On the Refpect due to the Dead. which all eyes are judges; though not all equally; and there are works which can beft praise themfelves. The piece recall'd the story to my thoughts, with all it's circumstances: And I could not but reflect how often we read the fingular events of patt times without confideration. The ftrangeness of the ftory plays with the imagination, but we examine it no farther. Perhaps there cannot be a better way of finding the fecrets of our hearts, than by bringing their fenfation to the teft by thefe furprising incidents; nor a worthier employment of our reafon, than the examining, without all prejudice of received opinion, whether the actions, fo much celebrated, are, or are not, what they are reprefented. Our hearts will go along with our reafon in thefe examiniations; and will be the beft guides to lead it's refolutions. I defire the ladies to begin with the prefent fubject, and tell me, when they have examined their own hearts, whether they think well or ill, greatly or meanly, of this queen of Caria: And, in fine, whether they read the account with pleafure, or with horror! The heart is the beft judge; for 'twas the heart of Artimefia evidently, and not her understanding, which dictated this fingular proceeding. I will not contradict that 'tis with reverence we read the itory. There is a certain dignity in the conception, mix'd with horror: and a very ingenious author has fhewn, to demonftration, that this addition to what is in itself great, alway impreffes the fublime. But if we allow the action all this praife, and more the praife, I fear, is of a wrong kind; for the character of the tender fex, is delicacy: This was certainly fhock'd in the Cannibal undertaking; and, perhaps it would be worfe, if we purfued the idea but a little farther. The reverence we owe the dead, should be most faithfully observed, becaufe qurfelves fhall want it. You, friend, who read, and I who write, mult moulder into dust together: And what we pay thofe of a day before us, will naturally be returned to ourfelves. *Mr. Bourke. 63 Of all methods of beftowing the dead body, perhaps that of burying, is next to Artimefia's, the most difguftful. Burning was preferable in reafon; and it was prefer'd while the original materials were to be had. While the asbestos could be wove into a fheet, which, wrapping up the body, might be laid upon a fire, and taken away entire afterwards, containing the unmix'd afhes, every one acknowledged the preference: But the incombuftible materials fail'd: or barbarous ages loft the art of working them. However, Scotland abounds with it at prefent; and the art, though dormant, is not irretrievable. The little urn, this way, contain'd all that the fire had left, unmix'd with bafer matter; and the virtuous Romans could, in their folemn and important hours, apply themselves to the ashes of their ancestors, as Hector's widow to his tomb; to recollect before them, and, as it were in prefence of the perfon, what would, and what would not become those who were defcended from him. At prefent, when the dead is laid into the earth, he is forgotten; we cannot, without horror purfue the idea of him farther: And, while he is thus devoted to oblivion, the effect of his decaying body, muft hurt the living. It would be difficult to conceive, what becomes of the numerous dead of this vaft city: we know the furgeons rid us horribly of fome of them; but the rest are vaftly an over-proportion to the fpots allotted for their reception: And the conception in this view, becomes at once terrible and affecting. We pay a vaft, and heavy tribute to the dead, when we depofit them where they muft, and plainly do, offend the living; but there is yet another facrifice we make to them, greater than all that is recorded of the Queen of Caria. We facrifice to the dead, nay, to thofe dead of whom we know nothing, and with whom we never had the leat concern, the fortunes of the living. There are too many who wonld feel this bitter truth, tho' we should not proceed to farther explanation. The thoufands who have ftarved in former publick mournings, and whole hearts bleed Public-Heufe bleed at the apprehenfion of that which is now in fashion, need no expofitor of this fad text. They waited with defpairing eyes the appearance of the Gazette, which was to pronounce upon them, and their children, the terrible and irrevocable fentence of death by famine. Let not the expreffion here be ftrained from its true meaning, it is not the lord high chamberlain who pronounces the decree, it is the much more powerful lord high fashion. The king, who muft himself put on the robe of mourning, naturally, and, moft properly, expects that thofe in attendance on his perfon, and on public ceremonies, fhould appear in the fame habit. It is no more than we ufed to allow ourfelves: Those who attended in a family to wear mourning with their mafter; and it is a piece of high civility to put on black when we make a formal vifit to thofe in mourning, This ceremony, which we ufe amongst ourfelves, furely is due to our fovereign; or if he pleases to expect Politicians. fomething farther, Who fhould com plain? But the great office, from which general mournings are ordered, never flues its decrees, except when the princes of our own royal family are called to Heaven. The earl marthal gives fuch orders as are meant to be general: Those of a lord chamberlain are directed only to the court. They uled alfo to be confined to the court only; but folly, and an affectation of importance, have now made court mornings general; and fwallowed this diftinction. Ourfelves have paffed the fentence of bankruptcy and beggary upon our fellow fubjects: The court is innocent. But what it does not cause, it may redrefs. If the orders for mourning expreffed that it fhould be worn only at court, there would be an end of all the mischief; and we have fo 'excellent a king, that if this humble remonftrance against ourselves may be fo fortunate to make its way to his majefty's feet, I doubt not but that or fome other way, the ill will be redreffed. To the EDITOR of the OXFORD MAGAZINE. SIR, You are a perfen constantly read, and with a wife fneer in his face, cries, and highly admired, as well by wife men as fools; as one of the latter, believe me, I often take up your magazine, and with the fpirit and genius of a Dutch commentator, make remarks on each article, to the great admiration and inftruction of an unlettered neighbourhood, all politicians! I affure you, Sir, your magazine, and about two gallons of beer, is the afternoon's entertainment of me and my neighbours, when we fight over all the battles of the paft years, and give wonderful reafons for the conduct of the Miniftry, Wilkes, Horne, the Bill of Rights, &c. One with a political fhrug fighs and cries, "Well-I cou'd fay fomething-but-my fervice to you, neighbour," another, perhaps, interTupts me in the middle of a fentence, "This Editor is a fad rogue;" for, according to the language of our street, it is a phrafe of approbation and kindnefs. I have heard myself called "a comical fon of a b-" a thoufand times, with a great deal of pleafure. Another, after a large puff of tobacco, cries, "aye, aye, let 'em do as they pleafe; but take my word, we fhall all find at laft, that this is fpecial beer." And thus, as all politicians of our clafs, we drink, fmoke, and fettle the nation, til our wives adjourn the affembly: poor women! they have little notion of paffive obedience. Your opinion, Sir;-don't you think our fociety as wife and refpectable, and full as capable of fettling the affairs of the nation, as any of the pompous pretenders at prefent? Your's, GOOSE CAP. A S P ASIA. ASPASIA, the celebrated Athenian Courtezanı A Spafia, tho' a native of Miletum, him; he confulted her on public af Megara is thought the place where he began to be diftinguished, both for her perfon and talents; the had, indeed, an inexhaustible fund both of genius and wit, and her natural gift was fo improved by a close study of rhetoric, that the rivalled the moft eminent profeffors of that fcience. Befides an acquaintance with the other branches of philofophy, the was well verfed in politics; and poetry, it seems, had likewife fome share of her application; a collection of verfes being published in her name, foon after her decease. Afpafia could not be infenfible of fuch extraordinary qualifications, and accounting Athens the only theatre worthy of her appearance, this ther fhe repaired, taking with her a company of pretty girls, whom the had thoroughly inftructed in the art of making the most of their attractives; and here the opened a school of elocution, together with a feraglio for gallantry. Thefe profeffions drew about her most of the young Athenian gentlemen, fome for inftruction by her lectures and conferences, and others for fenfual gratifications with herself or her pupis. Among her difciples and inamoratos, were fome illuftrious names: She taught Socrates rhetoric; Pericles, one of the heads of the ftate, became paffionately enamoured with her; and, according to Plato, Plutarch and Athenaus; both thofe celebrated perfons affiduously frequented her lectures. Pericles made it his bufinefs to fee Afpafia twice every day; and his wife being difagreeable to him, he readily coincided with the paffion which another had conceived for her, to relieve himfelf, by making her over to this new galiant. fairs, and reaped great advantage from her councils. Indifpenfable avocations not allowing him to dress up his fpeeches with that comptnefs and glow correfpondent with his ideas, the affifted in the compofition, and occasionally drew up whole fpeeches, which he delivered in public, and often without one fingle alteration. Afpafia is faid to have done Pericles good turns of another kind. Before her marriage it was cuftomary with her moft fanguine hearers, to bring their wives to her ethic lectures, without any apprehension of being infected by the feraglio, though annexed to the academy. This confidence which hufbands themselves taught their wives to entertain, that their character was not the leaft expofed by an intercourie with Afpafia, increafed on her mar riage with Pericles; and he, though fo fond of Afpafia, not being without fome tranfient likings, or concealing policy under intrigue, he was fo pliable as to procure him favours from the defired objects. Certain it is, that fuch a charge, together with an ara raignment of impiety, were brought against her. Pericles left no ftone unturned on behalf of a wife who had deferved fo well of him, and, if the was acquitted, the compaffion which intreaties, humiliations, and even tears from fo illuftrious a perfon, raised in the fympathizing judges, effected her deliverance, more than any ftrength of vindication or of interest. Nothing proves the great fway which Pericles bore in his republic more, than his involving it in two wars, without any motive of intere or honour prompting him to fuch hazards; and both thefe wars he kindled at Af patia's request. The Samians and Mi Now, engroffed by his love for Afiefians quarrelling about the poffeffion pafia, he married her, and without any abatement of his ardour after having her under his roof; faluting her with a kifs was the last thing he did at going abroad, and the firit on his coming home. It was not merely beauty, and a light wit, which had endeared her to VOL. VII. of the town of Priene, an action enfued, in which the former líad the advantage. Afpia, fearing for her native place, prevailed with Pericles to file with the Milefians; and accordingly the Athenian auxiliaries, fent by his initigation, turned the feale of I war 66 Strictures from Focatoir's Groidgilge fax Chéarta, war against the Samians. The other war was that of Megara, which gave rife to the Peloponefian, wherein Athens was brought to the very brink of deftruction. In this Afpafia had a principal hand, but without any fuch laudable motive as in the former. Some Athenian bloods of quality went to Megara, and, in a drunken frolic, brought away, by compulfion, a famous courtezan. The Megarians, in retaliation, carried off, with as little ceremony, two nymphs from Afpafia's mew; hereupon Pericles, to gratify his provoked fpoufe, procured a vote for declaring war against the Megarians; in which, befides its long duration of twenty-two years, the greater part of the Grecian ftates became engaged. Thus, fays Ariftophanes, three whores fet all Greece together by the ears. After the death of Pericles, Afpafia, with all her endowments, could admit into her breaft an infatuation for one Lyficles, a kind of grazier, and quite a ruftic in his deportment and man ners, yet by her artifice and varnishing Hiftory has preferved a ftroke of -On feeing another woman with Remarkable Ship built at HAVRE DE GRACE. ABOUT the Year 1530, a hip of 2000 tons, called La Grande Françoife, was built at Havre de Grace; its cables were in thickness at least equal to the body of a corpulent man. In it was a tennis court, and it had likewife a wind-mill. It was defigned for the East India trade; but, after taking up two tides, with much labour STRICTURES from FOCATOIR's Groidgilge fax Chéarta, or an Irish- and on the pure morality, not only Such doctrine and practice of the An humble Imitation of the Imitations of Yorick. which teftimony is thus mentioned by an English writer: Philofophos Gallicos, Græcis Philofophis, priores exiftimant nonnulli Grad Scriptores, ut Ariftoteles, apud Diogenem Laertium, qui, non a Gracis ad Gallos Philofophiam deveniffe, fed a Gallis ad Græcos prodiife, fcriptum reliquit. Godvin..in Cæfar, de bel. Gail. lib. 6. The ancient Irish Druids worshipped the fun, under the name of Belor, Beal, or Belus as did the Affyrians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians; a name fignifying Dominus or Dominator, and originally that of the real God; and when thofe nations had prostituted that facred name to the fun, whom they worshipped as the greateft of their deities, the Lord forbad the Ifraelites calling him by the name of Baal, Hofhea, xi. 16. The Irish Druids ufed, on the first of May, and the fummer folftice, to kindle large fires all over the country, in honour of Beal, or the fun, and to this day the only word in AN the Irish tongue, for the first of May, is la Bealtine, which literally fignifies the day of Belus's fire, and that for the month of May is mi or mias ra Béaltine. Through thefe religious fires the Druids caufed all beafts to pass, and a cuftom ftill fubfifting among the country people in Ireland fhews, that boys, who could leap fo as not to be burned, went through the like dangerous ceremony; which, as we read in the book of the Kings, obtained likewife among the Philistines, and apoftate Ifraelites. That the ancient Irish worfhipped Belus farther appears from Bebrain, the only known word they have ever had to fignify the year. It is a compound literally indicating Belus's great orbit or circle. Ain, in Celtic Irish, fignifies a great circle, and Ainne a little circle, annulus. From this Celtic word Ain has been formed the Latin word Annus, concerning which Varro fays, ut parvi circuli annuli, fic magni dicebantur anni. An humble IMITATION of the IMITATIONS of YORICK. THE JOURNEY. ND as I was standing in the center of the great bow-window on the top of the ftair-case, a fudden thought came into my head- It was, to fet out on a journey. Refolved, So I immediately went to THE STAGE-COACH. WHEN a man has a mind to go into a Stage-coach, there are two ways of effecting it-the one is, to enter at the right door-the other to enter at the left. Now it is a man's bufinefs, to study which of thefe two ways is moft convenient.. THE EXAMINATION. SOI went to the door on the right fide of the machine, and looked in. Two men fat there, whofe features were hard and uncomfortable. They have bad phyfiognomies, faid I to myself, and will not do. So I went to THE OTHER SIDE. THE profpect here was more favour able. They were two womens facesthe one old, and the other young. I ftepped in without fpeaking a word, and placed myfelf by the fide of the young woman, who fat in a direct line oppofite to the old one. THE CHAPTER OF CURIOSITY. THE first five minutes that five people find themselves in a Stage-coach, their countenances generally difplay a variety of expreffions.—Every one is anxious to know who they are that are to be the companions of his journey, and holds a foliloquy by queftion and anfwer, in which he clears all difficulties, and fixes the thing in his own mind. So that, what between looking from right to left-from this corner to that corner-from the one fide to the other there is generally as much bufines in the Stage-coach, for the time, as if it were a Secretary of State's Office. THE SOLILOQUY. I like not (faid I to myself, knotting my arms into a cynic texture, and looking very grave) I like not yon overhanging eyebrow that frowns in the face of the man in the corner on I 2 the |