave to theatrical action. Thus, from that time all the actors were obliged to abandon their fringed gloves, their voluminous wigs, their feathered hats, and all the fantastick apparel, that had so long shocked the sight of all men of taste. Lekain himself followed the example of mademoiselle Clairon; and from that moment their talents, thus perfected, excited mutual emulation, and were worthy rivals of each other.' Marmontel speaks thus of an interview with Massillon :

In one of our walks to Beauregard, the country-house of the bishoprick, we had the happiness to visit the venerable Massillon. The reception this illustrious old man gave us, was so full of kindness, his presence and the accent of his voice made so lively and tender an impression on me, that the recollection of it is one of the most grateful that I retain of what passed in my early years.

At that age, when the affections of the mind and soul have, reciprocally, so sudden a communication, when reason and sentiment act and re-act on each other with so much rapidity, there is no one to whom it has not sometimes happened, on seeing a great man, to imprint on his forehead the features that distinguished the character of his soul and genius. It was thus that among the wrinkles of that countenance already decay ed, and in those eyes that were soon to be extinguished, I thought I could still trace the expression of that eloquence, so sensible, so tender, so sublime, so profoundly penetrating, with which I had just been enchanted in his writings. He permitted us to mention them to him, and to offer him the homage

of the religious tears they had made us shed.'

The origin of Marmontel's celebrated Tales does him great credit. He had procured the appointment of Editor of the Mercure François for Boissy, a man of letters in distress; Boissy found himself unequal to the task of supporting the publication, and applied to Marmontel for his friendly aid:

Destitute of assistance, finding nothing passable in the papers that were left him, Boissy wrote me a letter, which was a true picture of distress." You will in vain have given me the Mercure," said he ; "this favour will be lost on me, if you do not add that of coming to my aid. Prose or verse, whatever you please, all will be good from your hand. But hasten to extricate me from the difficulty in which I now am; I conjure you in the name of that friendship which I have vowed to you for the rest of my life."

This letter roused me from my slumber; I beheld this unhappy editor a prey to ridicule, and the Mercure decried in his hands, should he let his penury be seen. It put me in a fever for the whole night; and it was in this state of crisis and agitation that I first conceived the idea of writing a tale. After having passed the night without closing my eyes, in rolling in my fancy the subject of that I have entitled Alcibiade, I got up, wrote it at a breath, without laying down my pen, and sent it off. This tale had an unexpected success. I had required that the name of its author should be kept secret. No one knew to whom to attribute it; and at Helvétius's dinner, where the finest connoisseurs were, they did me the honour of ascribing it to Voltaire, or to Montesquieu.'

MAID of the golden locks, faf other lot
May gentle heaven assign thy happier love,
Blue-eyed Senena!.. They loitered on,
Along the windings of the grassy shore,
In such free interchange of inward thought,
As the calm hour invited; or at times,
Willingly silent, listening to the bird
Whose one repeated melancholy note,
By oft repeating melancholy made,
Solicited the ear; or gladlier now
Harkening that chearful one, who knoweth all
The song of all the winged choristers,
And, in one sequence of melodious sounds,
Pours all their music. But one wilder strain
At fits came o'er the water; rising now,
Now with a dying fall, in sink and swell
More exquisitely sweet than ever art
Of man evoked from instrument of touch,
Or beat, or breath. It was the evening gale,
Which, passing o'er the harp of Caradoc,
Swept all its chords at once, and blended all
Their music into one continuous flow.
The solitary bard, beside his harp
Leant underneath a tree, whose spreading boughs,
With broken shade that shifted to the breeze,
Overhead

Played on the waving waters.

There was the leafy murmur, at his foot
The lake's perpetual ripple, and from far,
Borne on the modulating gale, was heard
The roaring of the mountain cataract...
A blind man would have loved the lovely spot,

For the Monthly Anthology.

Gathering ice the tackle binds, Wildly howl to loosen'd winds. To direct no friendly light Glimmers through the gloom of night; But the lamp, that erst so sure Mark'd the course, thick snows obscure. Now each unavailing care Yields to helpless, wild despair. Louder now the tempest raves, Higher swell the heaving waves ; Now they dash the feeble skiff On the craggy, pointed cliff; Now ascends the dying groan ;... Nought avails the widow's moan, Nought the tear by pity shed O'er the relicks of the dead.

5.

Ay free, aff han', your story tell,
When wi' a bosom crony ;
But still keep something to yoursel
Ye scarcely tell to ony.
Conceal yoursel as weel's ye can

Frae critical dissection;
But keek thro' ev'ry other man,
WI' sharpen'd sly inspection.
6.

The sacred lowe o' weel-plac'd lovė,
Luxuriantly indulge it;

But never tempt the illicit rove,

Tho' naething should divulge it
I wave the quantum o' the sin;'
The hazard of concealing;
But Och! it hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling !

ART. 13.

Reports of cases argued and determined in the supreme judicial court of the state of Massachusetts from Sept. 1804 to June 1805, both inclusive. By Ephraim Williams, Esq. Vol. I. 8vo. pp. 570. $5 bound. Northampton, published by S. & E. Butler. 1805.

WE congratulate the publick on the appearance of the present work; the first-fruits of the office of reporter, fately established by authority of the legislature. In arbitrary governments, where the people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them, a work of this kind would be highly useful, tho' hardly to be expected; for decisions and precedents, like acts of the legislature, limit the power of rulers and judges : but that a free people, whose boast it is, that they are governed by laws and not by men, should be totally indifferent to what passes in their courts of justice is a thing we should hardly credit, on less evidence than that of experience. What should we think of the legislature, if our statutes were to be found only in the books of the secretary's office? Would it not be deemed a most criminal violation of the rights of the people; the most obvious of which is, that of knowing the laws by which they are governed? And yet a moment's reflexion will serve to convince us, that it is no less so, that the decisions of our courts

of justice should exist only in the breasts of the judges, or in the lumber of a clerk's office.

The law of this commonwealth may be divided into two heads; the statute and the common law : and this latter is properly distinguishable into two kinds,in respect to the source from which it is derived; namely, what we had, before the revolution, adopted from the English law, and such general customs or usages (for we acknowledge no particular ones) as have prevailed in this state, and have acquired the force of law, though they make no part of the English system of jurisprudence. Of our statutes, much the greatest number are private or special; and of those which regard the whole community, a considerable number refer to the organization of the government. They are of a political, rather than a civil nature. Of those which prescribe rules of civil conduct to the citizens, rules for making and expounding contracts, principles of decision on the questions daily agitated in our courts of justice, the number is small; indeed, it may be a question, whether our system of jurisprudence would suffer an injury by their total repeal. Besides, the exposition of statutes necessarily belongs to the judicial courts. The spirit, rather than the letter of the law, is what we are bound to regard. Plowden compares an act of the legislature to a nut. The words are only the