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prowled about continually for prey. To the latter, inaction was impossible; to the former, voluntary exertion was unknown. Solidity and condension were the qualities of the one; continued vigour and pliability the characteristics of the other. The one as a machine, was more clumsy in its movements; the other, more light and unincumbered, but less effectual in its operation; the forces of the one were more scattered, the resources of the other less alert. In Warburton, there was a boundless fertility of vigour, which ripened up into all the rankness of rich luxuriance. In Johnson, the harvest of intellect was not so spontaneous, nor perhaps its fertility so great; but when once raised, it never required the hand of the weeder, but rose unmixed with tares. The genius of one, like a cascade, threw up its water in the air, which glistened in the sun, and shone with the variety of ten thousand hues and colourings; while the talents of the other never exerted themselves, without joining at the same time utility with splendour. The one, like the Gladiator of Lysippus, had every nerve in motion, and every muscle flexible with elasticity; while, in the other, like the colossal statues of Michael Angelo, all was undivided energy and bursting strength.

Such were the characters of these great men, of whom it is difficult to decide which was the greater, or which

possessed in a greater portion those qualities which give a title to intellectual supremacy. The fame of Johnson will hereafter principally rest on his productions, as a moralist and a critic; while that of Warburton, when again revived, will as certainly be raised on the foundation of his theological writings. Whatever may be thought of the truth of some of his theories, or the unseemliness of some of his attacks, it is impossible to deny that his Alliance and Divine Legation are the most splendid, the most original, the most ingenious defences of our ecclesiastical establishment, and of revelation itself, that ever man constructed. On these, as on the sure and unchangeable evidences of his powers, his admirers may depend for his reception with posterity; with whom, when the name of Johnson, rich in the accumulated tributes of time, shall hereafter be accounted the mightiest amongst those "who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth;" then, shall the name of Warburton, also, purified from the stains which have obscured and sullied its lustre, be numbered amongst the brightest lights of the Protestant church

amongst the greatest of those whe have adorned it by their genius, or exalted it by their learning, a worthy accession to the mighty fellowship and communion of Episcopius, Chillingworth, and Hooker.

C. R.

DEAR SIR,

SEMIHORE BIOGRAPHICE.

No. II.

TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH, ESQ.

Leighton Buzzard, 1st Nov. 1820.

My performance of posthumous justice to QZX., my late deceased and much deplored friend, has been somewhat interrupted by a short absence from the peaceful privacy I enjoy at Leighton Buzzard. Your ready compliance, however, with my desire, that these biographical jewels should not lie locked up in a bibliothecary cabinet, has made me feel that I am enabled to be a faithful executor to QZX.'s fame. By being evulgated in your Magazine, these are no longer folia Sybillina; they shall not float about unfixed, at the mercy, not only of air, but of fire and steel. Had they not found such a receptacle, they might perhaps (when my enraptured eye shall no more pore upon them, and my protecting hand shall fail to guard them) have experienced the fate of many of their ill-starred predecessors. The erudite labours of him who was dimidium mei might, had they remained embodied in one frail MS. copy, have, some years hence, really felt those shears which had begun their preparatory flourish, when the original Magna Charta was but just rescued from being shivered into tailors' measures; or they might have perished as fellow-sufferers

at the faggot with the old plays of the Herald Warburton, and have provoked as many imprecations as they have done upon the incalculably expensive frugality of some notable house-maid, who might reason as Warburton's servant did-that to devote to the kindling of a fire old and scribbled paper, is far better than so to employ that which is still clean and stout. And although those MSS., whose contents you shall have made public, will become thereby, as the great Dr Bentley said, nothing more than sucked oranges, yet am I even more than well-content, since (to continue the metaphor) your confectionary still has elaborated their juice into a rich candied extract, and expanded its flavour so widely, that all the world may now have a taste of it. Thus then the stamp of perpetuity is put upon QZX.'s work; for the multiplicity of your impressions (only think what a proud statement you made in October of your well-deserved popularity at home and abroad!) raises it beyond the reach of casualty.

I am much grieved, however, to hear that the document, which purports to have come from Mr Kirby, is apocryphal-and I fear some slur is thrown upon me, as if I were capable of knowingly sending you supposititious matter. Can it be necessary to assure you, that it came into my hands exactly as all the rest did? It was delivered to you in equal good faith with all the rest. There is no one of the MSS. which I inherit bearing a fairer or honester look about it. It must be apocryphal, I grant; but as I am incapable of bearing a share in imposing literary forgeries upon the world, so neither will I allow the character of QZX. to be impeached on this head. He is clear of attempting to delude any one. And the only way of accounting for it (if it be an imposition) is, that, in the eagerness of my friend to obtain intelligence, he laid himself open to the despicable waggery of some witling. For I need not inform you, nor bid you therefore beware, that there are certain persons who are much given to that vain and foolish figure of rhetoric called ironia; they use it not only in conversation, but also in their writings, and pretend in this way to correct those whom they accuse of dullness and pedantry,-so attacking, in a most unwarrantable way, the staid and operose pioneers of literature. Sometimes these banterers wage their fickle war against the practisers and abettors of cockney affectation, pertness, and vulgarity-against the compilers of catch-penny publications against ignorant meddlers in politics, and various others, whom they tax with folly or presumption; and although there may be just reason for censuring many of these persons, yet, Mr Christopher, I wholly disapprove of this way of amending them. Since, in the first place, I always believe what I read exactly as the plain words appear on the paper. I should as soon take myself or you for an imaginary character, as suppose that apparent praise was meant for reproof; or that what bears the open signature of some well-known writer was merely a squib wearing his mask to make him ridiculous. I am a straight forward matter-of-fact person, and this bye-play confounds me. I am led into a snare by it. And, secondly, this practice tends to most material errors; for, to take an example, as QZX.'s collections may possibly be digested into real history, a false document thus creeping in may usurp the place of truth,-and a fictitious fact may be palmed upon the world, and become the parent of innumerable erroneous inferences. Since, then, Mr Kirby has declared that he is not the author of the letter in question, (though I would that he had made an affidavit of it,) it shall be branded with the mark of apocryphal; and if he has a copy of the authentic letter which he probably sent QZX., and will transmit it to you, I make no doubt you will insert it in some supplementary manner, that the integrity of Mrs Clinker's biography may be unimpaired. Really this business has made me so suspicious, that I am half inclined to doubt the genuineness of every letter from a fresh correspondent. Since your 42d No. came out, I have received a pressing request that I will publish no more lives in Mr Blackwood's Magazine; and the writer offers to bring them out in a separate publication. He says they shall appear periodically with other flourishing works which he publishes, namely, his Journal of Voyages and Travels, and his Journal of Novels; and he thinks they would tell well under the title of the Journal of Lives, or Monthly Biographer. He is pleased to abuse your Magazine, and say, "It is a wonder that the possessor of such curiosities could think of producing them in a venal, servile, corrupt vehicle

of the canting crew who preach legitimacy, and who have basely shut up that frank, noble-minded, liberal, unprejudiced, but, alas! now deeply-injured man, who was just on the point of becoming the regenerator of Europe." He signs himself R. Phillips. Now, can this letter have come from the sapient knight of Blackfriars, whose primitive diet has acquired for him the honour of being called Sir Pythagoras? or is it a forgery in that great man's name? I profess myself inclined to believe that it is an imposition; for it can hardly be presum ed, that a man, who, like Sir Richard, busies himself in refuting Sir Isaac Newton, should condescend to such unphilosophical matters, and such radi cal slang. But whether it be a falsity or not, I reply not to the writer. It shall still be your part, Mr Christopher, to place the garland of literary renown on QZX.'s bust. No other shall interfere in this matter, since you did it at my first request so readily and so gracefully.

This present fasciculus will be, I hope, as much approved as the former-I am, &c.

GILES MIDDLESTITCH.

MR RICHARD GOSSIP, VULGARLY CALLED DгCKY GOSSIP. SYNOPSIS. Richard, illegitimate son of Margaret Gossip, chambermaid at the Saluta tion Tavern, born 1st April, 1735, his putative father was Jasper Quidnunc-ran on er rands till ten years old-employed in a barber's shop in Seven Dials-in 1759, sets up trade as barber in the Barbican-marries Prudence Higgins, by whom he had one daughter, Tabitha, who survived him-finds the access to news in London the cause of his neglecting his business-removes in 1791 to the village of Jadsby, where he officiated not only as shaver, but also as apothecary, carpenter, and dentist--died in 1801, aged 66. DOCUMENTS. TYP. 66 My grandmother," by Prince Hoare, Esq. London. 8vo. 1806.-Works of the City Poet, 2 vols. 1778.-MS. Journal of Philip Vapour, Esq.An original autographic Bill and Note.-Letter from John Oldbuck, Esq.Register of birth, marriage, and burial. (penes me Q.Z.X.)

[My friend begins with all Mr Gossip's speeches, and with the famous song, whose chorus ends with " Dicky Gossip is the man," from "My Grandmother," which is in the shape of a farce; although it cannot be doubted, that the real Dicky Gossip was the basis of the character there introduced. Unless, however, Mr P. Hoare can assure us of the authenticity of the words, (and possibly some Boswell or Spence noted them down,) I shall be content to refer your readers to the printed work. The marrow of them is found in the synopsis.]

Odes by Q. Horatius Flaccus, and the City Poet of 1788.

AD THALIARCHUM.

Dum sævnt hyems, voluptati indulgendum.

Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte, nec jam sustineant onus
Silvæ laborantes, geluque

Flumina constiterint acuto.

Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco
Large reponens; atque benignius
Deprome quadrimum Sabina,

O Thaliarche, merum diota.

Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quærere; et
Quem sors dierum cunque dabit, lucro
Appone; nec dulces amores

Sperne puer, neque tu choreas.

Donec virenti canities abest
Morosa. Nunc et campus, et areæ
Lenesque sub noctem susurri
Composita repetantur hora:

TO DICKY Gossip.

G. M.

While he thinks of tittle-tattle, not to forge
his wiggery.

Do you see that stately caxon,
Which looks with all its whiteness,

Like a bush o'erlaid with snow;
And the curls, which range below,
Stand stiff in frosty brightness.
Come, melt some sweet pomatum-
And, for powder do not stint us;

Draw your irons from the stove;
And, Dicky, quickly move,
To make my old wig as portentous,
Don't ask of to-morrow's matters,
Since them, nor you, nor I, know;

Mind your shop, my boy, nor spurn
From customers, to earn,

For scraping their muzzles, their rhino.
Show yourself a wise wig-maker,
For sure you've enough to handle,
As long as felks don't wear
Their own untrimmed grey hair,
Without heeding the whispers of scandal.

Nunc et latentis proditor intimo
Gratus puellæ risus ab angulo,
Pignusque dereptum lacertis
Aut digito male pertinaci.

Yet ah, those ears so itching!

My muse can not restrain 'em;

Should a laugh come from the street,
Comb and razor you would quit,
Nor longer could your fingers retain 'em.

I grieve to say, that I cannot find out who the city poet of London was in * 1788. In former times, John Taylor, Elkaneh Settle, and Thomas Shadwell, acquitted themselves finely in that office. Nor can I learn that the place is filled up at present; the persons who occasionally come forward being voluntary, and not official performers. It is due to the young gentleman mentioned in No I. to say, that the discovery of the resemblance between the English and f Latin ode is his; they are now printed, therefore, in juxta-position, for the benefit of the curious, as indeed it is surprising, that two poets of such different ages should have hit on ideas so much alike. Q.Z.X.

An Extract from the Private Journal of the late Philip Vapour, Esq.

Tuesday-Low-spirited, cursed low -but not determined whether to E shoot myself, drown, or go to Sir Matthew's. A fool of a fellow, who calls himself Dicky Gossip, came to shave me-never heard such a prater in my life; his tongue ran at such a rate, that I could get nothing from him but tattle. Souffrance did noJ thing but ejaculate Quel babillard! He put me in a passion, and I forgot my blue devils.

Thursday To my infinite surprise, I found that my loquacious barber is the very person acting as my apothe cary. The fellow, however, is amusing; and his boasts of being as much au fait in medicine as in shaving, are laughable enough, particularly as his gabble is unfailing, continuous, fluent

upon every topic, and equally perti-
nent upon all, or rather impertinent.
Monday-Florella's trick has made
me a happy fellow; but who should
the carpenter be that fitted up the
sliding pannel, which enabled her to
appear as the picture of her grand-
mother, but my redoubted barber and
apothecary Dicky Gossip! He has a
fourth occupation; I wonder I did
not want him in that department, as
they say tooth-ache is symptomatic of
being in love-for the chattering ras-
cal is a dentist also. Well may he
sing, as Souffrance tells me he does-

For this trade or that,
They all come as pat as they can;

For shaving and tooth-drawing,
Bleeding, cabbaging, or sawing,
Dicky Gossip, Dicky Gossip, is the man.

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WORSHIPFULL SIR,

I SHOU❜DN'T have sent your worship's bill, only as you desired me, I thought your worship wou'd like to know, as how Captain Pursy, of the Train-bands, fell down in a fit just now, at Mr Mudge's door-I can step up with the particklars in a minute, if your worship pleases. Also, Mrs Morrison's marriage with Mr Cruickshank's is broke off-some say that he trod upon her

cat's tail, and others, that she has found out that he has another wife alive. If I can know for a sartainty, I will be with your worship in a minute. Your worship's old wigg is in pipes, and will be baked to-morrow. The day after next the address is to be carried up to the King, by the Common Council. I hope your worship will go-nobody's head shall be better or more handsomely dressed-and I am your worship's poor servant, to command,

Letter from J. Oldbuck, Esq. to QZX.

SIR,-I have applied to my barber, Jacob Caxon, according to your request, about the master of whom he learnt his notable art of torturing dead hair, and scraping chins, and bald pates. Not being acquainted with you, I do not venture to guess whether the information, which I have drained from his paucity of brains, will be looked upon as important suum cuique. Caxon's mind has barely room for the entertainment of ideas arising from things present with him, and none hardly for those that are past. All he recollects is, that Dicky Gossip, who was his Magnus Apollo in the Barbican, in London, had a greater fondness for uttering news than for removing beards-that he was ambulatory rather than sedentary -and more inclined to pry into the secrets, under a wig, than to comb that useful appendage itself. The only specific fact pertaining to your hero, with which Jacob's memory seems charged is, that Gossip once cut sheer through a gentleman's cheek, to his grinders, in shaving him, because he, the said Dicky, could not forbear watching the progress of a matrimonial dispute, in the opposite house; and, as it terminated in a leg of mutton being thrown out of the window by a vixen, before Dicky had completed his operation with the razor, so two catastrophes were simultaneous; the husband lost the promise of his dinner, and the shavee found, on rising from under Rd's hands, two fissures in his face, through which he might,

R. D. GOSSIP.

Monkbarns, 7th July, 1806.

if he pleased, put his dinner into his mouth. This noticeable fact "lies like a substance" upon Jacob's miad

and on jogging his memory three times-three times have we stumbled upon it, and upon nothing else. And now, if this is of use to you, learned sir, you are heartily welcome to it. Your apologies, for intruding inquiries upon a stranger, are unnecessary. The importance of what I can communicate, proves the propriety of your having_made researches in this quarter. Doubtless, you cannot always get such an equivalent as the present, for your outlay in postage. If you ever publish your work, I shall have great curiosity to see it; but beg for time to deliberate, before I make myself responsible as a subscriber to it; I am not at all ambitious that my name should be addressed as authority for what I have here supplied you with.* With much respect for so painstaking a man of letters as you are, for one who seems determined, not only to fish the great ocean of literature, but to catch the very sprats and shrimps in every creek of it,-I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,

JONATHAN OLDBUCK.

P. S. If you have any beggar's life in hand, I crave to recommend, as a most useful coadjutor, Mr Adam or Edie Ochiltree, a gentleman of these parts, for he has made that branch of biography his particular study, and has devoted a considerable part of his life to it.t

* This suggestion of Mr Oldbuck's modesty could not be complied with, as his communication would, in that case, fail of being sufficiently verified. QZX.

+ Press of matter prevents us from inserting the copies of the Parish Register Certifi cates, but they shall be forthcoming if any doubt arises. C. N.

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