known by fuch works as thofe above-mentioned, by novels, pamphlets, and a periodical paper called 'The Infpector,' the labour of his own head and hand, to have earned, in one year, the fum of 1500l. He was vain, conceited, and in his writings difpofed to fatire and licentious fcurrility, which he indulged without any regard to truth, and thereby became engaged in frequent difputes and quarrels that always terminated in his own difgrace. For fome abuse in his Infpector, of a gentleman of the name of Brown, he had his head broke in the circus of Ranelagh gardens. He infulted Woodward the player in the face of an audience, and engaged with him in a pamphlet-war, in which he was foiled *. He attacked the royal fociety in a review of their tranfactions, and abused his old friends Mr. Folkes and Mr. Baker for oppofing, on account of his infamous character, his admiffion among them as a member. In the midst of all this employment, he found time and means to drive about the town in his chariot, and to appear abroad and at all public places, at Batfon's coffee-house, at masquerades, and at the opera and playhouses, fplendidly dreffed, and as often as he could, in the front row of

*It was faid of Hill, that when he met, in any botanic garden, with a curious plant that was portable, he would convey it away, and that he was once detected in an attempt of that kind. Woodward, in a pamphlet written against him, alluded to this fact by prefixing to it, as a motto, this appofite citation from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

I do remember an apothecary

Culling of fimples.'

the boxes. Towards the end of his life, his reputation as an author was fo funk by the flovenlinefs of his compilations, and his difregard to truth in what he related, that he was forced to betake himself to the vending a few fimple medicines, namely, effence of water-dock, tincture of Valerian, balfam of honey, and elixir of Bardana, and by pamphlets afcribing to them greater virtues than they had, impofed on the credulity of the public, and thereby got, though not an honest, a competent livelihood.

Two years before his death, he had, as he gave out, received from the king of Sweden, the investiture of knight of one of the orders of that kingdom, in return for a present to that monarch of his 'Vegetable fyftem' in twenty-fix folio volumes. With all his folly and malignity, he entertained a fenfe of religion, and wrote a vindication of God and nature against the fhallow philofophy of lord Bolingbroke.

Befides thefe, there was another class of authors who lived by writing, that require to be noticed : the former were, in fact, penfioners of the bookfellers : thefe vended their compofitions when completed, to those of that trade who would give moft for them. They were moftly books of mere entertainment that were the fubjects of this kind of commerce, and were and still are distinguished by the corrupt appellation of novels and romances. Though fictitious, and the work of mere invention, they pretended to probability, to be found. ed in nature, and to delineate focial manners. The firft publication of the kind was the 'Pamela' of Mr. Richardfon

P 3

Richardfon*, which being read with great eagerness by the young people of the time, and recommended from the pulpit, begat fuch a craving for more of the fame ftuff, as tempted fome men whofe neceffities and abilities were nearly commenfurate, to try their fuccefs in this new kind of writing.

At the head of these we must, for many reasons, place Henry Fielding, one of the moft motley of literary characters. This man was, in his early life, a writer of comedies and farces, very few of which are now remembered; after that, a practising barrister with scarce any bufinefs; then an anti-ministerial writer, and quickly after, a creature of the duke of Newcastle, who gave him a nominal qualification of 100l. a year, and fet him up as a trading-justice, in which difreputable station he died. He was the author of a romance, intitled The hiftory of Jofeph Andrews,' and of another, The Foundling, or the ⚫ history of Tom Jones,' a book feemingly intended to fap the foundation of that morality which it is the duty of parents and all public inftructors to inculcate in the minds of young people, by teaching that virtue upon principle is impofture, that generous qualities alone conftitute true worth, and that a young

* Pamela is the name of a lady, one of the principal characters in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia,' and is thus accented Pamela. Mr. Pope,

The Gods, to curfe Pamela with her pray'rs,

⚫ Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares.'

But Richardson, whether through ignorance or defign, and also all his female pupils, conftantly pronounced it Paměla.

man

man may love and be loved, and at the fame time affociate with the loofeft women. His morality, in respect that it refolves virtue into good affections, in contradiction to moral obligation and a sense of duty, is that of lord Shaftesbury vulgarifed, and is a system of excellent use in palliating the vices moft injurious to fociety. He was the inventor of that cant-phrase, goodnefs of heart, which is every day used as a substitute for probity, and means little more than the virtue of a horfe or a dog; in fhort, he has done more towards corrupting the rifing generation than any writer we

know of.

He afterwards wrote a book of the fame kind, but of a lefs mifchievous tendency, his Amelia.' For each of these he was well paid by Andrew Millar the bookfeller, and for the laft he got fix hundred pounds.

Dr. Tobias Smollet, another writer of familiar romance, and a dealer with the bookfellers, was originally a furgeon's mate, and ferved at the fiege of Carthagena. His firft publication of this kind was The adventures of Roderick Random,' and his next those of Peregrine Pickle, in which is introduced the hiftory of a well-known woman of quality, written, as it is faid, by herself, under the name of lady Frail. These, and other compofitions of the like kind, Smollet fold to the bookfellers at fuch rates as enabled him to live without the exercise of his profeffion. He had a hand in The univerfal history,' and tranflated Gil Blas and alfo Telemachus. The fuccefs of the former of these tempted him to tranflate Don Quixote,' which, as he understood not the Spanish language, he could only do through the medium of the French and

the former English versions, none of which do, as it is faid, convey the humour of the original. It might feem that Jarvis's tranflation was one impediment to fuch an undertaking; but that, though it gives the sense of the author, was performed by perfons whose fkill in the language was not great. The fact is, that Jarvis laboured at it many years, but could make but little progress, for being a painter by profeffion, he had not been accustomed to write, and had no style. Mr. Tonfon the bookfeller feeing this, fuggefted the thought of employing Mr. Broughton, the reader at the Temple church, the author and editor of fundry publications, who, as I have been informed by a friend of Tonfon, fat himself down to ftudy the Spanish language, and, in a few months, acquired, as was pretended, fufficient knowledge thereof, to give to the world a tranflation of Don Quixote in the true fpirit of the original, and to which is prefixed the name of Jarvis.

I might here fpeak of Richardfon as a writer of fictitious hiftory, but that he wrote for amusement, and that the profits of his writings, though very great, were accidental. He was a man of no learning nor reading, but had a vivid imagination, which he let loofe in reflections on human life and manners, till it became fo diftended with fentiments, that for his own cafe, he was neceffitated to vent them on paper. In the original plan of his Clariffa,' it was his defign, as his bookfeller once told me, to continue it to the extent of twenty-four volumes, but he was, with great difficulty, prevailed on to comprife it in fix. The character of Richardson as a writer is to this day undecided, otherwife than by the avidity with which