Infpires the enemy is the strongest teftimony of his valour. The noted comparison of the afs, introduced in this place, will not degrade the hero in the opinion of any judicious reader. I do not, indeed, think that the poet is juftified by the ufual apology made for him, that this animal was a more refpectable object in Greece at that time than now among us; for, in fact, the circumftances dwelt upon in the defcription are his greediness for food, and his infenfibility to blows, qualities in their own nature ignobie. But it is Homer's manner to be very little nice in his fimiles, either as to their fubject, or their adaptation; and he is ufually fatisfied if they apply to the fingle point for which he adduces them. Ajax was driven from the field of battle by the Trojans with as much difficulty as an afs from a corn-field by a troop of boys, this is the whole of the parallel. In like manner, the Greeks and Trojans contending for the body of Patroclus, are refembled to curriers ftretching a hide: an apt comparison for the action of two parties tugging at an object on contrary fides, which was all that the poet wanted. But this is a digreffion. "In the fucceeding combats about the wall and before the thips, Ajax is, as he is termed by the poet, the great bulwark of the Greeks, ever occupying the poft of danger and importance, unwearied in his exertions, and folely intent upon performing every office of a warrior and chieftain in repelling the foe, All the other leaders are wounded, or have retired to their tents, and the whole care and toil of the day devolves upon him. He is unable to refift the torrent of attack breaking in from all quarters, yet he refolves rather to die than yield. As the laft effort, he takes his ftation on the very fhips, and thence beats off the affailants. At length, quite fpent with fatigue, and difarmed of his fole weapon, he withdraws a while from the ftorm; and inftantly, as if no other obftacle remained, the first flip is fet on fire by the Trojans. It is impoflible for genuine valour, active and paffive, to be exhibited in more ftriking colours; and I believe no hero can be found in the Iliad who fuftains a trial equally fevere. "When Patroclus is flain, and the great point of honour is on one fide to feize, and on the other to refcue, his dead body, Ajax is again called upon, and again takes upon himself the burthen of the field. Though Hector and the Trojans rush on with the confidence of fuccefs, and Jove himself manifeftly favours them, Ajax abides by the body of his friend. It is in this emergency, when overwhelmed with a mift or darkness which intercepts his view of the Grecian hoft, he makes the addrefs to Jupiter which has been fo much admired for its moral fublimity : Lord of earth and air, Oh king! oh father! hear my humble pray'r: Difpel this cloud, the light of heaven reftore: Give me to fee, and Ajax afks no more & If Greece must perish we thy will obey, But let us perith in the face of day!' POPE. "One of the fimiles employed on this occation is fingularly apt and expreflive. The two Ajaxes keeping back the affailing crowd are refembled to a mound ftretched. acrois a plain, and repeiling the waters of a vaft inundation. This defenfive effort is the laft martial, exploit of Ajax in the Iliad: every other hero being judicioutly made to to give way to Achilles on his return to the war. "Why Homer has chofen to reprefent Ajax as a lofer in all the games in which he is engaged at the funeral of Patroclus is not eafily explained; efpecially as they are of a kind in which his bodily ftrength and vigour would have fair fcope for exertion. But having fixed his reputation by making him the refource of his countrymen on all ferious occafions, it is of little confequence that others furpafs him in Sportive conflicts. "Such is the Ajax of the Iliad ;a hero (as far as fo rude an age admits of heroifm) in grain; tried and proved by every difficulty and danger; not the meteor of a day, but, thining with equal luftre through the whole period of action; always in his place; reforted to on every emergency, and never in vain; not hurried along by idle bravado or enthufiaftic ardour, but making utility the guide of his exertions; finally, never yielding but when mortal refiftance was unavailable, and when a heaven-born champion, with celeftial aid, was neceffary to turn the tide of fortune. He may then ftand at the head of able and useful men, whose value is fuperior to their fame;-a clafs of which there are members in every profeffion and rank of life, and to whose affiftance the first-rate characters owe great part of their celebrity and fuccefs. generous Agis, and continually fupplied his mafter with fresh bodies of difciplined foldiers. Such was the Labienus of Cæfar, the Agrippa of Auguftus, the Sully of Henry IV. the Cecil of Elizabeth, the Ireton of Cromwell. Such appear to be the generality of thofe officers in the British navy, under whofe conduct the empire of the ocean has been maintained for their country every where, against all foes, by dint of equal valour and unvarying skill. In fcience, in the arts, in the common business of life, fuch men might be pointed out. In general, they are thofe whom the leaders in important affairs would choose for their feconds, to fupply their. places on occafion, act according to their plans, and take the manage. ment of feparate and dependent parts. Their effential qualifications are, a perfect fitnefs for their pofts, and a conftant readiness to bring all their powers into full exertion, firmnefs, vigilance, order, and the habit of fixing the attention upon particular objects. Pares negotiis neque fupra' has been thought but fubaltern praife; but if we be allowed to tranflate these words, by Masters of their business, and not above it,' the idea of the character here intended will be adequately expreffed, and furely it implies no mean commendation. The enthufiafm of genius, and the creative faculty of invention, do not belong to it; but it reaches the mark of known excellence in what it undertakes. Without thefe Ajaxes, the greatest geniuses may be foiled, and the moft brilliant enterprizes prove abortive. With them, the world will go on well in its ordinary train, and fteady profperity will compen fate the want of striking improve. ment." On On the COMPARATIVE VALUE of different STUDIES. [From the fame WORK.] HOUGH it is probably ad ifting in different perfons; but "Though it is fociety that this does not render the things them vantageous to every object which can occupy the human mind fhould engage the attention of fome individuals, and the freedom of study demands that the • utmost latitude fhould be given to diverfity of taftes, yet to each individual feparately confidered, it is by no means a matter of indifference how he directs his choice. He may, indeed, fill up his time with purfuits of almost any kind; he may become interefted in any; but if it be the purpose of study to make acquifitions of knowledge which may enlarge the conceptions, remove errors and prejudices, fuggeft useful conclufions, and really elevate a man amid his fpecies, it muft be of fundamental importance how he felects the objects on which he is to employ the force of his intelle&ual powers. And not only is it of confequence that he fhould be able properly to direct his own purfuits, but it is defireable that he hould be provided with a rule whereby to form fome estimate (a liberal and impartial one) of the proportional value of other men's attainments. For, fince many of these make a claim to the public applause and refpect, it is but right that the public fhould poffefs fome principles on which to found their adjudication. Horace, with his ufual good fenfe, has faid, felves equal. The maxim, however, is a good one, as far as it warns us against making our own pursuits a standard by which those of others are to be estimated. To this partiality we are all liable; and the only way to correct it is to lay down fuch large and general principles of preference as will not readily bend to the exclufive fervice of particular likings. "I muft premife to the confideration I mean in the prefent letter to give this fubject, that the value of ftudies concerning which I inquire, is to the ftudent himself, not to the community. Were value to be eftimated according to the common notions of utility, the arts by which the neceffaries, nay, the luxuries, of life are procured, would obtain more votes in their favour than the fublimeft fciences. A memoir in the Swedish "Amoenitates Academicæ,' entitled Cui Bono, relates, that a certain perfon who had enriched himself by the fale of faltfifh, on being fhown the royal mufeum of natural history, arranged in scientific order, afked "What was the good of all this?"-a queftion, the writer fays, fit for fuch a man to make. He feems, however, to have thought it of fome importance; for the purpose of his paper is to fhow, that natural history, even aecording to the vulgar notions of Nec tua laudabis ftudia, nec aliena re- utility, is good for fomething. It 'prendes ;' "Praise not your own, nor blame an other's taite; which is certainly juft, as far as it regards the equal right of choice ex muft, indeed, be confeffed that many of his arguments are fo trifling, that the falt-fill merchant would be juftified in valuing, upon that ground, Beukelen, the inventor of of the art of pickling herrings, beyond Linnæus or Buffon. Further, the utility of ftudies to any other than the ftudents themfelves depends upon the communication of the knowledge acquired. Writers on the most abftrufe and confined topics may be ferviceable to the few who engage in fimilar purfuits with their own; whereas mere readers and fpeculators, on the most popular fubjects, are fruitlefs with refpect to fociety. But the duty of communicating our ideas is a feparate confideration, which I do not intend to engage in. "One of the moft material circumftances on which the relative value of an object of study depends is, that it be fomething real, ftable, of general import, and not indebt ed for its confequence to temporary and conventional modes of thinking. In this refpect, nature has greatly the advantage over art. Whatever is learned concerning her is an eternal truth, which will preferve its relation to other things as long as the world endures. The motions of the heavenly bodies, the influence of the elements, the properties of minerals, vegetables, and animals, are grand facts which fpeak a common language to all mankind in all ages, and afford a perpetual fund of use and entertainment. The more wide and comprehenfive a furvey is taken of these objects, the better they answer the purpose of enlarging the mind, and eftablishing a bafis for truths of univerfal application. Hence the advantage of ftudying them in a connected and fyftematic mode, and framing general propofitions concerning them. But the foundation for these must be a very accurate investigation of particular facts, fince the inftant their guidance is quitted, and reliance is placed upon analo gical deductions, error commences, Obfervation and experiment must therefore go hand in hand with reafoning; nor was there ever a true philofopher who did not unite their proceffes. I can conceive of no employment of the human faculties nobler than thus taking the scale of creation, detecting all its mutual connexions and dependencies, inveftigating the laws by which it is governed as a whole, and the economy of its constituent parts, and alternately making ufe of the fagacity of the fenfes in minute research, and the powers of intellect in com-: paring and abftracting. The ftudies, then, which range under the heads of natural philofophy and natural hiftory, and are comprehended under the general term of phyfics, appear to me to take the lead of all mental purfuits with refpect to extent, variety, and dignity. Let it be understood, however, that I include among them the study of one of the nobleft objects nature prefents, and certainly the most interefting to a human creature-that of man himself. To afcertain what he effentially is, what are the faculties of the body and mind which characterife him as the head of the animal creation, and what are the variations induced in him by edu cation, habit, climate, and mode of life, is ftri&tly a branch of phyfics, and has by the best writers been treated as fuch. "It is, doubtlefs, impoffible for a fingle mind to embrace all the ob jects here pointed out, fo as to fa thom the depths of human know. ledge in each ;-to be at the fame time the mind of Newton, Locke, Boyle, and Haller but according to the degree in which a man had imbibed the leading ideas which conftituted the intellectual furniture of fuch minds, I fhould eftimate the the value of his attainments; and I hould prefer, though not in point of genius, yet with refpect to acquifitions, one who combined a tolerably accurate acquaintance with all the branches of knowledge poffeffed by thefe, to a complete adept in any one of them. The last mentioned of the above perfons, Haller, was fcarcely, I believe, furpaffed by any man in the variety, and at the fame time the folidity, ot his phyfical knowledge. Buffon may be named as one whofe general views were as grand, and whofe purfuits were planned upon as enlarged a scale, as thofe of any perfon whom ftudies of this clafs have rendered famous, though he wanted accuracy and folidity in many of the particulars of his fpeculations. As a criterion of this capacioufnefs and elevation of understanding, I would fuppofe a delegate fent from this earth to explore fome other world and bring back the moft complete and important information concerning it-the perfon duly felected for fuch a miflion would, in my idea, poffefs a title to the fuperiority in queftion. "Although nature, thus ftudied, appears to me the nobleft of all fubjects that can occupy the mind, I am far from affixing the fame proportionate value to investigations of detached parts of the works of nature. In thefe, all the grandeur of large and connected views is frequently loft, and the whole attention is employed on petty details, which lead to nothing further. A very little mind may fuccefsfully apply itself to the arrangement of hells and butterflies by their forms and colours, and gain nothing by the process but the fimple ideas of form and colour, as ferving for marks of diftinction. To fuch minds, an arrangement of ribbons by their fhades and patterns would 1800. be a perfectly fimilar employment. I do not deny that even thefe humble labourers in fcience are neceffary to complete the great fabric of the fyftem of nature, and give ac curacy and uniformity to its nomenclature. Their induftry and exa&nefs deferve praife; but it is better for a ftudent, capable of more extenfive views, to make use of their labours, than to imitate them. What I have faid, however, must be understood with limitation; for, as I have already obferved, it is incumbent on the inquirer into nature to spare no pains in the ac curate fearch after facts; but thefe fhould be facts not trifling or infulated, but effential to the formation of thofe general theorems in which fyftematical knowledge confifts. It is certain, for instance, that while the Linnæan class of cryptogamia fubfifts, the vegetable economy must be very incompletely known. It cannot, however, be abolished without the minuteft examination of the generative or gans of moffes, ferns, algæ, lichens, &c. which may therefore reafonably employ the ableft and most philofophical naturalift. Bonnet, a philofopher in every sense of the word, occupied himfelf for years in microfcopical obfervations and experiments on the fmalleft parts of nature, but it was with the purpose of eftablifhing important conclufions concerting the effential characters of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the limits between each. Modern chemistry is one of the moft important branches of phyfics, and comprehends many truly fublime fpeculations relative to the globe we inhabit; but its theory is entirely built upon experiments, in which the niceft mechanical atten. tions are neceflary to avoid fundamental errors. "A branch of study which apI pears |