€HARACTEHS. 



545 



and passed through a second edi- 

 tion in a few months, will be 

 foundtheunited recommendations 

 of a polished diction, an interest- 

 ing fable, and an important moral. 



In April, 1765, Dr. Hawkes- 

 worth undertook the oflBce of Re- 

 viewer in the Gentleman's Maga- 

 zine ; a department which he 

 filled with great ability until the 

 year 1772, In 1765, also, he pre- 

 sented the public with a revised 

 edition of Swift's Works, in 12 

 vols. 8vo.> accompanied by expla- 

 natory notes, and a Life of Swift, 

 of which Johnson, when he be- 

 came the biographer of the dean, 

 thus liberally speaks : " An ac- 

 count of Dr. Swift has been al- 

 ready collected with great dili- 

 gence and acuteness by Dr. 

 Hawkesworth, according to a 

 scheme which I laid before him 

 in the intimacy of our friendship. 

 I cannot therefore be expected to 

 say much of a life, concerning* 

 which I had long since communi- 

 cated my thoughts to a man ca- 

 pable of dignifying his narration 

 with so much elegance of lan- 

 guage and force of sentiment." 



Hawkesworth's Life of Swift is, 

 indeed, a free and unprejudiced 

 inquiry into the character of the 

 dean, written with his usual cor- 

 rectness and beauty of style, and 

 highly useful, from its seizing 

 every opportunity of enforcing the 

 purest morality. It offered, how- 

 ever, no new materials to the 

 world, and, in point of informa- 

 tion, has been superseded by the 

 full and elaborate details of Sheri- 

 dan and Nichols. To the merits 

 of Hawkesworth, notwithstanding, 



every subsequent editor has been 

 just ; and, since the encomium of 

 Johnson, the following sketches 

 of his biographical talents have 

 been given to the public by She- 

 ridan and Berkeley. 



" He was an author," remarks 

 the first of these gentlemen, " of 

 no small eminence ; a man of 

 clear judgment and great candour. 

 He quickly discerned the truth 

 from the falsehood ; wiped away 

 many of the aspersions that had 

 been thrown on Swift's character ; 

 and placed it, so far as he went, 

 in its proper light." * 



" For the task he undertook," 

 observes Mr. Berkeley, " his ta- 

 lents were fully equal; and the 

 period at which he wrote was 

 friendly to impartiality. Swift 

 had now been dead some years ; 

 and Hawkesworth was the first 

 man from whom the public could 

 expect a totally unprejudiced ac-« 

 count of his life. To Hawkes- 

 worth, except as a writer. Swift 

 was wholly unknown. His mirth 

 had never enlivened the hours, nor 

 had his satire embittered the re- 

 pose, of him who was now to be 

 his biographer ; circumstances, 

 these, highly favourable to impar- 

 tial investigation and candid deci- 

 sion. But, alas ! Hawkesworth 

 contented himself with such ma- 

 terials as the life by Orrery and 

 the apologies of dean Swift and 

 Dr. Delany afforded ; adding no- 

 thing to this stock of information 

 but a few scattered remarks, col- 

 lected by Johnson. Of his per- 

 formance, therefore, I shall only 

 observe, that its information is 

 sometimes useful and amusing, 



• Introduction to the Life of Dr. Swift. 

 \oL. UI. 2 N 



