And where is a citty from all vice sett Afflict the husband's bed Or paines his head: Or doth things worse; Those that have them, none, What is it then to have, or have no But single thraldome, or a double strife. Our owne affections To cross the seas To any forraigne soyle Wars with their noyse affright.us, We are worse in peace; What then remains's but wee stillshould cry Not to be borne, or being borne to dy." THE TWOPENNY BAG. My friends," he cried, "p-x take you for your care."-Pope. We have an idea, that the learned gentleman who has complimented us with the title of "Censor," is no Theban; indeed we very much suspect he is no better than an ass in a lion's skin; for although he roars like a lion, we several times saw symptoms of the ears peeping from under his disguise. We fear he 'goes nigh to verify the following passage from Boileau, the French satirist :— "De touts les animaux qui s'élèvent dans l'air, Qui marchent sur la terre, ou, nogent dans la mer, De Paris au Parou, du Japon jusqu'à Rome, Le plus sot animal, à mon avis, c'est l'Homme." Really when we'read T. Gt's assertion, that we had printed "an Hymn" of his in our Seventeenth Number, we were ready to exclaim, with the poet."I wonder how the devil it came there!" "Tis true we were not then Omnipotent; but the following stanza, from his first "Sacred Melody," (for there are two of them) just handed to us, is so unique a morsel, that our readers will acquit us of having decided too hastily: "Come from thy saintly bowers, Thrice holy dove, Come from thy saintly bowers, Hallow these hearts of ours, thus : To "improve" our readers, we can't avoid adding the first stanza of his second "Sacred Melody," which runs "Beside the streains of Babylon All pensively we sat, Lorn Zion's hapless state; Then hung our harps upon the willows, And sigh'd and wept to think upon. Which bent to kiss the rippling billows." We recommend the perusal of Lord Byron's "Hebrew Melody," on the last subject, to T. G-t; and, lest he should be tempted to tune it again, to get some friend to hang his harp on the top of St. Paul's or the Monument. recover his manuscript at the Publisher's, where it is left. He may So far as regards the composition of "Mercury," we say, as the Bishop said in Prior's "Merry Andrew,"-"That fellow is no fool!" but we wish Mercury" to understand, that our pages are no vehicle for slander in any shape. So!-ho! Mr. Quiz, you are in London, are you; and intend to reform the Town! Well, well, you're a pleasant body enough, and your Cockneyisms shall have an early insertion. **Contributions (post paid) to be sent to the Editor, at the Publishers. "We ought not, like the spider, to spin a flimsy web wholly from our own magazine; but, like the bee, visit every store, and eull the most useful and the best."-GREGORY. THE IDLE APPRENTICE RETURNED FROM SEA, AND IN A GARRET WITH A COMMON PROSTITUTE. Leviticus, ch. xxvi, verse 36. "The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase him." THE profligate and degraded apprentice, returned from his voyage, is now exhibited in a garret with a common prostitute. Tired of a sea-faring life, where we may naturally suppose he met with punishment adequate to his crimes, he returns to London. By the pistols, watches, &c. which lie upon and near the bed, it seems evident that the source of his present subsistence is from robbery on the highway. Horror and dismay are strongly depicted in his agitated and terrified face. To prevent surprise, the door is locked, double bolted, and barricaded with planks from the floor; notwithstanding these precautions, the noise occasioned by a cat having slipped down a ruinous chimney, throws him into the utmost horror. Not so his depraved companion, solely engrossed by the plunder upon the bed, she looks with delighted eyes at a glittering ear-ring. The broken jug, pipe, knife, plate, drambottle, glass, and pistols, are very properly introduced; and the rat, which makes a precipitate retreat, instinctively conscious that its natural enemy is near, renders this filthy and disgusting scene, still more nauceous. The lady's hoop is a good specimen of the fashion of that day, when this cumbrous, inconvenient, and ungraceful combination of whales' bones, was worn by women of the lowest as well as the highest rank. C. Every thing which relates to men of genius is interesting to the admirers of science, even their abodes, though humble in the extreme, when contemplated, call forth the most lively emotions, and we seem to breathe in the presence of the superior and invisible spirits of the departed. Ask the lover of Shakspeare, who has had the satisfaction of visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, sitting under the same roof, and wandering on the same spot which was hallowed by the presence of our immortal bard, what were his feelings at the moment? Who has passed by the low roofed cottage at Chalfont, where the British Homer wrote his "Paradise Lost," or visited the romantic village of Stoke Pagis, where Gray is said to have written his "Elegy in a Country Church Yard," without contemplating and paying a secret tribute of veneration? Nay, who will not walk up the Break-neck Stairs, between Seacoal Lane and the Old Bailey, with the greater pleasure, when he knows that it will conduct him to Green Arbour Court, where Goldsmith wrote his "Vicar of Wakefield,' and his "Traveller ?" A friend of Goldsmith's once paying him a visit in this place, (March 1759), found him in a lodging so poor and miserable, that he said he should not have thought it proper to mention the circumstance, had he not considered it the highest proof of Gold. smith's genius and talents, by the bare exertion of which, under every disadvatage, he gradually emerged from obscurity, not only to enjoyment of the comforts, but even the luxuries of life, and an introduction into the best societies in the metropolis. Notwithstanding, at the time the Doctor was writing his "Inquiry into the present state of Polite Learning," he resided in a wretched dirty room, in which there was but one chair, and when he, from civility, offered it to a visitant, he was obliged to seat himself in the window. Such were the privations to which one of the first literary geniuses England ever produced was heir to; but Goldsmith, more fortunate than many of his brethren, out-lived them. THE PROGRESS OF MUSIC. Smoked, ber carousing sire to cheer: Of dwarfs and dames, and barons old, Full fifty years thy sturdy frame Concise and sharp, but bold and clear, And tho' ungrateful Fashion's doom Why don't they burn a Davy here? Professor F. said-very full Of toys and tools, sits Music crown'd, dane'd As sprigs and stones and wood-nymphs LIVES OF THE BRITISH POETS. [Continued from page 344.] When Milton left the University, he returned to his father, at Horton, in Buckinghamshire, where he remained five years. During this limited space of time, he is said to have read all the classics, and composed his "Masque of Comus," which was first acted at Ludlow, 1624, by the sons and daughters of the Earl of Bridgwater, Lord President of Wales. Johnson says that the fiction of Comus is drawn from Homer's Circe; to this others do not agree, but contend that it had its origin in reality. Milton's next performance was "Lycidas," an Elegy in honour of a Mr. King, who was a great favourite at Cambridge. About the same time he wrote his "Arcades." He now grew weary of the country, and was about to take chambers in Lord Brackly, Mr. Egerton, and Lady Alice, passing through a place, called Haywood Forest, were benighted, and for a time the lady was lost; this being told to their father, the Earl of Bridgwater, Milton, at the request of Mr. Henry Lawes, who taught music in the family, wrote the Masque, and it was ⚫ first represented by these very parties, at Ludlow, one of the Inns of Court, but his mother dying, he was at liberty to do what he much wished, to travel; and in 1638 he left his native shores for Paris, where Lord Scudamore introduced him to the acquaintance of Grotius, then ambassador from Christian of Sweden. He next visited Florence, where he was much honoured: from thence he went to Sienna, and from Sienna to Rome, where he was alike honoured and from Rome he travelled to Naples, in the company of a hermit, who introduced him to Manso, the friend and patron of Tasso. Finally he visited Geneva; and after an absence of a year and three months, returned to England by way of France. He then took a lodging in St. Bride's Church-yard, and undertook the instruction of his nephews and some others; but finding his room too small, he next removed to Jewin Street, Aldersgate Street. Here he instructed his nephew, Mr. Philips, who wrote the "Theatrum Poetarum." About 1641, he began to take a share in the controversies of the times, and produced his Treatise on Reformation. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, wrote a Remonstrance, on the opposite side. Milton soon after married, but his wife not liking his philosophic state of living, obtained leave to visit her friends, and refused afterwards to return. Milton now (1644) wrote his Doctrine of Divorce, for which he was summoned before the House of Lords, but soon dismissed. Milton, having repudiated his first wife for her disobedience, resolved to marry again, and to that end courted a lady of great accomplishments, daughter of a Doctor Davis. His wife and her friends hearing this, resolved to effect a re-union. Milton being at the house of a relation in St. Martin's-le-Grand, he was surprized to see his wife come from an opposite room, fall down on her knees and implore his forgiveness. He was at first inexorable, but her tears and his own generous nature, brought about a reconciliation. From this scene Milton is said to have drawn the character of his Eve, in Paradise Lost. That their reconciliation was sincere, appears from his afterwards receiving her father and brothers, who were attached to the Royal cause, into his house, at the triumph of the Parliament. When King Charles the Second took shelter in Holland, he To this hypothetical piece of criticism, Thompson replied: "Why all not faults, injurious Mitchell, why "Appears one beauty to thy blasted eye? "Damnation worse than thine, if worse can be, "Is all I ask, and all I want from thee." A friend, to whom Thompson submitted his answer, remarked, that the expression "blasted eye," would look like a personal reflection on Mitchell, who really suffered under that misfortune; and Thompson made theawkward change of the epithet into blasting. AN IMITATOR. He employed Salmasius, professor at Leydon, to write the Defensio Regis. To this Milton wrote a reply, The Defence of the People, for which he received £1000; and it would be difficult to decide which has the best of the argument; though Milton's performance was more read and commended at the time. Cromwell, in the zenith of his power, made Milton his Latin secretary; although quite blind, he had energy sufficient to perform the duties. About this time his first wife died, and he married Catherine, the daughter of Captain Woodcock of Hackney; but he lost her a year after in child-bed, and honoured her memory with a sonnet. At the age of 47 he resumed his three great works, projected in early life, an Epic Poem, a History of his Country, and a Dictionary of the Latin Language. The two first were accomplished in his Paradise Lost and History of England; but the Dictionary was never completed. Milton is said to have made use of his daughter as an amanuensis, being himself blind; and when any sudden thought rushed to his fertile fancy, she was immediately called to secure it. When the plague raged in London, 1665, he took refuge at Chalfont, in Bucks, and there he completed his Paradise Lost. In the reign of Charles and James this sublime poem did not meet with much encouragement, probably owing to Milton's well-known political opinions, About three years after appeared his Paradise Regained, which, though so much inferior, was his favourite. Hav. ing attained his 66th year, the gout, with which he had long been tormented, carried him off, Nov. 10, 1674, at his house in Bunhill-fields; and he was buried next his father, in the Chancel ON THE USE OF CHALK, AS A of St. Giles, at Cripplegate. funeral was very splendid, but upon his grave no memorial is said to have been placed, though a monument is since erected, in Westminster Abbey, to his memory. TIT FOR TAT. His Soon after the poet Thompson had published his "Winter," he presented a copy of it to Joseph Mitchell, and in return he sent Thompson his opinion of the poem in the following couplet :"Beauties and faults so thick lie scattered here; "Those I could read, if these were not so near." FROM BUTLER'S CHARACTERS. An imitator is a counterfeit stone, and the larger and fairer he appears the more apt he is to be discovered; whilst small ones, that pretend to no great value, pass unsuspected. has a kind of monkey and baboon wit, that takes after some man's way, whom he endeavours to imitate, but does it worse than those things that are naturally his own; for he does not learn, but takes his pattern out, as a girl does her sampler. He is but a retainer to wit, and a follower of his master, whose badge he wears every where, and therefore his way is called servile imitation. His muse is not inspired, but infected with another man's fancy; and he catches his wit, like the itch, of somebody else that had it before, and when he writes he does but scratch himself. He binds himself prentice to a trade which he has not stock to set up with, if he should serve out his time and live to be made free. MANURE. REMAINS. Chalk is a lasting and most excellent manure, inasmuch as a first dressing will produce a succession of excellent crops for 14 or perhaps 20 years; but it will not bear repetition, at least for a great length of time. This has been proved in many instances upon the South Downs, one of the most striking of which is the following: About the year 1720, a Mr. Faulkner took a farm, called the Odd One, situate between this town and Newhaven, upon a lease of 14 years, and finding the land, which was awkwardly situfrom want of manure, he resolved to ated for procuring dung, &c. distressed |