in this manner performed, he retires in the same state with which he entered. At every movement he commands respect, and at every word strikes his auditors with astonishment; his dulness is mistaken for modesty, and his solemnity for learning. If a young physician earnestly imitates this admired example, and assidiously studies the character and management of doctor Sangrado in Gil Blas, he will in a short time become as wealthy, illustrious, and destructive as any hero on the records of antiquity.

But although interest and court-favour do in a great measure influence every profession; yet we cannot for a moment suppose the abovementioned artifices can prevail in the church, when we look around us and see every religious office occupied by men eminent for their learning, piety and talents; men who are the the supporters of true religion, and political tranquillity; who have never cringed to the great, nor risen into honour by flattery and obsequiousness, but through their own abilities and intrinsic excellence.

Unskilful they to fawn, or seek for pow'r,
By Doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour.
GOLD. D. V.

And even were it possible that such abuses. could exist, SOLOMON GRILDRIG would never dare to draw aside the veil of the inner temple, or to sport with those things which religion has consecrated to herself, and concealed from the impious penetration of ridicule and profane

ness.

In those situations also, where honour, wealth, and distinction are to be gained by the sword alone, and where every man is able to carve out his own fortune, boldness and magnanimity will always triumph over craft and cowardice. For courage and not morality, is the road to naval and military eminence. Not that the younger son of a nobleman, who has nothing but an honourable to recommend him, may not arrive at the dignity of captain or even colonel in some regiment, that can never go upon foreign service: but still to the brave and deserving alone are such enterprizes committed, as may bring glory to England, honour to themselves, and eternal distinction to their posterity.

Yet still I fear my admonition will be lost upon those to whom it is particularly directed; for so much genuine learning, religion, and morality is foolishly instilled into their minds at

Eton, that half a dozen lawyers, much less my precepts, would be unable to eradicate the principles of a virtuous education. Strange obetinacy! that people should be so blind to their own interest, as to give up every thing that is considered excellent and honourable amongst mankind, for the self supporting satisfaction of an applauding conscience, and the blessed hope of peace, glory, and immortality,

THE

MINIATURE,

NUMB. XXI.

MONDAY, November 12, 1804.

Patriis intermiscere petita

Verba foris malis, Canusini more bilinguis? HOR. Sat. 1, 10.

Would you forgetful of your native tongue,
In foreign words and broken phrases speak,
The half-bred jargon of a mungrel Greek?

No branch of literature comes, in my opinion, more immediately under the cognizance of a periodical writer, than the important fluctuations to which language is perpetually liable; for through the means of such publications alone this nation can at present acquire any correct acquaintance with the idioms of its own variable dialects. From caprice or the love of novelty, (no better reason can, I fear be assigned,) new expressions are continually adopted, foreign phrases are

да

naturalized; and should the words of our ancestors be retained, their signification is so materially altered, that we cannot safely conjecture their present meaning, by resting our judgment upon what they formerly used to

express.

.

It has been observed, that the disposition and ruling passions of a nation might be ascertained by the genius of their language; and the Grecian or Latin tongue would either of them seem to corroborate this opinion; more particularly in the terms which they appropriate to express that perfection, which we include under the word, virtue. Whether the English nation could ever have been adduced as an example in favor of this proposition, I am very doubtful; but surely no correct judgment can be at present passed upon us, since our natural language has been so materially altered, and is become so party-coloured from the continual adoption of vulgar phraseology or foreign alloy, that it can scarcely be said with propriety to possess any genius at all. Germany with justice boasts a dialect less varied by the gleanings of other nations than that of almost any other civilized country now existing; for it is only within a very few years that she has permitted any extraneous words to mix