bit decent and graceful, somewhat like the Juno Matrona of the Romans, as she is finely depictured in Mr. Spence's Polymetis, Her air stately and resolved, expressive of dignity, yet mingled with softness. She holds a shield; is in the act of delivering it to her son, a youth setting out for the army, and going to ha zard his life in the defence of his country. She is supposed to add that spirited and magnanimous exhortation which is engraven on the protuberance of the buckler, n Tav, nen Tag, 'Bring it back, my son, as thy trophy, or be brought back upon it as thy bier.'

I am particularly pleased, said Theron, with the contrivance of this last ornament. It is regulated by one of the most refined rules of art, not to lavish away away all the beauty at a single view, but to make a skilful reserve for some future occasion. The dome and the columns afford pleasure when beheld at a considerable distance; the fine animated figure in the midst displays its graces on a nearer approach: by which means the attention is kept awake, and the entertainment continues new.

But what I principally admire is the spirit or style of the decorations in general. They put me in mind of a very just remark which Mr. Pope has somewhere made. It is, if I remember right, to this effect: A man not only shews his taste, but his virtue, in the choice of his ornaments. A proper piece of history, represented in painting on a rich man's walls [or ex hibited in imagery amidst his gardens], is very often a better lesson than he could teach by his conversation. In this sense the stones may be said to speak, when men cannot, or will not. All but the comparative or satirical part of the observation, I would apply to the prospect before us, and its worthy owner.

Asp. Philenor's gardens are, I think, more chaste and delicate in their ornaments than a certain collegiate church. In the latter place, we might reason. ably expect the strictest adherence to purity, if we should not meet with the symbols of piety and incitements to religion. What then would be the reflections of a judicious observer, if, in such a solemn and venerable edifice, he should see a huge brawny fellow stuck

up against the wall, with his posteriors half bare, his whole body more than half naked, and in an attitude none of the most decent, Excuse me, Theron. I confess myself ashamed to rehearse the description. How then can the spectacle itself become the house of divine worship?

Ther. But perhaps this same brawny fellow may represent a heathen demigod, one of the idols worshipped by antiquity, the tutelary deity of valour.

Asp. And will this justify the practice? Does not this add profaneness to immodesty? Are we Christians to thank Hercules for the valour of our warriors, and make our acknowledgements to Pallas for the conduct of our generals? Shall we Christians behold with admiration, or recognize as our benefactors, what the apostle has stigmatized under the character of devils?t

If He, who overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, had taken a walk in these famous cloisters, I am apt to suspect, he would have paid no very agreeable compliment to this fine piece of statuary. 'Take these things hence,' would probably have been his command; and,' make not the precincts of your temple a chamber of pagan imagery,' his rebuke. Neither is

Referring to the monument lately erected for Major-general Fleming, in Westminster Abbey, where under the general's bust are placed Hercules and Pallas: Hercules with his club and lion's skin, in the manner related above; Pallas with a mirror and a serpent at her side. The reader may see a picture and an explanation of this monumeut in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1754.

As this church has been the burial-place of the most illustrious personages for many centuries, as it is the place where all our kings receive their crowns, and many of them deposit their ashes; as it is singularly eminent for its antiquities and monuments, there is a large resort both of natives and foreigners to view its grand and awful curiosities: whatever, therefore, is erected in a place so circumstanced and so distinguished, should, I apprehend, not only display an air of elegance in the execution, but include a beauty of holiness' in the design; because nothing can lay claim to the To Kaλoy which is not possessed of the To жрежоν. Nor can any performances, thus situated, be pronounced truly graceful, but only such as correspond with the character, and subserve the design of the sacred edifice. It was thought, by a very able critic and a very candid writer, that mere impropriety of taste in ornamenting one of the monuments called for his censure; surely then a violation of decency, and an approach to paganism, call more loudly for public animadversion and proper reformation. See Spect. vol. i. No. 26. John ii. 16.

† 1 Cor. x. 20.

it all unlikely that the image itself, notwithstanding its inimitable workmanship, might have shared the fate of its kinsman Dagon,

-When the captive ark

Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopp'd off
In his own temple, on the groundsel edge
When he fell flat, and sham'd his worshippers.

Ther. But how should the artist represent the great achievements and the shining qualities of his hero, if you will not allow him to make use of these significant emblems ?

Asp. I question whether they are so very significant. The mirror seems to characterize a fop, rather than a soldier; it leads us to think of a soft Narcissus admiring himself, rather than a sagacious general planning the operations of the campaign. Besides, is sacred literature so destitute of proper emblems, that we must borrow the decorations of our churches and the trophies of our conquerors from the dreams of superstition or the delusions of idolatry? How just and expressive are those emblematical representations exhibited in Ezekiel's vision! where activity and speed are signified by hands in conjunction with wings, and the deep, the complicated, yet ever-harmonious schemes of Providence, by a wheel in the middle of a wheel.' With what propriety and force are the noblest endowments pictured in the revelations of St. John, and their grand machinery! Superior wisdom and benevolence of heart are described by the face of a man; strength of mind and intrepidity of spirit, by the visage of a lion; calmness of temper and indefatiga. ble application, by the features of an ox; a penetrating discernment and an expeditious habit of acting, by the form of a flying eagle.t

These hieroglyphics are graceful, are pertinent, and such as every spectator will understand; whereas, the devices of our new monumental encomium are, I presume, to the unlearned hardly intelligible; to the se rious, little better than profane; and to every beholder indelicate, if not immodest. Philenor, I imagine, would blush to admit them into his walks or avenues; + Rev. iv. 7.

Milton, b. i. 458.

and I am sorry to find them received into the most ancient, most renowned, and most frequented church in the kingdom.

Talking in this manner, they come to a curious grave, formed on that uncommon plan, proposed by Mr. Addison in one of his Spectators. It consisted wholly of evergreens: firs, clad in verdant silver, pointed their resinous leaves, and shot aloft their towering cones; laurels, arrayed in glossy green, spread their ample foliage, and threw abroad their rambling boughs; bay-trees were expanded into a fan that no weather could tarnish, or rounded into a column that knew not how to moulder; while the laurustinus ran eat into a beautiful irregularity of shape, and compacted her reddening gems, in order to unfold her whitening bloom. In one place lay a dale, gently sinking, and coated with the camomile's natural frieze, which never changes its colour, never loses its gloss. Near it, and scooped, you would imagine, from the same hollow, arose a mount, softly swelling, and shagged with furze, gay with perennial verdure, and generally decked with golden blossoms. Here you are led through a serpentine walk, and hedges of box, and find, perhaps, a solitary pyramid or a capacious urn, each composed of unfading yew; there you look through a straight alley, fenced on either side, and arched over head with mantling philirea, and see, at its extremity, an obelisk sheathed in ivy, and ornamented with its sable clusters, as with wreaths of living sculpture. Scattered up and down were several sorts of holly, some striped with white, some spotted with yellow, some preparing to brighten and beautify the scene with berries of glowing scarlet.

The heads of the trees, arising one above another in a gradual slope, from the diminutive mazarine to the lofty cypress; the several shadings of their green attire,

Some antiquarians trace back the origin of this church even to the reign of Lucius, which is more than the space of 1500 years. Others suppose that Sebert, king of the East Saxons, about the year of our Lord 605, built the first religious structure on this spot. All agree that it was re-edified and enlarged by Edward the Confessor, and that the present stately and magnificent fabric was founded by Henry III.

VOL. II.

Q

greatly diversified, and judiciously intermixed, afford, especially in the winter-season, a most enlivened and lovely prospect. As the sunshine is, by the fre quenters of this grove, usually more coveted than the shade, it is so disposed as to admit, in one part or an other, every gleam of fine weather which exhilarates the winter.

Asp. There must be something unspeakably pleasing in a plantation which appears lively and fruitful, when all its neighbours of the woodland race are barren, bleak, or dead. But how much more cheering and delightful must it be, when decrepit age, or bodily infirmi ties, have impaired the vigour, and laid waste the gra tifications of our youthful prime, to find a solid unde caying pleasure in the favour of God and the hope of glory! Now, indeed, the feathered tribes resort to the more flowing umbrage of the poplar and the ash; but amidst December's cold, you shall observe them forsak ing the leafless woods, and flocking to this friendly receptacle, hopping across the sunny walks, or sheltering themselves in the wet and stormy day under these trusty boughs: so the many thoughtless creatures, who turn their back upon religion amidst the soft and soothing caresses of prosperity, will want, extremely want, its sovereign supports, under the sharp and distressing assaults of adversity, sickness, and death. This collec tion, it is true, may not equal the groves of annual verdure in floridity of dress, but it far exceeds them in the duration of its ornaments. Ere long, yonder shewy branches will be stripped of their holiday clothes; whereas these will retain their honours when those are all rags and nakedness. Thus will it be with every refuge for our poor, imperfect, sinful souls, excepting only the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ: every thing else will 'fade as a leaf.'* This, my Theron, and this alone, is an evergreen, always free for our acceptance, and always effectual to save.

Ther. An evergreen it is; but like the ruddy and inviting fruits, which hang on the uppermost boughs of those lofty trees in the orchard, it seems to be quite out of my reach.

Isa. lxiv. 6.