affected plainness, and actual dissimulation; a heterogeneous mass of contradictory qualities; with nothing great but his crimes; and even those contrasted by the littleness of his motives, which at once denoted both his baseness and his meanness, and marked him for a traitor and a trickster. Nay, in his style and writing, there was the same mixture of vicious contrarieties ;— the most grovelling ideas were conveyed in the most inflated language; giving mock consequence to low cavils, and uttering quibbles in heroics; so that his compositions disgusted the mind's taste, as much as his actions excited the soul's abhorrence. Speech delivered in the House of Commons, Feb. 7, 1787. The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it. The Rivals, act iv. sc. 3. I own the soft impeachment. Tb., act v. sc. 3. My valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palms of my hands. Ib., act v. sc. 3. The right honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts. Speech in reply to Mr. Dundas. 198. Thomas Chatterton, 1752-1770. (Handbook, pars. 216, 239.) The Mynstrelle's Songe. O! synge untoe mie roundelaie, O! droppe the brynie teare wythe mee, Daunce ne moe atte hallie daie, Lycke a reynynge ryver bee; Gon to hys death-bedde, Al under the wyllowe tree. Harke! the ravenne flappes hys wynge Harke! the dethe-owle loude dothe synge, Mie love ys dedde, Gonne to hys deathe-bedde, From Ella. :99. Dugald Stewart, 1753-1828. (Hindbook, par. 453.) Machiavelli. The founder of this new sect, or to speak more correctly the systematizer and apostle of its doctrines, was born as early as 1469, that is, about ten years before Luther: and like that reformer acquired by the commanding superiority of his genius an astonishing ascendency (though of a very different nature) over the minds of his followers. No writer certainly either in ancient or modern times, has ever united in a more remarkable degree a greater variety of the most dissimilar and seemingly the most discordant gifts and entertainments; a profound acquaintance with all those acts of dissimulation and intrigue which in the petty cabinets of Italy were then confounded with political wisdom: an imagination familiarized to the cool contemplation of whatever is perfidious or atrocious in the history of conspirators and of tyrants, combined with a graphical skill in holding up to laughter the comparatively l.armless folks of ordinary life. His dramatic humour has often been compared to that of Molière; but it resembles it rather in a comic force, than a benevolent gaiety or in chastened morality. Such as it is, however, it forms an extraordinary contrast to that strength of intellectual character which in one page reminds us of the deep sense of Tacitus, and in the next, of the dark and infernal policy of Cæsar Borgia. To all this must be superadded a purity of taste, which has enabled him as an historian to rival the severe simplicity of the Grecian masters, and a sagacity in combining historical facts, which was afterwards to afford lights to the school of Montesquieu. Dissertation, chap. i. On Memory. As the great purpose to which this faculty is subservient is to enable us to collect and to retain, for the future regulation of our conduct, the results of our past experience, it is evident that the degree of perfection which it attains in the case of different persons must vary; first, with the facility of making the original acquisition; secondly, with the permanence of the acquisition; and thirdly, with the quickness or readiness with which the individual is able, on particular occasions, to apply it to use. The qualities therefore, of a good Memory are, in the first place, to be susceptible; secondly, to be retentive; and thirdly, to be ready. It is but rarely that these three qualities are united in the same person. We often, indeed, meet with a Memory which is at once susceptible and ready; but I doubt much if such memories be commonly very retentive; for susceptibility and readiness are both connected with a facility of associating ideas, according to their more obvious relations; whereas retentiveness or tenaciousness of Memory depends principally on what is seldom united with this facility, a disposition to system and to philosophical arrange The improvement of which the mind is susceptible by culture is more remarkable perhaps in the case of Memory than in that of any other of our faculties. The fact has often been taken notice of in general terms; but I am doubtful if the particular mode in which culture operates on this part of our constitution has been yet examined by philosophers with the attention it deserves. Of one sort of culture indeed of which Memory is susceptible in a very striking degree no explanation can be given; I mean the improvement which the original faculty acquires by mere exercise, or in other words, the tendency which practice has to increase our natural facility of association. This effect of practice upon the Memory, seems to be an ultimate law of our nature, or rather to be a particular instance of that general law, that all our powers both of body and mind may be strengthened by applying them to their proper purposes. Besides, however, the improvement which Memory admits of in consequence of the effects of exercise on the original faculty, it may be greatly aided in its operations by those expedients which reason and experience suggest for employing it to the best advantage. These expedients furnish a curious subject of philosophical examination. Every person must have remarked, in entering upon a new species of study, the difficulty of treasuring up in the Memory its elementary principles: and the growing facility which he acquires in this respect, as his knowledge becomes more extensive. By analysing the different causes which concur in producing this facility, we may perhaps be led to some conclusions which may admit of a practical application. Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, chap. vi. secs. 2, 3. 200. George Crabbe, 1754-1832. (Handlook, par. 220.) A minute and faithful painter of the details of common life. The Old Mansion. 'Come lead me, lassie, to the shade Where willows grow beside the brook; For well I know the sound it made, When dashing o'er the stony rill, It murmur'd to St. Osyth's Mill.' The lass replied-The trees are fled, They've cut the brook a straighter bed: No shades the present lords allow, The miller only murmurs now; The waters now his mill forsake, And form a pond they call a lake.' Then, lass, thy grandsire's foot steps guide, To Bulmer's Tree, the giant oak, Whose boughs the keeper's cottage hide, And part the church-way lane o'erlook. A boy, I climbed the topmost bough, And I would feel its shadow now. 'Or, lassie, lead me to the west, Where grew the elm trees thick and tall, Where rooks unnumber'd build their nest Deliberate birds, and prudent all; Their zotes, indeed, are harsh and rude, But they're a social multitude.' 'The rooks are shot, the trees are fell'd, And nest and nursery all expell'd; Aldborough. Here wandering long, amid those frowning fields, As on their neighbouring beach yon swallows stand, Fled from those shores where guilt and rapine reign, The Village. Ah, world unknown! how charming is thy view, The Borough Schools. 201. Archibald Alison, 1757-1839. (Handbook, par. 425.) Sublimity and Beauty dependent on Association. The illustrations that have been offered in the course of this Essay on the origin of the SUBLIMITY and BEAUTY of some of the principal Qualities of MATTER, seem to afford sufficient evidence for the following Conclusions: I. That with each of these qualities we have some pleasing or affecting Association; and |