fiderable number of verfes from the beginning of both thefe poets, as Mr. Ward, Profeffor of Rhetoric, in Gresham College, relates upon his own knowledge: and another gentleman has informed me, that he has heard her repeat feveral verfes likewife out of Euripides. Mr. Addifon, and the other gentlemen who had opportunities of feeing her, knew her immediately to be Milton's daughter by the fimilitude of her countenance to her father's picture; and Mr. Addifon made her a handfome prefent of a purfe of guineas, with a promife of procuring for her fome annual provifion for life; but his death happening foon after, the loft the benefit of his generous defign. She received prefents likewife from feveral other gentlemen; and Queen Caroline fent her fifty pounds by the hands of Dr. Friend, the phyfician. BISHOP WARBURTON. THIS prelate has obferved in one of his letters, with fingular truth and humour, that "To be always lamenting the miferies, or always feeking after the pleasures of life, equally takes us off from the work of our fituation; and though I am extremely cautious what fect I follow in religion, yet any in philofophy will ferve my turn; and honeft Sanca Pancha's is as good as any, who, on his return from an important commiffion, when asked by his mafter whether they fhould mark the day with a black or a white ftone, replied, "Faith, Sir, if you will be ruled by me, with neither, but with good brown ocre." "What this philofopher thought of his commiffion,' adds the great prelate," I think of human life in ge neral; good brown ocre is the complexion of it." STERNE. I CANNOT omit mentioning this anecdote of myself and master :—He had the ceiling of the school-room new white-washed. The ladder remained there. I one unlucky day mounted it, and wrote with a brush, in large capital letters, LAU. STERNE, for which the usher fe B 2 verely verely whipped me. My mafter was very much hurt at this, and faid before me, "that never should that name be effaced; for I was a boy of genius, and he was fure I fhould come to preferment." This expreffion made me forget the ftripes I had received. DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. DR. Johnson was indeed famous for disregarding pub- · lic abufe. When the people criticifed and anfwered his pamphlets, papers, &c. "why now thofe fellows are only advertising my books," he would fay; "it is furely better a man should be abused than forgotten.” BERENGERIA, QUEEN OF CASTILE. BERENGERIA united to all the attractions of evanefcent beauty, the eternal loveliness of a cultivated and expanded mind. She was in the caftle of Ozexa, with a very inconfiderable number of forces, when it was befieged by the Moors. She confidered the terrors of her fituation. The ammunition of the fortress was nearly exhausted, and to try the hazard of a fally, would be certain deftruction to her few, but brave troops. In this dilemma, the fent the following meffage to the generals of Texufin :-" Berengeria of Barcelona, queen of Caftile, could not have imagined that cavaliers forenowned for their valour and gallantry, would have feriously determined to attack a caftle which was defended only by a woman."- -Thefe fimple words, in an age which is now called barbarous, were fufficient to induce men to abandon victory, when that victory would be the vanquishment of weakness, though the acquifition of territory. The Moors declared they would immediately retire; only begging the queen would honour them with a view of her perfon, from any distance that the might prefer. Berengeria adorned herfeif in the moft magnificent and graceful manner; and appeared on the walls with a majesty and fweetnefs that drew forth the loudeft exclamations of applause and admira tion tion from her gallant enemies. Headed by their generals, the Moors made her every teftimony of reverence and obedience, and filed off; leaving her exulting in her own prefence of mind, and deeply impreffed by their heroic honour. Cambridge. MR. ADDISON. S. WHEN Mr. Addifon lived in Kensington-fquare, he took unufual pains to ftudy Montaigne's Effays, but finding little or no information in the chapters, according to what their titles promifed, he one day in great anger threw by the book, wearied and confused, but not fatisfied.-Said a gentleman prefent: "Well, fir, what think you of this famous French author?""Think," replied he; "Why that a dark dungeon, and fetters, would probably have been of fome fervice to reftore this author's infirmity."- -"How, fir!" faid his friend, "imprifon a man for fingularity in writing."Why not," reply'd Mr. Addifon, "had he been a horse, he would have been pounded for ftraying out of his bounds; and why as a man he ought to be more favoured, I really do not understand." PHILIP V. OF CASTILE. IN the year 1710, Philip V. furnamed the Bold, after having fignalized himself by almost incredible exertions of perfonal valour, gained the memorable battle of Villoviciofa. After the victory, the exhausted and wearied conquerors fought for fome repofe. The king not having had a mattrafs provided for him, was preparing to caft himself upon the earth, when the Duke of Vendome entered his tent, and faid-"I am going to make your majesty a bed, the finest that ever monarch slept upon." At the fame time he was followed by two foldiers, who threw down a pallet, formed of the colours and enfigns which had been taken from the enemy. Cambridge. B 3 S. CURIOUS CURIOUS EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. LORD Say, Gibbon's ancestor, was beheaded 1450, by the Kentish infurgents. Jack Cade told him"Thou haft moft traitorously corrupted the youth of this realm, in erecting a grammar fchool, and whereas before, our forefathers had no other books than the fcore and the tally, thou haft caufed printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou haft built a paper mill. It will be proved to thy face, that thou haft men about thee who ufually talk of a noun and a verb, and fuch abominable words as no Chriftian ear can endure to hear." MR. Law's mafter-work, the Serious Call, is ftill read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid, but they are founded upon the gofpel; his fatire is fharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life, and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of La Bruyere. If he finds a fpark of piety in his reader's mind, he will foon kindle it into a flame; and a philofopher must allow, that he exposes with equal truth and feverity the ftrange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Chriftian world. Under the names of Flavia and Miranda, he has admirably defcribed my two aunts-the Heathen and the Chriftian fifters. My lot might have been that of a flave, a favage, or a peasant, nor can I reflect, without pleafure, on the bounty of nature which caft my birth in a free and civilized country, in an age of fcience and philofophy, in a family of honourable rank, and decently endowed with the gifts,of fortune. THE relation of a brother and a fifter, efpecially if they do not marry, appears to me of a very fingular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a fe male male much about our own age; an affection perhaps foftened by the fecret influence of fex, but pure from any mixture of fenfual defire; the fole fpecies of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger.. To preferve and to rear fo frail a being, the moft tender affiduity was fcarcely fufficient, and my mother's attention was fomewhat diverted by her frequent pregnancies, by an exclufive paffion for her husband, and by the diffipation of the world, in which his taste and authority obliged her to mingle. But the maternal office was fupplied by my aunt, Mrs. C. Porten, at whose name I feel a tear of gratitude trickling down my cheeks. A life of celibacy transferred her vacant affections to her fifter's first child; my weakness excited her pity, her attachment was fortified by labour and fuccefs; and if there be any, as I truft there are fome, who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they must hold themfelves indebted. THE lives of Cornelius Nepos, the friend of Atticus and Cicero, are compofed in the ftyle of the pureft age; his fimplicity is elegant, his brevity is copious; he exhibits a series of men and manners, and with fuch ilJuftrations as every pedant is not indeed qualified to give; this claffic biographer may initiate a young ftudent in the hiftory of Greece and Rome. My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for the treasures of India. POPE'S Homer, and the Arabian Nights Entertainments, are two books which will always pleafe, by the moving picture of human manners, and fpecious miracles; nor was I then capable of difcerning that Pope's tranflation is a portrait endowed with every merit, excepting that of likeness to the original. S. THE |