philofophy; and to us, who, with the prefent author, believe not in moral fenfes which are connate with the mind, and are perfuaded that a fyftem of practical ethics, which refts not on the bafis of religion, cannot be ftable, the following paragraph appears excellent.

"Upon the whole, we are forced to acknowledge, that hither. to we have found no reason to imagine that a wife man would ever die for his country, or fuffer martyrdom in the cause of virtue. The only way in which we can extend the obligations of virtue to every eircumftance that can happen, is by fuppofing that the end of life is not the end of being; that death is but a removal to fome other ftage, where our good works shall follow us, and yield a plentiful harvest of happiness which had not time to ripen here. This must undoubtedly make a great alteration in the queftion: now whether there is any ground for this fuggeftion, and for fuch a fuppofed connection between our interests here and in fome other ftate which is to come, is what I propose to examine in the fucceeding book." P. 159.

(To be continued.)

12mo.

ART. XI. The Life of Thomas Chatterton.
Author of Travels in America.

Tegg. 1807.

MUCH

UCH tafte, and the trueft feeling of his fubject, is evinced by this biographer of Chatterton; who leads his hero through the few ftages of his fhort life, in fuch a manner as to make evident the ftrong bics of his mind, towards his great object, the imitation of ancient writings; and his astonishing powers in executing whatever he chofe to undertake. It is a fubject for the profoundest melancholy, to confider the extraordinary genius of that unfortunate youth; and the dreadful manner in which it was fo early lost to the world. The chronological sketch of his life, given at the end of this book, difplays perhaps the moft fingular picture that was ever exhibited, and can hardly be contemplated without tears.

"Born three months after his father's

Nov. 20, 1752. death.

Nov. 1757.

"Left the fchool in Pile-ftreet, when he was five.

"Went to Colton's charity.fchool before

October, 1760. he was eight.

July

"Left Colfton's charity-fchool, and was

July 1, 1767. articled to Mr. Lambert, when fourteen years and feven months old.

"He was almoft fixteen at the opening of

October 1, 1768. the New Bridge at Bristol, and had been at Mr. Lambert's one year and three months.

November, 1768.

April, 1770.

April 25, 1770.

"Soon after known to Catcott and Barrett.

"Difmiffed from the attorney's desk and drudgery.

"Arrived in London indulging golden dreams.

"Unrewarded for his literary labours, and pinched by want, he applied to Barret for 2

August 12, 1770. recommendation as furgeon's mate to a flave. fhip, and was refused.

Auguft 20 & 21,

1770.

"Without food.

"Rushed before his Maker, aged feventeen August 22, 1770. years and five months.” P. 144.

It has been ufual to lay much ftrefs on the difparity between the Rowleian productions of Chatterton, and thofe which he publifhed as his own; which is fully accounted for by the difference between leifure and hurry, eafe and diftraction of mind. But ftill more furprifing to us, than even the excellence of his feigned antiquities, is the extraordinary verfatility of genius, with which, on coming to London, at the age of only feventeen years and five months, he feized upon all the current topics of the day, political and literary; was able to attract attention as a writer on both fides of politics, and " to fupport very principally, by his fingle exertions, the credit of five periodical works. (See p. 115.) Such a fever of invention might naturally be expected to produce the difmal confequences which followed; especially when checked by the dreadful chill of disappointment and diftrefs. But fuch powers, at fuch an age, and with an education fo imperfect, were certainly never difplayed before in the world; and probably never may again. For what purpose they were difplayed, except to fhow the world, in the ftrongeft colours, its own ftupid infenfibility and fordid selfishnefs, it is difficult now even to guess.

Many paffages in this fmall work might be brought forward, with fatisfaction to our readers, but the following contains fo much illuftration of the extraordinary character of Chatterton, that we are inclined to prefer it.

The

"The fpirit of Chatterton was depreffed into despair by the repulfe of Mr. Walpole. Neither books, nor walks in Redcliff meadows, nor the female face divine, any longer delighted him. Such was his mental wretchednefs, fo irkfome was his condition, fo gloomy was his defpondency, that his understanding became perverted, and he formed the refolution to diffolve his union. with vifible nature.

"Chatterton was at this juncture fomewhat more than feventeen; his breaft foared above a profeffion, fordid, fervile and laborious; but his hopes of emancipation were blafted, he found his early bloffoms withering in obfcurity, and he funk beneath the frowns of ignorant and infolent wealth.

"Chatterton was not willing to quit the world, without making a will, which differs from wills in general, that he bequeathes no money to any one, but his endowments of mind. In this will he partially developes his own character.

"The imagination forms many projects which the heart has not refolution to execute. Chatterton did not yet commit the crime of fuicide; he only made his will. This will be left in a defk to which Mr. Lambert had accefs: he fhewed it to Mrs. Lambert, his mother; the old lady on reading it was filled with terror, and the fcrivener, inftead of privately, tenderly and fe riously reproving his apprentice, and holding out to him the con folation of the facred text, difmiffed him with opprobrious re. proaches from his fervice, in which he had continued two years, nine months and thirteen days, faithful in the acquittal of his duty, temperate in his living, and exemplary in conforming with the domeftic hours of the house.

"Turned out of doors by the attorney, the breast of Chatterton felt all the joy of a manumitted flave. His mind was not formed of common materials. It made him defpife what others coveted. He could abftain for months from animal food, and be content with bread and water; he was indifferent to ac commodations, and could fleep upon the flint. These privations to him were fcarcely negative infelicity: his pofitive unhappinefs was caused by his tender sense of feeling.

"This is the proper place to take a view of the moral conduct of Chatterton, during his apprenticeship with Mr. Lambert, We have both the teftimony of Mrs. Newton and Mr. Thistlewaite, that he was exemplary in his habits. Of few young men in his fituation it can be faid, that during a courfe of three years he was never once out of the office at the ftated hours of attendance, and only once exceeded the family hours, which was at Chriftmas, when he paffed the evening with a party of friends under the roof of his mother, whofe indulgence detained him to the hour of eleven.

Erroneously printed approbious. Rev.

"In his attachment to females he appears rather in an amiable than an unamiable light. For the unhappy women who patrole the college green, and every ftreet in Bristol, frightening the owls, and making night hideous: for thefe unhappy creatures, acceffible for a fmall pecuniary compenfation, Chatterton difcovered no inclination. If ever he was heard to exclaim, "Alas! the nymphs whofe beauty raifes a tumult in the city, rob my heart of reft,"it was not the abandoned, nightly outcaft who difturbed his tranquillity, but the charms of Maria, in whofe countenance there was a dash of melancholy, which could be only afcribed to a void of heart, to her want of fome one object on whom to fix her affections.

In the tender charities of a fon, he may be fafely held up as a pattern to mankind. Whenever he was liberated from attendance on the office, he flew on the wings of affection to his grandmother, his mother and fifter, whom he loved from the bottom of his heart. We faw him moft evenings, fays Mrs. Newton, before nine, and he would generally tay till the limits of his time, which was ten.

His

"Difmiffed from the fcrivener, it was neceffary for Chatterton to embrace fome mode of life, that would fecure him a fubfift. ence. For the ftudy of the law he entertained a fupreme difguft; indeed fuch was the little progrefs he had made in it, that he expreffed his inability to draw out his own clearance. mother could not fupport him; the thoughts of trade fickened his heart; he had been invited by the bookfellers to London; and this encouragement concurring with his ambition of intel lectual eminence, he was determined to 'adopt the profeffion of an author, and hoped by the quickness of his fancy, the readi. nefs of his language, and his facility of compofition, to enter the temple of Fame by the road of emolument.

"If we may, however, credit the tellimony of Mr. Thistle. waite, Chatterton had revolved more than one project in his breaft. My first attempt,' faid he, fhall be in the literary way. The promifes I have received are fufficient to difpel doubt; but fhould I, contrary to my expectation, find myself deceived, I will in that cafe turn methodist preacher." P. 98.

This probably was only a jeft: for it proved, in fact, that, when his literary projects failed, fo far from fubmitting to the degradation of affuming any difhoneft character for fub. fiflence, he rafhly, but with high fpirit, determined upon an act, which put an end at once to all worldly plans. The picture which Mr. Davis's imagination has drawn of the immediate confequence of this terrible cataftrophe, is honourable to his feelings, and affecting to the readers.

* Let us now turn our eyes for a moment towards Bristol, let us go into the house where dwell the grandmother, the mother and

Y

BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XXXI, MARCH, 1808.

and fifter of Chatterton. What a fcene of affliction! behold they fit broker-hearted! behold the grey hairs of the mother brought in forrow to the grave by the death of her child-the child of her prayers, that child of filial affection, who denied himfelf the common neceffaries of life, to buy and fend to his parent fome little token of his tender love. Behold this virtuous family, who have long ftruggled with calamities, and borne all their fuffering with meeknefs, lowlinefs and patience-behold them at laft overcome; behold tears gufh from their eyes, and on their eye-lids is the fhadow of death.

"O God! look upon their afflictions! the child of their prayers the child in whom all their hopes and expectations centered; that child dead from the poisonous draught adminiftered by his own hands-his body unowned, unpitied, unwept, caft into a fhell, and carried; unattended by mourners, without a pall, without a paffing bell, to the burying-ground of a work, houfe!

"Oh! faulters the mother, had I been at his bed. fide, to have watched over my child in his last momentss-to have fmoothed his pillow-to have offered up my prayers in fecret for him to God

it would have been fomething. But to be told that he was abandoned by mankind-without a helping hand to relieve him without a human voice to confole him-alas! at this, nature, fiefh, blood, fpirit, heart-all fail!” P. 124.

We agree with Mr. D. in moft of his fentiments and criticifms; particularly in what he ftyles the "termagant chaftity" of Walpole and T. Warton, in crying out against Chatterton, as a literary impoftor: Walpole, who was himfelf an impoftor of the fame clafs! and Warton, who certainly knew better than to be milled by the application of the common term forgery, to acts entirely different in their nature. We regret that Mr. D. fhould have introduced one er two fuperfluous, as well as unjust reflections, against our univerfities, of which he appears to know but little; and to have fuffered fuch grofs errata to pafs him, as "Spreight," twice in page 32, for Speght, author of the gloffary: that noted in our fecond extract, and many others. But his book, though small, is valuable*, we have read it with intereft and pleafure, and recommend it, with cordiality, to the lovers of literary hiftory.

Some of his remarks are important, as to the queftion, formerly difputed, refpecting the authenticity of Rowley; as that, for inftance, in p. 50, on blank verfe being ufed before it was invented; and thofe in pp. 75 and Sz, on the neceffary progress of poetical style, of which, though perfectly decifive in itself, the mere antiquaries feem to have had no feeling whatfoever.