race.

For Priam now, and Priam's faithless kind,

At length are odious to the All-seeing mind.

On great Æneas shall devolve the reign, And sons succeeding sons the lasting line sustain.'

Here seems something like supernatural authority for the tradition, on which Virgil built his poem. Æneas is described as a man of extraordinary piety to the gods, and one whom the fates have ordained to be the future founder of a powerful empire. Neptune, then, in pursuance of his resolution, rescues Eneas from danger:

'Swift interpos'd between the warrior's

eyes,

And casts thick darkness o'er Achilles' eyes.'

After having conveyed him to a place of security, he leaves him with a gentle admonition not to provoke in future an arm so much superiour to his own. Homer, at the same time he informs us that Aneas did not venture on the combat without supernatural assistance, to raise the character of Achilles still higher in our estimation, gives us to understand that all such help is unavailing :

*Lo! on the brink of fate Æneas stands, An instant victim to Achilles' hands; By Phoebus urg'd; but Phabus has bestow'd

His aid in vain; the man o'erpowers the god!

That the muse of Virgil did not pass over this remarkable passage "intacto pede," is manifest. Neptune once in the Iliad, and twice in the Eneid, preserves Eneas from imminent danger. When

he does this kind office for the last time, he expressly refers to what he had formerly done. These are his words:

.' Cum Troia Achilles, Examinata sequem impingeret agmina

muris

Millia multa daret letho; gemerentque repleti

Amnes nec reperire viam; atque evolvene pascit

In mare se Xanthus Pelida; tum ego forti

Congressum Eneadem nec diis nec viribus equis Nube cava eripui?

Dryden's translation of the passage runs thus :

test!

Thee Xanthus, and thee Simois I atYour Trajan troops when proud Achilles prest;

And drove before him headlong on the plain,

And dash'd against their walls the trembling train,

When floods were fill'd with bodies of the slain :

When crimson Xanthus, doubtful of his way

Stood up on ridges to behold the sea, New heaps came tumbling in and choak'd his way; When your Æneas fought; but fought with odds,

of force unequal, and unequal gods ; I spread a cloud before the warrior's sight, Sustain'd the vanquish'd, and secur'd his flight?'

In no other part of the Iliad,than the one above quoted, is Æneas described as a man of uncommon piety; neither is there in any other instance the slightest intimation given, that he was to be the founder of a future empire. In that passage both of these qualities are particularly pointed out. We have further to consider, that Neptune, the preserver of Encas, was decidedly averse to the success of the Trojan arms, and employed all the influence of his divinity to succour their enemies. Virgil

deemed this so brilliant a plume on the head of his hero, that he employs Neptune twice in the same benevolent office. He still makes his godship declare, that his ancient hostility to Troy continues unabated, while he is still solicitous to preserve one of her most celebrated heroes :

'Cuperem cum vertere ad imo Structa meis manibus perjuræ mania Troja,

Nunc, quoq: mem eadem prestat mihi? Even then secur'd him when I sought with joy

The vow'd destruction of ungrateful Troy;

My will's the same?'

In the speech, which Homer puts into the mouth of Neptune is described the two qualities of the Trojan hero, which Virgil improves afterwards so much to his advantage. He is every where the pious Eneas; he is all along forewarned by the fates, that he is to be the father of a mighty people. To fortify the supposition that Virgil drew his first outline of Eneas from the above passage in Homer, we have, then, the evidence of his employing the same deity twice for the same end; we have the evidence of his expressly referring to that very passage, which explicitly predicts what Virgil brings to pass. The beautiful vision of Æneas in the Elysian fields, where he beholds his future race passing in review, may be considered as nothing more than a poetical recognition of Homer's ideas. By so considering the question, the two great masters of the lyre preserve harmony with each other, and Homer himself may be said to have passed a panegyrick on Augustus.

It may not be improper here to notice a criticism of Lord Kaims, although not immediately connec

ted with the present subject. His Lordship, in the first volume of his Elements of Criticism, thus expresses himself. "An episode in a narrative poem, being in fact an accessory, demands not that strict union with the principal subject, which is requisite between an whole and its constituent parts: it demands, however, a degree of union, such as ought to subsist between a principal and accessory, and therefore will not be graceful, if it is barely connected with the principal subject. I give for an example the descent of Aneas into hell, which occupies the 6th book of the Eneid; the reader is not prepared for the important event. No cause is assigned, that can make it appear necessary, or even natural, to suspend for a time the principal action in its most interesting period. The poet can find no pretext for an adventure so extraordinary, but the hero's longing desire to visit the ghost of his father, recently dead. In the mean time the story is interrupted, and the reader loses his ardour. Pity it is, that an episode, so extremely beautiful, were not more happily introduced."

His lordship, in his selection of the 6th Book of the Æneid as an object for his censure, is peculiarly unfortunate. It was so necessary to the completion of Virgil's design, that his whole poem would have been uninteresting to the Romans, if that vision was omitted. It has been already stated, that it was the design of the poet to flatter the vanity of his countrymen, by giving a kind of superna tural sanction to a questionable historical fact, that Eneas was the founder of Rome. The poet, therefore, employs the machinery of his poem for that purpose, and to impress it on the mind of Æne

In no other manner was it possible for the poet to have accomplished, so effectually, his end. What then his lordship means by his assertion, that "no cause is assigned, that can make it appear necessary, or even natural, to suspend for a time the principal action in its most interesting period," it is difficult to comprehend.

His "principal action" was to settle Eneas in Italy; and no stronger inducement could be offered to fix his wavering mind into that determination, than by making him become the spectator of the future glories of his race. The episode, therefore, is so artfully introduced, as to answer a twofold purpose, to raise the ambition of Æneas, and to gratify the vanity of the Roman people by a most elegant compliment. His lordship is equally unfortunate in his assertion, that the "poet can find no pretext for an adventure so extraordinary, but the hero's desire to visit the ghost of his father, recently dead." Anchises, in the 5th Book, explicitly promises him this interview with his posterity, if he would comply with his injunction and visit the fields of Elysium. Tum genus omne tuum, et quædenter mænia disces.' That this interview was necessary to fix Æneas in his purpose is evident from his

This previous irresolution and incredulity of Æneas is finely imagined by the poet to make this vision the more indispensable. Afterwards he is no longer troubled by doubts and misgivings, but lands in Italy, and fights his battles with confidence. That "the reader is not prepared for that important event," as his lord, ship suggests, is acknowledged; and from hence results novelty and surprise infinitely more acceptable to the mind, than if it had anticipated that event. If this is the ground of his lordship's hostility, that "the mind of the reader is unprepared for the event," every passage in every volume, which cannot be anticipated by the reader before perusal, is subject to a simi lar reprobation, and which, because it could be anticipated, would render it unnecessary to be read. The real question is not whether "the mind of the reader is prepared for the passage," but whether, "after the passage is read, any incongruity can be discovered between that, and what goes before, or follows after. This is not even pretended by his lordship. Neither is the assertion correct, that "the reader loses his ardour. When such great events are foretold, as were foretold to Eneas in vision, and which were all to be accomplished by the landing of that hero in

HAMBURGH contains various places of resort for profit and pleasure, such as the Exchange, the Patriotick Society, the Harmony, different clubs, coffee-houses, &c. In other cities, far inferiour in rank to Hamburgh, we find, besides these, a Museum, or some other new place of resort erected, to which the higher classes of the inhabitants repair for the purpose of either deriving mutual profit, or enjoying recreation in the perusal of the publick journals and new books, or in conversation and other social amusements.

At Hamburgh the places of publick resort are numerous, but they are partly periodical, partly confined to a limited circle, and to particular objects. In houses for general accommodation, where no bond of social union exists, the foreigner, and frequently the native too, is obliged to seek amusement within himself alone. Many celebrated houses are not calculated for the grave, sober man ;

and other establishments, as they grow old, no longer afford conveniencies adapted to the necessities of modern times and manners.

The Exchange alone retains its general interest and dignity unimpaired. But the greatness of this name, which creates the idea of an immense correspondence, and the most extensive operation on all the quarters of the globe, is to be ascribed solely to the assemblage of merchants and men of business, and not to the place itself, for, excepting at the time when they meet, it is open for admission to all descriptions of people.

The defects of the Exchange at Hamburgh are so notorious, that I shall not attempt to enumerate them here. I shall only notice the want of room, the want of covering, and the inconvenience and uncertainty of meeting with any person out of the regular exchange hours, because these circumstances are connected with

the remedy I have sought to apply by means of an Exchangehall. Even during exchangehours the merchant frequently stands in need of a neighbouring place of resort, either for shelter, partly to meet others on particular business, &c. ; in short he wishes for a place to serve for the same purposes as the celebrated Lloyd's Subscription Coffee-house in London.

Being intimately acquainted with the places of resort at Hamburgh, I was daily more convinced that they were much too small for the magnitude of the city, and that a far more extensive plan would be required to form on a large scale for that repectable place what other towns possess only on a small one. I imparted my ideas to some friends, men of the highest respectability, of the most fervent patriotism, and animated with the most sincere desire to promote the honour and splendour of our small but happy republick. They not only encouraged by their approbation my wishes to become the founder of an establishment commensurate with the dignity and commercial relations of Hamburgh,but furnished me with new ideas, and thus brought to maturity the plan which, in the year 1802, I had the honour to submit to my mercantile fellow-citizens.

The publick spirit which particularly distinguishes the inhabitants of Hamburgh, and prompts them to support and execute with the greatest zeal whatever may tend to the profit or fame of their city, was now to decide the merits of my scheme. This decision I obtained in the course of a few days, in the completion of the number of subscribers I had demanded.

I could scarcely have experienced more honourable encouragement, and immediately proceeded to the execution of the plan, firmly resolved to spare neither pains nor expense to fulfil my promise and to satisfy, perhaps surpass, the general expectation.

This, however, more than doubled my estimate of expenses; but I was justified in placing the firmest reliance on the patriotick spirit of Hamburgh, which never suffers even the greatest undertakings of this nature to fall to the ground for want of encourage ment. I sought a resource for this in a considerable increase of the subscription-money. This measure I adopted with the greatest reluctance; but I had the satisfaction to see that there was scarcely a single individual by whom it was not highly approved.

My wish was, to produce sometling unique in its kind, which was not borrowed from other towns, but which should itself serve for a model. A particular circumstance favoured my design, and confirmed my resolution to spare no expense.This was the assistance of M. Rameé, a French architect settled at Hamburgh, an artist distinguished for his uncommon taste as well as for the novelty and comprehensiveness of his ideas, and who previous to the Revolution, had established himself as an architect at Paris. He devoted himself with zeal to the undertaking; and I may with truth assert, that, had it not been for him and his connections, the work would not have been executed in that style in which it now appears.

Commenced with omens and circumstances so favourable, this important and useful work, the foundation of which I consider the