Drummond, considering the changes that are to be made, and the money to be laid out upon your account. If we once get you there again, you shall not so easily escape as at first. Your landlady remarked on your departure," Mrs. Montagu seems to be in a great hurry." Perhaps not, said I; but I did not care to press her, as I know you are not fond of new faces. "A most unlucky mistake,” replied she; "for I know not such an agreeable woman, or so comfortable a companion: I could pass my life with her." And the And the same would be the taste of, Madam, your devoted servant; I hope in time to merit the appellation of your faithful friend, HENRY HOME." Letter 2. MRS. MONTAGU TO LORD KAMES. MY LORD, Denton, Nov. 4, 1766. "I never knew a wise and celebrated person, who was not afraid to write a letter to a trifling correspondent; for when such a man looks down from the summit of his wis dom, and the pinnacle of his reputation, upon so low and minute an object as a common letter, his head begins to turn, and his sight to grow unsteady. So, Sir, take the pains and the penalties, with the painful preeminence of your elevation; whilst I, who am on a level with such matters, enjoy the pleasure of writing without fear or wit, and the honour of corresponding with one who writes with both. Happily, whatever flows from the heart goes most directly to the obtaining of that friendship you so kindly offer, and I am so desirous to establish. "I remember perfectly the walk your Lordship mentions, and all the beauties of that sweet place. It is happy for a person of your taste, to find in his morning's walk, the pastoral, the epick, and the tragick beauties. The gently murmuring river, the shady banks, the beautiful pastures, the noble castle of Stirling, rising in the pride of impregnable strength, defying force and time; and the ruined castle of the Regent, which brings to mind the tale of other times, the catastrophe of ambition, and the downfall of greatness, suggest the soft and tender, the sublime and the melancholy ideas, and exercise the various power and affections of the soul. Where there is this happy assemblage of poetick and romantick beauties, so properly adapted to his genius, we will sit and read the charming poet, who sings of Le Donne, i cavalieri, l'arme, gli amori, Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese. "I approve greatly of your lordship's scheme of making a winter garden. We are apt to do in our gardens, as we do in our minds; to cultivate the gay ornaments of the summer season, and aim at having all those things, which flourish by mild sunshine, and gracious dews; forgetful of the rude elements of human life, and regardless of the seasons of unfriendly and churlish weather, when sunbeams warm no more, and chilling hoar-frosts fall. Sage is the gardener who procures a friendly shelter of ever-greens to protect him from December storms, and cultivates the winter plants that adorn and enliven the dreary season, He is but half a philosopher, who, when the gardens of Epicurus are out of bloom, cannot retire into the Stoick's walk; and he is too much one, who would rigidly prohibit the gay flowers and sweet aromatics of the summer, and sit always under the cypress shade: so I expect to find the roses and carnations at Blair-Drummond in June, as well as the snowdrop and cyclamen in December. Your winter garden will be a moral lesson, as well as a pleasant walk for your posterity, recommended to their cultivation, unfading merits and faithful friends. "I am very glad there is going to be a new edition of the Elements of Criticism, as I hope the work will be enlarged. Your Lordship does me very unmerited honour, in wishing my name joined to yours in that work; it would be like setting the impression of my silver thimble beside the broad seal of England. "I agree entirely with your Lord. ship, that in things of use, the ornamental part should be subordinate, and the propriety and fitness to its purpose should be apparent. The feet of a chair should express steadiness and firmness. A claw, whether of lion or eagle, is absurd; as the business of it is not to snatch or tear, but to support. Foliages round the frame of a chair or table, are not improper, they adorn the form, without perverting it; and such ornaments are so natural, we may suppose, that in the ages of simplicity, in honour of extraordinary guests, or to add a gaiety to feasts, flowers and branches were put on them. We have fine Gothick buildings in this country, and we have imported Grecian and Roman architecture; but in regard to les meubles, we are still in a very barbarous state. I think I could explain why we are so, if my letter was not already too long, to admit of tracing these things to their sources: so I shall only observe, that the old Goths loved punning, and their most polite Lord Kames inserted these observations with some alterations, in a note in the new edition of "Elements of Criticism." descendants are addicted to concetti. The tealeaf imitated in a teaspoon, is most absurd; but in the infancy and decline of taste, the imagination sports with resemblances, relations and analogies; too weak to form a complete design, it pursues some hint given by the nature of the thing to be adorned. I do not know whether I express myself intelligibly, but I mean something, though I am puzzled to communicate that meaning: I may say, as a certain French author does, however, Si je ne m'entends pas, je me devine.* "I am more than vain, I am proud of Mrs. Drummond's partiality. I desire your Lordship to keep up my interest in that lady. She has so perfectly gained my esteem, that I should be grieved and mortified to lose any share of hers which she ever honoured me with. I had the honour of a most polite and agreeable letter from her. I desire my most respectful compliments to her. I am rejoiced to find your Lordship thinks of being in London this winter. I hope Mrs. Drummond and your son will be of the party.—I am, with great esteem, my Lord, &c. &c. ELIZ. MONTAGU." The Lady expresses her meaning with great perspicuity. But even in an age of refined taste, an inventive fancy may sport itself capriciously without offence in works where show is combined with utility. Some of the Etruscan utensils, (as their lamps) are fantastical in the highest degree, both in their forms and decorations; and the taste is not to amusement. be condemned, if it gives innocent A silver creampot in the form of a cow, which receives its contents by an opening in the back, and discharges them at the mouth, is not the most convenient form for its office, nor has the device much, consonance to nature; but if the utensil performs its purpose tolerably, and the workmanship is excellent, we do not admire it the less for the conceit. POETRY. >00000000000000 SELECTED. ELEGY, OCCASIONED BY THE LOSS OF SEVERAL VALUED FRIENDS, WHOSE DEATHS SPEEDILY FOLLOWED EACH OTHER. POWERS, not alone, that what appears, perceive, POWERS, at the magick of whose rousing voice, Are THESE but works of blindly labouring clay? It is not so they cannot be extinct : Such sacred essence ne'er can shrink to nought: Yes, ye, that, kept by Memory's wondrous skill, As firmly fixt abide in being still; 'Tis not alone your lov'd ideas wear, To this fair hope my trusting bosom clings: FOR MARCH 1808. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, que commutanda, quæ eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. PLIN. THE rapid increase of publications containing reports of cases, adjudged in the various tribunals of justice in Great Britain and America, sufficiently prove the estimation, in which these valuable records of judicial history are held by the publick. Indeed the utility of a general diffusion of the principles, upon which the security of property, life and reputation depend, must be manifest to all, who know and value the legitimate objects of government and society. In the dark ages of the world, antecedent to and during the prevalence of the feudal system, laws seemed to be little more than a system for the benefit of masters in the government of their slaves; and the people scarcely felt an interest in the establishment or administration of codes, which had no respect to their security or comfort. The gross ignorance of the laity, who knew no art but war, necessarily rendered the clergy the sole de positories of the law, as well as the religion, of their country; and it is not surprising, that while the precepts of our holy religion, and the forms of worship were concealed from the common eye, in language unattainable but by the arrogant few, that the laws and the proceedings of the courts of justice, under the controul of the same class of men, should be enveloped in myste ries. The sudden declension of this mischievous monopoly, after the reformation had put to flight the army of monks, which infested England, and with them their arrogant pretensions to exclusive dominion in the oligarchy, rather than the republick, of letters, opened to the world sources of improvement, of which successive generations have availed themselves to purify the sciences from the rust of monastick pedantry, and to make them subservient to the comfort and happiness of society. The powerful spirit of commerce too had dissolved the charm, which bound the mind of man to disgraceful servitude, and unshackled property from the fetters, which ages of tyranny had fastened; so that the fruits of labour became the right of him, by whose fatigue they were earned." The whole community |