attack to which Dr. Warton was subjected by the Commentary on the Essay on Criticism: he remarks on the passage, "One science only will one genius fit," that some nicer virtuosi have observed, that in the serious pieces into which HoGARTH has deviated from the natural bias of his genius, there are some strokes of the ridiculous discernible, which suit not with the dignity of his subject. In his Preaching of St. Paul, a dog snarling at a cat, and in his Pharaoh's Daughter, the figure of the infant Moses, who expresses rather archness than timidity, are alleged as instances that this artist, unrivalled in his own walk, could not resist the impulse of his imagination towards drollery. "With this remark Hogarth was violently and unnecessarily offended*: he introduced a publication of WARTON into one of his most ludicrous prints, and vowed an "im mortal odium." By the interference, however, of Dr. Hoadly and Garrick, a reconciliation took place; the Doctor, by softening the observation, made the amende honorable in a subsequent edition of his work; and Hogarth apologised, and was satisfied." Upon this subject the following letter passed from "Chancellor Hoadly to Dr. Warton ;" which, as it is both amusing and characteristic, we are happy to quote in this place, though it makes a small knot in our biographical thread. " "Chelsey, April 21st, 1757. DEAR SIR, "I yesterday called upon little David the King and the great (Giant) Hogarth, to both of whom I paid your respects; to the one by giving him your letter, and to the other by reading your conscientious acknowledgment of your error with regard to his pictures of Paul and Moses, and your promise of amende honorable. The first gave no par ticular answer, but in what all your feeling acquaintance join, expressions of honour and regard for your good heart first, and, secondarily, head. The latter says, you have more than conquered any resentment he might have had, by your handsome acknowledgment, and your amende honorable is a supererogation he neither expected nor desired. He This was, indeed, the sore place of that truly comic painter. When the picture of The Harlot blubbering over a Bullock's Heart' was displayed in the sign-painter's exhibition, he, although the hint of that burlesque assemblage was derived from him, was so hurt at the ridicule of his dear SIGISMUNDA, that he flew into a most violent passion at the circumstance at which he ought to have laughed. begs you will accept of those two prints, which I will bring with me, of the pictures alluded to, and they will give you ocular demonstration of your mistake. The very reason, and the only one, of his making an imitation of Rembrandt on the same subject, was to show the world how he hath industriously avoided al images of that sort in bis Paul before Felix particularly, and in general that his ambition was to be an exact imitator, and not a burlesquer of Nature; they bemg all intended as her portraits, never her caricatures. He will be very glad to see you when you come to town, and convince you that the great masters of antiquity have been guilty of the foolish oversight mentioned by you, and that he never was: particularly Titian, in one of his grandest works. Timidity is not the single passion expressed in the figure of the infant Moses, but love to his mother nurse also; very different ideas from archness, none of which is in the figure; and he desires only that so good a critic as you are should judge of the pang by your eyes, and not by your ears; by the object itself in the picture, and not by report. Hogarth has got again into portraits, his hands full of business, and at a high price. He has almost finished a noble one of our sprightly friend David Garrick and his wife. They are a fine contrast. David is sitting at a table, smilingly thoughtful over an epilogue, or some such composition, (of his own, you may be sure,) his head supported by his wring hand; and Madam is, archly enough, stealing away his pen unseen behind. It has not so much fancy as to be affected or ridiculous, and yet enough to raise it from the formal inanity of a mere portrait. There is an admirable head of Dr. Hay, of the Commons, which if I were like I would not have my picture drawn. I should not like to meet that figure alive in the fields going to Chelsey, for fear of lying that night in a ditch, "With twenty gaping gashes on my crown.' "Adicu. "Yours most truly, 44 An Essay on the Elements, &c. of the English Language. whom he still adored with unabated love, whose prudent and useful exertions contributed to the affluence, whilst her unaffected and endearing tenderness secured the bliss and comfort of his life, fell a victim to a rapid and unconquerable disease, and left him the widowed parent of six children *.” The transition in this part of the work is as singular as it is sudden; for following the last paragraph, Mr. W. immediately says, "About this time he (Dr. Warton) became a member of the Literary Club." We cannot extend quotation as we could wish; but we must observe, that Mr. Boswell meant to say, which was actually the fact, that Mr. Langton was a better scholar than some that he has named: he does not insinuate' that he was a greater genius than any, though his talents were highly respectable. In December, 1773, Dr. Warton married Miss Nicholas, daughter of Robert Nicholas, Esq. In 1782," the eminently learned and pious Dr. Lowth, then Bishop of London, bestowed on him a Prebend of St. Paul's, and within the year added the living of Chorley, in Hertfordshire; which, after some arrangements, the Doctor exchanged for Wickham. "This year gave also to the world the long expected sequel of the Essay on Pope; a great part of which volume had been for some time printed, and the completion of which was retarded from motives of the most delicate and laudable nature." Mr. W. here enters into a candid, fair, and elegant critique upon this part of the work, as he had before done upon the other. We have, in this instance, little inclination to play the Hypers, but a very strong one to extract, which, had we space, we find it impossible to indulge, without injuring the context, of his judicious observations: however, those upon the following line, as he states them to be, so we think them worthy of notice, we shali at a venture quote, "Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise." For who," says the Editor, "could imagine that Locke was fond of romences; that Newton once studied astrology; that Dr. Clarke valued himself for his agility, and frequently amused himself in a private room in his house by leaping over tables and chairs; or that our author (Pope) himself was a great epicure. She died October 5, 1772. "On the evening of an important battle, the Duke of Marlborough was heard chiding his servant for having been so extravagant as to light four candles in his tent when Prince Eugene came to confer with him. Elizabeth was a coquette; and Bacon_re-" ceived a bribe. Dr. Busby had a violent passion for the stage; it was excited in him by the applauses he received in acting the Royal Slave before the King at Christ Church; and he declared, that if the rebellion had not broke out, he should cer tajuly have engaged himself as an actor. Luther was so immoderately passionate, that he sometimes Foxed Melancthon's ears; and Melancthon himself was a believer in judicial astrology, and an interpreter of dreams. Richelieu and Mazarin were so superstitious as to employ and peusion Morin, a pretender to astrology, who cast the nativities of these able politicians. Nor was Tacitus himself, who generally appeared superior to superstition, untainted with this folly, as may appear from the twenty-second chapter of the sixth book of his annals. Men of great genius have been somewhere compared to the pillar of fire that conducted the Israelites, which frequently turned a cloudy side toward the spectator." (To be concluded in our next.) An Essay on the Elements, Accents, and Prosody of the English Language; intended to have been printed as an Introduction to Mr. Boucher's Supplement to Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. By J. Odell, M.A. 1 vol. 12mo. There are no studies, the necessity of which has been more frequently impressed upon our minds, than those that are termed PHILOLOGICAL, and especially that particular branch of them the ENGLISH LANGUAGE; yet, with respect to this, there is, perhaps, no study that has been less regarded. Our early authors, when they condescended to speak their mother tongue, seem to have been much more redundant than systematic. This is observable in the works of Chaucer and others, down to the period of the Reformation, In fact, they frequently expressed themselves in terms which, if not local or provincial, were much worse; for they were probably of their own creation, unwarranted by any authority, and, consequently, inexplicable by any ef forts. HOOKER, who wrote towards the close of the sixteenth century, was the first who endeavoured to introduce purity into English composition. SHAREPEARE did more; for while he extended its verbal compass, he displayed every inflection of which it was capable. JONSON laboured to reduce the flights of enthusiasm to the rules of graminar, and to bring idioms before the tribunal of accuracy: LORD BACON to amalgamate philology with philosophy. Yet still our language was for a long period unsettled. In the times of the PURITANS, &C. it assumed a character stiff and formal as those of the sects that predominated. After the RESTORATION, it became as much too florid as it had before been too precise. If in the reign of the first JAMES it had been frequently weakened by its classic auxiliaries, in that of the second it suffered still more from the intermixture of French phrases. At the close of the seventeenth century, such was the barbarous state of the English tongue, that its refinement became an object of consideration among the learned. Upon the dawn of the eighteenth, ADDISON endeavoured to effect by reason and ridicule what TILLOTSON had before attempted to do by influence and example. SWIFT, who was through life too great a politician to do any thing without a plan, we had almost said without a plot, addressed a remonstrance to the LORD TREASURER Oxford, concerning the imperfect state of our language; alleging, "that in many instances it offended against every part of grammar." HARLEY, who was a man of deeds rather than of words, took no pains to remedy the evil of which the Dean complained. Therefore, although he was frequently obliged to hear his mother tongue spoken much plainer than he liked, the language remained in the same state until the subject of its refinement attracted the attention of JAMES HARRIS, Esq., who has, in his HERMES, philosophically analysed it. the arms of the FRENCH, we have certainly had much to dread from the intrusion of their republican jargon. Shakspeare says, words before blows: so as the one has been sometimes known to be the precursor of the other, it is proper to be guarded at all points. We were therefore glad to learn, that a society is formed, at the head of which is that learned and venerable Prelate, the BISHOP OF DROMORE, for the puro'er the sea;" or, in other words, pose of "whipping those stragglers for divesting the English tongue of foreign idioms. Dr. JOHNSON then took up the subject; and although he has swelled the English vocabulary, perhaps, a little beyond its necessary bounds, he seems, by a general, though tacit, consent, to have fixed its standard. From this standard there has, within a short period, been some danger of desertion; for although, during the present awful contest, we have had little reason to fear INVASION from It was, Toward the promotion of this desirable purpose, the essay before us will essentially contribute. Mr. Odell observes, in the title, " intended to have been printed as an introduction to the supplement to Dr. JOHNSON's dictionary by Mr. BOUCHER," and is a continuation of the learned attempts of Mr. Harris, Dr. Lowth, and several others, to purify the English language, and, by philosophical and grammatical processes, to associate sound with idea. To analyse a work of this nature would, if we were not exceedingly diffuse, be totally useless. Mr. O. has divided his essay into three parts; ELEMENTS, ACCENTS, and PROSODY. In descanting upon each of these he is clear and perspicuous; though we think that with respect to the latter he is too minute; or rather, we should say, too fastidious; for this reason, and he knows it far better than ourselves, that there is no language in which ProSODY has soared so far beyond all fixed and settled rules as the English." There is no language in which not only melody but measure has run so wild as in ours. So different have been the ideas of even the learned upon this subject, that we should conceive it almost out of the power of grammarians, in the present state of things, to reform them. Of these aberrations many notices might be adduced; therefore that reformation is necessary, every one acquainted with letters must allow, at the same time that he coufesses it to be a Herculean task. This task Mr. O. has successfully attempted. He has, in the two former parts of this essay, raised the columns upon which the latter is supported; and as we think, for the reason before alleged, that there is something not only classical, but patriotic, in rendering our language as pure, and keeping it as uncontaminated, as possible, we are happy in the present opportunity to recommend this undertaking. J. M. The Tablet of Memory; shewing every memorable Event in History from the earliest Period to the Year 1807; classed under distinct Heads, with their Dates; comprehending an Epitome of English History: with an exact Chronology of Painters, emiment Men, &c. To which are annexed several useful Lists. The Eleventh Edition, considerably enlarged with several Hundred additional Articles. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 348. Perhaps the surest criterion of the merit of this work is to be found in that part of the title-page which announces that this is the eleventh edition ; a circumstance decisive of the judgment of the public with respect to its utility. It has been the fashion of some of our brother reviewers, whose effusions are in no danger of becoming the things they reprobate, to despise books of reference dictionaries they have not much regard for; lexicons they like still less; and with respect to encyclopedias, they are, as the lawyers say, at sea. Far different are our opinions of these useful works: we think, to adopt a mechanic idea, that, like the cases of letters in composition, they contain the seeds of literature, which may, under the guidance of good sense and judgment, flourish into every branch of science. In the same point of view we consider chronological tables. Every compendium that can assist the memory has its use; and the world is infinitely obliged to those patient and persevering spirits, who have, in works of this nature, with infinite labour, smoothed the paths that lead to the attainment of knowledge. To these observations, which have a general application, we must particufarly add, that the Tablet of Memory seems to us to be the most useful of any that we have yet seen. We have compared it with the Tables of DuFRESNOY, with Trusler's Chronology, and some other works; and we find, that in point of arrangement, and in some instances of accuracy, it is superior to any. Upon this subject we may fairly trust the editor to speak for himself, because he does not say a word which the examination of the work will not fully verify. "The editor presumes to think, that the utility of every publication is its greatest recommendation, and therefore that compendium which is the most extensive in its public. Through the whole of the following contents must claim the approbation of the pages, he has selected his articles from historians of the first rank, as well as the most authentic annalists; which will render this work useful to every class, from the throne to the homely cot. It will save the learned the trouble of turning over voluminous authors to refresh their memories; to the illiterate it will give information, and to the ignorant it will convey instruction. Here, at one view, you may look into antiquity, or examine things of later dates. It will be a remembrancer to those who have forgotten what they have read, and may serve as an epitome of English history," &c. &c. fluctuation of events which so pecuTo this we must add, that in the liarly mark the passing times in the great changes of the religious, the moral, the commercial, and the pecuniary systems under which the European necessary to have a work of this nature world is now groaning, it is absolutely brought down to the present important era. We, therefore, are glad of this considerable benefit to the public to opportunity to observe, that it is of find one so ably executed, and at the same time so reasonable in its price. J. M. Hours of Leisure; or, Essays and Characteristics. By George Brewer. Dedicated, by Permission, to Lumley St. George Skeffington, Esq. 1 Vol. 12mo. 1806. When the Essays of Goldsmith first made their appearance, it was in the humble vehicle of a weekly periodical publication, price three-pence, called "THE BEE." Their intrinsic merit procured them many admirers; and one of them, which we think does not appear in the modern collection, a valuable acquaintance to the writer. This paper (we recollect) described a STAGE-COACH with passengers as upon the point of setting out for THE TEMPLE OF FAMT, and an author, who laboured under the weight of two ponderous volumes of a dictionary, in danger of being turned back by the GENIUS who acted as COACHMAN, had he not espied the RAMBLER peeping out of his pocket. This circumstance secured him a seat, and, we believe, introduced GOLDSMITH to the friend ship of Dr. JOHNSON, who has often expressed his admiration of the stile of those early effusions" of his friend GOLDY." Of the stile of GOLDSMITH, in his Essays, we are as great admirers as the learned Doctor, though still less capable of imitating it; and, indeed, we thought that it could hardly be imitated with accuracy, until we saw the series of essays by our ingenious Correspondent, GEORGE BREWER, which were first published in the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE; the success of which has induced the author to interweave them with many other pieces, and launch them on the literary ocean in the vessel upon whose cargo we are about to risk a few more observations. It was from reading those essays that we were led more correctly to contemplate the stile of GOLDSMITH; and the result was, that we found its excellence consisted not only in its being smoothly and verbally familiar, but in its happily adapting itself to a familiarity of ideas, of images, of descriptions, and situations: all these properties Mr. BREWER has imitated, until we find his efforts assume a higher character, and partake of the original cast of thinking which distinguished his PROTOTYPE. Having made these remarks, as every reader wishes to know what kind of a person he is to whom he feels himself obliged for rational and elegant entertainment, it now becomes necessary further to observe, that Mr. B. seems to have entered life with advantages that, alas! did not fall to the lot of poor GOLDSMITH. He seems to have viewed human nature upon a much more extended scale, and to ***** but it is much better to let him speak for himself. "Allow me," says he, "on this occasion, to say a few words of myself, and the sentiments of my mind, lest any one might say --no!-I will not go this road-I do not like my companion. I will tell you honestly and candidly, that I am not a disciple of the new philosophy-yet I was educated in a school of science and taste. I began early to entertain a respect for literature. Among the friends of my father were Jonas Hanway, George Keate, Lord Trevor, and many more of the most excellent men and connoisseurs of the age. Books were my delight, and my occupation was reading to my father. I had heard of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and St. Evremond, and at eleven years of age I had read Montesquieu, Rousseau, and St. Evremond; but I had read, too, Bacon, Locke, Addison, and Johnson. I was born in the latter part of the Augustan age of literature in this country, and was a philosopher in the truest meaning of the word. A desire, however, to go abroad, tempted me to forsake the natural alliance my mind only to take me from written books to had formed. But it appeared as if it was open to me the book of Nature--America, India, China, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, displayed their treasures to my riper contemplation. I had left my home-but in every climate I found VIRTUE and HUMANITY in every country PROVIDENCEand in all the space I traversed, a DEITY. The same sun arose from the horizon of INDIA as had cherished the soil of my paternal land; and though another hemisphere presented other stars, and China another country, totally different in its scenery, its productions, and its costume, yet every where I could trace the strong outlines of the same Almighty hand." has stated, exerted in so wide a field, With the attainments that Mr. B. and with the experience he has had of the world, he is unquestionably qualified for the profession of an Essayist, which he has in this volume exercised with genius and taste; we hope with concomitant success. sions, hinted our predilection in favour We have, upon many other occaof periodical writings. As pictures of dered abstracts of the times; of course, living manners, they may be consinumber of this collection, containing we were much pleased with the first the adventures of JACK EASY; which, as a kind of finger-post, supported by better director to others who travel good sense and good humour, is a much the same road, than that so lately set up in the HAY MARKET. The MARGATE PACQUET-The MAN OF THE WORLD-The PHILOSOPHIC TAR The EASTERN TALE OF ESAMDI AND ESOMDI-The well introduced Story of ATTACA-MATTHEW MUDDLE'S LETTER TO BUONAPARTE CHARACTERS CHARACTERISTIC, and a number of other articles, have very considerable merit. They are sprightly, easy, and, in several instances, elegant. In short, the contents of this volume fully justify the reading which is well adapted to HOURS title; they are that kind of amusing OF LEISURE, and well calculated to afford an agreeable relaxation to the mind: though we are, indeed, inclined to class the whole in a higher species of litera ture, and to recommend the work not only as an innocent, but as ▲ MORAL EFFUSION. J. M. |