Literary Review. 66 ART. 1. The Enquirer. (Concluded from page 384.) he obferve the paffengers, he reads their countenances, Iconjectures their paft history, and forms a fuperficial no tion of their wisdom or folly, their virtue or vice, their fatisfaction or mifery. If he obferve the scenes that occur, it is with the eye of a connoiffeur or an artist. Every object is capable of suggesting to him a volume of reflections. The time of these two perfonis in one refpect refembles; it has brought them both to Hyde Park Corner. In almost every other respect it is diffimilar. "What is it that tends to generate these very oppofite habits of mind? "Probably nothing has contributed more than an early tafte for reading. Books gratify and excite our curiofity in innumerable ways. They force us to reflect. They hurry us from point to point. They prefent direct ideas of various kinds, and they fuggeft indirect ones. In a well-written book we are prefented with the matureft reflections, or the happiest flights, of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impoffible that we can be much accustomed to fuch companions, without attaining some resemblance of them. When I read Thomson, I become Thomson; when I read Milton, I become Milton. I find myself a fort of intellectual camelion, affuming the colour of the fubftances on which I reft. He that revels in a well-chofen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour. His tafte is rendered fo acute, as easily to diftinguish the nicest shades of difference. His mind becomes ductile, fufceptible to every impreffion, and gaining new refinement from them all. His varieties of thinking baffle calculation, and his powers, whether of reafon or fancy, become eminently vigorous. VOL. I. ૨૧ " Much "Much feems to depend, in this cafe, upon the period at which the tafte for reading has cominenced. If it be late, the mind feems frequently to have acquired a previous obftinacy and untractablenefs. The late redder makes a superficial acquaintance with his author, but is never admitted into the familiarity of a friend. Stiffness and formality are always vifible between them He does not become the creature of his author; neither bends with all his caprices, nor fympathifes with all his fenfations. This mode of reading, upon ,which we depend for the confummation of our improvement, can scarcely be acquired, unless we begin to read with pleasure at a period too caly for memory to record, lifp the numbers of the poet, and in our unpractifed imagination adhere to the letter of the moralifing allegorift. In that cafe we fhall foon be induced ourselves to "build" the unpolished "rhyme,"* and shall act over, in fond imitation, the scenes we have reviewed. "An early taste for reading, though a moft promifing indication, must not be exclufively depended on. It must be aided by favourable circumftances, or the early reader may degenerate into an unproductive pedant, or a literary idler. It seemed to appear in a preceding effay, that genius, when ripened to the birth, may yet be extinguifhed. Much more may the materials of genius fuffer an untimely blight and terminate in an abortion. But what is most to be feared, is that fome adverfe gale fhould hurry the adventurer a thousand miles athwart into the chaos of laborious flavery, removing him from the genial influence of a tranquil leifure, or tranf-porting him to a dreary climate where the half-formed bloffoms of hope fhall be irremediably deftroyed +. That the mind may expiate in its true element, it is neceffary that it fhould become neither the victim of labour, nor the slave of terror, difcouragement, and difguft. This is the true danger; as to pedantry, it may be queftioned whether it is the offspring of early reading, or not rather of a taste for reading taken up at a late and inaufpicious period." * Milton. The canker galls the infants of the spring, SHAKESPEARE. One One thing must be observed, and it is highly honourable to Mr. Godwin: every where does he inculcate the manlinefs and beauty of fincerity; every where does he elevate the human mind, and exhort it to the practice of virtue. With the eloquent Rouffeau, he is difgufted at the artificial virtues of fashionable life, and his fentiments," Of Politeness," that practife of " the icffer moralities," form an impreffive expofition of a much-injured and amiable science. Mr. Godwin feems anxious for the difcovery of truth; but, in purfuit of that discovery, too neglectful of experience. Hypothefis fucceeds hypothefis, and problem follows upon problem, till the fcience-wanting reader it bewildered among truths, and convinced by error, through the force of amazement. Well-read men incur no danger from the perufal of "air-built fpeculations;" but it is not fo with too fanguine and inquifitive youth. They may be irrecoverably loft in fuch a fpecious labyrinth of metaphyfics. They, led away by the most generous paffions of humanity, are too apt to become converts to fyftems fuperficially great. They hope every thing, and judge of little. We have attentively read "The Enquirer," and we fully credit Mr. Godwin for the rectitude of his intentions: he thinks independently. The man who thinks independently, muft think originally; and he who thinks originally, will often think fancifully. ART. II. A Cure for the Heart-Ache; a Comedy, in five acts, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden. By Thomas Morton, Efq. Author of Columbus, Zorinski, Way to Get Married, and Children in the Wood. pp. 87. Longman. 25. 1797. As a confirmation of the literary opinion given of this comedy, in our Dramatic Review, we prefent the following converfation: ૨ ૧૩ "Enter "Enter Mr. VORTEX with a paper in his hand, attended by black and white Servants. Vortex. Sublime !-Oh the fame of this fpeech will spread to Indoftan. Eh! dont I smell the pure air in this room? Oh !-you villains, would you deftroy me, throw about the perfumes. For legislative profundity, for fancy and decoration-'tis a fpeech Ellen. What fpeech is it, fir? Vortex. Ah! Ellen,-why my maiden fpeech in Parliament. It will alarm all Europe; I'll fpeak it to you. Ellen. No, my dear uncle, not just now.-I hear you've been ill. Vortex. Oh! very. A ftrange agitation at my heart, and such a whizzing and spinning in my head Ellen. I hope you've had advice? Vortex. Oh, yes, I've had them all. One phyfician told me it was caused by too brilliant and effervefcent a genius; the next faid, it was the fcurvy; a third, it proceeded from not eating pepper to a melon; another had the impudence to hint it was only little qualms that agitated fome gentlemen who had made fortunes in India; one recommended a fea voyage, another a flannel night-cap; one prefcribed water, the other brandy :-but, however, they all agreed in this ef fential point-that I'm not to be contradicted, but have my way in every thing. Ellen. An extremely pleasant prescription, certainly.But, under these circumstances, do you hold it prudent, uncle, to become a parliamentary orator? I believe a little gentle contradiction is usual in that House? Vortex. I know it; but if you will hear my fpeech, you will fee how I manage. I begin-Sir Enter Servant. Serv. Your daughter, fir, is arrived from town. Ellen. Thank you, coufin, for this relief. Vortex. Zounds! I'm not to be interrupted. Serv. She is here, fir. Enter Mifs VORTEX. [Afile. Mifs Vor. My dear Nabob, uncommon glad to fee you. Ah! Ellen; what, tired of feclufion and a cottage? Ellen. Ellen. I hope, coufin, I am welcome to you. Mifs Vor. Certainly; you know we are uncommon glad to fee any body in the country. But, my dear Nabob, you don't enquire about the opening of our town-house. Vortex. I was thinking of my speech. Mifs Vor. The most brilliant house-warming-uncommon full-above a thousand people-every body there. Ellen. Pray, coufin, do you then vifit every body? Ellen. Muft! I fhould imagine that wou'd depend on inclination. Mifs Vor. Inclination! Phaw! I beg your pardon; but you are really uncommon ignorant, my dear. They must afk me, I tell you.-Now suppose a duchess rash enough to fhut me from her parties very well. She names a nightI name the fame, and give an entertainment greatly furpaffing her's in fplendour and profufion. What is the confequence? why, that her rooms are as deferted as an ex-minister's levee, and mine cramm'd to fuffocation with her grace's most puiffant and noble friends.-Ha! ha! my dear Ellen, the Court of St. James's run after a good fupper as eagerly as the Court of Aldermen. Ha! ha! your being in this country, Nabob, was thought quite charming. A hoft not being at home to receive his guefts is uncommon new and elegant, is'nt it? Here we improve, my dear, on ancient hospitality-Those little memorandums, Nabob, will give you an idea of that fort of thing. Vortex. (Reads.) "March."-Oh! that's a delightful month, when nature produces nothing, and every thing is forc'd. Let me fee-" 50 quarts of green peas at five guineas. a quart," that was pretty well;-" 500 peaches,”- -at what? "a guinea each."-Oh! too cheap. Mifs Vor. 'Tis very true; but, I affure you, I tried every where to get them dearer, but cou'd not. Vortex. And, I fuppose the new white fatin furniture was all fpoil'd. Mifs Vor. Oh! entirely; and the pier glaffes fhiver'd to pieces fo delightfully. Vortex. Well, I hope you had the whole account put in the newspapers? Q ૧ 3 Mifs |