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Henry G. Denny Ess
Roi ton

vol. 9-12, 21-36, 61, 62.

THE

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. 55.]

FEBRUARY 1, 1800.

[No. 1. of VOL. 9.

On the 20th of JANUARY was published the SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER to the EIGHTH VOLUME of the MONTHLY MAGAZINE, containing the ufual half-yearly Retrospect of the Progrefs of BRITISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, and SPANISH LITERATURE, with Indexes, Title, &c. &c.

Of all Bookfellers may be had the Eight Volumes of the Monthly Magazine, Price Three Pounds Two Stillings, neatly Half bound; or any fingle Number or Volume may be had at the pleafure or convenience of the Purchaser.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

tended with any puftules, and even very rarely with any perceptible disorder of the conftitution. An inftance of this kind,

IN conformity to your defire that Mr. Editor, you had in your own family..

to the public, through the medium of your valuable Magazine, fome information refpecting the progrefs and fuccefs of inoculating for the cow-pox, I send you the following.

In my reports of the new inoculation, published in May laft, including upwards of 500 cafes, I obferved that the matter of the vaccine difeafe generally produced much fewer puftules, and lefs indifpofition, than that of the fmall-pox. But at the fame time it was remarked, that in fome inftances the cow-pox proved a very severe

That who have undergone the vaccine difeafe, are thereby rendered fecure against the effects of the fmall-pox, is a truth confirmed by daily experience. Upwards of 1000 of my patients, who had undergone the cow-pox, have been inoculated with variolous matter, yet none of them took the small-pox. Ely Place, Your's, &c. Jan. 11, 1800. WM. WOODVILLE,

For the Monthly Magazine.

difeafe, and that one child died of fpafmo- ON THE HUMOUR OF ADDISON, AND

dic fits, occafioned by the eruptive fever which it excited. I hinted, however, that if the matter of the cow-pox ufed

the

THE CHARACTER OF SIR ROGER DE

COVERLEY.

HAVE often been furprifed at the opi

inoculations had been apex oed for om Inion le décidively maintained by many

thofe patients in whom the difeafe appeared very mild and well characterifed, the refult would have been more favourable; and I have fince had the fatisfaction to find this opinion fully confirmed. For of 1000 perfons inoculated for the vaccine difeafe, by me, or under my immediate direction, during the laft fix months, not more than 150 had puftules which proceeded to fuppuration; nor was there one cafe attended with a dangerous fymptom.

Now out of 1000 perfons inoculated for the fmall pox, I find generally that more than 800 have puftules; and as the feverity of the difeafe is commonly in proportion to the number of the puftules, it follows that the cow-pox is milder than the inoculated fmall-pox in the proportion above mentioned.

To infants at the breast the new inoculation has proved peculiarly fuccessful, for I have now had a very confiderable number of private patients of this defcription, in none of whom was the inoculation at MONTHLY MAG, No. 55.

English writers, that humour is a quality in a manner peculiar to this ifland. If its proper definition be the difplay of the ridiculous in characters; or if it be underftood, more comprehenfively, for ludicrous painting in general; it must have exifted wherever comedy, or any other mode of delineating the rifible follies and peculiarities of mankind, has been fuccesfully attempted. The name is of no confequence; the thing is a part of human nature itfelf. We are told by late voyagers, that the rude natives of fome of the SouthSea iflands exhibit remarkable talents at humourous mimickery, and take off, with fingular drollery, the characteristics of the European failor, as well as the defects of their own countrymen. The Kamthadale is extremely happy in caricaturing the manners and actions of the bear, an animal fo nearly on his own level, that it is no degradation of the human creature to make this beaft the fubject of his jocularity. But to recur to civilized life, is it

A

poffible

poffible to read Don Quixotte, or the comedies of Moliere, without feeling that their effence is the most exquifite humour ever exhibited ?

But although humour, as a general quality, is fo widely diffused, it exifts under many particular fpecies and modifications, and wears a very different face in different authors. Among English writers no one has more deservedly obtained reputation for his humourous delineations than Addifon, whofe manner in thefe perform ances is thought peculiar to himself. To inquire into the nature of this peculiarity, may afford fome amufive and not unufeful, fpeculation.

Dr. Johnfon has, I think, taken too confined a view of the range of Addifon's humour in thus defcribing it. "His hu"mour is fo happily diffused as to give the grace of novelty to domeftic fcenes and "daily occurrences. He never outfteps "the modesty of nature, nor raises merri"ment or wonder by the violation of truth. "His figures neither divert by distortion, "nor amufe by aggravation. He copies "life with fo much fidelity, that he can hardly be faid to invent; yet his exhibitions have an air fo much original, "that it is difficult to fuppofe them not merely the product of the imagination." In this account there is truth, but not all the truth. It may apply to " the domeftic fcenes and daily occurrences" reprefented by this author; but much of his humour is alfo employed upon fubjects of fancy and invention, in which the ludicrous is ftudioully fought after; and in not a few inftances he manifeftly draws with the pencil of a caricaturist, and effects his purpofe by a happy exaggeration.

It has frequently been his practice to feize fome ftory or historical narration, and, adopting only the leading circumstance, to found on it a fiction of his own, of an entirely ludicrous nature; and in this fpecies of humour he is, I think, peculiarly original. Of this kind may be mentioned his improvement of Sir John Mandeville's ftory of the freezing of words in the frigid zone; and his account of the Taliacotian manufactory of noses; both in the Tatler: his regifter of the lover's leap; defcription of Torcy's academy for politicians; dream of women carrying out their valuables from a befieged town; and trial of chastity by a breed of dogs; all in the Spectator. These admirable pieces of humour cannot justly be faid to pleafe by their adherence to nature and truth; on the contrary, they owe their merit to a kind of agreeable extravagance, and to a creation of ludicrous

imagery, artificially engrafted upon the fubject. Many others of his pictures are fancy pieces of the caricature and grotefque kind. Such are, the virtuofo's will; and most of the proceedings of the court of honour, in the Tatler: the citizen's and the lady's journal; and the widows' club, in the Spectator: the rebel officer's journal, in the Freeholder; and the fcenes among the fervants, in the play of The Drummer. In others, he has receded ftill further from topics of real life, and has fported in scenes of pure invention. Examples of this are given in the transmigrations of a monkey the diffections of a beau's head and a coquette's heart, the mountain of miferies, and that delightful tale, the antediluvian loves of Shalum and Hilpa. Thus it would seem that Addison rejected no promifing fource of the ludicrous, whether fuggefted by reading, obfervation, or fancy. It may, however, be admitted, that his humour is most valuably employed where, befides the purpose of exciting a fmile, his intent has been to fatirize fome prevalent folly or violation of the proprieties of life. This has very frequently been his object, and no writer ever more happily combined good-natured pleafantry with effectual ridicule. The y fimplicity of his ftrokes, inflicted with a feeming unconfcioufnefs of intention, while it renders them more exquifite to attentive and fagacious readers, has perhaps often occafioned them to pass unnoticed; fo that I believe Addifon generally is regarded as lefs of a fatirift than he really is. That he could employ keen ridicule upon occafion, fufficiently appears from his profeffed party-writings; and although in the Spectator he has the merit of excluding all direct topics of party, yet I think it may easily be discerned that he had by no means loft fight of a general purpose of favouring that publie caufe to which he was devoted. In particular, the perfonage of Sir Roger de Coverley, appears to be employed by him as a covert for throwing ridicule upon that clafs of fociety which he has more openly fatirized in his country-gentleman in the Freeholder. I do not mean that he has ufed it folely for this purpose, for he has also made it the vehicle of much pleafing morality; but he has kept this end in conftant view.

An acute judge of moral propriety obferved to me some time ago, that the character of Sir Roger, as exhibited in different parts of the Spectator, was by no means confiftent. In the fecond number, written probably by Steel, he is described as a man

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