There appears to be some discordance among the planets, more than we are at present acquainted with, for it is understood among the leading counsel, in the suit Mars versus Mercury that the discussion is to take place at our next meeting, for which day the Muses have been subpoena’ed, yet we find in the Chest, a renunciation of Mercury’s claim. We, however, suspect this renunciation is not authentic, for which our reasons are fourfold. In the first place, it is written in rhyme, which is not according to legal formality. In the second place, it is very sprightly and very witty, qualities not very often found in legal instruments, or the heads of lawyers. In the third place, it has not the customary stamp of authenticity, the signature of the solicitors in the cause, and in the fourth place it contradicts the arrangements of the counsel, who we cannot suppose to be ignorant of their client’s intentions. Some of these objections may be urged against the subpoena of the Muses but it is not our province to dispute the validity of that instrument, and if it has been duly served, we hope that the ladies will not fail to attend. With the renunciation and the subpoena we shall commence the amusements of this evening and shall next read several poetical answers to the riddle that appeared in the Morning Herald of the 26th of February, and we shall leave their comparative merits to the decision of our auditors. These will be succeeded by and elegant Epistle from a Member of the Staff Corp, not the military Staff Corp, properly so called, but of one essential to all military operations, the manufacturers of the stuff of life, alias bakers. Its elegance and eloquence are admirable proofs of the diffusion of literary attainment, thro’ every rank in this land of poverty and distress, where all are kept in ignorance and slavery, and if the English Society of Della Crusca had not been dissolved by the author of the Baeviad, we would have exerted all our influence to have made him a proving member.
We have taken the liberty of making a slight alteration in the Acrostic to Eliza which we think as beautiful as a jeu d’esprit of that kind can be as it unites the point of an epigram with it essential character. If the fair lady to whom it is addrest should be present, we hope she will reward the author with a Cytherean smile.
We are amused with the humour of the supplication of Timothy Couplet Esq. and the compliment it pays to the leading bard of our Society.
The Attic nomenclature is a skein of entangled silk, for our friends to unravel at their leisure.
We are much delighted with the friendly address of one of our friends, who had by an accident been prevented from assisting at our meetings. It is equally poetical and flattering to our feelings, and we hope her pain and her impatience will be speedily terminated, and that she will be able to keep pace with time before our next meeting.
The Address to Poetry is so eminently beautiful we may safely trust it to make its own way with our hearers, confident that no bosom that has the least warmth of poetic feeling, can hear it without delight. Its richness and variety reminds us of the music of Jackson. It is exuberant without being redundant, and extended without being tedious. We should rejoice to see the author in our Society, and to be frequently honoured with his favours.
We are sorry we cannot present our readers with a continuation of the Sylphiad but we have been favoured with the fourth Canto of the Restoration which terminated the first Book, and also the first Canto of the 2d Book. The plot thickens, the interest increases, and we feel impatient to see how the author will extricate his knights and ladies from their troubles when the demons of all the elements are against them.