beftowed ungraciously, fhould be as coldly and faintly acknow ledged. Gratitude is a burden upon our imperfect nature; and we are but too willing to ease ourfelves of it, or at least to lighten it as much as we can. The manner, therefore, of conferring favours or benefits, is, as to pleafing, almoft as important as the matter itself. Take care, then, never to throw away the obligations, which perhaps you may have it in your power to confer upon others, by an air of infolent protection, or by a cold and comfortless manner, which stifles them in their birth. Humanity inclines, religion requires, and our moral duties oblige us, as.. far as we are able, to relieve the diftreffes and miferies of our fellow-creatures; but this is not all; for a true heart-felt benevolence and tenderness, will prompt us to contribute what we can to their ease, their amusement, and their pleasure, as far as innocently we may. Let us then not only scatter benefits, but even ftrew flowers for our fellow-travellers, in the rugged ways of this wretched world. There are fome, and but too many in this country particularly, who, without the least visible taint of ill-nature or malevolence, seem to be totally indifferent, and do not fhew the leaft defire to pleafe; as, on the other hand, they never defignedly offend. Whether this proceeds from a lazy, negligent, and liftlefs difpofition, from a gloomy and melancholic nature, from ill health, low spirits, or from a fecret and fullen pride, arifing from the consciousness of their boafted liberty and independency, is hard to determine, confidering the various movements of the human heart, and the wonderful errors of the human head. But, be the cause what it will, that neutrality, which is the effect of it, makes these people, as neutralities do, defpicable, and mere blanks in fociety. They would surely be roufed from their indifference, if they would feriously confider the infinite utility of pleasing.' His lordship next confiders the means of pleasing, which he reduces to the general rule, endeavour to please, and you will infallibly please to a certain degree: proceeding afterwards to fuggeft and enforce, in the strongest manner, the more particular rules for that purpose. The Letters are fucceeded by Free Thoughts, and Bold Truths; or, a politico-tritical Effay upon the present fituation of Affairs. Written in the year 1755. This piece is compofed in the manner of Swift's tritical Effay on the faculties of the mind, which his lordship has happily imitated. Next follows the Lords Protest against the Convention, in the year 1739, drawn up by lord Chesterfield, and figned by about forty members of the houfe, To which is fubjoined, The The Cafe of the Hanoverian Forces, in the pay of Great Britain, impartially and freely examined. This piece was the joint production of lord Chesterfield and Mr. Waller, member of parliament for Chipping Wycomb. It contains much political information, with a clear view of the politics of the feveral European powers, at that period and during many years. preceding. The two fubfequent papers in the collection are vindications of this pamphlet against the attacks which had been made upon it by the writers of the minifterial party. We are afterwards prefented with another proteft of the lords, on the first of February 1742, and figned with upwards of The next production is a Letter to the abbe twenty names. de la Ville, on the order against publishing news-papers at Paris; in which are contained feveral particulars relative to the battle of Fontenoy. The volume concludes with fome poems, viz. Advice to a Lady in Autumn; on a Lady's drinking the Bath Waters; Verfes written in a Lady's Sherlock upon Death; a Song in Praise of Fanny; another fong; on the Picture of Mr. Nafh at Bath; on the Duchefs of Richmond; a Ballad written by Lord Chesterfield and William Pulteney, Efq. afterwards Earl of Bath; another ballad; on a Knight of the Bath lofing his Badge of the Order; the Petition of the Fools to Jupiter, a Fable by Mr. Garrick, with Lord Chesterfield's Anfwer; and two or three epigrams. Lord Chefterfield's poetical pieces were evidently fportful fallies of the mind in the hour of gaiety. His political tracts, on which he bestowed greater attention, are always plaufible, generally containing ufeful information, and often ftrong argument, intermixed with keen ftrokes of farcafm. But, as in his life, fo in his writings, the chief characteristics are thofe of the elegant fcholar, the polite gentleman, and the master in the knowledge of mankind; and it is doubtless in the display of thofe eminent qualities, that his literary genius appears to the greatest advantage. Evelina, or, a young Lady's Entrance into the World. 12mo. 73. 6d. Jerved. Lowndes. ΤΗ HIS performance deferves no common praise, whether we confider it in a moral or literary light. It would have difgraced neither the head nor the heart of Richardfon. The father of a family, obferving the knowledge of the world and the leffons of experience which it contains, will recommend it to his daughters; they will weep and (what is not fo commonly monly the effect of novels) will laugh, and grow wifer, as they read; the experienced mother will derive pleasure and happiness from being prefent at its reading; even the fons of the family will forego the diverfions of the town or the field to pursue the entertainment of Evelina's acquaintance, who will imperceptibly lead them, as well as their sisters, to improvement and to virtue. If the author of this amufing and inftructive novel poffefs any of Richardson's merits, he labours also under one of his principal faults. The gold is in fome places beat out confiderably too fine. The fecond volume deserves few of the folid praises which we with pleasure bestow on the first and the third. The Roman fibyl, after she had burnt part of her work, still perfifted in demanding the fame price for what remained; we fhould fet a higher value upon this performance had the writer made it shorter---but perhaps, as Swift said of a long letter, he had not time. The outline of Evelina's flory is this.-The child of a mother who gave her existence at the expence of her own life; and of a brutal father who occafioned that mother's death, and refused, as it was fuppofed, to acknowledge her daughter; she is educated under the paternal care of Mr. Villars, a worthy clergyman. The novel opens when Evelina is of the age at which young ladies are, as the phrase is, introduced into the world. Mr. Villars trufts his accomplished ward with a family of fashion and fortune, that she may be brought upon the public ftage in that great theatre of the world, London. Her fimplicity, good fenfe, and inexperience, are productive of ufeful humour and diverting fatire. The characters of her newly-difcovered grandmother Madame Du Val, and of a captain Mirvan, the latter an honeft English failor, the former a frenchified English waiting-woman, whofe good ftars had made her the widow of a man of rank and fortune, are well fupported, finely drawn, and in a great measure original. During the few months which Evelina spends at a distance from Mr. Villars, the commences an acquaintance, that ripens into love, with lord Orville. His lordship's rivals are painted from nature, the progrefs of the amour is traced by the hand of an artift. The winding up of the ftory is ob. vious---Evelina gets a husband, and discovers a father.--- We could with her husband had not been a lord, and that her father had been lefs rich. Lords and ladies cannot afford to fpend their precious time in reading novels; and, if they could, they bear no proportion to the commonalty of the literary world. The purchafers of novels, the fubfcribers to circulating libraries, are feldom in more elevated fituations than the ́the middle, ranks of life. The subjects of novels are, with a dangerous uniformity, almost always taken from fuperior life.--The fatirifts complain with injustice of the want of virtue in our modern nobility; when the hero and the heroine of every novel hardly ever fail, fooner or later, to turn out a lady or a lord. What effect has this upon the readers? They are convinced that happiness is not to be found in the chilling climate of. low life, nor even, where one of our poets fo truly fixed it, in the temperate zone of middle life---Rank alone contains this unknown good, wealth alone can beftow this coveted joy -The title of Sir Charles Grandifon, the fortune of Mifs Byron, are the leaft with which our young novel readers are determined to fit down fatisfied. What is the confequence? Their fates have perhaps destined them to be a petty attorney or a filversmith's daughter, a grocer's fon or a clergyman's heirefs; fortune pofitively refuses to realize any of their romantic dreams; and a quarter of an hour's perufal of an unnatural novel has embittered all their lives. We have heard of an advertisement for a houfe with a N. B. that it must not be within a mile of a lord: we wish, to fee one novel in which there is no lord, To the well written performance now before us is prefixed this poetical and affectionate dedication. Oh author of my being!-far more dear Thy life, my precept-thy good works, my fchool, And ftand, recorder of thy worth, confefs'd; Obfcure be ftill th' unfuccefsful mufe, Who cannot raife, but would not fink, your fame, • Oh! of my life at once the fource and joy! A poetical A Poetical Epifile to an Eminent Painter. 4to. 3s. 6d. fewed. Payne. ΤΗ HE age in which we live is certainly, with regard to England, not the age of poets. Whether a country should rejoice at this, or not, is a different queftion; we only speak of the fact. No writer has yet fucceeded to the honours of Goldsmith, or of Gray; the chair of Churchill is still vacant, and likely to continue fo. The present seems to be the age of history and politicks. Our American troubles have made us a nation of politicians. Roetry is frightened away from us; or, if the deign to lift her voice, feldom rifes higher than an epilogue, or an heroic epiftle, the fcandal of the week, or the lie of the day. Even Poetry is now taken up as a vagabond, and prefed into the fervice of Politicks. Our prefent author has employed her more agreeably, in compofing the panegyric of her favourite fifter, Painting. The public are under no common obligations to him for his elegant performance. The worst we can fay of the gentleman is, that he feems to be rather unnaturally well with two fifters at the fame time.. This poem is addreffed to Mr. George Romney, and reflects equal honour upon its author as a friend, and as a poet. It is divided into two parts. The firft opens with an introduction to the fubject, and proceeds to defcribe the flourishing state of the art of painting in this country. Our bard next notices, with true humour and poetry, the disadvantages attending the modern painter of portraits, beftows a fhort encomium on this branch of the art, and gives a masterly account of its origin in the story of the Maid of Corinth. Some of the ills which await the portrait painter are thus enumerated. Nor is it pride, or folly's vain command, That only fetters his creative hand; At fashion's nod he copies as they pass Each quaint reflection from her crowded glafs. The last couplet is fingularly happy-Its elegant allufion to the well-known anecdote of the iron bed of Procruftes, cannot fail to please every reader of true taste. Por |