We talked of Tragedy. He seemed to rate highly the power of exciting tears-I said that nothing was more easy than to deluge an audience, that it was done every day by the meanest Writers."

"

I must remind you, my Friend, first, that these Notes, &c. are not intended as specimens of Klopstock's intellectual power or even " colloquial prowess, to judge of which by an accidental conversation, and this with Strangers, and those too Foreigners, would be not only unreasonable, but calumnious. Secondly, I attribute little other interest to the remarks than what is derived from the celebrity of the Person who made them. Lastly, if you ask me, whether I have read the Messiah, and what I think of it? I answer-as yet the first four books only: and as to my opinion (the reasons of which hereafter) you may guess it from what I could not help muttering to myself, when the good Pastor this morning told me, that Klopstock was the German Milton" a very German Milton indeed!!!Heaven preserve you, and

SATYRANE.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

I thank the "Friend's friend and a Cantab" for his inspiriting Letter, and assure him, that it was not without it's intended effect, of giving me encouragement. That this was not needless, he would feel as well as know, if I could convey to him the anxious thoughts and gloomy anticipations, with which I write any single paragraph, that demands the least effort of attention, or requires the Reader to enter into himself and question his own mind as to the truth of that which I am pressing on his notice. But both He and my very kind Malton Correspondent, and all of similar dispositions, may rest assured, that with every imaginable endeavour to make THE FRIEND, collectively, as entertaining as is compatable with the main Object of the Work, I shall never so far forget the duty, I owe to them and to my own heart, as not to remember that mere amusement is not that main Object. I have taken upon myself (see No. 11.) all the blame that I could acknowledge without adulation to my readers and hypocritical mock-humility. But the principal source of the obscurity imputed must be sought for in the want of interest concerning the truths themselves. (REVEL. III. 17.) My sole Hope (I dare not say expectation) is, that if I am enabled to proceed with the work through an equal number of Essays with those already published, it will gradually find for itself it's appropriate Public.

S. T. COLERIDGE

PENRITH: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J, BROWN; AND SOLD BY
MESSRS. LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW; AND
CLEMENT, 201, STRAND, LONDon.

THE FRIEND.

No. 19. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1809.

EPITAPHS

TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA.

I.

There never breath'd a man who when his life
Was closing might not of that life relate
Toils long and hard.-The Warrior will report
Of wounds, and bright swords flashing in the field,
And blast of trumpets. He, who hath been doomed
To bow his forehead in the courts of kings,
Will tell of fraud and never-ceasing hate,
Envy, and heart-inquietude derived

From intricate cabals of treacherous friends.
1, who on ship-board lived from earliest youth,
Could represent the countenance horrible
Of the vex'd waters, and the indignant rage
Of Auster and Bootes. Forty years
Over the well-steer'd Gallies did I rule;
From huge Pelorus to the Atlantic pillars
Rises no mountain to mine eyes unknown;
And the broad gulphs I travers'd-oft-and oft.
Of every cloud which in the heavens might stir
I knew the force; and hence the rough sea's pride
Avail'd not to my Vessel's overthrow.

What noble pomp and frequent have not I
On regal decks beheld! yet in the end
I learn that one poor moment can suffice
To equalize the lofty and the low.

We sail the sea of life-a calm One finds
And One a tempest-and, the voyage o'er,
Death is the quiet haven of us all.

If more of my condition ye would know,
Savona was my birth-place, and I sprang
Of noble Parents: sixty years and three
Lived I-then yielded to a slow disease.

II.

Destined to war from very infancy
Was I, Roberto Dati, and I took
In Malta the white symbol of the Cross.
Nor in life's vigorous season did I shun
Hazard or toil; among the Sands was seen
Of Lybia, and, not seldom, on the Banks
Of wide Hungarian Danube, 't was my lot
To hear the sanguinary trumpet sounded.
So liv'd I, and repined not at such fate;
This only grieves me, for it seems a wrong,
That stripp'd of arms I to my end am brought
On the soft down of my paternal home.
Yet haply Arno shall be spared all cause
To blush for me. Thou loiter not nor halt
In thy appointed way, and bear in mind
How fleeting and how frail is human life.

Ma pianger non si dee, come per tempo
Dal Mondo uscito. Voi, Mortali, errate,
Per vero dir, nel conto della vita-

Sol numerate gli anni, e non guardate

All' opre gloriose di Virtute.*

CHIABRERA.

"Does Fortune favour Fools? Or how do you explain the origin of the Proverb, which, differently worded, is to be found in all the languages of Europe?"

This Proverb admits of various explanations according to the mood of mind, in which it is used. It may arise from pity, and the soothing persuasion that Providence is eminently watchful over the helpless, and extends an especial care to those who are not capable of caring for themselves. So used, it breathes the same feeling as "God tempers the wind to the shorn Lamb"-or, the more sportive adage, that "the Fairies take care of Children and tipsy Folk." The persuasion itself, in addition to the general religious feeling of Mankind, and the scarcely less general love of the marvellous, may be accounted for from our tendency to exaggerate all effects, that seem disproportionate to their visible cause, and all circumstances that are in any way strongly contrasted with our notions of the Persons under them. Secondly, it arises from the safety and success which an ignorance of danger and difficulty sometimes actually assists in procuring; inasmuch as it precludes the despondence, which might have kept the more foresighted from undertaking the enterprize, the depression which would retard its' progress, and those overwhelming influences of terror in cases where the vivid perception of the danger constitutes the greater part of the danger itself. Thus men are said to have swooned and even died at the sight of a narrow Bridge, over which they had rode, the night before, in perfect safety; or at tracing their footmarks along the edge of a Precipice which the darkness had concealed from them. A more obscure cause, yet not wholly to be omitted, is afforded by the

Literal Translation. But we ought not to lament, as if he had departed early from the World: It is you, Mortals, in truth, that err in your calculation of Life: you count the years only, and do not look to the glorious works of Virtue.

undoubted fact, that the exertion of the reasoning faculties tends to extinguish or bedim those mysterious instincts of skill, which, though for the most part latent, we nevertheless possess in common with other animals.

Or the Proverb may be used invidiously and Folly in the vocabulary of Envy or Baseness may signify courage and magnanimity. Hardihood and Fool-hardiness are indeed as different as green and yellow, yet will appear the same to the jaundiced eye. Courage multiplies the chances of success by sometimes making opportunities, and always availing itself of them: and in this sense Fortune may be said to favour Fools by those, who however prudent in their own opinion are deficient in valour and enterprize. Again: an eminently good and wise Man, for whom the praises of the judicious have procured a high reputation even with the world at large, proposes to himself certain objects, and adapting the right means to the right end attains them: but his objects not being what the world calls Fortune, neither money nor artificial rank, his admitted inferiors in moral and intellectual worth, but more prosperous in their worldly concerns, are said to have been favoured by Fortune and he slighted: although the fools did the same in their line as the wise man in his : they adapted the appropriate means to the desired end and so succeeded. In this sense the Proverb is current by a misuse, or a catachresis at least, of both the words, Fortune and Fools.

How seldom Friend! a good great man inherits
Honour or wealth with all his worth and pains!
It sounds, like stories from the land of spirits,
If any man obtain that which he merits,
Or any merit that which he obtains.

REPLY.

For shame, dear Friend! renounce this canting strain!
What would'st thou have a good great man obtain ?
Place? Titles? Salary? a gilded Chain?

Or Throne of Corses which his sword hath slain?
Greatness and goodness are not means but ends!
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great Man? Three treasures, Love, and LIGHT,
And CALM THOUGHTS regular as infant's breath:
And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,
HIMSELF, his MAKER, and the Angel DEATH.

S. T. C.