education, and general habits, have the strongest influence on the conduct of either sex; and had Dido been represented throughout as the dignified queen, in whom every ebullition of womanly feeling was kept in a due state of subjection, and constantly repressed when verging on the bounds of regal decorum,—such a character, though, perhaps, not so interesting as the one Virgil has given her, as coming less home "to our bosoms and business,"-yet, would have been perfectly unobjectionable;-but, as this is certainly not the Queen of Tyre's general character, the partial assumption of it, offends, I think, against that consistency, which ought to mark every part of the Epic.

Homer has avoided a transgression of this nature with the greatest care,-his characters are always preserved with the strictest and most beautiful integrity; and the speech of any one of his heroes, would scarcely, in any case, be adapted for the mouth of another. Nestor is always Nestor,-and Ajax never other than himself; but Dido of the myrtle grove, differs widely, I think, from Dido raging in the streets of Carthage. I, therefore, strongly protest against Lysander's opinion, that her conduct is appropriate, as considering her character;-this I deny.

When he says of the beauteous Eliza's wrongs, that her contempt for Æneas was well founded, I entirely agree with him, for the conduct of the

Trojan was as base and despicable as it was possible to be; nor, after such unmanly, ungenerous treatment, did he merit a single syllable from Dido. Yet I will not allow that this could have any influence on her character in the poem; for Virgil, had he allowed her to entertain aught more than anger, would have failed in one of the most essential requisites of the Epic,-which is, that the hero preserve throughout the esteem of the reader. If he has failed in this, it has not been from want of exertion;—he was obliged to adhere to truth, and relate Æneas's cruel desertion; but he endeavours to palliate it as much as he can, and would represent it as an action in which his hero was deprived of free-agency, being compelled, with regret, to succumb to the mandates of a deity. The Mantuan Bard has not, I believe, generally succeeded in winning over the reader by his arguments; but with the personages of his poem, who are all creatures of his own management, to have granted that they were unconvinced by his reasoning, and looked on that conduct with contempt, which he himself extols, would have been to have condemned himself, and to have allowed that his hero was unworthy his praises, which is so much at war with all epic propriety, that the idea cannot be entertained. Dido, therefore, ought not to be considered as despising, however angry she may be with Æneas; and for anger alone, silence was not equally natural with complaint and invective,

all the other circumstances of the case being considered.

Thus much in defence of the opinion I have formed on the passage in question, but as it is so entirely a matter of taste, I am by no means either surprised or displeased that Lysander should differ from me; nor do I expect to make him alter his sentiments by any arguments I may advance; for in points of this nature it is generally the first feeling that leaves an indelible impression on our thoughts, so much so, that it has been decided

-"nil disputandum,”—there must be no disputing; which will, I hope, plead my excuse for being invulnerable to even Lysander's ingenious arguments, could any have done so, they must oblige me to relinquish an opinion dependent unfortunately on this stubborn perception. Lysander is not the only one from whom I here dissent, for as I have before observed, l'Abbé Hénault also gives a decided preference to Virgil. Authority I do not look upon as argument, yet I think it but fair to oppose the opinions of one great man with those of another; in reply therefore to the French critic, I give the following quotation from our brightest English one. Dr. Johnson thus expresses himself in the "Rambler," No. 121:

"When Ulysses visited the infernal regions, he found, among the heroes that perished at Troy, his competitor Ajax, who, when the arms of Achilles were adjudged to Ulysses, died by his own hand,

in the madness of disappointment. He still appeared to resent, as on earth, his loss and disgrace. Ulysses endeavoured to pacify him with praises and submission; but Ajax walked away without reply. This passage has always been considered as eminently beautiful, because Ajax, the haughty chief, the unlettered soldier, of unshaken courage, of immovable constancy, but without the power of recommending his own virtues by eloquence, or enforcing his assertions by any other argument than the sword, had no way of making his anger known, but by gloomy sullenness, and dumb ferocity. His hatred of a man whom he conceived to have defeated him only by volubility of tongue, was therefore naturally shewn by silence, more contemptuous and piercing that any words so rude an orator could have found, and by which he gave his enemy no opportunity of exerting the only power in which he was superior. When Æneas is sent by Virgil to the shades, he meets Dido, the Queen of Carthage, whom his perfidy has hurried to the grave; he accosts her with tenderness and excuses, but the lady turns away like Ajax in mute disdain. She turns away like Ajax, but she resembles him in none of those qualities which gave either dignity or propriety to silence; she might, without any departure from the tenour of her conduct, have burst out like other injured women into clamour, reproach, and denunciation ;-but Virgil

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had his imagination full of Ajax, and therefore could not prevail on himself to teach Dido any other mode of resentment."

With many apologies for having taken up so much of your paper and time,

I remain, yours, &c.

PHILO-TACITUS.

ON THE SPANISH REVOLUTION.

SIR,-The accompanying paper was, as you will perceive, written at the commencement of the glorious contest which Spain has now so long and so heroically held against the usurpations of France. The late intelligence from Europe gives a new interest to the subject; and if you deem my paper likely to add interest or amusement to your miscellany, you can insert it.

THE information lately received in this part of the world, of the gallant and generous exertions of the Spaniards in the cause of liberty, cannot fail of re-animating the most despondent from that depression, to which the preceding victories of the oppressor of Europe had given birth.