nexion between them, falls therefore, at the soonest, about the latter end of the year 715 or the beginning of 716 U. C. and so the present Satire (as it is called) cannot have been composed before the year 717, but not well later. Very probably it immediately followed the Brundusian travelling journal; and therefore at a conjuncture when Horace's intimacy with Maecenas was already pretty well known and fixed, but however not sufficiently new, to make a sort of poise, and to excite the envy of little minds, who (as is evident from a number of places in both Books of his Satires) practised every art they could devise to injure him, and with the particular view to diminish the favourable light in which the patronage of the young Cæsar, the friendship of Mæcenas, and the report of his superior talents and attainments were beginning to place him.

A

Sed puerum est ausus Romam por ture, docendum, &c.] Horace justly (as the sequel shewed) ascribes the whole of his success in life to his father's courage in conducting him to Rome at an early age, and there giving him as sound and liberal an education as any knight or senator could give his son. Doubtless it requires in a man of so humble a station and inferior means as his father was, an extraordinary portion of courage, and all that excellent character, which our Author here and elsewhere commends him for, in order to soar so far above the objections of an ordinary prudence and economy, and to rise superior to vulgar minds. thousand others in his place, would have thought they had properly answered their parental obligations by putting their boys to school with the cyphering master Flavius, as the principal people of Venusia did. For in such a petty provincial town as that, a centurio was somewhat of a stately personage. We must understand, that the epithet magnis is here to be taken ironically, as reflecting on the importance these people were of in their own estimation, and that of their inferior countrymen. We may easily conceive how ill it would be taken by these grave centurions, the renowned master of the public grammar-school, the arithmetician Flavius, and the whole worshipful Corporation of Venusia, that an education,

seen

such as the principal families of the place gave their children, a seminary to which so many great lubberly dunces, that passed at Venusia for fine young gentlemen, were sauntering along, with the cypheringslate, and a bag of counters under the arm, should not be thought good enough for the exciseman Horatius, who, after all, was only a libertus, and a man of slender means, and for his forward young chit!

Octonis referentes idibus æra.] These words are by most of the old Commentators, interpreted as though they meant the pay for schooling which the captain's lads brought regularly every month at that time. The absurdity of this interpretation has been long since evinced by Lambinus and Cruquius. In order to render this verse free of all difficulty, we must be apprized of what I am going to mention. The Roman month was divided by the idus into two nearly equal parts, and although properly the 13th or the 15th day of a month bore that name, yet eight days were computed to the idus; for which reason Horace calls them octonas. It was usual with the Romans to pay the interest on borrowed capitals monthly, and that on the calenda (the first day of the month) or at the idus. By ara Horace could have had no other meaning than interest. The line therefore translated literally, is: The boys brought their cyphering master the monthly interest. This however being absolute nonsense, it is in fact only a turn of expression very common with our author, to say, They brought him the calculation of certain arithmetical problems, ex gr. How much interest, at & per cent. do 25,654 sesterces yield monthly? which the cyphering master had given them to take home as a task or exercise. It is evidently a satirical side-glance at the characteristic of the Roman people, which he touches on in the Epistle to the Pisones, where he states the principal reason why the Romans are so far behind in the arts of the Muses:

Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui, præter laudem nullius avaris: Romani pueri longis rationibus assem Discunt in partes centum diducere.

Si præco parvas aut (ut fuit ipse) coactor, &c.] Præco, a cryer, Coactor, a tax-gatherer; or, according

to

will have it, because Natta, Nacta, or Nacca (a well-known Roman surname) properly signifies a fuller.

Aut ego, lecto aut scripto, &c.] I adopt Dr. Bentley's reading of the whole passage, from line 122. to 126. because it rests on the most convincing arguments, and affords the only means of exculpating our Poet from three cruel charges, which it is impossible for him to have merited. În pursuance of the vulgar reading (where lecto and scripto, against all rules of grammar, are taken for contracted frequentativa from lego and scribo, and instead of campum lusumque trigonem, we see rabiosi tempora signi) Horace must in five verses have committed three blunders; one against his mother tongue, one against common sense, and one against good manners. For only a barbarian would have said lecto and scripto for lectiio and scriptita; none but a scribbler, to whom it is alike indifferent whether he utters sense or nonsense, could have said; "When the sultry sun and fatigue bid me go and bathe, I shun the season of the raging sign;" and none except a shameless fellow would describe himself, in a poem to Mæcenas, as a sluggard, lying and snoring in bed till near ten in the forenoon. And yet, not only all the scholiasts, expositors, interpreters, commentators and editors prior to Bentley, have gaily skipped over such insignificant trifles; but even more recent editors and translators (e g. Batteux, Dunster, Creech, and Smart) have chose rather to put an affront upon Horace and common sense, than be wanting in due respect to the copyists.

Mr. URBAN, Sheffield, Aug. 8.

I would ill become a Friend to Christianity to oppose any scheme that really tends to its promotion. It will be acknowledged too by every Protestant that the Book which contains "the Charter of our Salvation" should be made plain to the understandings of all who are concerned in it; and this, no doubt, has been done in part through the Art of Printing, which has been a means of throwing into the hands of the people at large translations of the Bible in their native language.

Yet, though here is to be found

the Word of God pure and unadulterated, common observation will shew us that, even to many who can read, the Bible must be "a sealed book." For, though the moral precepts which it contains must strike every attentive reader, yet the great scheme of Providence in the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, and their connexion with each other, the fulfilment of the Prophecies in Jesus Christ, his atonement, and our redemption, are subjects, though highly important, by no means obvious to common understandings. So that it might justly be said to the peruser of many parts of the Scriptures, as Philip did to the Eunuch,“ Understandest thou what thou readest ?" and the reply would probably be similar to the Eunuch's, "How can I unless some man guide me?"

There is no doubt, however, but that the "British and Foreign Bible Society" were actuated by liberal motives in causing the Bibles which they distribute to be printed without Notes; because they are thereby adapted to Christians of every denomination. Yet still we must evidently perceive, that in order that they may be profited who receive them, they must have proper teachers or instructors, or otherwise the Bible will be to them in a great measure," a dead letter;" or they will be liable to extract from it tenets neither consonant to the Scriptures nor common sense.

But is it to be expected that the gift of every Bible shall be accompanied with instruction from the donor? or that every receiver shall be required to read some portions of Scripture, or repeat some Formula of Christian doctrine (as is the case in the distribution of Lord Wharton's bequest)?

This does not appear.- But, exclusive of this consideration, which however seems to be of moment, what is to be expected as to the inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland, who, according to modern accounts, are little above a state of Nature? Missionaries have been sent to both, but with little effect: for, besides that their instructions were merely oral, the minds of the inhabitants were uncultivated, their manners rude; and their climate and bodily necessities left them little time for mental improvement.

Or,

Or, to come nearer home, it may be hoped, that the Protestant Charter Schools in Ireland may be of some use with respect to the acquirement of Christian knowledge; yet, when we consider that two thirds of the inhabitants are Roman Catholicks, whose Priests discountenance, if not prohibit, the reading of the Scriptures in their native language, there is too much reason to fear that Bibles sent amongst them would be treated with neglect, or applied to improper uses. We need not however to quit our own Island, in order to find great numbers of persons who are in such a state of ignorance, that an English Bible would be the same to them as if it were in a foreign language; because they have never been taught to read. Of what use then could Bibles be to those who understand not the first elements of language?

Still it may be pleaded, that many serious Christians, who can read, are not able to purchase a Bible; and therefore to them it would be a

valuable present. Undoubtedly it would be a truly Christian present; and persons of opulence might, in this respect, employ their wealth to the best of purposes.

But, surely, indiscriminate distribution is not to be approved of; surely it will be thought proper that the receivers of Bibles should be initiated into "the principles of the doctrine of Christ," that they may 66 go on unto perfection." Without this,

there is too much reason to fear that the well-intended efforts of the Bible Society will be attended with little permanent success.

In short, it seems to be the dictate of common sense and experience, that, without civilization, and previous instruction, the Bible, in any language, is not likely to have the desired effect.

E. G.

Mr. URBAN, Harpenden, Aug. 15.

As the irreparable injury done to

that beautifully-ornamental tree, the Plane, during the preceding year, appears to be almost general in several counties; and indeed, not less universally regretted by all true admirers of rural scenery; an attempt to account for the cause of this singular phenomenon, though its recurrence cannot be prevented, may, probably, afford saGENT. MAG. August, 1810.

tisfaction to some of your numerous Readers.

It perhaps may be recollected, that the weather in the early part of the Autumn was remarkably open and temperate, when every species of vegetation, being assisted by the copious rain of Summer, was become abundantly luxuriant, and Nature still exhibited a most beautiful, verdant appearance; when so sudden a change took place in the atmosphere, that even before the middle of October, two successive frosts of unusual severity had occurred, which prematurely despoiled her of it, together with many of her fairest productions; among which number, the delightful, umbrageous Plane is not the least to be lamented: and, as the foliage of it was fast approaching to a state of decidence, the injury, both then, and during the Winter, almost escaped the acutest observation, and was not generally perceived till about the time of its usual renovation; when it was discovered that the frost alluded to had actually operated so powerfully on these elegant trees, in every direction, but especially on the sides which were exposed to the influence of the wind, that the external vessels, being replete with sap, had been ruptured by the expansion of that fluid, from too intense a degree of congelation: but still, in some instances, Nature was not so much exhausted as to be incapable of future effort to recover her subdued strength, which was evinced by the late emission of a few debilitated shoots in the following Spring; but, being already deprived of the natural supply of their vital principle, they soon yielded up their languid remains of life to the powerful action of a Summer-sun.

It perhaps may not be altogether usimportant to observe, that, from the circumstance of the long interval which elapsed between the cause happening in the Autumn, and the effect not becoming apparent till the Spring, some experienced Nurserymen have indeed been induced to attribute the injury to the more recent cause of the frosts that occurred in the begin-, ning of May; but, had this been the period when the evil originated, the absorption of the sap in the internal vessels could not possibly have so soon subsided, nor, consequently, the

decay

1809, when it will be recollected, that we had a dreadful flood all over this kingdom; and that, during March and April, we had very mild weather, during which time these trees were greatly forwarded in germination (as were many other kinds from the same cause, and which suffered considerably at the time); this was succeeded by a very severe frost, which appears to have ruptured the sap-vessels, so that the greater part of these trees have since died in consequence. In such an extraordinary season as this was, it would almost appear presumptuous in any person's attempting to explain the real cause of so mortifying a phe nomenon; it is therefore only a matter of opinion.

That the extreme moisture had been in great measure the cause, I was firmly persuaded; but there is, moreover, proof that the cold had been a principal agent: for small trees of this kind have escaped, where they have been in thick plantations, protected by other kinds whilst those growing nearly in the same spot, and not having the same protection, have been completely killed; and this has been the case with several in my Garden: I am now speaking of small trees, under 20 feet high, of which I have lost many hundreds; but those of larger growth are, I believe, generally destroyed all over the country.

I have been thus particular in stating the above remarks, as I wish it may cause persons who are about to plant, to be fully aware that this particular tree is liable to be thus destroyed; and to prevent its being encouraged to their ultimate loss, and to the exclusion of such as are better adapted to the situation; a circum, stance, which, although of the first magnitude, has not always been suffi. ciently attended to.

As the above hypothesis may not appear complete to some of your Readers, I will farther observe, that most of the plants that are natives of Siberia are considerably more tender when introduced, than those indigenous to our country; not that they are less capable of bearing cold, but are acted on by the first appearance of warm weather, and are as liable to be hurt by succeeding frosts. It is worth remarking, that the celebrated Russian Larch, which affords the prin