s with manlier cadence o'er the strings.

_P._ The page austere of learned Jonson[17] suits you.

_C. M._ Yes--'tis a noble and a virtuous muse,
But still her range is rugged and confined.
No. I'll have one who conquers all--'tis Shakspeare,[18]
Whose genius now with rapid wing sublime,
Soars with strong course, like generous Massinger;
Now warbles forth her "native wood notes wild,"
In tones more sweet than Fletcher's tender lays.
Now with strong arrows steeped in caustic wit,
Like Jonson, stabs the follies of the times,
Deep in the "heart's core:" He's the bard I seek,
He always joy'd in me, and I in him.
He will revive the glory of the stage.
Then all the puny bards of modern days,
Scar'd at his looks, shall fly; as birds of night,
Shun the full blaze of heaven's refulgent orb.

[Footnote 7: I congratulate Mr. S. on his promotion to office.
Certainly a person of his rigid economy will discharge the duties
of treasurer of the navy, with the utmost precision; nor could a
properer man be fixed on to manage public business of a pecuniary
nature, than he who administers his own affairs with such care and
frugality. Heaven forefend then, I should object to the propriety
of his election to that office.--I only join with the muse in
lamenting his dereliction from her service.]

[Footnote 8: It is with regret that I animadvert on such a veteran
in literature as Mr. Cumberland. I admire his abilities and
attainments. I have read his Observer, particularly the papers
relating to Greek comedy, with the highest pleasure; but I think
it a disgrace to him to have carried his admiration and fondness
for that witty profligate Aristophanes to such a length as to
attempt to raise his character on the ruins of the brightest
ornament of the Heathen world, the wise and virtuous Socrates. As
to his account in his "Memoirs" of Bentley's Manuscripts, credat
judaeus.]

[Footnote 9: Mr. Colman cannot plead that, like Shakspeare, he
wishes to humour the age. This would be to insult the acknowledged
taste of many thousands of the present day. But if he is sunk so
low, as to prefer the noisy applause of the "groundlings," or
rather of the "gods," to the approbation of the judicious, who are
now "not a few," then the case is hopeless, and he must be content
to be despised by those whose esteem alone is worth