imitation of those of his friend Montef quieu, whom he had known and admired in England; in which he faid there were wards, fpeaking of Voltaire's difmiffion from Berlin, "Voilà donc Voltaire qui paroit ne fçavoir ou reposer fa tête; ut eadem tellus quæ modo victori defuerat, deeffet ad fepulturam. Le bon efprit vaut beaucoup mieux que le bel efprit." p. 198. It is much to be lamented, that the hiftory of Louis the Eleventh, which Montefquieu had written, was burnt by a mistake of his fecretary, p. 98. Mr. Stanley, for whom Montefqueu had a fincere efteem and regard, told me, that Montefquieu affured him, he had received more information from the commentaries of Azo on the Codex and Digeft, a famous civilian of Bologna in the twelfth century, than from any other writer on the civil law. He is said to have had 10,000 scholars. Trithemius mentions him, c. 487. See Arifii Cremonam Litteratam. Tom. i. p. 89. I beg to add, that Lyttelton was not blind to the faults and blemishes of his friend Montefquieu. See notes on the Hiftory of the Life of Henry II. p. 291, 4to, where he is cenfured for an exceffive defire of faying fomething new upon every fubject, and differing from the common opinions of mankind. That accomplished lady the Dutchefs D'Aiguillon, conftantly attended Montefquieu in his laft illness, to the time of his death, 1755. One day, during her abfence of a few hours from his chamber, an Irish jefuit, Father Roth (author of fome fevere criticifms against the Paradife Loft) got introduced to the dying philofopher, and infifted on having the key of his bureau, that he might take away his papers. When the Dutchefs fuddenly returned, and reproached the jefuit for this proceeding, he only anfwered, Madam, I must obey my fuperiors. It was owing to the interpofition of the celebrated phyfician, Van Swieten, that the Spirit of Laws was permitted to be fold and read at Vienna.' principles principles and remarks that he wished to retract and alter. I told him, that, notwithstanding his caution, the booksellers, as in fact they have done, would preferve and infert thefe letters. Another little piece, written alfo in his early youth, does him much honour; the Obfervations on the Life of Tully, in which, perhaps, a more difpaffionate and impartial character of Tully is exhibited, than in the panegyrical volumes of Middleton. 38. Nunc in Ariftippi furtim præcepta relabor *. Sometimes with Ariftippus, or St. Paul, THERE is an impropriety and indecorum, in joining the name of the most profligate parafite of the court of Dionyfius with that of an apoftle. In a few lines before, the name of Montaigne is not sufficiently contrafted by the name of Locke; the place required that two philofophers, holding very different tenets, should have been introduced. Hobbes might have been Ver. 19. + Ver. 31. oppofed opposed to Hutchefon. I know not why he omitted a ftrong fentiment that follows immediately, Et mihi res, non mè rebus fubjungere conor *. Which line Corneille took for his motto. 39. Non tamen idcirco contemnas lippus inungi †. I'll do what MEAD and Chefelden advife 1. MEAD, a judge of pure Latinity, having disputed with Pope on the impropriety of the expreffion, Amor publicus, on Shakefpear's monument, ended the controverfy by giving up his opinion, and faying to him, Omnia vincit amor & nos cedamus amori. I mention this circumftance, because it may be amusing to the lovers of anecdotes, just to add, that in a public inscription at Rheims in France, RACINE, who drew it up, ufed the words Amor publicus, in the very fame fenfe. I believe both these great poets were wrong. * Ver. 20. + Ver. 29. Y + Ver. 51, 40. Invidus, 40. Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinofus, amator *. Be furious, envious, flothful, mad, or drunk, I CANNOT forbear thinking that Horace glanced at his own frailties and imperfections, as he frequently does, in the four laft epithets of this verfe, in the original. As to envy, he had not a grain of it in his 41. Virtus eft vitium fugere §. 'Tis the first virtue, vices to abhor, And the first wifdom, to be fool no more . DR. KING informed me, that these were two of the rhymes to which Swift, who was fcrupulously exact in this refpect, used to object, as he did to fome others in As he does at his paffion for building, in verfe 100, below, Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis. So alfo, Sat. iii. lib. ii. v. 308. Accipe, primum Edificas; hoc eft longos imitaris, ab imo § Ver. 41. Ver. 65. Pope; Pope; particularly to two in the Effay on Criticism, v. 237, where delight is made to rhyme to wit. 42. Per mare pauperiem fugiens, per faxa, per ignes *. Scar'd at the spectre of pale POVERTY + ! t POPE has given life to the image, and added terror to the fimple expreffion pauperiem. 43. At pueri ludentes, Rex eris, aiunt, Si recte facies Yet ev'ry child another fong will fing, SOME Commentators think Horace alluded to an old Greek play among children, called, Bacınında. But Lambinus obferves, that the fport alluded to is mentioned in the Theatetus of Plato; where Socrates fays, he that fails in his pursuit will be reckoned an ass, as the children fay of him who cannot catch the ball; and he that catches it is called their king. • Ver. 46. + Ver. 70. Y 2 Ver. 59. § Ver. 91. 44. Ut |