in both vocal and inftrumental mufic, he danced with uncommon gracefulness, and on the day after his difputation at Paris exhibited his skill on horfemanship before the court of France, where, at a public match of tilting, he bore away the ring upon his lance fifteen times together.

He excelled likewife in domestic games of lefs dignity and reputation; and in the interval between his challenge and difputation at Paris, he spent fo much of his time at cards, dice, and tennis, that a lampoon was fixed upon the gate of the Sorbonne, directing thofe that would fee this monster of erudition, to look for him at the tavern.

So extenfive was his acquaintance with life and manners, that in an Italian comedy, compofed by himself, and exhibited before the court of Mantua, he is faid to have perfonated fifteen different characters; in all which he might fucceed without great difficulty, fince he had fuch power of retention, that once hearing an oration of an hour, he would repeat it exactly, and in the recital follow the fpeaker through all his variety of tone and gefticulation.

Nor was his skill in arms lefs than in learning, or his courage inferior to his skill: there was a prize-fighter at Mantua, who travelling about the world, according to the barbarous cuftom of that age, as a general challenger, had defeated the most celebrated matters in many parts of Europe; and in Mantua, where he then refided, had killed three that appeared against him. The duke repented that he had granted him his protection; when Crichton, looking on his fanguinary fuccefs with indignation, offered to take fifteen hundred piftoles, and mount the stage against him. The duke, with fome reluctance, confented, and on the day fixed the combatants appeared: their weapon feems to have been the fingle rapier, which was then newly introduced into Italy. The prize fighter advanced with great violence and fiercenefs, and Crichton contented himself calmly to ward his paffes, and fuffered

him to exhauft his vigour by his own fury. Crichton then became the affailant; and preffed upon him with fuch force and agility, that he thrust him thrice through the body, and faw him expire: he then divided the prize he had won among the widows whofe husbands had been killed.

The death of this wonderful man I fhould be willing to conceal, did I not know that every reader will inquire curiously after that fatal hour, which is common to all human beings, however diftinguished from each other by nature or by fortune.

The Duke of Mantua having received fo many proofs of his various merit, made him tutor to his fon Vincentio di Gonzaga, a prince of loofe manners and turbulent difpofition. On this occafion it was, that he composed the comedy in which he exhibited fo many different characters with exact propriety. But his honour was of fhort continuance; for as he was one night in the time of Carnival rambling about the streets, with his guitar in his hand, he was attacked by fix men masked. Neither his courage nor skill in this exigence deferted him; he oppofed them with fuch activity and fpirit, that he foon difperfed them, and disarmed their leader, who throwing off his mask, discovered himfelf to be the prince his pupil. Crichton falling on his knees, took his own fword by the point, and prefented it to the prince; who immediately feized it, and inftigated, as fome fay, by jealousy, according to others only by drunken fury and brutal resentment, thrust him through the heart.

Thus was the Admirable Crichton brought into that ftate, in which he could excel the meanest of mankind only by a few empty honours paid to his memory: the court of Mantua teftified their efteem by a public mourning, the contemporary wits were profufe of their encomiums, and the palaces of Italy were adorned with pictures, representing him on horfeback with a lance in one hand and a book in the other.

N° LXXXII.

TH

HOUGH the danger of difappointment is always in proportion to the height of expectation, yet I this day claim the attention of the ladies, and profels to teach an art by which all may obtain what has hitherto been deemed the prerogative of a few; an art by which their predominant paffion may be gratifed, and their conquefts not only extended but fecured; The art of being Pretty.'

But though my fubject may intereft the ladies, it may, perhaps, offend thofe profound moralifts who have long fince determined, that Beauty ought rather to be defpied than defired; that, like firength, it is a mere natural excellence, the effect of caufes wholly out of our power, and not intended either as the pledge of happincis or the diftinction of

merit.

To thefe gentlemen I fhall remark, that beauty is among thofe qualities which no effort of human wit could ever bring into contempt: it is, therefore, to be wished at least, that beauty was in fome degree dependent upon Sentiment and Manners, that fo high a privilege might not be poffefled by the unworthy, and that human reafon might no longer fuffer the mortification of thofe who are compelled to adore an idol, which differs from a ftone or a log only by the fkill of the artificer: and if they cannot themselves behold beauty with indifference, they must furely approve an attempt to fhew that it merits their regard.

I fhall, however, principally confider that species of beauty which is expreffed in the countenance; for this alone is peculiar to human beings, and is not lefs complicated than their nature. In the countenance there are but two requifites to perfect Beauty, which are wholly produced by external caufes, colour, and proportion: and it will appear, that even in common eftination thefe are not the chief, but that though there may be beauty without them, yet there cannot he beauty without fomething more.

The fineft features, ranged in the most

VIRG.

exact fymmetry, and heightened by the moft blooming complexion, muit be animated before they can frike: and when they are aniinated, will generally excite the fame paffions which they exprefs. If they are fixed in the dead calm of infenfibility, they will be examined without emotion; and if they do not exprefs kindaefs, they will be beheld without love. Looks of contempt, difdain, or malevolence, will be reflected, as from a mirror, by every countenance on which they are turned, and if a wanton aípect excites defire, it is but like that of a favage for his prey, which cannot be gratified without the deftruction of it's object.

Among particular graces, the dimple has always been allowed the pre-eminence, and the reafon is evident, dimples are produced by a fimile, and a fmile is an expreffion of complacency: fo the contraction of the brows into a frown, as it is an indication of a contrary temper, has always been deemed a capital defect.

The lover is generally at a lofs to define the beauty by which his paffion was fuddenly and irresistibly determined to a particular object; but this could never happen, if it depended upon any known rule of propotion, upon the shape or difpofition of the features, or the colour of the fkin; he tells you, that it is fomething which he cannot fully exprefs, fomething not fixed in any part, but diffused over the whole; he calls it a fweetnefs, a foftnefs, a placid fenfibility, or gives it fome other appellation, which connects beauty with Sentiment, and expreffes a charm which is not peculiar to any fet of features, but is perhaps poffible, to all.

This beauty, however, does not always confift in fmiles, but varies as expreflions of mcekness and kinduefs vary with their objects; it is extremely forcible in the filent complaint of patient fufferance, the tender follicitude of friendfhip, and the glow of filial obedience; and in tears, whether of ov, of pity, or of grief, it it almost irresistible.

Both of thefe fhould arife naturally and eafly out of the very effence and fubject of the poem itfelf, fhould not be deduced from circumitances foreign and extrinfical, fhould be at the fame time probable yet wonderful.

The anger of Neptune, who refented the punishment which Ulyffes had inflicted on his fon Polypheme, induces him to prevent the return of the hero to Ithaca, by driving him from country to country by violent tempefts; and from this indignation of Neptune is formed the intrigue of the Odyffey in the first part of the poem; that is, in plain profe, What more natural and ufual obftacle do they encounter who take long voyages, than the violence of winds and ftorms?' The plot of the fecond part of the poem is founded on circumftances equally probable and natural; on the unavoidable effects of the long abfence of a master, whofe return was defpaired of, the infolence of his fervants, the dangers to which his wife and his fon were expofed, the ruin of his estate, and the diforder of his kingdom.

The address and art of Homer in the gradual folution of this plot, by the most probable and eafy expedients, are equally worthy our admiration and applaufe. Ulyffes is driven by a tempeft to the ifland of the Phæacians, where he is generously and hofpitably received. During a banquet which Alcinous the king has prepared for him, the poet most artfully contrives that the bard Demodocus fhould fing the Deftruction of Troy. At the recital of his paft labours, and at hearing the names of his old companions, from whom he was now feparated, our hero could no longer contain himself, but burst into tears and weeps bitterly. The curiofity of Alcinous being excited by this unaccountable forrow, he intreats Ulyffes to difcover who he is, and what he has fuffered; which request furnishes a moft proper and probable occafion to the hero to relate a long feries of adventures in the four following books; an occafion much more natural than that which induces Æneas to communicate his hiftory to Dido. By this judicious conduct, Homer taught his fucceffors the artful manner

of entering abruptly into the midst of the action; and of making the reader acquainted with the previous circumftances by a narrative from the hero. The Phæacians, a people fond of strange and amufing tales, refolved to fit out a fhip for the diftreffed hero, as a reward for the entertainment he has given them. When he arrives in Ithaca, his abfence, his age, and his travels, render him totally unknown to all but his faithful dog Argus: he then puts on a difguife, that he may be the better enabled to furprize and to punish the riotous fuitors, and to re-establish the tranquillity of his kingdom. The reader thinks that Ulyffes is frequently on the point of being difcovered, particularly when he engages in the fhooting-match with the fuitors, and when he enters into converfation with Penelope in the nineteenth book, and perfonates a fictitious character; but he is ftill judiciously disappointed, and the fufpence is kept up as long as poffible. And at laft, when his nurfe Euriclea difcovers him by the fear in his thigh, it is a circumftance fo fimple and fo natural, that notwithstanding Ariftotle places thefe recognitions, by Signs and Tokens, below thofe that are effected by Reasoning, as in the Oedipus and Iphigenia; yet ought it ever to be remembered, that Homer was the original from whom this ftriking method of unravelling a fable, by a difcovery and a peripetie, was manifeftly borrowed. The doubts and fears of Penelope left Ulyffes was not in reality her husband, and the tenderness and endearments that en fue upon her conviction that he is, render the furprize and fatisfaction of the reader compleat.

Upon the whole, the Odyffey is a poem that exhibits the finest lessons of morality, the moft entertaining variety of fcenes and events, the most lively and natural pictures of civil and domeftic life, the trueft reprefentation of the manners and customs of antiquity, and the jufteft pattern of a legitimate Epopee: and is, therefore, peculiarly ufeful to thofe who are animated by the noble ambition of adorning humanity by living or by writing well. Z