534 
fuccefs ! How eafily are they galled to the 
quick, amidft all their exultation, even: by 
the flighteft cenfure of the meaneft of eri- 
tics! It is not pride that can be content 
with its ewn fuffrage alone, but vanity. 
fuffering the voice of the multitude to fix 
its price, that difplays itfelf in all thofe 
emotions. - It is the fate of the fons of li- 
terature to be peculiarly fubjeé to the in- 
fluence of thefe caufes, by which Vanity 
is neceffarily produced, and cherifhed in 
the breaft. 
In a late perufal of the Letters of 
Batzac to Conrart, aud others, I have 
met with fome very amuling inftances of 
this dterary vanity. Balzacs works, in 
general, are written not without elegance, 
yet without much of either acutenefs or 
comprehenfion of mind, and not always 
with fpirit or correétnefs. But he had 
been praifed and flattered, until he was 
perfuaded that the moft diftant pofterity 
muft read with raptures the verieft trifles 
which. flowed from his pen. ‘ He finds 
himfelf,”’ as he tells his friend, ** diftrefled 
by the impertinent importunity of perfons 
who wrote to him, and fent him prefents, 
folely with a view to draw from him fome 
of his precious epifiles.’ Of SaLMasiushe 
days, <‘ That great book-maker pours out 
his ftuff fatter than any fecretary can tran- 
{cribe it, or any printer conduct it through 
the prefs. He will compofe a thick folio 
fooner than I can finifh a poge or two of a 
letter. Bleffed are the writers who can 
fo eafily fatisfy themfelves! who, in com- 
poling, exercife only their memory and 
their Angers! who, without choice or dif- 
crimination, tell juft all that they know!” 
Of his ewn work, intitled, ARISTIPPUS, 
he fays, ‘* Sodearly do 1 love this Ben- 
jamin of my brain, that Pavsuld not ex- 
change it for all the Mifcellamies, Diatriba, 
warious Readings, Animadvexfons, Emen- 
dations, Gc. Ge. that have ifued, during 
thefe loft fifty years, from the preffes of 
Leiden and Frankfort.’ Many things, 
ftill more extravagant than thefe, ap- 
pear as effufions: of this author’s vanity, 
in the fame little volume of his Letters > 
yet is there in the fame voiume nothing 
finer than a fhort complimentary epiitle 
from M. Dretincourt, fent with a copy of 
his excellent treatife oz Death, to court 
the acceptance of BaLzac. It feems that 
Baizac had eftablifhed on his eftate a 
manufacture of paper ; and was accultom- 
ed to fend frequent prefents of this article 
to his favourite friends at Paris. He ap- 
_ pears, likewife, to have been mot anxioully 
punctilioas in regard to the correction of 
the preis, in the printing of his works,—- 
Balzac—Hobies. 
It fhould fee, from the epiftulary corre- 
fpondence of Bauzac and his friends, that 
they accounted him who could pay the 
moft extravagant compliments to. write 
the beft letter. 
Tuomas Hosses of Malmefury ex- 
hibits likewife, in his works, fome curi- 
ous {pecimens of the vanity of an authors 
But it muft be owned, that there is in 
Hosgszes’ felf-commendation much more 
of dogmatifm, infolence, and enthufattic - 
conviction, than in that of Balzac. It 
has, perhaps, in it more of pride, than of 
vanity. In. the very. title of his Shorz 
Treatife on Liberty and Neceffity, he fays 
of it ; ** Wherein all controverly conrern- 
ing Predeftination, Election, Free-Will, 
Grace, Merits, Reprobation, &c. 19 
FULLY DECIDED AND GLEARED.”— 
He never fails to treat his adverfaries with: 
{upreme contempt, as the moft finpid and 
ignorant of mankind. In the dedication 
of his Treatife on Human Nature to the 
Earl of Newcaftle, he f{cruples not to fay : 
“* T prefent this to your Lordfhip, for the 
only and folid foundation of fuch feicnce.’” 
** It would be an incomparable benefit to ~ 
the common-wealth,’” adds he afterwards, 
<* that every one held the opinion concern- 
ing law and policy, here delivered.” In 
the dedication of his LEvtaTHan to Mr. 
Francis Godolphin, he very frankly ex- 
prefles himfelf thus: ‘ If you find my la- 
bour generally deczied, you may fay, I am 
a man that love my ewn opinions, and 
think. all true I fay.” Comparing him- 
feif, in anether work, with Boyle, aad the 
natural philofophers in general, he treats 
them with ineffable contempt, as men who 
owed their reputation merely to their 
glafles and furnaces: ‘* but, before Mr. 
Hoszes’s book De Homie came forth,™ 
adds he immediately, ‘* I never faw any 
thing written of that fubject intelligibly.” 
—Hosses, E cannat help here mention- 
ing, has left us, in Latin hexameters, a 
diverting account of a vifit made by a 
party of pleafure to the Peak in Derbyfhire, 
in which he very laughably tranflates the 
vulgar appellation — The Devils Arfe & 
Peak—PLutToxs ANUM. 
A-kin to this. author’s vanity of Bals 
zac and Ifobbes feems to be that ftrange 
delufion of fancy, which made the famous 
Lord. HErpertT of CHERBURY believe 
himfelf commanded by a /pecial revela- 
tioe from heaven, to publifh a book 
againft all revelation. The fory is al- 
ready futhciently known.—Somewhat of 
the fame caf, too, appears to have been 
that fend prefumption of the moft amufing: 
BeENVENUTO CxeLLini, which led him 
3 as 
