Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-10-15
THURSDAY, OCTOBER Is, 1918.
EpIToR,

RE SlpniiCauliy, ludt 'be "h'ei "i"N' "
Signature of H. hai sometime past received,
what he called, dressing.
Not having had the opportunity lately OF
seeing your Gazette, ! referred to the hle,
prepared To read and toreceive an elegant,
satiricai and classical casligatoa.
What was my establishment, when IN
place of perceiving on the arena the sword
of the accomplished gladiator, beheld
tomahawk welded By one ycleped LucIus.
This attack places me in new situation;
for although | occasionally have amused
myself in writing paragraphs, | declare,
upon my honor, that never in my liie en-
tered into a newspaper controversy; tor |
despise such waste Of time-yet Luclus
shall rot escape the retort courteous.
He ushers himself into notice under the
character Introductory ofan unlettcred man.
Yet, although under this affectaton OF hu-
mility, did he anticipate that he would be
taken on his assertion, Ito compare an atom
with an atlas) he would feel equally disap-
pointed as Julius Cesar did at the Lupercal.
He places me (under my own classical
ton of writersl rs one who wishes TO get
quit of few IDEAS" and in the same SEN
ence this pedagogae talks OF my lueu6ra-
;i0ns.*
Why he is scarcely even scholiast, or
he would better understand the word he
ventures to use. Does person who writes
10 get &" quit of ideas"-does such person,
ask, lucubrpte
Tell Lucius, when he leaves the school
room, to step into blacksmith's shop and
remark the scntilations that proceed from
the stroke of the hammer on the first heat;
and then observe the welding on the anvil
which follows, and be may possibly COM
prehend the distinction.
He accuses me ofusing an unusual and in
elegant inversion of language. Here again
we perceive the aapil. But boldly pro-
nouuce tlat the expression he quotes,
squares with the strict.st rules of sy ntax
although not tanned down to pc dagogue cor
RICHNESS.
And equally deny the position that there
is no distinction between bellies lettres and
poetry, IfLucius understands the French
language, let him anayse the expression
he will find il means polite literature: such
as Blair's Lectures, Burke on the Sublime,
Goldsnith's Essays, Essays on the Princl-
pies of Translation, and such works. That
is now the received meaning Of the express
sion, al,hougha sciolis, may say otherwise
Who would call, let me ask, the poem Of
d" Pethox the Great" by Swift, or that OF
"Tam O'Chan,er," by Burns, bellies let
tres publications although they be unri-
vailed in their different styles
TO say that contcmn science and meta
physics, is most wlful misrepresentation
Of Lucius
Had Ike ever heard Doctor Blair from the
pulpit, he would have been better able 10
have Judged Of his moral dscourses, and of
the effect given 10 them by his manner and
eloquenee. As TO the erangelicat earnest
ness of the almost delfsd Massiilor, Obs
is truly bending the knee to Baai) the "a
mount is, that he was court preacher; and
the cant, rather the cauting word OF the day,
ev0nrel:eal, was used only when speaking
Of the evangelists.
presume, however, if Lucias reads
many French sermons, that when I've wrote
he had some dreaming recollection OF the
famous Bardalou---whe held that gift so
eminently possessed by y Whitfield, of shak-
ing every nerve OF bis audience.
For instance, when attempting TO figure
tohis congregation, ETERNITY,--ir the fer
vor of his imagination he exemplihed it by |
a mighty pendulum, which possessed eter-
nal motion, and, suspended over the heads
of the damned in hell. vibrated for ever;-
and he pictured sinner placed al each end
of The vibration Of the pendulun.-the one
exclaming, in doleful agony, tsyours-
the other responding, in equal misery, ga
mais." This is one Of the boldest figures
ever used from the pulpit, and sets at
nought the lakes OF liquid lava poured out
by the.suungelical preachers of our day.
What contradiction in terms
l admire wit, although the victim; but
the miserable attempts made by Lucius are
more painful TO the fibre than the languid
feebleness which chills bis lines.
II is not, therefore, in the least surprising
IL / L r