kind of philosophical rite. We can scarcely form any conception of the pleasures the old philosophers enjoyed on such occasions; for, being altogether free from the jealousy of authorship, which is apt to mingle with all kinds of study in our days, they gave themselves up wholly to the enthusiasm of the moment. The happy days of their first introduction to "the Gardens" were recalled to memory, and presents exchanged over sparkling goblets of the Tenedos or Chian vintage. We are told also, that Silius Italicus used to celebrate the birth-day of Virgil with much more pomp than his own; and we know what a merry day was the dies natalis of Mæcenas to his friend Horace. For my part I am partial to this old Pagan custom, and should like to see the birth-days of our great authors converted into public festivals. It would throw a lustre and an air of joyousness over the Calendar : "such or such an event," might we then say to each other," occurred about the time of the celebration of Shakspeare's or Milton's birthday." They would be a kind of intellectual Saturnalia; and thousands would in such case be found with Lear, or Hamlet, or Paridise Lost in their hands, who now only worship those great names at a distance, thinking, apparently, that to make themselves familiar with them would be a kind of irreligious presumption. There are some, however, who cannot understand the reason why our birth-days should not rather be distinguished by sorrow than joy. It seems, they say, a tacit confession that we secretly consider life to be an evil, to rejoice as we toss from us its lopt and worn out members. Birth-day festivals are rational only when thus considered. For what can be more insane than to celebrate with feasts the departure, piecemeal, of what we love and prize as the ground of all our delights? Among the many riddles of human nature, this, to them, is the greatest. Observe the Persian roasting his whole oxen, asses, horses, and camels, on his natal day, merely to testify his delight that the term of his enjoyment is abridged_by_another year! Shave his long beard, and put him in a madhouse !-The Greeks were more rational. On that day they despatched their meals with peculiar rapidity, neither speaking, nor staying if spoken to; in order to signify how necessary it is to take time by the forelock, and seize the pleasures as they fleet.* We have chosen, however, to imitate the Persian; and, although we do not roast whole camels, and by no means relish asses' flesh, it seems an odd thing that we have no other way of expressing our joy than by eating. It is, nevertheless, very certain, that mirth has some strong relation to food; for if at any time we would be cheerful, the first thing thought of is victuals; if a victory is to be celebrated, we again have recourse to eating; and in case we have the happiness to have a new king, or lord mayor, still we express it by a feast. Is the first stone to be laid for building a church, it would be contrary to the orthodox principles, if the ceremony was not wound up by a dinner. A man cannot be married till his friends have shown their congratulations by eating and drinking; and the first step that proclaims him a Christian would pass as incompleted, were it not to be sanctioned by a similar *Herodot. Clio. ceremony: nor can he rest safely in his grave till a requiem has been sung over it, and a dinner has been solemnized to his manes :-the two grandest epochs of mortality, his coming in and his going out of the world, being thus commemorated-eating and drinking is, without doubt, the most venerable and solemn of all earthly rejoicings, and Man is, therefore, pre-eminently a feastful animal. But he never eats for grief or sorrow. When either of these touches him, from almost a cannibal he becomes abstemious at once, and his feasting is fled with his mirth. Love, also, in spite of the old maxim, Sine Cereri, &c. is a great enemy to eating: and we may, therefore, see by this, that he is much more akin to grief than joy. All our passions and affections may, in fact, be arranged in two classes; viz. those which are favourable to eating, and those which are not. Ambition is not, any more than envy, a great eater, although a vulgar desire to be talked of may have no great effect upon the capacity of the stomach. Your true poet never sits three hours at dinner; and although a very weighty reason has sometimes been given for this forbearance, I should think poetry is naturally abstemious. Content, self-satisfaction, vanity, and all the accedents of the mind that range naturally in this class, are given to voluptuousness and high feeding. And this brings me back to birth-days; for it is persons in whom the latter passions predominate who are most addicted to the celebration of these domestic festivals. People who are proud of their intellect keep it framed like a mirror, and suspend it high, that the breath of voluptuousness may not dim its brightness. Such persons are seldom what are termed good company, and are especially out at a convivial meeting or a feast; for this reason all bons vivants have a particular antipathy for them, and could hardly be persuaded to honour their birth-days by partaking of their légumes and cold water. I can understand this hatred: it is the natural repugnance of the feastful for the fasting principle. As savages never know when they were born, the birth-day anniversary forms no festival of theirs. Indeed, were we to judge by the ancient Thracians, we might conclude that if they did distinguish the day, it would be rather by lamentations than mirth; for the howling of those ancient savages over the new-born infant, and joy over the dead, sufficiently indicated their opinion of human life. Old maids never keep their birth-days; old men seldom; the custom is reserved for early and middle life. It might, however, be made a source of pleasure to all: for, although there is not in childhood much positive pleasure, there is a sweet consciousness of innocence, mingled with vivid hope and indescribable expectation, which makes the recollections of that period soothing and delightful; and by a little management these might be peculiarly enjoyed on the dies natalis. The man of the world might be put off with great advantage on such a day, while the mind reverted through the avenues of months and years, to that fresh and bright period of our lives, when we were all innocent if not happy. Many early friends, also, now become mere shadows stalking at wide intervals over the field of our memory, or still living, but estranged by the ways of the world, might on that day be called up, in all the original beauty of their young habits, and make worshipful company for our imaginations. For this purpose I love to spend my birth-day alone in the fields; for my imagination is as young as ever, and when no one of my own age is near, a living memento of the march of Time, I can fancy myself still a child, and gaze upon nature's beautiful clouds and landscapes, with the same intense rapture I used formerly to feel on the banks of Avon, the Ladon of my Arcadia. Every thing about us seems actually imperishable. The clouds and rivers know no birth-day, and seem lulled by the imperturbable consciousness of eternity. They have no identity but with the great whole, and are content to undergo everlasting mutations, returning perpetually to the spring from whence they came. But we, poor caitiffs! have our waxings and our wanings in a smaller circle. Considering the extent of his stores, we may indeed say, that Time has been a niggard to us. What are three or fourscore birth-days? An age in this world, like a day at the Museum, barely allows us to take a hasty glance at the curiosities, peeping now and then into the catalogue drawn up by a few hasty visitors like ourselves. Passing on with the shoals of spectators who float out incessantly, we go away at last with a confused, jarring, imperfect remembrance of what we have seen. Is this the way to acquire knowledge? Short, however, as is the time of our stay in this world, and little as we gain by it, there are few who think or speak so harshly of their birth-days as Job: he wished it to be hidden in darkness, to be blotted out of the great register of time, to be loathed and abominated by man and woman. The most impatient of us all are more moderate: we only occasionally wish it blotted out from the memory of our friends, but are otherwise content that the sun should shine on that day as brightly as on any other. Those, it is true, who celebrate it according to the fashion, are little concerned to know whether the sun shines or not; their immediate business is with shining faces, wellcovered tables, and sparkling goblets; and if these are present, care little about the predicament of the sun. But to me, and such as me, it is of much consequence that the day should be fine; for then, although it may be autumn, we rejoice like grasshoppers in spring, and eye the ragged coats and tarnished mitres of the flowers with as unspeakable a satisfaction, as if they still wore the gloss and splendour of summer. May the reader, if life be pleasant to him, enjoy as many birth-day festivals as the Sage of Pylos! who, he will recollect, informs us in the Iliad, that for acquiring wisdom length of days is a main requisite. F. A. APOPHTHEGM. What an odd world is this of ours! How full Of paradox! So varied, that no two things, Or persons, are alike; and yet so dull, Men shoot themselves to make a change! and few things The living with the dead-perchance the devils. SUMMER EVENINGS. No. II. Accourez avec moi, vous, peintres, vous, poëtes; Vous, belles, vos réduits; et vous, grands, vos palais; Rendre hommage au printemps, et bénir la Nature. LEMIERE, Les Fastes. THERE are some men, who permit certain passages of certain books to have curious influences on their future fortunes; and I am one of them. The subjoined passage, from an epistle of Bunnel of Thoulouse, for instance, so commanded my admiration, that, from the period of reading it, up to the time in which I became the father of a family, I never ceased to indulge the hope of putting his plan into practice."When my mind shall be restored to its former tranquillity, I will retire to some deep solitude; where with my books, and, perhaps, one friend, I will spend my years, and with a free uncontrolled mind, survey from the safe shore the tempests raging upon the ocean. Then I shall not envy monarchs their power and their pleasures; usurers their wealth; nor Montaur the glory of governing the state."* Petrarch, too:-can any thing be more delightful to the imagination, than the subjoined passages from Petrarch's letters ?-We almost seem to have Seneca and the younger Pliny before us. I love, or I hate these passages the more, since to them I trace many of the events, and a great portion of that peculiar ambition, by which, from early life, I have felt myself to be actuated." These friends of mine regard the pleasures of the world as the supreme good; they do not comprehend that it is possible to renounce these pleasures. They are ignorant of my resources. I have friends whose society is delightful to me; they are persons of all countries and of all ages,-distinguished in war, in council, and in letters. Easy to live with, always at my command, they come at my call, and return when I desire them: they are never out of humour, and they answer all my questions with readiness. Some present in review before me the events of past ages; others reveal to me the secrets of Nature: these teach me how to live, and those how to die these dispel my melancholy by their mirth, and amuse me by their sallies of wit; and some there are, who prepare my soul to suffer every thing, to desire nothing, and to become thoroughly acquainted with myself. In a word, they open a door to all the arts and sciences. As a reward of such services, they require only a corner of my little house, where they may be safely sheltered from the depredations of their enemies." Men are known by their letters; and Petrarch was in the habit of recording his thoughts, feelings, and actions, so freely and so agreeably, that I know not in what manner an elegant reader may know him to the very bottom of his heart, better than by perusing them. As to his * Recuperata animi Tranquillitate mihi, &c.—Ep. xlvi. Latin works, Paul Cortese* seems to have thought, that a new edition of them would redound but little to the profit of the bookseller, or the amusement of the public; and yet I cannot but think, that his De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ,-his De Vera Sapientia;-his De Vita Solitaria, his De Contemptu Mundi,-his De seis ipsius et multorum Ignorantia, and especially his Epistolæ Familiares, are not only well worthy translation, but of a very frequent perusal. Augustus had several moles on his body; among which were seven disposed after the manner of Ursa Major. Petrarch, in the same manner, had moles on his bosom, in no small degree resembling the eight principal stars of Orion; except that the peculiar one in the belt, which is immediately on the ecliptic, was in Petrarch larger, instead of being smaller than the rest. What the Prophets of those days said of these remarkable signs, I do not know; but they certainly never induced the poet to sing after the manner of a Spanish poet. In the green season of my flowering years, And wept thy follies in my wisest strains. LOPE DE VEGA.-LORD HOLLAND. No!-Petrarch was a lover to the last moment of his life. Gabriel is supposed, according to the Gospel of Barnabas, to be occupied in revealing the secrets of God; Michael to engage his enemies; Raphael to receive the souls of the dying; and Uriel to call up every one before the Seat of Judgment. Petrarch seems to have thought, at various periods of life, that Laura was commissioned with all these offices: for sometimes she appeared to him in dreams; sometimes she screened him (at least in his imagination) from enemies; sometimes she seemed ready to receive his parting breath; and at other times to lead him to the Seat of Judgment, in order to plead his cause. Petrarch was one of the earliest revivers of Letters; and one of the first who signalized any desire of procuring and preserving the celebrated remains of ancient authors. He delighted to wander among the ruins of that celebrated city, which, for so many centuries, had commanded the destinies of so many illustrious and barbarous nations. He lamented with his friend Poggio Bracciolini,† that, in his time, only six statues, five in marble and one in brass, remained in the palaces of Rome; and that in no quarter of Europe was the City, built for eternity, less known, than in that city itself. Passionately attached to letters, he became the friend of many illustrious characters; and even Sovereigns delighted to know and to befriend him. He was, indeed, more extensively known, than any of the petty princes of his age. The Prince of Parma,t the Princes of * De Hominibus doctis, p. 7. Ed. Flor. 1734. + De Varietate Fortunæ, p. 20. Qui enim hodie ignari rerum Romanorum sunt, quàm Romani cives? Invitus dico, nusquam minus Roma cognoscitur quam Romæ. Epist. Fam. vi. Ep. 2. § Azzo di Corregio. |