and the wealth of nations, depend upon experimental philosophy. Had he possessed knowledge enough to understand this, he would not have talked with so much silly contempt of pursuits he was not capable of appreciating.

I was led into this train of reflection by an instance of egregious preference to a favourite study, that, so far as I know, is unexampled. The author of the book, from whence I have taken the following extract, adduces, as an argument of the science of HERALDRY, being founded on the universal propensities of nature, from having seen some American Indians, with their 'skins tattowed, in stripes parallel and crossed (barries). Thinking your readers will be amused by it, I send you the extract. INTRODUCTIO at Latinam Blasoniam. Authore Johanne Gibbono Armorumservulo quem a mantilio dicunt Cæruleo. 1682, London. p. 156.

The book entitled Jews in America, tells you, that the sachem and chief princes of the Nunkyganses, in Newengland, submitted to king Charles I, subscribing their names, and setting their seals, which were a BOW BENT, CHARGED WITH AN ARROW, AT REVERSED, A TOMAHAWK OR HACHET ERECTED, such a one borne BARRYWISE, edge downward, and a FAWN. A great part of Anno 1659, till February, the year following, I lived in Virginia, being most hospitably entertained by the honourable col. R. Lee, sometimes secretary of state there, and who, after the king's martyrdom, hired a Dutch vessel, freighted her himself, and went to Brussels, surrendered up sir William Barclaie's old commission (for the government of that Province) and received a new one from his present majesty: (a loyal action, and deserving my commemoration) neither will I omit his arms, being GUL. A FES. CHEQUY, OR, BL BETWEEN EIGHT BILLETS ARG. being descended from the Lees of Shropshire, who sometimes bore eight billets, sometimes ten, and sometimes the Fesse Contercompone (as I have seen by our office records.) I will blason it thus: In Clypeo rutilo; Fasciam pluribus quadratis auri et cyani, alternis æquisque spacis (ducter triplici positis) confectam et inter octo Plinthides argenteas collocatam. I say, while I lived in VIRGINIA, I saw once a war dance acted by the

natives. The dancers were painted some PARTY PER PALE GAL. ET SAB. from forehead to foot, (some PARTY PER FESSE of the same colours) and carried little ill made shields of bark, also painted of those colours, (for I saw no other) some PARTY PER FESSE, SOME PER PALE, (and some BARRY) at which I exceedingly wondered, and concluded that heraldry was engrafted naturally into the sense of the human race. If so, it deserves a greater esteem than is now-a-days put upon it.

T. C.

NOTES OF A DESULTORY READER-FOR THE PORT FOLIO,

AMONG the modern candidates for fame in the career of Latin poetry, none perhaps attained such felicity of execution, as William Dobson, the translator into Latin verse, of Prior's Solomon. It has been said by doctor Johnson, that Pope had employed him to put into the same language his Essay on Man, but whether it was finished or not, does not appear. The Paradise Lost, however, of Milton, was translated by Dobson, about thirty lines of which are given by doctor Beattie in one of his letters, with great commendation both of the latinity and poetry.

Perhaps no passage could be cited from the Solomon, in which the fidelity as well as elegance of Dobson's version would not, upon a comparison with the original, appear; and therefore, the following, from the second book on Pleasure, is not so much selected for any peculiar beauty in the translation as from its being a pleasing passage in the original. It is hoped the amateurs of the modern school, have not so entirely lost all relish for the earlier, and, in their day, fashionable poets of the nation from which we derive our language and literature, as to avert their eyes from a few lines of Prior.

Not that these arts can here successful prove;

For I am destin'd to another's love.

Beyond the cruel bounds of thy command,

To my dear equal in my native land,

My plighted vow I gave; I his receiv'd:

Each swore with truth, with pleasure cach believ'd.

The mutual contract was to heaven convey'd:
In equal scales the busy angels weigh'd

Its solemn force, and clap'd their wings and spread
The lasting roll, recording what we said.

Thus Dobson:

Nil tamen hic artes poterunt præstare placendi:
Est mihi qui dedùm sibi me devinxit; amores
Abstulit ille meos: nec jussa minæque feroces
Abrumpent fœdus, patriis quod carus in oris
Mecum iniit juvenis; junxit data dextra vicissim
Concordes; neque vana animos fiducia fallet:
Ad superas arces se mutua vota ferebant,
Cœlituumque cohors libratam utrinque bilanci
Spectavere fidem, lætum plaudentibus alis,
Fæderaque æternis servarunt condita fastis.

Milton too, stands high among the writers of Latin poetry. Addison, however, appears to rank above him in this department, in which, he has been said to have furnished several specimens of good Virgilian verse. At any rate, he has infused into some of these poems, the delicate and pleasing vein of humour for which he is so distinguished in his prose writings in his own tongue. His battle of the Cranes and Pigmies, his Puppet Show, and his Bowling Green, are conspicuous instances of this talent. The following description of the turbulent and libertine bully Punch, is truly comic and amusing:

Sed præter reliquos incedit Homuncio rauca
Voce strepens; major subneetit fibula vestem,
Et referunt vivos errantia lumina motus;

In ventrem tumet immodicum; pone eminet ingens
A tergo gibbus; Pygmæum territat agmen
Major, et immanem miratur turba Gigantem.
Hic magna fretus mole imparibusque lacertis
Confisus gracili jactat convicia vulgo,

Et crebro solvit, lepidum caput, ora cachinno.
Quanquam res agitur solenni serea pompa,
Spernit solicitum intractabilis ille tumultum
Et visu importunus adest, atque omnia turbat.
Nec raro invadit molles, pictamque protervo
re petit nympham, invitoque dat oscula ligne.

Equally diverting and descriptive, is the picture of the bowler, urging on as it were with his motions, the too weakly delivered bowl, and imputing the sluggishness of its course, to the unevenness of the ground; as are also the distortions of him, who having made an infamous throw, excites the laughter of the company, and vents his chagrin in bitter imprecations on the totally regardless bowl and its inordinate bias. Speaking of the first; jam cautius exit,

Et leviter sese insinuat revolubile lignum.

At si forte globum qui misit spectat inertem
Serpere, et impressum subito languescere motum,
Pone urget sphæræ vestigia, et anxius instat,
Objurgatque moras currentique imminet orbi.
Atque, ut segnis honos dextræ servetur, iniquam
Incusat terram, ac surgentem in marmore nodum.

Of the second;

Nec risus tacuere globus cum volvitur actus
Infami jactu, aut nimium vestigia plumbum
Allicit, et sphærum à recto trahit insita virtus.
Tum qui projecit, strepitus effundit inanes,
Et variam in speciem distorto corpore falsos
Increpat errores, et dat convicia ligno.
Sphæra sed irarum temnens ludibria cæptum
Pergit iter nullisque movetur surda querelis.

The game of bowls, now unpractised or unknown was once so fashionable, that it was not uncommon for country gentlemen in England, to have bowling greens on their estates. The one at Centre House in the commons of Philadelphia, was a place of much resort some forty or fifty years ago.

We are told by doctor Johnson, that Mr. Addison sought the lady Warwick (to whom he was at last united) in a long and anxious courtship; and their union, he adds, was such as to afford but little encouragement to ambitious love. Be that as it might, the following stanzas, addressed to that lady on Mr. Addison's going to Ireland, by his friend Mr. Rowe, appear to me to express with much tenderness and pathos, the fears and soli

citudes natural on such a separation of the lovers; and there is little doubt, but that they were perused with some interest, in their day. It may be questioned, however, whether they would now be relished, as the poetry is simple, unadorned, and what some would call prosaic; in a style and manner at least, wholly different from that of the modern school, which scarcely suffers an idea to go forth, that is not enveloped in a dense medium of metaphor, imagery, and inversion. For my own part I am so little fastidious in my taste of poetical excellence, as to admit that the verses have pleased me so much, as to induce me to transcribe them entire. Perhaps they may be endured, in that spirit of indulgence which is sometimes granted to the occasional resuscitation of an old and long forgotten song.

VOL. I.

Ye gods and nereid nymphs who rule the sea!

Who chain loud storms, and still the raging main!
With care the gentle Lycidas convey,

And bring the faithful lover safe again.

When Albion's shore with cheerless heart he left,
Pensive and sad upon the deck he stood,

Of ev'ry joy in Chloe's eyes bereft

And wept his sorrow in the swelling flood.

Ah fair maid! whom, as I well divine,

The righteous gods his just reward ordain;

For his return thy pious wishes join,

That thou at length, may'st pay him for his pain.

And since his love, does thine alone pursue,

In arts unpractis'd, and unus'd to range;

I charge thee be by his example true,

And shun thy sex's inclination, change.
When crouds of youthful lovers round thee wait,

And tender thoughts in sweetest words impart;
When thou art woo'd by titles, wealth and state;
Then think on Lycidas, and guard thy heart.

When the gay theatre shall charm thy eyes,
When artful wit shall speak thy beauty's praise;

When harmony shall thy soft soul surprise,
Sooth all thy senses, and thy passions raise:

Amidst whatever various joys appear,

Yet breathe one sigh, for one sad minute mourn;

Rr