Vicar of Wakefield, by Goldsmith.

1766.

*

at

"Be so good to tell Mrs. Handcock that I do like the Vicar of Wakefield; and likewise that I do not: by which means in any case I hope I am secure of being of her opinion. Indeed it has admirable things in it, though mixt with provoking absurdities; which one should not be provoked if the book in general had not great merit. A small alteration in the author's plan might have furnished I think a very useful lesson. The character of Burchell as it now stands is entirely out of nature, whether we suppose him to be guided by good principles or bad. If the author had strongly marked him as acting by no principles at all, every instance of his behaviour would have been natural: for every contradiction and every absurdity is natural to a humourist; and the satirizing a character of all others perhaps the most destructive to the peace of human society, would have been a very instructive performance."+

Swift.

1766.

"I have never read Swift's last published letters; but am glad to find that they help to justify me in always having had a more favourable idea of his character than most people seemed to think he deserved.

"Is not that also the exact character of its author?" Pennington. + Vol. II. p. 143.

There

There always appeared a rectitude and sincerity in him, much superior to the greater number of his cotemporary geniuses. His wit, I cannot help thinking, was mere distemper, and for many instances of shocking impropriety and levity into which it hurried him he was perhaps as little accountable as for the delirium of a fever. Lord Corke I think somewhere speaks of his deplorable ideotcy as a judgment: surely it would have been more charitable to have considered it as the last stage of a long madness, which very frequently terminates in this conclusion." *

ART. XV. Literary Intelligence.

The Rev. Mr. Dibdin has just completed an English variorum edition of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, in two crown 8vo. volumes, elegantly printed by Bulmer, with a variety of fac simile wood cuts. The text is taken from the first English translation of Robinson, in 1551; a work of such scarcity, as to have escaped the attention of all lexicographers and black-letter editors. The text is preceded by a biographical and literary introduction, comprehending, first, the family of Sir Thomas More; second, the lives of him that have been separately published; third, an account of his English works with specimens of the same; fourth, a catalogue raisonné of the engraved portraits of Sir Thomas More; fifth, a catalogue raisonné of the editions of the Utopia in Latin, Italian, French, English,

Vol. II. p. 38.

ART.

ART. XVI. A Character of Charles Yorke, Lord High Chancellor, by way of epitaph.

"Sacred to the memory

of the Rt. Honble Charles Yorke,
late Lord High Chancellor
of Great Britain.

Formed to deserve

He was qualified to adorn
The highest departments
in law and equity.
His studies and industry
Fitted him for the former;

His probity and discernment
for the latter;

And the largeness of his capacity, for both;

Meanwhile the goodness of his heart,
The sublimity of his principles,

And the dignity of his conduct,
Heightened his pretensions,

And widen'd the great, the uncommon worth,

As a gentleman,

The liberality of his sentiments,

The politeness of his address,

And the chastity of his manners,

Added charms to conversation;

At the same time that cheerfulness and ease
(The authorized attendants

Of unaffected virtue)
Engaged the attention, and enlivened the affections
Of every unprejudiced beholder.

Here Heaven clos'd the temporary scene;

And snatch'd her favourite to celestial honours,

The 20th day of Jan. 1770,

ART. XVII. Report of Sales of Books for March and

April 1808.

No. III.

Persian and Arabic Manuscripts, the property of Jonathan Scott, LL.D. Private Secretary to Warren Hastings, Esq. and late Oriental Professor of the East India College at Hertford, by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; March 5; lots 136, vols. 166.

Library of a Nobleman deceased (the late Marquis Townshend) by Messrs. King and Lochée; five days, March 7-11; lots 1287, vols. 2840.

Library of Sir James Winter Lake, Bart. F.A.S. &c. by Mr. Stewart; fifteen days, March 7-23; lots 3123, vols. 6600.

Library of Daniel Mumford, Esq. of Greville-street, Hatton Garden, Member of the New Musical Fund, by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; four days, March 14-17; lots 856, vols.

1280.

Miscellaneous collection by Messrs. King and Lochée; three days, March 31-April 2; lots 802, vols. 1540.

Miscellaneous collection by Mr. King, Jun.; three days, March 31-April 2; lots 615, vols. 1440.

Bijoux Italien et Francois. Portion of the singularly elegant library late the property of a very distinguished amateur, (Robert Heathcote, Esq.) and a few duplicates belonging to the present possessor (John Dent, Esq. M.P.) by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; six days, April 4-9; lots 862, vols. 1540.

Library of the late Rev. Thomas Taylor, LL.D. Archdeacon of Chichester, Rector of Wotton and Abinger in Surrey, Prebendary of Leckford, one of his Majesty's Chaplains, and Gresham Professor of Civil Laws, with a portion of another Library, by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; four days, April 12-16; lots 891, vols. 1820.

Rare old medical books printed in the fifteenth and early in the sixteenth centuries, by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; two days, April 25, 6; lots 449, vols. 510.

Library of the late Lord Raymond, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, by Messrs. King and Lochée; two days, April 29, 30; lots 409, vols. 1020.

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