sion, I shall conclude this part of my subject with a remark on the ill effect, in our language, from the prevalence of that hissing consonant the s. The Greeks, we are told, had such an aversion to this letter, that they called it the savage, the impure letter if this were so in a language rich in vowels, what must it be in one so overcharged with consonants as ours? When the necessity of a rhyme throws the governing verb in a period into the present time, all the other verbs through that period must follow the lead: thus

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?

Joy tunes his voice,--joy elevates his wings.
Essay on Man.

Here, instead of the melting warble of a lark, we have the dissonant hissing of a serpent. Should it be said to this that these are objections, rather to the nature of our language, than to the art of the poet, I answer it may be so, while it is under the servitude of rhime; but, why should we prefer that mode of versification, which aggravates the imperfections of our own language, and prevents our imitating or adopting the beauties of others? To pursue these reflections minutely, would be to descend from the character of a critic to that of a grammarian: I shall therefore content myself with observing that it is a fault, to suffer any one letter to take possession of the ear, or to govern entirely the sound of the verse: unless, where the alliteration is brought in aid of the sense; in which case it may sometimes become a beauty; but certainly it is not a beauty in the following instance :

Or,

Each chief his sev'nfold shield display'd,
And half-unsheath'd the shining blade.

By the hero's armed shades,

Glitt'ring thro' the gloomy glades.

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.

In a less careful versifier such effects might be imputed to negligence; but here, I doubt, they were designed as beauties. When the habit of playing with sounds is once admitted into poetry, it branches out into innumerable triflings. We cannot,

in this case, be too much on our guard against the force of example. The reputation of a writer makes even his errours fashionable; we naturally imitate those, whom we admire; and when we cannot assume their graces, we adopt their foibles." "I allow you that in these lines (of Shakespeare) there is a general agreement between the sound, or rather, between the movement of the verse, and the idea which it conveys. The necessity of this distinction will appear from hence, that the movement of a verse may be good, and the sound at the same time may be faulty:-as,

Music her soft assuasive voice applies.

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.

There is a continued hiss through this line." D. Webb's Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, Lond. 1762. pp. 27. 33. To me it is clear that the hissing letter sounded sweetly in the ears of Pope and of Collins.

Thetford, June 20, 1828.

E. H. Barker.

XLI. EPITAPH ON SIR UVEDALE PRICE.

Successful Death hath thrown the dice,
And won the pearl of matchless price.
A time was measured, which the man,
Who scanned all else, could never scan.
Among the foremost of his sex,
His active mind was circumflex,
His piercing intellect acute;
But now his accents all are mute,
All are for ever vanished, save
One which he holdeth still, the grave.

His feet have reached the final goal,

And death's paramiac crowns the whole.

Sent to me by H. S. Boyd Esq. in May, 1830.

XLII. NEWTON:

On Oct. 27, 1831, I met, in company with Hughes, Professor Haviland, at the room of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. He said that Sir Isaac Newton was in confinement for 3 weeks. He learnt the fact from the late Dr Gregory, (who seems to have been a relation); probably he could tell more about Newton.

XLIII. LATITUDINARIANS.

"Many of his sentiments on religious subjects are worthy of a liberal and enlarged mind. He could discern clearly enough the folly and meanness of all bigotry except his own. When he spoke of the scruples of the Puritans, he spoke like a person, who had really obtained an insight into the divine philosophy of the New Testament, and who considered Xtianity as a noble scheme of government, tending to promote the happiness, and to elevate the moral nature of man. The horror, which the sectaries felt for cards, Xtmas-ale, plum-porridge, mince-pies, and dancing bears, excited his contempt. To the arguments urged by some very worthy people against showy dress, he replied, with admirable sense and spirit, 'Let us not be found, when our Master calls us, stripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues. Alas, sir, a man, who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a grey one.' Yet he was himself under the tyranny of scruples as unreasonable as those of Hudibras or Ralpho, and carried his zeal for ceremonies and ecclesiastical dignities to lengths altogether inconsistent with reason, or with Xtian charity. He has gravely noted down in his diary, that he once committed the sin of drinking coffee on Good Friday. In Scotland he thought it his duty to pass several months without joining in public worship, solely because the ministers of the Kirk had not been ordained by Bishops. His

mode of estimating the piety of his neighbours was somewhat singular. Campbell,' said he, 'is a good man,- a pious man. I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years, but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat this shews he has good principles.' Spain and Sicily must surely contain many pious robbers, and well-principled assassins. Johnson could easily see that a Roundhead, who named all his children after Solomon's singers, and talked in the House of Commons about seeking the Lord, might be an unprincipled villain, whose religious mummeries only aggravated his guilt. But a man, who took off his hat, when he passed a Church episcopally consecrated, must be a good man, a pious man, a man of good principles. Johnson could easily see that those persons, who looked on a dance, or a laced waistcoat as sinful, deemed most ignobly of the attributes of God, and of the ends of revelation. But with what a storm of invective he would have overwhelmed any man, who had blamed him for celebrating the close of Lent with sugarless tea, and butterless buns!" Notice of Croker's Edition of Boswell's Johnson, Edinb. Rev. No 107. Sept. 1831. p. 29.

XLIV. Letter from Godfrey Higgins.

Ap. 6. 1832.

My Dear Sir, In a late letter you say that my word Ktetosopher is formed against all analogy. I cannot help thinking it has a close analogy to Philosopher. However, it must remain, and will prove at the most only that I am a bad word-maker. Those who find fault may make me a better word for "possessor of wisdom." I suppose you will have received an odd quarto of which you can make no sense. It is altogether a mistake of my printer's: I intended him to strike me off a few copies of chapters I and II of Book IX, and he only struck off the first page; and, the press being unset before the mistake was

discovered, it could not be corrected, but along with this you will receive a copy of the two chapters, which I will thank you to return by the same conveyance for me to Mr Smallfield, printer, Homerton, I am particular, as I do not wish them to be destroyed, as they will destroy two copies of my work. I have got 684 pages printed. I received the large box of books, and also the small parcel a few days afterward.

With best wishes to all your circle yours very truly

Sk[ellow] Gr[ange], 6 Ap. 1832.

Godfrey Higgins.*

E. H. Barker esq., along with a parcel, to Mr. Welsh, No 6, New Compton St.

XLV. From the same.

My dear Sir, [Doncaster, Ap. 28, 1832,] I hope before this time you will have received a letter from me along with two sheets of my work. My letter will explain to you the mistake which took place respecting it. I shall be glad to hear from you on the subject both of the hieroglyphics and Sanscrit; and if you note any errors of the press, I will thank you to point them out. I am sorry to say there are several, but I hope and think I have been more unlucky in these sheets than in most others: however they will be of no consequence, if I pursue the plan which I at present think of, namely giving away the whole of my quarto edition, and publishing a new one, in German, in octavo. But on these matters I have come to no determination. You, and every learned man, will allow that all ancient history and theology present nothing but a great Enigma. I am satisfied I have solved it. It has been the work of twenty years' most diligent search, and of the deepest meditation. After I once found the end of the line, I have had little difficulty in following it, though it has been to follow up a very steep hill, on which I have [been]

* Author of the "Celtic Druids," " Horæ Sabbaticæ," &c.