esteemed by the late Sir William Jones, who was an excellent critic. Ronsard was called, by the princes and wits of his time, "The French Poet," by way of eminence; so that with less vanity he might say that he was born in the year in which Francis the First was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia-" that Heaven appeared, by that circumstance, inclined to make France some amends for its loss on that day." Like all persons who are distinguished by the attention of the public, he had his friends and his enemies. Among the latter, of Rabelais he was the most afraid, who, when they met together, never failed to ridicule him. This, Ronsard took care should happen but seldom, by obtaining information, whenever he was invited to a party, whether Rabelais would be among the number. It is said, that Voltaire took the same precaution with regard to Piron, the Epigrammatist. With what proper contempt Ronsard treated a scandalous imputation upon his moral and religious character, the following letter to his friend Passerat will evince. "1556.-Since I wrote to you, my dear friend, Lambin has supped with me, and has shewn me I your Latin letter, in which I observed how the good Huguenots of Bourges (for they can be no other persons) have spread a report about the town that Lambin said publicly in the pulpit, 'That now the world was delivered from three Atheists, Moret, Ronsard, and Gouveau.' have, indeed, acquired nothing by this news but the honour of having my name joined to that of those gentlemen, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen. I can only wish, that whenever people choose to calumniate me, they would do it in the same manner; and I should ever esteem myself happy to be able to equal the virtue, the learning, the integrity, of those two great men, and even of Moret, whom I have ever known to be a man of honour. I do not indeed know, whether M. Lambin said this or not. It is a matter of no consequence; and on the strength of it, I intend to go to-morrow to the Three Fish,' to drink myself into your good graces; recommending myself, with all my heart, to your indulgent Muses." GARTH'S LAST ILLNESS. WHEN Dr. Garth had been for a good while in a bad state of health, he sent, one day, for a physician, with whom he was particularly intimate, and conjured him to tell him sincerely, whether he thought he should be ever able to get rid of his illness or not. His friend, thus conjured, told him, "that he thought he might struggle on with it, perhaps for some years, but that he much feared he could never get the better of it entirely." Dr. Garth thanked him for dealing so fairly with him, turned the discourse to other things, and talked all the rest of the time he staid with him. As soon as he was gone, he called for his servant, said he was a good deal out of order, and would go to bed: he then sent for a surgeon to bleed him. Soon after, he sent for a second surgeon, by a different servant, and was bled in the other arm. then said he wanted rest; and when every body had quitted the room, he took off the bandages, and lay down with the design of bleeding to death. His loss of blood made him faint away, and that stopped the bleeding: he afterwards sunk into a sound sleep, slept all the night, waked in the morning without his usual pains, and said, "if it would continue so, he could be content to live on." In his last illness, he did He not use any remedies, but let the distemper take He was the most agreeable compa its course. nion I ever knew.* SPENCE. SCHILLER'S CHILDHOOD. WHEN only three years old, we are told, that the celebrated author of "The Robbers” manifested an extraordinary eagerness after knowledge, great quickness of apprehension, and an incessantly active imagination. He disliked the usual sports of children; and one of his favourite amusements consisted in the contemplation of his father's little collection of pictures and profiles, consisting chiefly of oil paintings of heroes, princes, and relatives of the family. Here he would pass whole hours, steadfastly * Garth has been censured for voluptuousness, and accused of infidelity. Being one day questioned by Addison upon his religious creed, he is said to have replied, "that he was of the religion of wise men ;" and being urged to explain himself farther, he added, " that wise men kept their own secrets." Pope says of him, in his " Farewell to London," 1715, 66 Garth, the best, good Christian he, gazing on one picture after another, and attempting to copy them. Among these paintings was one representing the storming of Magdeburg by Tilly, and the scenes of horror which ensued. It was the best and largest piece in the collection. Tilly, with his right hand against his side, and the look of a bloodthirsty tyrant, was seen riding through the streets. Groups of weeping females, persons of all ages running away from the infuriated soldiers, burning and falling houses, and all the scenes of woe that attended the steps of Tilly, were the subjects of this picture. Young Schiller, then about six years old, was highly interested by the many expressive faces in this delineation of the rude manners of a former age; and one day, laying sacrilegious hands on this heir-loom, which had already descended from father to son for several generations, he cut it up into as many pieces as there were figures. These he pasted upon paper, where horse and foot in mingled ranks followed their sanguinary leader, whose whole face the boy had blackened, to make him look more frightful. Then came, upon another piece of paper, a long row of men, women, and children; each man being accompanied by a woman and |