Walpoliana, No. IX. 444 
feau I never could like. Take much af- 
1798.) 
to rummage for a book, and he brought - 
me an old Grub-ftreet thing from tha 
garret. The author, in fhéer ignorance, 
not humour, difcourfing of the difficulty 
of fome purfuit, faid,, that even if a man 
had as many lives as a cat, nay, as many 
lives as one Plutarch is faid to have had, 
he could not accomplifh it. This odd 
te pro quo furprized me into vehement ° 
aughter. 
Lady * * * is fond of ftupid ftories. 
She repeats one of a Welch ‘cullion 
weitch, who, on hearing the fervants {peak 
of new moons, afked gravely what be- 
came of all the old moons. 
Mis * * *, with a {weet face, and in- 
nocent mouth, fings jla/b-fongs. The 
eontraft is irreliftible. 
CXAVITI, WALPOLE NO AUTHOR. 
¥ do not look upon myfelf as an author. 
I may fay, without the vain affectation of 
modefty, that [have done nothing. My 
Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, 
almoft any bookfeller could have drawn 
up. My chief compilation, the Anecdotes 
of Painting in England, is Mr. Vertueé’s 
work, not mine. \ 
Vertue’s manufcripts were in great 
cenfufion. I drew up an Index, and lott 
at. Amother fuffered the fame fate. I 
thought I was betwitched; and even trem- 
bled for the third. 
CXXIX. FOX, 
What a man Fox is! After his long 
and exhaufting {peech on Haftings’s trial, 
he was feen handing fadies into their 
coaches, with all the caiety and prattie of 
an idle gallant. 
CXXX. BOOK-MAKING,. 
Never was the noble art of book- 
making carried to fuch high perfection, 
as at prefent. Thefe compilers feem to 
forget that people have libraries. One 
Vamps up a new book of travels, confifting 
merely of difguifed extracts from former 
publications. Another fills his pages with 
Greek and Latin extracts from Avriitotle 
and Quintilian. A third, if pofltble more 
infipid, gives' us long quotations trom our 
poets, while a reference was enough, the 
books being in the hands of every body. 
Another treats us with old French ¢#2 in 
mafquerade; and, bya fingular fate, de- 
rives advantage from his very blunders, 
which make the things look new. Pah! 
¥, and an amanuentis, could {cribble one 
ef thofe books in twenty-four hours. 
CXXXI. FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS. 
Ladmire Voltaire and Helvetius. Rouf- 
feStation, and a little {pice of frenzy, and 
you compofe his perional charaG@ter. I 
found the French philofophers fo impu- 
dent, dogmatic, and intrulive, that I de- 
tefted their converfation. Ofal! kinds of 
vice I hate reafoning vice. Unprincipled 
themielves, they affected to di€tate mo- 
rality and fentiment. The great, from 
vain glory and vant of ideas, encouraged 
their prefence: but they always reminded 
me of the fophifts, hired to affift at Roman 
entertainments. And what reafoning & 
Every Frenchman ought to be taught 
logic and mathematics, that his mind 
may acquire fome folidity. ‘Their charac. 
ter is fo impetuous, that what with us is 
fenfation, is with them pafiion. Thereab 
philofophers of antiquity were diftinguifh- 
ed for their moderation, a radical mark 
ot knowledge and wiidom; and they 
treated the popular religion with refpeét. 
Our new fect are fanatics againft religion a 
and furely of all human characters a fa- 
natic philofopher 1s the moft incongruous, 
and of courfe the moft truly ludicrous, - 
CXXKIT. FACE-PAINTING. 
Lady Coventry, the celebrated beauty, 
killed herfelf with painting. She bedaubed 
herfelf with white, fo as to ftop the per. 
fpiration. Lady'Mary Wortley Monta- 
gue was more prident: fhe went often 
into the hot bath, to fcrape off the paint, 
which was almoii as thick as plafter on a 
wall. 
CXXXIVI. VOLTAIRE AND ROLT. 
Voltaire fometimes fell into ftrange mif~ 
takes. One Rolt, an obfcure author, hav- 
ing publithed a hiftory of the war of 1744, 
a fjubjeét alio treated by the French philo- 
fopher, Voltaire wrote to him the mo 
fawning letters, fyling him the firit hifto. 
rian of the age! r 
CXXXIV. MOTHER OF VICES. 
The Duke of Orleans, the Regent, had 
four daughtets, diftinguifhed by the names 
ef the Four Cardinal Sins. A wag wrete 
on their mother’s tomb, Cy gif 1 Osfivité, 
«* Here lycs Idlenefs,** which, you know, 
is termed the mother of all the vices. 
GXXXV. INNOCENT XI. 
The Pope, to whom Jaines IT. fent his 
embafly, was pofleffed of much threwdnefg 
and prudence; and juttly regarded the 
re{toration of the Catholic fyftem in Eng- 
land as animpoffibility. Caftlemain; the 
ambaffador, was inflated with his mafter’s 
infatuation, and had long requefted.a fpe- 
cial audience, in order to propofe decifive | 
Repsz 



