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lect, rather than a useful attainment for the purposes of life. The representation of these plays, therefore, can have little other effect upon the general mind than to delight it. It is a refined amusement, but not a useful one. Still, if you will not give up the point of usefulness, in this case, and you insist upon it that, independent of the representation, they are useful in themselves, then I should say, make them a part of your reading, for they are so intrinsically excellent that the mind can enjoy them in the closet as satisfactorily as in the theatre; for none of them is so dependent for its effect upon scene decoration as not to be equally enjoyed without as with it. The same may be said of his Comedies as I have presumed to assert of his Trage dies and Historical Plays, with this exception, that the force of character is more individualized in the former, and is not so much blended with the business of the scene; and, among them all, I do not call to my recollection one that, by its affinity to the character and manners of our own age, conveys any conviction of its vices, its follies, or its pursuits. Their usefulness, therefore, might be called in question, if it is to be measured by their applicatory nature.

I would not be fastidious, nor be thought to overstrain this point; far otherwise; for I am inclined to grant, that a masterly personification of Shaks peares principal characters, is a high intellectual treat; and an hour or two spent in such an amusement affords much rational entertainment; but I think an hour or two quite enough to be so engaged. Nor ought it to be often repeated, since our time is of too much value to be prodigally expended on any amusement. This admission, however, I do not choose to extend towards the empty productions of the dramatists of our time, which have been dignified by the title of tragedies or comedies. The literary talent of the stage never was at a lower ebb, and this never was more truly demonstrated than by our modern, comedies, the majority of which have not the slightest pretensions to dramatic genius. Bad puns, stale jests, cant phrases, forced situations, and confused plots unnaturally developed, make up the hotch-potch of almost all of them. The muse of Sheridan and Cumberland has fled with their shades beyond the reach of any comedy-writer of the present day. The names of Burgoyne and

Colman have a claim to honourable mention: but for those writers who have: made some effort to amuse the public, with what they have taken upon themselves to call comedies, no more can, be said in their praise than to acknowledge, that they have furnished the, stage with little else but farcical caricatures of personal absurdities: to fill up the useless aggregate, I may add the. melo-dramas and spectacles, which arc most of them as disgraceful to the. public taste as they are intolerable in trusions upon the regular drama. I hope, therefore, I shall not be considered by you as drawing a conclusion from false premises, while I am anxious. to convince you, that no useful result can ensue to a young man, who inconsiderately barters so large a portion of his richest possession, as he ought always to esteem his time to be, in so unprofitable a pursuit. I have, per-, haps, extended this letter somewhat beyond the stretch of your patience, for I know how ill we brook any lengthy remonstrance against a favourite indulgence.

I do not, however, despair of having induced you to give the observations which it contains some seasonable reflection; and I think I may trust to your candour and good sense for your drawing a just balance between the, profit and loss of such an employment of your time:-the embarking of so, serious a capital in so ambiguous a venture is at all events, to say the least of it, an imprudent speculation: and I have thus far taken upon me to caution you, because I am anxious to secure to you a more assured gain in a more justifiable appropriation of your re

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that the same moment which disclosed to me the light of the world rendered me an orphan.

At this time my mother was residing with her father, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, to whose care I devolved; by him I was brought up, and to him am I indebted for the share of religious and moral knowledge which I possess.

At the period when my narrative begins, I was living with him in the vil lage to which his pastoral duties had called him; it was situated on the eastern coast of Scotland.

Our family consisted of a girl, who did the household work; and a man, who performed the duties of gardener and steward of our small establishment; he had been a soldier in my father's regiment, and was his servant; he had fought by his side in the engagement in which he fell, had caught him in his arms as he received the shot which had killed him; and, after performing the last duties to his master, had borne the news of his death to his afflicted widow. His fidelity and affection had endeared him to my grandfather, who treated him more as a friend than as a servant; he had received, like most of the peasantry of Scotland, an education, which in England seldom falls to the share of persons in a much higher sphere of life.

A spirit of wandering (perhaps the effect of his education,) had led him into the army at an early age; he had been much attached to my father, and, on his death, he had obtained his discharge, and retired to spend the remainder of his life in the retirement of his native village.

My grandfather's duties, his village being small, left him much leisure, which he devoted to my education.Would it were in my power to describe bis excellencies! His spirit was cast in the gentlest of nature's moulds; his temper was a model of Christian humility and forbearance; his reproofs were mixed with kindness, and he conveyed the most salutary truths under the most pleasing forms, contrary to the method pursued by many, who have the office of opening the youthful mind to knowlelge; his instructions appeared the effects of his love, and he did not seek to give weight to them by making himself feared. His commands were rendered pleasing, by the conviction that they were necessary and just; indeed, what

was with him necessary was synonimous with just.

He suffered no circumstance to es cape him, which could be rendered useful to the progress of my education.The situation in which we lived afforded a most rich and varied description of scenery. The broad sea, on one side, presented, during fair weather, a beautiful view; and, during a storm, the roughness of the coast rendered it more sublime than any other spectacle I ever beheld. On the land side, a large chain of mountains bounded us, and a rich valley, in which the village was situated, lay between.

Of all these various objects my grandfather made use, by imprinting on my memory the subjects in ancient and modern poets and historians to which they might be applied. Not a rock, a tree, a brook, a beautiful view, or a picturesque scene, to which he did not attach some allusion, which, associating itself with the object, impressed it more strongly on my mind. By these means my studies were rendered gratifying to me, and I should have been more punished by being debarred from my lessons, than most school-boys would have been pleased with having a holiday.

Often have I wished, when passing through a rocky defile in our neighbourhood, that I could there conjure up Leonidas, with his trusty Spartans, as at Thermopyla, and mix in the glorious strife for liberty, that idol of warmhearted youth. As often, when looking from a tremendously overhanging cliff, have thought on Leucadia's steep, and wept over the sorrows of the hapless Sappho. 'Tis true, this method bad something of a romantic tendency, and imparted a perhaps too great keenness to my feelings; but whether this was productive of good or evil, is a point which I shall leave to be mooted by those who think it worth while to dispute upon.

I lived with my grandfather until about my thirteenth year, when he was seized with a sudden illness, which resisted all medical skill, and he died in a few weeks after his first attack. Some hours previous to his dissolution, he sent for me, and ou my approaching his bed, he told me that he felt he had but few hours to live, and therefore would give some directions for my future conduct, which he charged me to observe. I promised most implicit obedience to

them. He then told me that his daughter, my mother, had been educated with some of her relations, at a town in Flanders, where my father had been stationed with his regiment; a mutual affeetion took place, and they were secretly married his consent was not asked until refusal would have been of no effect. He told me that my father's family were of considerable rank; that my grandfather by the paternal side was Lord Trevayne, a statesman of great influence, whose pride had been so much hurt by his son's misconduct, as he termed it, in marrying one of a rank so much below him, that he would never see him. My father's regiment, he said, was shortly after ordered to America, and my mother's state of health, not permitting her to accompany him, she had returned to my grandfather, where, after my father's death, she died in giving birth to me. He said, that with him would cease all that he possessed, and that he was therefore under the necessity of bequeathing me to the care of Lord Trevayne, to whom, immediately after his illness, he bad written, informing him of my situation; and, he added, that his Lordship had requested me to be sent to him. He said it was his wish that I should, immediately on his death, (which he felt was not far distant,) go to London to Lord Trevayne and rely on his care and protection." My child," he said, "the bitterest pang in dying, is to leave you in a state of dependance; but Heaven's will be done; and remember, that he whose actions are truly just, and whose heart is correct, can not be said to be dependant but on the goodness of Providence, which will never desert him. God has given you talents, my child, which, if properly directed, will conduce to your own happiness, and render you an ornament to your country; but I have also observed that, joined to the most lively sense of virtue, the easiness of your disposition will, under some temptations, lead you to actions which you must repent, unless under the constant curb of your reason; and You do not check it, will render you you possess also a sensibility which, if easily assailable by the impositions of artful persons, many of whom you will meet with in your journey through life. I would not have you to understand me to wish you to repress the feelings of your soul; but I would have you keep them so much under restraint, that they

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shall not weaken and destroy that fortitude which is the most ornamental and noble part of the character of man.”

Very soon after this conversation, the earliest and best friend I ever possessed breathed his last in my arms, for I would not be removed from him. To attempt to describe my grief at his loss would be in vain; it was violent, like all youthful passions, and I then thought I should never recover it; but a few days moderated my sorrow, and I thought of it with resignation. Then I felt the force of the religious instruction which my grandfather had bestowed on me, and in the hour of sorrow I turned for consolation to Him who alone can impart it.

After my grandfather's burial, I prepared for my journey to London, in consequence of his directions. Andrew, our servant, whom I have before mentioned, accompanied me. Our route was marked by no occurrence worth relating, and I arrived at the splendid mansion of the Earl of Trevayne, and was introduced to the possessor of it; but a description of this, and of his Lordship, deserves better than the fagend of a chapter.

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To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

Hamused by reading

66

AVING lately been very much Hogarth illustrated, by John Ireland," and thinking it would also afford your readers some entertainment, I do myself the pleasure of transcribing a few extracts from that pleasing publication. I cannot help observing, that although poor Hogarth died in 1764, the year after 1 was born, and notwithstanding I have, for several years past, admired the works of that ingenious artist, yet I never till within these few days saw the monument which has been erected to his memory in Chiswick Church-yard; I therefore herewith send you a sketch of it, and remain, Sir,

Your constant Reader, London, 23d June, 1817.

him to delineate the human figure, and transfer his burin from silver to copperplate. In this attempt he had to encounter many difficulties; engraving on copper was so different an art from engraving on silver, that it was neces sary he should unlearn much which he had already learned. That a youth of volatile dispositions, who had neither inheritance nor protection, must frequently want money, follows as certainly as night to day; and we place full confidence in the assertion, when told that he has frequently said, I remember the time, when I have gone moping into the city, with scarce a shilling in my pocket; but having received ten guineas there, for a plate, returned home, put on my sword and bag, and sallied out again, with all the W. F. confidence of a man who had ten thousand pounds in his pocket.

"IT WAS CHARACTER, THE PASSIONS, THE SOUL, THAT HIS GENIUS WAS GIVEN HIM TO COPY."

Lord Orford's Anecdotes of Painting. WILLIAM HOGARTH, that celebrated painter and engraver, was born in the city of London, the 10th November 1697, and bound apprentice to Mr. Ellis Gamble, who kept a silversmith's shop in Cranbourn-street, Leicester-square, where, about the year 1712, his first essays were made, by engraving initials on tea-spoons; afterwards, he ascended to the representa tion of those heraldic monsters which first grinned upon the shields of the holy army of crusaders, and were from thence transferred to the massy tankards and ponderous two-handled cups of their stately descendants. By copying this legion of Hydras, Gorgons, and chimeras dire, he attained an early taste for the ridiculous, and in the grotesque countenance of a baboon, or a bear, the cunning eye of a fox, or the fierce front of a rampant lion, traced the characteristic varieties of the human physiognomy. He soon felt that the science which appertainch unto the bearing of coat armour was not suited to his taste, or talents; and tired of the amphibious many-coloured brood that people the fields of heraldry, listened to the voice of Genius, which whispered him to read the mind's construction in the face, to study and deli

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He first became known in his profession, by seventeen small plates, with a head of the author, for Buller's Hudibras, printed in 1726.

The print of our decollating Harry, and Anna Boleyne, was engraved from a painting once in Vauxhall-Gardens, for which, and some other assistance, Mr. Tyers (at that time the proprietor of the gardens) presented Hogarth with a gold ticket of admission for himself and friends.

In the year 1727, Hogarth published a print entitled The Masquerade Ticket, representing the various groupes of motley figures usually assembled on such occasions, and at the top of the ticket he drew a clock, the pendulum supposed to be vibrating seconds, on which pendulum he wrote the word Nonsense- on the minute-band Impertinence--and on the hour-hand Wit.Which signifies, that at a masquerade we may expect to hear nonsense every second, impertinence every minute, and wit only once an hour.

In the year 1730, Hogarth married the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, who painted the Hall at Greenwich Hospital, as well as the scripture-pieces on the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. This union not being accompanied with any fortune, compelled Hogarth to redouble his professional exertions.

In the year 1734, he established his character as a painter of domestic history, by the Harlot's Progress. The story commences with her arrival in London, where, initiated in the school of profligacy, she experiences the miscHh

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