And butting all he meets, with aukward pains, NOTES. The same may rake for sense in PARSONS' skull, And shear his hogs, poor fool! and milk his bull. The first distich contains what Mr. Burke calls "high "matter!" and can only be understood by the initiated ; the second, (would it had never been written !) instead of gratifying the ambition of Mr. Parsons, as I fondly expected, and quieting him for ever, had a most fatal effect upon his poor head, and from an honest pains-taking gentleman converted him, in imagination, into a Minotaur: Continuo implevit falsis mugitibus urbem, The Motto appeared on a Wednesday; and on the Saturday after, the morosoph Este (who appears to have believed in the reality of the metamorphosis) published the first bellowings of Mr. Parsons, with the following introduction: "ON MR. GIFFORD'S MOTTO." "The following SPIRITED CHASTISEMENT of the vulgar "ignorance and malignity in question, was sent on Thurs"day night-but by an accidental error in one of our "clerks, or in the servant delivering the copy at the office, "it was unfortunately mislaid!"— Why, this is as it should be ;-"the Gods take care of "Cato!" Who sees not that they interfered, and by conveying the copy out of the compositor's way, procured the F. Forbear, forbear: And what the great delight in, learn to spare. 35 NOTES. Author of the Mæviad two comfortable nights! But to the "spirited chastisement.” "Nor wool the pig, nor milk the bull produces." The profundity of the last observation, by the bye, proves Mr. Parsons to be an accurate observer of nature: and if the three Irishmen who went nine miles to suck a bull, and came back a-dry, had fortunately had the honour of his acquaintance, we should probably have heard nothing of their far-famed expedition "Nor wool the pig, nor milk the bull produces, "Yet each has something for far different uses : "For boars, pardie! have tusks, and bulls have пORNS." Η, Νεμεσις δε ΚΑΚΑΝ εγραψατο ΦΩΝΑΝ. For from that hour scarcely a week, or indeed a day, has elapsed, in which Mr. Parsons has not made himself ridiculous, by threatening me in the Telegraph, Oracle, World, &c. with those formidable non-entities. Well and wisely singeth the poet, non unus mentes agitat furor: yet while I give an involuntary smile to the oddity of Mr. Parsons's disease, I cannot but lament that his friends, (and a gentleman who is said to belong to more clubs than Sir Watkin Lewes, must needs have friends,) I cannot, I say, but lament that on the first appearance of these knobs, these "excrescences," as I call them, his friends did not have him cut for the simples! (e) P. It must not, cannot be; for I was born, 40 (e) Quid faciam? sed sum petulanti splene cachinno. Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, hic pede liber, *LO, DELLA CRUSCA! NOTES. "O thou, to whom superior worth's allied, Thy country's honour, and the Muses pride-" So says Laura Maria Audeat? et solem quis dicere falsum Indeed she says a great deal more; but as I do not un derstand it, I forbear to lengthen my quotation. Innumerable Odes, Sonnets, &c. published from time to time in the daily papers, have justly procured this gentleman the reputation of the first poet of the age: but the performance which called forth the high-sounding panegyric abovementioned, is a philosophical rhapsody in praise of the French Revolution, called the "Wreath of "Liberty." Of this poem no reader (provided he can read) is at this time ignorant: but as there are various opinions concern Abortive thoughts, that right and wrong confound, Truth sacrificed to letters, sense to sound, Grande aliquid, quod pulmo animæ prælargus anhelet: NOTES. ing it, and as I do not choose perhaps to dispute with a lady of Mrs. Robinson's critical abilities, I shall select a few passages from it, and leave the world to judge how truly its author is said to be gifted with the sacred lyre, "Whose sounds can more than mortal thoughts inspire." This supernatural effort of genius, then, is chiefly distinguished by three very prominent features.-Downright nonsense. Downright frigidity. Downright doggrel.-Of each of these as the instances occur. "Hang o'er his eye the gossamery tear.” "And o'er my lids the scalding tumour roll." "TUMOUR, a morbid swelling." JOHNSON. An excellent thing to roll over an eye, especially if it happen, as in the present case, to be "scalding." 166 summer-tints begemm'd the scene, "While air's nocturnal ghost, in paly shroud, False glare, incongruous images, combine; And noise and nonsense clatter through the line. (f) 'Tis done. Her house the generous Piozzi lends, And thither summons her blue-stocking friends; 45 (f) Scilicet hæc populo, pexusque togaque recenti, Et natalitia tandem cum sardonyche albus, NOTES. "And gauzy zephyrs, flutt'ring o'er the plain, Unus instar omnium! This couplet staggered me. I should be loth to be found correcting a madman; and yet mere folly seems unequal to the production of such exquisite nonsense. "the explosion came “And burst the o'ercharg'd culverin of shame." "Their perish'd, proudest, pageantry unfold." -"nothing I descry, “But the bare boast of barren heraldry.” "The huntress queen, "Showers her shafts of silver o'er the scene." To these add, "moody monarchs," " turgid tyrants," pampered popes,' ‚""radiant rivers," "cooling cataracts," lazy Loires," (of which by the bye, there are none) "gay "Garonnes," " gloomy glass," "mingling murder," |