whofe productions there is no ftamp of genius ", but which are in reality pages of inanity. But it is now, with greater propriety of appellation, dignified from our most amiable fovereign's tranfcendental confort. Without pre-fuppofing impoffibilities or anticipating fruftration, we folicited his company with the fonorous periods of respectful profeffion, that while we fhould be difporting with the bowl and pins, he might be agglomerating meditations on the penfile fpiky pods of the blooming religiofos of the gardens; but he tranfmitted us a declinature in the monofyllables of coldnefs, for he was going to effuse the fair creation P of his praying powers at the bedide of a penitential nymph in Lewkener's lane. However, he gave us a promiffory note he would fubjoin a defcant on the creation r • At length we arrived at the place of our original deftination, without any intercepting interruption; only Hymenæus and Hermeticus would have diverted into the fountain in the Five Fields, in order to try fome magnetical experiments on an ambulatory nymph, who seemed perpetually fufceptible of occafional delight. But they were reftrained, as well by the unexpected appearance of Tranquilla, who juft then tollutated along in a rotatory vehicle, as by the unanimous fimultaneity of our prohibitory fupplications. On our ingrefs into the fcene of skittleary contention, we expedited ambaffadors with plenary powers to procure us buttered buns, charming Cheshire cheese, tart tit-bit tartlets, rare ripe radifhes, and recent rolls; we enhanced our reciprocal felicity by quaffing convivial Burton; and we difported with the bowl and pins. At last, after various viciffitudes and revolutions of a vehement contention, and ardent competition for skittleary reputation, the totality of the reckoning devolved upon Quifquilius. Quifquilius, being devoid of pecuniary ftores, offered to depofite as a mode of hypothecal fecurity, the ftings of four wafps, that had been taken * Sheffield, duke of Buckingham. This is the character given by Warton, in his Effay on Pope, of that nobleman's writings. I own that Lexiphanes does not, in fo many words, call them pages of Inanity. He applies that expreffion to Walth. But he does what is equivalent. He fays, in his Idler, I think, pofterity will wonder how fuch men as Sheffield and Lansdowne ever came to have any reputation. What must pofterity think of the present age in which this dogmaticaļ pedant has obtained fo great a reputation! • Ramb. No. 194. P Pleaf. of Imag. B. 2. L. 38. 9 Hervey's Meditations. Raffelas. Alliteration; a figure Lexiphanes feems fometimes to be very fond of, torpid in their winter quarters. But the landlord rejected the proffer with an indignant fneer of pecuniary impudence. Quifquilius vainly alledged, with all the powers of deprecating rhetorical perfuafion, that the wafp from whom the ftings had been extracted, cóft him the annual rent of the farm where they had been caught, when under the influence of frigorifick torpor The unfeeling governor of the caravanferay replied not, but with a trite faying of proverbial vulgarism, A fool and his money are foon parted. At laft, after a tedious altercation, Milocapelus, inftigated by the ramifications of private friendship, difbursed the symbol. When now we had with fome difficulty effectuated a relinquishment of this dignified fcene of fkittleary contention, a dusky and cerulean darknefs had begun to obumbrate the fuperficies of the conftellated regions, and to diminish the horizon of our profpects. We ambulated homeward, aided by the declining corufcations of a crepufcular glimmering. In our viatorial progreffion, we were now oppofite the Porto-bello, where latrocinary homicides wont to lurk, and make incurfions on unfufpecting way farers, and comminutions of their purses and lives. Terrification feized me from the dreariness of the scene, and the reflection that the ghosts of the murdered might now be hovering round the fatal places where their terreftrial exiftences had been comminuted. Eubulus, that infidel and infolent contemner of grey-bearded wisdom, observing the tremulous commotion of my nerves, and entertaining a conjectural glimpse of my mental fituation, apprehended me by the fleeve, vociferating with all the femblance of terror: Behold an apparition, the ghoft of a murdered traveller! I adverted my luminaries directly forward, and gazed an object feemingly of immenfe magnitude, and arrayed in a vesture of fhining radiance., I fuffered a reduplication of horrifick terrors, and again Eubulus exclaimed, "Tis, FANNY! 'tis Mifs FANNY herself, the very identical ghoft of Cock-lane! fhe is come to punish and terrify a fceptical unbelieving world. Hearest thou not, her percuffions of negation, her repercuffions of affirmation, and her fcalpations of indignation t! Succumbing It feems, that in the language of the famous Cock-lane ghoft, a fingle knock fignified No, a double one. Yes, and fcratching imported difpleafure. "Tis pity Mifs Fanny fo foon difcontinued her vifits to this world, otherwife, it may be prefumed, Lexiphanes, who, 'tis faid, was a very diligent and attentive fcholar, would have become as great an adept in the dialect of ghos, as Homer was in that of the gods, or as he Succumbing now under an accumulation of horrors, ac tuated as if I had been a mere involuntary mechanist, and having interjected a circumftantial paufe ", I thus ejaculated, Angels and minifters of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health! or goblin damn'd! Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell! Thou com'ft in fuch a queftionable shape That I will fpeak to thee! I'll call thee FANNY! Making it hideous; and us FOOLS of NATURE With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls. Whilft thus ejaculating, Hypertatus with that magnanimity of fentiment, that undauntedness of refolution, and that intrepidity of courage, derived from his habitation in the elevated regions of a garret, approached the place where the apparition feemed to lie, fixed in torpid immobility. But at his approximation it started like a guilty thing, and ran vagiffating along the champain, as if it had been the youthful masculine offspring of a Tauro-vaccineal conjunction. At this unexpected exhibition, my fellow compotators were totally convulfed with univerfal laughter; and even Hypertatus himself, my moft amicable convivial affociate, could not altogether reprefs the instantaneous motions of merriment w. As for myself, I reprehended Eubulus, with the fonorous vociferations of anger, and told him that the precipitation of his inexperience ought to be fhackled by a proper timidity *; and that though he had anfwered his uncle's monitory letters with fuch vivacity of turn, fuch elegancy of irony, and fuch af perity of faracfm, that he had left him henceforth to live upon his own eftate; and that though he had retorted the irony of his patron Hilarius, equally renowned for the extent of his knowledge, the elegance of his diction, and the acutenefs of his wit with fuch fpirit, that he foon convinced him his purpose was not to encourage a rival, but to fofter a parafite ; I is himself in his own mother tongue. It might, in time, have furnished our great Lexicographer with materials for a dictionary of the Language of Spirits. " Elements of Criticifm. No. 159. Y Ramb. No. 26, 27. Ramb. No. 176. * Ramb. told told him, I fay, that he fhould not with impunity derogate from my dictatorial importance, remuneratory honours, and accumulations of preparatory knowledge, with the pertness of puerility, the levity of contempt, and the derifion of ridicule. Eubulus, though he could hardly articulate for a fuffocation of rifibility, declared with facramental obteftations, that he had himself laboured under fimilar powers of deception. I believed him not, and threatened to convict him of the tortuofity of his imaginary rectitude by manual fyllogifms, fiftical applications, and baculinary argumentation.' Before Lexiphanes has finished his rhapfody he is interrupted by the critic, who takes him to task for his hard words and affected ftile; and thinking him mad, applies to a physician, paffing by, who proves to be the British Lucretius 2. He repeats a great many verfes, and the critic gets rid of him with fome difficulty. Another doctor comes by, who is the critic's friend. They talk upon Lexiphanes's cafe, and other matters concerning tafte and writing; and force him to fwallow a potion, which makes him throw up many of his hard words. After this ridiculous operation, the doctor goes to a confulta, tion, and the critic inftructs Lexiphanes how to avoid his for mer faults, and write better for the future. Though this author is inexcufable for his unfair representations, and his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson, and some other refpectable authors, we cannot but commend him for endeavouring to explode the use of hard words and pedantic expreffions. Yet, when this is done, writers are equally liable to corrupt their ftile by vulgar idioms, and ungrammatical phrafes. To write correctly and elegantly is no eafy task. This author falls into many inaccuracies, of which the following is an inftance. In the next place, fays he to lord Lyttleton, of a learned and animated writer as your lordship undoubtedly is, you are the purest and chafteft of any I know now living; and the remoteft from that affectation and Lexiphanicifm which are at once the dif grace and characteristic of the age.' When they meet, they are fure to fall foul of one another' To peruse a paper, or fo' had became 'between you and I.'—' to give into the caricatura a little now and then'—' I wash my hands on't-are expreffions which may be defervedly called colloquial barbarifms. A performance committted to the fostering care of a distinguished character'- An edition of Shakespear in expectancy' – fan&ioned by great authority' - and fome other phrafes, which this writer ufes in his dedication and notes, are fuch as he him. felf would ftile Lexiphanicifins. a Dr. Ak-de; ftiled our Lucretius by fome writers of note. Dr. Armstrong. This author, endeavouring, to write in an eafy, unaffected ftile, generally throws his prepofitions and the signs of the genitive, dative, and ablative cafes to the end of the fentence, in this manner- - which he is mighty fond of?—' which he has not attained to’- - which moft of your brother pedants have joined in' whofe honefty you can rely on the adverfaries you have to cope withal'-' which we are better without' — ⚫ which we have been lately pestered with, &c.' Englishmen, we believe, are the only people in the world who use this form of expreffion. We fhould think a Latin author guilty of a most abominable abfurdity if he should close his periods with de, ad, cum, in, fub, fine, or any other word of this nature. And why do we continue to follow this preposterous arrangement? Such words as of, for, from, by, to, with, in, would stand much more properly and elegantly before the relative pronoun, than at the clofe of the fentence. This author very justly declaims against affected phrases; but the next time he writes, let him favour us with his thoughts on vulgar idioms, and barbarous expreffions, which are more offenfive to a judicious reader than all the hard words which he has attempted to expose. V. The Adventures of Emmera, or the Fair American. Exem plifying the peculiar Advantages of Society and Retirement. 2 Vols. 8vo. Pr. 6s. Nicoll. TH In HIS author, by endeavouring to render his work uncommon, has made it unnatural. When he aims at the furprizing he deviates into the improbable, and whines in 'bombaft while he is attempting the pathetic. Yet his performance is not deftitute of a confiderable fhare of merit. His defign is fimple and commendable, that of contrafting the focial with the fequeftered ftate of life, and fhewing how dangerous fociety may prove to virtue. His retir'd fcenes are laid in America, and are infinitely preferable to those he has exhibited in Europe. The father of Sir Philip Chetwyn prevails upon his fon and daughter to attend him to America, where he intends to purchase an estate and fettle; in the mean time they refide at a farm house. Sir Philip, in exploring the country attended by two Indians and a footman, stumbles upon a neat English habitation, almost inacceffible through the wilds and woods which furround it. Upon entering it, he fees an old Englishman expiring in the arms of his daughter, the most beautiful female figure he had ever beheld. The fenfibility discovered by Sir |