brave,"* if the ever-burning lamp that hung before him, (and which he did not now make any motion to destroy,) had not shewn me that this must be the brazen statue, so churlishly contrived by Rosicrucius, in days of yore.† On approaching a looking-glass, I was surprised to behold in it-not the image of myself, but of a young man, apparently stabbed with a silver bodkin. I soon, however, recollected that this could be no other than Fidelio; and whilst I was commiserating the fate of the unhappy youth, my Genius suggested that his transformation was the more extraordinary, because on examining the particulars of his sad story, it would appear that this Mirror of Truth was in fact turned into himself!§

Remarking a small bottle, apparently filled with chrystals which were unusually transparent, I took it up, and found it labell'd Frozen Dialogues from Nova Zembla. I had immediately the curiosity to uncork this phial, and place it before the fire;

* The jilted lover of " the fair Imogine."

t Spectator, No. 379.

Spectator, No. 392.

§ On examining the above Number of the Spectator, this inaccuracy will be detected; and it will be observed that Fidelio is described as having been a Looking Glass, before his (shall I call it?) Metamorphosis.

Tatler, No. 254.

when there suddenly issued from its mouth such a confused hubbub of loud and justling sounds, that alarmed by the uproar, I started and awoke. A female group at the other end of Sir Everard's Library happened to be engaged at the moment in a very animated conversation: but whether to this circumstance I was indebted for the denouement of my dream is more than I will take upon me to decide.

K.

me,

if I were to go on prosing any longer. Perhaps other Readers may partake of his Ennui ; whom yet I shall not relieve, by that Doset of Metre which I am about to exhibit; and which in his case, I hope, will operate a cure.

* See Number V.

+ Cave: not Doze.

+ Thus Patroclus (see the Iliad,) to Achilles. + Translation of omnibus Umbra locis adero. § Locus est et pluribus Umbris.

Half-faced, i. e. profiled.-SHAKSP. HEN. IV, ¶i.e. to come uninvited.

WESTMINSTER and Oxford IDIOM.

I cannot believe, the Deuse a one o' me,—
But that there's truth in physiognomy;
But that, as philosophick LAVAT-
ER,-and his followers will have it,
Still, as the artist spirit warms,
The ductile clay receives its forms;
That beauty is but Virtue's shell;
And Feature-Soul-made visible.
Thus Valour a bold outline traces;
While coward hearts wear concave faces:
Thus Minds imbecile, vain, and dull,
To' a fool's-cap mould th' appropriate skull;
While swelling Genius vaults the crown;
Strayed Judgment fashions the jaw-bone;
And Taste and Wit are peeping seen
From angles 'twixt the nose and chin.

Now should this theory be true,
(A question I submit to you;)
By late experience if belied is,
Th' adage of fronti nulla fides,
Behold a host of proof supplied,
To shew the mimic Arts allied:
To shew, tho' Poesy bear the bell,
That Painting merits it as well:t
This takes a pencil; That, a pen;
Both sketch you characters, and men;
Whilst, in the outline of a nose,
The silent Art distinctly shews

What takes three stanzas to disclose.

This and the seven preceding lines will be found to correspond with the system and ideas of Lavater.

+ The Author naturally panegyrizes the painter's art, while he is sending his (quasi) portrait to his friend.