did not take place until 1715, he endeavoured to attract the attention of the public to this great. but neglected poet, by a paper in the Tatler which we have already alluded to, and by N° 540, in the Spectator*. As in the former he had given the public a paraphrase of one of the most beautiful of his allegories, in the latter he has entered into the general merits of the plan and conduct of the Fairy Queen.

On the Rules for Pronunciation and Action, our author has delivered some sensible remarks in N° 541, and illustrated them by apposite quotations from English dramas; and in N° 554, he has contributed an essay of great excellence on the Improvement of Genius. The characters of BACON, BOYLE, NEWTON, and Leonardo da vinci, are sketched in this instructive paper with much discrimination; and the concluding remarks, on the love of glory, and on its influence over the minds of CICERO and PLINY the younger, are equally just and interesting.

The ethical and religious papers of Hughes, are some of the most valuable in the Spectator, and display no small share of acute reasoning, of lively imagination, and knowledge of human life. N° 91 is a spirited and entertaining paper on

*These two papers on Spenser, are only suspected by the annotators to have been written by Hughes.

the ridiculous rivalship of a mother and daughter, under the names of Flavia and Honoria. N° 224 contains an elegant and well written essay on the Universality of Ambition, the conclusion of which should be impressed upon the minds of every parent and tutor.

"The man who is fitted out by nature," he observes, "and sent into the world with great abilities, is, capable of doing great good or mischief in it. It ought therefore to be the care of education to infuse into the untainted youth early notices of justice and honour, that so the possible advantages of good parts may not take an evil turn, nor be perverted to base and unworthy purposes. It is the business of religion and philosophy not so much to extinguish our passions, as to regulate and direct them to valuable wellchosen objects. When these have pointed out to us which course we may lawfully steer, it is no harm to set out all our sail; if the storms and tempests of adversity should rise upon us, and not suffer us to make the haven where we would be, it will however prove no small consolation to us in these circumstances, that we have neither mistaken our course, nor fallen into calamities of our own procuring.

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'Religion therefore (were we to consider it no farther than as it interposes in the affairs of

this life,) is highly valuable, and worthy of great veneration; as it settles the various pretensions, and otherwise interfering interests of mortal men, and thereby consults the harmony and order of the great community; as it gives a man room to play his part, and exert his abilities; as it animates to actions truly laudable in themselves, in their effects beneficial to society; as it inspires rational ambition, correct love, and elegant desire."

Of our author's ability in the combination and conduct of incident, the Picture of Distress in No 375, in the story of Amanda, presents a very happy instance; its best eulogium is, that it is impossible to read it without tears.

The observations on Conjugal Love, in No 525, and on the Dignity of Human Nature, in No 537, are worthy of our elegant moralist. In the latter he has translated part of the sublime and pathetic close of Cicero's Essay on Old Age; a passage of such exquisite beauty in the original, and so strongly expressive of the great orator's hope of immortality, that I cannot avoid quoting a portion of it in the very words of the Roman who, in the person of Cato addressing his friend Scipio, thus delivers his opinion:

"Sed nescio quomodo animus erigens se posteritatem semper ita prospiciebat, quasi, cum ex

cessisset e vita, tum denique victurus esset: quod quidem ni ita se haberet, ut animi immortales essent, haud optimi cujusque animus maxime ad immortalitatis gloriam niteretur. Quid, quod sapientissimus quisque æquissimo animo moritur, stultissimus iniquissimo ?—Nonne vobis videtur animus is, qui plus cernat et longius, videre se ad meliora proficisci: ille autem, cui obtusior sit acies, non videre? Equidem efferor studio patres vestros, quos colui et dilexi; videndi, neque vero eos solos convenire aveo, quos ipse cognovi; sed illos etiam, de quibus audivi, et legi, et ipse conscripsi.O præclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum consilium cœtumque proficiscar! cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi ; sed etiam ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate præstantior, cujus a me corpus crematum est: quod contra decuit ab illo meum ; animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum : quem ego meum casum fortiter ferre visus sum; non quod æquo animo ferrem; sed me ipse con solabar, existimans non longinquum inter nos diw gressum, et discessum fore."

The version of Hughes is correct and ener getic:

"But, I know not how, my soul has always raised itself, and looked forward on futurity, in this view and expectation, that when it shall depart out of life, it shall then live for ever; and if this were not true, that the mind is immortal, the soul of the most worthy would not above all others have the strongest impulse to glory.

"What besides this is the cause that the wisest men die with the greatest equanimity, the ignorant with the greatest concern? Does it not seem that those minds which have the most extensive views, foresee they are removing to a happier condition, which those of a narrow sight do not perceive? I, for my part, am transported with the hope of seeing your ancestors, whom I have honoured, and loved, and am earnestly desirous of meeting not only these excellent persons whom I have known, but those of whom I have heard and read, and of whom I myself have written; nor would I be detained from so pleasing a journey. O happy day, when I shall escape from this crowd, this heap of pollution, and be admitted to that divine assembly of exalted spirits! when I shall go not only to those great persons I have named, but to my Cato, my son, than whom a better man was never born, and whose funeral rites I myself performed, whereas he ought rather to have attended mine. Yet has not his soul