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of humanity, forcibly and eloquently vindicated against the maxims and practice of ambition. The Editor, an initiate apparently of the New School of Philosophy, seems possessed with a fanatical horror against the idea of punishment, in its ordinary acceptation, as inflicted by equals on equals, by man on man; and to surprise, and hunt, and combat, this many-headed monster, wherever it starts up in the text, appears the eternal purpose of his tasteless annotations.

Began the 1st. Book of Horace's Epistles. The first of these Epistles is a most delightful and mellifluous composition, full of natural ease and grace. Dacier, appears to me, to misunderstand the 19th. verse,

Et mihi res, non me rebus, submittere conor:

this he considers as a qualification on his relapses to Epicureanism: I am inclined to regard it as opposed to the 17th. verse, and expressive of the effect of such relapses; which was, that he endeavoured to accommodate things to his mind, like an Epicurean; and not his mind to the nature of things, like a Stoic. Pope, in his spirited imitation, seems to have viewed it in the same light; and "subjungere," ," I observe, is substituted for "submittere," in the text. I am disposed to adopt Bentley's emendation of "lenta" for "longa" V. 21., as piger" is the varied epithet to "annus."-The 3rd. Epistle is written with uncommon ease and spirit. If the 4th. was addressed by way of consolation to Tibullus, on his ruin, as Dacier plumes himself on having discovered,-never were topics more unhappily selected.-Dacier has translated the 9th. in the true spirit of a Frenchman under the old regime.

66

AUGUST the 25th.

Read the 1st. Epistle of Horace, Lib. 2. (the celebrated Epistle to Augustus) with the aid of Dacier's notes, and Hurd's Commentary. I am not entirely satisfied with the explanations of either of these critics. Dacier is less happy than usual in his auxiliary lights; and Hurd extracts an order and coherence, which I am unable to recognize in the original, the true connection and bearing of which, in various passages, eludes all my research. Bentley, tempted perhaps by the difficulty of the subject, is more than usually audacious in his conjectural emendations: he appears on this occasion, in the elation of conscious superiority, to give the full reins to his genius; and where it is impossible to force our assent, he at least extorts our admiration, by the extent of his learning and the vigour of his fancy. Hurd, complexionally of a very different temperament, is always acute, and ingenious, and plausible, even in his most eccentric aberrations. His expla

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nation, in a note on the 14th. verse, of Virgil's Allegory at the opening of the 3rd. Georgic, if it be chimærical, is gradually wrought out with exquisite art, and ultimately displayed with matchless effect; and his disquisitions on the double sense of verbs (note v. 97.) and the rules of criticism (note v. 214.), though in both cases depraved by too extreme a subtlety of refinement, are unquestionably, in substance, at once profound and just. For his fulsome adulation of Warburton; for the servile application of his minute and microscopic researches, to justify the casual glances of his patron, he well deserves the burning lashes of Parr: yet, when I estimate his critical achievements, I could wish his fierce assailant had given weight to his censures of them, by having previously asserted to the world the strength of his own powers in this congenial department of literature.-Pope's Imitation of this Epistle to Augustus, though sometimes flat, is frequently felicitous. He is still more unequal in his Imitation of the next-a composition in which Horace particularly shines: his account however, of the obstructions in London-Streets, is eminently happy;Horace's description fades beside it,

AUGUST the 28th.

Read Horace de Arte Poeticâ. I eagerly adopt Bentley's substitution of " adflent" for "adsunt," v. 101.; of "qui” for " quæ," v. 277.; and incline to read, with him, præsectum" for "perfectum" v. 294.: but cannot bring myself to embrace his emendation, however strenuously enforced, of " ter natos" for "tornatos" v. 441.--I wish to believe, that "tornatos" may be translated "rounded" as well as "turned." His restoration, in a note on v. 402., of a corrupted passage in Ampelius, is very masterly: it flashes instant conviction; and does him greater credit, in my judgment, than all his other emendations put together.-With regard to this celebrated Epistle to the Pisos, if it has any method, I confess I am unable to discover it; and, considered as a didactic tractate on the art of Poetry, I cannot help regarding it as a miserably lame and defective composition.

Read Hurd's Commentary on Horace's Art of Poetry. Hurd's idea is, that this Epistle is nothing but a critique on the Roman Drama, and he spins out on this principle, sometimes with difficulty enough, a sort of loose epistolary connection through all its parts. But what must we think of a Poem, whose subject, method, and drift, though anxiously investigated by the ablest critics, have defied detection G

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for seventeen centuries and a half. The Annotations appended to the Commentary, are replete with critical entertainment.-On v. 47., he successfully illustrates, from Shakespear, his idea of Horace's direction," so to order old words, that they shall have the effect of new."-On v. 94., he justly deduces, that poetry is the language of passion; that each passion presents its peculiar images, and suggests its appropriate expression; that these are modified by the situation, habits, age, profession, &c. of the person thus affected; and, that the just exhibition of the passions thus modified, constitutes the excellence of dramatic composition.-On v. 99., he very ingeniously traces the signification of " pulchrum" from its original and appropriate sense of "beauty in visible form," to "every species of pleasurable image whatever," and finally "to whatever excites any pleasurable feeling through the imagination:" and he then proceeds to set the sense of the terms "pulchra" and "dulcia,” as opposed to each other in this verse, in a very happy light; restricting the former, which might singly have denoted poetical excellence in general, to beautiful imagery; and assigning the other to pathos.-On v. 103., he endeavours to solve the celebrated question, why we are pleased in representation, with what would shock us in reality; but omits the grand cause, which has been justly assigned by Burke (Sub. and Beaut. Pt. 1. Sect. 13, 14, 15).-On v. 244. he very happily evolves the charm of pastoral poetry; and traces its progress from the Idyllia of Theocritus, to Milton's Comus.On v. 273., he refers the coarseness of antient wit, to the free and popular government of their states, and, to their festal licenses.-And, on v. 317., he very ably explains, and illustrates Horace's recommendation for attaining truth of expression in Dramatic Poetry-to study the human mind in general, to know what conduct, from the predominancy of certain qualities, the imputed character requires; and, to study real life as it prevails, to know with what degree of strength that character will, on particular occasions, most probably display itself. How lamentable is it that such erudition and acuteness should be occasionally polluted, by a superfluous and crafty semblance of intricacy and depth, by a detestable affectation of quaint expression, and by a pert provoking petulance, a cool, sly, contemptuous jeering, even of the most respected characters, the intended mischief of which can only recoil in shame and disgrace upon the author.

SEPTEMBER the 3rd.

Read Terence's Andria. I cannot applaud the construction or conduct of the plot; but the dialogue is, throughout, supported with inimitable ease and spirit. Only one passage made me smile; and that was, where Pamphilus says to Davus, in a pet,

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on the unlucky conclusion of his first scheme, and the proposal of another, Act

4th. Sc. 1st.

The expression

Imo etiam: nam sati' credo, si advigilaveris,

Ex unis, geminas mihi conficies nuptias.

"hinc illæ lachryma" comes from the 1st. scene, act 1st.: the source of these proverbial quotations is frequently unknown.

Read Sir Horace Walpole's Mysterious Mother. There is a gusto of antiquity, and peculiar raciness in this piece, which is quite to my taste: the terrible graces are finely maintained, and the passion of horror is ably prepared, and successfully excited; but the catastrophe is at last worked up to a crisis of distraction, for which no power of thought or language can find adequate expression.

Perused Gibbon's lively attack (Letter 9.) on the Government of Berne; which evinces that he had early imbibed just political notions.

SEP. the 8th.

Finished, with much interest, the Pursuits of Literature. The text is frequently stiff and intricate; but the prefaces and notes perstringe with acute criticism and poignant wit, whatever has, of late years, obtained celebrity in politics or literature. The Author is unquestionably a good scholar, and has formed his taste on classic models: his knowledge of modern works, and of the leading characters of the day, and the secret history of both, is extensive and curious: in politics, he seems a tem perate Burkite; but with a strange obliquity from this standard, in a ridiculous alarm, which he cherishes, of the return of Popery into this country, through the influence of the French emigrant priests: his jealous orthodoxy he evinces in a fierce attack on Dr. Geddes for questioning the inspiration of the historical parts of the Bible: he appears fully to understand, and decidedly loaths, the New System of Morals, with all its votaries: and he displays a mortal antipathy to the frippery of affected refinement, from the Della Cruscas, to hot-pressed vellum paper. With an affectation of concealment, he throws out many hints, which, if not designed to mislead, might surely conduct to his detection. His character of a true Poet, in the 4th. Part, is itself animated with a high spirit of poetry, very different from the general texture of his Satire.

Read Terence's Eunuch. The characters of Gnatho and Thraso, the Parasite and his braggart patron, are delineated with considerable humour and spirit. The difference of manners, particularly in whatever respects the intercourse of the sexes, between the antients and the moderns, is very striking; and I think greatly to the

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disadvantage of the former. Love, it is observable, with them, seems not at all to have cooled by a premature and surreptitious enjoyment—at least if the representations here given, are just.

There is a very happy ridicule of the prevailing system of terror in certain modern novels, by a "Jacobin Novelist," in the last Monthly Magazine. It seems hard, but it is true, that original excellence in any department of writing, by provoking scurvy imitation, has a natural tendency to bring disgrace upon itself.

SEP. the 9th.

Read the 1st. Book of Cicero De Finibus; in which the moral system of the Epicureans is ably expounded and justified. The licentious air of this philosophy entirely results from the equivocal sense of the terms, pleasure, and pain, on which the system hinges-terms, which were perhaps adopted a little in the spirit of paradox, and which have been industriously perverted by the malevolence of party. In truth, the system itself very sensibly makes happiness the end of action; and the means of obtaining it, the business of wisdom; the rules which wisdom prescribes for this purpose, constituting the virtues.

Read the first two of Burke's Memorials on French Affairs. The latter, strongly marks the distinguishing character of the French Revolution; illustrates its influence in producing new and most important interests in the surrounding states, by the analogous cases of the aristocratic and democratic factions in Greece headed by Lacedæmon and Athens, the parties of the Guelphs and Ghibbelines in Italy, and the Reformation of Luther; and perpends, in a masterly survey, its probable course through all the States of Europe. We see in this grave composition, pure and unadorned, the native force and vigour of Burke's mind; and have a taste of the immense stores of information, from which he drew in his more popular works.

SEP. the 10th.

Read the 2d. Book of Cicero de Finibus: in which Cicero himself dexterously attacks the Epicureans; taking the term "voluptas" in its more obvious and restricted sense, and bantering them on their not daring to expose publicly the pretended motives of their actions. Cicero, I think, tacitly confesses some difficulty in this attack, by insisting so copiously on an absurd doctrine which the Epicureans held, probably to avoid scandal, that privation of pain, is pleasure; and that all positive pleasures, are only modifications of this negative good.