The

The use of our reading is to aid us in thinking. perufal of a particular work gives birth, perhaps, to ideas unconnected with the fubject of which it treats. I wish to pursue thefe ideas-they withdraw me from my propofed plan of reading, and throw me into a new track, and from thence, perhaps, into a fecond and a third. At length I begin to perceive whither my researches tend: this refult, perhaps, may be profitable; it is worth while to try: whereas, had I followed the high road, I fhould not have been able at the end of my long journey to retrace the progrefs of my thoughts.

This plan of reading is not applicable to our early ftudies, fince the fevereft method is fcarcely fufficient to make us conceive objects altogether new. Neither can it be adopted by those who read in order to write, and ought to dwell on this fubject till they have founded its depths. These reflections, however, I do not abfolutely warrant, on the fuppofition that they are juft; they may be fo, perhaps, for myself only. The conftitution of minds differs like that of bodies the fame regimen will not fuit all. Each individual ought to study his own.

To read with attention, exactly to define the expreflions of our author, never to admit a conclufion without comprehending its reafon, often to paufe, reflect, and interrogate ourselves; these are so many advices which it is eafy to give, but difficult to follow. The fame may be faid of that almoft evangelical maxim of forgetting friends, country, religion, of giving merit its due praife, and embracing truth wherever it is to be found.

But what ought we to read? Each individual muft anfwer this question for himself agreeably to the object of his ftudies. The only general precept that I would venture to give, is that of Pliny," to read much rather than many things,"- -to make a careful felection of the best works, and to render them familiar to us

by attentive and repeated perufals. Without expatiating on the authors fo generally known and approved, I would fimply obferve, that in matters of reafoning, the beft are those who have augmented the number of ufeful truths, who have difcovered truths of whatever nature they may be; in one word thofe bold fpirits, who quitting the beaten tract, prefer being in the wrong alone, to being in the right with the multitude. Such authors increase the number of our ideas, and even their mistakes are useful to their fucceffors. With all the respect due to Mr. Locke, I would not, however, neglect the works of those academicians, who deftroy errors without hoping to fubftitute truth in

their ftead*.

In works of fancy, invention ought to bear away the palm, chiefly that invention which creates a new kind of writing; and next, that which difplays the charms of novelty in its fubject, characters, fituations, pictures, thoughts, and fentiments. Yet this invention will mifs its effect, unless it be accompanied with a genius capable of adapting itself to every variety of the fubject; fucceffively fublime, pathetic, flowery, majeftic and playful; and with a judgment which admits nothing indecorous, and a ftyle which expreffes well whatever ought to be faid. As to compilations which are intended merely to treasure up the thoughts of others, I ask whether they are written with per fpicuity, whether fuperfluities are lopped off and difperfed, obfervations fkilfully collected, and agreeably to my aniwers to those questions, I estimate the merit of fuch performances.

This very paragraph manifefts the fceptical temper of Mr. Gibbon. May not his rejection of Chriftianity be afcribed to this fingle circumstance-"preferring to be in the wrong alone, to being in the right with the multitude" Such perfons may be emphatically termed bold spirits--for by their unbelief ferious confequences are hazarded.-Ed.

SPANISH

SPANISH THEATRE.

[From Southey's Travels.]

Tuesday night. AM juft returned from the Spanish comedy. The

one;

dirty yellow, without gilding, or any kind of ornament. The boxes are engaged by the feafon : and fubfcribers only, with their friends, admitted to them, paying a pefetta each. In the pit are the men, each feated as in a great armed chair; the lower clafs ftand behind these feats: above are the women, for the fexes are feparated, and fo ftrictly, that an officer was broke at Madrid, for intruding into the female places. The boxes, of course, hold family parties. The centre box, over the entrance of the pit, is appointed for the magiftrates, covered in the front with red ftuff, and ornamented with the royal arms. The motto is a curious Silencio y no fumar." "Silence, and no fmoaking.' The comedy, of courfe, was very dull to one who could not understand it. I was told that it contained fome wit, and more obfcenity; but the only comprehenfible joke to me, was, "Ah!" faid in a loud voice by one man, and "Oh!" replied equally loud by another, to the great amufement of the audience. To this fucceeded a Comic Opera; the characters were reprefented by the moft ill-looking man and woman 1 ever faw. My Swedish friend's island of hares and rabbits could not have a fitter king and queen. The man's drefs was a thread-bare brown coat lined with filk, that had once been white, and dirty corduroy waistcoat and breeches; his beard was black, and his neckcloth and fhoes dirty-but his face! jack-ketch might fell the reverfion of his fee for him, and be in no danger of defrauding the purchafer. A foldier was the other character, in old black velveret breeches; with a pair of gaters reaching above the knee, that appeared to have

P3

been

been made out of fome blacksmith's old leathern apron. A farce followed, and the hemp-ftretch man again made his appearance, having blacked one of his eyes to look blind. M. obferved that he looked better with one eye than with two, and we agreed, that the lofs of his head would be an addition to his beauty. The prompter ftands in the middle of the ftage, about half-way above it, before a little tin fkreen, not unlike a man in a cheese-toafter. He read the whole play with the actors, in a tone of voice equally loud; and when one of the performers added a little of his own wit, he was fo provoked as to abuse him aloud, and shake the book at him. Another prompter made his appearance to the Opera, unfhaved, and dirty beyond defcription: they both used as much action as the actors. The fcene that falls between the acts would difgrace a puppet-fhow at an English fair; on one fide is a hill, in fize and shape like a fugar-loaf, with a temple on the fummit, exactly like a watch-box; on the other Parnaffus, with Pegasus ftriking the top in his flight, and fo giving a fource to the waters of Helicon; but fuch is the proportion of the horse to the mountain, that you would imagine him to be only taking a flying leap over a large ant-hill, and think he would deftroy the whole œconomy of the state, by kicking it to pieces. Between the hills lay a city; and in the air fits a duck-legged Minerva, furrounded by flabby Cupids. I could fee the hair-dreffing behind the fcenes: a child was fuffered to play on the ftage, and amufe himself by fitting on the fcene, and fwinging backward and forward, fo as to endanger fetting it on fire. Five chandeliers were lighted by only twenty candles. To reprefent night, they turned up two rough planks, about eight inches broad, before the stage lamps; and the musicians, whenever they retired, blew out their tallow candles. But the moft fingular thing, is their mode of drawing up the curtain. A man climbs up to the roof, catches hold of rope, and then jumps down; the weight of his body raifing the curtain, and

that

that of the curtain breaking his fall. I did not fee one actor with a clean pair of fhoes. The women wore in their hair a tortoife-fhell comb to part it; the back of which is concave, and fo large as to refemble the front of a small bonnet. This would not have been inelegant, if their hair had been clean and without powder, or even appeared decent with it. I must now to fupper. When a man muft diet on what is difagreeable, it is fome confolation to reflect that it is whole fome; and this is the cafe with the wine but the bread here is half gravel, owing to the foft nature of their grindftones. Instead of tea, a man ought to drink Adams'sfolvent with his breakfast.

THE DRAMA.

DRURY-LANE.

TOWARDS the clofe of the last month, Mr. Sheri

dan brought out his exquifitely delightful Tragedy of PIZARRO, altered from the Death of Rolla, by Kotzebue, which is founded upon the Incas of Marmon

tel.

A few particulars of the hiftory of Pizarro fhall be here produced, as it will ferve to illuftrate the plot of this juftly admired dramatic production.

Francis Pizarro, the conqueror, was celebrated rather for his abilities than for his virtues, his glory being tarnifhed by the cruelties which he practifed towards thofe whom he conquered. After a variety of hazardous adventures, he landed in Peru, 1531, when the forces of the empire were divided by an obftinate civil war between Huafear, the legitimate monarch, and Atabalipa, his half brother. He became the ally of the latter, but taking