"crofs, "Religion-like, ftands mould'ring in "decay. "Where the mild fun, thro' saint-enci"pher'd glass, "Illum'd with mellow light yon "dufky aifle! "Many rapt hours might Meditation pais, "Slow moving 'twixt the pillars of "the pile. And Piety, with myftic-meaning beads, "Bowing to faints on ev'ry fide in"urn'd, "Trod oft the folitary path that leads "Where now the facred altar lies "o'erturn'd. "Thro' the gray grove, between those "with'ring trees, " "Now nameless as the crowd that "kifs'd his veft, 'Mongft a rude group of monuments, appears "A marble imag'd matron on her knees, Half-wafted, like a Niobe in tears. "And crav'd the benediction of his "hands. “Near the brown arch, redoubling "yonder gloom, "Death, pity'd not the pride of "youthful bloom; "Nor could maternal piety diffuade "Or foften the fell tyrant of the "tomb. "The bones of an illuftrious chief❝tain lie; "As trac'd among the fragments of "his tomb "The relics of a mitred faint may rest "Where mould'ring in the niche his " ftatue flands; "The trophies of a broken fame imply. "Ah! what avails, that o'er the vaffal 66 plain "His rights and rich demefnes ex"tended wide? "That Honour and her knights com"pos'd his train, "And Chivalry stood marshall'd by "his fide? "Tho' to the clouds bis castle feem'd "to climb, "And frown'd defiance on the def"p'rate foe; "Tho' deem'd invincible, the conq'ror "Time "Levell❜d the fabric, as the founder, "low. "Where the light lyre gave many a "foft'ning found, "Ravens and rooks, the birds of "difcord! dwell; "And where Society fat fweetly “crown'd, "Eternal Solitude has fix'd her cell. "The lizard, and the luzy lurking bat, "Inhabit now perhaps the painted 66 room, "Where the fage matron and her "maidens fat, "Sweet finging, at the filver working "loom. "The trav'ller is bewilder'd on a wake, "And the rude winds inceflant feem "to roar; "Where in his groves, with arched "arbours grac'd, "Young lovers often figh'd in days ❝of yore. "His aqueducts, that led the limpid "tide "To pure canals, a crystal cool fup ply! "In the deep duft their barren beau"ties hide; "Time's thirst, unquenchable, has “drain'd them dry. "Tho' his rich hours in revelry were "spent, "With Comus and the laughter"loving crew, "And the sweet brow of beauty, still "unbent, "Brighten'd his fleecy moments as "they flew: "Fleet are the fleecy moments, fly "they muft; "Not to be flay'd by mock or mid"night roar; "Nor fhall a pulle among that moul66 d'ring duft "Beat, wanton, at the fimiles of "beauty more. "Can the deep ftatefman, skill'd in great delign, "Protract but for a day precarious "breath? "Or the tun'd follower of the facred "Nine "Sooth with his melody infatiate "Death? "No-tho' the palace bar the golden 66 gate, "Or monarchs plant ten thousand "guards around, "Unerring and unfeen the fhafts of "fate "Strike the devoted victim to the ❝ground. "What then avails ambition's wide"ftretch'd wing, "The schoolman's page, or pride of "beauty's bloom? "The crape-clad hermit, and the rich"rob'd king, "Levell'd, lie mix'd promifcuous in "the tomb. "The Macedonian monarch, wife and good, "Soft as the lord's beneath the la"bour'd tomb? “Bade, when the morning's rofy reign « Or fleeps one colder in his close clay "began, "Courtiers thould call, as round his "couch they flood, "Philip! remember thou'rt no "more than man. "Tho' glory fpread thy name from "pole to pole; "Tho' thou'rt merciful, and brave, and juft, "Philip! reflect thou'rt pofting to the goal "Where mortals mix in undiftin'guifh'd duft!' 46 6 *Perhaps verging to the goal would have been more poetic.-Pofting conveys a mean and colloquial idea to the mind. "bed ton's works (except his laft) have excited much efteem in the public mind. Such an overbearing vanity is confpi in reading it, have obferved several highly poetic expreffions; fuch as faint-enciphered glass (Stan. XI.)myftic-meaning beads (Stan. XII.)-cuous in all of them, and fuch a boyish lazy lurking bat-filver working loom (Stan. XX.) and many others needlefs to enumerate. While on the fubject of poetry, allow me to prefeut, as a feasonable relief to the preceding, a fublime conception of a right learned antiquary; i. e. Mr. John Pinkerton. In his "Rimes" is the following beautiful conclufion to a Melody on the Harp of Offian : "To hide the King of Day, It would be difficult for burlefque to go beyond this. The fame learned antiquary publifhed fome time fince, under the fictitions name of Robert Heron, Efq. his Letters of Literature, a production which reflects little credit either upon his candour, his learning, or his good-breeding. The language is often mean and colloquial, even to vulgarity. His ideas on many fubjects are crude and uninformed; and the infolence and contempt with which he treats authors of celebrity and genius are to the laft degree puerile and difgufting. The book defervedly gave great offence on its first appearance; and indeed few of Mr. Pinker * Mr. Pinkerton imagined our language was very inelegant and inharmonious: he thought it much more barbarous now than in the days of Chaucer; and he therefore rendered a paper of Addifon's, from the Spectator, into his own improved manner; of which (as it is a pity any fcientific exertions fhould be loft, and I fear his book is near its end) I fubjoin for your perufal the following fhort quotation: "When he had raifen mya thâtea by thofe tranfporting aira whica he played, to safle thea pleafurea of his converfation, az 1 looked ufo him like one aflonifuen, he beckoned to me ando, by the waving of hiz hando, directed me to approach the place where he fat"!!! Do not forget that this is meant for English, confidence in his own abilities, that the most patient of his brother authors have at I ngth grown weary of him. Of his Letters of Literature I may perhaps fpeak in some future letter; for the prefent I conclude by fubfcribing myself, &c. WILLIAM MUDFORD. TION TO THE GENERAL STU- [Continued from page 475.] RESPECTING the laws of the Gauls, we are almost wholly in the dark, as the Druids, who had the keeping and interpreting of them, were fo averfe to difclosing any part of their learning and knowledge. They could have advanced, however, but very little towards any regular fyftem, as we find it was a method of decifion univerfally affented to by them, to refer all forts of contefts to fingle combat, either in the cafe of difputes concerning property, or on account of injuries, or affronts (particularly among the better fort) given or received. When they were not fatisfied with a judicial verdict, they generally decided it by fingle combat, which the magiftrates could not deny them permiffion to do, when once inlifted on by either party: nor could either of them decline the challenge without giving up the point, and being branded with ignominy. This custom must have taken place on their feparating into fo many dif ferent governments; for when they were more united under one form, the decifions of the Druids were final on all occafions, and it was the most dangerous thing to oppose them. The Gauls had fuch a fingular contempt for life, when not accompa nied with liberty and martial deeds, that, either upon the appearance of fervitude, or incapacity for action through old age, wounds, or any chronical difeafe, they either put an end to their days themselves, or prevailed on their friends to do it for them. In cities, when they found themfelves fo ftraitly befieged that they could hold out no longer, inftead of capitulating, they ufually put their wives and children to death, and then killed one another. Strabo maks a very judicious remark on this extreme ferocity of the Gauls, which is, that it very much facilitated the conqueft of them; because their pouring thus furiously their numerous troops upon fuch an experienced army as the Romans were, and under the conduct of fuch a commander as Cæfar, their want of conduct and circumfpection tended only to increase the number of their own flain, instead of repelling the enemy. Whereas thofe in Spain, by obferving a more prudent conduct, and choice of the most advantageous grounds and ftrong paffes, rendered the conqueft of them more difficult and longer in completing : which inftance, of course, will ferve as a fufficient defcription of their martial difcipline, except that we may add, that the ufe of armed chariots, the fame as thofe of the Britons, joined to their exceffive bravery and celerity of attack, never failed to do great execution. Next to the military art, which though their great favourite was but indifferently cultivated among them, eloquence feems to have been the attainment they molt prided in: for as they received from their infancy moft of their inftructions from thofe poems which were compofed by the bards and Druids, which were chiefly of the heroic kind, fo they became early accuftomed to a pompous and high flown ftyle. But as the Druids fo rigidly obferved their law of never commit ting any part of their learning to writing, it was not poffible that any great advancement in that, any more than in any other part of their condition, fhould be made by the people in general. It is therefore highly probable, that as the interest of the Romans led them to use every means calculated to deftroy that high power and afcendancy the Druids poffeffed over the people, that they purpofely encouraged this natural bent of the Gauls, in order to undervalue thofe demogogues ; for we are told that academies were founded in feveral parts of Gaul. One at Autun, in the time of Tiberius, contained forty thousand students; and others were inftituted at Lyons, Bourdeaux, Thoulonse, and Narbonne. Hunting was a confiderable diverfion with the Gauls, as well as with the more northern nations; and their country abounding likewife with vaft forests, it became the more neceffary, left they should be overrun by various kinds of animals. They had proper hounds for the different natures of the chafe, and were fo very fond and careful of them, that a confiderable fine was impofed on those who stole them, which, if the culprit was unable to pay, was changed to the punishment of killing the dog's pofteriors,which, as it affixed fo ridiculous a difgrace on the offender, was never forgot, and rendered his life miferable. Notwithstanding their extreme love of feafting, they were very careful to keep the younger part of fociety under ftricter difcipline, to preferve their health and activity, obliging them to keep their bellies within the compafs of a girdle of a certain fize, either by fasting, running, or other exercile; for if they grew fat enough to exceed the bounds of it, difgrace attended them, and they were alfo fined. Though these are but trifling obfervations to infert, yet they ferve to give us fome notion of their manners, and are curious, as antient authors have thought them worth preferving. Though their banquets were extremely profufe and extravagant, their manner of partaking of them was entirely barbarian, holding in their hands the piece of whatever dif they had made choice of, and tearing it with their teeth. The prefident of the feaft drank firft of the cup, or rather pitcher, which he then paffed to the guest who fat next to him, as they all drank out of the fame veffel; from which circumftance poffibly arofe the custom , of drinking to one another, which was alfo contmon to the Perfians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as the Scythians and the more northern people. Drunkennefs might as well be charged on the Germans, who, at least, equalled them in it, if we had not the inftance of Charles the Great, who was forced to make fevere laws against it; and, in particular, obliged the judges on the bench even, and the pleaders, to continue fafting during the trial of any caufe. It has been, as it ever will be, a very univerfal vice, for we find even the Myfians*, a kind 'of monkish tribe among the Scythians and Thracians, who were obliged by the rules of their order to abstain from all strong liquors, contrived to intoxicate themfelves, like the Turks with opium, by the fmoke of fome odoriferous weeds; which exhilarated them without the ill eflects caused by the excels of winet. The lazinefs imputed to the Gauls was rather owing to their pride in martial exploits, which made them look on work as beneath them; hence arofe their contempt of all handicraft trades, and, in fucceed ing ages, that rooted prejudice against all mercantile employments, which induced the man of high birth, though unfortunately the inheritant of a very finall patrimony, *Herodot. I. i. Polidon. ap. Strab. I. vii, to endure with patience the fevereft frowns of fortune, rather than degrade himself by embracing the honeft and lucrative, though painful and laborious, employment of the merchant. Thus much will fuffice for our account of the Gauls in France: let us now take a view of thofe divifions of them who settled in the other fouthern parts of Europe. [To be continued.] THREE DAYS AT POTZDAM. [Concluded from page 484.] THIS gallery, which may be confidered as one of the finest buildings in Europe, is of fimple architecture, confifting only of a ground ftory. The centre is marked by a femicircular projection: over the pediments of the windows are the bufts of the most celebrated painters and fculptors, The gallery has a cupola in the middle, over which, upon a little turret, is a gift ball entwined by a dragon, or ferpent, under the pounces of an eagle. In the front of the building are eighteen ftatues, of white marble, eight feet ten inches in height, reprefenting the arts and sciences, and bearing other fymbolical allufions, Between each tatue is a fine marble vafe, three feet ten inches high, encircled by a ferpent on lead. The edifice contains a veftibule, from which a flight of stone steps lead up to the palace of Sans Souci, The gallery is two hundred and thirty-fix feet in length bythirty-three in breadth. Its length comprifes three divifions; the first and last of which are one hundred and two feet long each, and the centre one is thirty-two feet in length. At the farther end of the gallery a door leads to a cabinet ten feet long; which may in fact be confidered as forming part of the gallery, extending its length to two hundred and forty-fix feet. The pannels, commencing at a bout three icet from the ground, and |