Imatges de pàgina
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Rhetorick schools *, and alfo for procuring me the best masters at home; and for making me fenfible, that one ought not to spare any expence on these occafions.

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5. From my governor (who had the care of the earlier part of my education) I learned not to engage in the difputes of the Circus or of the Amphitheatre; the chariot races, or the combats of the gladiators t

He alfo taught me to endure hardships and fatigues; and to reduce the conveniences of life into a narrow compafs; and to wait on myself on moft occafions: not impertinently to interfere in other people's affair, nor haftily to liften to calumnies and flander. 6. Diognetus cautioned me against too eager a pursuit of trifles; particularly, not to bufy myfelf in feeding quails ‡, (for the pit or for divination.)

As also not to give credit to vulgar tales of prodigies and incantations, and evil fpirits caft out by magicians or pretenders to forcery, and fuch kind of impoftures.

He taught me to bear patiently the free expoftulations of my friends; to apply myfelf with affiduity to the ftudy of philofophy; and introduced me, firft, to hear Bacchius, and after that, Tandafides and Marcianus. And, while I was yet a boy, he put me upon writing dialogues as an exercife; and alfo taught me to relith the hard couch covered with skins; and other severities of the ftoical difcipline.

7. From Rufticus § I received the first intimation, that the general difpofition of my mind needed fome correction and cure. He prevented me from entering with warmth into the disputes, or indulging in the vanity of the Sophifts; writing upon their fpeculative points, or perpetually haranguing on moral fubjects; or making any oftentatious difplay of my philofophical aufterities, or courting applaufe by my activity and patience under toil and fatigue.'

We shall lay before our readers only one other fpecimen of the work.

16. There are various ways by which the mind of man debafes itself; particularly, when, by repining at thofe events which happen in the courfe of nature, he becomes a mere abfcefs or an

Thofe who talk of his "not running the risk of a publick school" contradict the truth of history. "Frequentavit et declamatorum scholas publi

cas." CAPITOLIN.

The parties (which the claffical reader knows ran high at this time) were diftinguished by their colours in the races; and by their inftruments amongst the gladiators.'

quails.'

They foretold the fuccefs of their own projects by the fighting of these

Some commentators have fangied, that he here alludes to the Christian miracles; but it is more probable, from the context, that he meant no more than thofe vulgar fuperftitions which have prevailed in all ages.'

§ A ftoic philofopher, a statesman, and a foldier; the particular favourite and confidant of M. Aurelius.'

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ufelefs excrefcence in that univerfal fyftem of which he is a part, and in which every individual is comprehended.

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Again; when we take an averfion to any one, and thwart him on every occafion, with an intention to do him fome injury; which is generally the cafe with people that indulge their refentment.

Thirdly; A man evidently bebafes himself, when he becomes a flave to pleasure, or is fubdued by pain.

Fourthly; when he acts with diffimulation or fraud, or does or fays any thing contrary to truth.

Laftly; when a man acts without thought or defign, and ex cris himself at random, without any regard to the confequence; whereas every the molt minute action ought to be directed to fome end or ufeful purpose. Now the chief end of every rational being; is to be governed by the laws of the univerfe, the oldest and most venerable of all communities.

17. The whole period of human life is a mere point; our being frail and tranfient, our perception obfcure, the whole frame of our body tending to putrefaction. The foul itself is the port of paffions. The freaks of fortune not fubject to calculation or conjecture, fame is undiflinguishing and capricious: in a word, every thing relating to our body is fleeting, and glides away like a ftream, and the reveries of the foul are a vapour and a dream. Indeed, life itfelf is a continual warfare, and a pilgrimage in a frange country; and pofthumous fame is near akin to oblivion.

What then can conduct us fafely on this journey of life? Nothing but true wifdom or philofophy. Now this confifts in cultivating and preferving from injury and difgrace that good ge nius within us, our foul, undisturbed and fuperior to pleasure and pain, not acting at random or doing any thing in vain, or with falfhood and diffimulation; to do or leave undone whatever we pleafe, without being influenced by the will or the opinion of

other men.

Moreover, to acquiefce in whatever comes to pafs, either by accident or the decrees of fate, as proceeding from the fame caufe whence we ourselves are derived.

On the whole, philofophy will teach us to wait for death with calmness and equanimity, as being no more than the diffolution of thofe elements of which every animal is compofed. Now if no damage accrues to thofe feveral elements, in their continual changes or migrations from one body to another, why should any one be apprehenfive of any injury from the change of the whole? It is agreeable to the courfe of nature; but what is fuch cannot be evil.'

This is incomparably the best tranflation we have seen of Antoninus's work; and Mr. Graves has added greatly to its value by his judicious notes, in which he either illuftrates, or gives his opinion of the principles contained in the emperor's meditations.

Obfer:am

Obfervations and Remarks in a Journey through Sicily and Cala bria, in the Year 1791: with a Poftfcript, containing fome Account of the Ceremonies of the laft Holy Week at Rome, ana of a fhort Excurfion to Tivoli. By the Rev. Brian Hill, A. M. 8vo. 75. 6d. Boards Stockdale. 1792. HOWEVER trodden the path, however hackneyed the sub

ject, it is with pleasure that we follow an ingenious and obferving author. A more vivid fun, a more active conftitution, a more chearful temper, will gild objects with brighter hues; different purfuits will reprefent them in a more attractive view; and varied talents will hold them up in another light. Mr. Hill has paffed over the spots that we have often frequented with other travellers, but we have found his company entertaining; and we fhall endeavour, while we distribute critical justice, to communicate fome of the entertainment to our readers.

The party which Mr. Hill accompanied left Naples to fail for Palermo; and paffing Caprea, the fcene of Tiberius' infamous debaucheries, and the cabinet, from which the fanguinary mandates of that tyrant ifflued, they reached Palermo, with little power of adding to our former knowledge. At Palermo we meet with a curious account of the method of preferving dead bodies, which we do not recollect in any other author. The catacombs in which they are preferved, confift of four wide paffages, about forty feet in length, and along the fides are niches, in which the bodies, prepared for their appearance, by baving been broiled fix or feven months over a flow fire, till all the fat and moisture are confumed, ftand. The head, hands, arms, and feet, are bare, the skin is entire, and refembles pale coloured leather. Some of the more illustrious dead are shut up in trunks.

The manners of the inhabitants are not very different, in our author's reprefentation, from the pictures of other travellers. The frequency of affaffinations is very properly attributed to the priests who earneftly inculcate the greater danger of offending against human traditions than of breaking the pofitive and revealed laws of God. We fhall extract fome account of the method of travelling in Sicily, the appearan e of the country, &c. The inns are, in many places, much worse than they are described in this pallage, as we may have occasion

to remark.

The equipage provided for my brother and myself, is called a ligita, which is a sort of sedan coach, or vis-a vis, supported by two poles, and carried by mules. This litiga, or double sedan, has no glass in the windows, but thick curtains in case of rain, neither has it any doors, but you are lifted in and out through C. R. N. AR. (IV). April, 1792.

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the windows, by the men holding a little board for you to put your foot on. The fides are painted with fuperftitious devices, to fecure you from dangers: among thefe, the virgin and child, and the fouls in purgatory, are feldom omitted. The like is on all their boats, particularly on what are called, the sproronara.

My nephew and our fervants are furnished with good horses; three or four other men accompany us to take care of the beafts, and we have, befides, a feldier for our guard, with a gun and cutlaís; fo that we conceive ourselves able to make a pretty strong resistance in cafe of an attack. For the first feven miles, we travelled upon an excellent carriage road, over the plain, which is ornamented with country houfes and gardens, corn fields, now beautifully green, groves of exceeding fine olives, and flately orange and lemon trees, leaded with fine fruit, and fome other garden trees, mofl of which are in bloffom, particularly almonds, plumbs, and peaches. We next paffed over a very rugged road, under rocks by the fea-fide, and by hedges of large aloes, many of which had flowered laft year. The ftems of feveral more were cut down, and used for gate-pofts and other purposes. This plant, as alfo the Indian fig, are both extremely hardy, and will flourish in the tops of walls, on the fides of rocks and mountains, and even in the moft barren fand. The manner of making hedges, is by sticking a fingle leaf of the Indian fig into the ground, which foon takes root, and grows to a great fize; when old, it has a bark formed round it, confifting of its first leaves, grown hard and become brown. This is perhaps the only tree or fhrub known that is raifed by the leaves, which grow one out of another for fome years before it has any ftem or fcarcely any root. Our whole day's journey has been twenty-two miles, and we are now at a fmall town confifting of fix or feven wide parallel streets, the houses of which are all poor, and only one story high. Such is our inn, which, to our aftonishment, is perfectly clean, and contains three beds, upon which we may venture to fleep, without apprehenfions. Befides a moft admirable arrangement of crockery ware, the walls are ornamented with images, crucifixes, and pictures of faints; and, as a farther proof of the piety of the two good old women that keep the houfe, there is a figure of a little waxen virgin juft delivered, with the infant Jefus lying by her, carefully preserved in a glass cafe; though this figure of the virgin lies proftrate kicking up the legs in no very decent manner, yet we should certainly have been thought highly profane, had we made any animadverfions on it. The windows are not glazed, and we have no other defence against the cold, which is at prefent pretty fevere, but wooden fhutters, which, for the advantage of the light, we keep open. There is no food of any kind in the houfe, excepting fome that we brought with us from

Palermo,

Palermo, and which we are now going to dress ourselves, over a charcoal brazier in the middle of the room.

Bright cool day.'

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Frosty morning.

As this is the firft quotation, we may obferve, that the addition of the weather and the state of the air, contrafted with. the immediately preceding fentence, has fometimes a ludicrous' effect. If we read in a journal, our dinner was excellent, and the people attentive-a bright delightful day; or the fowls were lean, and the mutton overdreft-a cold, bleak, hazy afternoon; we may fufpec, in each inftance, that the parts of the sentence have a more intimate connection than immediately following each other. Thus, in p. 217, we find, our good inn.' 'Alas, alas! our beds are left behind-cool and cloudy, with fome fimilar inftances where the contraft or the coincidence a little whimfical. The charitable employment of the prince of Bilcaris fervant on the head of his comrade, might have excited much higher difguft, if it had not been ferene and mild.' Mr. Hill will not, we hope, be angry at these remarks: they first occurred to us in reading his work in a poft-chaife. The weather warm and highly pleasant, so that it could not be suggefted by any malignity.

The portrait of his Sicilian majefty is not fo favourable as fome others drawn by different painters. Mr. Hill gives full credit to the chearfulness and affability of the king, but adds fome circumstances, which difplay much weaknefs of mind, vanity, and want of tafte.. Thefe may be true, for Nature feems not to have scattered her choiceft favours on royal heads, or education has nipped the flowers in the bud.The bite of the tarantula, in Mr. Hill's opinion, in which he agrees with. the most intelligent modern travellers, is not dangerous; or, if fo, the danger is removed by the profufe fweats which the ufually attending exercise excites. The fnow-white sheep of Tarentum are no louger obferved: they are all black, owing as is fuppofed to a certain herb in the neighbourhood, which poifons the white fheep without injuring the black ones. Our author does not think this opinion a very probable one; but, if we confider that the black beafts or birds, among those animals that admit of this colour, are of the wilder and hardier kind, we may be allowed to confider the reason as more probable.

Thefe obfervations chiefly occur in a little excurfion weftward along the northern coast of Sicily to Favoretta and Caftell a Mare. During the fecond stay at Palermo, fome circumftances which were not noticed before are mentioned. The population of Palermo is eftimated at 320,000; and though it is agreed by every traveller that the people are very numerous in proportion to the fize of the city, this great number almoft exceeds belief. The banditti are lefs numerous than formerly, though ftill formi

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