ab. 10, ver. 59), and treats those who
condemned the _simplicity_ of his style with a run of _bombast verses_,
that have a great many noisy elevated words in them, without any sense
at the bottom--this in Lib. iv. Fab. 6.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 113: The doctor was paid 6000_l._ to prepare the narrative of
the Voyages of Captain Cook from the rough notes. He indulged in much
pruriency of description, and occasional remarks savouring of
infidelity. They were loudly and generally condemned, and he died soon
afterwards.]

[Footnote 114: Keats is the most melancholy instance. The effect of the
severe criticism in the Quarterly Review upon his writings, is said by
Shelley to have "appeared like madness, and he was with difficulty
prevented from suicide." He never recovered its baneful effect; and when
he died in Rome, desired his epitaph might be, "Here lies one whose name
was writ in water." The tombstone in the Protestant cemetery is
nameless, and simply records that "A young English poet" lies there.]

VIRGINITY.

The writings of the Fathers once formed the studies of the learned.
These labours abound with that subtilty of argument which will repay the
industry of the inquisitive, and the antiquary may turn them over for
pictures of the manners of the age. A favourite subject with Saint
Ambrose was that of Virginity, on which he has several works; and
perhaps he wished to revive the order of the vestals of ancient Rome,
which afterwards produced the institution of Nuns. From his "Treatise on
Virgins," written in the fourth century, we learn the lively impressions
his exhortations had made on the minds and hearts of girls, not less in
the most distant provinces, than in the neighbourhood of Milan, where he
resided. The Virgins of Bologna, amounting only, it appears, to the
number of twenty, performed all kinds of needlework, not merely to gain
their livelihood, but also to be enabled to perform acts of liberality,
and exerted their industry to allure other girls to join the holy
profession of VIRGINITY. He exhorts daughters, in spite of their
parents, and even their lovers, to consecrate themselves. "I do not
blame marriage," he says, "I only show the advantages of VIRGINITY."

He composed this book in so florid a style, that he considered it
required some apology. A Religious of the Benedictines published a
translation in 1689.

So sensible was St. Ambrose of the _rarity_ of the profession he would
estab