Dryden.
"Extremes in nature equal ends produce,
And oft so mix, the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue or begins the vice."
Pope.
I might adduce other instances, but these are sufficient to show that the sentiment owes nothing to Napoleon but the sanction of his great name, and the pithy sentence in which he has embodied it.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, Nov. 1851.
DR. JOHNSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BARETTI'S INTRODUCTION.
Boswell notices Dr. Johnson having in 1775 written the preface to Baretti's Easy Lessons in Italian and English; but neither he nor his editors appear to have been aware of the preface which Dr. Johnson contributed to an earlier work by Baretti, his Introduction to the Italian Language, London, 1775, 8vo. It is accompanied by an Italian translation, and is written with all his usual vigour, and commences: