a Y HIS Tempelmanni numeris descripseris orbem, Myriadas decies septem numerare jubebit e Cum sex centuriis numerat sex millia Tuscus1. y To the above lines, (which are unfinished, and can, therefore, be only offered as a fragment,) in the doctor's manuscript, are prefixed the words "Geographia Metrica." As we are referred, in the first of the verses, to Templeman, for having furnished the numerical computations that are the subject of them, his work has been, accordingly, consulted, the title of which is, a new Survey of the Globe; and which professes to give an accurate mensuration of all the empires, kingdoms, and other divisions thereof, in the square miles that they respectively contain. On comparison of the several numbers in these verses, with those set down by Templeman, it appears that nearly half of them are precisely the same; the rest are not quite so exactly done. For the convenience of the reader, it has been thought right to subjoin each number, as it stands in Templeman's works, to that in Dr. Johnson's verses which refers to it. In this first article that is versified, there is an accurate conformity in Dr. Johnson's number to Templeman's; who sets down the square miles of Palestine at 7,600. a The square miles of Egypt are, in Templeman, 140,700. The whole Turkish empire, in Templeman, is computed at 960,057 square miles. In the four following articles, the numbers in Templeman and in Johnson's verses are alike.-We find, accordingly, the Morea, in Templeman, to be set down at 7,220 square miles.-Arabia, at 700,000.-Persia, at 800,000.-and Naples, at 22,000. d Sicily, in Templeman, is put down at 9,400. e The pope's dominions, at 14,868. f Tuscany, at 6,640. Genoa, in Templeman, as in Johnson likewise, is set down at 2,400. h Lucca, at 286. Ut dicas, spatiis quam latis imperet orbi Millia Belga' novem. Ter sex centurias Hollandia jactat opima. Undecimum Camber vult septem millibus addi. * TRANSLATION OF DRYDEN'S EPIGRAM ON MILTON. The Russian empire, in the 29th plate of Templeman, is set down at 3,303,485 square miles. * Sardinia, in Templeman, as likewise in Johnson, 6,600. 1 The habitable world, in Templeman, is computed, in square miles, at 30,666,806 square miles. Asia, at 10,257,487. • Europe, at 2,749,349. P The British dominions, at 105,634. " Africa, at 8,506,208. England, as likewise in Johnson's expression of the number, at 49,450. • In the three remaining instances, which make the whole that Dr. Johnson appears to have rendered into Latin verse, we find the numbers exactly agreeing with those of Templeman, who makes the square miles of the United Provinces, 9540-of the province of Holland, 1800—and of Wales, 7011. VOL. I. Sublime ingenium Græcus; Romanus habebat EPILOGUE TO THE CARMEN SECULARE OF HORACE; PERFORMED AT FREEMASONS' HALL. QUÆ fausta Romæ dixit Horatius, Imperium pelagi precantes. SUCH strains as, mingled with the lyre, TRANSLATION OF A WELSH EPITAPH (IN HERBERT'S INCLYTUS hic hæres magni requiescit Oeni, Servilem tuti cultum contempsit agelli, Et petiit terras, per freta longa, novas, THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABISSINIA. PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS. THE following incomparable tale was published in 1759; and the early familiarity with eastern manners, which Johnson derived from his translation of father Lobo's travels into Abissinia, may be presumed to have led him to fix his opening scene in that country; while Rassela Christos, the general of sultan Sequed, mentioned in that work, may have suggested the name of his speculative prince. Rasselas was written in the evenings of a single week, and sent to the press, in portions, with the amiable view of defraying the funeral expenses of the author's aged mother, and discharging her few remaining debts. The sum, however, which he received for it, does not seem large, to those who know its subsequent popularity. None of his works has been more widely circulated; and the admiration, which it has attracted, in almost every country of Europe, proves, that, with all its depression and sadness, it does utter a voice, that meets with an assenting answer in the hearts of all who have tried life, and found its emptiness. Johnson's view of our lot on earth was always gloomy, and the circumstances, under which Rasselas was composed, were calculated to add a deepened tinge of melancholy to its speculations on human folly, misery, or malignity. Many of the subjects discussed, are known to have been those which had agitated Johnson's mind. Among them is the question, whether the departed ever revisit the places that knew them on earth, and how far they may take an interest in the welfare of those, over whom they watched, when here. We shall elsewhere have to contemplate the moralist, standing on the border of his mother's grave, and asking, with anxious agony, whether that dark bourn, once passed, terminated for ever the cares of maternity and love. The frivolous and the proud, who think not, or acknowledge not, that there are secrets, in both matter and mind, of which their philosophy has not dreamed, may smile at what they may, in their derision, term such weak and idle inquiries. But on them, the most powerful minds that ever illuminated this world, have fastened, with an intense curiosity; and, owning their fears, or their ignorance, have not dared to disavow their belief". It is not to be denied, that Rasselas displays life, as one un✔ varied series of disappointments, and leaves the mind, at its close, in painful depression. This effect has been considered an evil, and regarded even as similar to that produced by the doctrines of Voltaire, Bolingbroke, and Rousseau, who combined every thing venerable on earth with ridicule, treated virtue and vice, with equal contemptuous indifference, and laid bare, with cruel mockery, the vanity of all mortal wishes, prospects, and pursuits. Their motive, for all this, we need not pause, in this place, to examine. But a distinction may be made between the melancholy of the heart, and the melancholy of the mind: while the latter is sceptical, sour, and misanthropic, the former is pas✔sionate, tender, and religious. Those who are under the influence of the one, become inactive, morose, or heedless: detecting the follies of the wisest and the frailties of the best, they scoff at the very name of virtue; they spurn, as visionary and weak, every attempt to meliorate man's condition, and from their conviction of the earthward tendency of his mind, they bound his destinies by this narrow world and its concerns. But those whose hearts a See Idler, No. 41, and his letter to Mr. Elphinstone, on the death of his mother. b Aristot. Ethic. Nich. lib. i. c. 10, 11. In Barrow's sermon on the being of God, proved from supernatural effects, Aristotle is called "the least credulous or fanciful of men." |