moft people in France it was called la chimere de M. Saxe. However, he imbarked fome troops, and with them 10,000 faddles for horfes which he was to find here. I fuppofe that our Jacobites affured him, that our horfes were Jacobites; for I am fure they reprefented many of our men as fuch, with lefs reafon. None of our horfes, I believe, ever faid they were not Jacobites, no not even that learned horfe which was the wonder of our learned perfons of quality; but most of our men whom our Jacobites reprefented as fuch, had not only faid, but fworn, that they were not Jacobites; nay, they had done more, they had declared they were not Jaco. bites. But thofe British winds which fo opportunely declared themselves against Jacobitifm at the time of the revolution, continue ftill, it feems, in the fame fentiments; for they put an end to M. Saxe's

Tir'd with thy freaks, the hopeless chace give o'er:
And had I caught the game, what could I more?-
Like sportsmen, lovers hunt the beauteous prey,
Through ev'ry fecret, fubtile, winding way.
The prey efcapes.-What then?-Fatigu'd, they
yield

The prize, pleas'd with the chace, and quit the
field.
Is the game caught a little while they view
The panting thing; the fport is o'er; adieu.-
Sated alike: Here all the diff'rence lies;
Tir'd of the chace, or weary'd of the prize.

Thus fares the love which Fancy's bofom fires,
A fhort-liv'd flame, that blazes, and expires;
An airy form, which at a distance charms,
But fhuns th'imbrace, or mocks our empty arms.

Friendship alone the facred charm imparts
That fixes beauty's empire o'er our hearts;
Friendship alone can love's fweet joys fecure,.
And to the genial add the focial hour,
Refine each paffion, harmonize the whole,
And touch the string that thrills from foul to foul.
June 25. 1757.
PHILO.

To Chloe, at her lodge fo fweet in
His Lordship's park,-J- H- greeting.
Hereas on the fixteenth of May,

chimera [vi. 145.]. Again, in the year W-97, (that's year and day),

1745, when the young pretender, the young adventurer, as they call him, was here, the French, I know, were invited to invade us. But the French and our Jacobites here difagreed about who should begin. The Jacobites infifted that the French fhould first invade: on the other hand, the French infifted that the Jacobites fhould first rise in arms; which the Jacobites in this part of the united kingdom refufed, in which they acted more wifely than their friends did in Scotland, as appeared from the fequel; which was a new proof that the French court will never seriously think of invading this country, whilft they believe that our government will be supported by the people; and I fhall never be for giving them any ground to believe otherwife; for which reason I must be against agreeing to the Noble Lord's motion.

[This Journal to be continued.]

For the SCOTS MAGAZINE, if it shall be thought worthy of a place there. If not, let it be committed to the fire.- It was its author's fate, to confume in a hopeless flame.

A farewell to FANTASTIC LOVE, and a young coquette, the object of it.

The vifion's fled; I've broke the charm at
laft;

Your letter fafe was brought by Peter,
(Yours was in profe, but mine's in metre),
Wherein you order to be fent ye,

From London, (mind they are but lent ye),
Tallo; Orlando Furiofe;

Harvey; (which by the by's but fo fo);
With Dodley's volumes four; and alfo
The book which the Reviews do maul fo:
'This, my fair faint, goes poft from town,
To let you know they're all fent down;
With t'other order there, fo puzzling,
Of ribbons, pins, tape, fhoes, and muslin.
As to the ladies' drefs in fashion,
I've yet obferv'd no alteration.
Naked before, and eke behind,
The pretty creatures wear a kind
Of a gauze cloud, or fine-pun wind.

I call'd last night at Mrs Lynch's,
Who fays the ftays are fall'n two inches;
And at the fame time begs I'll let ye
Know, with her duty, that the petti
Coats are at least four inches rais'd;
For which be Cytherea prais'd!
For now I hope, and hope is fweet,
Ere Auguft, to fee both ends meet.
'I've news to tell you, (not in rhyme),
For which I'll take fome other time:
I'm for Vauxhall; fo reft your fervent
Admirer and

Devoted Servant,

Characters, &c. of DOUGLAS, a tragedy,
Mr HUME's dedication of his Four Dif-
fertations, which were published, at
London, in the beginning of February.
To the Rev. Mr HOME, author of Dou-
glas, a tragedy.
My dear Sir,

IT

T was the practice of the ancients, to addrefs their compofitions only to friends and equals; and to render their dedications, monuments of regard and affection, not of fervility and flattery. In those days of ingenuous and candid liberty, a dedication did honour to the perfon to whom it was addreffed, with out degrading the author. If any partiality appeared towards the patron, it was at least the partiality of friendship and affection.

Another inftance of true liberty, of which ancient times can alone afford us an example, is the liberty of thought; which engaged men of letters, however different in their abftract opinions, to maintain a mutual friendship and regard; and never to quarrel about principles, while they agreed in inclinations and manners. Science was often the fubject of difputation, never of animofity. Cicero, an Academic, addreffed his philofophical treatifes, fometimes to Brutus, a Stoic; fometimes to Atticus, an Epi

curean.

engaged me to make this addrefs to you,
than my esteem of your character, and
nerofity of mind which ever accompa
affection to your perfon. That ge-
my
nies you; that cordiality of friendship,
that fpirited honour and integrity, have
long interested me ftrongly in your be-
half, and have made me defirous, that
a monument of our mutual amity should
be publicly erected, and, if poffible, be
preferved to pofterity.

:

I own too, that I have the ambition to be the first who fhall in public express his admiration of your noble tragedy of Douglas one of the most interesting and pathetic pieces that was ever exhibited on any theatre. Should I give it the preference to the Merope of Maffei, and to that of Voltaire, which it resembles in its fubject; should I affirm, that it contained more fire and fpirit than the former, more tenderness and fimplicity than the latter; I might be accused of partiality and how could I entirely acquit myself, after the profeffions of friendship which I have made you? But the unfeigned tears which flowed from every eye, in the numerous reprefentations which were made of it on this theatre; the unparallelled command which you appeared to have over every affection of the human breast; these are incontestable proofs, that you poffefs the true theatrical genius of Shakespear and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarifm of the one, and licentioufness of the other.

I have been seized with a ftrong defire of renewing these laudable practices of antiquity, by addreffing the following differtations to you, my good friend: My enemies, you know, and I own for fuch I will ever call and esteem you, even fometimes my friends, have renotwithstanding the oppofition which proached me with the love of paradoxes prevails between us, with regard to ma- and fingular opinions; and I expect to ny of our speculative tenets. Thefe dif- be expofed to the fame imputation, on ferences of opinion I have only found account of the character which I have to enliven our conversation; while our here given of your Douglas. I fhall be common paffion for fcience and letters told, no doubt, that I had artfully choferved as a cement to our friendship. I fen the only time when this high esteem ftill admired your genius, even when I of that piece could be regarded as a paimagined, that you lay under the influ- radox, to wit, before its publication; ence of prejudice; and you fometimes and that not being able to contradict, in told me, that you excufed my errors, this particular, the fentiments of the puon account of the candor and fincerity blic, I have, at leaft, refolved to go which, you thought, accompanied them. fore them. But I fhall be amply comBut to tell truth, it is lefs my admi- penfated for all thefe pleafantries, if you ration of your fine genius, which has accept this teftimony of my regard, and VOL. XIX. U U

be

believe

believe me to be, with the greatest fin- terefting, would greatly diminish our cerity, dear Sir, your most affectionate pleasure in the representation. friend, and humble fervant,

Edin. Jan. 3. 1757. DAVID HUME. CRITICAL REVIEW, March 1757. These critics begin this article with quoting the paffage of Mr Hume's de-, dication which ends, I might be accufed of partiality [293], and then fay, And fo indeed, in our opinion, he might, with great juftice: for though we are ready to allow much to the bias of friendship and affection, yet would we beg leave to put this author in mind, that there is fomething alfo due to truth, tafte, and judgment, which we cannot think any man hath a right to facrifice, even to the most intimate private con

nections."

They next obferve, that the wellknown line in Horace,

Neve minor, neu fit quinto productior aðtu, though adopted by modern critics as an inconteftable maxim, has fpoiled many more good plays than it has made; that it was a law utterly unknown to the mafters of the Grecian theatre, thofe models of perfection; that their tragedies confifted of one continued act, longer or fhorter according to the fubject, together with the occafional interruption of the chorus; that there can be no more impropriety in a tragedy of three acts than in a comedy of two, many of which have been lately feen; and that the univerfal opinion concerning the fmall merit of the two firft acts of Douglas, makes it prefumable that this piece might admit of fome contraction.

They then proceed to examine feparately the fable, characters, fentiments, and diction. We refer to the fable as already inferted from the Gentleman's Magazine [138.], and fhall give the Critical Reviewers examination in their own words, viz.

The friking resemblance of the plot, in its principal features, to others which have been fo lately treated by our modern tragic poets *, were it ever fo in

*It is fo like Merope [xi. 190.], especially in the beginning, that it is impoffible not to feel the fimilitude: the fentiments must be confequently

The difcovery is, perhaps, made too early, and cafts a difagreeable fhade over all the other scenes.

The catastrophe is awkwardly brought about, the jealoufy of Randolph too precipitately caught, and without foundation. Befides that it doth not fufficiently appear what advantages Glenalvon would reap from the effects of this difcord, as it might poffibly have ended, not only in the deftruction of Norval, (or Douglas), but alfo in the death of Matilda, the woman he loved.

To this we may add, that the fate of Douglas and Matilda, who are both innocent, is fcarce reconcileable with poetical juftice, which feems to have been violated by their deaths; fo that the audience have reafon to cry out with Lady Randolph †,

Hear, Juftice, hear; are these the fruits of virtue?

As to the characters, there is fcarce one in it, except Douglas; which indeed is tolerably well fupported.

The fentiments which we meet with in this tragedy, though but thinly fown, are for the most part adapted to the characters, and make their appearance with fome degree of propriety; and to them it is, in our opinion, that Douglas is principally indebted for its fuccefs.

When Lady Randolph tells us, in the first act, that fhe took an equivocal oath the never would marry (because at this time fhe was already married) one of Douglas's name, fhe adds the following reflection, which naturally arifes on

the occafion,