urely know full well;
That labour is essential here below
To man--a source of weal instead of woe:
The other truth, few words suffice to prove,
No blame attaches to the life I love.
So still attend--but I must say no more,
I plainly see, you wish my sermon o'er;
You gape, you close your eyes, you drop your chin,
Again methinks I'd better not begin.
Besides, these melons seem to wish to know
The reason why they are neglected so;
And ask if yonder village holds its feast
And thou awhile art there detained a guest,
While all the flowery tribes make sad complaint.
For want of water they are grown quite faint.

_Tipton._ T.S.A.

[4] Anteuil, near Paris.

[5] Horace speaks thus to his steward in the country. Epistle
xiv. book 1.

[6] Lewis XIV.

[7] See Ode sur la prise de Namur.

[8] This metaphor has been considered too bold, and perhaps
justly, but _Despreaux_ did not think it so. He observed to _M.
Dagnesseau_ that if this line were not good, he might burn the
whole production.

* * * * *

THE SELECTOR, AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS._

* * * * *

LIVES OF BRITISH PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS.

_By Allan Cunningham._

This volume is the first of a series of Lives of Artists, and the fourth
number of Murray's _Family Library_. The author is a first-rate poet,
but it appears that he undertook this task with some diffidence. We
have, however, few artists of literary attainments, and they are more
profitably employed than in authorship. Little apology was necessary,
for of all literary men, poets are best calculated to write on the Fine
Arts: and the genius of Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, and Music, is often
associated in one mind, in love of the subjects at least, if not in
practice.

Prefixed to the "Lives," is a delightful chapter on British Art before
the birth of Hogarth, from which we quote the following:--

"Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, and Music, are the natural offspring of
the heart of man. They are found among the most barbarous nations; they
flourish among the most civilized; and springing from nature, and not
from necessity or accident, they can never be wholly lost in the most
disastrous changes. In this they differ from mere inventions; and,
compared with mechanical discoveries, are what a living tree is to a log
of wood. It may indeed