Reply to the Defender of Boswell's. Journal. fhould be in the felection of anecdote, which the prefent goffiping age is fo inquifitive after, that Swift could not order a new wig for Warburton, nor Chambers tell Macbean which fhelves to clear for his country lodging, without its being recorded in print some 50 years after. If thefe are the ana of the prefent age, and half thofe of the past age are no better, how much more would it conduce to the credit of the parties and their biographers, that fuch anecdotes fhould die (avindala) inedited! But as the biographers of emperors, in the decline of good tafte and good writing at Rome, debafed their compilations with every tittle-tattle ftory, fo the Journalist of the prefent day will not let a man of eminence alone on his couch or on his clofe-ftool, and what efcapes the effufions of his own vanity is difplayed by the vanity of his admirers. To fuch motives we muft afcribe the problematic ftate into which the vicar of flington has brought the Dr's religion; to fuch that impenetrable dark nefs which your correfpondent throws round the arguments against the propriety of making the Journal public, or that of the declaration touching the Journalist's father and his hero. We are now told, that it is not the men who could not meet in heaven, but their ofinions; and a fory afferts, that whiggifm muft give place to his favourite doctrine before the abettors of both could be brought to live together in heaven, and that the Father of Heaven must be as great a tyrant as any of the house of Stùart, or as "willing to keep up the continuation of feudal authority as Mr. B." p. 422. I forbear to give a name to fuch fentiments and fuch argumentation, and, equally detefting the national combinations which difgrace either kingdom, and abhorring the thought of holding then out to each other's refentment, hall imprecate no greater vengeance on the heads of their abettors than a more enlightened judgement and more extended candour, as the beft preparatives for that ftate of love and perfection where, I am taught, all party diftinctions fhall be for ever done away, and "Ephraim fball not envy Judah, and Judah ball not vex Ephraim;" confequently neither whiggifm nor toryifm will be prepollent. Envy and malevolence will not do that prejudice to the brightest characters that they will receive from the falfe See a new publication, intituled, Sylva, p.16, 17. 387 lights and glare in which their enamoratos fet them. Had the Principia of Newton been half fo be-commented as the Plays of Shakspeare, thofe would have been blown away in balloons, as thefe have been debased by garbling and new modelling. Intrinfic merit is felf. fupported. Empty fciolifts, and hungry fcribblers, can multiply books for the moment that might overlay an original writer; but the fire of genius will burst forth, and confume them all. So much is faid of the cafe and ele gance of the Journal, and the acutengss of remark, and nicety of difcrimination, of the Journalist, and fuch an invidious comparifon drawn between him and “a certain fuperficial and popular writer," as would make one dread and deteft the character and fate of a popular writer. Nothing is more eafy than for the fame author to write himself into fashion and out of fashion; or, as Bentley faid, write himself down. Fashion fo univerfally took the lead of true difcernment from the creation to the present time, that a man cannot be too cautious how he courts the popularis aura. It will perfuade him, the religion and polity of his country, and of the whole world, have no foundation but ignorance, fu perftition, and defpotifm, and that they are wifeft who most frequently change their notions of both; at the fame time taking care to make as many converts as they can, till they have obtained a majority, and are at the head of a party. Dr. J. and Mr. B. were both tenaces propofiti: yet both had their inconfiftencies, and both their faults:,which had or has the moft candour to bear the public cenfure, let the impartial readers judge.. When the indifcriminate partiality of a few, who affect to give the ton in literary matters in this kingdom, has fubfided, or is forgotten, pofterity will pronounce (if Dr. J. or his Journalist furvive to pofterity), that the minute traits in the quotidian tranfactions of a morofe overbearing pedant are as much below the little anecdotes, interfperfed in the lives of antient worthies, as his frivolous, vain, and big-founding biographer is inferior to Xenophon or Plutarch; and that this Toctor Shonfon, instead of being exalted to the skies almost above human nature, has been degraded, expoled, and cut up (as the vulgar phrafe is) in a moft fhameful and cruel manner by the plagiaries of his fame, as much as by the catchpenny authors who Arove who should first obtrude his life tio 388 Mr. Bolwell.—Sacridne]s of the Mallow.Optical Phænomenon. on the cager public, as the Grub-street writers do with the laft dying-fpeech of malefactors before they are hanged. Pofterity, within half a century, will. not regret, that "indolence came upon Mr. B. towards the conclufion of his Journal." Before I difmifs the fubject, I muft obferve, that Mr. B. in your last Mag. p. 285, tells us, that "he ordered 26 lines relative to a noble lord to be omitted in the fecond edition, for the lofs. of which, he trufts, 22 additional pages are a fufficient compenfation. Thefe 26 lines will be found in p. 165, 165, of the first edition: but I do not find the addition of 22 pages held up as a compenfation. It is true the fecond edition* is extended to 534 pages, which is ten more than the firft; but this extenfion is occafioned by the different making-up of the pages, mere prefs-work, and not by any additional matter except a few uninterefting notes : p. 26, a further vindication of Mr. Burke's wit, in which, as in another instance, p. 474, Mr. B. Thews that his intimate acquaintance with modern jet-books has not enabled him to diftinguish between wit and punning; two new paragraphs, inftead of two in p. 165; an attempt to conceal the inperunence of a Prefbyterian minifter, p. 481; and of a young author, p. 486; a letter from Dr, Blacklock, vindicating his meaning in a comparison between the eafe with which dictionaries and poems were refpectively writtten, fee p. 41, in which the Journalist claims the privilege of the laft word; and a Latin poem by Sir A. M'Donald, addreffed to Dr. J. in Sky, which I heartily with Mr. B. would get tranflated. From the most recent. publication of Dr. J's apophthegins, the public may not only collect his genuine fentiments touching Scotland, but may charge him with duplicity in the art with which he concealed them from interested perfons, or those persons with not choofing to By the fecond edition, I mean that which has the author's creat cut in coppers and by the fill, that where it is cut in zuced, in the title-page. + One of thefe notes is really curious. Dr. J's compliments to young Monboddo are made to bear a meaning totally different from the Dr's; which was, like an old tory when James VI. co nes back, &c. &c. though I would not fwear the Dr. did not infinuate, that the boy's progrefs was fuch, that he ould never be rewarded till a king came back, meaning never, underfland his meaning. Whoever compares the JOURNEY and JOURNAL together, will find the one a studied palliative for, and antidote to, the other . If you will admit a longer fignature to a fhorter letter than Anti-Stiletto's, I would fubfcribe myself, PRO ME, SI MEREAR, IN ME. P. S. Another of your correfpondents, p. 125, has brought very strong proofs of affectation against Mr. B. He might have recollected how thick-larded his Letter to the People of Scotland is with fcraps of Latin, and other infignificant quotations. But perhaps the letter is not fo univerfally read as the Journal. Perhaps too, after what has been faid by your correfpondents GRATIAN and BENVOLIO, on the learned monfter and bis fbew-man, any other ftrictures may be deemed fuperfluous. Can you help fmiling at the felf-contragictions of writers when they want to defend a bad argument? Candidus, vol. LV. p. 1020, fays, "Your correfpondent, p. 853, infers, that Dr. M. refers to Pliny to account for his affertion, that the mallow was confidered as a facred plant by Pythagoras." Can you really find this in the page referred to? We admit that Dr. M. makes no reference at all, nor does he affign any reason why Pythagoras esteemed the folium malve fan&tiffimum. But why does he not tell us whofe words thefe are, or a little more about the facredness of the mallow? Is it not because he trufts to the reading and quotation of others, and therefore is not afhamed to alledge the authority of the great Evelyn for the mil-citation of an original author? Mr. URBAN, N May 16. the laft vol. of your Mag. p. 168, you favoured me by inferting a few lines of enquiry concerning a fuppofed comparative defect of the right eye, a circumftance that I had never feen hoticed in print; though I have fince found, in your Mifcellany for 1767, a letter from the late Dr. Cook, of Leigh in Effex, in which he communicated to the public his having difcovered, that objects generally appear larger to the left eye than they do to the right (vol. XXXVII. p. 443). The Dr. was perfuaded, that would doubtless laugh when first acmany of readers your Peculiarity of Vifion.-Cherries, when introduced into England. 389 quainted with this odd phænomenon; he, however, urged in fupport of the fact, not his own observation only, but alfo the Journal of the learned from Rome in 1669. It was his defire that fome of your correfpondents would af fign a reafon for this peculiarity of vifion; and, in compliance with the Dr's request, Mr Robinfon of Hinckley, under the fignature of J. R. attempted to account for it on optical principles, and from experiment, p. 499. J. R. juftly remarks, that the mufcles, &c. of any member (and he inftances in the right hand) acquire a fuperior ftrength and adroitness to thofe of the correfpondent member, by being more frequently ufed. But I am inclined to fufpect he did not confider, that the more fre quent and vigorous the exertion is of any member, the fooner, according to the courfe of nature, is it likely to be impaired, after it has attained its utmoft ftretch. And I think I have ob ferved in perfons advanced in years, who are become subject to a shaking of the hands, that the tremor is much more difcernible in the right than in the left hand. With regard to the more alarming paralytic tendencies, whether the attack is oftener on the right fide than it is on the left, I shall fubmit to the decifion of practitioners in the medical line. Your ingenious correfpondent applies his remark to the mufcles of the right eye, which, he fays, by its fituation is fo appropriated to the right hand, that, on most occafions, it is as much ufed in proportion as the right hand. This hypothefis, if well founded, confirms my furmife as to the caufe of the earlier failure of the right eye, which I accidentally perceived to be my own cafe; and which I have not a doubt is very general, there being but few perfons, comparatively fpeaking, who are, as the phrafe is, left-handed. Yours, &c. W. & D. But a correfpondent under the fignature of D. Y. p. 311, feemed to be fully perfuaded of our being indebted for cherries, and for many other fruits, the natives of warmer climates, to the Romans, and of their having flourished in this ifland ever fince the departure of that people. To Mr. G's conjecture I the rather inclined; and my doubts concerning the validity of D. Y's notion arofe from my not having found cherries fpecified in any one of a great many deeds of different dates, in which fruits and other vegetables are copioufly enumerated. It was, however, admit ted by me, p. 401, that no direct proof could be drawn from the filence of contemporary writers; and I now readily acknowledge, that in this inftaace my conclufion was erroneous, having dif covered written evidence which clearly fhews, that, before the middle of the 15th century, the hawkers in London were wont to expofe cherries for fale in the fame manner as is now done early in the feafon. Lydgate is my voucher, in the following lines from his called "Lickpenny," cited by Mr. Warton, in the " Hiftory of English Pocts,” vol. II. p. 367: Hot pefcode own (one) began to cry poem, Straberys rype, and cherryes in the ryfe. That is (remarks Mr. W. at not. d.), as he walked through London ftreets, they cried hot peas, ripe ftrawberries, and cherries on a bough or twig; rice, or ris, being properly a long branch, and the word ftill fo ufed in the weft of England. The tradition, therefore, refpecting Hains's having originally planted cherry-trees at Teynham, may either mean that he was the firft perfon who reared a cherry orchard, or that he was the first who propagated the common cherry, one kind of which has acquired the appellation of the Kentish cherry. Miller, in his Dictionary, title cerafus (1) having defcribed it only as the common red, or garden-cherry, fome of your readers may not be aware that of this firft fpecies there are three forts, viz. the Flemish (and it is obfervable, that the cherry faid to have been imported by Hains was from Flanders); the English, and the Kentish. And if to each of the three forts the terms good, better, and best, be prefixed, thefe epithets will not inadequately denote their comparative excellences. Yours, &c. W. & D. 390 Apology for Milton, by Dr. Gregory.-Heron unfairly cenfured. Mr. URBAN, May 12. IF you think the following lines wor thy a place in your Repository, they are much at your fervice. They were, written by a celebrated claffical scholar, Dr. Gregory of Eton, whofe poem called Ecclefiaftes, in the Mufa Etonenfes, is well known. I think them a very hand fome apology, if any is deemed neceffary, for the great Milton; and though Dr. Johnson might esteem the name of Milton unworthy to be claffed with heroes and with kings, yet when we fee and confider how often modern times have profaned thofe facred walls by the funerals of inferior, wits, and bominibus quibufcunque, we shall hardly refufe a place there to the manes of that immortal bard, who fung" of man's first disobedience," and his future reftoration to life and happiness. Augufti regum cineres, fan&tæque favillæ Heroum et magni venerandæ hominis umbra, Parcite, quod veftris infenfum regibus olim Sedibus infertur nomen; liceatque fupremis Funeribus finire odium, et mors obruat iras! Nunc cum fœderibus coeant felicibus unà Libertas, et jus facri inviolabile fceptri Rege fub Augufto fas fit laudare Catonem. TRANSLATION. Imperial athes, and ye bleft remains Of faints and heroes, venerable fhades! Forgive th' intrufion, if a bard divine, Hoftile to monarchs erft, your feats invade. Permit for once the cold and filent grave To quench your paffions, and o'erwhelm your hate! Now, when in happy league united ftand Fair Liberty, and juft Dominion's equal claim, 1 The praife of Cato meets Auguftus' smile. TH May 10. Mr. URBAN, HOUGH Mr. Heron difclaims any concern in the attacks on him, yet it may be fufpected he has a friend where, from the principles of his book, I little expected to find one. For in a late Monthly Review is an account of his book, fo apparently inimical, and yet fo gentle, that while great faults are paffed over, fmall faults are held out in a ridiculous light of importance. The putting as for a 5, and an i for an a, (though his tranflation fhews he read a), are made capital crimes. It is faid he tranflates Greek wrong, when he does not tranflate the paffage at all, and the fenfe remains as he ftates it. Well may he complain of mifreprefentation; but whether it be from his friends, or enemies, is the queftion. His book has friends as enemics; and, as an as many apparent friends the worst of enemies, fo an apparent enemy is the best of friends. Mr. URBAN, PER HINT. May 12. 66 ERMIT me to return thanks to your correfpondent N. R. of Lancafter, for the account he has given you of the late Dr. Stratford and his charities (p. 277.) The Dr's executors have done themselves fo much honour by the folicitude they difcovered to provide things honeft in the fight of all men," that I think you will join with me in wishing to be informed by your corre fpondent who thofe executors were; efpecially as their "Account of the Charities," being printed at Kendal, was, I fuppofe, never widely circulated. You feem to have been guilty of an error [we acknowledge it] in calling him Richard Stratford in the beginning of the title and the title-page, as he is every narrative, as well as in the runningwhere else [properly] called William. Your correfpondent D. N. p. 289, is right in his account of the rectory of St. Botolph, Aldgate; and I have no doubt but he is alfo right in his affertion, that Mr. Pratt bequeathed a living to the curate of that parish for ever: but I think he must be mistaken in the place he mentions; first, because the rev. John Harris, LL.B. prebendary of Pancras in the church of St. Paul, the prefent rector of "Greenftead juxta Chipping Ongar, co. Effex," never was curate of Aldgate, fo far as I have heard; and, in the next place, because that rectory is put down in Mr. Bateman's List as being in the gift of the crown. I wish it was in my power to inform your correfpondent Obfervator, p. 299, who was Elizabeth uxor Willi. Fetyplace. He calls the heads in the ft quarter eaglets heads; but they ftruck me at first fight as fo much like the arms of Howe, that if the pedigrees of that family, which are published, began early, and recorded the marriage of an Elizabeth Howe to a Willian Fetyplace, I must confefs I fhould, without hesitation, fix upon them as the perfons referred to. Your correfpondent M--, p. 301, has given an explanation, far-fetched indeed, of a popular expreffion, of the Nine of Diamonds being called the Curfe of Scotland. I cannot tell whence he learns that Col. Packer was on the fcaffold when King Charles was beheaded; but, granting him the honour of Curfe of Scotland.-Mr. Thickneffe and The Prince de Ligne. 394 of being an accomplice in the murther, I fhould not look among regicides for. examples of heraldry; for though Cromwell, Grey, Fleetwood, and fome others, were by family gentlemen, with regard to many of them, I believe they had no right to any arms but what grew to their shoulders. I never had the abovementioned expreffion fatisfactorily explained, but have heard that it refers, though I confefs I know not why, to the arms of Dalrymple, which are Or, on a faltire Azure nine lozenges of the field. Page 341, col. 2, at the top, there is an error in the account of the monument of Sir Rob. Naunton, Pf. xxi. 31. And in the next page, for the 23d, read the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy. Yours, &c. I 66 E. St. Catherine's HerMr. URBAN, mitage, April 3. AM rather furprized to fee in your Magazine the letter of an Englishman, though he has been seven years out of his native country, defending the Prince de Ligne's conduct towards me! I therefore beg leave to afk Les Sablons a few questions, after affuring him, that I did prefent the Prince de Ligne with a moft fuperb cafe of piftols, which were the perfonal piftols John Duke of Marlborough conftantly wore in his faddle, and probably when hoftile be. fore that very city in which I then refided (Bruffels). The Prince had shewn me fome civilities, and I was pleafed with his manner and general conduct as a man of wit and humour. He accepted the piftols with this rapturous expreffion: They are more acceptable to me, Sir, than if the Pope had prefented me with the keys of St. Peter;" and foon after took me with him to dine at the club of which most of the first people of that country are members; and the only Englishman I met at that club was Lord Torrington. From that day, however, the Prince took no further notice of me, and declined procuring me a key, which is given by the Governor of Bruffels for afking for! Not the key of St. Peter, for that key, I knew, was not in his Highnefs's poffelfion but a key to the park-gate, which was oppofite to my house. Surprized and concerned, I, both by letter and in perfon, defired to know what 1 had done, or omitted to do; or, in fhort, for what caufe the Prince neg Jected to show me his wonted favour. But I could obtain nothing from him but a mere perfiflage of polite letters and civil words. And at length I plainly told him, he ought not to make me wretched for having made him happy; and if he would not inform me who had prejudiced him against me, or what my offences were, he ought to return the piftols. After I returned to England, I again urged him on this head; but he abfolutely refused to return his dear piftols, or give me any fatisfaction; but added, that, "if I would permit him to make me fome other return, I could not oblige him more." I told him I would moft readily accept of his return: I thought it due, I faid, to me. Yet no return has been made, not even the return of an answer to many letters! Now I afk Les Sablons, whether that is the conduct of an ENGLISH GENTLEMAN? or whether it can be vindicated by an English gentleman with propriety? I afk Les Sablons, whether he, who has lived feven years at Bruffels, has not feen the Prince de Ligne's account of England, printed at his own chateau, where, in above 30 different places, he holds out the vile tafle of English gardening, and the vile fogs which overfpread this vile country? I afk him, whether he knows what the Prince bas faid relative to his reception at Blenheim? and whether, if I had been as vile as our fogs, our gardening, or the vileft man among us, he ought not to have fulfilled HIS OWN BOUNTEOUS OFFER? A peer's word, in England, is as binding as the oath of a plebeian; and I need not now inform my countrymen how far the word of `a Pais Bás Prince is binding. The reafon I did not print the third letter was, becaufe I could not at that time find it ; but if Les Sablons thinks it will ftrengthen bis vindication of the Prince, it shall be printed. I will not mention the young Prince de Ligne's conduct, as it is only a report, to a most respectable nobleman of our country, further than to obferve, that I am so fur. prized at his vindication on my account, that I shall not be furprized to fee Les Sablons' vindication of this Prince's fon come next from the fandy plains of Bruffells. Yours, &c. PH. THICKNESSE. P. S. When Prince Artois was at Spa, Count Trauttmanfdorff gave a breakfast to his R. Highness, and a felect company confifting of 100 perfons. I and my family had the high honoar of a card, |