ferred on me; though, I believe, thefe Cognofcenti will be foon convinced it is not the performance of fo very young a mant as Dr. W. and Co. imagined, but one long converfant with men and manners; I mean, by a work which I intend to publifh with the most convenient speed. However, in justice to Mr. Rennell, I muft fay he has been reprefented to me as a man of first-rate abilities, glowing fancy, and real genius, to which he has added a depth of erudition and folidity of judgement rarely to be met with in men of his age. I would advise him to beware of the poppy which falled § theology is apt to wave over the heads of her chofen fons, to unfold his uncommon talents, and, in the words of Corneille's poet, Succeffus urgere fuos, inftare favori I have not fpoken thus highly of him, be- Her Henry's holy shade l' I can affure all thofe whom it may concern, that I fand fingle; and this is all the information they ever will have concerning me: I have no Eurialus whatever to affist me in my enterprizes, however bold they may feem; Volfcens may rave; Nifus will never tremble; Hafta volans noctis diverberat umbras.' In the courfe of an advertisement, this fpirited writer obferves, "This Treatife, trifling as it seems, may be the vaunt courier of an unexpected thunderbolt, which may ftrike flat the thick rotundity of many a nobler head than plume pluckt Richard's. As to myself, I am no longer to be deceived by oftentation; 1 know the power of my plume; its towering pride may be hawked at by moufing uls, but was not made to be killed by them. I believe, however, there are a chofen few, who may perhaps remember with fome fentiment of gratitude, when he is no more, a man who dared to bring forth publicly the labouring thoughts that rolled within his breast; who, while Impofture was stalking abroad with fhamelefs front in the eye of garish day, stood forth, and with the fpirit of the unbending Grecian, "Mortales tollere contra Eft oculos aufus, primufque obfiftere contra; Quem nec fama virúm, nec fulmina, nee Murmure compreffit Granta;' [minitanti who, in an honeft thought of common good, rose up to rescue the abilities of our rifing youth from the drudgery to which he faw certain men were endeavouring to condemn them, that they might lord it at large in unopposed freedom; a man, I fay, who ftrove to deliver them from the labyrinths of laborious Oriental nonfenfe, from ploughing that unfruitful ocean, that d argully, as Homer would call it, and guided them with a friendly hand to the haven of useful literature, where he wished. they should be. Such were the motives which I could not withstand; or I never would have engaged in fo tedious a refearch, with not a hope of profit or of pleasure, and with little profpect even of being read. "Junius beheld a Grafton placed on the highest eminence of envied power; he aimed the shaft; the region round about trembled ere he fent it forth; it was the fhaft of unerring vengeance: the blackSpotted dove already quivered on the maft; then fell loofened and transfixed at once: Liquidis in nubibus arfit arundo, Signavitque viam flammis :' But it was not the flame of idle portent: no-Junius blazed like another comet; he was felt through the ar&ic sky; each leffer orb that rolled along the politic void fhrunk at his cauftic approach, ere he fired the length of Ophiuchus. It is not fo with my weak efforts; what has the general world to do with me and them? I aim at no dove of ftate; and, though I thould transfix a theologic owl perched on a pinnacle of the temple, the fable bird and well-sped shaft will drop to earth together unfeen or unregarded; no fky will lour no minifier will give a fecond groan. But if, confcious of efficient faculties, I should ever bid my ípirit affume a nobler port, that fpirit which never yet bowed to indolence or fear, if with fubject changed and + "I do not call Dr. W. himself an old man.” "I mean a work in profe, in which Dr. W. will be the vehicle for a bold difplay of various well-known characters, and then I really fhall leave Dr. W. for ever.-I have alfo (like Mr. Giles Jacob or Dr. R. W.) a poem of my own writing in MS. by me not yet finished, which begins-but I won't fay how it begins; fuffice it to fay (what I will anfwer will prove true), that, as Mr. Theobald profoundly observes, None but itself can be its parallel." "The Church, confidered merely as a civil establishment, with all its bishoprics, deanries, prebends, &c. &c. reminds me of the fabled elm ; In medio ramos annofaque brachia pandit Ulmus opaca, ingens, quam fedem Somnia vulgo Vana tenere ferunt, foliifque fub omnibus hærent," VIRG. Æn. VI. enlarged enlarged thought, I. fhould rife in my career, and appeal to a higher tribunal; if I fhould take the trumpet and blow a dolo rous and a jarring blast, it might roufe a dormant ftate, it might perhaps command the attention of mightiest men, who would hear the found though they knew Rot whence it came; for, though I have refolved to fink, without even the umbra of a name, and make wing to the rocky wood, compaffed round with starproof darkness; yet my obfcurity may be of fuch a nature, as to remind certain men of what the Historian of the Hebrews has recorded, a darkness which might be felt. This is not the language of an upitart coxcomb; he would hardly understand the terms. But I know not what fhould hinder me from fpeaking boldly as I ought to fpeak, and declaring the nature of my fentiments." "A man has little to fear, who, like me, is contented with his fmall preferment; who loves a quiet morfel of bread better than a falled ox, and wishes, with Sterne, that Heaven may shower down its mitres upon those heads which are aching for them." One small quotation more, Mr. Urban, and I have done; leaving it to your readers to apply the parallelifm; and to your correfpondents at Cambridge to name the author, who is very intimately acquainted, I have no doubt, with the Mafter of a celebrated college. "I have bidden a long farewell to the more enchanting dreams of postry, that I may cultivate the power of profe; oor fhall I ever refume my poetry again, except I should endeavour to accomplish a very extensive defign, which is now in embryo, upon imposture in general, but particularly on the worst fpecies of it, literary impofure. I never expect to be a favourite with the publick at large, who certainly cannot relith compofitions like mine; but there are fome who understand and know their worth: if I am asked who they are, I reply, the Pauci quos æquus amavit Mr. URBAN, Gray's Inn, Mar. 4. I for "When I fpeak of men, whofe reputation envy may in vain attempt to blast, it fhall be of the venerable Lowth, and the fcience-fealed Bryant; and when I wish to contemplate the expanding bloffoms of cultivated genius, I shall turn with rapture to William Jones and George Atwood+: but the altar of luxury and pride shall ne ver flame with any incenfe of mine. For, I am a perfon not to be intimidated by the menaces of the Great, or provoked by the contempt of what is called the World; but I will boldly ftand forth, and addrets myself as unto wife men, who can judge and understand what I fay: I can no lon ger bear with patience the effrontery of li terary imposture, or the mock-dignity of affumed character." tion you paid to my last letter, dated Dec. 19, 1799, by printing it in the Supplement, p. 1121. ! refume the fubject, not because I confider myfelf as a writer who can adorn your valuable Repofitory by the elegance of his periods, but who, perhaps, may lead abler perfons than himself to inveftigate a moft curious and interefting queftion. I have not much time for any compofition; but I am ftudious This ingenious and very able man is fo well known to the world, that his character needs no illustration from my pen. Elegance, learning, and genius, are united in all his various works. He is almoft the only modern who has treated Eastern subjects with propriety; but it is to be remembered, he has confidered them merely as matters of amafe ment, and not as of ferious importance; in which I readily jom with him. Every reader of tafle admires his Commentaries on the Afiatic Poetry, in which (to ufe his own words) are difplayed, Et eruditi auctoris fingulare judicium, tum Latini fermonis venuftas et nitor.' Comment. cap. I. p. 2. "This is the young man of whose abilities I have made fuch frequent and honour. able mention. (See my Heroic Epiftle to Dr. W. v. 165, with the note; and my Heroic Addrefs, p. 3d of the Advertisement). This is the genius, e filentio et tenebris in lucit et gloriæ transferendus æternitatem, George Atwood, M.A. I with it were in my power to lift him up to light, or to recommend him to the notice of those whose duty it is to fearch for unbefriended merit. In his profperity he thall never hear of me, in the m ment of adverfity always. I know fuch a man is of confequence; if he lives, we feel know fomething. As to his various attainments in the more trifling departments of Learning, Illas in tanto viro referre injuria virtutum fuerit.' Meek Newton's felf bends from his flate fublime, And views with myftic ken his Atwood's hour of prime !" to give an opinion on a fubject of importance and popularity; I give you that opinion as the refult of all which I have hitherto read. My business will only let me fteal leifure hours; but thofe I have lately bestowed on the Pursuits of Literature, and what belongs to that work. I communicated to you my decided opinion, that the author of that work was not known; and at any rate I thought Mr. Mathias could not be the author of it, from what Mr. Chalmers has afferted without any proof at all but his own firm belief that it was fo. I do not want to difturb Mr. Chalmers (though he is not fo very delicate himself on the point of disturbing others); nor would I interrupt the pleasure he has in contemplating the amours of Queen Elizabeth with Shakspeare, which feems to afford fuch abundant mirth to the diurnal writers in the papers. All the Magazines and Reviews, Jacobin, Anti-Jacobin, Monthly, Critical, British, &c. &c. &c. all concur in reprobating the unwarrant, able attack on Mr. Mathias, who, as the British Critic fays (and fays, I believe, with more truth than he even imagines), did not perhaps, after all, write the two lines about Mr. Chalmers's leaden mace. They all concur alfo that Mr. C. has not made his point good against Mr. Malone. One of them fays pleafantly, "Mr. C. is an arch-knave at a nominative cafe;" another, that "his quiver is full of leaden arrows flattened in their flight;" and a third, that he has written himself down." I fhall leave thefe great critics to fettle thefe points, for I am little concerned in Mr. Chalmers's book; in which, if he had left "Pallas untouched," he might have gone down the ftream without notice; I mean any stream but the Avon, in which nobody can fwim without the corks of Steevens and Johnfon. When my inveftigations have led me to deprive Mr. Mathias of the honour of writing the Purfuits of Literature, I do not think I am doing him any fervice, or perhaps pleafure; but I act as I am conducted by proof and fact, as it appears in evidence. As he will not fay a word about it himself, I am warranted to make all the deductions I can from the books which have been written. The author of the work declared at firft the fecret was intrufted to a Few, of whom he gives the highest character for confidence and many other virtues; and at the same time declares, that "his fecret never will be revealed," which he mentions in the Preface to the fecond dialogue, and more ftrongly in the Preface to the fourth; and at the fame time afferts the whole is by one hand. The fecret undoubtedly has been well kept, as the moft fceptical allow; and the few friends have never divulged a word, and fo have proved they had a right to the character the author gave them, and deferve his good word, though they have not plea fed the inquifitive by their filence. I own, I have no conception how fuch a fecret, in which a printer, a printer's devil, a bookfeller, an au thor, the acknowledged friends of the author, and the communications which the printing of fuch a book muft neceffarily occafion, can poffibly be kept; but kept it has been. I can conceive how a letter fent to a news-paper may be kept fecret, because it is wholly impoffible fometimes to discover it, as the author may write it out in a feigned hand, fhew it to no creature on the earth, and put it into the pennypoft or the general-poft himself, without the privity of any one perfon; like Junius's letters, to which no other compofition but the Purfits of Literature bears any compa rifon, as well for the ftrength of the compofition as the unheard-of fecrecy with which it has been carried on. Junius's Letters were above two years and a half in hand; and it is odd enough, by the dates of the Purfuits of Literature, they feem |