Imatges de pàgina
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REVIEW.-Mr. G. Penn on the Iliad.

might turn the scale of war; and Homer might have regarded Achilles as the Philistines did Goliath, or the Israelites Sampson. Mr. Penn allows the accordance between the ideas of Homer's age, and that of the patriarchs. We cannot, therefore, say that he had any further view than what Alexander ascribed to him (not Wolfe only, as Mr. Penn, p. 42), viz. celebration of the glory of Achilles, as a compatriot, a Grecian Arthur. Under this uncertainty, therefore, we feel ourselves in the situation of women who are anxious to know the Freemasons' secret, and are obliged to confess, in the language of Mr. Penn, that it is "a nodus which they cannot disembroil."

But, notwithstanding the reserve, which with medical stateliness we think fit to observe, concerning this morbus Iliacus (a bad pun we fear), this sermon without a text, most unfeigned is our respect for the manner, the matter, and the scholarship, displayed in this work. But as learned disquisitions would be less acceptable to our readers than acute and judicious observations, we shall select the following specimen :

"It is surprising that men of tutored minds should be ready to regard rule as something opposed to nature; for where do we see rule so admirably marked and observed as in the operations of what we denominate nature? We see this to be the case

in the material world, and we are conscious of it in the intellectual. The fact is, that we are too apt to consider nothing as nature in poetry, but the unregulated sallies of the imagination. Whereas to render every mental operation perfect in its kind, the presiding power of reason must exercise a perpetual government over the motions of the mind, and regulate them by principles of trath and propriety, which in effect are rules. This it did in Homer; and those principles detected and declared, constituted the rules of Aristotle." (P. 38.)

We shall not ungratefully disregard pleasure conferred. Whatever may be the real address of this Homeric letter, which has no direction, it is a matter of premises only. The chain of reasoning is precise and masterly; the quotations appropriate and happy. But there is a greater merit. The structure of the thoughts and language has, in numerous passages, all that beautifal delicacy which distinguishes the graceful form of the finest Greek style. When we read these passages, Mr. Penn reminds us in the literary world

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of the Marquis Wellesley in the Senate, where we see very able argumentators, but no classics, all speaking in mere muscular English energy, with no Greek &λa, no fineness of point, no subtlety and æther of sentiment, such as distinguishes the Anthologia, no whole sentence in meaning merged in a single word, no resemblance to the South American rivers, exceedingly deep, but transparent to the very bottom. We could mention successful imitators of the Aristotelian style, but they are stiff and scholastic. The Marquis Wellesley and Mr. Penn are however genuine Greek classics; and though they are not without frequent Anglicisms, they possess and often exhibit that very rare and enviable literary felicity, the exquisite style and manner of Xenophon.

36.

Mason's History of the Cathedral of
St. Patrick's, Dublin.
(Concluded from p. 147.)

WE have often thought that Boswell's Life of Johnson is the best and only mode of conveying to the mind an accurate idea of the real character, if we wish to know the man, as individuated and picked out from the rest of his species. A mere history of acts and incidents is, in point of fact, simply a tomb-stone memorial; but a record, kept minutely of speeches and deeds, for a considerable time, must infallibly show the habits, temper, and mind of the person; as, however, all

do not declaim and instruct like Johnson, such a diary, with respect to a reserved and cautious man, of plain manners (and such have been many great men), would soon become insipid, and we must after all content ourselves with Biography in its usual form, aided by letters and anecdotes, and, if practicable, dialogues.

But Swift was one of those characters, who, by his wit and eccentricity alone, would have amply repaid such a biographer as Boswell, but whether he would have endured a similar spy is dubious. Fortunately his works, more than those of any other writer, exhibit the man. Swift was a comet, with a fiery train of genius, capable of most seriously influencing the human orbs that moved in planetary regularity; but though he had an idiosyncrasy of character, he is far from indefinable. He knew the Mammoth bulk of his mind, and the eighty-horse power of a

blow

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REVIEW. ·Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

blow from his monstrous paw. His
taste for humour was sucked in with
his mother's milk, for she was face-
tious (p. 229, n. d.); he saw the folly
of mankind with a microscopical eye;
and because Providence, in aid of his
talents, had thrown him into situa-
tions suited to such an exhibition of
his powers, he became a writer, for
every man must have action, and will
naturally choose that which best serves
his leading passion,-that in Swift was
ambition. As to his filthiness, he was
not a man of dirty or vulgar habits;
and therefore may
be presumed to have
written in beastly language, because he
wrote anonymously, and well knew
that the singularity would ensure
readers, augment the effect, and the
ribaldries be sunk in the wit.

With regard, in short, to behaviour and manner, he acted upon the principles of a pirate, who disregards the laws of civilized life and warfare. Determined to carry his point, he cared not whether he used in his battles a lawful weapon, or an illicit poisoned arrow. That he was a misanthrope, may most accurately be denied, for he exhibited his philanthropy by his patriotism and his charities. His acerbity of feeling, proceeding from intuitive penetration of weakness and disappointed views, produced the cynical snarl of Diogenes, and he could not endure habitual neglect of high reason. What Jeremy Bentham is in political projects, Swift was in intellectual and moral qualities. He could not be satisfied without perfection in both; though the state of the world may convince any thinking person that circumstances in almost all situations will not permit the free exercise of abstract reason. Society, like law proceedings, is mostly regulated by forms, precedents, and measures, which will not permit even men of the strongest sense to play the Quaker and defy them. Of the works of Swift, his political pamphlets display a clearness of perception, and depth of vision, which show the telescopic reach of his wonderful mind. His Gulliver is a work which no man but himself could have executed; and in irony he never had his equal. But still he was a comet, only an object of grandeur when his train was visible, only when his public acts and writings are included in the view of him. He was a philosopher, for his views were abstract; and, as a public character,

[March,

he was influenced by noble motives. As a private man, he was not liberal, just, or amiable; and his acrimonious habits turned him, like Lot's wife, into a pillar of salt. Et contra, says Mr. Mason,

"His virtues and talents were an honour to his fellow-creatures, but to his fellowcitizens a blessing. The news of his decease roused the dormant zeal of his countrymen. It was then, says Sir Walter Scott, that the gratitude of the Irish shewed itself in the full glow of national enthusiasm. The interval was forgotten, during which their great patriot had been dead to the world; and he was wept and mourned as if he had been called away in the full career of his public services. Young and old of all ranks surrounded the house to pay the last tribute of sorrow and affection. Locks of his hair were so eagerly sought after, that Mr. of the citizens of Dublin the lines of ShaksSheridan happily applies to the enthusiasm

peare:

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And dying mention it within your wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto your issue'." (Pp. 409, 410.)

Though Swift was not a man with whom, in our opinion, it would have been desirable to live, or be intimate; yet he certainly was a great and glorious public character; and to expose and calumniate such a character, is, we think, injurious, because it inculcates littleness of mind, produces callous indifference to the merit of high services, and partakes of the meanthinking of the gossip and female vulgar, in whose eyes no men are great but fanatical preachers and quack doctors. We shall, therefore, as the Life of Swift is not novel, dwell on the passages in which Mr. Mason has vindicated him from cruel aspersions.

1. Swift was not a bastard of Sir William Temple's, nor was the Baronet very generous to him. P. 230.

2. He neglected his University studies, because they consisted of the scholastic trash of Aristotelism. P. 231.

3. He did not commence author before he left the University, and did not write the Tripos, ascribed to Jones. P. 233.

4. He did not take holy orders against his inclination. P. 234, 5.

5. The considerable legacy of the Edinburgh Review, left him by Sir William Temple (to whom he is charged with behaving ungratefully), and who made him give up a living.

that

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REVIEW Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

that he might detain him at Moor Park, was 1007.! The Baronet left him unprovided both of a patron and living. P. 236.

6. He was never in love with Stella. "To that passion, during his whole life, he was remarkably insensible." P. 237.

7. He did write the Tale of a Tub, and did not borrow the Battle of the Books from Courtray. Pp. 238, 9. 8. Miss Waryng (or Vanessa) became first indifferent to him, not he to her. P. 241.

9. The story of dearly-beloved Roger, and the race with Dr. Raymond, and the anecdotes in the Swiftiana, are not to be accredited. P. 242.

10. Mrs. Johnson came to Ireland to take possession of a small estate, and live cheaply, not to be married to Swift. P. 243.

11. Not Swift's rivalry, but a stinking breath occasioned Tisdall to be rejected by Stella. P. 244.

12. He did not beg in a base and abject manner a recommendation from Lord Somers to Lord Wharton, to be Chaplain to the latter, as Dr. Salter villainously reported. P. 247.

13. In opposition to the Edinburgh Review, Mr. Mason says,

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"It was thus in patronizing literary merit, and in advocating the cause of unprotected indigence, that Swift expended his stock of credit with the Ministry. When I had credit for some years at court,' he says, in his Letter of 5th May, 1735, to Lady Betty Germain, I provided for above fifty people in both kingdoms, of which not one was a relation"." P. 260.

14. It is not true that Swift's companions, after he resided at his Deanery, were, according to Lord Orrery, fools, sycophants, &c. They were men of fortune, scholars, men of talent, men of humour, men of wit, and men of virtue. Greater companions Swift might have conversed with, but better he neither did nor could. P. 297, 8.

16. We now come to the giant libel, the marriage story, which Mr. Mason supposes was either originally invented by the malice of Lord Orrery (p. 297), or, what is more probable, was a mere gossip's calumny, founded upon the intimacy of the parties; for no two unmarried persons of opposite sexes can associate together without a story of intended matrimony (p. 297). Mrs. Dingley and Mrs. Brent laughed GENT. MAG, March, 1322.

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at the tale, and no very intimate friend of Swift's, except Dr. Delany and Mrs. Whiteway, did believe it. Mr. Mason contends that opinion and suspicion were the sole foundations upon which it ever rested; and each of its defenders he says and shows in a masterly form,

"Maintain their point by a subversion of all those rules of evidence which ought to regulate our assent; hearsay and tradition, no matter how far removed from original testimony, are deemed sufficient proofs of the most improbable acts, for which no motive that ever actuated the heart of man

is urged; for none of these writers allege that sensual gratification was the cause of this pretended union; it is manifest, that to silence the tongue of slander could not be the intention of a marriage which was never avowed; no arrangement of a pecuniary nature was compassed; what then was the Scott, the mind of Stella from all scruobject? It relieved,' says Sir Walter ples on the impropriety of the connexion'. These words, apparently significant, are, nevertheless, without meaning; what scruples could she have concerning the propriety of a connexion founded in mutual disinterested friendship? Her conscience must have acquitted her in the presence of that God who seeth in secret as well before, if not better, than after such an inefficient ceremony, better surely than after such a vile profanation of a sacred religious rite." P. 297, 8.

Now we peremptorily affirm that biographers have no right to state, as facts, matters which could not be proved to have that character in a Gourt of Justice. Dr. John Lyon very judiciously observes,

"Is it not probable but that two gentlemen of honour and fortune, still living, and who knew them both intimately, and who were her executors, would have known of a marriage, if there was one? And yet they al· ways did, and do positively declare, they never had cause to suspect they were married, although they were in company with both, one thousand times. Such (says Mr. Mason) are the sentiments of Dr. John Lyon, who had the chief care of this great man, in the state of debility to which in his latter years he was reduced. How a secret of such importance should remain unravelled during that period of mental derangement, is not easy to be conceived: one at least of his attendants would not have been unwilling to profit by any involuntary declaration." P. 306.

Mr. Mason (p. 309) attributes the
Dean's

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REVIEW. Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Dean's celibacy to a consciousness of his constitutional malady, for he always apprehended that he should outlive his intellects. Mr. Mason then proceeds to his other love affair with Miss Vanhomrigh, alias Vanessa, who, to us, appears to have been an indelicate forward Miss, who teazed the Dean to death with her advances, as many others of that description are in the habits of doing. The story of his rude visit and throwing down a letter, as well as the communication of Sir Walter Scott's correspondent concerning this lady and the Dean, Mr. Mason pronounces "fabrications." For our parts we find the account involved in such obscurity, as to be obliged to call it, in the word of Lipsius, cænum et lutum quod non purgamus. We only know that lovers do quarrel and make it up, agree to marry and break off, from causes which nobody knows or thinks of but themselves, because no person else takes an interest in the matter.

Mr. Mason next goes on with the Drapier's Letters, and other political acts of Swift, which have obtained him the following high and just eulogium:

"The experience of modern times has verified the truth of all his arguments; so that, as to Swift we are chiefly indebted for the preservation of our civil and commercial advantages; the prosperity likewise of our church establishment is in a great measure to be attributed to him." p. 392.

Into these political matters we shall not enter, because a full account is to be found in Swift's works, and other writers.

In what we have thus given from Mr. Mason, we are far from wishing to represent the Dean as a faultless character, only to join in a humane vindication of him, because insanity lurked in his constitution. No man can come before the publick, let his character be what it may, without encountering calumny and misrepresentation; but the boldness and originality of Swift provoked enemies, as well as raised friends-Johnson's test of a high character. Lying may be momentarily useful (at least it is thought so, and practised) for temporary and political purposes. A cunning tradesman said, it was a pity that it was a sin, it was so necessary in business; but de mortuis nil nisi verum, and let the party newspapers keep to themselves their pecu.

[March,

liar branch of literature. In the present day, Swift's works will only be condemned for their indelicacy. We are not to do evil that good may come; and against this rule there might partially be a patriotic intention on the part of Swift, even in this most disgustful deviation from propriety. We have another excuse to offer. They chiefly appeared in his later days, when his insanity had probably made further inroads upon his judgment. Mr. Mason's apology is this; but it is an apology for the acts of a lunatick :

"Of these fugitive pieces, there is one class which turns upon subjects of a filthy and disgusting nature, in the publication of which the Dean regarded, as he has done upon other occasions, the public service, and the exigencies of the times, more than his own permanent credit, as a man of lite

rature. Swift's office of censor called for

the exercise of his talents in reforming erlic nature: his own habitual cleanliness rors of a private, as well as those of a pubrendered him sensible of the smallest transgressions against it; with characteristic eagerness he hastened to correct the offensive error, and by the forcible measure of drawing disgusting representations, effected, with a rapidity, which doubtless was proportioned to the violence of the means, the projected reform. It is true, those pieces do no longer serve to any purpose, but to fill the mind of the reader with disgust; we behold them now, like nauseous drugs, without any regard to their sanative qualities, although to them we are perhaps indebted, in a great measure, for the present soundness of our constitution. They are,' says Dr. Delany, alluding to these poems, the prescriptions of an able physician, who had, in truth, the health of his patients at heart, but laboured to attain that end, not only by strong emeticks, but also by the most nauseous and offensive drugs and potions that could be administered."' pp. 381, 2.

This we only believe in part, for Swift, in his earlier life, made this indelicacy a vehicle of personal satire; and such is an invincible propensity, that it has become proverbial, in regard to Wits, that they would sooner lose a friend than a joke. In many of these pieces, satire and revenge only could possibly be his object His acrimonious feelings then absolutely unchristianized him.

With the unqualified eulogiums of Mr. Mason, for the Dean had serious failings, we cannot, in conscience, coincide, though we heartily applaud his motives. We agree with Sir Walter Scott in his observation, that there are

three

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three peculiarities remarkable in the literary character of Swift: 1, origiginality; 2, indifference to literary fame; 3. his not undertaking any style of composition, in which he did not obtain a distinguished pitch of excellence. But the highest token of the genius of Swift is this; that he rendered Literature the power of a magician; that it never before had such mighty influence, and never has had it since. If it be not profane to make the comparison, and we make it reluctantly, merely because it is apposite, we may say, that he wielded the rod of Moses, and led the Irish as the Legislator did the Israelites, from the Egypt of unwise commercial oppression, towards a free and equal Canaan; but could only view it, by anticipation, from the Pisgah of permanent universal feeling. We would only say to future Editors of his works, Requiescat in pace. His patriotism will always save him. Let his reputation be savagely consigned to the flames; it will only rise, like a phoenix from the ashes, in a renovated youth of glory.

We have now to return our cordial thanks to Mr. Mason; and say, that we expect with impatience the continuation of his elaborate and excellent book.

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The volume for 1797, as it apologizes for the unavoidable delay, shall first be noticed in the unvarnished tale of the Editor:

"The circumstances from which the delay in the publication of this volume have arisen, however distressing they may be to

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the Proprietors, have little, unless in their effects, which can interest the Public, The Conductors of the work have the satisfaction to believe that it is scarcely possible such circumstances should again occur. The three vo

lumes which bring to a close the remainder of

the eighteenth century are already in a state of considerable forwardness; and the arrangements which have been made during the suspension of the work, afford the Proprietors a confident hope, that they will be ready for delivery in such quickness of succession as will be satisfactory to the generality of purchasers.

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"In compiling the Annals of the year 1797, much pains have been taken to mark the progress of Revolution in Italy: and the history of the changes, both in the Venetian

and the Genoese States, has been traced at made to continue the narrative of the French considerable length. Preparations had been Royalist war, which, in the volume for 1796, had been brought down to the death of Stof

flet and Charette: but it is doubtful whether the sources from which our information on this subject hitherto has been derived, may be any longer open to us; and we are unwilling to rely upon any documents, but such for the assured authenticity of which we can unhesitatingly offer the most distinct pledge. The relation which in our former volumes we have had the good fortune, exclusively, to present, embraces by far the occurred in Britanny and Poitou: and in most interesting portion of the events which the absence of its continuation, it may be satisfactory to state, that the remaining transactions are of much less importance.

"The domestic events of 1797 were of unusual magnitude and interest: and they have therefore demanded a more than customary share of our pages. From this cause we have been induced to reserve, till the succeeding volumes, our narrative of the discontents which led to the Rebellion in Ireland; and of the various internal changes in the French Government, and its ephemeral Constitutions. One advantage, and that not a slight one, gained by the necessity of these arrangements, is, that our Readers will be put in possession of a connected History, instead of broken and disjointed frag

ments.

"Promises which have, from unavoidable necessity, been repeatedly violated, are not "In 1665 the importation of Irish cat-likely to be frequently credited. How far. tle was prohibited. This drove them into want of punctuality may be the most crying manufactures. In 1698 their woollen trade sin of publications of this kind, it does not was also prohibited by statute. This forced become us, who must plead guilty to the the staplers "into a sumggling trade with charge, to take upon ourselves to decide. France, by which the Irish wool was ex- But there is one assurance, which we have ported to that country, to the great pre- held out from the beginning of our compijudice of the oppressors themselves, and the lation, for the fulfilment of which we great benefit of their rivals the French ma- may appeal to our Readers with the most nufacturers, who had recently established implicit confidence. We have spared neither themselves in Picardy." Mason, p. 319, seq. time nor cost to present them with FACTS:

and

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