literature in a subordinate species of Sect. IV. EvILS AND MISERIES OF LITERATURE. In the introduction of this topic the author observes, "All governments and all laws which forbid their own examination and criticism, do, ipso facto, acknowledge their injustice. Kings, priests, ministers, and magistrates, who prohibit all questions on their conduct, do, by the prohibition, confess they are tyrants or impostors -But this subject is not before me, I mention it, to prevent misrepresentations of my sentiments, on the evils of literature in modern societies." p. 38. "Personal qualities out of the question, because they are only as feathers on the surface of the subject; a coVERNMENT, the perpetual object of animadversion, satire, ridicule, and obloquy, is a phenomenon peculiar to modern times. It will not be pretended, by any real scholar, that the ancient governments possessed more virtue than the modern; yet they never engendered those classes of men, whose occupations were satire and libel. Whence, in modern societies, this endless tribe, this everlasting succession of writers swarming like locusts, and, by their numbers and voracity, daubing and destroying all characters public and private; nighting for or against the same governments, by detachments; descending to classes and individuals, and spreading dismay and terror over all fami lies and all persons: who are formed, by literary jobbers, into indefinite and lurking bodies, and who even defame and tear and devour each other! Whence are they? surely not from any causes having the most distant analogy to the LITERARY FUND. I feel a species of shame for those sophists who have affected to perceive in that institution any tendency to foster those causes." p. 39, 40. 46 were If genius and literature, liberally and scientifically cultivated, qualifications for public employments, many of the evils I have stated, and most of the reasons for the institution of a literary fund, would be removed. Administrations of government render the emoluments of their offices high; but the competition is not that of scientific or literary merit. it seems to be a maxim of modern policy, that the faculties employed in intellectual occupations, and those immediately applied to the interests of life, should be separated." p. 41, 42. In pleading the cause of men of genius, the author observes, "Whatever has a value, should be ascertained; and when that value changes hands, or is applied to the use of others, or of the public, it should be entitled to an equivalent, by some general and equitable mode of determination. "In the career of military glory, the candidate of superior talents ob tains his reward, besides gratification from public opinion. It is not so in the general career of genius. Why? Because legislators and magistrates always comprehend the uses of military, seldom those of literary, genius. They also FEAR what they do not understand; and, by jealousy misplaced, render pernicious those talents, which might be of the highest service to thein. They do not distinguish between GREAT MINDS and STRONG CHARACTERS. The former always appear in small numbers, and are found in studious retirement; the latter are common, for superficial knowledge and violent passions are their ingredients; and they have constituted, in public life, the principal revolutionists and many of the ancient and modern statesmen, and, in private all its enterprising and terrific villains." p. 48, 49. "Satirists, by trade, deserve notice only when, like malicious boys, in coarse and ignorant play, they deface and mutilate the finest Statues. Lite rary bravoes can neither honour nor degrade any man; their affected esteem does not flatter; their affected contempt never tarnishes. Calumnies, commanded by political factions, and expressions of esteem inspired by fear or venality, are the dregs of literature, and they tend, of their own accord, to the filthy gulph of everlasting oblivion. They are arrested in this noisome career by notice, and even by punishment. "Are these the produce of the LITERARY FUND, or of any causes analogous to it? Or, has the beneficence of the society any tendency to produce or to encourage them? The union of malignity to real talents, a rare phenomenon! is owing to negligence or injury, Factions employ literary blood-hounds, or the race would be extinguished." p. 50, 51. Sect. V. PATRONAGE. This is a long section, intended to answer the following objection, that the Society indirectly blames a country, which has liberally founded schools and universities; supports a learned and opulent ecclesiastical establishment; and whose nobility and gentry are disposed to literary patronage.' Beginning with the church, it is observed, that the "ecclesiastical establishment is not the effect of literary patronage, though literature be encouraged by it; and the author argues, as religion not literature is its object, society does not discharge its obligations to literature by the support of an ecclesiastical establishment, the talents of whose ministers are appropriated to the national religion, and by which it is impossible even to imagine the genius and literature of a country can be monopolized." p. 58. The universities come next under notice, and on this part of the subject among other things the author observes, that "scholars, who are sheltered within the bounds of an university, or of a profession, have a security in the exertion of their talents, similar to that of property, which is the principle of active and honourable industry. "Without these boundaries, there is no such security. The student who passes them, replete with knowledge and sanguine in his hopes, will find his claims, even to justice, unacknowledged or denied. He will see every thing, exchangeable for money, guarded with all possible security; but if he suppose genius the inventor of money, talents, which ascertain the relations and uses of all species of property, to be in all cases and in all their exertions, intitled to similar justice, he will be soon and miserably undeceived. Courts of justice, spiritual and temporal, can recognize only the claims of privilege and property; and his classic and poetic visions, if he cherish them, will only deepen the gloom of his disappointment and despair." p. 61, 62. The effects arising from public charity schools are stated and discussed at some length, from which the author proceeds to consider patronage, and after acknowledging the consideration due to rank, says, "EMPERORS, KINGS, and PRINCES, have universally protected learning, in proportion to their own merits. But their ministries are commonly formed on the principle of trading companies; and men of genius, not free of the company possessing the monopoly of the day, are considered as enemies. Without a disposition, or a reason for the most distant personal allusion, I think it is difficult for a minister to patronize without corrupting; and the inspiration of genius is always suffocated by corruption. "I do not wish to depreciate men on account of their situations. There is an attention due, in certain societies, from literature not only to ranks, but to offices; there is, in all societies, a greater attention due, from TITLES and OFFICES, to LITERATURE. "The art of instructing and enlightening mankind, claims a precedence to every other, because the extent of its utility is greater than even that of governing national societies, the most desired privilege of hu manity. A man of genius always does honour to his country, which is seldom done by the rich man, not often by the man of rank, and not always by the minister" p. 80, 81. The frauds of patronage are exemplified in the case of CARDINAL RICHLIEU, who, "not content with having concerted measures for his canonization, treated with CORNEILLE for a splendid portion of literary fame, and offered him an opulent establishment, if he would yield to his patron the reputation of the CID. "No cases have more powerfully roused my indignation, in the occur Fences of the LITERARY FUND, than this fraudulent and abominable species of patronage; by which talents in distress have been seduced to assist the views of imposture, and have been defrauded of their paltry recompence. Scholars of high rank, and writers of great reputation, have sought shelter in the LITERARY FUND from the conscious ignominy of aiding the most execrable miscreants in the country to appear as authors; for the VAMPIRES of this age, not only suck the blood, but the thoughts, of the unguarded and unfortunate. "In less atrocious cases, PATRONAGE is the price of an unfortunate man's liberty; it is the prerogative of insolence and outrage; it is despotic sovereignty over an abject dependent, whose abuses are, to the last degree, humiliating and oppressive." p. 83 85. Sect. VI. LITERARY FUND. This section contains the history and design of the institution, and in the beginning animadverts upon a species of revolution which has lately taken place in the method of education, on which this observation occurs, "THE YOUNG OAK, TO BE AN USEFUL TREE, MUST NOT BE REARED IN A HOT-HOUSE." The author recommends the objects of this institution to the attention of government, and observes, “The remunerations of genius would not then be left to PATRONAGE, the most capricious and unjust of all judges; they would be adjusted by some reasonable scale of equivalents, in the jurisdiction of a competent court. Men of rank and fortune, particularly those in public employments, are enabled by men of genius, to perform public services, and to sustain parts above their own capacities. In such cases, they actually confer faculties of public utility. Where are the principles of justice, on which they may claim a full compensation? Where are such men to look for an equivalent? To the gratitude of the puppets they have assisted to display themselves? A LIBERAL JUDICATURE is imperiously demanded, by the injuries of genius, and particularly by the dreadful evils of its resentment and revenge. Such a COURT would judge equitably of these rights; perhaps as accurately in all cases, as when the value of a man's thoughts, time, and labour, are realized in any palpable substance. These incorporeal rights are readily ascertained, in the attendance of menial servants, in the advice of physi cians and lawyers, in the skill of tutors; and in offices of national admi nistrations, they confer privileges and wealth, to an endless line of descendents." p. 99-101. The subject of this institution having been frequently discussed, in the conversations of a CLUB, the society commenced its efforts with "eight gentlemen who subscribed each a guinea, which they repeated three or four times in the first year, to keep an advertisement generally before the public; the constitutions were drawn up, a committee and officers appointed, and the society, in miniature, was formed. "The advertisement continuing to draw numbers, and the receipts of the society exceeding its expenditure, the cases of claimants were taken into consideration, and relieved; and its first anniversary held on the 18th of May, 1790." p. 104-106. The character and design of the society close this section. The remainder of the contents are the constitutions of the society: remarks on the cases in which relief has been administered by the Literary Fund, by William Boscawen from the minutes of the registrer; sums paid by the committee of the Literary Fund, since its first establishment, which amount to £. 1680. 8s. Od.; the introduction to the poems in honour of the Literary Fund, by W. Boscawen ; and the poems recited at the anniversaries, composed by H. J. Pye, Esq. poet laureat-William Boscawenthe elder Captain Morris--W. T. Fitzgerald, Esq.-Mr. Dyer-Dr. Busby-J. D'Israeli, Esq.-S. Birch, Esq.-C. Symmons, D. D.-and Mrs. Rigaud; the whole concluded with the accompts of the society. From the poems we present our readers with the following written and spoken by S. Birch, Esq. at the anniversary 1801. "This favour'd isle of freedom and renown, Which well Humanity may call her Nor on the public edifice alone, But oft, with stealth, to solitude with And, self-approving, shuns a world's applause. The mountain's height-the forest's deep recess, Her humbler characters alike impress. No pathless wood-no unfrequented wild But Gratitude has there some glowing child, Whose sighs, like unobstructed in- A meek, sincere, prevailing sacrifice! roam, For Sympathy will track the sufferer home. "Wide as Misfortune bids the tear to start, Or silent Anguish wrings the human heart; Broad as the air-and piercing as the ray, That visits Nature from the orb of day, Her good Samaritan is always found, To minister a balm to every wound. "Our pious ancestors, who seem'd to try What mercy best might balance mi sery; Whose pangs and sorrow, though to By poverty were multiplied indeed : care, The shiver'd intellect of wild despair; And crimeless penury, constrain'd to dwell, Oppression's captive, in some lonely cell: The snow-topt wreck of many a warrior brave, Who hurl'd his thunders o'er the distant wave; And pale disease, of life the lingering drain, Through all her thousand images of For wants like these they some asy- Their pious labours knew nor rest nor They heap'd what good their bounty could bestow On the sad offspring of unletter'd woe: They sympathized with every poor man's lot : The man of genius was alone forgot: The sport of Fate, which wit to want allied, And where it brain imparted, bread denied. "While the poor peasant could his The rough-hewn son of thoughtless Who little ask'd-his sturdy arm was sure, With spade or flail, that little to pro cure: Pale drooping Science, with precarious toil, Could scarce provide her with her midnight oil; Whose heart refined, that swell'd with many a sigh, Or, e'er it could consent to beg must die. Unsought, she never could her need proclaim, Conceal'd, 'twas agony! but known, 'twas shame! At length this wretchedness attention drew; The glorious privilege was left for you! Oh! envied thought! Oh! exquisite employ ! Your proud distinction-your exclusive joy! Search not the records or of Greece appearance of Teutonic words in the Persian language was long ago observed by the learned, and has been differently accounted for. Some being of opinion that the Persians and Germans are derived from the Scy. thians, as from a common ancestor, while others (as Sir W. Jones) consider Persia as the country from which all the nations of the earth derived their origin; and the old Persian language as the parent of the Sancrit, Zend, and Parsi, as well as of Latin, Greek, and Gothic. This Author, however, contents himself with noticing facts, as they relate to the coincidence of these languages, without determining the question of priority. He takes occasion, nevertheless, in the preface, to illustrate two passages, one in Shakspeare, the other in Aristophanes. The former, as very short, we shall give the reader. Hamlet says, "I know a hawk from handsaw."-Mr. Weston would read, "a hawk from a hansa," i. e. a goose. -But we hasten to give from the work itself (which is a handsome volume, 12mo) the following extracts by way of specimen: Eblis-Devil. Eblis, the Persians say, was sent from heaven to chastise the genii, whom he routed; and with Gian ben Gian their leader, drove from the face of the earth, and reigned in their stead. His name was. Hares, the guardian, or protector; but, proving refractory, and disobedient to the commands of heaven, he was called Iba the Stubborn; Eblis the Desperate; and Sheritan the Proud. Div eblis makes devilish, devil, &c. &c. Burader-Broeder, Brother. This is another word which the Persians have adopted with the Saxons and Germans from one common "WE have long been in possession source of Scythia and Tartary, from of a number of words in the English language, domesticated among us, without knowing whence we had them, or suspecting that they were not our own; and if, at any time, we supposed, from an ignorance of their origin, that they did not belong to us, we were completely unable to say how we came by them; and, although Persia and Arabia have greatly contributed to enrich our vocabulary, we have remained utter strangers to what people, or country, our acknow. ledgments have been due for such an accession of wealth." The author here mentions that the whence irruptions were made into the East and West, and the inhabitants were taught the language of their mvaders. |