"My friend now took me aside, and intimated that there was an expression in the translation which seemed to imply geographical knowledge, and likewise an historical anecdote which (he must confess) he did not recollect; and therefore was inclined to ask the boy another question or two. Do not,' I said, be too hard with him; you ought to be content with his ready version of the ode.'But I am comident,' resumed Mr. French, from what I have already heard and seen, that he will be able to answe: mc.'—"Then gratify your inclination,' I replied. -Mr. French returned to his seat, and asked Dermody, what was his reason, as the ode does not specify any particular shore where the Mediterranean sea beat, why he fixed it at a spot where he seemed to think that Leuconoë had a mansion.' Dermody answered, he was sure it was unnecessary to inform him, that Italy stretched out between the Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Adriaticum; and that a French critic was of opinion that Leuconoë had a handsome house on the Italian shore, for the safety of which she was apprehensive from the violence of the winter's storm and wave.' Mr. French asked, to what critic he alluded. Dermody replied, he could not mention his name; but that he perfectly recollected, from a note he had read in Francis's Horace, that the critic was a member of the academy of Belles-lettres.' Mr. French justly remarked, that whether the French critic was right or not in his judgment, it did the boy much credit to have noticed his opinion, and justified him in giving the passage that freedom of translation which he had employed.'

"My friend, having again read

the translation, intimated to Dermody that he had omitted noticing the vina liques. Dermody replied, with much archness of countenance, that he made the omission for two reasons; first, because he thought it would be unfashionable to suggest to ladies of modern days, that a fine Roman lady descended to such housewifery as that of filtring wines; and secondly, as it was evident from the whole tenor of the ode that Leuconoë was very inquisitive, our unlearned wits perhaps would say that after filtring the wines she doubtless had the curiosity to taste freely of them.” At this observation, and from the droll manner in which Dermody made it, Mr. French could not contain himself. He held his sides with laughter; and exclaimed: Why, you young, sarcastic, wicked rogue, you are more severe on Leuconoe than Horace himself was 'There might be a reason,' replied Dermody, why Horace did not wish to be too severe on her.' What was that, my boy?

6

Why, sir, some critics are of opinion that Leuconoë was a lady of not the greatest virtue; and possibly Horace might have sometimes visited her at her snug mansion on the sea-coast.' My friend burst again into loud laughter; and told Dermody jocosely, that he would one time or other get thrashed if he indulged this satirical vein.

But come,' cried Mr. French, 'it is time that I should make you some return for the great pleasure you have given me. Here; as you seem to admire this small edi. tion of Horace, accept it from me, It will go into one of your breechespockets; and here is something to occupy the other;' giving him a handful of silver. I envy your friend, Doctor Houlton, his pos

session

session of you: but I shall sometimes drop in to have a conversation with you; so, for the present, adieu, my dear little boy.'

་

"Shortly after this occurrence, Dermody, having noticed a chest of old books in an upper room, asked my permission to go and inspect them. Aye,' cried I; 'go, and rummage as much as you please.' He set off with as much pleasure to examine the chest, as many boys feel in laying by their books for the Christmas holidays. In a few minutes he came down stairs, ran into the parlour, and exclaimed, 'Oh, sir! I have found a book which I have long wished to see; a sweet writer I am told: it is Anacreon.' He hardly gave me time to express my satisfaction, before he was seated by the fire; and so intent on reading the Greek bard in the original text, as to appear insensible to every thing round him. I addressed him two or three times; but I might as well have spoken to one in a profound sleep. At length, after having been amused with his motions for some minutes, I took him by the shoulders, roused him from his delicious trance, and told him that I was engaged out to dinner, I would leave him to dine with his new acquaintance Anacreon; whom he would find not only a beautiful writer, but a merry jolly fellow, too fond perhaps of love and a bottle. Ah! cried he, with one of his inexpressible looks, it was very hard that a lover of wine should have been choked with a grapestone; which, from the Latin preface, I see was his fate.' I have mentioned before in this letter, an indescribable archness of countenance that this boy had when he was about to convey a sly insinuation,or to make a droll observation.

In general his physiognomy was as serious as the face of a judge; and tinctured with a dash of melancholy; but when he now ob served to me that it was a pity a lover of wine should be choked with a grape-stone,' he spoke it in so dry and arch a manner, that my risible muscles were irresistibly called into action.

"On my return home in the evening, to convince me how delighted he had been with Anacreon, he shewed me a poetical version of the first three odes, which he had executed during my absence. To say that I was pleased with them, would but ill express my admira tion: they would have done credit to a pen of a much riper age; they displayed the sweet easy flow of that tuneful Grecian bard's versification; in a word, they were, even in an English dress, truly Anacreontic. I begged him to procced: in a few days he had finished the first book, and assured me that he would soon give a poetical translation of the entire volume. And here again I cannot but greatly regret that I did not possess myself of the copies of these his early versions from Anacreon; particularly as a moment was then near at hand, when a sudden call in my professional business to a remote part of Ireland, which detained me from Dublin for many months, put me under the necessity of separating from this most extraordinary youthful genius. But having little doubt of meeting with him on my return, I was less attentive to possess myself of many of those juvenile productions which he had executed in my house. It was my misfortune, however, that from various accidents and circumstances, I never had another opportunity of see

"A few circumstances remain for me to state, which perhaps may not be unworthy of attention. -My servant informed me that she had repeatedly noticed a light in Dermody's room at very late hours; and that, making an excuse to go in, she found him reading in bed, with a number of loose papers scattered about. Dreading the Dreading the consequences, particularly from an accident that had nearly proved fatal to myself through an indulgence of this dangerous practice while at college, I desired her, when he retired to rest, to let his candle be little more than sufficient to light him to bed. A day or two after his taper had been thus curtailed, he observed to me one morning, at breakfast, with a very significant countenance, that he believed my maid was very careful. Why so, Dermody? Because, sir, she allows me but an inch of candle when I retire to rest; and then added:

'The niggard taper yields its short-liv'd ray,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.'

The emphasis he gave to the word 'niggard,' and the look that accompanied it, clearly shewed me its direction. But not willing that he should perceive I understood him, I turned the conversation, by observing that he had read Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard. Yes, sir,' replied he, often read it with tears: and I fancy the first verse of the Epitaph will not be un

suitable for my own humble tomb. stone. Repeat,' cried I, the stanza:' which he did with an expression and a pathos that made an indelible impression on my memory

"I told him, that his talents, with prudence of conduct, would certainly lead him to a better destiny. He answered with a deep sigh, that the contrary presenti ment was strong, and he could not divest himself of it.' A few days after this, my servant informed me that she had found some candles in Dermody's room, behind his trunk. In consequence, I now thought it prudent to speak to him explicitly. on the danger of reading in bed. He took my remonstrance very ill, threw out a sarcastic observation on the unhappy state of dependance, and appeared sullen the whole of the ensuing day. I was sorry to perceive, at all times, a spirit of resentment, and an impatience under rebuke, which I wished had not dwelt with such very promising literary talents; but which were accompanied at the same time with some interesting remarks, that I fear were too forcibly verified in the subsequent. parts of the life of this extraordinary genius.

"From this time he appeared to manifest a restlessness of disposition, as if he wished to be more his own master; so that I am inclined to think, that even if my business in the country had not compelled me to part with my young friend, he would soon have separated himself from me. But, however he might neglect my ad

obedient to their will. Sometimes he would, however, disregard their authority, and assert his independence: which he did by flying from one miserable lodging to another still more so; and remaining there till the same cause, or the terror of an arrest, compelled him to return to the former spot. Those who gained most by his weakness, were the persons with whom at various necessitous periods he lodged; and such was the power of habit, or such his fatal propensity for this kind of society, that he was continually involved with them in their poverty and low excesses. The little food he required was generally purchased and prepared by them and no regular agreement having been made, a running account was always kept against Dermody; according to which the sum he owed them might, for any knowledge he had of the justice of the claim, have been at any time one pound or one hundred.

"They found this plan too profitable to adopt any other; and by keeping him always in debt, they kept him always in dread. Whenever he received a sum of money, he honestly brought it to his landlord, who always (as he termed it) "carried it to the account;" and when money was wanted and Dermody had none to give, the request was in general followed by an arrest, which frequently turned out a very profitable speculation. The fear of a prison made him importune his friends, who never suffered him to languish in confinement: and as those who had occasioned his embarrassments were his messengers during such periods, they consequently obtained a knowledge of his patrons; and turned the kind benevolence intended to re

lieve him, into a source of emolument to themselves.

"The natural consequence of thoughtlessness and dissipation is dependence; and as Dermody had in his exigences no other means of support than what these associates were pleased to afford him, he conceived himself bound when fortune smiled upon him, not only to discharge his debts of this description, but to bestow some signal mark of favour for the kindness thus conferred upon him while pennyless. These returns varied, according as the obligations he laboured under were weighty or trivial; without any consideration of the motiye which occasioned them. At one time he might be seen in his garret in company with his hosts the cobler and his wife, and some attic lodger of equal consequence, regaling on a goose which his industry had roasted by a string in his own apartment: while the pallet-bed, which stood in a corner, was strewed with various vegetables; the fire-side decorated with numerous foaming pots of porter; and the cobler's work-stool, bootleg, lap-stone, &c. were commodiously placed as seats. On another occasion, in some neighbouring ale-house, entertaining the same personages with the various rarities which resorts of this description generally afford: where as the astonished guests, enveloped in clouds of smoke, sat listening with rapture to the eloquence of Der mody, the host was to be discovered in the back ground applauding with one hand, while his other dextrously scored an additional item to the bill; which, if Dermody could not discharge it during the following day, was at once put into the hands of some pettifogging practitioner of the law, and

the