5JS ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



probation: llie literary texture too 

 is elegant, animated, and graceful. 

 Of the faults which have disfi- 

 gured this publication, one may 

 be deemed venial, and was to be 

 apprehended from the previous 

 studies and character of the man ; 

 though the narrative is given in 

 the first person, the colouring of 

 the style, and many of the obser- 

 vations, reflections, and descrip- 

 tions, are such as clearly indicate 

 their origin, and betray the dis- 

 ciple of the portico, with all his 

 professional acquirements. 



Incongruities arising from this 

 source, though they break in upon 

 the verisimilitude which was meant 

 to be supported, were readily for- 

 given; but who could have ex- 

 pected from the director of female 

 education, from the author of the 

 Adventurer, from tlie dignified 

 defender of morality and religion, 

 the metaphysical reveries, the li- 

 centious paintings of the sceptic 

 and the voluptuary ! 



To the charge of inaccuracy, of 

 nautical mistake, or defective sci- 

 ence, he was ready and willing to 

 reply ; but against the strong and 

 numerous accusations of impiety 

 and indecency, against the fla- 

 grant proofs, as taken from his 

 preface and his journals, of his 

 denial of a special providence, and 

 of his wanton pictures of sensu- 

 ality, he was unable to defend 

 himself. 



To the vexations which he 

 hourly experienced from these at- 

 tacks, many of which took their 

 source rither from a spirit of ma- 

 lignity than a love of virtue and 

 moral order, was added the ex- 

 treme mortification of being ren- 

 dered accessory to the purposes of 



the most abandoned depravity : 

 for shortly after the publication of 

 his Voyages, notice was given by 

 the infamous editors of a certain 

 magazine, that " all the amorous 

 passages and descriptions in Dr. 

 Hawk th's Collection of Voy- 

 ages should be selected, and illus- 

 trated by a suitable plate," a threat 

 which was immediately after car- 

 ried into execution ; and thus was 

 the doctor condemned, after a life 

 hitherto spent in the support of 

 piety and morality, to subserve 

 the iniquitous designs of the mi- 

 nisters of lewdness and de- 

 bauchery. 



That Hawkesworth ever meant, 

 by his doubts, his queries, and de- 

 scriptions, to shock belief, or in- 

 flame the passions, cannot be ad- 

 mitted. His practice was correct ; 

 but his theory, both in philoso- 

 phy and theology, was often in- 

 consistent and unsettled ; and he 

 was apt to indulge himself in spe- 

 culations, the ultimate tendency 

 and bearings of which, could he 

 have accurately appreciated them, 

 he would have shrunk from with 

 abhorrence. His descriptions of 

 sensual indulgence too, though 

 probably correct representations, 

 were, he should have reflected, 

 not calculated for a popular work; 

 there was no necessity for their 

 introduction; and the language in 

 which they were clothed, by veil- 

 ing, in a great measure, the gross- 

 ness of the imagery, rendered the 

 poison more subtle and perni- 

 cious. 



The sensibility of Hawkesworth 

 was keen, and easily wounded ; 

 he felt through every nerve the 

 envenomed weapons of his ac- 

 cusers, and his peace of mind was 



