No. -27. 
DR. HAWKESWORTH. 
OF Di . John Hnwkeswoi th, one of our inost arpiable moral writers, 
few particulars are known. He was a native of London, and born in 
the memorable year 1715. There seems good reason to believe that 
Ills biitli was humble ; and that, tl'.ough his native genius, and insa- 
tiable thiist of knowledge, supplied every want, he had received but 
a very slender education, when he was placed as an apprentice to a 
watchmaker. How long he remained in this situation cannot now be 
ascertained ; we may, however, conclude that he soon torsook this bu- 
siness, to pursue more congenial occupations. 
Having bettered his ciicumstances bymarriage, he resided atEromley 
jn Kent; and, aided by the friendship of a gentlewoman of large for- 
tune, rose to a Direftorship of the Honourable East India Company. 
His liist literary etfons, we believe, appeared in the Gentleman’s 
Nj^azine; ot which publication he was for some time editor. 
The great work ot Dr. Hawkesworth w as his Adventurer; and-a great 
work It IS ! In purity ot moral, in entertainment, and eleganceof diition, 
it may rank with the first of our periodical works. It was compleated 
March 4, 1754 ; and procured our author the degree of Doilor of Laws. 
On the accession of his present Majesty, Dr. Hawkesworth produced 
the charming oriental taleof Almoran and Hamet, dedicated by pemiis- 
sion to the King. He also wrote the beautiful little musical entertain- 
ment of Edgar and Emmeline, which is still occasionally performed 
Di . Haw keswoi til's translation of Tclemaclius is the best we possess. 
It is splendid, but redundant. No man has yet reached the dignified 
simplicity of the original. Perhaps it is unattainable. 
His Narrative of the Discoveries in the great South Sea, compiled from 
the original papers ot Capt. Cooke, by the eommand ot his Majesty, 
was a long and laborious undertaking, foi which he received 5000 1. 
besides the copyright. But no sum of money can comjsensate the li- 
terary credit which he on this occasion cruelly lost; and, indeed, the 
mortification he felt, from the illiberality it met with, is supposed, by 
many, to have shortened his days. He aied soon after the publication, 
November 16, 1773; and was buried at Bromley, where a handsome 
monument ha« been erected to his memory, on which is inscribed part 
of the very patheiick close of his admirable Adventurer, 
Dr. Hawkesw orth has given us few verses, but they are such as lead us 
to wish that he had produced more. Yet he was, perhaps, unwilling to 
be considered merely as a pleasing poet, and felt no consciousness of pos- 
sessing the powers of a great one. As a moral author, he must ever 
rank high in the estimation of every feeling and cultivated mind. 
