"friends, and lamented their deaths as if he had been their pa"rent."* No lefs exemplary as a mafter was the Earl of Cork; and even his domeftics of the brute creation had their labours re⚫warded with tenderness, and their lives prolonged by attention. † For poetry, though few of Pliny's verfes are tranfmitted to us, they both had a talent. In familiar epiftles they both excelled. Pliny, in fome of his letters, is an hiftorical writer; he had ⚫ been advised by many of his friends to write an history; and, • according to Caffiodorus, he put the advice into execution. I Historical alfo are many of the following letters, § and if time had permitted the author to complete a work there mentioned, ⚫ he would have been ranked by posterity among the best historians ⚫ of Florence. To a tafte for literature, and a thirst for knowledge, both the Roman and the Briton had, as it were, a kind of hereditary right: in particular Pliny the elder has been compared, as a philofopher, by Lord Cork himself, to his own great relation Mr. Robert Boyle. ** Equally happy were the conful and the peer in their private friendfhips. What Arria and Fannia were to the one, Mrs. Rowe, the British Philomela, was to the other. If Pliny had his Martial and Italicus, Lord Orrery ⚫ had his Southerne and Fenton. And to complete the parallel, as • Suetonius and Tacitus, the two beft writers that Rome then produced, were the friends aud correfpondents of Pliny, his tranflator was no lefs fortunate in the friendship and correfpondence of • Swift and Pope.' A Letter to the Patentees of Covent Garden Theatre. 4to. Is. Lambert. A pitiful, pointless, and inefficacious effort, to leffen the generofity and humanity of Mr. Harris, for having lent Covent Garden theatre to Mr. Lee Lewes, for one night's reprefentation of the ingenious George Alexander Stevens's Lecture on Heads. Perhaps this fcurrilous attempt is intended as a fignal for the pop-gun fcribblers of the Haymarket theatre, to prepare themfelves, in order to pefter the town with endless and fhameless puffs of the heroic deeds done, and to be done by their great Apollo, Coley. * Obfervations on Pliny, B. viii. Ep. 16. + In particular a favourite horse, whofe life was prolonged to the uncommon age of 34, and a favourite greyhound, who lived to the age of 14, have monumental infcriptions to their memory in the gardens at Marston. Obfervations on Pliny, B. iii. Ep. 9. **Obfervations on Pliny, B. vi. Ep. 16. ! Emma Corbett; or, The Miseries of Civil War. Founded on ome recent Circumftances which happened in America. By the Author of the Pupil of Pleasure, Liberal Opinions, ShenStone Green, &c. &c. In 3 vols. 12mo. Price 7s. 6d. Baldwin. [Concluded from page 310.] In conclufion of a performance which hath a kind of magic that draws up to its end, makes us (even after a third vifit) quit the literary charm with reluctance, we offer a ftory, which, in point of pathos, invention and incident, is furpaffed by few, if any, epifodical narratives in the English language. But, that the fragment may juftify this our glow of panegyric, we will present it to the criticism of the reader's head and heart, without mutilation or curtailing; and have no fears left our praises fhould appear too ardent, provided the bofom be open to receive the tendereft impreffions of fympathy, humanity and nature. « ****** Oh for the history of that wound! faid I, feeing a scar upon the cheek of the perfon appointed to fhew me the hofpi tal!- -Oh for the history of that wound! "Not worth the telling, answered the man, pointing to the stump of his left thigh, as to a more important fubject of curiofity. He took me into a different quarter of the building, which prefen. ted the lodgings of those who were penfioners. In each was a fmall bed, a chair, and a table. The attendant's name was Julius Carbine. At a door leading into one of the apartments he ftopped; and then looked through an aperture, which commanded the room. "The luckiest of all moments, faid Julius-for brother Neftor will foon be at it, and it is a day of difcipline. We will enter. 66 Julius, faid the owner of the apartment, as we entered, fit down with your company. The fide of the bed was covered with a clean white cloth by a little girl who opened the door, and I had alfo a little girl with me and we all fat down. It was actually the brother, and not the brother foldier only, to whom Julius introduced us. In their appearance there was a fraternal timilarity, not fo much confifting in the features and limbs which remained, as in the misfortunes which had happened to thofe invifible parts which lay scattered in different quarters of the globe. Julius was the younger of the Carbines, and as he placed himfelf fideways upon the bed, and defired Carbine the elder (whose name was Neftor) to fufpend the attack-he told his ftory. VOL. XI. Ccc "We "We flept in the fame cradle, and were nurfed up for the fervice. Our little arms "He flourished a stump which projected about four inches from the right fhoulder- Our little arms "But I have begun the matter wrong and prematurely, for before I relate the account which Carbine gave of himself, I should offer fome defcription of his perfon, as well as that of his brother Neftor. It is the ftump of Julius which reminds me of this. "Carbine the elder was the remnant of a noble figure, who in the uprightness of his youth must have risen fix feet from the earth perpendicularly. He had the marks of about feventy years wearing in his face-allowing for the natural vigour of his form, the invafions of incident, time, and profeffion. The prefent ftoop in his fhoulders was favourable to the height, or rather to the want of height in his apartment. It is not without juft caufe that I called Neftor a remnant. Nature originally mixed up in him her fairest proportions. At the time I faw him he was a capital figure reduced. For instance, if you looked him in the face, or, more properly to fpeak, in the refidue of his face, you would perceive, in his left cheek, a deep scarification, which boasted no fort of rivalfhip with the glorious embrowning of the other that had received no injury. Though Neftor himself said," the whole cheek, in comparison with the half cheek, looked like an errant poltroon.' "It is a cheek," cried he," which feems to have done no duty; now here," continued he, turning the other fide to view with much triumph, "here are the figns of service." "Both the Carbines, indeed, had ferved to fome purpose. In point of honorary credentials there was little cause of jealoufy. Nothing could be more equally divided than the mutual marks of brotherhood in bravery. Sorely battered were the outworks of both. It is worth while to observe how the matter was fettled to their fatisfaction and credit. The thigh of Julius became the victim of a parapet, but then Neftor was even with him when he had the honour to drop his left arm in the counterfcrap. But as if for tune did not imagine an arm, and that a left arm, a fufficient equivalent to a whole thigh, amputated at one decifive whizz by a cannon ball, the deprived Neftor of his right foot, which was left at the bottom of an entrenchment in Flanders. The younger Carbine had the track of a mufquet vifible at the extremity of his neck, and the bullets with which that musket was charged flanted along the left jaw, carrying off fome of the finest teeth in the world, and which, perhaps, are even yet to be feen in one of the foffés. To bring the military fcale even, on the part of Julius, he has the good fortune to conceal under his hat (which upon account of that concealment he feldom wears) a refpectable contufion, which beginning at the left ear, fwept away not only the greatest part of that, but all that grew in its path, from one end to the other; which diftinguishing froke is in honour of the bastion. But Julius had his unoftentatious wounds too: his hirt covering no less than fix, infomuch that his bofom was croffed this way and that, direct and traverse tranfverfe, like a draught-board. I detected the flush of fomething like victory in the countenance of Julius, as he threw open his chitterlin, and opened his fhirt collar under pretence of too much heat but Carbine the elder checked his brother's ambition by baring his right arm to his fhoulder, (or rather begging me to bare it) and there difcovering a masked battery of blows, which were a fair match for thofe in the breaft of Julius. : "Thus were the teftimonies of their prowefs participated; and if (faid they) either of us could have boafted a lefs equal divifion, it would have been a blow too many for our friendship, and, perhaps, have bred ill blood betwixt us. "Here the fragment is torn * * * * **** the veteran Carbines, after having platooned and pioneered it for a number of years, in the caufe of their country, found at length, they could keep the field no longer. "They entered the Temple of Peace: but not quite on the footing of ordinary members. The fenior Carbine privately enjoyed fome fmall privileges, and the junior was in poffeffion of the cafualties, derivable from fhewing the hofpital to fuch as had the curiofity to furvey it: and he hopped about with his ruins in a manner that engaged one's pity and admiration. "A fecond rent in the fragment. * * *. "Now Neftor was a man of inalienable affections. They were not to be fubdued. The military paffion was by no means dead in his bofom. The heart of the foldier was ftill vifible in his little bed-chamber. There were to be feen, fufpended from the walls, the battered corflet that had covered his breaft, and the firelock, whofe iron mouth was almoft worn out by the loadings. They were brightly burnished, and the nicest care taken to clean them weekly. "But this was nothing. The practical part of a foldier's difcipline did Neftor carry on in a room of forty inches diameter. "No fooner were we all feated by the fide of the bed, than a fingular ceremony began. He had fix fons, all little, all living for their country, and in fecret training for the battle under their father. It was his cuftom, thrice in the week, to turn the key upon all the penfioners but his brother, and inftruct his family. in the art of war. Poor as he was, he had actually been at the coft of equipping them; had fitted up for them fomething that refembled a uniform, and, in miniature accoutrements, prefented them with the fword, the mufket, and the bayonet. "The foldier's science was taught them by the veteran. One branch or another of the art military was the fubject of every day. The fons of Neftor Carbine knew not the enervating luxuries of artificial heat: they thawed the feverity of the feafons with nobler fires. Their education was wholly martial. At night they listened to the lecture, and their fwords were drawn forth to practise what they had heard in the morn. They engaged their strengthening arms in the mock fight, that they might be prepared for the real one. It was now the evening of the ravelin, then of the flanking, now of the fortification, then of the foffé; now of the half-moon, then of the epaulment; now of the faps, and then of the ambufcade; now of the horn-works, and then of the bastion; now of the gabion, and then again of the mines, the parapet, the battery, or the tenaille. "They had just began an engagement as we entered the room. "It will be beft related before the younger Carbine tells his ftory, let him therefore repofe a little longer upon the bed. The ftripling troops were drawn up three deep in the center of the room, and the object of attack was a large deal trunk set up. right betwixt the contending parties. One fide were to oppose and one to defend. The father was commander, and in good time came the brother, who instead of repofing on the bed, as abovementioned, fprung up with furprising agility, and hopped away to head the adverfe party, making a kind of warlike mufic with a little drum tattoo'd by the timber inftrument that served him for an arm. Neftor, meantime, affumed a whistle which served for a clarionet. "The engagement was carried on in the exactest military order; they advanced, they retreated, they rallied, and they came on again. Every little heart panted with ambition, every eye sparkled with expectation of victory.The mimic ardour foon became real, and the two generals were themfelves wrought up into a ferious fenfation. Julius fhouted, and Neftor encouraged. But, prefently, the aspect of the battle altered, for one of the befiegers, (a boy of uncommon bravery) took one of the befieged prifoner. The conqueror flourished his little foil, but the captive fhed tears of flavery and forrow. The general on the worsted fide affected to be difmayed. His opponent, fpirited up his army, pursued his victory, took a fecond of the enemy prifoner, and the town (that is, the box was taken. "A fhout of joy was heard on one fide, while the poor remains of the conquered troops fled to a corner that was the interior en campment behind the bed. Julius beat the dead march with his wooden drumstick: but Neftor and his troops, having burst the city gates, (that is, the box lid) proceeded to plunder. It contained all the magazines of the enemy, confifting of new foils, martial caps, belts, wooden bayonets, confections and fruits. These were the prizes of conqueft. They were all fairly won, and divided amongst the victors according to feniority. The little girl, who had fat on the bed, new fprung up, took a small ozier basket from a hook, and ftrewed flowers in the path of the victorious, finging a fong of triumph as they marched round the room. The ceremonies, however, being over, both parties came forward, and thook hands very heartily in token of good will, and then the affair ended with God fave great George our King" and a general huzza. |