1799.] Comparative State of Literature in the past and present Times. 11 tion, as haughty as kings were under the old feudal system, if any of the princes in heing would contend with the fame eagerness for their favour, as we learn the various fovereigns of Europe did, for that of Petrarch, or Erafmus. It has been questioned by some, whether the number of publications, which are annually poured upon the world, have contributed in any proportionable ratio to the encrease of literature? In my opinion, they have not. To a liberal and cultivated mind there is certainly no indulgence equal to the luxury of books: but, in works of learning, may not the facilities of information be encreased, until the powers of application and retention be diminished? After admitting that the prefent is a learned age, it may appear fingular to doubt, whether it affords individuals as profoundly learned, (at least, as far as Latin and Greek go,) as fome who flourished in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries. The general mass of learning is greater now than it was then; and is evidently of a more valuable tendency. Yet, whether any of the scholars of the present day could compose Latin verses with as much classic purity, and taste, as Strada, Sannazarius, or Politiano; or whether any of our commentators, eminent as they are, could break a fpear in the amphitheatre of criticisin, with Erafinus, Scaliger, Salmafius, or Milton, is a matter I much doubt. I am aware that the different state in which literature now stands, compared with that in which it formerly stood, may be urged as one reason for the fuperior celebrity which learning then conFerred. Men generally unenlightened, but knowing the value of information, would make comparisons, and attribute to genius a degree of credit, perhaps, exceeding its real merit: but, independent of this, the writings of the early critics contain infinite learning. Before the modern languages were to polished that scholars could compose in them, it is known that the practice prevailed generally amongit literary men, of writing and speaking in Latin. This naturally led to a knowledge of that language, not only from motives of refinement, but of neceffity also: for histories, poems, and even familiar letters, were composed in Latin. The study of school-divinity, and the difcuffion of learned questions in the form of theses, served to quicken the comprehenfion of the student: and the introduction of the Ariftotelian philofophy into the schools, however little it might agree with the fimplicity of the Gofpel, would naturally give the mind a degree of penetration and conjecture conducive to the discoveries of emendatory criticisin. An acquaintance with the Latin was not, however, confined to our sex only: the knowledge of it was familiar to ladies of rank in the fixteenth century. We are told by Moreri of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, "That she was doubtless the handsomest princess of her age, and very learned in the Latin tongue, in which the prono nced several orations." And there are still preferved in the Bodleian, if I mistake not, some Latin letters, or pieces, of Queen Elizabeth, in her own handwriting. Catharine of Medicis also is represented by historians as a splendid patroness of literature. She poffefsed the hereditary attachment of her house to letters and learned men; and was, we may reasonably conclude, skilful in the languages. The strange mixture of religion and gallantry, chivalry and imagination, that exifted in the dark ages, had not lost its hold upon the minds of men, even after the restoration of light under the pontificate of Leo. This system was a fafcinating appeal to the paffions, and gave rife-first to romances, which are an unconnected and improbable narration of religion, love, and war; and next-to novels, a more contracted and probable species of story. Of the last description, the Italians, and particularly Bocaccio, have afforded many specimens highly entertaining. Cervantes himself, although he wrote in ridicule of the prevailing tafte of the age, does not appear to have been entirely free from the contagion of chivalry. His " Don Quixote" shews a writer well read in romance, and not a little attached to it. The novels he has introduced in the body of his work, difplay the predominant fpirit of the times. They are beautiful, and exquifitely touching. So highly, indeed, did the Spanish and Italian novelifts possess the power of imagination, a power in such times not much less than the power of the keys in the successors of St. Peter, that Shakespeare, that great master of poetic fiction, has founded many of his dramatic pieces upon stories taken from the latter*. * Or call up him that left half told, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. Milton also, notwithstanding the severity own. re From thefe remarks, I would not be understood as wishing to make invidious comparisons between the learning of different ages, or to depreciate that of our Upon a fair investigation, there can be no doubt, I think, to which fide the scale of general literature would incline. My object fimply is, to shew the different direction which letters take, and the different patronage which they obtain, in different periods of fociety. Indeed, learning may more properly be faid to lead than to follow the course of the world: fince, though it may, at first, bend to the spirit of the age, it will in the end affuredly direct, and govern it. The general stock of genius is, perhaps, always pretty equal: the opportunities of improving it, and the support it ceives, vary with the times. Petrarch and Erafmus were careffed by popes and princes: Butler, Otway, and Chatterton, not much inferior in merit, were abfo. lutely starved; and Johnfon, whose moral works were calculated to delight and improve the age, lived long in distress, and at length received a scanty penfion. In fome ages, and upon fome occafions, it must be admitted, a genius darts upon the world with intellectual powers, that no industry, in the common course of things, can hope to equal: but this is a particular cafe, and is generally compenfated fome other way. If former times have enjoyed works of more fancy, and fublimity of imagination, than are given to us, we, in return, poffefs more useful acquifitions. If they have had their Spencer, Taffo, and Shakspeare, we boaft Newton, Locke, and Johnfon.Science, tafte, and correction, are indeed the characteristics of the present day. Every thing is refined; every thing is grand. We are actually mifers in luxury and taste, and have left nothing for pofterity. “Venimus ad fummum fortuna"We learn our Greek from the Purfuits SIR, N the last number of your Walpoliana, there is an egregious blunder, into which one would hardly have thought that fuch a man as Lord Orford could have fallen. His Lordship's observations on the profound study of mathematics will only excite a smile in those who are well versed in that science. But upon a "historical fact," Lord Orford cer tainly ought to have been more exact. Speaking of Dr. South's opinion of commentators on the Revelations, he calls him a Bishop. But that ingenious divine never rose higher in the church than to a prebendal stall in Westminster Abbey. If he had been a man of less note, there would have been the lefs reason to notice this inaccuracy, but the church of England has produced few divines of greater celebrity than South. His fermons are a treafure of wit and found reasoning. He was educated at Westminster school, under the great Busby, who treated him with uncommon severity, for which he alledged this as a reason: "I fee great talents in that obftinate boy, and I am determined to flog them into action." In his latter days, Dr. South became a very zealous Calvinist, but he retained his animosity against the Puritans, from a remembrance of their conduct in the civil wars, to the last period of his life. His statue in Westminster Abbey is exquifitely done. CHEERFULNESS, the most friendly to the mind, has excited few efforts of the imagination among poets, a race seldom much under her influence. Spenfer has merely fketched the countenance of a cheerful perfon. And her against, sweet Cheerfulness was plac'd, of Literature, and our morality from Pa- Whose eyes, like twinkling stars in evening riffot: and I do not fee how we are to be outdone either in learning or in dress. I remain, Sir, &c. &c. clear, Were deck'd with smiles that all fad humours chac'd, AUSONIUS. And darted forth delights, the which. her Wells, Norfolk, Oct. 24, 1798.. goodly grac'd. F. g. iv. 1o. 1799.] Personifications in Poetry. Collins, in his Music of the Passions, delineates her as a huntress: obviously al luding to the effects of exercise in promoting a cheerful difpofition. But, O, how alter'd was its sprightlier tone, When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, Her bow across her shoulder flung, Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and, thicket rung! The pensive hymn, to Cheerfulness by Akenside, exhibits no other picture of the power he invokes, than that of " a triumphant fair, sweet of language, and mild of mein." He bestows, indeed, many lines on her genealogy, in which he makes her the daughter of Love by Health; but a genealogy is more easily invented than a portrait. I shall conclude the list of mixed personi fications with Mr. Hayley's beautiful portrait of SENSIBILITY. After defcribing her flowery garland, and thin transparent robe, decked with roses, he proceeds: Of that enchanting age her figure seems, When smiling nature with the vital beams Of vivid youth, and pleasure's purple flame, Gilds her accomplish'd work, the female frame, With rich luxuriance tender, sweetly wild, And just between the woman and the child. Her fair left arm around a vase she flings, bends, From which the tender plant Mimosa springs: command, Successive fall at her approaching hand; While her foft breast with pity seems to pant, And shrinks at every shrinking of the plant. Triumphs of Temp. C. v. Of this engaging figure, both the natural and the emblematical expression are happily conceived, but from the principal circumstance of action I shall take occafion to make a few remarks, which will alfo be applicable to several of the preceding and subsequent quotations. The use ofsymbolical accompaniments to mark out the character of many perfonihed beings, has been rendered sufficiently evident; but it may still be a question, how are these symbols to be employed? Are they to be used merely as filent sig natures, annexed to the figure as a part of his dress, like a general's baton, or a lord-treasurer's wand? or are they to be employed by him as instruments, and in some manner or other to constitute his MONTHLY MAG. NO. XLII. 113 action? Numerous authorities may be produced for both these methods; and each may become proper, according to the nature of the symbol, and the character and purpose of the fancy-formed perfonage. The merely quiefcent mark of distinction seems to be most common in the designs of the ancients, whether in painting or poetry. The more varied and complex invention of the moderns has generally connected the symbol with the perfon, by fome circumstance of tion; and this must be allowed to be an improvement in point of spirit and expreffion. The danger is, lest such action should produce an incongruity, and interfere with the scope of the allegory. ac To apply this confideration to the beautiful passage juft quoted. If the perfonified figure of Senfibility were merely to pass before the eye in a fort of pageant (as the characters do in Spenser's Masque of Cupid), there would be no impropriety in fixing her whole attention on her fenfitive plant; the action would be as expressive as any in which a fingle tranfient figure could be employed. But as, in Mr. Hayley's elegant fiction, she is made a queen of numerous subjects, in whose fate she is deeply interested; to whom she, is -quick to pay The tender duties of imperial iway. I cannot but think it derogatory from her character and dignity, to employ her in trivial affiduities about a favourite vegetable. The Mimosa should rather be borne by her as a fignature, than occupy her attention. III. I now proceed to the third class of períonifications, those in which the figure presented may be called purely emblematical. This must be the cafe, where, if the subject be a quality, it is one which exhibits in its effect on others, rather than on the poffeffor of it-if it be a metaphysical being, it has no particular reference to any one bodily form or mode of expreffion; and though it must take some human shape in order to become a perfon, yet this is its vehicle, not its effence. There will, indeed, be a greater propriety in certain attributed forms, than in others, on account of fome congruities of character which almost every mind will perceive; thus Time and Death, if presented in a bodily form to the imagination, will almost univerfally be affociated with age and deformity; and Love and Hope with youth and beauty; yet these circumstances are not the characteristical parts of the portrait; and of theinselves would P do do nothing towards the likeness, which must entirely depend upon symbolical additions. I shall begin with the exhibition of a being much celebrated by modern poets, who have, however, established a conception of him somewhat different from that of their immediate predeceffors. This is FANCY, who, by the earlier English writers, was confidered rather as the genius of caprice, levity and mutability, than, as now, under the character of the power of poetical inspiration and invention. The former is the idea evidently entertained by Spenser, in his beautiful picture of Fancy, as he marches first in the Masque of Cupid. The first was Fancy, like a lovely boy, In the next stanza he is made the parent of Defire; and common language still represents fancy as the cause of that love which has no foundation in fober reafon. A representation of this being, very different in figure, but formed upon a fimilar conception of character, is given by Addison, in his Vision of the Mountain of Human Miferies : "There was a certain lady of a thin airy thape, who was very active in this folemnity. She carried a magnifying glass in one of her hands, and was clothed in a loose flowing robe, embroidered with feveral figures of fiends and spectres, that discovered themselves in a thoufand chimerical shapes, as her garment hovered in the wind. There was fomething wild and distracted in her looks. Her name was Fancy." Spectat. No. 558. The employment of this phantom was to aggravate every one's misfortunes or deformities in his own eyes, and to inspire a restless and capricious inclination for change. It is the fame idea of Fancy, as prompting a trivial and irrational estimation of things, that forms the fubject of the monitory fong in the Merchant of Venice, where Baffanio is to make his choice of the mystic caskets. The Polytechnic School, The School of Mines, The Artillery School, The School for Military Engineers, The Bridge and Road School, The Geographic School, The School for Naval Architects, All these schools are dependent on the general organisation of the public instruction: they have for their objects the different public works for the service of the ftate, and especially a univerfal acquaintance with the sciences and the arts. None will be admitted into them as pupils, except fuch as have, on a competition of candidates, exhibited proofs of preliminary knowledge: and these pupils are to be maintained at the public charge. POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL. The prefent government, in the first months of its administration, erected to itself a glorious monument by the establishment of this universal instruction. The polytechnic school occupies a great part of the quondam Palais Bourbon: there live the directors, the teachers, and even the pupils: there are the halls of instruction, the laboratories, the collections of books, of models, of inftruments and tools of all the arts, which belong to this school. The object of this establishment is to improve all those branches of natural and mathematical knowledge which bear relation to the sciences and mechanic ment 1799.] Account of the Public Schools in the French Republic. ment of matter, is divided into three principal branches-stereotomy, civil works, and military architecture. Stereotomy has for its object the laws and methods of defcriptive geometry applied to the cutting of stones, to carpenters' work, to the shadows of bodies, to perspective, to levelling, and to simple and complex machines. Civil works comprehend the construction and repair of roads, bridges, canals, ports, the work ing of mines, architecture, and the planning of the public fêtes. Military architecture extends to the disposition of fortified posts and towns, of lines on the frontiers, and to their attack and defence. The art of drawing, which is the second part of the graphic developement of matter, is employed in the imitation of pro. minences, in designing from nature, and in cultivating the principles of taste by the study of works on composition. 2. Physics extend to all the productions of nature, and the most essential of those produced by chymistry. General physics develope the principal properties of bodies, and the inechanic arts dependent thereon; and embrace the knowledge of the structure, strength, and motion of all animals, together with the use to which they may be applied in mechanics. Particular physics, or chymistry in all its branches, has for its object brute matter (together with its application to the different arts, especially those which bear relation to the public works), the salts and organised bodies found in the three kingdoms of nature. The instruction in all these branches of knowledge is the result of the information given by the teachers, and of the private labours of the students. All together it occupies three years. First year-stereometry-general principles of analysis, applied to geometryfirst principles of statics-stereotomygeneral course of physics-first principles of chymi chymistry, applied to falts-art of drawing. Second year-civil works-analysis of mechanics applied to solid bodies and fluids architecture - zoötechnics * principles of the purification of the airthe second object of chymistry, relating to animal and vegetable organisation-art of drawing. Third year-military architectureapplication of analyses-calculation of the effect of machines- - fortification - sea 115 ports and their buildings-examination of the most important works on the mechanic arts and chymistry-third object of chymistry, relating to mineral productions-art of drawing. After the first triennial course, the future pupils are to be separated into three divisions, each of which will fuccessively advance to the course of the following year. The period when the pupils are to quit the school, the mode in which their places are to be filled by others, and the gradation of their instruction, are regulated by a special ordinance. For the convenience of their private exercises, the pupils are again fubdivided into three companies, who, under the inspection of preceptor, alternately work in the chy- ch mical laboratories. a The management of this institution is conducted by the director, preceptors, adminiftrators, heads of companies, artists and workmen of the laboratories, and other persons intrusted with its interior economy. The constitution prescribes a particular rule for the employment of each. The council of the institution consists of the director, the preceptors, their afsistants, the administrators, and a secretary. This council regulates the instruction, the time, the choice of labours, the preparation of inftruments and models, and digefts plans for carrying the inftitution to perfection. It directs its internal police in the first instance, allots the annual expenditure, and presents a statement of it to the minister of the home department. The executive directory nominates the director: the council nominates the administrators, on presentation by the members to whom the vacant places are fubordinate. The days for the meeting of the council, and the form of its deliberations, are also prescribed in the plan. The institution publishes every month its Polytechnic Journal, in which it gives an account of the progress of the inftruction, and of the labours of the preceptors, pupils, and other persons employed. The materials for this publication are collected by the secretary. At the expiration of the year, the director renders to the minifter of the home department an account of the expenditure, and gives in an estimate of the necessary funds for the ensuing year. At the fame time he delivers to him a sketch of the state and labours of the institution. Such are the foundations on which rests * The application of animals to mechani- this grand and excellent establishment. cal purposes, The number of the pupils has been fixed at |