The Editor in the name of the Editress has to thank the members of the Attic Society for their elegant compliments on her birthday and he trusts that she will show her grateful sense of the praise which has been so handsomely and so liberally given by exerting her best endeavours to deserve it. She joins the Editor in returning their good wishes with hopes that for many years they may merrily meet round the Chest.
The Birthday verses will be followed by a short poem in which Cupid vaunts more than belongs to him and we hope that before he does any mischief in our Society he will have gone through his Reading-made-easy. We have no respect for him in his illiterate character. We have read with much pleasure the poems to Moth on her birthday and Au Reviser and admire the rich and pleading fancy of both. The story of the Blue Beard is told in an interesting manner which is no small praise for a subject that has been so long familiar both to the nursery and the theatre.
The author of the Sylphiad has requested to be excused from discovering himself till his poem is finished, which he finds himself unable to accomplish this season. We should have rejoiced to see it completed because much of the the interest is likely to have evaporated before another year, and even his own ardour may cool when it is no longer stimulated by the Society, but he must be master of his own secret till he sees the proper time to disclose it. The author of the Restoration will probably request the same favour to which he is equally entitled if he deserves it. He has given us the fourth Canto of the fourth Book which concludes the Charine story and concludes with promises of more wonders in the dominion of fire.
The last of the contributions which will be read this evening is a letter signed Alpah complaining of the humble garb of the Attic Chest which he is solicitous to have clothed in more sumptuous apparel. We submit his opinion to the judgment of the Society but at the same time we acknowledge ourselves content with the simplicity of its form and would not change this portion of the Pines of Hymmettus for the most elaborate work of art that modern genius can produce. If he will enshrine it in sculptured silver or gold we shall not refuse him that honour provided that he will assure us that the splendour of the outside shall not cause the contents to be neglected.