rillon, like our Stillingfleet, on the
_Art of Conversation_; and a lively writer has discussed the subjects of
_Humour and Wit_.

Giannetazzi, an Italian Jesuit, celebrated for his Latin poetry, has
composed two volumes of poems on _Fishing_ and _Navigation_. Fracastor
has written delicately on an indelicate subject, his _Syphilis_. Le Brun
wrote a delectable poem on _Sweetmeats_; another writer on _Mineral
Waters_, and a third on _Printing_. Vida pleases with his _Silk-worms_,
and his _Chess_; Buchanan is ingenious with the _Sphere_. Malapert has
aspired to catch the _Winds_; the philosophic Huet amused himself with
_Salt_ and again with _Tea_. The _Gardens_ of Rapin is a finer poem than
critics generally can write; Quillet's _Callipedia_, or Art of getting
handsome Children, has been translated by Rowe; and Du Fresnoy at length
gratifies the connoisseur with his poem on _Painting_, by the
embellishments which his verses have received from the poetic diction of
Mason, and the commentary of Reynolds.

This list might be augmented with a few of our own poets, and there
still remain some virgin themes which only require to be touched by the
hand of a true poet. In the "Memoirs of Trevoux," they observe, in their
review of the poem on _Gold_, "That poems of this kind have the
advantage of instructing us very agreeably. All that has been most
remarkably said on the subject is united, compressed in a luminous
order, and dressed in all the agreeable graces of poetry. Such writers
have no little difficulties to encounter: the style and expression cost
dear; and still more to give to an arid topic an agreeable form, and to
elevate the subject without falling into another extreme.--In the other
kinds of poetry the matter assists and prompts genius; here we must
possess an abundance to display it."

PAMPHLETS.

Myles Davis's "ICON LIBELLORUM, or a Critical History Pamphlets,"
affords some curious information; and as this is a _pamphlet_-reading
age, I shall give a sketch of its contents.

The author observes: "From PAMPHLETS may be learned the genius of the
age, the debates of the learned, the follies of the ignorant, the
_bevues_ of government, and the mistakes of the courtiers. Pamphlets
furnish beaus with their airs, coquettes with their charms. Pamphlets
are as modish ornaments to gentlewomen's toilets as to gentlemen's
pockets; they carry reputation of wit and learning to all that make them
their companions; t