face to his
"Metrical Romances," he describes himself as "brought to an end in ill
health and low spirits--certain to be insulted by a base and prostitute
gang of lurking assassins who stab in the dark, and whose poisoned
daggers he has already experienced." Scott, of Amwell, never recovered
from a ludicrous criticism, which I discovered had been written by a
physician who never pretended to poetical taste.

Pelisson has recorded a literary anecdote, which forcibly shows the
danger of caustic criticism. A young man from a remote province came to
Paris with a play, which he considered as a masterpiece. M. L'Etoile was
more than just in his merciless criticism. He showed the youthful bard a
thousand glaring defects in his chef-d'oeuvre. The humbled country
author burnt his tragedy, returned home, took to his chamber, and died
of vexation and grief. Of all unfortunate men, one of the unhappiest is
a middling author endowed with too lively a sensibility for criticism.
Athenaeus, in his tenth book, has given us a lively portrait of this
melancholy being. Anaxandrides appeared one day on horseback in the
public assembly at Athens, to recite a dithyrambic poem, of which he
read a portion. He was a man of fine stature, and wore a purple robe
edged with golden fringe. But his complexion was saturnine and
melancholy, which was the cause that he never spared his own writings.
Whenever he was vanquished by a rival, he immediately gave his
compositions to the druggists to be cut into pieces to wrap their
articles in, without ever caring to revise his writings. It is owing to
this that he destroyed a number of pleasing compositions; age increased
his sourness, and every day he became more and more dissatisfied with
the awards of his auditors. Hence his "Tereus," because it failed to
obtain the prize, has not reached us, which, with other of his
productions, deserved preservation, though they had missed the crown
awarded by the public.

Batteux having been chosen by the French government for the compilation
of elementary hooks for the Military School, is said to have felt their
unfavourable reception so acutely, that he became a prey to excessive
grief. The lamentable death of Dr. Hawkesworth was occasioned by a
similar circumstance. Government had consigned to his care the
compilation of the voyages that pass under his name: how he succeeded is
well known. He felt the public reception so sensibly, that he preferred
the oblivion of