Vox. VIL] 
We are now come to the laft divifion, 
MISCELLANIES, 
Which will be tound to embrace a 
mumber of works of great merit and im. 
portance. We know not where to arrange 
with more propriety than under this head, 
“6 The Werks of Horatio Walpcle, Ecrl of 
Orjord;” this [plendid publication con- 
fifts of five ponderous quarto volumes, 
the contents of which are in general, what 
the author himfelf had fele&ted; in a 
mea2fure alfo they are new ; for though all 
the tratts of Horace Walpole, which had 
before been publithed, are embodied in 
this work, they are enriched with fo many 
valuable obfervations, which fuggeited 
themfelves to the noble author in his ma- 
turer years, that to their intrinfic excel- 
dence is added the charm of novelty: the 
fourth and fifth volumes, with inconlider- 
able exceptions, are compoted of matter 
which had never been before the public. 
re Walpole devoted almoft the whole 
of his long life to literary purfuits ; he 
cultivated with equal fuccefs his tafte, his 
talents, and his temper ; his acquirements 
were various, but not fuperficial; his ex- 
curfive genius, after explormg the‘ dark 
and intricate labyrinths of antiquity, refted 
not, but as a relief from labour, would 
ramble through the delightful regions 
of fancy, and cull fome ot the choiceft 
flowers that blow. The public is under 
great obligations: to Mr. Berry and his 
tair affociate for the care, the accuracy, 
-and_ elegance with which they have edited 
thefe intereiting volumes. Mr* Browne, 
ef Trinity college, Dublin, has publifhed 
two volumes of ‘* Mzfcellaneous Sketches ; 
or, Hiats for Effays ;’ they difplay much 
good jenfe and acute obfervation, and are 
ebvioufly the effufions of a mind well 
ftored with the treafures of literature, 
Mr. Browne is one of thefe gloomy phi- 
Jofophers who confider civilization to 
move, as it were, in the periphery of a 
circle; even in its progrefs, always re- 
turning to the point of barbarifm from 
which it ftarted; ‘‘ my own opinion al- 
ways has been,”’ fays he, ‘* that the pre- 
fent ftate of iJlumination and refinement 
will be fucceeded by fecond darknefs and 
cimmerian night, equally gloomy with 
the clond raifed by the cruth of the Roman 
empire ;”” far trom confidering the art of 
printing as an adequate guarantee againift 
this melancholy retrogreffion of. the mind, 
he fays the art of printing may itfelf be- 
conie exclufively the engine of wickednefs, 
of vice, of folly, and of irreligion. Mr. 
Brown adduces the example of France in 
fupport of his arguments, We are not 
Retrofpeét of Domeftic Literature....Mdifcellanies. 
-indulge ourfelves in quotation ; 
519 
of that number who confider the caufe of 
France as infeparably conneéted with the 
caufe of treedom, and who therefore think 
it neceffary to defend the former in all her 
infamous enormities. Far from it—very 
far fromit indeed. Wecannot, however, 
think it fair to attribute the enormities of 
France to the art of printing. ‘That in the 
phrenzy of revolution, the art of print- 
ing was unable to counteraét them is moft 
true, and that when the prefs, under the 
reign of Robefpierre, was an engine which’ 
at his peril no one but the tyrant dare employ, 
it for the moment contributed to the enor- 
mities is true; but that the art of printing, 
avbere the freedom of the prefs is unrefirict- 
éd, fhould permanently and fteadily ope- 
rate to rebarbarize mankind, is a po- 
fition, in our opinion, totally repug- 
ant to common fenfe and common reafon,. 
‘The mufes are bitter bad judges of philo- 
fophy, fays Mr. Horne Tooke; but the 
foundnets of the poet’s judgment, who 
faid, “‘ lugenuas didiciffe fideliter artes,” 
&c. has never been difputed ; and Mr. 
Browne, if he had attended to the pro- 
ceedings of the national inftitute, and 
ether literary and {cientific focieties. in 
France, would have paufed before he {poke 
in fo peremptory atone; he would have 
been compelled to anticipate the time, ne 
diftant time we hope, when thofe ferocious 
frowns which have difgraced the infant 
republic fhall foften into {miles, into fmiles 
of benevolence and peace. It is grateful 
to have men of literary eminence coin- 
cide with us in opinion, and that fucha 
coincidence fhould be accidentally made 
known is doubly fo. How highly gratified 
then muft Mr. Browne be, could he but 
know that Dr. Trufler, the Rew. Dr. 
Trufler, has given his formidable inter- 
diét to the art of printing, in ‘* An E/fay 
on literary Property, containing a Commen - 
tary on the Statute of Queen Anne (8 Q,An, 
c.19. and Animadverfions on that Statute, 
ujth a dedicatory Preface,” in bad Eng- 
lith, ** to the Lord Chancellor.’ Dottor 
Trofler afferts that the art of printing, if 
not the firft, is at any rate the fecondary . 
caufe of all the troubles which France has 
experienced. ‘The Doégtor, however, goes 
a little farther; he fays, that the art of 
reading alfo has had fomething todo with 
it. As we are not quarrelfome people, 
we fhall give up the point. We dare not 
Se UNt | Xt 
would really have been a great treat te us 
to have given a {pecimen of this reverend 
author’s eflay. The Doétor acknow- 
ledges, ‘* that printing has certaifily had 
its good ules ;°’ this is very true, for we 
remember 
