of their use, which is finely improved from the Latin. Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,* Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid; They live, they speak, they breathe, what love inspires, VOL. I. X * Ver. 51. "De + It is to be hoped that some of the fair sex, of the abi lities of Eloisa, (for we have two or three such at present in Great Britain,) will answer the ingenious, but paradoxical, philosopher of Geneva, who has vented many blasphemies against the passion of love. "Il faut distinguer (says he) le MORAL du physique dans le sentiment de l'amour. Le physique est ce desir général qui porte un sexe à s'unir à l'autre Le moral est ce qui détermine ce desir, & le fixe sur un seul objet, exclusivement; ou qui du moins lui donne pour cet objet préféré un plus grand degré d'énergie. Or il est facile de voir que le moral de l'amour est un sentiment factice; né de l'usage de la societé & célébré par les femmes avec beaucoup d'habilété & de soin, pour établir leur empire, & rendre dominant le sexe qui devroit obéir." DISCOURS sur l'Origine de l'INEGALITE parmi les Hommes.-Par J. J. Rousseau. Amsterdam, 1755. p. 78. It is not to be wondered at, that he who has written a satire against human society, should satirize its greatest blessing. "De quibuscunque autem nobis scribas, non parvum nobis remedium conferes; hoc saltem uno, quod te nostri memorem esse monstrabis.” She then quotes * an unnecessary passage of Seneca, and adds, "Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium jucundæ sunt, quæ memoriam renovant, & desiderium absentiæ falso atque inani solatio levant; quanto jucundiores sunt literæ, quæ amici absentis veras notas efferunt ?" The origin of Eloisa's passion is, with much art and knowledge of human nature, ascribed to her admiration of her handsome preceptor: this circumstance is particularly poetical, and even sublime: My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind, § How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said, August her deed, and sacred be her fame; Before true passion all these views remove; Fame, wealth, and honour, what are you to love! These * Epist. p. 47. + Ibid. V. 61. SV. 73. Non matri These sentiments are plainly from the letters, "Nihil unquam, deus scit, in te, nisi te requisivi; te purè non tua concupiscens. monii fœdera, non dotes aliquas expectavi. Et si uxoris nomen sanctius ac validius videtur, dulcius mihi semper extitit amicæ vocabulum, aut, si non indigneris, concubinæ vel scorti.*POPE has added a very injudicious thought: + The jealous god, when we profane his fires, And again, Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, It is improper for a person in the situation of Eloisa to mention Cupid; mythology is here out of its place. The letters also furnished the next thought: § Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove; "Deum testem invoco, si me Augustus, universo presidens mundo, matrimonii honore dignaretur, totumque mihi orbem confirmaret in perpetuo præsidendum, charius mihi & dignius videretur, tua dici meretrix, quam illius imperatrix. "* Next she describes their unparalleled happiness in the full and free enjoyment of their loves; but all at once stops short, and exclaims with eagerness, as if she at that instant saw the dreadful scene alluded to, Alas, how chang'd! What sudden horrors rise! One * Epist. i. Heloiss. page 50. + V. 99. It was difficult to mention this catastrophe that befel Abelard with any diguity and grace; in which there is still something indelicate, notwithstanding all the dexterity and manage. ment of our poet, in speaking of so untoward a circumstance. I know not where castration is the chief cause of distress, in any other poem, except in a very extraordinary one of Catullus, where Atys, struck with madness by Berecynthia, in a fit of enthusiasm, inflicts this punishment on himself; after which he laments his condition in very pathetic strains. The poem has been so little remarked on, that I shall take the liberty of inserting One knows not which most to applaud, the lively imagery, the pathetic, or the artful decency, inserting the following passage in the speech of Atys, which is very dramatic, full of spirit, and sudden changes of passion: Egone a meâ remota hæc ferar in nemora domo? Patriâ, bonis, amicis, genitoribus abero? Abero foro, palestrâ, stadio, gymnasiis? Miser, ah miser, querendum est etiam atque etiam anime, The whole poem being of a strain rather superior to the ge. nerality of Roman poesy, and being also so much above the tender and elegant genius of Catullus, whose name it bears, inclines me to think it a translation from some Grecian writer; and perhaps, if the reader will peruse the whole, it will give him the truest notion of an old dithyrambic, of any poern antiquity has left us. The text is in some places much corrupted; but enough remains pure and intelligible, to place it at the head of Latin poetry, how strangely soever it has been neglected. It ought to be observed, that the seventh, eighth, and |