LONDON, Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, TH 'HE World around us bears the fame marks of general hoftility as when we last year addreffed ourfelves to our friends and correfpondents; but, with refpect to us at least, the Mufes ftill fmile; and with respect to our country, Triumph, Glory, and Victory, fit proudly on its creft. Our more immediate concern is with the cause of Learning and the Arts; and thefe proceed with rapid ftrides towards perfection, unretarded by the tumult and din of War. To thefe our aid has been communicated with no unsuccessful and parfimonious hand. Numerous rivals for the public favour have arifen, and continue to rife up around us. The failure of fome of thefe we contemplate without exultation; and the fuccefs of others we can behold with complacency undebased by Envy. In the mean time, we shall proceed in our ordinary courfe; fhall pursue those paths which have conducted us to no mean portion of Fame; and continue, as we have invariably done, to teftify our attachment to our Religion, our loyalty to our King, our determination to affift and diftinguish Literary Merit with whomfoever it may be found. With these motives and thefe views, we have little to apprehend, and much to hope. We fhall be fecure of the friendship and affiftance of the Wife and Good; and if at any time there fhall arife malignant or difappointed individuals, whofe falfe pride may have by our means been mortified, or whofe pernicious defigns may through our diligence have been counteracted, we fhall be content with exclaiming, in the words of the Poet, "Peace to all fuch." Dec. 31, 1798. ** V. and B. p. 945, seems out of patience with N. S. for fearching after the name of Nelfon. Now, Mr. Urban, 1 have always understood that fuch enquiries are agreeable to the inquifitive mind of man, and that a pre-eminence of character never fails to caufe a clofer enquiry; and, no doubt, the name of Nelfon attracted your correspondent's attention, for this very reason, because "Nelfon of the Nile will render it are perenmius." Even fuppofing that N. S. may have a pleasure in tracing and dwelling upon the honoured name, and that he, like Mr. Urban, in p. 1001, may have a defire to inform generations yet to come to whom our Hero was related, I do not, therefore, conclude that he ranks" et genus et proavos," &c. with the virtue of the individual. To value a man merely because he has, or to difvalue him merely because he has not, "the boast of heraldry," &c. is equally mean and illiberal. But, not all the effrontery of a gang of Maidstone witneffes, nor all the factious demagogues of the Bedford level, will eafily convince me, that even Cicero himself would have thought a noble defcent any great difparagement to his mental endowments. H. H. We thank our Correfpondent for the paper pafted on the doors of the churches in West Meath; but have no inclination to propagate fich infamously treasonable tenets, though feat us (we are confident) with the peft intentions. |