The Amusements of a People.

N ftudying the character of a people, one enquiry fhould always be, what were their amusements? We here get hold of great features, which often unriddle the reft. This is indifpenfably neceffary where states have rifen to cultivation. In the finer tracts of the temperate regions of the earth, you meet amufements that are elegant, and pleasures that are refined. Departing on either hand to the south or to the north, you find tafte to degenerate and gratification to become impure. At length arriving at the extremities, refinement is utterly loft:-to give pleasure is to ftupify or to intoxicate, here by opium, there by brandy and tobacco. The happy intermediate regions enjoy the yuresse du fentiment. Is the philofopher to fet at naught these distinctions? Is he to lay no stress upon the different ftate of the arts? Is he to imagine that it imports not that the peasant in Mufcovy fubfifts on garlic, and folaces himfelf with ardent fpirits; and in Italy that he

feeds on a water-melon, and goes forth with a guitar on his back to the plough? - DR. ROBERTSON.

Anagrammatifm.

HE only quinteffence that hitherto the alchymy of wit could draw out of names, is anagrammatifm

or metagrammatifm; which is a diffolution of a name truly written into its letters as its elements, and a new connection of it by artificial tranfpofition, without addition, fubtraction or change of any letter, into different words, making fome perfect sense applicable to the perfon named.*-CAMDEN.

*There are few more complete and applicable anagrams than that made by Père Finardi on Magliabechi.

A,n,t,o,n,i,u,s, M,a,g,l,i,a,b,e,c,h,i,u,s. Is unus bibliotheca magna. That on H,o,r,a,t,i,o, N,e,l,s,o,n. Honor eft a Nilo, is more complete than the former, which has a redundant letter. That on W,i,l,l,i,a,m, N,o,y, Attorney General to King Charles I. is another good fpecimen of this alchymy of wit, I moyl

Our Ancestors.

HESE later ages of the world have declined into a foftnefs above the effeminacy of Afian Princes, and have contracted cuftoms which those innocent and healthful days of our Ancestors knew not; whofe piety was natural, whofe charity was operative, whose policy was just and valiant, and whofe œconomy was fincere and proportionable to the difpofitions and requifites of nature.-JEREMY TAYLOR.

2. A TENACIOUS adherence to the rights and liberties tranfmitted from a wife and virtuous ancestry, public fpirit and a love of one's country, are the fupport and ornament of a government.-ADDISON.

in law, being expreffive of his toilfome drudgery. That alfo by William Oldys on himself is good, but lefs perfect:

In word and will I am a friend to you

And one friend Old is worth a hundred new.-Ed.

Ancients and Moderns.

O fuppofe an ancient title, though
leffer in degree, is preferable to
one of
greater rank of later crea-

tion, is, as if one fhould affirm,

that an old fhilling is better than a new halfcrown, though the metal and the impreffion fhould be the fame in both. COLLIER.

JEREMY

2. NOT that the moderns are born with more wit than their predeceffors; but finding the world better furnished at their coming into it, they have more leisure for new thoughts, more light to direct them, and more hints to work upon.-Ibid.

3. THOSE who come laft feem to enter with advantage. They are born to the wealth of antiquity. The materials for judging are prepared, and the foundations of knowledge are laid to their hands. Befides, if the point was tried by antiquity, antiquity would lofe it; for the prefent age is really the oldest and has the largest experience to plead.-Ibid.

Ancient Knighthood.

COWHERD once applied to
Arthur the renowned King of
Britain, to make his fon a knight.
"It is a great thing thou afkeft,

faid Arthur, and enquired whether this entreaty proceeded from him or from his fon? The old man replied, " from my son, not from me; for I have thirteen fons, and they will all perform the work I put them to; but this boy will not labour for me, for any thing that I and my wife may fay; but he will be alway shooting and cafting darts, and glad to fee battles and to behold knights, and always, day and night defireth of me to be made a knight." The king commanded the cowherd to fetch all his fons; they were all shapen much like the poor man; but Tor was like none of them in shape or countenance; and fo king Arthur knighted him.KING ARTHUR, an old British Romance.