Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

ANOMALIES

will exist in language, as well as in nature. The rules of a language must be supplied by itself; and the si volet usus of Horace answers a thousand objections of half-learned criticks. Priestley says, ' The word means belongs to the class of words, which do not change their termination, on account of number; for it is used alike in both numbers.' Campbell, who, in grammar, is a yet better authority, is of the same opinion. No person of taste,' he remarks, will, I presume, venture so far to violate the present usage, and conquently to shock the ears of the generality of readers as to say, By this mean, by that mean? Even Webster is ashamed to contend for such phrases. Yet one half the lawyers and clergymen of this metropolis are continually labour ing to reduce this noun means to the obedience of common law. Let them turn to Lindley Murray, who adduces examples against them from fifteen authors of the first celebrity. In vain, therefore, am I told, that means and amends were once trained among regular troops,when I know that they now are enlisted in the corps of dragoons; and that in that service they have been honoured with the commands of Addison, Atterbury, Blackstone, Pope, Swift, and other literary heroes of the same rank.

Burke,

BURKE AND LAHARPE.

Ir is not a little curious, though not perhaps surprising, that Burke, the carliest of the anti-revolutionary enthusiasts in England, and Laharpe, the most eloquent of the anti-jacobins in France, should have seized upon precisely the same image, to depict the unnatural odiousness of the worst of those

factions, which successively exercised the democratick tyranny of the revolution. The celebrated letter to the duke of Bedford was written in 1796. Who remembers not the following passage? The revolution harpies of France, sprung from night and hell, or from that chaotick anarchy, which generates equivocally" all monstrous, all prodigious things," cuckoo-like adulterously lay their eggs, and brood over, and hatch them in the nest of every neighbouring state. These obscene harpies, who deck themselves, in I know not what divine attributes, but who in reality are foul and ravenous birds of prey (both mothers and daughters) flutter over our heads, and souse down upon our tables, and leave nothing unrent, unrifled, unravaged, or unpolluted with the slime of their filthy offal.'

Laharpe, at the re-opening of the Lyceum in the year 1794, after the fall of Robespierre, delivered a discourse, conceived in a style of splendid, indignant, exulting, and vehement eloquence, which is hardly inferiour to the philippicks of Demosthenes, and not unlike the declamations of Cicero against Antony. No man in France, and except Burke in Europe, had then dared to speak in such a tone of energetick indignation of what Laharpe then first called the reign of monsters. We have translated the following passage. He has been speaking of the intrusion of the ignorant and brutal creatures of Robespierre at the meetings of the Lyceum. In one word,' says Laharpe, this irruption of our ty rants, to overawe and pollute the peaceful festivals we here enjoy, can be represented only by one of those fabulous inventions, which enable the mind to conceive of those that are real, (by the creation

[ocr errors]

of imaginary monsters.) In the present instance the justness of the resemblance must atone for the hideousness of the objects compared. It must be permitted us to make use of images, which are faithful, though somewhat disgusting. Of these men we cannot speak without polluting language, as they have polluted human nature, and I wish that our language were as flexible in its tones as that of Virgil, when he described the harpies; that it might present you a picture of those hideous, filthy, and voracious animals, coming with their shrill cry, their infectious plumage, their hooked claws, and fetid breath, pouncing upon the banquet of Eneas, and besmearing with their excrements the meats, the table, and the guests, before they carried away their prey into the air.' Burke has quoted the original in a note.

Tristius haud illis monstrum, nec sævior ulla

Pestis, et ira Deûm Stygiis sese extulit undis

Virginei volucrum vultus; fœdissima ventris Proluvies; uncæque manus; et pallida

semper

Ora fame.'

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY is better known as a friend of Elizabeth's and patron of Spenser, than as a favourite of the muses. His pastoral romance called the Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, contains, together with much quaint, punning prose, many specimens of verse in different measures, some of which are not destitute of harmony, sprightliness, and wit. There are few probably, who ever read the whole of the Arcadia. It would require as much patient perseverance, as to labour through the pages of Ossian but the reward would be

[ocr errors]

greater. Sir Philip attempted hexameter, pentameter, sapphicks, &c. He had his share of taste; but the English language had not then acquired that flexibility, nor that harmony of combination, which have been exemplified by poets since his time. Many of his pastoral pieces are highly poetical in thought and figure, even when destitute of the melody of later bards.

The following lines, framed for the Echo, and intended for hexameter, will shew the impotence of our language when arrayed in dactyls and spondees :

Eccho, what doe I get yielding my sprite to my grieves? Grieves. What medicine may I find for a griefe that drawes me to death? Death. O poisonous medicine! what worse to me can be than it ? It. In what state was I then, when I tooke this deadly disease? Ease. And what maner a mind that had to that humour a vaine ? Vaine. Hath not reason enough vehemence the desire to reprove? Prove. Oft prove I ; but what salve, when reason seekes to be gone? One. Oh! what is it? what is it that may be a salve to my love? Love. What doe lovers seeke for, long seeking for to enjoy? Joy. What be the joyes which for to enjoy

they went to the paines? Paines. Then to an earnest love what doth best victorie lend? End.'

In his songs and sonnets, his sapphicks and anacreonticks, Sir Philip was not wholly unsuccessful.

They exhibit more of the poetry of fiction, than of the barmony of numbers; and more happiness of thought, than gracefulness of expression. The lover may here quaff to his full, and present delicious draughts to his mistress. The cultivator of romance may find in Arcadia something fit for every soil; and the heroes and heroines, swains and lasses, though accustomed to wan

der in its groves, may be transplanted to any climate by the skilful hand of fiction.

SIMPLE SONGS.

THE decay of simplicity in our songs and ballads has given me great uneasiness. Those beautiful compositions, whose authors never proudly aimed at description and sentiments above the comprehension of the lovelorn cookmaid and romantick hostler, are now seldom heard. That most delectable offspring of untutored nature the Caledonian maid' now rarely visits our fashionable circles; but her place is filled by other Scotch lassies of Burns, or by Exiles of Erin or wounded HusBut the writer of that song will forever receive the benedictions of the most numerous class of readers, and of hearers, who are unable to read, for bringing terms of art and abstract science into his humble work, adapted, like our popular geographies, to the level of the lowest capacities. With unequalled pathos he explains the reason, why she could not express the innate cause' of her sorrow.

sars.

Ere reason form'd her tender mind, The virgin learn'd to love : Compassion taught her to be kind, Deceit she was above.'

How many amorous maids, pierced by the shafts of the unrelenting god, before their tender minds were fortified by reason, will view in this mirrour a perfect reflection of their own unhappy features; where once inanity of mind stared through unfixed eyes, and shed a cheering simper on the face, now clouded by doubts and deformed by jealousy.

But the most charming effusion of simplicity, uncontaminated by thought, in language impres

sive and perspicuous by frequent iterations, is the divine ode, called the blue bells of Scotland. Here is no refinement of sentiment, or involution of expression: all is instantly intelligible, and to this κτημα ες αιει the sublimest hom age/will constantly be paid by the The lover of pure naturals. phrase has perhaps never been It used in this sense before. means, verse unburthened by that weight of sense, which destroys simplicity, restrains imagination,

and vitiates sentiment.

In imitation of this ballad, the favourite bantling of the muses, I have attempted a new song in the same strain of simplicity, and it may be warbled with equal passion by the cowherds of the country.

[blocks in formation]

forcible description, of simplicity and irresistible pathos, is found in this effusion, it is all drawn from his fountain.

Perhaps some carping rival may object, that the illustrious subject of my ode is not cloathed in all his proper habiliments.

His nose adorn'd with iron,
His neck a yoke it had.

But the first article is intended to excite in the mind an exalted opinion of the hero's courage, as the second must of his patience. Besides, I may urge, that my noble predecessor, in arraying his • Highland laddie,' has mentioned only his bonnet and waistcoat; and surely nobody can suppose, that so great a personage wore no other dress, however unprotected his countrymen are usually described.

In the adaptation of musick for the funeral dirge I may have been unsuccessful; but this must be attributed to our ignorance of what might be most agreeable to the illustrious shade. The bassoon was selected as nearly resembling the melody of the departed pig. Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Graii, Nescio quid majus nascitur Piggiade.

[blocks in formation]

On

cation. Education is conducted in families and schools. Domestick care is a most powerful agent in the formation of character. Men of great authority have given to instruction in the family, where this instruction can be obtained, the preference over the common places of publick education. They have maintained, that, under the eye of a parent and private tutor, morals would be more secure, and diligence insured, and improvement effected by avoiding the neglect arising from the confusion and hurry of a large school. the other hand it has been replied, the partiality and indulgence of the family, prove, in general, greater impediments to morals and improvement, than any contagion or neglect incident to the assemblage of numbers in one place; whilst many important advantages belong exclusively to publick schools. In these the pupil is aided by system. From sympathy and imitation he acquires the spirit of order. Here compulsion and correction are employed. The learner is stimulated by rivals and assisted by friends. Honour and shame exert their whole force, and society gives animation both to his studies and pastime. Comparing his acquisitions with those of others, he estimates them less by his vanity, than by the standard of truth. Living on terms of equality with his fellows, he gains a manly and generous disposition : and he is preserved from that insolence and pride, which the solitary pupil, who is the chief object of attention, is prone to indulge.

ORIGINAL LETTER OF MRS. MONTAGU.

Mrs. Montagu to Mrs. W. B. Chaillot, Sept. 19, 1776.

DEAR MADAM,

I had the pleasure of receiving your obliging letter from the hands of a very lively polite French lady. Who she is I cannot learn, for at Paris every body does not know every body as at London. Miss G and I were going to step into the coach with an intention to pass one night at Paris; but I changed my scheme, and insisted on Madame C staying the evening: she has travelled a great deal, and is very amusing. I have called twice at her door, but did not find her at home; she wrote me a very obliging note to express her regret. I do not know whether I mentioned to you, that I was disgusted with the noise and dirtiness of an hotel garni. I had the best apartments in the best hotel at Paris. In my drawing-room I had a fine lustre, noble looking glasses, velvet chairs; and in my bed-chamber a rich bed with a superb canopy. Poets and philosophers have told us, that cares and solicitudes lurk under rich canopies, but they never told us, that at Paris les punaises lie concealed there; small evils it may be said, but I assure you as incompatible with sound sleep, as the most formidable terrours or the wildest dreams of ambition. I did not rest well at night, and in the day for the few hours I was chez moi I did not enjoy that kind of comfort one feels at home, so I was determined to have an habitation quite to my self. I got a pretty small house at Chaillot with the most delightful prospect; it was unfurnished, so I hired furniture.

I had not brought house linen, but I found a Flemish linen-draper; then I composed my establishment of servants; I have of English, French, Italians, Germans, and Savoyards; they cannot combine against me, for they hardly understand one another, but they all understand me, and we are as quiet and orderly as possible. I was not ten days from the time I hired my house before I inhabited it. I made use of it at first as an house to sleep in at night, and to visit from in the day, but I soon found out that it was an house in which one might dine and ask others to dinner. I got an excellent cook, who had lived with the Prince of Wirtemberg, and have since had duchesses, and fine ladies, and learned academicians, to dine with me; and I live a la mode de Paris, as much as if I was a native. have usually only a pair of horses; but when I go to visit, or any where at a distance, the man of whom I hire them furnishes me with six and a postillion, so that I have all manner of accommodations.

I

I placed the boys and Mr. Bat a French school, half a quarter of a mile from hence, where they have an opportunity of talking French all day, as well as learning it by rule. If they had been here, the boys must have been continually with servants, for my nephew being too old for a plaything, and not yet a man, it would have been impossible to have introduced him into company. A little child is the prettiest of animals, but of all companions, to be sure a human being before it is at years of rational discourse is the worst, except for those who have a parental

« AnkstesnisTęsti »