nity of damning dulness, may be found some compositions, where the disappointed reader, instead of being dazzled with the gleam of fancy, sorrowing sees nothing but the vapid insipidity of a poet laureate's ode, and eagerly inquires if it be upon record that Swift ever studied the sing-song of Cibber. Knox, a classic writer, censures, in one of his essays the bombastic style; yet were his own effusions arraigned in the court of criticism, they would sometimes be found guilty of turgidity. This critic, who, heated in the glowing forge of zeal, gives Gibbon to the devil and his writings to Lethe, condemns that elegant historian for superabundance of epithet, though a reader of Knox would suppose that the favourite page of this schoolmaster's grammar was that which contained the declension and variation of adjectives. Dr. Beattie, in the warmth of his wishes to promote social, benevolent, affections, almost hates the man who does not practise philanthropy. Rocked in the cradle of the kirk, and implicitly believing all that the nurse and priest had taught him, this zealot declaims, in terms so acrimonious, against the sceptics of the age, that one is led to think his "milk of human kindness" had become sour by the means he employed to preserve it. Juvenal, the ancient satirist, in one of his virulent attacks on the reigning Roman follies, avers that the most profligate of the senate were invariably strenuous advocates for a revival and execution of the obsolete rigid laws against debauchery. The indignant poet declares that if such glaring inconsistencies continue, none could be astonished should Clodius commence railer against liberties, and Cataline be first to impeach a conspirator. Were a namesake of this bard to arise, I should tremble for the sect of modern inconsistents. He might brandish the lance of satire against such characters with more justice, though perhaps with less dexterity than his classic predecessor. The field of foibles and follies is so fully ripe, that some one should put in the sickle. In this field appears, and will again appear, a labourer, who, though awkward, may be useful, and who will be "worthy of his hire," if he cut up nothing but tares. EPIGRAM. FROM THE FRENCH OF BOILEAU. Ah! Climene, I have lost my heart, THE VIRGINIA ADVERTISEMENT. DENNIE. IN a former Number, of these my lounging speculations, I attempted to make myself merry with a certain advertisement purporting to be the original work of Mr. Jacob Gideon, who endeavoured in despite of wry faces, to make his Algerine Bitters palatable to my loving countrymen. As, in the opinion of divers of the New-England sages, I was deemed guilty of a design to decry the learning of the North, when I smiled at the fashionable diction of Mr. Gideon, in order to prove the whiteness of my innocency, and to convince the United States, that I am entirely impartial, I have, for a long time, directed my eyes to the South. While thus inquisitive, the postman brought me, one morning, a newspaper, denominated "The Virginia Express," a gazette, published at Fredericksburg, no mean city in the Ancient Dominion. Among eloquent descriptions of the drapery and depravity of fugitive slaves, and among other invaluable papers, composed with all the precision and purity of Mr. Jefferson himself, I found the following article, which, with a tremulous solicitude, lest some particle of its bugle ornaments should be rubbed off, like the meal on the wing of the gorgeous butterfly, I now transfer to my paper, not without a lively hope that there it may be carefully preserved, like my aunt Dinah's imperfect child, who sprawls in a brandy bottle, stuck over the chimney-piece, or like the pictures of Spread Eagles, and of Indian Queens, which so delightfully dangle from every signpost, to the eternal glory of America. STOP THIEF! STOP THIEF! On Sunday morning last, the 3d inst. my Horse, Saddle and Bridle were taken from me by a man who said he was going to Col. Selden's and should return after dinner, of the following description, viz. A young man about 21 or 22 years of age, black hair short behind, but on the front of his head rather bushy and spreading, dark complexion, thin visage, looks well and appears genteel; his nose is long reather inclining upwards, about six feet high; his dress as follows; a light coloured drab great coat the sleeves appear to reach his nuckles, light coloured corduroy pantaloons, which button up pretty high, flat toed boots, a yellow and red striped handkerchief about his neck and face, which touched his chin, he also had a black cane, which I believe contained a sword, painted apparently red, among the black or probably red streeks about the joints of the cane. He never went to col. Selden's but in about half an hour after he got the horse, was seen riding up to Richmond in a gallop thro' the street bending his course upwards. -Description of the horse, saddle and bridle, a small chunky bay horse, about 4 feet 4 or 5 inches high, white face, his mane a few months since was cut close, but now considerably grown out, and stands erect, his tail bobbed a little, his shoes are lately worn off, and his hoofs ragged, the front one longer and coaser than the others, with some old nails remaining in the edges, his legs rather shaggy and dirty, not having been trimmed since I had him, his left hind foot white, and his hinder hoofs I think are white, there are on the top of his back, under the front of the saddle, two large spots where the hair has been rubbed off on each side, now smooth, with new short hair, very perceivable, also feint marks of being galled by going in a chair, perceivable on his breast where the harness rests in pulling, and is the same little horse I purchased of Joe Childress in Richmond. When he gallops he lifts his feet very high and throws them down very hard and is a coarse gaited horse. The saddle and briddle are nearly new, having been used about three months; the edges of the saddle pad bound all round with red plush and the buckles of the stirrup leathers are visible by the shortness of the saddle skirts, which are round; the bridle is a curb bit, single reins, and the curb which is annexed to the bit, is tied on at one end with a piece of twine string close in a hard knot, and the throat latch has a knot in it about 5 or 6 inches from the buckle which is square; the buckles on the bridle roundish and rather fluted, not |