dependence. We are told at one time that he was infenfible to the power of love; at another, that he was the flave of two miftreffes fucceffively. The Monk of Montaudon, a fatyrical troubadour of those times, who found great fatisfaction in abufing every writer of merit, and did not even fpare himself, has left us the character of our Limofin. El fegons Girau de Borneill, Que fembla oire fee a foleill Ab fon chantar, magre dolen, Ques chans de veilla porta feill Qui fmirava en efpeill, Nos preferia un aguillen. He is introduced in the Triumphs of Love, by Petrarch; twice quoted in the treatife De Vulgi Eloq. + by Dante; and again mentioned by him, in the Purgatorio, as a popular writer; though Dante confiders him as inferior to Arnaud Daniel. His verfes are indeed very barth and meagre. Tan be m fembla gens E prees contr als non calenz, Cui cors faill enans, car genz Cal fervari Dieu non van, The zeal of the crufaders could not have been much warmed by fuch trains as thefe. Blancas, the father of Biancaffet, was the friend of Giraud. Canzhos vai dire en Blancas, Q1 fai valor valer e prez prezar. Com lui lauzan non pot fobrelauzar, Tan es valenz e fina fa valenzha. He died in 1278. on that fubject, I defire he will fend them to you, and that you will allow them a place in this Repository; fo hall the publick judge whether they deferve the contempt with which he mentions them in your laft Number. Very different indeed were his acknowledge. ments to me at the time they were received. Before I had feen Mr. Bofwell's SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, feveral of my friends expreffed indignation at what they termed the ungrateful rudenefs with which I am introduced on the first page. It appeared neceffary to state my reafons for believing that the myr. tle-verfes were originally addreffed to Lucy Porter. That tatement breathes no reflection upon Mr. Bofwer, farther than merely pronouncing the fentence in queftion impolite. If unjustly, being before the publick, it justifies itfeif against my charge. Instead of kindly alleging that he meant me no dife fpect, he publishes that infinitely more unfriendly letter in your laft Magazine. I ftill, and always fhall, retain my conviction concerning the origin of thofe LINES ON RECEIVING MYRTLE FROM A LADY. I have too great refpe&t for Mrs. Lucy Porter's, and for my mother's, long and unvarying refti mony, to refign it. Since, as Mr Bofwell allows, Dr. Johnfon found quit, and the defire of victory in argument, irrefiftible temptations to affert fuch fall hoods as that "Buchanan was the only man of genius Scotland has produced;" as that "Garrick did not make Shakspeare better known;" there is little realon to think he would fcruple the immaterial mitreprefentation which af figned to thofe pretty ftanzas an origin more agreeable to his feelings. Had he never uttered a more injurious unt uh, it had been well for many g.cat and good characters, whofe fame his injuftice has darkened. With what reafon I am accufed of depreciating thofe gallant STANZAS ON THE MYRTLE SPRIG, my letter in the October Magazine, p. 875. evinces. Confidered as the compontica of youth, even the youth of JOHNSON, it deems them curiously elegan:— but, fince he has written poetry very luperior to them, it is demonftrable that, as the produce of maturer uile, they add ne thing to his fathe I get believe the neither idle nor improbable tale of the infant Johaten having lifped tour doggerel times on me death death of a duck; becaufe Mrs. Lucy Porter faid Dr. Johnfon's mother told her the circumftance; because it is more likely he should have forgotten what he faid at three years old, than that either of thofe good women fhould invent a falfehood. The converfation which young Johnfon is reported to have held with his mother, when he asked her consent to mairy the widow Porter, and which formed one of the anecdotes, I fent to Mr. Bofwell, and which he fuppreffed, I have heard frequently and generally mentioned, and credited here. I forget whether or not I quoted to him any particular authority for that memoiryet, to the best of my remembrance, I heard it firft from the late Mrs. Cobb, of this place. If I were asked who told me that Johnfoa faid of Chesterfield, "he is a wit among lords, and a lord among wits," I fhould find it difficult to specify an individual from the numbers whom I have heard repeat the farcafin. Neither can I wou with certainty in this inftance-but I never doubted the reality of either ftory, becaufe there is the Johntonian fpirit in both. Dr. Johnfon's frequently-expreffed contempt for Mrs. Thrale on account of that want of veracity which he imputes to her, at leaft as Mr. Bofwell has recorded, either convicts him of narrating what Johnfon never faid, or Johnfon himfell of that infincerity of which there are too many inftances, amidst all the recorded proofs of his unprovoked perfonal rudenefs, to those with whom he converfed; for, this repeated contempt was coeval with his published letters, which express such high and pe feet eftcem for that lady; which declare, that "to hear her was to hear Wijdom, that to fee her was to fee Virtue." It has been my lot to contend equally with Dr. Johnfon's enemies and with his worthipers. Against the pejudice or envy of thofe who call his admirable ftyle florid, turgid, ft ff, and pedantic, I have ever maintained that he is the fine profe-writer in our language; and, again the indifcriminate blazon of those who pronounce him equally good as great. I have pro efted, from ingenuous indignation at his injuffice to albers. After the inftances of that injuftice fo lavishly recorded by his biographers, it is ridiculous to hear Mr. Bolwell affert, that his glorious talents, no and they were glorious, fet him above fume, as if it was more presumptuous to "The wifeft, greatest, meanest, of mankind." Mr. Bofwell would have us believe, that falfe affertions are not to be confi dered as untruths when they are gilded by wit-but a good heart fcorns unjust depreciation from the lip, or the pen, of a Johnfon, as from thofe of the most ordinary capacity; nay, more; because it is more injurious to its object. I have a better right to proteft against the malignity of my intellectual fuperior, JOHNSON, upon recorded fatis, than he had to degrade, upon vague conjecture, the morality and piety of his fuperior, MILTON. With malevolence alfo he charges that luminary, that boast of our nation, faying, in his LIFE OF MILTON, p. 143, "Such was his malignance, that bell grew darker at his frown." Thofe with whom I have conversed were too polite, or too good-natured, to inform me of one of thofe many things, which, I doubt not, he has faid to my difadvantage. It cannot be pleafant to any perfon to know that they must go down to potterity with the arrows of his detraction flicking about them. It is, however, the lot of many of my fuperiors, both in merit and talents, through Mr. Bofwell's rage of communication; which the politenefs and benevolence I once, and long, believed inherent in his mind, ought, in feveral inftances, to have reftrated. When they operated in my favour, I was obli ged to him-but what he ungenerously fays on that fubject in his late letter to you entirely cancels that obligation, and proclaims him the foe of her whom he ins fo often called friend. too often prefumed to indicate the things to me on the fole provocation of praifing the lyric poetry of Gray and Mafon: but I maintained its claim to pre-eminence, unawed by his defpotifm. The quarrel of people of genius and tafte with Dr. Johnfon's critical decifions is not, as Mr. Bofwell fays it is, because they affign their proper ftatin to the minor pocts, but because they de~preciate excellence and exalt mediocrity; becaufe, while they beftow praife upon the moderate poems of Savage, Watts, and Yalden, and even upon the vapid fuftian of Blackmore, they fhed · contempt upon the exquifite compofitions of PRIOR, COLLINS, GRAY, and AKENSIDE; because they pronounce the PARADISE LOST "one of those books which the reader admires, and lays down, and forgets to take up again." See MILTON's Life, p. 249. I am fure I have read, either in Dr. Johnfon's Works, or in the records of his biographers, the affertion, that "Watts was one of the few poets who could look forward with rational hope to the mercy of their God." A more prefumptuous, a bafer, ftigma, never fell from human lip or pen. It is to be lamented that diftinguished poetic talents, which Johnfon's Raffelas tyles the highest effort of human intellet, fhould ever exift, and they have very rarely exifted, in vicious minds; but thofe minds would have been more vicious without them, fince the time fpent in their culture would, it is more than probable, have been paffed in fen1ual purfeits; and who does not know that depravity grows darker by every added vice? Mark how Johnfon's own peu coofutes his flander in a paffage, the eloquent beauty of which, if ever equalled, has never been excelled. It is in his ". Journey to the Weftern Iles," and in the defer prion of Icclmkill, to which be gives the more harmonious Latin name lona: "Whatever withdraws us from the power of the fenfis, whatever makes the pal, the diffant, or the future, predominate over the prefent, ex its us in the feale of rational Deings." That the culture of the poetic feence, as of every other, does withdraw us from the power of the tentes, does make the past, the dilant, and the future, predominate over the prefent, is It is therefore impothble that its profeffors cab, in genera, deleive this daring, this unciiftaulike, ftigma, They are bus biod idolaters who per ceive not in its bitterness the difappoint ed ambition, and, confequently, envi ous fpleen, of Johnfon, who firit ap. peared before the world in the character of a poer; and who, in that line of wrîting, though fome of his poetic compo fitions are very fine, has been excelled by feveral of his contemporaries. Of envy and felfith prejudice, infinu ared against me by Mr. Boswell in your laft, I fhall be acquitted by all who know my difpofition and the habits of my life. All that was great and genuinely good in Dr. Johnfon have had no warmer encomiaft. I have uniformly faid, that, while the flowers of poetic imagination luxuriantly adorn his ftyle, it is never enfeebled by their plenitude; that no periods are fo harmonious, none fo nervous; that there is no fatiety ia the delight they infpire on moral and religious themes; that his pecuniary generofity did him infinite honour; and that his faith in Chriftianity difgraced the fcepticifin of weaker minds. The refpe&table Editor of this work is miftaken, the three letters figned BENVOLIO, in the numbers for February and April, 1786, p. 129 and p. 302, and for Auguft, 1787, p. 684, are mine; 1 avowed them at the time they appeared to almost all my friends, and, I think, to Mr. Bofwell. The only occafion on which I declined acknowledging them was in a literary circle in London, May, 1786, where I heard the two firit, for the laft was not then writ ten, pronounced the most equitable balance of Dr. Johnton's good and ill qualities which had appeared. They were too highly spoken of to permit my owning them, as the company were chiefly drangers to me. I with the candid reader of Mr. Bofwell's uncandid letter would recur to thofe firictures figned Benvolio, and confider them well. I difclaim all knowledge of any other anonymous publications concerning Dr. Johnfon; fome stanzas in verse to Mr. Mafon, on the injuftice to Mr. Gray, excepted. Who it was that took the unwarrantable liberty of fending to your Repofitory thofe extracts from Mi. Hayley's letters and mine, without the confent of their authors, I have to this hour no guefs; but a most imper. fect copy it was, that by interpolation and omiffion annihilated the fenfe of many paffages. They were never intended for the pub ick, but made, and tranfaitted to fome dilant friends, for their amufement. The The fentence quoted by my anonymous correfpondent from Johnfon's kindred fpirit, Warburton, is impious, pronouncing the decifions of any man facred, and unerring as the balance of the fan&uary. A balance of the fanctuary is ready, in which to weigh the character of John fon. It is in the 13th chapter of the Epiftle to the Corinthi ans. If in that balance he be not found efentially wanting, I am content to have the injuftice here aleged against him retorted upon myself. Hear what his townfman, Bishop NEWTON, fays on this fubject, in his pofthumous work: "Dr. Johníon's Lives of the Poets afford much amufement; but candour was hurt and offended at the malevolence that preponderates in every part. Never was any biographer more fpaing of his praifes, or more abundant in his cenfures. He delights more in expofing lemithes than in recommending beauties; lightly paffes over excellences, enlarges upon imperfections, and, not content with his own fevere reflexions, revives old fcandal, and produces large quotations from the long-forgotten works of former criticks. The panegyrift of Savage in his youth may, in his old age, become the fatyrift of the most favoured authors; his encomium as unjuft and undeferved as his cenfures." Into paper-war with a man, who, after profeffing himself my friend, becomes caufelefly my foe, I wili no farther en ter. New inftances of Mr. Bofwell's heroic attempts to injure a defencelefs female, who has ever warmly vindicated him, muft ultimately redound more to his dishonour than hers, and will, I truft, produce no future intrufion upon Mr. Uiban's publication from the pen of his friend and correfpondent, Mr. URBAN, ANNA SEWARD. Dec. 5. fumptibus condidit. alter [togate] fingulari fuâ prudent â confervavit Pontem Reffen, vagi fiuminis accolæ cujufdam carmen" Pontificis Rosen merito Kools nomine dignus Pontificis Manwood et tibi nomen erit. Kools fabricam propriis impenfis, et fociorum As a metrical English verfion may not be unacceptable to feveral of the readers of your Micellany, the following is offered, with a hope that they will be hereafter favoured with a happier tranflation by fome poet on the banks of Medway: Rochester * Pontifex we Knolles may name; Of Medway deep, this bridge renowned food: P. 984, note, fhould be pp. 820, 90%, 910, 1010, 1107. Mr. URBAN, Dec. 6. EED having, at pp. 997 and 8, re PE vived the quefiion, why in many, I believe in moft, perfons advanced in years, there is a greater defect in the right eye than the left, I cannot forbear repeating my with, that a fatisfactory folution may be obtained from fome of your readers who are adepts in this branch of natural philofophy. To the references to your Mifcellany, cited by your correfpondent, may be added, vol. LV. p. 280, and vol. LVI. pp. 388 and These pages are particularly fubmitted to the confideration of your cor 9. SINCE I tranfmitted to you the re- refpondent, because in them are re marks on Pontifex, inferted in your lafi Magazine, p. 984. I have met with the word ufed in its frict etymological fenfe in fome Latin veries, which I am inclined to believe may not have been printed. The lines are fubjoined to the title of "A true Difcourfe of the antient Wooden and prefent Stoned Bridge at Rochefter, &c. Collected and written by Sir Roger Manwood, &c." [fee Harris's Hiitory of Kent, p. 255]; and are thus introduced : "De Roberto Knolfo, et Rogero Manwoodo, querum alter [ard.at& militia] eques miris *Var. r. Pontifex of Raff. or Pontifex Reffen: An intermixture of Latin and Englith being warranted by the autographs Free Sam. Roffen. and Free Jof Roffen. on the envelopes of letters. In the pronunciation of Rochetter there has been, nobody knows how long, a glaring tranfgreffion of a rule of Profody in making e fhort before ; whereas the emphafis ought to be laid as in the first line of an epigram by John Johníon, as cited by Weever (Funeral Monuments, p. 308): Ubs antiqua, ferox, bella eft Roceftria fita. Therefore, meo periculo, for Rochester r. Ro chèfter. SCRIBRELOLUS. marks marks upon this fubject from vol. XXXVIII. pp. 443, 449, which were communicated by the late Dr. Leigh, of Effex, and by J. R. the fignature of Mr. Robinfon, of Hinckley. In this letter I alfo noticed my having obferved, that, in those who were fubject to a tremor in the hands, the right-hand was generally the moft agitated; and this I attributed to the more frequent and vigorous exertion of that member, probaby in confequence of their being, whit children, injudicioufly cautioned and admonifhed not to make the fame free ufe of the left-hand. As to the ears, it must be fir enquired, whether there is a fimilar peculiarity of defect in this organ? That it is not in our power to acquire a habit of wo king the drum of one ear more than the other, will, I imagine, be readily admitted. W. & D. Mr. URBAN, Dec. 14. THOSE of your readers whole curisfity may be awakened about the falls of the Rhine, which proved fo fatal to the late Lord Montague, will find it gratified in Broval's Travels, vol. II. part II. p. 68, and L'Etat & les Délices de la Suiffe, II. 33; III. 89; in both which books is a good reprefentation of the fall and the adjacent country. Mr. Breval fays of it: "This fall of the Rhine has an effect very different in its nature from the cataract of Terni; for, if we confider the breadth of the rivers, the Velinus will stand in no competition with the Rhine; but this fall, on the other hand, comes vastly fhort of the height of the former. They are each of them in their respective kinds very extraor dinary; and, if I may be allowed to form any parallel, the cafcade of Terni caufes more aftonishment, but that of Schauffhaufen gives more delight. This cataract obliges the vellels that come with the Rhine from the lake of Conft nce to unload their cargoes at Schauffhaufen, whence they are fent by land fome miles till that river becomes navigable again, and they can be forwarded to Alface, in Germany, as occafion requires. In coafting the Rhine from Schaffhaufen to Bafil, we obferved here and there whirlpools that are faid to be very dangerous: another natural cataract or two (but where the fall is pretty infenfible), and an artificial one, at Altbrock (where the Emperor has great on works), which is extremely beautiful." In the French work, this wonderful fall near Lauffen, avge with a cafile on the left bank of the Rhine, a fhort diftance belowSchat #haufen, is defcribed as 40 cubits high, the water precipita ting itfelf among rocks with fo terrible a noife, that it is heard at four leagues diftance in a calm night. Schaffhaufen is the capital of a canton of its own name, a large and handfome city on the North back of the Rhine, on an uneven fire, not older than the year 1c60, when a monaftery was founded there by Eberhard, Earl of Nellebourg. Mr. Bulching (Geogr. XIV. 73, ed. Strafburg, 1770) makes the fall forty fathoms (brales) over craggy rocks, where the river forms a circular rainbow, near the cftle of Lauffen, on a rock, a short league below Schauffhaufen. Mr. Salmon (Prefent State of all Nations, II. 281, 4to) fays, the city of Schaufhaulea is efteemed the fincit town in Switzerland next to Bafil, is fituate on the Rhine about 15 miles North of Zurich, and as many West of Confiance. All vefiels being obliged to unload here, on occafion of the neighbouring cataracts of the Rhine, it is become a place of good trade. But the fulleft account of it may be found in our countryman Mr. Coxe, in his "Travels in Switzerland," vol. I. p. 10, 1791: "1776. We rode about a league to the fall of the Rhine at Lauft hen. Our roure lay over the hills which form the banks of the river; the environs are picturesque and agreeable, the river beautifully winding through the vale. Upon our arrival at Lauffen, a fmall village in the canton of Zurich, we difmounted, and, advancing to the edge of the precipice which overhangs the Rhine, we looked down perpendicularly upon the cataract, nd faw the river tumbling over the fide of the rock with amazing violence and precipitation. Hence we defcended till we were fomewhat below the upper bed of the river, and flood close to the fail, fo that I could almot have touched it with my hand. A fcaffolding is erected in the very fpray of this tremendous cataract, and upon the most fublime point of view. The fea of foam rushing down, the continual cloud of fpray fcattered to a great distance and to a confiderable height; in short, the magnifi cence of the whole fcen-ry far furpalled my most fanguine expectations, and exceeds ail defcription. Within about 100 feet of the scaffolding two crags rife in the middle of the fall; the nearett is perferated by the continud action of the river, and the water forces it felf through many oblique directions with inexpreflite fury and a hollow fourd. After having contemplated the awful fablimity of this wonderful landfcape, we defcended and croffed the river, which was extremely agitated. Hitherto I had only |