true standard for future imitation; oneffes, which gave the public writings thers have defcended to the reign of of thofe times a very illiberal air. James I. and others ftill lower, to that of Charles II. Were I to be permitted to offer an opinion upon this fubject, I fhould readily give my vote for the reign of Queen Anne, or fome years before that period. It was then that tafte was united to genius; and, as before, our writers charmed with their ftrength of thinking, fo then they pleaf ed with ftrength and grace united. In that period of British glory, though no writer attracts our attention fingly, yet, like stars loft in each other's brightnefs, they have caft fuch a luftre on the age in which they lived, that their minuteft tranfactions will be attended to by pofterity with greater eagerness than the most important occurrences of even empires, which have been tranfacted in greater obfcurity. At that period there feemed to be a juft balance between patronage and the prefs. Refore it, men were little efteemed, whofe only merit was genius; and fince, men who can prudently be content to catch the public, are certain of living without dependence. But the writers of the period of which I am fpeaking, were fufficiently esteemed by the great, and not rewarded enough by bookfellers, to fet them above independence. Fame confequently then was the trueft road to happiness; a fedulous attention to the mechanical bufinefs of the day, makes the prefent never-failing refource. The age of Charles II. which our countrymen term the age of wit and immorality, produced fome writers that at once served to improve our language, and corrupt our hearts. The King himfelf had a large fhare of knowledge, and fome wit, and his courtiers were generally men who had been brought up in the fchool of affliction and experience. For this reafon, when the funthine of their fortune returned, they gave too great a loofe to pleafure, and language was by them cultivated only as a mode of elegance. Hence it became more enervated, and was dashed with quaint VOL. III. Leftrange, who was by no means fo bad a writer as fome have reprefented him, was funk in party faction; and having generally the worst fide of the argument, often had recourse to scolding, pertnefs, and, confequently, a vulgarity that difcovers itself even in his more liberal compofitions. He was the first writer who regularly enlisted himfelf under the banners of a party for pay, and fought for it thro' right and wrong for upwards of forty literary campaigns. This intrepidity gained him the esteem of Cromwell himself, and the papers he wrote, even jutt before the revolution, almost with the rope about his neck, have his ufual characters of impudence and perfeve rance. That he was a standard writer cannot be difowned, becaufe a great many very eminent authors formed their file by his. But his ftandard was far from being a just one; though, when party confiderations are fet afide, he certainly was poffeffed of elegance, eafe, and perfpicuity. Dryden, tho' a great and indifputed genius, had the fame caft as Leftrange. Even his plays difcover him to be a par ty-man, and the fame principle infects his ftile in fubjects of the lighteft nature; but the English tongue, as it ftands at prefent, is greatly his debtor. He firft gave it regular harmony, and difcovered its latent powers. It was his pen that formed the Congreves, the Priors, and the Addifons, who fucceeded him; and had it not been for Dryden, we never thould have known a Pope, at least with the meridian luftre he now difplays. But Dryden's excellencies, as a writer, were not confined to poetry alone; there is in his profe writings an eafe and elegance that have never yet been fo well united in works of taste or criticiim. The English language owes very little to Otway, though, next to Shakespear, the greatest genius England ever produced in tragedy. His excellencies lay in painting directly from nature, in Ttt catching catching every emotion juft as it rifes from the foul, and in all the powers of the moving and pathetic. He appears to have had no learning, no critical knowledge, and to have lived in great diftrefs. When he died, (which he did in an obfcure houfe near the Minories) he had about him the copy of a tragedy, which it feems he had fold for a trifle to Bentley the bookseller. I have feen an advertisement at the end of one of Leftrange's political papers, offering a reward to any one who should bring it to his fhop. What an invaluable treasure was there irretrievably loft, by the ignorance and neglect of the age he lived in. Lee had a great command of language, and vaft force of expreffion, both of which the belt of our fucceding dramatic poets thought proper to take for their models. Rowe, in particular, feems to have caught that manner, though, in all other respects, inferior. The other poets of that reign contributed but little towards improving the English tongue; and it is not certain, whether they did not injure rather than improve it. Immorality has its cant, as well as party, and many fhocking expreffions now crept into the language, and became the tranfient fashion of the day. The upper galleries, by the prevalence of party-spirit, were courted with great affiduity, and a horfe laugh following ribaldry, was the highest inftance of applause, the chastity as well, as energy of diction being overlooked, or neglected. Virtuous fentiment was recovered, but energy of stile never was. The beauties of Mr. Locke's ftile, tho' not fo much celebrated, are as striking as that of his understanding. He never fays more nor less than he ought, and never makes ufe of a word that he could have changed for a better. The fame obfervation holds good of Dr. Samuel Clarke. There is nothing peculiar to the language of Archbishop Tillotfon, but his manner of writing is inimitable; for one who reads him, wonders why he him-, felf did not think and speak in that very manner. The turn of his periods is agreeable, though artless; and every thing he fays feems to flow fpontaneously from inward conviction. Barrow, tho' greatly his fuperior in learning, falls thort of him in other respects. The philofophical manner of Lord Shaftesbury's writing is nearer to that of Cicero, than any English author has yet arrived at; but, perhaps, had Cicero wrote in English, his composition would have greatly exceeded that of our countryman. The diction of the latter is beautiful, but fuch beauty, as upon nearer inspection, carries with it evident fymptoms of affectation. This has been attended with very difagreeable confequences. Nothing is fo eafy to copy as affectation, and his Lordship's rank and fame have procured him more imitators in Britain, than any other writer I know, all faithfully preferving his blemishes, but, unhappily, not one of his beauties. Mr. Trenchard and Dr. Davenant were political writers of great abilities in diction. They were followed by Dean Swift, who, though in other respects far their superior, never could arise to that manliness and clearness of diction in political writing, for which they were fo justly famous. The They were all of them exceeded by the late Lord Bolingbroke, whose strength lay in that province; for as a philofopher and a critic he was ill qualified, being deftitute of virtue for the one, and ot learning for the other. His writings againft Sir Robert Walpole are incomparably the best part of his works. perfonal and perpetual antipathy he had for that family, to whofe places he thought his own abilities had a right, gave a glow to his ftile, and an edge to his manner, that never has been yet e qualled in political writing. His misfortunes and disappointments gave his mind a turn, which his friends mistook for philofophy, and at one time of his life he had the art to impofe the fame belief upon fome of his enemies. In politics, he was generally master of what he undertook; in morals, never. Addison for a happy, and natural stile, ให will be always an honour to British literature. His diction, indeed, wants ftrength, but it is equal to all the fubjects he undertakes to handle, as he never (at leaft in his finished works) attempts any thing either in the argumentative or demonstrative way. Though Sir Richard Steele's reputation, as a public writer, was owing to his connections with Mr. Addison, yet, after their intimacy was formed, Steele funk in his merit as an author. This was not owing fo much to the evident fuperiority on the part of Addison, as to the unnatural efforts which Steele made to equal or eclipfe him. This emulation deftroyed that genuine flow of diction, which is difcoverable in all his former compofitions. Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign, fome of the greatest men in England devoted their time to party. Mr. Walpole, Mr. Addison, Mr. Mainwaring, Mr. Steele, and many members of both houfes of parliament, drew their pens for the whigs; but they feem to have been over matched, though not in argument, yet in writing, by Boling broke, Prior, Swift, Arbuthnot, and the other friends of the oppfite party. They who oppofe a miniftry, have always a better field for ridicule and reproof, than they who defend it. Since that period, our writers have either been encouraged above their merits, or below them. Some, who were pofsessed of the meanest abilities, acquired the highest preferments; while others, who feemed born to reflect a luftre upon their age, perished by want and neglect. Moore, Savage, and Amherst, were poffeffed of great abilities, yet they were fuffered to feel all the miferies that ufual ly attend the ingenious and the imprudent, that attend men of strong paffions, and no phlegmatic referve in their command. fhip: altho' every body pretends to it, yet not one person in a million poffeffes this noble paffion. Kings are, in a manner, intire'y incapacitated by their station from being acquainted with it; and we find Hiero of Syracufe, long fince, complaining, that he perceived himself deprived of all mutual friendship, reciprocal fociety, and familiar converfation, wherein the greatest pleasures of human life confifted: for what real affection can one man fhew another, that is in fome measure obliged, whether he will or not, in every word and action, to express to him the greatest respect and courtesy he is mafter of. The honour that Princes receive from their fervants, is rather paid to the majefty they reprefent, than to themselves; there is too great an inequality and difproportion in their circumftances for real Friendship to have place between them: whatfoever the greater part of their followers fay to them, is little better than a falfe glofs and mere diffimulation. Julian the Emperor being one day flattered by his courtiers, for adminiftring justice, and deciding rightly in a certain affair; "I fhould very readily grow proud (said he) if these commendations came from fuch as durft either accufe or difpraife my faults, if I fhould commit any." History furnishes very few examples of real Friendship in this exalted station i whether it exifts between kindred or otherwife, the affection it produces is always fuperior to that caufed by affinity in blood. Herodotus feems to give us. an inftance to the contrary, in his account of Plamneticus, King of Egypt, who having been defeated and taken prifoner by Cambyfes, King of Perfia, and feeing his daughter pafs before him in bafe and vile apparel, being fent to draw water from a well, he uttered not a word, notwithstanding the complaints of his friends, but held his eyes fixed on the ground; and shortly after beholding his ion led to execution, he ftill preferved the fame undaunted courage and refolution, and did not change his countenance; until perceiving a familiar friend of his dragged in chains among the captives, he began to beat his head, and burst forth into extreme forrow. A perfon unacquainted with the true workings of nature, would, at first fight, imagine, that this Prince's grief for his friend exceeded that for his children: but his answer to Cambyfes, who asked him how it happened that he fo much bewailed the difafter of his friend, and feemed to neglect the misfortunes of his children, fhews the contrary. "It is (answered Pfamneticus) becaufe tears and complaints are fufficient to exprefs my concern for this laft unfortunate spectacle; whereas, the two former exceed by much every human means of teftifying my grief." When unhappy catastrophes make up a part of the hiftory of Princes and great perfonages, who have acted in exalted stations, or are reprefented in the moving language and well-wrought fcenes of tragedians, they do not fail of filling our minds with compaffion : but then they affect us only in a tranfient manner, and pass through our imaginations as incidents, in which our fortunes are too humble to be concerned, or which writers invent to display the force of their own talents; or, at most, as things more proper to exercife the powers of our minds, than to create new habits in them. Instead of such exalted paffages, it would be of great use to lay before man. kind fuch adventures of perfons, who are not raised above the common level. This would better prevail upon the ordinary race of men, who are fo prepoffeffed with outward appearances, that they mistake fortune for nature; and be lieve that nothing can relate to them, that does not happen to fuch as live and look like themselves. The antient poets, for want of authentic and real examples of the noble quality of Friendship, had recourfe to fiction, and told us ftories of their Pylades and Orestes; but I fhall at prefent entertain the reader with as great an action of generous friendship as human nature is capable of performing, and this from an author of unexceptionable credit, who was himself an eye-witness of a part of the story. "In the beginning of the 16th century the Portugueze carrack failed from Lisbon to Goa; a very great, rich, and flourishing colony of that nation in the Eaft Indies. There were no less than twelve hundred fouls, mariners, merchants, paffengers, priefts, and friars, on board one of thefe veffels. The beginning of their voyage was profperous, they had doubled the fouthern extremity of the great continent of Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope, and were shaping their courfe north east, to the great continent of India, when some gentlemen on board, who having ftudied geography and navigation (arts that reflect honour on the poffeffors) found in the latitude, in which they were then failing, a large ridge of rocks laid down in their fea-charts. They had no fooner made this discovery, than they acquainted the Captain of the fhip with the affair, deûring him to communicate the fame to the pilot; which request he immediately gratified, recommending him to lie by in the night, and flacken fail by day, until they fhould be paft the danger. It is a cuftom always among the Portugueze, abfolutely to commit the failing part, or the navigation of the veffel, to the pilot, who is answerable, with his head, for the fafe conduct or carriage of the King's fhips, or those belonging to private traders; and he is under no manner of direction from the Captain, who commands in every other respect. "The pilot being one of those selffufficient men, who think every hint given them from others, in the way of their profeffion, as derogatory from their understanding, took it as an affront to be taught his art; and, inftead of complying with the Captain's request, actually crowded more fail than the veffel had carried before. They had not failed many hours, but just about the dawn of day a terrible difafter befel them, which would have been prevented if they had lain by. The hip struck upon a rock. I'leave to to the reader's imagination, what a fcene of horror this dreadful accident muft occafion among twelve hundred perfons, all in the fame inevitable danger; beholding, with fearful aftonishment, that instantaneous death, which now ftared them in the face! : "In this distress, the captain ordered the pinnace to be launched, into which having toffed a small quantity of bifcuit, and fome boxes of marmalade, he jumped himself, with nineteen others, who, with their fwords, prevented the coming in of any more, left the boat fhould fink. In this condition they put off into the great Indian ocean, without a compass to ftear by, or any fresh water, but what might happen to fall from the heavens, whofe mercy alone could deliver them. After they had rowed four days to and fro, in this miferable fituation, the Captain, who had been for fome time very fick and weak, died this added, if poffible, to their mifery; for as they now fell into confufion, every one would govern, and none would obey. This obliged them to elect one of their own company to command them, whofe orders they implicitly agreed to follow. This perfon proposed to the company to draw lots, and to caft every fourth man overboard; as their small stock of provifion was so far spent, as not to be able, at a very short allowance, to fuftain life above three days longer. They were now nineteen perfons in all; in this number were a friar and a carpenter, both of whom they would exempt, as the one was ufeful to abfolve and comfort them in their last extremity, and the other to repair the pinnace, in cafe of a leak or other accident. The fame compliment they paid to their new Captain, he being the odd man, and his life of much confequence. He refufed this indulgence a great while, but, at last, they obliged him to acquiefce; fo that there were four to die out of the fixteen remaining persons. "The three first, after having confeffed, and received absolution, fubmitted to their fate. The fourth, whom for 66 tune condemned, was a Portugueze gentleman, that had a younger brother in the boat, who seeing him about to be thrown overboard, most tenderly embraced him, and with tears in his eyes befought him to let him die in his room; enforcing his arguments, by telling him, "That he was a married man, and had a wife and children at "Goa, befides the care of three fifters, "who abfolutely depended upon him; "that as for himself, he was single, and "his life of no great importance; he "therefore conjured him to suffer him to "fupply his place." The elder brother astonished, and melting with this ge nerofity, replied, "That fince the Di"vine Providence had appointed him to "fuffer, it would be wicked and unjust "to permit any other to die for him, "efpecially a brother, to whom he was "fo infinitely obliged." The younger perfifting in his purpose, would take no denial, but, throwing himself on his knees, held his brother fo fast, that the company could not disengage them. Thus they difputed for a while, the elder brother bidding him be a father to his children, and recommended his wife to his protection; and as he would inherit his estate, to take care of their common fifters: but all he could fay could not make the younger defift. This was a fcene of tenderness, that must fill any breaft, fufceptible of generous impreffions, with pity. At last, the conftancy of the elder brother yielded to the piety of the other; he acquiefced, and fuffered the gallant youth to fupply his place, who being caft into the fea, and a good swimmer, foon got to the stern of the pinnace, and laid hold of the rudder with his righthand, which being perceived by one of the failors, he cut off the hand with a cutlafs; then dropping into the sea, he caught again hold with his left, which received the fame fate by a second blow ; thus difmembered of both hands, he made a shift, notwithstanding, to keep himself above water with his feet, and two ftumps, which he held, bleeding, upwards. |