certain obnoxious principles was to be the condition. The first edition of his Dialogues, therefore, widely differs from the subsequent ones, 'quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore.' -v. Epilogue to Ignoramus.

P. 182. Maurice Morgan, Esq. "author of the very ingenious Essay on the Character of Falstaff," &c.

This work, called ingenious by Mr. Boswell, is of very superior merit indeed, and very high praise is justly bestowed on it by Mr. Pye, in his entertaining notes in his Translation of Aristotle's Poetics, p. 308. "To recommend (he says) that original and convincing piece of criticism partially is doing it injustice, since every part of it is replete with elegance of taste, and accurate and impartial judgment.* *" The accomplished author of this work died at Knightsbridge, in March 1802, aged 77. He was Under Secretary of State when the Marquis of Lansdowne was in power. See sketch of his life in Censura Literaria, vol. iv. p. 178, and an animated character of him may be found in Symmons's Life of Milton, p. 122. "When he read over his manuscript to Tom Davies the bookseller, he was as much diverted as any of his hearers; interrupting the lecture by repeated bursts of laughter." See Ritson's Letters, vol. ii. p. 181.

P. 209. "One might be led from the practice of reviewers to suppose that they take a pleasure in original writing; for we often find that, instead of giving an accurate account of what has been done by the author whose work they are reviewing, which is surely the proper business of a literary journal, they produce some plausible and ingenious conceits of their own, upon the topics which have been discussed."

For this change in the style of criticism the following reasons may be given 1, the multiplicity of books inducing persons of education, yet of engagements too extensive to allow of leisure for examining their respective merits, to look up to some writer, who, at stated times, will afford a general view of the character and principal points of the subjects treated of ; 2dly, the large remuneration for intellectual labour of a high quality, inducing writers of eminence to engage in this department of literature, who conceive it more serviceable to their purpose, and also more acceptable to the readers, to give their original views of the subjects discussed, perhaps, by inferior writers; 3rdly, when questions of high importance are examined, and some of pressing exigency, the style engages less attention, and the argument more. Criticism is not so verbal as it was; therefore, there is less matter for remark on the works of authors. Compare a paper in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews on Fox's or Mackintosh's History, or any other, with the remarks on Thucydides' History by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his Treatise de Structura Orationis, and the difference between the spirit of ancient and modern criticism may be observed.

P. 273. "Mrs. Montagu is a very extraordinary woman; she has a constant stream of conversation, and it is always impregnated What was an impregnation in London, however, turned out to be a mere tympany at Paris. What says Mad. Deffand:-" Je vois quelquefois Mad. Montagu. Je ne la trouve pas trop pédante, mais elle fait tant d'efforts pour bien parler notre langue, que sa conversation est penible. J'aime bien mieux Milady Lucan, qui ne s'embarrasse point du mot propre, et qui se fait fort bien entendre.' Again: "La Dame de Montagu ne me déplait

There are two good critical papers in the Lounger, Nos. 68, 69, on the character of Falstaff.

point sa conversation est penible, parce qu'elle parle difficilement notre langue: elle est très polie, et elle n'a point été trop pédante avec moi." The last account is less favourable: "Mad. Montagu s'est très bien comportie à l'Académie; elle ne se laisse aller à aucun emportement: c'est une femme raisonnable, ennuyeuse sans doute, mais bonne femme, et très polie." Mr. Hallam places her at the bottom of the list of the Shakspeare commentators. See Hist. of Liter. vol. iii. p. 580.

P. 273. See some account of Foote in Polwhele's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 27-31. He is alluded to in the Lounger, vol. ii. p. 29, No. 49. "Particular persons may come to be represented on the stage instead of general characters. Something of this kind was some time ago introduced on the English stage; though it may be observed that this mode of writing owed its success more to the mimic qualities of the author, than to its being approved of by the taste of the audience." G. Colman says, "There is no Shakspeare or Roscius on record, who, like Foote, supported a theatre for a series of years by his own acting in his own writings, and for ten years of that time upon a wooden leg. This prop to his person I once saw standing by his bedside, ready dressed in a handsome silk stocking, with a polished shoe and gold buckle, awaiting the owner's getting up. It had a kind of tragi-comical appearance, and I leave to inveterate wags the ingenuity of punning upon a Foote in bed and a leg out of it." Cooke's Memoirs of him is a very poor performance.

P. 277. A catalogue of Dr. Douglas's Editions of Horace was printed in 1739; again, Lips. 1775. It contained four hundred and fifty. This collection was sold at the Chevalier D'Eon's sale at Christie's, Feb. 1813, under fourscore pounds! Some part of the Douglas' collection was made for him by Foulis. See Life of Dr. W. Hunter. Dr. Douglas died April 1, 1742, in his 67th year. See Dr. King's Anecdotes of his Own Times for some account of Douglas, p. 71. He had no editions of the highest rarity. See Pope's Dunciad, iv. 394,

"And Douglas lend his soft, obstetric hand,"

with the note affixed.

P. 289.

"Voltaire and Rousseau were less read." Those who are acquainted with the curious and extensive correspondence of Voltaire, know that he invariably ends his letters to some of his friends with the words " ecrasez l'infame;" nor is it till we become familiar with his mode of thinking on matters of religion, from other passages in his works, that we can understand its meaning;-but by l'infame," he means the "establishment of the Roman Catholic religion and church-the Jesuits -the priesthood-the whole of its ceremonies, and all its parts."

66

P. 292. To this long note on the personality of the " Devil," I shall add, that Mr. Coleridge (see his Remains) has pointed out the importance of the distinction between the words Seaßoλos and Saruwv in the New Testament. In another place, in his notes on Luther's Table-talk, he thus observes. "Queries.-1. Abstractedly from, and independently of all sensible substances, and the bodies, wills, faculties, and affections of men, has the Devil, or would the Devil, have a perfect self-subsistence? Does he, or can he, exist as a conscious individual, agent, or person? Should the answer to this query be in the negative, then, 2d, Do there exist finite and personal beings, whether with composite and decomposible bodies, that is, embodied, or with simple and indecomposible bodies (which is all that can be meant by disembodied, as applied to finite creatures), so eminently wicked, or wicked and mischievous in so peculiar a kind, as

to constitute a distinct genus of beings, under the name of Devils? 3rd. Is this second hypothesis compatible with the acts and functions attributed to the Devil in Scripture? Oh! to have had these three questions put by Melancthon to Luther, and to have heard his reply!"-Remains, vol. iv. p. 26.

P. 297. " 'I mentioned Jer. Taylor's using in his form of Prayer—'I am the chief of sinners!' and such self-condemning expressions. Now, said I, this cannot be said with truth by every man, and therefore is improper for a general printed form," &c. Mr. Coleridge has observed, on Henry More's Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness-Dedication, "Servorum illius omnium indignissimus," "Servus indignissimus," or "omnino indignus," or any other positive self-abasement before God, I can understand: but how an express avowal of unworthiness, comparatively superlative, can consist with the Job-like integrity and sincerity of profession especially required in a solemn address to Him to whom all hearts are open-this I do not understand, in the case of such men as Henry More, Jer. Taylor, Rich. Baxter, men who, by comparison at least with the multitude of evil doers, must have believed themselves," &c. v. Remains, iii. 160.

P. 301. "I mentioned Thomas Lord Lyttelton's vision, the prediction of the time of his death, and its exact fulfilment," &c. See on this singular and well-known subject, Maurice's Memoirs of an Author, pt. iii. p. 29, and Memoirs of Fred. Reynolds, vol. ii. p. 192-196, where the circumstances are detailed.

P. 305. "Mr. Greville's Maxims, Characters, and Reflections, a book which is entitled to much more praise than it has received." The fullest account of Mr. Greville that we have is in Madame D'Arblay's Life of Dr. Burney see vol. i. pp. 24, 56, 112, &c. Also consult Lady M. Montague's Letters, ed. Wharncliffe, vol. iii. p. 102. Some mention of him occurs in Mad. Deffand's Letters. H. Walpole calls it a "wonderful book, by a more wonderful author." His wife, the author of the elegant Ode to Indifference, was Fanny Macartney, the Flora of the Maxims. She was the mother of the beautiful and ingenious Lady Crewe. Mrs. Montague is intended in the character of Melissa, see p. 111, and Lord Chatham in that of Praxiteles, p. 34.

P. 306. "Mrs. Kennicott related a lively saying of Dr. Johnson to Miss H. More, who had expressed a wonder that the poet who had written Paradise Lost should write such poor sonnets. Madam, Milton was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock, but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.' The Sonnet came to us from the Italian poets, by whom it was formed, and was a favourite species of poetical composition. There is scarcely a single specimen of the sonnet in the English language, between the time of Milton and Gray; but when the study of the poetry of Italy again revived in England, which during the days of Dryden and Pope had been superseded by that of France, the sonnet reappeared with it; see those of T. Warton, and of Edwards. Milton studied with attention the sonnetti of B. Varchi, which are not exceeded in the Italian poetry by any other. I know of only one sonnet written before the time of Milton that has his flow and cadence, so different from the style of the Elizabethan sonnet writers-and that is one by Spenser. It begins,

Harvey, the happy above happiest men,

I read; that, sitting like a looker on
Of this world's stage, dost note with critic pen
The sharp dislikes of each condition, &c.

P. 332. "I dined with him (Dr. Johnson) at Dilly's, where were the Rev. Mr. Knox, Master of Tunbridge School," &c. Dr. Knox informed the writer of this note, that at the party here mentioned Dr. Johnson appeared dressed with considerable care, in a fine laced brown suit of clothes; but having the strongest marks of disease and decay in his countenance-he looked like a corpse !

P. 342. "I argued that a refinement of taste was a disadvantage, as they who have attained to it must be seldomer pleased than those who have no nice discrimination, and are therefore satisfied with every thing that comes in their way. Nay, Sir, said Johnson, that is a faulty notion," &c. Supposing, which however is not the case, that an ignorant man has the same amount of delight in viewing a daub as an artist has in a picture of high excellence, yet the advantage of the connoisseur, or man of finished taste, would still be greater; inasmuch as his pleasure is founded on the fixed principles of the art he studies and admires-what Raphael or Titian has been to him, that they will continue to be; his pleasure will be permanent, while the ignorant person will ever be changing in his attachments, or, if he improves in knowledge, will desert his former favourites, and alter his opinions. It is, as Johnson says, a very paltry, though common argument.

P. 389. "Sir George Baker."-This celebrated physician will long be remembered for his flowing and elegant Latinity; in which he is hardly excelled by any writer of our country. See his Opuscula Medica, 1771, 8vo. In his Treatise de Affectibus Animi, p. 125, in speaking of the effect of "Tristitia," to whom does Sir G. Baker allude in the following description? Hujusce rei grave nuper exemplum præbuit vir magni in primis, et præstantis ingenii. Is, postquam Hiberniam suam poesi, leporibusque Athenis, et eloquio ornaverat, dolens usque parem meritis non respondisse favorem et observantiam, pariterque amicis, inimicis, et sibi iratus, tandem in exilem hominis imaginem et meram quasi umbram extenuatus est. Cum autem, prope acta jam atque decursa ætate, præ tanta morum asperitate et immanitate naturæ, mens illi subversa esset; et ingenium illud excelsum, sublime et eruditum, turpissimè deliravit; illico animatum senis sibi superstitis cadaver nutriri cæpit, et pinguescere, ab hospite tam inquieto liberatum." There is a very clever and classical epitaph by Sir G. Baker, on Maria van Butchell, whose body was preserved, and is now in Surgeons' Hall. It ends thus:

"O fortunatum virum! et invidendum!
Cui peculiare hoc et proprium contingit,
Apud se habere fœminam
Constantem sibi

Et horis omnibus eandem."

P. 390. "As Johnson was undoubtedly one of the first Latin scholars in modern times, let us not deny to his fame some additional splendour from the Greek." No doubt but that Johnson was a very good Latin scholar; and could compose in that language with ease, if not with finished elegance, or critical precision. A readiness in using the dead languages may exist without any profound acquaintance with the more recondite laws that regulate their structure; and scholars of far more erudition than Johnson might have yielded to him the palm of rapid composition, or unembarrased elocution. Neither Sigonius, nor Facciolati, nor Frienshemius, nor even Salmasius, ó rávu, ever ventured to converse in Latin, though eminent masters of its verbal niceties, its most refined and delicate beauties, and its elaborate and entire construction.

*The decrees of this court of judicature are preserved at the office of the Town Clerk of London. They relate only to such property as was the subject of any difference between landlord and tenant or neighbour and neighbour, and direct the surrender or extension of leases, reduction of rents, exchange of intermixed property, and other arrangements for rebuilding the houses destroyed by the fire. The extent of the destruction cannot be accurately ascertained from these records, but they show that the ravages of the fire extended to both sides of the High Street northwards from St. Margaret's Hill, Compter Street, (so called from the Borough Compter which then stood there,) Three Crowns Square, Foul Lane (now called York Street), and on the north side of St. Saviour's Churchyard into Montagu Close, where a house belonging to Mr. Overman was blown up in order to stop its progress. Besides the Town Hall and Compter, the Three Tuns, Talbot, George, White Hart, and King's Head Inns were involved in the destruction. It appears from the records that the George Inn had been previously in great part burnt and demolished by a violent fire which happened in Southwark in 1670.-G. R. C.

+ Narrative and Impartial Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plot; carried on for the Burning and Destroying the Cities of London and Westminster, with their Suburbs, &e. By Capt. William Bedloe. fol. 1679, p. 18.