Whose birth could more than one poor realm adorn, No. 551.] TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1712.

For all the world is proud that he was born. Sie honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque

“ The thought in the first part of this is natural, Carininibus venit HOR, Ars Poet. ver. 400.

and depending upon poesy ; in the latter part it So ancient is the pedigree of verse, And so divine a poet's function.-Roscom MON.

looks as if it would aim at the history of seven towtis

contending for the honour of Homer's birth-place; Ms. SPECTATOR,

but when you expect to meet with that common "When men of worthy and excelling geniuses story the poet slides by, and raises the whole world have obliged the world with beautiful and instructive for a kind of arbiter, which is to end the contention writings, it is in the nature of gratitude that praise amongst its several parts. should be returned them, as one proper consequent

ON ANACREON, BY ANTIPATER. reward of their performances. Nor has mankind

This tomb be thine, Anacreon! All around ever been so degenerately sunk but they have made

Let ivy wreathe, iet flow'rets deck the ground; this return, and even when they have not been And from its earth, enrich'd by such a prize, wrought up by the generous endeavour so as to re- Let wells of milk and streams of wine arise : ceive the advantages designed by it. This praise,

So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know,

If any pleasure reach the shades below. which arises first in the mouth of particular persons, spreads and lasts according to the merit of " The poet here written upon is an easy gay authors; and when it thus meets with a full success author, and he who writes upon him has filled his changes its denomination, and is called fame. They, own head with the character of his subject. He who have happily arrived at this, are, even while seems to love his theme so much, that he thinks of they live, inflamed by the acknowledgments of nothing but pleasing him as if he were still alive, others

, and spurred on to new undertakings for the by entering into his libertine spirit ; 80 that the benefit of mankind, notwithstanding the detraction humour is easy and gay, resembling Anacreon in which some abject tempers would cast upon them: its air, raised by such images, and pointed with such but when they decease, their characters being free a turn as he might have used. I give it a place from the shadow which envy laid them under, begin here because the author may have designed it for to shine out with the greater splendour; their spi- bis honour; and I take an opportunity from it to rits survive in their works; they are admitted into advise others, that when they would praise they the highest companies, and they continue pleasing cautiously avaid every looser qualification, and fis and instructing posterity from age to age. Some of only where there is a real foundation in merit. the best gain a character, by being able to show

ON EURIPIDES, BY ION. that they are no strangers to them : and others ob

Divine Euripides, this tomb we see, tain a new warmth to labour for the happiness and

So fair, is not a monument for thee, ease of mankind, from a reflection upon those ho- So much as thou for it, since all will own nours which are paid to their memories.

Thy name and lasting praise adorn the stone. “ The thought of this took me up as I turned over, “The thought here is fine, but its fault is, that those epigrams which are the remains of several of it is general, that it may belong to any great man, the wits of Greece, and perceived many dedicated to because it' points out no particular character. It the fame of those who had excelled in beautiful would be better if, when we light upon such a turn, poetic performances. Wherefore, in pursuance to we join it with something that circumscribes and iny thought, I concluded to do something along bounds it to the qualities of our subject. He who with them to bring their praises into a new light gives bis praise in gross, will often appear either to and language, for the encouragement of those whose have been a stranger to those he writes upon, or molest tempers may be deterred by the fear of envy not to have found anything in them which is praiseor detraction from fair attempts, to which their paris worthy. might render them equal. You will perceive them,

ON SOPHOCLES, BY SIMONIDES. as they follows to be conceived in the form of epi- Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade taphs, a sort of writing which is wholly set apart for Around the tomb where Sophocles is laid: a short-pointed method of praise.

Sweet ivy. wind thy boughs, and intertwine

With blushing roses and the clustering vine: ON ORPHEUS, WRITTEN BY ANTIPATER

Thus will thy lasting leaves, with beauties hung. No longer, Orpheus, shall thy sacred strains

Prove grateful emblems of the lays he sung. Lead stones, and trees, and beasts along the plains:

Whose soul, exalted like a God of wit,
No longer soothe the boisterous winds to sleep,

Among the Muses and the Graces writ.
Or still the billows of the raging deep.
For thou art gone. The Muses mourn thy fall

“ This epigram I have opened more than any of In solemn strains, thy mother most of all.

the former: the thought towards the latter end Ye mortals, idly for your sons ye moan,

seemed closer couched, so as to require an explicaIf thus a goddess could not save her own.

tion. I fancied the poet aimed at the picture which “ Observe here, that if we take the fable for is generally made of Apolio and the Muses, he sit. granted, as it was believed to be in that age when ting with his harp in the middle, and they around the epigram was written, the turn appears to have him. This looked beautiful to my thought; and bepiety to the gods, and a resigning spirit in its ap- cause the image arose before me out of the words of plication. But if we consider the point with respect the original as I was reading it, I ventured to erto our present knowledge, it will be less esteemed; plain them so. though the author himself, because he believed it,

ON MENANDER, THE AUTHOR UNNAMED. may still be more valued than any one who should now write with a point of the same nature.

The very bees, O sweet Menander, hung

To taste the Muses' spring upon thy tongue ON IIOMER, BY ALPHEUS OF MYTILENE.

The very Graces made the scenes you writ Stili in our ears Andromache complains,

Their happy point of fire expression hit.

Thus still you live, you make ypur Athers shine, And still in sight the fate of Troy remains :

And raise its glory to the skies in thine
Still Ajax fights, still Hector's dragg'd along :
Such strange enchantment dwells i Homer'3 song:

"This epigram has a respect to the character of

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its subject ; for Menander writ remarkably with a Who first transcribed the famous Trojan war,

And wiset Ulysses' acts, O Jove, inake kroma justness and purity of language. It has also told

For since 'us certain thine those poems are, the country he was born in, without either a set or

No more let Homer boast they are his own a hidden manner, while it twists together the glory “ If you think it worthy of a place in your specu. of the poet and his nation, so as to make the nation lations, for aught I know (by that means) it may in depend upon his for an increase of its own

time be printed as often in English as it has already I will offer no more instances at present to been in Greek. show, that they who deserve praise have it returned

“ I am (like the rest of the world), them from different ages ; let these which have been laid down show men that envy will not always pre- « 4th Dec.

“Sir, your great Admiret,

* G. R." vail. And to the end that writers may more successfully enliven the endeavours of one another, let

The reader may observe that the beauty of this them consider, in some such manner as I have at- epigram is different from that of any in the foregotempted, what may be the justest spirit and art of ing. An irony is looked upon as the finest palliapraise. It is indeed very hard to come up to it. tive of praise; and very often conveys the noblest Our praise is trifling when it depends upon fable : panegyric under the appearance of satire. Homer it is false when it depends upon wrong qualifica- is here seemingly accused and treated as a plagiary; tions; it means nothing when it is general; it is but what is drawn up in the form of an accusation extremely difficult to hit when we propose to raise is certainly, as my correspondent observes, the characters high, while we keep to them justly. I greatest compliment that could have been paid to

that divine poet. shall end this with transcribing that excellent epitaph of Mr. Cowley, wherein, with a kind of grave

“ Dear Mr. SPECTATOR, and philosophic humour, he very beautifully speaks I am a gentleman of a pretty good fortode, and of himself (withdrawn from the world and dead to of a temper impatient of any thing which I think an all the interests of it) as of a man really deceased. injury. However, I always quarrelled according to At the same time it is an instruction how to leave law, and instead of attacking my adversary by the the public with a good grace.

dangerous method of sword and pistol, I made my

issaults by that more secure one of writ or warrant EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUTHORIS

I cannot help telling you, that either by the justice
Hie, o viator, sub lare parvulo
Coulens hic est conditus, hic jacet

of my causes or the superiority of my counsel, I Defunctus humani laboris

have been generally successful; and to my great Sorte, supervacuaque vita,

satisfaction I can say it, that by three actions of Non indecora pauperie nitens,

slander, and half-a-dozen trespasses, I have for se Et non iuerii nobilis otio, Vanoque dilectis popello

veral years enjoyed a perfect tranquillity in my reDivitis auimosus hostis,

putation and estate : by these means, also, I have Possis ut illum dicere mortuum,

been made known to the judges; the serjeants of En terra jam nunc quantula sufficit!

our circuit are my intimate friends, and the ornaExempta sit curis, viator, Terra sit illa levis, precare.

mental counsel pay a very profound respect to one Hie sparge tiores, sparge breves rosas,

who has made so great a figure in the law. Affairs of Nam vita gaudet mortua tloribus,

consequence having brought me to town, I had the Herbisque odoratis corona Vatis adhuc cmerem calentem.

curiosity the other day to visit Westminster-hall;

and, having placed myself in one of the courts, esTHE LIVING AUTHOR'S EPITAPH.

pected to be most agreeably entertained. After the From life's superfluous cares enlarg'd,

court and counsel were with due ceremony seated, His debt of human toil discharg'd, Here Cowley lies, beneath this shed,

up stands a learned gentleman, and began, When To ev'ry worldly interest dead:

this matter was last "stirred” before your Lord. With decent poverty content; His hours of ease not idly spent ;

ships; the next humbly moved to “ quash" an ib. To fortune's goods a foe profess'd,

dictment; another complained that his adversary And hating wealth. by all caress d.

had "snapped" a judgment; the next informed the Tis sure, he's dead; for lo! how small

court that his client was stripped of his possession; A spot of earth is now his all! 0! wish that earth may lightly lay,

another begged leave to acquaint his lordship that And ev'ry care be far away!

they had been “saddled” with costs. At last up Bring flow'rs, the short-liv'd roses bring,

got a grave serjeant, and told us his client had beci To life deceas d fit offering!

hung up" a whole term by a writ of error. A And sweets around the poel strow, Whilst yet with lise huis ashes ylow."

this I could bear it no longer, but came hither, anr

resolved to apply myself to your honour to interpos The publication of these criticisms having pro- with these gentlemen, that they would leave off such cured nie the following letter from a very ingenious low and unnatural expressions : for surely though gentleman, I cannot forbear inserting it in the vo- the lawyers subscribe to hideous French and false lume,* though it did not come soon enough to have Latin, yet they should let their clients have a litue a place in any of my ngle papers.

decent and proper English for their money. What “ Mr. Spectator,

man that has a value for a good name would like to “ Having read over in your paper, No. 551, some

have it said in a public court, that Mr. Such-a-ose of the epigrams made by the Grecian wits, in com- has escaped your spectatorial observation, be pleased

was stript, saddled, or bung-up? This being what mendation of their celebrated poets, I could not for- to correct such an illiberal cant among professed bear sending you another, out of the same collec- speakers, and you will infinitely oblige, t:on; which I take to be as great a compliment to

“ Your humble Servant, Homer as any that has yet been paid him.

« Pullonicus."

“ Joe's Coffee-house, Nov. 28.” • The translation of Cowley's epitaph, and all that follows, except the concluding letter signed Philonicus, was not priuted * No. 551 is not lettered in the Spect. in folio, nor bas it sity w the Spect, in foliu, but added in the 8vo edition of 1712 sigrature in the 8vu or 12no, editions of 1712.

No. 552.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1712. lic, by acquainting them with his proposals for a

pair of new globes. After this preamble, he proQai prægravat artes

inises in the said proposals that, Insra se positas, extinctus amabitur idem. --HOR. 2 Ep. i. 13. For those are hated that excel the rest,

IN THE CELESTIAL GLOBE, Although, when dead, they are belov'd and blest. - CRKECH.

“ Care shall be taken that the fixed stars be As I was tumbling about the town the other day placed according to their true longitude and latitude, in a hackney-coach, and delighting myself with busy from the many and correct observations of Hevelius, scenes in the shops on each side of me, it came into Cassini, Mr. 'Flamstead, reg. astonomer; Dr. Halmy head, with no small remorse, that I had not ley, Savilian professor in geometry in Oxon; and been frequent enough in the mention and recom- from whatever else can be procured to render the mendation of the industrious part of mankind. It globe more exact, instructive, and useful. very naturally upon this occasion touched my con- “ That all the constellations be drawn in a curiscience in particular, that I had not acquitted my- ous, new, and particular manner; each star in so self to my friend Mr. Peter Motteux. That indus- just, distinct, and conspicuous a proportion, that its trious man of trade, and formerly brother of the true magnitude may be readily known by bare inquill, has dedicated to me a poem upon tea. It spection, according to the different light and sizes would injure him, as a man of business, if I did not of the stars. That the track or way of such comets let the world know that the author of so good verses as have been well observed, but not hitherto exwrit them before he was concerned in traffic. In pressed in any globe, be carefully delineated in this." order to expiate my negligence towards him, I im.

IN THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE, mediately resolved to make him a visit. í found his spacious warehouses filled and adorned with tea, “ That by reason the descriptions formerly made, China, and India-ware. I could observe a beautiful both in the English and Duick great globes, are ordonnance of the whole; and such different and erroneous, Asia, Africa, and America, be drawn in considerable branches of trade carried on in the a manner wholly new; by which means it is to be same house, I exulted in seeing disposed by a poeti- noted that the undertakers will be obliged to altor cal head. In one place were exposed to view silks the latitude of some places in ten degrees, the lonof various shades and colours, rich brocades, and the gitude of others in twenty degrees; besides which wealthiest product of foreign looms. Here you great and necessary alterations, there be many re. might see ihe finest laces held up by the fairest markable countries, cities, towns, rivers, and lakes, hands; and there, examined by the beauteous eyes omitted in other globes, inserted here according to of the buyers, the most delicate cambrics, muslins, the best discoveries made by our late navigators. and linens. I could not but congratulate my friend Lastly, that the course of the trade-winds, the monon the humble, but I hope beneficial, use he had soons, and other winds periodically shifting between made of his talents, and wished I could be a patron the tropics, be visibly expressed. to his trade, as he had been pleased to make me of ** Now, in regard that this undertaking is of so his poetry. The honest man has I know that mo- universal use, as the advancement of the most nedest desire of gain which is peculiar to those who cessary parts of the mathematics, as well as tending understand better things than riches; and I dare to the honour of the British nation, and that the say he would be contented with much less than charge of carrying it on is very expensire, it is dewhat is called wealth in that quarter of the town sired that all gentlemen who are willing to promote which he inbabits, and will oblige all his customers so great a work will be pleased to subscribe on the with demands agreeable to the moderation of his following conditions: desires.

“ I. The undertakers engage to furnish each subAmong other omissions of which I have been also scriber with a celestial and terrestrial globe, each of guilty, with relation to men of industry of a superior thirty inches diameter, in all respects curiously order, I must acknowledge my silence towards a adorned, the stars gilded, the capital cities plainly proposal frequently enclosed to me by Mr. Renatus distinguished, the frames, meridians, horizons, hour Harris, organ-builder. The ambition of this arti- circles, and indexes, so exactly finished up, and acficer is to erect an organ in St. Paul's cathedral, curately divided, that a pair of these globes will over the west door, at the entrance into the body of really appear, in the judgment of any disinterested the church, which in art and magnificence shall and intelligent person, worth fifteen pounds more transcend any work of that kind ever before in than will be demanded for them by the undertakers. vented. The proposal in perspicuous language sets “ II. Whosoever will be pleased to subscribe and forth the honour and advantage such a performance pay twenty-five pounds in the manner following for would be to the British name, as well as that it a pair of the globes, either for their own use, or to would apply the power of sounds in a manner more present them to any college in the universities, or amazingly forcible than perhaps has yet been known, any public library or schools, shall have his coat of and I am sure to an end much more worthy. Had arms, name, title, seat, or place of residence, &c. the vast sums which have been laid out upon operas inserted in some convenient place of the globe. without skill or conduct, and to no other purpose “ III. That every subscriber do at first pay down but to suspend or vitiate our understandings, been the sum of ten

pounds, and fifteen pounds more upon disposed this way, we should now perhaps have had the delivery of each pair of globes perfectly fitted an engine so formed as to strike the minds of half a up. And that the said globes be delivered within people at once in a place of worship, with a forget twelve months after the number of thirty subscribers fulness of present care and calamity, and a hope of be completed; and that the subscribers be served endless rapture, joy, and hallelujah hereafter. with globes in the order in which they subscribed.

When I am doing this justice, I am not to forget “ IV. That a pair of these globes shall not herethe best mechanic

of my acquaintance, that useful after be sold to any person but the subscribers under servant to sciences and knowledge, Mr. John Row- thirty pounds. ley; but think I lay a great obligation on the pub- * V. That, if there be not thirty subscribers within

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four months after the first of December 1712, the it is sent me from gentlemen who belong to a bod money paid shall be returned on demand by Mr. which I shall always honour, and where (I canne John Warner, goldsmith, near Temple-bar, who speak it without a secret pride) my speculations shall receive and pay the same according to the have met with a very kind reception. It is usual above-mentioned articles.”—T.

for poets, upon the publishing of their works, 'to print before them such copies of verses as have been

made in their praise. Not that you must imagine No. 553.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1712. they are pleased with their own commendation, but

because the elegant compositions of their friends Nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum.

should not be lost. I must make the same apology HOR. I Ep. xiv. 35.

for the publication of the ensuing letter, in which I Once to be wild is no such foul disgrace,

have suppressed no part of those praises that are But 'tis so still to run the frantic race.-CREECH.

given my speculations with too lavish and goodThe project which I published on Monday last natured á hand; though my correspondents can wikhas brought me in several packets of letters. Among ness for me, that at other times 1 bare generally the rest, I have received one from a certain projec- blotted out those parts in the letters which I hate 'tor, wherein, after having represented, that in all received from them. probability the solemnity of opening my mouth will 0. draw together a great confluence of beholders, he proposes to me the hiring of Státioners'-hall for the

“ MR. SPECTATOR, more convenient exhibiting of that public ceremony.

" In spite of your invincible silence you have He undertakes to be at the charge of it himself, pro- found out the method of being the most agreeable vided he may have the erecting of galleries on every companion in the world: that kind of conversation side, and the letting of them out upon that occasion. which you hold with the town has the good fortune I have a letter also from a bookseller, petitioning of being always pleasing to the men of taste and me in a very humble manner that he may have the leisure, and never offensive to those of hurry and printing of the speech which I shall make to the business. You are never heard but at what Horace assembly upon the first opening of my mouth. I am calls dertro tempore, and have the happiness to ob 'informed from all parts that there are great canvas.

serve the politic rule which the same discerning au sings in the several clubs about town, upon the thor gave his friend, when he enjoined him to deli choosing of a proper person to sit with me on those ver his book to Augustus :arduous affairs to whick I have summoned them. Three clubs have already proceeded to election,

Si validus, si lætus erit, si denique poscel-1 Ep. xii. 3. -whereof one has made a double return. If I find

-When vexing cares are fled,

When well, when merry, when he asks to read.--CREECE. that my enemies shall take advantage of my silence to begin hostilities upon me, or if any other exigency You never begin to talk but when people are desi. of affairs may so require, since I see elections in sorous to hear you; and I defy any one to be out of great a forwardness, we may possibly meet before humour until you leave off. But I am led udaware the day appointed; or, if matters go ou to my satis into reflections foreign to the original design of this faction, I may perhaps put off the meeting to a fur- epistle; which was to let you know, that some mu ther day; but of this public notice shall be given. feigned admirers of your inimitable papers, wbe

In the mean time, must confess that I am not a could, without any flattery, greet you with the salalittle gratified and obliged by that concern which tation used to the eastern monarchs, viz. “O Spec., appears in this great city upon my present design live for ever,' have lately been under the same ap of laying down this paper. It is likewise with much prehensions with Mr. Philo-Spec.; that the baste satisfaction that I find some of the most outlying you have made to dispatch your best friends porparts of the kingdom alarmed upon this occasion, tends no long duration to your own short visage. having received letters to expostulate with me about we could not, indeed, find any just grounds for it from several of my readers of the remotest complaint in the method you took to dissolve that boroughs of Great Britain. Among these I am very venerable body; no, the world was not worthy of well pleased with a letter dated from Berwick-upon- your divine. Will Honeycomb could not, with any Twced, wherein any correspondent compares the reputation, live single any longer. It was high office, which I have for some time executed in these time for the Templar to turn himself to Coke; and realms, to the weeding of a great garden ; "which,” Sir Roger's dying was the wisest thing he ever did says he, “it is not sufficient to weed once for all, in his life. It was, however, matter of great grief and afterwards to give over, but that the work must to us, to think that we were in danger of losing so be contirued daily, or the same spots of ground elegant and valuable an entertainment. And we which are cleared for a while will in a little time be could not, without sorrow, reflect that we were likely overrun as much as ever.". Another gentleman lays to have nothing to interrupt our sips in the morning, before me several enormities that are already sprout- and to suspend our coffee in mid-air, between our ing, and which he believes will discover themselves lips and right ear, but the ordinary trash of new in their full growth immediately after my disappear- papers. We resolved, therefore, not to part with " There is no doubt,” says he, “ but the you so.

But since, to make use of your own alluladies' heads will shoot up as soon as they know sion, the cherries began now to crowd the market, they are no longer under the Spectator's eye; and and their season was almost over, we consulted out I have already seen such monstrous broad-brimmed future enjoyments, and endeavoured to make the hats under the arms of foreigners, that I question exquisite pleasure that delicious fruit gave our taste not but they will overshadow the island within a as lasting as we could, and by drying them, protract month or two after the dropping of your paper.” their stay beyond its natural date. We dwa that But, among all the letters which are come to my thus they have not a flavour equal to their juicy hands, there is nene so handsomely written as the bloom ; but yet, under this disadvantage, they páque following one, which I am the more pleased with as the palate, and bccome a salver better than any

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other fruit at its first appearance. To speak plain, |of after-ages, who should proceed upon his notices there are a number of us who have b gun your or conjectures. , works afresh, and meet two nights in the week in “ The excellent Mr. Boyle was the person who order to give you a re-hearing. We never come seems to have been designed by nature to succeed together without drinking your health, and as sel to the labours and inquiries of that extraordinary dom part without general expressions of thanks to genius I have just mentioned. By innumerable you for our night's improvement. This we conceive experiments, he in a great measure filled up those to be a more useful institution than any other club plans and outlines of science, which his predecessor whatever, not excepting even that of Ugly Faces. had sketched out. His life was spent in the pursuit We have one manifest advantage over that renowned of nature through a great variety of forms and Society, with respect to Mr. Spectator's company. changes, and in the most rational as well as devout For though they may brag that you sometimes make adoration of its divine Author. your personal appearance amongst them, it is im- It would be impossible to name many persons possible they should ever get a word from you, who have extended their capacities so far as these whereas you are with us the reverse of what Phæ- two, in the studies they pursued; but my learned dria would have his mistress be in his rival's com- readers on this occasion will naturally turn their pany, present in your absence.' We make you thoughts to a third, who is yet living, and is liketalk as much and as long as we please; and, let me wise the glory of our own nation. The improvetell yon, you seldom hold your tongue for the whole ments which others had made in natural and inathe. evening. I promise myself you will look with an matical knowledge has so vastly increased in his eye of favour upon a meeting which owes its original hands, as to afford at once a wonderful instance how to a mutual emulation among its members, who great the capacity is of a human soul; and how inshall show the most profound respect for your paper; exhaustible the subject of its inquiries : so true is not but we have a very great value for your person that remark in holy writ, that though a wise man and I dare say you can no where find four more seek to find out the works of God froin the beginsincere Admirers, and bumble Servants, than ning to the end, yet shall be not be able to do it.' "T. F. G. S. J. T. E. F." "I cannot help mentioning here one character

more of a different kind indeed from these, yet such

a one as may serve to show the wonderful force of No. 554.) FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1712. vature and of application, and is the most singular -Tentanda via est. qua me quoque possim

instance of a universal genius I have ever met with. Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora.

The person I mean is Leonardo de Vinci, an Italian

Virg. Georg. iii. 9. painter, descended from a noble family in Tuscany, New ways I must attempt, my grovelling name

about the beginning of the sixteentht century. In To raise aloft, and sing iny fight to fame.-DRYDEN.

his profession of history-painting be was so great a I Am obliged for the following essay, as well for master, that some have affirmed he excelled all who that which lays down rules out of Tully for pronun- went before him. It is certain that be raised the ciation and action, to the ingenious author of a poem envy of Michael Angelo, who was his contemporary, just published, entitled An Ode to the Creator of the and that from the study of his works Raphael himWorld, occasioned by the Fragments of Orpheus. self learned his best manner of designing. He was

" It is a remark, made as I remember by a cele- a master too in sculpture and architecture, and brated French autbor, that no man ever pushed his skilful in anatomy, mathematics, and mechanics. capacity as far as it was able to extend. I shall not The aqueduct from the river Adda to Milan is meninquire whether this assertion be strictly true. It tioned as a work of his contrivance. He had learned may suffice to say, that men of the greatest applica- several languages, and was acquainted with the tion and acquirements can look back upon many studies of history, philosophy, poetry, and music. vacant spaces, and neglected parts of time, wbich Though it is not necessary to my present purpose, have slipped away from them unemployed; and I cannot but take notice, that all who have writ of ibere is hardly any one considering person in the him mention likewise his perfection of body. The world but is apt to fancy with himself, at some time or instances of his strength are almost incredible. He other, that if his life were to begin again he could is described to have been of a well-formed person, fill it up better.

and a master of all genteel exercises. And, lastly, * The mind is most provoked to cast on itself this we are told that his moral qualities were agreeable ingenuous reproach, when the examples of such to bis natural and intellectual endowments, and men are presented to it as have far outshot the gene that he was of an honest and generous mind, rality of their species in learning, arts, or any valu- adorned with great sweetness of manners. I might able improvements.

break off the account of him here, but I imagine it "One of the most extensive and improved geni- will be an entertainment to the curiosity of my uses we have had any instance of in our own nation, readers, to find so remarkable a character distinor in any other, was that of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord guished by as remarkable a circumstance at his Verulam. This great man, by an extraordinary deatb. The fame of bis works having gained him kutce of nature, compass of thought, and indefatiga. a universal esteem, he was invited to the court of ble study, had amassed to himself such stores of France, where, after some time, he fell sick; and knowledge as we cannot look upon without amaze- Francis the First coming to see him, he raised' himment. His capacity seemed to have grasped all that self in his bed to acknowledge the honour which was revealed in books before his time; and, not was done him by that visit. The king embraced satisfied with that, he began to strike out new tracts him, and Leonardo, fainting in the same instant, of seience, too many to be travelled over by any one expired in the arms of that great monarch. man in the compass of the longest life. 'řhese "It is impossible to attend to such instances as therefore he could only mark down, like imperfect these without being raised into a contemplation ou voastings in maps, on supposed points of land, to be funbe: discovered and ascertained by the industry. ir Isaac Nexiun. + He was born in 1445, and died in 1520.