"And you say that my Epigram's only a " Thing," Yours, ASS IN PRÆSENTI." The Author will see that we have not been neglectful of his offerings. His Motto is adopted. We have attempted to translate it in the spirit of the Original: and if we have taken the liberty of adding the single word perfectum," we feel that we are only paying a debt which the Motto Finder's modesty alone prevented him from claiming. We do not exactly understand whether our Author intends to start with the above Composition as a Candidate for the FIVE SHILLING PRIZE offered in our last Number. Why did he not explain this matter to Mr. WRIGHT when he deposited the Composition in his hands? It may be some consolation, however, to him, to learn, that similar doubts have arisen about many other pieces that have been transmitted to us. The metre has in some cases been so deficient, in others so redundant, and the number of Competitors so immense, that we must candidly confess, that so far from having been able to decide on their respective merits, we have not yet found time to go through the regular process of an examination. Under these circumstances, we are unwil lingly compelled to postpone the Race of Dullness, for which so many Candidates seem eager to start, to our next Number. While we were writing the last word of the foregoing Paragraph, we received another ODE from our Friend(Will he never have done?)-accompanied with so importunate a request for immediate publication, and immediate payment, that, as we are under the necessity (from what we have said above) of declining the latter, we cannot refuse to indulge him in the former, even at the imminent hazard of putting the patience of our Readers to too severe a trial. THE ORIGINAL EPIGRAMMATIST, TO MR. WRIGHT. I. One and Threepence a line For such Verses as mine! O munificent Patrons! O generous Foes! See my Muse mount the skies! How triumphant she flies, While M-RA and N-CH-LLS are grovelling in Prose! II. See each Jacobin Scribe How they vie for the Bribe! Tho' C-RT-N-Y detected, stands swelling with rage: P-RS-NS shows up his Lays; H-LCR-FT offers his Plays Those damn'd in the Closet, these damn'd on the Stage. III. Could S-TH-Y so traffic, Dactylic, or Sapphic ; Land and Malt could scarce furnish so boundless a Sum; 'Twould exhaust, to reward So prolific a Bard, The treasures of B-DF-D, or WH-TB-D, or SH-м. VOL. I. • g On IV. One and Threepence in cash, For each line of their trash! What Bank, what Exchequer, can bear this Expence ? Pay me quick, Mr. WRIGHT, Ere GR-TH-D and KN-HT Make You bankrupt in Cash, as THEY'RE bankrupts in Sense. SIR, To the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin. YOUR Epigram on selling the Bear's Skin, led me, by way of amusement, to examine the History of that Fable: and what entertained me most in the inquiry, was the discovery, that it has been best versified by two French Authors, LA FONTAINE and DESBILLONS. BENSERADE is mentioned also, but his works I do not possess. It is pleasing to see advice so sensible, given to the French, by Writers of their own Country. LA FONTAINE turns it thus: "Mais qu'a-t-il dit à l'oreille "Il m'a dit, qu'il ne faut jamais "Vendre la peau de l'ours qu'on ne l'ait mis par terre." DESBILLONS, in his very terse Latinity, expresses it in the following manner: Me monuit, inquit, ut ne pellem vendere, "Viventis ursi collibeat unquam mibi.” As far as I can find, LAURENTIUS ABSTEMIUS was the first person who gave the Fable this particular turn., The Greek Fable, attributed to ESOP, makes the Bear advise the Man on the ground, never again to trust a Companion who would not stand by him," the other having taken refuge in a tree. This also is the point of the Fable, as given by AVIANUS. But ABSTEMIUS has it, "Monuit me, inquit, ne deinceps ursi pellem vendere "velim, nisi eum prius ceperim." In the homely style of our Countryman JOHN OGILBY, the advice is such as becomes John Bull to give either to Lewis Baboon, or his successor Tiger Baboon. He thus began-" Good Sir, what was't the Bear Spake, when so long he whisper'd in your ear?" Before the Bear was slain, bis Skin to sell. Nor ought the tame versification of the Moral subjoined, to make us despise the good sense of it: Fortune assists the bold; the valiant Man That such may, and such will be the event of the Gallic boasts, is the wish and the prophecy of every AntiJacobin. If you should like to have an English Version of FONTAINE's Fable at large, I have a rhiming Friend who will undertake to furnish one. But perhaps quite enough has already been said upon the subject. POETRY. ACME AND SEPTIMIUS; оп, THE HAPPY UNION. CELEBRATED AT THE CROWN AND ANCHOR TAVERN. Fox, (1) with TOOKE to grace his side, "Should e'er my eyes delight to look "On ought alive, save JoHN HORNE TOOKE, "Doom me to ridicule and ruin, "In the coarse hug (2) of Indian BRUIN ! He spoke (3); and to the left and right, TOOKE, (4) his bald head gently moving, " |