some thoughts and expressions, extracted from the first idyl of Theocritus, you will find great pleasure in comparing the extreme elegance of the one, with the innocent rusticity of the other.

I feel the truth of the 69th line of this eclogue so forcibly, that I shall close my letter with it.

Omnia vincit amor & nos cedamus amori.

Adieu.

P. S. You will be rejoiced to hear that I am to be introduced to Horace in the course of a few days. Ile has given Metellus an invitation to his villa at Lucretilis, and my friend still continues the affection he bore me at Rhodes, insomuch that he insists upon my accompanying him whithersoever he goes; and our habits, manners, and sentiments are so nearly allied, that he seldom proposes any thing that is not sanctioned by my concurrence,

Once more farewell.

SIR HENRY LEE, AND HIS DOG,

M.

Ar Ditchley, in the county of Oxford, the seat of Dillon, formerly belonging to Lee, Earl of Litchfield, is the portrait of Sir Henry Lee, and his trusty dog. To the dog Sir Henry was indebted for his life. By accident it was left one night in his bedchamber, unknown to a faithless servant, who entered the room with an intent to rob and murder his master, but was seized on his entrance by his affectionate animal. Sir Henry belonged to the noble band of Knights Tilters. Age overtook him in the thirty-third year of Queen Elizabeth, when he retired with great ceremony, and recommended, as his successor, the famous hero, the Earl of Cumberland. Sir Henry, in the year 1590, invested his successor with much form; and in the true spirit of chivalry and romance, in the presence of the Queen, and the whole court, armed the new champion, and mounted him upon his horse. His own armour he offered at the foot of a crowned pillar, near her Majesty's feet; after which he cloathed himself in a coat of black velvet, painted under the arms: and instead of a helmet, covered his head with a buttoned cap of the country fashion. He died, aged 80, in the year 1611, and was interred in the once elegant little church of Quarendon, near Aylesbury. The epitaph tells us,

The warres abroad with honour he did passe,

In courtlie justs his sovereign's knight he was.
Sixe princes he did serve.

J. S.

AN ACCOUNT

OF THE

KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE,

AND OF

THE ORIGIN OF FREE MASONRY.

THE whole roof of the chapel is divided into twelve parts (answere ing to twelve windows on either side) the separation being made by eleven principal ribs, corresponding to the number of buttresses on the outside. The space contained between any two of these ribs is, in the indenture, called a severy.

This roof is so constructed, that it has no dependance on the walls between buttress and buttress on either side, or between tower and tower, at either end of the chapel : the whole weight of the roof being so supported by the buttresses and towers, that if the abovementioned walls should be entirely taken away, the buttresses and towers only remaining, the roof would still continue as firm as it is at this hour.

But what may justly claim an equal degree of wonder is, that those large stones in the centre of each severy, which may be considered as the key-stones of the vault, might, at any time, be safely taken out, without endangering the vault itself. Hence it appears, that this roof is so geometrically contrived, that it would stand firm without either the walls or the key-stones. The mystery of constructing roofs of this kind was the original secret of Free Masons: of whom John Wastel, the master mason, contracted to employ not less than sixty, for carrying on the works of this chapel. This note I am authorized to add, by a gentleman who has made the structure of many ancient Gothic buildings, and particularly that of King's Chapel, his favourite study.

Of Free Masons, as they were the builders of the chapel, I shall beg leave to give the following account:

A set of foreigners, who called themselves Free Masons (because none were acquainted with the secrets of their trade, except such as were free and accepted members of their society), are said to have introduced the art of building with stone into England, about the middle of the seventh century. These were formerly divided into parties or companies. Each company was subject to a master, a warden, and other inferior officers (names retained among Free Masons to this day): they assembled in one common room,

(called a lodge) where they consulted about carrying on the works which their master and warden had undertaken: for they were chiefly employed in raising cathedrals, chapels, and other buildings of the like kind. A company of Free Masons, (as I am led to con❤ clude from the second and third indentures), to their immortal honour, contracted for building different parts of the chapel. They have left, I am told, in the course of their work, certain marks well known to all adepts of their society. What these monuments of masonry may be, I am unable to declare; but refer my reader, if he is learned in the secrets of the fraternity, to an inspection of every mysterious token about the building. One thing, however, I shall mention, which has often been observed,—that in the south porch of the chapel there are three steps, at the west door five,. and in the north porch seven. These are numbers, with the mystery, or at least the sound of which, free masons are said to be particularly well acquainted.

It is observable that, notwithstanding the encouragement Free Masons received from Henry VI. by being employed in erecting his magnificent chapel, An act passed in the third year of his reign, for suppressing their assembling, or holding chapters, in any part of his dominions; it being the prevailing opinion of those times, that their meetings were held for the sake of making an extravagant addition to the wages of the working masons. But a favourable report being made to his majesty, by some of his nobility, who had been admitted into the brotherhood, he afterwards received them into his favour, and shewed them marks of a particular respect. The act itself remains, I believe, as yet unrepealed. J. S.

SELECT SENTENCES.

INNOCENCE, and guilt, how wide are your extremes !-Yet, your appearance, sometimes, how similar!-Perhaps the nicest eye cannot, on some occasions, distinguish your effects on the human countenance. Frost, and fire, will equally redden the face-even to burning the skin!

TAKE care never to shew your mind otherwise than in full dress-unless its dishabille be adjusted with all the care and decorum requisite to render it interesting and elegant.

FALSEHOOD goes on one leg only-truth upon two.

An indiscreet man is like an unsealed letter. Every body may read him.

IDLENESS has no advocate-but many friends.

Do nothing in the moment of wrath-unless you would sea in the midst of a tempest.

put to

THE first work gives celebrity to the author. After that the author gives celebrity to his works.

MODESTY often passes for errant haughtiness; as, what is deemed spirit in an horse often proceeds from fear.

To say a person writes a good style, is as pedantic as to say, he plays a good fiddle.

THE writer who gives the best idea of what may be called the genteel in style, is, perhaps, Lord Shaftesbury-then Mr. Addison and Dr. Swift. In the genteel management of some familiar ideas, Lord Shaftesbury's sketches should be studied like those of Raphael,

A POET who fails in writing becomes a morose critic. The weak insipid white wine, makes, at length, good vinegar.

THE ridicule with which some people affect to triumph over their superiors is, as though the moon, under an eclipse, should pretend to laugh at the sun.

"A MISER, if honest, can only be honest bare-weight,."-Welllet it be so. Then is the balance just-and to be just is to be virtuous and useful. Ah! let not those who are blessed with high intellectual powers, smile on the praise due to correct œconomy! -Great mental resources should teach people to be high minded, delicately minded, yet strongly minded. Too high minded to let their expences exceed their resources; too delicately minded to enjoy any gratification unsuitable with those resources. Too strong minded not to endure with content necessary deprivations. If mental resources can teach these things, how incalculably valuable are they to their possessor!

"THE passions," Madame de Montier informs us, "rise up only against those who faintly oppose them. To a vigorous defence they are sure to submit. He who is under the necessity of plucking nettles, avoids the sting only by seizing them boldly. While he who attacks them more gently, and cautiously, feels how painful it is to eradicate evil dispositions with faintness and irresolution.

It may now be doubted, whether any congregation in Great Britain (says Dr. Beattie), could maintain its gravity, if it were to hear such a sermon as Sutton's "caution for the credulous," 1696. "Here have I undertaken one, who hath overtaken many. A machia vil lian, or, rather, a matchless villain. One that professeth himself to be a friend, when he is indeed a fiend. His greatest amity is but dissembled enmity. Though I call him but a plain flatterer, for I mean to deal very plainly with him; some compare him to a devil. If he be one, these words of Solomon are a spell to expel him. Wring not my words to wrong my meaning. I do not go about to crucify the sons of men, but the sins of men. Some flatter a man for their own private benefit; this man's heart thou hast in thy pocket. For if thou find in thy purse, to give him presently, he will find in his heart, and love thee everlastingly.

HISTORY is a romance that is believed; romance, an history that is not believed.

WHOEVER expects pity by complaining to his physician, is as foolish as they are, who, having lost money at cards, complain of ill luck to their companions the winners. If none were ill or unfortunate, how would physicians, or gamesters, get money.

ALBANO's boy-angels and cupids are all so alike, that they seem to have been the children of the Flemish countess, who was said to be delivered of 365 at a birth.

EXPERIENCE becomes prescience.

NOTHING is more vain than for a woman to deny her age-she cannot deceive herself, who is the only person concerned about it. If a man dislikes a woman, because he thinks her of the age she is, he will only dislike her the more by being told she is younger than she seems to be, and, consequently looks older than she ought to do. The anno domini of her face will weigh more than that of her register.

Q. Z.

POPULARITY.

1

I DISDAIN as much a servile popularity, as I should a slavish submission to any prince or minister. The favour of the people may, I know, be acquired by humouring their prejudices, as well as that of a prince by humouring his passions; but this sort of favour is in neither case of any long duration. The people by their preju