Our next is a very good imitation of Martial; but well adapted to satirize a faulty style of tedious and pedantic pleading that prevailed in France, and which is so admirably ridiculed in Racine's Plaideurs :

"Pour trois moutons qu'on m'avait pris,
J'avais un procès au bailliage;
Gui, le phénix des beaux esprits,
Plaidait ma cause et faisait rage.
Quand il eut dit un mot du fait
Pour exagérer le forfait,

Il cita la fable et l'histoire,
Les Aristotes, les Platons:
Gui, laissez là tout ce grimoire,

Et revenez à nos moutons."-La Harpe.
"About three sheep, that late I lost,

I had a lawsuit with my neighbour;
And Glibtongue, of our ber the boast,
Pleaded my case with zeal and labour.
He took two minutes first to state
The question that was in debate;
Then show'd, by learn'd and long quotations,
The Law of Nature and of Nations;
What Tully said, and what Justinian,
And what was Puffendorff's opinion.
Glibtongue! let those old authors sleep,
And come back to our missing sheep!"

We forget whether the following is original in the French, or is imitated:

"Huissiers qu'on fasse silence,

Dit en tenant audience

Un président de Baugé.

C'est un bruit à tête fendre;

Nous avons déjà jugé

Dix causes sans les entendre."

"TERMINER Sans OYER.

"Call silence!' the Judge to the officer cries;

'This hubbub and talk, will it never be done? Those people this morning have made such a noise, We've decided ten causes without hearing one.'

We shall now wind up our exhibition of specimens with a few English epigrams, which, for the most part, we believe to be unprinted, though some of them may be known by oral circulation. We cannot venture to say that all are good; but we hope that a fair proportion of them are so, and that there are few which have not some epigrammatic interest :

PROPOSED VALENTINE TO A GREEK PROFESSOR OF GREAT LEARNING

BUT ROUGH MANNERS.

"Thou great descendant of the critic line,

True lineal child of Bentley, Brunck, and Porson,
Forgive my sending you this Valentine—
It is but coupling Valentine with Orson."
A GREEK IDEA EXPANDED.

"Of Graces four, of Muses ten,

Of Venuses now two are seen :
Doris shines forth to dazzle men,

A Grace, a Muse, and Beauty's Queen.
But let me whisper one thing more :-
The Furies now are likewise four."

RECIPROCITY.

From the Greek.

"Damon, who plied the Undertaker's trade, "
With Doctor Critias an arrangement made.

What grave-clothes Damon from the dead could seize,
He to the Doctor sent for bandages;

While the good Doctor, here no promise-breaker,
Sent all his patients to the Undertaker."

MEUM AND TUUM RECONCILED.

"The Law decides questions of Meum and Tuum,
By kindly arranging-to make the thing Suum."

THE DIVISION OF LABOUR.

"A parson, of too free a life,

Was yet renown'd for noble preaching,
And many grieved to see such strife

Between his living and his teaching.

His flock at last rebellious grew :

'My friends,' he said, 'the simple fact is,

Nor you nor I can both things do;

But I can preach-and you can practise.'"

ON JANE DUCHESS OF GORDON DECLINING TO GO TO A WATERING-PLACE,

A CONTRAST.

"Tell me,' said Laura, 'what may be
The difference 'twixt a Clock and me.'
'Laura,' I cried, 'Love prompts my powers
To do the task you've set them:
A Clock reminds us of the hours;
You cause us to forget them.'

FROM PETRARCH'S PROSE.

"You say your teeth are dropping out;
A serious cause of sorrow:

Not likely to be cured, I doubt,
To-day or yet to-morrow.
But good may come of this distress,
While under it you labour,

If, losing teeth, you guzzle less,—
And don't backbite your neighbour."

TO AN ASTRonomer.

"An Astrologer once, old authorities tell,
While he gazed at the stars, tumbled into a well :
For the Sages, whose optics to distances roam,
Very often o'erlook what may happen at home.
So you, by your skill (be it whispered between us),
Can foresee the conjunctions of Mars and of Venus;
But all your astronomy doesn't discover

The proceedings, downstairs, of your wife and her lover."

DOUBLE VISION UTILISED.

"An incipient toper was checked t'other day
In his downward career in a rather strange way.
The effect of indulgence, he found to his trouble,,
Was, that after two bottles, he came to see double;
When with staggering steps to his home he betook him,
He saw always two wives, sitting up to rebuke him.
One wife in her wrath makes a pretty strong case;
But a couple thus scolding, what courage could face?"
A LATE REPENTANCE.

"Pravus, that aged debauchee,

Proclaim'd a vow his sins to quit;

But is he yet from any free,

Except what now he can't commit ?"

This seems an imitation of an epigram by Sir Thomas More, which thus concludes:

"Astra tibi æthereo pandunt sese omnia vati,
Omnes et quæ sint fata futura monent.
Omnibus ast uxor quod se tua publicat, id te
Astra, licet videant omnia, nulla monent."

"GALLUS CANTAT."

"At Trent's famed Council, when, on Reason's side,
A Frenchman's voice assail'd the Pontiff's pride,
Some Romish priest, the Gallic name to mock,
Exclaim'd, 'Tis but the crowing of a Cock!'

เ

'So call it,' 'twas replied; We're well content,---
If, when the cock crows, Peter would repent.'

Whether, at the present time, Peter, ad Galli cantum, will repent of his late Encyclical Letter, or of any of his other errors, is a question which we shall not endeavour to determine.

We now bring to a close these rather desultory observations on a subject which, we think, is deserving of much more attention than it has lately received. Scholarship has not latterly been much in the ascendant among us. The literary past has been nearly swallowed up in the exciting interest of the present; and as far as style is concerned, condensation and simplicity have given way to a multiplication of words and an unnatural vehemence of manner. We think it not unseasonable to attempt reviving, in some degree, the interest which a former generation felt in a form of composition, where, in its different aspects, wit or elegance combines with cleverness and brevity, to produce its effect whether in touching the feelings or amusing the fancy.

We do not seek to raise the Lower Epigram to the level of the Higher; but the Lower has its own beauties and uses. In a serious view, it admits of some force and dignity, and it may sometimes serve as a vehicle of satire to unmask hypocrisy or punish vice. But its proper domain is that region of playful ridicule which, in a kindly and social spirit, points out and tends to rectify the harmless oddities and follies of human nature, and supplies one of the best relishes and relaxations of life, a source of joyous and innocent merriment, which many of our educationists of the present day, both of the romantic and of the utilitarian schools, seem very erroneously to leave out of view.

The subject that we have been considering has many and various bearings to which we have scarcely adverted in our remarks. In particular, we might suggest the literary interest which would attend a review of those circumstances in which individual epigrams of a special kind have been called forth, whether in connexion with personal, political, or social incidents. Such a history would introduce us to a great store of entertaining and even instructive anecdote; but it would require an extent of knowledge and industry which are now but seldom met with, and which are certainly not possessed, or not displayed, by the editor of the volume which has led to the present notice.

ART. III.-1. Spanien und Seine Fortschreitende Entwickelung. Von Dr. JULIUS FREYHERRN VON MINUTOLI. Berlin, 1852. 2. Spain: her Institutions, Politics, and Public Men. By S. T. WALLIS. London: Sampson Low. 1853.

3. Historia Politica y Parlamentaria. Por DON JUAN RICO Y AMAT. Madrid, 1860.

4. Trienta Años de Gobierno Representativo en España. Por DON JOSE MARIA ORENSE. Madrid, 1863.

5. The Attaché in Madrid. 6. Das Heutige Spanien. von ARNOLD RUGE.

New York, 1856.

Von FERNANDO GARRIDO. Deutsch, Leipzig, 1863.

Por DON ANGEL FERNANDEZ DE LOS RIOS.

7. Olózaga. Madrid, 1863.

8. Spain, and the War with Morocco. By O. C. DALHOUSIE Ross. London: Ridgway. 1860.

9. La Asamblea Española de 1854 y La Cuestion Religiosa. Madrid, 1855.

10. Etudes Littéraires sur L'Espagne. Par ANTOINE DE LATOUR. Paris, 1864.

THE opening, in August last, of the line from Beasain to Olazagutia, through a country as rugged, although fortunately more beautiful than those strange Basque names, completed the railway communication between Madrid and Paris. Amongst many good results which will flow from this, not the least will be the invasion of the Peninsula by many travellers, who have hitherto taken, all too literally, the witty saying, that " Africa begins with the Pyrenees." Such travellers will belong, for the most part, to one of two categories: those who go abroad in search of novelty, and those who are attracted to the Peninsula by the love of art. To these two classes we do not address ourselves, for they have, in numerous well-known books, every literary help that they can possibly need.

May we not hope, however, that in addition to those who go to Spain as the nearest preserve of picturesque barbarians, or as one of the great Museums of the world, there will be some who will go with other views-some who will cross the Bidassoa in the hope of seeing for themselves whether the vague rumours of revival which reach our shores, are true or false; whether there is any hope that that nation, once so famous, is going to take part in the forward movement of Europe; or whether it is indeed true, as Mr. Buckle tells us, that " she lies at the further extremity of the Continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of the Middle Ages."

VOL. XLII.NO. LXXXIII.

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