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LEADING TRAITS OF

THE CHARACTERS OF PUBLIC MEN,

WITH ANECDOTES;

Or Helps for the Biographic Hiftorian.

BY A FRIEND OF THE VISITOR,

Long converfant in the Circles of Fashion and Literature.

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HE firft introduction of Mr. S to the then fplen

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Tdid fovereign of beauty and fashion, the Duchefs

of D.

-e, which he had paffionately defired, and his friend Mr. F had often promifed him, was as follows: A Mr. O'B- who held fome office in the Portland family, wrote a play, and prevailed with the Duchefs of D to fend it to Mr. S-, the manager, with her exprefs defire that it might be got up, and played at his House immediately. This was exactly what the mana. ger wanted he waited instantly on her Grace, and like a true courtier, pretended he had carefully examined the play, and found it admirable; returned her Grace a thousand acknowledgments for the honour he had been pleased to confer on him; which in fact (as he pretended) was also doing him a favour of consequence; fince the Houfe was quite out of new pieces, at the moment, and that the excellent play her Grace had obliged them with, would, in all probability, be at least a a couple of thousand pounds in their way. The Piece was immediately got up with all the ftrength of the House, played, and damned; and a damned play it furely was. The crafty manager now waits on the amiable Duchefs

again, with well-feigned forrow for fuch an untoward event, as the damnation of the play; deploring and execrating the bad taste of the Public, and prorefting to her Grace, that he himself could never think of writing for them again, fince they had taken upon them to damn a play, not only fo intrinfically fine and excellent, but which had even the fanction of her Grace's fuperior judgment.

We fincerely hope we are now about to repeat a piece of arrant fcandal; but we should hold ourfelves highly culpable in concealing any kind of information from the Public, granting it to be of fuch nature as to admit of contradiction from the parties falfely accufed. Thus all parties may be fatisfied, at least enjoy and exercise their rights.

It has been afferted confidently, but we hope with much more confidence than truth, that at the theatres, they have the cuftom of copying every new dramatic performance offered to them, even fuch as are rejected; for the not easily defenfible purpose of having a stock by them, from which, on a preffing occafion, to felect, garble, and patch up a new play. To fuch a manoeuvre it has been faid, the celebrated comedy of the School for Scandal owed its birth; and that Mr. S-was no otherwife its author, than as he formed it into a whole, and reduced to fhape (with no doubt fome additions of his own) the different paffages which he felected from various plays, entrusted to his infpection as manager. As one proof of this, it was adduced, that about two years before the appearance of the School for Scandal, a Mifs Richardson, affisted by Dr. K—, of Brazen-Nofe Col. lege, wrote a comedy, which had a fcreen-fcene in it, and which abounded with fentiments and fituations fuch as we find in Mr. S-'s play. The comedy of Mifs Richardfon, it feems, was offered to the manager of Drury-lane House, and rejected. Another claim of a fimilar kind was made by a Gentleman, openly and publicly, at Coachmaker's-hall.

Mr. S is faid to have been employed full fifteen VOL. IV.

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months,

months, in compofing, revifing, and correcting his celebrated Philippic against Governor Haftings; in which he was affifted chiefly, in matters of business, by Mr.

Sis alfo the reputed author of the letters figned Hampden, addreffed to the Duke of Portland, and formerly published in the Morning Chronicle; which paper is occafionally honoured at the prefent period, with the productions of the fame able and elegant pen.

SKETCH OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

BY A PUPIL.

The goodly apparatus

That rides round the glowing axle-tree of heaven.

VILLAGE CURATE,

Fall the sciences Aftronomy is the most fublime.
It treats of the works of nature in their most stu-

pendous extent. It has a reference to the perfections of deity. By his power, wisdom, and goodness, all things

were formed.

The SUN, an immense body of fire and light, is fixed in the centre of the fyftem, whilft the planets revolve around him. He is upwards of 1,000,000 times as large as our earth, and intended to give light, heat, and vegetation to feven primary, and at least fifteen fecondary worlds. By fpots on his difk, he is difcovered to turn on his axis in about twenty-five of our days.

1. MERCURY, the firft in the fyftem, at the dif tance of 36,000,000 of miles from the SUN, completes his revolution in 88 days.

2. VENUS, at the diftance of 68,000,000 of miles from the SUN, revolves around him in 224 days.

These are the inferior planets, because their station is between the SUN and the EARTH.

3. EARTH which we inhabit at the distance from the SUN of 95,000,000 of miles, performs its period in 365

days,

days. EARTH has one Moon or Satellite at the distance of about 240,000 miles from it, which revolves around the EARTH in 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes. We proceed to the fuperior planets.

4. MARS, at the diftance of 145,000,000 of miles, revolves in little less than two of our years.

5. JUPITER, at the diftance of 490,000,000 miles, accomplishes his journey in 12 years. He has 4 Moons or Attendants.

6. SATURN, at the distance of 900,000,000 of miles, completes his revolution in 30 years. Saturn has 7 Moons, and a ftupendous Ring furrounding his body, the nature of which aftronomers have not yet afcertained.

7. GEORGIUM SIDUS, at the immenfe distance of 1800,000,000 miles, creeps around his orbit in 82 years and a half. It has three Moons, or Attendants.

8. COMETS, are bodies which, in various and vaftly eccentric orbits, revolve about the SUN in different fituations, and periods of time.

9. The FIXED STARS, known by their never varying in their fituations in the heavens, alfo by their twinkling, are fuppofed by Aftronomers to be SUNS to other fyftems, with planets revolving around them like our SUN. Some of them are blue, others red, and others all colours. However we know nothing concerning their distance, only that it is extremely great.

The SOLAR SYSTEM is thus beautifully defcribed by a British poetefs, diftinguished for the elegance of her compofitions:

Seiz'd in thought,

On fancy's wild and roving wing I fail,
From the green borders of the peopled Earth,
And the pale Moon, her duteous fair attendant;
From folitary Mars; from the vast orb
Of Jupiter, whofe huge gigantic bulk,
Dances in ether like the lightest leaf,

To the dim verge, the suburbs of the system,
Where cheerless Saturn, 'midst his watr'y moons,

02

Girt

Girt with a lucid zone, majestic fits
In gloomy grandeur like an exiled queen,
Amongst her weeping handmaids: fearless thence
I launch into the tracklefs deeps of space,
Where burning round, ten thousand funs appear
Of elder beam; which afk no leave to fhine
Of our terrestial ftar, nor borrow light
From the proud regent of our fcanty day.
Sons of the morning! first born of creation!
And only lefs than HIM who marks their track,
And guides their fiery wheels. Here muft I ftop,
Or is there aught beyond? What hand unseen
Impels me onward thro' the glowing orbs
Of habitable nature; far remote,

To the dread confines of eternal night;
To folitudes of vaft unpeopled space,
The defarts of creation, wide, and wild;
Where embryo fyftems, and unkindled funs
Sleep in the womb of chaos? Fancy droops
And thought aftonish'd stops her bold career.

MRS. BARBAULD.

J. B.

AN ESSAY ON HISTORY.

"As it is the office of an orator to perfuade, it is that of an "hiftorian to record truth for the inftruction of mankind.

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66 BLAIR."

OW grateful is the memory of fome men! We particularly admire thofe who, in ancient times, acted with such virtue and fortitude against all the attacks of vice as to have immortalized their names. By reading an account of fuch characters in feveral fine authors we are prefented with an ample field for inftruction. How thankful ought we be to thofe illuftrious perfons who have handed down to pofterity the narrative of ancient and modern hiftory? For without the aid of history we thould know very little more than our first parents of things that have happened before us. So great

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