ignorance of the Arts, mislead our judgments, and cause us often to take that for true imitation of nature, which has no resemblance of nature in it. To inform our judgments, and to reform our tastes, rules were invented, that, by them, we might discern when nature was imitated, and how nearly. I have been forced to recapitulate these things, because mankind is not more liable to deceit, than it is willing to continue in a pleasing error, strengthened by a long habitude. The imitation of nature, is, therefore, justly constituted as the general, and indeed the only rule of pleasing, both in Poetry and Painting. Aristotle tells us that imitation pleases, because it affords matter for a reasoner to enquire into the truth or falsehood of imitation, by comparing its likeness or unlikeness with the original; but by this rule every speculation in nature, whose truth falls under the enquiry of a Philosopher, must produce the same delight, which is not true.

I should rather assign another reason: truth is the object of our understanding, as good is of our will; and the understanding can no more be delighted with a lie, than the will can choose an apparent evil. As truth is the end of all our speculations, so the discovery of it is the pleasure of them; and since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in Poetry or Painting, must of necessity produce a much greater; for both these arts, as I said before, are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature, of that which is wrought up to a nobler pitch.

They present us with images more perfect than the life in any individual, and we have the pleasure to see all the scattered beauties of nature united by a happy chemistry, without its deformities or faults. They are imitations of the

passions which always move, and therefore consequently please, for without motion there can be no delight, which cannot be considered as an active passion, when we view these elevated ideas of nature, the result of that view is admiration, which is always the cause of pleasure.-Dryden.

women.

CCXLII.

In the Influence OF WOMEN.-Would you become acquainted with the political and moral condition of a people? ask what is the position occupied by the Between the sweetness of conjugal love, and the degradation of the harem, there is the same distance as between civilization and barbarism. Between the society in the time of Louis xiv., and that under Louis xv., there is the same difference as between their two mistresses, Mademoiselle de la Vallière, and Madame Dubarry.

We might, doubtless, adduce examples of morality, superior to those of the time of Louis XIV., but what advantage should we derive by so doing? they are out of our reach ; at Sparta, where women formed heroes because they were citizens; at Rome, where temples were raised to the sanctity of marriage, and where the violated chastity of a woman was considered so momentous an event, that it sufficed to change the fate of the kingdom. The influence of women is extended over the whole of our lives; a mistress, a wife, a mother-three magic words which comprise the sum of human felicity. It is the reign of beauty, of love, and of reason; it is always a reign. A man consults with his wife, he obeys his mother, he obeys her long after she has ceased to live, and the ideas which he has derived from her, become

principles which are frequently more powerful than his passions.

On the maternal bosom the mind of nations reposes; their manners, prejudices and virtues,-in a word, the civilization of the human race all depend upon maternal influence.

The reality of the power is admitted, but the objection is stated, that it is only exercised in the family circle, as if the aggregate of families did not constitute a nation! Do we not perceive that the thoughts which occupy the woman at home, are carried into public assemblies by the man? It is there that he realises by strength, that which he was inspired by caresses or which was insinuated by submission. You desire to restrict women to the mere management of their houses-you would only instruct them for that purpose; but you do not reflect that it is from the house of each citizen that the errors and the prejudices which prevail in the world, emanate.-M. Aimé Martin.

CCXLIII.

TO MAN'S ENEMY BUT HIS OWN.-No man's enemy but his own happens generally to be the enemy of everybody with whom he is in relation. The leading quality that goes to make his character, is a reckless improvidence and a selfish pursuit of selfish enjoyments, independent of all consequences. No man's enemy but his own runs rapidly through his means; calls, in a friendly way, on his friends for bonds, bail, and securities; involves his nearest kin, leaves his wife a beggar, and quarters his orphans upon the public; after having enjoyed himself to the last guinea, entails a life of dependence on his progeny, and dies in the

odour of that ill-understood reputation of harmless folly, which is more injurious to society than many positive crimes. -Lady Morgan.

CCXLIV.

HE PRETENSION OF TASTE.-Taste has frequently an imaginary existence, unconnected with the intellect. It is merely hereditary or acquired, and descends from father to son, with his prejudices and estate. The manor-house, the hounds, and Somerville go together. Certain authors are adopted into families. Bunyan has the sacredness of a legacy; the songs of Watts are bound up with earliest days at mothers' knees: and Gray's "Elegy" incloses a domestic interior of warmth and affection in every stanza. There are hymns which have been intoned through the noses of three generations, and will probably reach the tenth, with all the music and endearment of their ancestral twang. In such cases the heart, not the understanding, is the source of interest, and admiration is only a pleasure of memory. Taste is often one of the aspects of fashion. Folly borrows its mask, and walks out with wisdom arm-in-arm. Like virtues of greater dignity, it is assumed. tions of a room are arranged to graceful sentiments of the occupant. gravely on Petrarch, through his gold frame. Boccaccio sparkles over a grim treatise of Calvin, and a ruffle is smoothed in Aquinas. Addison sketched a student of this order, in whose library he found Locke "On the Understanding," with a paper of patches among the leaves, and all the classic authors-in wood, with bright backs. To such readers, a

The furniture and decora

indicate the serious and Bishop Sanderson looks

new book of which people talk is like a new costume which a person of celebrity has introduced. It is the rage. Not to be acquainted with it, is to be ill dressed. The pleasure is not of literature, but of vanity. The pretended taste is a polite fraud of society.-Willmott.

CCXLV.

EMPERANCE AND MENTAL EXERTION.-There is no

thing good written under the inspiration of drink. Burns did not write the " Cottar's Saturday Night," Byron did not write "Childe Harolde," under the inspiration of drink. Our best writers have been sober men. Sheridan

has been an exception amongst the latter, but even Sheridan sobered himself to compose his speeches. His very jokes were elaborated when sober, and in secret, to be let off over the bottle, or exploded in the House, as if they were the inspiration of the moment. Our hardest working public men have always been temperate men.—.

-Anon.

CCXLVI.

F GREATNESS.-If I am asked, who is the greatest man? I answer the best; and if I am required to say who is the best? I reply he that has deserved most of his fellow-creatures. Whether we deserve better of mankind, by the cultivation of letters, by obscure and inglorious attainments, by intellectual pursuits calculated rather to amuse than inform, than by strenuous exertions in speaking and acting, let those consider who bury themselves in studies. unproductive of any benefit to their country or fellow-citizens I think not.—Sir Wm. Jones.