1802. ] 
Mt, Horne Tooke, not to mention others 
of an inferior note. After congratulat- , 
ing ourfelves upon thefe fignal advan- 
tages, let us candidly acknowledge that, 
with refpeét to the peculiar department 
of the art of writing, we cannot offer any 
thing in competition with the immortal 
performances of Condillac! Mr. Robert- 
{on admitted ‘the propriety of the argu» 
ments, and was, full as much as the 
writer, convinced that the theory of com- 
pofition ought to be confidered and ma- 
naged as a peculiar branch of critica] ftu- 
dies,independent of grammarjand rhetoric; 
and that it was natural to fuppofe, that 
propriety, precifion, perfpicuity, ftrength 
and harmony of ftyle, fhould be governed 
by conftant rules, derived from the me- 
chanifm of cur underftanding, and: in- 
difpenfable in any written language. 
Notwithitanding his characteriftical mo- 
defty, he felt himfelf alfo obliged to de- 
clare, that he alieady peneted fufficient 
wmaterials for an attempt*of the kind: but 
he went no farther. 
Whilft Mr. Robertfon was concerned 
in the Cfitical Review, he did not confine 
his activity to the laborious tafk allotted 
him; but found time to dire&t his mind 
to fome farther objects. In the year1772, 
he revifed and corrected for the prefs Dr. 
Gregory Shaxpe’s, Pofibumous Sermons ; 
and completed a new edition of Algernon 
Sidney’s Difcourfe on Government, with 
Hiftorical Notes, in one volume in 4to; 
.in which performance, to adopt Mr. 
Hollis’s expreffions, he diffinguifbed him- 
felf eminently, even beyond any expectation 
of him, by his abilities, learning, and induf- 
try. And in 1781, he likewife reviled 
and publithed a medical work of his friend 
Sir Clifton Wintringhan—De Morbis 
quibufdam Commentari. Nor mui we 
here omit that, at the period we are now 
{peaking of, he obtained further pro- 
motions in the church: for, in +770, he 
was inftituted to the reétory of Sutton, in 
_Effex; and, in 1779, to the vicarage of 
Horncaftle, in Lincolnfhire, to which he 
was prefented by his relation, the cele- 
brated Edmund Law, Bifhop of Carlifle. 
It fhould appear that, about the year 
3782, Mr. Robertfon adopted that line of 
literary purfuits which he has followed, 
during the remainder of his life—the the- 
oretical and praétical inftruction of young 
people; as we find him publifhing, ac 
_ that time, an elegant little volume, in- 
titled An Introduction to the Study of Po- 
lite Literature. The profefied defign of 
the author, in this publication, was the 
Amprovement of young people in reading ; 
Memoirs of the late Rev. 
Mr. “Fofeph Robertfon, 135 
and his favourite pofition alfo was that 
eafy language and delicacy of fentiment are 
very properly calculated to allure and cap- 
tivate a youthful imagination. itis al- 
mott fuperfluous to remark that neatnefs 
and purity of tyle were the particular cha- 
raéteriftics of the work ; and itis but too 
well known to what an impudent plagia- 
rifm it afterwards gave rife from a writer 
of great renown, whole name it is untie- 
ceflary to mention in this place. 
In 1785 appeared his celebrated E/ay 
62 Punciuatiogn, which rapidly went 
through four editions, and is now out of 
print. Few elementary books ever ap- 
peared, of a more extenfive concern, and 
amore immediate utility. The perform- 
ance is remarkable for the methodical ar- 
rangement of the feveral principles under 
their refpective chapters. It firft exhibits a 
‘concife hiftory ef punctuation, from the 
Greeks and the Romans, and then the 
whole theory of it in eight feparate chap- 
ters; the comma, the femicolon, the 
colon,, the period, the interrogation, 
the exclamation, the  parenthefis, 
and the daih. Let tnofe perfons look 
at this fimall book, who happen to 
think the art of punctuation to be an 
eafy tafk! They will, perhaps, be mor- 
tified by difcovering that the mere practice 
of the comma is governed by no lefs than 
forty effential precepts, grounded upon 
the very rature of our fenfations. Per-, 
haps, allo, their mortification will be 
greater when they fee, page 135, the in- 
genious author himfelf declaring, that itill 
thefe rules are not fuffictent to dire? the 
learner in every tmaginable combination of 
words and phrafés. — 
We now come to a werk of a higher 
note, which ought, in our opinion, to 
have commanded a greater attention than it 
really did from the learued world, that is, 
the Differtation on the Parian Chronicle, 
publifhed in 1728, with the motto ‘* Ea 
que difputavi, differere malui quam judi- 
care.’ It is known how this famous 
chronicle, engraved on marble, and con- 
taining, in its perfect ftate, a chronologi- 
cal detail of the principal events of Greece, 
during a period of ene thoufand three 
hundred and eighteen years, was brought 
‘to England in the year 1627, and how it 
foon excited a general curiofity among the 
inquifitive and learned men. Sciden, 
Prideaux, _ Mattaire, and Chandler, had 
fucceflively exerted their ingenuity and 
given large commentaries upon it, whilft 
Marquis Scipio Maffei, in Italy, and M. 
Du Frefnoy, in France, had tranflated it 
into their refpettive languages, It is 
cee rather 
