as to be affected by no artificial preparation in matters of judgment, wit, and taste. They are "the men of old," as Rousseau has it, "living in modern times." But their sentiments are those of nature, of unyielding and unchanging nature; and the modern times to come, whose fashions shall have assumed a new, and possibly a contrary bent, shall be their advocates and admirers."That which good taste has once approved, says the same author, is ever good. If it be seldom fashionable, on the other hand it is never absurd; and it derives from the congruity of things sure and unalterable rules, which remain when the fashions themselves are no more." True taste, it may be added, refuses all accommodation with fashion, every attempt at a composition or compromise, and sooner than yield in her pretensions, contents herself with obscurity, until the times themselves shall come round and bow to her jurisdiction. The author who aspires to after ages, should take leave of the age in which he lives. To be drawn into the vortex of fashionable writing, is to pass that gate on which is inscribed

"Voi che intrate, lasciate ogni speranza."

The charm of the French madrigal, like that

of the Greek epigram, consists in the perfect adaptation of each word to the impression intended to be made, the exclusion of synonymes, the rare and happy epithet, the fine and delicate turn which embellishes a thought trivial and familiar; and, above all, in that virtue, which modern English writers utterly explode, conciseness. The subjects too are rationally chosen. Here are no tender oglings of a tulip, no extacies at infantine remembrances, no prostrations before a butterfly, no melancholy strains on the neglected virtues of a robin red-breast. Their themes are not below the level of common understanding, and, in general, much good sense is couched beneath the happy trifle.

The scheme of our work naturally induced some disquisition into the fugitive pieces of ancient and modern Europe. It now remains for me to notice an irregularity which nearly affects that translator whose name appears on the title-page. It will doubtless appear strange, that, of the two principal authors, he who has contributed the least portion of the body of the work, should be most prominent to the public. While he regrets the necessity, he has been compelled to yield to the instances of his associate; and has, at the same time, been induced,

by the representations of their publisher, who objected to the plan of a book entirely anonymous, to suffer his own name to appear in a place to which it is entitled no otherwise than by participation. As the signatures affixed to the different metrical pieces will do but half justice to his friend, it is a duty imposed on him, by his consideration for the reader and his associate, to declare that this participation extends, in an equal proportion, to the remainder of the work.

To return to the Epigrams-It has been my endeavour to avoid any needless discussion on their merits. They have had their enemies and protectors. From bad specimens of the later poets, Lord Chesterfield was probably led to utter his interdict against the whole body. Nay, such was that nobleman's vivacity in thinking and speaking, that he not improbably formed his opinion from a hint dropped in conversation, and not from any intimate acquaintance with the species of composition which he has most inconsiderately reviled. A few of his Lordship's admirers caught the idea, and ignorance and stupidity joined in the hue and cry, led on by fashion and ability.

On the other hand, they found an admirer

themselves in Dr. Johnson, who filled up the intervals of pain, during his last illness, in translating several of them into Latin. And Mr. Cumberland has presented us, in his Observer, with some which he has rendered into our own language, but more particularly fragments from the comic poets.

The estimation in which they were held by the country which gave them birth, is evinced by the care taken to preserve them at different periods, and when the difficulties of collecting and collating were infinitely greater than among ourselves. But the mother country knew exactly how to appreciate their value, by assigning to them the real place which they were destined to hold with honour. They were considered in general as pleasing and light pastimes to the poet and his reader, and no unfair demands were made from such modest professions. Since those days their friends and enemies have equally conspired against them; their enemies by accusing them of a deficiency in point, equivoque, and humour, at which they seldom aim; their friends by indiscriminately praising the whole body, by advancing them to a degree of consequence for which they are unfitted, and by venerating what they should only esteem.

They have stood the test of ages, and while tried by their own laws were not found wanting. The charge of simplicity was subject to no penalties or censures among the Greeks: let us not then impose laws on them with which they were unacquainted, and from which they cannot escape uncensured. But it is time that I put an end to my remarks, lest I should be numbered among those false friends who injure the cause which they seem to defend, by dilating what had been more seasonably compressed, and giving dignity to trifles.

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