not find partisans, the same author
informs us of a rhetorician, who was so great an admirer of obscurity,
that he always exhorted his scholars to preserve it; and made them
correct, as blemishes, those passages of their works which appeared to
him too intelligible. Quintilian adds, that the greatest panegyric they
could give to a composition in that school was to declare, "I understand
nothing of this piece." Lycophron possessed this taste, and he protested
that he would hang himself if he found a person who should understand
his poem, called the "Prophecy of Cassandra." He succeeded so well, that
this piece has been the stumbling-block of all the grammarians,
scholiasts, and commentators; and remains inexplicable to the present
day. Such works Charpentier admirably compares to those subterraneous
places, where the air is so thick and suffocating, that it extinguishes
all torches. A most sophistical dilemma, on the subject of _obscurity_,
was made by Thomas Anglus, or White, an English Catholic priest, the
friend of Sir Kenelm Digby. This learned man frequently wandered in the
mazes of metaphysical subtilties; and became perfectly unintelligible to
his readers. When accused of this obscurity, he replied, "Either the
learned understand me, or they do not. If they understand me, and find
me in an error, it is easy for them to refute me; if they do not
understand me, it is very unreasonable for them to exclaim against my
doctrines."

This is saying all that the wit of man can suggest in favour of
_obscurity_! Many, however, will agree with an observation made by
Gravina on the over-refinement of modern composition, that "we do not
think we have attained genius, till others must possess as much
themselves to understand us." Fontenelle, in France, followed by
Marivaux, Thomas, and others, first introduced that subtilised manner of
writing, which tastes more natural and simple reject; one source of such
bitter complaints of obscurity.

LITERARY DUTCH.

Pere Bohours seriously asks if a German _can be a_ BEL ESPRIT? This
concise query was answered by Kramer, in a ponderous volume which bears
for title, _Vindiciae nominis Germanici_. This mode of refutation does
not prove that the question was _then_ so ridiculous as it was
considered. The Germans of the present day, although greatly superior to
their ancestors, there are who opine are still distant from the _acme_
of TASTE, which characterises the finished compositi