ticular wav. Quintilian, that masterly critic, expressly fays, Homer extended the limits of human genius to their utmost stretch, and poffefsed such complete ideas of all the different kinds of writing, that He alone is a perfect model of all the different beauties that can enter into any compofition." Nor must I close without reminding the reader of the pleafures of Taste, usually stiled the pleasures of imagination. On these sources of enjoyment I could defcant with rapture. The exquifite genius of Addison first attempted to reduce them into a regular system under these three heads-beauty, grandeur, and novelty. His fpeculations on the subject display an admirable ingenuity, and may be found in the fixth volume of the Spectator. He has opened a track of investigation, which may be fuccefsfully followed. Dr. Akenside's poem, entitled, Pleasures of Imagination, contains many excellent passages illustrative of this topic, and may be read both for profit and amusement. Addressing him. self to the Divine Being, in a strain worthy of the theme, he exclaims: Not content With every food of life to nourish man; The pleasures of Taste are indeed more commonly diftributed into those of the beautiful and the fublime. What conftitutes the one and the other has been the fubject of affiduous enquiry. The principles on which they are founded have been investigated with a commendable industry. It is agreed that the beautiful refults from colour, figure, motion, design, and from the combination of these qualities in objects either of nature or of art. On the other hand, the fublime arifes from a certain grandeur contemplated with a reverential awe, or a profound admiration. Mr. Burke places it in a kind U 2 kind of terror, though fublime objects might be mentioned into whose compofition nothing terrible enters. It is, however, confeffed, that fublimity, either in natural or moral objects, always elevates the mind, dilating it with the grandest sensations! It is of peculiar importance to YOUTH, that their minds should be laid open betimes to these exquifite fources of enjoyment. With their intrinfic value the sensualist must be utterly unacquainted. Bacchanalian revels impart no fuch joys. The boafted fatisfaction of vulgar minds is not to be put in competition with them. The pleafures of Taste grow upon the happy individual who cultivates them. The faculty of enjoyment is rendered more capacious by frequent exercife. Every object in nature, and every fubject in art, affords materials for pleasing contemplation. The seasons of the year are replete with entertainment. To the man of taste, the bleakness of winter, the novelties of spring, the fulness of summer, and the luxuriance of autumn, are every way acceptable. In most literary compofitions, likewife, something will be found capable of administering delight. The fobriety of plain profe, and the gaiety of sprightly verse, have charms for him. Every production, from the gravity of history down to the artless simplicy of a fable, catches his attention and engages his heart. From the enchanting softness of beauty in all her variegated forms, up to the tremendous terrors of the fublime, what a range of enjoyment! That man is an object of envy. He lives as in a fuperior region. He converses with an higher circle of objects. To this favoured votary of taste, especially if he be a virtuous character, the following lines may with propriety be addressed: To please thine ear, foft notes the linnet pours, From From each, or lofty, or mellifluous found, FAWCETT. ON CRITICISM-in the next Reflector. GOSSIPIANA. [No. ΧΙΧ.] DETACHED THOUGHTS, BY LORD ORFORD. H believed: a romance, TISTORY is a romance that is a hiftory that is not believed. MONTAIGNE pleased because he wrote what he thought; other authors think what they shall write. WHOEVER expects pity by complaining to his physician, is as foolish as they who, having loft their money at cards, complain of their ill luck to their companions, the winners. If none were ill, or unfortunate, how would physicians or gamesters get money? BEAUTY, after five and thirty, is like a forfeited peerage, the title of which is given by the courtesy of the well-bred to those who have no legal claim to it. ALBANO's boy-angels and cupids are all so alike, that they feem to have been the children of the Flemish Countess, who was faid to be delivered of three hundred and fixty-five at a birth. An author without originality, is like a courtier who is always dressed in the fashion: nobody minds the colour or make of his coat: if it is ill made it is criticised; if not, what can be faid on it? Hundreds are dressed as well. Bookfellers and falesmen lay up the book or the U 3 coat coat the moment the fashion of it is passed, till they can fell either into the country. IF a man's eyes, ears, or memory decay, he ought to conclude that his understanding decays also; for the weaker it grows the less likely he is to perceive it. ENVY deferves pity more than anger, for it hurts nobody so much as itself. It is a distemper rather than a vice; for nobody would feel envy if he could help it. Whoever envies another fecretly, allows that perfon's superiority. WHEN flatterers compliment kings for virtues that are the very reverse of their characters; they remind me of the story of a little boy, who was apt to tell people of any remarkable defect in their persons. One day, a gentleman who had an extraordinary large nose, being to dine with the boy's parents, his mother charged him not to say any thing of the gentleman's large nofe.When he arrived the child stared at him, and then turning to his mother, said-" Mamma, what a pretty little nose that gentleman has." EXPERIENCE becomes prescience. NOTHING is more vain than for a woman to deny her age; for she cannot deceive the only perfon that cares about it, herself. If a man dislikes a woman because he thinks her of the age she is, he will only diflike her the more for being told the is younger than the feems to be, and confequently looks older than the ought to do. The Anno Domini of her face will weigh more than that of her register. CENSORIOUS old women betray three things; one, that they have been gallant; the next, that they can be so no longer; and the third, that they are always wishing they could be. No Woman ever invented a new religion, yet no new religion : religion would ever have been spread but for women. Cool heads invent systems, warm heads embrace them. POSTERITY always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors. It is unfortunate to have no master but our own errors. If we profit ever so much under them, the unjust public always recollect the mafter more than they take notice of the improvement of the scholar. MEN are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are fent into the world with bills of credit, and feldom draw to their full extent. DR. JOHNSON. The following beautiful Ode to Friendship, was one of his earliest compofitions : Friendship, peculiar boon of heav'n, To all the lower world deny'd. Nor |