1797+] 
ftudies and their habits ; exult in their 
virtues, and difcriminate their petty and 
their fplendid errors. Every man of 
genius has fome fplendid errror; fome- 
thing which the luftre of their charaéter 
half conceals, and renders fometimes re- 
— fpeéted, becaufe attached tothem. There 
may be nothing invidious in dweting on 
the imperfections of great men: it is, 
perhaps, neceflary that thofe may receive 
encouragement whofe delicacy is too fevere 
a felf-judge, and who, becaufe they dif- 
cover themfelves lefs perfect than they 
with, fwallow, in defpair, the opium of 
inaction, ftretch themfelves in the deadly 
lethargy of indolence, and have become 
the fuicides of their own fame. This 
volume would teach fuch an amiable in- 
firmity how in the moral, as well as the 
phyfical world, health depends on exer- 
cife, i 
Such a work would gradually become 
the annals of literature, of the arts, and of 
morals. Every profeffional man effects 
fome invention; approaches fome per- 
fe€tion ; or has adorned fome branch of 
his purfuits. He has either himfelf made 
difcoveries, or what is not lefs valuable, 
he has popularifed former difcoveries. | 
All thefe noted in each life, become fo 
many fcattered members of one art ; thefe 
feparated truths will naturally, in an at- 
tentive mind, gravitate towards each 
other; time, that only fuffered them to 
be deteéted, one by one (as if it were to 
remunerate human induftry) will affem- 
ble and affimilate them to their refpeétive 
* art. 
This work would be a hiftory of the 
human mind, and an eftimare of the na- 
tional genius. In becoming properly ac- 
quainted with the fources of public infor- 
mation, in obferying the reception certain 
works, or certain men, have met, and in 
tracing the favour which has been accord- 
ed to a work of bad tafte, or to a man of 
impure morals, neither good tafte nor 
virtue would fuffer. 3 
What an agreeable picture the imagi- 
nation forms in viewing this work re- 
alifed ! Ir traces the generous ardour of 
youth, not wandering in a labyrinth of 
doubt, or of ignorance ; the path that he 
is to tread is made level to his eye; no 
cold and prudent parent, incapable of the 
fentiment of public: felicity ; no inane 
Beer re inftruéting his pupil in obfo- 
ete maxims, and rettraining the growth 
of the human intelleét, like thofe barba- 
wians, who,.by fwathing the limbs, flat- 
ten and diminifh their ftrength and beauty ; 
Propofals for qn Annual Necrology. 381 
no adverfiry of fortune, that worft of 
parents and preceptors, fhall impede his 
progrefs, or abafe his fervour. He will 
fee in this volume his feelings, his 
obftacles, and his hopes deferibed; he 
will revolve its pages with enthufiafm ; 
and, burning with the contagion of a 
fublime induftry, he will ‘at once be the 
marble and the fculptor. 
But who are to be the compofers of thefe 
records? None but the men of talents of 
the age. It mufi not be the miferable 
biographer, who reverberates in his com- 
pilations the fentiments fo often echoed ; 
whofe inverted commas, in his extracts, 
are but an half kind of honefty in his pil- 
lages; for if he could only extract and 
compile, why did he write? Why make 
us repurchafe, at an enormous price, what 
we have long had in our library and our 
head# Why make us, guilty (fo to.ex~ 
prefs myfelf) of becoming receivers of 
ftolen goods ? | 
The writers of this NECROLOGY 
fhould be men whofe opinions are valued 
by the public; whofe tafte is fure and 
delicate ; and whote judgment is confirm- 
ed by experience. Sublime talents are not 
requifite to pay a homage to exalted 
merit ; the biographer does not create; 
he only felects and combines; he gives 
birth to no flowers, he only ‘mingles and 
fets r+em off in the wreath. . His genius 
is didictic, but- never inventive; while 
his imaginaticn repofes, his tafte reflects 
the feelings, and his judgment difentangles 
the intricacies of that genius, whofe pre- 
grefs he records. He furnifhes the mate- 
rials of literary hiftory.- 
From fuch a regifter of the exertions of 
our great contemporaries, there can be no 
doubt that many beneficial effects muft 
arife. JI fhall here notice but one; the 
creation of men, who will add to the 
glory and ftrength of the Britifh empire. 
In revolving the difcoveries of the aftro- 
‘nomer ; the navigations of the adventurer ; 
the inventions of the mechanic; the 
edifices of the architect ; the pictures of 
the painter ; the poems of the poet; the 
refearches of the eloquent hiftorian ;—~ 
what a crowd of congenial minds ‘will 
arife! The living artift will be folaced in 
his labours as he turns thefe pages; the 
applaufe of his rivals (rivals then no more } 
will half confole him for his domeftic 
anxiety, and fometimes for the puolic 
neglect. He will view that Time is the 
friend of merit, and a fevere friend, who — 
teaches us gradually to be worthy of its 
regard, He-will correct his errors, by 
3 Da meditating 
