olycrates commended Tyranny; Phavorinus sets forth the praises of
Injustice; and Cardan pronounced the eulogy of Nero. The Golden Ass of
Apulcius is well known; Henry Cornelius Agrippa has employed his wit and
learning on an elaborate "Digression in praise of the Asse." Other
authors have discovered virtues and excellencies in this animal, though
the generality of mankind have agreed in supposing it possessed nothing
remarkable but dulness and obstinacy. Lucian exercised his genius on a
fly; and Erasmus has dignified Folly in his _Encomium Moriae_, which, for
the sake of the pun, he inscribed to Sir Thomas More. The subject of
Michael Psellus is a Gnat; Antonius Majoragius took for his theme Clay;
Julius Scaliger wrote concerning a Goose; Janus Dousa on a Shadow; and
Heinsius (_horresco referens_) eulogized a Louse. This last animal
elicited some fine moral verses from Burns; Libanus thought the Ox
worthy of his pen; and Sextus Empiricus selected the faithful Dog.
Addison composed the Battle of the Pigmies and Cranes; Rochester
versified about Nothing; and Johannes Passeratius made a Latin poem on
the same subject, which is quoted at full length by Dr. Johnson at the
end of his Life of Rochester. The Jeffreidos were written to commemorate
the perils to which Sir Jeoffrey Hudson was exposed; Sir William Jones
thought Chess worthy of the epopee; and at the foot of this list of
egregious triflers, we place Dr. Raphael Thorius, who wrote a much and
often praised Latin poem on the Virtues of Tobacco.

Now, to most of our readers, this last theme would seem to offer fewer
inducements to the poet's pen than any of those thus enumerated; and
genius could scarcely have selected one, which seemed less ennobling in
itself, or rather, which at once presented such palpable
discouragements, from the coarse associations connected with it, and the
cureless vulgarity and nauseousness with which the whole subject appears
to be invested. In opposition to so many obstacles and dissuasives, this
great man yielded to the impulse of his muse, and obtained an
immortality to which no other action of his life would have entitled
him. It is with unaffected regret that we are compelled to state, that,
to procure a sight of this celebrated poem, we have ransacked our
libraries without the least success. How painful is the reflection, that
perhaps this work has never yet reached the United States! What a
reproach to our republic, that a poem whose ob