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diff --git a/10660-0.txt b/10660-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e517e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/10660-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10110 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10660 *** + +[Transcriber's Note: Printers' errors have been marked with the notation +** . There are a few special characters in the section on Erasmus Darwin; +macrons (a straight line over a letter) are denoted [=x] and breves +(the bottom half of a circle over a letter) are denoted [)x].] + + + + * * * * * + + +_By the same Author_, + +THE + +EARLY FRENCH POETS, + +A SERIES OF NOTICES AND TRANSLATIONS: + +WITH AN + +_Introductory Sketch of the History of French Poetry._ + +BY THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. + +MDCCCXLVI. + + * * * * * + +_Shortly will be published_, + +THE ODES OF PINDAR, + +IN ENGLISH VERSE. + +SECOND EDITION, WITH NOTES, + +EDITED BY THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. + + * * * * * + +_Preparing for the Press_, + +THE + +LITERARY JOURNAL AND LETTERS + +OF THE + +REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY. + +_WITH A MEMOIR_. + +BY HIS SON, THE REV. HENRY CARY, M.A. + + + + * * * * * + + + + +LIVES + +OF + +ENGLISH POETS, + +FROM + +JOHNSON TO KIRKE WHITE, + +DESIGNED AS A CONTINUATION OF JOHNSON'S LIVES. + +BY THE LATE + +REV. HENRY FRANCIS CARY, M.A. + +TRANSLATOR OF DANTE. + +MDCCCXLVI. + + * * * * * + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE. + +The papers of which this volume is composed originally appeared in the +London Magazine, between the years 1821 and 1824. It was the author's +intention to continue the series of Lives to a later period, but a +change in the proprietorship of the Magazine prevented the completion of +his plan. They are now for the first time published in a separate form, +and under their author's name. + +In seeing the work through the press, the Editor has had occasion only +to alter one or two particulars in the Life of Goldsmith, which the +labours of that Poet's more recent biographer, Mr. Prior, have +subsequently elucidated. + +HENRY CARY. + +WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD. _Dec_. 1, 1845. + +CONTENTS. + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + +JOHN ARMSTRONG + +RICHARD JAGO + +RICHARD OWEN CAMBRIDGE + +TOBIAS SMOLLETT + +THOMAS WARTON + +JOSEPH WARTON + +CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY + +WILLIAM MASON + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH + +ERASMUS DARWIN + +WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE + +JAMES BEATTIE + +WILLIAM HAYLEY + +SIR WILLIAM JONES + +THOMAS CHATTERTON + +HENRY KIRKE WHITE + + + + + +LIVES OF ENGLISH POETS. + + * * * * * + +SAMUEL JOHNSON. + +There is, perhaps, no one among our English writers, who for so great a +part of his life has been an object of curiosity to his contemporaries +as Johnson. Almost every thing he said or did was thought worthy of +being recorded by some one or other of his associates; and the public +were for a time willing to listen to all they had to say of him. A mass +of information has thus been accumulated, from which it will be my task +to select such a portion as shall seem sufficient to give a faithful +representation of his fortunes and character, without wearying the +attention of the reader. That any important addition should be made to +what has been already told of him, will scarcely be expected. + +Samuel Johnson, the elder of two sons of Michael Johnson, who was of an +obscure family, and kept a bookseller's shop at Lichfield, was born in +that city on the 18th of September, 1709. His mother, Sarah Ford, was +sprung of a respectable race of yeomanry in Worcestershire; and, being a +woman of great piety, early instilled into the mind of her son those +principles of devotion for which he was afterwards so eminently +distinguished. At the end of ten months from his birth, he was taken +from his nurse, according to his own account of himself, a poor diseased +infant, almost blind; and, when two years and a half old, was carried to +London to be touched by Queen Anne for the evil. Being asked many years +after if he had any remembrance of the Queen, he said that he had a +confused but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds +and a long black hood. So predominant was this superstition relating to +the king's evil, that there was a form of service for the occasion +inserted in the Book of Common Prayer, and Bishop Bull,[1] in one of his +Sermons, calls it a relique and remainder of the primitive gift of +healing. The morbidness of constitution natural to him, and the defect +in his eye-sight, hindered him from partaking in the sports of other +children, and probably induced him to seek for distinction in +intellectual superiority. Dame Oliver, who kept a school for little +children, in Lichfield, first taught him to read; and, as he delighted +to tell, when he was going to the University, brought him a present of +gingerbread, in token of his being the best scholar her academy had ever +produced. His next instructor in his own language was a man whom he used +to call Tom Browne; and who, he said, published a Spelling Book, and +dedicated it to the universe. He was then placed with Mr. Hunter the +head master of the grammar school in his native city, but, for two years +before he came under his immediate tuition, was taught Latin by Mr. +Hawkins, the usher. It is just that one, who, in writing the lives of +men less eminent than himself, was always careful to record the names of +their instructors, should obtain a tribute of similar respect for his +own. By Mr. Price, who was afterwards head master of the same school, +and whose name I cannot mention without reverence and affection, I have +been told that Johnson, when late in life he visited the place of his +education, shewed him a nook in the school-room, where it was usual for +the boys to secrete the translations of the books they were reading; +and, at the same time, speaking of his old master, Hunter, said to him, +"He was not severe, Sir. A master ought to be severe. Sir, he was +cruel." Johnson, however, was always ready to acknowledge how much he +was indebted to Hunter for his classical proficiency. At the age of +fifteen, by the advice of his mother's nephew, Cornelius Ford, a +clergyman of considerable abilities, but disgraced by the licentiousness +of his life, and who is spoken of in the Life of Fenton, he was removed +to the grammar-school of Stourbridge, of which Mr. Wentworth was master. +Here he did not remain much more than a twelvemonth, and, as he told Dr. +Percy, learned much in the school, but little from the master; whereas, +with Hunter, he had learned much from the master, and little in the +school. The progress he made was, perhaps, gained in teaching the other +boys, for Wentworth is said to have employed him as an assistant. His +compositions in English verse indicate that command of language which he +afterwards attained. The two following years he accuses himself of +wasting in idleness at home; but we must doubt whether he had much +occasion for self-reproach, when we learn that Hesiod, Anacreon, the +Latin works of Petrarch, and "a great many other books not commonly +known in the Universities," were among his studies. + +His father, though a man of strong understanding, and much respected in +his line of life, was not successful in business. He must, therefore, +have had a firm reliance on the capacity of his son; for while he chided +him for his want of steady application, he resolved on making so great +an effort as to send him to the University; and, accompanying him +thither, placed him, on the 31st of October, 1728, a commoner at +Pembroke College, Oxford. Some assistance was, indeed, promised him from +other quarters, but this assistance was never given; nor was his +industry quickened by his necessities. He was sometimes to be seen +lingering about the gates of his college; and, at others, sought for +relief from the oppression of his mind in affected mirth and turbulent +gaiety. So extreme was his poverty, that he was prevented by the want of +shoes from resorting to the rooms of his schoolfellow, Taylor, at the +neighbouring college of Christ Church; and such was his pride, that he +flung away with indignation a new pair that he found left at his door. +His scholarship was attested by a translation into Latin verse of Pope's +Messiah; which is said to have gained the approbation of that poet. But +his independent spirit, and his irregular habits, were both likely to +obstruct his interest in the University; and, at the end of three years, +increasing debts, together with the failure of remittances, occasioned +by his father's insolvency, forced him to leave it without a degree. Of +Pembroke College, in his Life of Shenstone, and of Sir Thomas Browne, he +has spoken with filial gratitude. From his tutor, Mr. Jorden, whom he +described as a "worthy man, but a heavy one," he did not learn much. +What he read solidly, he said, was Greek; and that Greek, Homer and +Euripides; but his favourite study was metaphysics, which we must +suppose him to have investigated by the light of his own meditation, for +he did not read much in it. With Dr. Adams, then a junior fellow, and +afterwards master of the College, his friendship continued till his +death. + +Soon after his return to Lichfield, his father died; and the following +memorandum, extracted from the little register which he kept in Latin, +of the more remarkable occurrences that befel him, proves at once the +small pittance that was left him, and the integrity of his mind: "1732, +Julii 15. Undecim aureos deposui: quo die quicquid ante matris funus +(quod serum sit precor) de paternis bonis sperare licet, viginti +scilicet libras accepi. Usque adeo mihi fortuna fingenda est. Interea ne +paupertate vires animi languescant nec in flagitium egestas abigat, +cavendum.--1732, July 15. I laid down eleven guineas. On which day, I +received the whole of what it is allowed me to expect from my father's +property, before the decease of my mother (which I pray may be yet far +distant) namely, twenty pounds. My fortune therefore must be of my own +making. Meanwhile, let me beware lest the powers of my mind grow languid +through poverty, or want drive me to evil." On the following day we find +him setting out on foot for Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire, where he +had engaged himself as an usher to the school of which Mr. Crompton was +master. Here he described to his old school-fellow, Hector, the dull +sameness of his life, in the words of the poet: Vitam continct una dies: +that it was as unvaried as the note of the cuckoo, and that he did not +know whether it were more disagreeable for him to teach, or for the boys +to learn the grammar rules. To add to his misery, he had to endure the +petty despotism of Sir Wolstan Dixie, one of the patrons of the school. +The trial of a few months disgusted him so much with his employment, +that he relinquished it, and, removing to Birmingham, became the guest +of his friend Mr. Hector, who was a chirurgeon in that town, and lodged +in the house of a bookseller; having remained with him about six months, +he hired lodgings for himself. By Mr. Hector he was stimulated, not +without some difficulty, to make a translation from the French, of +Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, for which he received no more than five +guineas from the bookseller, who, by an artifice not uncommon, printed +it at Birmingham, with the date of London in the title-page. To Mr. +Hector, therefore, is due the impulse which first made Johnson an +author. The motion being once given did not cease; for, having returned +to Lichfield in 1735, he sent forth in August proposals for printing by +subscription Politian's Latin Poems, with a Life of the Author, Notes, +and a History of Latin Poetry, from the age of Petrarch to that of +Politian. His reason for fixing on this era it is not easy to determine. +Mussato preceded Petrarch, the interval between Petrarch and Politian is +not particularly illustrated by excellence in Latin poetry; and Politian +was much surpassed in correctness and elegance, if not in genius, by +those who came after him--by Flaminio, Navagero, and Fracastorio. Yet in +the hands of Johnson, such a subject would not have been wanting in +instruction or entertainment. Such as were willing to subscribe, were +referred to his brother, Nathaniel Johnson, who had succeeded to his +father's business in Lichfield; but the design was dropped, for want of +a sufficient number of names to encourage it, a deficiency not much to +be wondered at, unless the inhabitants of provincial towns were more +learned in those days than at present. + +In this year, he made another effort to obtain the means of subsistence +by an offer of his pen to Cave, the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine; +but the immediate result of the application is not known; nor in what +manner he supported himself till July 1736, when he married Elizabeth +Porter, the widow of a mercer at Birmingham, and daughter of William +Jervis, Esq. of Great Peatling, in Leicestershire. This woman, who was +twenty years older than himself, and to whose daughter he had been an +unsuccessful suitor, brought him eight hundred pounds; but, according to +Garrick's report of her, was neither amiable nor handsome, though that +she was both in Johnson's estimation appears from the epithets +"formosae, cultae, ingeniosae," which he inscribed on her tombstone. +Their nuptials were celebrated at Derby, and to that town they went +together on horseback from Birmingham; but the bride assuming some airs +of caprice on the road, like another Petruchio he gave her such +effectual proofs of resolution, as reduced her to the abjectness of +shedding tears. His first project after his marriage was to set up a +school; and, with this intention, he hired a very commodious house, at +the distance of about two miles from Lichfield, called Edial Hall, which +has lately been taken down, and of which a representation is to be seen +in the History of Lichfield, by Mr. Harwood. One of my friends, who +inhabited it for the same purpose, has told me that an old countryman +who lived near it, and remembered Johnson and his pupil Garrick, said to +him, "that Johnson was not much of a scholar to look at, but that master +Garrick was a strange one for leaping over a stile." It is amusing to +observe the impressions which such men make on common minds. +Unfortunately the prejudice occasioned by Johnson's unsightly exterior +was not confined to the vulgar, insomuch that it has been thought to be +the reason why so few parents committed their children to his care, for +he had only three pupils. This unscholarlike appearance it must have +been that made the bookseller in the Strand, to whom he applied for +literary employment, eye him archly, and recommend it to him rather to +purchase a porter's knot. But, as an old philosopher has said, every +thing has two handles. It was, perhaps, the contrast between the body +and the mind, between the incultum corpus, and the ingenium, which +afterwards was one cause of his being received so willingly in those +circles of what is called high life, where any thing that is exceedingly +strange and unusual is apt to carry its own recommendation with it. +Failing in his attempt at Edial, he was disposed once more to engage in +the drudgery of an usher, and offered himself in that capacity to the +Rev. William Budworth, master of the grammar-school at Brewood, in +Staffordshire, celebrated for having been the place in which Bishop Hurd +received his education, under that master. But here again nature stood +in his way; for Budworth was fearful lest a strange motion with the +head, the effect probably of disease, to which Johnson was habitually +subject, might excite the derision of his scholars, and for that reason +declined employing him. He now resolved on trying his fortune in the +capital. + +Among the many respectable families in Lichfield, into whose society +Johnson had been admitted, none afforded so great encouragement to his +literary talents as that of Mr. Walmsley, who lived in the Bishop's +palace, and was registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court, and whom he has +so eloquently commemorated in his Lives of the Poets. By this gentleman +he was introduced in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Colson, Lucasian Professor +of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, and the master of an +academy, "as a very good scholar, and one who he had great hopes would +turn out a fine dramatic writer, who intended to try his fate with a +tragedy, and to get himself employed in some translation, either from +the Latin or the French." The tragedy on which Mr. Walmsley founded his +expectations of Johnson's future eminence as a dramatic poet, was the +Irene. A shrewd sally of humour, to which the reading of this piece gave +rise, evinces the terms of familiarity on which he was with his patron; +for, on Walmsley's observing, when some part of it had been read, that +the poet had already involved his heroine in such distress, that he did +not see what further he could do to excite the commiseration of the +audience, Johnson replied, "that he could put her into the +Ecclesiastical Court." Garrick, who was to be placed at Colson's +academy, accompanied his former instructor on this expedition to London, +at the beginning of March, 1737. It does not appear that Mr. Walmsley's +recommendation of him to Colson, whom he has described under the +character of Gelidus[2], in the twenty-fourth paper of the Rambler, was +of much use. He first took lodgings in Exeter-street in the Strand, but +soon retired to Greenwich, for the sake of completing his tragedy, which +he used to compose, walking in the Park. + +From Greenwich, he addressed another letter to Cave, with proposals for +translating Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, with the notes +of Le Courayer. Before the summer was expired, he returned for Mrs. +Johnson, whom he had left at Lichfield, and remaining there three +months, at length finished Irene. On his second visit to London, his +lodgings were first in Woodstock-street, near Hanover Square, and then +in Castle-street, near Cavendish Square. His tragedy, which was brought +on the stage twelve years after by Garrick, having been at this time +rejected by the manager of the playhouse, he was forced to relinquish +his hopes of becoming a dramatic writer, and engaged himself to write +for the Gentleman's Magazine. The debates in Parliament were not then +allowed to be given to the public with the same unrestricted and +generous freedom with which it is now permitted to report them. To elude +this prohibition, and gratify the just curiosity of the country, the +several members were designated by fictitious names, under which they +were easily discoverable; and their speeches in both Houses of +Parliament, which was entitled the Senate of Lilliput, were in this +manner imparted to the nation in the periodical work above-mentioned. At +first, Johnson only revised these reports; but he became so dexterous in +the execution of his task, that he required only to be told the names of +the speakers, and the side of the question to be espoused, in order to +frame the speeches himself; an artifice not wholly excusable, which +afterwards occasioned him some self-reproach, and even at the time +pleased him so little, that he did not consent to continue it. The whole +extent of his assistance to Cave is not known. The Lives of Paul Sarpi, +Boerhaave, Admirals Drake and Blake, Barretier, Burman, Sydenham, and +Roscommon, with the Essay on Epitaphs, and an Essay on the Account of +the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough, were certainly contributed to +his Miscellany by Johnson. Two tracts, the one a Vindication of the +Licenser of the Stage from the Aspersions of Brooke, Author of Gustavus +Vasa; the other, Marmor Norfolciense, a pamphlet levelled against Sir +Robert Walpole and the Hanoverian succession, were published by him, +separately, in 1739. + +For his version of Sarpi's History, he had received from Cave, before +the 21st of April in this year, fifty pounds, and some sheets of it had +been committed to the press, when, unfortunately, the design was +stopped, in consequence of proposals appearing for a translation of the +same book, by another person of the same name as our author, who was +curate of St. Martin's in the Fields, and patronized by Dr. Pearce, the +editor of Longinus. Warburton [3] afterwards expressed a wish that +Johnson would give the original on one side, and his translation on the +other. His next engagement was to draw up an account of the printed +books in the Earl of Oxford's library, for Osborne, the bookseller, who +had purchased them for thirteen thousand pounds. Such was the petulant +impatience of Osborne, during the progress of this irksome task, that +Johnson was once irritated so far as to beat him. + +In May, 1738, appeared his "London," imitated from the Third Satire of +Juvenal, for which he got ten guineas from Dodsley. The excellence of +this poem was so immediately perceived, that it reached a second edition +in the course of a week. Pope having made some ineffectual inquiries +concerning the author, from Mr. Richardson, the son of the painter, +observed that he would soon be _deterre_. In the August of 1739, we find +him so far known to Pope, that at his intercession, Earl Gower applied +to a friend of Swift to assist in procuring from the University the +degree of Master of Arts, that he might be enabled to become a candidate +for the mastership of a school then vacant; the application was without +success. + +His own wants, however pressing, did not hinder him from assisting his +mother, who had lost her other son. A letter to Mr. Levett, of +Lichfield, on the subject of a debt, for which he makes himself +responsible on her account, affords so striking a proof of filial +tenderness, that I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of transcribing it. + + _December_, 1, 1743. + + Sir,--I am extremely sorry that we have encroached so much upon your + forbearance with respect to the interest, which a great perplexity of + affairs hindered me from thinking of with that attention that I ought, + and which I am not immediately able to remit to you, but will pay it + (I think twelve pounds) in two months. I look upon this, and on the + future interest of that mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that you + will be pleased to give me directions how to pay it, and not mention + it to my dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in less time, I + believe I can do it; but I take two months for certainty, and beg an + answer whether you can allow me so much time. I think myself very much + obliged for your forbearance, and shall esteem it a great happiness to + be able to serve you. I have great opportunities of dispersing any + thing that you may think it proper to make public. I will give a note + for the money payable at the time mentioned, to any one here that you + shall appoint. + + I am, Sir, your most obedient, + + and most humble servant, + + SAM. JOHNSON. + + _At Mr. Osborne's, Bookseller, in Gray's Inn_. + +In the following year (1744) he produced his Life of Savage, a work that +gives the charm of a romance to a narrative of real [**re in original] +events; and which, bearing the stamp of that eagerness [**ea ness in +original] and rapidity with which it was thrown off the mind of the +writer, exhibits rather the fervour of an eloquent advocate, than the +laboriousness of a minute biographer. The forty-eight octavo pages, as +he told Mr. Nichols [4], were written in one day and night. At its first +appearance it was warmly praised, in the Champion, probably either by +Fielding, or by Ralph, who succeeded to him in a share of that paper; +and Sir Joshua Reynolds, when it came into his hand, found his attention +so powerfully arrested, that he read it through without changing his +posture, as he perceived by the torpidness of one of his arms that had +rested on a chimney-piece by which he was standing. For the Life of +Savage [5], he received fifteen guineas from Cave. About this time he +fell into the company of Collins, with whom, as he tells us in his life +of that poet, he delighted to converse. + +His next publication (in 1745) was a pamphlet, called "Miscellaneous +Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T.H. (Sir +Thomas Hanmer's) Edition of Shakspeare," to which were subjoined, +proposals for a new edition of his plays. These observations were +favourably mentioned by Warburton, in the preface to his edition; and +Johnson's gratitude for praise bestowed at a time when praise was of +value to him, was fervent and lasting. Yet Warburton, with his usual +intolerance of any dissent from his opinions, afterwards complained in a +private letter [6] to Hurd, that Johnson's remarks on his commentaries +were full of insolence and malignant reflections, which, had they not in +them "as much folly as malignity," he should have had reason to be +offended with. + +In 1747, he furnished Garrick, who had become joint-patentee and manager +of Drury Lane, with a Prologue on the opening of the house. This address +has been commended quite as much as it deserves. The characters of +Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are, indeed, discriminated with much skill; +but surely something might have been said, if not of Massinger and +Beaumont and Fletcher, yet at least of Congreve and Otway, who are +involved in the sweeping censure passed on "the wits of Charles." + +Of all his various literary undertakings, that in which he now engaged +was the most arduous, a Dictionary of the English language. His plan of +this work was, at the desire of Dodsley, inscribed to the Earl of +Chesterfield, then one of the Secretaries of State; Dodsley, in +conjunction with six other book-sellers, stipulated fifteen hundred and +seventy-five pounds as the price of his labour; a sum, from which, when +the expenses of paper and transcription were deducted, a small portion +only remained for the compiler. In other countries, this national +desideratum has been supplied by the united exertions of the learned. +Had the project for such a combination in Queen Anne's reign been +carried into execution, the result might have been fewer defects and +less excellence: the explanation of technical terms would probably have +been more exact, the derivations more copious, and a greater number of +significant words now omitted [7], have been collected from our earliest +writers; but the citations would often have been made with less +judgment, and the definitions laid down with less acuteness of +discrimination. + +From his new patron, whom he courted without the aid of those graces so +devoutly worshipped by that nobleman, he reaped but small advantage; +and, being much exasperated at his neglect, Johnson addressed to him a +very cutting, but, it must be owned, an intemperate letter, renouncing +his protection, though, when the Dictionary was completed, Chesterfield +had ushered its appearance before the public in two complimentary papers +in the World; but the homage of the client was not to be recalled, or +even his resentment to be appeased. His great work is thus spoken of at +its first appearance, in a letter from Thomas Warton to his brother [8]. +"The Dictionary is arrived; the preface is noble. There is a grammar +prefixed, and the history of the language is pretty full; but you may +plainly perceive strokes of laxity and indolence. They are two most +unwieldy volumes. I have written to him an invitation. I fear his +preface will disgust, by the expressions of his consciousness of +superiority, and of his contempt of patronage." In 1773, when he gave a +second edition, with additions and corrections, he announced in a few +prefatory lines that he had expunged some superfluities, and corrected +some faults, and here and there had scattered a remark; but that the +main fabric continued the same. "I have looked into it," he observes, in +a letter to Boswell, "very little since I wrote it, and, I think, I +found it full as often better as worse than I expected." + +To trace in order of time the various changes in Johnson's place of +residence in the metropolis, if it were worth the trouble, would not be +possible. A list of them, which he gave to Boswell, amounting to +seventeen, but without the correspondent dates, is preserved by that +writer. For the sake of being near his printer, while the Dictionary was +on the anvil, he took a convenient house in Gough Square, near +Fleet-street, and fitted up one room in it as an office, where six +amanuenses were employed in transcribing for him, of whom Boswell +recounts in triumph that five were Scotchmen. In 1748, he wrote, for +Dodsley's Preceptor, the Preface, and the Vision of Theodore the Hermit, +to which Johnson has been heard to give the preference over all his other +writings. In the January of the ensuing year, appeared the Vanity of +Human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated, which he sold +for fifteen guineas; and, in the next month, his Irene was brought on +the stage, not without a previous altercation between the poet and his +former pupil, concerning some changes which Garrick's superior knowledge +of the stage made him consider to be necessary, but which Johnson said +the fellow desired only that they might afford him more opportunity of +tossing his hands and kicking his heels. He always treated the art of a +player with illiberal contempt; but was at length, by the intervention +of Dr. Taylor, prevailed on to give way to the suggestions of Garrick. +Yet Garrick had not made him alter all that needed altering; for the +first exhibition of Irene shocked the spectators with the novel sight of +a heroine who was to utter two verses with the bow-string about her +neck. This horror was removed from a second representation; but, after +the usual course of ten nights, the tragedy was no longer in request. +Johnson thought it requisite, on this occasion, to depart from the usual +homeliness of his habit, and to appear behind the scenes, and in the +side boxes, with the decoration of a gold-laced hat and waistcoat. He +observed, that he found himself unable to behave with the same ease in +his finery, as when dressed in his plain clothes. In the winter of this +year, he established a weekly club, at the King's Head, in Ivy Lane, +near St. Paul's, of which the other members were Dr. Salter, a Cambridge +divine; Hawkesworth; Mr. Ryland, a merchant; Mr. John Payne, the +bookseller; Mr. John Dyer, a man of considerable erudition, and a friend +of Burke's; Doctors Macghie, Baker, and Bathurst, three physicians; and +Sir John Hawkins. + +He next became a candidate for public favour, as the writer of a +periodical work, in the manner of the Spectator; and, in March, 1750, +published the first number of the Rambler, which was continued for +nearly two years; but, wanting variety of matter, and familiarity of +style, failed to attract many readers, so that the largest number of +copies that were sold of any one paper did not exceed five hundred. The +topics were selected without sufficient regard to the popular taste. The +grievances and distresses of authors particularly were dwelt on to +satiety; and the tone of eloquence was more swelling and stately than he +had hitherto adopted. The papers allotted to criticism are marked by his +usual acumen; but the justice of his opinions is often questionable. In +the humourous pieces, when our laughter is excited, I doubt the author +himself, who is always discoverable under the masque of whatever +character he assumes, is as much the object as the cause of our +merriment; and, however moral and devout his more serious views of life, +they are often defective in that most engaging feature of sound +religion, a cheerful spirit. The only assistance he received was from +Richardson, Mrs. Chapone, Miss Talbot, and Mrs. Carter, the first of +whom contributed the 97th number; the second, four billets in the 10th; +the next, the 30th; and the last, the 44th and 100th numbers. + +Three days after the completion of the Rambler (March 17, 1752), he was +deprived of his wife, whom, notwithstanding the disparity in their age, +and some occasional bickerings, he had tenderly loved. Those who are +disposed to scrutinize narrowly and severely into the human heart, may +question the sincerity of his sorrow, because he was collected enough to +write her funeral sermon. But the shapes which grief puts on in +different minds are as dissimilar as the constitution of those minds. +Milton, in whom the power of imagination was predominant, soothed his +anguish for the loss of his youthful friend, in an irregular, but most +beautiful assemblage of those poetic objects which presented themselves +to his thoughts, and consecrated them to the memory of the deceased; and +Johnson, who loved to act the moralizer and the rhetorician, alleviated +his sufferings by declaiming on the instability of human happiness. + +During this interval he also wrote the Prologue to Comus, spoken by +Garrick, for the benefit of Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, grand-daughter to +Milton; the Prologue and Postscript to Lander's impudent forgeries +concerning that poet, by which Johnson was imposed on, as well as the +rest of the world; a letter to Dr. Douglas, for the same impostor, after +he had been detected, acknowledging and expressing contrition for the +fraud; and the Life of Cheynel, in the Student. + +Soon after his wife's death, he became intimate with Beauclerk and +Langton, two young men of family and distinction, who were fellow +collegians at Oxford, and much attached to each other; and the latter of +whom admiration of the Rambler had brought to London with the express +view of being introduced to the author. Their society was very agreeable +to him; and he was, perhaps, glad to forget himself by joining at times +in their sallies of juvenile gaiety. One night, when he had lodgings in +the Temple, he was roused by their knocking at his door; and appearing +in his shirt and nightcap, he found they had come together from the +tavern where they had supped, to prevail on him to accompany them in a +nocturnal ramble. He readily entered into their proposal; and, having +indulged themselves till morning in such frolics as came in their way, +Johnson and Beauclerk were so well pleased with their diversion, that +they continued it through the rest of the day; while their less +sprightly companion left them, to keep an engagement with some ladies at +breakfast, not without reproaches from Johnson for deserting his friends +"for a set of unidea'd girls." + +In 1753, he gave to Dr. Bathurst, the physician, whom he regarded with +much affection, and whose practice was very limited, several essays for +the Adventurer, which Hawkesworth was then publishing; and wrote for +Mrs. Lenox a Dedication to the Earl of Orrery, of her Shakspeare +illustrated; and, in the following year, inserted in the Gentleman's +Magazine a Life of Cave, its former editor. + +Previously to the publication of his Dictionary, it was thought +advisable by his friends that the degree of Master of Arts should be +obtained for him, in order that his name might appear in the title page +with that addition; and it was accordingly, through their intercession, +conferred on him by the University of Oxford. The work was presented by +the Earl of Orrery, one of his friends then at Florence, to the Delia +Crusca Academy, who, in return, sent their Dictionary to the author. The +French Academy paid him the same compliment. But these honours were not +accompanied by that indispensable requisite, "provision for the day that +was passing over him." He was arrested for debt, and liberated by the +kindness of Richardson, the writer of Clarissa, who became his surety. +To prevent such humiliation, the efforts of his own industry were not +wanting. In 1756, he published an Abridgement of his Dictionary, and an +Edition of Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, to which he prefixed a +Life of that writer; he contributed to a periodical miscellany, called +the Universal Visitor, by Christopher Smart,[9] and yet more largely to +another work of the same kind, entitled, the Literary Magazine; and +wrote a dedication and preface for Payne's Introduction to the Game of +Draughts, and an Introduction to the newspaper called the London +Chronicle, for the last of which he received a single guinea. Yet either +conscientious scruples, or his unwillingness to relinquish a London +life, induced him to decline the offer of a valuable benefice in +Lincolnshire, which was made him by the father of his friend, Langton, +provided he could prevail on himself to take holy orders, a measure that +would have delivered him from literary toil for the remainder of his +days. But literary toil was the occupation for which nature had designed +him. In the April of 1758, he commenced the Idler, and continued to +publish it for two years in the Universal Chronicle. Of these Essays, he +was supplied with Nos. 33, 93, and 96, by Thomas Warton; with No. 67 by +Langton, and with Nos. 76, 79, and 82 by Reynolds. Boswell mentions +twelve papers being given by his friends, but does not say who were the +contributors of the remaining five. The Essay on Epitaphs, the +Dissertation on Pope's Epitaphs, and an Essay on the Bravery of the +English common Soldiers, were subjoined to this paper, when it was +collected into volumes. It does not differ from the Rambler, otherwise +than as the essays are shorter, and somewhat less grave and elaborate. + +Another wound was inflicted on him by the death of his mother, who had +however reached her ninetieth year. His affection and his regret will +best appear from the following letter to the daughter of his deceased +wife. + + _To Miss Porter, in Lichfield_. + + You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best + mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to + her. + But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her: and, for me, + since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface + them. I return you, and all those that have been good to her, my + sincerest thanks, and pray God to repay you all with infinite + advantage. Write to me, and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad + likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty + pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother, + but God suffered it not. I have not power nor composure to say much + more. God bless you, and bless us all. + + I am, dear Miss, + + Your affectionate humble servant, + + SAM. JOHNSON. + +Her attention to his mother, as it is reported in the following words, +by Miss Seward, ensured to Johnson the sympathy of Lucy Porter. + +From the age of twenty till her fortieth year, when affluence came to +her by the death of her eldest brother, she had boarded in Lichfield +with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop, +by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of existence. +Meanwhile, Lucy Porter kept the best company of our little city, but +would make no engagement on market-days, lest Granny, as she called Mrs. +Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter +took her place, standing behind the counter, nor thought it a disgrace +to thank a poor person who purchased from her a penny battledore [10]. + +To defray the expenses of his mother's funeral, he had recourse to his +pen; and, in the evenings of one week produced the Rasselas, for which +he received one hundred pounds, and was presented by the purchasers with +twenty-five more on its reaching a second edition. Rasselas is a noble +monument of the genius of its author. Reflections so profound, and so +forcible a draught of some of the great outlines of the human intellect +and passions, are to be found in few writers of any age or country. The +mind is seldom presented with any thing so marvellous as the character +of the philosopher, who has persuaded himself that he is entrusted with +the management of the elements. Johnson's dread of insanity was, +perhaps, relieved by embodying this mighty conception. He had seen the +shadowy form in the twilight, and might have dissipated or eased his +apprehensions by coming up to it more closely, and examining into the +occasion of his fears. In this tale, the censure which he has elsewhere +passed on Milton, that he is a lion who has no skill in dandling the +kid, recoils upon himself. His delineation of the female character is +wanting in delicacy. + +In this year he supplied Mr. Newbery with an Introduction to the World +Displayed, a Collection of Voyages and Travels: till the publication of +his Shakspeare, in 1765, the only writings acknowledged by himself were +a Review of Tytler's Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots, in the +Gentleman's Magazine; an Introduction to the Proceedings of the +Committee for Clothing the French Prisoners; the Preface to Bolt's +Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; a Dedication to the King, of Kennedy's +Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, unfolding the Scriptures; +and a Dedication to the Queen, of Hoole's Tasso. + +In the course of this period, he made a short visit to Lichfield, and +thus communicates his feelings on the occasion, in a letter dated July +20, 1762, to Baretti, his Italian friend, who was then at Milan. + + Last winter I went down to my native town, where I found the streets + much narrower and shorter than I thought I had left them, inhabited by + a new race of people, to whom I was very little known. My play-fellows + were grown old, and forced me to suspect that I am no longer young. My + only remaining friend had changed his principles, and was become the + tool of the predominant faction. My daughter-in-law, from whom I + expected most, and whom I met with sincere benevolence, had lost the + beauty and gaiety of youth, without having gained much of the wisdom + of age. I wandered about for five days, and took the first convenient + opportunity of returning to a place, where, if there is not much + happiness, there is at least such a diversity of good and evil, that + slight vexations do not fix upon the heart. + + I think in a few weeks to try another excursion; though to what end? + Let me know, my Baretti, what has been the result of your return to + your own country; whether time has made any alteration for the better, + and, whether, when the first rapture of salutation was over, you did + not find your thoughts confessed their disappointment. + +Henceforward Johnson had no longer to struggle with the evils of +extreme poverty. A pension of £300 was granted to him, in 1762, by His +Majesty. Before his acceptance of it, in answer to a question put by him +to the Earl of Bute, in these words, "Pray, my Lord, what am I to do for +the pension?" he was assured by that nobleman that it was not given him +for any thing he was to do, but for what he had done. The definition he +had given of the word pension, in his dictionary, that in England it was +generally understood to mean pay, given to a state hireling, for treason +to his country, raised some further scruples whether he ought himself to +become a pensioner; but they were removed by the arguments, or the +persuasion of Mr. Reynolds, to whom he had recourse for advice in this +dilemma. What advice Reynolds would give him he must have known pretty +well before-hand; but this was one of the many instances in which men, +having first determined how to act, are willing to imagine that they are +going for clearer information, where they in truth expect nothing but a +confirmation of their own resolve. The liberality of the nation could +not have been extended to one who had better deserved it. But he had a +calamity yet more dreadful than poverty to encounter. The depression of +his spirits was now become almost intolerable. "I would have a limb +amputated," said he to Dr. Adams, "to recover my spirits." He was +constantly tormented by harassing reflections on his inability to keep +the many resolutions he had formed of leading a better life; and +complained that a kind of strange oblivion had overspread him, so that +he did not know what was become of the past year, and that incidents and +intelligence passed over him without leaving any impression. + +Neither change of place nor the society of friends availed to prevent or +to dissipate this melancholy. In 1762, he made an excursion into +Devonshire, with Sir Joshua Reynolds; the next year he went to Harwich, +with Boswell; in the following, when his malady was most troublesome, +the meeting which acquired the name of the Literary Club was instituted, +and he passed a considerable time in Lincolnshire, with the father of +Langton; and, in the year after, visited Cambridge, in the company of +Beauclerk. Of the Literary Club, first proposed by Reynolds, the other +members at its first establishment were Burke, Dr. Nugent, Beauclerk, +Langton, Goldsmith, Chamier, and Sir John Hawkins. They met at the +Turk's Head, in Gerrard-street, Soho, one evening in the week, and +usually remained together till a late hour. The society was afterwards +extended, so as to comprise a large number of those who were most +eminent, either for their learning or their station in life, and the +place of meeting has been since at different times changed to other +parts of the town, nearer to the Parliament House, or to the usual +resorts of gaiety. A club was the delight of Johnson. We lose some of +our awe for him, when we contemplate him as mimicked by his old scholar +Garrick, in the act of squeezing a lemon into the punch-bowl, and +asking, as he looks round the company, in his provincial accent, of +which he never got entirely rid, "Who's for _poonch_?" If there was any +thing likely to gratify him more than a new club, it was the public +testimony of respect from a learned body; and this he received from +Trinity College, Dublin, in a diploma for the degree of Doctor of Laws, +an honour the more flattering, as it came without solicitation. + +At the beginning of 1766, his faithful biographer, James Boswell, who +had known him for three years, found him in a good house in Johnson's +court, Fleet-street, to which he had removed from lodgings in the +Temple. By the advice of his physician, he had now begun to abstain from +wine, and drank only water or lemonade. He had brought two companions +into his new dwelling, such as few other men would have chosen to +enliven their solitude. On the ground floor was Miss Anna Williams, +daughter of Zechariah Williams, a man who had practised physic in Wales, +and, having come to England to seek the reward proposed by Parliament +for the discovery of the longitude, had been assisted by Johnson in +drawing up an account of the method he had devised. This plan was +printed with an Italian translation, which is supposed to be Baretti's, +on the opposite page; and a copy of the pamphlet, presented by Johnson +to the Bodleian, is deposited in that library. Miss Williams had been a +frequent visitor at Johnson's before the death of his wife, and having +after that event, come under his roof to undergo an operation for a +cataract on her eyes with more convenience than could have been had in +her own lodgings, continued to occupy an apartment in his house, +whenever he had one, till the time of her death. Her disease ended in +total blindness, which gave her an additional claim on his benevolence. +When he lived in the Temple, it was his custom, however late the hour, +not to retire to rest until he had drunk tea with her in her lodgings in +Bolt-court. One night when Goldsmith and Boswell were with him, +Goldsmith strutted off in the company of Johnson, exclaiming with an air +of superiority, "I go to Miss Williams," while Boswell slunk away in +silent disappointment; but it was not long, as Boswell adds, before he +himself obtained the same mark of distinction. Johnson prevailed on +Garrick to get her a benefit at the playhouse, and assisted her in +preparing some poems she had written for the press, by both which means +she obtained the sum of about £300. The interest of this, added to some +small annual benefactions, probably hindered her from being any +pecuniary burden to Johnson; and though she was apt to be peevish and +impatient, her curiosity, the retentiveness of her memory, and the +strength of her intellect, made her, on the whole, an agreeable +companion to him. The other inmate, whose place was in one of his +garrets, was Robert Levett, a practiser of physic among the lower +people, grotesque in his appearance, formal in his manners, and silent +before company: though little thought of by others, this man was so +highly esteemed for his abilities by Johnson, that he was heard to say, +he should not be satisfied though attended by all the College of +Physicians, unless he had Levett with him. He must have been a useful +assistant in the chemical processes with which Johnson was fond of +amusing himself; and at one of which Murphy, on his first visit, found +him in a little room, covered with soot like a chimney-sweeper, making +aether. Beauclerk, with his lively exaggeration, used to describe +Johnson at breakfast, throwing his crusts to Levett after he had eaten +the crumb. The pathetic verses written by Johnson on his death, which +happened suddenly three years before his own, shew with what tenderness +of affection he regarded Levett. Some time after (1778), to this couple, +who did not live in much harmony together, were added Mrs. Desmoulins, +the daughter of Dr. Swinfen his god-father, and widow of a +writing-master; Miss Carmichael, and, as Boswell thought, a daughter +also of Mrs. Desmoulins, all of whom were lodged in his house. To the +widow he allowed half-a-guinea a week, the twelfth part, as Boswell +observes, of his pension. It was sometimes more than he could do, to +reconcile so many jarring interests. "Williams," says he, in a letter to +Mrs. Thrale, "hates every body: Levett hates Desmoulins and does not love +Williams: Desmoulins hates them both. Poll loves none of them." Poll was +Miss Carmichael, of whom I do not find that any thing else is recorded. +Boswell ventured to call this groupe the seraglio of Johnson, and +escaped without a rebuke. + +From these domestic feuds he would sometimes withdraw himself to the +house of Mr. Thrale, at Streatham, an opulent brewer, with whom his +acquaintance had begun in 1765. With this open-hearted man he was always +sure of a welcome reception for as long a time as he chose; and the +mistress of the house, though after the death of her first husband and +her subsequent marriage to an Italian she somewhat ungraciously +remembered the petty annoyances which Johnson's untoward habits had +occasioned her, was evidently pleased by his hearty expressions of +regard, and flattered by his conversation on subjects of literature, in +which she was herself well able to take a part. + +In this year, his long promised edition of Shakspeare made its +appearance, in eight volumes octavo. That by Steevens was published the +following year; and a coalition between the editors having been +effected, an edition was put forth under their joint names, in ten +volumes 8vo., 1773. For the first, Johnson received £375; and for the +second £100.[11] At the beginning of the Preface, he has marked out the +character of our great dramatist with such a power of criticism, as +there was perhaps no example of in the English language. Towards the +conclusion, he has, I think, successfully defended him from the neglect +of what are called the unities. The observation, that a quibble was the +Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it, is +more pointed than just. Shakspeare cannot be said to have lost the +world; for his fame has not only embraced the circle of his own country, +but is continually spreading over new portions of the globe; nor is +there any reason to conclude that he would have acquiesced in such a +loss. Like most other writers, he indulged himself in a favourite +propensity, aware, probably, that if it offended some, it would win him +the applause of others. One avenue of knowledge, that was open to +Shakspeare in common with the rest of mankind, none of his commentators +appear to have sufficiently considered. We cannot conceive him to have +associated frequently with men of larger acquirements than himself, and +not to have made much of their treasures his own. The conversation of +such a man as Ben Jonson alone, supposing him to have made no more +display of his learning than chance or vanity would occasionally +produce, must have supplied ample sources of information to a mind so +curious, watchful, and retentive, that it did not suffer the slightest +thing to escape its grasp. Johnson is distinguished in his notes from +the other commentators, chiefly by the acute remarks on many of the +characters, and on the conduct of some of the fables, which he has +subjoined to the different plays. In other respects he is not superior +to the rest; in some, particularly in illustrating his author from +antecedent or contemporary writers, he is inferior to them. A German +critic of our own days, Schlegel, has surpassed him even in that which +he has done best. + +From Boswell I have collected an account of the little journeys with +which he from time to time relieved the uniformity of his life. They +will be told in order as they occur, and I hope will not weary the +reader. The days of a scholar are frequently not distinguished by +varieties even as unimportant as these. Johnson found his mind grow +stagnant by a constant residence in the neighbourhood of Charing-cross +itself, where he thought human happiness at its flood: and once, when +moving rapidly along the road in a carriage with Boswell, cried out to +his fellow-traveller, "Sir, life has few things better than this." In +the winter of 1766 he went to Oxford, where he resided for a month, and +formed an intimacy with Chambers, afterwards one of the judges in India. +During this period, no publication appeared under his own name; but he +furnished Miss Williams with a Preface to her Poems, and Adams with +another for his Treatise on the Globes; and wrote the dedication to the +King, prefixed to Gough's London and Westminster Improved. He seems to +have been always ready to supply a dedication for a friend, a task which +he executed with more than ordinary courtliness. In this way, he told +Boswell, that he believed he "had dedicated to all the royal family +round." But in his own case, either pride hindered him from prefixing to +his works what he perhaps considered as a token of servility, or his +better judgment restrained him from appropriating, by a particular +inscription to one individual, that which was intended for the use of +mankind. + +Of Johnson's interview with George III. I shall transcribe the account +as given by Boswell; with which such pains were taken to make it +accurate, that it was submitted before publication for the inspection of +the King, by one of his principal secretaries of State. + +In February, 1767, there happened one of the most remarkable incidents +in Johnson's life which gratified his monarchical enthusiasm, and which +he loved to relate with all its circumstances, when requested by his +friends. This was his being honoured by a private conversation with his +Majesty in the library at the Queen's house. He had frequently visited +those splendid rooms, and noble collection of books, which he used to +say was more numerous and curious than he supposed any person could have +made in the time which the King had employed. Mr. Barnard, the +librarian, took care that he should have every accommodation that could +contribute to his ease and convenience, while indulging his literary +taste in that place: so that he had here a very agreeable resource at +leisure hours. + +His Majesty having been informed of his occasional visits, was pleased +to signify a desire that he should be told when Dr. Johnson came next to +the library. Accordingly the next time that Johnson did come, as soon as +he was fairly engaged with a book, on which, while he sat by the fire, +he seemed quite intent, Mr. Barnard stole round to the apartment where +the King was, and, in obedience to his Majesty's commands, mentioned +that Dr. Johnson was then in the library. His Majesty said he was at +leisure, and would go to him: upon which Mr. Barnard took one of the +candles that stood on the King's table, and lighted his Majesty through +a suite of rooms, till they came to a private door into the library, of +which his Majesty had the key. Being entered, Mr. Barnard stepped +forward hastily to Dr. Johnson, who was still in a profound study, and +whispered him, "Sir, here is the King." Johnson started up, and stood +still. His Majesty approached him, and at once was courteously easy. + +His Majesty began by observing, that he understood he came sometimes to +the library; and then mentioning his having heard that the Doctor had +been lately at Oxford, asked him if he was not fond of going thither. To +which Johnson answered, that he was indeed fond of going to Oxford +sometimes, but was likewise glad to come back again. The King then asked +him what they were doing at Oxford. Johnson answered, he could not much +commend their diligence, but that in some respects they were mended, for +they had put their press under better regulations, and were at that time +printing Polybius. He was then asked whether there were better libraries +at Oxford or Cambridge. He answered, he believed the Bodleian was larger +than any they had at Cambridge; at the same time adding, "I hope, +whether we have more books or not than they have at Cambridge, we shall +make as good use of them as they do." Being asked whether All-Souls or +Christ-Church library was the largest, he answered, "All-Souls library +is the largest we have, except the Bodleian." "Ay, (said the King,) that +is the public library." + +His Majesty inquired if he was then writing any thing. He answered, he +was not, for he had pretty well told the world what he knew, and must +now read to acquire more knowledge. The King, as it should seem with a +view to urge him to rely on his own stores as an original writer, and to +continue his labours, then said, "I do not think you borrow much from +any body." Johnson said, he thought he had already done his part as a +writer. "I should have thought so too, (said the King,) if you had not +written so well."--Johnson observed to me, upon this, that "No man could +have paid a handsomer compliment; and it was fit for a King to pay. It +was decisive." When asked by another friend, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, +whether he made any reply to this high compliment, he answered, "No, +Sir. When the King had said it, it was to be so. It was not for me to +bandy civilities with my Sovereign." Perhaps no man who had spent his +whole life in courts could have shewn a more nice and dignified sense of +true politeness than Johnson did in this instance. + +His Majesty having observed to him that he supposed he must have read a +great deal; Johnson answered, that he thought more than he read; that he +had read a great deal in the early part of his life, but having fallen +into ill health, he had not been able to read much, compared with +others: for instance, he said, he had not read much, compared with Dr. +Warburton. Upon which the King said, that he heard Dr. Warburton was a +man of such general knowledge, that you could scarce talk with him on +any subject on which he was not qualified to speak; and that his +learning resembled Garrick's acting, in its universality. His Majesty +then talked of the controversy between Warburton and Lowth, which he +seemed to have read, and asked Johnson what he thought of it. Johnson +answered, "Warburton has most general, most scholastic learning; Lowth +is the more correct scholar. I do not know which of them calls names +best." The King was pleased to say he was of the same opinion; adding, +"You do not think then, Dr. Johnson, that there was much argument in the +case." Johnson said, he did not think there was. "Why truly, (said the +King,) when once it comes to calling names, argument is pretty well at +an end." + +His Majesty then asked him what he thought of Lord Lyttelton's history, +which was then just published. Johnson said, he thought his style pretty +good, but that he had blamed Henry the Second rather too much. "Why, +(said the King,) they seldom do these things by halves." "No, Sir, +(answered Johnson,) not to Kings." But fearing to be misunderstood, he +proceeded to explain himself: and immediately subjoined, "That for those +who spoke worse of Kings than they deserved, he could find no excuse; +but that he could more easily conceive how some might speak better of +them than they deserved, without any ill intention; for, as Kings had +much in their power to give, those who were favoured by them would +frequently, from gratitude, exaggerate their praises: and as this +proceeded from a good motive, it was certainly excusable, as far as +errour could be excusable." + +The King then asked him what he thought of Dr. Hill. Johnson answered +that he was an ingenious man, but had no veracity; and immediately +mentioned, as an instance of it, an assertion of that writer, that he +had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree by using three or +four microscopes at a time than by using one. "Now, (added Johnson,) +every one acquainted with microscopes knows, that the more of them he +looks through, the less the object will appear." "Why, (replied the +King,) this is not only telling an untruth, but telling it clumsily; +for, if that be the case, every one who can look through a microscope +will be able to detect him." + +"I now, (said Johnson to his friends, when relating what had passed,) +began to consider that I was depreciating this man in the estimation of +his Sovereign, and thought it was time for me to say something that +might be more favourable." He added, therefore, that Dr. Hill was, +notwithstanding, a very curious observer; and if he would have been +contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a +very considerable man, and needed not to have recourse to such mean +expedients to raise his reputation. + +The King then talked of literary journals, mentioned particularly the +"Journal des Savans," and asked Johnson if it was well done. Johnson +said, it was formerly very well done, and gave some account of the +persons who began it, and carried it on for some years: enlarging at the +same time, on the nature and use of such works. The King asked him if it +was well done now. Johnson answered, he had no reason to think that it +was. The King then asked him if there were any other literary journal +published in this kingdom, except the Monthly and Critical Reviews; and +on being answered there was no other, his Majesty asked which of them +was the best: Johnson answered that the Monthly Review was done with +most care, the Critical upon the best principles; adding that the +authours of the Monthly Review were enemies to the Church. This the King +said he was sorry to hear. + +The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions, when +Johnson observed that they had now a better method of arranging their +materials than formerly. "Ay, (said the King,) they are obliged to Dr. +Johnson for that;" for his Majesty had heard and remembered the +circumstance, which Johnson himself had forgot. + +His Majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this +country ably executed, and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it. +Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his Majesty's wishes. + +During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with +profound respect, but still in his firm manly manner, with a sonorous +voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the +levee and in the drawing-room. After the King withdrew, Johnson shewed +himself highly pleased with his Majesty's conversation and gracious +behaviour. He said to Mr. Barnard, "Sir, they may talk of the King as +they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." And he +afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, "Sir, his manners are those of as +fine a gentleman as we may suppose Lewis the Fourteenth, or Charles the +Second." + +Nothing in this conversation betrays symptoms of that state which he +complains of in his devotional record (on the 2nd of August, 1767) when +he says that he had been disturbed and unsettled for a long time, and +had been without resolution to apply to study or to business. Half of +this year he passed at a distance from the metropolis, and chiefly at +Lichfield, where he prayed fervently by the death-bed of the old servant +of his family, Catherine Chambers, leaving her with a fond farewell, and +many tears. There was no greater proof of the goodness of Johnson's +nature, than his attachment to his domestics. Soon after this he placed +Francis Barber, a negro boy who waited on him, at a school at +Hertfordshire; and, during his education there, encouraged him to good +behaviour by frequent and very kind letters. It is on such occasions +that we are ready to allow the justice of Goldsmith's vindication of his +friend, that he had nothing of the bear but the skin. + +In the two succeeding years he continued to labour under the same +restlessness and anxiety; again sought for relief in a long visit to +Oxford, and another to Brighthelmstone with the Thrales; and produced +nothing but a Prologue to one of Goldsmith's comedies. + +The repeated expulsion of Wilkes from his seat, by a vote of the House +of Commons, had (in 1770) thrown the nation into a ferment. Johnson was +roused to take the side of the ministry; and endeavoured in a pamphlet, +called the False Alarm, as much by ridicule as by argument, to support a +violent and arbitrary measure. It appears, both from his conversation +and his writings, that he thought there was a point at which resistance +might become justifiable; and, surely it is more advisable to check the +encroachments of power at their beginning, than to delay opposition, +till it cannot be resorted to without greater hazard to the public +safety. The ministry were happily compelled to give way. They were, +however, glad to have so powerful an arm to fight their battles, and, in +the next year (1771) employed him in a worthier cause. In his tract on +the Falkland Islands, the materials for which were furnished him by +Government, he appears to have much the better of the argument; for he +has to shew the folly of involving the nation in a war for a +questionable right, and a possession of doubtful advantage; but his +invective against his opponents is very coarse; he does not perform the +work of dissection neatly: he mangles rather than cuts. When he applies +the word "gabble" to the elocution of Chatham, we are tempted to compare +him to one of the baser fowl, spoken of by an ancient poet, that clamour +against the bird of Jove. + +Not many copies of this pamphlet had been dispersed, when Lord North +stopped the sale, and caused some alterations to be made, for reasons +which the author did not himself distinctly comprehend. Johnson's own +opinion of these two political essays was, that there was a subtlety of +disquisition in the first, that was worth all the fire of the second. +When questioned by Boswell as to the truth of a report that they had +obtained for him an addition to his pension of 200_l_. a year, he +answered that, excepting what had been paid him by the booksellers, he had +not got a farthing for them. + +About this time, there was a project for enabling him to take a more +distinguished part in politics. The proposition for bringing him into +the House of Commons came from Strahan the printer, who was himself one +of the members; Boswell has preserved the letter in which this zealous +friend to Johnson represented to one of the Secretaries of State the +services which might reasonably be expected from his eloquence and +fidelity. The reasons which rendered the application ineffectual have +not been disclosed to us; but it may be questioned whether his powers of +reasoning could have been readily called forth on a stage so different +from any to which he had been hitherto accustomed; whether so late in +life he could have obtained the habit of attending to speakers, +sometimes dull, and sometimes perplexed; or whether that dictatorial +manner which easily conquered opposition in a small circle, might not +have been borne down by resentment or scorn in a large and mixed +assembly. Johnson would most willingly have made the experiment; and +when Reynolds repeated what Burke had said of him, that if he had come +early into parliament, he would certainly have been the greatest speaker +that ever was there, exclaimed, "I should like to try my hand now." That +we may proceed without interruption to the end of Johnson's political +career, it should here he told that he published (in 1774) a short +pamphlet in support of his friend, Mr. Thrale, who at that time was one +of the candidates in a contested election, and a zealous supporter of +the government. But his devotion to the powers that be, never led him to +so great lengths as in the following year (1775), when he wrote Taxation +no Tyranny: an Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American +Congress. Now that we look back with impartiality and coolness to the +subject of dispute between the mother country and her colonies, there +are few, I believe, who do not acknowledge the Americans to have been +driven into resistance by claims, which, if they were not palpably +unlawful, were at least highly inexpedient and unjust. But Johnson was +no statist. With the nature of man taken individually and in the detail, +he was well acquainted; but of men as incorporated into society, of the +relations between the governors and the governed, and of all the +complicated interests of polity and of civil life, his knowledge was +very limited. Biography was his favourite study; history, his aversion. +Sooner than hear of the Punic war (says Murphy), he would be rude to the +person that introduced the subject; and, as he told Mr. Thrale, when a +gentleman one day spoke to him at the club of Catiline's conspiracy, he +withdrew his attention, and thought about Tom Thumb. In his Taxation no +Tyranny, having occasion to notice a reference made by the American +Congress to a passage in Montesquieu, he calls him in contempt the +fanciful Montesquieu. Yet this is the man, of whom Burke, when his just +horror of every thing fanciful in politics was at its height, has passed +the noblest eulogium that one modern has ever made on another, and which +the reader will pardon me if in my veneration for a great name I place +here as an antidote to the detraction of Johnson. + +Place before your eyes such a man as Montesquieu. Think of a genius not +born in every country, or every time; a man gifted by nature with a +penetrating aquiline eye; with a judgment prepared with the most +extensive erudition; with an herculean robustness of mind, and nerves +not to be broken with labour; a man who could spend twenty years in one +pursuit. Think of a man, like the universal patriarch of Milton (who had +drawn up before him in his prophetic vision, the whole series of the +generations which were to issue from his loins), a man capable of +placing in review, after having brought together, from the east, the +west, the north, and the south, from the coarseness of the rudest +barbarism, to the most refined and subtle civilization, all the schemes +of government which had ever prevailed amongst mankind, weighing, +measuring, collating, and comparing them all, joining fact with theory, +and calling into council, upon all this infinite assemblage of things, +all the speculations which have fatigued the understandings of profound +reasoners in all times! Let us then consider that all these were but so +many preparatory steps to qualify a man, and such a man, tinctured with +no national prejudice, with no domestic affection to admire, and to hold +out to the admiration of mankind the constitution of England.--_Appeal +from the Nero to the Old Institutes, at the end_. + +It is to be feared, that the diploma of Doctor of Laws, which was sent +to Johnson in the same year (1775), at the recommendation of Lord North, +at that time Chancellor of the University, and Prime Minister, was in +some measure intended to be the reward of his obsequiousness. In this +instrument, he is called, with an hyperbole of praise which the +University would perhaps now he more cautious of applying to any +individual, "In Literarum Republica Princeps jam et Primarius." + +He had long meditated a visit to Scotland, in the company of Boswell, +and was, at length (in 1773), prevailed on to set out. Where he went, +and what he saw and heard, is sufficiently known by the relation which +he gave the world next year, in his Journey to the Western Islands of +Scotland, and in his letters to Mrs. Thrale. It cannot be said of him, +as he has said of Gray, that whoever reads his narrative wishes that to +travel and to tell his travels had been more of his employment. He seems +to have proceeded on his way, with the view of finding something at +every turn, on which to exercise his powers of argument or of raillery. +His mind is scarcely ever passive to the objects it encounters, but +shapes them to his own moods. After we lay down his book, little +impression is left of the places through which he has passed, and a +strong one of his own character. With his fellow-traveller, though +kindness sometimes made him over-officious, he was so well pleased, as +to project a voyage up the Baltic, and a visit to the northern countries +of Europe, in his society. He had before indulged himself with a +visionary scheme of sailing to Iceland, with his friend Bathurst. In +1774, he went with the Thrales to the extremity of North Wales. A few +trifling memoranda of this journey, which were found among his papers, +have been lately published; but, as he wrote to Boswell, he found the +country so little different from England, that it offered nothing to the +speculation of a traveller. Such was his apathy in a land + + Where each old poetic mountain + Inspiration breathes around, + Every shade and hallow'd fountain + Murmurs deep a solemn sound. + +In the following year (1775) he made his usual visit to the midland +counties, and accompanied the Thrales in a Tour to Paris, from whence +they returned by way of Rouen. This was the only time he was on the +Continent. It is to be regretted that he left only some imperfect notes +of his Journey; for there could scarcely have failed to be something +that would have gratified our curiosity in his observations on the +manners of a foreign country. We find him in the next year (1776) +removing from Johnson's Court, No. 7, to Bolt Court, Fleet-street, No. +8; from whence at different times he made excursions to Lichfield and +Ashbourne; to Bath with the Thrales; and, in the autumn, to +Brighthelmstone, where Mr. Thrale had a house. This gentleman had, for +some time, fed his expectations with the prospect of a journey to Italy. +"A man," said Johnson, "who has not been in Italy, is always conscious +of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man +should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the +Mediterranean. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our +arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come to us from the +shores of the Mediterranean." Much as he had set his heart on this +journey, and magnificent as his conceptions were of the promised land, +he was employed with more advantage to his own country at home; for, at +the solicitation of the booksellers, he now (1777) undertook to write +the Lives of the English Poets. The judicious selection of the facts +which he relates, the vivacity of the narrative, the profoundness of the +observations, and the terseness of the style, render this the most +entertaining, as it is, perhaps, the most instructive of his works. His +criticisms, indeed, often betray either the want of a natural perception +for the higher beauties of poetry, or a taste unimproved by the diligent +study of the most perfect models; yet they are always acute, lucid, and +original. That his judgment is often warped by a political bias can +scarcely be doubted; but there is no good reason to suspect that it is +ever perverted by malevolence or envy. The booksellers left it to him to +name his price, which he modestly fixed at 200 guineas; though, as Mr. +Malone says, 1000 or 1500 would have been readily given if he had asked +it. As he proceeded, the work grew on his hands. In 1781 it was +completed; and another 100_l_. was voluntarily added to the sum which +had been at first agreed on. In the third edition, which was called for +in 1783, he made several alterations and additions; of which, to shew +the unreasonableness of murmurs respecting improved editions, it is +related in the Biographical Dictionary [12], on the information of Mr. +Nichols, that though they were printed separately, and offered gratis to +the purchasers of the former editions, scarcely a single copy was +demanded. + +This was the last of his literary labours; nor do we hear of his writing +any thing for the press in the meanwhile, except such slight +compositions as a prologue for a comedy by Mr. Hugh Kelly, and a +dedication to the King of the Posthumous Works of Pearce, Bishop of +Rochester. + +His body was weighed down with disease, and his mind clouded with +apprehensions of death. He sought for respite from these sufferings in +the usual means--in short visits to his native place, or to +Brighthelmstone, and in the establishment of new clubs. In 1781, another +of these societies was, by his desire, formed in the city. It was to +meet at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard; and his wish was, +that no patriot should be admitted. He now returned to the use of wine, +which, when he did take it, he swallowed greedily. + +About this time Mr. Thrale died, leaving Johnson one of his executors, +with a legacy of 200_l_. The death of Levett, in the same year, and of +Miss Williams, in 1783, left him yet more lonely. A few months before +the last of these deprivations befel him, he had a warning of his own +dissolution, which he could not easily mistake. The night of the 16th of +June, on which day he had been sitting for his picture, he perceived +himself, soon after going to bed, to be seized with a sudden confusion +and indistinctness in his head, which seemed to him to last about half a +minute. His first fear was lest his intellect should be affected. Of +this he made experiment, by turning into Latin verse a short prayer, +which he had breathed out for the averting of that calamity. The lines +were not good, but he knew that they were not so, and concluded his +faculties to be unimpaired. Soon after he was conscious of having +suffered a paralytic stroke, which had taken away his speech. "I had no +pain," he observed afterwards, "and so little dejection in this dreadful +state, that I wondered at my own apathy, and considered, that perhaps +death itself, when it should come, would excite less horror than seems +now to attend it." In hopes of stimulating the vocal organs, he +swallowed two drams, and agitated his body into violent motion, but it +was to no purpose; whereupon he returned to his bed, and, as he thought, +fell asleep. In the morning, finding that he had the use of his hand, he +was in the act of writing a note to his servant, when the man entered. +He then wrote a card to his friend and neighbour, Mr. Allen, the +printer, but not without difficulty, his hand sometimes, he knew not +why, making a different letter from that which he intended; his next +care was to acquaint Dr. Taylor, his old schoolfellow, and now a +prebendary of Westminster, with his condition, and to desire he would +come and bring Dr. Heberden with him. At the same time, he sent in for +Dr. Brocklesby, who was his near neighbour. The next day his speech was +restored, and he perceived no deterioration, either in his memory or +understanding. In the following month he was well enough to pass a week +at Rochester, with Mr. Langton, and to appear again at the Literary +Club; and at the end of August, to make a visit to Mr. Bowles, at Heale, +near Salisbury, where he continued about three weeks. + +On his return to London, he was confined to the house by a fit of the +gout, a disorder which had once attacked him, but with less violence, +ten years before, and to which he was now reconciled, by being taught to +consider it as an antagonist to the palsy. To this was added, a +sarcocele, which, as it threatened to render excision necessary, caused +him more uneasiness, though he looked forward to the operation with +sufficient courage; but the complaint subsided of itself. + +When he was able to go about again, that society might be insured to him +at least three days in the week, another club was founded at the Essex +Head, in Essex street, where an old servant of Mr. Thrale's was the +landlord. "Its principles (he said) were to be laid in frequency and +frugality; and he drew up a set of rules, which he prefaced with two +lines from a Sonnet of Milton. + + To-day resolve deep thoughts with me to drench, + In mirth that after no repenting draws." + +The number was limited to twenty-four. Each member present engaged +himself to spend at least sixpence; and, to pay a forfeit of three-pence +if he did not attend. But even here, in the club-room, after his +sixpence was duly laid down, and the arm chair taken, there was no +security for him against the intrusion of those maladies which had so +often assailed him. On the first night of meeting (13th of December, +1783) he was seized with a spasmodic asthma, and hardly made his way +home to his own house, where the dropsy combined with asthma to hold him +a prisoner for more than four months. An occurrence during his illness, +which he mentioned to Boswell, deserves notice, from the insight which +it gives into his peculiar frame of mind. "He had shut himself up, and +employed a day in particular exercises of religion--fasting, +humiliation, and prayer. On a sudden, he obtained extraordinary relief, +for which he looked up to heaven with grateful devotion. He made no +direct inference from the fact; but from his manner of telling it," adds +Boswell, "I could perceive that it appeared to him as something more +than an incident in the common course of events." Yet at this time, with +all his aspirations after a state of greater perfectness, he was not +able to bear the candour of Langton, who, when Johnson him desired to +tell him sincerely wherein he had observed his life to be faulty, +brought him a sheet of paper, on which were written many texts of +Scripture, recommendatory of Christian meekness. + +At the beginning of June he had sufficiently rallied his strength to set +out with Boswell, for Oxford, where he remained about a fortnight, with +Dr. Adams, the master of Pembroke, his old college. In his discourse, +there was the same alternation of gloominess and gaiety, the same +promptness of repartee, and keenness of sarcasm, as there had ever been. + +Several of his friends were now anxious that he should escape the rigour +of an English winter by repairing to Italy, a measure which his +physicians recommended, not very earnestly indeed, and more I think in +compliance with his known wishes, than in expectation of much benefit to +his health. It was thought requisite, however, that some addition should +previously be made to his income, in order to his maintaining an +appearance somewhat suitable to the character which he had established +throughout Europe by his writings. For this purpose, Boswell addressed +an application to the Ministry, through Lord Thurlow, who was then +Chancellor. After some accidental delay, and some unsuccessful +negotiation on the part of Lord Thurlow, who was well disposed to +befriend him, during which time Johnson was again buoyed up with the +prospect of visiting Italy, an answer was returned which left him no +reason to expect from Government any further assistance than that which +he was then receiving in the pension already granted him. This refusal +the Chancellor accompanied with a munificent offer of supply out of his +own purse, which he endeavoured to convey in such a manner as should +least alarm the independent spirit of Johnson. "It would be a reflection +on us all, (said Thurlow,) if such a man should perish for want of the +means to take care of his health." The abilities of Thurlow had always +been held in high estimation by Johnson, who had been heard to say of +him, "I would prepare myself for no man in England but Lord Thurlow. +When I am to meet with him, I should wish to know a day before." One +day, while this scheme was pending, Johnson being at the house of Sir +Joshua Reynolds, was overcome by the tenderness of his friends, and by +the near view, as he thought, of this long-hoped Italian tour being +effected, and exclaimed with much emotion, "God bless you all;" and +then, after a short silence, again repeating the words in a form yet +more solemn, was no longer able to command his feelings, but hurried +away to regain his composure in solitude. + +After all these efforts, Johnson was fated to disappointment; and the +authors of his disappointment have incurred the sentence denounced on +them by the humanity of Thurlow. In this, Dr. Brocklesby, the physician, +has no share; for by him a noble offer of £100 a year was made to +Johnson during his life. + +In the meantime he had paid the summer visit, which had now become +almost an annual one to his daughter-in-law, at Lichfield, from whence +he made an excursion to Dr. Taylor's, at Ashbourne, and to Chatsworth, +still labouring under his asthma, but willing to believe that as Floyer, +the celebrated physician of his native city, had been allowed to pant on +till near ninety, so he might also yet pant on a little longer. Whilst +he was on this journey, he translated an ode of Horace, and composed +several prayers. As he passed through Birmingham and Oxford, he once +more hailed his old schoolfellow Hector, and his fellow collegian, +Adams. It is delightful to see early intimacies thus enduring through +all the accidents of life, local attachments unsevered by time, and the +old age and childhood of man bound together by these natural charities. +The same willow tree which Johnson had known when a boy, was still his +favourite, and still flourishing in the meadow, near Lichfield. Hector +(whom I can remember several years after, a man of erect form, and grave +deportment) still met him with the same, or perhaps more cordiality than +in their first days; and the virtues of Adams, which he had seen opening +in their early promise, had now grown up to full maturity. To London he +returned, only to prove that death was not the terrible thing which he +had fancied it. He arrived there on the 15th of November. In little more +than a fortnight after, when Dr. Brocklesby (with whom three other +eminent physicians, and a chirurgeon, were in the habit of attending him +gratuitously) was paying him a morning visit, he said that he had been +as a dying man all night, and then with much emphasis repeated the words +of Macbeth: + + Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; + Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; + Raze out the written troubles of the brain + And, with _some_ sweet oblivious antidote, + Cleanse the foul bosom of that perilous stuff + Which weighs upon the heart? + +To which Brocklesby promptly returned the answer, which is made by the +doctor in that play, + +--Therein the patient + Must minister unto himself. + +He now committed to the flames a large mass of papers, among which were +two 4to. volumes, containing a particular account of his life, from his +earliest recollections. + +His few remaining days were occasionally cheered by the presence of such +men as have been collected about a death-bed in few ages and countries +of the world--Langton, Reynolds, Windham, and Burke. Of these, none was +more attentive to him than Mr. Langton, of whom he had been heard to +say, I could almost wish "anima mea sit cum Langtono," and whom he now +addressed in the tender words of Tibullus, + + Te teneam moriens deficiente manu. + +At another time, Burke, who was sitting with him in the company of four +or five others, expressed his fear that so large a number might be +oppressive to him, "No, Sir," said Johnson, "it is not so; and I must be +in a wretched state, indeed, when your company would not be a delight to +me." Burke's voice trembled, when he replied, "My dear Sir, you have +always been too good to me." These were the last words that passed +between them. Mr. Windham having settled a pillow for him, he thanked +him for his kindness. + +This will do (said he,) all that a pillow can do. Of Sir Joshua Reynolds +he made three requests, which were readily granted; to forgive him +thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him; to read the Bible; and never +to use his pencil on a Sunday. The church service was frequently read to +him by some clergyman of his acquaintance. On one of these occasions, +when Mr. Nichols was present, he cried out to Mr. Hoole, who was reading +the Litany, "Louder, my dear Sir, louder, I entreat you, or you pray in +vain;" and when the service was done, he turned to a lady who had come +to pray with him, and said to her with much earnestness, "I thank you, +Madam, very heartily, for your kindness in joining me in this solemn +service. Live well, I conjure you, and you will not feel the compunction +at the last which I now feel." + +He entreated Dr. Brocklesby to dismiss any vain speculative opinions +that he might entertain, and to settle his mind on the great truths of +Christianity. He then insisted on his writing down the purport of their +conversation; and when he had done, made him affix his signature to the +paper, and urged him to keep it for the remainder of his life. The +following is the account communicated to Boswell by this affectionate +physician, who was very free from any suspicion of fanaticism, as indeed +is well shewn by Johnson's discourse with him. + +"For some time before his death, all his fears were calmed and absorbed +by the prevalence of his faith, and his trust in the merits and +propitiation of Jesus Christ." "He talked often to me about the +necessity of faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, as necessary beyond all +good works whatever, for the salvation of mankind." "He pressed me to +study Dr. Clarke, and to read his Sermons. I asked him why he pressed +Dr. Clarke, an Arian. 'Because (said he) he is fullest on the +propitiatory sacrifice.'" This was the more remarkable, because his +prejudice against Clarke, on account of the Arianism imputed to him, had +formerly been so strong, that he made it a rule not to admit his name +into his Dictionary. + +He desired Dr. Brocklesby to tell him whether he could recover, charging +him to give a direct answer. The Doctor having first asked whether he +could bear to hear the whole truth, told him that without a miracle he +could not recover. "Then," said Johnson, "I will take no more physic, or +even opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God +unclouded." He not only kept this resolution, but abstained from all +food, excepting such as was of the weakest kind. When Mr. Windham +pressed him to take something more generous, lest too poor a diet should +produce the effects which he dreaded, "I will take any thing," said he, +"but inebriating sustenance." + +Mr. Strahan, the clergyman, who administered to him the comforts of +religion, affirmed that after having been much agitated, he became +tranquil, and continued so to the last. + +On the eighth and ninth of December, he made his will, by which he +bequeathed the chief of his property to Francis Barber, his negro +servant. The value of this legacy is estimated by Sir John Hawkins, at +near £1500. From this time he languished on till the twelfth. That +night his bodily uneasiness increased; his attendants assisted him every +hour to raise himself in his bed, and move his legs, which were in much +pain; each time he prayed fervently; the only support he took was cyder +and water. He said he was prepared, but the time to his dissolution +seemed long. At six in the morning he inquired the hour; and, being +told, observed that all went on regularly, and that he had but a few +hours to live. In two hours after, he ordered his servant to bring him a +drawer, out of which he chose one lancet, from amongst some others, and +pierced his legs; and then seizing a pair of scissars that lay near him, +plunged them into both his calves, no doubt with the hopes of easing +them of the water; for he had often reproached his medical attendants +with want of courage in not scarifying them more deeply. At ten he +dismissed Mr. Windham's servant, who was one of those who had sat up +with him, thanking him, and desiring him to bear his remembrance to his +master. Afterwards a Miss Morris, the daughter of one of his friends, +came into the room to beg his blessing; of which, being informed by his +servant Francis, he turned round in his bed, and said to her, "God bless +you, my dear." About seven in the evening he expired so quietly, that +those about him did not perceive his departure. His body being opened, +two of the valves of the aorta were found to be ossified; the air cells +of the lungs unusually distended; one of the kidneys consumed, and the +liver schirrous. A stone, as large as a common gooseberry, was in the +gall-bladder. + +On the 20th of December, he was interred in Westminster Abbey, under a +blue flagstone, which bears this inscription. + +Samuel Johnson, LLD. +Obiit XIII. die Decembris, +Anno Domini +MDCCLXXXIV. +Aetatis suae LXXV. + +He was attended to his grave by many of his friends, particularly such +members of the Literary Club as were then in London; the pall being +borne by Burke, Sir Joseph Banks, Windham, Langton, Sir Charles Bunbury, +and Colman. Monuments have been erected to his memory, in the cathedrals +of Lichfield and St. Paul's. That in the latter consists of his statue, +by Bacon, larger than life, with an epitaph from the pen of Dr. Parr. + +[Greek: Alpha-Omega] +Samueli Johnson +Grammatico et Critico +Scriptorum Anglicorum litterate perito +Poetae luminibus sententiarum +Et ponderibus verborum admirabili +Magistro virtutis gravissimo +Homini optimo et singularis exempli. +Qui vixit ann. lxxv. Mens. il. Dieb. xiiiil. +Decessit idib. Dec. ann. Christ. clc. lccc. lxxxiiil. +Sepult. in AED. Sanct. Petr. Westmonasteriens. +xiil. Kal. Januar. Ann. Christ, clc. lccc. lxxxv. +Amici et Sodales Litterarii +Pecunia Conlata +H.M. Faciund. Curaver. + + In the hand there is a scroll, with the following inscription:-- + +[Greek: ENMAKARESSIAPONOANTAXIOS EIAEAMOIBAE.] + +Besides the numerous and various works which he executed, he had at +different times, formed schemes of a great many more, of which the +following catalogue was given by him to Mr. Langton, and by that +gentleman presented to his Majesty. + +_Divinity_. + +A small Book of Precepts and Directions for Piety; the hint taken from +the directions in Morton's exercise. + +_Philosophy, History, and Literature in general._ + +History of Criticism, as it relates to judging of authors, from +Aristotle to the present age. An account of the rise and improvements of +that art: of the different opinions of authors, ancient and modern. + +Translation of the History of Herodian. + +New Edition of Fairfax's Translation of Tasso, with notes, glossary, &c. + +Chaucer, a new edition of him, from manuscripts and old editions, with +various readings, conjectures, remarks on his language, and the changes +it had undergone from the earliest times to his age, and from his to the +present; with notes, explanatory of customs, &c. and references to +Boccace, and other authors from whom he has borrowed, with an account of +the liberties he has taken in telling the stories; his life, and an +exact etymological glossary. + +Aristotle's Rhetoric, a translation of it into English. + +A Collection of Letters, translated from the modern writers, with some +account of the several authors. + +Oldham's Poems, with notes, historical and critical. + +Roscommon's Poems, with notes. + +Lives of the Philosophers, written with a polite air, in such a manner +as may divert as well as instruct. + +History of the Heathen Mythology, with an explication of the fables, +both allegorical and historical; with references to the poets. + +History of the State of Venice, in a compendious manner. + +Aristotle's Ethics, an English translation of them, with notes. + +Geographical Dictionary, from the French. + +Hierocles upon Pythagoras, translated into English, perhaps with notes. +This is done by Norris. + +A Book of Letters, upon all kinds of subjects. + +Claudian, a new edition of his works, "cum notis variorum," in the +manner of Burman. + +Tully's Tusculan Questions, a translation of them. + +Tully's De Natura Deorum, a translation of those books. + +Benzo's New History of the New World, to be translated. + +Machiavel's History of Florence, to be translated. + +History of the Revival of Learning in Europe, containing an account of +whatever contributed to the restoration of literature; such as +controversies, printing, the destruction of the Greek empire, the +encouragement of great men, with the lives of the most eminent patrons, +and most eminent early professors of all kinds of learning in different +countries. + +A Body of Chronology, inverse, with historical notes. + +A Table of the Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, distinguished by +figures into six degrees of value, with notes, giving the reasons of +preference or degradation. + +A Collection of Letters from English Authors, with a preface, giving +some account of the writers; with reasons for selection, and criticism +upon styles; remarks on each letter, if needful. + +A Collection of Proverbs from various languages.--Jan. 6--53. + +A Dictionary to the Common Prayer, in imitation of Calmet's Dictionary +of the Bible.--March,--52. + +A Collection of Stories and Examples, like those of Valerius Maximus.-- +Jan. 10,--53. + +From Elian, a volume of select Stories, perhaps from others.--Jan. 28,-- +53. + +Collection of Travels, Voyages, Adventures, and Descriptions of +Countries. + +Dictionary of Ancient History and Mythology. + +Treatise on the Study of Polite Literature, containing the history of +learning, directions for editions, commentaries, &c. + +Maxims, Characters, and Sentiments, after the manner of Bruyere, +collected out of ancient authors, particularly the Greek, with +Apophthegms. + +Classical Miscellanies, select translations from ancient Greek and Latin +authors. + +Lives of Illustrious Persons, as well of the active as the learned, in +imitation of Plutarch. + +Judgment of the learned upon English Authors. + +Poetical Dictionary of the English Tongue. + +Considerations upon the Present State of London. + +Collection of Epigrams, with notes and observations. + +Observations on the English Language, relating to words, phrases, and +modes of speech. + +Minutiae Literariae; miscellaneous reflections, criticisms, emendations, +notes. + +History of the Constitution. + +Comparison of Philosophical and Christian Morality, by sentences +collected from the moralists and fathers. + +Plutarch's Lives, in English, with notes. + +_Poetry, and Works of Imagination._ + +Hymn to Ignorance. + +The Palace of Sloth, a vision. + +Coluthus, to be translated. + +Prejudice, a poetical Essay. + +The Palace of Nonsense, a vision. + +In his last illness, he told Mr. Nichols [13] that he had thought of +translating Thuanus, and when that worthy man (in whom he had begun to +place much confidence) suggested to him that he would be better employed +in writing a Life of Spenser, by which he might gratify the King, who +was known to be fond of that poet, he replied that he would readily do +it if he could obtain any new materials. + +His stature was unusually high, and his person large and well +proportioned, but he was rendered uncouth in his appearance by the scars +which his scrophulous disease had impressed upon him, by convulsive +motions, and by the slovenliness of his garb. His eyes, of which the +sight was very imperfect, were of a light grey colour, yet had withal a +wildness and penetration, and at times a fierceness of expression, that +could not be encountered without a sensation of fear. He had a strange +way of making inarticulate sounds, or of muttering to himself in a voice +loud enough to be overheard, what was passing in his thoughts, when in +company. Thus, one day, when he was on a visit to Davies the bookseller, +whose pretty wife is spoken of by Churchill, he was heard repeating part +of the Lord's Prayer, and, on his saying, lead us not into temptation, +Davies turned round, and whispered his wife, "You are the occasion of +this, my dear." + +It is said by Boswell, that "his temperament was so morbid, that he +never knew the natural joy of a free and vigorous use of his limbs: when +he walked, it was the struggling gait of one in fetters; when he rode, +he had no command or direction of his horse, but was carried as if in a +balloon." His daily habits were exceedingly irregular; he took his meals +at unusual hours; and either ate voraciously, or abstained rigorously. +He studied by fits and starts; but when he did read, it was with such +rapidity and eagerness, that, as some one said, it seemed as if he would +tear out the heart of the book he was upon. He could with difficulty +believe any one who spoke of having read any book from the beginning to +the end. His mode of composition was in like manner vigorous and hasty; +though his sentences have all the appearance of being measured; but it +was his custom to speak no less than to write with a studious attention +to the numerousness of his phrase, so that he was enabled to do that by +habit which others usually accomplish by a particular effort. + +In matters of fact, his regard to truth was so punctilious, that it was +observed he always talked as if he was talking upon oath; and he was +desirous of exacting the same preciseness from those over whom he had +authority or influence. He had, however, a practice that was not +entirely consistent with this love of veracity; for he would sometimes +defend that side of a question, which he thought wrong, because it +afforded him a more favourable opportunity of exhibiting his reasoning +or his wit. Thus when he began, "Why, Sir, as to the good or evil of +card-playing;" Garrick would make this arch comment on his proem; "Now +he is considering which side he shall take." It may he urged that his +hearers were aware of this propensity which he had + +--To make the worse appear + The better argument, + +and were therefore in no danger of being misled by it. But an excuse of +the same kind will serve for the common liar, that he is known, and +therefore disbelieved. It behoved him to be the more scrupulous in this +particular, because he knew that Boswell took minutes of his ordinary +conversation. Some of his idle sophisms, which thus became current, +have, I fear, led to serious mischief; such as the opinion that an +author may be at liberty to deny his having written a book to which he +has not affixed his name; his extenuation of incontinence in the master +of a family, and the gloss he put on the crime of covetousness; which +last error was not confined to his conversation, but mingled itself with +his writings, though no one could well be freer from any taint of the +vice in his own life. Many a man may have indulged his inclinations to +evil, with much less compunction, while he has imagined himself +sheltered under the sanction of the moralist who watches one side of the +entrance into the nave of St. Paul's. + +There was, in his mind, a strange mixture of credulity and doubtfulness. +He did not disbelieve either in the existence of ghosts, or in the +possibility of commuting other metals into gold; but was very slow to +credit any fact that was at all extraordinary. He would tell of Cave's +having seen an apparition, without much apparent doubt; and, with more +certainty, of his having been himself addressed by the voice of his +absent mother. The deception practised by the girl in Cock Lane, who was +a ventriloquist, is well known to have wrought on him so successfully, +as to make him go and watch in the church, where she pretended the +spirit of a young woman to be, which had disclosed to her the manner of +its having been violently separated from the body. On this occasion, +Boswell endeavours in vain to clear him from the imputation of a +weakness, which was but too agreeable to the rest of his character. Yet +on Hume's argument against miracles, that it is more probable witnesses +should lie or be mistaken than that they should happen, he remarked, as +I think, very judiciously, that Hume, taking the proposition simply, is +right; but that the Christian revelation is not proved by the miracles +alone, but as they are connected with prophecies, and with the doctrines +in confirmation of which the miracles were wrought. + +He was devout, moral, and humane; frequent and earnest in his petitions +for the divine succour, anxious to sublime his nature by disengaging it +from worldly soil, and prompt to sympathise with the sorrows, and out of +his scanty means, to relieve the necessities of others; but such is the +imperfection of man, that his piety was apt to degenerate into +superstition; his abstinence yielded to slight temptations, and his +charity was often not proof against a discrepancy of opinion either in +politics or literature. + +Among his friends, Beauclerk seems most to have engaged his love, +Langton his respect, and Burke his admiration. The first was conspicuous +for wit, liveliness of feelings, and gaiety; the next for rectitude of +conduct, piety, and learning; the last for knowledge, sagacity, and +eloquence. His praise of Reynolds, that he was the most invulnerable of +men, one of whom, if he had a quarrel with him, he should find it the +most difficult to say any ill, was praise rather of the negative kind. +The younger Warton, he contrived to alienate from him, as is related in +the life of that poet. There was, indeed, an entire harmony in their +political principles; but questions of literature touch an author yet +more sensibly than those of state; and the "idem sentire de republica," +was an imperfect bond of amity between men who appreciated so +differently the Comus and Lycidas of Milton, and the Bucolics of +Theocritus. To Savage and Goldsmith he was attached by similarity of +fortunes and pursuits. A yet closer bond of sympathy united him with +Collins, as the reader will see in the following extracts from letters +which he wrote to Dr. Warton. + +How little can we exult in any intellectual powers or literary +entertainments, when we see the fate of poor Collins. I knew him a few +years ago, full of hopes and full of projects, versed in many languages, +high in fancy, and strong in retention. This busy and forcible mind is +now under the government of those who lately would not have been able to +comprehend the least and most narrow of its designs.--March 8, 1754. + +Poor dear Collins. Let me know whether you think it would give him +pleasure that I should write to him. I have often been near his state, +and therefore have it in great commisseration. * * * + +What becomes of poor dear Collins? I wrote him a letter which he never +answered. I suppose writing is very troublesome to him. That man is no +common loss. The moralists all talk of the uncertainty of fortune, and +the transitoriness of beauty; but it is yet more dreadful to consider +that the powers of the mind are equally liable to change, that +understanding may make its appearance, and depart, that it may blaze and +expire.--April 15, 1756.[14] + +Difference of opinion respecting the American war did not separate him +from Burke and Fox; and when the nation was afterwards divided by the +struggle between the court and populace on one side and the aristocracy +on the other, though his principles determined him to that party in +which he found the person though perhaps not the interests of his +sovereign, yet his affections continued with the great leader in the +House of Commons, who was opposed to it. "I am," said he, "for the King +against Fox; but I am for Fox against Pitt. The King is my master; but I +do not know Pitt; and Fox is my friend;" and to Burke, when he was a +candidate for a seat in the new Parliament, he wished, as he told him +with a smile, "all the success that an honest man could wish him." Even +towards Wilkes his asperity was softened down into good humour by their +meeting together over a plentiful table at the house of Dilly the +bookseller. + +When he had offended any by contradiction or rudeness, it was seldom +long before he sought to be reconciled and forgiven. But though his +private enmities were easily appeased, yet where he considered the cause +of truth to be concerned, his resentment was vehement and unrelenting. +That imposture, particularly, which he with good reason supposed +Macpherson to have practised on the world with respect to the poems of +Ossian, provoked him to vengeance, such as the occasion seemed hardly to +demand. + +Of his dry pleasantry in conversation there are many instances recorded. +When one of his acquaintances had introduced him to his brother, at the +same time telling him that he would find him become very agreeable after +he had been some time in his company, he replied, "Sir, I can wait." To +a stupid justice of the peace, who had wearied him with a long account +of his having caused four convicts to be condemned to transportation, he +answered, "I heartily wish I were a fifth;" a repartee that calls to our +mind Horace's answer to the impertinent fellow: + + Omnes composui; Felices! mine ego resto. + +A physician endeavouring to bring to his recollection that he had been +in his company once before, mentioned among other circumstances his +having that day worn so fine a coat, that it could not but have +attracted his notice. "Sir," said Johnson, "had you been dipped in +Pactolus, I should not have noticed you." He could on occasion be more +polite and complimentary. When Mrs. Siddons, with whom, in a letter to +Mrs. Thrale, he expressed himself highly pleased, paid him a visit, +there happened not to be any chair ready for her. "Madam," said he, "you +who so often occasion the want of seats to others will the more readily +excuse the want of one yourself." + +His scholarship was rather various than accurate or profound. Yet Dr. +Burney, the younger, supposed him capable of giving a Greek word for +almost every English one. Romances were always a favourite kind of +reading with him. Felixmarte of Hircania was his regular study during +part of a summer which he spent in the country at the parsonage-house of +Dr. Percy. On a journey to Derbyshire, when he had in view his Italian +expedition, he took with him Il Palermino d'Inghilterra, to refresh his +knowledge of the language. To this taste he had been heard to impute his +unsettled disposition, and his averseness from the choice of any +profession. One of the most singular qualities of his mind was the +rapidity with which it was able to seize and master almost any subject, +however abstruse or novel, that was offered to its speculation. To this +quickness of apprehension was joined an extraordinary power of memory, +so that he was able to recall at pleasure most passages of a book, which +had once strongly impressed him. In his sixty-fourth year, he attempted +to acquire the low Dutch language. He had a perpetual thirst of +knowledge; and six months before his death requested Dr. Burney to teach +him the scale of music. "Teach me," said Johnson to him, "at least, the +alphabet of your language." What he knew, he loved to communicate. +According to that description of the stu-[**possibly "student"--rest of +word(s) missing in original] in Chaucer, + + Gladly would he teach, and gladly learn. + +These endowments were accompanied with a copiousness of words, in which +it would be difficult to name any writer except Barrow that has +surpassed him. Yet his prose style is very far from affording a model +that can safely be proposed for our imitation. He seems to exert his +powers of intellect and of language indiscriminately, and with equal +effort, on the smallest and the most important occasions; and the effect +is something similar to that of a Chinese painting, in which, though all +the objects separately taken are accurately described, yet the whole is +entirely wanting in a proper relief of perspective. What is observed by +Milton of the conduct of life, may be applied to composition, "that +there is a scale of higher and lower duties," and he who confuses it +will infallibly fall short of that proportion which is necessary to +excellence no less in matters of taste than of morals. + +He was more intent in balancing the period, than in developing the +thought or image that was present to his mind. Sometimes we find that he +multiplies words without amplifying the sense, and that the ear is +gratified at the expense of the understanding. This is more particularly +the case in the Ramblers, which being called for at short and stated +intervals, were sometimes composed in such haste, that he had not +leasure even to read them before they were printed; nor can we wonder at +the dissatisfaction he expressed some years afterwards, when he +exclaimed that he thought they had been better. In the Idler there is +more brevity, and consequently more compression. + +When Johnson trusts to his own strong understanding in a matter of which +he has the full command, and does not aim at setting it off by futile +decorations, he is always respectable, and sometimes great. But when he +attempts the ornamental, he is heavy and inelegant; and the awkwardness +of his efforts is more perceptible from the hugeness of the body that is +put in motion to produce them. He is like the animal whom Milton +describes as making sport for our first parents in Paradise-- + + --Th' unwieldy elephant, + To make them mirth, used all his might. + +It is a good beast for carrying a burden or trampling down a foe, but a +very indifferent one at a lavolta or a coranto. + +His swelling style is readily counterfeited. Our common advertisements +have amply revenged themselves for his ridicule of their large promises +in the Idler, by clothing those promises in language as magnificent as +his own. It is much less easy to catch the subtle graces of Addison. At +the conclusion of the Rambler, he boasts that "he has laboured to refine +our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial +barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations." + +The result of his labour is awkward stateliness and irksome uniformity. +In his dread of incongruous idioms he writes almost without any idiom at +all. + +He has sometimes been considered as having innovated on our tongue by +introducing big words into it from the Latin: but he commonly does no +more than revive terms which had been employed by our old writers and +afterwards fallen into disuse; nor does he, like them, employ even these +terms in senses which scholars only would be likely to understand. + +At the time of writing the Dictionary, he had a notion that our language +"for almost a century had been departing from its original Teutonic +character, and deviating towards a Gallic structure and phraseology, +from which it ought to be our endeavour to recall it by making our +ancient volumes the ground-work of style, admitting among the additions +of later times, only such as may supply real deficiencies, such as are +readily adopted by the genius of our tongue, and incorporate easily with +our native idiom." But a little reflection will shew us the vanity of +this attempt. Since the age of Chaucer, at least, that is for more than +400 years, our language has been increased by continual transfusions +from the French. To these have been added, from time to time, similar +accessions from other languages, both ancient and modern. Thus a +copiousness and a flexibility, which in the instance of the Greek seem +to have arisen out of that subtilty of intellect which gave birth to +endless subdivision and distinction, have been in some measure +compensated in our own by the influxes which it has received from the +languages of many other people; and have been yet further improved by +that liberty which it is to be hoped we shall always retain, each man, +of speaking his thoughts after his own guise, without too much regard to +any set mode or fashion. + +He had before said, in this same preface, that "our knowledge of the +northern literature is so scanty, that of words undoubtedly Teutonic the +original is not always to be found in any ancient language; and I have +therefore," he adds, "inserted Dutch or German substitutes, which I +consider not as radical, but parallel; not as the parents, but sisters +of the English." And in his history of the English language, speaking of +our Saxon ancestors, to whom we must, I suppose, go for that Teutonic +original which he so strongly recommends, he observes that, "their +speech having been always cursory and extemporaneous, must have been +artless and unconnected, without any modes of transition or involution +of clauses, which abruptness and inconnection may be found even in their +later writings." Of the additions which have been made to this our +original poverty, who shall say what ought to be rejected, and what +retained? who shall say what deficiencies are real, and what imaginary? +what the genius of our tongue may admit of, and what it must refuse? and +in a word, what that native idiom is, a coalition with which is to be +thus studiously consulted? + +Throughout his Lives of the Poets, he constantly betrays a want of +relish for the more abstracted graces of the art. When strong sense and +reasoning were to be judged of, these he was able to appreciate justly. +When the passions or characters were described, he could to a certain +extent decide whether they were described truly or no. But as far as +poetry has relation to the kindred arts of music and painting, to both +of which he was confessedly insensible, it could not be expected that he +should have much perception of its excellences. Of statuary, he said +that its value was owing to its difficulty; and that a fellow will hack +half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that nearly +resembles a man. What shall be thought of his assertion, that before the +time of Dryden there was no poetical diction, no system of words at once +refined from the grossness of domestic use, and free from the harshness +of terms appropriated to particular arts, and "that words too familiar +or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet?" It might with more show of +reason be affirmed, that in proportion as our writers have adopted such +a system as he speaks of, and have rejected words for no other cause +than that they were either too familiar or too remote, we have been +receding from the proper language of poetry. One of the chief ornaments, +or more properly speaking, the constituents of poetical language, is the +use of metaphors; and metaphors never find their way to the mind more +readily, or affect it more powerfully, than when they are clothed in +familiar words. Even a naked sentiment will lose none of its force from +being conveyed in the most homely terms which our mother tongue can +afford. They are the sounds which we have been used to from our infancy, +which have been early connected with our hopes and fears, and still +continue to meet us in our own homes and by our firesides, that will +most certainly awaken those feelings with which the poet is chiefly +concerned. As for the terms which Johnson calls remote, if I understand +him rightly, they too may be employed occasionally, either when the +attention is to be roused by something unusual, or for the sake of +harmony; or it may be for no other reason than because the poet chooses +thus to diversify his diction, so as to give a stronger relief to that +which is familiar and common, by the juxtaposition of its contrary. Of +this there can be no doubt, that, whoever lays down such arbitrary rules +as Johnson has here prescribed, will find himself mocked at every turn +by the power of genius, which meets with nothing in art or nature that +it cannot convert to its own use, and which delights to produce the +greatest effects by means apparently the most inadequate. + +He particularly valued himself on the Life of Cowley, for the sake of +those observations which he had introduced into it on the metaphysical +poets. Here he has mistaken the character of Marino, whom he supposes to +be at the head of them. Marino abounds in puerile conceits; but they are +not far-fetched, like those of Donne and Cowley; they generally lie on +the surface, and often consist of nothing more than a mere play upon +words; so that, if to be a punster is to be a metaphysician, Marino is a +poetical Heraclitus. But Johnson had caught the cant of the age, in +which it was usual to designate almost any thing absurd or extravagant +by the name of metaphysical. + +It is difficult to suppose that he had read some of the works on which +he passes a summary sentence. The comedy of Love's Riddle, which he +says, "adds little to the wonders of Cowley's minority," deserved to be +commended at least for the style, which is a specimen of pure and +unaffected English. Of Congreve's novel, he tells us, that he had rather +praise it than read it. Judging from the letters of Congreve, his only +writings in prose which it has been my good fortune to meet with, and +which, as I remember, contain some admirable remarks on the distinction +between wit and humour, I should conclude that one part of his character +as a writer has yet to make its way to the public notice. I have heard +it observed by a lady, that Johnson, in his Life of Milton, is like a +dog incensed and terrified at the presence of some superior creature, at +whom he snarls, then runs away, and then returns to snarl again. If the +comparison be a just one, it may be added, in extenuation of Johnson's +malignity, that he is at least a dog who thinks himself to be attacking +the inveterate foe of his master; for Milton's hostility to a kingly +government was the crime which he could not forgive. + +The mention of Milton, and of his politics, brings to my mind two +sayings of Johnson's that were related to me by Mr. Price, of Lichfield. +After passing an evening together at Mr. Seward's, the father of the +poetess, where, in the course of conversation, the words "Me miserable!" +in Paradise Lost, had been commended as highly pathetic, they had walked +some way along the street in silence, which the good man was not likely +first to break, when Johnson suddenly stopped, and turning round to him, +exclaimed, "Sir! don't you think that 'Me miserable' is miserable +stuff?" On another occasion he thus whimsically described the different +manner in which he felt himself disposed towards a Whig and a Tory. +"If," said he, "I saw a Whig and a Tory drowning, I would first save the +Tory; and when I saw that he was safe, not till then, I would go and +help the Whig; but the dog should duck first; the dog should duck;" +laughing with pleasure at the thoughts of the Whig's ducking. + +The principal charm of the Lives of the Poets is in the store of +information which they contain. He had been, as he says somewhere of his +own father, "no careless observer of the passages of the times." In the +course of a long life, he had heard, and read, and seen much; and this +he communicates with such force and vivacity, and illustrates by +observations so pertinent and striking, that we recur again and again to +his pages as we would to so many portraits traced by the hand of a great +master, in spite of our belief that the originals were often +misrepresented, that some were flattered, and the defects of others +still more overcharged. In his very errors as a critic there is often +shewn more ability than in the right judgments of most other. When he is +most wrong, he gives us some good reason for his being so. He is often +mistaken, but never trivial and insipid. It is more safe to trust to him +when he commends than when he dispraises; when he enlarges the +boundaries of criticism which his predecessors had contracted, than when +he sets up new fences of his own. The higher station we can take, the +more those petty limits will disappear, which confine excellence to +particular forms and systems. The critic who condemns that which the +generality of mankind, or even the few of those more refined in their +taste, have long agreed in admiring, may naturally conclude the fault to +be in himself; that there is in his mind or his organs some want of +capacity for the reception of a certain species of pleasure. When +Johnson rejected pastoral comedy, as being representative of _scenes_ +adapted chiefly "to please barbarians and children," he might have +suspected that his own eye-sight, rather than pastoral comedy, was to +blame. When he characterized blank verse, "as verse only to the eye," he +might reasonably have questioned the powers of his own hearing. But +this, and more than this, we may forgive him, for his successful +vindication of Shakspeare from the faults objected to him by the French +critics. + +It is in his biographical works that Johnson is most pleasing and most +instructive. His querulousness takes away much both from the +agreeableness and the use of his moral writings. Addison has represented +our nature in its most attractive forms; but Swift makes us turn with +loathing from its deformities, and Johnson causes us to shudder at its +misery. + +Like most of the writers of that time, he made use of his poetry only as +the means of introducing himself to the public. We cannot regret, as in +the case of Goldsmith, that he put it to no further service. He took +little delight in those appearances either of nature or art, for which +the poet ought to have the eye of a painter. Nor had he much more sense +of the elegant in numbers and in sound. There were indeed certain rounds +of metrical arrangement which he loved to repeat, but he could not go +beyond them. How very limited his perceptions of this kind were, we may +be convinced by reading his strictures on Dionysius the Halicarnassian +in the Rambler, and the opinions on Milton's versification, which in the +Idler he has put into the mouth of a minute critic, only to ridicule +them, though they are indeed founded in truth. Johnson was not one of +those whom Plato calls the [Greek: philaekooi kai philotheamones], "who +gladly acknowledge the beautiful wherever it is met with, in sounds, and +colours, and figures, and all that is by art compounded from these;" +much less had he ascended "to that abstract notion of beauty" which the +same philosopher considers it so much more difficult to attain.[15] + +In his tragedy, the dramatis personae are like so many statues "stept +from their pedestal to take the air." They come on the stage only to +utter pompous sentiments of morality, turgid declamation, and frigid +similes. Yet there is throughout, that strength of language, that heavy +mace of words, with which, as with the flail of Talus, Johnson lays +every thing prostrate before him. This style is better suited to his +imitations of the two satires of Juvenal. Of the first of these, "the +London," Gray, in a letter to Horace Walpole, says that "to him it is +one of those few imitations, that has all the ease and all the spirit of +an original." The other is not at all inferior to it. Johnson was not +insensible to such praise; and, could he have known how favourably Gray +had spoken of him, would, I doubt not, have been more just to that poet, +whom, besides the petulant criticism on him in his Life, he presumed in +conversation to call "a heavy fellow." + +In his shorter poems it appears as if nature could now and then thrust +herself even into the bosom of Johnson himself, from whom we could +scarcely have looked for such images as are to be found in the following +stanzas. + + By gloomy twilight half reveal'd, + With sighs we view the hoary hill, + The leafless wood, the naked field, + The snow-stopp'd cot, the frozen rill. + + No music warbles through the grove, + No vivid colours paint the plain; + No more with devious steps I rove + Through verdant paths, now sought in vain. + + Aloud the driving tempest roars, + Congeal'd impetuous showers descend; + Haste, close the window, bar the doors, + Fate leaves me Stella and a friend. + +Sappho herself might have owned a touch of passionate tenderness, that +he has introduced into another of these little pieces: + + --The Queen of night + Round us pours a lambent light, + Light that seems but just to show + Breasts that beat, and cheeks that glow. + +His Latin poetry is not without a certain barbaric splendour; but it +discovers, as might be expected, no skill in the more refined graces of +the Augustan age. The verse he quoted to Thomas Warton as his favourite, +from the translation of Pope's Messiah, + + Vallis aromaticas fundit Saronica nubes, + +evinces that he could be pleased without elegance in a mode of +composition, of which elegance is the chief recommendation. If we wished +to impress foreigners with a favourable opinion of the taste which our +countrymen have formed for the most perfect productions of the Roman +muse, we should send them, not to the pages of Johnson, but rather to +those of Milton, Gray, Warton, and some of yet more recent date. + +It was the chance of Johnson to fall upon an age that rated his great +abilities at their full value. His laboriousness had the appearance of +something stupendous, when there were many literary but few very learned +men. His vigour of intellect imposed upon the multitude an opinion of +his wisdom, from the solemn air and oracular tone in which he uniformly +addressed them. He would have been of less consequence in the days of +Elizabeth or of Cromwell. + +FOOTNOTES: +[1] Bull's Fifth Sermon. +[2] In a note to Johnson's Works, 8vo. Edition, 1810, it is said that + this is rendered improbable by the account given of Colson, by + Davies, in his life of Garrick, which was certainly written under + Dr. Johnson's inspection, and, what relates to Colson, probably from + Johnson's confirmation. +[3] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. v. p. 696. [4] Nichols's Literary + Anecdotes, vol. v, p. 15 +[5] Ibid. vol. viii. +[6] Warburton's Letters, 8vo. Edit. p. 369. +[7] This defect has probably been remedied by Mr. Todd's enlargement of + the Dictionary. +[8] Wooll's Life of Joseph Warton, p. 230. +[9] The writers, besides Smart, were Richard Holt, Garrick, and Dr. + Percy. Their papers are signed with the initials of their surnames. + Johnson's are marked by two asterisks.--_See Hawkins's Life of + Johnson_, p.351. +[10] Miss Seward's letters, vol. i. p. 117. +[11] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. +[12] Vol. xix. p. 71. Ed. 1815. +[13] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 532. +[14] Wooll's Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Warton. +[15] Plato de Republica, 1. v. 476. + + + * * * * * + + +JOHN ARMSTRONG. + +John Armstrong, the son of a Scotch minister, was born in the parish of +Castleton, in Roxburghshire. The date of his birth has not been +ascertained, nor is there any thing known concerning the earlier part of +his education. The first we hear of it is, that he took a degree in +medicine at Edinburgh, on the fourth of February, 1732; on which +occasion he published his Thesis, as usual, and chose De Tabe Purulenta +for the subject of it. A copy of a Latin letter, which he sent to Sir +Hans Sloane with this essay, is said to be in the British Museum. In an +advertisement prefixed to some verses which he calls Imitations of +Shakspeare, he informs the reader that the first of them was just +finished when Thomson's Winter made its appearance. This was in 1726, +when he was, he himself says, very young. Thomson having heard of this +production by a youth, who was of the same country with himself, desired +to see it, and was so much pleased with the attempt, that he put it into +the hands of Aaron Hill, Mallet, and Young. With Thomson, further than +in the subject, there is no coincidence. The manner is a caricature of +Shakspeare's. + +In 1735, we find him in London, publishing a humorous pamphlet, entitled +An Essay for abridging the Study of Physic, which, though he did not +profess himself the writer, Mr. Nichols says [1], he can, on the best +authority, assert to be his. In two years after he published a Medical +Essay. This was soon followed by a licentious poem, which I have not +seen, and the title of which I do not think it necessary to record.-- +While thus employed, it was not to be expected that he should rise to +much eminence in his profession. The dying man does not willingly see by +his couch one who has recently disgraced himself by an open act of +profligacy. In January 1741, he solicited Dr. Birch to use his influence +with Mead in recommending him to the appointment of Physician to the +Forces which were then going to the West Indies. It does not appear that +this application was successful; but in five years more, (February +1746,) he was nominated one of the Physicians to the Hospital for +Invalid Soldiers behind Buckingham House; and in 1760, Physician to the +Army in Germany. Meantime (in 1744) he had published his Art of +Preserving Health, a didactic poem, that soon made its way to notice, +and which, by the judiciousness of the precepts, might have tended to +raise some opinion of his medical skill. At the beginning he addresses +Mead:-- + + --Beloved by all the graceful arts, + And long the favourite of the healing powers. + +He had now become intimate with Thomson, to whose Castle of Indolence +he contributed the three stanzas which conclude the first canto. One of +the alterations made in them by Thomson is not for the better. He had +written-- + + And here the gout, half tyger, half a snake, + Raged with a hundred teeth, a hundred stings; + +which was changed to-- + + The sleepless gout here counts the crowing cocks, + A wolf now gnaws him, now a serpent stings. + +When Thomson was seized with the illness of which he died, Armstrong was +one of those who were sent for to attend him. + +In 1751, he published Benevolence, an Epistle to Eumenes; and in 1753, +Taste, an Epistle to a Young Critic. In the next year, he wrote the +Forced Marriage, a tragedy, which Garrick did not think fitted for the +stage. It was printed in 1770, with such of his other writings as he +considered worthy of being collected. In this book, which he entitled +Miscellanies, in two volumes, first appeared the second part of Sketches +or Essays on Various Subjects, by Launcelot Temple, Esq.; the former had +been published in 1758. Wilkes was supposed to have contributed +something to these lively trifles, which, under an air of impertinent +levity, are sometimes marked by originality and discernment. His poem +called Day, an epistle which he had addressed to Wilkes in 1761, was not +admitted by the author to take its place among the rest. For the dispute +which gave rise to this omission he was afterwards sorry; and in his +last illness declared, that what he had got in the army he owed to the +kindness of Wilkes; and that although he had been rash and hasty, he +still retained a due sense of gratitude. In attacking Wilkes, he +contrived to exasperate Churchill also, who was not to be provoked with +impunity, and who revenged himself in the Journey. In 1771, he published +a Short Ramble through some parts of France and Italy. In the +neighbourhood of Leghorn he passed a fortnight with Smollett, to whom he +was always tenderly attached. Of his book I regret the more that I +cannot speak from my own knowledge, because the journey which it +narrates is said to have been made in the society of Mr. Fuseli, with +whom it is not easy to suppose that any one could have travelled without +profiting by the elegance and learning of his companion. I have no +better means of bringing my reader acquainted with some Medical Essays +which he published in 1773; but from the manner in which they are spoken +of in the Biographical Dictionary [2], it is to be feared that they did +not conduce to his reputation or advancement. He died in September, +1779, in consequence, as it is said, of a contusion which he received +when he was getting into a carriage. His friends were surprised to find +he had laid by three thousand pounds, which had been saved chiefly out +of his half-pay. + +Armstrong appears to have been good-natured and indolent, little versed +in what is called the way of the world, and, with an eagerness of +ostentation which looks like the result of mortified vanity, a despiser +of the vulgar, whether found among the little or the great. + +His Art of Preserving Health is the only production by which he is +likely to be remembered. The theme which he has chosen is one, in which +no man who lives long does not at some time or other feel an interest; +and he has handled it with considerable skill. In the first Book, on +Air, he has interwoven very pleasing descriptions both of particular +places and of situations in general, with reference to the effects they +may be supposed to have on health. The second, which treats of Diet, is +necessarily less attractive, as the topic is less susceptible of +ornament; yet in speaking of water, he has contrived to embellish it by +some lines, which are, perhaps, the finest in the poem. + + Now come, ye Naiads, to the fountains lead; + Now let me wander through your gelid reign. + I burn to view th' enthusiastic wilds + By mortals else untrod. I hear the din + Of waters thund'ring o'er the ruin'd cliffs. + With holy reverence I approach the rocks + Whence glide the streams renown'd in ancient song. + Here from the desart, down the rumbling steep, + First springs the Nile: here bursts the sounding Po + In angry waves: Euphrates hence devolves + A mighty flood to water half the East: + And there, in Gothic solitude reclin'd, + The cheerless Tanais pours his hoary urn. + What solemn twilight! What stupendous shades + Enwrap these infant floods! Through every nerve + A sacred horror thrills, a pleasing fear + Glides o'er my frame. The forest deepens round; + And more gigantic still th' impending trees + Stretch their extravagant arms athwart the gloom. + Are these the confines of another world? + A land of Genii? Say, beyond these wilds + What unknown regions? If indeed beyond + Aught habitable lies. + +This has more majesty, and more to fill the imagination, than the +corresponding paragraph in Thomson's Autumn. + + Say then where lurk the vast eternal springs, &c.--771. + +Yet it is inferior in beauty to some verses in a Latin poem by a writer +who is now living. + + Quippe sub immensis terrae penetralibus altae + Hiscunt in vastum tenebrae: magnarum ibi princeps + labitur undarum Oceanus, quo patre liquoris + Omnigeni latices et mollis lentor aquai + Profluxere, nova nantes aestate superne + Aerii rores nebularum, et liquidus imber. + Fama est perpetuos illinc se erumpere fontes, + Florigerum Ladona, et lubrica vitra Selemni, + Crathidaque, imbriferamque Lycaeis vallibus Hagno, + Et gelidam Panopin et Peirenen lacrymosam, + Illinc et rapido amnes fluere et mare magnum. + +In the third book, he once more breathes freely, and in recounting the +various kinds of exercise by which the human frame may be invigorated, +his poetic faculty again finds room to play. Joseph Warton, in his Essay +on Pope, has justly commended the Episode on the Sweating Sickness, with +which it concludes. In the fourth and last, on the Passions, he seems to +have grown weary of his task; for he has here less compression and less +dignity. + +His verse is much more compact than Thomson's, whom he resembles most in +the turn of the expression; although he has aimed now and then, but with +an ill-assured and timid hand, at a Miltonic boldness in the numbers or +the phrase. When he takes occasion to speak of the river with which his +remembrances in early life were associated, he has, contrary to his +usual custom, indulged himself with enlarging on his prototype. + +Thomson had mentioned incidentally the Tweed and the Jed: + + --The Tweed, pure parent stream, + Whose pastoral banks first heard my Doric reed, + With sylvan Jed! thy tributary brook.--_Autumn_, 889. + + He has thus expanded it:-- + + --Such the stream, + On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air, + Liddal; till now, except in Doric lays + Tun'd to her murmurs by her love-sick swains, + Unknown in song: though not a purer stream, + Through meads more flowery, or more romantic groves, + Rolls towards the western main. Hail, sacred flood! + May still thy hospitable swains be blest + In rural innocence; thy mountains still + Teem with the fleecy race; thy tuneful woods + For ever flourish; and thy vales look gay + With painted meadows, and the golden grain! + Oft with thy blooming sons, when life was new, + Sportive and petulant, and charm'd with toys, + In thy transparent eddies have I lav'd; + Oft trac'd with patient steps thy fairy banks, + With the well-imitated fly to hook + The eager trout, and with the slender line + And yielding rod, solicit to the shore + The struggling panting prey; while vernal clouds + And tepid gales obscur'd the ruffled pool, + And from the deeps call'd forth the wanton swarms. + + B. iii. v. 96. + +What he has here added of his love of fishing is from another passage +in the Seasons [3]. + +But his imitations of other writers, however frequent, have no semblance +of study or labour. They seem to have been self-suggested, and to have +glided tacitly and insensibly into the current of his thoughts. This is +evinced by the little pains he took to work upon and heighten such +resemblances. As he did not labour the details injudiciously, so he had +a clear conception of his matter as a whole. The consequence is, that +the poem has that unity and just subordination of parts which renders it +easy to be comprehended at one view, and, on that account, more +agreeable than the didactic poems of his contemporaries, which having +detached passages of much more splendour, are yet wanting in those +recommendations. One objection to his subject is, that it is least +pleasing at that period of life when poetry is most so; for it is not +till the glow of youth is gone by, and we begin to feel the infirmities +and the coldness of age, that we are disposed to bestow much attention +on the Art of Preserving Health. + +His tragedy is worth but little. It appears from his Essays, that he had +formed a contracted notion of nature, as an object of imitation for the +tragic poet; and he has failed to give a faithful representation of +nature, even according to his own imperfect theory. + +The two short epistles on Benevolence and Taste, have ease and vigour +enough to shew that he could, with a little practice, have written as +well in the couplet measure as he did in blank verse. If Armstrong +cannot be styled a man of genius, he is at least one of the most +ingenious of our minor poets. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, Vol. ii. p. 307, &c. +[2] Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 486. +[3] Footnote: Spring, v. 376, &c. + + + * * * * * + + +RICHARD JAGO + +Richard, the third son of Richard Jago, Rector of Beaudesert, in +Warwickshire, was born on the 1st of October, 1715. His mother was +Margaret, daughter of Wm. Parker, a gentleman of Henley in Arden, a +neighbouring town in the same county. He received the earlier part of +his education at Solihull, under Mr. Crumpton, whom Johnson, in his life +of Shenstone, calls an eminent schoolmaster. Here Shenstone, who was +scarcely one year older, and who, according to Johnson, distinguished +himself by the quickness of his progress, imparted to Jago his love of +letters. As the one, in his Schoolmistress, has delivered to posterity +the old dame who taught him to read; the other has done the same for +their common preceptor, but with less ability and less kindness, in his +Edgehill, where he terms him "Pedagogue morose." + +At the usual time he was admitted a servitor of University College, +Oxford. His humble station in the University, though it did not break +off his intimacy with Shenstone, must have hindered them from +associating openly together. + +In 1738, he took the degree of Master of Arts, having been first +ordained to the curacy of Snitterfield, a village near the benefice of +his father, who died two years after. Soon after that event, he married +Dorothea Susannah, daughter of John Fancourt, Rector of Kimcote, in +Leicestershire. In 1746, he was instituted to Harbury, where he resided; +and about the same time was presented, by Lord Willoughby de Broke, to +Chesterton, which lay at a short distance; both livings together +amounting to about 100_l._ a year. In 1754, Lord Clare, afterwards Earl +Nugent, obtained for him, from Dr. Madox, Bishop of Worcester, the +vicarage of Snitterfield, worth about 140_l._ After having inserted some +small poems in Dodsley's Collection, he published (in 1767) Edgehill, +for which he obtained a large subscription; and in the following year, +the fable of Labour and Genius. In 1771, his kind patron, Lord +Willoughby de Broke, added to his other preferment the rectory of +Kimcote, worth nearly 300_l._ in consequence of which he resigned +Harbury. + +His first wife died in 1751, leaving him seven children. He had known +her from childhood. The attention paid her by Shenstone shews her to +have been an amiable woman. In eight years after, he married Margaret, +daughter of James Underwood, Esq. of Rugeley, in Staffordshire, who +survived him. During the latter part of his life, his infirmities +confined him to the house. He died, after a short illness, on the 8th of +May, 1781, and was buried in the church of Snitterfield. In his person +he was above the middle stature. His manner was reserved before +strangers, but easy even to sprightliness in the society of his friends. +He is said to have discharged blamelessly all the duties of his +profession and of domestic life. As a poet, he is not entitled to very +high commendation. The distinguishing feature of his poetry is the ease +of its diction. Johnson has observed, that if blank verse be not tumid +and gorgeous, it is crippled prose. To disprove this, it would be +sufficient to quote the greater part of that story from the Tatler [1] +of the Young Man restored to Sight, which Jago has introduced into his +Edge-hill. Nothing can be described more naturally, than his feelings +and behaviour on his first recovery. + + The friendly wound was given; th'obstructing film + Drawn artfully aside; and on his sight + Burst the full tide of day. Surprised he stood, + Not knowing where he was, nor what he saw. + The skilful artist first, as first in place, + He view'd, then seized his hand, then felt his own, + Then mark'd their near resemblance, much perplex'd, + And still the more perplex'd the more he saw. + Now silence first th' impatient mother broke, + And, as her eager looks on him she bent, + "My son (she cried), my son!" On her he gazed + With fresh surprise. "And what!" he cried, "art thou + My mother? for thy voice bespeaks thee such, + Though to my sight unknown."--"Thy mother I + (She quick replied); thy sister, brother, these."-- + "O! 'tis too much (he said); too soon to part, + Ere well we meet! But this new flood of day + O'erpowers me, and I feel a death-like damp + Chill all my frame, and stop my faltering tongue." + Now Lydia, so they call'd his gentle friend, + Who, with averted eye, but in her soul + Had felt the lancing steel, her aid applied, + "And stay, dear youth (she said), or with thee take + Thy Lydia, thine alike in life or death!" + At Lydia's name, at Lydia's well known voice, + He strove again to raise his drooping head + And ope his closing eye, but strove in vain, + And on her trembling bosom sunk away. + Now other fears distract his weeping friends: + But short their grief! for soon his life return'd, + And, with return of life, return'd their peace.--(B. iii.) + +The country which he has undertaken to describe in this poem is fertile +and tame. There was little left to him, except to enlarge on its +antiquities, to speak of the habitations that were scattered over it, +and to compliment the most distinguished among their possessors. Every +day must detract something from the interest, such as it is, that arises +from these sources. A poet should take care not to make the fund of his +reputation liable to be affected by dilapidations, or to be passed away +by the hands of a conveyancer. + +It would seem as if he had never visited a tract of land much wilder +than that in which he was bred and born. In speaking of "embattled +walls, raised on the mountain precipice," he particularises "Beaudesert; +Old Montfort's seat;"[2]--a place, which, though it is pleasantly +diversified with hill and dale, has no pretensions of so lofty a kind. +This, he tells us, was "the haunt of his youthful steps;" and here he +met with Somerville, the poet of the Chase, to whom both the subject and +the title of his poem might have been suggested by that extensive +common, known by the name of Cannock Chase,[3] on the border of which +Beaudesert is situated. + +The digressions, with which he has endeavoured to enliven the monotony +of his subject, are sometimes very far-fetched. He has scarcely finished +his exordium, when he goes back to the third day of the creation, and +then passes on to the deluge. This reminds one of the Mock Advocate in +the Plaideurs of Racine, who, having to defend the cause of a dog that +had robbed the pantry, begins, + + Avant la naissance du monde---- + +on which the judge yawns and interrupts him, + + Avocat, ah! passons an deluge. + +Of his shorter pieces, the three Elegies on Birds are well deserving of +notice. That entitled the Blackbirds is so prettily imagined, and so +neatly expressed, that it is worth a long poem. Thrice has Shenstone +mentioned it in his Letters, in such a manner as to show how much it had +pleased him. The Goldfinches is only less excellent. He has spoiled the +Swallows by the seriousness of the moral. + + Nunc non erat his locus. + +The first half of Peytoe's Ghost has enough in it to raise a curiosity, +which is disappointed by the remainder. + + FOOTNOTES +[1] No. LV. +[2] Edge-Hill, Book I. +[3] The author has here fallen into an error in confounding Beaudesert, + near Henley in Arden, with a place of the same name, near Cannock + Chase. The mistake was pointed out to him a few days after its + publication, by his valued friend and relative, the Rev. Thomas + Price, Rector of Enville, Staffordshire. Mr. Price's letter will + furnish the best explanation. He writes:-- + + "MY DEAR CARY, + + "In your life of Jago, I am afraid you have fallen into a mistake, by + confounding the two Beaudeserts. That one of which Jago's father was + Rector, and near which Somerville resided, is, as you have stated in + the beginning of the life, near Henley, and to that the words, "Old + Montfort's seat" must refer, because Dugdale, treating of Beldesert, + near Henley, says, 'on the east side of the last mentioned brook + runneth a hilly tract, bordered with deep vallies on each part; the + point whereof maketh a kind of promontory, whose ascent being + somewhat steep, gave occasion of the fortifying thereat first, + considering its situation in these woodland parts, where, through the + opportunity of so much shelter, advantage was most like to be taken + by the disherited English and their offspring, to make head for their + redemption from the Norman yoke. Tis not unlike, but this + _mountainous_ ground, &c. Thurslem de Montfort, near kinsman of the + first Norman Earl of Warwick, erected that strong castle, whereunto, + by reason of its pleasant situation, the French name Beldesert, was + given, and which continued the chief seat of his descendants for + divers ages.'"--ED. + + + * * * * * + + +RICHARD OWEN CAMBRIDGE. + +Richard Cambridge, the son of a Turkey merchant, descended from a family +long settled in Gloucestershire, was born in London, on the fourteenth +of February, 1717. His father dying soon after his birth, the care of +his education devolved on his mother and his maternal uncle, Thomas +Owen, Esq. a lawyer who had retired from practice to his seat in +Buckinghamshire, and who, having no children of his own, adopted his +nephew. At an early age he was sent to Eton, where, among his +schoolfellows and associates, were Gray, West, Jacob Bryant, the Earl +of Orford, and others eminent for wit or learning. Here he contracted +not only a literary taste and habits of study, but that preference for +the quiet amusements of a country life, which afterwards formed a part +of his character. In 1734 he was removed from Eton to Oxford, and +admitted a gentleman commoner of St. John's College. On the marriage of +the Prince of Wales, two years after, he contributed some verses to the +Congratulatory Poems from that University. A ludicrous picture, which he +draws of academical festivity, betrays the future author of the +Scribleriad:-- + + In flowing robes and squared caps advance, + Pallas their guide, her ever-favour'd band; + As they approach they join in mystic dance, + Large scrolls of paper waving in their hand; + Nearer they come, I heard them sweetly sing. + +He left the University without taking a degree, and in 1737 became a +member of Lincoln's Inn. In four years after he married the second +daughter of George Trenchard, Esq. of Woolverton, in Dorsetshire, who +was Member of Parliament for Poole, and son of Sir John Trenchard, +Secretary of State to King William. Retiring to his family mansion of +Whitminster, in Gloucestershire, on the banks of the Stroud, he employed +himself in making that stream navigable to its junction with the Severn, +in improving his buildings, and in ornamenting his grounds, which lay +pleasantly in the rich vale of Berkeley. Here his happiness was +interrupted by the death of one among his former playmates at Eton, whom +he had most distinguished by his affection. This was Captain Berkeley, +an officer, who in those happy times, when military men were not yet +educated apart from scholars, had added to his other accomplishments a +love of letters, and who fell in the battle of Fontenoy. This affliction +discouraged him from proceeding in a poem on Society, which he had +intended as a memorial of their friendship. The opening does not promise +well enough to make us regret its discontinuance. + +At Whitminster he had the honour of entertaining the Prince of Wales, +with his consort, and their daughter the late Duchess Dowager of +Brunswick, then on a visit to Lord Bathurst at Cirencester. The royal +guests were feasted in a vessel of his own constructing, that was moored +on a reach of the Severn; and the Prince gratified him by declaring, +that he had often made similar attempts on the Thames, but never with +equal success. To the exercise of mechanical ingenuity in improving the +art of boat-building, he added uncommon skill in the use of the bow and +arrow, and had assembled all the varieties of those instruments that +could be procured from different countries. + +He appears to have possessed in an unusual degree, the power of suddenly +ingratiating himself with those who conversed with him. A gentleman who +had never before seen him, and who had reluctantly accompanied the +Prince in his aquatic expedition, was so much pleased with Cambridge, as +to be among the foremost to acknowledge his satisfaction; and having +been introduced by William Whitehead, then tutor to the Earl of Jersey's +eldest son, into the house of that nobleman, he soon became a welcome +guest, and formed a lasting friendship with one of the family, who was +afterwards Earl of Clarendon. In the number of his intimates he reckoned +Bathurst, afterwards Chancellor, with whom an acquaintance, begun at +Eton, had been continued at Lincoln's Inn; Carteret, Lyttelton, +Grenville, Chesterfield, Yorke, Pitt, and Pulteney. In order to +facilitate his intercourse with such associates, and perhaps in +conformity with the advice of his departed friend Berkeley, who had +recommended London as the proper stage for the display of his poetical +talent, he was induced to pass two of his winters in the capital; but +finding that the air of the town was injurious to his health, in 1751 he +purchased a residence at Twickenham. He had now another opportunity of +showing his taste for rural embellishment, in counteracting the effects +of his predecessor's formality, in opening his lawns and grouping his +trees with an art that wore the appearance of negligence. An addition to +his fortune by the decease of his uncle Mr. Owen, who left him his name +together with his estate, enabled him to gratify these propensities. By +some of his powerful friends he had been urged to obtain a seat in +Parliament, and addict himself to a public life; but he valued his +tranquillity too highly to comply with their solicitations. A sonnet +addressed to him by his friend Edwards, author of the Canons of +Criticism, and which is not without elegance, tended to confirm him in +his resolve. + +In the year[1] of his removal to Twickenham, the Scribleriad was +published, a poem calculated to please the learned, rather than the +vulgar, and with respect to which he had observed the rule of the _nonum +prematur in annum_. To The World, the periodical paper undertaken soon +after by Moore, and continued for four years, he contributed twenty-one +numbers. Though determined against taking an active part in public +affairs, yet he shewed himself to be far from indifferent to the +interests of his country. Her maritime glory more peculiarly engaged his +attention. + +Anson, Boscawen, and indeed nearly all the distinguished seamen of his +day, were among his intimates or acquaintance; and he assisted some of +the principal navigators in drawing up the relations which they gave to +the world of their discoveries. In 1761, he was prompted by his +apprehensions, that the nation was not sufficiently on her guard against +the endeavours making by the French to deprive her of her possessions in +the East, to publish a History of the War upon the Coast of Coromandel. +The great work undertaken by Mr. Orme prevented him from pursuing the +subject. + +Continuing thus to pass his days in the enjoyment of domestic happiness +and learned ease, surrounded by a train of menials grown grey in his +service, exercising the rites of hospitality with uniform cheerfulness, +and performing the duties of religion with exemplary punctuality, +respected by the good and admired by the ingenious, he reached his +eighty-third year with little inconvenience from the usual infirmities +of age. His faculties then declining, he was dismissed by a gradual +exhaustion of his natural powers, and resigning his breath without a +sigh on the seventeenth of September, 1802-- + + --Like ripe fruit he dropp'd + Into his mother's lap ... + ...for death mature. + +Having always lived in an union of the utmost tenderness with his +family, he exhibited a pleasing instance of the "ruling passion strong +in death." "Having passed," says his son, "a considerable time in a sort +of doze, from which it was thought he had hardly strength to revive, he +awoke, and upon seeing me, feebly articulated, 'How do the dear people +do?' When I answered that they were well; with a smile upon his +countenance, and an increased energy of voice, he replied, 'I thank +God;' and then reposed his head upon his pillow, and spoke no more." + +He was buried at Twickenham, where, on inquiring a few years ago, I +found that no monument had been raised to his memory. + +He left behind a widow, a daughter, and two sons. From the narrative of +his life written by one of these, the Reverend Archdeacon Cambridge, and +prefixed to a handsome edition of his poems and his papers in The World, +the above account has been chiefly extracted. + +Chesterfield, another of the contributors to The World, inserted in it a +short character of him under the name of Cantabrigiensis, introduced by +an encomium on his temperance; for he was a water-drinker. + +That he was what is commonly termed a news-monger, appears from the +following laughable story, told by the late Mr. George Hardinge, the +Welch Judge:-- + + I wished upon some occasion to borrow a Martial. He told me he had no + such book, _except by heart_. I therefore inferred, that he could not + immediately detect me. Accordingly I sent him an epigram which I had + made, and an English version of it, as from the original. He commended + the latter, but said, that it wanted the neatness of the Roman. When I + undeceived him, he laughed, and forgave me. + +It originated in a whimsical fact. Mr. Cambridge had a rage for news; +and living in effect at Richmond, though on the other side of the +Thames, he had the command of many political reporters. As I was then in +professional business at my chambers, I knew less of public news than he +did; and every Saturday, in my way from Lincoln's Inn to a villa of my +own near him, called upon him for the news from London. This I told him +was not unlike what Martial said, L. iii. 7. + + Deciano salutem. + + Vix Roma egressus, villa novus advena, ruris + Vicini dominum te "quid in urbe?" rogo. + Tu novitatis amans Roma si Tibura malles + Per nos "de villa quae nova" disce "tua." + + _Nichols's Illust. of the Literary Hist, of the xviii. Cent_. v. i. + p. 131. + +Of his poems, which are neither numerous, nor exhibit much variety of +manner, little remains to be said. Archimage, though a sprightly sally, +cannot be ranked among the successful imitations of Spenser's style. +_Als ne_ and _mote_, how often soever repeated, do not go far towards a +resemblance of the Faery Queene. + +In his preface to the Scribleriad, which betrays great solicitude to +explain and vindicate the plan of the poem, he declares that his +intention is "to shew the vanity and uselessness of many studies, reduce +them to a less formidable appearance, and invite our youth to +application, by letting them see that a less degree of it than they +apprehend, judiciously directed, and a very few books indeed, well +recommended, will give them all the real information which they are to +expect from human science." The design was a laudable one. In the poem +itself we feel the want of some principal event, on the development and +issue of which the interest of the whole may turn; as in those patterns +of the mock-heroic, the Secchia Rapita, the Lutrin, and the Rape of the +Lock; an advantage, which these poems in some measure derive from having +been founded in fact; for however trifling the incident by which the +imagination of the poet may have been first excited, when once known or +believed to be true, it communicates something of its own reality to all +the fictions that grow out of it. The hero too is one of the [Greek: +amenaena karaena]; or rather is but the shadow of a shade; for he has +taken the character of Martinus Scriblerus, as he found it in the +memoirs of that unsubstantial personage. The adventures indeed in which +the author has engaged him, though they did not require much power of +invention, are yet sufficiently ludicrous; and we join, perhaps, more +willingly in the laugh, as it is aimed at general folly and not at +individual weakness. The wit is not condensed and sparkling as in the +Dunciad; the writer's chief resource consisting in an adaptation of +passages from writers, ancient and modern, to the purposes of a grave +burlesque; and for the application of these, by a contrivance not very +artificial, it is sometimes necessary to recur to the notes. The style, +if it be not distinguished by any remarkable strength or elegance, is at +least free and unaffected. + +The imitations of Horace are often happy: that addressed to Lord +Bathurst, particularly towards the latter part, is perhaps the best. Of +the original jeux d'esprits, the verses occasioned by the Marriage and +Game Acts, both passed the same session, have, I think, most merit. The +Fable of Jotham, or the Borough Hunters, does not make up by ingenuity +for what it wants in reverence. In the Fakeer, a tale professedly +borrowed from Voltaire, the story takes a less humorous turn than as it +is told in the extracts from Pere Le Comte's memoirs in the preface. + +FOOTNOTE +[1] In 1752 appeared his Dialogue between a Member and his Servant. The + Intruder in 1754; and the Fakeer in 1756.--_MS. addition_. ED. + + + * * * * * + + +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. + +Tobias Smollett was born in the parish of Cardross, in Dumbartonshire, +in the year 1721. His father, Archibald, a Scotch gentleman of small +fortune, was the youngest son of Sir James Smollett, who was knighted on +King William's accession, represented the borough of Dumbarton in the +last Scotch Parliament, and was of weight enough to be chosen one of the +commissioners for framing the treaty of union between the two countries. +On his return from Leyden, where it was then the custom for young +Scotchmen to complete their education, Archibald married Barbara, the +daughter of Mr. Cunningham, of Gilbertfield, near Glasgow; and died soon +after the birth of our poet, leaving him, with another son and a +daughter, dependent on the bounty of their grandfather. The place of +Smollett's nativity was endeared to him by its natural beauties; +insomuch that, when he had an opportunity of comparing it with foreign +countries, he preferred the neighbouring lake of Loch Lomond to those +most celebrated in Switzerland and Italy. Being placed at the school of +Dumbarton, which was conducted by John Love, a man of some distinction +as a scholar, he is said to have exercised his poetical talents in +writing satires on the other boys, and in panegyrising his heroic +countryman Wallace. From hence, at the usual age, he was removed to +Glasgow; and there making choice of the study of medicine, was +apprenticed to Mr. John Gordon, a chirurgeon, who afterwards took out a +diploma, and practised as a physician. His irresistible propensity to +burlesque did not suffer the peculiarities of this man, whom he has +represented under the character of Potion, in Roderick Random, to escape +him. He made some amends for the indignity, by introducing honourable +mention of the name of Dr. Gordon in the last of his novels. A more +overt act of contumacy to his superiors, into which his vivacity hurried +him, trifling as it may appear, is so characteristic, that I cannot +leave it untold. A lad, who was apprenticed to a neighbouring +chirurgeon, and with whom he had been engaged in frolic on a winter's +evening, was receiving a severe reprimand from his master for quitting +the shop; and having alleged in his excuse, that he had been hit by a +snow-ball, and had gone out in pursuit of the person who had thrown it, +was listening to the taunts of his master, on the improbability of such +a story. "How long," said the son of Aesculapius, with the confident air +of one fearless of contradiction, "might I stand here, and such a thing +not happen to me?" when Smollett, who stood behind the pillar of the +shop-door, and heard what passed, snatching up a snow-ball, quickly +delivered his playmate from the dilemma in which this question had +placed him, by an answer equally prompt and conclusive. Not content with +this attack, he afterwards made the offender sit for his whole-length +portrait, in the person, as it is supposed, of Crab, in the same novel. + +In the midst of these childish sallies, he meditated greater things; and +the sound of the pestle and mortar did not prevent him from attending to +the inspirations of Melpomene. At the age of eighteen he had composed a +tragedy on the murder of James I. the Scottish monarch, and about that +time losing his grandfather, by whom he had been supported, and +discovering that he must thenceforth rely on his own exertions for a +maintenance, he set forth with his juvenile production for London. On +his arrival there, failing as might be expected, to persuade the +managers to bring his tragedy on the stage, he solicited and obtained +the place of a chirurgeon's mate, on board the fleet destined for the +attack of Carthagena. Of this ill-conducted and unfortunate expedition, +he not only made a sketch in his Roderick Random, but afterwards +inserted a more detailed account of it in the Compendium of Voyages. +After a short time, he was so little pleased with his employment, that +he determined to relinquish it, and remain in the West Indies. During +his residence in Jamaica, he met with Miss Anne Lascelles, to whom, +after a few years, he was married, and with whom he expected to receive +a fortune of three thousand pounds. In the islands he probably depended +for a subsistence on the exercise of his skill as a chirurgeon. He +returned to London in the year 1746; and though his family had +distinguished themselves by their revolutionary principles, testified +his sympathy with the late sufferings of his countrymen, in their +expiring struggle for the house of Stuart, by some lines, entitled the +Tears of Scotland. When warned of his indiscretion, he added that +concluding stanza of reproof to his timid counsellors:-- + + While the warm blood bedews my veins, + And unimpair'd remembrance reigns, + Resentment of my country's fate + Within my filial breast shall beat; + And spite of her insulting foe, + My sympathizing verse shall flow: + Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn + Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn! + +His first separate publication was, Advice, a satire, in the autumn of +this year. At the beginning of the next it was followed by a second +part, called Reproof, in which he took an occasion of venting his +resentment against Rich, the manager of Covent Garden, with whom he had +quarrelled concerning an opera, written by him for that theatre, on the +story of Alcestis. In consequence of their dispute the piece was not +acted; nor did he take the poet's usual revenge by printing it. + +The fallacious prospects of his wife's possessions now encouraged him to +settle himself in a better house, and to live with more hospitality than +his circumstances would allow him to maintain. These difficulties were +in some measure obviated by the sale of a new translation which he made +of Gil Bias, and still more by the success of Roderick Random, which +appeared in 1748. In none of his succeeding novels has he equalled the +liveliness, force, and nature of this his first essay. So just a picture +of a sea-faring life especially had never before met the public eye. +Many of our naval heroes may probably trace the preference which has +decided them in their choice of a profession to an early acquaintance +with the pages of Roderick Random. He has not, indeed, decorated his +scenes with any seductive colours; yet such is the charm of a highly +wrought description, that it often induces us to overlook what is +disgusting in the objects themselves, and transfer the pleasure arising +from the mere imitation to the reality. + +Strap was a man named Lewis, a book-binder, who came from Scotland with +Smollett, and who usually dined with him at Chelsea on Sundays. In this +book he also found a niche for the exhibition of his own distresses in +the character of Melopoyn the dramatic poet. His applications to the +directors of the theatre, indeed, continued so unavailing, that he at +length resolved to publish his unfortunate tragedy by subscription; and +in 1749 the Regicide appeared with a preface, in which he complained +grievously of their neglect, and of the faithlessness of his patrons, +among whom Lord Lyttelton particularly excited his indignation. In the +summer of this year his view of men and manners was extended by a +journey to Paris. Here he met with an acquaintance and countryman in +Doctor Moore, the author of Zeluco, who a few years after him had been +also an apprentice to Gordon, at Glasgow. In his company Smollett +visited the principal objects of curiosity in the neighbourhood of the +French metropolis. + +The canvas was soon stretched for a display of fresh follies: and the +result was, his Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, in 1751. The success he +had attained in exhibiting the characters of seamen led him to a +repetition of similar delineations. But though drawn in the same broad +style of humour, and, if possible, discriminated by a yet stronger hand, +the actors do not excite so keen an interest on shore as in their proper +element. The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality, the substance of which was +communicated by the woman herself, whose story they relate, quickened +the curiosity of his readers at the time, and a considerable sum which +he received for the insertion of them augmented the profits which he +derived from a large impression of the work. But they form a very +disagreeable interruption in the main business of the narrative. The +pedantic physician was intended for a representation of Akenside, who +had probably too much dignity to notice the affront, for which some +reparation was made by a compliment to his talents for didactic poetry, +in our author's History of England. + +On his return (in 1749) he took his degree of Doctor in Medicine, and +settled himself at Chelsea[1], where he resided till 1763. The next +effort of his pen, an Essay on the External Use of Water, in a letter to +Dr.----, with particular remarks upon the present method of using the +mineral waters at Bath, in Somersetshire, &c. (in 1752) was directed to +views of professional advancement. In his profession, however, he did +not succeed; and meeting with no encouragement in any other quarter, he +devoted himself henceforward to the service of the booksellers. More +novels, translation, historical compilation, ephemeral criticism, were +the multifarious employments which they laid on him. Nothing that he +afterwards produced quite came up to the raciness of his first +performances. In 1753, he published the Adventures of Ferdinand Count +Fathom. In the dedication of this novel he left a blank after the word +Doctor, which may probably be supplied with the name of Armstrong. From +certain phrases that occur in the more serious parts, I should +conjecture them to be hastily translated from another language. Some of +these shall be laid before the reader, that he may judge for himself. "A +solemn profession, on which she _reposed herself with_ the most implicit +confidence and faith;" ch. xii. (v. 4. p. 54, of Dr. Anderson's +edition.)--"Our hero would have made his retreat through the _port_, by +which he had entered;" instead of the _door_; ch. xiii. p. 55.--"His own +penetration pointed out the _canal_, through which his misfortune had +flowed upon him;" instead of the _channel_; ch. xx. p. 94.--"Public +ordinaries, walks, and _spectacles_;" instead of _places of +entertainment_; ch. xxv. p. 125.--"The Tyrolese, by the _canal_ of +Ferdinand's finger, and recommendation, sold a pebble for a real +brilliant;" ch. xxxvii. p. 204.--"A young gentleman whose pride was +_indomitable_;" ch. xlvi. p. 242. In one chapter we find ourselves in a +stage-coach, with such a company as Smollett loved to introduce to his +readers. + +He was about this time prosecuted in the King's Bench, on a charge of +having intended to assassinate one of his countrymen, whose name was +Peter Gordon. A few blows of the cane, which, after being provoked by +repeated insolence, he had laid across the shoulders of this man, +appeared to be the sole grounds for the accusation, and he was, +therefore, honourably acquitted by the jury. A letter, addressed to the +prosecutor's counsel, who, in Smollett's opinion, by the intemperance of +his invective had abused the freedom of speech allowed on such +occasions, remains to attest the irritability and vehemence of his own +temper. The letter was either not sent, or the lawyer had too much +moderation to make it the subject of another action, the consequences of +which he could have ill borne; for the expense, incurred by the former +suit, was already more than he was able to defray, at a time when +pecuniary losses and disappointments in other quarters were pressing +heavily upon him. A person, for whom he had given security in the sum of +one hundred and eighty pounds, had become a bankrupt, and one remittance +which he looked for from the East Indies, and another of more than a +thousand pounds from Jamaica, failed him. From the extremity to which +these accidents reduced him, he was extricated by the kindness of his +friend, Doctor Macaulay, to which he had been before indebted; and by +the liberality of Provost Drummond, who paid him a hundred pounds for +revising the manuscript of his brother Alexander Drummond's travels +through Germany, Italy, Greece, &c. which were printed in a folio volume +in 1754. He had long anticipated the profits of his next work. This was +a translation of Don Quixote, published at the beginning of 1755. Lord +Woodhouselee, in his Essay on Translation, has observed, that it is +little else than an improvement of the version by Jarvis. On comparing a +few passages with the original, I perceive that he fails alike in +representing the dignity of Cervantes in the mock-heroic, and the +familiarity of his lighter manner. These are faults that might have been +easily avoided by many a writer of much less natural abilities than +Smollett, who wanted both the leisure and the command of style that were +requisite for such an undertaking. The time, however, which he gave to +that great master, was not thrown away. He must have come back from the +study with his mind refreshed, and its powers invigorated by +contemplating so nearly the most skilful delineation that had ever been +made of human nature, according to that view in which it most suited his +own genius to look at it. + +On his return from a visit to Scotland, where a pleasant story is told +of his being introduced to his mother as a stranger, and of her +discovery of him after some time, with a burst of maternal affection, in +consequence of his smiling, he engaged (1756) in an occupation that was +not likely to make him a wiser, and certainly did not make him a happier +man. The celebrity obtained by the Monthly Review had raised up a rival +publication, under the name of the Critical. The share which Smollett +had in the latter is left in some uncertainty. Doctor Anderson tells us, +that he undertook the chief direction; and Mr. Nichols,[2] that he +assisted Archibald Hamilton the printer. Whatever his part might be, the +performance of it was enough to waste his strength with ignoble labour, +to embitter his temper by useless altercation, and to draw on him +contempt and insult from those who, however they surpassed him in +learning, could scarcely be regarded as his superiors in native vigour +and fertility of mind. "Sure I," said Gray, in a letter to Mason, "am +something a better judge than all the man-midwives and presbyterian +parsons that ever were born. Pray give me leave to ask you, do you find +yourself tickled with the commendations of such people? (for you have +your share of these too) I dare say not; your vanity has certainly a +better taste. And can then the censure of such critics move you?" And +Warburton, who had probably been exasperated in the same way, called his +History of England the nonsense of a vagabond Scot. + +In the same year was published a Compendium of Authentic and +Entertaining Voyages, in seven volumes, which was said to have been made +under his superintendence. We have his own word [3], that he had written +a very small part of it. In 1757, his Reprisal, or the Tars of Old +England, an entertainment in two acts, in which the scene throughout is +laid on board ship, and which describes seamen in his usual happy vein, +was acted at Drury-lane with tolerable success. In 1758, he published +his History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Treaty +of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, four volumes. Of this work, hasty as it was, +having been compiled in fourteen months, ten thousand copies were +speedily sold. + +Some strictures in the Critical Review, which, in order to screen the +printer of it, he generously avowed himself to have written, once more +exposed him to a legal prosecution. The offensive passages were +occasioned by a pamphlet, in which Admiral Knowles had vindicated +himself from some reflections that were incidentally cast on him in the +course of Sir John Mordaunt's trial for the failure of a secret +expedition on the coast of France, near Rochefort. In his comments on +the pamphlet, Smollett had stigmatized Knowles, the author of it, as "an +admiral without conduct, an engineer without knowledge, an officer +without resolution, and a man without veracity." It can scarcely be +wondered, if, after such provocation, the party injured was not deterred +by menaces, or diverted by proposals of agreement, from seeking such +reparation as the law would afford him. This reparation the law did not +fail to give; and Smollett was sentenced to pay a penalty of one hundred +pounds, and to be confined for three months in the prison of the King's +Bench. Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote in a gaol; and Smollett resolved, +since he was now in one, that he would write a Don Quixote too. It maybe +said of the Spaniard, according to Falstaff's boast, "that he is not +only witty in himself, but the cause that wit is in other men;" and +among the many attempts at imitation, to which the admirable original +has given rise, Sir Launcelot Greaves is not one of the worst. That a +young man, whose brain had been slightly affected by a disappointment in +love, should turn knight-errant, at a time when books of chivalry were +no longer in vogue, is not, indeed, in the first instance, very +probable. But we are contented to overlook this defect in favour of the +many original touches of character, and striking views of life, +particularly in the mad-house, and the prison into which he leads his +hero, and which he has depicted with the force of Hogarth. If my +recollection does not mislead me, he will be found in some parts of this +novel to have had before him the Pharsamond of Marivaux, another copy of +Cervantes. But it does not anywhere like Count Fathom, betray symptoms +of being a mere translation. Sir Launcelot Greaves was first printed +piecemeal in the British Magazine, or Monthly Repository, a miscellany +to which Goldsmith was also a contributor. It has the recommendation of +being much less gross and indelicate than any other of his novels. + +During the same period, 1761 and 1762, he published, in numbers, four +volumes of a Continuation of his History of England; and in 1765, a +fifth, which brought it down to that time. + +Not contented with occupation under which an ordinary man would have +sunk, he undertook, on the 29th of May, 1762, to publish the Briton, a +weekly paper, in defence of the Earl of Bute, on that day appointed +first commissioner of the treasury; and continued it till the 12th of +February in the ensuing year, about two months before the retirement of +that nobleman from office. By his patron he complained that he was not +properly supported; and he incurred the hostility of Wilkes, who had +before been his staunch friend, but who espoused the party in opposition +to the Minister, by an attack, the malignance of which no provocation +could have justified. + +In 1763, his name was prefixed, in conjunction with that of Francklin, +the Greek professor at Cambridge, and translator of Sophocles and +Lucian, to a version of the works of Voltaire, in twenty-seven volumes. +To this he contributed, according to his own account, a small part, +including all the notes historical and critical. To the Modern Universal +History, which was published about the same time, he also acknowledged +himself to be a contributor, though of no very large portion. + +His life had hitherto been subjected to the toil and anxiety of one +doomed to earn a precarious subsistence by his pen. Though designed by +nature for the light and pleasant task of painting the humours and +follies of men, he had been compelled to undergo the work of a literary +drudge. Though formed to enjoy the endearments of friendship, his +criticisms had made those who were before indifferent to him his +enemies; and his polities, those whom he had loved, the objects of his +hatred. The smile, which the presence of his mother for a moment +recalled, had almost deserted his features. Still we may suppose it to +have lightened them up occasionally, in those hours of leisure when he +was allowed to unbend himself in the society of a wife, with whom he +seems always to have lived happily, and of an only daughter, who was +growing up to share with her his caresses, and to whom both looked as +the future support of their age. + + [Greek: + Tautae, gegaetha, kapilaethomai kakon' + Haed anti pollon esti moi parapsychae, + Aeolis, tithaenae, baktron, haegemon hodou] + + In her, rejoicing, I forgot mine ills. + I have lost much; but she remains, my comfort, + My city and my nurse, my staff and guide. + + He had bemoaned his distresses as an author; but was now to feel +calamity of a different kind. This only daughter was taken from him by +death, in her fifteenth year. Henceforward he was, with some short +intervals, a prey to querulousness and disease. Soon after this loss (in +June, 1763,) being resolved to try what change of climate would do for +him, he set out with his disconsolate partner on a journey through +France and Italy. On quitting his own country, he describes himself +"traduced by malice, persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, +and overwhelmed by the sense of a private calamity, which it was not in +the power of fortune to repair." The account which he published of this +expedition on his return, shews that he did not derive from it the +relief which he had expected. The spleen with which he contemplated +every object that presented itself to him, was ridiculed by Sterne, who +gave him the name of Smelfungus. With this abatement, the narration has +much to interest and amuse, and conveys some information by which a +traveller might perhaps still profit. When he brings before us the +driver pointing to the gibbeted criminal whom he had himself betrayed, +and unconsciously discovering his own infamy to Smollett, we might +suppose ourselves to be reading a highly wrought incident in one of his +own fictions. His prognostics of the approaching Revolution in France +are so remarkable, that I am tempted to transcribe them. "The King of +France, in order to give strength and stability to his administration, +ought to have sense to adopt a sage plan of economy, and vigour of mind +sufficient to execute it in all its parts with the most rigorous +exactness. He ought to have courage enough to find fault, and even to +punish the delinquents, of what quality soever they may be; and the +first act of reformation ought to be a total abolition of all the farms. +There are undoubtedly many marks of relaxation in the reins of the +French government; and in all probability, the subjects of France will +be the first to take the advantage of it. There is at present a violent +fermentation of different principles among them, which under the reign +of a very weak prince, or during a long minority, may produce a great +change in the constitution. In proportion to the progress of reason and +philosophy, which have made great advances in this kingdom [**kingfrom +in original], superstition loses ground; ancient prejudices give way; a +spirit of freedom takes the ascendant. All the learned laity of France, +detest the hierarchy as a plan of despotism, founded on imposture and +usurpation. The protestants, who are very numerous in the southern +parts, abhor it with all the rancour of religious fanaticism. Many of +the Commons, enriched by commerce and manufacture, grow impatient of +those odious distinctions, which exclude them from the honours and +privileges due to their importance in the commonwealth; and all the +parliaments or tribunals of justice in the kingdom seem bent upon +asserting their rights and independence in the face of the king's +prerogative, and even at the expense of his power and authority. Should +any prince, therefore, be seduced, by evil counsellors, or misled by his +own bigotry, to take some arbitrary step that may be extremely +disagreable to all those communities, without having spirit to exert the +violence of his power for the support of his measures, he will become +equally detested and despised, and the influence of the Commons will +insensibly encroach upon the pretensions of the crown." (Travels through +France and Italy, c. xxxvi. Smollett's Works, vol. v. p. 536.) This +presentiment deserves to be classed with that prophecy of Harrington in +his Oceana, of which some were fond enough to hope the speedy fulfilment +at the beginning of the revolution. Smollett passed the greater part of +his time abroad at Nice, but proceeded also to Rome and Florence. + +About a year after he had returned from the continent (in June, 1766,) +he again visited his native country, where he had the satisfaction to +find his mother and sister still living. At Edinburgh he met with the +two Humes, Robertson, Adam Smith, Blair, and Ferguson; but the bodily +ailments, under which he was labouring, left him little power of +enjoying the society of men who had newly raised their country to so +much eminence in literature. To his friend, Dr. Moore, then a chirurgeon +at Glasgow, who accompanied him from that place, to the banks of Loch +Lomond, he wrote, in the February following, that his expedition into +Scotland had been productive of nothing but misery and disgust, adding, +that he was convinced his brain had been in some measure affected; for +that he had had a kind of _coma vigil_ upon him from April to November, +without intermission. He was at this time at Bath, where two +chirurgeons, whom he calls the most eminent in England, and whose names +were Middleton and Sharp, had so far relieved him from some of the most +painful symptoms of his malady, particularly an inveterate ulcer in the +arm, that he pronounced himself to be better in health and spirits than +during any part of the seven preceding years. But the flattering +appearance which his disorder assumed was not of long continuance. A +letter written to him by David Hume, on the 18th of July following, +shews that either the state of his health, or the narrowness of his +means, or perhaps both these causes together, made him desirous of +obtaining the consulship of Nice or Leghorn. But neither the +solicitations of Hume, nor those of the Duchess of Hamilton, could +prevail on the Minister, Lord Shelburne, to confer on him either of +these appointments. In the next year, September 21, 1768, the following +paragraph in a letter from Hume convinced him that he had nothing to +expect from any consideration for his necessities in that quarter. "What +is this you tell me of your perpetual exile and of your never returning +to this country? I hope that, as this idea arose from the bad state of +your health, it will vanish on your recovery, which, from your past +experience, you may expect from those happier climates to which you are +retiring; after which, the desire of revisiting your native country will +probably return upon you, unless the superior cheapness of foreign +countries prove an obstacle, and detain you there. I could wish that +means had been fallen on to remove this objection, and that at least it +might be equal to you to live anywhere, except when the consideration of +your health gave the preference to one climate above another. But the +indifference of ministers towards literature, which has been long, and +indeed almost always is the case in England, gives little prospect of +any alteration in this particular." + +If ministers would in no other way conduce to his support, he was +determined to levy on them at least an involuntary contribution, and +accordingly (in 1769,) he published the Adventures of an Atom, in which +he laid about him to right and left, and with a random humour, somewhat +resembling that of Rabelais and Swift, made those whom he had defended +and those whom he had attacked, alike the subject of very gross +merriment. + +But his sport and his suffering were now coming to a close. The +increased debility under which he felt himself sinking, induced him +again to try the influence of a more genial sky. Early in 1770, he set +out with his wife for Italy; and after staying a short time at Leghorn, +settled himself at Monte Nero, near that port. In a letter to Caleb +Whitefoord, dated the 18th of May, he describes himself rusticated on +the side of a mountain that overlooks the sea, a most romantic and +salutary situation. One other flash broke from him in this retirement. +His novel, called the Expedition of Humphry Clinker, which he sent to +England to be printed in 1770, though abounding in portraitures of +exquisite drollery, and in situations highly comical, has not the full +zest and flavour of his earlier works. The story does not move on with +the same impetuosity. The characters have more the appearance of being +broad caricatures from real life, than the creatures of a rich and +teeming invention. They seem rather the representation of individuals +grotesquely designed and extravagantly coloured, than of classes of men. + +His bodily strength now giving way by degrees, while that of his mind +remained unimpaired, he expired at his residence near Leghorn, on the +21st of October, 1771, in the 51st year of his age. + +His mother died a little before him. His widow lived twelve years +longer, which she passed at Leghorn in a state of unhappy dependence on +the bounty of the merchants at that place, and of a few friends in +England. Out of her slender means she contrived to erect a monument to +her deceased husband, on which the following inscription from the pen of +his friend Armstrong was inscribed: + +Hic ossa conduntur +TOBIAE SMOLLETT, Scoti; +Qui prosapia generosa et antiqua natus, +Priscae virtutis exemplar emicuit; +Aspectu ingenue, +Corpore valido, +Pectore animoso, +Indole apprime benigna, +Et fere supra facultates munifica +Insignis. +Ingenio feraci, faceto, versatili, +Omnigenae fere doctrinae mire capaci, +Varia fabularum dulcedine +Vitam moresque hominum, +Ubertate summa ludens depinxit. +Adverso, interim, nefas! tali tantoque alumno, +Nisi quo satyrae opipare supplebat, +Seculo impio, ignavo, fatuo, +Quo Musse vix nisi nothae +Maerenatulis Britannicis +Fovebantur. +In memoriam +Optimi et amabilis omnino viri, +Permultis amicis desiderati, +Hocce marmor, +Dilectissima simul et amantissima conjunx +L. M. +Sacravit. + +A column with a Latin inscription was also placed to commemorate him on +the banks of his favourite Leven, near the house in which he was born, +by his kinsman Mr. Smollett of Bonhill. + +The person of Smollett is described by his friend Dr. Moore as stout and +well-proportioned, his countenance engaging, and his manner reserved, +with a certain air of dignity that seemed to indicate a consciousness of +his own powers. + +In his disposition, he appears to have been careless, improvident, and +sanguine; easily swayed both in his commendation and censures of others, +by the reigning humour of the moment, yet warm, and (when not influenced +by the baneful spirit of faction) steady in his attachments. On his +independence he particularly prided himself. But that this was sometimes +in danger from slight causes is apparent, from an anecdote related by +Dr. Wooll, in his Life of Joseph Warton. When Huggins [4] had finished +his translation of Ariosto, he sent a fat buck to Smollett, who at that +time managed the Critical Review; consequently the work was highly +applauded; but the history of the venison becoming public, Smollett was +much abused, and in a future number of the Review retracted his +applause. Perpetual employment of his pen left him little time for +reflection or study. Hence, though he acquired a greater readiness in +the use of words, his judgment was not proportionably improved; nor did +his manhood bear fruits that fully answered to the vigorous promise of +his youth. Yet it may he questioned whether any other writer of English +prose had before his time produced so great a number of works of +invention. When, in addition to his novels, we consider his various +productions, his histories, his travels, his two dramatic pieces, his +poems, his translations, his critical labours, and other occasional +publications, we are surprised that so much should have been done in a +life of no longer continuance. + +Excepting Congreve, I do not remember that any of the poets, whose lives +have been written by Johnson, is said to have produced anything in the +shape of a novel. Of the Incognita of Congreve, that biographer +observes, not very satisfactorily, that he would rather praise it than +read it. In the present series, Goldsmith, Smollett, and Johnson +himself, if his Rasselas entitle him to rank in the number, are among +the most distinguished in this species of writing, of whom modern Europe +can boast. To these, if there be added the names of De Foe, Richardson, +Fielding, and Sterne, not to mention living authors, we may produce such +a phalanx as scarcely any other nation can equal. Indeed no other could +afford a writer so wide a field for the exercise of this talent as ours, +where the fullest scope and encouragement are given to the human mind to +expand itself in every direction, and assume every shape and hue, by the +freedom of the government, and by the complexity of civil and commercial +interests. No one has portrayed the whimsical varieties of character, +particularly in lower life, with a happier vein of burlesque than +Smollett. He delights, indeed, chiefly by his strong delineation of +ludicrous incidents and grotesque manners derived from this source. He +does not hold our curiosity entangled by the involution of his story, +nor suspend it by any artful protraction of the main event. He turns +aside for no digression that may serve to display his own ingenuity or +learning. From the beginning to the end, one adventure commonly rises up +and follows upon another, like so many waves of the sea, which cease +only because they have reached the shore. + + The billows float in order to the shore, + The wave behind rolls on the wave before. + +Admirable as the art of the novelist is, we ought not to confound it +with that of the poet; nor to conclude, because the characters of Parson +Adams, Colonel Bath, and Squire Western in Fielding; and of Strap, +Morgan, and Pipes, in Smollett, impress themselves as strongly on the +memory, and seem to be as really individuals whom we have seen and +conversed with, as many of those which are the most decidedly marked in +Shakspeare himself; that therefore the powers requisite for producing +such descriptions are as rare and extraordinary in one instance as in +the other. For the poet has this peculiar to himself; that he +communicates something from his own mind, which, at the same time that +it does not prevent his personages from being kept equally distinct from +one another, raises them all above the level of our common nature. +Shakspeare, whom we appear not only to know, personally, but to admire +and love as one superior to the cast of his kind,-- + + Sweetest Shakspeare, fancy's child, + +has left some trick of his own lineaments and features discoverable in +the whole brood. + + Igneus est ollis vigor et coelestis origo + Seminibus. + +It is this which makes us willing to have our remembrance of his +characters refreshed by constant repetition, which gives us such a +pleasure in summoning them before us, as "age cannot wither, nor custom +stale." This is a quality which we do not find in Fielding, with all +that consummate skill which he employs in developing his story; nor in +Smollett, with all that vivacity and heartiness of purpose with which he +carries on his narrative. + +Of Smollett's poems much does not remain to be said. The Regicide is +such a tragedy as might be expected from a clever youth of eighteen. The +language is declamatory, the thoughts inflated, and the limits of nature +and verisimilitude transgressed in describing the characters and +passions. Yet there are passages not wanting in poetical vigour. + +His two satires have so much of the rough flavour of Juvenal, as to +retain some relish, now that the occasion which produced them has passed +away. + +The Ode to Independence, which was not published till after his decease, +amid much of common place, has some very nervous lines. The +personification itself is but an awkward one. The term is scarcely +abstract and general enough to be invested with the attributes of an +ideal being. + +In the Tears of Scotland, patriotism has made him eloquent and pathetic; +and the Ode to Leven Water is sweet and natural. None of the other +pieces, except the Ode to Mirth, which has some sprightliness of fancy, +deserve to be particularly noticed. + + FOOTNOTES +[1] He first settled at Bath.--_MS. addition_. ED. +[2] Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 398. +[3] In a Letter in Dr. Anderson's Edition of his Works, vol. i. p. 179. +[4] From a letter of Granger's (the author of the Biographical History + of England,) to Dr. Ducarel (see Nichols's Illustrations of the + Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii. p. 601,) it + appears that Huggins made also a translation of Dante, which was + never printed. He was son of that cruel keeper of the Fleet prison + who was punished for the ill treatment of his prisoners.--(Ibid.) + + + * * * * * + + +THOMAS WARTON. + +The life of Thomas Warton, by Dr. Mant, now Bishop of Killaloe, prefixed +to the edition of his poems published at Oxford, is drawn from sources +so authentic, and detailed with so much exactness, that little remains +to be added to the circumstances which it relates. + +Thomas Warton was descended from a very respectable family in Yorkshire. +His grandfather, Anthony Warton, was rector of a village in Hampshire; +and his father was a fellow of Magdalen College, and Poetry Professor in +the University of Oxford. His mother, daughter of Joseph Richardson, who +was also a clergyman, gave birth to three children:--Joseph, of whom +some account will hereafter be given, Thomas, and Jane. Thomas was born +at Basingstoke, in 1728; and very early in life afforded promise of his +future excellence. A letter, addressed to his sister from school when he +was about nine years of age, containing an epigram on Leander, was +preserved with affectionate regard by their brother, Dr. Warton. What +school it was, that may claim the honour of contributing to the +instruction of one who was afterwards so distinguished as a scholar, has +not been recorded. + +On the 16th of March, 1743, he was admitted a commoner of Trinity +College, Oxford; and about two years after lost his father,--a volume of +whose poems was, soon after his death, printed by subscription, by his +eldest son Joseph, with two elegiac poems to his memory, one by the +editor, the other by his daughter above-mentioned. The latter of these +tributes is termed by Mr. Crowe, in a note to one of his eloquent +Crewian Orations,--"Ode tenera, simplex, venusta,"--"tender, simple, and +beautiful." + +In 1745 he published his Pastoral Eclogues, which Mr. Chalmers has added +to the collection of his poems; and in the same year he published, +without his name, the Pleasures of Melancholy; having, perhaps, been +influenced in the choice of a subject, thus sombre, by the loss of his +parent. In this poem, his imitations of Milton are so frequent and +palpable, as to discover the timid flight of a young writer not daring +to quit the track of his guide. Yet by some (as appears from the letters +between Mrs. Carter and Miss Talbot) it was ascribed to Akenside. In +1746 was produced his Progress of Discontent,--paraphrase on one of his +own exercises, made at the desire of Dr. Huddesford, the head of his +college. + +His next effort attracted more general notice. In consequence of some +disgrace which the University had incurred with Government, by its +supposed attachment to the Stuart family, Mason had written his Isis, an +Elegy; and in 1749, Warton was encouraged by Dr. Huddesford to publish +an answer to it, with the title of the Triumph of Isis. It may naturally +be supposed, that so spirited a defence of Oxford against the aspersions +of her antagonist would be welcomed with ardour; and among other +testimonies of approbation which it received, Dr. King, whose character +is eulogized in the poem, coming into the bookseller's shop, and +inquiring whether five guineas would be acceptable to the author, left +for him an order for that sum. After an interval of twenty-eight years, +his rival, Mason, was probably sincere in the opinion he gave,--that +Warton had much excelled him both "in poetical imagery, and in the +correct flow of his versification." + +He now became a contributor to a monthly miscellany called The Student; +in which, besides his Progress of Discontent, were inserted A Panegyric +on Oxford Ale, a professed imitation of the Splendid Shilling; The +Author confined to College; and A Version of the twenty-ninth chapter of +Job. + +His two degrees having been taken at about the usual intervals, in 1751 +he succeeded to a fellowship of his college, where he found a peaceful +and unenvied retreat for the remainder of his days, without betraying +any ambition of those dignities,--which, to the indignation of Bishop +Warburton, were not conferred upon him. + +At this time appeared his Newmarket, a Satire; An Ode written for Music, +performed in the University Theatre; and two copies of verses, one in +Latin, the other in English, on the Death of Frederic, Prince of Wales. + +In 1753, his Ode on the approach of Summer,--The Pastoral, in the Manner +of Spenser--(which has not much resemblance to that writer), and Verses +inscribed on a beautiful Grotto,--were printed in the Union, a poetical +miscellany, selected by him, and edited at Edinburgh. + +The next year we find him employed in drawing up a body of statutes for +the Radcliffe Library, by the desire of Dr. Huddesford, then Vice +Chancellor; in assisting Colman and Thornton in the Connoisseur; and in +publishing his Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser, which he +afterwards enlarged from one to two volumes. Johnson complimented him +"for having shewn to all, who should hereafter attempt the study of our +ancient authors, the way to success, by directing them to the perusal of +the books which their author had read;" a method of illustration which +since, certainly, has not wanted imitators. Much of his time must have +been now diverted from his favourite pursuits, by his engagement in the +instruction of college pupils. During his excursions in the summer +vacations, to different parts of England, he appears to have occupied +himself in making remarks on such specimens of Gothic and Saxon +architecture as came in his way. His manuscript on this subject was in +the possession of his brother, since whose decease, unfortunately, it +has not been discovered. Some incidental observations on our ancient +buildings, introduced into his book on the Faerie Queene, are enough to +make us regret the loss. The poetical reader would have been better +pleased if he had fulfilled an intention he had of translating the +Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius. + +Though it was not the lot of Warton to attain distinction in his +clerical profession, yet literary honours, more congenial to his taste +and habits, awaited him. In 1756, he was elected Professor of Poetry at +Oxford, and faithfully performed the duties of his office, by +recommending the purest models of antiquity in lectures which are said +to have been "remarkable for elegance of diction, and justness of +observation," and interspersed with translations from the Greek +epigrammatists. + +To Johnson he had already rendered a material service by his exertions +to procure him the degree of Master of Arts, by diploma; and he +increased the obligation, by contributing some notes to his edition of +Shakspeare, and three papers to The Idler. The imputation cast on one, +from whom such kindness had been received, of his "being the only man of +genius without a heart," must have been rather the effect of spleen in +Johnson, than the result of just observation; and if either these words, +or the verses in ridicule of his poems-- + + Endless labour all along, + Endless labour to be wrong; + Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet, + Ode, and elegy, and sonnet; + +had been officiously repeated to Warton, we cannot much wonder at what +is told, of his passing Johnson in a bookseller's shop without speaking, +or at the tears which Johnson is related to have shed at that mark of +alienation in his former friend. + +A Description of Winchester, and a Burlesque on the Oxford Guides, or +books professing to give an account of the University, both anonymous, +are among the next publications attributed to his pen. + +In 1758, he made a selection of Latin inscriptions in verse; and printed +it, together with notes, under the title of Inscriptionum Romanarum +Metricarum Delectus; and then first undertook, at the suggestion it is +said of Judge Blackstone, the splendid edition of Theocritus, which made +its appearance twelve years after. The papers left by Mr. St. Amand,[1] +formed the basis of this work: to them were added some valuable +criticisms by Toup; and though the arrangement of the whole may be +justly charged with a want of clearness and order, and Dr. Gaisford has +since employed much greater exactness and diligence in his edition of +the same author, yet the praise of a most entertaining and delightful +variety cannot be denied to the notes of Warton. In a dissertation on +the Bucolic poetry of the Greeks, he shews that species of composition +to have been derived from the ancient comedy; and exposes the dream of a +golden age. + + La bella eta dell' or unqua non venne, + Nacque da nostre menti + Entro il vago pensiero, + E nel nostro desio chiaro divenne. + _Guidi_. + +The characters in Theocritus, are shewn to be distinguished into three +classes,--herdsmen, shepherds, and goatherds; the first of which was +superior to the next, as that in its turn was to the third; and this +distinction is proved to have been accurately observed, as to allusions +and images. The discrimination seems to have been overlooked by Virgil: +in which instance, no less than in all the genuine graces of pastoral +poetry, he is inferior to the Sicilian.[2] The contempt with which +Warton speaks of those eminent and unfortunate Greek scholars, who +diffused the learning of their country over Europe, after the capture of +Constantinople, and whom he has here termed "Graeculi famelici," is +surely reprehensible. But for their labours, Britain might never have +required an editor of Theocritus. + +In 1760, he contributed to the Biographia Britannica a Life of Sir +Thomas Pope, twice, subsequently published, in a separate form, with +considerable enlargements: in the two following years he wrote a Life of +Dr. Bathurst, and in his capacity of Poetry Professor, composed Verses +on the Death of George II., the Marriage of his Successor, and the Birth +of the Heir Apparent, which, together with his Complaint of Cherwell, +made a part of the Oxford Collections. Several of his humorous pieces +were soon after (in 1764) published in the Oxford Sausage, the preface +to which he also wrote; and in 1766, he edited the Greek Anthology of +Cephalas. In 1767, he took the degree of Bachelor in Divinity; and in +1771, was chosen a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society; and on the +nomination of the Earl of Lichfield, Chancellor of the University, was +collated to the Rectory of Kiddington, Oxfordshire, a benefice of small +value. Ten years after, he drew up a History of his Parish, and +published it as a specimen of a Parochial History of Oxfordshire. +Meanwhile, he was engaged in an undertaking, of higher interest to the +national antiquities and literature. + +In illustrating the origin, and tracing the progress of our vernacular +poetry, we had not kept pace with the industry of our continental +neighbours. To supply this deficiency, a work had been projected by +Pope, and was now contemplated, and indeed entered on, by Gray and +Mason, in conjunction. We cannot but regret, that Gray relinquished the +undertaking, as he did, on hearing into whose hands it had fallen, since +he would (as the late publication of his papers by Mr. Mathias has +shewn) have brought to the task a more accurate and extensive +acquaintance with those foreign sources from whence our early writers +derived much of their learning, and would, probably, have adopted a +better method, and more precision in the general disposition of his +materials. Yet there is no reason to complain of the way in which Warton +has acquitted himself, as far as he has gone. His History of English +Poetry is a rich mine, in which, if we have some trouble in separating +the ore from the dross, there is much precious metal to reward our +pains. The first volume of this laborious work was published in 1774; +two others followed, in 1778, and in 1781; and some progress had been +made at his decease in printing the fourth. In 1777, he increased the +poetical treasure of his country by a volume of his own poems, of which +there was a demand for three other editions before his death. In 1782, +we find him presented by his college to the donative of Hill Farrance, +in Somersetshire, and employed in publishing an Inquiry into the +Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, and Verses on Sir +Joshua Reynolds's painted window at New College: about the same time, +probably, he was chosen a member of the Literary Club. + +In 1785, he edited Milton's minor poems, with very copious +illustrations; and in the year following, was elected to the Camden +Professorship of History, and was appointed to succeed Whitehead, as +Poet Laureate. In his inaugural speech as Camden Professor, subjoined to +the edition of his poetical works by Dr. Mant, he has shewn that the +public duties required at the first foundation of the Professorship, +owing to the improvement in the course of academical studies, are +rendered no longer necessary. From one who had already voluntarily done +so much, it would have been ungracious to exact the performance of +public labours not indispensably requisite. In the discharge of his +function as Laureate, he still continued, as he had long ago professed +himself to be,-- + + Too free in servile courtly phrase to fawn; + +and had the wish been gratified,--expressed by himself before his +appointment, or by Gibbon after it,--that the annual tribute might be +dispensed with, we should have lost some of his best lyric effusions. + +Till his sixty-second year, he had experienced no interruption to a +vigorous state of health. Then a seizure of the gout compelled him to +seek relief from the use of the Bath waters; and he returned from that +place to college, with the hope of a recovery from his complaint. But on +the 20th of May, 1790, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, as he +was sitting in the common room with two of the college fellows, and in +higher spirits than usual, a paralytic affection deprived him of his +speech. Some indistinct sounds only, in which it was thought the name of +his friend, Mr. Price, the librarian of the Bodleian, was heard, escaped +him, and he expired on the day but one after. His funeral was honoured +by the attendance of the Vice-Chancellor, and a numerous train of +followers, to the ante-chapel of his college, where he is interred, with +a very plain inscription to his memory. + +His person was short and thick, though in the earlier part of his life +he had been thought handsome. His face, latterly, became somewhat +rubicund, and his utterance so confused, that Johnson compared it to the +gobbling of a turkey. The portrait of him by Reynolds, besides the +resemblance of the features, is particularly characterized by the manner +in which the hand is drawn, so as to give it a great air of truth. He +was negligent in his dress; and so little studious of appearances, that +having despatched his labours, while others were yet in bed, he might +have been found, at the usual hours of study, loitering on the banks of +his beloved Cherwell, or in the streets, following the drum and fife, a +sound which was known to have irresistible attraction for his ears,--a +spectator at a military parade, or even one amongst a crowd at a public +execution. He retained to old age the amiable simplicity and +unsuspecting frankness of boyhood: his affection for his brother, to +whose society at Winchester he latterly retired from college, during the +vacations in summer, does not seem ever to have suffered any abatement; +and his manners were tranquil and unassuming. The same amenity and +candour of disposition, which marked him in private life, pervade his +writings, except on some few occasions, when his mind is too much under +the influence of party feelings. This bias inclined him, not only to +treat the character of Milton with a most undue asperity, but even to +extenuate the atrocities committed under the government of Mary, and +somewhat to depreciate the worth of those divines, whose attachment to +the reformed religion led them to suffer death in her reign. + +The writer of this paper has been told by an Italian, who was acquainted +with Warton, that his favourite book in the Italian language (of which +his knowledge was far from exact) was the Gerusalemme Liberata. Both the +stately phrase, and the theme of that poem, were well suited to him. + +Among the poets of the second class, he deserves a distinguished place. +He is almost equally pleasing in his gayer, and in his more exalted +moods. His mirth is without malice or indecency, and his seriousness +without gloom. + +In his lyrical pieces, if we seek in vain for the variety and music of +Dryden, the tender and moral sublime of Gray, or the enthusiasm of +Collins, yet we recognize an attention ever awake to the appearances of +nature, and a mind stored with the images of classical and Gothic +antiquity. Though his diction is rugged, it is like the cup in Pindar, +which Telamon stretches out to Alcides, [Greek: chruso pephrkuan], rough +with gold, and embost with curious imagery. A lover of the ancients +would, perhaps, be offended, if the birth-day ode, beginning + + Within what fountain's craggy cell + Delights the goddess Health to dwell? + +were compared, as to its subject, with that of the Theban bard, on the +illness of Hiero, which opens with a wish that Chiron were yet living, +in order that the poet might consult him on the case of the Syracusan +monarch; and in its form, with that in which he asks of his native city, +in whom of all her heroes she most delighted. + +Among the odes, some of which might more properly be termed idylliums, +The Hamlet is of uncommon beauty; the landscape is truly English, and +has the truth and tenderness of Gainsborough's pencil. Those To a Friend +on his leaving a Village in Hampshire, and the First of April, are +entitled to similar praise. The Crusade, The Grave of King Arthur, and +most of the odes composed for the court, are in a higher strain. In the +Ode written at Vale Royal Abbey, is a striking image, borrowed from some +lent verses, written by Archbishop Markham, and printed in the second +volume of that collection. + + High o'er the trackless heath, at midnight seen, + No more the windows ranged in long array + (Where the tall shaft and fretted arch between + Thick ivy twines) the taper'd rites betray. + + _Prodidit areanas arcta fenestra faces_. + +His sonnets have been highly and deservedly commended by no less +competent a judge than Mr. Coleridge. They are alone sufficient to prove +(if any proof were wanting) that this form of composition is not +unsuited to our language. One of our longest, as it is one of our most +beautiful poems, the Faerie Queene, is written in a stanza which demands +the continual recurrence of an equal number of rhymes; and the chief +objection to our adopting the sonnet is the paucity of our rhymes. + +The lines to Sir Joshua Reynolds are marked by the happy turn of the +compliment, and by the strength and harmony of the versification, at +least as far as the formal couplet measure will admit of those +qualities. They need not fear a comparison with the verses addressed by +Dryden to Kneller, or by Pope to Jervas. + +His Latin compositions are nearly as excellent as his English. The few +hendecasyllables he has left, have more of the vigour of Catullus than +those by Flaminio; but Flaminio excels him in delicacy. The Mons +Catharinae contains nearly the same images as Gray's Ode on a Prospect +of Eton College. In the word "cedrinae," which occurs in the verses on +Trinity College Chapel, he has, we believe, erroneously made the +penultimate long. Dr. Mant has observed another mistake in his use of +the word "Tempe" as a feminine noun, in the lines translated from +Akenside. When in his sports with his brother's scholars at Winchester +he made their exercises for them, he used to ask the boy how many faults +he would have:--one such would have been sufficient for a lad near the +head of the school. + +His style in prose, though marked by a character of magnificence, is at +times stiff and encumbered. He is too fond of alliteration in prose as +well as in verse; and the cadence of his sentences is too evidently +laboured. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] There is a little memoir of James St. Amand, in the preface, that + will interest some readers. He was of Lincoln College, Oxford, about + 1705, where he had scarcely remained a year, before his ardour for + Greek literature induced him to visit Italy, chiefly with a view of + searching MSS. that might serve for an edition of Theocritus. In + Italy, before he had reached his twentieth year, he was well known + to the learned world, and had engaged the esteem of many eminent + men; among others, of Vincenzo Gravina, Niccolo Valletto, Fontanini, + Quirino, Anton Maria Salvini, and Henry Newton, the English + Ambassador to the Duke of Tuscany. Their letters to him are + preserved in the Bodleian. By his researches into the MSS. of + Italian libraries, he assisted his learned friends, Kuster, Le + Clerc, Potter, Hudson, and Kennet, and other literary characters of + that time, in their several pursuits. He then returned to England by + way of Geneva and Paris, well laden with treasures derived from the + foreign libraries, all which, with a large collection of valuable + books, he bequeathed to the Bodleian. He died about 1750. He + desisted from his intention of publishing Theocritus, either from + ill health, or weariness of his work, or some fear about its + success. His preparations for this edition, together with some notes + on Pindar (an edition of which he also meditated), Aristophanes, the + Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, Demosthenes, and others, remain + in the Bodleian. + Dr. Shaw, in his edition of Apollonius Rhodius, has since made use + of his notes on that poet, and pays a tribute to his critical + abilities in the preface. +[2] Warton's distinction between them is well imagined. + "Sinillis est Theocritus amplo cuidam pascuo per se satis foecundo, + herbis pluribus frugiferis floribusque pulchris abundanti, dulcibus + etiam fluviis uvido: similis Virgilius horto distincto nitentibus + areolis; ubi larga floruni copia, sed qui studiose dispositi, + curaque meliore nutriti, atque exculti diligenter, olim hue a pascuo + illo majore transferebantur." + + + * * * * * + + +JOSEPH WARTON. + +The Memoirs of Joseph Warton, by Dr. Wooll, the present Head-master of +Rugby school, is a book which, although it contains a faithful +representation of his life and character by one who had been his pupil, +and though it is enriched with a collection of letters between some of +the men most distinguished in literature during his time, is yet so much +less known than it deserves, that in speaking of it to Mr. Hayley, who +had been intimate with Warton, and to whom some of the letters are +addressed, I found him ignorant of its contents. It will supply me with +much of what I have to relate concerning the subject of it. + +There is no instance in this country of two brothers having been equally +celebrated for their skill in poetry with Joseph and Thomas Warton. What +has been already told of the parentage of the one renders it unnecessary +to say more in this respect of the other. He was born at Dunsfold, in +Surrey, under the roof of his maternal grandfather, in the beginning of +1722. Like his brother, he experienced the care of an affectionate +parent, who did the utmost his scanty means would allow to educate them +both as scholars; but with this difference, that Joseph being three-and +-twenty years old at the time of Mr. Warton's decease, whereas Thomas was +but seventeen, was more capable of appreciating, as it deserved, the +tenderness of such a father. To what has been before said of this +estimable man, I have to add, that his poems, of which I had once a +cursory view, appeared to me to merit more notice than they have +obtained; and that his version of Fracastorio's pathetic lamentation on +the death of his two sons particularly engaged my attention. Suavis adeo +poeta ac doctus, is the testimony borne to him by one[1] who will +himself have higher claims of the same kind on posterity. + +Having been some time at New College school, but principally taught by +his father till he was fourteen years old, Joseph was then admitted on +the foundation of Winchester, under Dr. Sandby. Here, together with two +of his school-fellows, of whom Collins was one, he became a contributor +to the Gentleman's Magazine. Johnson, who then assisted in editing that +miscellany, had sagacity enough to distinguish, from the rest, a few +lines that were sent by Collins, which, though not remarkable for +excellence, ought now to take their place among his other poems. + +In 1740, Warton being superannuated at Winchester, was entered of Oriel +College, Oxford; and taking his bachelor's degree, in 1744, was ordained +to his father's curacy at Basingstoke. Having lost his father about a +year after, he removed to the curacy of Chelsea, in February, 1746. Near +this time, I suppose a letter, that is without date of time or place, to +have been written to his brother. As it informs us of some particulars +relating to Collins, of whom it is to be wished that more were known, I +am tempted to transcribe it. + + Dear Tom,--You will wonder to see my name in an advertisement next + week, so I thought I would apprize you of it. The case was this. + Collins met me in Surrey, at Guildford races, when I wrote out for him + my Odes, and he likewise communicated some of his to me: and being + both in very high spirits, we took courage, resolved to join our + forces, and to publish them immediately. I flatter myself, that I + shall lose no honour by this publication, because I believe these + Odes, as they now stand, are infinitely the best things I ever wrote. + You will see a very pretty one of Collins's, on the Death of Colonel + Ross before Tournay. It is addressed to a lady who was Ross's intimate + acquaintance, and who, by the way, is Miss Bett Goddard. Collins is + not to publish the Odes unless he gets ten guineas for them. + + I returned from Milford last night, where I left Collins with my + mother and sister, and he sets out to-day for London. I must now tell + you, that I have sent him your imitation of Horace's Blandusian + Fountain, to be printed amongst ours, and which you shall own or not + as you think proper. I would not have done this without your consent, + but because I think it very poetically and correctly done, and will + get you honour. + + * * * * * + + You will let me know what the Oxford critics say. Adieu, dear Tom. + + I am your most affectionate brother, + + J. WARTON. + +On this Dr. Wooll founds a conjecture, that Warton published a volume +of poems conjointly with his brother and Collins; but adds, that after a +diligent search he had not been able to discover it. I think it more +likely that the design was abandoned. However this may be, it is certain +that he himself published a volume of Odes in 1746, of which, as I learn +from a note to the present Bishop of Killaloe's verses to his memory, a +second edition appeared in the following year. To complete his recovery +from the small-pox, which he had taken at Chelsea, he went, in May 1746, +to Chobham; and then, after officiating for a few months at Chawton and +Droxford, returned to his first curacy of Basingstoke. In the next year +he was presented by the Duke of Bolton to the rectory of Wynslade, by +which preferment he was enabled immediately to marry a young lady in +that neighbourhood, of the name of Daman, to whom he had been long +attached. Of the country adjacent to Wynslade, Thomas Warton has given a +very pleasing description in one of his sonnets, and in an "Ode sent to +a friend, on his leaving a favourite village in Hampshire." Both were +written on the occasion of his brother's absence, who had gone in the +train of the Duke of Bolton to France. One motive, on which he went, +would not now be thought quite creditable to a clergyman. It was that he +might be at hand to join the Duke in marriage to his mistress, as soon +as the Duchess, who was far gone in a dropsy, should be no more. Warton +set out reluctantly, but with the hope that he might benefit his family +by compliance. He had not been away five months, when the impatience for +home came on him so strongly, that he quitted Montauban, where the Duke +was residing, and made his way towards England by such conveyances as he +could meet with; at one time in a courier's cart; at another, in the +company of carriers who were travelling in Britanny. Thus he scrambled +on to Bourdeaux, and till he reached St. Malo's, where he took ship and +landed at Southampton. When he had been returned a month the Duchess +died. He then asked permission to go back, and perform the marriage +ceremony; but the chaplain of the embassy at Turin was already on his +way for that purpose. + +He was now once more at Wynslade, restored to a domestic life, and the +uninterrupted pursuit of his studies. Before going abroad, he had +published (in 1749) his Ode on West's translation of Pindar; and after +his return, employed himself in writing papers, chiefly on subjects of +criticism, for the Adventurer, and in preparing for the press an edition +of Virgil, which (in 1753) he published, together with Pitt's +translation of the Aeneid, his own of the Eclogues and Georgies, his +notes on the whole, and several essays. The book has been found useful +for schools; and was thought at the time to do him so much credit, that +it obtained for him the degree of Master of Arts by diploma from the +University of Oxford, and no doubt was instrumental in recommending him +to the place of second master of Winchester School, to which he was +appointed in 1755. In the meantime he had been presented by the Jervoise +family to the rectory of Tunworth, and resided for a short time at that +place. + +In 1756, appeared the first volume of his Essay on the genius and +writings of Pope, dedicated to Young. The name of the author was to have +been concealed, but he does not seem to have kept his own secret very +carefully, for it was immediately spoken of as his by Akenside, Johnson, +and Dr. Birch. The second volume did not follow till after an interval +of twenty-six years. The information contained in this essay, which is +better known than his other writings, is such as the recollection of a +scholar, conversant in polite literature, might easily have supplied. He +does not, like his brother, ransack the stores of antiquity for what has +been forgotten, but deserves to be recalled; nor, like Hurd, exercise, +on common materials, a refinement that gives the air of novelty to that +with which we have been long familiar. He relaxes, as Johnson said of +him, the brow of criticism into a smile. Though no longer in his desk +and gown, he is still the benevolent and condescending instructor of +youth; a writer, more capable of amusing and tempting onwards, by some +pleasant anticipations, one who is a novice in letters, than of +satisfying the demands of those already initiated. He deserves some +praise for having been one of the first who attempted to moderate the +extravagant admiration for Pope, whom he considered as the poet of +reason rather than of fancy; and to disengage us from the trammels of +the French school. Some of those who followed have ventured much +further, with success; but it was something to have broken the ice. I do +not know that he published anything else while he remained at +Winchester, except[2] an edition of Sir Philip Sydney's Defence of +Poesy, and Observations on Eloquence and Poetry from the Discoveries of +Ben Jonson, in 1787. His literary exertions, and the attention he paid +to the duties of his school, did not go unrewarded. In 1766 he was +advanced to the Head-mastership of Winchester, and took his two degrees +in divinity; in 1782, Bishop Lowth gave him a prebend of St. Paul's, and +the rectory of Chorley, which he was allowed to exchange for Wickham, in +Hants. In 1788, through the intervention of Lord Shannon with Mr. Pitt, +he obtained a prebend of Winchester; and soon after, at the solicitation +of Lord Malmesbury, was presented by the Bishop of that diocese to the +rectory of Easton, which, in the course of a twelve-month, he exchanged +for Upham. + +In his domestic relations, he enjoyed as much happiness as prudence and +affection could ensure him, but not unembittered by those disastrous +accidents to which every father of a family is exposed. Some years after +his marriage (1763) his letters to his brother discover him struggling +under his anguish for the loss of a favourite daughter, who had died +under inoculation, but striving to conceal his feelings for the sake of +a wife whom he tenderly loved. In 1772, this wife was also taken from +him, leaving him with six children. His second son, Thomas, fellow of +New College, a man on whom the poetic spirit of the Wartons had +descended, was found by him, one day when he returned from the college +prayers, sitting in the chair in which he had left him after dinner, +without life. It was the termination of a disease under which he had +long laboured. This happened in 1786; and before he had space to recover +the blow, in four years after, his brother died. In 1773, he had solaced +himself by a second marriage with Miss Nicholas, the daughter of Robert +Nicholas, Esq. In both his matrimonial connexions, his sister described +him as having been eminently fortunate. + +The latter part of his life was spent in retirement and tranquillity. In +1793, he resigned the mastership of Winchester, and settled himself on +his living of Wickham. He had intended to finish his brother's History +of English Poetry, which wanted another volume to complete it; and might +now have found time enough to accomplish the task. But an obstacle +presented itself, by which it is likely that he was discouraged from +proceeding. The description given by Daniel Prince, a respectable old +bookseller at Oxford, of the state in which his brother's rooms were +found at his decease, and of the fate that befell his manuscripts and +his property, may be edifying to some future fellow of a college, who +shall employ himself in similar pursuits.[3] "Poor Thomas Warton's +papers were in a sad litter, and his brother Joe has made matters worse +by confusedly cramming all together, sending them to Winchester, &c. Mr. +Warton could not give so much as his old clothes; his very shoes, +stockings, and wigs, laid about in abundance. Where could his money go? +It must lay in paper among his papers, or be laid in a book; he could +not, nor did not spend it; and his brother, on that score, is greatly +disappointed." + +A republication of Pope's works, with notes, offered him an easier +occupation than the digesting of those scattered materials for the +History of Poetry which he had thus assisted in disarranging. He was +probably glad to escape from inaction, and set himself to parcel out his +Essay into comments for this edition; which, in 1797, was published in +nine volumes. His indiscretion, in adding to it some of Pope's +productions which had been before excluded, has been most bitterly +censured. That it would have been better to let them remain where they +were can scarcely be questioned. But I should be more willing to regard +the insertion of them as proof of his own simplicity, in suspecting no +harm from what he had himself found to be harmless, than of any design +to communicate injury to others. A long life, passed without blame, and +in the faithful discharge of arduous duties, ought to have secured him +from this misconstruction at its close. After all, the pieces objected +to are such as are more offensive to good manners than dangerous to +morality. There are some other of Pope's writings, more likely to +inflame the passions, which yet no one scruples to read; and Dr. Wooll +has suggested that it was inconsistent to set up the writer as a teacher +of virtue, and in the same breath to condemn his editor as a pander to +vice. + +He bestowed on his censurers no more consideration than they deserved, +and went on to prepare an edition of Dry den for the press. Two volumes, +with his notes, were completed, when his labours were finally broken off +by a painful disease. His malady was an affection of the kidneys, which +continued to harass him for some months, and ended in a fatal paralysis +on the twenty-third of February, 1800, in the seventy-eighth year of his +age. + +He was interred in the cathedral at Winchester, where, by the +contributions of his former scholars, a monument, executed by Mr. +Flaxman, was raised to his memory, of a design so elegant, as the tomb +of a poet has not often been honoured with. It is inscribed with the +following epitaph-- + +H.S.E. +Josephus Warton, S.T.P. +Hujus Ecclesiae +Prebendarius: +Scolae Wintoniensis +Per annos fere triginta +Informator: +Poeta fervidus, facilis, expolitus. +Criticus eruditus, perspicax, elegans: +Obiit XXIII'o. Feb. M.D.CCC. +Aetat. LXXVIII. +Hoc qualecunque +Pietatis monumentum +Praeceptori optimo, +Desideratissimo, +Wiccamici sui +P.C. + +In the frankness of his disposition he appears to have resembled his +brother, but with more liveliness and more love of general society. I +have heard, that in the carelessness of colloquial freedom, he was apt +to commit himself by hasty and undigested observations. As he did not +aim at being very oracular himself, so he was unusually tolerant of +ignorance in others. Of this, a diverting instance is recorded by Dr. +Wooll: meeting in company with a lady who was a kinswoman of Pope's, he +eagerly availed himself of the occasion offered for learning some new +particulars concerning one by whom so much of his time and thoughts had +been engaged. "Pray, Sir," began the lady, "did not you write a book +about my cousin Pope?" "Yes, Madam;" was the reply. "They tell me 'twas +vastly clever. He wrote a great many plays, did not he?" was the next +question. "I never heard but of one attempt, Madam;" said Warton, +beginning perhaps to expect some discovery, when his hopes were suddenly +crushed by an "Oh! no," from the lady, "I beg your pardon, Sir. That was +Mr. Shakspeare. I always confound them." He had the good breeding to +conceal his disappointment, and to take a courteous leave of the +kinswoman of Pope. + +He was regarded with great affection by those whom he had educated. The +opinions of a man so long experienced in the characters of children, and +in the best methods of instruction, are on these subjects entitled to +much notice. "He knew," says his biographer and pupil, "that the human +mind developed itself progressively, but not always in the same +consistent degrees, or at periods uniformly similar." He conjectured, +therefore, that the most probable method of ensuring some valuable +improvement to the generality of boys was not to exact what the +generality are incapable of performing. As a remedy for inaccurate +construction, arising either from apparent idleness or inability, he +highly approved, and sedulously imposed, translation. Modesty, timidity, +or many other constitutional impediments, may prevent a boy from +displaying before his master, and in the front of his class, those +talents of which privacy, and a relief from these embarrassments, will +often give proof. These sentiments were confirmed by that most +infallible test, experience; as he declared (within a few years of his +death) that "the best scholars he had sent into the world were those +whom, whilst second master, he had thus habituated to translation, and +given a capacity of comparing and associating the idiom of the dead +languages with their own." + +It is pleasant to observe the impression which men, who have engrossed +to themselves the attention of posterity, have made on one another, when +chance has brought them together. Of Mason, whom he fell in with at +York, he tells his brother, that "he is the most easy, best natured, +agreeable man he ever met with." In the next year, he met with +Goldsmith, and observed of him, "that of all solemn coxcombs, he was the +first, yet sensible; and that he affected to use Johnson's hard words in +conversation." + +Soon after the first volume of his Essay on Pope had been published, +Lyttleton, then newly raised to the peerage, gave him his scarf, and +submitted some of his writings, before they were printed, to his +inspection. + +Harris, the author of Hermes, and Lowth, were others in whose friendship +he might justly have prided himself. + +He was one of the few that did not shrink from a collision with Johnson; +who could so ill endure a shock of this kind, that on one occasion he +cried out impatiently, "Sir, I am not used to contradiction." + +"It would be better for yourself and your friends, Sir, if you were;" +was the natural retort. Their common friends interfered, to prevent a +ruder altercation. + +Like Johnson, he delighted in London, where he regularly indulged +himself by passing the holidays at Christmas. His fondness for +everything relating to a military life was a propensity that he shared +with his brother; and while the one might have been seen following a +drum and fife at Oxford, the other, by the sprightliness of his +conversation, had drawn a circle of red coats about him at the St. +James's Coffee House, where he frequently breakfasted. Both of them were +members of the Literary Club, set on foot by Sir Joshua Reynolds. + +This gaiety of temper did not hinder him from discharging his clerical +office in a becoming manner. "His style of preaching," we are told by +Mr. Wooll, "was unaffectedly earnest and impressive; and the dignified +solemnity with which he read the Liturgy, particularly the Communion +Service, was remarkably awful." + +His reputation as a critic and a scholar has preserved his poetry from +neglect. Of his Odes, that to Fancy, written when he was very young, is +one that least disappoints us by a want of poetic feeling. Yet if we +compare it with that by Collins, on the Poetical Character, we shall see +of how much higher beauty the same subject was capable. In the Ode to +Evening, he has again tried his strength with Collins. There are some +images of rural life in it that have the appearance of being drawn from +nature, and which therefore please. + + Hail, meek-eyed maiden, clad in sober grey, +Whose soft approach the weary woodman loves, +As homeward bent to kiss his prattling babes, +He jocund whistles through the twilight groves. + * * * * * + * * * * * +To the deep wood the clamorous rooks repair, +Light skims the swallow o'er the watery scene, +And from the sheep-cotes, and fresh-furrow'd field, +Stout ploughmen meet to wrestle on the green. + +The swain that artless sings on yonder rock, +His nibbling sheep and lengthening shadow spies; +Pleased with the cool, the calm, refreshful hour, +And the hoarse hummings of unnumber'd flies. + +But these pretty stanzas are interrupted by the mention of Phoebus, the +Dryads, old Sylvan, and Pan. The Ode to Content is in the same metre as +his school-fellow's Ode to Evening; but in the numbers, it is very +inferior both to that and to Mrs. Barbauld's Ode to Spring. + +In his Dying Indian, he has produced a few lines of extraordinary force +and pathos. The rest of his poems, in blank verse, are for the most part +of an indifferent structure. + +In his Translations from Virgil, he will probably be found to excel +Dryden as much in correctness, as he falls short of him in animation and +harmony. + +When his Odes were first published, Gray perceived the author to be +devoid of invention, but praised him for a very poetical choice of +expression, and for a good ear, and even thus perhaps a little over-rated +his powers. But our lyric poetry was not then what it has since +been made by Gray himself, the younger Warton, Mason, Russell, and one +or two writers now living. + +If he had enjoyed more leisure, it is probable that he might have +written better; for he was solicitous not to lose any distinction to be +acquired by his poetry; and took care to reclaim a copy of humorous +verses, entitled, an Epistle from Thomas Hearne, which had been +attributed by mistake to his brother, among whose poems it is still +printed. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] Mr. Crowe, in one of his Crewian Orations. +[2] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix. +[3] Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix. + + + * * * * * + + +CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY. + +An account of Christopher Anstey, written by his second son, is prefixed +to the handsome edition of his works, printed at London, in 1808. He was +born on the thirty-first of October, 1724, and was the son of Doctor +Anstey, rector of Brinkley, in Cambridgeshire, a living in the gift of +St. John's College, Cambridge; of which the Doctor had formerly been +fellow and tutor. His mother was Mary, daughter of Anthony Thompson, +Esq. of Trumpington, in the same county. They had no offspring but our +poet, and a daughter born some years before him. + +His father was afflicted with a total deafness for so considerable a +portion of his life, as never to have heard the sound of his son's +voice; and was thus rendered incapable of communicating to him that +instruction which he might otherwise have derived from a parent endowed +with remarkable acuteness of understanding. He was, therefore, sent very +early to school at Bury St. Edmunds. Here he continued, under the +tuition of the Rev. Arthur Kinsman, till he was removed to Eton; on the +foundation of which school he was afterwards placed. + +His studies having been completed with great credit to himself, under +Doctor George, the head-master of Eton, in the year 1742 he succeeded to +a scholarship of King's College, Cambridge, where his classical +attainments were not neglected. He was admitted in 1745 to a fellowship +of his college; and, in the next year, he took his degree of Bachelor of +Arts. He now resided chiefly in the University, where his resistance to +an innovation, attempted to be introduced into King's College, involved +him in a dispute which occasioned the degree of Master to be refused +him. That College had immemorially asserted for its members an exemption +from the performance of those public exercises demanded of the rest of +the University as a qualification for their degrees. This right was now +questioned; and it was required of the Bachelor Fellows of King's, that +they should compose and pronounce a Latin oration in the public schools. +Such an infringement of privilege was not to be tamely endured. After +some opposition made by Anstey, in common with the other junior Fellows, +the exercise in dispute was at lenth exacted. But Anstey, who was the +senior Bachelor of the year, and to whose lot it therefore fell first to +deliver this obnoxious declamation, contrived to frame it in such a +manner, as to cast a ridicule on the whole proceeding. He was +accordingly interrupted in the recitation of it, and ordered to compose +another; in which, at the same time that he pretended to exculpate +himself from his former offence, he continued in the same vein of +raillery. Though his degree was withheld in consequence of this +pertinacity, yet it produced the desired effect of maintaining for the +College its former freedom. + +While an under-graduate, he had distinguished himself by his Latin +verses, called the Tripos Verses; and, in 1748, by a poem, in the same +language, on the Peace; printed in the Cambridge Collection. + +His quarrel with the senior part of the University did not deprive him +of his fellowship. He was still occasionally an inmate of the College, +and did not cease to be a Fellow, till he came into the possession of +the family estate at his mother's death, in 1754. + +In two years after he married Anne, third daughter of Felix Calvert, +Esq. of Albury-Hall, in Hertfordshire, and the sister of John Calvert, +Esq. one of his most intimate friends, who was returned to that and many +successive Parliaments, for the borough of Hertford. "By this most +excellent lady," says his biographer, with the amiable warmth of filial +tenderness, "who was allowed to possess every endowment of person, and +qualification of mind and disposition which could render her interesting +and attractive in domestic life, and whom he justly regarded as the +pattern of every virtue, and the source of all his happiness, he lived +in uninterrupted and undiminished esteem and affection for nearly half a +century; and by her (who for the happiness of her family is still +living) he had thirteen children, of whom eight only survive him." + +This long period is little checquered with events. Having no taste for +public business, and his circumstances being easy and independent, he +passed the first fourteen years at his seat in Cambridgeshire, in an +alternation of study and the recreations of rural life, in which he took +much pleasure. But, at the end of that time, the loss of his sister gave +a shock to his spirits, which they did not speedily recover. That she +was a lady of superior talents is probable, from her having been +admitted to a friendship and correspondence with Mrs. Montague, then +Miss Robinson. The effect which this deprivation produced on him was +such as to hasten the approach, and perhaps to aggravate the violence, +of a bilious fever, for the cure of which by Doctor Heberden's advice, +he visited Bath, and by the use of those waters was gradually restored +to health. + +In 1766 he published his Bath Guide, from the press of Cambridge; a +poem, which aiming at the popular follies of the day, and being written +in a very lively and uncommon style, rapidly made its way to the favour +of the public. At its first appearance, Gray, who was not easily +pleased, in a letter to one of his friends observed, that it was the +only thing in fashion, and that it was a new and original kind of +humour. Soon after the publication of the second edition, he sold the +copy-right for two hundred pounds to Dodsley, and gave the profits +previously accruing from the work to the General Hospital at Bath. +Dodsley, about ten years after his purchase, candidly owned that the +sale had been more productive to him than that of any other book in +which he had before been concerned; and with much liberality restored +the copy-right to the author. + +In 1767 he wrote a short Elegy on the Death of the Marquis of Tavistock; +and the Patriot, a Pindaric Epistle, intended to bring into discredit +the practice of prize-fighting. + +Not long after he was called to serve the office of high-sheriff for the +county of Cambridge. In 1770 he quitted his seat there for a house which +he purchased in Bath. The greater convenience of obtaining instruction +for a numerous family, the education of which had hitherto been +superintended by himself, was one of the motives that induced him to +this change of habitation. + +The Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers appearing soon after his +arrival at Bath, and being by many imputed to a writer who had lately so +much distinguished himself by his talent for satire, he was at +considerable pains to disavow that publication; and by some lines +containing a deserved compliment to his sovereign, gave a sufficient +pledge for the honesty of his disclaimer. + +In 1776, a poem entitled An Election Ball, founded on a theme proposed +by Lady Miller, who held a sort of little poetical court at her villa at +Batheaston, did not disappoint the expectations formed of the author of +the Bath Guide. It was at first written in the Somersetshire dialect, +but was afterwards judiciously stripped of its provincialism. + +About 1786 he entertained a design of collecting his poems, and +publishing them together. But the painful recollections which this task +awakened, of those friends and companions of his youth who had been +separated from him by death during so long a period, made him relinquish +his intention. He committed, however, to the press, translations of some +of Gay's Fables, which had been made into Latin, chiefly with a view to +the improvement of his children; an Alcaic Ode to Doctor Jenner, on the +discovery of the Cowpock; and several short poems in his own language. +"His increasing years," to use the words of his son, "stole +inperceptibly on the even tenor of his life, and gradually lessened the +distance of his journey through it, without obscuring the serenity of +the prospect. Unimpeded by sickness, and unclouded by sorrow, or any +serious misfortune, his life was a life of temperance, of self-denial, +and of moderation, in all things; and of great regularity. He rose early +in the morning, _ante diem poscens chartas_, and was constant on +horseback at his usual hour, and in all seasons. His summers were +uniformly passed at Cheltenham, with his family, during the latter part +of his life; and upon his return to Bath in the autumn, he fell +habitually into the same unruffled scenes of domestic ease and +tranquillity, rendered every day more joyous and interesting to him by +the increase of his family circle, and the enlargement of his hospitable +table; and by many circumstances and occurrences connected with the +welfare of his children, which gave him infinite delight and +satisfaction." + +At the beginning of 1805, he experienced a sudden and general failure of +his bodily faculties, and a correspondent depressure of mind. The little +confidence he placed in the power of medicine made him reluctantly +comply with the wishes of his friends, that he should take the opinion +of Doctor Haygarth. Yet he was not without hope of alleviation to his +complaints from change of air; and, therefore, removed from Bath to the +house of his son-in-law, Mr. Bosanquet, in Wiltshire. Here having at +first revived a little, he soon relapsed, and declining gradually, +expired in the eighty-first year of his age, without apparent suffering, +in the possession of his intellectual powers, and, according to the +tender wish of Pindar for one of his patrons-- + +[Greek: huion, psaumi, paristamenon,] + +in the midst of his children. + +He was buried in the parish church of Walcot, in the city of Bath, in +the same vault with his fourth daughter the wife of Rear-Admiral +Sotheby, and her two infant children. + +A cenotaph has been erected to his memory among the poets of his country +in Westminster Abbey, by his eldest son, the Rev. Christopher Anstey, +with the following inscription:-- + +M.S. +Christopheri Anstey, Arm. +Alumni Etonensis, +Et Collegii Regalis apud Cantabrigienses olim Socii, +Poetae, +Literis elegantioribus adprime ornati, +Et inter principes Poetarum, +Qui in eodem genere floruerunt, +Sedem eximiam tenentis. +Ille annum circiter +MDCCLXX. +Rus suum in agro Cantabrigiensi +Mutavit Bathonia, +Quem locum ei praeter omne dudum arrisisse +Testis est, celeberrimum illud Poema, +Titulo inde ducto insignitum: +Ibi deinceps sex et triginta annos commoratus, +Obiit A.D. MDCCCV. +Et aetatis suae +Octogesimo primo. + +To this there is an encomium added, which its prolixity hinders me from +inserting. + +A painter and a poet were, perhaps, never more similar to each other in +their talents than the contemporaries Bunbury and Anstey. There is in +both an admirable power of seizing the ludicrous and the grotesque in +their descriptions of persons and incidents in familiar life; and this +accompanied by an elegance which might have seemed scarcely compatible +with that power. There is in both an absence of any extraordinary +elevation or vigour; which we do not regret, because we can hardly +conceive but that they would be less pleasing if they were in any +respect different from what they are. Each possesses a perfect facility +and command over his own peculiar manner, which has secured him from +having any successful imitator. Yet as they were both employed in +representing the fortuitous and transient follies, which the face of +society had put on in their own day, rather than in portraying the +broader and more permanent distinctions of character and manners, it may +be questioned whether they can be much relished out of their own +country, and whether even there, the effect must not be weakened as +fatuity and absurdity shall discover new methods of fastening ridicule +upon themselves. They border more nearly on farce than comedy. They have +neither of them any thing of fancy, that power which can give a new and +higher interest to the laughable itself, by mingling it with the +marvellous, and which has placed Aristophanes so far above all his +followers. + +When Anstey ventures out of his own walk, he does not succeed so well. +It is strange that he should have attempted a paraphrase of St. Paul's +eulogium on Charity, after the same task had been so ably executed by +Prior. If there is anything, however, that will bear repetition, in a +variety of forms, it is that passage of scripture; and his verses though +not equal to Prior's, may still be read with pleasure. + +The Farmer's Daughter is a plain and affecting tale. + +His Latin verses might well have been spared. In the translation of +Gray's Elegy there is a more than usual crampness; occasioned, perhaps, +by his having rendered into hexameters the stanzas of four lines, to +which the elegiac measure of the Romans would have been better suited. +The Epistola Poetica Familiaris, addressed to his friend Mr. Bamfylde, +has more freedom. His scholarship did him better service when it +suggested to him passages in the poets of antiquity, which he has +parodied with singular happiness. Such is that imitated in one of +Simkin's Letters: + + Do the gods such a noble ambition inspire? + Or a god do we make of each ardent desire? + +from Virgil's + + Dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt, + Euryale? an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido? + +a parody that is not the less diverting, from its having been before +gravely made by Tasso: + + O dio l'inspira, + O l'uom del suo voler suo dio si face. + +On the whole, he has the rare merit of having discovered a mode of +entertaining his readers, which belongs exclusively to himself. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM MASON. + +It is to be regretted that no one of Mason's friends has thought fit to +pay the same tribute of respect to his memory, which he had himself paid +to that of his two poetical friends, Gray and Whitehead. In this dearth +of authentic biography, we must be contented with such information +concerning him, as either his own writings, or the incidental mention +made of him by others, will furnish. + +William Mason was born on the 23rd of February, 1725, at Hull, where his +father, who was vicar of St. Trinity, resided. Whether he had any other +preceptor in boyhood, except his parent, is not known. + +That this parent was a man of no common attainments, appears from a poem +which his son addressed to him when he had attained his twenty-first +year, and in which he acknowledged with gratitude the instructions he +had received from him in the arts of painting, poetry, and music. In +1742, he was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge; and there, in +1744, the year in which Pope died, he wrote Musaeus, a monody on that +poet; and Il Bellicoso and Il Pacifico, a very juvenile imitation, as he +properly calls it, of the Allegro and Penseroso. In 1745, he took his +degree of Bachelor of Arts; and in the ensuing year, with a heavy heart, +and with some fear lest he should grow old 'in northern clime,' bade +farewell to Granta in an Ode, which commemorates the virtues of his +tutor, Dr. Powell. He soon, however, returned; by his father's +permission visited London; and removing from St. John's College to +Pembroke Hall, was unexpectedly nominated Fellow of that society in +1747, when by the advice of Dr. Powell, he published Musaeus. His fourth +Ode expresses his delight at the prospect of being restored to the banks +of the Cam. In a letter to a friend written this year, he boasts that +his poem had already passed through three impressions. At the same time, +he wrote his Ode to a Water Nymph, not without some fancy and elegance, +in which his passion for the new style of gardening first shewed itself; +as his political bias did the year after in Isis, a poem levelled +against the supposed Toryism of Oxford, and chiefly valuable for having +called forth the Triumph of Isis, by Thomas Warton. To this he prefixed +an advertisement, declaring that it would never have appeared in print, +had not an interpolated copy, published in a country newspaper, +scandalously misrepresented the principles of the author. Now commenced +his intimacy with Gray, who was rather more than eight years his senior, +a disparity which, at that period of life, is apt to prevent men at +college from uniting very closely. His friend described him to Dr. +Wharton as having much fancy, little judgment, and a good deal of +modesty. "I take him," continued Gray, "for a good and well-meaning +creature; but then he is really in simplicity a child, and loves every +body he meets with: he reads little or nothing, writes abundance, and +that with a design to make his fortune by it." On reviewing this +character of himself twenty-five years after, he confessed, what cannot +be matter of surprise, that this interval had made a considerable +abatement in his general philanthropy; but denied having looked for more +emolument from his publications than a few guineas to take him to a play +or an opera. Gray's next report of him, after a year's farther +acquaintance, is, that he grows apace into his good graces, as he knows +him more; that "he is very ingenious, with great good nature and +simplicity; a little vain, but in so harmless and so comical a way, that +it does not offend one at all; a little ambitious, but withal so +ignorant in the world and its ways, that this does not hurt him in one's +opinion; so sincere and so undisguised, that no mind with a spark of +generosity would ever think of hurting him, he lies so open to injury; +but so indolent, that if he cannot overcome this habit, all his good +qualities will signify nothing at all." At this time, he published an +Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Newcastle, which his friend, who +was a laughing spectator of the ceremony, considers "the only +entertainment that had any tolerable elegance," and thinks it, "with +some little abatements, uncommonly well on such an occasion:" it was, +however, very inferior to that which he himself composed when the Duke +of Grafton was installed. + +His next production (in 1751) was Elfrida, written on the model of the +ancient Greek Tragedy; a delicate exotic, not made to thrive in our +"cold septentrion blasts," and which, when it was long after transferred +to the theatre by Colman, was unable to endure the rough aspect of a +British audience. The poet complained of some trimming and altering that +had been thought requisite by the manager on the occasion; and Colman, +it is said, in return, threatened him with a chorus of Grecian +washerwomen. Matters were no better when Mason himself undertook to +prepare it for the stage. + +In 1752, we find him recommended to Lord Rockingham, by Mr. Charles +Yorke, who thought him, said Warburton, likely to attach that Lord's +liking to him, as he was a young nobleman of elegance, and loved +painting and music. In the following year he lost his father, in the +disposition of whose affairs he was less considered than he thought +himself entitled to expect. What the reason for this partiality was, it +would be vain to conjecture; nor have we any means of knowing whether +the disappointment determined him to the choice of a profession which he +made soon after (in 1754), when he entered into the church. From the +following passage, in a letter of Warburton's, it appears that the step +was not taken without some hesitation. "Mr. Mason has called on me. I +found him yet unresolved whether he would take the living. I said, was +the question about a mere secular employment, I should blame him without +reserve if he refused the offer. But as I regarded going into orders in +another light, I frankly owned to him he ought not to go unless he had a +call; by which I meant, I told him, nothing fanatical or superstitious, +but an inclination, and on that a resolution, to dedicate all his +studies to the science of religion, and totally to abandon his poetry: +he entirely agreed with me in thinking that decency, reputation, and +religion, all required this sacrifice of him, and that if he went into +orders he intended to give it." This was surely an absurd squeamishness +in one of the same profession, as Warburton was, who had begun his +career by translations in prose and verse from Latin writers, had then +mingled in the literary cabals of the day, and afterwards did not think +his time misemployed in editing and commenting on Shakspeare and Pope. +Yet he was unreasonable enough to continue his expectations that Mason +should do what he had, without any apparent compunction, omitted to do +himself; for after speaking of Brown, the unfortunate author of +Barbarossa, who was also an ecclesiastic, he adds: "How much shall I +honour one, who has a stronger propensity to poetry, and has got a +greater name in it, if he performs his promise to me of putting away +these idle baggages after his sacred espousal." After all, this proved +to be one of the vows at which Jove laughs. The sacred espousal did not +lessen his devotion to the idle baggages; and it is very doubtful +whether he discharged his duties as King's Chaplain or Rector of Aston +(for both which appointments he was indebted to the kindness of Lord +Holdernesse) at all the worse for this attachment, which he was indeed +barefaced enough to avow two years after by the publication of some of +his odes. At his Rectory of Aston, in Yorkshire, he continued to live +for great part of his remaining life, with occasional absences in the +metropolis, at Cambridge, or at York, where he was made Precentor and +Canon of the Cathedral, and where his residence was therefore sometimes +required. I have not learnt whether he had any other preferment. Hurd, +in a letter written in 1768, mentions that the death of a Dr. Atwell +threw a good living into his hands. Be this as it might, he was rich +enough, and had an annual income of about fifteen hundred pounds at his +death. Lord Orford says of him somewhere in his letters, that he +intended to have refused a bishopric if it had been offered him. He +might have spared himself the pains of coming to this resolution; for +mitres, "though they fell on many a critic's head," and on that of his +friend Hurd among the rest, did not seem adapted to the brows of a poet. +When the death of Cibber had made the laurel vacant, he was informed +that "being in orders he was thought merely on that account less +eligible for the office than a layman." "A reason," said he, "so +politely put, I was glad to hear assigned; and if I had thought it a +weak one, they who know me will readily believe that I am the last man +in the world who would have attempted to controvert it." Of the laurel, +he probably was not more ambitious than of the mitre; though he was +still so obstinate as to believe that he might unite the characters of a +clerk and a poet, to which he would fain have superadded that of a +statist also. Caractacus, another tragedy on the ancient plan, but which +made a better figure on the stage, appeared in 1759; and in 1762, three +elegies. In 1769, Harris heard him preach at St. James's early prayers, +and give a fling at the French for the invasion of Corsica. Thus +politics, added his hearer, have entered the sanctuary. The sermon is +the sixth in his printed collection. A fling at the French was at all +times a favourite topic with him. In the discourse delivered before +George III on the Sunday preceding his Coronation, he has stretched the +text a little that he may take occasion to descant on the blessings of +civil liberty, and has quoted Montesquieu's opinion of the British +Government. In praising our religious toleration, he is careful to +justify our exception of the church of Rome from the general indulgence. +Nor was it in the pulpit only that he acted the politician. He was one +of those, as we are told in the Biographical Dictionary, who thought the +decision of Parliament on the Middlesex election a violation of the +rights of the people; and when the counties began, in 1779, to associate +for parliamentary reform, he took an active part in assisting their +deliberations, and wrote several patriotic manifestos. In the same year +appeared his Ode to the Naval Officers of Great Britain, on the trial of +Admiral Keppel, in which the poetry is strangled by the politics. His +harp was in better tune, when, in 1782, an Ode to Mr. Pitt declared the +hopes he had conceived of the son of Chatham; for, like many others, who +espoused the cause of freedom, he had ranged himself among the partisans +of the youthful statesman, who was then doing all he could to persuade +others, as he had no doubt persuaded himself, that he was one of the +number. + +In the mean time Gray, who, if he had lived longer, might, perhaps, have +restrained him from mixing in this turmoil, was no more. The office +which he performed of biographer, or rather of editor, for his deceased +friend, has given us one of the most delightful books in its kind that +our language can boast. It is just that this acknowledgment should be +made to Mason, although Mr. Mathias has recently added many others of +Gray's most valuable papers, which his former editor was scarcely +scholar enough to estimate as they deserved; and Mr. Mitford has shewn +us, that some omissions, and perhaps some alterations, were +unnecessarily made by him in the letters themselves. As to the task +which the latter of these gentlemen imposed on himself, few will think +that every passage which he has admitted, though there be nothing in any +to detract from the real worth of Gray, could have been made public +consistently with those sacred feelings of regard for his memory, by +which the mind of Mason was impressed, and that reluctance which he must +have had to conquer, before he resolved on the publication at all. The +following extract from a letter, written by the Rev. Edward Jones, +brings us into the presence of Mason, and almost to an acquaintance with +his thoughts at this time, and on this occasion. "Being at York in +September 1771," (Gray died on the thirtieth of July preceding), "I was +introduced to Mr. Mason, then in residence. On my first visit, he was +sitting in an attitude of much attention to a drawing, pinned up near +the fire-place; and another gentleman, whom I afterwards found to be a +Mr. Varlet, a miniature painter, who has since settled at Bath, had +evidently been in conversation with him about it. My friend begged leave +to ask _whom_ it was intended to represent. Mr. Mason hesitated, and +looked earnestly at Mr. Varlet. I could not resist (though I instantly +felt a wish to have been silent) saying, surely from the strong likeness +it must be the late Mr. Gray. Mr. Mason at once certainly forgave the +intrusion, by asking my opinion as to his fears of having caricatured +his poor friend. The features were certainly softened down, previously +to the engraving."[1]--_Nichols's Literary Anecdotes_, vol. ix. p. 718. + +In the next year, 1772, appeared the first book of the English Garden. +The other three followed separately in 1777, 1779, and 1782. The very +title of this poem was enough to induce a suspicion, that the art which +it taught (if art it can be called) was not founded on general and +permanent principles. It was rather a mode which the taste of the time +and country had rendered prevalent, and which the love of novelty is +already supplanting. In the neighbourhood of those buildings which man +constructs for use or magnificence, there is no reason why he should +prefer irregularity to order, or dispose his paths in curved lines, +rather than in straight. Homer, when he describes the cavern of Calypso, +covers it with a vine, and scatters the alder, the poplar, and the +cypress, without any symmetry about it; but near the palace of Alcinous +he lays out the garden by the rule and compass. Our first parents in +Paradise, are placed by Milton amidst + + A happy rural seat of various view; + +but let the same poet represent himself in his pensive or his cheerful +moods, and he is at one time walking "by hedge-row elms on hillocks +green;" and at another, "in trim gardens." When we are willing to escape +from the tedium of uniformity, nature and accident supply numberless +varieties, which we shall for the most part vainly strive to heighten +and improve. It is too much to say, that we will use the face of the +country as the painter does his canvas; + + Take thy plastic spade, + It is thy pencil; take thy seeds, thy plants, + They are thy colours. + +The analogy can scarcely hold farther than in a parterre; and even +there very imperfectly. Mason could not hear to see his own system +pushed to that excess into which it naturally led; and bitterly resented +the attempts made by the advocates of the picturesque, to introduce into +his landscapes more factitious wildness than he intended. + +In 1783 he published a Translation from the Latin of Du Fresnoy's Art of +Painting, in which the precepts are more capable of being reduced to +practice. He had undertaken the task when young, partly as an exercise +in versification, and partly to fix on his mind the principles of an art +in which he had himself some skill. Sir Joshua Reynolds, having desired +to see it, added some notes, and induced him to revise and publish it. +The artist found in it the theory of ideal beauty, which had been taught +him by Zachary Mudge, from the writings of Plato, and which enabled him +to rise above the mere mechanism of his predecessors. That Mason's +version surpasses the original, is not saying much in its praise. In +some prefatory lines addressed to Reynolds, he has described the +character of Dryden with much happiness. + +The last poem which he published separately, was a Secular Ode on the +Revolution in 1688. It was formal and vapid; but sufficed to shew that +time, though it had checked "the lyric rapture," had left him his ardour +in the cause of freedom. Like the two leaders of the opposite parties, +Pitt and Fox, he hailed with glad voice the dawn of French liberty. It +was only for the gifted eye of Burke to foresee the storm that was +impending. + +At the same time he recommended the cause of the enslaved Negroes from +the pulpit. The abolition of the slave trade was one of the few +political subjects, the introduction of which seemed to be allowable in +that place. In 1788, appeared also his Memoirs of William Whitehead, +attached to the posthumous works of that writer; a piece of biography, +as little to be compared in interest to the former, as Whitehead himself +can be compared to Gray. + +His old age glided on in solitude and peace amid his favourite pursuits, +at his rectory of Aston, where he had taught his two acres of garden to +command the inequalities of "hill and dale," and to combine "use with +beauty." The sonnet in which he dedicated his poems to his patron, the +Earl of Holdernesse, describes in his best manner the happiness he +enjoyed in this retreat. He was not long permitted to add to his other +pleasures the comforts of a connubial life. In 1765 he had married Mary, +daughter of William Shermon, Esq., of Kingston-upon-Hull, who in two +years left him a widower. Her epitaph is one of those little poems to +which we can always return with a melancholy pleasure. I have heard that +this lady had so little regard for the art in which her husband +excelled, that on his presenting her with a copy of verses, after the +wedding was over, she crumpled them up and put them into her pocket +unread. When he had entered his seventieth year, Hurd, who had been his +first friend, and the faithful monitor of his studies from youth, +confined him "to a sonnet once a year, or so;" warning him, that "age, +like infancy, should forbear to play with pointed tools." He had more +latitude allowed in prose; for in 1795 he published Essays, Historical +and Critical, on English Church Music. In the former part of his +subject, he is said, by those who have the best means of knowing, to be +well informed and accurate; but in the latter to err on the side of a +dry simplicity, which, in the present refined state of the art, it would +not answer any good purpose to introduce into the music of our churches. +In speaking of a wind instrument, which William of Malmsbury seems to +describe as being acted on by the vapour arising from hot water, he has +unfortunately gone out of his way to ridicule the projected invention of +the steam-boat by Lord Stanhope. The atrocities committed during the +fury of the French Revolution had so entirely cured him of his +predilection for the popular part of our Government, that he could not +resist the opportunity, however ill-timed, of casting a slur on this +nobleman, who was accused of being over-partial to it. In the third +Essay, on Parochial Psalmody, he gives the preference to Merrick's weak +and affected version over the two other translations that are used in +our churches. The late Bishop Horsley, in his Commentary on the Psalms, +was, I believe, the first who was hardy enough to claim that palm for +Sternhold, to which, with all its awkwardness, his rude vigour entitles +him. + +When he comes to speak of _Christianizing_ our hymns, the apprehension +which he expresses of deviating from the present practice of our +establishment, seems to have restrained him from saying something which +he would otherwise have said. The question surely is not so much, what +the practice of our present establishment is, as what that of the first +Christians was. There is, perhaps, no alteration in our service that +could be made with better effect than this, provided it were made with +as great caution as its importance demands. + +His death, which was at last sudden, was caused by a hurt on his shin, +that happened when he was stepping out of his carriage. On the Sunday +(two days after) he felt so little inconvenience from the accident, as +to officiate in his church at Aston. But on the next Wednesday, the 7th +of April, 1797, a rapid mortification brought him to his grave. His +monument, of which Bacon was the sculptor, is placed in Westminster +Abbey, near that of Gray, with the following inscription:-- + +Optimo Viro +Gulielmo Mason, A.M. +Poetae, +Si quis alius +Culto, Casto, Pio +Sacrum. +Ob. 7. Apr. 1797. +Aet. 72. + +Mason is reported to have been ugly in his person. His portrait by +Reynolds gives to features, ill-formed and gross, an expression of +intelligence and benignity. In the latter part of life, his character +appears to have undergone a greater change, from its primitive openness +and good nature, than mere time and experience of the world should have +wrought in it. Perhaps this was nothing more than a slight perversion +which he had contracted in the school of Warburton. What was a coarse +arrogance in the master himself, assumed the form of nicety and +superciliousness in the less confident and better regulated tempers of +Mason and Hurd. His harmless vanity cleaved to him longer. As a proof of +this, it is related that, several years after the publication of Isis, +when he was travelling through Oxford, and happened to pass over +Magdalen Bridge at a late hour of the evening, he turned round to a +friend who was riding with him, and remarked that it was luckily grown +dusk, for they should enter the University unobserved. When his friend, +with some surprise inquired into the reason of this caution: What, (said +he) do you not remember my Isis? + +He was very sensible to the annoyance of the periodical critics, which +Gray was too philosophical or too proud to regard otherwise than as +matter of amusement. He was the butt for a long line of satirists or +lampooners. Churchill, Lloyd, Colman, the author of the Probationary +Odes, and, if I remember right, Paul Whitehead and Wolcot, all levelled +their shafts at him in turn. In the Probationary Odes, his peculiarities +were well caught: when the writer of these pages repeated some of the +lines in which he was imitated to Anna Seward, whose admiration of Mason +is recorded in her letters, she observed, that what was meant for a +burlesque was in itself excellent. There is reason to suppose that he +sometimes indulged himself in the same license under which he suffered +from others. If he was indeed the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir +William Chambers, and of some other anonymous satires which have been +imputed to him, he must have felt Hayley's intended compliment as a +severe reproach: + + Sublimer Mason! not to thee belong + The reptile beauties of invenom'd song. + +Of the Epistle, when it was remarked, in the hearing of Thomas Warton, +that it had more energy than could have been expected from Walpole, to +whom others ascribed it, Warton remarked that it might have been written +by Walpole, and buckramed by Mason. Indeed, it is not unlikely that one +supplied the venom, and the other spotted the snake. In a letter of +expostulation to Warton, Mason did not go the length of disclaiming the +satire, though he was angry enough that it should be laid at his door. I +have heard that he received with much apathy the praises offered him by +Hayley, in the Essay on Epic Poetry. He has remarked, "that if rhyme +does not condense the sense, which passes through its vehicle, it ceases +to be good, either as verse or rhyme."[2] This rule is laid down too +broadly. His own practice was not always consonant with it, as Hayley's +never was. With Darwin's poetry, it is said that he was much pleased. + +His way of composing, as we learn from Gray's remarks upon his poems, +was to cast down his first thoughts carelessly, and at large, and then +clip them here and there at leisure. "This method," as his friend +observed, "will leave behind it a laxity, a diffuseness. The force of a +thought (otherwise well-invented, well-turned, and well-placed) is often +weakened by it." He might have added, that it is apt to give to poetry +the air of declamation. + +Mason wished to join what he considered the correctness of Pope with the +high imaginative power of Milton, and the lavish colouring of Spenser. +In the attempt to unite qualities so heterogeneous, the effect of each +is in a great measure lost, and little better than a caput mortuum +remains. With all his praises of simplicity, he is generally much afraid +of saying any thing in a plain and natural manner. He often expresses +the commonest thoughts in a studied periphrasis. He is like a man, who +being admitted into better company than his birth and education have +fitted him for, is under continual apprehension, lest his attitude and +motions should betray his origin. Even his negligence is studied. His +muse resembles the Prioresse in Chaucer, + + That pained her to counterfete chere, + Of court and be stateliche of manere, + And to been holden digne of reverence. + +Yet there were happier moments in which he delivered himself up to the +ruling inspiration. So it was when he composed the choruses in the +Caractacus, beginning, + + Mona on Snowdon calls-- + Hail, thou harp of Phrygian frame-- + +and + + Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread-- + +of which it is scarcely too much to say that in some parts they remind +us of the ancient tragedians. + +In each of his two Tragedies, the incidents are conducted with so much +skill, and there is so much power of moving the affections, that one is +tempted to wish he had pursued this line, though he perhaps would never +have done any thing much better in it. One great fault is, that the +dramatis personae are too much employed in pointing out the Claudes and +Salvator Rosas, with which they are surrounded. They seem to want +nothing but long poles in their hands to make them very good conductors +over a gallery of pictures. When Earl Orgar, on seeing the habitation of +his daughter, begins-- + + How nobly does this venerable wood, + Gilt with the glories of the orient sun, + Embosom yon fair mansion! The soft air + Salutes me with most cool and temperate breath + And, as I tread, the flower-besprinkled lawn + Sends up a cloud of fragance-- + +and Aulus Didius opens the other play with a description somewhat more +appropriate: + + This is the secret centre of the isle: + Here, Romans, pause, and let the eye of wonder + Gaze on the solemn scene; behold yon oak, + How stern he frowns, and with his broad brown arms + Chills the pale plain beneath him: mark yon altar, + The dark stream brawling round its rugged base, + These cliffs, these yawning caverns, this wide circus, + Skirted with unhewn stone: they awe my soul, + As if the very genius of the place + Himself appear'd, and with terrific tread + Stalk'd through his drear domain-- + +we could fancy that both these personages had come fresh from the study +of the English garden. The distresses of Elfrida, and the heroism of +Caractacus, are in danger of becoming objects of secondary +consideration, while we are admiring the shades of Harewood, and the +rocks of Mona. He has attempted to shelter himself under the authority +of Sophocles; but though there are some exquisite touches of landscape +painting in that drama, the poet has introduced them with a much more +sparing hand. It is said that Hurd pruned away a great deal more +luxuriance of this kind, with which the first draught of the Elfrida was +overrun; and we learn from Gray, in his admirable letter of criticism on +the Caractacus, that the opening of that tragedy was, as it at first +stood, even much more objectionable than at present. Such descriptions +are better suited to the Masque, a species of drama founded on some wild +and romantic adventure, and of which the interest does not depend on the +manners or the passions. It is therefore more in its place in Argentile +and Curan, which he calls a legendary drama, written on the old English +model. He composed it after the other two, and during the short time +that his wife lived; but, like several of his poems, it was not +published till the year of his decease. The beginning promises well: and +the language of our old writers is at first tolerably well imitated. +There is afterwards too much trick and too many prettinesses; such is +that of the nosegay which the princess finds, and concludes from its +tasteful arrangement to be the work of princely fingers. The subordinate +parts, of the Falconer, and Ralph, his deputy, are not sustained +according to the author's first conception of them. The story is well +put together. He has, perhaps, nothing else that is equal in expression +to the following passage. + + Thou know'st, when we did quit our anchor'd barks, + We cross'd a pleasant valley; rather say + A nest of sister vales, o'erhung with hills + Of varied form and foliage; every vale + Had its own proper brook, the which it hugg'd + In its green breast, as if it fear'd to lose + The treasur'd crystal. You might mark the course + Of these cool rills more by the ear than eye, + For, though they oft would to the sun unfold + Their silver as they past, 'twas quickly lost; + But ever did they murmur. On the verge + Of one of these clear streams, there stood a cell + O'ergrown with moss and ivy; near to which, + On a fall'n trunk, that bridged the little brook + A hermit sat. Of him we ask'd the name + Of this sweet valley, and he call'd it Hakeness. + + (_Argentile and Curan_, A, 1.) + +In two lines more, we are unluckily reminded that this is no living +landscape. + + Thither, my Sewold, go, or pitch thy tent + Near to thy ships, for they are near the _scene_. + +Since the time of Mason, this rage for describing what is called +scenery (and scenery indeed it often is, having little of nature in it) +has infected many of our play-writers and novelists. + +Argentile's intention of raising a rustic monument to the memory of his +father, is taken from Shakspeare. + + This grove my sighs shall consecrate; in shape + Of some fair tomb, here will I heap the turf + And call it Adelbright's. Yon aged yew, + Whose rifted trunk, rough bark, and gnarled roots + Give solemn proof of its high ancientry, + Shall canopy the shrine. There's not a flower, + That hangs the dewy head, and seems to weep, + As pallid blue-bells, crow-tyes and marsh lilies, + But I'll plant here, and if they chance to wither, + My tears shall water them; there's not a bird + That trails a sad soft note, as ringdoves do, + Or twitters painfully like the dun martlet, + But I will lure by my best art, to roost + And plain them in these branches. Larks and finches + Will I fright hence, nor aught shall dare approach + This pensive spot, save solitary things + That love to mourn as I do. + +How cold and lifeless are these pretty lines, when compared to the +"wench-like words," of the young princes, which suggested them. + + If he be gone he'll make his grave a bed + With female fairies will his tomb be haunted, + And worms will not come to thee. + + _Arv_. With fairest flow'rs, + Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, + I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor + The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor + The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, + Out-sweeten'd not thy breath: the ruddock would + With charitable bill (O bill, fore-shaming + The rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie + Without a monument!) bring thee all this; + Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, + To winter-ground thy corse. + +This is grief, seeking to relieve and forget itself in fiction and +fancy; the other, though the occasion required an expression of deeper +sorrow, is a mere pomp of feeling. + +His blank verse in the English Garden has not the majesty of Akenside, +the sweetness of Dyer, or the terseness of Armstrong. Its characteristic +is delicacy; but it is a delicacy approaching nearer to weakness than to +grace. It has more resemblance to the rill that trickles over its +fretted channel, than to the stream that winds with a full tide, and +"warbles as it flows." The practice of cutting it into dialogue had +perhaps crippled him. As he has made the characters in his plays too +attentive to the decorations of the scene-painter, so in the last book +of the English Garden he has turned his landscape into a theatre, for +the representation of a play. The story of Nerina is too long and too +complicated for an episode in a didactic poem. He will seldom bear to be +confronted with those writers whom he is found either by accident or +design to resemble. His picture of the callow young in a bird's-nest is, +I think, with some alteration, copied from Statius. + + --Her young meanwhile + Callow and cold, from their moss-woven nest + Peep forth; they stretch their little eager throats + Broad to the wind, and plead to the lone spray + Their famish'd plaint importunately shrill. + + (_English Garden_, b. 3.) + + --Volucrum sic turba recentum, + Cum reducem longo prospexit in aethere matrem, + Ire cupit contra, summaque e margine nidi + Extat hians; jam jamque cadat ni pectore toto + Obstet aperta parens et amantibus increpet alis. + + (_Theb._ lib. x. 458.) + +Oppian's imitation of this is happier. + + [Greek: Os dhopot aptaenessi pherei bosin dortalichoisi + Maetaer, eiarinae Zephurou protangelos ornis, + Oi dapalon truzontes epithroskousi kaliae, + Gaethusunoi peri maetri, kai imeirontes edodaes + Xeilos anaptussousin apan depi doma lelaeken + Andros xeinodochoio liga klazousi neossois.] + + (Halieut. I. in. 248.) + +Hurd, in the letter he addressed to him on the Marks of Imitation, +observed, that the imagery with which the Ode to Memory opens, is +borrowed from Strada's Prolusions. The chorus in Elfrida, beginning + + Hail to thy living light, + Ambrosial morn! all hail thy roseate ray: + +is taken from the Hymnus in Auroram, by Flaminio. + +His Sappho, a lyrical drama, is one of the few attempts that have been +made to bring amongst us that tuneful trifle, the modern Opera of the +Italians. It has been transferred by Mr. Mathias into that language, to +which alone it seemed properly to belong. Mr. Glasse has done as much +for Caractacus by giving it up to the Greek. Of the two Odes, which are +all, excepting some few fragments, that remain to us of the Lesbian +poetess, he has introduced Translations into his drama. There is more +glitter of phrase than in the versions made, if I recollect right, by +Ambrose Phillips, which are inserted in the Spectator, No. 222 and 229; +but much less of that passionate emotion which marks the original. Most +of my readers will remember that which begins, + + Blest as the immortal Gods is he, + The youth who fondly sits by thee, + And hears and sees thee, all the while, + Softly speak and sweetly smile. + +It is thus rendered by Mason: + + The youth that gazes on thy charms, + Rivals in bliss the Gods on high, + Whose ear thy pleasing converse warms, + Thy lovely smile his eye. + + But trembling awe my bosom heaves, + When placed those heavenly charms among; + The sight my voice of power bereaves, + And chains my torpid tongue. + + Through every thrilling fibre flies + The subtle flame; in dimness drear + My eyes are veil'd; a murmuring noise + Glides tinkling through my ear; + + Death's chilly dew my limbs o'erspreads, + Shiv'ring, convuls'd, I panting lye; + And pale, as is the flower that fades, + I droop, I faint, I die. + +The rudest language, in which there was anything of natural feeling, +would be preferable to this cold splendour. In the other ode, he comes +into contrast with Akenside. + + But lo! to Sappho's melting airs + Descends the radiant queen of love; + She smiles, and asks what fonder cares + Her suppliant's plaintive measures move. + Why is my faithful maid distrest? + Who, Sappho, wounds thy tender breast? + Say, flies he? soon he shall pursue: + Shuns he thy gifts? he soon shall give: + Slights he thy sorrows? he shall grieve, + And soon to all thy wishes bow. + + _Akenside_, b. 1, Ode 13. + +This, though not unexceptionable, and particularly in the last verse, +has yet a tenderness and spirit utterly wanting in Mason. + + What from my power would Sappho claim? + Who scorns thy flame? + What wayward boy + Disdains to yield thee joy for joy? + Soon shall he court the bliss he flies; + Soon beg the boon he now denies, + And, hastening back to love and thee, + Repay the wrong with extacy. + +In the Pygmalion, a lyrical scene, he has made an effort equally vain, +to represent the impassioned eloquence of Jean Jaques Rousseau. + +In his shorter poems, there is too frequent a recurrence of the same +machinery, and that, such as it needed but little invention to create. +Either the poet himself, or some other person, is introduced, musing by +a stream or lake, or in a forest, when the appearance of some celestial +visitant, muse, spirit, or angel, suddenly awakens his attention. + + Soft gleams of lustre tremble through the grove, + And sacred airs of minstrelsy divine + Are harp'd around, and flutt'ring pinions move. + Ah, hark! a voice, to which the vocal rill, + The lark's extatic harmony is rude; + Distant it swells with many a holy trill, + Now breaks wide warbling from yon orient cloud. + + _Elegy_ 2. + +And, + + But hark! methinks I hear her hallow'd tongue! + In distant trills it echoes o'er the tide; + Now meets mine ear with warbles wildly free, + As swells the lark's meridian extacy. + + _Ode_ vi. + +After the extatic notes have been heard, all vanishes away like some +figure in the clouds, which + + Even with a thought, + The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct + As water is in water. + +His abstractions are often exalted into cherubs and seraphs. It is the +"cherub Beauty sits on Nature's rustic shrine;" "heaven-descended +Charity;" "Constancy, heaven-born queen;" Liberty, "heaven-descending +queen." Take away from him these aerial beings and their harps, and you +will rob him of his best treasures. + +He holds nearly the same place among our poets, that Peters does among +our painters. He too is best known by-- + + The angel's floating pomp, the seraph's glowing grace; + +and he too, instead of that gravity and depth of tone which might seem +most accordant to his subjects, treats them with a lightness of pencil +that is not far removed from flimsiness. + +In the thirteenth Ode, on the late Duchess of Devonshire, the only lady +of distinguished rank to whom the poets of modern times have loved to +pay their homage, and in the sixteenth, which he entitles Palinodia, he +provokes a comparison with Mr. Coleridge. One or two extracts from each +will shew the difference between the artificial heat of the schools and +the warmth of a real enthusiasm. + + Art thou not she whom fav'ring fate + In all her splendour drest, + To show in how supreme a state + A mortal might be blest? + Bade beauty, elegance, and health, + Patrician birth, patrician wealth, + Their blessings on her darling shed; + Bade Hymen, of that generous race + Who freedom's fairest annals grace, + Give to thy love th'illustrious head. + + _Mason._ + + Light as a dream, your days their circlets ran, + From all that teaches brotherhood to man + Far, far removed; from want, from hope, from fear, + Enchanting music lull'd your infant ear, + Obeisant praises sooth'd your infant heart: + Emblasonments and old ancestral crests, + With many a bright obtrusive form of art, + Detain'd your eye from nature; stately vests, + That veiling strove to deck your charms divine, + Were your's unearn'd by toil. + + _Coleridge, Ode to Georgiana, Duchess of Gloucester._ + + Say did I err, chaste Liberty, + When, warm with youthful fire, + I gave the vernal fruits to thee, + That ripen'd on my lyre? + When, round thy twin-born sister's shrine + I taught the flowers of verse to twine + And blend in one their fresh perfume; + Forbade them, vagrant and disjoin'd, + To give to every wanton wind + Their fragrance and their bloom? + + _Mason._ + + Ye clouds, that far above me float and pause, + Whose pathless march no mortal may controul! + Ye ocean waves, that, whereso'er ye roll, + Yield homage only to eternal laws! + Ye woods, that listen to the night-birds singing, + Midway the smooth and perilous steep reclin'd; + Save when your own imperious branches swinging, + Have made a solemn music of the wind! + Where, like a man belov'd of God, + Through glooms, which never woodman trod, + How oft, pursuing fancies holy, + My moonlight way o'er flow'ring weeds I wound, + Inspir'd beyond the guess of folly, + By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound! + O, ye loud waves, and O, ye forests high, + And O, ye clouds, that far above me soar'd! + Thou rising sun! thou blue rejoicing sky! + Yea, every thing that is and will be free, + Bear witness for me wheresoe'er ye be, + With what deep worship I have still adored + The spirit of divinest liberty. + + _Coleridge. France, An Ode._ + +The Elegy written in a churchyard in South Wales, is not more below +Gray's. + +Of eagerness to obtain poetical distinction he had much more than Gray; +but in tact, judgment, and learning, was exceedingly his inferior. He +was altogether a man of talent, if I may be allowed to use the word +talent according to the sense it bore in our old English; for he had a +vehement _desire_ of excellence, but wanted either the depth of mind or +the industry that was necessary for producing anything that was very +excellent. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] It is said, that the best likeness of Gray is to be found in the + figure of Scipio, in an engraving for the edition of Gil Blas, + printed at Amsterdam, 1735, vol. iv. p. 94.--See Mr. Mitford's Gray, + vol. i. lxxxi. A copy of this figure would be acceptable to many of + Gray's admirers. +[2] Essays on English Church Music, Mason's Works, vol. iii. p. 370. + + + * * * * * + + +OLIVER GOLDSMITH. + +Oliver, the second son of Charles and Anne Goldsmith, was born in +Ireland, on the 10th of November, 1728, at Pallas, in the Parish of +Forgany or Forney in the County of Longford. By a mistake made in the +note of his entrance in the college register, he is represented to have +been a native of the county of Westmeath. + +His father, who had before resided at Smith-hill in the county of +Roscommon, (which has by some been erroneously said to be the birth-place +of his son, Oliver,) removed thence to Pallas, and afterwards to +his Rectory of Kilkenny West, in the county of Westmeath; and in the +latter of these parishes, at Lissoy, or Auburn, he built the house +described as the Village-Preacher's modest mansion in the Deserted +Village. His mother was daughter of the Rev. Oliver Jones, master of the +diocesan school at Elphin. Their family consisted of five sons and three +daughters. + +In a letter from his elder sister, Catherine, the wife of Daniel Hodson, +Esq. inserted in the Life of Goldsmith, which an anonymous writer, whom +I suppose to have been Cowper's friend, Mr. Rose, from a passage in Mr. +Nichol's Literary Anecdotes, prefixed to his Miscellaneous Works, +wonders are told of his early predilection for the poetical art; but +those who have observed the amplification with which the sprightly +sallies of childhood are related by domestic fondness, will listen to +such narrations with some abatement of confidence. It seems probable, +that a desire of literary distinction might have been infused into his +youthful mind by hearing of the reputation of his countryman, Parnell, +with whom, as we learn from his life of that poet, his father and uncle +were acquainted. + +He received the first rudiments of learning from a school-master who +taught in the village where his parents resided, and who had served as a +quarter-master during the war of the Succession in Spain; and from the +romantic accounts which this man delighted to give of his travels, +Goldsmith is supposed, by his sister, to have contracted his propensity +for a wandering life. From hence he was removed successively to the +school at Elphin, of which the Rev. Mr. Griffin was master, and to that +of Athlone; kept by the Rev. Mr. Campbell; and lastly, was placed under +the care of the Rev. Patrick Hughes, of Edgeworthstown, in the county of +Longford, to whose instruction he acknowledged himself to have been more +indebted than to that of his other teachers. + +It was probably that untowardness in his outward appearance, which never +afterwards left him, that made his schoolfellows consider him a dull +boy, fit only to be the butt of their ridicule. + +On his last return after the holidays to the house of his master, an +adventure befel him, which afterwards was made the ground-work of the +plot in one of his comedies. Journeying along leisurely, and being +inclined to enjoy such diversion as a guinea, that had been given him +for pocket-money, would afford him on the road, he was overtaken by +night at a small town called Ardagh. Here, inquiring for the best house +in the place, he was directed to a gentleman's habitation that literally +answered that description. Under a delusion, the opposite to that +entertained by the knight of La Mancha, he rides up to the supposed inn; +and having given his horse in charge to the ostler, enters without +ceremony; The master of the house, aware of the mistake, resolves to +favour it; and is still less inclined to undeceive his guest, when he +finds out from his discourse that he is the son of an acquaintance and a +neighbour. A good supper and a bottle or two of wine are called for, of +which the host, with his wife and daughter, are invited to partake; and +a hot cake is providently ordered for the morrow's breakfast. The young +traveller's surprise may be conceived, when in calling for his bill, he +finds under what roof he has been lodged, and with whom he had been +putting himself on such terms of familiarity. + +In June, 1745, he was sent a sizer to Trinity College, Dublin, and +placed under the tuition of Mr. Wilder, one of the fellows, who is +represented to have been of a temper so morose as to excite the +strongest disgust in the mind of his pupil. He did not pass through his +academical course without distinction. Dr. Kearney (who was afterwards +provost), in a note on Boswell's Life of Johnson, informs us, that +Goldsmith gained a premium at the Christmas examination, which, +according to Mr. Malone, is more honourable than those obtained at the +other examinations, inasmuch as it is the only one that determines the +successful candidate to be the first in literary merit. This is enough +to disprove what Johnson is reported to have said of him, that he was a +plant that flowered late; that there appeared nothing remarkable about +him when he was young; though when he had got into fame, one of his +friends began to recollect something of his being distinguished at +college. Whether he took a degree is not known.[1] On one occasion he +narrowly escaped expulsion for having been concerned in the rescue of a +student, who, in violation of the supposed privileges of the University +had been arrested for debt within its precincts: but his superiors +contented themselves with passing a public censure on him. + +Having been deprived, in 1747, by death, of his father, who had with +difficulty supported him at college, he became a dependant on the bounty +of his uncle,[2] the Rev. Thomas Contarine; and after fluctuating in his +choice of an employment in life, was at length established as a medical +student at Edinburgh, in his twenty-fifth year. + +Dr. Strean mentions, that he was at one time intended for the church, +but that appearing before the Bishop, when he went to be examined for +orders, in a pair of scarlet breeches, he was rejected. + +From Edinburgh, when he had completed his attendance on the usual course +of lectures, he removed to Leyden, with the intention of continuing his +studies at that University. + +Johnson used to speak with coarse contempt of Goldsmith's want of +veracity. "Noll," said he to a lady of much distinction in literature, +who repeated to me his words, "Noll, madam, would lie through an inch +board." In this instance, Johnson's known partiality to Goldsmith fixes +the stigma so deeply, that we can place no reliance on the account he +gave of what befel him, when he imagined himself to be no longer within +reach of detection. In a letter to his uncle he relates that, before +going to Holland, he had embarked in a vessel for Bordeaux, that the +ship was driven by a storm into Newcastle-upon-Tyne, that he was there +seized on suspicion of being engaged with the rebels, and thrown into +prison; that the vessel, meanwhile proceeding on her voyage, was wrecked +at the mouth of the Garonne, where all the crew perished; and that, at +the end of a fortnight, being liberated, he set sail in a vessel bound +for Holland, and in nine days arrived safely at Rotterdam. After a +residence of about a twelve-month at Leyden, he was involved in +difficulties, occasioned by his love of gambling, a ridiculous +inclination that adhered to him for the remainder of his life. He now +set out with the resolution of visiting the principal parts of the +Continent on foot; and, according to his own report of himself, made his +way by a variety of stratagems, sometimes recruiting his finances by the +acquisition of small sums proposed in the foreign universities to public +disputants; at others, securing himself a hospitable reception by the +exercise of a moderate share of skill in playing the flute--his +"tuneless pipe," as he calls it, in that passage of The Traveller, where +he alludes to this method of supplying his wants. + +Thus, if we are to believe him, he passed through the Netherlands, +France, and Germany, into the Swiss Cantons; and in that country, so +well suited to awaken the feelings of a poet, he composed a part of The +Traveller, and sent it to his elder brother, a clergyman in Ireland. +Continuing his journey into Italy, he visited Venice, Verona, Florence, +and Padua; and having spent six months at the University in the last +mentioned city, returned through France to England in 1756. From his +Inquiry into the Present State of Learning, we collect, that when at +Paris he attended the Chemical Lectures of Rouelle. + +In the meantime his uncle had died; and he found himself, on his arrival +in London, so destitute even of a friend to whom he could refer for a +recommendation, that he with difficulty obtained first the place of an +usher to a school, and afterwards that of assistant in the laboratory of +a chemist. At last, meeting with Doctor Sleigh, formerly his fellow-student +at Edinburgh, he was enabled, by the kindness of this worthy physician, +who appears in so amiable a light as the patron of Barry, in the Memoirs +of that painter, to avail himself more effectually of his knowledge in +medicine, and to earn a subsistence, however scanty, by the practice of +that art. + +The Bankside in Southwark, and the Temple, or its vicinity, were +successively the places where he fixed his residence. To his +professional gains he soon added the emoluments arising from his +exertions as an author. In 1758, he took a share in the conduct of the +literary journal called the Monthly Review: and for the space of seven +or eight months, while the employment lasted, lodged in the house of Mr. +Griffiths, the proprietor of it. The next year he contributed several +papers to the Lady's Magazine, and to the Bee, a collection of essays, +and published his Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning, in +which he speaks of the Monthly Review in terms not very respectful. +There is, I doubt, in this little essay more display than reality of +erudition. It would not be easy to say where he had discovered "that +Dante was persecuted by the critics as long as he lived." The complaints +he made of the hard fate of authors, and his censure of odes and of +blank verse, were well calculated to conciliate the good will, and to +excite the sympathy of Johnson, with whom he soon became intimate. + +Poverty and indiscretion were other claims, by which the benevolent +commiseration of Johnson could scarcely fail to be awakened; and his +acquaintance with Goldsmith had not subsisted long, when an occasion +presented itself for rescuing him from the consequences of those evils. +One day, calling on our poet, at his lodgings in Wine-office Court, +Fleet-street, he found him under arrest for debt, and engaged in violent +altercation with his landlady. Taking from him the Vicar of Wakefield, +then just written, Johnson proceeded with it to Newbery the Bookseller, +from whom he obtained sixty pounds for his friend; and Goldsmith's good +humour, and the complaisance of his hostess, returning with this +accession of wealth, they spent the remainder of the day together in +harmony. In this novel, like Fielding and Smollett, he exhibits a very +natural view of familiar life. Inferior to the first in the artful +management of his story, and to the latter in the broader traits of +comic character, and not equal to either in variety and fertility, he +is, nevertheless, to be preferred to both for his power of passing from +the ludicrous to the tender, and for his regard to moral decency. It was +not printed till some years after, in 1766, when his reputation had been +in some degree established by The Traveller. Meanwhile he published, in +a periodical work called the Ledger, his Letters from a Citizen of the +World to his Friend in the East, in which, under the character of a +Chinese philosopher, he describes the customs and manners of Europeans. +But this assumed personage is an awkward concealment for the good-humoured +Irishman, with his never-failing succession of droll stories. +Of these there are too many; and the want of any thing like a continued +interest is sensibly felt. I do not know of any book, on the same plan, +that is to be compared with the Persian Letters of Montesquieu. + +In the spring of 1763 he had lodgings in Islington, and continuing there +till the following year, he revised several petty publications for +Newbery, and wrote the Letters on English History, which, from their +being published as the letters of a nobleman to his son, have been +attributed by turns to the Earl of Orrery and Lord Lyttelton. + +His next removal was to the Temple, where he remained for the rest of +his life, not without indulging a project, equally magnificent and +visionary, of making a journey into the East, in order to bring back +with him such useful inventions as had not found their way into Britain. +He was ridiculed by Johnson, for fancying himself competent to so +arduous a task, when he was utterly unacquainted with our own mechanical +arts. He would have brought back a grinding barrow, said Johnson, and +thought that he had furnished a wonderful improvement. The more feasible +plan of returning with honour and advantage to his native country, was +held out to him through the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland. +That nobleman, who was then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, sent for +him, and made him an offer of his protection. Goldsmith, with his +characteristic simplicity, replied, that he had a brother there, a +clergyman, who stood in need of help; that, for himself, he looked to +the booksellers for support. This reliance happily did not deceive him. +By the rewards of his literary labours, he was placed in a comparative +state of opulence, in which his propensity for play alone occasioned a +diminution. + +In 1765, appeared The Hermit, The Traveller, and the Essays. + +About this time a club was formed, at the proposal of Reynolds, which +consisted, besides that eminent painter and our poet, of Johnson, Burke, +Burke's father-in-law, Doctor Nugent, Sir John Hawkins, Langton, +Beauclerk, and Chamier, who met and supped together every Friday night, +at the Turk's Head, in Gerard-street, Soho. The bookseller's shop +belonging to Dr. Griffiths, called the Dunciad, in the neighbourhood of +Catherine-street, was another of his favourite haunts. + +His comedy of the Good Natured Man, though it had received the sanction +of Burke's approval, did not please Garrick sufficiently to induce him +to venture it on his theatre. It was, therefore, brought forward by +Colman, at Covent Garden, on the 29th of January, 1769; but having been +represented for nine nights, did not longer maintain its place on the +stage, though it is one of those comedies which afford most amusement in +the closet. For his conception of the character of Croaker, the author +acknowledged that he was indebted to Johnson's Suspirius, in the +Rambler. That of Honeywood, in its undistinguishing benevolence, hears +some resemblance to his own. + +In the next year he published his Deserted Village; and entered into an +agreement with Davies, to compile a History of England, in four octavo +volumes, for the sum of five hundred pounds in the space of two years; +before the expiration of which period, he made a compact with the same +bookseller for an abridgment of the Roman History, which he had before +published. The History of Greece, which has appeared since his death, +cannot with certainty be ascribed to his pen. + +In 1771, he wrote the Life of Bolingbroke, prefixed to the Dissertation +on Parties. + +The reception which his former play had met did not discourage him from +trying his fate with a second. But it was not till after much +solicitation that Colman was prevailed on to allow The Mistakes of a +Night, or She Stoops to Conquer, to be acted at Covent Garden, on the +15th of March, 1773. A large party of zealous friends, with Johnson at +their head, attended to witness the representation and to lead the +plaudits of the house; a scheme which Mr. Cumberland describes to have +been preconcerted with much method, but to have been near failing in +consequence of some mistakes in the execution of the manoeuvres, which +aroused the displeasure of the audience. That the piece is enlivened by +such droll incidents, as to be nearly allied to farce, Johnson with +justice observed, declaring, however, that "he knew of no comedy for +many years that had so much exhilarated an audience; that had so much +answered the great end of comedy, that of making an audience merry." + +The History of the Earth and Animated Nature, in eight volumes, closed +the labours of Goldsmith. This compilation, however recommended by the +agreeableness of style usual to its author, is but little prized for its +accuracy. In a summary of past events, which are often differently +related by writers of authority and credit nearly equal, it is in vain +to look for certainty. But when we are presented with a description of +natural objects that required only to be looked at in order to be known, +we are neither amused nor instructed without some degree of precision. +History partakes of the nature of romance. Physiology is more closely +connected with science. In the one we must often rest contented with +probability. In the other we know that truth is generally to be +attained, and therefore expect to find it. + +Goldsmith had been for some time subject to attacks of strangury; and +having before experienced relief from James's powders, had again +recourse to that popular medicine. His medical attendants are said to +have remonstrated with him on its unfitness in the stage to which his +disorder had reached; but he persevered; and his fever increasing, and +some secret distress of mind, under which he owned to Dr. Turton that he +laboured, aggravating his bodily complaint, he expired on the 4th of +April in his forty-fifth year. + +He was privately interred in the Temple burying ground. A monument is +erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey, with the following epitaph +by Johnson, written at the solicitation of their common friends. + +Olivarii Goldsmith, +Poetae, Physici, Historici +Qui nullum fere scribendi genus +Non tetigit, +Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit: +Seu risus essent movendi, +Sive lacrymae, +Affectuum potens at lenis dominator: +Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis, +Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus: +Hoc monumento memoriam coluit +Sodalium amor, +Amicorum fides, +Lectorum veneratio. +Natus in Hibernia, Forniae Longfordiensis, +In loco cui nomen Pallas. +Nov. XXIX, MDCCXXXI. +Eblanae literis institutus; +Obiit Londini, +April. IV. MDCCLXXIV. + +It has been questioned whether there is any authority for using the word +"tetigit" as it is here employed. I have heard it observed by one, whose +opinion on such subjects is decisive, that "contigit" would have better +expressed the writer's meaning. + +Another epitaph composed by Johnson in Greek, deserves notice, as it +shows how strongly his mind was impressed by Goldsmith's abilities. + + [Greek: + Ton taphon eisoraas ton Olibarioio, koniaen + Aphrosi mae semnaen, xeine, podessi patei + Oisi memaele phusis, metron charis erga palaion, + Klaiete poiaetaen, istorikon, phusikon.] + + "Thou beholdest the tomb of Oliver; press not, + O stranger, with the foot of folly, the venerable dust. + Ye who care for nature, for the charms of song, for + the deeds of ancient days, weep for the Historian, the Naturalist, + the Poet." + +Goldsmith's stature was below the middle height; his limbs, sturdy; his +forehead, more prominent than is usual; and his face, almost round, +pallid, and marked with the small-pox. + +The simpleness, almost approaching to fatuity, of his outward +deportment, combined with the power which there was within, brings to +our recollection some part of the character of La Fontaine, whom a +French lady wittily called the Fable Tree, from his apparent +unconsciousness, or rather want of mental responsibility for the +admirable productions which he was continually supplying. His propriety +and clearness, when he expresses his thoughts with his pen, and his +confusion and inability to impart them in conversation, well illustrated +the observation of Cicero, that it is very possible for a man to think +rightly on any subject, and yet to want the power of conveying his +sentiments by speech in fit and becoming language to others. "Fieri +potest ut recte quis sentiat, sed id quod sentit polite eloqui non +possit." Yet Mr. Cumberland, who was one of his associates, has informed +us, "that he had gleams of eloquence." + +Johnson said of him that he was not a social man; he never exchanged +mind with you. His prevailing foible was a desire of shining in those +exterior accomplishments which nature had denied him. Vanity and +benevolence had conspired to make him an easy prey to adulation and +imposture. + +His complaints of the envy by which he found his mind tormented, and +especially on the occasion of Johnson's being honoured by an interview +with the king, must have made those who heard him, lose all sense of the +evil passion, in their amusement at a confession so novel and so +pleasant. + +One day, we are told, he complained in a mixed company of Lord Camden. +"I met him," said he, "at Lord Clare's house in the country, and he took +no more notice of me than if I had been an ordinary man." The story of +his peach-coloured coat will not soon be forgotten. If-- + + --in some men + Their graces serve them but as enemies, + +Goldsmith was one of those in whom their, frailties are more likely to +serve them as friends; for they were such as could scarcely fail to +assist in appeasing malevolence and conciliating kindness. Be this as it +will, he must, with all his weaknesses, be considered as one of the +chief ornaments of the age in which he lived. + +Comparisons have been made between the situation of the men eminent for +literature in Queen Anne's time and at the commencement of the reign of +George the Third. In the former, beginning to be disengaged from the +court, where they were more at home during the reign of the Charleses, +they were falling under the influence of the nobility, amongst whom they +generally found their patrons, and often their associates. In the +latter, they had been insensibly shaken off alike by the court and the +nobles, and were come into the hands of the people and the booksellers. +I know not whether they were much the worse for this change. If in the +one instance they were rendered more studious of elegance and smartness; +in the other, they attained more freedom and force. In the former, they +were oftener imitators of the French. In the latter, they followed the +dictates of a better sense, and trusted more to their own resources. +They lost, indeed, the character of wits, but they aspired to that of +instructors. Yet in one respect, and that a material one, it must be +owned, that they were sufferers by this alteration in affairs. For the +quantity of their labours having become more important under their new +masters than it was under their old ones, they had less care of +selection, and their originality was weakened by diffusiveness. They +indulged themselves but sparingly in the luxury of composing verse, +which was too thriftless an occupation to be continued long. They used +it, perhaps, as the means of attracting notice to themselves at their +first entrance on the world, but not as the staple on which they were +afterwards to depend. When the song had drawn a band of hearers around +them, it had done its duty. The crowd was to be detained and increased, +by expectations of advantage rather than of pleasure. A writer consulted +Goldsmith on what subjects he might employ his pen with most profit to +himself. "It will be better," said the author of The Traveller and the +Deserted Village, laughing indeed, but in good earnest, "to relinquish +the draggle-tail muses. For my part, I have found productions in prose +more sought after and better paid for." This is, no doubt, the reason +that his verse bears so small a proportion to his other writings. Yet it +is by the former, added to the few works of imagination which he has +left besides, that he will be known to posterity. His histories will +probably be superseded by more skilful or more accurate compilations; as +they are now read by few who can obtain information nearer to its +original sources. + +In the natural manner of telling a short and humorous story, he is +perhaps surpassed by no writer of prose except Addison. In his Essays, +the style preserves a middle way between the gravity of Johnson and the +lightness of Chesterfield; but it may often be objected to them, as to +the moral writings of Johnson, that they present life to us under a +gloomy aspect, and leave an impression of despondence on the mind of the +reader. + +In his poetry there is nothing ideal. It pleases chiefly by an +exhibition of nature in her most homely and familiar views. But from +these he selects his objects with due discretion, and omits to represent +whatever would occasion unmingled pain or disgust. + +His couplets have the same slow and stately march as Johnson's; and if +we can suppose similar images of rural and domestic life to have +arrested the attention of that writer, we can scarcely conceive that he +would have expressed them in different language. + +Some of the lines in The Deserted Village are said to be closely copied +from a poem by Welsted, called the _[Greek: Oikographia]_; but I do not +think he will be found to have levied larger contributions on it, than +most poets have supposed themselves justified in making on the neglected +works of their predecessors. + +The following particulars relating to this poem, which I have extracted +from the letter of Dr. Strean before referred to, cannot fail to gratify +that numerous class of readers with whom it has been a favourite from +their earliest years. + +The poem of The Deserted Village took its origin from the circumstance +of General Robert Napper (the grandfather of the gentleman who now lives +in the house within half a mile of Lissoy, and built by the General), +having purchased an extensive tract of the country surrounding Lissoy, +or _Auburn_; in consequence of which, many families, here called +_cottiers_, were removed to make room for the intended improvements of +what was now to become the wide domain of a rich man, warm with the idea +of changing the face of his new acquisition; and were forced "_with +fainting steps_," to go in search of "_torrid tracts_" and "_distant +climes_." + +This fact alone might be sufficient to establish the seat of the poem; +but there cannot remain a doubt in any unprejudiced mind, when the +following are added; viz. that the character of the village-preacher, +the above-named Henry, (the brother of the poet,) is copied from nature. +He is described exactly as he lived; and his "modest mansion" as it +existed. Burn, the name of the village-master, and the site of his +school-house, and _Catherine Giraghty_, a lonely widow; + + The wretched matron forced in age for bread + To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread; + +(and to this day the brook and ditches, near the spot where her cabin +stood, abound with cresses) still remain in the memory of the +inhabitants, and _Catherine's_ children live in the neighbourhood. The +pool, the busy mill, the house where "_nut-brown draughts inspired_," +are still visited as the poetic scene; and the "_hawthorn-bush_" growing +in an open space in front of the house, which I knew to have three +trunks, is now reduced to one; the other two having been cut, from time +to time, by persons carrying away pieces of it to be made into toys, &c. +in honour of the bard, and of the celebrity of his poem. All these +contribute to the same proof; and the "_decent church_," which I +attended for upwards of eighteen years, and which "_tops the +neighbouring hill_," is exactly described as seen from Lissoy, the +residence of the preacher. + +I should have observed, that Elizabeth Delap, who was a parishioner of +mine, and died at the age of about ninety, often told me she was the +first who put a book into Goldsmith's hand; by which she meant, that she +taught him his letters: she was allied to him, and kept a little school. + +The Hermit is a pleasing little tale, told with that simplicity which +appears so easy, and is in fact so difficult, to be obtained. It was +imitated in the Ballad of a Friar of Orders Grey, in Percy's Reliques of +English Poetry. + +His Traveller was, it is said, pronounced by Mr. Fox to be one of the +finest pieces in the English language. Perhaps this sentence was +delivered by that great man with some qualification, which was either +forgotten or omitted by the reporter of it; otherwise such praise was +surely disproportioned to its object. + +In this poem, he professes to compare the good and evil which fall to +the share of those different nations whose lot he contemplates. His +design at setting out is to shew that, whether we consider the blessings +to be derived from art or from nature, we shall discover "an equal +portion dealt to all mankind." And the conclusion which he draws at the +end of the poem would be perfectly just, if these premises were allowed +him. + + In every government though terrors reign, + Though tyrant kings or tyrant laws restrain, + How small, of all that human hearts endure, + That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! + Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, + Our own felicity we make or find: + With secret course, which no loud streams annoy. + Glides the smooth current of domestic joy. + The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, + Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel, + To men remote from power but rarely known, + Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own. + +That it matters little or nothing to the happiness of men whether they +are governed well or ill, whether they live under fixed and known laws, +or at the will of an arbitrary tyrant, is a paradox, the fallacy of +which is happily too apparent to need any refutation. Nor is his +inference warranted by those particular observations which he makes for +the purpose of establishing it. When of Italy he tells us, "that sensual +bliss is all this nation knows," how is Italy to be compared either with +itself when it was prompted by those "noble aims," of which he speaks, +or with that country where he sees + + The lords of human kind pass by, + Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, + By forms unfashion'd, fresh from nature's hand, + Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, + True to imagined right, above controul; + While e'en the peasant learns these rights to scan, + And learns to venerate himself as man? + +That good is every where balanced by some evil, none will deny. But that +no effort of human courage or prudence can make one scale preponderate +over the other, and that a decree of fate has fixed them in eternal +equipoise, is an opinion which, if it were seriously entertained, must +bind men to a tame and spiritless acquiescence in whatever disadvantages +or inconveniences they may chance to find themselves involved, and leave +to them the exercise of no other public virtue than that of a blind +submission. + +His poetry is happily better than his argument. He discriminates with +much skill the manners of the several countries that pass in review +before him; the illustrations, with which he relieves and varies his +main subject, are judiciously interspersed; and as he never raises his +tone too far beyond his pitch at the first starting, so he seldom sinks +much below it. The thought at the beginning appears to have pleased him; +for he has repeated it in "the Citizen of the World:" + + Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, + My heart untravel'd fondly turns to thee; + Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain, + And drags at each remove a lengthening chain. + +"The further I travel, I feel the pain of separation with stronger +force; those ties that bind me to my native country and you are still +unbroken. By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain." + +To the poetical compositions of Goldsmith, in general, may be applied +with justice that temperate commendation which he has given to the works +of Parnell in his life of that Poet. "At the end of his course the +reader regrets that his way has been so short; he wonders that it gave +him so little trouble; and so resolves to go the journey over again." +There is much to solace fatigue and even to excite pleasure, but nothing +to call forth rapture. We stay to contemplate and enjoy the objects on +our road; but we feel that it is on this earth we have been travelling, +and that the author is either not willing or not able to raise us above +it. No writer in the English language has combined such various +excellences as a novelist, a writer of comedies, and a poet. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Feb. 27, 1749. _Prior's Life + of Goldsmith_, vol. i. p.98. ED. +[2] He also helped himself by writing street-ballads. _Prior_, vol. i. + p. 75. ED. + + + * * * * * + + +ERASMUS DARWIN. + +Erasmus, the seventh child and fourth son of Robert Darwin, Esq. by his +wife Elizabeth Hill, was born at Elston, near Newark, in +Nottinghamshire, on the 12th of December 1731. He was educated at the +Grammar school of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, under the Rev. Mr. +Burrows, and from thence sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he +had for his tutor Dr. Powell, afterwards Master of the College, to whose +learning and goodness, Mason, another of his pupils, has left a +testimony in one of his earliest poems. + +After proceeding Bachelor in Medicine at Cambridge, Darwin went to +Edinburgh, in order to pursue his studies in that science to more +advantage. When he had been there long enough to entitle him to the +degree of Doctor in Medicine, he quitted Edinburgh, and began his +practice at Nottingham, but soon after (in 1756) removed to Lichfield. +In the following year he married Mary, daughter of Charles Howard, Esq. +a proctor in the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield. He was very soon +distinguished for his professional skill. The first case which he +treated with so much success as to attract the public notice, was that +of a young man of fortune, who, being in a fever, was given over by his +ordinary physician, but whom Darwin restored, probably by one of those +bold measures from which others would have shrunk, but to which he +wisely had recourse whenever a desperate malady called for a desperate +cure. His patient, whose name was Inge, was, I believe, the same whom +Johnson, in his life of Ambrose Phillips, has termed a gentleman of +great eminence in Staffordshire. Part of the wealth that now flowed in +upon him, from an extensive and opulent circle, was employed with that +liberality which in this country is perhaps oftener exercised by men of +his profession than by those of any other. + +At Lichfield, he formed an intimacy with several persons, who afterwards +rose to much distinction. Of these, the most remarkable were Mr. +Edgeworth, whose skill in mechanics made him acceptable to Darwin; Mr. +Day, a man remembered to more advantage by his writings, than by the +singularities of his conduct; and Anna Seward, the female most eminent +in her time for poetical genius. The manner in which the first of these +introduced himself shall be told in his own words, as they convey a +lively description of Darwin's person and habits of life at this time. +"I wrote an account to the Doctor of the reception which his scheme" +(for preventing accidents to a carriage in turning) "had met with from +the Society of Arts. The Doctor wrote me a very civil answer; and +though, as I afterwards found out, he took me for a coach-maker, he +invited me to his house: an invitation which I accepted in the ensuing +summer. When I arrived at Lichfield, I went to inquire whether the +Doctor was at home. I was shewn into a room where I found Mrs. Darwin. I +told her my name. She said the Doctor expected me, and that he intended +to be at home before night. There were books and prints in the room, of +which I took occasion to speak. Mrs. Darwin asked me to drink tea, and I +perceived that I owed to my literature the pleasure of passing the +evening with this most agreeable woman. We talked and conversed upon +various literary subjects till it was dark; when Mrs. Darwin seeming to +be surprised that the Doctor had not come home, I offered to take my +leave; but she told me that I had been expected for some days, and that +a bed had been prepared for me: I heard some orders given to the +housemaid, who had destined a different room for my reception from that +which her mistress had upon second thoughts appointed. I perceived that +the maid examined me attentively, but I could not guess the reason. When +supper was nearly finished, a loud rapping at the door announced the +Doctor. There was a bustle in the hall, which made Mrs. Darwin get up +and go to the door. Upon her exclaiming that they were bringing in a +dead man, I went to the hall. I saw some persons, directed by one whom I +guessed to be Doctor Darwin, carrying a man who appeared to be +motionless. 'He is not dead,' said Doctor Darwin. 'He is only dead +drunk. I found him,' continued the Doctor, 'nearly suffocated in a +ditch: I had him lifted into my carriage, and brought hither, that we +might take care of him to-night.' Candles came; and what was the +surprise of the Doctor and of Mrs. Darwin, to find that the person whom +he had saved was Mrs. Darwin's brother! who, for the first time in his +life, as I was assured, had been intoxicated in this manner, and who +would undoubtedly have perished had it not been for Doctor Darwin's +humanity. During this scene I had time to survey my new friend, Doctor +Darwin. He was a large man, fat, and rather clumsy; but intelligence and +benevolence were painted in his countenance: he had a considerable +impediment in his speech, a defect which is in general painful to +others; but the Doctor repaid his auditors so well for making them wait +for his wit or his knowledge, that he seldom found them impatient. When +his brother was disposed of, he came to supper, and I thought that he +looked at Mrs. Darwin as if he was somewhat surprised when he heard that +I had passed the whole evening in her company. After she withdrew, he +entered into conversation with me upon the carriage that I had made, and +upon the remarks that fell from some members of the Society to whom I +had shewn it. I satisfied his curiosity; and having told him that my +carriage was in the town, and that he could see it whenever he pleased, +we talked upon mechanical subjects, and afterwards on various branches +of knowledge, which necessarily produced allusions to classical +literature; by these, he discovered that I had received the education of +a gentleman. 'Why! I thought,' said the Doctor, 'that you were a +coach-maker!' 'That was the reason,' said I, 'that you looked surprised at +finding me at supper with Mrs. Darwin. But you see, Doctor, how superior +in discernment ladies are even to the most learned gentlemen: I assure +you that I had not been in the room five minutes before Mrs. Darwin +asked me to tea!'" + +These endeavours to improve the construction of carriages were near +costing him dear; nor did he desist till he had been several times +thrown down, and at last broke the pan of the right knee, which +occasioned a slight but incurable lameness. The amiable woman, of whom +Mr. Edgeworth has here spoken, died in 1770. Of the five children whom +she brought him, two were lost in their infancy. Charles, the eldest of +the remaining three, died at Edinburgh, in 1778, of a disease supposed +to be communicated by a corpse which he was dissecting, when one of his +fingers was slightly wounded. He had obtained a gold medal for pointing +out a test by which pus might be distinguished from mucus; and the Essay +in which he had stated his discovery was published by his father after +his death, together with another treatise, which he left incomplete, on +the Retrograde Motions of the Absorbent Vessels of Animal Bodies in some +Diseases. Another of his sons, Erasmus, who was a lawyer, in a temporary +fit of mental derangement put an end to his existence, in 1799. Robert +Waring, a physician, now in high reputation at Shrewsbury, is the only +one of these children who survived him. + +A few years before he quitted Lichfield, in consequence of a second +marriage, he attempted to establish a Botanical Society in that city; +but his only associates were the present Sir Brooke Boothby, and a +proctor whose name was Jackson. Of this triumvirate, Miss Seward, who +knew them well, tells us that Jackson admired Sir Brooke Boothby, and +worshipped and aped Dr. Darwin. He became a useful drudge to each in +their joint work, the translation of the Linnaean system of vegetation +into English from the Latin. His illustrious coadjutors exacted of him +fidelity to the sense of their author, and they corrected Jackson's +inelegant English, weeding it of its pompous coarseness. Darwin had +already conceived the design of turning the Linnaean system into a poem, +which, after he had composed it, was long handed about in manuscript; +and, I believe, frequently revised and altered with the most sedulous +care. The stage on which he has introduced his fancied Queen of Botany, +and her attendants from the Rosicrusian world, has the recommendation of +being a real spot of ground within a mile of the place he inhabited. A +few years ago it retained many traces of the diligence he had bestowed +on it, and has probably not yet entirely lost them. Of this work, called +the Botanic Garden, which he retained till he thought there was no +danger of his medical character suffering from his being known as a +poet, he published, in 1789, the second part, containing the Loves of +the Plants, first; believing it to be more level to the apprehension of +ordinary readers. It soon made its way to an almost universal +popularity. With the lovers of poetry, the novelty of the subject, and +the high polish, as it was then considered, of the verse, secured it +many favourers, and the curiosity of the naturalist was not less +gratified by the various information and the fanciful conjectures which +abounded in the notes. The first part was given to the public in three +years after. + +In 1795 and 1796, appeared the two volumes of Zoonomia, or Laws of +Organic Life, the produce of long labour and much consideration. What +profit a physician may derive from this book I am unable to determine; +but I fear that the general reader will too often discover in it a +hazardous ingenuity, to which good sense and reason have been +sacrificed. When the writer of these pages, who was then his patient, +ventured to intimate the sensuality of one part of it to its author, he +himself immediately referred to the passage which was likely to have +raised the objection; and, on another occasion, as if to counteract this +prejudice in the mind of one whose confidence he might be desirous of +obtaining, he recommended to him the study of Paley's Moral Philosophy. + +In 1781, he married his second wife, the widow of Colonel Pole, of +Radburne, near Derby, with whom he appears to have lived as happily as +he had done with his first. By her persuasion, he was induced to pass +the latter part of his days at Derby. Here his medical practice was not +at all lessened; and he had a second family to provide for out of the +emolument which it brought him. His other publications were a Tract on +Female Education, a slight performance, written for the purpose of +recommending a school kept by some ladies, in whose welfare his relation +to them gave him a warm interest; and a long book in 1800, on the +Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, which he entitled Phytologia. + +On Lady Day, 1802, he took possession of an old house, called the +Priory, which had belonged to his son Erasmus, and was situated at a +short distance from Derby; and on the 17th of the next month, while he +was writing to his friend, Mr. Edgeworth, the following letter, he was +arrested by the sudden approach of death. + + * * * * * + + Priory, near Derby, April 17, 1802. + + Dear Edgeworth,--I am glad to find that you still amuse yourself with + mechanism, in spite of the troubles of Ireland. + + The use of turning aside, or downwards, the claw of a table, I don't + see, as it must be reared against a wall, for it will not stand alone. + If the use be for carriage, the feet may shut up, like the usual brass + feet of a reflecting telescope. + + We have all been now removed from Derby about a fortnight, to the + Priory, and all of us like our change of situation. We have a pleasant + home, a good garden, ponds full of fish, and a pleasing valley + somewhat like Shenstone's--deep, umbrageous, and with a talkative + stream running down it. Our home is near the top of the valley, well + screened by hills from the east and north, and open to the south, + where at four miles' distance we see Derby Tower. + + Four or more strong springs rise near the house, and have formed the + valley, which, like that of Petrarch, may be called Valchiusa, as it + begins, or is shut at the situation of the house. I hope you like the + description, and hope farther, that yourself or any part of your + family will sometime do me the pleasure of a visit. + + Pray tell the authoress that the water-nymphs of our valley will be + happy to assist her next novel. + + My bookseller, Mr. Johnson, will not begin to print the Temple of + Nature till the price of paper is fixed by Parliament. I suppose the + present duty is paid + + * * * * * + +To this imperfect sentence was added on the opposite side by another +hand; + + Sir,--This family is in the greatest affliction. I am truly grieved to + inform you of the death of the invaluable Dr. Darwin. Dr. Darwin got + up apparently in good health; about eight o'clock, he rang the library + bell. The servant who went, said he appeared fainting. He revived + again. Mrs. Darwin was immediately called. The Doctor spoke often, but + soon appeared fainting; and died about one o'clock. + + Our dear Mrs. Darwin and family are inconsolable: their affliction is + great indeed, there being few such husbands or fathers. He will be + most deservedly lamented by all who had the honour of being known to + him. + + I remain, Sir, + + Your obedient humble servant, + + S.M. + + P.S. This letter was begun this morning by Dr. Darwin himself. + +The complaint which thus suddenly terminated his life, in his +seventy-first year, was the Angina Pectoris. + +The Temple of Nature was printed in the year after his death; but the +public had either read enough of his writings or were occupied with +other things, for little attention was paid to this poetical bequest. +That ingenious burlesque of his manner, the Loves of the Triangles, +probably contributed to loosen the spell by which he had for a while +taken the general ear. + +His person is well described by his biographer, Miss Seward, as being +above the middle size, his form athletic, and his limbs too heavy for +exact proportion; his countenance marked by the traces of a severe +small-pox, and, when not animated by social pleasure, rather saturnine +than sprightly. In youth his exterior was rendered agreeable by florid +health, and a smile that indicated good-humour. His portrait, by Wright +of Derby, gives a very exact, but inanimate, representation of his form +and features. In justice to the painter, it must be told, that I believe +the likeness to have been taken after death. + +In his medical practice he was by some accused of empiricism. From this +charge, both Miss Seward and Mr. Edgeworth have, I think, justly +vindicated him. The former has recorded a project which he suggested, on +the supposed authority of some old practitioners, but which he did not +execute, for curing one of his consumptive patients by the transfusing +of blood from the veins of a person in health. I have been told, that +when a mother, who seemed to be in the paroxysm of a delirium, expressed +an earnest wish to take her infant into her arms, and her attendants +were fearful of indulging her lest she should do some violence to the +object of her affection, he desired them to commit it to her without +apprehension, and that the result was an immediate abatement of her +disorder. This was an instance rather of strong sagacity than of +extraordinary boldness; for nothing less than a well-founded confidence +in the safety of the experiment could have induced him to hazard it. + +I know not whether it be worth relating, that when sent for to a +nobleman, at Buxton, who conceived his health to have suffered by the +use of tea, to which he was immoderately addicted, Darwin rang the bell, +and ordered a pot of strong green tea to be brought up, and, filling +both his patient's cup and his own, encouraged him to frequent and +lavish draughts. I have heard that he was impatient of inquiries which +related to diet; thinking, I suppose, that after the age of childhood, +in ordinary cases, each person might regulate it best for himself. But +from an almost entire abstinence from fermented liquors, he was, both by +precept and example, a strenuous adviser. "He believed," says Miss +Edgeworth, in her Memoirs of her Father, "that almost all the distempers +of the higher classes of people arise from drinking, in some form or +other, too much vinous spirit. To this he attributed the aristocratic +disease of gout, the jaundice, and all bilious or liver complaints; in +short all the family of pain. This opinion he supported in his writings +with the force of his eloquence and reason; and still more in +conversation, by all those powers of wit, satire, and peculiar humour, +which never appeared fully to the public in his works, but which gained +him strong ascendancy in private society. During his lifetime, he almost +banished wine from the tables of the rich of his acquaintance; and +persuaded most of the gentry in his own and the neighbouring counties to +become water-drinkers." Here, I doubt, Miss Edgeworth has a little +over-rated the extent of his influence. "Partly in jest, and partly in +earnest, he expressed his suspicions, and carried his inferences on this +subject, to a preposterous excess. When he heard that my father was +bilious, he suspected that this must be the consequence of his having, +since his residence in Ireland, and in compliance with the fashion of +the country, indulged too freely in drinking. His letter, I remember, +concluded with--Farewell, my dear friend. God keep you from whiskey--if +he can." + +His opinion respecting the safety of inoculating for the small-pox at a +proper age, as it was expressed in the following letter to the writer of +these pages, will be satisfactory to such parents as are yet unconvinced +of the efficacy of vaccination; and his opinion is the more valuable, +because it was given at a time when there was neither prejudice nor +prepossession on the subject. + + _Derby, Oct_. 9, 1797. + + Dear Sir,--On the best inquiry I have been able to make to-day, I + cannot hear that the small-pox is in Derby. I can only add, that all + those who have died by inoculation, whom I have heard of these last + twenty years, have been children at the breast; on which account it + may be safer to defer inoculation till four or five years old, if + there be otherwise no hazard of taking the disease naturally. + + I am, &c. + + E. DARWIN. + +On the accounts which his patients gave him of their own maladies, he +placed so little dependence, that he thought it necessary to wring the +truth from them as a lawyer would do from an unwilling witness. His +general distrust of others, in all that related to themselves, is well +exemplified by a casual remark that has been lately repeated to me by a +respectable dignitary of the church, to whom when he was apologizing for +his want of skill in the game of chess, at which they were going to +play, Darwin answered, that he made it a rule, not to believe either the +good or the harm that men spoke of themselves. + +This want of reliance in the sincerity of those with whom he conversed +has been attributed, with some colour of reason, to his habitual +scepticism on matters of higher moment. Mr. Fellowes has observed of +him, that he dwelt so much and so exclusively on second causes, that he +seems to have forgotten that there is a first. There is no solution of +natural effects to which he was not ready to listen, provided it would +assist him in getting rid of what he considered an unnecessary +intervention of the Supreme Being. A fibre capable of irritability was +with him enough to account, not only for the origin of animal life, but +for its progress through all its stages. He had thus involved himself in +the grossest materialism; but, being endued with an active fancy, he +engendered on it theories so wild and chimerical, that they might be +regarded with the same kind of wonder as the fictions of romance, if our +pleasure were not continually checked by remembering the error in which +they originate. What more prodigious transformation shall we read of in +Ovid, than that which he supposes the organs of his strange ens to have +undergone during the change of our globe from moist to dry? + + As in dry air the sea-born stranger roves, + Each muscle quickens, and each sense improves; + Cold gills aquatic form respiring lungs, + And sounds aerial flow from slimy tongues. + + _Temple of Nature,_ c. 1. + +The peculiarities of the shapes of animals, which distinguished them +from each other, he supposes to have been gradually formed by these same +irritable fibres, and to have been varied by reproduction. As to the +faculties of sensation, volition, and association, they come in +afterwards as matters of course, and in a manner so easy and natural, +that the only wonder is, what had kept them waiting so long. He +mentions, with something like approbation, the hypothesis of Buffon and +Helvetius, who, as he tells us, seem to imagine, that mankind arose from +one family of monkeys, on the banks of the Mediterranean, who +accidentally had learned to use the adductor pollicis, or that strong +muscle which constitutes the ball of the thumb and draws the point of it +to meet the points of the fingers, which common monkeys do not; and that +this muscle gradually increased in size, strength and activity, in +successive generations; and that, by this improved use of the sense of +the touch, monkeys acquired clear ideas, and gradually became men. + +To this he gravely adds, that perhaps all the productions of nature are +in their progress to greater perfection! an idea countenanced by modern +discoveries and deductions concerning the progressive formation of the +solid parts of this terraqueous globe, and consonant of the dignity of +the Creator. + +His description of the way in which clear ideas were acquired is not +much improved when he puts it into verse. + + Nerved with fine touch above the bestial throngs, + The hand, first gift of Heaven! to man belongs: + Untipt with claws, the circling fingers close, + With rival points the bending thumbs oppose, + Trace the nice lines of form with sense refined, + And clear ideas charm the thinking mind. + + _Temple of Nature_, c. 3. + +He tells us of a naturalist who had found out a shorter cut to the +production of animal life, who thought it not impossible that the first +insects were the anthers and stigmas of flowers, which had by some means +loosened themselves, from their parent plant, and that other insects in +process of time had been formed from these; some acquiring wings, others +fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure food, or +to secure themselves from injury. What hindered but these insects might +have acquired hands, and by those means clear ideas also, is not +explained to us. + +As great improvements, however, have certainly been made in some way or +other, he sees reason to hope that not less important ameliorations may +in time succeed. If our improved chemistry (says he,) should ever +discover the art of making sugar from fossile or aerial matter, without +the assistance of vegetation, food for animals would then become as +plentiful as water, and they might live upon the earth without preying +on each other, as thick as blades of grass, without restraint to their +numbers but the want of local room: no very comfortable prospect, it +must be owned, especially to those who are aware of the alarming ratio +in which, according to later discoveries, population is found to +multiply itself; a consummation that would scarcely produce that at +which he thought it the chief duty of a philosopher to aim: namely, the +greatest possible quantity of human happiness. On being made acquainted +with reveries such as these, through the means of the press, we are +inclined to doubt the justice of his encomium on the art of printing, +since which discovery, he tells us, superstition has been much lessened +by the reformation of religion; and necromancy, astrology, chiromancy, +witchcraft, and vampyrism, have vanished from all classes of society; +though some are still so weak in the present enlightened times as to +believe in the prodigies of animal magnetism, and of metallic tractors. +What then is to be said of the prodigies of spontaneous vitality? To a +system which removes the Author of all so far from our contemplation, we +might well prefer the faith of + + --the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind + Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind. + +The father of English poetry, who well knew what qualities and habits +might with most probability be assigned to men of different professions, +has made it a trait in the character of his Doctour of Phisike, that + + His study was but little in the Bible. + + Though there are illustrious examples of the contrary, yet it may +sometimes be with the physician as Shakspeare said of himself, when +complaining of the influence which the business of a player had on his +mind, that + + --his nature is subdued + To that it works in. + + A propensity to materialism had not, however, so subdued the mind of +Darwin, as to prevent him from acknowledging the existence of what he +terms the Great Cause of Causes, Parent of Parents, Ens Entium. Nay, he +went the length of maintaining, that his doctrine of spontaneous +vitality was not inconsistent with Scripture. + +But whatever may be thought of his creed, it must be recorded of him +that he discharged some of the best duties of religion in a manner that +would have become its most zealous professors. He was bountiful to the +poor, and hospitable to his equals. To the inferior clergy, when he +resided at Lichfield, he gave his advice unfeed, and he attended +diligently to the health of those who were unable to requite him. +Johnson is said, when he visited his native city, to have shunned the +society of Darwin: Cowper, who certainly was as firm a believer as +Johnson, thought it no disparagement to his orthodoxy, to address some +complimentary verses to him on the publication of his Botanic Garden. + +This poem ought not to be considered more than as a capriccio, or sport +of the fancy, on which he has expended much labour to little purpose. It +does not pretend to anything like correctness of design, or continuity +of action. It is like a picture of Breughel's, where every thing is +highly coloured, and every thing out of order. In the first part, called +the Economy of Vegetation, the Goddess of Botany appears with her +attendants, the Powers of the Four Elements, for no other purpose than +to describe to them their several functions in carrying on the +operations of nature. In the second, which has no necessary connection +with the first, the Botanic Muse describes the Loves of the Plants. Here +the fiction is puerile, and built on a system which is itself in danger +of vanishing into air. At the end of the second canto, the Muse takes a +dish of tea, which I think is the only thing of any consequence that is +done throughout. The second part has been charged with an immoral +tendency; but Miss Seward has observed, with much truth, that it is a +burlesque upon morality to make the amours of the plants responsible at +its tribunal; and that the impurity is in the imagination of the reader, +not in the pages of the poet. For these amours, he might have found a +better motto than that which he has prefixed from Claudian, in the +following stanza of Marini. + + Ne' fior ne' fiori istessi Amor ha loco, + Ama il giglio il ligustro e l'amaranto, + E Narciso e Giacinto, Ajace e Croco, + E con la bella Clitia il vago Acanto; + Arde la Rosa di vermiglio foco, + L'odor sospiro e la rugiada e pianto: + Ride la Calta, e pallida e essangue + Vinta d'amor la violetta langue. + + _Adone_, Canto 6. + +He was apt to confound the odd with the grotesque, and to mistake the +absurd for the fanciful. By an excellent landscape-painter now living, I +was told that Darwin proposed as a subject for his pencil, a shower, in +which there should be represented a red-breast holding up an expanded +umbrella in its claws. + +An Italian critic, following a division made by Plotinus, has +distributed the poets into three classes, which he calls the musical, +the amatorial, and the philosophic. In the first, he places those who +are studious of softness and harmony in their numbers; in the second, +such as content themselves with describing accurately the outward +appearances of real or fanciful objects; and in the third, those who +penetrate to the qualities of things, draw out their hidden beauties, +and separate what is really and truly fair from that which has only its +exterior semblance. Among the second of these, Darwin might claim for +himself no mean station. It was, indeed, a notion he had taken up, that +as the ideas derived from visible objects (to use his own words) are +more distinct than those derived from any other source, the words +expressive of those ideas belonging to vision make up the principal part +of poetic language. So entirely was he engrossed by this persuasion, as, +too frequently, to forget that the admirers of poetry have not only eyes +but ears and hearts also; and that therefore harmony and pathos are +required of the poet, no less than a faithful delineation of visible +objects. + +Yet there is something in his versification also that may be considered +as his own. His numbers have less resemblance to Pope's, than Pope's to +those of Dryden. Whether the novelty be such as to reflect much credit +on the inventor, is another question. His secret, was, I think, to take +those lines in Pope which seemed to him the most diligently elaborated, +and to model his own upon them. But with those forms of verse which he +borrowed more particularly from Pope, in which one part is equally +balanced by the other, and of which each is complete in itself without +reference to those which precede or follow it, he has mingled one or two +others that had been used by our elder poets, but almost entirely +rejected by the refiners of the couplet measure till the time of +Langhorne; as where the substantive and its epithet are so placed, that +the latter makes the end of an iambic in the second, and the former the +beginning of a trochee in the third foot. + +And showers | th[)e] st[=i]ll | sn[=o]w fr[)o]m | his hoary urns. +_Darwin, Botanic Garden_, p. I, c. 2, 28. + +Or dart | th[)e] r[=e]d | fl[=a]sh thr[)o]ugh | the circling band. +_Ibid_. 361. + +Or rests | h[)e]r fa[=i]r | ch[=e]ek [)o]n | his curled brows. +_Ibid_. c. 2, 252. + +Deserve | [)a] sw[=e]et | l[=o]ok fr[)o]m | Demetrius' eye. +_Shakspeare, Mid. N. D._ + +Infect | th[)e] so[=u]nd | p[=i]ne [)a]nd | divert his grain. +_Shakespeare, Tempest._ + +Which on | thy s[=o]ft | ch[=e]ek f[)o]r | complexion dwells. +_Shakspeare, Sonnet_ 99. + +To lay | th[)e]ir j[=u]st | h[=a]nds [)o]n | the golden key. +_Milton, Comus_. + +Or where they make the end of an iambic in the first, and the beginning +of a spondee in the second foot, as + +Th[)e] w[=a]n | st[=a]rs gl[=i]m|mering through its silver train. +_Botanic Garden_, p. I, c. I, 135. + +Th[)e] br[=i]ght | dr[=o]ps r[=o]l|ling from her lifted arms. +_Ibid_. c. 2, 59. + +Th[)e] p[=a]le | l[=a]mp gl[=i]m|mering through the sculptur'd ice. +_Ibid_. 134. + +H[)e]r fa[=i]r | ch[=e]ek pr[=e]ss'd | upon her lily hand. +_Temple of Nature_, c. I, 436. + +Th[)e] fo[=u]l | b[=o]ar's c[=o]n|quest on her fair delight. +_Shakspeare, Venus and Adonis_, 1030. + +Th[)e] r[=e]d | bl[=o]od r[=o]ck'd | to show the painter's strife. +_Ibid._ _Rape of Lucrece_, 1377. + +There is so little complexity in the construction of his sentences, +that they may generally be reduced to a few of the first and simplest +rules of syntax. On these he rings what changes he may, by putting the +verb before its nominative or vocative case. Thus in the following +verses from the Temple of Nature: + + On rapid feet o'er hills, and plains, and rocks, + Speed the sacred leveret and rapacious fox; + On rapid pinions cleave the fields above, + The hawk descending, and escaping dove; + With nicer nostril track the tainted ground, + The hungry vulture, and the prowling hound; + Converge reflected light with nicer eye, + The midnight owl, and microscopic fly; + + With finer ear pursue their nightly course, + The listening lion, and the alarmed horse. + + C. 3, 93. + +Sometimes he alternates the forms; as + + In Eden's groves, the cradle of the world, + Bloom'd a fair tree with mystic flowers unfurl'd; + On bending branches, as aloft it sprung, + Forbid to taste, the fruit of knowledge hung; + Flow'd with sweet innocence the tranquil hours, + And love and beauty warm'd the blissful bowers. + + _Ibid._ 449. + +The last line or the middle of the last line in almost every sentence +throughout his poems, begins with a conjunction affirmative or negative, +_and_, or _nor_; and this last line is often so weak, that it breaks +down under the rest. Thus in this very pretty impression, as it may +almost be called, of an ancient gem; + + So playful Love on Ida's flowery sides + With ribbon-rein the indignant lion guides; + Pleased on his brindled back the lyre he rings, + And shakes delirious rapture from the strings; + Slow as the pausing monarch stalks along, + Sheathes his retractile claws, and drinks the song. + Soft nymphs on timid step the triumph view, + And listening fauns with beating hoofs pursue; + With pointed ears the alarmed forest starts, + And love and music soften savage hearts. + + _Botanic Garden_, c. 4. 252. + +And in an exceedingly happy description of what is termed the +picturesque: + + The rush-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor, + Where ruddy children frolic round the door, + The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, + The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, + The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare + Through the long tissue of his hoary hair, + As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall, + And crops the ivy which prevents its fall, + With rural charms the tranquil mind delight, + And form a picture to the admiring sight. + + _Temple of Nature_, c. 3, 248. + +And in his lines on the Eagle, from another gem: + + So when with bristling plumes the bird of Jove, + Vindictive leaves the argent fields above, + Borne on broad wings the guilty world he awes, + And grasps the lightning in his shining claws. + + _Botanic Garden_, p. I, c. I, 205. + +where I cannot but observe the peculiar beauty of the epithet applied to +the plumes of the eagle. It is the right translation of the word by +which Pindar has described the ruffling of the wings on the back of +Zetes and Calais. + + [Greek:--pteroisin naeta pephrikontas ampho porphyreois.] + +Pyth. 4, 326. + +which an Italian translator has entirely mistaken; + + Uomin' ambi, ch'orrore a' risguardanti + Facean coi rosseggianti + Vanni del tergo. + +But Darwin could have known nothing of Pindar; and the word may perhaps +he found with a similar application in one of our own poets. + +As the singularity of his poems caused them to be too much admired at +first, so are they now more neglected than they deserve. There is about +as much variety in them as in a bed of tulips, of which the shape is the +same in all, except that some are a little more rounded at the points +than others; yet they are diversely streaked and freckled, with a +profusion of gay tints, in which the bizarre (as it is called by the +fanciers of that flower) prevails. They are a sight for one half hour in +the spring, and no more; and are utterly devoid of odour. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE. + +William Julius Mickle was born on the 29th of September, 1734, at +Longholm, in the county of Dumfries, of which place his father, +Alexander Meikle, or Mickle, a minister of the church of Scotland, was +pastor. His mother was Julia, daughter of Thomas Henderson, of +Ploughlands, near Edinburgh. In his thirteenth year, his love of poetry +was kindled by reading Spenser's Faery Queen. Two years after, his +father, who was grown old and infirm, and had a large family to educate, +by an unusual indulgence obtained permission to reside in Edinburgh, +where Mickle was admitted a pupil at the High School. Here he remained +long enough to acquire a relish for the Greek and Latin classics. When +he was seventeen years old, his father unluckily embarking his capital +in a brewery, which the death of his wife's brother had left without a +manager, William was taken from school, and employed as clerk under the +eldest son, in whose name the business was carried on. At first he must +have been attentive enough to his employment; for on his coming of age, +the property was made over to him, on the condition of paying his family +a certain share of the profits arising from it. Afterwards, he suffered +himself to be seduced from business by the attractions of literature. +His father died in 1758; and, in about three years he published, without +his name, Knowledge, an Ode, and a Night Piece, the former of which had +been written in his eighteenth year. In both there is more of +seriousness and reflection than of that fancy which marks his subsequent +productions. Beside these, he had finished a drama, called the Death of +Socrates, of which, if we may judge from his other tragedy, the loss is +not to be lamented, and he had begun a poem on Providence. The +difficulties consequent on his trusting to servants the work of his +brewery, which he was too indolent to superintend himself, and on his +joining in security for a large sum with a printer who failed, were now +gathering fast upon him. His creditors became clamorous; and at +Candlemas (one of the quarter days in Scotland) 1762, being equally +unwilling to compound with them, as his brother advised him to do, and +unable to satisfy their demands, he prevailed on them to accept his +notes of hand, payable in four months. When the time was expired, he +found himself, as might have been expected, involved in embarrassments +from which he could devise no means of escaping. His mind was harassed +by bitter reflections on the distress which threatened those whom his +parent had left to his protection; and he was scared by the terrors of a +jail. But they, with whom he had to reckon, were again lenient. He +consoled himself with recollecting that his delinquency had proceeded +from inadvertence, not from design, and resolved to be more sedulous in +future: but had still the weakness to trust for relief to his poem on +Providence. This was soon after published by Dodsley, and, that it might +win for itself such advantages as patronage could give, was sent to Lord +Lyttelton, under the assumed name of William Moore, with a +representation that the author was a youth, friendless and unknown, and +with the offer of a dedication if the poem should be again edited. This +proceeding did not evince much knowledge of mankind. A poet has as +seldom gained a patron as a mistress, by solicitation to which no +previous encouragement has been given. It was more than half a year +before he received an answer from Lyttelton, with just kindness enough +to keep alive his expectations. In the meantime, the friendly offices of +a carpenter in Edinburgh, whose name was Good, had been exerted to save +his property from being seized for rent; but the fear of arrest impelled +him to quit that city in haste; and embarking on board a coal vessel at +Newcastle, he reached London, pennyless, in May, 1763. His immediate +necessities were supplied by remittances from his brothers, and by such +profits as he could derive from writing for periodical publications. +There is no reason to suppose that he was indebted to Lyttelton for more +than the commendation of his genius, and for some criticism on his +poems; and even this favour was denied to the most beautiful among them, +his Elegy on Mary, Queen of Scots. The cause assigned for the exclusion +was, that poetry should not consecrate what history must condemn, a +sacred principle if it he applied to the characters of those yet living, +but of more doubtful obligation as it regards past times. When +Euripides, in one of his dramas, chose to avail himself of a wild and +unauthorized tradition, and to represent Helen as spotless, he surely +violated no sanction of moral truth; and in the instance of Mary, Mickle +might have pleaded some uncertainty which a poet was at liberty to +interpret to the better part. + +During his courtship of Lyttelton he was fed at one time by hopes of +being recommended in the West Indies; and, at another, of being served +in the East; till by degrees the great man waxed so cold, that he wisely +relinquished his suit. His next project was to go out as a merchant's +clerk to Carolina; but some unexpected occurrences defeating this plan +also, he engaged himself as corrector of the Clarendon press, at Oxford. +Here he published (in 1767) the Concubine, a poem, in the manner of +Spenser, to which, when it was printed, ten years after, having in the +meantime passed through several editions, he gave the title of Syr +Martyn. + +Early in life, his zeal for religion had shewn itself in some remarks on +an impious book termed the History of the Man after God's own Heart; and +in 1767, the same feelings induced him to publish A Vindication of the +Divinity of Jesus Christ, in a Letter to Dr. Harwood; and, in the year +following, Voltaire in the Shades, or Dialogues on the Deistical +Controversy. + +He was now willing to try his fortune with a tragedy, and sent his Siege +of Marseilles to Garrick, who observed to him, that though abounding in +beautiful passages, it was deficient in dramatic art, and advised him to +model it anew; in which task, having been assisted by the author of +Douglas, and having submitted the rifacciamento of his play to the two +Wartons, by whom he was much regarded, he promised himself better +success; but had the mortification to meet with a second rebuff. An +appeal from the manager to the public was his unquestioned privilege; +but not contented with seeking redress by these means, he threatened +Garrick with a new Dunciad. The rejection which his drama afterwards +underwent at each of the playhouses, from the respective managers, +Harris and Sheridan, perhaps taught him at least to suspect his own +judgment. + +In 1772, being employed to edit Pearch's Collection of Poems, he +inserted amongst them his Hengist and Mey, and the Elegy on Mary. About +the same time he wrote for the Whitehall Evening Post. But his mind was +now attracted to a more splendid project. This was a translation of the +great Epic Poem of Portugal, the Lusiad of Camoens, which had as yet +been represented to the English reader only through the inadequate +version of Fanshaw. That nothing might hinder his prosecution of this +labour, he resigned his employment at Oxford, and retired to a farm-house +at Forrest-hill, about five miles from that city, the village in +which Milton found his first wife, and where Mickle afterwards found his +in the daughter of his landlord. By the end of 1775, his translation was +completed and published at Oxford, with a numerous list of subscribers. +Experience had not yet taught him wariness in his approaches to his +patron. At the suggestion of his relative, Commodore Johnstone, in an +unlucky moment he inscribed his book to the Duke of Buccleugh. This +nobleman had declared his acceptance of the dedication in a manner so +gracious, that Mickle was once more decoyed with the hope of having +found a powerful protector. After an interval of some months, he learnt +that his incense had not been permitted to enter the nostrils of the new +idol, and that his offering lay, where he left it, without the slightest +notice. For this disappointment he might have considered it to be some +compensation that his work had procured him the kindness of those who +were more able to estimate it. Mr. Crowe assisted him in compiling the +notes; Lowth offered to ordain him, with the promise of making some +provision for him in the church; and one, whose humanity and candour are +among the chief ornaments of the bench on which Lowth then sate, Doctor +Bathurst, soothed him by those benevolent offices which he delights to +extend to the neglected and the oppressed. Nor were the public +insensible to the value of his translation. A second edition was called +for in 1778; and his gains amounted on the whole to near a thousand +pounds, a larger sum than was likely to fall to the share of an author, +who so little understood the art of making his way in the world. It was +not, however, considerable enough to last long against the calls made on +it for the payment of old debts, and for the support of his sisters; and +he was devising further means of supplying his necessities by a +subscription for his poems, when Commodore Johnstone (in 1779) being +appointed to head a squadron of ships, nominated him his secretary, on +board the Romney. Mickle had hitherto struggled through a life of +anxiety and indigence; but a gleam of prosperity came over the few years +that remained. A good share of prize-money fell to his lot; and the +squadron having been fortunately ordered to Lisbon, he was there +received with so much distinction, that it would seem as if the +Portuguese had been willing to make some amends for their neglect of +Camoens, by the deference which they shewed his translator. Prince John, +the uncle to the Queen, was ready on the Quay to welcome him at landing; +and during a residence of more than six months he was gratified by the +attentions of the principal men of the country. At the first institution +of the Royal Academy at Lisbon, he was enrolled one of the Members. Here +he composed Almada Hill, an epistle from Lisbon, which was published in +the next year; and designing to write a History of Portugal, he brought +together some materials for that purpose. + +When he had returned to England, he was so much enriched by his agency +for the disposal of the prizes which had been made during the cruise, +and by his own portion of the prize-money, that he was enabled to +discharge honourably the claims which his creditors still had on him, +and to settle himself with a prospect of independence and ease. He +accordingly married Mary, the daughter of Mr. Robert Tompkins, of +Forrest-hill, and took a house at Wheatley, a little village about five +miles from Oxford. Some interruption to his tranquillity occurred from +the failure of a banker, with whom his agency had connected him, and +from a chancery suit, in which he too hastily engaged to secure a part +of his wife's fortune. He then resumed his intention of publishing his +poems by subscription, and continued still to exercise his pen. His +remaining productions were a tract, entitled The Prophecy of Queen Emma, +an ancient Ballad, &c., with Hints towards a Vindication of the +Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian and Rowley (in 1782), and some +essays, called Fragments of Leo, and some reviews of books, both which +he contributed to the European Magazine. He died after a short illness, +on the 25th of October, 1788, at Forrest-hill, while on a visit at the +house of his father-in-law; and was buried at that place. He left one +son, who was an extra-clerk in the India House, in 1806, when the Life +of Mickle was written by the Rev. John Sim, a friend on whom he enjoined +that task, and who, I doubt not, has performed it with fidelity. + +Mickle was a man of strong natural powers, which he had not always +properly under controul. When he is satisfied to describe with little +apparent effort what he has himself felt or conceived, as in his ballads +and songs, he is at times eminently happy. He has generally erred on the +side of the too much rather than of the too little. His defect is not so +much want of genius as of taste. His thoughts were forcible and vivid; +but the words in which he clothed them, are sometimes ill-chosen, and +sometimes awkwardly disposed. He degenerates occasionally into mere +turgidness and verbosity, as in the following lines: + + Oh, partner of my infant grief and joys! + Big with the scenes now past my heart o'erflows, + Bids each endearment fair at once to rise, + And dwells luxurious on her melting woes. + + When his stanza forced him to lop off this vain superfluity of words, +that the sense might be brought within a narrower compass, he succeeded +better. Who would suppose, that these verses could have proceeded from +the same man that had written the well known song, beginning "And are ye +sure the news is true," from which there is not a word that can he taken +without injury, and which seems so well to answer the description of a +simple and popular song in Shakspeare? + + --It is old and plain: + The songsters, and the knitters in the sun, + And the free maids that weave their threads with bone, + Do use to chaunt it. It is silly sooth, + And dallies with the innocence of love, + Like the old age. + +Syr Martyn is the longest of his poems. He could not have chosen a +subject in itself much less capable of embellishment. But whatever the +pomp of machinery or profuseness of description could contribute to its +decoration has not been spared. After an elaborate invocation of the +powers that preside over the stream of Mulla, a "reverend wizard" is +conjured up in the eye of the poet; and the wizard in his turn conjures +up scene after scene, in which appear the hopeful young knight, Syr +Martyn, "possest of goodly Baronie," the dairy-maid, Kathrin, by whose +wiles he is inveigled into an illicit amour, the good aunt who soon dies +of chagrin at this unworthy attachment, the young brood who are the +offspring of the ill-sorted match, his brother, an openhearted sailor, +who is hindered by the artifices of Kathrin from gaining access to the +house, and lastly, the "fair nymph Dissipation," with whom Syr Martyn +seeks refuge from his unpleasant recollections, and who conspires with +"the lazy fiend, Self-Imposition," to conduct him to the "dreary cave of +Discontent," where the poet leaves him, and "the reverend wizard" (for +aught we hear to the contrary) in his company. Mean and familiar +incidents and characters do not sort well with allegory, which requires +beings that are themselves somewhat removed from the common sphere of +human nature to meet and join it a little beyond the limits of this +world. Yet in this tale, incongruous and disjointed as the dream of a +sick man, velut aegri somnia, he has interspersed some lines, and even +whole stanzas, to which the poet or the painter may turn again and again +with delight, though the common reader will scarce find them sufficient +to redeem the want of interest that pervades the whole. + +His elegy on Mary, Queen of Scots, is also a vision, but it is better +managed, at once mournful and sweet. He has thrown a pall of gorgeous +embroidery over the bloody hearse of Mary. + +Wolfwold and Ella, of which the story was suggested by a picture of +Mortimer's, is itself a picture, in which the fine colouring and +spirited attitudes reconcile us to its horrors. + +His tragedy is a tissue of love and intrigue, with sudden starts of +passion, and unprepared and improbable turns of resolution and temper. +Towards the conclusion, one of the female characters puts an end to +herself, for little apparent reason, except that it is the fifth act, +and some blood must therefore be shed; Garrick's refusal, in all +likelihood, spared him the worse mortification of seeing it rejected on +the stage. Yet there is here and there in it a masterly touch like the +following: + + Either my mind has lost its energy, + Or the unbodied spirits of my fathers, + Beneath the night's dark wings, pass to and fro, + In doleful agitation hovering round me. + Methought my father, with a mournful look, + Beheld me. Sudden from unconscious pause + I wak'd, and but his marble bust was here. + +Almada Hill has some just sentiments, and some pleasing imagery; but +both are involved in the mazes of an unskilful or ambitious phraseology, +from which it is a work of trouble to extricate them. It was about this +time, that the laboured style in poetry had reached its height. Not "to +loiter into prose," of which Lyttelton bade him beware, was the grand +aim; and in their eagerness to leave prose as far behind them as +possible, the poets were in danger of outstripping the understanding and +feelings of their readers. It was this want of ease and perspicuity in +his longer pieces, which prevented Mickle from being as much a favourite +with the public, as many who were far his inferiors in the other +qualities of a poet. When a writer is obscure, only because his +reasoning is too abstruse, his fancy too lively, or his allusions too +learned for the vulgar, it is more just that we should complain of +ourselves for not being able to rise to his level, than of him for not +descending to our's. But let the difficulty arise from mere +imperfections of language, and the consciousness of having solved an +involuntary enigma is scarcely sufficient to reward our pains. + +The translation of the Lusiad is that by which he is best known. In +this, as in his original poems, the expression is sometimes very faulty; +but he is never flat or insipid. In the numbers, there is much sweetness +and freedom: and though they have somewhat of the masculine melody of +Dryden, yet they have something also that is peculiarly his own. He has +in a few instances enriched the language of poetry by combinations +unborrowed from any of his predecessors. It is doubtful whether as much +can be said for Pope's translation of Homer. Almost all who have written +much in the couplet measure, since Waller clipped it into uniformity, +have been at times reduced to the necessity of eking out their lines in +some way or other so as to make the sense reach its prescribed bound. +Most have done it by means of epithets, which were always found to be +"friends in need." Mickle either breaks the lines with a freedom and +spirit which were then unusual, or repeats something of what has gone +before, a contrivance that ought to be employed sparingly, and used +chiefly when it is desirable to produce the effect of sweetness. + +The preference which he sometimes claims in the notes for his author, +above the other epic poets of ancient and modern times, is less likely +to conciliate the good opinion than to excite the disgust of his +readers. There is no artifice that a translator can resort to with less +chance of success, than this blowing of the showman's trumpet as he goes +on exhibiting the wonders of his original. There are some puerile +hyperboles, for which I know not whether he or Camoens is responsible; +such as-- + + The mountain echoes catch the big swoln sighs. + The yellow sands with tears are silver'd o'er. + +Johnson told him that he had once intended to translate the Lusiad. The +version would have had fewer faults, but it may be questioned whether +the general result would have been as much animation and harmony as have +been produced by Mickle. + +In addition to the poems, which were confessedly his, there are no less +than seventeen in Mr. Evans's collection of Ballads, of which a writer +in the Quarterly Review[1] some years ago expressed his suspicion that +they were from the pen of Mickle. It has been found on inquiry, that the +suggestion of this judicious critic is fully confirmed. One of these has +lately been brought into notice from its having formed the groundwork of +one of those deservedly popular stories, which have lately come to us +from the north of the Tweed. It is to be wished that Mickle's right in +all of them were formally recognized, and that they should be no longer +withheld from their place amongst his other poetical writings, to which +they would form so valuable an accession. + +FOOTNOTE +[1] For May 1810, No. VI. The title of the Ballads are Bishop Thurston, + and the King of Scots, Battle of Caton Moor, Murder of Prince + Arthur, Prince Edward, and Adam Gordon, Cumner Hall, Arabella + Stuart, Anna Bullen, the Lady and the Palmer, The Fair Maniac, The + Bridal Bed, The Lordling Peasant, The Red Cross Knight, The + Wandering Maid, The Triumph of Death, Julia, The Fruits of Jealousy, + and The Death of Allen. + + + * * * * * + + +JAMES BEATTIE. + +James Beattie was born on the 25th of October, 1735, at Laurencekirk, +in the county of Kincardine, in Scotland. His father, who kept a small +shop in that place, and rented a little farm near it, is said to have +been a man of acquirements superior to his condition. At his death, the +management of his concerns devolved on his widow. David, the eldest of +her six children, was of an age to assist his mother. James, the +youngest, she placed at the parish school of his native village, which +about forty years before had been raised to some celebrity by Ruddiman, +the grammarian, and was then kept by one Milne. This man had also a +competent skill in grammar. His other deficiencies were supplied by the +natural quickness of his pupil, and by the attention of Mr. Thomson, the +minister of Laurencekirk, who, being a man of learning, admitted young +Beattie to the use of his library, and probably animated him by his +encouragement. He very early became sensible to the charms of English +verse, to which he was first awakened by the perusal of Ogilby's Virgil. +Before he was ten years old, he was as well acquainted with that writer +and Homer, as the versions of Pope and Dryden could make him. His +schoolfellows distinguished him by the name of the Poet. + +At the age of fourteen, he was sent to Marischal College, Aberdeen, +where he attended the Greek class, taught by Dr. Blackwell, author of +the Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, and was by him singled out as the +most promising of his scholars. The slender pittance spared him by his +mother would scarcely have sufficed for his support, if he had not added +to it one of the bursaries or pensions that were bestowed on the most +deserving candidates. Of a discourse which he was called on to deliver +at the Divinity Hall, it was observed, that he spoke poetry in prose. +Thomson was censured for a similar impropriety in one of his youthful +exercises; but Beattie gained the applause of his audience. + +His academical education being completed, on the 1st of August, 1753, he +was satisfied with the humble appointment of parish-clerk and +schoolmaster at the village of Fordoun, about six miles distant from +Laurencekirk. Here he attracted the notice of Mr. Garden, at that time +sheriff of the county, and afterwards one of the Scotch judges, with the +appellation of Lord Gardenstown. In a romantic glen near his house, he +chanced to find Beattie with pencil and paper in his hand; and, on +questioning him, discovered that he was engaged in the composition of a +poem. Mr. Garden desired to see some of his other poems; and doubting +whether they were his own productions, requested him to translate the +invocation to Venus at the opening of Lucretius, which Beattie did in +such a manner as to remove his incredulity. In this retirement, he also +became known to Lord Monboddo, whose family seat was in the parish; and +a friendly intercourse ensued, which did not terminate till the death of +that learned but visionary man. In 1758, he was removed from his +employment at Fordoun, to that of usher in the Grammar School at +Aberdeen, for which he had been an unsuccessful competitor in the +preceding year, but was now nominated without the form of a trial. + +At Aberdeen, his heart seems to have taken up its rest; for no +temptations could afterwards seduce him for any length of time to quit +it. The professorship of Natural Philosophy in the Marischal College, +where he had lately been a student, being vacant in 1760, Mr. Arbuthnot, +one of his friends, exerted himself with so much zeal in the behalf of +Beattie, that he obtained that appointment; although the promotion was +such as his most sanguine wishes did not aspire to. Soon after he was +further gratified, by being permitted to exchange it for the +professorship of Moral Philosophy and Logic, for which he thought +himself better fitted. In discharge of the duties belonging to his new +function, he immediately entered on a course of lectures, which, as +appears from his diary in the possession of Sir William Forbes, he +repeated with much diligence for more than thirty years. + +This occupation could not have been very favourable to his poetical +propensity. He had, since his twentieth year, been occasionally a +contributor of verse to the Scots Magazine; and in 1760, he published a +collection of poems, inscribed to the Earl of Erroll, to whose +intervention he had been partly indebted for the office he held in the +college. Though the number of these pieces was not considerable, he +omitted several of them in subsequent editions, and among others a +translation of Virgil's Eclogues, some specimens of which, adduced in a +letter written by Lord Woodhouselee, author of the Principles of +Translation, will stand a comparison with the parallel passages in +Dryden and Warton. + +In the summer of 1763, his curiosity led him for the first time to +London, where Andrew Millar the bookseller, was almost his only +acquaintance. Of this journey no particular is recorded but that he +visited Pope's house at Twickenham. + +In 1765, having sent a letter of compliment to Gray, then on a visit to +the Earl of Strathmore, he was invited to Glammis Castle, the residence +of that nobleman, to meet the English poet, in whom he found such a +combination of excellence as he had hitherto been a stranger to. This +appears from a letter written to Sir William Forbes, his faithful friend +and biographer, with whom his intimacy commenced about the same time. + + I am sorry you did not see Mr. Gray on his return; you would have been + much pleased with him. Setting aside his merit as a poet, which, + however, in my opinion, is greater than any of his contemporaries can + boast, in this or in any other nation, I found him possessed of the + most exact taste, the soundest judgment, and the most extensive + learning. He is happy in a singular facility of expression. His + conversation abounds in original observations, delivered with no + appearance of sententious formality, and seeming to arise + spontaneously, without study or premeditation. I passed two very + agreeable days with him at Glammis, and found him as easy in his + manners, and as communicative and frank as I could have wished. + +Gray could not have requited him with such excess of admiration; but +continued during the rest of his life to regard Beattie with affection +and esteem. + +It was not till the spring of this year, when his Judgment of Paris was +printed, that he again appeared before the public as an author. This +piece he inserted in the next edition of his poems, in 1766, but his +more mature judgment afterwards induced him to reject it. Some satirical +verses on the death of Churchill, at first published without his name, +underwent the same fate. The Wolf and the Shepherds, a Fable, and an +Epistle to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Blacklock, which appeared in the second +edition, he also discarded from those subsequently published. He now +projected and began the Minstrel, the most popular of his poems. Had the +original plan been adhered to, it would have embraced a much wider +scope. + +In 1767, he married Mary, the daughter of Dr. Dun, rector of the Grammar +School at Aberdeen. This union was not productive of the happiness which +a long course of previous intimacy had entitled him to expect. The +object of his choice inherited from her mother a constitutional malady +which at first shewed itself in capricious waywardness, and at length +broke out into insanity. + +From this misery he sought refuge in the exercise of his mind. His +residence at Aberdeen had brought him into the society of several among +his countrymen who were engaged in researches well suited to employ his +attention to its utmost stretch. Of these the names of Reid, author of +An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense--and +Campbell, Principal of Marischal College, author of An Essay on +Miracles, are the most distinguished. His own correspondence with his +friends about this time evinces deep concern at the progress of the +sceptical philosophy, diffused by the writings of Hobbes, Hume, +Mandeville, and even, in his opinion, of Locke and Berkeley. Conceiving +the study of metaphysics itself to be the origin of this mischief, in +order that the evil might be intercepted at its source, he proposed to +demonstrate the futility of that science, and to appeal to the common +sense and unsophisticated feelings of mankind, as the only infallible +criterion on subjects in which it had formerly been made the standard. +That his meaning was excellent, no one can doubt; whether he discovered +the right remedy for the harm which he was desirous of removing, is much +more questionable. To magnify any branch of human knowledge beyond its +just importance may, indeed, tend to weaken the force of religious +faith; but many acute metaphysicans have been good Christians; and +before the question thus agitated can be set at rest, we must suppose a +certain proficiency in those inquiries which he would proscribe as +dangerous. After all, we can discover no more reason why sciolists in +metaphysics should bring that study into discredit, than that religion +itself should be disparaged through the extravagance of fanaticism. To +have met the subject fully, he ought to have shewn that not only those +opinions which he controverts are erroneous, but that all the systems of +former metaphysicians were so likewise. + +The Essay on Truth, in which he endeavoured to establish his own +hypothesis, being finished in 1769, he employed Sir William Forbes and +Mr. Arbuthnot to negotiate its sale with the booksellers. They, however, +refused to purchase it on any terms; and the work would have remained +unpublished, if his two friends, making use of a little pious fraud, had +not informed him that the manuscript was sold for fifty guineas, a sum +which they at the same time remitted him, and that they had stipulated +with the booksellers to be partakers in the profits. The book +accordingly appeared in the following year; and having gained many +admirers, was quickly followed by a second impression, which he revised +and corrected with much pains. + +In the autumn of 1771, he again visited London, where the reputation +obtained by the Essay and by the first book of the Minstrel, then +recently published, opened for him an introduction into the circles most +respectable for rank and literature. Lord Lyttelton declared that it +seemed to him his once most beloved minstrel, Thomson, was come down +from Heaven refined by the converse of purer spirits than those he lived +with here, to let him hear him sing again the beauties of nature and the +finest feelings of virtue, not with human, but with angelic strains. He +added his wishes that it were in his power to do Beattie any service. +From Mrs. Montagu he on different occasions received more substantial +tokens of regard. + +Except the trifling emolument derived from his writings, he had hitherto +been supported merely by the small income appended to his professorship. +But the Earl of Dartmouth, a nobleman to whom nothing that concerned the +interests of religion was indifferent, representing him as a fit object +of the royal bounty, a pension of two hundred pounds a year was now +granted him. Previously to his obtaining this favour, he was first +presented to the King, and was then honoured by an interview with both +their Majesties. The particulars of this visit were minutely recorded in +his diary. After much commendation of his Essay, the sovereign +pleasantly told him that he had never stolen but one book, and that was +his. "I stole it from the Queen," said his Majesty, "to give it to Lord +Hertford to read." In the course of the conversation, many questions +were put to him concerning the Scotch Universities, the revenues of the +Scotch clergy, and their mode of preaching and praying. When Beattie +replied, that their clergy sometimes prayed a quarter or even half an +hour without interruption, the King observed, that this practice must +lead into repetitions; and that even our own liturgy, excellent as it +is, is faulty in this respect. While the subject of his pension was +under consideration, the Queen made a tender of some present to him +through Dr. Majendie, but he declined to encroach on her Majesty's +munificence, unless the application made to the crown in his behalf +should prove unsuccessful. A mercenary spirit, indeed, was not one of +his weaknesses. Being on a visit at Bulstrode, his noble hostess the +Duchess of Portland, would have had him take a present of a hundred +pounds to defray the expenses of his journey into England; but he +excused himself, as well as he was able, for not accepting her Grace's +bounty. + +With his pension, his wishes appear to have been bounded. Temptation to +enter into orders in our church was thrice offered him, and as often +rejected; once in the shape of a general promise of patronage from Dr. +Drummond, Archbishop of York; next, of a small living in Dorsetshire, in +the gift of Mr. John Pitt: and the third time, of a much more valuable +benefice, which was at the disposal of Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Winchester. +In answer to Dr. Porteus, through whom the last of these offers came, +and whose friendship he enjoyed during the remainder of his life, he +represented, in addition to other reasons for his refusal, that he was +apprehensive lest his acceptance of preferment might render the motives +for his writing the Essay on Truth suspected. He at the same time +avowed, that if "he were to have become a clergyman, the church of +England would certainly have been his choice; as he thought that in +regard to church-government and church-service, it had many great and +peculiar advantages." Unwillingness to part from Aberdeen was, perhaps, +at the bottom of these stout resolutions. It was confessedly one of the +reasons for which he declined a proposition made to him in the year +1773, to remove to the chair of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh; though he +was urged by his friends not to neglect this opportunity of extending +the sphere of his usefulness, and the change would have brought him much +pecuniary advantage. His reluctance to comply was increased by the +belief that there were certain persons at Edinburgh to whom his +principles had given offence, and in whose neighbourhood he did not +expect to live so quietly as he wished. In the same year, he was +complimented with the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, by the +University of Oxford, at the installation of Lord North in the +Chancellorship. + +He now, therefore, lived on at Aberdeen, making occasionally brief +visits to England, where he was always welcome, both at the court and by +those many individuals of eminence to whom his talents and virtues had +recommended him. In the summers he usually indulged himself with passing +some time at Peterhead, a town situated on the most easterly promontory +of Scotland, and resorted to for its medicinal waters, which he thought +beneficial to his health; for he had early in life been subject to a +vertiginous disorder, the recurrence of which at times incapacitated him +for any serious application. + +The second book of the Minstrel appeared in 1774. In 1776 he was +prevailed on to publish, by subscription, in a more splendid form, his +Essay on Truth, which was now accompanied by two other essays, on Poetry +and Music, and on Laughter and Ludicrous Composition; and by Remarks on +the Utility of Classical Learning. This was succeeded in 1783, by +dissertations moral and critical, on Memory and Imagination, on +Dreaming, on the Theory of Language, on Fable and Romance, on the +Attachments of Kindred, and on Illustrations of Sublimity; being, as he +states in the preface, "part of a course of prelections read to those +young gentlemen whom it was his business to initiate in the elements of +moral science." In 1786, he published a small treatise, entitled +Evidences of the Christian Religion, at the suggestion of Porteus, who +was now a bishop; and in 1790 and 1793 two volumes of Elements of Moral +Science, containing an abridgment of his public lectures on moral +philosophy and logic. + +His only remaining publication was an edition of the juvenile works of +the elder of his two sons, who was taken off by a consumption (November +1790), at the age of twenty-two. To the education of this boy he had +attended with such care and discernment as the anxiety of a parent only +could dictate, and had watched his unfolding excellence with fondness +such as none but a parent could feel. At the risque of telling my reader +what he may, perhaps, well remember, I cannot but relate the method +which he had taken to impress on his mind, when a child, the sense of +his dependence on a Supreme Being; of which Porteus well observed, that +it had all the imagination of Rousseau, without his folly and +extravagance. + +"The doctrines of religion," said Beattie, "I had wished to impress on +his mind, as soon as it might be prepared to receive them; but I did not +see the propriety of making him commit to memory theological sentences, +or any sentences which it was not possible for him to understand. And I +was desirous to make a trial how far his own reason could go in tracing +out, with a little direction, the great and first principle of all +religion, the being of God. The following fact is mentioned, not as a +proof of superior sagacity in him (for I have no doubt that most +children would, in like circumstances, think as he did), but merely as a +moral or logical experiment. He had reached his fifth or sixth year, +knew the alphabet, and could read a little; but had received no +particular information with respect to the Author of his being: because +I thought he could not yet understand such information; and because I +had learned, from my own experience, that to be made to repeat words not +understood, is extremely detrimental to the faculties of a young mind. +In a corner of a little garden, without informing any person of the +circumstance, I wrote in the mould, with my finger, the three initial +letters of his name; and sowing garden cresses in the furrows, covered +up the seed, and smoothed the ground. Ten days after, he came running to +me, and with astonishment in his countenance told me, that his name was +growing in the garden. I smiled at the report, and seemed inclined to +disregard it; but he insisted on my going to see what had happened. +'Yes,' said I, carelessly, on coming to the place, 'I see it is so; but +there is nothing in this worth notice; it is mere chance;' and I went +away. He followed me, and taking hold of my coat, said with some +earnestness, 'It could not be mere chance, for that somebody must have +contrived matters so as to produce it.' I pretend not to give his words, +or my own, for I have forgotten both; but I give the substance of what +passed between us in such language as we both understood.--'So you +think,' I said, 'that what appears so regular as the letters of your +name cannot be by chance.' 'Yes,' said he, with firmness, 'I think so.' +'Look at yourself,' I replied, 'and consider your hands and fingers, +your legs and feet, and other limbs; are they not regular in their +appearance, and useful to you?' He said, 'they were.' 'Came you then +hither,' said I, 'by chance?' 'No,' he answered, 'that cannot be; +something must have made me.' 'And who is that something?' I asked. He +said, 'he did not know.' (I took particular notice, that he did not say, +as Rousseau fancies a child in like circumstances would say, that his +parents made him.) I had now gained the point I aimed at; and saw, that +his reason taught him (though he could not so express it) that what +begins to be must have an intelligent cause, I therefore told him the +name of the Great Being who made him and all the world; concerning whose +adorable nature I gave him such information as I thought he could, in +some measure, comprehend. The lesson affected him greatly, and he never +forgot either it or the circumstance that introduced it." + +So great was the docility of this boy, that before he had reached his +twentieth year, he had been thought capable of succeeding his father in +his office of public professor. When death had extinguished those hopes, +the comfort and expectation of the parent were directed to his only +surviving child, who, with less application and patience, had yet a +quickness of perception that promised to supply the place of those +qualities. But this prospect did not continue to cheer him long. In +March 1796, the youth was attacked by a fever, which, in seven days, +laid him by the side of his brother. He was in his eighteenth year. The +sole consolation, with which this world could now supply Beattie, was, +that if his sons had lived, he might have seen them a prey to that +miserable distemper under which their mother, whose state had rendered a +separation from her family unavoidable, was still labouring. From this +total bereavement he sometimes found a short relief in the estrangement +of his own mind, which refused to support the recollection of such a +load of sorrow. "Many times," says Sir William Forbes, "he could not +recollect what had become of his son; and after searching in every room +of the house, he would say to his niece, 'Mrs. Glennie, you may think it +strange, but I must ask you, if I have a son, and where he is?'" That +man must be a stern moralist who would censure him very severely for +having sought, as he sometimes did, a renewal of this oblivion in his +cups. + +He was unable any longer to apply himself to study, and left most of the +letters he received from his friends unanswered. Music, in which he had +formerly delighted, he could not endure to hear from others, after the +loss of his first son; though a few months before the death of the +second, he had begun to accompany him when he sang, on his own favourite +instrument, which was the violoncello. Afterwards, as may be supposed, +the sound of it was painful to him. He still took some pleasure in +books, and in the company of a very few amongst his oldest friends. This +was his condition till the beginning of April 1799, when he was seized +with a paralytic stroke, which rendered his speech imperfect for several +days. During the rest of his life he had repeated attacks of the same +malady: the last, which happened on the 5th of October, 1802, entirely +deprived him of motion. He languished, however, till the 18th of August +in the following year, when nature being exhausted, he expired without a +struggle. + +He was interred, according to his own desire, by the side of his two +sons, in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, at Aberdeen, with the following +inscription from the pen of Dr. James Gregory, Professor of Physic, at +Edinburgh. + +Memoriae. Sacrum. +JACOBI. BEATTIE. LL.D. +Ethices. +In. Academia. Marescallana. hujus. Urbis. +Per. XLIII. Annos. +Professoris. Meritissimi. +Viri. +Pietate. Probitate. Ingenio. atque. Doctrina. +Praestantis. +Scriptoris. Elegantissimi. Poetae. Suavissimi. +Philosophi. Vere. Christiani. +Natus. est. V. Nov. Anno. MDCCXXXV. +Obiit. XVIII. Aug. MDCCCIII. +Omnibus. Liberis. Orbus. +Quorum. Natu. Maximus. JACOBUS. HAY. +BEATTIE. +Vel. a. Puerilibus. Annis. +Patrio. Vigens. Ingenio. +Novumque. Decus. Jam. Addens. Paterno. +Suis. Carissimus. Patriae. Flebilis. +Lenta. Tabe. Consumptus. Periit. +Anno. Aetatis. XXIII. +GEO. ET. MAR. GLENNIE. +H.M.P. + +"In his person," says Sir William Forbes, "Doctor Beattie was of the +middle size, though not elegantly yet not awkwardly formed, but with +something of a slouch in his gait. His eyes were black and piercing, +with an expression of sensibility somewhat bordering on melancholy; +except when engaged in cheerful and social intercourse with his friends, +when they were exceedingly animated." In a portrait of him, taken in +middle life by Reynolds, and given to him as a mark of his regard by the +painter, he is represented with his Essay on Truth under his arm. At a +little distance is introduced the allegorical figure of Truth as an +angel, holding in one hand a balance, and with the other thrusting back +the visages of Prejudice, Scepticism, and Folly. + +He is, I believe, the solitary instance of a poet, having received so +much countenance at the Court of George the Third; and this favour he +owed less to any other cause than to the zeal and ability with which he +had been thought to oppose the enemies of religion. The respect with +which he was treated, both at home and abroad, was no more than a just +tribute to those merits and the excellence of his private character. His +probity and disinterestedness, the extreme tenderness with which he +acquitted himself of all his domestic duties, his attention to the +improvement of his pupils, for whose welfare his solicitude did not +cease with their removal from the college; his unassuming deportment, +which had not been altered by prosperity or by the caresses of the +learned and the powerful, his gratitude to those from whom he had +received favours, his beneficence to the poor, the ardour of his +devotion, are dwelt on by his biographer with an earnestness which +leaves us no room to doubt the sincerity of the encomium. His chief +defect was an irritability of temper in the latter part of his life, +which shewed itself principally towards those who differed from him on +speculative questions. + +In his writings, he is to be considered as a philosopher, a critic, and +a poet. His pretensions in philosophy are founded on his Essay on Truth. +This book was of much use at its first appearance, as it contained a +popular answer to some of the infidel writers, who were then in better +odour among the more educated classes of society than happily they now +are. If (as I suspect to have been the case) it has prevented men, whose +rank and influence make it most desirable that their minds should be +raised above the common pitch, from pursuing those studies by which they +were most likely so to raise them, the good which it may have done has +been balanced by no inconsiderable evil. One can scarcely examine it +with much attention, and not perceive that the writer had not ascended +to the sources of that science, which notwithstanding any thing he may +say to the contrary, it was evidently his aim to depreciate. Through +great part of it he has the appearance of one who is struggling with +some unknown power, which he would fain comprehend, and at which, in the +failure to comprehend it, his terror is changed into anger. The word +metaphysics, or, as he oftener terms it, metaphysic, crosses him like a +ghost. Call it pneumatology, the philosophy of the mind, the philosophy +of human nature, or what you will, and he can bear it. + + Take any shape but that, and his firm nerves + Shall never tremble. + +Once, indeed, (but it is not till he has reached the third and last +division of the essay) he screws up his courage so high as to question +it concerning its name; and the result of his inquiry is this: he finds +that to fourteen of the books attributed to Aristotle, which it seems +had no general title, Andronicus Rhodius, who edited them, prefixed the +words, ta meta ta physica, that is, the books placed posterior to the +physics; either because, in the order of the former arrangement they +happened to be so placed, or because the editor meant that they should +be studied, next after the physics. And this, he concludes, is said to +be the origin of the word metaphysic. This is not very satisfactory; and +if the reader thinks so, he will perhaps, be glad to hear those who, +having dealt longer in the black art, are more likely to be conjurors in +it. Harris, who had given so many years of his life to the study of +Aristotle, tells us, that "Metaphysics are properly conversant about +primary and internal causes."[1] "Those things which are first to +nature, are not first to man. Nature begins from causes, and thence +descends to effects. Human perceptions first open upon effects, and +thence by slow degrees ascend to causes."[2] + +His own definition might have been enough to satisfy him that it was +something very harmless about which he had so much alarmed himself. +Still he proceeds to impute to it I know not what mischief; till at +last, in a paroxysm of indignation, he exclaims, "Exult, O metaphysic, +at the consummation of thy glories. More thou canst not hope, more thou +canst not desire. Fall down, ye mortals, and acknowledge the stupendous +blessing." + +About Aristotle himself, he is scarce in less perplexity. He sets out by +defining truth according to Aristotle's description of it in these +fourteen dreaded books of his metaphysics. Again he tells us, "he is +most admired by those who best understand him;" and once more refers us +to these fourteen books. But afterwards it would seem as if he had not +himself read them; for speaking of _metaphysics_, he calls it that which +Aristotle is said to have called theology, and the first philosophy: +whereas Aristotle has explicitly called it so in these fourteen +books;[3] and when he is recommending the study of the ancients, he +adds; "Of Aristotle, I say nothing. We are assured by those who have +read his works, that no one ever understood human nature better than +he." What are we to infer from this, but that he had not himself read +them? For his distinction between common sense and reason, on which all +his theory depends, he sends the reader to the fourth book of +Aristotle's Metaphysics, and to the first of his latter Analytics; and +yet somewhere else he speaks of these as the most worthless of +Aristotle's writings. As for Plato, who on such a subject might have +come in for some consideration, we are told that he was as much a +rhetorician as a philosopher; and this, I think, is nearly all we hear +of him. + +Beattie is among the philosophers what the Quaker is among religious +sectaries. The [Greek: koinos nous], or common sense, is the spirit +whose illapses he sits down and waits for, and by whose whispers alone +he expects to be made wise. It has sometimes prompted him well; for +there are admirable passages in the Essay. The whole train of his +argument, or rather his invective, in the second part, against the +sceptics, is irresistible. + + Scalda ogni fredda lingua ardente voglia, + E di sterili fa l'alme feconde. + Ne mai deriva altronde + Soave finme d'eloquenza rara.--_Celio Magno_. + +"What comes from the heart, that alone goes to the heart," says a great +writer of our own day;[4] and there are few instances of this more +convincing than the vehemence with which Beattie dissipates the reveries +of Berkeley, and refutes the absurdities of Hume. + +In the second edition, (1771) speaking of those writers of genius, to +whom he would send the student away from the metaphysicians, he confined +himself to Shakespeare, Bacon, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Few will think +that other names might not well have replaced the last of these. In the +fourth edition, we find Johnson added to the list. This compliment met +with a handsome requital; for Johnson, soon after, having occasion to +speak of Beattie, in his Life of Gray, called him a poet, a philosopher, +and a good man. + +In his Essay, he comforts himself with the belief "that he had enabled +every person of common sense to defeat the more important fallacies of +the sceptical metaphysicians, even though he should not possess +acuteness, or metaphysical knowledge, sufficient to qualify him for a +logical refutation of them." It is lamentable to see at how great a cost +to himself he had furnished every person of common sense with these +weapons of proof. In a letter to Sir William Forbes, written not long +after, he makes the following remarkable confession. "How much my mind +has been injured by certain speculations, you will partly guess when I +tell you a fact that is now unknown to all the world, that since the +Essay on Truth was printed in quarto, in the summer of 1776, I have +never dared to read it over. I durst not even read the sheets, and see +whether there were any errors in the print, and was obliged to get a +friend to do that office for me." + +As he proceeded, he seems to have become more afraid of the faculty of +reason. In the second edition he had said, "Did not our moral feelings, +in concert with what our reason discovers of the Deity, evidence the +_necessity_ of a future state, _in vain should we pretend_ to judge +rationally of that revelation by which life and immortality have been +brought to light." In the edition of 1776, he softened down this +assertion so much, as almost to deprive it of meaning. "Did not our +moral feelings, in concert with what reason discovers of the Deity, +evidence the _probability_ of a future state, and that it is necessary +to the full vindication of the divine government, _we should be much +less qualified_ than we now are to judge rationally of that revelation +by which life and immortality have been brought to light." There was +surely nothing, except perhaps the word _necessity_, that was +objectionable in the proposition as it first stood. + +It may be remarked of his prose style in general, that it is not free +from that constraint which he, with much candour, admitted was to be +found in the writings of his countrymen. + +Of his critical works, I have seen only those appended to the edition of +his Essay, in 1776. Though not deficient in acuteness, they have not +learning or elegance enough to make one desirous of seeing more. His +remarks on the characters in Homer are, I think, the best part of them. +He sometimes talks of what he probably knew little about; as when he +tells us that "he had never been able to discover anything in +Aristophanes that might not he consigned to eternal oblivion, without +the least detriment to literature;" that "his wit and humour are now +become almost invisible, and seem never to have been very conspicuous;" +with more that is equally absurd, to the same purpose. + +The few of his poems which he thought worthy of being selected from the +rest, and of being delivered to posterity, have many readers, to whom +perhaps one recommendation of them is that they are few. They have, +however, and deservedly, some admirers of a better stamp. They soothe +the mind with indistinct conceptions of something better than is met +with in ordinary life. The first book of the Minstrel, the most +considerable amongst them, describes with much fervour the enthusiasm of +a boy "smit with the love of song," and wakened to a sense of rapture by +all that is most grand or lovely in the external appearances of nature. +It is evident that the poet had felt much of what he describes, and he +therefore makes his hearers feel it. Yet at times, it must be owned, he +seems as if he were lashing himself into a state of artificial emotion, +as in the following lines: + + O! Nature, how in every charm supreme! + Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new! + O! for the voice and fire of seraphim, + To sing thy glories with devotion due! + +We hear, indeed, too often of "nature's charms." + +Even here he cannot let the metaphysicians rest. They are, in his mind, +the grievance that is most to be complained of in this "vale of tears." + +There was one other thing that Beattie detested nearly as much as +"metaphysic lore." It was the crowing of a cock. This antipathy he +contrived to express in the Minstrel, and the reader is startled by the +expression of it, as by something out of its place. + +Of the stanza beginning, "O, how canst thou renounce," Gray told him +that it was, of all others, his favourite; that it was true poetry; that +it was inspiration; and, if I am not mistaken, it is related of Bishop +Porteus, that when he was once with Beattie, looking down on a +magnificent country that lay in prospect before them, he broke out with +much delight into the repetition of it. Gray objected to one word, +_garniture_, "as suggesting an idea of dress, and what was worse, of +French dress;" and the author tried, but tried in vain, to substitute +another. It would, perhaps, be impossible to find a better for the place +in which it stands. There is no ground of censure which a writer should +admit with more caution, than that a particular word or phrase happens +to suggest a ludicrous or unsuitable image to the mind of another +person. Few probably would have thought of French dress on this +occasion: and to some, a passage in our translation of the Bible might +have occurred, where it is said, that "the Lord _garnished_ the +heavens." Another of Gray's criticisms fell on the word "infuriate," as +being a new one, although, as Sir William Forbes remarks, it is found +not only in Thomson's Seasons, but in the Paradise Lost. + +The second book of the Minstrel is not so pleasant as it is good. The +stripling wanders to the habitation of a hermit, who has a harp, not a +very usual companion for a hermit, to amuse his solitude; and who +directs him what studies to pursue. The youth is pleased with no +historian except Plutarch. He reads Homer and Virgil, and learns to mend +his song, and the poet would have told us how he learnt to sing still +better, if sorrow for the death of a friend had not put a period to his +own labours. The poem thus comes abruptly to an end; and we are not much +concerned that there is no more of it. His first intention was to have +engaged the Minstrel in some adventure of importance, through which it +may be doubted whether he could well have conducted him; for he has not +shewn much skill in the narrative part of the poem. + +The other little piece, called the Hermit, begins with a sweet strain, +which always dwells on the ear, and which makes us expect that something +equally sweet is to follow. This hermit too has his "harp symphonious." +He makes the same complaint, and finds the same comfort for it, as Edwin +had done in the first book of the Minstrel. Both are the Christian's +comment on a well-known passage in the Idyllium of Moschus, on the death +of Bion. Of his Ode on Lord Hay's Birth-day, Gray's opinion, however +favourable, is not much beyond the truth; that the diction is easy and +noble; the texture of the thoughts lyric, and the versification +harmonious; to which he adds, "that the panegyric has nothing mean in +it." + +The Ode to Hope looks like one of Blair's Sermons cast into a lyrical +mould. + +There is, I believe, no allusion to any particular place that was +familiar to him, throughout his poems. The description of the owl in the +lines entitled Retirement, he used to say, was drawn from nature. It has +more that appearance than any thing else he has written, and pleases +accordingly. + +Between his systems in poetry and philosophy, some exchange might have +been made with advantage to each. In the former, he counted general +ideas for nearly all in all. (_See his Essay on Poetry and Music,_ p. +431.) In the latter, he had not learnt to generalize at all; but would +have rested merely in fact and experience. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] Philosophical Arrangements, c. xvii. p. 409, 8vo. ed. +[2] Hermes, p. 9, 8vo. ed. The same writer again thus defines the word. + "By the most excellent science is meant the science of causes, and, + above all others, of causes efficient and final, as these + necessarily imply pervading reason and superintending wisdom. This + science as men were naturally led to it from the contemplation of + effects, which effects were the tribe of beings natural or physical, + was, from being thus subsequent to those physical inquiries, called + metaphysical; but with a view to itself, and the transcendant + eminence of its object was more properly called [Greek: hae protae + philosophia], the first Philosophy." Three treatises (in a note), p. + 365. Ibid.--See also Mr. Coleridge's Friend, vol. i. p. 309. +[3] Metaph. I. vi. c. I. +[4] Mr. Coleridge. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM HAYLEY. + +The most remarkable incidents in Hayley's Life are to be collected from +his Memoirs of himself, edited by his friend the Rev. Dr. Johnson, +better known as the favourite kinsman of Cowper. The Memoirs, though +somewhat more copious than many readers might have wished them, are yet +far from being devoid of entertainment to the lovers of literary +biography. + +William Hayley was born at Chichester, on the 29th of October, 1745. His +father was a private gentleman, son of one Dean of Chichester, and +nephew to another. Having enriched himself by an union with the daughter +of an opulent merchant, who died without leaving him any children, he +married for his second wife, Mary, a daughter of Colonel Yates, a +representative in Parliament for the city of Chichester, the mother of +the poet. + +His father dying when he was three years old, and his only brother soon +after, William became the sole care of a discreet and affectionate +woman. A similar lot will be found to have influenced the earlier years +of many who have been most distinguished for their virtues or abilities +in after life. He was taught to read by three sisters, of the name of +Russell, who kept a girls' school at Chichester; and pleased himself by +relating that, when in his 63rd year, he presented to one of them, who +still continued in the same employment with her faculties unimpaired, a +recent edition of his Triumphs of Temper. His first instructor in the +learned languages was a master in the same city, who appeared to be so +incompetent to the task he had undertaken, that Mrs. Hayley removed her +son to the school of a Mr. Woodeson, at Kingston. He had not been long +here, when he was seized with a violent fit of illness, which obliged +his mother, who had now fixed her residence in London, to take him home, +after having nursed him for some weeks at Kingston, with little hopes of +life. Of the anxiety with which she watched over him, he has left the +following pathetic memorial in his Essay on Epic Poetry. + + Thou tender saint, to whom he owes much more + Than ever child to parent owed before, + In life's first season, when the fever's flame + Shrunk to deformity his shrivel'd frame, + And turn'd each fairer image in his brain + To blank confusion and her crazy train, + 'Twas thine, with constant love, through lingering years, + To bathe thy idiot orphan with thy tears; + Day after day, and night succeeding night, + To turn incessant to the hideous sight, + And frequent watch, if haply at thy view + Departed reason might not dawn anew. + +The first sign he gave of returning intellect, was an exclamation on +seeing a hare run across the road as they were taking an airing in +Richmond park. On his recovery, his mother provided him a private tutor +in Greek and Latin, of the name of Ayles, formerly a fellow of King's +College, Cambridge; while she herself, and his nurse, a faithful servant +in the family for more than fifty years, encouraged his early propensity +for English literature; the former by reading to him and the other by +making him recite passages out of tragedies, of which the good woman was +passionately fond. + +In August, 1757, his mother placed him at Eton where he remained about +six years, at the end of which time he was removed to Trinity Hall, +Cambridge. Like many others, he acknowledges the illusion of considering +our school-boy days as the happiest of life. The infirmities, which his +sickness had brought on, made him extremely sensible to the jibes and +rough treatment of the bigger boys, and the accidental neglect of a +Greek lesson exposed him to a flogging which he never quite forgave. One +of his tutors at Eton was Dr. Roberts, author of Judah Restored, a poem, +in which the numbers of the Paradise Lost are happily imitated. By him, +the young scholar was confirmed in that love of composing verse which he +could trace hack to his ninth year. There is little promise in the +specimens he gives of his earlier attempts. His English ode on the birth +of the present King, inserted in the Cambridge collection, is an +indifferent performance, even for a boy. At the university, he describes +himself to have studied diligently, to have given many of his hours to +drawing and painting, and to have formed friendships which were +dissolved only by death. On Thornton, a member of the same hall, the +most favoured of these associates, whom he lost when a young man, he +wrote an elegy, which is one of the best of his works. With him he +improved himself in the Spanish and Italian languages, the latter of +which they studied under Isola, a teacher at Cambridge, afterwards +creditably known by an edition of the Gerusalemme Liberata. Hayley +entered his name at the Middle Temple on the 13th of June, 1766, and in +the following year quitted Cambridge without a degree. He now made some +ineffectual attempts towards fixing his choice of a profession in life; +but at last poetry, and especially the drama, were suffered to engross +him. In October, 1769, he married Eliza, the daughter of Dr. Ball, Dean +of Chichester. This lady had been the confidant of his attachment to +another. The match was on his part entered on rather from disappointment +than love; and was made contrary to the advice of his surviving parent, +who represented to him the danger there was lest his wife should inherit +an incurable insanity under which her mother long laboured. Many years +after, he put her away, fancying himself no longer able to endure a +waywardness of temper, which, as he thought, amounted nearly to the +calamity that had been apprehended. In the summer of 1774, he retired +with his wife and mother from Great Queen-street, where they had +hitherto resided, to his paternal estate at Eartham in Sussex; but in +the ensuing winter his mother went back to London for medical advice and +there died. + +He had endeavoured, but in vain, to bring several of his tragedies on +the stage. Garrick, with some hollow compliments, rejected one, called +the Afflicted Father, of which the story appears to have been too +shocking for representation. It was that a father had supplied his son, +under sentence of death, with poison, and when too late found that he +was pardoned. Another called the Syrian Queen, which he had imitated +from the Rodogune of Corneille, was refused with more sincerity by +Colman. A third met no better reception from Harris. "Persuaded," as he +says, "by his own sensations that he had a considerable portion of +native poetic fire in his mind, he resolved to display it in a +composition less subject to the caprice of managers, yet more arduous in +its execution. In short, he determined to begin an epic poem." He chose +for his subject the extorting of Magna Charta from King John. The death +of his friend Thornton in 1780, who had watched the progress of this +essay with much solicitude for its success, chiefly induced him to +relinquish a design, which was in truth ill fitted to his powers. In the +Essay on Epic Poetry, he recommended it to Mason, who was not much +better able to accomplish it than himself. I am unwilling to detain my +reader by an account of the numerous poems, which he either did not +complete or did not commit to the press. His unpublished verses, as he +told me a few years before his death, amounted to six times the number +of those in print. + +His first publication was the Epistle on Painting to Romney, in 1778. +The two next in the following year were anonymous, the one A +Congratulatory Epistle to Admiral Keppel on his Acquittal; the other An +Essay on the Ancient Greek Model (as he called it) to Bishop Lowth, +remonstrating against the contention which the bishop had entered into +with Warburton, and which he thought unworthy so excellent a prelate. In +1780, he produced besides the Verses on the death of Mr. Thornton, an +Ode to Howard, and the Epistles on History addressed to Gibbon, which +gained him the intimacy of the historian and the philanthropist. The +success of these works encouraged him to project the Triumphs of Temper, +the most popular of all his poems, which he published in 1781. The next +year saw the publication of his Essay on Epic Poetry; in the notes to +which he introduced much information on the poetry of Italy and Spain, +then less known among us than at present; and he endeavoured to rouse +the spirits of Wright the painter at Derby, by an ode, which was printed +for private circulation. In 1784, he published a volume of plays, +consisting of tragedies and comedies, the latter of which were in rhyme. +The gratification of seeing his dramas represented on the stage, which +he had before solicited in vain, was now offered by Colman, who proposed +through the author's bookseller to bring out a tragedy and comedy, Lord +Russell, and The Two Connoisseurs, at the Haymarket. "A comedy in +rhyme," the manager observed, "was a bold attempt; but when so well +executed as in the present instance, he thought, would be received with +favour, especially on a stage of a genius somewhat similar to that of a +private theatre for which it was professedly written." Both tragedy and +comedy were well received, but with so little emolument to the poet, +that he had to pay for his own seat at the representation. Marcella, the +other tragedy, was also acted, in 1789, when it was condemned at one +house, and in three nights after applauded at the other. The author +accounted for this whimsical change of fortune by supposing the piece to +have been played only on a few hours' preparation by the manager at +Drury-Lane, in order to get the start of Harris and prevent his success +by having the play damned before it appeared on his theatre. + +Hayley was, however, now in great favour with the public; the first +edition of his plays was sold in a fortnight; and through the +intervention of his friend Thomas Payne, the bookseller, he re-purchased +for 500_l._ from Dodsley the copyright of all he had written. It would +have been well if his poetical career had closed here; for whatever he +did afterwards in this way met either with disregard or contempt. Such +was the fate of a Poem on the Anniversary of the Revolution in 1788; of +an imitation of a German opera, called the Trial of the Rovers, which he +sold to Harris for 100_l._ but which failed at Covent-Garden in 1789; of +Eudora, a tragedy, acted with no better success in 1790; of the National +Advocates, intended to commemorate the triumph of Erksine in his defence +of Horne Tooke in 1795; of an Elegy on Sir William Jones in the same +year; of an Essay on Sculpture in 1800; of Ballads on Animals, the most +empty of his productions that I have seen, in 1802; of the Triumphs of +Music in 1804; of Stanzas to the Patriots in Spain in 1808; and of +another volume of plays in 1811. + +Yet he still continued to secure to himself some share of attention by +several works in prose. In the Essay on Old Maids, published in 1785, +there is an agreeable combination of learning, sprightliness, and arch +humour. He now and then approaches to irreverence on sacred subjects, +but, as I am persuaded without any ill intention; the dedication of the +book to Mrs. Carter gave much offence to that lady. His Dialogues on +Johnson and Chesterfield, in 1787, contrast the character of these +writers in a lively manner and with some power of discrimination, but +the partiality of the author is very evident. He had himself +"sacrificed" too successfully to the Graces to be a fair umpire between +the rough scholar and the polished nobleman. The Young Widow, or the +History of Cornelia Sedley, a novel, was published without his name (as +the last-mentioned two books had also been) in 1789. For this he +received 200_l_. from Mr. Nichols. The purchaser found his bargain a +hard one: for the novel had little to recommend it, being deficient in +probability of incident and character. He made up for the loss by +presenting his bookseller with another anonymous work entitled the +"Eulogies of Howard, a Vision," in prose.[1] His "Life of Milton," was +intended for an edition of the poet to be published by Nichols the +King's printer; but an abridgement of it only was employed in 1794, for +the purpose, some passages being not thought courtly enough for the +royal eye. He afterwards published it without mutilation. The design of +this work, to which he devoted two years of diligent application, was to +vindicate Milton from the asperity of Johnson--a task, which according +to the general opinion, has since been more ably executed by Doctor +Symmons. He had, however, reason to be satisfied with this undertaking, +as it led to an acquaintance and friendship with Cowper, who was at the +same time engaged in writing notes to Milton. Eight years after, it fell +to his lot to write a Life of Cowper himself. This proved to him the +most lucrative of all his literary engagements; but its success was +owing principally not to the narrative but to the private letters of +Cowper which accompanied them. Of the Life and Letters he added another +volume in 1804; and in 1809 wrote the Life of Romney, which, having no +such attraction, did not recommend itself to the public notice. + +From the time that he left London, in 1774, till his death, a period of +46 years, he was seldom long absent from his home, first at Eartham, and +afterwards at Felpham, a pleasant village on the sea-shore, distant only +a few miles from his former residence. Cowper, who visited him at +Eartham, in 1792, speaks of the house as "the most elegant mansion he +had ever inhabited, surrounded by the most delightful pleasure grounds +he had ever seen," and observes "he had no conception that a poet could +be the owner of such a paradise." The house was built, and the pleasure +grounds laid out by himself. Here I saw him in the next summer but one +after Cowper's visit. His habits appeared to me such as they were long +afterwards described by Mrs. Opie--those of extreme retirement, of +abstemiousness, and of family devotion. He was at that time employed on +his Life of Milton, and in educating his son, a promising boy, who under +the age of fourteen, had began to translate the Epistles of Horace into +tolerable blank verse. On accompanying me the next morning out of +"Paradise," the lad spoke to me with some sorrow of his father's refusal +to let him "join a pack of hounds in the neighbourhood." He died in his +20th year, a victim probably to the secluded life and the studious +habits to which his parent had so early devoted him. His mother, a +servant in the family, as I was told by Anna Seward, declared him to be +the son of a young orphan, named Howell, who having been benevolently +received by Hayley into his house, and through his means promoted in the +military service of the East India Company, soon after perished by +shipwreck. But the features of the boy told a different story, and one +more consonant to that of the poet, by whom he was always acknowledged +for his son. He was, for some time the pupil of Mr. Flaxman, who augured +highly of his abilities, and who, if the young man had lived, would +certainly have done all that could be done by example and instruction to +render him illustrious in his art and respectable as a man. + +Considering his independence on any profession, the ease of his manners, +his talents for conversation, and his knowledge of modern languages, it +may be wondered that Hayley did not mix more in society, or visit other +countries besides his own. Once, indeed, when a young man he made an +excursion to Scotland; and, in the summer of 1790, passed three weeks at +Paris with his friends, Carwardine and Romney, from whence, much to the +scandal of the neighbourhood, he brought back a French governess for his +son. Mrs. Hayley had then left him, or rather had been gently forced out +of his house; and, afterwards when she begged for leave to return, was +denied it. From his own account of the matter, and from the letters that +passed between them, some of which he has published in his Memoirs, it +is difficult to acquit him of blame, and not to wish that he had endured +with more patience the foibles of a woman, who, though irreproachable in +her own conduct, was more indulgent than she need have been to his +frailties. He appears, however, to have been anxious for her happiness +after they were separated. She died in London in 1797, and received from +her husband, the empty honours of a funeral sermon and an epitaph. He +was loth to quit his home except on some errand of friendship, when he +was ever ready to run to the Land's End. I remember his quoting to me +the following line out of Aeschylus, on the advantage of a master's +presence in his own family. + +[Greek: "Omma gar domon nomixo despton paronsian".] + +He seems to have taken delight in the instruction of youth; besides his +own boy, he undertook to educate gratuitously two sons of his friend, +Mr. Carwardine, and one of his neighbour Lord Egremont. On the death of +Warton, he declined some advances that were made him through his +friends, towards an offer of the laureatship. Nothing but a high sense +of independence could have prompted this refusal; for, though no +courtier, he was not wanting in loyalty; and the stipend would have been +a welcome addition to an income which barely sufficed his own moderate +wants and his liberal contributions to the necessities of others. + +He was not more fortunate in a second marriage than he had been in his +first. The vain confidence which he placed in his good stars on this +occasion shall be told in his own words, which are as follows: + +While he was deeply engaged in his biographical compositions he used to +say, 'I have not leisure to wander from my hermitage, and look into the +world in quest of a wife; but I feel a strong persuasion that if it is +really good for me to venture once more on marriage, + + that step + Of deepest hazard and of highest hope, + +my kind stars will conduct to my cell some compassionate fair one, fond +of books and retirement, who may be willing to enliven, with the songs +of tenderness, the solitude of a poetical hermit.' + +Such was the frame of mind in the recluse when an incident occurred, +that gradually seemed to accomplish a completion of his prophecy. This +incident was a visit from an old ecclesiastical acquaintance, attended +by two young ladies, Mary and Harriet Welford, daughters of an aged and +retired merchant on Blackheath. + +The countenance and musical talents of the elder sister made a strong +impression on the sequestered poet. Their accidental visit gradually led +to his second marriage, on the 23d of March 1809, an event attended with +much general exultation and delight, though evidently, like the usual +steps of poets in the world, rather a step of hasty affection than of +deliberate prudence. + +In three years they were separated; I know not for what reasons. On +shewing me some gaps in his library, he said that they had been made by +proceedings in Doctors Commons. + +To Felpham where he passed the last twenty years of his life, there +retired also, to end his days in privacy and quiet, Doctor Cyril +Jackson, who had been many years Dean of Christ Church, and in that time +had refused some of the highest honours in the church. It is said that +when Hayley waited on him, the Doctor declined entering upon an +interchange of visits; but said that he should be happy to establish an +intercourse of a different kind, and to send him occasionally books, or +anything else which he might happen to have, and which Hayley might be +without, and to receive from him the same neighbourly accommodations in +return. Accordingly when the poet took a wife in his old age, he sent +the Doctor a piece of the wedding cake, with a message, that he hoped at +some future time to receive a neighbourly communication of the same sort +in return. + +In 1818, he told me that his medical attendant was apprehensive of his +becoming dropsical, and had prescribed him a glass of port wine after +his dinner. His usual drink before this had been water. In the October +of the following year he wrote to me that "he had been assailed by two +of the most formidable enemies of the human frame; and had been almost +demolished by a fit of apoplexy, and a fit of the stone: the blow from +the former," he adds, "was so violent, that my physician despaired of my +revival; but, by the mercy of Heaven, I am so far revived, that I can +again enjoy a social and literary intercourse with my friends; and even +dabble again in rhyme; but, as I suspect, that my rhymes, like the +Homilies of Gil Blas' Archbishop, may savour of apoplexy, I think it +right to keep them in utter privacy." + +His other complaint the stone, terminated his life on the 12th of +November, 1820. + +Under all his sufferings (says his early friend, Mr. Sargent), he was +never heard to express a querulous word; and if I had not seen it, I +could not have thought it possible for so much constant patience and +resignation to have been exhibited under so many years of grievous pain. +Of his severe disease he spoke with great calmness; and when there +seemed to be some doubt among his medical friends, as to the existence +of a stone in the bladder, he said to me in a gentle tone, "I can settle +the controversy between them; I am sure there is, for I distinctly feel +it." A very large stone was found, after his decease. An accidental fall +from the slipping of his foot, brought on his last illness and death. +When I came to him, the day before he died, he mentioned this +circumstance, and expressed a strong hope that God was, in mercy, about +to put a period to his sufferings. He had received the Sacrament about a +fortnight before, from the Rev. Mr. Hardy, a minister in the +neighbourhood, towards whom he always expressed a most friendly regard. + +To this satisfactory account of Hayley's latter days, let me be allowed +to add, that which is given by the son of his friend, the Rev. John +Sargent. More perfect patience than Hayley manifested under his +excruciating tortures, it never was my lot to witness. His was not only +submission, but cheerfulness. So far could he abstract himself from his +intense sufferings, as to be solicitous, in a way that affected me +tenderly, respecting my comfort and accommodation as his guest; a +circumstance that might appear trivial to many, but which, to my mind, +was illustrative of that disinterestedness and affection which were so +habitual to him in life, as not to desert him in death. That his +patience emanated from principles far superior to those of manly and +philosophical fortitude, I feel a comfortable and confirmed persuasion, +not merely from the sentiments he expressed when his end was +approaching, but from the more satisfactory testimony of his +declarations to his confidential servant in the season of comparative +health. Again and again, before his last seizure, did he read over a +little book I had given him, Corbett's Self-Examination in Secret, and +repeatedly did he make his servant read to him that most valuable little +work, of which, surely, no proud and insincere man can cordially +approve; and to her did he avow, when recommending it for private +perusal, "In the principles of that book I wish to die." He also +mentioned to her, at the same time, his approbation of the Rev. Daniel +Wilson's Sermons, which had been kindly sent to him. He permitted me +frequently to pray with him, as a friend and minister; and when I used +the confessional in the communion service of our church, and some of the +verses of the fifty-first psalm, he appeared to unite devoutly in those +acts of penitence, and afterwards added, "I thank you heartily." + +With emphasis did I hear him utter the memorable words, "I know that my +Redeemer liveth, &c." and on my reminding him that Job exclaimed also, +"Behold I am vile," he assented to the excellence of that language of +repentance and humility. Indeed, I well remember his heartily agreeing +with me in an observation I made some months before, "That a progress in +religion was to be discerned by a progressive knowledge of our own +misery and sinfulness." The last words almost I heard fall from him, +contained a sentiment I should wish, living and dying, to be my own--" +Christ, have mercy upon me! O my Saviour, look down upon me, forsake me +not." + +Of his habits during the latter part of his life, Mrs. Opie, who has +the art of conferring an interest on whatever she relates, has given +this very pleasing account, in a letter addressed to the Editor of his +Memoirs. "In consequence of a previous correspondence with Mr. Hayley, +the result of his flattering mention of me in the twelfth edition of the +"Triumphs of Temper," I went to his house on a visit, in the year 1814. +Nothing could exceed the regularity and temperance of Mr. Hayley's +habits. We did not breakfast till a little before eight, out of +compliment to me I believe; but, as he always rose at six,[2] he +breakfasted at half-past seven when he was alone; and as soon as he +returned from his usual walk in the garden; you remember how rapidly he +walked, spite of his lameness, bearing on his stick on one side, and his +umbrella on the other.[3] During breakfast, at which he drank cocoa +only, he always read; and while I was with him, he read aloud to me. We +then adjourned to his sitting room, the upper library, and he read to +me, or I to him, till coffee was served in the dining room, which was, I +think, at eleven o'clock. That repast over, we walked in the garden, and +then returned to our books; or I sang to him till it was time for us to +dress for dinner--with him a very temperate meal. He drank water only at +dinner, and took coffee instead of wine after it. The coffee was served +up with cream and fruit in the upper library. + +"After dinner I read to him, or he read to me, till it was near tea-time, +when we again walked in the garden, and on our return to the house, cocoa +was served for him, and tea for me. After tea I read aloud or sang to him, +till nine o'clock, when the servants came in to prayers, which were +manuscript compositions, or compilations of his own; and which, as you well +know, he read in a very impressive manner. He then conversed for half an +hour or I sang one or two of Handel's songs to him, or a hymn of his own; +and then we retired for the night. I think he had for some years been in +the habit of waking at five o'clock, and composing a hymn, but I do not +remember to have heard him mention having been so employed, while I was +his guest. + +"With the single exception of a drive to Chichester, and to Lavant, +where we spent a day with Mrs. Poole, and of having one or two friends +to tea three times, there was no _variety_ in the life which I have +above described, during the whole month I passed with Mr. Hayley; and, I +believe, the years that followed, to the time of his death, were as +little varied as the days I have detailed. The Honourable Miss +Moncktons; and their sister, Mrs. Milnes, drank tea with us once, as +they were very ambitious of being presented to Mr. Hayley, and their +conversation and great musical powers were justly appreciated by him. + +"The next year I repeated my visit to Felpham, and found the Moncktons +at Bognor, with their brother and sister, Viscount and Viscountess +Galway. The latter were eager to make Mr. Hayley's acquaintance, and I +easily obtained leave to introduce them. At the same time, the Countess +of Mayo, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Smith, requested of me a similar +introduction, and this application drew from our friend the following +remark; 'I think, my dear, you had better _show_ me at a shilling a +head.' Leave was granted me to present these new visitants; and they +afterwards, I found, introduced Lord Mayo. That year Mr. Hayley was +unable to bear the motion of a carriage, from the increased pain in his +hip-joint, and, from that time he scarcely ever left his own precincts. + +"The next year I went to Scotland, and did not see Felpham till the year +1817. I found Mr. Hayley was become fond of seeing occasional visitors, +and that Earl and Countess Paulett, and Lady Mary Paulett, as well as +Lord and Lady Mayo, and Mr. and Mrs. T. Smith, were frequent callers on +him that year. The Miss Godfreys were also his guests and with them I +occasionally paid visits, but for the most part our life was as unvaried +as it was in 1814 and 1815. + +"In 1818, I was unable to visit Felpham; but in 1819, I went down to +Bognor in considerable alarm, on hearing of our poor friend's illness; +and I was not certain that I should not arrive too late to see him. But +I found him out of danger; and had the happiness of returning to London +at the end of the week, leaving him recovering. But I saw him no more. +He died in November of the following year. + +"You will wish to know what we read aloud. Chiefly manuscript poems and +plays of Mr. Hayley's, and modern publications. One of the former was a +sensible, just, and, as he read it, an apparently well-written Epistle +to a Socinian friend on the errors of his belief. You know, I suppose, +that our friend always read the Bible and Testament before he left his +chamber in a morning." Hayley's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 204. The epistle, +of which Mrs. Opie speaks, was printed with a few other "Poems on +serious and sacred Subjects," to be distributed among the friends of the +author, two years before his death. + +His person and character are well described by the Rev. Doctor Johnson, +in the following words: "He was considerably above the middle stature, +had a countenance remarkably expressive of intellect and feeling, and a +commanding air and deportment that reminded the beholder rather of a +military officer, than of the character he assumes in the close of his +epistolary addresses (he used to sign himself _the Hermit_). The +deplorable infirmity, however, of his early years, had left a +perceptible lameness, which attended him through life, and induced a +necessity of adventitious aid, towards procuring him the advantage of a +tolerably even walk. + +"As to his personal qualities, of a higher order, these were +cheerfulness and sympathy in a very eminent degree; so eminent, indeed, +that as no afflictions of his own could divest him of the former, so +neither could the afflictions of others find him destitute of the +latter. His temper also was singularly sweet and amiable, being not only +free from ebullitions of anger, but from all those minor defects which +it is needless to enumerate, and to which social peace and harmony are +so repeatedly sacrificed. It was the most even in its exercise, that the +writer of this brief account of him ever witnessed. Whether this regular +flow of good humour was owing to the native cheerfulness of his mind, to +the habit which he had contracted of viewing every adverse circumstance +on its bright side, to a course of self discipline, which he did not +avow to others, or to the joint operation of all these, it is not +possible to say; but certain it is that it was one of his most striking +peculiarities. + +"In all these respects there can be no doubt that the character of +Hayley was worthy of imitation; and the Editor feels that he should be +deficient in a becoming attention to the expressed wish of the author, +in the close of his Memoir, if he did not briefly advert to the +importance, both to individual and social happiness, of endeavouring to +cultivate to the utmost those eminent ingredients of a beneficial life, +cheerfulness, sympathy, and good temper. + +"Closely connected with these was a rich assemblage of amiable +qualities, which the Editor cannot do better than display in the +following extract, from the before-mentioned sketch, by the Rev. Samuel +Greatheed. 'Hayley retained, I believe, throughout his life, a high +sense of honour, inflexible integrity, a warmth of friendship, and +overflowing benevolence. The last was especially exerted for the +introduction of meritorious young persons into useful and respectable +situations; and it was usually efficient, as it never relaxed while they +justified his patronage. He did not, indeed, scruple, while it was in +his power, to entrust them with large sums, when there appeared a +prospect of their future ability for repayment; but as this prospect not +seldom failed, either through death or unavoidable impediments, his +property was greatly reduced by such beneficence. + +"Another distinctive mark of the character of Hayley, which few possess +by nature, and still fewer attain to by art, was an eminently great +conversational ability. It was scarcely possible for any one to be in +his company an hour, how distinguished soever his own gifts or +acquirements might be in the possession and exercise of colloquial +powers, without being conscious of his superiority in this respect. It +has been a subject of repeated astonishment to the Editor, that in a +soil so unfavourable to the growth of this faculty, as seclusion must +necessarily be, it should yet have arrived at such a pitch of +exuberance, in the case of the retired subject of this Memoir, as only +an interchange of the best informed minds, and that continually +exercised, could be supposed capable of producing. He can only attempt +to account for it from the opportunities which the author enjoyed, +through the advantage of one of the finest private libraries in the +kingdom, of conversing at all hours, and in all conceivable frames of +mind, with the illustrious dead of every age and nation. But the +solution of the difficulty is still incomplete, for although these +literary "Pleiades" could furnish as it were "the sweet influences of +rain and sunshine," to foster his native talent; yet, breath being +denied them, its improvement is more than his friend Cowper could have +accounted for, without violating his poetical axiom, that + + --Ev'n the oak + Thrives by the rude concussion of the storm. + +"As to the defects of the character of Hayley, perhaps the most +prominent feature was a pertinacity of determination with regard to his +modes of action, which has been seldom exemplified to the same extent in +the case of others. When, in the contemplation of supposed advantage, +whether to himself or his friends, he had once matured his purpose, it +was an attempt of no ordinary difficulty to divert him from the pursuit +of it. To this may, perhaps, be attributed the perpetual disappointments +with which his life was chequered. Certain it is, that his matrimonial +infelicities may be traced to this source. His first adventure of the +kind alluded to, had the warning voice of his surviving parent against +it, and it may naturally be supposed, the dissuasive arguments of all +his thinking and judicious friends. And as to the similar connexion he +formed in the decline of life, he must have overcome obstacles both +numerous and weighty, with respect to his own situation and habits in +accomplishing that object of his wishes. Instead of entering into a +detail of these, however, it will be more profitable to secure the good +effect that may arise from the contemplation of the former part of his +character, from the danger of being neutralized by the present +exhibition of it. This may, perhaps, be accomplished by reminding the +reader of that principle of our lapsed nature, which inclines us, too +often, to confound evil with good. The good, in Hayley's case, appears +to have been the viewing, through his native cheerfulness, every +_dispensation of Providence_ on its bright side; and the evil, his +applying this rule to what might be not improperly designated _the +dispensation of his own will_. There can be no doubt that his example in +the first instance and his mistake in the last, are equally to be +followed and avoided. + +"Another failing observable in the character of Hayley, was the little +attention he paid to public opinion, in regard to his modes and habits +of life. During his long residence in his paternal seat of Eartham, +though he occasionally received friends from a distance, and especially +the votaries of literature and the fine arts, yet to the families in his +vicinity he was not easily accessible. He seems, indeed, to have been +almost an insulated mortal among them; and one who, discharging himself +from the obligation of what is commonly called _etiquette_, made it +impossible to maintain with him the reciprocities of intercourse. It is +true, indeed, that the attention of the possessor of Eartham was +considerably engrossed by meditation and study; but this increased +rather than lessened his adaptation to society, and made the effect of +his seclusion the more to be lamented." Hayley's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. +220. + +As Hayley was too much extolled at the beginning of his poetical course, +so was he undeservedly neglected or ridiculed at the close of it. The +excessive admiration he at first met with, joined to that flattering +self-opinion which a solitary life is apt to engender, made him too +easily satisfied with what he had done. Perhaps he wrote worse after his +acquaintance with Cowper; for, aiming at a simplicity which he had not +power to support, he became flat and insipid. He had at no time much +force of conception or language. Yet if he never elevates he frequently +amuses his reader. His chief attraction consists in setting off some +plain and natural thought or observation, by a sparkling and ingenious +similitude, such as we commonly find in the Persian poets. To this may +be added a certain sweetness of numbers peculiar to himself, without the +spirit and edge of Pope, or the boldness of Dryden, and fashioned as I +think to his own recitation, which though musical, was somewhat too +pompous and monotonous. He was desirous that all his rhymes should be +exact; but they are sometimes so only according to his own manner of +pronouncing them. He holds about the same rank among our poets that +Bertaut does among the French; but differs from him in this; that, +whereas Bertaut was the earliest of a race analogous to the school of +Dryden and Pope, so Hayley was the latest of the correspondent class +amongst ourselves. + +In one respect he is deserving of most honourable notice. During the +course of a long literary life, I doubt whether he was ever provoked to +use a single word of asperity or sarcasm towards any of his +contemporaries. This was praise which alone ought to have exempted him +from the harsh and unmerited censure of Porson, by whom he was called +Criticorum et Poetarum pessimus. He sometimes on the other hand, +indulged himself too much in a lavish and indiscriminate commendation of +contemporary writers. But from whatever might appear like flattery of +the great, he scrupulously abstained. When the Princess Charlotte +visited him at Felpham, he would not present some verses he had written +on her, lest he should be thought capable of that meanness. + +His Essays on Painting, History, and Poetry, contain much information +that may be useful to young artists and students. That on Sculpture is +very inferior to the rest; as the Triumph of Music is to the Triumphs of +Temper. The last of these is a poem that still continues to interest a +class of readers, whose studies are intimately connected with the +happiness and well being of society. The design of it, which is to shew +the advantages of self-control to the mind of a well-educated girl, is +much to be commended. The machinery though it required no great effort +in the production, yet suffices to give some relief to the story. It has +been remarked that the trials of the Heroine are too insignificant. But +of one of them, at least, the calumny in the newspaper, this cannot +properly be said. Nor would the purpose of the writer have been so well +answered, if he had been more serious, and had uttered his oracles from +behind a graver mask. + +The taste which has been lately excited amongst us for Spanish and +Italian literature, after having slept nearly since the age of +Elizabeth, may be attributed in a great measure to the influence of his +example. Gray, Hurd, and the two Wartons, had done something towards +awakening it, but the spell was completed by him. The decisive impulse +was given by the copious extracts from the great poets in those +languages, which he inserted in the notes to his Essay on Epic Poetry, +and which he accompanied by spirited translations. Lord Holland, the +best informed and most elegant of our writers on the subject of the +Spanish theatre, declared that he had been induced to learn that +language by what Hayley had written concerning the poet Ercilla. + +I have heard his Greek scholarship questioned in consequence of an error +which, in his Epistles on History, he has made in the quantity of the +word Olorus, the name of the father of Thucydides; but from a casual +mistake of this sort, no decisive inference can be drawn. + +There is little knowledge of human life and character to be gained from +his writings. He had seen mankind chiefly through the medium of books, +and those such as did not represent them very faithfully to him, that +is, in ordinary plays and novels. Indeed he appeared to consider the +real affairs of life in which he was concerned much in the light of a +romance, and himself and his friends as so many personages acting in it, +all meeting with marvellous adventures at every turn, and all endowed +with admirable qualities, to which their petty frailties served only as +foils. It is impossible in reading his memoirs to avoid smiling at the +importance he attaches to very ordinary occurrences. I am not sure +whether it was not this propensity that led him to magnify his own +distresses in living with his first wife. That lady I well recollect to +have been lively and elegant in her manners, and much addicted to +literary pursuits, of which she gave a proof in translating Madame de +Lambert's Essay on Friendship. Her excessive zeal for her husband's +reputation as an author, he has bantered with some humour in the play of +the Mausoleum, where Mrs. Rumble, the wife of a poet is introduced: + + Who crows o'er her husband's poetical eggs. + +The character of Rumble in the same play appeared so evidently designed +for Johnson, though the author disclaimed that intention, that Boswell, +when he read it on its first coming out, at Anna Seward's, exclaimed, +"It is we. It is we." Trope, who + + Talks in a high strutting style of the stars, + Of the eagle of Jove, and the chariot of Mars, + + was meant for Mason; and by Facil, + + Whose verse is the thread of tenuity, + A fellow distinguish'd by flippant fatuity, + Who nonsense and rhyme can incessantly mingle, + A poet--if poetry's only a jingle, + + he intended to represent himself. + +The name of Facil was but too appropriate. The slender thread of his +verse was hastily and slightly spun. + +His comedies are adapted to the entertainment of those readers only who +have formed their taste on the French drama. His tragedies are some of +the most endurable we have in what a lively modern critic[4] has termed +the rhetorical style. Yet he had some skill in moving compassion. + +His diction, both in poetry and prose, is vitiated by the frequent +recurrence of certain hyperbolical expressions, which he applies on +almost all occasions. + +He was particularly fond of composing epitaphs, of which, as I remember, +he shewed me a manuscript book full. One of these on Henry Hammond, the +parish clerk at Eartham, is among the best in the language. It is +inserted in the Memoirs which Hayley wrote of his son. + + An active spirit in a little frame, + This honest man the path of duty trod; + Toil'd while he could, and, when death's darkness came, + Sought in calm hope his recompense from God. + His sons, who loved him, to his merit just, + Raised this plain stone to guard their parent's dust. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, vol. iv. p. 742. +[2] In a similar sketch from the pen of the Rev. Samuel Greatheed, + referring to an earlier period, it is stated that "he usually rose + and took a dish of coffee at four A.M.," and that "while dressing, he + most frequently composed a few stanzas of a devotional turn." This + practice of early rising he continued many years after the Editor + became acquainted with him, walking in his garden, even in winter, + and when the ground was covered with snow, with a lantern in his + hand, some hours before daylight; and repeatedly throwing up the + sash of his friend's sleeping room, on the ground floor, to give him + the benefit of the morning air. _Note by Doctor Johnson_. +[3] To the best of his recollection, the Editor never saw him abroad + without an umbrella; which in fine weather he used as a parasol, to + preserve his eyes. He even rode with it on horseback, a very awkward + operation, considering the high-spirited animals that composed his + stud, and the constitutional malady in his hip-joint, which, in + addition to his weight (for he was a remarkably strong-built man), + and his never riding without military spurs, reduced his danger of + falling almost to a certainty, when he opened his umbrella without + due precaution. But he was a stranger to fear in equestrian matters, + and always mounted his horse again, as soon as he could be caught. + The Editor was once riding gently by his side, on the stony beach of + Bognor, when the wind suddenly reversing his umbrella, as he + unfolded it, his horse, with a sudden but desperate plunge, pitched + him on his head in an instant. Providentially he received no hurt, + and some fishermen being at hand, the plunging steed was stopped at + a gate, and being once more subjected to his rider, took him home in + safety. On another occasion, in the same visit of the Editor, he was + tost into the air on the Downs, at the precise moment when an + interesting friend, whom they had just left, being apprehensive of + what would happen, was anxiously viewing him from her window through + a telescope. + + These anecdotes may serve to illustrate that _determined_ feature of + his character, which has been already noticed, and which impelled + him, contrary to the advice of his friends, to persevere in a + favourite, though perilous exercise, even at the manifest hazard of + his life. At length, however, they prevailed; and for some years + before he died, he gave up riding on horseback altogether. _Note by + Dr. Johnson_. +[4] My friend Mr. Darley, _MS. addition_.--ED. + + + * * * * * + + +SIR WILLIAM JONES. + +The life of Sir William Jones has been written by his friend Lord +Teignmouth with that minuteness which the character of so illustrious +and extraordinary a man deserved. He was born in London, on the +twenty-eighth of September, 1746. His father, whose Christian name he +bore, although sprung immediately from a race of yeomen in Anglesea, +could yet, like many a Cambro-Briton beside, have traced his descent, at +least in a maternal line, from the ancient princes of Wales. But what +distinguished him much more was, that he had attained so great a +proficiency in the study of mathematics as to become a teacher of that +branch of science in the English metropolis, under the patronage of Sir +Isaac Newton, and rose to such reputation by his writings, that he +attracted the notice and esteem of the powerful and the learned, and was +admitted to the intimacy of the Earls of Hardwicke, and Macclesfield; +Lord Parker, President of the Royal Society; Halley; Mead; and Samuel +Johnson. By his wife, Mary, the daughter of a cabinet-maker in London, +he had two sons, one of whom died an infant, and a daughter. In three +years after the birth of the remaining son, the father himself died, and +left the two children to the protection of their mother. An +extraordinary mark of her presence of mind, sufficiently indicated how +capable this mother was of executing the difficult duty imposed on her +by his decease. Dr. Mead had pronounced his case, which was a polypus on +the heart, to be a hopeless one; and her anxious precautions to hinder +the fatal intelligence from reaching him were on the point of being +defeated by the arrival of a letter of condolence and consolation from +an injudicious but well-meaning friend, when, on discovering its +purport, she had sufficient address to substitute the lively dictates of +her own invention for the real contents of the epistle, and by this +affectionate delusion not merely to satisfy the curiosity but to cheer +the spirits of her dying husband. + +So great was her solicitude for the improvement of her son, that she +declined the pressing instances of the Countess of Macclesfield to +reside under her roof, lest she should be hindered from attending +exclusively to that which was now become her main concern. To the many +inquiries which the early vivacity of the boy prompted him to put to +her, the invariable answer she returned was, _read and you will know_. +This assurance, added to the other means of instruction, from which her +fondness, or more probably her discernment, induced her to exclude every +species of severity, were so efficacious that in his fourth year he was +able to read at sight any book in his own language. Two accidents +occurred to hinder this rapid advancement from proceeding. Once he +narrowly escaped being consumed by flames from having fallen into the +fire, while endeavouring to scrape down some soot from the chimney of a +room in which he had been left alone; and was rescued only in +consequence of the alarm given to the servants by his shrieks. At +another time, his eye was nearly put out by one of the hooks of his +dress, as he was struggling under the hands of the domestic who was +putting on his clothes. From the effects of this injury his sight never +completely recovered. + +In his fifth year he received a strong impression from reading the +twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse. The man must have a cold +imagination who would deny that this casual influence might have first +disclosed not only the lofty and ardent spirit, but even that insatiable +love of learning, by which he was afterwards distinguished above all his +contemporaries. Amidst the general proscription of reading adapted to +excite wonder, that germ of knowledge, in the minds of our children, it +is lucky that the Bible is still left them. + +At the end of his seventh year he was placed under the tuition of Dr. +Thackeray, the master of Harrow school; but had not been there two years +before a fracture of his thigh bone, that happened in a scramble among +his play-fellows, occasioned another suspension of his studies. During +the twelvemonth which he now passed at home with his mother, he became +so conversant with several writers in his own language, especially +Dryden and Pope, that he set himself about making imitations of them. + +On his return to Harrow, no allowance was made for the inevitable +consequences of this interruption; he was replaced in the class with +those boys whose classical learning had been progressive while his was +stationary, or rather retrograde, and unmerited chastisement was +inflicted on him for his inferiority to those with whom he had wanted +the means of maintaining an equality. Impelled either by fear, by shame, +or by emulation, he laboured hard in private to repair his losses: of +his own accord recurred to the rudiments of the grammar; and was so +diligent that he speedily outstripped all his juvenile competitors. + +In his twelfth year he entered into a scheme for representing a play in +conjunction with his schoolfellows; but instead of seeking his Dramatis +Personae among the heroes of Homer, as Pope had done in his boyhood, +Jones, by a remarkable effort of memory, committed to paper what he +retained of Shakspeare's Tempest, which he had read at his mother's; and +himself sustained the part of Prospero in that Comedy. Meanwhile, his +poetical faculty did not lie dormant. He turned into English verse all +Virgil's Eclogues and several of Ovid's Epistles; and wrote a Tragedy on +the fable of Meleager, which was acted during the holidays by himself +and his comrades, and in which he sustained the character of the hero. A +short specimen of the drama is preserved. The language brings to our +recollection that of the Mock Tragedy in Hamlet. + +When the other boys were at their sports, Jones continued to linger over +his book, or, if he mingled in their diversions, his favourite objects +were still uppermost in his thoughts; he directed his playmates to +divide the fields into compartments to which he gave the names of the +several Grecian republics; allotted to each their political station; and +"wielding at will the fierce democracies," arranged the complicated +concerns of peace and war, attack and defence, councils, harangues, and +negociations. Dr. Thackeray was compelled to own that "if his pupil were +left naked and friendless on Salisbury plain, he would yet find his way +to fame and riches." + +On the resignation of that master, the management of the school devolved +on Dr. Sumner, by whom Jones, then in his fifteenth year, was +particularly distinguished. Such was his zeal, that he devoted whole +nights to study; and not contented with applying himself at school to +the classical languages, and during the vacations to the Italian and +French, he attained Hebrew enough to enable him to read the Psalms in +the original, and made himself acquainted with the Arabic character. +Strangers, who visited Harrow, frequently inquired for him by the +appellation of the great scholar. + +Some of his compositions from this time to his twentieth year, which he +collected and entitled Limon,[1] in imitation of the ancients, are +printed among his works. A young scholar who should now glance his eye +over the first chapter, containing speeches from Shakspeare and +Addison's Cato translated into Greek iambics on the model of the Three +Tragedians, would put aside the remainder with a smile of complacency at +the improvement which has since been made in this species of task under +the auspices of Porson. + +His mother was urged by several of the legal profession, who interested +themselves in his welfare, to place him in the office of a special +pleader: but considerations of prudence, which represented to her that +the course of education necessary to qualify him for the practice of the +law was exceedingly expensive and the advantages remote, hindered her +from acquiescing in their recommendation; at the same time that his own +inclination and the earnest wishes of his master concurred in favour of +prosecuting his studies at college. Which of the two universities should +have the credit of perfecting instruction thus auspiciously commenced +was the next subject of debate. But the advice of Dr. Glasse, then a +private tutor at Harrow, prevailing over that of the head master, who, +by a natural partiality for the place of his own education would have +given the preference to Cambridge, he was in 1764 admitted of University +College in Oxford, whither his mother determined to remove her +residence, either for the purpose of superintending his health and +morals, or of enjoying the society of so excellent a son. + +Before quitting school he presented to his friend Parnell, nephew of the +poet, and afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland, a +manuscript volume of English verses, consisting, among other pieces, of +that essay which some years after he moulded into his Arcadia; and of +translations from Sophocles, Theocritus, and Horace. If the +encouragement of Dr. Sumner had not been overruled by the dissuasion of +his more cautious friends, he would have committed to the press his +Greek and Latin compositions, among which was a Comedy in imitation of +the style of Aristophanes, entitled Mormo. Like many other lads whose +talents have unfolded in all their luxuriance under the kindness of an +indulgent master, he experienced a sudden chill at his first +transplantation into academic soil. His reason was perplexed amid the +intricacies of the school logic, and his taste revolted by the barbarous +language that enveloped it. + +On the 31st of October he was unanimously elected to one of the four +scholarships founded by Sir Simon Bennet. But as he had three seniors, +his prospect of a fellowship was distant; and he was anxious to free his +mother from the inconvenience of contributing to his support. His +disgust for the University, however, was fortunately not of long +continuance. The college tutors relieved him from an useless and irksome +attendance on their lectures, and judiciously left the employment of his +time at his own disposal. He turned it to a good account in perusing the +principal Greek historians and poets, together with the whole of Lucian +and of Plato; writing notes, and exercising himself in imitations of his +favourite authors as he went on. In order to facilitate his acquisition +of the Arabic tongue, more particularly with regard to its +pronunciation, he engaged a native of Aleppo, named Mirza, whom he met +with in London, to accompany him to Oxford, and employed him in +re-translating the Arabian Nights' Entertainments into their original +language, whilst he wrote out the version himself as the other dictated, +and corrected the inaccuracies by the help of a grammar and lexicon. The +affinity which he discovered between this language and the modern +Persian, induced him to extend his researches to the latter dialect; and +he thus laid the foundation of his extraordinary knowledge in oriental +literature. + +During the vacations he usually resorted to London, where he was +assiduous in his attendance on the schools of Angelo, for the sake of +accomplishing himself in the manly exercises of fencing and riding; and, +at home, directed his attention to modern languages; and familiarised +himself with the best writers in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: +"thus," he observed, "with the fortune of a peasant, he gave himself the +education of a prince." + +The year after his entrance at college, he accepted a proposal that was +made him to undertake the education of Lord Althorpe, then a child about +seven years old; and for that purpose spent much of his time at +Wimbledon, where he composed many of his English poems, and studied +attentively the Hebrew Bible, particularly the prophetical writings, and +the book of Job. + +In the summer of 1766, a fellowship of University College unexpectedly +became vacant; and being conferred on Jones, secured him the enjoyment +of that independence which he had so much desired. With independence he +seems to have been satisfied; for, on his return to Wimbledon, he +declined an offer made him by the Duke of Grafton, then first Lord of +the Treasury, of the place of interpreter for eastern languages. The +same answer which conveyed his refusal recommended in earnest terms his +friend Mirza as one fitted to perform the duties of the office, but the +application remained unnoticed; and he regretted that his inexperience +in such matters had prevented him from adopting the expedient of +nominally accepting the employment for himself, and consigning the +profits of it to the Syrian. + +In 1767 he began his treatise De Poesi Asiatica, on the plan of Lowth's +Praelectiones, and composed a Persian grammar for the use of a +school-fellow, who was about to go to India. His usual course of study was +for a short time interrupted by an attendance on Earl Spencer, the father +of his pupil, to Spa. The ardour of his curiosity as a linguist made him +gladly seize the opportunity afforded him by this expedition of +obtaining some knowledge of German. Nor was he so indifferent to +slighter accomplishments as not to avail himself of the instructions of +a celebrated dancing master at Aix-la-Chapelle. He had before taken +lessons from Gallini in that trifling art. From a pensioner at Chelsea +he had learnt the use of the broadsword. He afterwards made an attempt, +in which, however, he does not seem to have persevered, to become a +performer on the national instrument of his forefathers, the harp. +Ambition of such various attainments reminds us of what is related +concerning the Admirable Crichton, and Pico of Mirandola. + +Christian the Seventh, King of Denmark, who in 1768 was on a visit to +this country, had brought with him a Persian history of Nadir Shah in +manuscript, which he was desirous to have translated from that language +into the French. On this occasion Jones was applied to by one of the +under secretaries to the Duke of Grafton, to gratify the wishes of the +Danish monarch. The task was so little to his mind that he would have +excused himself from engaging in it; and he accordingly suggested Major +Dow, a gentleman already distinguished by his translations from the +Persic, as one fit to be employed; but he likewise pleading his other +numerous occupations as a reason for not undertaking this, and the +application to Jones being renewed, with an intimation that it would be +disgraceful to the country if the King should be compelled to take the +manuscript into France, he was at length stimulated to a compliance. At +the expiration of a twelvemonth, during which interval it had been more +than once eagerly demanded, the work was accomplished. The publication +of it was completed in 1770, and forty copies were transmitted to the +court of Denmark. To the History was appended a treatise on Oriental +poetry, written also in French. One of the chief difficulties imposed on +the translator had been the necessity of using that language in the +version, of which it could not be expected that he should possess an +entire command; but to obviate this inconvenience, he called in the aid +of a Frenchman, who corrected the inaccuracies in the diction. Christian +expressed himself well satisfied with the manner in which his intentions +had been fulfilled: but a diploma constituting the translator a member +of the Royal Society at Copenhagen, together with an earnest +recommendation of him to the regard of his own sovereign, were the sole +rewards of his labour. Of the history he afterwards published an +abridgment in English. + +The predilection he had conceived for the Muses of the East, whom, with +the blind idolatry of a lover, he exalted above those of Greece and +Rome, was further strengthened by his intercourse with an illustrious +foreigner, whom they had almost as much captivated. The person, with +whom this similarity of taste connected him, was Charles Reviczki, +afterwards imperial minister at Warsaw, and ambassador at the English +court with the title of Count. Their correspondence, which turns +principally on the object of their common pursuits, and is written in +the French and Latin languages, commenced in 1768. At this time he took +his degree of Bachelor of Arts. + +In the summer of the ensuing year, Jones accompanied his pupil to the +school at Harrow. During his residence there he transcribed his Persian +grammar. He had already begun a dictionary of that language, with +illustrations of the principal words from celebrated writers, a work of +vast labour, which he resolved not to prosecute without the assurance of +an adequate remuneration from the East India Company. At the entreaty of +Dr. Glasse, he now dedicated some portion of his time to religious +inquiry. The result was a conviction of the truth of Christianity, in +his belief of which, it is said, he had hitherto been unconfirmed. In +the winter he made a second visit to the Continent with the family of +his noble patron. After a longer stay at Paris, than was agreeable to +him, they passed down the Rhine to Lyons, and thence proceeded by +Marseilles, Frejus, and Antibes, to Nice. At the last of these places +they resided long enough to allow of his returning to his studies, which +were divided between the arts of music and painting; the mathematics; +and military tactics; a science of which he thought no Briton could, +without disgrace, be ignorant. He also wrote a treatise on education; +and begun a tragedy entitled Soliman, on the murder of the son of that +monarch by the treachery of his step-mother. Of the latter, although it +appears from one of his letters that he had completed it, no traces were +found among his papers, except a prefatory discourse too unfinished to +meet the public eye. The subject has been treated by Champfort, a late +French writer, and one of the best among Racine's school, in a play +called Mustapha and Zeangir. I do not recollect, and have not now the +means of ascertaining, whether that fine drama, the Solimano of Prospero +Bonarelli is founded on the same tragic incident in the Turkish History. + +An excursion which he had meditated to Florence, Rome, and Naples, he +was under the necessity of postponing to a future occasion. On his way +back he diverged to Geneva, in hopes of seeing Voltaire; but was +disappointed, as the Frenchman excused himself, on account of age and +sickness, from conversing with a stranger. At Paris he succeeded by the +help of some previous knowledge of the Chinese character, and by means +of Couplet's Version of the Works of Confucius, in construing a poem by +that writer, from a selection in the king's library, and sent a literal +version of it to his friend Reviczki. From the French capital the party +returned through Spa to England. During their short residence at Spa he +sketched the plan of an epic poem, on the discovery of Britain by the +Prince of Tyre. The suggestion and advice of his friends, who thought +that abilities and attainments like his required a more extensive sphere +of action than was afforded him by the discharge of his duties as a +private tutor, strengthened, probably, by a consciousness of his own +power, induced him to relinquish that employment, and henceforward to +apply himself to the study and practice of the law. An almost +enthusiastic admiration of the legal institutions of his own country, a +pure and ardent zeal for civil liberty, and an eminent independence and +uprightness of mind, were qualifications that rendered this destination +of his talents not less desirable in a public view, than it was with +reference to his individual interests. He accordingly entered himself a +member of the Temple, on the 19th of September, 1770. To faculties of so +comprehensive a grasp, the abandonment of his philological researches +was not indispensable for the successful prosecution of his new pursuit. +Variety was perhaps even a necessary aliment of his active mind, which +without it might have drooped and languished. Indeed, the cultivation of +eastern learning eventually proved of singular service to him in his +juridical capacity. + +In 1771 he published in French a pamphlet in answer to Anquetil du +Perron's Attack on the University of Oxford, in the discourse prefixed +to his "Zind-Avesta;" and entered on "A History of the Turks," the +introduction to which was printed, but not made public till after his +death. He had a design to apply for the office of minister at +Constantinople, in the event of a termination of the war with Russia, +and looked forward with eagerness to an opportunity of contemplating the +Turkish manners at their source. A small volume of his poems, consisting +chiefly of translations from the Eastern languages, with two prose +dissertations annexed, made their appearance in the following year, when +he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. From the preface to the +poems, it appears that his relish for the Greek and Roman writers had +now returned; and that he justly regarded them as the standard of true +taste. His terms not having been regularly kept in the University, +(where his mother and sister had still continued to reside) he did not +take his degree of Master of Arts till the Easter of 1773. In the +January following he was called to the bar. At the conclusion of the +preface to his Commentaries de Poesi Asiatica, published at this period, +he announces his determination to quit the service of the muses, and +apply himself entirely to his professional studies. In a letter to +Reviczki, of February, 1775, we find him declaring that he no longer +intended to solicit the embassy to Constantinople. This year he attended +the spring circuit, and sessions at Oxford; and the next was appointed +one of the commissioners of bankrupts, and was to be found regularly as +a legal practitioner in Westminster Hall. At the same time, that he +might not lose sight of classical literature, he was assiduous in his +perusal of the Grecian orators, and employed himself in a version of the +Orations of Isaeus; nor does he appear to have broken off his +correspondence with learned foreigners, among whom were the youngest +Schultens, and G.S. Michaelis. The translation of Isaeus, which appears +to be executed with fidelity, was published in 1778, with a dedication +to Lord Bathurst, in which he declares "his Lordship to have been his +greatest, his only benefactor." His late appointment is the obligation +to which he refers. + +A vacancy had now occurred on the bench at Fort William, in Bengal; and +Jones was regarded by his brethren at the bar as the fittest person to +occupy that station. The patronage of the minister, however, was +requisite to this office; and the violent measures which government had +lately adopted, with respect to the American Colonies, were far from +being such as accorded with his notions of freedom and justice. He was +resolved that no consideration should induce him to surrender the +independence of his judgment on this, or any other national topic. "If +the minister," says he, in one of his letters to his pupil, Lord +Althorpe, "be offended at the style in which I have spoken, do speak, +and will speak, of public affairs, and on that account, shall refuse to +give me the judgeship, I shall not be at all mortified, having already a +very decent competence without a debt, or a care of any kind." His +patriotic feelings displayed themselves in a Latin Ode to Liberty; +published in March, 1780, under the title of Julii Melesigoni ad +Libertatem, an assumed name, formed by an anagram of his own in Latin. + +The resignation of Sir Robert Newdigate, one of the members returned to +parliament for the University of Oxford, in the meantime, induced +several members of that learned body, who were friendly to Jones, to +turn their eyes towards him as their future representative. The choice +of a candidate undistinguished by birth or riches, and recommended +solely by his integrity, talents, and learning, would have reflected the +highest honour on his constituents; but many being found to be +disinclined to his interest, it was thought more prudent to relinquish +the canvass. He published in July a small pamphlet, entitled an Inquiry +into the Legal Mode of suppressing Riots, with a constitutional Plan of +future Defence. The insurrection which had for some days disgraced the +British metropolis, at the beginning of June, suggested the publication +of this tract. In the autumn of this year he made a journey to Paris, as +he had done the preceding summer. During a fortnight's residence in that +capital, he attended some causes at the Palais; obtained access to a +fine manuscript in the royal library, which opened to him a nearer +insight into the manners of the ancient Arabians; and mingled in the +society of as many of the American leaders as he could fall in with, +purposing to collect materials for a future history of their unhappy +contest with the mother country. In the midst of this keen pursuit of +professional and literary eminence he had the misfortune to lose his +mother, who had lived long enough to see her tenderness and assiduity in +the conduct of his education amply rewarded. + +An Essay on the Law of Bailments, and the translation of an Arabian +Poem, on the Mohammedan Law of Succession to the Property of Intestates, +to the latter of which undertakings he was incited by his views of +preferment in the East, testified his industry in the pursuit of his +legal studies; while, on the other hand, several short poems evinced, +from time to time, his intended relinquishment of the tuneful art to be +either impracticable or unnecessary. + +In the summer of 1782 the interests of one of his clients led him again +to Paris, from whence he returned by the circuitous route of Normandy, +and the United Provinces. In the spring of this year he had become a +member of the Society for Constitutional Information. A more equal +representation of the people in parliament was at this time the subject +of general discussion, and he did not fail to stand forward as the +strenuous champion of a measure which seemed likely to infuse new spirit +and vigour into our constitutional liberties. His sentiments were +publicly professed in a speech before the meeting assembled at the +London Tavern, on the 28th of May; and he afterwards gave a wider +currency to them from the press. He maintained that the representation +ought to be nearly equal and universal; an opinion in which few would +now be found to coincide; and which, if he had lived a little longer, he +would probably himself have acknowledged to be erroneous. At Paris, he +had written a Dialogue between a Farmer and a Country Gentleman on the +Principles of Government, and it was published by the Society. A bill of +indictment was found against the Dean of St. Asaph, whose sister he +afterwards married, for an edition printed in Wales; and Jones avowed +himself the author. + +In the beginning of 1783 appeared his translation of the seven Arabian +poems, suspended in the temple at Mecca about the commencement of the +sixth century. + +In the March of this year, he was gratified by the long desired +appointment to the office of judge in the supreme court of judicature, +at Fort William, in Bengal, which was obtained for him through the +interest of Lord Ashburton; and he received the honour of knighthood +usually conferred on that occasion. The divisions among his political +friends, after the decease of that excellent nobleman, the Marquis of +Buckingham, afforded him an additional motive for wishing to be employed +at a distance from his country, which he no longer hoped to see +benefited by their exertions. He was immediately afterwards united to +Anna Maria Shipley, the daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph, a learned +and liberal prelate. His attachment to this lady had been of long +continuance, and he had been waiting only for an honourable independence +before he could resolve to join the fortunes of one so tenderly beloved +to his own. + +Sir William Jones embarked for the East in April, 1783. It is impossible +not to sympathise with the feelings of a scholar about to visit places +over which his studies had thrown the charm of a mysterious interest; to +explore treasures that had rested as yet in darkness to European eyes; +and to approach the imagined cradle of human science and art. During his +voyage he made the following memoranda of objects for his inquiry, and +of works to be begun or executed during his residence in Asia. + +1. The laws of the Hindus and Mahommedans. + +2. The History of the Ancient World. + +3. Proofs and Illustrations of Scripture. + +4. Traditions concerning the Deluge, &c. + +5. Modern Politics, and Geography of Hindustan. + +6. Best Mode of Governing Bengal. + +7. Arithmetic and Geometry, and Mixed Sciences of the Asiatics. + +8. Medicine, Chemistry, Surgery, and Anatomy, of the Indians. + +9. Natural Productions of India. + +10. Poetry, Rhetoric, and Morality of Asia + +11. Music of the Eastern Nations. + +12. The Shi-King, or 300 Chinese Odes. + +13. The best Accounts of Thibet and Cashmir. + +14. Trade, Manufactures, Agriculture, and Commerce of India. + +15. Mogul Constitution contained in the Defteri Alemghiri, and Ayein +Acbari. + +16. Mahratta Constitution. + + * * * * * + +To print and publish the Gospel of St. Luke, in Arabic. + +To publish Law Tracts, in Persian or Arabic. + +To print and publish the Psalms of David, in Persian Verse. + +To compose, if God grant me life, + +1. Elements of the Laws of England. Model--the Essay on Bailment. +Aristotle. + +2. The History of the American War. Model--Thucydides and Polybius. + +3. Britain Discovered, an Heroic Poem on the Constitution of England. +Machinery. Hindu Gods. Model--Homer. + +4. Speeches, Political and Forensic. Model--Demosthenes. + +5. Dialogues, Philosophical and Historical. Model--Plato. + +6. Letters. + +Model--Demosthenes and Plato. + +In the course of the voyage the vessel touched at Madeira; and in ten +weeks after quitting Cape Verd Islands arrived at that of Hinzuan or +Joanna, of which he has left a very lively and pleasing description. + +In September he landed at Calcutta; and before the conclusion of the +year, entered on the performance of his judicial function, and delivered +his first charge to the grand jury, on the opening of the sessions. This +address was such as not to disappoint the high expectations that had +been formed of him before his arrival. + +It was evident that the leisure, or perhaps even the undivided attention +and labour of no one man, could have sufficed for prosecuting researches +so extensive and arduous as those he had marked out for himself. The +association of others in this design was the obvious method of remedying +the difficulty. At his suggestion, accordingly, an institution was, in +January, 1784, framed as closely as possible on the model of the Royal +Society in London; and the presidency was offered to Mr. Hastings, then +Governor-general in India, who not only was a liberal encourager of +Persian and Sanscrit literature, but had made himself a proficient in +the former of these languages at a time when its importance had not been +duly appreciated; and was familiarly versed in the common dialects of +Bengal. That gentleman, however, declining the honour, and recommending +that it should be conferred on the proposer of the scheme, he was +consequently elected president. The names of Chambers, Gladwyn, +Hamilton, and Wilkins, among others, evince that it was not difficult +for him to find coadjutors. How well the institution has answered the +ends for which it was formed the public has seen in the Asiatic +Researches. + +A thorough acquaintance with the religion and literature of India +appeared to be attainable through no other medium than a knowledge of +the Sanscrit; and he therefore applied himself without delay to the +acquisition of that language. It was not long before he found that his +health would oblige him to some restriction in the intended prosecution +of his studies. In a letter written a few days after his arrival in +India, he informs one of his friends that "as long as he stays in India, +he does not expect to be free from a bad digestion, the morbus +literatorum; for which there is hardly any remedy but abstinence from +too much food, literary and culinary. I rise," he adds, "before the sun, +and bathe after a gentle ride; my diet is light and sparing, and I go +early to rest; yet the activity of my mind is too strong for my +constitution, though naturally not infirm; and I must be satisfied with +a valetudinarian state of health." All these precautions, however, did +not avail to secure him from violent and reiterated attacks. In 1784, he +travelled to the city of Benares, by the route of Guyah, celebrated as +the birth-place of the philosopher Boudh, and the resort of Hindu +pilgrims from all parts of the East; and returned by Gour, formerly the +residence of the sovereigns of Bengal. During this journey he laboured +for some time under a fit of illness that had nearly terminated his +life. Yet no sooner did he become a convalescent than he applied himself +to the study of botany, and composed a metrical tale, entitled The +Enchanted Fruit, or Hindu Wife; and a Treatise on the Gods of Greece, +Italy, and India; the latter of which he communicated to the Society. He +had not been many months settled after his return to Calcutta, when he +found the demand made on him for his company, by the neighbourhood of +that place, so frequent as to produce a troublesome interruption to the +course of his literary engagements. He therefore looked out for a +situation more secluded, to which he might betake himself during the +temporary cessations of his official duties; and made choice of +Chrishnanagur, at the distance of about fifty miles, which, besides a +dry soil and pure air, possessed an additional recommendation in its +vicinity to a Hindu College. Indeed, he omitted no means that could tend +to facilitate his acquaintance with the learning and manners of the +natives. A considerable portion of his income was set aside for the +purpose of supporting their scholars, whom he engaged for his +instruction. + +The administration of justice was frequently interrupted by the want of +integrity in the Pundits, or expounders of the statutes. To prevent the +possibility of such deception, this upright magistrate undertook to +compile and translate a body of Hindu and Mohammedan laws, and to form a +digest of them in imitation of that of the Roman law framed by the order +of the Emperor Justinian. The mind can scarcely contemplate a plan of +utility more vast or splendid than one which aimed at preserving the +fountain of right uncontaminated for twenty millions of people. During +the period of sessions and term, when his attendance was required at +Calcutta, he usually resided on the banks of the Ganges, five miles from +the court. + +In 1785 a periodical work, called the Asiatic Miscellany, which has been +erroneously attributed to the Asiatic Society, was undertaken at +Calcutta; and to the first two volumes, which appeared in that and the +following year, he contributed six hymns addressed to Hindu deities; a +literal version of twenty tales and fables of Nizami, expressly designed +for the help of students in the Persian language; and several smaller +pieces. + +A resolution, which had passed the Board of the Executive Government of +Bengal, for altering the mode of paying the salaries of the judges, +produced from him a very spirited remonstrance. The affair, however, +seems to have been misconceived by himself and his brethren on the +Bench; and on its being explained the usual harmony was restored. At the +commencement of 1786, while this matter was pending, he made a voyage to +Chatigan, the boundary of the British dominions in Bengal towards the +east. In this "Indian Montpelier," where he describes "the hillocks +covered with pepper vines, and sparkling with blossoms of the coffee +tree," in addition to his other literary researches he twice perused the +poem of Ferdausi, consisting of above sixty thousand couplets. This he +considered to be an epic poem as majestic and entire as the Iliad; and +thought the outline of it related to a single hero, Khosrau, (the Cyrus +of Herodotus and Xenophon), whom, as he says, "the Asiaticks, conversing +with the Father of European History, described according to their +popular traditions by his true name, which the Greek alphabet could not +express." A nearer acquaintance with the great epic bard of Persia had +now taught him therefore to retract the assertion he had made in his +Commentary on Asiatic Poetry, that "the hero, as it is called, of the +poem, was that well known Hercules of the Persians, named Rustem; +although there are several other heroes, or warriors, to each of whom +their own particular glory is assigned." At the time of writing this, he +had an intention, if leisure should be allowed him, of translating the +whole work. A version of Ferdausi, either in verse unfettered by rhyme, +or in such numerous prose as the prophetical parts of the Bible are +translated into, would, I think, be the most valuable transfer that our +language is now capable of receiving from foreign tongues. + +In 1787 he flattered himself that his constitution had overcome the +climate; but his apprehensions were awakened for the health of Lady +Jones, to which it had been yet more unfavourable; and he resolved, if +some amendment did not appear likely, to urge her return to her native +country; preferring, he said, the pang of separation for five or six +years, to the anguish, which he should hardly survive, of losing her. + +At the beginning of 1789 appeared the first volume of the Society's +Researches, selected by the President. Two other volumes followed during +his life-time, and a fourth was ready for the press at the time of his +decease. + +In the same year he published his version of an Indian drama of Calidas, +entitled Sancontala, or the Fatal Ring; a wild and beautiful +composition, which makes us desire to see more by the same writer, who +has been termed the Shakspeare of India, and who lived in the last +century before the Christian era. The doubts suggested by the critics in +England, concerning the authenticity of this work, he considered as +scarcely deserving of a serious reply. + +In his discourses, delivered before the Society, he discusses the origin +of the several nations which inhabit the great continent of Asia, +together with its borderers, mountaineers, and islanders; points out the +advantages to be derived from the concurrent researches of the members +of the Society, amongst which the confirmation of the Mosaic account of +the primitive world is justly insisted on as the most important; and +enlarges on the philosophy of the Asiatics. Besides several other +essays, particular dissertations are allotted to the subjects of the +Indian chronology; the antiquity of their zodiac, which he maintains not +to have been formed from the Greek or Arabs; the literature of the +Hindus; and the musical modes used by that people. + +In the course of the last two years he edited the Persian poem by +Hatefi, of Laile and Majnoon, the Petrarch and Laura of the Orientals. +The book was published at his own cost; and the profits of the sale +appropriated to the relief of insolvent debtors in the gaol at Calcutta. + +In 1793 Lady Jones, to whose constitution, naturally a weak one, the +climate continued still unpropitious, embarked for England. The +physicians had long recommended a return to Europe as necessary for the +restoration of her health, or rather as the only means of preserving her +life; but her unwillingness to quit her husband had hitherto retained +her in India. His eagerness to accomplish his great object of preparing +the Code of Laws for the natives would not suffer him to accompany her. +He hoped, however, that by the ensuing year he should have executed his +design; and giving up the intention he had had of making a circuit +through Persia and China on his return, he determined to follow her then +without any deviation from his course. In the beginning of 1794 he +published a translation of the Ordinances of Menu, on which he had been +long employed, and which may be regarded as initiatory to his more +copious pandect. + +The last twenty years of his life he proposed passing in a studious +retreat after his return to England; and had even commissioned one of +his friends to look out for a pleasant country-house in Middlesex, with +a garden, and ground to pasture his cattle. + +But this prospect of future ease and enjoyment was not to be realized. +The event, which put an unexpected end both to that and to his important +scheme for the public advantage, cannot be so well related as in the +words of Lord Teignmouth. "On the 20th of April, or nearly about that +date, after prolonging his walk to a late hour, during which he had +imprudently remained in conversation in an unwholesome situation, he +called upon the writer of these sheets, and complained of agueish +symptoms, mentioning his intention of taking some medicine, and +repeating jocularly an old proverb, that "an ague in the spring is +medicine for a king." He had no suspicion at the time of the real nature +of his indisposition, which proved in fact to be a complaint common in +Bengal, an inflammation in the liver. The disorder was, however, soon +discovered by the penetration of the physician, who after two or three +days was called in to his assistance; but it had then advanced too far +to yield to the efficacy of the medicines usually prescribed, and they +were administered in vain. The progress of the complaint was uncommonly +rapid, and terminated fatally on the 27th of April, 1794. + +"On the morning of that day, his attendants, alarmed at the evident +symptoms of approaching dissolution, came precipitately to call the +friend who has now the melancholy task of recording the mournful event: +not a moment was lost in repairing to his house. He was lying on a bed +in a posture of meditation, and the only symptom of remaining life was a +small degree of motion in the heart, which after a few seconds ceased, +and he expired without a pang or groan. His bodily suffering, from the +complacency of his features, and the ease of his attitude, could not +have been severe; and his mind must have derived consolation from those +sources where he had been in the habit of seeking it, and where alone in +our last moments it can be found." "The funeral ceremony," adds his +noble biographer, "was performed on the following day, with the honours +due to his public station; and the numerous attendance of the most +respectable British inhabitants of Calcutta evinced their sorrow for his +loss, and their respect for his memory. The Pundits who were in the +habit of attending him, when I saw them at a public _durbar_, a few days +after that melancholy event, could neither restrain their tears for his +loss, nor find terms to express their admiration at the wonderful +progress which he had made in the sciences which they professed." + +A domestic affliction of the severest kind was spared him by his removal +from life. Eight years after that event, his sister, who was married to +an opulent merchant retired from business, perished miserably, in +consequence of her clothes having taken fire. + +His large collection of Sanscrit, Arabic, and other eastern manuscripts, +was presented by his widow to the Royal Society. A catalogue of them, +compiled by Mr. Wilkins, is inserted in his works. + +The following list of desiderata was found among his papers, after his +decease. + +India. + +The Ancient Geography of India, &c., from the Puranas. + +A Botanical Description of Indian Plants, from the Cochas, &c. + +A Grammar of the Sanscrit Language, from Panini. + +A Dictionary of the Sanscrit Language, from thirty-two original +Vocabularies and Niructi. + +On the ancient Music of the Indians. + +On the Medical Substances of India, and the Indian Art of Medicine. + +On the Philosophy of the Ancient Indians. + +A Translation of the Veda. + +On Ancient Indian Geometry, Astronomy, and Algebra. + +A Translation of the Puranas. + +Translation of the Mahabharat, and Ramayan. + +On the Indian Theatre, &c. &c. + +On the Indian Constellations, with their Mythology, from the Puranas. + +The History of India, before the Mohammedan Conquest, from the Sanscrit +Cashmir Histories. + +Arabia. + +The History of Arabia before Mohammed. + +A Translation of the Hamasa. + +A Translation of Hariri. + +A Translation of the Facahatal Khulafa. Of the Cafiah. + +Persia. + +The History of Persia, from authorities in Sanscrit, Arabic, Greek, +Turkish, Persian, ancient and modern. + +The five Poems of Nizami, translated in prose. + +A Dictionary of pure Persian--Jehangiri. + +China. + +Translation of the Shi-cing. + +The Text of Con-fu-tsu, verbally translated. + +Tartary. + +A History of the Tartar Nations, chiefly of the Moguls and Othmans, from +the Turkish and Persian. + +By an unanimous vote of the East India Company Directors, it was +resolved, that a cenotaph, with a suitable inscription, should be raised +to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral; and that a statue of him should +be sent to Bengal, for the purpose of being placed there in a proper +situation. + +A monument has also been erected to his memory in the anti-chapel of +University College, Oxford, by Lady Jones, with the following +inscription: + +M. S. +Gulielmi Jones equitis aurati, +Qui clarum in literis nomen a patre acceptum +Magna cumulavit gloria. +Ingenium in illo erat scientiarum omnium capax, +Disciplinisque optimis diligentissima exculturn. +Erat indoles ad virtutem eximia, +Et in Justitia, Libertate, Religione vindicanda +Maxime probata. +Quicquid autem utile vel honestum +Consiliis, Exemplo, Auctoritate vivus promoverat, +Id omne scriptis suis immortalibus +Etiam nunc tuetur atque ornat. +Praestantissimum hunc virum, +Cum a provincia Bengala, +Ubi judicis integerrimi munus +Per decennium obierat, +Reditum in patriam meditaretur, +Ingruentis morbi vis oppressit, +X. Kal. Jun. A. C. MDCCLXXXXIV. Aet. XLVIII. +Ut quibus in aedibus +Ipse olim socius inclaruisset, +In iisdem memoria ejus potissimum conservaretur, +Honorarium hoc monumentum +Anna Maria filia Jonathan Shipley, Epis. Asaph. +Conjugi suo, B. M. +P. C. + +To the name of poet, as it implies the possession of an inventive +faculty, Sir William Jones has but little pretension. He borrows much; +and what he takes he seldom makes hotter. Yet some portion of sweetness +and elegance must he allowed him. + +In the hymns to the Hindu deities, the imagery, which is derived chiefly +from Eastern sources, is novel and attractive. That addressed to +Narayena is in a strain of singular magnificence. The description, in +the fourth stanza, of the creative power or intelligence, issuing from +the primal germ of being, and questioning itself as to its own +faculties, has something in it that fills the mind with wonder. + + What four-form'd godhead came, + With graceful stole and beamy diadem, + Forth from thy verdant stem? + Full-gifted Brahma! Rapt in solemn thought + He stood, and round his eyes fire-darting threw + But whilst his viewless origin he sought, + One plain he saw of living waters blue, + Their spring nor saw nor knew. + Then in his parent stalk again retired, + With restless pain for ages he inquired + What were his powers, by whom, and why, conferr'd, + With doubts perplex'd, with keen impatience fired, + He rose, and rising heard + Th' unknown, all-knowing word, + Brahma! no more in vain research persist. + My veil thou canst not move.--Go, bid all worlds exist. + +To the hymns he subjoins the first Nemean ode of Pindar, "not only," he +says, "in the same measure as nearly as possible, but almost word for +word with the original; those epithets and phrases only being +necessarily added which are printed in Italic letters." Whoever will be +at the trouble of comparing him with Pindar, will see how far he is from +fulfilling this promise. + +Of the Palace of Fortune, an Indian tale, the conclusion is unexpected +and affecting. + +The Persian song from Hafez, is one of those pieces that, by a nameless +charm, fasten themselves on the memory. + +In the Caissa, or poem on Chess, he is not minute enough to gratify a +lover of the game, and too particular to please one who reads it for the +poetry. The former will prefer the Scacchia Ludus of Vida, of which it +is a professed imitation; and the latter will be satisfied with the few +spirited lines which the Abbe de Lille has introduced into his L'Homme +des Champs, on this subject. Vida's poem is a surprising instance of +difficulty overcome, in the manner with which he has moulded the +phraseology of the classics to a purpose apparently alien from it; and +he has made his mythology agreeable, trivial as it is, by the skill with +which it is managed. But I find that both the Caissa, and the Arcadia, +which is taken from a paper in the Guardian, were done, as the author +says, at the age of 16 or 17 years, and were saved from the fire in +preference to a great many others, because they seemed more correctly +versified than the rest. It is, therefore, hardly fair to judge them +very strictly. + +His Latin commentary on Asiatic poetry is more valuable for the extracts +from the Persian and Arabic poets, which he has brought together in it, +than to be commended for anything else that it contains, or for the +style in which it is written. Certain marks of hurry in the composition, +which his old schoolfellow, Doctor Parr, had intimated to him with the +ingenuousness of a friend and a scholar, are still apparent. He takes up +implicitly with that incomplete and partial, though very ingenious +system, which Burke had lately put forth in his essay on the Sublime and +Beautiful. He has supported that writer's definition of Beauty by a +quotation from Hermogenes. A better confirmation of his theory might +have been adduced from the Philebus of Plato, in which Socrates makes +the same distinction as our eloquent countryman has taken so much pains +to establish between that sensation which accompanies the removal of +pain or danger, and which he calls delight--and positive pleasure.[2] As +the work, however, of a young man, the commentary was such as justly to +raise high expectations of the writer. + +His style in English prose, where he had most improved it, that is, in +his discourses delivered in India on Asiatic History and Literature, is +opulent without being superfluous; dignified, yet not pompous or +inflated. He appears intent only on conveying to others the result of +his own inquiries and reflections on the most important topics, in as +perspicuous a manner as possible; and the embellishments of diction come +to him unbidden and unsought. His prolixity does not weary, nor his +learning embarrass, the reader. If he had been more elaborate, he might +have induced a suspicion of artifice; if he had been less so, the +weightiness of his matter would seem to have been scarcely enough +considered. But he has higher claims to the gratitude of his country, +and of mankind, than either prose or poetry can give. His steady zeal in +the cause of liberty, and justice, and truth, is above all praise; and +will leave his name among the few + + --quos aequus amavit + Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus, + Dis geniti. + +FOOTNOTES +[1] [Greek: Leimhon], a meadow. +[2] [Greek: Alaethehis dhan tinas, o Sokrates, upolambanon, orthos tis + dianooit an; SO. Tas peri te ta kala legomena chromata kai peri ta + schaemata, kai ton osmon tas pleistas, kai tas ton phthongon, kai + osa tas endeias anaisthaetous echonta kai alupous, tas plaeroseis + aisthaetas kai aedeias katharas lupon paradidosi.] "What pleasures + then, Socrates, may one justly conclude to be true ones?--_Soc._ + Those which regard both such colours as are accounted beautiful; and + figures; and many smells and sounds; and whatsoever things, when + they are absent, we neither feel the want of, nor are uneasy for; + but when present, we feel and enjoy without any mixture of + uneasiness." He then goes on to exemplify these true pleasures in + forms, colours, &c. Compare the De Rep. p. 534. + + + * * * * * + + +THOMAS CHATTERTON. + +If it were allowable for one who professes to write the lives of +English poets to pass the name of Chatterton in silence, I should think +the literature of our country more honoured by the concealment of his +fate than by the record of his genius. Yet from his brief story, the +young will learn, that genius is likely to lead them into misery, if it +be not accompanied by something that is better than genius; and men, +whom birth and station have rendered eminent, may discover that they owe +some duty to those whom nature has made more than their equals; and +who-- + + Beneath the good tho' far--are far above the great. + +Thomas Chatterton was born in the parish of St. Mary Redcliffe, at +Bristol, on the twentieth of November, 1752. His father, who was of the +same name, and who died about three months before the birth of his son, +had been writing-master to a classical school, singing-man in Bristol +cathedral, and master of the free-school in Pyle-street in that city; +and is related to have been inclined to a belief in magic, and deeply +versed in Cornelius Agrippa. His forefathers had borne the humble office +of sexton to St. Mary Redcliffe church for a century and a half, till +the death of John Chatterton, great uncle of the poet. + +From what is recorded of the infancy of Chatterton, parents may be +satisfied that an inaptness to learn in childhood, is far from being a +prognostic of future dullness. At the age of five years, he was sent to +the school of which his father had been master, and was found so +incorrigibly stupid, that he was rejected by the teacher, whose name was +Love, as incapable of profiting by his instruction. His mother, as most +mothers would have done in the like case, bitterly lamented her son's +untowardness; when an old musical manuscript in French coming in his +way, he fell in love, as she expressed it, with the illuminated +capitals. Of this fancy she eagerly availed herself to lead him on to an +acquaintance with the alphabet; and from hence proceeded to teach him to +read in an old Testament or Bible in the black letter. Doctor Gregory, +one of his biographers, justly observes, that it is not unreasonable to +suppose his peculiar fondness for antiquities to have originated in this +incident. + +It is related, on the testimony of his sister, as a mark of his early +thirst for distinction, that being offered a present of china-ware by a +potter, and asked what device he would have painted on it, he replied, +"Paint me an angel with wings, and a trumpet to trumpet my name about +the world." It is so usual with those who are fondly attached to a +child, to deceive themselves into a belief, that what it has said on the +suggestion of others, has proceeded from its own mind, that much credit +is seldom due to such marvels. + +A little before he had attained his eighth year, he was admitted into +Colston's charity school in Bristol, an institution in some respects +similar to that excellent one of Christ's Hospital in London, the boys +being boarded and clothed, as well as instructed, in the house. In two +years his dislike to reading was so thoroughly overcome, that he spent +the pocket-money allowed him by his mother in hiring books from a +circulating library. He became reserved, thoughtful, and at times +melancholy; mixed little in childish sports; and between his eleventh +and twelfth years had made a catalogue of the books he had read to the +number of seventy. It is to be regretted, that with a disposition thus +studious, he was not instructed in any language but his own. The example +of one of the assistants in the school, named Thomas Phillips, spread a +poetical emulation among the elder boys, of whom Thistlethwaite, Cary, +and Fowler, figured in the periodical publications of the day. +Chatterton did not escape the contagion; and a pocket-book presented to +him by his sister, as a new-year's gift, was returned at the end of the +year filled with his writing, chiefly in verse. Phillips is probably the +person whose skill in poetry is extolled by Chatterton in an elegy on +the death of his acquaintance of that name, which has some stanzas of +remarkable beauty. + +Soon after his confirmation by the bishop, at twelve years of age, he +was prompted by the serious reflections which the performance of that +ceremony had awakened in him, to compose some lines on the Last Day, and +a paraphrase of the ninth chapter of Job, and of some chapters in +Isaiah. Had his life been protracted, there is every reason to believe, +from the process which usually takes place in minds constituted like +his, that after an interval of scepticism, these feelings of piety would +have returned in their full force. At the same time he indulged himself +in satirical effusions on his master, and such of his schoolfellows as +had provoked either his resentment or his ridicule. + +On the first of July, 1767, he was taken from school, and apprenticed +for seven years to Mr. John Lambert, attorney, of Bristol, to be +instructed in the art of a scrivener. The apprentice fee was only ten +pounds; he slept in the room with the footboy, and was confined to the +office from eight o'clock in the morning, with the usual interval for +dinner, till the same hour at night. His conduct was such as left his +master no room for blame. He never exceeded the hours limited for his +absence, except on one occasion, when he had been to spend an evening in +the company of his mother and some friends. Once only he incurred +correction. His old schoolmaster had received an abusive anonymous +letter; and Lambert having discovered from the hand-writing, which was +ill disguised, and by the paper, which was the same as that used in his +office, that Chatterton was the writer, thought it necessary to check so +mischievous a propensity, by inflicting on him one or two blows. Though +he was compelled to pass so large a portion of time in confinement, he +had much leisure left him, as his master's business frequently did not +occupy more than two hours in the day. His chief employment was the +copying of precedents, with which he filled a folio book of 344 pages +closely written. + +At the beginning of October, 1768, the new bridge at Bristol was +completed; and about the same time there appeared in the Bristol Journal +a paper, purporting to be a description of the Fryar's first passing +over the old bridge, taken from an ancient manuscript, and signed +Dunhelmus Bristoliensis. By this the public curiosity was excited; and +the printer not being able to satisfy the inquiries that were made +concerning the quarter from whence he had received the communication, it +was with some difficulty traced to Chatterton. To the menaces of those, +who first roughly demanded from him an account of the means by which the +paper had come into his hands, he refused to give any reply; but on +being more mildly questioned, after some prevaricating, said, that he +had got it, together with several other manuscripts, that had been in +the possession of his father, by whom they were found in a large box, in +an upper room, over the chapel, on the north side of Redcliffe church. +That some old parchments had been seen by him in his mother's house is +nearly certain; nor is it at all improbable that they might have been +discovered in a neglected coffer in the church, according to the account +he gave of them. But that either the description of the Fryar's passage +over the bridge, or the most considerable of the poems attributed to +Rowley were among them, can scarcely be credited. The delusion supposed +to have been practised on the public by Macpherson, and that +acknowledged to have been so by Walpole, in passing off the Castle of +Otranto for a translation from the Italian, were then recent; and these +examples might have easily engaged Chatterton to attempt a fraud, which +did not seem likely to be more injurious in its consequences than either +of them. + +About the same time he became known to a Mr. Catrott, and to a Mr. +Barrett, a chirurgeon at Bristol, who intended to publish a history of +that city, and was then collecting materials for the purpose. To the +former he showed the Bristowe Tragedy, the Epitaph on Robert Canynge, +and some other short pieces; to the latter several fragments, some of +considerable length, affirming them to be portions of the original +manuscripts which had fallen into his hands. From both he received at +different times some pecuniary reward for these communications, and was +favoured by the loan of some books. Among those which he borrowed of Mr. +Barrett, there were several on medical subjects; and from him he +obtained also some instructions in chirurgery. He is represented by one +of his companions to have extended his curiosity, at this time, to many +other objects of inquiry; and to have employed himself not only in the +lighter studies of heraldry and English antiquities, but in the theory +of music, mathematics, metaphysics, and astronomy. + +He now became a contributor of prose and verse to the Magazines. Among +the acknowledgments to correspondents in the Town and Country Magazine +for November, 1768, one of his letters appears to be noticed; but +nothing of his writing in that miscellany, the first with which he is +known to have corresponded, has been discovered before the February of +the following year. + +The attention he had drawn to himself in his native city soon induced +him to aspire after higher notice. In March he addressed the following +letter to the Honourable Horace Walpole; + + Sir,--Being versed a little in antiquities, I have met with several + curious manuscripts, among which the following may be of service to + you in any future edition of your truly entertaining Anecdotes of + Painting. + In correcting the mistakes (if any) in the notes, you will greatly + oblige + + Your most humble servant, + + THOMAS CHATTERTON. + + Bristol, March 25th, Corn Street. + +This was accompanied by a manuscript, entitled "The Ryse of Peyneteyne +in Englande, wroten by T. Rowleie, 1469, for Mastre Canynge:" to which +Chatterton had annexed his own remarks. Walpole returned a polite +answer, and asked for further communications. On the receipt of a second +letter from Chatterton, Walpole repeated his wish to know more +concerning Rowley and his poems; in reply to which, Chatterton took +occasion to represent his own situation, that he was the son of an +indigent widow, and clerk to an attorney, but that his inclinations led +him to more elegant pursuits; and he intimated a hope that Walpole would +assist in placing him where he might be able to gratify such +propensities. His letter was accompanied by more of the Rowleian poems, +and contained an assurance, that the person who had lent them to him to +transcribe, possessed other valuable relics of ancient poetry. Some +inquiries which Walpole made, confirmed the account given by Chatterton +of himself; but in answer to his solicitation for patronage, Walpole +declared that he had not the means of exerting it; and recommended a +sedulous attention to business, as the most certain way of recompensing +his mother for her care, and of securing his own independence. He +mentioned that more competent judges, than he pretended to be, were not +satisfied of the manuscripts being genuine; and at the same time stated +their reasons for concluding them to be of another age than that to +which they were assigned. Shortly after, Chatterton wrote to him two +letters, which though querulous, are not disrespectful. In the first, +while he thanks his correspondent for the advice he had given him, he +professes his resolution "to go a little beyond it, by destroying all +his useless lumber of literature, and never using his pen again but in +the law;" and in the other, declaring his settled conviction that the +papers of Rowley were genuine, he asks him to return the copy which had +been sent him. Owing to the absence of Walpole, who was then in Paris, +some time elapsed without any notice being taken of this request; and on +his return Walpole found the following letter, which he terms singularly +impertinent. + +Sir,--I cannot reconcile your behaviour to me with the notions I once +entertained of you. I think myself injured, Sir; and did you not know my +circumstances, you would not dare to treat me thus. I have sent for a +copy of the M.S. No answer from you. An explanation or excuse for your +silence would oblige + +Thomas Chatterton. + +July 24th. + +The manuscripts and letters were all returned in a blank cover, on the +fourth of August, and here the intercourse was at an end. Gray and Mason +were the friends whom Walpole had consulted about the manuscripts, and +they had no hesitation in pronouncing them to be forgeries. It may seem +strange, that with such men, the uncommon beauty of the poetry they +contained did not create some interest for the author. But Gray was now +in a state of health that, perhaps, left him little power of being +interested in anything; or the wonder may resolve itself into that +blindness which poets, no less than patrons, too frequently discover for +the excellence of their contemporaries. Chatterton himself spoke with +contempt of the productions of Collins. As to Walpole, he had no doubt +more pleasure in petting the lap-dog that was left to his care by the +old blind lady at Paris, than he could ever have felt in nursing the +wayward genius of Chatterton. + +During his residence in Lambert's house, his constitutional reserve had +assumed an air of gloomy sullenness: he had repeatedly betrayed to the +servants an intention of committing suicide; and at length a paper, +entitled the last Will and Testament of Thomas Chatterton, which was +found lying on his desk, manifested a design of perpetrating this act on +the ensuing day, Easter Sunday, April 15th, 1770. On so unequivocal a +proof as this appeared to be of his desperate resolution, his master no +longer thought it safe to retain him. + +A few months before, he had written letters to several booksellers and +printers in London, and from them received assurances of protection and +employment if he should remove to the capital. This decided him as to +his future course. When he was questioned by Thistlethwaite as to the +plan of life he intended to pursue, if the prospect which was thus held +out, should fail him, he answered: "The promises I have had are +sufficient to dispel doubt; but should I be deceived I will turn +Methodist preacher. Credulity is as potent a deity as ever, and a new +sect may easily be devised. But if that too should fail me, my last and +final resource is a pistol." It is almost unnecessary to observe, that +when he thus speculated on his future proceedings, his mind had been +strongly tainted with infidelity.--Towards the conclusion of April he +set forth on his ill-omened journey. He had never yet gone farther than +a Sunday's walk from his native city; and at the age of seventeen, +equally inexperienced and confident, without a friend or a guide, and +with principles shaken and perverted, he was about to enter on a new and +perilous theatre; nor could it have been difficult to divine what the +event must soon be. On the 26th of April 1770, immediately after his +arrival in London, he writes to his mother, and speaks in high spirits +of the encouragement he has met with from the booksellers to whom he has +applied, "who," says he, "all approve of my design." On the sixth of the +next month, he informs her that "he gets four guineas a month by one +Magazine, and that he shall engage to write a history of England and +other pieces, which will more than double that sum." "Mr. Wilkes had +known him by his writings, since he first corresponded with the +booksellers. He is to visit him the following week, and by his interest +would ensure Mrs. Ballance the Trinity House." In short he is in +raptures at the change in his condition and views; and talks as if his +fortune were already made. He now inhabited the house of Walmsley, a +plasterer, in Shoreditch, where his kinswoman Mrs. Ballance also lived. + +The other letters to his mother and sisters betray the same +intoxication. At the Chapter Coffee-house, he meets with a gentleman +"who would have introduced him as a companion to the young duke of +Northumberland in his intended general tour, had he not been unluckily +incapacitated for that office by his ignorance of any tongue but his +own. His present profession obliges him to frequent places of the best +resort. He employs his money in fitting himself fashionably, and getting +into good company; this last article always brings him in good interest. +He has engaged to live with a gentleman, the brother of a lord (a Scotch +one indeed) who is going to advance pretty deeply into the bookselling +branches, and is to have lodging and boarding, genteel and elegant, +gratis, besides no inconsiderable premium. He is introduced to Beckford, +the Lord Mayor, to whom he had addressed an Essay, and who received him +with all the politeness a citizen could assume, and warmly invited him +to come again. He might have a recommendation to Sir George Colebrook, +an East India Director, as qualified for an office no ways despicable; +but he shall not take a step to the sea while he can continue on land. +If money flowed as fast upon him as honours, he would give his sister a +portion of £5000." The kind-hearted boy did indeed find means out of the +little profits arising from his writings, to send her, his mother, and +his grandmother, several trifling presents. In July he removed to +lodgings at Mrs. Angel's, a sack-maker in Brook Street, Holborn. He +assigned no reason for quitting those he had occupied in Shoreditch; but +Sir Herbert Croft supposes, not without probability, that it was in +order to be nearer to the places of public entertainment, to which his +employment as a writer for ephemeral publications, obliged him to +resort. On the 20th of July, he acquaints his sister that he is engaged +in writing an Oratorio, which when finished would purchase her a gown, +and that she might depend on seeing him before the first of January, +1771. "Almost all the next Town and Country Magazine," he tells her, "is +his." He boasts that "he has an universal acquaintance; that his company +is courted every where; and could he humble himself to go behind a +compter, he could have had twenty places, but that he must be among the +great: state matters suit him better than commercial." Besides his +communications to the above mentioned miscellany, he was a frequent +contributor of essays and poems to several of the other literary +journals. As a political writer, he had resolved to employ his pen on +both sides. "Essays," he tells his sister, "on the patriotic side, fetch +no more than what the copy is sold for. As the patriots themselves are +searching for a place, they have no gratuities to spare. On the other +hand, unpopular essays will not be accepted, and you must pay to have +them printed; but then you seldom lose by it. Courtiers are so sensible +of their deficiency in merit, that they generally reward all who know +how to daub them with an appearance." But all his visions of emolument +and greatness were now beginning to melt away. He was so tired of his +literary drudgery, or found the returns it made him so inadequate to his +support, that he condescended to solicit the appointment of a +chirurgeon's mate to Africa, and applied to Mr. Barrett for a +recommendation, which was refused him, probably on account of his +incapacity. It is difficult to trace the particulars of that sudden +transition from good to bad fortune which seems to have befallen him. +That his poverty was extreme cannot be doubted. The younger Warton was +informed by Mr. Cross, an apothecary in Brook Street, that while +Chatterton lived in the neighbourhood, he often called at his shop; but +though pressed by Cross to dine or sup with him, constantly declined the +invitation, except one evening, when he was prevailed on to partake of a +barrel of oysters, and ate most voraciously. A barber's wife who lived +within a few doors of Mrs. Angel's, gave testimony, that after his death +Mrs. Angel told her, that "on the 24th of August, as she knew he had not +eaten anything for two or three days, she begged he would take some +dinner with her; but he was offended at her expressions, which seemed to +hint that he was in want, and assured her he was not hungry." The +stripling whose pride would not let him go behind a compter, had now +drunk the cup of bitterness to the dregs. On that day he swallowed +arsenic in water, and on the following expired. His room was broken +into, and found strewn over with fragments of papers which he had +destroyed. He was interred in the burying-ground of Shoe Lane +work-house. Such was the end of one who had given greater proofs of +poetical genius than perhaps had ever been shown in one of his years. +By Johnson he was pronounced "the most extraordinary young man that had +ever encountered his knowledge;" and Warton, in the History of English +Poetry, where he discusses the authenticity of the Rowleian poems, gives +it as his opinion, that Chatterton "would have proved the first of +English poets if he had reached a maturer age." + +"He was proud," says his sister, "and exceedingly imperious;" but both +she and his school-fellow Thistlethwaite, vindicated him from the charge +of libertinism, which was brought against him by some who thought they +could not sufficiently blacken his memory. On the contrary, his +abstemiousness was uncommon; he seldom used animal food or strong +liquors, his usual diet being a piece of bread and a tart, and some +water. He fancied that the full of the moon was the most propitious time +for study, and would often sit up and write the whole night by +moonlight. His spirits were extremely uneven, and he was subject to long +and frequent fits of absence, insomuch that he would look stedfastly in +a person's face without speaking or seeming to see him for a quarter of +an hour or more. There is said to have been something peculiarly +pleasing in his manner and address. His person was marked by an air of +manliness and dignity that bespoke the superiority of his mind. His +eyes, one of which was more remarkable than the other, were of a grey +colour, keen, and brilliant, especially when any thing occurred to +animate him. + +Of all the hypotheses concerning those papers which have been the +subject of so much controversy, none seems more probable than that +suggested by Warton, who, in the History of English Poetry, admits that +some of the poems attributed to Rowley might have been preserved in +Canynge's chest; and in another publication allows that Chatterton +"might have discovered parchments of humble prose containing local +memoirs and authentic deeds illustrating the history of Bristol, and +biographical diaries, or other notices, of the lives of Canynge, Ischam, +and Gorges. But that many of the manuscripts were not genuine, is proved +not only by the dissimilitude of the style to any composition of the age +of Henry VI. and Edward IV. and by the marked resemblance to several +passages in modern poets, but by certain circumstances which leave +little or no doubt of their having been fabricated by Chatterton +himself." One of his companions, at the time that he was an apprentice +to Lambert, affirms, that he one day produced a piece of parchment on +which he wrote several words, if not lines, in a character that appeared +to his companion totally unlike English, that he then held it over a +candle to give it the appearance of antiquity, which changed the colour +of the ink, and made the parchment appear black and contracted. Another +person declares, that he saw him rub a piece of parchment in several +places in streaks with yellow ochre, and then rub it on the ground which +was dirty, and afterwards crumple it in his hand. Having concluded the +operation, he said it would do pretty well, but he could do it better at +home. The first part of the Battle of Hastings, he confessed to Mr. +Barrett, that he had written himself. + +Some anachronisms as to particular allusions have been pointed out. The +irregular, or Pindaric measure as it has been called, used in the song +to Aella, in the verses on the Mynster, and in the chorus in Goddwyn, +was not employed till a much later aera. There are also in the Aella +some lines in blank verse, not introduced among us till the time of +Surrey, who adopted it from the Italian. + +Another criterion of a more general nature, which has not yet, at least +that I am aware, been applied to those compositions, is, I think, very +strongly against the antiquity of them; and that is, that the intention +and purpose of the writer in the longer pieces is not sufficiently +marked and decisive for the remoter ages to which they are ascribed. In +the early stages of a language, before conventional phrases have been +formed, and a stock of imagery, as it were, provided for the common use, +we find that the plan of a work is often rude and simple indeed, but +that it almost always bears evident signs of having subsisted anteriorly +in the mind of the writer as a whole. If we try Aella, the longest of +the poems, by this test, we shall discover strong evidence of its being +modern. A certain degree of uniformity is the invariable characteristic +of the earlier productions of art; but here is as much desultoriness and +incoherence, as can well he possible in a work that makes any +pretensions to a plan. On this internal proof alone I should not +hesitate in assigning it to Chatterton rather than to Rowley, to the one +who luxuriated in an abundance of poetic materials poured out before him +for his use or his imitation, rather than to the other who had +comparatively but a few meagre models to work upon. + +Where he is much inspirited by his subject, being thrown off his guard, +he forgets himself and becomes modern, as in these lines, from which I +have removed nothing but the old spelling. + + _First Dane_. + Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus, the chief, is slain; + The Saxons come, with Aella at their head; + Let's strive to get away to yonder green; + Fly, fly! this is the kingdom of the dead. + +_Second Dane_. + + O gods! have Romans at my anlace bled? + And must I now for safety fly away? + See! far besprenged all our troops are spread, + Yet I will singly dare the bloody fray. + But no; I'll fly, and murder in retreat; + Death, blood, and fire shall mark the going of my feet. + +The following repetitions are, if I mistake not, quite modern: + + Now Aella _look'd_, and _looking_ did exclaim; + +and, + + He _falls_, and _falling_ rolleth thousands down. + +As is also this antithetical comparison of the qualities of a war-horse +to the mental affections of the rider: + + Bring me a steed, with eagle-wings for fight, + Swift as my wish, and as my love is, strong. + +There are sometimes single lines, that bear little relation to the +place in which they stand, and seem to be brought in for no other +purpose than their effect on the ear. This is the contrivance of a +modern and a youthful poet. + + Thy words be high of din, but nought beside, + +is a line that occurs in Aella, and may sometimes be applied to the +author himself. + +Nothing indeed is more wonderful in the Rowley poems than the masterly +style of versification which they frequently display. Few more exquisite +specimens of this kind can be found in our language than the Minstrel's +song in Aella, beginning, + + O sing unto my roundelay. + +A young poet may be expected to describe warmly and energetically +whatever interests his fancy or his heart; but a command of numbers +would seem to be an art capable of being perfected only by long-continued +and diligent endeavours. It must be recollected, however, that much might +be done in the time which was at Chatterton's disposal, when that time +was undivided by the study of any other language but his own. +We see, in the instance of Milton's juvenile poems in Latin, not to +mention others, to what excellence this species of skill may be brought, +even in boyhood, where the organs are finely disposed for the perception +of musical delight; and if examples of the same early perfection be +rarer in our own tongue, it may be because so much labour is seldom or +ever exacted, at that age, in the use of it. + +Tyrwhitt, whose critical acumen had enabled him to detect a +supposititious passage in a tragedy of Euripides, was at first a dupe to +the imposture of Chatterton, and treated the poems as so decidedly +genuine, that he cited them for the elucidation of Chaucer; but seeing +good grounds for changing his opinion, as Mr. Nichols[1] informs us, he +cancelled several leaves before his volume was published. Walpole was +equally deceived; though his vanity afterwards would not suffer him to +own that he had been so. Mr. Tyson, in a letter to Dr. Glynn,[2] well +observed, that he could as soon believe that Hogarth painted the +cartoons, as that Chatterton wrote Rowley's poems: yet (he adds) they +are as unlike any thing ancient, as Sir Joshua's flowing contour is +unlike the squares and angles of Albert Durer. + +The poems that were written after his arrival in London, when his mind +was agitated by wild speculations, and thrown off its balance by noise +and bustle, were, as might be expected, very unequal to those which he +had produced in the retirement of his native place. Yet there is much +poignancy in the satires. The three African eclogues have a tumid +grandeur. Heccar and Gaira is the best of them. + +The following verses are strong and impassioned: + + The children of the wave, whose pallid race + Views the faint sun display a languid face, + From the red fury of thy justice fled, + Swifter than torrents from their rocky bed. + Fear with a sicken'd silver tinged their hue, + The guilty fear where vengeance is their due. + + Many of the pieces, confessedly his own, furnish descriptions of +natural objects, equally happy with those so much admired in the +Rowleian poems. + + When golden Autumn, wreath'd in ripen'd corn, + From purple clusters pour'd the foamy wine, + Thy genius did his sallow brows adorn, + And made the beauties of the season thine. + With rustling sound the yellow foliage flies, + And wantons with the wind in rapid whirls, + The gurgling rivulet to the vallies hies, + Whilst on its bank the spangled serpent curls. + * * * * * + Pale rugged Winter bending o'er his tread; + His grizzled hair bedropt with icy dew; + His eyes a dusky light congeal'd and dead, + His robe a tinge of bright ethereal blue. + + His train a motley'd, sanguine, sable cloud, + He limps along the russet dreary moor, + Whilst rising whirlwinds, blasting keen and loud, + Roll the white surges to the sounding shore. + + The lofty elm, the oak of lordly look, + The willow shadowing the babbling brook, + The hedges blooming with the sweets of May, + With double pleasure mark'd the gladsome way. + +In "Resignation," from which these lines are taken, there is a fine +personification of Hope, though the application of it is designedly +ludicrous. + + See Hope array'd in robes of virgin white, + Trailing an arch'd variety of light, + Comes showering blessings on a ruin'd realm, + And shows the crown'd director of the helm. + +With him poetry looks best when she is + + All deftly mask'd as hoar antiquity. + +Scarcely any of these later poems are free from grammatical +incorrectness or ambiguity of expression. Some are debased by the more +serious fault of ribaldry and profaneness. His irreligion, however, +seems to have been rather the fluctuating of a mind that had lost its +hold on truth for a time, than the scepticism of one confirmed in error. +He acknowledges his dependence on a Creator, though he casts off his +belief in a Redeemer. His incredulity does not appear so much the +offspring of viciousness refusing the curb of moral restraint, as of +pride unwilling to be trammelled by the opinions of the multitude. We +cannot conceive that, with a faculty so highly imaginative, he could +long have continued an unbeliever; or, perhaps, that he could ever have +been so in his heart. But he is a portentous example of the dangers to +which an inexperienced youth, highly gifted by nature, is exposed, when +thrown into the midst of greedy speculators, intent only on availing +themselves of his resources for their own advantage, and without any +care for his safety or his peace. + +Some years ago the present laureat (Southey) undertook the office of +editing his works, for the benefit of his sister, Mrs. Newton. It is to +be lamented, that a project so deserving of encouragement does not +appear to have been successful. + + FOOTNOTES +[1] Illustrations of Literature, vol. i. p. 158. +[2] Nichols's Literary An. vol. viii. p. 640. + + + * * * * * + + +HENRY KIRKE WHITE. + +Henry Kirke White was born at Nottingham, on the twenty-first of March, +1785. His father, John, was a butcher; his mother, Mary Neville, was of +a respectable family in Staffordshire. Of the schoolmistress, who taught +him to read and whose name was Garrington, he has drawn a pleasing +picture in his verses entitled Childhood. At about six years of age he +began to learn writing, arithmetic, and French, from the Rev. John +Blanchard; and when out of school was employed in carrying about the +butcher's basket. Some lines "On being confined to School one pleasant +Summer Morning," written at the age of thirteen, by which time he had +been placed under the tuition of a Mr. Shipley, are nearly equal to any +he afterwards produced. Next year he was made to work at a stocking-loom, +preparatively to his learning the business of a hosier; but his +mother, seeing the reluctance with which he engaged in an employment so +ill-suited to his temper and abilities, prevailed on his father, though +not without much difficulty, to fix him in the office of Messrs. Coldham +and Endfield, attorneys in Nottingham. As his parents could not afford +to pay a fee, he was (in 1799) engaged to serve for two years, and at +the end of that term he was articled. Most of his time that could be +spared from the duties of the office was, at the recommendation of his +masters, spent in learning Latin, to which, of his own accord he added +Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Some knowledge of chemistry, +astronomy, electricity, and some skill in music and drawing, were among +his other voluntary acquirements. White was one of those, who feel an +early and importunate craving for distinction. He had already been +chosen member of a literary society in his native town; and soon after +his election, as Mr. Southey relates, "he lectured upon genius, and +spoke extempore for about two hours, in such a manner, that he received +the unanimous thanks of the society, and they elected this young Roscius +of Oratory their Professor of Literature." He next became a writer in +several of the Monthly Miscellanies; and (in 1803) put forth a volume of +poems. A few words of unfortunate criticism in one of the Reviews, which +in a few years more he would have learned to smile at, had nearly +crushed his hopes as an author; when Mr. Southey, into whose hands both +the Review and the Poems themselves chanced to fall, generously came to +his relief. The protection of one so deservedly eminent could not fail +of affording him some comfort: though he still complained that "the +Review went before him where ever he turned his steps, that it haunted +him incessantly, and that he was persuaded it was an instrument in the +hands of Satan to drive him to distraction." + +It is not usual to hear a poet, much less a young poet, complaining that +Satan is busied about his concerns. But his mind, which had before been +disposed to scepticism, was now determined with such force to an extreme +of devotional feeling, as scarcely to retain its due balance. In what +manner the change was effected, it is not very material to inquire; but +the different accounts which Mr. Southey has given of the matter, +according to the information he received at different times, may serve +to shew how little dependance is to be placed on relations of this kind. +At first he tells us "that Mr. Pigott, the curate of St. Mary's, +Nottingham, hearing what was the bent of his religious opinions, sent +him, by a friend, Scott's Force of Truth, and requested him to peruse it +attentively, which he promised to do. Having looked at the book, he told +the person who brought it to him, that he would soon write an answer to +it; but about a fortnight afterwards, when this friend inquired how far +he had proceeded in his answer to Mr. Scott, Henry's reply was in a very +different tone and temper. He said, that to answer that hook was out of +his power, and out of any man's, for it was founded upon eternal truth; +that it had convinced him of his error; and that so thoroughly impressed +was he with a sense of the importance of his Maker's favour, that he +would willingly give up all acquisitions of knowledge, and all hopes of +fame, and live in a wilderness unknown till death, so he could ensure an +inheritance in heaven." In a subsequent correction of this statement, +Mr. Southey informs us that Scott's Force of Truth was put into his +hands by his friend and fellow-pupil Mr. Almond, since Rector of St +Peter's, Nottingham, with an entreaty that he would peruse it at his +leisure: that the book produced little effect, and was returned with +disapprobation; but that afterwards in a conversation with Mr. Almond, +he declared his belief with much vehemence and agitation. This was soon +after he had reached his eighteenth year. Maturer judgment "convinced +him that 'zeal was to be tempered with discretion; that the service of +Christ was _a rational service';_ that a strong assurance 'was not to be +resorted to as the _touchstone_ of our acceptance with God,' that it was +not even the necessary attendant of religious life;" as more experience +of his spiritual associates discovered to him that their professions of +zeal were too frequently accompanied by want of charity; and that in +matters of religion, as in every thing else, they who feel the most, +generally talk the least. + +That even before his conversion, as it is rather improperly called, he +was not without a sense of religious duty, may be inferred from his +having already chosen the Church as a profession in preference to the +Law. To this alteration in his plan of life he might have been directed +by a love of study, or by the greater opportunities held out to him of +gratifying his literary ambition; but it is unreasonable to suppose that +he would have voluntarily taken such a measure, if his own conviction +had run counter to it. The attorneys to whom he was bound, were ready +enough to release him; since, though well satisfied with his conduct and +attention to their concerns, they perceived him to be troubled with a +deafness which would incapacitate him for the practice of the law. The +means of supporting him at the University were accordingly supplied by +the liberality of the friends whom he had gained; and after passing a +twelvemonth with the Rev. Mr. Grainger, of Winteringham in Lincolnshire, +to prepare himself, he was in 1805 entered a sizar of St John's, +Cambridge. Here his application to books was so intense, that his health +speedily sank under it. He was indeed "declared to be the first man of +his year;" but the honour was dearly purchased at the expense of +"dreadful palpitations in the heart, nights of sleeplessness and +horrors, and spirits depressed to the very depths of wretchedness." In +July, 1806, his laundress on coming into his room at College, saw him +fallen down in a convulsive fit, bleeding and insensible. His great +anxiety was to conceal from his mother the state to which he was +reduced. At the end of September, he went to London in search of +relaxation and amusement; and in the next month, returned to College +with a cough and fever, which this effort had encreased. His brother, on +being informed of his danger hastened to Cambridge, and found him +delirious. He recovered sufficiently to know him for a few moments; but +the next day sank into a stupor, and on the 19th of October expired. It +was the opinion of his medical attendants, that if he had lived his +intellect would have failed him. + +He was buried in All-Saints Church, Cambridge, where his monument, +sculptured by Chantrey, has been placed by Mr. Francis Boott, a stranger +from Boston in America. + +After his death all his papers were consigned to the hands of Mr. +Southey. Their contents were multifarious; they comprised observations +on law; electricity; the Greek and Latin languages, from their rudiments +to the higher branches of critical study; on history, chronology, and +divinity. He had begun three tragedies, on Boadicea, Ines de Castro, and +a fictitious story; several poems in Greek, and a translation of Samson +Agonistes. The selection which Mr. Southey has made, consists of copious +extracts from his letters, poems, and essays. + +Mr. Southey has truly said of him, that what he is most remarkable for +is _his uniform good sense_. To Chatterton, with whom this zealous +friend and biographer has mentioned him, he is not to be compared. +Chatterton has the force of a young poetical Titan, who threatens to +take Parnassus by storm. White is a boy differing from others more in +aptitude to follow than in ability to lead. The one is complete in every +limb, active, self-confident, and restless from his own energy. The +other, gentle, docile, and animated rather than vigorous. He began, as +most youthful writers have begun, by copying those whom he saw to be the +objects of popular applause, in his own day. He has little distinct +character of his own. We may trace him by turns to Goldsmith, +Chatterton, and Coleridge. His numbers sometimes offend the ear by +unskilful combinations of sound, as in these lines-- + + But for the babe she bore beneath her breast: + +And-- + + While every bleaching breeze that on her blows; + +And sometimes, though more rarely, they gratify it by unexpected +sweetness. He could occasionally look abroad for himself, and describe +what he saw. In his Clifton Grove there are some little touches of +landscape-painting which are, as I think, unborrowed. + + What rural objects steal upon the sight, + * * * * * + The brooklet branching from the silver Trent, + The whispering birch by every zephyr bent, + The woody island and the naked mead, + _The lowly hut half hid in groves of reed, + The rural wicket and the rural stile, + And frequent interspersed the woodman's pile_. + +Among his poems of later date, there is one unfinished fragment in this +manner, of yet higher beauty. + + Or should the day be overcast, + We'll linger till the show'r be past; + Where the hawthorn's branches spread + A fragrant cover o'er the head; + And list the rain-drops beat the leaves, + Or smoke upon the cottage eaves; + Or silent dimpling on the stream + Convert to lead its silver gleam. + + THE END. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lives of the English Poets, by Henry Francis Cary + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10660 *** |