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MILTON'S LOVE OF MUSIC.

MILTON, we suspect, is generally believed by

the gay and thoughtless to have been an austere crabbed Puritan, hostile to all the elegancies and enjoyments of life; but this is a great mistake. His love of music, for instance, was glowing and profound. From among other testimonials in its praise, take the following fine passage in his "Tractate on Education," which, of itself, is music.

"The interval of convenient rest after meat, may both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and composing the travailed spirits, with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learnt: either while the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty figures, or the whole symphony, with artful and unimaginable touches, does adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute, or soft organ-stop, waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil ditties, which have power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle, from rustic harshness and distempered passions."

VOL. III.

H

THOMAS MOORE.

THIS Poet, whose lyrical effusions have so eminently distinguished him above his contemporaries, is a native of Dublin, but has long been a resident in England. His Cottage (a view of which we present the reader with) is beautifull situated about five miles west of Devizes, in Wiltshire. It was selected, we understand, by Mr. Moore, on account of its vicinity to Bowood, the seat of the Marquess of Lansdown, whose friendship our Poet is honoured with.

Mr. Moore's songs are exquisite as productions of splendour, fancy, or imagery; but the reader who shall expect to find in them those touches of feeling and nature which brings Poetry home to every man's bosom, will be disappointed: they are admirably suited to the Banquet-Hall or the Palace, where every thing that is artificial shines pre-eminent.

As a Satirist, among those productions which may be attributed to his pen, are to be found strokes of wit at once classic, keen, and brilliant. Many of his repartees and jeux d'esprits are on record, partaking, also, of the same qualities. The following, we understand, Mr.

Moore wrote at a house in the country, where he had arrived just in time to dress for dinner, and where some distinguished personages were assembled; but he was obliged to go away again, upon finding that his servant had forgot to put a pair of breeches in his portmanteau :

"Between Adam and me the great difference is,

Though a Paradise each has been forc'd to resign, That he never wore breeches till turn'd out of his, While for want of my breeches I'm banish'd from mine."

Mr. Moore, it is well known, is the author of a volume published under the title of "Little's Poems;" which name, it is supposed, he adopted in allusion to his shortness of stature, and which furnished his friends with subjects for repartees and epigrams in abundance. At this period, our bard was in the habit of paying frequent visits to Carlton House, when a GREAT PERSONAGE, after the perusal of the volume in question, is reported to have addressed him thus wittily and briefly :- "More, Little;-Little Moore."

The following eight lines made their appear

ance when he published his "Translation of Anacreon," and certainly boast much point.

"When MOORE in amorous strains first sigh'd,
And felt the fond poetic glow;

The enraptur'd world, enamour'd, cried,
'Man wants but LITTLE here below.'

But, bursting from concealment's span,
He gave each heart Anacreon's store;
Tho' LITTLE was the wish of man,

He found that yet he wanted MOORE."

JACOB CATS.

JACOB CATS, less the poet of imagination than of truth; less the inciter to deeds of heroism and sublimity, than the gentle adviser to acts of virtue and enjoyments of innocence; less capable of awaking the impulses of the fancy than of calling into exertion the dormant energies of reason and morality, was born at Brouwershaven, a small town in Zealand, in the year 1577. He was well versed in the ancient and modern languages, and as celebrated for the purity of his life as remarkable for the sound sense and virtuous tendency of his writings. He possessed an admirable knowledge of men and manners,

a correct judgment, and a striking simplicity of language: indeed, it is a question whether he did not indulge too freely in his love for unvarnished matters of fact. The " foreign aid of ornament," skilfully employed, might have set off to advantage that earnest and interesting zeal in favour of truth and piety, which is so prominent in his works. But there is, notwithstanding, something so hearty in his unsophisticated style, something so touching in his simplicity, and something so frank and noble in his precepts, that we can scarcely regret his having given them to us unchanged by refinement and unadorned by art.

Cats had all Vondel's devotion, kindled at a purer and a simpler altar. His wisdom was vast, and all attuned to religious principle; his habits were those of sublime and aspiring contemplation; and his poetry is such as a prophet would give utterance to. He was the poet of the people. In his verses, they found their duties recorded, and seeming to derive additional authority from the solemn and emphatic dress they wore. He is every where original, and

often sublime.

From Mr. Bowring's elegant little volume we

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