charge of carbonic acid gas, and for so long a time, as to give the idea of an immense depth of water." He adds, “the sulphureous smell is so strong, that when the wind assists, it has sometimes been perceived in the highest parts of Rome”. a distance, I should think, of from ten to fifteen miles. The grove mentioned by Virgil is now reduced to a few stunted trees, standing on a sterile plain covered with unsightly weeds. The scene is strikingly desolate and disagreeable. In the spring of 1822 I visited it in company with two friends. We walked round the lake, leaving our horses in charge of a courier. As we were on the point of remounting, one of the party called our attention to something emerging from the weeds on the opposite side. For a moment he supposed it to be one of the floating islets, of which he had just been speaking, and we paused to observe it. We were, however, soon convinced that it was a living being; but as we could literally see nothing but a pair of distended nostrils moving through the water, and two large eyes at a distance behind them, we were utterly at a loss to conjecture to what they could by possibility belong.

The monster was evidently making towards us, and when about the middle of the lake, it raised two very long, dark, shaggy ears, as if by way of attracting our attention, and then suddenly let them sink. The horses started, and we stood in silent amaze. Again the ears were raised, and again let fall. I do not know how I looked, but throwing a glance on one of my companions, who was of a florid complexion, I saw he had become as pale as death; and I told him afterwards, I was sure that, for the moment, he was not far from believing in the poet's account. At length we discovered the object of our wonder to be a young ass, nearly black, which, having fallen into the lake, and being unable to get out, was on the point of perishing. In its extremity it had the sense to make towards us for assistance, but in such an exhausted state, as only just to be able to keep its nostrils and eyes above the water

as it slowly swam, and we had great difficulty in helping it to land. Certainly I never experienced any thing like so much perplexity as from this extraordinary combination of such an incident with such a scene, and had the animal sunk before we had ascertained what it was, regard for my credit would have prevented me from ever mentioning the occurrence.

LIFE.

Life without some necessity for exertion must ever lack real interest. That state is capable of the greatest enjoyment, where necessity urges, but not painfully; where effort is required, but as much as possible without anxiety; where the spring and summer of life are preparatory to the harvest of autumn and the repose of winter. Then is every season sweet, and in a well-spent life the last the best—the season of calm enjoyment, the richest in recollections, the brightest in hope. Good training and a fair start constitute a more desirable patrimony than wealth; and those parents who study their children's welfare rather than the gratification of their own avarice or vanity, would do well to think of this. Is it better to run a successful race, or to begin and end at the goal?

A little method is worth a great deal of memory.

The flatterers of kings and princes have ever been held in deserved hatred and contempt. In this country they seem nearly to have had their day, but their successors, the courtiers of the people, are equally contemptible, and much more pernicious.

The art of government is the most difficult, the noblest, and the most important of all arts, and it is the most ineffi

ciently practised and the least understood. Well might the chancellor of Sweden say to his son, "You know not with how little wisdom the world is governed !"

LOCKE'S OPINION OF THE GOSPEL.

The gospel contains so perfect a body of ethics, that reason may be excused from the inquiry, since she may find man's duty clearer and easier in revelation than in herself.— Letter to Molyneux, March 30th, 1696.

ANECDOTE OF DUNNING.

I once heard Horne Tooke relate the following anecdote illustrative of the personal appearance of Dunning Lord Ashburton, who was the most celebrated lawyer of his day. When it was the custom for barristers to leave chambers early, and to finish their evenings at the coffee-houses in the neighbourhood of the inns of court, Lord Thurlow on some occasion wanted to see Dunning privately. He went to the coffee-house frequented by him, and asked a waiter if Mr. Dunning was there. The waiter, who was new in his place, said he did not know him. "Not know him!" exclaimed Thurlow with his usual oaths; "go into the room up stairs, and if you see any gentleman like the knave of clubs, tell him he is particularly wanted." The waiter went up, and forthwith re-appeared followed by Dunning.

Notice. I purpose ere long to enter upon three subjects of interest and importance:-the art of dining and giving dinners; the art of travelling; and the art of attaining high health—all from experience.

LONDON:

IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

THE ORIGINAL.

BY THOMAS WALKER, M.A.

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

BARRISTER AT LAW, AND ONE OF THE POLICE MAGISTRATES OF THE METROPOLIS.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 12 O'CLOCK, BY H. RENSHAW, 356, STRAND, NEARLY OPPOSITE WELLINGTON STREET.

No. II.]

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1835.

[PRICE 3d.

REMARKS ON THE LIFE OF NUMA.

In my preceding number I promised to give a captivating example from ancient history of the true spirit of government. As the best preparation of the minds of my readers for the doctrines I hold, I think I cannot do better than give it now. It is an extract from a sort of schoolboy translation, though not without merit, of Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius, published under Dryden's name. In point of matter it is to me of exquisite sweetness and beauty, surpassing anything I am acquainted with. I am aware that latterly it has become the fashion to doubt the authenticity of such accounts, and to accompany doubts with sneers; but according to my idea of human nature there is in the following narration a much greater air of truth than of fiction, and the long career of Roman greatness, in war and peace, seems to me the strongest confirmation of the received accounts of the respective characters of Romulus and Numa-just as Athenian greatness may most naturally be attributed to Solon, that of Sparta to Lycurgus, and our own to the admirable Alfred, each government taking its impress from the character of its principal organizer. They who doubt such causes of undeniable re

C

sults, involve themselves in greater difficulties; as Grotius says of those who disbelieve the miracles of the christian religion, that to suppose its long continuance and wide spread accomplished by other means, is to suppose a greater miracle than all. We may say of this Life of Numa, what Fox in his History adds after the description of a virtuous character— who would not wish it to be true? There is indeed somewhat prevalent now a base mindedness, a sort of satanic envy and dislike of superiority, which makes many turn away from the contemplation of what is good and great-but let us hope for better times.

LIFE OF NUMA.

Numa was endued with a soul rarely tempered by nature and disposed to virtue, and excellently improved by learning, patience, and the studies of philosophy; by which advantages he had utterly extirpated not only all such disorderly motions of the mind as are universally esteemed vile and mean, but even all inclination to violence and oppression, which had once an honourable esteem amongst the barbarous nations, being persuaded that there was no other fortitude than that which subdued the affections and reduced them to the terms and restraints of reason.

Upon this account, whilst he banished all luxury and softness from his own home, and offered his best assistance to any citizen or stranger that would make use of him, in nature of an upright judge or faithful counsellor, and make use of what leisure hours he had to himself, not in pursuit of pleasure, or acquisition of profit and wealth, but in the worship of the immortal gods, and in the rational contemplation of their divine power and nature, his name grew so very famous that Tatius, who was Romulus' associate in the kingdom of Rome, chose to make him his son-in-law, bestowing upon him his