the British navy, and the general profperity of the empire. Though we have ventured to differ from him in a few fpeculative points, his practical conclufions meet our entire acquief cence. We cannot fay much for the arrangement of the work, or the elegance of its compofition; although the ftyle is, upon the whole, perfpicuous, and without affectation. The work is adorned by a good map of the islands, and views of the most interefting objects, which, fo far as we were enabled to judge, are not only elegant, but correct.

7. Jeffrey,

ART. VIII.-Memoirs of Richard Cumberland: Written by himfelf Containing an Account of his Life and Writings, interfperfed with Anecdotes and Characters of feveral of the most diftinguished Perfons of his Time, with whom he had Intercourse or Connexion. 4to. pp. 533. London, 1806.

WE certainly have no wish for the death of Mr Cumberland;

on the contrary, we hope he will live long enough to make a large fupplement to thefe memoirs: but he has embarraffed us a little by publishing this volume in his lifetime. We are extremely unwilling to fay any thing that may hurt the feelings of a man of diftinguished talents, who is drawing to the end of his career, and imagines that he has hitherto been ill ufed by the world: but he has fhewn, in this publication, fuch an appetite for praife, and fuch a jealoufy of cenfure, that we are afraid we cannot do our duty confcientiously, without giving him offence. The truth is, that the book has rather difappointed us. We expected it to be extremely amusing; and it is not. There is too much of the firft part of the title in it, and too little of the lt. Of the life and writings of Richard Cumberland, we hear more than enough; but of the diftinguished perfons with whom he lived, we have many fewer characters and anecdotes than we could have wifhed. We are the more inclined to regret this, both because the general style of Mr Cumberland's compofitions has convinced us, that no one could have exhibited characters and anecdotes in a more engaging manner, and because, from what he has put into this book, we actually fee that he had excellent opportunities for collecting, and ftill better talents for relating them. The anecdotes and characters which we have, are given in a very pleafing and animated manner, and form the chief merit of the publication; but they do not occupy one tenth part of it; and the reft is filled with details that do not often interest, and obfervations that do not always amuse. Authors,

Authors, we think, fhould not be encouraged to write their own lives. The genius of Rouffeau, his enthufiafm, and the novelty of his plan, have rendered the Confeffions, in fome refpects, the most interefting of books. But a writer, who is in full poffeffion of his fenfes, who has lived in the world like the men and women who compofe it, and whose vanity aims only at the praise of great talents and accomplishments, muft not hope to write a book like the Confeffions; and is fcarcely to be trusted with the delineation of his own character, or the narrative of his own adventures. We have no objection, however, to let authors tell their own story, as an apology for telling that of all their acquaintances; and can eafily forgive them for grouping and afforting their anecdotes of their contemporaries, according to the chronology and incidents of their own lives. This is but indulging the painter of a great gallery of worthies with a pannel for his own portrait; and though it will probably be the leaft like of the whole collection, it would be hard to grudge him this little gratification.

Life has often been compared to a journey; and the fimile feems to hold better in nothing than in the identity of the rules by which those who write their travels, and those who write their lives, fhould be governed. When a man returns from vifiting any celebrated region, we expect to hear much more of the things and perfons he has feen, than of his own perfonal transactions; and are naturally disappointed if, after saying that he lived much with illuftrious ftatefmen or heroes, he choofes rather to tell us of his own travelling equipage, or of his cookery and fervants, than to give us any account of his character and converfation of thofe diftinguished perfons. In the fame manner, when, at the clofe of a long life, fpent in circles of literary and political celebrity, an author fits down to give the world an account of his retrospections, it is reasonable to ftipulate that he shall talk lefs of himself than of his affociates, and natural to complain, if he tells long stories of his fchoolmafters and grandmothers, while he paffes over fome of the most illuftrious of his companions with a bare mention of their names.

Mr Cumberland has offended a little in this way. He has also composed thefe memoirs, we think, in too diffufe, rambling, and careless a ftyle. There is evidently no felection or method in his narrative; and unweighed remarks, and fatiguing apologies and protestations are tedioufly interwoven with it in the genuine ftyle of good-natured but irrepreffible loquacity. The whole compofition, indeed, has not only too much the air of converfation; it has fometimes an unfortunate refemblance to the converfation of a profeffed

profeffed talker; and we meet with many paffages in which the author appears to work himself up to an artificial vivacity, and to give a certain air of smartness to his expreffion, by the introduction of cant phrafes, odd metaphors, and a fort of practifed and theatrical originality. The work, however, is well worth going over, and contains many more amuling paffages than we can af ford to extract on the present occafion.

Mr Cumberland was born in 1732; and he has a very natural pride in relating, that his paternal great grandfather was the learn. ed and most exemplary Bishop Cumberland, author of the treatise De Legibus Nature; and that his maternal grandfather was the celebrated Dr Richard Bentley. Of the last of these distinguished perfons he has given, from the diftinct recollection of his childhood, a much more amiable and engaging reprefentation than has hitherto been made public. Instead of the haughty and morose critic and controverfialist, we learn, with pleasure, that he was as remarkable for mildness and kind affections in private life, as for profound erudition and fagacity as an author. Mr Cumberland has collected a number of little anecdotes that seem to be quite conclufive upon this head; but we rather infert the following general teftimony.

I had a fifter fomewhat older than myself. Had there been any of that fternnefs in my grandfather, which is fo falfely imputed to him, it may well be supposed we should have been awed into filence in his prefence, to which we were admitted every day. Nothing can be further from the truth; he was the unwearied patron and promoter of all our childish fports and fallies; at all times ready to detach himself from any topic of converfation to take an intereft and bear his part in our amufements. The eager curiofity natural to our age, and the questions it gave birth to, fo teazing to many parents, he, on the contrary, attended to and encouraged, as the claims of infant reafon never to be evaded or abufed; ftrongly recommending, that to all fuch inquiries anfwer fhould be given according to the strictest truth, and information dealt to us in the cleareft terms, as a facred duty never to be departed from. I have broken in upon him many a time in his hours of study, when he would put his book afide, ring his hand-bell for his fervant, and be led to his shelves to take down a picture-book for my amufement. I do not fay that his good-nature always gained its object, as the pictures which his books generally fupplied me with were anatomical drawings of diffected bodies, very little calculated to communicate delight; but he had nothing better to produce; and furely fuch an effort on his part, however unfuccefsful, was no feature of a cynic: a cynic fhould be made of ferner stuff.

Once, and only once, I recollect his giving me a gentle rebuke for making a moft outrageous noife in the room over his library, and diAturbing him in his ftudies; I had no apprehenfion of anger from him,

and

and confidently answered that I could not help it, as I had been at battledore and fhuttlecock with Mafter Gooch, the Bishop of Ely's fon. "And I have been at this fport with his father," he replied; "but thine has been the more amufing game; fo there's no harm done." P. 7, 8.

He also mentions, that when his adverfary Collins had fallen into poverty in his latter days, Bentley, apprehending that he was in fome measure refponfible for his lofs of reputation, contrived to administer to his neceffities in a way not less creditable to his delicacy than to his liberality.

The youngest daughter of this illustrious scholar, the Phoebe of Byron's paftoral, and herfelf a woman of extraordinary accomplishments, was the mother of Mr Cumberland. His father, who appears also to have been a man of the most blamelefs and amiable difpofitions, and to have united, in a very exemplary way, the characters of a clergyman and a gentleman, was Rector of Stanwick in Northampton at the birth of his fon. He went to school first at Bury St Edmunds, and afterwards at Westminster. But the most valuable part of his early education was that for which he was indebted to the taste and intelligence of his mother. We infert with pleafure the following amiable paragraph.

It was in these intervals from school that my mother began to form both my tafte and my ear for poetry, by employing me every evening to read to her, of which art fhe was a very able mistress. Our readings were, with very few exceptions, confined to the chofen plays of Shakespear, whom the both admired and understood in the true fpirit and fenfe of the author. Under her inftruction I became paffionately fond of these our evening entertainments; in the mean time, fhe was attentive to model my recitation, and correct my manner with exact precifion. Her comments and illuftrations were fuch aids and inftructions to a pupil in poetry, as few could have given. What I could not else have understood, fhe could aptly explain; and what I ought to admire and feel, nobody could more happily felect and recommend. I well remember the care fhe took to mark out for my obfervation, the peculiar excellence of that unrivalled poet, in the confiftency and prefervation of his characters; and wherever inftances occurred amongst the ftarts and fallies of his unfettered fancy, of the extravagant and falfe fublime, her difcernment oftentimes prevented me from being so dazzled by the glitter of the period as to mifapply my admiration, and betray my want of tafte. With all her father's critical acumen, he could trace, and teach me to unravel, all the meanders of his metaphor, and point out where it illuminated, or where it only loaded and obfcured the meaning. Thefe were happy hours and interefting lectures to me, whilft my beloved father, ever placid and complacent, fate befide us, and took part in our amusement; his voice was never heard but in the tone of approbation; his countenance never marked but with the natural traces of his indelible and hereditary benevolence.' p. 39. 40.

The

The effect of thefe readings was, that the young author, at twelve years of age, produced a fort of drama, called Shakefpeare in the Shades, compofed almoft entirely of paffages from that great writer, ftrung together and afforted with no defpicable ingenuity. He has inferted rather a long extract from this juvenile compilation. There is next an animated and minute account of his ftudies at Westminster, with flattering characters of the head mafters, from Nichols to Vincent. Throughout the work, indeed, he is too full of eulogies, and feems refolved to deserve every body's good word, by the moft profufe and indulgent commendation. At this early period of his life, he first saw Garrick in the character of Lothario, and has left this animated account of the impreffion which the scene made upon his mind.

It

I have the fpectacle even now, as it were, before my eyes. Quin prefented himself, upon the rifing of the curtain, in a green velvet coat embroidered down the feams, an enormous full-bottomed periwig, rolled ftockings, and high-heeled fquare-toed fhoes : with very little variation of cadence, and in a deep full tone, accompanied by a fawing kind of action, which had more of the fenate than of the ftage in it, he rolled out his heroics with an air of dignified indifference, that feemed to difdain the plaudits that were beftowed upon him. Mrs Cibber, in a key high pitched, but fweet withal, fung, or rather recitatived, Rowe's harmonious ftrain, fomething in the manner of the Improvifatories: it was fo extremely wanting in contrast, that, though it did not wound the ear, it wearied it: when she had once recited two or three fpeeches, I could anticipate the manner of every fucceeding one. was like a long old legendary ballad of innumerable flanzas, every one of which is fung to the same tune, eternally chiming in the ear without variation or relief. Mrs Pritchard was an actress of a different caft, had more nature, and of course more change of tone, and variety both of action and expreffion. In my opinion, the comparison was decidedly in her favour. But when, after long and eager expectation, I first beheld little Garrick, then young and light, and alive in every muscle and in every feature, come bounding on the stage, and pointing at the wittol Altamont and heavy-paced Horatio-heavens, what a transition ! -it feemed as if a whole century had been stept over in the tranfition of a fingle scene: old things were done away, and a new order at once brought forward, bright and luminous, and clearly deftined to difpel the barbarifms and bigotry of a taftelefs age, too long attached to the prejudices of custom, and fuperftitiously devoted to the illufions of impofing declamation. This heaven-born actor was then struggling to emancipate his audience from the flavery they were refigned to; and though at times he fucceeded in throwing in fome gleams of new-born light upon them, yet in general they feemed to love darkness better than light; and in the dialogue of altercation between Horatio and Lothario, beftowed far the greater show of hands upon the master of the old school than upon the founder of the new. I thank my ftars, my feelings in

thofe