Imatges de pàgina
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"Ye thoughtlefs Many, who from earliest youth
The wayward paths of vice, and folly tread;

Hear from the Grave the facred veice of Truth,
Nor scorn inftruction from the Unhappy Dead.”

This barren fpot where legal victims lie,
With speed you pafs, as groundlefs fears impel;
Yet here Reflection with the thoughtful eye,
And melancholy Mufing love to dwell,

• Here with fwoln heart the pen five mourner views
Th' uncoffin'd victims in their cells beneath;
Each varied fcene while memory pursues
From life's fair morning to the tree of death.

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Haply on thefe has fome fond parent fmil'd,
And as he view'd with joy the blefling giv'n,

Has pray'd th' Eternal, Oh! protect my child,
And grant him virtue, happiness, and Heav'n!"

For Thefe with fleepless eyes, and anxious breast,
Has fome fond mother nightly vigils kept;

And as the lull'd her infant charge to reft,
Has fmil'd with tranfport, and with tranfport wept!
The harmless prattle of their lifping tongue
With ears enraptur'd have their parents heard;
Diffolv'd in tenderness have o'er them hung,
And fancied plans of future fame uprear'd.
• Delusive fabric! on a base how frail
Each flatt'ring hope of human bliss is built;

Soon the young blossoms feel the noxious gale,
By which example taints the foul with guilt.'

The fecond peformance deserves but little notice. As the great event, according to the author, which it was intended to celebrate,' did not take place, he might, without any detriment to his poetical credit, have fuppreffed it. The lines are very smooth; but we learn little more from them than that Mr. Halloran is a very loyal subject, and has a very high opinion of the loyalty of the city of Exeter, whose fidelity to the royal family, he apprehends, is of fo durable a nature that it

will hold out

Till time fhall be no more!'

A View of the Character and public Services of the late John Howard, Efq. LL. D. F. R.S. By John Aikin, M. D. 8vo. 35. 6d. fewed. Johnfon. 1792.

MR.

R. Howard has been a frequent object of public attention. Thofe, who thought that a degree of humanity unufually great and extenfive, especially when it led to the

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dreary and difgufting scenes of fqualid mifery, could scarcely be fuggefted by calm reflecting reason, have ftigmatifed his attempt by the name of madnefs, or at leaft of Quixotifm; while others, who have often wiped the eye of drops which facred pity has engendered,' who think that every distress of mankind ought not to be indifferent to man, have, perhaps, by a converfe of the error, raised his character too high: in the intemperance of their zeal, they have been led to propofe plans diftrefling to him they meant to honour, and difgraceful to that temperate wisdom which, difdaining the blind path of admiration, is contented with approving. The character of Mr. Howard was, indeed, a fingular one, and it requires a mas ter's fkill to delineate the minuter traits, the features of his mind. Dr. Aikin has executed his talk with great skill, in a manner that merits our commendation: if we find that he has coloured the more brilliant parts of the character too highly, and fhaded the dark traits with a lighter hand, it must still be confidered as one of the venial errors which reflects honour on the heart; one of the defects which the author may be proud

to own.

After much reflection on this very fingular man, and his peculiar conduct, we fhall venture to premise a few remarks, which may contribute to illuftrate his character, and perhaps elucidate fome of the more intricate movements of the human mind. If they may feem to detain us long, we trust they will not be without their utility on other occafions, as well as this now before us.

In every well regulated mind, the train of ideas is regular and confiftent. The inclinations, the defires, the emotions, and paffions are raised by suitable objects, and the actions are ufually directed to their proper end: they produce the destined effect, and yield in order to the train that chance or other circumftances fhall next introduce. If the object calculated to excite inclination or defire, rifes to the higher degrees of emotion or paflion; if these fail in answering their ufual purpofe, or continue in an inordinate degree, and beyond the time when the end is attained, it may be confidered as a mental difeafe. Thus Horace, in the ftyle of the philofophers of the porch, calls paffion a fhort madness, for by anger he means an inordinate degree of the emotion; and, in a milder and less offenfive fenfe, every deviation from the regular order may have the fame appellation. We fay, in a lefs offenfive sense, because, when we ufe the term madness in this view, it is not defigned to exprefs the degree of degradation of human reafon, which reflects difgrace on a perfon and a family. Of these difeafes no one, to the mental pathologist, appears more ftrik

ing than those emotions which, with little more than ufual violence, are unusually permanent. In fuch inftances, the difeafe of the mind may be owing to a conftitutional temperament, founded on bodily organization, which is moft commonly the cafe, or to circumstances which favour the continuance of one strong emotion, by the absence of others fufficiently powerful to roufe the mind from the former course, or to fuggeft new affociations. This ftate of mind occasions either a gloomy melancholy, or a more active enthufiafm: the prevalence of the leading idea and its influence are equally con fpicuous in either inftance, and the effect is the fame. While the difeafe is flight, the mind is not incapable of attending to other objects, nor of reasoning correctly on these as well as on the ruling idea: the disorder confifts in the force and the unufual permanency of the idea. This ftate of mind is perceived in all its variations in the eager fanguine projector, to the airy caftle-builder in his cell; from the gloomy reformer in his closet, to the dark enthusiast in his tub. The difference only lies in the permanency of one train of ideas, which when in a certain degree deftroys the powers of reafon on the peculiar fubject, and in a greater degree unfits the mind from judg ing of and reafoning on any other fubject. The Don Quixote of Cervantes is an admirable performance; but it errs in this point: when the ruling idea has proceeded fo far as to colour objects with its peculiar hue, it is very uncommon, it is perhaps impoffible, to find it capable of reafoning correctly on other fubjects. This error every reader perceives: it difgufts fome entirely, and leffens the pleasure of others. It is called improbability and inconsistency; but the fource of the displea fure arifes from its combining two oppofite and inconsistent ftates of mind,

It must not be furprising, while there are gradations in bodily disorders, and that every person affected with the slightest tremor is not to be alarmed by the apprehenfion of violent convulfions, or with the flighteft fwelling of the legs, immediately to apprehend an univerfal dropfy, that there fhould not be fimilar gradations in mental difeafes. For this reason a perfon may be eager, fanguine, and impetuous, or he may be unufually torpid, and his ideas fubject to little change, without the imputation of madness; yet these are minuter degrees of the fame difeafe, which without various other concurring circumstances will never rise higher. It is acknowledged in a common and very judicious maxim, nullum magnum ingenium fine mixturâ dementia: the fame irregularity, the fame excentricity of mind, which is diftinguished by the name of nius, is owing to the rapidity of ideas which difcriminates

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fome fpecies of madnefs. Befides this there are various other kinds; but these are from our purpose.

It is time to return to Mr. Howard, and we fear, notwithftanding all our caution, our readers may confider this long difcuffion as defigned to convict him of infanity. We mean only to obferve that, though his object was highly falutary, his intentions excellent, and his purfuit in the motives and confequences commendable, they were pursued with that peculiar pertinacity which is inconfiftent with a well regulated mind. The man who would walk by St. Peter's at Rome, and decline hearing the mufic of Italy in its highest perfection, because he thought it distracted his attention, muft furely be fuppofed to have carried his enthusiasm too far. A mathematician, in the solution of his theorems, or a chemist in the middle of an interesting process, would not fuddenly break off to attend to either; but he who was only to employ his eyes and his attention on fenfible objects before him, would be fcarcely more unfit for his employment after attending an oratorio, or vifiting the most finished piece of architecture in the universe. In short, such a conduct may raise admiration in a weak mind, but it will never fecure the approbation of a judicious one. The important end and the confequences fhield from cenfure, and even from the flightest tendency to ridicule; but they raise a tranfient smile in the progrefs.

Among these truly illuftrious perfons who, in the several ages and nations of the world, have marked their track through life by a continued courfe of doing good, few have been fo diftinguished, either by the extent of the good produced, or the purity of motive and energy of character exhibited in the process of doing it, as the late Mr. Howard. To have adopted the cause of the prifoner, the fick, and the deftitute, not only in his own country, but throughout all Europe;-to have confiderably alleviated the burden of prefent mifery among thofe unfortunate claffes, and at the fame time to have provided for the reformation of the vicious, and the prevention of future crimes and calamities;-to have been inftrumental in the actual establishment of many plans of humanity and utility, and to have laid the foundation for much more improvement hereafter; and to have done all this as a private unaided individual, ftruggling with toils, dangers, and difficulties, which might have appalled the moft refolute; is furely a range of beneficence which scarcely ever before came within the compass of one man's exertions. Juftly, then, does the name of Howard stand among those which confer the highest honour on the English character; and, fince his actions cannot fail to tranfmit his memory with glory to pofterity, it is incumbent on his countrymen and cotemporaries, for their own fakes, to tranfmit correfponding memorials of their veneration and gratitude,

It would, indeed, be a convincing proof of the increased good fense and virtue of the age, if fuch characters as this were found to rife in the comparative fcale of fame and applaufe. Long enough has mankind weakly paid its admiration as the reward of pernicious exertions, of talents, often very moderate in themselves, and only rendered confpicuous by the blaze of mifchief they have kindled. It is now furely time that men fhould know and distinguish their benefactors from their foes; and that the nobleft incitements to action should be given to those actions only which are directed to the general welfare.'

These observations are truly correct and judicious: they are employed with great propriety to introduce an account of an excellent man, the best part of whofe life was employed in works of beneficence, directed to a fource which terrifies many, and which fcarcely any one would dare to examine. This Account of the Life of Mr. Howard is derived from much perfonal knowledge, and a long continued intercourse with him: it is not countenanced by any communications of the family. This Dr. Aikin has with great propriety dif

claimed.

The father of Mr. Howard was an upholsterer, and a Protestant Diffenter. He was himself bound an apprentice to a wholefale grocer, after a very infufficient education under a fchoolmaster, (as Mr. Howard admitted in a converfation with his biographer) whose moral and religious character had gained him the esteem and confidence of the opulent Diffenters of the metropolis in this office. It is with peculiar propriety that our author guards fmall communities with ftrong party attachments' from this misplaced confidence. It is an evil that has greatly prevailed, and materially injured the caufe of the Diffenters; though we may add, that the party attachments, the prejudices, and the confidence, have greatly leffened, while the inftructors have become more liberal and learned: the inconveniencies from this caufe are perhaps nearly at an end. Mr. Howard, it is remarked, was never able to speak or write his native language with propriety and correctness;' and his acquaintance with other languages, the French perhaps excepted, was flight and fuperficial.

On his father's death he purchased the remaining period of his indentures, and we know little of him till his 25th year, when we find him offering to marry a widow of twice his own age, and very fickly, with whom he lodged, in recompence for her attention to him during his own ill health. This excentric conduct fhows him to have had an excellent difpofition, but to have been little acquainted with the manners of the world. The marriage took place, and it had no bad ef

fect:

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