Or that a nymph, who wild as comet errs, Farming tools, statistic histories, Observed likewise in these savannas abundance of the Indicrous Such a flea as was caught upon Catherine Roache !3 Dionara Muscipula. ---BARTRAM's Travels in North America. Sentiment, George, I'll talk, when I've got any, And botany Oh! Linnæus has made such a prig o' me, Under every bush, As would make the shy curcuma 4 blush; * Σπερμαγοραιολεκιθολαχανοπώλιδες. sistrata of ARISTOPHANES, V. 458, For his description of this carnivorous vegetable, see Introduction, 5, 13. 2 This philosophical Duke, describing the view from Mr Jeffer son's house, says, The Atlantic might be seen, were it not for the greatness of the distance, which renders that prospect impossible. -See his Travels. Polygnotus was the first painter, says Pliny, who showed the teeth in his portraits. He would scarcely, I think, have been tempted to such an innovation in America. The Marquis de CHASTELLEX, in his wise letter to Mr Maddison, Professor of Philosophy in the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburgh, dwells with much earnestness on the attention which should be paid to dancing.-See his Trap is. This college, the only one in the state of Virginia, and the first which I saw in America. -From the Ly gave me bat a melancholy idea of republican seats of learning. That This phrase is taken verbatim from an account of an expedition to Drummond's Pond, by one of those many Americans who profess to think that the English language, as it has been hitherto written, is deficient in what they call republican energy. One of the savans of Washington is far advanced in the construction of a new language for the United States, which is supposed to be a mixture of Hebrew and Mikmak. Alluding to a collection of poems, called La Puce de grands-jours de Poitiers. They were all written upon a flea, which Stephen Pasquier found on the bosom of the famous Catherine des Roches, one morning during the grund-jours of Poitiers. I ask pardon of the learned Catherine's memory, for my vulgar alteration of her most respectable name. 4 Curcuma, cold and shy.-Darwin. contempt for the elegancies of education, which the American demo crats affect, is no where more grossly conspicuous than in Virginia: the young men, who look for advancement, study rather to be demagogues than politicians; and as every thing that distinguishes from the multitude is supposed to be invidious and unpopular, the levelling system is applied to education, and has had all the effect which its partisans could desire, by producing a most extensive equality of ignorance. The Abbé RAYNAL, in his prophetic admonitions to the Americans, directing their attention very strongly to learned establishments, says, When the youth of a country are seen depraved, the nation is on the decline. I know not what the Abbé Raynal would pronounce of this tration now, were he alive to know the morals of the young students at Williamsburgh! But when he wrote, his countrymen had not yet introduced the doctrinam deos spernentem into America. John Smith, a famous traveller, and by far the most enterprising of the first settlers in Virginia. How much he was indebted to the interesting young Pocahuntas, daughter of King Powhatan, may be seen in all the histories of this colony. In the Dedication of his own work to the Duchess of Richmoud, he thas enumerates his bonnes fortunes:- Yet my comfort is, that heretofore honourable and vertuous Ladies, and comparable but among themselves, have offered me rescue and protection in my greatest dangers. Even in forraine parts I have felt reliefe from that sex. The beauteous Lady Trabigzanda, when I was a slave to the Turks, did all she could to secure me. When I overcame the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Tartaria, the charitable Lady Callamata supplyed my necessities. In the utmost of my extremities, that blessed Pokabuntas, the great Kings daughter of Virginia, oft saved my life.. Davis, in his whimsical Travels through America, has manufactured into a kind of romance the loves of Mr Rolfe with this opaci maxima mundi, Pocahontas. SONG. I NE'ER on that lip for a minute have gazed, Then be not so angry for what I have done, Nor say that you 've sworn to forget me; They were buds of temptation too pouting to shun, And I thought that—you could not but let me! When your lip with a whisper came close to my cheek, Then forgive the transgression, and bid me remain, Or, oh!-let me try the transgression again, Among the West-Indian French at Norfolk, there are some very interesting St Domingo girls, who, in the day, sell millinery, etc., and at night assemble in little cotillon parties, where they dance away the remembrance of their unfortunate country, and forget the miseries which « les amis des noirs have brought upon them. Intercepted Letters; or, the Twopenny Post Bag. DEDICATION. Elapse manibus cecidere tabellæ.-OVID. To ST-N W -LR-~E, Esq. It is now about seven years since I promised (and I grieve to think it is almost as long since we met) to dedicate to you the first book, of whatever size or very kind, I should publish. Who could have thought that so many years would elapse without my giving the least signs of life upon the subject of this important promise? Who could have imagined that a volume of doggerel, after all, would be the first offering that Gratitude would lay upon the shrine of Friendship? my If, however, you are as interested about me and pursuits as formerly, you will be happy to hear that doggerel is not my only occupation; but that I am preparing to throw my name to the Swans of the Temple of Immortality, leaving it, of course, to the said Swans to determine whether they ever will take the trouble of picking it from the stream. In the mean time, my dear W~~s, like a pious Lutheran, you must judge of me rather by my faith than my works, and, however trifling the tribute which I offer, never doubt the fidelity with which I am, and always shall be, Your sincere and attached friend, 245, Piccadilly, March 4, 1813. PREFACE. THE Bag, from which the following Letters are sclected, was dropped by a Twopenny Postman about two months since, and picked up by an emissary of the Society for the S-pp-ss-n of V-e, who, supposing it might materially assist the private researches of that institution, immediately took it to his employers, and was rewarded handsomely for his trouble. Such a treasury of secrets was worth a whole host of informers; and, accordingly, like the Cupids of the poet (if I may use so profane a simile), who « fell at odds about the sweet-bag of a bee,» those venerable suppressors almost fought with each other for the honour and delight of first ransacking the Post-bag. Unluckily, however, it turned out, upon examination, that the discoveries of profligacy, which it enabled them to make, lay chiefly in those upper regions of society, which their well-bred regulations forbid them to molest or meddle with. In consequence, they gained few victims by their prize, and, after lying for a week or two under Mr II-TCH-D's counter, the Bag, with its violated contents, was sold for a trifle to but very a friend of mine. but in a newspaper) to publish something or other in the shape of a book; and it occurred to me that, the present being such a letter-writing era, a few of these two-penny post epistles, turned into casy verse, would be as light and popular a task as I could possibly select for a commencement. I did not think it prudent, however, to give too many letters at first, and, accordingly, have been obliged (in order to eke out a sufficient number of pages) to reprint some of those trifles, which had already appeared in the public journals. As, in the battles of ancient times, the shades of the departed were sometimes seen among the combatants, so I thought I might remedy the thinness of my ranks, by conjuring up a few dead and forgotten ephemerons to fill them. many Such are the motives and accidents that led to the present publication; and as this is the first time my muse has ever ventured out of the go-cart of a newspaper, though I feel all a parent's delight at seeing little Miss go alone, I am also not without a parent's anxiety, lest an unlucky fall should be the consequence of the experiment; and I need not point out the living instances there are of Muses that have suffered severely in their heads, from taking too early and rashly to their feet. Besides, a book is so very different a thing from a newspaper!-in the former, your doggerel, without either company or shelter, must stand shivering in the middle of a bleak white page by itself; whereas in the latter, it is comfortably backed by advertisements, and has sometimes even a speech of Mr St-ph-n's, or something equally warm, for a chauffe-pié,-so that, in general, the very reverse of « laudatur et alget» is its destiny. Ambition, however, must run some risks, and I shall be very well satisfied if the reception of these few Letters should have the effect of sending me to the PostBag for more. PREFACE TO THE FOURTEENTH EDITION. BY A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR. In the absence of Mr Brown, who is at present on a tour through I feel myself called upon, as his friend, to notice certain misconceptions and misrepresentations, to which this little volume of Tritles has given rise. In the first place, it is not true that Mr Brown has had any accomplices in the work, A note, indeed, which has hitherto accompanied his Preface, may very naturally have been the origin of such a supposition; but that note, which was merely the coquetry of an author, I have, in the present edition, taken upon myself to remove, and Mr Brown must therefore be considered (like the mother of that unique production, the Centaur, pova na povo) as alone responsible for the whole contents of the volume. 'Pindar. Pyth. 2.-My friend certainly cannot add out' ev xyδρασι γερασφόρον. In the next place it has been said, that in consequence of this graceless little book, a certain distinguished Personage prevailed upon another distinguished Personage to withdraw from the author that notice and kindness, with which he had so long and so liberally honoured him. There is not one syllable of truth in this story. For the magnanimity of the former of these persons I would, indeed, in no case answer too rashly; but of the conduct of the latter towards my friend, I have a proud gratification in declaring, that it has never ceased to be such as he must remember with indelible gratitude;a gratitude the more cheerfully and warmly paid, from its not being a debt incurred solely on his own account, but for kindness shared with those nearest and dearest to him. To the charge of being an Irishman, poor Mr BROWN pleads guilty; and I believe it must also be acknowledged that he comes of a Roman Catholic family: an avowal which, I am aware, is decisive of his utter reprobation in the eyes of those exclusive patentees of Christianity, so worthy to have been the followers of a certain enlightened Bishop, DONATUS,' who held « that God is in Africa, and not elsewhere.» But from all this it does not necessarily follow that Mr BROWN is a Papist; and, indeed, I have the strongest reason for suspecting that they who say so are totally mistaken. Not that I presume to have ascertained his opinions upon such subjects; all I know of his orthodoxy is, that he has a Protestant wife and two or three little Protestant children, and that he has been seen at church every Sunday, for a whole year together, listening to the sermons of his truly reverend and amiable friend, Dr▬▬▬▬ and behaving there as well and as orderly as most people. Off at once to papa, in a flurry, he flies- There are a few more mistakes and falsehoods about Quick a council is call'd-the whole cabinet sits- up I have added two or three more trifles to this edition, which I found in the Morning Chronicle, and knew to be from the pen of my friend. The rest of the volume remains in its original state. April 20, 1814. 1 Bishop of Case Nigræ, in the fourth century. * The TRIFLES here alluded to, and others, which have since appeared, will be found in this edition.-Publisher. 3 A new reading has been suggested in the original of the Ode of Horace, freely translated by Lord ELD-N. In the line Sive per Syrteis iter æstuosas, it is proposed, by a very trifling alteration. to read Surtees instead of Syrteis, which brings the Ode, it is said, more home to the noble Translator, and gives a peculiar force and aptness to the epithet ærstuosas. I merely throw out this emendation for the learned, being unable myself to decide upon its merits. The Doctor, and he, the devout man of Leather, Lord H-rr-by, hoping that no one imputes |