in pleasing the fair sex; poetry is most
adapted to persuade women; but otherwise it has been of no service to me,
and has, I fear, rendered me unfit for many advantageous occupations, in
which I might have drudged. The esteem of the fair has, however, charmed
away my complaints. This good fortune has been obtained by me, at the cost
of many cares, and an unsubdued patience; for I am one of those who, in
affairs of love, will suffer an entire year, to taste the pleasures of one
day."

This character of Cantenac has some local features; for an English poet
would hardly console himself with so much gaiety. The Frenchman's
attachment to the ladies seems to be equivalent to the advantageous
occupations he had lost. But as the miseries of a literary man, without
conspicuous talents, are always the same at Paris as in London, there are
some parts of this character of Cantenac which appear to describe them
with truth. Cantenac was a man of honour; as warm in his resentment as his
gratitude; but deluded by literary vanity, he became a writer in prose and
verse, and while he saw the prospects of life closing on him, probably
considered that the age was unjust. A melancholy example for certain
volatile and fervent spirits, who, by becoming authors, either submit
their felicity to the caprices of others, or annihilate the obscure
comforts of life, and, like him, having "been told that their mind is
brilliant, and that they have a certain manner in turning a thought,"
become writers, and complain that they are "often melancholy, owing to
their numerous disappointments." Happy, however, if the obscure, yet too
sensible writer, can suffer an entire year, for the enjoyment of a single
day! But for this, a man must have been born in France.

* * * * *

ON READING.

Writing is justly denominated an art; I think that reading claims the same
distinction. To adorn ideas with elegance is an act of the mind superior
to that of receiving them; but to receive them with a happy discrimination
is the effect of a practised taste.

Yet it will be found that taste alone is not sufficient to obtain the
proper end of reading. Two persons of equal taste rise from the perusal of
the same book with very different notions: the one will have the ideas of
the author at command, and find a new train of sentiment awakened; while
the other quits his author in a pleasing distraction, but of the pleasures
of reading nothin