defideratum in English Literature. Certain it is that the chronological method, of difpofing the feveral objects of the biographer, has a very obvious advantage over the alphabetical method of arrangement: a hiftory of writers according to the former, conftituting at once a hiftory of the language and literature of their country. In like manner, the claffical divifion, into different branches of arts and fcience, difplays the gradual improvement and present state of each. A well-executed performance on this plan, therefore, cannot fail of being acceptable to the public. Before we fpeak of the work itself, however, we must beg leave to take notice of its Preface; in which the author judiciously prepares the reader for the perufal of what follows. As an apology, which we think at the fame time unneceffary, for the undertaking, Dr. Berkenhout gives us the following sketch of his literary turn and difpofition.

"The principle of variety, which fo univerfally pervades that atom of the creation with which we are acquainted, is not more confpicuous in our faces than in our diffimilar purfuits of felicity or pleasure:

Quot capitum vivunt totidem ftudiorum

Millia.

HOR. Sat.

"Horace was fo forcibly ftruck with this general diverfity of inclination, that, befides cafual repetitions in various parts of his works, he has made it the principal fubject of his first ode, his first fatire, and his first epistle. But the human fpecies is not more obviously characterifed in the diverfity of our propenfities and purfuits, than in the bizarrerie, the whimfical abfurdity, of thofe propenfities.

"That one man should delight in Olympic duft, another in power, a third in wealth, is quite natural; that fome men should be pleased with crowns of laurel, fome with crowns of ivy, and others with crowns of thorns, is not at all furprifing; that cards and mafquerades thould be the univerfal amufement of the prefent most rational generasion, excites no wonder: these are philofophical pursuits, and worthy of that reason in which we boast our distinction from the brute creation. But what plea can be urged in excufe for a man, who, in this age of ban ton, fhould find real amufement in turning over a parcel of old mufty books? Such a man, however, is the author of these volumes of Literary Biography; the compilation of which hath, for many years past, been the amufement of his hours of leisure and relaxation. To this ftrange fpecies of luxury he hath generally appropriated thofe hours of the day, or rather night, when the pleafures of high life begin, and men of businets usually indulge in a total cetlation from labour.

"In this land of univerfal freedom, it were unjut if authors alone were molefted in the choice of their hobby-horfe; but when that hobby-horfe is obtruded on the public, the public have doubtless a right to expect fome apparent utility. Hence it seems incumbent on every author to fhew, that there is either novelty, or, at leaft, a comparative degree of excellence, in his matter, his manner, or his plan."

With

With this defign Dr. Berkenhout takes a review of former literary biographers, beginning with Boston, the monk of St. Edmund's Bury in the 15th century, and ending with the Companion to the Playhouse in 1764; which, he fays, contains a better and more comprehenfive account of our dramatic poets and their works, than any other book in the English language. After this review of writers of literary memoirs, our author proceeds to take a view of the rife and progrefs of literature in this kingdom. This view commences at fo early a period as the Invafion of Britain by Julius Cæfar; although, he justly obferves, the hiftory of Letters does not properly commence till feveral centuries later; all that is related about the learning of the Druids, the priests and prophets of the antient Britons, being legendary and fabulous.-Having given a concise abftract of our literary Hiftory to the end of the fifteenth century, our author clofes his Preface as follows.

"Like a traveller who began his journey whilft the fun was yet far beneath the horizon, I rejoice to find myself at last in the daylight of the fixteenth century. There is, I confefs, fome pleasure, and perhaps fome utility, in tracing the stream of fcience to its fource: it is nevertheless but a dreary journey, through a dubious country, and with only .now and then the tranfient light of a Sirius, a Jupiter, a Venus, to guide us on our way. And indeed the most diligent enquirer will find among our English authors, previous to the invention of printing, very few books that will afford him either pleasure or inftruction. In the fixteenth century we are dazzled with a multiplicity of authors in various branches of literature. Kings, queens, and many of cur-nobility, honoured the prefs with their productions. Linacre, in 1519, founded the college of phyficians. Collet, Grocyn, Latimer, and Lilly, revived the learning of Greece and Rome. Spenfer, by his example, taught our poets melody. But the reader probably now wishes to difmifs his guide. The writers of this century are too well known to require an officious index. I must, however, take the liberty to add a few words concerning Shakespeare, whofe genius I fhall ever contemplate with fome degree of enthufiafin. I addrefs myself particularly to the celebrated Monfieur de Voltaire, whofe comprehensive abilities and repeated effufions of univerfal philanthropy, I fhall always honour and applaud. As the fcourge of fanctified tyranny, and the advocate of oppreffed innocence, be his opinions what they will, he deserves the thanks of all mankind *. Mr. de Voltaire has more than once, but particularly in a late publication, endeavoured to ridicule our enthusiastic admiration of Shakespeare. His opinions are univer fally diffufed, and defervedly regarded; it is therefore of importance

The horrible hiftories of Calas, Sirven, and Barre, whilft they fix infamry on modern France, and on every form of government capable of fuffering fuch execrable enormities, cannot fail to reflect a glow of humanity on the name of Voltaire, which muft tranfmit him to pofterity in an amiable light. The infernal judges of Calas, Sirven, and Barre, were pious Chriftians ; Voltaire is an unbeliever!

convince him of his error: and this I think may. be done without attempting to vindicate any of the paffages which he has quoted as ridiculous or abfurd. The first general objection to Shakespeare, is, his total difregard of the three unities of time, place, and action. I allow the charge, and am convinced that Shakespeare was perfectly right;. because I never faw, or read, a tragedy, or comedy, fettered by thefe unities, which did not feem improbable, unnatural, and tedious. Can any thing be more ridiculous than to imagine, because the Greeks thought fit to prescribe certain arbitrary rules for the compofition of tragedy and comedy, that therefore every other nation, to the end of time, is bound to obferve thefe rules, and precluded from inventing any other fpecies of dramatic entertainment? Many of Shakespeare's' best plays are neither tragedies, nor comedies, but hiftories, properly and defignedly fo called by the first editors of his works; a fpecies of dramatic compofition, in which the leaft regard to thefe toolifh unities. would have been abfurd. A dramatic history, or hiftorical tragedy, is the exhibition of a fucceffion of pictures, reprefenting certain interefting events in a regular feries. Every fcene is a feparate picture, and the real interval of time between each, is of no importance to the fpectator. Hogarth's Mariage à la mode is an hiftorical tragedy upon canvas, against which, I prefume, no critic will urge the want of the three unities. If Hogarth had painted Shakespeare's history of Hamlet, would he have omitted the obnoxious fcene of the grave-diggers? Or did any man of real taste, fine feelings, and found judgement, ever wish, in reading Hamlet, that this fcene had not been written? The more I confider thefe Greek unities, the more I am convinced of their abfurdity. It were infinitely better for the English stage, if their chimerical existence in Nature had never been fuppofed. Who, that fhould fee a Slingsby dance in chains, would doubt that he would have danced better without them? Was there ever a reader, capable of enjoying Sterne's excentricity, who wished that he had written by rule? Or, to come nearer to the point, was there ever a man of even common understanding, who wished that Shakespeare's ghofts and witches had been facrificed to any rules whatfoever? If these unities had exifted in Nature, Shakespeare was fo well acquainted with her, that I truft he would have found them out: but Nature is so far from prefcribing the unities to a dramatic writer, that if he means to accoinplish the principal defign of the theatre, amufement, they must be carefully avoided. They were the invention of dullnefs, and are only leading-ftrings for puny poetafters. As to fome particular scenes, or fpeeches, which have been ridiculed because they are too low or vulgar for modern delicacy, it is quite fufficient to observe, that they were properly adapted to the taste and manners of at least a part of the audience for whom they were written. This is an argument of fo much weight, that it ought for ever to preclude all attempts to ridicule Shakespeare on that account.

The difcerning reader will perceive, from the above quotation, that Dr. Berkenhout is as heterodox in matters of the Drama as he appears to be in thofe of Divinity.-We wish, for the fake of that reception which we hope his work will meet with from the public, that he had been a little more VOL. V guarded

Ꮓ Ꮓ

guarded in his expreffions, and paid a greater deference to public opinion; especially as, in both thefe cafes, fuch opinion, at leaft profeffedly, is not merely that of the populace. There are many very exceptionable affertions in his note above quoted; the propriety of promulgating which he might find it very difficult to maintain. We are forry allo, for the fame reafon, that our ingenious Biographer has treated refpectable characters and great authorities, particularly thofe of the Church, with fo little ceremony; not to fay, in fome cafes, with great flippancy: a ftile of writing neither conciliating to readers in general, nor, in our opinion, very proper to the fubject. But we shall take our leave of him for the present, in the words of Peachum refpecting Macheath," the Captain's a bold Man."

W.

Pieces written by Monf. Falconet, and Monf. Diderot, on Sculp ture in general, and particularly on the celebrated Statue of Peter the Great, now finishing by the former at St. Petersburg. Tranflated from the French, with feveral Additions, By William Tooke, Chaplain to the Factory at St. Petersburg; and illuf trated by an elegant Plate of the Statue. 4to. 4s. Payne and Son.

The firft of the picces before us, is entitled Reflexions on Sculpture delivered feveral years ago, in a speech to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at Paris, by Mr. Falconet, fince famous for the Equeftrian Statue of Peter the Firft; which he has, many years, been employed in executing, for the embellishment of the capital of Ruffia. It has been long the

• This has been even unneceffarily extended to the fufferings of holy Martyrs, and the truths of divine revelation, the most facred and incontrovertible. Speaking of John Bradford, a Divine and Martyr at the Reformation, he fays: "We, of this lukewarm age, are not more aftonifhed at the cruelty of these pious executioners, than at the more pious folly of thofe poor victims to opinion. Bradford chofe rather to be burnt alive, than admit the word tranfubftantiation into his creed, because it was abfurd; but he wrote a book in defence of predeftination. Query, which is the moft abfurd "We might here Query what our ingenious doctor means. Does he mean the word tranfubftantiation and Bradford's book on predeftination? Or does he imean the two doctrines, when he asks which is the moft abfurd?-If the latter, the queftion is eafily anfwered. Tranfubftantiation is a doctrine neither fupported by Scripture nor reafon, and Predefination a doctrine fupported by both.-By predeftination, however, perhaps Dr. B. means the dainable doctrine of Reprobation, that infernal fuccedaneum, which our religious empirics fo often fubftitute inftead of it.

general

general notion, as Mr. Falcónet obferves, that an artist should not speak but with the pencil or chiffel in his hand; leaving to enlightened admirers the talk of difcourfing on his talents. This truly ingenious Sculptor, however, having been required to furnish an article, on the fubject of his art, for the Dictionaire Encyclopedique, was induced to tranfgrefs common forms and opinions, and to affume the privilege of the Amateur, by way of adding dignity to the Artist. Nor did he betray the want of fufficient knowledge in the theory of his art, to prescribe proper rules for its practice; proving himself equally a mafter in the laws of defign as in thofe of execution.

The purpose of this oration is to fhew that the imitation of natural objects, in fubjection to the rules of the antients, conftitutes the true beauties of Sculpture. That our artift is not, however, fo implicitly attached to the Antique, as to adopt its defects, like many of our modern virtuofi, appears from the following judicious reflections on this fubject.

"The Grecian ftatues are the most certain guide; they are, and will ever be, the rule of precifion, of grace and elegance, as being the most perfect reprefentations of the human body. To a man fatisfied with a fuperficial examination of them, thefe ftatues will not appear to be very extraordinary things, nor even difficult to imitate: but the intelligent and attentive artist will discover in fome of them the moft profound knowledge of defign, joined to all the energy of Nature. Thus thofe Sculptors who have moft ftudied, with choice, the antique figures, have ever been the most diftinguished in their profeffion, 1 fay, with choice; and I believe the remark to be well founded.

"However fine the ftatues of antiquity may be, they are still but human productions, and confequently fufceptible of the imperfections of humanity: it would therefore be dangerous for an artiff to bestow his admiration indifferently on every thing that bears the name of antique. It might happen, that, having admired the pretended wonders of certain antiques, and which they do not poffefs, he would make efforts to render them his own, and would fail of being admired. It is a difcernment, enlightened, judicious, and unprejudiced, that muft discover to him the beauties and the defects of the ancients; and, having once learned how to appreciate them, he will tread in their steps with fo much the more confidence, as being convinced that they will conduct him to whatever is great and fublime. It is in this judicious difcerument that a delicacy of taste appears; and the talents of the Sculptor are always in proportion to this delicacy. A very moderate knowledge of the ftate of our arts among the Greeks is fufficient to convince us that they too had their moments of drowfinefs and langour. The fame tafte reigned, but an equal knowledge was not imparted alike to every artist: the pupil of an excellent Sculptor may poffefs the manner of his mafter, without having the fame head.