THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
age! 


No. XVII] 
eS 
¥ 
MAY ; 1 797. 


Mer, 1: 

*.* ComMUNICATIONS for the SUPPLEMENTARY NumBer, which will be pub= 
bf ed about the Middle of JoLy, foould be tranfmutted on or about the 20th of JUNE. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. , 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 

Munys & officium, nil feribens ipfe, docebo :— 
Quid deceat, quid non; quo virtus, quo ferat 
_ CLKer. Hor, Art. PorrT. 

Mr. Eprror, eee 
HAVING long entertained an opinion, 
confirmed by experience, that the, 
ftyle of Mr. Hume’s hiftory is throughout 
foleciftical, clumfy, deftitute of elegance, 
and never elevated beyond mediocrity. of 
campolition, I have perpetually been 
furprifed. and difgufted by::the praifes 
which inconfideration, unfkilfulnefs, or 
falfe candour, has lavifhed upon him; as a 
mafter of fine writing... Though I know 
myfelf to be perfeétly {uperior to every 
prejudice in this réfpeét affignable to reli- 
gious antipathies, the moit usequivocal: 
proof of rectitude will be found in an ac- 
tual examination of the ftyle in‘queftion ; 
and, .as the ¢charaéter ef Elizabeth was 
lately pomted out to me as a {pecimen 
of peculiar merit, let that be the fubjeés 
of critwcifm on this occafion: a: portion, 
neither more -nor lefs exceptionable, I 
dare fay, than any other: — 
** So dark acloud overcaft the evening 
of that day which had /bone oxt with a 
mighty Juftre, iu the eyes of all Europe.” 
The phrafe, bad bone cvt, is aukward 
and undignified. .He would better have 
written, /Lone. forta, or, fimply, Lone. 
However, let this pafs : had. fone is uh- 
grammatical. Shoe is the preterite, but 
foined 1s the participle, and was required 
here.: fee our common verfion at Exodus 
XXXIV. 29 3°2 Kings iii, 22; Ifaiah ix. 2; 
Luke 1. .9,; 2 Cot. ivi 6.—Befides, the 
whole reflection fuggefts a notion of 
durable calamity; fach as infanity or 
dotage, for years preceding her diffolu- 
tion :— 
From Marlb’rough’s eyes the ftreams of dotage. 
flow, ; F 
And Swift expires, a driveller and a flow :. 
not a few days cf forrow, where the fur-. 
férer “falls into‘a /erbargic flumber, and» 
expires gently, without farther ftraggle or 
convulfion,’ which is the abfurd and in 
Monrary Mac. No. XVII. 

confiftent language of our hiftorian’ 
preceding paragraph. 
“ There are few great perfonages in 
hiftory, who have been more expoied to 
the calumny of enemies, and the adut 
lation of friends, than Queen Elizabeth ; 
and yet there’ fcarcely is any whofe re- 
putarion has been,~mare certainly deter- 
mined by the unanimous confent of 
pofterity.”’ ons hace ie 
Now the writer did not mean what is 
here afferted. .Elizabeth’s charaéter is 
no more expofed to calumny and adula- 
tion, than the character of any other per- 
fon; becaufe calumny atid adulation 
make no rational diftinétions. _ Her cha- 
raéter may, indeed, have zcurred more 
calumny and adulation, or have been the 
olje of them, than that of moft other 
people: and this is what the hiftorian 
would have expreffed, had he known 
how to write Englifn phrafeology. He 
fhould have faid alfo, ‘* more confidently, 
or poftively, determined :” becaufe he ts 
{peaking, not with reference to abfoluie 
truth, but individual opinian. Moreover, 
unlefs all thefe calvaniators and flatterers 
were the cotemporaries of Elizabeth, 
which the writercertainly did not intend, 
it is not very eafy, I think, to difcover 
how fuch torul difagreement can fuddenly 
become the wuan mous co@feat of potterity. 
“The unutual tength of her admini- 
ftration, and the rong features of her 
. charaéter, were able rovovercome all diffi- 
culties; and obliging her detractors to 
abate much of their invectives, and her 
admircrs fomewhat of their panegyrics, 
have at laft, in {pite of political factions, 
and, what is more, of religious animofi- 
ties, produced a tiniform judgment with 
regard to her conduét.”’ 
An Englifhman would have written 
reign inftead of adminifir tion in this 
place: here we have oze impropriety. 
- The fancy too of -a feature, as able to 
overcome a prejudice. may pa's, but will 
have icw admirers-among readers of tafte 
and difcernmenr. But what congruous 
application the mere incidental and idle 
D4 circumftance 
