1797.] 
ment of his art. He was warm, nay 
fometimes violent, and his fcholars were 
not always inclined to praife the {weet- 
nels of his temper. On th@other hand, 
his mind was noble, elevated, and great, 
even to excefs. 
The French Republic, eager to pay 
homage to his memery, has prefented his 
widow witha penfion of 2¢00 livres 
per ann. A fon, Alexis: Mathias De- 
fault, was the fole fruit of his marriage ; 
and he has left but one work* behind 
him, in which the name of his friend 
_Chopart is jomned with his own. 
err ME eer 
FROM MY: PORT FOLIO. No. II. 
RICHARDSON. 3 
HERE are ceriain fenfations’ which 
we ate compelied to defcribe by po- 
pular language, but which, as they can 
never be experienced by perfons of vul- 
gar feeling, are confiderably injured by 
the terms we employ. Such is that con- 
{ciou{nefs of ‘their own merits which 
fome men of génius have not only felt, 
' but which they have even expreffed ; we 
have ufually termed this vanity, but 
vanity, in the accurate definitions of our 
great lexicographer, is a “petty pride; 
pride exerted upon flight grounds.” —It 
may even be faid to confift merely in 
JFancied excellence; bac when the excel- 
lence is real, the confcioufnefs is injuri- 
oully termed vanity; here we can evi- 
dently feel an efiential difference, but 
language affords no. appropriate .term. 
We may eiteem and applaud ourfelves, 
without vanity. I make this prelimina- 
ry obfervation, that it may not be con- 
fidered I mean to. degrade the charac- 
ter of Richardfon, the novelift, of whom 
I have given, in the eulogium of Dide- 
rot, in our firft number, an ardent and 
interefting tribute. 
An excellive fondnefs for his own 
works diftinguifhed this Shakfpeare_ of 
novel-writing. Johnfon has anticipated 
me in forme anecdotes, which I received 
from the fame authentic fource as him- 
felf. 1 refer to his life of Bofwell, vol. 
li p.275- The“ literary’ lady,’”’ who 
is Mrs. Charlotte Lenox, fo jutily valued 
by Johnfon, was a regular vifitor at 
Richardfon’s houfe, and fhe can fearcely 
recolleét one vifit which was not taxed 
by this author’s reading one of his volu- 
_Minouws letters, or two, or three, if his 
auditor was guiet and friendly. 

* jraité des Maladies Chirurgicales & des 
Opérations qui leur conviennent, 2 vols. $vo. 
Villier, Paris ; Deboffe, London. 
of it is preparing by Mr. TuRNBULL. 
Port Folio, No. 11.—Richardfon....Shakfpeare. 
A tranflation- 
127 
The extreme delight which he felt, 
on a review of his own works, appears 
by the works themfelves. Each is an 
evidence of what fome will deem a vio- 
lent literary vanity. .To Pamela is pre- 
fixed a letter from the editor (who we 
well know to be the author) confifiing 
of one of the mott minutely-laboured 
panegyrics of the work itelf, that ever 
the blindeft idolarer of fome ancient claf. 
‘fic paid to the objeé&t of his phrenetic 
imagination, He has, in feveral places, 
contrived to repeat the ftriking parts ‘of 
the nerrative, which fhows his fer- 
tility of imagination to great advantage. 
To the author's own ed tion of his C/g~ 
rifa is appended an alphabetical’ ar. 
rangement of the fentiments ‘difperfed 
throughout the work; and fuch was the 
fondnefs that dictated this voluniimous ar- 
rangement, that the moft trivial and fa- 
miliar aphorifms, fuch as “habits are 
not eafily changed’”—“ men are known 
by their companions,” &c. fcem alike to 
be the objeét of their author’s admira-~ 
tion, This colletion of fentiments (faid 
indeed to have been fent to him anony= 
moufly) is curious and precious; and 
fhows the value of the work, by the ex- 
tenfive grafp of that mind which could 
think fo forcibly’ on fuch numerous to- 
pics.’ And in his third and final labour, 
to each volume of Svr Coarles Grandijon 
is not only prefixed a complete index, 
with as much exactnefs as if it were a 
Hiftory of England, but there is aifo ap- 
pended aZfof the fmites and allufions 
in the volume; fome of which do net 
exceed fhree or four, in nearly as many 
hundred pages. 
Literary hiftory does not record a more 
fingular example of that felf-detighr, 
which an author has felt on a revificn of 
his works; a delight, which we thes: 
be far from terming vanity ; which pro- 
bably was an intenfe pleafure ; which 
produced his voluminous labours; and 
which may certainly be envied, becaufe 
net experienced, by fome few writers, 
of not inferior genius to Rickardfon him- 
felf. 
SHAKSPEARE. 
Linguet has_obferved, on two cele- 
brated decifions on the merit of our 
great poet, that they are -alike ridicu- 
lous.. The one is that of Pope, who 
fays, that ‘“‘ his charaéters are fo much 
nature herfelf, that it is a fort of injury 
to call them by fo difiant a name as co- 
PLEs of her;’’ a-word, fays the French 
critic, fo energetic, that it has no figni- 
fication. Hume has faid, ‘*-we perhaps 
B 2 admjre 
