women, and Herveys," and no worthy critic could deny him individuality, wit, a mordant sort of humour, and a delicate intuition into character. His matter is therefore attractive and interesting, and to elaborate a foregoing remark to perfect accuracy, one must say he is intellectually effective, æsthetically not so. His sentences are nearly always long, and not seldom cumbrous; he is diffuse and tautologous. In Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, which contains a venomous attack on Hervey, under the infamous name of Sporus, amid much abominable exaggeration, there is a sentence- "His wit all see-saw between that and this "—which, if we modify the "all," is excellent criticism. Antitheses in Hervey are innumerable and tedious. He likes to contrast two characters and to say "while A. was this B. was that," ad infinitum, or to say of such an one that he " was this without that, so-and-so without such and such a quality," and so forth. One may fancy he took the trick from Tacitus, whom he evidently knew well and frequently quotes. He is at his best as a writer when he has to describe some dramatic scene; he can then be terse and vivid, but only to lapse after a few good sentences into his customary mode. His place in a descriptive history of English prose is due to the fact that his writing represents what the English of his time was in the hands of a cultivated man, undistinguished as a master of writing. G. S. STREET. : THE CHARACTER OF BOLINGBROKE As to Lord Bolingbroke's general character, it was so mixed that he had certainly some qualifications that the greatest men might be proud of, and many which the worst would be ashamed of: he had fine talents, a natural eloquence, great quickness, a happy memory, and very extensive knowledge; but he was vain, much beyond the general run of mankind, timid, false, injudicious, and ungrateful; elate and insolent in power, dejected and servile in disgrace few people ever believed him without being deceived, or trusted him without being betrayed: he was one to whom prosperity was no advantage, and adversity no instruction: he had brought his affairs to that pass that he was almost as much distressed in his private fortune as desperate in his political views, and was upon such a foot in the world that no king would employ him, no party support him, and few particulars defend him; his enmity was the contempt of those he attacked, and his friendship a weight and reproach to those he adhered to. Those who were most partial to him could not but allow that he was ambitious without fortitude, and enterprising without resolution; that he was fawning without insinuation, and insincere without art; that he had admirers without friendship, and followers without attachment; parts without probity, knowledge without conduct, and experience without judgment. This was certainly his character and situation; but since it is the opinion of the wise, the speculative, and the learned, that most men are born with the same propensities, actuated by the same passions, and conducted by the same original principles, and differing only in the manner of pursuing the same ends, I shall not so far chime in with the bulk of Lord Bolingbroke's contemporaries as to pronounce he had more failings than any man ever had; but it is impossible to see all that is written, and hear all that is said of him, and not allow that if he had not a worse heart than the rest of mankind, at least he must have had much worse luck. (From Memoirs of Reign of George II.) THE DEATH OF QUEEN CAROLINE ABOUT ten o'clock on Sunday night—the king being in bed and asleep on the floor at the foot of the Queen's bed, and the Princess Emily in a couch-bed in a corner of the room—the Queen began to rattle in the throat; and, Mrs. Purcel giving the alarm that she was expiring, all in the room started up. Princess Caroline was sent for, and Lord Harvey, but before the last arrived the Queen was just dead. All she said before she died was "I have now got an asthma. Open the window." Then she said “Pray.” Upon which the Princess Emily began to read some prayers, of which she scarce repeated ten words before the Queen expired. The Princess Caroline held a looking-glass to her lips, and finding there was not the least damp upon it, cried, “'Tis over!" and said not one word more, nor shed as yet one tear, on the arrival of a misfortune the dread of which had cost her so many. sciences that deal with the comparative weights of water and of moisture. 23. Erisichthon, who, having cut down the grove of Ceres, was done to death by frenzied hunger in the midst of plenty (Ovid, Metam. Bk. viii.) Dodonean oracle. The sacred oracle of Zeus, where the responses were uttered from groves of oak. Illa procul radicibus, etc. Far spreading, it falls prone, torn up by the roots, breaking on all sides all it meets with in its fall. 24. Nepotibus umbram. A shade to generations yet to be. the graff=the moat. 25. voragos yawning chasms. = surbated bruised and blistered. 37. omne et omnimodum suum ingenium, etc. The virtue that appertains to himself, in all its completeness and variety, temporal as well as spiritual. PAGE 106. Servare modum, finemque tueri, etc. To preserve due measure, and keep in view the end, and follow nature. 151. Vos exemplaria Græca, etc. Do you turn ever in your hands by day, and in your hands by night, the models of the Greeks. 152. Clenches = catches, plays on words. quantum lenta solent, etc. As the cypresses are wont to do amongst the pliant brushwood. 160. pasquined = turned to ridicule. 162. ab abusu ad usum, etc. From the abuse to the use-that is no fair argument. Demetri, teque, Tegelli, etc. Demetrius, and you, Tigellius, I bid go howl amongst your pupil's benches (Horace). 166, Cynthius aurem, etc. Apollo has plucked me by the ear, and given me a word of warning. 172. munite=guard (from munire). 174. his own geny. Geny is ingenium, nature or bent. 200. opiniatrety obstinacy. 214. tympany a drum or bladder filled with air. 223. hoyman=a sailor on a hoy, or trading sloop. 235. εὕρηκα = "I have found it -a casual lighting on the truth. PAGE PAGE 251. cosmopaia = creation of the 461. Quæ sunt ampla et pulchra, etc. world. 259. Fuerunt illis vera et germana, etc. They had names true 264. leafing turning over their leaves. 398. hell was the space below him, Things that are majestic and beautiful can long please; but things that are spruce and neat quickly pall upon the dainty sense of hearing. 466. illapses=downward glidings. 511. Tot premit ordinibus, tot adhuc compagibus, etc. . . . Aliam credas. With so many rows she weighs down her head, with so many twists she builds it up on high. You will see her in front a very Andromache; but behind she is but a dwarf, you would believe her another woman. Stymphalian birds. Destructive 515. Tuvaukì кóσμos, etc. The orna birds of Arcadia, destroyed by Hercules. ment of a woman is manner, not golden jewels. 412. Margarita, Mrs. Tofts, Valen- 563. Evidentior quidem illa est, etc. tini, operatic singers of the 413. string of those weeds a fibre or sucker of these weeds. 414. Wood was the ironware man, That experience is the most convincing which guides us by our own misfortunes; but that is safer which guides us by the misfortunes of others. who had obtained a patent 580. nequeam lacrymas, etc. I might for copper coinage in Ireland. 450. Nihilo plus agas, etc. You would do no more than if you not endure a parent's tears. Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli, etc. Am I now to leave her in her ignorance of this danger, be it what it may? 584 old Jacob, i.e. Mr. Tonson. END OF VOL. III |