fhould lofe in the ftupid filence of our preachers, or the injury they would fuffer from the want of a favourite theme. When these, and other confequences, that might follow, are confidered, it appears to me one of the boldest experiments of the age. Prophecy cannot ken the extent of its evil; and it forebodes, to the eye of fancy, more than Sidrophel forefaw in the Lantern of the Kite.

With these ideas, I rejoiced, when I faw your genius engaged in maturing fome plan for the fupport and continuance of a custom, venerable by antiquity, and honourable by descent. Your projet however favours a little too much of harmless sport. I propose the following amendment, which I think will not excite much ferment in the public mind, and which was fuggefted by the rules of war, established by Meffrs. Swartout and Clinton; and that is, that no gentleman shall take aim above his antagonist's knees; and then, only at the calf-of the leg. I am thus particular, left fome quibbling punster might confider the last clause as contradictory to the firft, and including the whole body.-Under this reftriction the parties may fire, and Besides, we fhall then have the voice, as well as face of war. from the delicacy of our frames, this exposes us but to little danger, and even should an amputation, or a hitch in the gait be the confequence, it would ticket us to fame. This expedient has another recommendation, as it has been often reforted to; and in our Oxford Campaign one of my brother officers cheerfully loft a great toe to gain the title of a bravo. With gratitude for your past services, and a hope of pardon for my prefumption, I remain your humble fervant,

HUGH TREVOR.

P.S. Another prudential confideration fully maintains propriety of continuing the practice of duelling, even to the

tent of fashion, which is, that by this mean r

are too much engaged in amusements for

will thus be honourably provided for.

burden to friends, or becom

in mathematical or metaphysical sciences, if he be not paffionately fond of the belles-lettres, if he have not the talent of writting fine orations and pretty poems, it seemed a fair inference from their remarks, that he must be deftitute of genius.

2

This led me to inquire into the true meaning of the term. Examining Johnson's dictionary I found one of its fignifications to be, "a man endowed with fuperior faculties." According to Dr. Blair," it fignifies that talent or aptitude, which we receive from nature, in order to excel in any one thing whatever. As an illustration he proceeds to remark, "a man is faid to have a genius for mathematics as well, as a genius for poetry." I should, therefore, be glad to know, by what right these young gentlemen are fuch literary monopolifts. Do they hope, by undervaluing other fciences, to raise the reputation of their own? Or do they rather act upon the principle of the crafty animal in the fable, who affected to despise what he could not attain?'

I should not have made these remarks, had I not reason to believe that these performers are neither the first nor the laft, who have delivered fimilar fentiments. A friend of mine, who is in the habit of attending exhibitions, informs me, that it has for feveral years been fashionable to decry almost every species of genius; and that an oration or poem, in every other respect excellent, let the fubject be what it may, is esteemed dry, if not seafoned with invectives against the admirers of Newton and of Locke.

It may be alleged, that thefe are the mere hyperbolical effufions of youthful imagination, and are intended only to affert the vaft fuperiority of the belles-lettres to the other fciences. But this presents a topic too contefted to juftify fuch unequivo cal and dogmatical affertions. It may not require great logical talents to fhow, that the learned world is more indebted for utility, if not for enjoyment, to mathematicians and metaphyfi cians, than to orators and poets. However this fubject may be decided, it is furely oppofed to every juft definition of genius, to limit it to a few in the large circle of arts and sciences. Who will prefume to deny, that Sir Ifaac Newton poffeffed this faculty to an eminent degree? yet we may readily conceive his awkwardness at a popular harangue. Or who will not allow to the celebrated Mr. Locke, a diftinguished genius in metaphy

59

fics? yet he is faid to have preferred the dull and barbarous rhymes of Sir Richard Blackmore, to the productions of any other poet.

PHILO-MATHESIS.

FOR THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

SCRAPS FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

DURING the "Age of Glory," the reigning trait in the

Athenians was modefty. No man thrust himself into public notice. Praises were fparingly beftowed, and feldom confined to individuals. The whole army fhared with the General in the glory of victory. In all these respects, modern times differ from the ancient. Is this difference a confequence of our virtues or our vices? When applause is lavished on individuals, have we not reason to fear that the greatest part of the community are much their inferiors? We do not celebrate as extraordinary, a man who is but little exalted above his fellows. Every foldier in the Athenian army was a Miltiades; and hence they rejected that General's exclufive claim to a crown of laurel. Athenian degeneracy had commenced, when they gave to Arif tides the firname of " the Juft." This title was a confeffion that the virtue which they celebrated was becoming rare.

THE ancients heaped flowers on dead bodies, but only gave a wreath of laurel to the living hero. Let us obferve this rule in writing. Great thoughts like great men need only fimple drefs; but let us cover the corpfe of dulnefs with all the flowers of rhetoric.

IN ancient times Parnassus was confidered as hard of afcent, and its top appeared almost inacceffible. But in modern times we seem to have made a beaten cartway over it, and who is fo dull as not to travel it without difficulty or danger? Helicon was represented as a fcanty fountain, and happy was the poet who could get an infpiring draught. But now it has fwelled

into a river, and every plough-boy, in the field of science, waters his horses at the stream. Ancient poets fung of a fecret influence from the mufes, which purged their mental vifion, and difcovered fcenes, fairer than Tempe to their view. But infpiration now defcends in the form of a fog, and the beclouded fancy, which paints a monfter, while it talks of sketching nature, is admired for the boldnefs and wildness of its conceptions.

THE moral fublime is the most effentially and univerfally fublime of all the fpecies of fublimity. To a being who can comprehend heaven and earth at a glance, in whose eye Olympus is nothing more than a mole-hill, and who looks on the moon as we do on a tennis-ball, that celebrated paffage of Homer, where he represents Jove as shaking Olympus, and that of Milton, in which the fhield of Satan is compared to the full-orbed moon, must appear trifling and puerile. This fpecies of fublimity is adapted to beings poffeffed of phyfical powers, as narrow and confined as our own. But moral fublimity is founded on the distinctions which exist between moral good and moral evil, distinctions, as eternal, immutable and important as the Deity himfelf, which must approve themselves to every intellectual nature, and will imprefs in proportion to the rank of the being, by whom they are contemplated. What is here obferved of compofition may be applied to character. When the might of the hero will be defpifed or forgotten, the goodness of the faint will find its reward in the love and efteem of the highest orders of the moral

creation.

GREATNESS of mind discovers itself by the fimplicity of its means for effecting important ends. It never labours; for it is familiar with great operations. Hence it is never elated with the effects it produces. In the great mind great works excite no admiration. To the animalcule, a leaf is a world, and he who removes a particle is a giant. We never boast, unless we accomplish fomething, which appears difproportioned to our ftrength. But the great wield without fenfible exertion those mighty fchemes, under which the feeble toil and ftruggle. Greatness and vanity are therefore inconfiftent. The

great

im