Even of those whose letters could not be made | ness, without any forced expressions, affected public, we have a more exact knowledge than can be expected from general histories, because we see them in their private apartments in their careless hours, and observe those actions in which they indulged their own inclinations, without any regard to censure or applause. Thus it is that we are made acquainted with the disposition of King William, of whom it may be collected from various instances that he was arbitrary, insolent, gloomy, rapacious, and brutal; that he was at all times disposed to play the tyrant; that he had neither in great things nor in small the manners of a gentleman; that he was capable of gaining money by mean artifices; and that he only regarded his promise when it was his interest to keep it. There are doubtless great numbers who will be offended with this delineation of the mind of the immortal William, but they whose honesty or sense enables them to consider impartially the events of his reign, will now be enabled to discover the reason of the frequent oppositions which he encountered, and of the personal affronts which he was sometimes forced to endure. They will observe that it is not always sufficient to do right, and that it is often necessary to add gracefulness to virtue. They will recollect how vain it is to endeavour to gain men by great qualities, while our cursory behaviour is insolent and offensive: and that those may be disgusted by little things who can scarcely be pleased with great. Charles the Second, by his affability and politeness, made himself the idol of the nation, which he betrayed and sold. William the Third was, for his insolence and brutality, hated by that people which he protected and enriched:-had the best part of these two characters been united in one prince, the house of Bourbon had fallen before him. It is not without pain that the reader observes a shade encroaching upon the light with which the memory of Queen Mary has been hitherto invested-the popular, the beneficent, the pious, the celestial Queen Mary, from whose presence none ever withdrew without an addition to his happiness. What can be charged upon this delight of human kind? Nothing less than that she wanted bowels, and was insolent with her power; that she was resentful, and pertinacious in her resentment; that she descended to mean acts of revenge, when heavier vengeance was not in her power; that she was desirous of controlling where she had no authority, and backward to forgive, even when she had no real injury to complain of. This is a character so different from all those that have been hitherto given of this celebrated princess, that the reader stands in suspense, till he considers the inconsistencies in human conduct, remembers that no virtue is without its weakness, and considers that Queen Mary's character has hitherto had this great advantage, that it has only been compared with those of kings. The greatest number of the letters inserted in this account were written by Queen Anne, of which it may be truly observed, that they will be equally useful for the confutation of those who have exalted or depressed her character. They are written with great purity and correct phrases, or unnatural sentiments, and show uncommon clearness of understanding, tenderness of affection, and rectitude of intention; but discover at the same time, a temper timorous, anxious, and impatient of misfortune, a tendency to burst into complaints, helpless dependance on the affection of others, and a weak desire of moving compassion. There is indeed nothing insolent or overbearing, but then there is nothing great, or firm, or regal; nothing that enforces obedience and respect, or which does not rather invite opposition and petulance. She seems born for friendship, not for government; and to be unable to regulate the conduct of others, other wise than by her own example. That this character is just, appears from the occurrences in her reign, in which the nation was governed for many years by a party whose principles she detested, but whose influence she knew not how to obviate, and to whose schemes she was subservient against her inclination. The charge of tyrannising over her, which was made by turns against each party, proves that, in the opinion of both, she was easily to be governed; and though it may be supposed that the letters here published were selected with some regard to respect and ceremony, it appears plainly enough from them that she was what she has been represented, little more than the slave of the Marlborough family. The inferior characters, as they are of less importance, are less accurately delineated; the picture of Harley is at least partially drawn, all the deformities are heightened, and the beauties, for beauties of mind he certainly had, are en tirely omitted. THE first effect which this book has upon the reader, is that of disgusting him with the author's vanity. He endeavours to persuade the world, that here are some new treasures of literature spread before his eyes; that something is discovered, which to this happy day had been concealed in darkness; that by his diligence time has been robbed of some valuable inonument which he was on the point of devouring; and that names and facts doomed to oblivion are now restored to fame. How must the unlearned reader be surprised, when he shall be told that Mr. Blackwell has neither digged in the ruins of any demolished city, nor found out the way to the library of Fez; nor had a single book in his hands, that has not been in the possession of every man that was inclined to read it, for years and ages; and that his book relates to a people who, above all others, have furnished employment to the studious, and amusements to the idle; who have scarcely left behind them a coin or a stone, which has not been examined and explained a thousand times, and whose dress, and food, and household stuff, it has been the pride of learning to understand, A man need not fear to incur the imputation of vicious diffidence or affected humility who should have forborne to promise many novelties, tenderness she met with, brought her joy, her when he perceived such multitudes of writers pride, her every wish to centre in her beloved possessed of the same materials, and intent upon Brutus." the same purpose. Mr. Blackwell knows well the opinion of Horace, concerning those that open their undertakings with magnificent promises; and he knows likewise the dictates of Common Sense and Common Honesty, names of greater authority than that of Horace, who direct that no man should promise what he cannot perform. I do not mean to declare that this volume has nothing new, or that the labours of those who have gone before our author, have made his performance a useless addition to the burden of literature. New works may be constructed with old materials, the disposition of the parts may show contrivance, the ornaments interspersed may discover elegance. It is not always without good effect that men of proper qualifications write in succession on the same subject, even when the latter add nothing to the information given by the former; for the same ideas may be delivered more intelligibly or more delightfully by one than by another, or with attractions that may lure minds of a different form. No writer pleases all, and every writer may please some. But after all, to inherit is not to acquire; to decorate is not to make; and the man who had nothing to do but to read the ancient authors who mention the Roman affairs, and reduce them to common-places, ought not to boast himself as a great benefactor to the studious world. After a preface of boast, and a letter of flattery, in which he seems to imitate the address of Horace in his vile patabis modicis Sabinum-he opens his book with telling us, that the "Roman republic, after the horrible proscription, was no more at bleeding Rome. The regal power of her consuls, the authority of her senate, and the majesty of her people, were now trampled under foot; these [for those] divine laws and hallowed customs, that had been the essence of her constitution—were set at nought, and her best friends were lying exposed in their blood." These were surely very dismal times to those who suffered; but I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation should whine over the commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich grew corrupt, and, in their corruption, sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another. When the reader has been awakened by this rapturous preparation, he hears the whole story of Portia in the same luxuriant style, till she breathed out her last, a little before the bloody proscription, and "Brutus complained heavily of his friends at Rome, as not having paid due attention to his Lady in the declining state of her health." He is a great lover of modern terms. His senators and their wives are Gentlemen and Ladies. In this review of Brutus's army, who was under the command of gallant men, not braver officers than true patriots, he tells us, "that Sextus the Questor was Paymaster, Secretary at War, and Commissary General, and that the sacred discipline of the Roman required the closest connexion, like that of father and son, to subsist between the General of any army and his Questor. Cicero was General of the Cavalry, and the next general officer was Flavius, Master of the Artillery, the elder Lentulus was Admiral, and the younger rode in the Band of Volunteers: under these the tribunes, with many others too tedious to name." Lentulus, however, was but a subordinate officer: for we are informed afterwards, that the Romans had made Sextus Pompeius Lord High Admiral in all the seas of their dominions. Among other affectations of this writer is a furious and unnecessary zeal for liberty, or rather for one form of government as preferable to another. This indeed might be suffered, because political institution is a subject in which men have always differed, and if they continue to obey their lawful governors, and attempt not to make innovations for the sake of their favourite schemes, they may differ for ever without any just reproach from one another. But who can bear the hardy champion who ventures nothing? who in full security undertakes the defence of the assassination of Caesar, and declares his resolution to speak plain? Yet let not just sentiments be overlooked: he has justly observed, that the greater part of mankind will be naturally prejudiced against Brutus, for all feel the benefits of private friendship: but few can discern the advantages of a well-constituted government. We know not whether some apology may not be necessary for the distance [seven months] be tween the first account of this book, and its con tinuation. The truth is, that this work, not being forced upon our attention by much public applause or censure, was sometimes neglected, and sometimes forgotten; nor would it, perhaps, have been now resumed, but that we might avoid to disappoint our readers by an abrupt de "About this time Brutus had his patience put to the highest trial: he had been married to Clodia; but whether the family did not please him, or whether he was dissatisfied with the lady's behaviour during his absence, he soon en-sertion of any subject. tertained thoughts of a separation. This raised· a good deal of talk, and the women of the Clodian family inveighed bitterly against Brutus-but he married Portia, who was worthy of such a father as M. Cato, and such a husband as M. Brutus. She had a soul capable of an exalted passion, and found a proper object to raise and give it a sanction; she did not only love but adored her husband; his worth, his truth, his every shining and here quality, made her gaze upon him like a god, while the endearing returns of esteem and It is not our design to criticise the facts of this history, but the style; not the veracity, but the address of the writer; for, an account of the ancient Romans, as it cannot nearly interest and present reader, and must be drawn from writings that have been long known, can owe its value only to the language in which it is delivered, and the reflections with which it is accompanied. Dr. Blackwell, however, seems to have heated his imagination so as to be much affected with every event, and to believe that he can affect others. Enthusiasm is indeed sufficiently contagious; but I never found any of his readers much enamoured of the glorious Pompey, the patriot approved, or much incensed against the lawless Cæsar; whom this author probably stabs every day and night in his sleep-it to death, and catched the rest as in a trap.— ing or waking dreams. He sometimes, with most unlucky dexterity, mixes the grand and the burlesque together: the violation of faith, Sir, says Cassius, lies at the door of the Rhodians by reiterated acts of perfidy.— The iron grate fell down, crushed those under When the Xanthians heard the military shout, He is come too late into the world with his and saw the flames mount, they concluded there fury for freedom, with his Brutus and Cassius. would be no mercy. It was now about sun-set, We have all on this side of the Tweed long since and they had been at hot work since noon. settled our opinions; his zeal for Roman liberty He has often words or phrases with which our and declamations against the violators of the re-language has hitherto had no knowledge.-One publican constitution, only stand now in the was a heart-friend to the republic.-A deed was reader's way, who wishes to proceed in the nar- expeded. The Numidians began to reel, and rative without the interruption of epithets and were in hazard of falling into confusion.-The exclamations. It is not easy to forbear laughter tutor embraced his pupil close in his arms.— at a man so bold in fighting shadows, so busy in Four hundred women were taxed, who have no a dispute two thousand years past, and so zea-doubt been the wives of the best Roman citizens. lous for the honour of a people, who, while they-Men not born to action are inconsequential were poor, robbed mankind, and as soon as they in government.-Collectitious troops.-The foot became rich, robbed one another. Of these rob- by their violent attack began the fatal break in beries our author seems to have no very quick the Phasaliac field.-He and his brother, with a sense, except when they are committed by Cæ- politic common to other countries, had taken sar's party, for every act is sanctified by the name opposite sides. of a patriot. His epithets are of the gaudy or hyperbolical If this author's skill in ancient literature were kind. The glorious news-eager hopes and disless generally acknowledged, one might some- mal fears-bleeding Rome-divine laws and haltimes suspect that he had too frequently con- lowed customs-merciless war-intense anxiety. sulted the French writers. He tells us that Sometimes the reader is suddenly ravished Archelaus the Rhodian made a speech to Cas- with a sonorous sentence, of which when the sius, and in so saying dropt some tears, and that noise is past, the meaning does not long remain. Cassius after the reduction of Rhodes was When Brutus set his legions to fill a moat, incovered with glory.-Deiotarus was a keen and stead of heavy dragging and slow toil, they set happy spirit-the ingrate Castor kept his court. about it with huzzas and racing, as if they had His great delight is to show his universal ac- been striving at the Olympic games. They quaintance with terms of art, with words that hurled impetuous down the huge trees and every other polite writer has avoided and de-stones, and with shouts forced them into the spised. When Pompey conquered the pirates, water; so that the work, expected to continue he destroyed fifteen hundred ships of the line.-half the campaign, was with rapid toil completed The Xanthian parapets were torn down.-Bru- in a few days. Brutus's soldiers fell to the tus, suspecting that his troops were plundering, gate with resistless fury, it give way at last commanded the trumpets to sound to their co- with hideous crash.-This great and good man lours. Most people understood the act of at- doing his duty to his country, received a mortal tainder passed by the senate.-The Numidian wound, and gloriously fell in the cause of Rome; troopers were unlikely in their appearance.- may his memory be ever dear to all lovers of The Numidians beat up one quarter after an- liberty, learning, and humanity! This promise. other. Salvidienus resolved to pass his men ought ever to embalm his memory.-The queen over in boats of leather, and he gave orders for of nations was torn by no foreign invader.equipping a sufficient number of that sort of Rome fell a sacrifice to her own sons, and was small craft.-Pompey had light agile frigates, ravaged by her unnatural offspring; all the and fought in a strait where the current and great men of the state, all the good, all the holy, caverns occasion swirls and a roll.-A sharp were openly murdered by the wickedest and out-look was kept by the admiral.-It is a run worst. Little islands cover the harbour of Brinof about fifty Roman miles.-Brutus broke disi, and form the narrow outlet from the nuLipella in the sight of the army.-Mark Antony merous creeks that compose its capacious port. garbled the senate.-He was a brave man, well At the appearance of Brutus and Cassius a shout qualified for a commodore. of joy rent the heavens from the surrounding In his choice of phrases he frequently uses multitudes. words with great solemnity, which every other Such are the flowers which may be gathered mouth and pen has appropriated to jocularity by every hand in every part of this garden of and levity. The Rhodians gave up the contest, eloquence. But having thus freely mentioned and in poor plight fled back to Rhodes.-Boys our Author's faults, it remains that we acknowand girls were easily kidnapped.-Deiotarus ledge his merit; and confess that this book is was a mighty believer of augury.-Deiotarus the work of a man of letters, that it is full of destroyed his ungracious progeny. The regu-events displayed with accuracy, and related with larity of the Romans was their mortal aversion. vivacity; and though it is sufficiently defective -They desired the consuls to curb such heinous to crush the vanity of its Author, it is sufficientdoings. He had such a shrewd invention, that ly entertaining to invite readers.* no side of a question came amiss to him.-Bru tus found his mistress a coquettish creature. * From the Literary Magazine, Vol. L p. 41. 1756 REVIEW OF FOUR LETTERS FROM SIR ISAAC | or it had been once coalesced in masses, and NEWTON TO DR. BENTLEY, Ir will certainly be required, that notice should be taken of a book, however small, written on such a subject, by such an author. Yet I know not whether these Letters will be very satisfactory: for they are answers to inquiries not published; and therefore, though they contain many positions of great importance, are, in some parts, imperfect and obscure, by their reference to Dr. Bentley's Letters. Sir Isaac declares, that what he has done is due to nothing but industry and patient thought; and indeed long consideration is so necessary in such abstruse inquiries, that it is always dangerous to publish the productions of great men, which are not known to have been designed for the press, and of which it is uncertain whether much patience and thought have been bestowed upon them. The principal question of these Letters gives occasion to observe how even the mind of Newton gains ground gradually upon darkness. "As to your first query," says he, "it seems to me, that if the matter of our sun and planets, and all the matter of the universe, were evenly scattered throughout all the heavens, and every particle had an innate gravity towards all the rest, and the whole space throughout which this matter was scattered was but finite; the matter on the outside of this space would by its gravity tend towards all the matter on the inside, and by consequence fall down into the middle of the whole space, and there compose one great spherical mass. But if the matter was evenly disposed throughout an infinite space, it could never convene into one mass, but some of it would convene into one mass, and some into another, so as to make an infinite number of great masses, scattered at great distances from one to another throughout all that infinite space. And thus might the sun and fixed stars be formed, supposing the matter were of a lucid nature. But how the matter should divide itself into two sorts, and that part of it which is fit to compose a shining body, should fall down into one mass and make a sun, and the rest which is fit to compose an opaque body, should coalesce, not into one great body like the shining matter, but into many little ones; or if the sun at first were an opaque body like the planets, or the planets lucid bodies like the sun, how he alone should be changed into a shining body, whilst all they continue opaque, or all they be changed into opaque ones whilst he remains unchanged, I do not think more explicable by mere natural causes, but am forced to ascribe it to the counsel and contrivance of a voluntary agent." The hypothesis of matter evenly disposed through infinite space, seems to labour with such difficulties, as makes it almost a contradictory supposition, or a supposition destructive of itself. Matter evenly disposed through infinite space, is either created or eternal; if it was created, it infers a Creator: if it was eternal, it had been from eternity evenly spread through infinite space; afterwards been diffused. Whatever state was first must have been from eternity, and what had been from eternity could not be changed, acted before, that is, by the voluntary act of but by a cause beginning to act as it had never some external power. If matter infinitely and evenly diffused was a moment without coalition, it could never coalesce at all by its own power. If matter originally tended to coalesce, it could never be evenly diffused through infinite space. Matter being supposed eternal, there never was a time when it could be diffused before its conglobation, or conglobated before its diffusion. This Sir Isaac seems by degrees to have understood: for he says in his second Letter, "The reason why matter evenly scattered through a finite space would convene in the midst, you conceive the same with me; but that there should be a central particle, so accurately placed in the middle, as to be always equally attracted on all sides, and thereby continue without motion, seems to me a supposition fully as hard as to make the sharpest needle stand upright upon its point on a looking-glass. For if the very mathematical centre of the central particle be not accurately in the very mathematical centre of the attractive power of the whole mass, the particle will not be attracted equally on all sides. And much harder is it to suppose all the particles in an infinite space should be so accurately poised one among another, as to stand still in perfect equilibrium. For I reckon this as hard as to make not one needle only, but an infinite number of them (so many as there are particles in an infinite space) stand accurately poised upon their points. Yet I grant it possible, at least by a divine power; and if they were once to be placed, I agree with you that they would continue in that posture, without motion, for ever, unless put into new motion by the same power. When therefore I said, that matter evenly spread through all space, would convene by its gravity into one or more great masses, I understand it of matter not resting in an accurate poise." Let not it be thought irreverence to this great name if I observe, that by matter evenly spread through infinite space, he now finds it necessary to mean matter not evenly spread. Matter not evenly spread will indeed convene, but it will convene as soon as it exists. And, in my opinion, this puzzling question about matter is only how that could be that never could have been, or what a man thinks on when he thinks of nothing. Turn matter on all sides, make it eternal, or of late production, fmite or infinite, there can be no regular system produced but by a voluntary and meaning agent. This the great Newton always asserted, and this he asserts in the third letter: but proves in another manner, in a manner perhaps more happy and conclusive. "The hypothesis of deriving the frame of the world by mechanical principles from matter evenly spread through the heavens, being inconsistent with my system, I had considered it very little before your letter put me upon it, and therefore trouble you with a line or two more about it, if this comes not too late for your use. "In my former I represented that the diurnal rotations of the planets could not be derived from gravity, but required a divine arm to impress | fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time them. And though gravity might give the to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with planets a motion of descent towards the sun, tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes either directly, or with some little obliquity, yet the morning. the transverse motions by which they revolve in their several orbs, required the divine arn to impress them according to the tangents of their orbs. I would now add, that the hypothesis of matter being at first evenly spread through the heavens, is, in my opinion, inconsistent with the hypothesis of innate gravity, without a supernatural power to reconcile them, and therefore it infers a Deity. For if there be innate gravity, it is impossible now for the matter of the earth, and all the planets and stars, to fly up from them, and become evenly spread throughout all the heavens, without a supernatural power; and certainly that which can never be hereafter without a supernatural power, could never be heretofore without the same power." REVIEW OF A JOURNAL OF EIGHT DAYS' He begins by refuting a popular notion, that bohea and green tea are leaves of the same shrub, gathered at different times of the year. He is of opinion that they are produced by different shrubs. The leaves of tea are gathered in dry weather; then dried and curled over the fire in copper pans. The Chinese use little green tea, imagining that it hinders digestion and excites fevers. How it should have either effect is not easily discovered; and if we consider the innumerable prejudices which prevail concerning our own plants, we shall very little regard these opinions of the Chinese vulgar, which experience does not confirm. When the Chisese drink tea they infuse it slightly, and extract only the more volatile parts; but though this seems to require great quantities at a time, yet the author believes, perhaps only because he has an inclination to believe it, that the English and Dutch use more than all the inhabitants of that extensive empire. The Chinese drink it sometimes with acids, sel FROM PORTSMOUTH TO KINGSTON UPON THAMES, THROUGH dom with sugar; and this practice our author, SOUTHAMPTON, WILTSHIRE, &C. WITH MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES OF THE PARTY. TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN ESSAY ON TEA, CONSIDERED AS PERNICIOUS TO HEALTH, OBSTRUCTING INDUSTRY, AND THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC LOVE: IN THIRTY-TWO FROM THE LITERARY MAGAZINE, VOL. II. NO. XIII. 1757. OUR readers may perhaps remember that we gave them a short account of this book, with a letter extracted from it, in November, 1756. The author then sent us an injunction to forbear his work till a second edition should appear: this prohibition was rather too magisterial; for an author is no longer the sole master of a book which he has given to the public; yet he has been punctually obeyed; we had no desire to offend him, and if his character may be estimated by his book, he is a man whose failings may well be pardoned for his virtues. The second edition is now sent into the world, corrected and enlarged, and yielded up by the author to the attacks of criticism. But he shall find in us no malignity of censure. We wish, indeed, that among other corrections he had submitted his pages to the inspection of a grammarian, that the elegances of one line might not have been disgraced by the improprieties of another; but with us to mean well is a degree of merit which overbalances much greater errors than impurity of style. We have already given in our collections one of the letters, in which Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of tea is injurious to the interest of our country. We shall now endeavour to follow him regularly through all his observations on this modern luxury; but it can scarcely be candid, not to make a previous declaration, that he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this who has no intention to find any thing right at home, recommends to his countrymen. The history of the rise and progress of teadrinking is truly curious. Tea was first imported from Holland by the Earls of Arlington and Ossory, in 1666; from their ladies the women of quality learned its use. Its price was then three pounds a pound, and continued the same to 1707. In 1715, we began to use green tea, and the practice of drinking it descended to the lower class of the people. In 1720, the French began to send it hither by a clandestine commerce. From 1717 to 1726, we imported annually seven hundred thousand pounds. From 1732 to 1742, a million and two hundred thousand pounds were every year brought to London; in some years afterwards three millions; and in 1755, near four millions of pounds, or two thousand tons, in which we are not to reckon that which is surreptitiously introduced, which perhaps is nearly as much. Such quantities are indeed sufficient to alarm us: it is at least worth inquiry to know what are the qualities of such a plant, and what the consequence of such a trade. He then proceeds to enumerate the mischiefs of tea, and seems willing to charge upon it every mischief that he can find. He begins, however, by questioning the virtues ascribed to it, and denies that the crews of the Chinese ships are preserved in their voyage homewards from the scurvy by tea. About this report I have made some inquiry, and though I cannot find that these crews are wholly exempt from scorbutic maladies, they seem to suffer them less than other mariners in any course of equal length. This I ascribe to the tea, not as possessing any medicinal qualities, but as tempting them to drink more water, to dilute their salt food more copiously, and perhaps to forbear punch, or other strong liquors. He then proceeds in the pathetic strain, to tell the ladies how, by drinking tea, they injure their health, and what is yet more dear, their beauty. |