Fear thou the wild and horned bull:" he said, in melting ruth, Like wine outpour'd in sacrifice, blush'd red with sanguine dew: DEATH OF AMPELUS. 1 But Ate, she who beareth death, look'd on the daring boy, What favours can'st thou boast from him whose friendship is thy pride? And cut the air, a shadowy speck, careering up the sky; And thou hast heard how Abaris a flying shaft bestrode, And sent by Phoebus through the heavens on buoyant ether rode; thigh: And Ganymede could rein and turn an eagle through the sky, IT. Cuneus finds out that this is a thing "beyond belief," and refers us to our natural history for the fact, that the horns of the cerastes partake of the soft nature of those of the snail. What would this cautious critic have said, if the poet had introduced griffin 3 Thus did the phrenzy-smitten mares the prostrate Glaucus trampling tear, And thus the horse of winged hoofs cast down Bellerophon from air : With hollow'd hands he scoop'd the slime, where nigh the river roll'd, From his mock scourge; as though in sooth he back'd a maned steed; Then lifting to the bull-faced moon a look of daring glee "Horn'd moon!" he cried, "thy team of bulls and thou must yield to me! I too can curb a bull, and horns surmount my satyr's brow.' Thus to the silver-orbing moon he spoke, high-glorying now: But the moon's eye, with jealous light, through fields of boundless air And Bacchus hasten'd like the winds: ev'n Hercules was slow, As graceful at his length he lay, and breezes fitful blew, And beauty had not left the dead, for still, though dead, he smiled; It blooms upon thy glistening cheek, and those fair eyes yet laugh in death. The palms of those so gentle hands are delicate as snows, And through thy lifted lovesome locks the breeze shrill sighing blows; Death's chilling blast has touch'd thy limbs, but has not quench'd the rose. Oh dearest! wherefore wouldst thou rule th' ungovernable steer? No more with cymbal-clashing nymphs thou lead'st the dancing throng, Ah, unpersuadable and stern! with one that cannot hear I strive: Yes-for my boy, my lifeless boy, I'd give the grains of gold tear? Though ears are mine, yet they are deaf to thy bewailing cry; Though eyes are mine, I see thee not in this thy heart-broke agony; Give o'er thy grief; in vain beside her banks the Naiad weeps ; Narcissus' ear is dull and cold; in deathly waters calm he sleeps!?" VIDA. THE ACADEMY OF TASTE FOR GROWN GENTLEMEN, OR THE INFANT CONNOISSEUR'S GO-CART.' My dear friend and companion! if you should think me somewhat sparing of my narrative on my first setting-out-bear with me,-and let me go on, and tell my story my own way: or, if I should seem now or then to trifle upon the road,-or should sometimes put on a fool's cap, with a bell to it, for a moment or two as we pass along,-don't fly off, but rather courteously give me credit for a little more wisdom than appears upon my outside;-and, as we jog on, either laugh with me, or at me, or, in short, do any thing,-only keep your temper. Tristram Shandy. Now every word of this, quoth my uncle Toby, is Arabic to me. I BELIEVE that theory and practice are the two great original warring elements. Fire and water have sympathetic particles, and lie open to a sort of reconcilement, but theory and practice-practice and theory-turn them, and twist them, and beat them, and pound them, as much as you please, and when all's done, away they roll asunder in their unsocial, unadulterate completeness, like those confounded globules of quicksilver which get out of your weatherglasses, and worry little boys, whose combinative impulses begin to be objective. There is Mr. *****, who knows more about painting and paintings than all the Academy together (make three exceptions)-well Sir! his whole life has been employed in weighing these two things, one against the other, and strenuously endeavouring to achieve a horizontal"a hair will do it!" in goes the hair and up goes one scale to the heavens! "Whew! There's something wrong about the scales!" and he rectifies and rectifies them as if they were spirits of wine. "Now we have it!"-Lackadaisy!"How?-Great Genius of metaphysics! but I spy au adventitious flaw in the wall, it's the wind that comes through that crack which turns my -" and the putty is applied instanter!-He turns (a voluntary Sisyphus) with fresh hope to his dear torment, his cherished Nessus's shirt -still it singeth its old tune. Here we go up, up, up, Tristram Shandy again. But fickle and wavering as " Giralda, that famous giantess of Seville."* still he perseveres! and though I firmly believe he never will bring about this match, I am equally satisfied that, if it is to be accomplished during this generation, he is the man. This last paragraph, that is, this first paragraph, has more utility in it than any thing I ever penned-if you apprehend it, and pull it, and stretch it, and put your hand into it, and don't be afraid of hurting it-I warrant it tough as-as-India rubber, or-let this comparison be- lest we go farther and fare worse. O it is a seed, which set in good moist soil would sprout up into whole royal quartos-a philosophical Fortunatus's purse! Yet I could give it an unmendable slit. Shall I? No! for, whatever rotten planks compose my flooring, ingratitude, if I know myself (O ridiculous 'if''!) hath not place there; and that paragraph hath served me for a tolerably decent opening. I amend my epithet; 'tis an excellent opening, excellent because appropriate, as I shall demonstrate in a minute after, just insisting that the power of grasping and penetrating propriety, in its high original sense, is the absolute key-stone of genuine criticism. I dare say, gentlemen and ladies, this seems to you like a selfevident proposition; but if you will just take the trouble to, scrutinize some of our Reviews, I trust the remark will not be deemed impertinent: * Vide Don Quixote's colloquy with the knight of the looking-glasses. 1 1 -have you looked Sir? Ah! you quite agree with me I see! your perceptions are extremely delicate and acute. Now for the appropriateness, which you must be told arises out of its perfect reverse-pray Sir! don't jump off the chair and run to the door, I am not mad 《 pen filled with ink, but my conceit I have not the vanity to affect a fancy, much less an imagination) goes round like a whirligig, and then shoots away in the very direction it should not. Our dear Editor is quite accustomed to this chance-medley method (that's a superlatively wrong word! I wish you'd blot it, and in My pulse as yours doth temperately keep sert a fitter) and dreams not of inves time, T And makes as healthful music. tigating nicely my intentions, or rather my probabilities, but blandly enquires "if there will be any thing for the next?"-What this present may produce it is quite impossible to say. I had made up for the Dulwich Gallery, therefore I rather suspect the crack-club, traveller's room, at the White-horse Cellar, may be drawn from their cosey box in the corner for the amusement of the London's Contractors.* But it is absolutely necessary for my character as a logical reasoner that I make out my proposition; and how it is to be done I know not-except I cut off all sympathetical connection betwixt the foregoing and the hereafter of my agreeable paper, in which case the ins and the aps coalesce, and shine out as clear as the stars in the constellation Ariaphlistron !! We have been repeatedly told that many worthy folks would collect and patronize genuine engravings and etchings if they did but know how to begin; therefore, for the joint advantage of the said well-disposed persons, ourself the LONDON MAGAZINE ESTABLISHMENT, and Messrs. Colnaghi, Hurst, Molteno, Smith, Woodburne, &c. we pronounce the collectaneal fundaments to be, first, a pair of shears, thirteen inches long : secondly, a ream of tinted paper (there is great variety at Heath's): and thirdly, a few loose hundreds. (We'll not say thousands, lest begin This theory of the mutual dependences of the opera and its overture is the same with my theory of the subject of an article (supposing, just for the sake of argument, an article to have a subject, which is not always the case; though that's neither here nor there :)-would you, dear Dr. examine my cranium? and perhaps we may light on the confounded Jack-o'-the lantern bump, whence spirt and squirt all these impedimental excrescences, these parentheses? But I can't stop now, because I have a sentence getting cold, therefore I write, and its proemium," which three words make it warm and air-ners be daunted.) tight, This theory is my delight and my night-mare. Its beauty begets my love, and my incapacity to obey its commands drives me crazy · my practice is like Mr. M.'s mouth, "all on the other side." In vain I resolve and resolve this shall be on Mr. Angerstein's collection-this on Raffaëllo!-this on modern embellished books!—and so on. No sooner is my Next it will be well to determine on the nature of your design, whether the collection shall be artistical or collectorical If the latter, have a coat constructed with pockets, enough strong and spacious, to hold the sixteen volumes of Bartsch !-rise at six in the morning, couch not till twelve; and at the end of forty years and as many thousand pounds, you shall have some eight tomes of said To contract is to take in, whence the substantive Contractors, people who take in any thing or body, such as magazines, horses, single gentlemen, and the like. |