precaution, will not only allow themselves to repeat, but will be active in propagating, circumstances, which they are aware were intended, and ought, to be concealed. Such people do not know the meaning of charity.

But it is impossible, you will say, in the daily intercourse of society, not to utter opinions concerning our neighbours, which they would be ill pleased to hear. True. When, for instance, I say, this man wants sense, or that woman lacks good breeding; when I remark on an old lady's ridiculous pretensions to youth and beauty, and call a young gentleman coxcomb or pedant, I speak the truth, and injure no one: all the world may witness such deficiencies, and as many as are so inclined may laugh at these, and a thousand other follies and absurdities, and each may expect in return to have his own foibles held up to derision. Yet I might have been better employed in rooting out my own failings, than in discovering those of my neighbour; and it is dangerous to indulge in that sort of mockery, which, to say the least, does not spring from good-nature, and which always leads to the very confines of uncharitableness. For if by repeating a word spoken unguardedly or in confidence, I sow dissension between neigh

bours, or strike at the root of friendship; if, by reviving a forgotten tale of scandal, I disturb the peace, or injure the reputation of a fellow-creature; if I relate an injurious report as doubtful, to a person who, I have reason to suspect, will give it currency as a fact, then I fail in that charity which is the "bond of peace;" if I forgive not those who have injured me, I want that charity which "endureth all things." Charity can hardly be called a single excellence; it is an epitome of many; it includes candour, patience, forbearance, benevolence, generosity, and self-denial. And we should remember, that as we are all exposed to the attacks of malevolence, and full of errors and imperfections, it is to our interest, even in this world, not only to live in the practice of charity ourselves, but also to do our utmost to promote it among our neighbours; for, as it embraces a multitude of virtues, so it" covereth a multitude of sins."

ESSAY X.

ON ITINERANT MINSTRELS.

"Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque
Carminibus venit. Post hos insignis Homerus,
Tyrtæusque mares animas in martia bella
Versibus exacuit; dictæ per carmina sortes;
Et vitæ monstrata via est; et gratia regum
Pieriis tentata modis."

Hor. Ep. ad Pis.

"So verse became divine, and poets gained applause ;
Homer, Tyrtæus, by the Muse inspired,

To deeds of arms the martial spirit fired.

In verse the oracles divine were heard,
And nature's secret laws in verse declared;

Monarchs were courted in Pierian strain."

Francis' Trans. Hor.

Ir is well known that poetry was the first instructor of the human race. The earliest poets taught astronomy, agriculture, and civil law; they proclaimed the valour of heroes, and the power of the gods. In those remote times their songs were the only medium through which instruction was con

veyed to the public, and they also assisted in the culture of religion: but, before the art of writing was invented, their means were very limited; and those who aimed at procuring fame and subsistence were obliged to communicate their inspirations verbally to the people, travelling from province to province, and from one city to another. To such pilgrimages were these primitive votaries of the Muse indebted for innumerable opportunities for exact observation on the habits and passions of mankind, as well as on the various natural beauties of the districts through which they were compelled to travel; sometimes amidst scenes of savage grandeur, at others through tracts of cultivated and smiling landscape. Thus was their fatigue compensated, and thus did their art acquire improvement and lustre from those very difficulties which seemed to threaten it with depression and annihilation.

But their labours received another recompense in the public esteem, and in the almost sacred veneration with which they were received, not only by the populace, but by the great and powerful. That the wandering poets of those remote ages were not held in light estimation, Homer, who was one of the number, has given various in

stances. Phemius and Demodocus, whose names he has immortalized, feasted among kings and princes. The Troubadours *, after many ages, although we find not an Homer amongst them, present another race similar in their habits to these original sons of song. The minstrels of the middle ages were honoured under different appellations by every nation in Europe, and their lays have tended to throw light on a portion of history which, eclipsed between the classic annals of ancient days, and the fresher interest excited by those of modern times, and obscured by the temporary triumph of barbarism, has fallen into comparative oblivion. The professors of minstrelsy + were held in the highest estimation; "their skill was considered as something divine; their persons were deemed sacred; their attendance was solicited by monarchs; and they were everywhere loaded with honours and rewards." Amidst the populace in Naples many of the customs of the ancient bards are still preserved; and although the resemblance be imperfect, yet they do not differ very widely

* Wandering bards of Provence, so called from "Trovatore," one who finds or invents.

+ Including poetry, music, or narrative.