to chronological order, rather serving for the materials of history, than aspiring to the name of history themselves.

Q. What are Memoirs ?

A. A sort of history in which the author does not pretend to give full information, but only to relate what he himself knew or was concerned in.

Q. What is the general character of Memoirs?

A. Low and trifling.

Q. What exceptions are there among the French?

A. The Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz and of the Duke of Sully.

Q. What is Biography?

A. A Narrative of the lives of men ;-it is less formal and stately than history; but, to the bulk of readers, no less instructive.

Q. Who is the most distinguished of biographical writers ?

A. Plutarch; he wrote the lives of most of the eminent men of antiquity.

Q. What is the character of his work?

A. It is not distinguished for beauty; but it will always be considered as a valuable treasure of instruction.

Q. What great improvement has lately been introduced into historical composition?

A. An attention to laws, customs, commerce, religion, literature and whatever tends to show the spirit and genius of nations. The progress of the human mind is now thought to

be of more importance, than a detail of sieges and battles.

Q. To whom are we indebted for this?
A. To Voltaire, in his age of Louis XIV.

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING-DIA.

LOGUE.

Q. What is the professed object of Philosophy?

A. To convey instruction.

Q. What attention should be paid to the style of Philosophical Writing?

A. Not so much as in other kinds of composition, but it must not be wholly neglected. Q. What does Philosophy strictly require? A. The utmost perspicuity and accuracy. Q. What else does it admit of?

A. A polished, neat, and elegant style; metaphors, comparisons, and all the calm figures of speech.

Q. What are good specimens of philosophical writing?

A. The philosophical treatises of Plato and Cicero, and Locke's treatise on the human understanding.

Q. What rank does a philosophical, moral, or critical dialogue hold among the works of Taste?

A. A high rank, and is very difficult of execution.

Q. What should it be?

A. A natural and spirited representation of real conversation; exhibiting the character and manners of the several speakers, and suiting to each that peculiarity of thought and expression which distinguishes him from another.

Q. Are the greatest part of modern dialogues of this sort ?

A. They are far from it; are very puerile. Q. Who among the ancients are eminent for the beauty of their dialogues?

A. Plato, Cicero, and Lucian.

Q. What is the character of Plato's dialogues?

A. They are eminent for beauty. The characters of the sophists are well drawn. We are introduced into a real conversation, supported with life and spirit.

Q. How do Cicero's dialogues compare with Plato's?

A. They are not so spirited and characteristical, but are agreeable and well supported. Q. What was Lucian's object in his dialogues of the dead?

A. To expose the follies of superstition and the pedantry of philosophy.

Q. How did he effect it?

A. By wit and humour.

Q. Who have excelled among the moderns? A. Fontenelle, More, and Bishop Berkley. Q. What do Berkley's dialogues, concerning the existence of matter, furnish?

A. An instance of a very abstract subject

Epistolary Writing-Fictitious History. 95 made clear and intelligible by means of con

versation.

EPISTOLARY WRITING-FICTITIOUS

HISTORY.

Q. What place does Epistolary Writing hold?

A. A kind of middle place between the serious and amusing species of composition.

Q. Do philosophical or political treatises in the form of letters come under the head of epistolary writing?

A. No. Nothing but what is of the easy, familiar style;-conversation carried on between two friends at a distance.

Q On what does its merit and agreeableness depend?

A. On its introducing us to some acquaintance with the writer. There we look for the

man, not the author.

Q. What is its first and fundamental requisite ?

A. Simplicity; not excluding, however, sprightliness and wit.

Q. What should be its style?

A. Not too highly polished, but neat and

correct.

Q. What attention should be paid to decorum ?

A. All which our own character and that of others demand.

Q. Who have left us the most celebrated collections of letters among the ancients ? A. Pliny and Cicero.

Q. What is the character of Pliny's letters? A. They are elegant and polite, and exhibit a very amiable view of the Author; but they seem too much to be designed for the public. Q. What of Cicero's ?

A. They are the most valuable extant in any language.

Q. What collection is most distinguished in the English language?

A. That of Mr. Pope, Dean Swift, and their friends.

Q. What is the character of this collection? A. It is entertaining, contains much wit and ingenuity; but shows too much study and refinement.

Q. Who are most esteemed among the French letter writers ?

A. Voiture and Madame de Sevignes.

Q. What English lady has much excelled in epistolary writing?

A. Lady Mary Wortley Montague.

Q. What is the use of fictitious histories? A. They furnish one of the best channels for conveying instruction, for painting humanlife and manners, and for exhibiting the beauty of virtue and odiousness of vice.

Q. Of what did Lord Bacon consider our taste for fictitious history a proof?

A. Of the greatness and dignity of the human mind; for it shows that common objects