touched him so deeply and so keenly as this mosphere and confined prospect of a fourseeming insensibility on the part of his four-cornered room. footed favourite. He inquires, with anxious solicitude : "Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend, Groom. So proudly, as he had disdain'd the ground. I think it is Montaigne who says he would rather be a good horseman than a good logician. There certainly appears to be no inconsistency between these two qualitiesand it seems quite possible for a man to have both. It happens, however, very unaccountably, as I opine, that there are several individuals of this learned city who are reputed great wits and powerful logicians, who, notwithstanding almost daily practice, I might gratify my readers, and myself, are yet very deficient in the science of with many more extracts on this subject; horsemanship. It might be deemed invidibut there is neither leisure nor space afford-ous, and perhaps my motives might be mised me. I should, however, like to know if construed, were I to point them out by a Shakespeare was himself given to horsing. more precise description; but they are seen There is no judging a poet by his works, as almost daily on horseback, and yet their was beautifully illustrated in the case of progress in the acquisition of this graceful Jemmy Thomson; and, so far as I recollect, accomplishment is extremely slow. Day none of his biographers or commentators after day on horseback-day after day make mention of his inclinations that way; galloping, and trotting, and attempting but no conclusion, either on the one side or all the other modes of getting forward, the other, can be drawn from their silence, and making a display, which are as their attention was unfortunately directed ally practised by equestrians, it remains to a crowd of other topics, which threatened a kind of problem how these individuals almost to overwhelm at once the meaning should still continue in their original state and the fame of the illustrious bard. It is of ignorance and inability to ride either with no doubt true, that the literary men of the comfort or with grace. Neither time nor olden time were a different sort of people, practice makes the least perceptible imand moved in a very different sphere from provement on them. I do not know wheththeir successors of the present day. Their er the phrenologists could throw any light wishes were probably more humble, and upon this question; but it appears to be one their difficulties more urgent; and instead peculiarly calculated for their consideration. of being ambitious to exhibit on horseback, There may exist some incompatibility, not they were probably solicitous rather of a yet discovered, or at least not known seat at a city feast, and to display their skill to the old sects of Philosophers, between the in the mysteries thereof. Times are alter-possession of a certain portion of brains ed, and poets have undergone a manifest heavily imbued with scholarship, and that change, in outward things at least. They agility which is requisite to make a good rimay, now-a-days, indulge themselves in der; but I leave this very interesting and every humour, and in the luxury of riding in important inquiry to their more profound coaches as well as on horseback; and they, researches. and the world, are the better for it. Their| usu It may perhaps be difficult to distinguish poetry is improved by it. A ride on horse-the contortions of a Philosopher from the back dissipates idle humours, and clears hacking of a horse couper or muirland faraway the muddiness of the brain; it excites mer; but there is one character which canthe animal spirits, and inspires new ideas of not be mistaken on horseback,-I mean life and happiness. I am convinced Walter that of a gentleman: the bearing of a genScott is fond of riding on horseback, and I tleman is indeed discoverable in every situthink I remember of some person admiring ation, and in all his actions, however trivial. the dignity of his appearance when mount- There is nothing he does, or can do, but ed. It is well known that Byron was (alas! what is done in the best taste, and with the that I should live to speak of him as one greatest propriety, grace, and politeness. that is past!) very partial to this exercise; In entering a room, or in doing any of the and I have no doubt that his finest passages little agreeables of polite life, the feeling were committed to paper immediately on his and tact of a gentleman is distinctly disreturn from the course; or perhaps he car-cernible, and can neither be mistaken nor ried materials with him, "to catch the liv-counterfeited by the imitations of less-gifted ing image as it rose." Sterne used to com- individuals. But in no situation is the supose his sermons when on horseback; and periority of a gentleman so manifest and the situation and exercise are calculated to unequivocal, and so incapable of imitation, inspire the mind with a variety of ideas, aud as upon horseback. His position is the a beauty and energy of language, which most secure, and at the same time the most may in vain be looked for in the close at-easy and graceful. He has a perfect com New-York Literary Gazette. giving to the body of every age "its form and pressure." Judge Gould's Address to the Connecticut "This efficient power of intellectual influence, both for good and evil, is a power of exhaustless activity and unbounded extent. Like a subtle and expansive fluid, it diffuses itself to the utmost borders, and pervades all the recesses of human society. For how many of those practical rules of life and conduct-of those sententious maxims of traditional wisdom and duty, which even the most illiterate, in all civilized communities, possess, are they unconsciously indebted to teachers, of other nations and other times, and whose very names are known only to the scholar and the general reader! As intellectual culture advances in the world, the light of antiquity is transmitted from age to age; and many of those useful lessons, which the wise and the learned, of every period, have bequeathed to mankind, thus find their way, as well to the cottage as the palace. And thus the recorded wisdom of each generation becomes the instructor of all classes of men, in all succeeding times." We regret that we have not room for more extracts from this classical and in structive address. "There are comparatively few, it would seem, who are in the habit of assigning to the dominion of the mind its actual extent, or of contemplating its vast and momentous results. Those great events and conjunctures, which suddenly and sensibly affect the condition of society, force themselves, like the grand operations of external nature, upon the attention of mankind: But we sel- Advice. We have received a long letter dom contemplate, and still more seldom just-signed "A Patron," containing much sage ly estimate, the efficient influence which the counsel, as to the manner of conducting our intellectual light of a single age, or even a single mind, may diffuse throughout the paper. The substance of this letter is, that if globe, and transmit to all posterity. Who we implicitly observe the directions of our can define the limits of that dominion which the philosophers and orators, the poets, historians and moralists of former ages, have constantly exercised, and continue to exercise, over the human mind ?-a dominion far transcending, in authority, that of thrones and sceptres; and extending to what mere civil power can never reach-the opinions, and sentiments, and tastes, and affections of mankind. Mentor, and totally yield our own to his better judgment, we shall sail upon the editorial sea with prosperous winds and streaming banners-but if we are so vain-glorious as to have an opinion of our own, and so foolhardy as to follow that opinion, we shall run foul on Scylla, and the forlorn Literary Gazette will perish without a monument or an epitaph to honour its memory. After perusing our "Patron's" epistle, we exclaimed with Billy Lackaday, "Oh! it's too touching!" and if we had been within arm's length of Billy's bottle of comfort, we doubt not that we should have consoled our despair by a deep potation, in spite of a gouty toe, and our doctor's positive prohibition.Our Patron objects to original matter, and "Who can determine to what extent the views and habits of thinking, and by necessary consequence, the morals and character of the present age, have been formed and moulded by the master-spirits of former times?-by minds like those of Aristotle and Bacon, of Cicero and Locke, of Hume and Voltaire, of Addison and Johnson? For more than two thousand years, Aristotle, alone, gave law to the empire of mind, throughout the civilized world; and swayed thinks it would redound far more to our own a dominion, surpassing, in extent and dura- glory, were we to make up our paper chiefly tion combined, that of any monarch, or con-of selections. Cruel and barbarous man! queror, who ever held in subjection the per- he would deprive our vanity of the exquisons and rights of men. How vast, then, how site gratification of seeing our "whimimmeasurable, must be the combined influ ence of superior and enlightened intellects whams" and cogitations in print; he would throughout the globe, in forming the char- require us to drop our "gray goose-quill,” acters of individuals and communities, and and to utter despairingly, "Othello's occis pation's gone!" Oh! the Goth! he is more | beth.) We have always admired the fable pitiless than Alaric. He wishes to know of the old man and his son, who endeavourwhy we do not insert Deaths and Marriages.ed to please every body in carrying the Ass Now, as every one knows that Deaths and to market. We recommend it to the conMarriages are literary subjects—and as our sideration of all advisers and counsellors paper professes to be of a literary character, who kindly take upon themselves the office this question is a puzzler-but although our of guides to blind and opinionated youth, Patron may be a Sphinx, we are Davus deeming it monstrous and abominable in -not Edipus. However, by way of ac-young men to have an opinion of their own. commodation, we hereby promise to fall in love three years after this present date, and About three weeks since we received an to be married nine years after the last men- anonymous letter of a different character tioned event, and to publish it in our paper from the one alluded to in the preceding rein staring capitals, with red ink. We fur-marks. The writer entered his protest ther promise to publish our own obituary, against our defence of Lord Byron, &c. and with a very just and merited eulogy on our threatened to withdraw his subscription if sundry good qualities. And after all this, we did not desist. If he has read our last who can doubt our compliance and obli- three numbers, he has by this time discover. gingness of disposition? "Nemo, Hercule, ed that he made a small mistake in his man, nemo." when he put himself in a menacing attitude with regard to ourselves. "Threatened folk live long," says the Scotch proverb.-We aver, and are ready to make affidavit of the fact before all the Aldermen, that we did not fall into convulsions or syncope at the horrid prospect of losing one subscriber,little as it may redound to our credit on the score of sweet sensibility. We have one serious remark to make on this subject, and that is in reference to the word "Patron." We can assure this anonymous writer, whoever he may be, that by using this word he adds no weight to the importance of his advice. We consider 832 pages of literary matter which our paper makes in a year, as a pretty fair value re*ceived for the $4 per annum. He is a subscriber, not a patron. The latter word has no place in our dealings with the world.— We have frequently received communications in prose and poetry, with the request that we would publish them, and "oblige a Patron." We never have published, and never will publish any article thus recommended the inducements which our correspondents offer, must be in the merits of their productions, and not in the magical word patron, or they will obtain no place in our columns. To Correspondents.—The author of the "Fading Year" has a poetic vein, but his verses are not sufficiently finished, and his style is too redundant. He is apparently a, youthful writer, and we do not wish to discourage him-let him study precision, and construct his sentences with a little more care, and he will write to more advantage. The tale of "Bonny Ben" shall have a place. We are sorry to hear from Mr. Topic, that some domestic calamity has befallen him-the particulars he has not mentioned. In consequence, the Tales from Crossbasket are postponed for an indefinite period. A word or two with regard to advice, of which the world is always very liberal. We never followed any one's advice except when it happened to coincide exactly with our own opinion. We have hitherto got Recipe for making a tragedy.-The along tolerably well in the world, by being scene a Duke's palace; personæ, a Duke; our own Solomon; and so great is our self- his daughter, in love with a promising sufficiency, that we mean to go on in the youth; his son, a wild harum-scarum fellow, old way, throwing advice where Macbeth devotedly attached to a dark designing vilordered the Doctor to throw physic, and lain, who seems all truth and gentleness, where sad experience has taught us that all but who aims at the Dukedom. Perhaps it physic ought to be thrown-" to the dogs," may be as well to make him in love with the (By the way, this is most uncharitable to the Duke's daughter, and let him think, that, canine race, both in ourselves and in Mac-by gaining her hand, be stands je bete chance of attaining the throne. He declares And when I woke, alas! 'twas but to weep This love, she repels him disdainfully-this rouses up double refined revenge: he joins a party of outlaws or robbers, and forms a conspiracy; the plot is matured, and on the night appointed for its execution, is discovered. The villain kills his favoured rival, then commits suicide. The girl becomes deranged, and the conspirators are brought to the gallows. If there be not enough to fill up five acts, four or five characters may be added, (male or female, no matter which) of no consequence to the plot, but to keep within the pale of Horace's advice. Now for the mechanism: a fair portion of alarums, drums, trumpets, and guns; thunler, lightning, rain, hail, a dark night, and a wild storm. One or two flourishes when the Duke enters or exits. N.B. It is of no consequence how these ingredients are used, so there be enough of them. If these, and the characters were aput into a kaleidescope, and turned round tive times, they would make five as good acts as any poetaster's brains could produce. To think such scenes should fade away so fast. The heavens too now were changed-the orb of night When life is but a dream-then comes the night DUDLEY. MISCELLANEOUS. WHEN the different species of animals are not distinguishable throughout, as the ass, the mule, from the horse-the monkey, the baboon, from the man-they are apt to shock and disgust our sight. Learning is the dictionary, but sense the grammar of science. Art and Science are words frequently made use of, but the precision of which is so rarely understood, that they are often mistaken for one another. I don't like any of the definitions of the schools. I met with a distinction, somewhere, once, comparing science to wit, and art to humour; but it has more of fancy than philosophy in it. It serves to give us, however, some idea of the difference between them, though no idea of either. I think that science may be styled the P.S. It is essential that the curtain fall to knowledge of universals, or abstract wis mournful music. For the New-York Literary Gazette. Lay the sweet river, which, with murmuring flow, dom; and art is science reduced to practice -or science is reason, and art the mechanism of it—and may be called practical science. Science, in fine, is the theorem, and art the problem. I am aware that this objection will be made-that poetry is deemed an art, and yet it is not mechanical. But I deny it to be an art-neither is it a science. Arts and sciences may be taught-poetry cannot.But poetry is inspiration-it was breathed into the soul, when it first quickened, and should neither be styled art or science, but genius. He who desires more than will supply the compétencies of life, except for the sole purposes of charity, respects others more than himself. For he pays an expensive compliment to the world-as all beyond the first requisite is expended merely to attract the admiration, or provoke the envy of his neighbours. A supplement to Bacon's mythology of the ancients.-Perhaps the fable of Jupiter's supplanting his father Saturn, the first of all the gods, might have arisen from a corruption of the tradition handed down from Adam, that the Son of God was the Creator of the world, and all animated beings therein-which, in the dark ages of ignorance in divine mysteries, might have been interpreted as a superseding of God the Father's power, and usurping the hea vens. THE SOCIAL RIGHTS OF MAN: Being a compilation from the various declarations of Rights, submitted at different periods to the National Assembly and Convention of France, and recently arranged by Count Lanjuinais in his "History of Constitutions." [Continued.] "Tot homines, tot sententiæ."-It cannot then be deemed partiality or prejudice, to prefer one's own opinion to that of others.If you can please but one person in the Any treatment which aggravates the pun world, why should you not give the prefer-ishment fixed by the law, is criminal. ence to yourself? A generous mind may be compared to the Latin dative, which has no preceding article, and does not declare its case till it comes to the termination. There are many ways of inducing sleep -The thinking of purling rills, or waving woods-Reckoning of numbers-Droppings from a wet sponge, fixed over a brass pan, &c. But temperance and exercise answer much better than any of these succedane ums. No kind of labour, of commerce, or of culture, can be forbidden to any man: he may fabricate, sell, and transport every sort of production. No man can be deprived of the least portion of his property without his own consent, except when the public wants, legally and plainly ascertained, require it; and on the condition of a just and reasonable indemnity. No contribution ought to be demanded excepting for general utility. All the citi Physicians ought never to drink.-When-zens, by their representatives, have a right ever any distemper affects themselves, they to assist in the decree of contributions, and always call in foreign aid-thinking, very to observe and demand an account of the justly, that the slightest disorder might im- employment of them. pair the judgment. And yet, methinks, a man may be able to preserve his senses much better, in the first stages of a fever, than after a bottle of wine. The different judgments we are apt to frame upon the deaf and blind, with regard to their respective misfortunes, is owing to our seeing the blind generally in his best situation, and the deaf in his worst-namely, in company. The deaf is certainly the happier of the two, when they are each alone. An epicure desires but one dish; a glutton would have two. A sober man, when drunk, has the same kind of stupidity about him, that a drunken man has when he is sober. The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture. Every tax or contribution is for public utility: it ought to be assessed on those able to contribute, in proportion to their means. The public succours are a sacred debt.Society owes subsistence to the unfortunate citizens, either by procuring them work, or by ensuring the means of subsistence to those who are not in a condition to work: the unfortunate having submitted to the regulations of society, have a right to its protec tion and assistance. The civil authority ought to be so organized, and attended by a civil and legal force, that it should never have occasion to call in the dangerous assistance of the military power, but in the last extremity of incivism. The military power is created for, exists for, and ought only to act in, foreign political relations; so that the soldier ought never Shakespeare may be styled the oracle of (with the above exceptions) to be employed nature. He speaks science without learn-against the citizen. He can only be coming, and writes the language of the present manded against a foreign enemy. times. The advantages of academical learning, as far as it relates to the study of languages, is only this-that the time and labour required to understand an author in the original, fixes the matter and reasoning stronger in our minds, than a cursory reading in our own language can be supposed to do. By which means, knowledge may be said to be inculcated into us. What persons are by starts, they are by nature. You see them, at such times, off their guard. Habit may restrain vice, and virtue may be obscured by passion--but intervals best discover the man. To have a respect for ourselves, guides our morals; and to have a deference for others, governs our manners. The guarantee of the rights of men and citizens, renders necessary a public force; this force is then instituted for the advantage of all, and not for the private views or purposes of those to whom it is confided. Resistance to oppression is a consequence of the other rights of man. |