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ry man, or a review of his productions. If I have not supposed a cause for complaint that does not exist, it follows, either that the proper subjects of biography are few in number, or that the qualifications for this sort of writing are seldom combined in a single author. I believe that neither of these conclusions is far from the truth. The lives of industrious men are made up of few incidents; and, in general, if the scholar has left any memorials of his acquirements in learning, if the statesman and warrior are rescued from oblivion in the political history. of their country, if the divine lives in the discourses that he has committed to the publick, and the lawyer is recognised in the volumes of the reporter, all the security for their fame is obtained, which they have a right to demand, and what remains to be done may be safely intrusted to the compilers of biographical dictionaries, in which the time of their birth and their death, and an account of their writings and their actions may be included in a few comprehensive paragraphs.

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his opinion, all Catholicks are devils, and Pope's and Cardinals too depraved even for the mansions of the wicked. Where he had just cause for censure or praise, he exaggerates beyond all bounds. Take the following verses as an example:

"The counterfeit presentment of Two Sister.." Sum Marie, malè grata patri, malè grata marito ;

MARIA REGINA ANGILE.

Cælo invisa, meæ pestis atrox patriæ. Nulla aberat labes ; nisi quod fuit addi

ta custos

Fida pudicitia forma maligna mcx, In Elizabeth, Angliæ Reg. Cujus imago Deæ, facie cui incet in una, Temperie mixta, Juno, Minerva, Venus ?.

Est Dea, quid dubitem? cui sic conspi

rat amicè

Mascula vis, hilaris gratia, celsus honos;

Aut Dea si non est, Diva est quæ præsidet Anglis,

Ingenio, vultu, moribus æqua Deis.

BREAKFAST.

Without attempting to settle, if it be question, which, as being more restorative, is the preferable meal, breakfast or dinner, the latter, I confess, is less grateful to me than the former.

The fumes of the tea-pot or coffee-urn, and even the lazy volumes, which steam and curl from a full, mantling bowl of chocolate, scem, if such heathenish allusions are allowable, like morning incense offered to the Lares. And if the olfactories of these chimney-corner deities are as grossly sensible as my carnal nostrils, they keep banquet on sucia sacrificial vapours with more delight than they listen to the cricket's musick, when they dance a saraband on the hearth, or celebrate their rev els in the Rumford.

manner.

METAPHYSICKS.

To what absurdities cannot the human mind be reduced! I have now before me a ponderous volume of metaphysicks, in which, among other subjects of equal importance, there is a book on the nature of Angels. It is divided in the following 1. Whether Angels are a substance? 2. If a substance, whether corporeal or incorporeal? 3. Whether the substance of Angels is simple or compound? 4. Whether two or more Angels can be in the same place at the same time? 5. Whether the thoughts of Angels can be diminished? 6. Whether the union of degenerate Angels with fallen man would produce Devils? On the fourth topick, the author gravely decides in the affirmative; but the fifth he thinks can be determined on

ly by experiment. The introduc. tion to these absurdities is at least as ridiculous. "Rodolph Goclenius, a most acute philosopher, and by far the greatest man of his age, dedicates this work to his liberal read

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CALVIN AND SERVETUS.

As the conduct of Calvin towards Servetus has been lately the topick of conversation, and as the cruelty of this great reformer has been denied by some of his admirers, I have endeavoured, though without success, to ascertain the truth from authentick history. Gib bon, however, who was well read in ecclesiastical history, but whose prejudices ought surely to weaken the authority of his opinions, has the following passage:

I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution of Servetus, than at the hecatombs, which have blazed in the Auto da Fès of Spain and Portugal.

1. The zeal of

Calvin seems to have been envenomed by personal malice, perhaps envy. He accused his adversary before their common enemies the judges of Vienna, and betrayed, for his destruction, the sacred trust of a private correspondente. 2 The deed of cruelty nished by the pretence of danger to the church or state. In his passage through Geneva, Servetus

was not var

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was a harmless stranger, who neither preached, nor printed, nor made proselytes. 3. A Catholick inquisitor yields the same obedience which he requires, but Calvin violated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by.

The historian refers to the article SERVET in the Dictionaire Critique of Chauffepiè, as containing the best account of this shameful transaction.

See the Decline and Fall, vol. 10, p. 191, in notis.

PREFACES.

ONE of the essential improvements in book making, invented by the moderns, is the art of Prefacing. The most striking advantage in this discovery is, that on any given subject a larger book may be written with the same ease,as formerly a smaller one. When a man, whose ambition leads him to the glorious career of literary fame, has projected his book, and finds his materials too narrow for the bookseller's demand of pages, where could he turn for relief, did not a needful Preface at once fill the volume, and honey the edge of the sometimes bitter, and oftener insipid cup with a drop of modesty and another of flattery. "Gentle reader!" there is magick in the sound: it persuades every candid man to be what he beholds.

Fair befall the memory of the man or the set of men, that invented the glorious muster-roll of Dedications, Prefaces, Advertisements, Remarks, Preliminary Notes and Annotations, whether critical, historical, or philological,together with the rearguard of index, appendix and table of contents. I consider that man as little better than beside himself, who, when the patterns of these useful and ornamenVol. V. No. XI 3Z

tal swaddling clothes are cut to his hands, sends forth his bantling into the world shivering in nakedness. To be sure the day has past, or, rather, in this country it never arose, when a dedication was worth to its author a suit of clothes or even a sumptuous dinner; but no one can prevent it from occupying its stated portion of letter press: this expedient no malice of enemies can render abortive.

Useful as prefatory writings are allowed to be, they are not the least difficult of composition. Some men have a peculiar talent for them; and Johnson, the great literary Hercules, is known to have twirled the distaff in this way with remarkable dexterity. Having lately discovered in myself a considerable talent for the manu facture of this article, I have prepared in conjunction with another member of the society, who is equally adroit, a machine for this purpose, by which we propose shortly to supply the publick with the article in all its various forms at an easy rate and short notice; and have actually on hand :

Dedications of various forms, with blanks for the name and title.

English Prefaces to Latin authors, and Latin Prefaces to English authors, with a few in the Choctaw, and Cherokee for the use of Indian Representatives.

Prospectuses for journals literary and politicak

N. B. This article is in great demand, and is warranted free from grammatical mistakes.

Historical introductions, containing from two pages to any number of volumes.

Answers to committees requesting a copy for publication, for the use of July Örators: likewise a few whole orations with and without meaning: any quantity of figures can be inserted at short notice.

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In Psalm CXX. David enquires "What shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper." If the following observations of an -old Commentator are true, they are worthy of preservation. "In fontibus Hebræis," says he lingua hæc virulenta et dolosa, nominatim comparatur carbonibus juniperorum, scribunt autemn de materia juniperi Taccensa, quòd mirum in modum adarat, et ignem vel ad integrum annum foveat, modò cinere cooperiatur. De eadem Plinius scribit, quòd serpentes ipsam fugiant, ideoque etiam homines eò tutiùs sub ea quiescere possent, quod de Propheta Éliâ perhibetur 1, Reg. 19, 4."

CUI BONO.

This celebrated phrase is com monly understood by us to signify, "to what purpose." Cui is consid. ered as agreeing with bono, and the phrase equivalent to, "what ad vantage is it?" Bayle, however, in the article LuCIUS CASSIUS, has examined the question, who was the author of this phrase: and from the following passage, which he quotes from Cicero, Orat. pro Rosc. Am it would seem, that the construction at least has, in modern times, been misunderstood. "Lucius Cassius ille, quem popu lus Romanus verissimum et sapien tissimum judicem putabat, identidem in causis quærere solebat, CUI BONO FUISSET." Which Bayle thus ren ders: "L. Cassius, he whom the Roman people esteemed to be the best and wisest of Judges, was wont, upon causes, to inquire, WHO IS TH GAINER" In this translation he is justified by the fol Jowing note of Grævius upon the phrase: "Hujus autem locutionis cui bono fuerit, hæc est sententia, cui homini, aut rei hæc res fuerit meaning amounts to nearly the same bono, hoc est profuerit." The thing, whichever way it is construed.

But to illustrate this shade of difference, take the following: If any man, after reading this article, should ask in the common accepta

tion of the phrase, cui bono sit? the proper answer would be “none." If he should use the phrase as it has been explained, the proper an swer would be "no man. this case I think even Lucius Cas sius would be puzzled, to find his maxim of any use.

THESIS.

In

A friend of mine, lately visiting

*

at a neighbouring College, was presented with a large sheet of printed paper A few days since I was sitting amid the fumes of a social segar, when he took it from his pocket, and, with expressions of surprise, demanded of me, why it was dedicated to the Governour: Is it usual to trouble his Excellency with exercises of bad Latin prepared for correction? Bad Latin, said I, not without irritation, for I saw at the first glance it was the Commencement Thesis, bad Latin, my friend! this paper contains the deliberate wisdom of ages, condensed by the wisest youths of ourseminary, and corrected by their sagest insructors. In this are collected and arranged those maxims, that ancient philosophers would have died to know. Here we are annually told, that log

ick is an art, and that Metaphysicks is a science; that the magnet attracts ferruginous substances, and that they in turn imbibe attraction from the magnet; that the moon collects the tides; and that the product of the extremes is equal to the square of the mean. And shall a prying grammarian come, and tell me of concord, and government; of classical arrangement, and pure Latinity? When my breast is swelling with deep draughts of science, shall he cut me down with a rule from Adam, or an example from Cicero? I found by the contortions of my friend's countenance, that I was insensibly growing warm, and desisted; but I thought I could see, that he still retained a bias from some obsolete notions, derived from Lilly, and Ainsworth.

For the Anthology.

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ACCOUNT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT FOR NATURAL HISTORY, IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

GENTLEMEN,

TO THE EDITORS OF THE

YOUR valuable publication being - devoted to the interests of science and literature, I presume it will be acceptable to have a short notice of the professorship of natural history, lately established at the university, Cambridge.

It had been long perceived and lamented by the friends of natural history, that this delightful and indeed useful branch of knowledge received no considerable encouragement in our places of education or in the country at large. In our university, the academick laws of

Boston, Nov. 20, 1808.

ANTHOLOGY.

course exacted a partial attention to the science, from candidates for medical degrees. A limited number of the under graduates also attended a very pleasing course of lectures on the more interesting and striking views of nature, which had for some years been delivered by one of the medical professors. No provision, however, was made for systematick instruction, for a complete cabinet, (although a valuable collection of minerals had been obtained) and there was no botanick garden. The college library was almost destitute of books on these

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