CHARACTERS. 



537 



that even at the age of twenty-five 

 lie had obtained no small reputa- 

 tion as a literary character ; for at 

 this period, namely, in the year 

 174-4', he was engaged by the 

 editor of the Gentleman's Maga- 

 zine, to succeed Johnson, in the 

 compilement of the parliamentary 

 debates, then deemed a very 

 important part of that interesting 

 miscellany. 



To Mr. Urban'spageshewas for 

 four years also a poetical contrrbu- 

 tor.under the signature of Grei!?7/e; 

 and of his poems in this work the 

 following cataloguehas been given 

 I)y Mr. Buncombe. For 1746, the 

 Devil Painter, a tale ; the Chaise 

 Tercee ; Epistle to the King of 

 Prussia; Lines to the Rev. Mr. 

 Layng, and to Dr. Warburton on 

 a series of theological inquiries ; a 

 Thought from Marcus Antoninus, 

 and the Smart. For 174-7, the 

 Accident ; Ants' Philosophy ; 

 Death of Arachne; Chamont and 

 Honoiious;Origin of Doubt; Life, 

 an ode ; Lines to Hope ; Winter, 

 an ode ; ^nd the Experiment, a 

 tale. For 174'8, the Midsummer 

 Wish ; Solitude ; the Two Doves, 

 a fable ; and Autumn. For 174'9, 

 Poverty Insulted; Region allotted 

 to Old Maids ; the Nymph at her 

 Toilet ; God is Love, and Chloe's 

 Soliloquy, 



Several of these little produc- 

 tions, the occasional amusement 

 of his leisure, are elegant and 

 pleasing; but, like Johnson, the 

 powers of his imagination are in 

 a much higher degree displayed 

 in his prose than in his verse. 



The domestic circumstances of 

 our author, at this period, are little 

 known ; and it is remarkable, that 

 not one of his relations, or literary 

 friends, has thought it necessary to 

 preserve or record the events of 



his life. His pecuniary resources, 

 during his early connection with 

 the Gentleman's Magazine, are 

 supposed to have been very 

 confined ; nor were they probably 

 immediately or much enlarged by 

 his matrimonial connection; for his 

 wife kept a boarding-school for 

 young ladies, at Bromley, in Kent. 

 The friendship of Johnson, 

 however, was of essential service 

 to him ; through his medium he 

 became acquainted with many 

 eminent scholars ; and it speaks 

 highly in favour of his literary 

 talents, that when the club in Ivy 

 Lane was constituted, of the nine 

 members which originally formed 

 its circle, Hawkesworth was 

 selected by Johnson as one. 



Tlie success of the Rambler, 

 as soon as it was collected into 

 volumes, the admiration which it 

 excited in the breast of our author, 

 and the wish, which he vras known 

 to entertain of pursuing the 

 footsteps of Johnson, induced him, 

 in the year 1752, to project and 

 commence a periodical paper, 

 under the title of The Adventurer. 

 For a work of this kind 

 Hawkesworth appears, in many 

 respects, to have been well 

 qualified. His literature, though 

 by no means deep or accurate, was 

 elegant and various ; his style was 

 polished ; his imagination ardent ; 

 his morals were pure, and he 

 possessed an intimate knowledge 

 of the world. He did not, however, 

 attempt the execution of his 

 scheme, unassisted ; his first coad- 

 jutor was Dr. Rich, Bathurst ; and 

 he soon after, in the view of this 

 resource soon failing, obtained the 

 aid of Johnson, and, through his 

 influence, of Dr. Joseph Warton. 

 The letter of our great moralist, 

 oil the occasion, as developing, in 



