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THE

LONDON MAGAZINE,

FOR JANUARY, 1780.

THE HYPOCHONDRIACK. No. XXVIII,

MY

Interea fidos adit haud fecurus amicos

Utque velint inimicum animum frontisque severa
Dura fupercilia induere non parcere culpæ

Hos iterum atque iterum rogat, admonitufque latentis.
Grates lætus agit vitii & peccata fatetur
Sponte fua quamvis etiam damnetur iniquo
Indicio & falfum queat ore refellere crimen.

He feeks his friends nor trufts himself alone,
"But asks their judgement and refigns his own,
"Begs them with urgent prayers to be fincere,

Juft, and exact, and rigidly fevere.

VIDA

PITT.

"Due verdict to pronounce on ev'ry thought, "Nor fpare the flighteft fhadow of a fault. "But bent against himself, and ftrictly nice "He thanks each critick that detects a vice, "Tho' charg'd with what his judgement can defend "He joins the partial fentence of his friend. laft number treated of revifion and correction by an authour of his own works. It may perhaps be thought by fome, that this felfcriticifm will be always exceeding ly gentle, as Proteftants are apt to reprefent the flagellation which Romish penitents adminifter to themselves. But this will depend much upon the different tempers of authours. One who is conceited and vain, will, like a hardened finner be infenfible of his imperfections and faults, while one who is modeft and diffident will, like a penitent whofe heart is broken with contrition, be perhaps too fevere in judg ing of his performances.

decifive appearance. If it is meant that they lofe half the praise they would have got, had they preferved what they have blotted, their blotting was not difcreet. And if it is meant that their additional praise would have arifen from their difcretion in blotting being known, I think it is rated too. high, if it is to have half as much praife as excellent compofition.

Pope maintains the opinion, that fuccefsful authours have been very rigid criticks upon their own works. For he tells us they

"Lofe half the praife they would have got,

"Were it but known what they difcreetly

blot."

But I am not fure that this is a juft remark, though its quaintnefs has a

It has been again and again recommended to authours to distrust their own opinion of their works, and to have recourfe to the judgement of friends. This we know has fuggested to fo many authours, that one should think they would now be ashamed of it as worn out, the plaufible pretext of publishing at the request, or by the advice of friends. I know not if too much diffidence be either reasonable or at all advantageous; and it seems to me ftrange to fuppofe that a mind capable of producing performances worthy of praife fhould be fo deftitute of the faculty of judgement as to be altogether unconscious of their merit, and on the other hand that they fhould

not

not be fenfible of failing when their intellectual powers are occafionally enfeebled, or the light of their genius obfeured.

Vida reprefents as an example in his didactich poem, an authour filled with extreme diftruft of himself, and the mott abject fubmiffion to the opinion of his friends, in fo much as even acquiefcing in what his judgement tells him and can demonftrate to be wrong in their fentence upon his works.

That this is an example which au thours fhould imitate I cannot agree. For he who has not a decent confidence in himself must be fo weak that nobody will fet any value upon him, or upon his works. That a fondnefs for our own compofitions may prevent us in many inftances from perceiving their faults I allow; and therefore the opinion of impartial friends may be of ufe. But unless I am convinced that my friends are in the right I will not comply with their opinion.

Merely faying that a compofition, or any part of a compofition does not pleafe, without explaining why, is faying nothing that thould influence an authour. It is only another inftance of what has ever been and ever will be, that there are different taftes; fo that if an authour himself, after having his critical attention awakened, is not fenfible that what is objected to fhould not please, he would be much in the wrong to make an alteration.

A ftory is told which being probable is very likely to be true, that an authour put a play which he had writ ten into the hands of a number of his critical friends feparately, begging to have their candid remarks upon it; and that when their remarks came to be collected and compared, he found that all of them had objections to parts of the performance, but that each had happened to object to a different fcene. If therefore he had been to follow implicitly the judgement of his friends in ftriking out what was objectionable, he would not have had the veftige of a play left. But would have refembled the man in the fable who had two wives, a young one and an old one, each of whom wishing to have his hair of her own colour, one pulled out the grey hairs and one the black, till the poor fubmiffive husband was left quite bald.

There is, I am afraid, in general, as little tenderness of confcience in Criticifm as in any thing which men are ever engaged. If injuries, as they certainly are, be great in proportion to the pain which they occafion, Criticifm often injures our neighbour inore than hurting him in his body or estate. Yet with what inattention and levity, with what wantonnefs of abuse do we find people decide upon the writings of others. I do not recollect that lawyers have mentioned this as a species of injury upon which an action would lie. To be fure it would be difficult to empannael a jury to try the iffue of a fuit upon a charge of being unjustly called a blockhead, or a dunce; and therefore. I believe the merits of fuch queftions must be left as heretofore to the grand affize of the publick.

Some of thofe whom an authour calls his friends, take a haughty malignant pleafure in treating his performances upon which they are confulted, with capricious feverity. But it is no lefs cruel to deceive an authour by falfe commendation, till he pub. lithes works by which he may fuffer both in his fame and fortune. There is a delicate evafion, which every authour of any difcernment will underftand, by which his friends may show him that they totally difapprove of his performance, without fhocking him by faying fo directly. If, notwithstanding this, he fends it forth into the world, they are not to blame, and he muft take the confequences. But there is an unconfcientious exercife of Criticifim which is moft deeply culpable. An authour fhows his manufcript to perfons in whofe fkill and taste the purchasers of copy-right have confidence; and those persons to oblige the authour furnith him with flattering opinions of his work, knowing that he is to offer it to fale. Upon his fhowing thefe opinions a hand fome price is given, and the bookfellers are confiderable lofers. Such critical judges fhould confider that their commending a literary production which does not deferve it, is like an affay mafter certi fying that to be gold which is only bafe metal.

It is no doubt one of the most difficult tasks in the world to convey to an authour a candid difapprobation of his works, or even to correct them in any

degree

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degree without offending him. What ever he may affect, and though he fhould even exprefs himself in the words of the motto to this paper, there will in moft cafes be found fuch a fecret regard in an authour's breaft for any thing he has written, that he will be uneafy if any one elfe does not view it in the fame light. His parental affection will make him tender even of the flighteft expreffions and he will not easily forgive the falutary touches of Criticism. Thomson, it is said, used to writhe in pain when players were cutting his long fcenes of tragedy. For though he loathed much to write," he was fond of what he once

had written. Goldsmith fimply enough congratulated himself on having at laft an opportunity to make himself of fome confequence by doing a favour to a certain lord; for, faid he, his lordship has given me his poems to correct, not confidering that any correction would probably make his lordfhip his enemy for ever. Such correction, we are told, loft Voltaire the friendship of an illuftrious monarch who is not quite fans fouci as to poetical fame; and all who are much acquainted with writers, who, be their compofitions profe or verfe, are for the moft part an irritable race, will recollect many fuch inftances.

4

SELECT MAXIMS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN CELEBRATED AUTHORS.

(Continued from last November Magazine, Vol. XLVIII. page 498.)

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Poft voluptatem mifrecordiam.

Youth fhould be painted like the British Rofcius, who is reprefented invitingly allured by Comedy and Tragedy, and undetermined to which he hall turn. So Vice and Virtue accoft a Youth, and his fickle fancy keeps him for a time undetermined to either. But,

The feal of Vice having made an impreffion on Youth, Virtue may by her kindly warmth melt the wax, and regain the fecrets of the heart, but the will feldom fucceed, if the breaks the feal with violence.

Young men are not lefs bound to their tutors for the wife inftructions they give them, than to their parents for their existence.

Humility is one of the best leffons that can be taught to youth.

A man is apt to follow all his life, the influence of the ruling paffion that governs him in his youth.

Thus, where vice, fays Cicero, is embraced in Youth, there commonly virtue is neglected in age.

The mind of a Youth is momentary, his fancy and affections variable as the weather, his love uncertain, his friendship as light as the wind, his fancy fired with every new face, and his mind agitated by a thoufand contending whims and projects of ambition, fortune, or pleasure, often detesting that which he did love, and fometimes returning again to that which he had discovered to be the moft worthlefs of all objects. He is an inhabitant of the Torrid Zone one day and of the Frigid the next.

Young willows bend cafily, and green wits are readily entangled.

Nothing is fweeter than youth, nor fwifter in decreafing while it increafeth.

Pleafure and recreation ufed with temperance are as neceffary to Youth as the fun, air, and water to plants and flowers.

The inftructions given to Youth, ought not to be tedious; for being pithy and short, they will more willingly attend to them, and better retain them.

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XXX

GEORGE R.

HEREAS Our trufty and well-beloved Richard Baldwin, of Pater

Weer Row, in Our City of London, Bookfeller, hath, by his Petition,

humbly reprefented unto Us, that he is the Proprietor of a Work that is pub lished monthly, entitled,

The

LONDON

MAGAZINE.

In which is contained many original Pieces, that were never before printed; and that he is at a great expence in paying Authors for their Labours in writing and compiling the faid Work, which has been published once a Month for near Thirty Years paft, and hath met with great approbation from the Publick.That he is now publishing therein

An Impartial and Succinct HISTORY of the Origin and Progrefs of the PRESENT WAR,

To be illuftrated with many Maps and Charts, which hath already been so well received, as to induce feveral Perfons to reprint it in other periodical Publications; and being defirous of reaping the Fruits of his very great Expence and Labour, in the Profecution of this Work, and enjoying the full Profit and Benefit that may arise from printing and vending the fame, without any other Perfon interfering in his juft Property, he most humbly prays Us, to grant him Our Royal Licence and Protection, for the fole printing, publishing, and vending the faid Work. And We do, therefore, by thefe Prefents, fo far as may be agreeable to the Statute in that cafe made and provided, grant unto him, the faid Richard Baldwin, his Executors, Adminiftrators, and Affigns, our Licence for the fole printing, publishing, and vending the faid Work, for the Term of Fourteen Years, ftrictly forbidding all Our Subjects, within Our Kingdoms and Dominions, to reprint, abridge, or, publifh the fame, either in the like or any other Volume, or Volumes whatfoever, or to import, buy, vend, utter, or diftribute, any Copies thereof, reprinted beyond the Seas, during the aforefaid Term of Fourteen Years, without the Confent and Approbation of the said Richard Baldwin, his Heirs, Executors, or Affigns, under their Hands and Seals first had and obtained, as they will answer the contrary at their Perils. Whereof, the Commiffioners, and other Officers of Our Cuftoms, the Master, Wardens, and Company of Stationers, are to take Notice, That due Obedience may be rendered to Our Will and Pleasure herein declared. Given at Our Court at Kenfington, the 23d Day of October, 1759, in the Thirty-Third Year of Our Reign.

XX

His MAJESTY's Command.

XXXX XXXXXX

W. PITT.

XXXXXXXX

Or, GENTLEMAN's Monthly Intelligencer.

For JANUARY,

Fafeription to his Royal Highness the
Bishop of Ofnabrug

3

The Hypochondriack, No. XXVIII. 5
Select Maxims

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1780, :

Debates in the Houfe of Commons 19
On voting 85,coo Seamen 20
On Lord G. Gordon's Motion 22
Mr. Hartley's Speech on the A-
merican War

23

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ibid.

37

17

-On the Earl of Shelburne's Motion for cenfuring Administration ib.

Prologue and Epilogue to Zoraida
Prologue and Epilogue to the Times 39
The Parliament Man

38

ibid.

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With the following Embellishments, viz.

An elegantly engraved Head of His Royal Highnefs the BISHOP OF OSNABRUG,

AND

A North-East View of the Queen's Palace at Windfor.

LONDON, printed for R. BALDWIN, at No. 47, in Pater-nofter-Row; Of whom may be had complete Sets, from the Year 1732 to the prefent Time, ready bound and ftitched, or any fingle Volume to complete Sets.

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