Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand, my parting interview, &c., and the many noblemen and gentlemen who had completed their education at Eton under my guidance, I soon taught them to regard me with proper respect. As I had my wife and children on board, I thought it best to represent myself as a deputation from the parent society, which used to come to Windsor when Mr. Selwyn was there, sent to prepare matters for the Bishop, and the attention paid to me by many of the passengers, in the hope that I shall exert my great influence in the colony to their advantage, are both numerous and gratifying. Nothing could have been more fortunate than the long practising in the victualling line which Wasp enjoyed at Eton under my superintendence. Not knowing what privations I might have to suffer in New Zealand until the unhenlightened natives had had time to appreciate my worth, I thought it but right to keep him up to his work by the practise which the well-stocked preserves on the poop amply afforded. The gentility of the fare thus obtained forms an agreeable contrast to the junk and hard biscuit to which the rest of our mess are condemned, and while it adds considerably to my importance in their eyes, the abduction of his live stock makes the steward more willing than ever to pay for my services as ratcatcher. By these means I have been able to combine pleasure with advantage, as becomes an adept in our art, and have hitherto made the voyage pass agreeably enough. As it is now nearly four months since I left Brocas lane for ever, I am daily expecting to reach New Zealand, the rypeck of my hopes, the scene of my future labours in the good cause. If compelled by necessity for a time to follow the plough, be assured, my old friends, that I will never lay aside the principles which have always been the pride and support of our profession, and that if ever a second Eton should be founded in New Zealand I will cheerfully devote myself to the performance of those duties which none but an old Etonian like myself can worthily discharge. I hope that before long you will find time to let me know how you are all getting on at Eton. My affection for my old haunts and old comrades is unchanged, and if any of you should ever feel inclined to follow me over the water, you will always be welcome at Kitson House. The captain calls for letters, so with love to all Etonians, 1 remain, Your old chum, JACK KITSON. ; LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. AMORIS PHILOSOPHIA. Altum nonne vides ut osculantur Montes æthera mutuosque ut undæ · SHELLEY. TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. Λέγουσιν αἱ γυναικες ̓Ανακρεων γέρων ει, κ. τ. δ. Ruga, tibi frontem sulcat,dixere puellæ, ON HEARING HANDEL'S ANTHEM "HOLY, HOLY," &c. Hear ye that voice, that through the fretted aisle, Can ye ecstatic notes so soon be o'er, Too sweet to linger on the chilling earth? Too soon on echo's viewless wings to soar, And sing in heaven his praise who gave ye birth? Yet hark! that voice-O listen while ye may; Still fuller swelling seems in kind delay, To grant a foretaste of the songs of heaven. Hark! Still that thrilling note is held, and still A. THE ETON BUREAU. No. IV. THE POET VIRGIL. If you take from Virgil his diction and metre, what do you leave him? Coleridge's Table Talk. The great writer, whose words I have quoted above, used to say that all Eton men were wont to swear 66 per Maronem." Perhaps indeed, this is hardly the case in point of fact, but if it were so, there would, I believe, be great differences of opinion, whether or not it should be looked upon as a reproach. It is with a view of endea vouring to ascertain upon some fixed principles, the position which this celebrated poet is entitled to hold, that I have ventured to throw together the following considerations. There are few distinguished names in literature, perhaps none, which hold so anomalous a position as that of Virgil. The well-known epigram places him in the triad of great poets. Scaliger, and in later times the Zoili of the French school were inclined to exalt him above even Homer, as the perfect master of finished elegance. We, in these days, are in no danger of falling into this mistake. H We are rather given to deny his being a poet at all, than to place him at the head, or even in the first ranks of the sacred band. Originality, depth, philosophy, naturalness, insight; these are the characteristics of our ideal poet, and we refuse to grant the name to any one, who cannot shew us all, or most of these mental qualities. Hence it is that while Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, Shelley, are to various classes of minds the very Gods of their idolatry, few will now-a-days be found to declare for Pope, or his followers. Perhaps our present feelings are on the right side. Perhaps the extreme of the (so called) romantic, is better than the extreme of the (so called) classic school. That we are in an extreme, I very strongly believe, and the common language we hear used of Virgil, I think, amply proves it. I cannot certainly deny that in some of the abovementioned qualities, Virgil is very signally deficient. He cannot boast of much originality. Niebuhr in a very eloquent passage1 has pointed out the utter want of it in the Æneid, which he describes as but a splendid piece of patchwork, a skilful specimen of mosaic, brilliant indeed and highly polished, but lacking the consistent unity, the informing spirit of a master mind; not poured into the mould in one full unbroken stream, but joined together like a cabinet, bit by bit, through minute and elaborate mechanism. Of the Eneid as compared with the Iliad, we may perhaps say, (and here I wish to speak quite gencrally,) that the one is the work of talent, but the other of genius; we can analyze our feelings as to the one, we cannot as to the other; the workmanship strikes us in the one, we scarce think of it in the other; the work 1 Niebuhr, vol. I. p. 197. 3d. Ed. |