the statesmen of Queen Anne; and Pope was
the friend of a peer politically eminent, and was thought, in
conjunction with him, to have written a poem, of which, if the poetry
was disregarded, the opinions were not unacceptable to the
"philosophers" of the continent.

One of the points of view in which the Author of Waverley is first
presented to us is, as a delineator of human character. When we regard
him in this light, we are struck at once by the fertility of his
invention, and the force, novelty, and fidelity of his pictures. He
brings to our minds, not abstract beings, but breathing, acting,
speaking individuals. Then what variety! What originality! What numbers!
What a gallery has he set before us! No writer but Shakspeare ever
equalled him in this respect. Others may have equalled, perhaps
surpassed him, in the elaborate finishing of some single portrait
(witness the immortal Knight and Squire of Cervantes, Fielding's Adams,
and Goldsmith's Vicar); or may have displayed, with greater skill, the
morbid anatomy of human feeling--and our slighter foibles and finer
sensibilities have been more exquisitely touched by female hands--but
none save Shakspeare has ever contributed so largely, so valuably, to
our collection of characters;--of pictures so surprisingly original,
yet, once seen, admitted immediately to be conformable to Nature. Nay,
even his anomalous beings are felt to be generally reconcilable with our
code of probabilities; and, as has been said of the supernatural
creations of Shakspeare, we are impressed with the belief, that if such
beings did exist, they would be as he has represented them.--_Edinburgh
Review._

* * * * *

MEN COMPARED WITH BEES.

(_From a continuation of "the Indicator," by Leigh Hunt._)

It has been thought, that of all animated creation, the bees present the
greatest moral likeness to man; not only because they labour and lay up
stores, and live in communities, but because they have a form of
government and a monarchy. Virgil immortalized them after a human
fashion. A writer in the time of Elizabeth, probably out of compliment
to the Virgin Queen, rendered them _dramatis personae_, and gave them a
whole play to themselves. Above all, they have been held up to us, not
only as a likeness, but as "a great moral lesson;" and this, not merely
with regard to the duties of occupation, but the form of their polity. A
monarchical government, it is said,