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To the forgeries of Dominico Flocci and the Monk of Viterbo, Mr. Pinkerton admits may be applied the cool and temporising epithet " improper," and declares that the highest reproach we can affix to these productions is this lax and feeble expression. The less venial offences of Marivaux and Walpole, who merely assumed fictitious names and a pretended foreign origin, he characterises as " generous and heroic;" and the Celtic fabler of the Highlands, whose budget of fustain has so long divided the public opinion, is also classed with these pleasing novelists.

Sanctioned as this hypothesis may be by the respectable authority of Addison, and supported, as it is insinuated, by the sacred example of Jesus Christ, still, Sir, I must contend, could this dangerous and pernicious doctrine but once be generally entertained, or should a spirit of emulation for such practices be excited, the chaster beauties of historic truth, now emanating from its motley garb, would again sink, encircled by the meretricious, though luxuriant ornaments of inventive fiction, and the lamp of science be eclipsed by the stronger glare of error and incertitude. Had such an opinion prevailed when Annius produced his seventeen books of antiquities; or when. the historical compilations of Varillus were

brought forward, (authenticated as they appear to be by a host of citations and indisputable evidence) we should now have been amusing ourselves with the perusal of Syriac and Chaldean atchievements, or anecdotes of distinguished heroes and princes; which, like the travels of Damberger composed whilst pacing the narrow limits of a garret, were fabricated within the pale of a cloister, or the more classical retirement of a library.

Nor did the influence of these impostors entirely cease with their exposure; for when history would not afford any corroboration of a favorite opinion, or industry could not collect a confirmation of some long-fostered prejudice, the page of Annius was referred to as sufficiently decisive, and his fanciful ebullitions were adopted as the acme of probity and truth. Even now, when the lapse of ages has almost secluded his name, and every testimony which can be adduced, except individual confession, has long proved the fallacy of his productions, still a writer of the present century, who lays claim to celebrity whilst investigating the origin of a great nation, has not hesitated to cite this impudent forger as establishing the correctness of his argument.

It is here, then, this evil assumes a magnitude and importance, which, widely extending under

the specious form of historical truth and acknow ledged fact, is received by the credulous and indolent as the result of experience and mature reflection; and, instead of developing the perplexities it professes to disclose, still plunges us deeper in the morasses of aberration, and leads us still further within the labyrinths and mazy paths of delusion. History, Sir, at the best of times, has never been too accurate, has never been wholly free from the traditions of the vulgar, and the misrepresentations of the ignorant; and if to these must also be added, whatever ingenuity may devise, or an over-heated imagination can suggest, we may expect to see the revival of those days when Jonah was supposed to have swallowed the whale, and not (as it now stands recorded) the fish to have swallowed the prophet.

At some future opportunity, as convenience will allow me, I shall discuss both the generosity and herosim" of a writer's ascribing to antiquity his own productions, and thus sacrificing his own fame to give satisfaction to the public,"* with a few occasional remarks on those, who, under supposititious appellations, have offered their own compositions as translations from foreign languages.

I am, Sir, your's, &c.

C.

→ The Ponderer regrets that his ingenious correspondent

has not yet completed this intention.

THE PONDERER. No. 6.

Quicquid excessit modum,

Pendet instabili loco.

No real happiness is found

In a soul exalted high,

To range the circuit of the sky,

Converse with stars above, and know
All nature in its forms below.

IN a former essay,

PARNELL.

*Education was defined to be whatever may impress the mind, or contribute to the formation of its habits, and associations; and it was contended, that if this definition be admitted as accurate, it follows that the intellectual superiority we denominate Genius, may, with philosophical accuracy, be said to be created by education. This sense of the term education may be explained, and perhaps illustrated, if it be regarded as synonimous with that of discipline, in the creed of the Christian, who believes that the events of this life are invariably, and universally a system of education for another state of existence -that this is the infancy of intelligence, where

* No. 3.

the various circumstances in which it has pleased Infinite Benevolence to place its creature man, have for their object the perfection of intellect, and the greatest possible felicity of all percipient beings. This extensive sense of the term education, unites the intellectual and moral worlds with happiness as their object, and concentrates them in the Deity, as their efficient, and their final cause.

At the close of the paper, to which I have before alluded, I intimated an intention of discussing, in some future essay, the peculiar infelicities of Genius, and my object in resuming the subject at present, is to attempt the completion of that engagement.

One of the peculiar infelicities of genius, arises from that superiority of the powers of imagination to those of judgment, which almost invariably accompanies intellectual superiority, and in some instances is so predominant, that it has frequently been mistaken for genius itself; particularly by Dr. Gerard, who considers invention its characteristic. That this imperfection arises from an injudicious education, may be demonstrated from the memoirs of every man of genius, from the first record of intellectual progress, to Kotzebue, and must be ascribed, with all the evils it intro

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