These compositions should be written on the little advances made towards a young lady of the strictest virtue, and all the circumstances alluded to in them, should have something that might please her mind in its purest innocence, as well as celebrate her person in its highest beauty. This work would instruct a woman to be a good wife, all the while it is a wooing her to be a bride. Imagination and reason should go hand in hand in a generous amour; for when it is otherwise, real discontent and aversion in marriage, succeed the groundless and wild promise of imagination in courtship. The court of Venus from Claudian, being part of the Epithalamium on Honorius and Maria. * In the fam❜d Cyprian isle a mountain stands, In vain access by human feet is try'd, On bounteous Nile, thro' seven wide channels spread; Along its sides no hoary frosts presume To blast the myrtle shrubs, or nip the bloom. The mountain, when the summit once you gain, These were the bribes, the price of heav'nly charms; A sylvan scene, in solemn state display'd, Branches in branches twin'd, compose the grove; Blue heav'ns above them smile; and all below, Along the grassy banks, in bright array, Ten thousand little loves their wings display: Quivers and bows their usual sports proclaim; Their dress, their stature, and their looks the same; Smiling in innocence, and ever young, And tender, as the nymphs from whom they sprung; For Venus did but boast one only son, And rosy Cupid was that boasted one; He, uncontroll'd, thro' heaven extends his sway, And gods and goddesses by turns obey; Or if he stoops on earth, great princes burn, Sicken on thrones, and wreath'd with laurels mourn. Here Love's imperial pomp is spread around, And sudden storms of wrath, which soon decline; Boldness unfledg'd, and to stol'n raptures new Now from afar the palace seems to blaze, Here spices in parterres promiscuous blow, Not from Arabia's fields more odours flow, The wanton winds through groves of cassia play, And steal the ripen'd fragrances away; Here with its load the wild amomum bends; There cinnamon, in rival sweets, contends; A rich perfume the ravish'd senses fills, While from the weeping tree the balm distils. At these delightful bowers arrives at last The God of Love, a tedious journey past; Then shapes his way to reach the fronting gate, Doubles his majesty, and walks in state. It chanc'd upon a radiant throne reclin'd, The judgment of the glass is here unknown; N° 128. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1713. Delenda est Carthago- Ir is usually thought, with great justice, a very impertinent thing in a private man to intermeddle in matters which regard the state. But the memorial which is mentioned in the following letter is so daring, and so apparently designed for the most traitorous purpose imaginable, that I do not care what misinterpretation. suffer, when I expose it to the resentment of all men who value their country, or have any regard to the honour, safety, or glory of their queen. It is certain there is not much danger in delaying the demolition of Dunkirk during the life of his present most Christian majesty, who is renowned for the most inviolable regard to treaties; but that pious prince is aged, and in case of his decease, now the power of France and Spain is in the same family, it is possible an ambitious successor (or his ministry in a king's minority) might dispute his being bound by the act of his predecessor in so weighty a particular. MR. IRONSIDE, 'You employ your important moments methinks, a little too frivolously, when you consider so often little circumstances of dress and behaviour, and never make mention of matters wherein you and all your fellow-subjects in general are concerned. I give you now an opportunity, not only of manifesting your loyalty to your queen, but your affection to your country, if you treat an insolence done to them both with the disdain it deserves. The inclosed printed paper in French and English has been handed about the town, and given gratis to passengers in the streets at noon-day. You see the title of it is, "A most humble address, or memorial, presented to her majesty the queen of Great Britain, by the deputy of the magistrates of Dunkirk." The nauseous memorialist, with the most fulsome flattery, tells the queen of her thunder, and of wisdom and clemency adored by all the earth; at the same time that he attempts to undermine her power, and escape her wisdom, by beseeching her to do an act which will give a wellgrounded jealousy to her people. What the syco |