moment the grandsons of grandsires. But Virgil's expression includes at least six generations: “avi numerantur avorum,” i. e. as I have printed the line, and as, no doubt, Dryden wrote it : And grandsires' grandsires the long list contains. Aeneis, 1. 904. antique vases, all of gold emboss'd; (The gold itself inferiour to the cost :) Of curious work, where on the sides were seen Here the printer has imparted to us a notable discovery, that the fashion of the plate was not given for nothing in those days, since the vases had cost something more than the bare marketprice of the bullion. Dryden himself, with an eye to Ovid's “Materiem superabat opus” had written as follows: . antique vases, all of gold emboss'd, (The gold itself inferiour to the cost Of curious work) where on the sides were seeir Aeneis, v. 743. The last in order, but the first in place. While the English reader is fruitlessly exercising his sagacity to find a solution of this paradox, let the classick scholar turn with me to Virgil, who will instantly prove that Dryden most certainly wrote: The last in order, but the first in grace. Extremus, formâque ante omnes pulcher, Iülus. Aeneis, vi. 511. Attend the term of long revolving years': Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears. Whether or not the gods were "deaf to tears," the printer most assuredly was blind to "pray'rs," which was, beyond all doubt, the word written by Dryden, agreeably to his original: Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando. Aeneis, IX. 796. Him, when he spy'd from far the Tuscan king, Any schoolboy might at once have discovered that Dryden. had written: Him when he spy'd from far, the Tuscan king Laid by the lance, &c. WIT. THE following paragraph from Swift's Tale of a Tub is not wholly free from the great fault of that author; but I have ventured to select it with some confidence, as being the wittiest in the English language. This assertion is sufficiently rash; and I should be much pleased to have it refuted by an example. "The whole course of things being entirely changed between us and the ancients, and the moderns wisely sensible of it; we of this age have discovered a shorter and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or thinking. The most accomplished method of using books at present is twofold: either first to serve them as some men do lords, learn their titles exactly, and then brag of their acquaintance. Or secondly, which is indeed the choicer, the profounder, and politer method, to get a thorough insight into the index, by which the whole book is governed and turned, like fishes by the tail. For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate, requires an expense of time and forms; therefore, men of much haste and little ceremony are constrained to get in by the back door. For the arts are all in a flying march, and therefore more easily subdued by attacking them in the rear. Thus physicians discover the state of the whole body, by consulting only what comes from behind. Thus men catch knowledge, by throwing their wit on the posteriors of a book, as boys do sparrows with flinging salt on their tails. Thus human life is best understood by the wise man's rule, of regarding the end. Thus are the sciences found, like Hercules's oxen, by tracing them backwards. Thus are old sciences unravelled, like old stockings, by beginning at the foot." TO THE EDITORS OF THE ANTHOLOGY. GENTLEMEN, In the Retrospective Review, where such a particular account is given of Neal's history of New England, one thing is barely mentioned, which deserves minute attention, because it may lead persons to a wrong idea of our ecclesiastical history. Appendix No. 5 contains Canons and Constitutions of the Church of New England, received 1684. Upon looking over these, I find them very different from the Platform made in Cambridge 1648: and very inconsistent with the independency of the English Puritans, or the ideas of our Fathers, who, in the year 1634, were swayed in their church discipline by the nod of the great Cotton. To whom then were these Canons sent? Upon further examination, we find, that they never were seen in this country. They were first published in Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, and were taken from a file in the Paper Office, which he transcribed, and put into his appendix with this title, Canons and Constitutions of the Church in New England, received, &c. His remark is, "The Dissenters formed a Church this year upon Calvin's model." He includes the Dissenters in England with those in the new region. Mr. Neal has some judicious remarks upon his testimony in the first volume of his history, which would have appeared well in the Retrospective Review in December's Anthology. "This Writer (Mr. Collier) had no acquaintance with the affairs of New England, or he must have known that Calvin's model of Church Discipline was never received, or generally followed in that country. There were churches erected in several parts of the country, but every society looked upon itself as independent from the others, and therefore could not pretend to make Canons and Constitutions for the whole. There was not a Synod or Convocation at this time. It is well known, the first was in 1637, which was called to suppress an Antinomian heresy, not to make Canons or Constitutions." He further remarks, that the Churches of Massachusetts in their first settlement, managed themselves very much upon the model of Mr. Cotton's book, entitled, "The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," which was agreeable to the practice of Independency. How different was this from these pretended Canons ! "I am at a loss," says he, "for an account of the author of these Canons, or how they ever could be recorded in the Paper Office." A CONSTANT READER OF THE ANTHOLOGY. ORIGINAL POETRY. GENTLEMEN, FOR THE ANTHOLOGY. I send you two translations from Horace. Of the first I " claim the copyright as propietor," having several years ago rescued it from the flames to which the author had committed it, and at last wrung from him his slow leave to publish it in the Anthology. I have thought proper to retain the motto which my friend chose to affix to his translation, although I have no doubt that your readers will consider it entirely unappropriate. The latter has been already published, but as both originated in the same occasion, it is my wish that they should be preserved together. THE XXIV ODE, I BOOK OF HORACE. ON THE DEATH OF QUINCTILIUS VARUS. TO VIRGIL. Infelix simulacrum ............................................................. nota major imago. WHY should our sorrows have an end? Why should we blush to mourn our friend? And teach my numbers to complain. And by eternal sleep opprest He dies lamented by the brave, Thy grief peculiar feels his doom, Although with more than Orphean art The flitting spirit can detain. He who has joined the mournful band, VOL. VIII; H. Virg. Returns no more. The fates decree But though we feel the doom severe, May sooth the woes we must endure. In the following translation the principal object has been to preserve the simplicity of the original. HORACE BOOK I. ODE XXIV. SHALL shame unfeeling check our swelling grief, O Muse, with voice and harp, And does he moulder in eternal sleep, Shall seek in vain to crown Alas he sunk! by all the good bewail'd, Implores him of the GODS. But though more sweetly than the Thracian bard The soul could not return To that deserted form.... The soul which once with his horrifick wand But patience sooths our woe. The following Poem is addressed to a Lady, who lamented that "she had never been in love." MYRTILLA. Al nuovo giorno Pietosa man mi sollevo. "AH me! how sad," Myrtilla cried, Metastasio. |