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with his cheerful countenance, appeared at the study door, and, with a voice as cheerful as his looks, exclaimed, Mr. Hayley is come, madam!' We both started, and in the same moment cried, Mr. Hayley come! And where is he?' The next moment corrected our mistake, and finding Mary's voice grow suddenly tremulous, I turned, and saw her weeping.

"I do nothing, notwithstanding all your exhortations: : my idleness is proof against them all, or, to speak more truly, my difficulties are so. Something indeed I do. I play at push-pin with Homer every morning before breakfast, fingering and polishing, as Paris did his armour. I have lately had a letter from Dublin on that subject, which has pleased me. "W.C."

TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ.

Weston, Jan. 29, 1793.

"My dearest Hayley, "I truly sympathise with you under your weight of sorrow for the loss of our good Samaritan. But be not broken-hearted, my friend! remember the loss of those we love is the condition on which we live ourselves; and that he who chooses his friends wisely from among the excellent of the earth, has a sure ground to hope, concerning them, when they die, that a merciful God has made them far happier than they could be here; and that we shall join them soon again. This is solid comfort, could we but avail ourselves of it; but I confess the difficulty of doing so. Sorrow is like the deaf adder, that hears not the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely;' and I feel so much myself for the death of Austin, that my

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own chief consolation is, that I had never seen him. Live yourself, I beseech you, for I have seen so much of you, that I can by no means spare you; and I will live as long as it shall please God to permit me: I know you set some value on me, therefore let that promise comfort you! and give us not reason to say, like David's servants, We know that it would have pleased thee more if all we had died, than this one, for whom thou art inconsolable.' You have still Romney, and Carwardine, and Guy, and me, my poor Mary, and I know not how many beside; as many, I suppose, as ever had an opportunity of spending a day with you. He who has the most friends must necessarily lose the most, and he whose friends are numerous as yours, may the better spare a part of them. It is a changing transient scene: yet of life will be over with all of usa little while, and this poor dream the living, and they who live unhappy, they are indeed subjects of sorrow. Adieu, my beloved friend. "Ever yours. W. C."

TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ.

Weston, Feb. 5, 1793. "In this last revisal of my work (the Homer) I have made a number of small improvements, and am now more convinced than ever, having exercised a cooler judgement upon it than before I could, that the translation will make its way. There must be time for the conquest of vehement and longrooted prejudice; but, without much self-partiality, I believe that the conquest will be made; and am certain that I should be of the same opinion were the work another man's. I shall soon have

finished

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My pens are all split, and my ink-glass is dry;

Neither wit, common sense, nor ideas have I.

"In vain has it been, that I have made several attempts to write, since I came from Sussex; unless more comfortable days arrive than I have the confidence to look for, there is an end of all writing with me. I have no spirits ;-when the Rose came, I was obliged to prepare for his coming by a nightly dose of laudanum-twelve drops suffice; but without them I am devoured by melancholy.

"A-propos of the Rose! His wife in her political notions is the exact counterpart of yourself loyal in the extreme. Therefore, if you find her thus inclined when you become acquainted with her, you must not place her resemblance of yourself to the account of her admiration of you, for she is your likeness ready made. In fact, we are all of one mind about government matters, and, notwithstanding your opinion, the Rose is himself a whig, and I am a whig, and you, my dear, are a tory, and all the tories now-a-days call all the whigs republicans. How the deuce you care to be a tory is best known to yourself: you have to answer for this novelty to the shades of your ancestors, who were always whigs ever since we had any. Adieu. W. C."

TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ.
Feb. 17, 1795.

"I have read the critique of my work in the Analytical Review, and am happy to have fallen into the hands of a critic, rigorous enough indeed, but a scholar, and

a man of sense, and who does not deliberately intend me mischief. I am better pleased indeed that he censures some things than I should have been with unmixed commendation, for his censure (to use the new diplomatic term) will accredit his praises. In his particular remarks he is for the most part right, and I shall be the better for them; but in his general ones I think he asserts too largely, and more than he could prove. With respect to inversions in particular, I know that they do not abound. Once they did, and I had Milton's example for it, not disapproved by Addison. But on's remonstrance against them I expunged the most, and in my new edition shall have fewer still. I know that they give dignity, and am sorry to part with them, but to parody an old proverb, he who lives in the year ninety-three, must do as in the year ninety-three is done by others, The same remark I have to make on his censure of inharmonious lines. I know them to be much fewer than he asserts, and not more in number than I accounted indispensably necessary to a due variation of cadence. I have, however, now, in conformity with modern taste (over-much delicate, in my mind) given to the far great er number of them a flow as smooth as oil. A few I retain, and will, in compliment to my own judgement. He thinks me too faithful to compound epithets in the introductory lines, and I know

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his reason. He fears lest the English reader should blame Homer, whom he idolises, though hardly more than I, for such constant repetition. But them I shall not alter. They are necessary to a just representation of the original. In the affair of Outis, I shall throw him flat on his back by an unanswerable argument, which I shall give in a note, and with which I am furnished by Mrs. Unwin. So much for hypercriticism, which has run away with all my paper. This critic by the way is I know him by infallible indications.

"W.C."

TO THE REV. MR. HURDIS.

Weston, Feb. 23, 1793. "My eyes, which have long been much inflamed, will hardly serve me for Homer, and oblige me to make all my letters short. You have obliged me much by sending me so speedily the remainder of your notes. I have begun with them again, and find them, as before, very much to the purpose. More to the purpose they could not have been, had you been poetry professor already. I rejoice sincerely in the prospect you have of that office, which, whatever may be your own thoughts of the matter, I am sure you will fill with great sufficiency. Would that my interest and power to serve you were greater. One string to my bow I have, and one only, which shall not be idle for want of my exertions. I thank you likewise for your very entertaining notices

and remarks in the natural way. The hurry in which I write would not suffer me to send you many in turn, had I many to send, but only two or three present themselves.

I

"Frogs will feed on worms. saw a frog gathering into his gullet an earth-worm as long as himself; it cost him time and labour, but at last he succeeded.

“Mrs. Unwin and I, crossing a brook, saw from the foot-bridge somewhat at the bottom of the water which had the appearance of a flower. Observing it attentively, we found that it consisted of a circular assemblage of minnows; their heads all met in a centre, and their tails diverging at equal distances, and being elevated above their heads, gave them the appearance of a flower half blown. One was longer than the rest, and as often as a straggler came in sight, he quitted his place to pursue him, and having driven him away, he returned to it again, no other minnow offering to take it in his absence. This we saw him do seve ral times. The object that had attached them all, was a dead minnow, which they seemed to be devouring.

"After a very rainy day, I saw on one of the flower borders, what seemed a long hair, but it had a waving twining motion. Considering more nearly, I found it alive, and endued with spontaneity, but could not discover at the ends of it either head or tail, or any distinction of parts. I carried it into the house, when the air of a warm room dried and killed it presently. "W.C."

Of

Of the REPUTE and VALUE of the Ass in EASTERN COUNTRIES.

[From Mr. BRYANT'S OBSERVATIONS upon some PASSAGES in SCRIPTURE.]

"A

S I have mentioned the contempt which was shown to this object by the Grecians, it will be proper to describe, on the other side, the repute, and even sanctity, in which it was held by other nations. Of this something has been said, and I shall now proceed further. Both the male and the female were esteemed as sacred representatives, but with a different reference. The mule was sacred to Baal-Peor, the same as Peor Apis. He was the very obscene deity Priapus of Greece to whom the ass was a constant companion. Baal-Peor was sometimes expressed Baal Phegor, and by Jerome is said to have beenIdolum Moabitarum, quem nos Priapum

possumus nominare. Hieron. in Hoseam. lib. ii. cap. ix. Baal Phegor-Idolum Moab, quem Latini Priapum vocant. Isidor. Orig. lib. viii. p. 1025. Phegor is the same as Peor, only aspirated. The ram, the goat, the baboon, as well as the ass, were, for particular reasons, made emblems of the same original object. He was accordingly, in different temples, worshipped under their similitude. What analogy subsisted between the primary being and the substitute, I shall not take upon me to explain, nor say any thing of the rites and mysteries, which were base and abject, and the most obscene of any, that were ever practised. As the sacred writer has chosen to draw a

veil over them, I shall not presume further to disclose them.

"Obtenta sacri suppuro silentii Intrare noli; sed pudenter præteri.

"It may be proper to add, that in Egypt they used to stamp their sacred cakes with the figure of an ass bound. This was done in honour of Typhon. The ass was said to be like this deity, whom they esteemed the same as Seth; and they accordingly introduced him as his emblem and representative. As such, he seems to have had the same honours as the bull at Memphis, and the goat at Mendes. Epiphanius, speaking of the base worship of the Egyptians, tells us-IY μLEY TW OF 85 το όνομα του Σήθ, δήθεν του Τυρω νος τέλετας ειργάζουσιν. In some places they perform sacred rites to the ass in the name of Seth, the same as the god Typhon. It is from hence manifest that this animal was oftentimes esteemed sacred; and, however ridiculous it may appear, had divine honours. This, I imagine, obtained in the Seth roite name of Egypt, which was denominated from the deity Seth.

"The female was looked upon as sacred for many reasons; one of these was its sagacity, which, however, it shared in common with the male; and for which they were looked upon as inspired by Heaven. Concerning this I have spoken. But there was another cause, which arose from a benefit peculiar

peculiar to the female, that nutricious juice which it afforded: hence she was worshipped among the Midianites and Arabians upon this account, and by other people, as the cow was at Momemphis, and in other parts of Egypt. It was upon this account that the preference was given to the female in this part of the world; for, as the natives had few or no cows, this brood was made a happy substitute. The COW demands a moister soil, and more succulent vegetables than can be found in a dry or parched soil, and amid rocks and sands; but asses will live upon less copious browse, and upon a more coarse and scanty herbage.

THE GREAT UTILITY OF THE FE

MALE ASS FURTHER SHOWN.

"Of what use these animals were, and in what estimation, in those parts, of which I have been treating, may be further seen in the history of Job, and in the account of his wealth. It is said of this person that he lived in the land of Uz, which is rendered by the Seventy Auditis; and is supposed by the learned to have been in Arabia, and in the vicinity of Kedar, Teman, Midian, and Edom. Some have not scrupled to make Job an Edomite. This was an opinion, of which Eusebius makes mention in his account of Idumæa. Ιδουμαία, χώρα Ησαυ Εδομ εκαλείτο. Εσι δε αμφι την Πετραν Γεβαλήνη καλουμένη, ή και τα τινας Αυσίτις, χώρα του Ιων. Idumaa was the region of Esau, which had also the name of Edom. It is that part which lies about Petra, and is called Gebalene, which has been thought to have been the

same as Ausitis, the country of Job. We are told, that his substance was seven thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household. It is remarkable, that the most useful animals, the cows, are not here mentioned, unless they are included in the yokes of lowed. If there be an omission, oxen, which can hardly be althe reason probably was, because, the soil, there were but few; and on account of the barrenness of the oxen were in great measure imported, for the sake of cultivating the land. It is true, that a cow can live wherever an ox can subsist; but she will not af ford a due supply of milk without proper pasture: and if this portion of aliment should be wanting, she becomes in a useless. In the prophet Ezekiel trade of Tyre; and among other we have an account of the great regions, which afforded supplies, Arabia is mentioned, and also Kedar, which was a part of it. Arabia, and the princes of Kedar, occupied thee (O Tyre), in lambs, and rams, and goats. Chap. xxvii. ver. 21.

manner

either of ox or cow, which makes Not a word is here said me think that they were not the natural breed of Arabia, but in great measure imported from Egypt, and other places.

in the passage from Job, female "It is equally remarkable, that, asses only are enumerated: the reason is, because in them great part of their wealth consisted ; the males being few, and not held in equal estimation. We find riding by the natives of these that the former were chosen for parts; and the ass of Balaam is distinguished as a female. They were probably led to this choice

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