1803.] 
morials of fond affection, but of Edward’s 
value for the aris. 
At page 486, for ** Ayfcough’s Cata- 
logue, 17 D. 18,” we fhould read ** Caf 
ley’s Catalogue of the Royal MSS: 17 
D. 18,’ as wellas innote / of the fucceed- 
ing page. 
One notice more and I have done—the 
full Jength portrait of the poet, at the 
clofe of the work, excited my moft 
curious attention. There were fome 
traits I. thought at firit, which did oot 
carry the conviction I could have wifhed ; 
and I was hardly fatisfied to think it 
Chaucer. To have formed my opinion, 
however, entively from the work of the 
engraver would hardly have been fair, 
though even, in that inftance I could not 
think with Mr..Godwin, that it bears 
very little refemblance to the received 
portraits of the poet. The original 
painting which I have fince had an op- 
portunity of examining bears thofe ge- 
mune marks of Chaucer’s age, which the 
art of the engraver never can transfer ; 
the countenance is certainly like the por- 
traits of Chaucer which have been pre- 
ferved on board ; and the ornaments and 
habits well agree with his employments. 
The great fault of the engraver feems to 
have been that he has not given that 
fquarenefs to the lower part of the coun- 
tenance which marks the original with fo 
ftrong a character. 
Thus far, Mr. Editor, I have indulged 
in the freedom of remark ; and may per- 
haps trouble you hereafter with fome 
further obfervations on this literary phe- 
nomenon. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Correfpondent in your laft Number 
has favoured us with a curious ex- 
ample, from an eminent author, (Gray), of 
the figure of {peech, which may be called 
inanity or nothingnefs, I have juft met 
with a f{pecimen in another great author, 
of a more fingular figure, tor which I 
know not a better name than obliteration 
—where an aflertion made in _pofitive 
terms is, as it were, diluted or erafed till 
it is quite done away. Lord Clarendon, 
in his own Life, thus {peaks of himfelf: 
«He indulged his palate very much, and 
even took /ome delight in eating and drink- 
ing well, but without anzy approach io 
Paffage in Clarendon—Mr. Cogan. 
399 
luxury ; and in truth, rather difcourfed 
like an epicurean, than was one.’ It is 
very pleafant to fee how this good man, 
who feems to begin with an honelt con-, 
feflion of a frailty, gradually recovers 
himfelf, fo as to retraét all that he had 
advanced. It is in a fimilar fpirit, though 
without the fame costradiétion in terms, 
that he goes on confe(ing, thus: ** He 
was in his nature inclined to pride and 
paffion, and to a humour between wrang- 
ling and difputing, very troublefome, 
which good company in a fhort-time fo 
reformed and mattered, that 10 man was 
more affable and courteous, &c.” 
In Mifs Edgeworth’s ingenious Effay 
on Irith Bulls, it is, I think, obferved, that 
a mode of fpeech refembling the former 
of thefe paragraphs is generally the batfis 
of the fuppofed blunder. The {peaker, 
in his warmth of imagination, fets out 
with a broad affertion partaking of ab- 
furdity, which he afterwards correéts and 
reduces down to a reafonable fize: as, 
«© T have lived upon your honour’s land 
thefe two hundred years I and mine.” 
The noble hiftorian, as he is called, how- 
ever, was not run away with by his fancy, 
but wrote in the cool fpirit of a /el/-bi0- 
grapher: that is, with a great deal of 
feeming franknefS and candour, to ayow 
fome flight failing, which is either effaced 
by after-explanation, or over-balanced by 
fome oppofiteexcellence. ‘He has a foul 
mouth,’’ fays tae proverb, “* who fpeaks 
il of himfeit’’—-a maxim which feems 
ever before the eyes of that clafs of bio- 
graphers, who are never found to {peak 
half fo feverely of themfelvcs, as others 
would {peak of them, 
Your’s, &c. 
A. B. 
erence? ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Scarcely know whether it is worth 
while to notice an error of the prefs 
in my laft, as no Greek f{cholar can be 
perplexed thereby: but the letter 9 was 
ommitted in the words bavacinw, bavarne 
Popwy andeyebey. While I have my pen 
in my hand, -I will detain you a mo- 
ment longer. In perufing Hutchke’s 
Analeéta Critica, I have jult fallen upon 
an excellent ob/ervation of Bentiey’s, on 
the /ublimis aubelitus of Horace. I won- 
der that no critic has compared this ex- 
preffion with the following paflage in the 
3F 2 Hercules 
