In private life Mr Gifford was undoubtedly an amiable man and agreeable companion; but it can hardly be conceded to his admirers that he was qualified to shine with extraordinary brilliance in society. Such anecdotes as the following are rather calculated to secure him the reputation of obliging manners and plain good sense, than to vindicate his claims to the more splendid attributes of wit and genius.

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Amongst other engaging talents, Gifford possessed that very agreeable one of telling a story well, in singular perfection. The gist of trifles of this kind depends principally on the manner in which they are told. Many people acquire a right over particular stories which, from their peculiar happiness in relating them, become exclusively their own: but Gifford had an inexhaustible supply, and his arch drollery rendered all almost equally good. I will mention the first that occurs, which has nothing particular in it, but which he contrived to render exceedingly entertaining. While at Ashburton he contracted an acquaintance with a family of that place, consisting of females somewhat advanced in age. On one occasion he ventured on the perilous exploit of drinking tea with these elderly ladies. After having demolished his usual allowance of tea, he found, in spite of his remonstrances to the contrary, that his hostess would by no means suffer him to give up, but persisted in making him drink a most incredible quantity. At last,' said Gifford, in telling the story, being overflooded with tea, I put down my fourteenth cup, and exclaimed with an air of resolution, I neither can nor will drink any more.' The hostess then seeing she had forced more down my throat than I liked, began to apologise, and added, but, dear Mr Gifford, as you did not put your spoon across your cup, I supposed your refusals were nothing but good manners.' He was a great tea-drinker himself, but not equal to the encounter of these amazons. He generally had some brought to him between eleven and twelve at night, besides the regular meal which every one makes of tea who can afford it. I remember, when I complained once that I had met with some bad tea at a house, where I had been dining, a friend ob served, Your host has not enough of a gentleman's polish about him to set a right value on good tea.' Estimated by this standard, Gifford was the very first of gentlemen-none of my acquaintance have such delicious tea as he used to give. The ladies used to complain of its being too strong; but they, seeing they have nerves, are quite out of the question.' "*

As a proof that he was destitute of pride, it is stated that Mr Gifford was in the habit of candidly recurring to the obscurity of his condition in early life. He was likewise free, we are told, from personal vanity.

"A lady of his acquaintance once looked in upon him, and said she had a rout that evening, and endeavoured by every inducement

* Lit. Gaz. No 542, p. 362.

to persuade him to join it. Now do, Gifford, come in: it will give such an eclat,' she added, patting him familiarly on the shoulder, to say, There is Mr Gifford, the poet!' Poet, indeed! and a pretty figure this poet,' he answered, looking demurely on his shrunk shanks, would cut in a ball-room.'"*

The literary character of Gifford has been already, in a great degree, developed in the history of his career as an author. It does not appear that he ever conceived the project of any grand original work, as a monument of his talents and learning. And even the Baviad' and the Mæviad' are imitations of classical models, and therefore destitute of merit on the score of invention; while the temporary nature of the topics descanted on deprives the poet of all chance of lasting celebrity. Had Pope never written anything but his Dunciad,' his fame would have rested on a feeble foundation. But the Dunciad' is a work of far higher pretension than the satires of Gifford, which cannot long survive the memory of the faults and follies which their author ridiculed and execrated. He probably regarded his translation of Juvenal as the most stable basis of his poetical reputation: and though he has not ensured himself such a degree of popularity as Dryden and Pope acquired by their versions of Virgil and Homer, his failure of success may be ascribed to the inferiority of permanent interest in the writings of the Roman satirist, só much resembling his own original productions. Some of his smaller pieces of poetry display tenderness of sentiment and elegance of expression, indicating more versatility of talent than might have been inferred from the general complexion of his writings.

Though not a poet in the highest sense of the title, as being destitute of originality and the imaginative power of genius, he possessed knowledge, taste, and judgment to discover the beauties and defects of poetical composition; and whether employed in transfusing the conceptions of ancient bards into our native language, or in commenting on the works of genius, or the effusions of imbecility, his critical sagacity was conspicuous in the selection of topics for imitation, illustration, or censure; while his command of language enabled him to express his ideas, from whatever source they might be derived, with weight and energy, and sometimes with feeling and elegance. The heedless warmth of friendship and the indiscriminating zeal of party prejudice combined to represent the subject of this memoir as a prodigy of genius and learning; but the sober estimate of strict justice will leave him the higher praise of solid intellect, unwearied industry, and sufficient literary enthusiasm, to enable him to cope with difficulties of no common kind, and make his way to a station among the most eminent writers of his age and country.

* Id. ibid.

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF W. GIFFORD.

1. The Baviad; a paraphrastic Imitation of the first Satire of Persius. London, 1791, 8vo.

2. The Mæviad; an Imitation of the tenth Satire of the first Book of Horace. 1794, 8vo.

3. An Epistle to Peter Pindar. By the author of the Baviad. 1800, 4to.

4. The Satires of Decius Junius Juvenalis, translated into English Verse, with Notes and Illustrations. 1802, 4to.

5. Examination of the Strictures of the Critical Reviewers on the Translation of Juvenal. 1803, 4to.

6. Supplement to the Examination. 1804, 4to.

7. The Plays of Philip Massinger; with critical and explanatory Notes. 1805. 4 vols. 8vo.

8. The Works of Ben Jonson; with Notes, critical and explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir. 1816, 9 vols. 8vo.

9. Translation of the Satires of Juvenal; with those of Aulus Persius Flaccus annexed. 1817, 2 vols. 8vo.

10. The Dramatic Works of John Ford; with Notes critical and explanatory. 1827, 2 vols. 8vo.

11. The Dramatic Works of James Shirley.

12. Contributions to the Anti-Jacobin Newspaper.

. 13. Contributions to the Quarterly Review.

JOHN MASON GOOD, M. D.

JOHN MASON GOOD was the second son of the Rev. Peter Good, an Independent Minister, and of Sarah Peyto, daughter of the Rev. Henry Peyto and niece of the Rev. John Mason.* Peter Good was a native of Romsey in Hampshire, and was descended from a respectable family, which had for several generations possessed property in that town and the neighbouring parish of Lockerly. The grandfather of the subject of this memoir was engaged in the shalloon manufacture, the staple trade of Romsey. The Rev. P. Good, after completing his education at a dissenting academy at Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire, became the pastor of a congregation at Epping, in Essex, in 1760. The following year he married Miss Peyto, who died in child-bed, February 17th, 1766, leaving three sons;-William, born October 19th, 1762; John Mason, born May 25th, 1764; and Peter, born February 13th, 1766.

"Within two years of the death of his first wife, the Rev. P. Good married a second, the only daughter of Mr John Baker, an opulent tradesman residing in Cannon street, London. She was a woman of great piety and extensive information, and discharged the duties which devolved upon her with so much prudence, affection and delicacy, that many years elapsed before John Mason Good discovered, with equal surprise and regret, that she was not actually his mother." +

Soon after his second marriage, Mr Good removed from Epping, to become minister of a congregation at Wellingborough ; where he remained about a year, and then settled at Romsey, in consequence of succeeding to the patrimonial estate, on the death of his elder brother. Being thus disengaged from his profession,

* This gentleman was a dissenting clergyman,` at Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire; and was the author of a popular treatise on Self-Knowledge,' besides several other works.

↑ Memoirs of the life, writings and character, literary, professional, and religious, of the late J. Mason Good, M.D. By Olinthus Gregory, LL. D. Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. London, 1828, 8vo. pp. 5, 6.

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he resolved to devote his time to the education of his children; and, in compliance with the wishes of his friends, he at length opened a seminary for a limited number of pupils.* Under the tuition of his father, therefore, John Mason Good was instructed in the Latin, Greek, and French languages, and obtained some knowledge of various branches of literature. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Mr Johnson, a surgeon, at Gosport. In this situation he made himself acquainted with pharmacy, and the general principles of medical practice; and his intervals of leisure were devoted to the sciences and belles lettres. He composed a Dictionary of Poetic Endings,' and several little poems; and also drew up An Abstracted View of the Principal Tropes and Figures of Rhetoric,' in their origin and powers, illustrated by a variety of examples, original and selected. He also studied Italian, and formed a common-place-book, on the plan recommended by Locke.

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Before he had completed his sixteenth year, he was obliged, in consequence of the infirm health of Mr Johnson, to take an extraordinary share in the management of the business. "He had to prepare the medicines, to enter an account of them in the several books, to send them to the respective patients, &c. almost without superintendence. All this, however, served but to consolidate and establish the habits of order and regularity in which he had been trained; and thus supplied a link in the chain of circumstances which operated in the formation of his character."

A considerable part of the destined period of his apprenticeship had elapsed, when, in consequence of the death of Mr. Johnson, he removed into the family of a surgeon at Havant, where his father then resided. After a few months an opportunity presented itself for his entering into partnership with Mr Deeks, a surgeon, at Sudbury, in Suffolk. To qualify himself for the duties of that situation, he spent the autumn of 1783, and the spring of 1784, in the metropolis, attending the lectures of Dr George Fordyce, Dr William Lowder, and other medical professors connected with St Thomas's and Guy's hospitals. He also became a surgeon's pupil, and was chosen a member of the Physical Society of Guy's hospital, an institution consisting of students and practitioners, who hold periodical meetings for the discussion of topics connected with medicine or natural philosophy. It is the custom for each junior, or ordinary member, in turn, to furnish a dissertation to be submitted to the society, a requisition which

About 1780 the Rev. P. Good, having completed the education of his children, removed to Havant, where he resumed his duties as a preacher. In three or four years he left that place, and settled as minister to a congregation at Bishop's Hull, near Taunton, in Somersetshire, where he died in 1805 or 1806. Memoirs, p. 23.