546 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



and that its misrepresentations are 

 never intentional." * 



In a life so tumultuous and va- 

 ried as was Swift's, connected with 

 so much political transaction, and 

 associated with the most import-^ 

 ant events and characters of the 

 time, novelty, extent, and diver- 

 sity of information, might be rea- 

 sonably required ; whereas in the 

 biography of a mere literary man, 

 the incidents arc few, and gene- 

 rally connected with publications 

 that fix precisely the era of their 

 occurrence ; whilst what is ex- 

 pected from the biographer, either 

 as matter of utility or amusement, 

 is in a great degree drawn from 

 his own intrinsic resources. In a 

 detail of this latter description, 

 where moral reflection, criticism, 

 and arrangement, where elegance 

 of composition, weight of senti- 

 ment, and literary disquisition are 

 merely demanded, Hawkesworth 

 would have greatly excelled, and 

 would have produced a work fully 

 as valuable, perhaps, to the best 

 interests of man, as the narrative 

 of political struggle and ambitious 

 intrigue, however connected with 

 talent^ wit, and humour. On the 

 subject which he had chosen, 

 however, as he failed in industry 

 of research and originality of do- 

 cument, he has been nearly con- 

 signed to oblivion. 



Yet, as an editor, the year fol- 

 lowing the publication of his Life 

 of the Dean, enabled him to oblige 

 the world with " Letters of Dr. 

 Swift and several of his Friends, 

 published from the Originals, with 

 Notes Explanatory and Histo- 

 rical," in three vols. Svo. ; a col- 



lection which had been presented 

 by Swift himself to Dr. Lyon, and 

 transferred by this gentleman to 

 Mr. Thomas Wilkes, of Dublin, 

 and who again disposed of it to 

 the booksellers. 



The preface which Dr. Hawkes- 

 worth has written for these vo- 

 lumes, contains some very just ob- 

 servations on the instruction and 

 amusement to be derived from fa- 

 miliar and confidential letters ; 

 the following passage, especially, 

 most eloquently describes the va- 

 lue which should be attached to 

 the publication of a correspond- 

 ence such as he was then present- 

 ing to his readers. 



" In a series of familiar letters 

 between the same friends for thirty 

 years, their whole life, as it were, 

 passes in review before us ; we 

 live with them, we hear them talk 

 we mark the vigour of life, the 

 ardour of expectation, the hurry 

 of business, the jollity of their so- 

 cial meetings, and the sport of 

 their fancy in the sweet intervals 

 of leisure and retirement ; we see 

 the scene gradually change ; hope 

 and expectation are at an end; 

 they regret pleasures that are past, 

 and friends that are dead ; they 

 complain of disappointment and 

 infirmity; they are conscious that 

 the sands of life which remain are 

 i'ew ; and while we hear them re- 

 gret the approach of the last, it 

 falls, and we lose them in the 

 grave. Such as they were, we 

 feel ourselves to be ; we are con- 

 scious to sentiments, connexions, 

 and situations like theirs ; we find 

 ourselves in the same path, urged 

 forward by the same necessity ; 



Inquiry into the Life of Dean Swift. 



