NO. I.

AND

Journal of the Belles Lettres.

EXPRESSLY DESIGNED FOR THE POLITE CIRCLES.

SATURDAY, JAN. 25, 1817.

PRELIMINARY ADDRESS.

PRICE 1s.

its objects may claim, and the diligence of its conductors shall be found to deserve.

AMIDST the difficulties resulting from a state of arduous Though at the commencement of a Periodical Publicaand protracted warfare, it is gratifying to reflect, that the tion, altogether new in its construction, and which from its cause of Literature has suffered no declension. On the very nature must be susceptible of continual improvement, contrary, it is matter of exultation, that while the Conti- it would be premature to lay down any determinate mode nent was wasted for the purposes of ambition, England of arrangement, or to limit the subjects within any prewas not less respected for her pre-eminence in science, scribed class; the following may be submitted as the than for her superiority in commerce, the firmness of her general distribution of the contents, and the particulars of councils, and the vigour of her arms; whilst the interrup- those parts adapted to prominent attention and minute tion of scientific correspondence with Britain was as deeply lamented by the learned, as that of commercial intercourse was regretted by the mercantile, world.

detail:

I. ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE; Foreign and Domestic.

II. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NEW PUBLICA

Whatever may be the weight of public burthens, or the severity of individual trials, it cannot be denied, that a TIONS; English and Foreign. rapid advance has been made in every department of practi- III. VARIETIES on all Subjects connected with cal science, which in a great degree countervails the sacri- POLITE LITERATURE-Discoveries and Improvefices we have endured. Of such a position in the scale of ments-Phænomena of Nature and Mind-Philosophical moral and intellectual excellence, the inhabitants of these Researches--Rural Economy--Scientific Inventions--realms may well be proud; but it behoves them also to Sketches of Society, Manners and Morals-Proceedings maintain this elevation for their own security, and the of Universities, Public Societies, &c. &c. edification of posterity, for the advantage of the common-wealth of letters, and the general benefit of mankind.

A spirit of research has been excited, which has enlarged the boundaries of knowledge beyond the expectations of the most sanguine labourers in this extensive field; and the effects have spread to such a degree as to render the capital of the British Empire the centre of literary information, as well as the emporium of commercial speculation.

IV. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS of Persons distinguished by their talents aud public merits.

V. ORIGINAL LETTERS and ANECDOTES of remarkable Personages.

VI. ESSAYS on the FINE ARTS, which shall be conducted with due regard to Science and Liberality. VII. REVIEW of BRITISH and FOREIGN DRAMA; including the Italian Opera, with NEW MUSIC, &c. VIII. MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES of LITERWhen these circumstances are considered, it is surpris-ARY INTELLIGENCE: Notices of Works projected, ing that, among the number of Journals issued from the and in a state of forwardness; Announcements of New metropolitan press, none has hitherto appeared exclusively Publications, and New Editions; Works of Art, &c. devoted to the progressive state of Literature, and the Such is the general outline of this Weekly Paper, which, subjects to which it bears an immediate relation. The periodical works, already in existence, uniformly embrace such a variety of particulars as to be precluded from exhibiting any thing like a detailed view of Literary History; and though some of them devote a few pages to this interesting object, in none will be found an exact account of the state of knowledge in other countries. The British public still remain very imperfectly acquainted with the progress made by their neighbours in discoveries which enrich, and refinements which embellish society; notwith- For the faithful execution of the various departments, standing the facilities now afforded for this important the Proprietors can safely pledge themselves, having taken species of information, so essential to the commerce of dae care to secure the very best assistance; and they have genius, by the opening of the Continent, and the restor- also received promises of encouragement, with contributions, ation of that intercourse which was so long suspended from persons who adorn the highest walks of society by among the Nations of Europe. their literary taste, and by their zeal in the promotion of works of utility.

by communicating the earliest Intelligence on all Literary subjects, must prove of the greatest importance to men of letters; to those who are interested in the Commerce of Books, or the encouragement of Inventions; and propor tionably so to the public at large, as exhibiting a clear and instructive picture of the Moral and Literary Improvement of the Times, forming at the end of each year a complete and authentic Chronological Literary Register for general reference.

The patronage already conceded to them is beyond their most sanguine hopes; more especially as they have been graciously favoured with the Illustrious name of HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS the PRINCE REGENT as their FIRST

To supply this desideratum, and to improve upon the examples which have been set by Foreign Nations in the establishment of Journals appropriated solely to the record of matters relating to the state of general knowledge, is the particular object of the Proprietors of the LITERARY GAZETTE, who now venture to lay their plan before the SUBSCRIBER. public, soliciting only such patronage as the importance of To obtain the earliest and best intelligence from Fo

REIGN CAPITALS, a Correspondence has been instituted who have triumphed before them. The ancients they are with men of the first literary eminence; besides which, accustomed to sweep away at one stroke, to damn with a all the Foreign Journals, &c. will be regularly procured, word, to dismiss in a single sentence. Next in the order and their literary contents extracted, in order that the state of proscription comes every thing English, and then the of science, morals, and letters, abroad as well as at home, literature of every other nation. Adam Smith is far from may be fairly brought under review. Thus the labours of being free from this imputation:-it is well known that the studious will be materially aided, and the infinitely his idol was the originality of his own speculations, and diversified ideas and pursuits of the ingenious will be con- his jealousy upon this point was susceptible in the extreme. centrated into a common focus for their mutual advantage, His publishing his great and most valuable work of the as well as that of the public in general. Wealth of Nations, without any references to former

To the LITERARY WORLD in general, to PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS and READING SOCIETIES, it must become an indispensable acquisition; while to BOOKSELLERS it presents the greatest advantages ever afforded for giving effectual publicity to their new undertakings.

With such qualifications, all of them favorable to human authors, and without the slightest acknowledgment of enjoyment, and essential to the advancement of know-obligation, is in our opinion more than suspicious; espeledge, the LITERARY GAZETTE cannot, it is presumed, cially when it can be shown that he borrowed, most profail to be acceptable to the higher classes of society. As perly and most justifiably, not only the matter of much of a family companion, this Journal will prove not only a that work, but the allusions and illustrations, from all source of delighful entertainment from the variety and quarters, from the right and from the left. But in the value of its contents, but of the greatest consequence in works of Mr. Hume this spirit breaks out on all sides with the office of Education, by enlarging the views of youth, far more openness. As a philosopher he found Locke, quickening a spirit of virtuous emulation, and facilitating as he thought, in his way, and did all he could to remove the labours of the instructor. bim-as an historian and a politician, there is a note in his History which speaks of Rapin, Burnet, and again of Locke, in a tone of contempt, which not only his abilities, great as they were, did not justify him in assuming, but which no human abilities can justify one writer in adopting towards another. The same work is full of the most unfair and insufficient criticisms upon all the earlier writers of England; particularly upon Clarendon, whose History, though he was himself an actor in the events of which he treats, is a model of impartiality compared with his own; and upon Raleigh, in whose essay entitled "the Sceptic," he might have found, and perhaps did find, many of his own philosophical opinions. In his essays he says that the first polite English prose was written by a man then alive, (Dr. Swift) and thus in one sweeping sentence condemns, as far as he is able, all who preceded that writer, to oblivion and neglect.

At the end of the year an Index of Contents, with Title, &c. will be given; including a list of the New Publications, forming a complete Annual Catalogue.

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

AUGUSTAN WRITERS AND EDINBURGH

REVIEWERS.

"WHEN we were at our studies, some twenty-five years ago, we can perfectly remember that every young man was set to read POPE, SWIFT, and ADDISON.-All this, however, we take it, is now pretty well altered. Their names, indeed, are still familiar to our ears; but their writings no longer solicit our

habitual notice.

"Speaking generally of that generation of Authors, it may be said that as Poets, they had no force or greatness of fancy; -no pathos and no enthusiasm; and, as Philosophers, no comprehensiveness, depth, or originality."-Edinburgh Review.

Art. I. No. 58.

The above observations have been irresistibly drawn from us by the perusal of a criticism upon the works of tember. In all that is said of the moral and political chaSwift, published in the Edinburgh Review for last Sepracter of that remarkable man, we have only to express our concurrence; but the judgment which is passed upon his literary talents sufficiently proves that the feelings of No persons can be less disposed than ourselves to the founders of the Scotch School of Literature, have dewithhold their due share of praise and gratitude from the scended in their full force upon their successors. The numerous valuable works, which have, during the last object, however, is somewhat changed. It was not long sixty or seventy years, been produced by the writers of ago the tone of the Universities of Scotland to decry and Scotland. We feel the greatest admiration for the abili- undervalue poetry and all works of imagination, particuties of many of them: and for the success, with which larly all which were formed upon the English rather than those abilities have been exerted. But it is impossible not upon the French model. This was when they had no poet to observe also the extreme jealousy of all foreign merit, of their own. Some of them indeed would at times make which characterises them all, with very few exceptions, an effort to elevate Allan Ramsay, John Home, and from the first of them to the last, from the most eminent Smollet, into that character-some, with better reason, to the most obscure. They seem to be utterly discon- relied upon Thomson, and one gallant attempt was made tented with any distinction, unless they acquire it alone to establish a rival to Homer in the person of Ossian. But and without a rival; and they pant after the praise of the more judicious amongst them perceived, that it was far complete originality, which is the only praise that the more feasible to persuade the world that poetry was, in' order of nature renders it impossible they should obtain. itself, a poor thing, than that these were great and superior Whether in mathematics or in history, in political eco-poets. But the case is altered now. They have poets of nomy or in moral philosophy, this is one of the unva- undoubted success in their own day. Therefore the Edinrying characteristics of the school. A clear stage appears to be their object, and they are unwilling to enter the lists, unless they can erase from the roll of fame the names of all

burgh Review is of opinion, that" the writers who adorned the beginning of the last century, have been eclipsed by those of our own time." Now, by whom have they been

eclipsed? Not by Mr. Southey, Mr. Coleridge, &c. whose viewer appears to us to have been far from selecting the works have been, often very justly, criticised, and almost most favorable examples. The Legion Club and other uniformly in a great degree condemned, by the Edinburgh satirical pieces, which he wrote after his retirement to Review-but by Mr. Walter Scott, Mr. Campbell, and Ireland, have always appeared to us in many parts to outLord Byron, whose productions alone have received warm Herod Herod. They are violent and outrageous, and commendation in that work. To celebrate this grand seem to indulge in filth and beastliness, for their own triumph of the New School, not only Swift, Pope, and sake, without any witty or fair application. But what Addison, but all the poets who have flourished from their can equal the verses upon his own death? and many of time down to that of Cowper, are thrown in to make up his small occasional political pieces, such as the Bundle the hecatomb "Gray, with the talents rather of a critic, of Sticks, and the fable of Midas, are in every point of than a poet"-" Goldsmith wrote with perfect elegance view admirable. Cadenus and Vanessa may be termed, a and beauty." Now we must say, that large and volum- it is in the Edinburgh Review, cold. It certainly is not inous as are already the productions of Mr. Scott and Lord the language of love, nor was it intended to be so. Some Byron, and little inclined as we are to deny their merit, we expressions are become obsolete; some, a usual fate of are not prepared to admit, that they have as yet surpassed phraseology, are now no longer used in the higher circles, the small contents of the very thin volumes, which have and therefore sound vulgar: but, making allowance for the been left us by Mr. Gray and Dr. Goldsmith. If there be effects of time, the wit and grace of the work must always in the compass of literature an example of the rare union please. So far from thinking, with the Edinburgh Review, of genius and learning, and of the assistance which, under that," of his poetry there is not much to be said," we the guidance of taste, the one may receive from the other, could expatiate upon its many and various excellences, it is to be found in the two Pindaric Odes of Gray; and but we must content ourselves with observing one beauty for an affecting situation, for that mixture of personal of it, which as far as we know, in our language, is pecufeelings and philosophical reflection, which forms so much liarly his own. He does not share it with Butler nor with of the charm of serious poetry, for ideas moral and sub-Prior, nor with any other. His expressions are always the lime, clothed in the happiest expressions, and for a versi- most appropriate, his metre the most exact, his rhymes fication smooth and flowing, without being elaborate, lan- the most perfect, and yet his verses always flow in the guid, or monotonous, we must own we know not where most easy manner, without effort, without inversion, and in the works of more modern authors to look for any thing generally in the order into which his words would naturally more felicitous than the Traveller of Goldsmith. fall, if he were writing prose or speaking in common conversation.

To the Editor of the Literary Gazette.

With respect to the writers of Queen Anne's day, who are the great objects of this attack, our limits will not allow us to enter into any general discussion of their merits. To the assertion, that "as philosophers. they SIR, DURING my residence at Paris, in the summer of had no comprehensiveness, depth, or originality," it may the last year, it was my good fortune to make the acquaintbe replied, that Pope, in his earlier and better works laid ance of the Abbé Gregoire, Ex-Bishop of Blois, to whose no claim to that title, and to the statement, that "as urbanity and confidential frankness of communication I poets, they had no force or greatness of fancy, no pathos, stand largely indebted. Our conversations having more and no enthusiasm," we can only answer by asking, is than once turned upon the progress and actual condition this really meant to include the author of Abelard and of Civilization in Europe, and upon the means of increas Eloisa? "No force or greatness of fancy, no pathos, and no ing and disseminating knowledge, the Abbé confided to enthusiasm!" For heaven's sake read that work once more! my care a series of observations on the possibility and We do not advert to the coarser allusions it contains, which, expediency of establishing a general Congress of literati in our opinion, blemish it and greatly hurt the general and men of science, without distinction of nation, sect or effect of the poem. With respect to the immediate sub-colour, for the purpose of giving greater vigour and comject in question, namely, the writings of Dr. Swift, we bination to their common labours.

are realy to admit, that many of the remarks, such as My original intention was to have inserted this interestthose upon the poverty of his prose style, are not ing paper in Lady Morgan's forthcoming work on France; without foundation; but still, when all that is just is al- but the redundancy of her materials compels her to exlowed, the writer remains unequalled, inimitable, and clude from that publication every thing merely episodical. superior. But if in this examination some faults are The medium also of your Literary Gazette will perhaps found, many merits are omitted, and we do not think an give the Abbé's remarks a circulation more congenial to essay upon the works of Swift does much credit to the in- their nature and object. dustry and accuracy of its author, which considers him as The project developed in these "Remarks,” has already a politician without noticing his opinions upon the national been announced in a discourse (extracted from an unpubdebt, and as a poet, without observing the very peculiar lished work) read at the institute of France, at a public excellence of his style and versification. Upon the fund-sitting held in the year 1796, and printed in the first voing system al may not perhaps exactly agree with his lume of the memoirs of the class of moral and political opinion, but he has undoubtedly, the praise of having seen science, p. 552, &c. During the domination of the very clearly and distinctly into its nature at a very early National Convention, the Abbé maintained a frequent period, as may be found by a reference to his pamphlet intercourse with the principal literary and scientific men upon the conduct of the allies; and of having expressed then existing in France, for the purpose of averting the himself upon it with a precision and perspicuity certainly persecution under which that class of society laboured; never since surpassed. Of his poetry, the Edinburgh Re- and of rescuing from destruction the monuments of art.

With the present project in contemplation, he, at the same to amusement than to integrity, decrees to genius, degraded time, formed connexions with several writers of even dis- by abuse, those honors which it refuses to probity and respectant nations. The consular and diplomatic agents of the tability, and crowns the brows of a licentious poet with laurels French government seconded these intentions: and, by gathered from the very sinks of infamy and of vice. If the people deemed civilized exhibit some virtues, or pertheir means, he was enabled to renew the epistolary con-haps the exterior of virtues, which are wanting among barbanexion, which had formerly subsisted between the Sama- rians, these last too frequently betray qualities for which we ritans of Naplouse (the ancient Sychem) and Joseph Scali- may in vain look, amongst more polished nations. But when ger, Ludolphe, Marshall, and Huntingdon; and which had Rousseau maintained that the sciences were injurious to hubeen interrupted for 119 years. The details and first manity, he rested his doctrine upon facts which were far from transactions of this correspondence have been published incontrovertible. Instead, however, of attacking him on his in the second vol. of M. Gregoire's "Histoire des Sectes," that there is no necessary connexion between illumination and own grounds, the majority of his antagonists opposed the theory, and also in a journal printed at Vienna under the title of vice; a proposition by no means difficult to prove. Formey, "Fundgruben des Orients." The importance of the sub-in modifying the opinions of the philosopher of Geneva, con ject has been felt by many persons of the highest literary sidered the relations of virtue and the sciences as accidental, eminence; but it was, I believe, at the suggestion of Sir holding that the latter have neither a good nor an evil tendency John Sinclair, that the Abbé's paper was thrown into its in themselves, but offer an infinity of sources of amelioration present form. In translating the French MS. I have taken for those who choose to profit by them. the liberty of omitting some few passages, not immediately relative to the subject, and a little perhaps discordant with the present state of our press;-for the rest, it is as literal and faithful as I am able to render it. I am, Sir,

To point out the evils which afflict humanity is to invoke the remedy; and the remedy in the present case is to obtain possession of the rising generation, and to give them a direction calculated to improve the moral character in all its relations. If, in the mean time, the illuminated part of mankind can conspire to the accomplishment of this object, or remedy the evils resulting from its failure, by the establishment of wise institutions, it becomes a paramount duty with them to make the attempt; and a Congress would materially contribute to their capamankind apply to the cultivation of reason; and engage in the bilities in this respect. The republic of letters exists wherever study of nature to explore its mysteries and to venerate its author. Inventions of all kinds, the riches of the imagination, the energy of sentiment, all that is profound in thought, or vast and hardy in conception, belong to the demesne of this republie; which embraces every age, every place, every being; a republic, born doubtless with the commencement of the world, and destined to partake, without limit, in the extent of its du ration.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.-The common acceptation of the word "Civilization" indicates the progress of a nation in Science, Letters, and the Fine Arts. This progress is indeed ordinarily adopted as the standard for judging of the degree of The republic of letters allows of a gradation of rank, detercivilization, to which any nation has arrived. The notion, mined by admiration, by esteem, and by gratitude; but, without however, if not false, is, at least, defective; for if Illumination is admitting anarchy, it is, and ever must be, in the strictest etyuseful, Virtue is essential;-so essential that no other endow-mology of the word, "acephalous," and it excludes all idea of ments can supply its place. domination. A French writer of the last century, whose supe

In a society totally depraved, the sciences and belles lettres rior talents and extensive acquirements placed him at the head may, it is true, subsist for some short time: but when sound of his cotemporaries, while he reigned in Parnassus, attempt knowledge is unassociated with purity of sentiment, the conta-ed to extend his sceptre over every branch of human knowgion of morals will speedily introduce a corruption of taste. An epoch like this is most imminently dangerous to public order, which must inevitably decompose and dissolve under the operation of such causes." To carry to its highest point the purity of morals, and to develope to the uttermost the intellectual faculties," seems then, the true definition of the word, "to civilize." The false policy, which too universally influences governments, has taught them to forget that, of all riches, morality is the most precious; and if Europe be less advanced in virtue than in illumination, it is because public attention has been too much occupied with the latter, and too little engaged with the former. The radical vice in all countries, but more especially in France, is the exclusive cultivation of the understanding, at the expense of the heart, the neglect of conducting the moral aud intellectual faculties in a parallel march, and of rendering them, by their equal developement, a reciprocal balance to each other.

ledge, supported on one side by those who saw in him the Coryphaus of their party, and on the other, by an host of inferior writers, who crowded round him to court his approbation, and to beg his protection. But, in the midst of his triumphal course, Voltaire had to encounter incessantly with irritated selflove contesting his superiority, and with truth revealing his mistakes. With him fell that ephemeral dictatorship, which the independence of the human mind should for ever repel. Without, however, controverting the independence of the republic of letters, it may be demanded, whether it be not susceptible of an organization, which would concentrate its efforts and direct its labours to a common object, thereby ensuring the success of its operations, and hastening the progress of general illumination. Is such an organization possible? would it be useful? and if so, what is the proper plan to follow? what the means of execution? Such are the questions which it is proposed to treat in the following observations. (To be continued.)

1 Memoirs de l'Academie de Berlin, T, iii, p. 304.

2 Voltaire ruled over the writers of his day, rather as a gene

The affections, exclusively cultivated, in ignorant and unenlightened minds, engender a fanatical exaltation of feeling; while the intellect, developed without due attention to morals, calls forth in the infant breast a precocity of passions, against which there exists no principle of opposition or control. Thus ral conducting an army, than as a despot constraining a people. those endowments which are created to second and support morality, become converted into the engines of its destruction. Hence the frequency of witty, but depraved characters; and the existence of that prejudice which, attaching more importance

He gave in some measure the tone which discussion took, but never imposed dogmas by an authoritative ipse dixit. Dr. Johnson may much more justly be deemed the tyrant of literature. T.