indifference to certain perfons, or from her defpair of mending them, or from the fame practice which the much liked in Mr. Addifon, I cannot determine; but when the faw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excufe the commonly gave when her friends afked the reafon, was, That it prevented noise, and faved time. Yet I have known her very angry with fome whom the much efteemed for sometimes falling into that infirmity.

She loved Ireland much better than the generality of thofe who owe both their birth and riches to it; and, having brought over all the fortune fhe had in money, left the reverfion of the beft part of it, one thousand pounds, to Dr. Stephens's Hofpital. She detefted the tyranny and injuftice of England, in their treatment of this kingdom. She had indeed reason to love a country, where she had the esteem and friendship of all who knew her, and the univerfal good-report of all who ever heard of her, without one exception,' if I am told the truth by those who keep general converfation. Which character is the more extraordinary, in falling to a perfon of fo much knowlege, wit, and vivacity, qualities that are used to create envy, and confequently cenfure; and must be rather imputed to her great modefty, gentle behaviour, and incffenfivenefs, than to her fuperior virtues.

Although her knowlege, from books and company, was much more extenfive than usually falls to the share of her sex; yet fhe was fo far from making a parade of it, that her female. vifitants, on their firft acquaintance, who expected to discover it, by what they call hard words and deep difcourfe, would be fometimes difappointed, and fay, they found fhe was like other women. But wife men, through ali her modefty, whatever they difcourfed on, could easily obferve that the understood them very well, by the judgment fhewn in her obfervations as well as in her questions.'

2. On the Education of Ladies.'-The ladies are in this fragment, treated, by the Dean, with his ufual feverity. He ftates this question, "Whether it be prudent to chufe a wife, who hath good natural fenfe, fome tafle of wit and humour, fufficiently verfed in her own natural language, able to read and relifh hiftory, books of travels, moral or entertaining difcourfes, and to be a tolerable judge of the beauties in poetry?" In dif cuffing this question, the author inclines to the negative, and feems to be of opinion with thofe who maintain, that all affectation of knowledge, beyond what is domeftic, only ferves to render women vain, conceited, and pretending: that the natural levity, of women wanis ball; and that when once the

ins to think she knows more than others of her fex, the will

begin to defpife her husband, and grow fond of fond of every coxcomb who pretends to any knowledge in books.'-This may be very true, with refpect to thofe ladies who have only the affectation of knowledge; but where they have acquired real knowledge, and have had their minds really improved by a liberal education, we do not apprehend that the confequences which this witty fnarler hath here fet forth, are much to be feared. But, the Dean was fo great an enemy to matrimony, that he took every occafion of manifefting his dislike of a state to which, indeed, his arbitrary, tyrannical difpofition, was but ill adapted. We do not think it was poffible for any woman, not even Mrs. Johnfon herself, to have been happy with fuch an Humourist.

3. ADifcourfe to prove the Antiquity of the English Tongue. fhewing from various inftances, that Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, were derived from the English.'-Whether this piece was intended as a fatire upon the conjectural labours of fome learned Etymologifts, or whether the Dean threw it out merely in conformity to his own favourite maxim, Vive la bagatelle, is a queftion not worth our very profound inveftigation; but-it is a droll performance, as will appear from the following fpecimen.

'I think,' fays this merry Philologist, I can make it manifeft, that our language, as we now fpeak it, was originally the fame with those of the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, however corrupted in fucceding times by a mixture of barbarifms. Ifhall only produce, at prefent, two inftances among a thousand from the Latin tongue. Cloaca, which they interpret a neceffary-house, is altogether an English word, the laft letter a being, by the miftake of fome scribe, transferred from the beginning to the end of the word. In the primitive orthography it is called a cloac, which had the fame fignification; and still continues fo at Edinburgh in Scotland: where a man in a cloac, or cloak, of large circumference and length, carrying a convenient veffel under it, calls out, as he goes through the streets, Wha has need of me? Whatever customer calls, the veffel is placed in the corner of the street, the cloac, or a cloak, furrounds and covers him, and thus he is eafed with decency and fecrefy.

But although I could produce many other examples, equally convincing, that the Hebrews, the Greek, and the Romans originally spoke the fame language which we do at prefent; yet I have chofen to confine myfelf chicfly to the proper names of perfons, because I conceive they will be of greater weight to confirm what I advance; the ground and reafon of thofe names being certainly owing to the nature, or fome diftinguishing action or quality in thofe perfons, and confequently expreffed in the true antient language of the feveral people.

I will begin with the Grecians, among whom the most antient are the great leaders on both fides in the fiege of Troy. For

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it is plain, from Homer, that the Trojans fpoke Greek as well as the Grecians. Of thefe latter, Ahilies was the most valiant. This Hero was of a restless unquiet nature, never giving himself any repofe either in peace or war; and therefore, as Guy of Warwick was called a Kill-cow, and another terrible man a Kill-devil, fo this General was called a A Kill-cafe, or deftroyer of eafe; and at length, by corruption, Achilles.

Hector, on the other fide was the braveft among the Trojans. He had deftroyed fo many of the Greeks, by backing and tearing them, that his foldiers, when they faw him fighting, would cry out, "Now the enemy will be hackt, now he will be tore." At laft, by putting both words together, this appellation was given to their leader, under the name of Hack-tore; and, for the more commodious founding, Hector.

The next I fhall mention is Andremache, the famous wife of Hector. Her father was a Scotch gentleman, of a noble family ftill fubfifting in that antient kingdom. But, being a foreigner in Troy, to which city he had led fome of his countrymen in the defence of Priam, as Digs Cretenfis learnedly obeserves; Hector fell in love with his daughter, and the father's name was Andrew Mackay. The young lady was called by the fame name, only a little foftened to the Grecian accent.

Mars may be mentioned among thefe, because he fought against the Greeks. He was called the God of War; and defcribed as a fwearing, fwaggering companion, and a great giver of rude Janguage. For, when he was angry, he would cry, "Kifs my “a--fe, My a--se in a band-box, My a--fe all over:" Which he repeated fo commonly, that he got the appellation of My-a--ft; and, by a common abbreviation, M'ars; from whence, by leaving out the mark of elifion, Mars. And this is a common practice among us at prefent; as in the words D'anvers, D'avenport, D'anby, which are now written Danvers, Davenport, Danby, and many others.

The next is Hercules, otherwife called Alcides. Both these names are English, with little alteration; and defcribe the principal qualities of that Hero, who was diftinguished for being a slave to his miftreffes, and at the fame time for his great ftrength and courage. Omphale, his chief miftrefs, ufed to call her lovers Her cullies; and, because this Hero was more and longer subject to her than any other, he was in a particular manner called the chief of her cullies; which, by an eafy change, made the word Hercules. His other name Alcides was given him on account of his prowess: for, in fight, he used to ftrike on all fides, and was allowed on all fides to be the chief hero of his age. For one of which reafons, he was called All fides, or Alcides; but I am inined to favour the former opinion.

As to Jupiter himself: it is well known that the ftatues, and pictures of this Heathen God, in the Roman-catholic countries,, resemble those of St. Peter, and are often taken the one for the other. The reason is manifeft: for, when the emperors had eftablished Christianity, the Heathens were afraid of acknowledg ing their heathen idols of the chief, God, and pretended it was. only a ftatue of the Jew Peter. And thus the principal Heathen God came to be called by the antient Romans, with very little alteration, Jupiter.

Alexander the Great was very fond of eggs roafted in hot afhes. As foon as his cooks heard he was come home to dinner or fupper, they called aloud to their under-officers, All eggs under the Grate: which, repeated every day at noon and evening, made, ftrangers think it was that Prince's real name, and therefore gave him no other; and pofterity hath been ever fince under the fame delufion.

Archimedes was a most famous mathematician. His ftudies re quired much filence and quiet; but his wife having several maids, they were always difturbing him with their tattle or their bufinefs; which forced him to come out every now and then to the ftair-head, and cry," Hark ye maids, if you will not be quiet, "I fhall turn you out of doors." He repeated thefe words, Hark ye maids, fo often, that the unlucky jades, when they found he was at his study would fay, There is Hark ye maids, let us fpeak, foftly. Thus the name went through the neighbourhood; and,, at laft, grew fo general, that we are ignorant of that great man's true name to this day.

Mifanthropus was the name of an ill-natured man, which he obtained by a cuftom of catching a great number of mice, then fhutting them up in a room and throwing a cat among them. Upon which his fellow citizens called him Mice and throw pufs., The reader obferves how much the orthography hath been changed without altering the found: but fuch depravations we owe to the injury of time, and grofs ignorance of transcribers.

Among the antients, fortune-telling by the ftars was a very beggarly trade. The profeffors lay upon ftraw, and their cabins were covered with the fame materials: whence every one that followed that mystery was called A ftraw lodger, or a lodger in, ftraw; but, in the new-fangled way of fpelling, Aftrologer.

Mafes, the great leader of thofe people out of Egypt, was in, propriety of fpeech callea Mow feas, because he mowed the feas down in the middle, to make a path for the Ifraelites.'

There is a much greater variety of inftances in the original difcourfe; but we have cited a number fufficient to fhew what kind of humour the Dean was in, when he wrote this piece: which he thus gravely concludes " Thus have I manifeftly proved, that the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews, fpoke the language we

now do in England; which is an honour to our country that I thought proper to fet in a true light, and yet hath not been done, as I have heard, by any other writer."

We intended to have finished our Review of thefe Pofthumous Works of a very favourite Writer; but the matter is fo curious, fo various, and fo entertaining, that we find it impoffible to comprise the Article within the limits first proposed. But our Readers will forgive us :-it is not often we have it in our power to regale them with fuch delicious morfe's.

The Pfalms tranflated, or paraphrafed, in English Verfe. By JamesMerrick, M. A. late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 4to. 10s. 6d. fewed. Newbery, &c.

W

HEN the powers of imagination are employed to fmooth the paths of duty, and to win, by ornament and harmony, our attention to the precepts of life; whatever may be the fuccefs of fuch efforts,-their end, their motive, at leaft, we cannot but applaud. Truth, however, and impartiality, oblige us to acknowledge that every attempt which the modern mufe has made upon the facred writings, allowing that The might have the most laudable motives in view, has been equally vain. Though her rhymes have not been unpolished; though her verfification has been smooth at leaft, and far above contempt; yet we have taken up her productions without avidity, perufed them with languor, and laid them down without any other fatisfaction than that of finding ourselves at the end. What is the cause of this? Those who have been at the pains of verfifying the fcriptures, and have seen with regret the ill fuccefs of their labours, willing at all events to defend the propriety of their undertakings, have transferred every caule of blame from the poet to the reader. It is the depravity of human nature, fays the difappointed verfifier: nothing that is pious, nothing of a facred nature will ever fucceed. This charge, however, we know, from other inftances, to be by no means founded in truth. The principal caufe, therefore, must certainly be derived from the different genius of the English and the Hebrew poetry: and, nothing, indeed, can be more ftrikingly oppofite. The eaftern mufe is daring, fervent, and unfubdued in her progrefs; fnatching at figures remote in their nature and difpofition; frequently inattentive to confiftency and Connection; defultory in fentiment, and abrupt in expreffion.

fe properties are utterly unfit for the regular and limited walks yme. [What a figure, too, would Offian make, were his