İtalian poet. The seventh sonnet, of the first part, is much resembled by Sir Henry Wotton's elegant little poem on the queen of Bohemia: "Ye meaner beauties, &c. and among Drummond's Flowers of Zion, the poem which begins, "Amidst the azure clear of Jordan's sacred streams," eminently distinguishes him, whether he be considered as a philosopher or as a poet. His Polemo-Middinia, a burlesque poem, founded on a ridiculous fray in Fife, is written with more than the humour of a Swift, or Peter Pindar; and may afford an excellent modern classical amusement to our nobility and gentry, who cannot bear the monstrous bore of turning over an Ainsworth's dictionary, and may still have retained enough of the charming language of the Scipios, to be able to taste the beauties of the dunghill fight. These slight notices and extracts, I have scattered on the pages of your elegant journal, in the fond hope that they may draw forth the quill of an abler eulogist. Ille ego qui quondam patriæ perculsus amore, POSTSCRIPT. What has been written concerning the person, family, and residence of Drummond, in the account of his writings, may be thought sufficient for Scotland, where such particulars are well known by the public; but considering the deserved celebrity of the poet, I have thought proper to set down, as briefly as possible, some circumstances that may deserve the attention of people of taste who visit Scotland, to contemplate its picturesque beauties, and to meditate on the classic footsteps of her illustrious citizens. Drummond was descended from William Drummond, third son of Sir John Drummond of Drummond, by Mary de Montefex, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir William de Montefex, high justiciary of Scotland. The patriarch of the poet's family married a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Airth of Airth, in Stirlingshire, with whom he got the barony of Carnock. Sir John Drummond, the poet's father, who was second son of Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock, bought Hawthornden, in the year 1598, from the heirs of Douglas of Strathbrock, a family which, with many other fair and opulent possessions, had held Hawthornden for more than two centuries. The caves of Hawthornden, cut by human art from the rock, are certainly of the most remote antiquity, resembling those in the vicinity of Thebes, and had probably served for the dwellings or fastnesses of the aboriginal natives of the country. This conjecture is supported by tradition, and, with the other singularities of the place, gives a sublimity to the scene. Captain Grose, in his antiquities of Scotland, has given a very well-chosen view of the sequestered dale or den, and of the house overhanging the romantic rivulet of Esk. The Reverend Dr Abernethy Drummond, who married the heiress, as above mentioned, caused to be engraved, on a stone tablet placed over Ben Jonson's seat, an inscription to the memory of his own ancestor, Sir Lau, rence Abernethy of Hawthornden, and to his wife's relation, the poet; where, if the public, or the future proprietors of the place, should erect the busts of Drummond and Ben Jonson, they ought to be placed close to each other on the same therm. Dr Abernethy's inscription concludes with the following lines: O! sacred solitude, divine retreat; Choice of the prudent, envy of the great, By these pure streams, or in thy waving shade, I court fair Wisdom, that celestial maid; I smile to hear the distant tempest roar; There, blest with health, with business unperplex'd, The inscription over the door of the house, engraved by order of the poet, is as follows: Divino munere Gulielmus ut honesto otio qui esceret sibi et succes- Anno 1638. On Taste. ON THE INFLUENCE OF TASTE ON DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE BEE. (Sept. 26. 1792) I SIR, HAVE endeavoured to show, that taste is an artificial organ of perception, created in a healthy, temperate, uncorrupted individual, by the contemplation of nature. This discriminating power has received the name of that common sense which relishes and distinguishes, by the mouth and palate, the flavour of our nourishment, or of noxious food; because it may be considered as a spiritual palate, which apprehends and relishes the esential qualities of nature or art, separate from their grosser substance, leading us thereby to the preference of those things that are most conducive to the nourishment and growth of our immortal spirits. I have considered how this taste is conducive to the fitness, excellence, and beauty of our domestic dwellings, and of our public edifices, and am desirous to apply the same principles of argument to the good government, and enjoyment of domestic and social life. I shall consider this subject, first, as taste is productive of our own immediate tranquillity and happiness: secondly, as tending to the tranquillity and happiness of our families: and, lastly, as promoting the tranquillity and happiness of the community with which we are connected, and ultimately that of the public at large. First, As to our own immediate tranquillity and happiness. Who is there that does not sometimes feel that there is a void, a chasm, a somewhat in the mind, that feels confused, disordered, and ruinous, yet seems as if it might be repaired? The disturbance and languor occasioned by this frame of mind, are removed by active business; some engaging pursuit that causes not remorse; by innocent amusements of all kinds, in succession; and by bodily exercises in the field. When we are in health, |