Auri cæcus amore Clam ferro incautum superat: When Sichæus, after his death, appeared to his wife Dido, and exhorted her to fly, he at the same time informed her in what place he had buried his money, which he advises her to dig up, that it may serve her in her retreat. Veteres tellure recludit Thesauros, ignotum argenti pondus et auri. Dido follows his advice, and takes these treasures with those of Pygmalion: Naves quæ forte paratæ Corripiunt onerant que auro, portantur avari. Pygmalionis opes pelago. In all this we find that it was Sichæus' gold, which caused these revolutions, and not the lands which he possessed; therefore there appears no doubt that Virgil wrote Huic conjux Sichæus erat, ditissimus auri. And not ditissimus agri, as it is printed. Humanity. Humanity's life's dearest friend, "Twill hear the faintest groan; To others woes its thought extend, And thus relieve its own. 'Tis not to speak where all may hear, Or give where all may see, 'Tis feeling, and the private tear That prove humanity. I pass'd by a cottage ;-I turn'd and beheld An infant distress'd at the door : She spake not, she sigh'd not, her hands were upheld As if aid from above to implore. I enter'd the hut;-ah how sweet it appears To all to whom these presents shall come-GREETING. WE, the editor, of this paper, having duly considered, weighed, and substantiated, (so far as we could find any substance in them) the various hints, sneers, and objections pointed against our first number, do hereby by our pap(er)al authority, excommunicate all who will not think like us. We do, also, command all former editors of weekly papers in Boston, who have unadvisedly taken up arms against the feelings of others, to begin to feel for themselves. Blown from our Garret, by the Zephyrs, through a broken pane. IN SECUNDIS. ALTHOUGH We have, conformably to custom, adopted a grand title for our labours, and after as much daily and nightly contemplation as Dr. Johnson exercised, fixed upon a term at least as congenial to our work as the "Rambler," was to his-we declare as well in the open face of day, as in the closed eye of night, that we have no desire to conceal our real name; that all booksellers, printers' devils, binders, and carriers, are perfectly at liberty to answer truly this question: "Who is Nobody?" We use the plural pronoun because we are not fond of Egotism, but if it has not already been discovered, it will soon be, that we are as singular in our editorship, as in our opinions. And let us reply, in spite of the plural predictions which a few hours produced from our A-Delphi Apollos, that we mean to be singular in another instance-in duration. Why our ex-tempore friends should utter so many complaints, we cannot tell; "let the gall'd jade wince," we shall only say that when they wrote about us our withers were unwrung." We acknowledge the worst that can be said of us ;-that we are fools. All editors who like ourselves attempt to be witty, without the means of being so, must be occasionally liable to ridicule. But in whatever character we may appear, we will assert our right to the unalienable privileges of it; and if we are either real or esteemed fools, "We will have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the winds, To blow on whom we please; for so fools have: And they that are most galled with our folly They most must laugh : For, He whom a fool doth very wisely hit Doth very foolishly although he smart, Not to seem senseless of the bob." IN TERTIIS. COMPLAINTS have been made on the unintelligibility of our language; we shall always be ready to answer objections. We have some acquaintance with Dr. Johnson and Noah Webster.-But lest it should be thought that we are desirous of interfering with their acknowledged prerogative of coining words, we shall in future be particular in placing their Roman words in Italics, and their American words in an united state. To the ladies some apology may be thought necessary for the introduction of quotations from different languages—but much as we sincerely love them, we shall make none; because, we think they ought to be instructed in them. Why should not the Latin grammar be taught in ladies' schools? We were flattered a few months ago, by a sanction delivered from the pulpit to our opinion on this subject. Some of our first instructors in Boston have, with a laudable independence of conduct, set the example, we wish that all (who can) will follow it. To the ladies, however, we will observe one thing-that we shall never adopt a foreign language for the purpose of conveying to the superiour sex an idea at which innocence need blush-they may, therefore, apply at all times, with safety, to any of our former editors for explanation; or, if none of them should happen to be at their elbow at the moment, they may pass over the quotations without loss. Theatre, Nov. 17th, 1809. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. If the editor of a paper can at any time receive pleasure from his exertions, it appears to us that it must be when he has an opportunity of doing justice to merit. The first moments that promised us a pleasurable sensation from the theatre, were those which exhibited Mr. Mills in the character of Alexander the Great-on this occasion we felt our inclination sanctioned by our judgment; we could praise, not only because we wished to praise, but because we could unequivocally declare our sentiments; we have seen the first actors in Europe and America perform this part, it has been attempted by one who must here be nameless; but without any impression but a sense of justice, we declare that we think that Alexander was never better represented than on this evening. The king, the hero, the lover, and the madman, have been before exhibited, but the man himself made his first appearance in the person of Mr. Mills. Mrs. Powell, stampt our favourable ideas of her performance of the character of Roxana in the first three lines; with pleasure we ex perienced that every passage, afterwards occurring, deepened the impression. The sweet tones and the delicate exhibition of Statira by Mrs. Darley, were rendered more affecting to us by their similarity to those of our lately deceased ornament, Mrs. Warren. We think that to those who are more pleased with reality than names we may safely say, that these three characters conjointly taken, have seldom been better performed in Europe. MANAGERS. THE editors of the Boston Gazette announced on Monday last, that among other communications, which they could not insert, they had received an answer to "Nobody." If we could not rejoice that this valuable paper was filled with valuable matter, we should regret the omission of this answer. We beg the managers not to deceive themselves by supposing that we have any unfriendly inclination towards them. We declare most unequivocally that we have none.-But-let not this observation be considered as a recantation of any thing that has been before observed. We shall do our duty to the publick, and we shall be much gratified if the managers, by doing their duty, will make ours more pleasant to us. We declare also, expressly, that our sole object is the elevation of the character of the theatre, its restoration to sanity in mental as well as cor poreal existence; if in the exercise of our duty we should at any time cut beyond the wound, it will only be with an intention of making the cure more perfect. COMMENTATORS ON SHAKESPEARE. THE commentators on Shakespeare have unfortunately been generally what the world calls learned men. We say unfortunately, because, when any difficult word or passage in his works has occurred, they have applied to the dead languages for explanation, and having therein found some word of similar construction to that which confused them, they have adopted its signification, and concluded of course, that the English word, from its orthographical similarity, must have been derived from the Latin or Greek, and consequently have partaken of a correspondent meaning. It is undoubtedly true, that the English language is very considerably indebted to the Latin and Greek for compound words, but it must also be admitted that the Latin tongue was essentially indebted to the English, or its original, the Anglo Saxon, for many of its roots. The brilliancy that has been attached to, we cannot think which has emanated from, what are now called the learned languages, (excepting the Hebrew,) has been suffered to overpower the mild illuminations of modern tongues; what an accurate investigation of our own orthoepy would most clearly elucidate, we are taught to search for through the chaos of supposition. One commentator imagines a meaning for an obscure passage; a second declares, that the imagination of the former has led him astray, in consequence of his not having corrected it by the usual energies of his judgment; a third declares they are both wrong; and a fourth, after laborious researches, and the customary effusions of malignity, leaves the reader only to exclaim, Who shall decide when doctors disagree? We shall here make a short remark, on circumstances that perhaps may not be the objects of general contemplation; the dead languages, dead to us, the Latin and the Greek are frequently called the ancient languages; and thereby, is an idea inculcated that they are languages of greater antiquity, than our own. This is not the fact; the Latin language is modern in comparison with the English or Anglo Saxon. The city now called London, was established long before that of Rome; and the Anglo Saxon language can be traced to the commencement of European history. Why then should they who have, as it were, an orig |