PATRONAGE began openly to adopt the fentiments and imitate the manners of her husband, by whofe opinions fhe now directed her decifions with very little heed to the precepts of TRUTH; and as her daughters continually gained upon her affections, the SCIENCES loft their influence, till none found much reason to boast of their reception, but those whom CAPRICE or FLATTERY conducted to her throne.

The throngs who had fo long waited, and fo often been difmiffed for want of recommendation from the SCIENCES, were delighted to fee the power of those rigorous Goddeffes tending to its extinétion. Their patroneffes now renewed their encouragements. HOPE fmiled at the approach of CAPRICE, and IмPUDENCE was always at hand to introduce her clients to FLATTERY.

PATRONAGE had now learned to procure herfelf reverence by ceremonies and formalities, and instead of admitting her petitioners to an immediate audience, ordered the antechamber to be erected, called among mortals, the Hall of Expectation. Into this hall the entrance was eafy to thofe whom IMPUDENCE had configned to FLATTERY, and it was therefore crowded with a promifcuous throng, affembled from every corner of the earth, preffing forward with the utmost eagerness of defire, and agitated with all the anxieties of competition.

They entered this general receptacle with ardour and alacrity, and made no doubt of fpeedy accefs, under the conduct of FLATTERY, to the prefence of PATRONAGE. But it generally happened that they were here left to their deftiny, for the inner doors

were

were committed to CAPRICE, who opened and shut them, as it seemed, by chance, and rejected or ad mitted without any fettled rule of diftinction. In the mean time, the miferable attendants were left to wear out their lives in alternate exultation and dejec tion, delivered up to the fport of SUSPICION, who was always whispering into their ear defigns against them which were never formed, and of ENVY, who diligently pointed out the good fortune of one or other of their competitors. INFAMY flew round the hall, and scattered mildews from her wings, with which every one was ftained; REPUTATION followed her with flower flight, and endeavoured to hide the blemishes with paint, which was immediately brushed away, or separated of itself, and left the ftains more visible; nor were the spots of INFAMY ever effaced, but with limpid water effufed by the hand of TIME from a well which fprung up beneath the throne of TRUTH.

It frequently happened that SCIENCE, unwilling to lofe the ancient prerogative of recommending to PATRONAGE, would lead her followers into the Hall of Expectation; but they were foon difcouraged from attending, for not only ENVY and SUSPICION inceffantly tormented them, but IMPUDENCE Confidered them as intruders, and incited INFAMY to blacken them. They therefore quickly retired, but feldom without some spots which they could fcarcely wafh away, and which fhewed that they had once waited in the Hall of Expectation.

The reft continued to expect the happy moment, at which CAPRICE fhould beckon them to approach; and endeavoured to propitiate her, not with Homerical harmony,

3

harmony, the representation of great actions, or the recital of noble fentiments, but with foft and volup tuous melody, intermingled with the praises of PaTRONAGE and PRIDE, by whom they were heard at once with pleasure and contempt.

Some were indeed admitted by CAPRICE, when they least expected it, and heaped by PATRONAGE with the gifts of FORTUNE, but they were from that time chained to her footstool, and condemned to regulate their lives by her glances and her nods; they seemed proud of their manacles, and feldom complained of any drudgery, however fervile, or any affront, however contemptuous; yet they were often, notwithstanding their obedience, seized on a sudden by CAPRICE, divested of their ornaments, and thrust back into the Hall of Expectation.

Here they mingled again with the tumult, and all, except a few whom experience had taught to feek happiness in the regions of liberty, continued to fpend hours, and days, and years, courting the fmile of CAPRICE by the arts of FLATTERY; till at length new crowds preffed in upon them, and drove them forth at different outlets into the habitations of DisEASE, and SHAME, and POVERTY, and DESpair, where they paffed the rest of their lives in narratives of promises and breaches of faith, of joys and forrows, of hopes and difappointments.

The SCIENCES, after a thousand indignities, retired from the palace of PATRONAGE, and having long wandered over the world in grief and distress, were led at last to the cottage of INDEPENDENCE, the daughter of FORTITUDE; where they were taught by PRUDENCE and PARSIMONY to fupport themfelves in dignity and quiet.

NUMB. 92. SATURDAY, February 2, 1751.

Τ

Jam nunc minaci murmure cornuum
Perftringis aures, jam litui ftrepunt.

Lo! now the clarion's voice I hear,
Its threatning murmurs pierce mine ear,
And in thy lines with brazen breath
The trumpet founds the charge of death.

HOR

FRANCIS

IT has been long obferved, that the idea of beauty is vague and undefined, different in different minds, and diversified by time or place. It has been a term hitherto used to fignify that which pleases us we know not why, and in our approbation of which we can justify ourselves only by the concurrence of numbers, without much power of enforcing our opinion upon others by any argument, but example and authority. It is, indeed, fo little subject to the examinations of reason, that Pafchal fuppofes it to end where demonftration begins, and maintains, that without incongruity and abfurdity we cannot speak of geometrical beauty.

To trace all the fources of that various pleasure which we afcribe to the agency of beauty, or to dif entangle all the perceptions involved in its idea, would, perhaps, require a very great part of the life of Aristotle or Plato. It is, however, in many cafes, apparent that this quality is merely relative and comparative; that we pronounce things beautiful because they have fomething which we agree, for

what

whatever reason, to call beauty, in a greater degree than we have been accustomed to find it in other things of the fame kind; and that we transfer the epithet as our knowledge increafes, and appropriate it to higher excellence, when higher excellence comes within our view.

Much of the beauty of writing is of this kind; and therefore Boileau juftly remarks, that the books which have stood the test of time, and been admired through all the changes which the mind of man has fuffered from the various revolutions of knowledge, and the prevalence of contrary customs, have a better claim to our regard than any modern can boaft, because the long continuance of their reputation proves that they are adequate to our faculties, and agreeable to

nature.

It is, however, the task of criticifm, to eftablish principles; to improve opinion into knowledge; and to distinguish thofe means of pleafing which depend upon known caufes and rational deduction, from the nameless and inexplicable elegancies which appeal wholly to the fancy, from which we feel delight, but know not how they produce it, and which may well be termed the enchantreffes of the foul. Criticism reduces those regions of literature under the dominion of science, which have hitherto known only the anarchy of ignorance, the caprices of fancy, and the tyranny of prescription.

There is nothing in the art of verfifying fo much exposed to the power of imagination as the accommodation of the found to the fenfe, or the represent ation of particular images, by the flow of the verse VOL. V.

K

in