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important deliberation. Accordingly, you would do me a signal service,1 much respected and dear friend, if you would lend me the advantage of your counsel and advice. I own I am troublesome when I thus interrupt your avocations, and when in addition I beg that whatever you are willing to do on my behalf, you will do within the next few days. But I am made troublesome by inability to determine for myself," and by a regard for a family of six persons;18 had I not to take thought for them, I should hasten to you at once; so many circumstances attract me, especially the expectation of forming a sort of intimacy with you, provided you shall think me worthy of it, and with our friend Ruhnken. But before all things it is necessary that I should live in easy circumstances and like a gentleman," that I may study rightly and deserve tolerably well of the University. Now that living easily implies also that your Professorship should not impose too much of daily toil. For although I take pleasure in teaching, my lungs sometimes refuse to bear what my will enjoins." Pray, then, add these words, how many hours of lecturing the office demands; whether other things, in addition to the regular routine," are to be done at the beck of the curators: in a word, whether the post23 seems to you altogether desirable, especially now that the universities are threatened with some changes.

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Not to become more troublesome, I must break off the thread of my inquiries. For the rest, believe that you have to do with a most straightforward man, who knows how to keep what he is told25 to himself, and to act upon it alone. Farewell, esteemed friend, and put under an obligation to you for the future," one who has long regarded you with the utmost respect and affection.28

HALLE IN SAXONY, 25th August, 1796.

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Exercise LII.

On Mercenary Authorship.

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EVERY encouragement given to stupidity, when known to be such, is a negative insult upon genius.' This appears in nothing more evident than the undistinguished success of those who solicit subscriptions. When first brought into fashion, subscriptions were conferred upon the ingenious alone, or those who were reputed such. But at present, we see them made a resource of indigence, and requested, not as the rewards of merit, but as a relief of distress." If tradesmen happen to want skill in conducting their own business, yet they are able to write a book. If mechanics want money, or ladies shame, they write books and solicit subscriptions. Scarcely a morning passes, that proposals of this nature are not thrust into the half-opening doors of the rich, with, perhaps, a paltry petition, showing the author's wants, but not his merits.10 I would not willingly prevent" that pity which is due to indigence; but while the streams of benevolence are thus diffused, they must of necessity become proportionably shallow." What, then, are the proper encouragements of genius? I answer, subsistence and respect;13 for these are rewards congenial to its nature.14 Every animal has an aliment peculiarly suited to its constitution. The heavy ox seeks nourishment from earth; the light chameleon has been supposed to exist on air. A sparer diet even than this will satisfy the man of true genius; for he makes a luxurious banquet upon empty applause." It is this alone which has inspired all that was ever truly great and noble among us. It is, as Cicero finely calls it," the echo of virtue.18 Avarice is the passion of inferior natures;" money the pay of the common herd.20 The author who draws his quill" merely to fill a purse, no more deserves success than he who presents a pistol."2

Exercise LIII.

The Mock Trial of Lucius.

HEREUPON the elder of the two magistrates arises, and addresses the people as follows:- Concerning the crime, indeed, which is to be seriously punished, not even the criminal himself can deny, but only one additional care is left to us-namely, to seek for the other accomplices in so great an outrage; for it is not probable that a single man could have massacred three such stalwart youths. Accordingly, the truth must be extracted by torture, for both the servant who accompanied him has taken himself off, and the matter has come to this, that he should declare under the rack' the accomplices of his crime, that the fear of such a formidable gang" may be done away with.' Without delay, the fire and wheel, after the Greek fashion,' and every other instrument of torture, is produced; verily 10 my sorrow is increased, nay doubled, by not being allowed to die at all events unmutilated;" but that old woman, who had disturbed all things with her lamentations, said: 'Worthy citizens, before you fix to the cross that robber and murderer of my unhappy pledges, permit the bodies of the murdered to be uncovered, that being more and more urged to just indignation by contemplation of their beauty and youth, your anger may bear some proportion to the offence." This proposal was applauded, and forthwith the magistrate orders me to uncover with my own hand1 the bodies, which had been placed upon a bier. The lictors compel me, in spite of my struggles, and after a long resistance, to renew with a fresh exhibition 15 the crime which had been perpetrated; at length, dashing my hand from my side, they drag it to the corpses to its own destruction. I yielded to necessity; and though unwillingly, I raise the coverlet, and lay bare the bodies. Heavens," what a sight! what a prodigy! what a turn in my fortunes! Although now numbered with the dead, the sudden change stupified me, nor could I find words. to express the astonishment which I felt. The corpses of

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those murdered men were three great" wine-skins gashed in various places,20 and, as I recall to mind the conflict of the evening before, gaping open in the very spots where I had wounded those robbers. Then that laughter which some of them had artfully" concealed, burst out freely throughout the crowd; some, in excess of joy," began to congratulate me, others tried to relieve the pain of their sides by compression of their hands; then, overwhelmed with joy," and looking round at me, all took their departure from the theatre.

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Exercise LIV.

On Euripides.

THE time and place at which Euripides flourished were such, that' a person naturally endowed with good abilities could want nothing that might contribute to the highest literary cultivation. For he was born and brought up in Athens, that city, which, alone of all the ancient cities of Greece, was a teacher to future ages in all that concerns good taste,* philosophy, and poetry. About that time Eschylus had already purified tragedy from the old-fashioned indecency of the waggons of Thespis, and had clothed her with 'a becoming mask and robe;" and Sophocles had so polished and cultivated this tragedy, which passed into his hands from Eschylus, that there seemed to be no further opportunity for promoting the improvement of scenic poetry." But Euripides, imbued from his earliest infancy with the rules of philosophy and eloquence, was unwilling to abuse his oratorical power in the pursuit of political distinctions; deterred by the fate of his master Anaxagoras, he dared not employ his philosophy in eradicating errors too deeply fixed in the minds of men. That he might not, however, pass his life in inglorious obscurity, and that he might, as far as circumstances permitted, apply his eloquence and philosophy to the service of mankind,

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he turned his thoughts to the composition of tragedies,' with such diligence and success, that, at least in the opinion of many, he rendered doubtful the superiority of Sophocles himself. Relying on the protection of the theatre, and as it were covered and sheltered under its shield, he stealthily instilled into the minds of his fellow-citizens those doctrines which it would have been far from safe to utter in public. Covertly under an assumed character he attempted to subvert false superstitions, consecrated by the strong veneration of ages, and confirmed by their very antiquity, which he truly foresaw that his countrymen would consider it impious to attack openly. Nor did he any more spare the other prejudices with which he perceived that most men throughout the world were burdened, and went astray, and wandering lost the one true path of life."" Although he was not altogether without honour and reputation among his countrymen, the common people did not during his life-time regard him with the highest favour.12 In short, Euripides was one of those who have lamented that 'hoped-for favour answered not their worth:13 so that out of seventy or perhaps a greater number of tragedies which he brought out," he succeeded only with fifteen. But the more undeservedly he was neglected by the people, when he entered the lists with his tragedies, so much the more ardently was he esteemed by those, whose judgment was somewhat more matured," and who were really interested" in poetry and philosophy. us take, as worth all the rest,18 the example of Socrates, who being a few years younger than Euripides, considered him nearly in the light of a teacher, and neglecting almost all the other poets, sat as a regular and attentive spectator of the plays of Euripides. But Euripides has found the judgment of posterity more favourable than that of his own age. And in this there is a surprising" resemblance between him and his most zealous imitator, Menander. For, as we learn from Quintilian, Philemon was often preferred to Menander by the faulty judgment of their own age. But Menander so little cared for that unfair estimation of his contemporaries, that on one occasion happening to meet his rival after his victory, he asked Are you not ashamed, Philemon, to take the prize

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