pansion, by practifing gracious airs at the mirror or elfewhere, this fingular flower clofed itself immediately. It opened again when the thought nothing about it. It had only three leaves; but these were fo beautiful and fo enchanting, that I know not by what charm their luftre communicated itfelf to the other flowers, and gave them an inineffable fweetnefs they could not have had without it.

You will easily imagine, that Elmina poffeffing the flower that never fades, and cultivating it fo carefully, became the most perfect princess of her time. The report of her fine qualities fpread around; for you know that there is a kind of a fairy called Fame, who does nothing else than run up and down in the world, and recount all that fhe knows of every perfon, whether good or bad, especially of young princeffes. Fame therefore did not ceafe to publifh the virtues and the graces of Elmina; and the people of every nation wished to have a princefs fo accomplished for their queen. The fon of the king of the Roxalans, heir of the greatest empire in the universe, undertook a long journey to fee her, and demanded her in marriage of Lindorine. Lindorine agreed to beflow Elmina upon him, not because he was the heir of the greatest empire, but because this amiable prince had alfo cultivated the flower that never fades: for there is also one for men, which is in fome respects different from that of which we have spoken.

The princefs would not quit a place fo dear to her, without going to vifit once more the bower where the precious gift had been made to her, which had occafioned her happiness.

She hoped there to find Verdurine, and to thank her once more: it was just three years from the time of her first. appearance. Elmina then put the flower which never fades into her bofom, and went thither; but in arriving at the bower, what was her furprife, to find, instead of Verdurine, Lindorine, whom she had left in the house.

“I am, said the fairy to her, fhe whom you feek. It was me who gave you the flower, under the figure of Verdurine; and it is me who have aided you to cultivate it under that of Lindorine. My task is happily accomplished; the flower fhall continue always fresh, and Elmina fhall

be always lovely and ever beloved: for the virtues of the heart, and the graces of a cultivated mind, confer a charm which nothing can efface." The princefs threw herfelf at the feet of her benefactress, and the fairy tenderly embraced her dear princefs, and then took an aerian form, and disappeared.

Elmina melted in tenderness and diftrefs, held out her hands, and called her back. The prince ran to confole her, and carried her into his empire, where they lived together many years in great happiness.

Journal Encyclopedique.

Intelligence refpecting Arts, &c.

Panopticon.

THE editor has juft received, by the favour of an obliging friend, fketches of the plan and elevation of the panopticon or new penitentiary houfe, announced in the eleventh number of the Bee-which promifes to be a most important discovery, and will doubtlefs be very generally adopted. It is fortunate that it will he published before the new erection of that fort in this country fhall be begun. The work is not yet completed, otherwife the editor would have published the plan in this performance directly. This he will do, as foon as he shall be in poffeffion of the whole, so as to be able to give a complete view of all the parts. What he has got at prefent, can only give a general idea of the plan; which he will readily communicate, if defired, to the magistrates of this city, or any other perfon interested in this great national work.

To the Editor of the Bee.

SIR, I OBSERVE that you have made confiderable extracts from the mifcellanies in profe and verfe, lately printed here. The following article, as well as feveral others by the same hand, was intended for a place in that volume, but arrived too late. If you think the present proper for your publication, I fhall perhaps tranfmit you some other articles of a fimilar nature.

AMICUS.

THIS vifionary poet

Remarks on Dr. Young's Night Thoughts.

"Makes sweet religion "A rhapsody of words."

SHAKESPEARE *,

$ -I wonder not that his fon Lorenzo was an infidel. In this age, we have two authors prodigiously great in the outrè ftyle; one in verfe, and one in profe; one serious, the other comical. They are both much admired by the multitude of readers, com

* None of the human faculties are longer of attaining perfection than those which serve as a bafis for a correct tafte in compofition.-Hence it happens, that young perfons, in general, admire as excellent, unnatural Vol III. U

+

monly titled by modern authors, "the refpectable pub"lic." There is a wonderful fimilarity in their talents, in quaint expreffion, wild conceit, and ftudied fetches of metaphyfical reverie. The poet is Young: The Profequixote is Sterne.

In my opinion, our celebrated enthufiaft of this country, the Reverend Mr. Ralph Erskine, in his Riddles, is lefs extravagant. I am fure, that he should at least be more amufing and tolerable, either to believers or infidels, than Dr. Young in his horrid Night Thoughts. I know no rule of criticism fo juft, so material, and fo general, as one laid down by old Horace, importing, that good sense is the only true principle and fountain of good writing and taste.

"Scribendi recte, SAPERE eft et principium et fons."

I fhall examine the Night Thoughts by this rule, after first inferting a few fpecimens of Ralph's Riddles.

"I'm here and there, and every where !
"And yet I'm neither here nor there.
"I'm fchool'd, though never at a school;
"I'm wife, and yet a natural fool!

I'm poor, and yet I nothing want!
"I'm both a Devil and a Saint !"

conceits, and extravagant flights in poetry, which, to men of taste, who have viewed the works of nature with attention, are intolerably difgufting.-Many readers, therefore, who, in their youth, have admired the works of Dr. Young, come gradually to lofe a relish for his manner of writing, as they advance in life, though it may fometimes happen, that on account of the refpect they bear for the fubject on which he writes, they are difpofed to criticife with tenderness. Men view matters of this fort, in very different lights: Some, who could freely forgive extravagance of compofition on any other fubject, have their indignation excited, when they see that extravagance employed on religious fubjects, while others think they feel the fervour of their devotion excited by thofe incomprehenfible images, which the ardour of their imagination makes them think they understand. The critique that follows feems to be dictated by the first of these confiderations, and may therefore prove unpleafing to those of the fecond clafs, who, if they defire not to have their judgment informed, will do well to pass over this effay. Edit

I could quote from the Night Thoughts many fimi lar paffages of fubtile and fantaftical antithefis; but I am afraid, that the bulk of readers would take them for charming poetry. Those who can diftinguish quaintnefs and affectation from true fublimity, will find such pallages in every page, nay, almoft in every line. However, I fhal! hazard fome fpecimens which feem to refemble Ralph's Riddles very much.

"All knowing! all unknown, and yet well-known! "Near, though remote and tho' unfathom'd, felt; "And though invifible, for ever Jeen ! —————— "Know this Lorenzo, (feem it ne'er fo strange), "Nothing can fatisfy, but what confounds; "Nothing but what aflonifbes, is true ↑. Speaking of man, he says:

"An heir of glory! a frail child of duft
"Helpless! immortal! infect infinite!
"A Worm! a God."

The "Devil" and the "Saint" are hardly fuch exaggerated oppofites as the worm" and the "God."

66

The following extracts I leave, without illuftration, to the common fenfe of the reader. I have sometimes quoted, and fometimes omitted to quote the particular Night and line at which the specimen may be found; but the Doctor's ftile is fufficiently marked.

"Procrastination is the thief of time!

"What can awake thee, unawak'd by this,
Expended Deity on human weal?

"Oh love of gold! Thou meanest of amours!

66

Night 4th, 1. 195.

Night 4th, 1. 349.

"Are paffions, then, the pagans of the foul?

+ One of the venerable ancient fathers held a very fimilar maxim, Credo quia eft impoffibile. The name of this logician was Tertullian. A great part of his works is exactly in the fame ftyle. In particular, the reft of the very paragraph now quoted, is fo grofsly indecent, that f dare not fhock the pious ear, by attempting to infert it. Yet our divines, of all defcriptions, are inceffantly appealing to the authority of this man, who was, in every refpect, au hundred and fifty degrees below Whifton or Whitefield.