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Nor must we quit the honest-hearted Tar,
Who dearly loves the fiercest din of war;
Whate'er of praise, so well the Soldier's due,
With equal fame, bold Tars, belong to you.

The mind, when at the stretch, with languor tires,
When bright Ambition, not the Muse, inspires:
Pleas'd to begin, and eager to give o'er,

The man resumes his idleness-once more.
Yet tho' he owns his numbers are not free,
He thinks such Truths the Gems of Poetry.
Such be the Laurels! whilst we add, with pride,
Two years of toil in two short hours destroy'd.
Fierce in attack-commanded to retire,
Firm is their step, tho' open to the fire:
The troops in order steadily depart-

Spain knows the rest-for Spain receiv'd the DART.

TO THE MIDNIGHT HOUR.

NYMPH of the witching hour, ah! ever dear,
Congenial ever to the plaintive tone
Of Sorrow's sigh, and wakeful Mis'ry's moan!
Oft, in thy solemn reign, I seem to hear

Thine aweful voice low-sounding on the gale,
As restless, on my bed of thorns, I wail,
And bathe my conch with many a bitter tear.-
Lone hour! amid thy stillness of repose,

Sleepless I list the distant watch-dog's bark;
And oft, as fit the gloomy vapours, mark
The brilliant stars appear;-soon lost, and dark,
Beneath the murky cloud.-Ah! me, so rose

Of happiness my hopes!-now all o'er-cast,—
Sunk in eternal shade by stern Misfortune's blast!

ALBERT.

EPIGRAM ON A TERMAGANT.

OLD Orpheus ventur'd down to Hell,

His luckless wife to win;

There Thomas too would risk his life,

To thrust his beldame in!

The countersign was

Steady!'

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G. CAWTHORN, BRITISH LIBRARY, NO. 132, STRAND; SOLD ALSO BY MESERS. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANGE; W. WEST, PATERNOSTERROW; J. HATCHARD AND J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY; P. HILL, EDINBURGH; AND ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

THE subject of Biography for our Magazine for June will be the Right Hon. WILLIAM PITT. We shall therein attempt a Sketch of the intellectual moral, literary, oratorical, and political Character of that Personage; and shall endeavour particularly to investigate the causes, in the constitution of bis mind, the discipline it bas received, bis babits, and the circumstances of the times, which bave produced its formation and exertions. It will be accompanied by a Portrait, engraved by Heath.

Facts or observations on this subject will be thankfully received.

Laurence Level's Second Letter is received; in which he gives an account of his progress in Jacobinism, under Paine, Joel Barlowe, Thelwall, Jones, Holcroft, Godwin, &c. from the time he left the learned David Thickhead to the present day. It shall make a part of our next Number.

⚫ Edwin and Anna,' Verses to Charlotte,' The Decayed Minstrel,' as well as some poetical articles from J. L. G.-E. S. J. &c. shall appear in our next and succeeding Number.

The subject of Mr. Feltham's obliging note shall be speedily attended to, in the appropriated part of our work.

The letter from Lincolnshire, dated in March, was not received till the 28th of April. We thank the writer for his suggestions.

The anonymous abuse contained in a Letter to the Editor' affords the satisfaction of perceiving that the justness of our animadversions is felt. We shall never be deterred from writing truth by the fear of offending those to whom that truth may be disagreeable.

The inquirers after the new and enlarged edition of the LIFE of BURKE' are informed that it is now in the press, and will speedily be published.

BIOGRAPHY.

THE LIFE

OF

DAVID HUME.

ΤΗ THE only Life of Mr. Hume that we have on record, is that which was written by himself, and prefixed to late editions of his History. Many, therefore, of the facts which can now be the foundation of a Biography of Hume must be taken from his own short account. Whatever he has stated on this subject we firmly believe to be true, although we doubt not that circumstances have been omitted which would have tended to elucidate his character. Here we cannot help quoting an observation of a man that was not only very witty but very wise; and that was Fielding. When Tom Jones is giving Partridge an account of his own behaviour, and of the slight grounds on which he conceived Mr. Allworthy had been instigated to dismiss him from his house, he had omitted several important circumstances, particularly his adventures, both at home and in the fields, the day he had fought with Thwackum, which, as represented to Allworthy, constituted his principal offence. Not,' says the author, that Jones desired to conceal or to disguise the truth; nay, he would have been more unwilling to have suffered any censure to fall on Mr. Allworthy for punishing him, than on his own actions for deserving it; but, in reality, so it happened, and so it will always happen: for let a man be never so honest, the account of his own conduct will, in spite of himself, be so very favourable, that his vices will come purified through his lips, and like foul liquors well strained, will leave all their foulness behind. For though the facts themselves may appear, yet so different will be the motives, circumstances, and consequences, when a man tells his own story, and when his enemy tells it, that we scarce can recognize it to be one and the same.'

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In Hume's Life of himself we do not find the causes which led to bis peculiar opinions respecting religion, by which he was as much distinguished as by any thing, except his profound genius and extensive learning. Facts which we have had an opportunity of

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knowing from his contemporaries will, we trust, throw light on this subject.

He was born the 26th of April, 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. He was of a good family, both by father and mother: his father's family is a branch of the Earl of Home's or Hume's; and his ancestors had been proprietors of the estate, which his nephew now possesses, for several generations. His mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, President of the College of Justice; the title of Lord Halkerton came by succession to her brother.

His family, however, was not rich, and being himself a younger brother, his patrimony, according to the mode of his country, was of course very slender. His father, who passed for a man of parts, died when David was an infant, leaving him, with an elder brother and sister, under the care of their mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating her children. He passed through the ordinary course of education with success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature, which was the ruling passion of his life, and the great source of his enjoyments. His studious disposition, his sobriety, and his industry, gave his family a notion, that the law was a proper profession for him; but,' says he, I found an insurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring.'

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The puritanical fanaticism by which the church of Scotland was distinguished, until the frequent intercourse with England, arising from the Union, enlarged and liberalized the minds of the clergy, was inimical to the interest of true Christianity. It gave to several young men of talents a dislike to religion itself. Their abilities and learning enabled them readily to see the absurdity of the cant. ing jargon, and the indecency of the coarse, vulgarly familiar phraseology that often issued from the pulpit, with the accompaniments of modes, gestures, and tones, that added very great ridicule to those efforts. They saw that the pastors in general were much more distinguished for polemical theology than for erudition and science, and estimated the moral worth of individuals by the con"formity of their opinions to the Presbyterian faith, much more than by the conformity of their conduct to the rules of rectitude and prac

*For instance, Lord Kaimes and others, as well as Mr. Hume.

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