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They were all of them exceeded by the late Lord Bolingbroke, whofe ftrength lay in that province; for as a philofopher and a critic he was ill qualified, being deftitute of virtue for the one, and of learning for the other. His writings against Sir Robert Walpole are incomparably the best part of his works. The perfonal and perpetual antipathy he had for that family, to whofe places he thought his own abilities had a right, gave a glow to his ftyle, and an edge to his manner, that never yet have been equalled in political writing. His misfortunes and disappointments gave his mind a turn, which his friends miftook for philofophy, and at one time of his life he had the art to impofe the fame belief upon some of his enemies. His idea of a patriot king, which I reckon (as indeed it was) amongft his writings against Sir Robert Walpole, is a mafter-piece of diction. Even in his other works his ftyle is excellent; but where a man either does not, or will not understand the fubject he writes on, there must always be a deficiency. In politics he was generally mafter of what he undertook, in morals

never.

Mr. Addison for a happy and natural ftyle will be always an honour to British literature. His diction indeed wants ftrength, but it is equal to all the fubjects he undertakes to handle, as he never (at leaft in his finifhed works) attempts any thing either in the argumentative or demonftrative way.

Though Sir Richard Steele's reputation as a public writer was owing to his connexions with Mr. Addifon, yet after their intimacy was formed Steele funk in his merit as an author. This was not owing fo much to the evident fuperiority on the part of Addison, as to the unnatural efforts which Steele made to equal or eclipfe him. This emulation déVOL. IV. ftroyed

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ftroyed that genuine flow of diction which is dif coverable in all his former compofitions.

Whilft their writings engaged attention and the favour of the public, reiterated but unfuccefsful endeavours were made towards forming a grammar of the English language. The authors of thofe efforts went upon wrong principles. Inftead of endeavouring to retrench the abfurdities of our language, and bringing it to a certain criterion, their grammars were no other than a collection of rules attempting to naturalize thofe abfurdities, and bring them under a regular fyftem.

Somewhat effectual however might have been done towards fixing the ftandard of the English language, had it not been for the fpirit of party. For both whigs and tories being ambitious to stand at the head of fo great a defign, the Queen's death happened before any plan of an academy could be refolved on.

Meanwhile the neceffity of fuch an inftitution became every day more apparent. The periodical and political writers who then fwarmed, adopted the very worst manner of L'Eftrange, till not only all decency, but all propriety of language, was loft in the nation. Leflie, a pert writer, with fome wit and learning, infulted the government every week with the groffeft abufe. His ftyle and manner, both of which were illiberal, was imitated by Ridpath, De Foe, Dunton, and others of the oppofite party, and Toland pleaded the caufe of atheism and immorality in much the fame ftrain; his fubject feemed to debafe his diction, and he ever failed moft in one, when he grew moft licentious in the other.

Towards the end of Queen Anne's reign, fome of the greatest men in England devoted their time to party, and then a much better manner obtained in political writing. Mr. Walpole, Mr. Addifon,

Mr.

Mr. Mainwaring, Mr. Steele, and many members of both houses of parliament, drew their pens for the whigs; but they seem to have been over-matched, though not in argument yet in writing, by Bolingbroke, Prior, Swift, Arbuthnot, and the other friends of the oppofite party. They, who oppofe a miniftry, have always a better field for ridicule and reproof than they who defend it.

Since that period our writers have either been encouraged above their merits or below them. Some who were poffeffed of the meaneft abilities acquired the highest preferments, while others who feemed born to reflect a luftre upon their age perifhed by want and neglect. More, Savage, and Amherft, were poffeffed of great abilities, yet they were fuffered to feel all the miferies, that ufually attend the ingenious and the imprudent, that attend men of ftrong paffions, and no phlegmatic referve in their command.

At prefent, were a man to attempt to improve his fortune, or increase his friendship by poetry, he would foon feel the anxiety of difappointment. The prefs lies open, and is a benefactor to every fort of literature but that alone.

I am at a loss whether to afcribe this falling off of the public to a vicious taste in the poet, or in them. Perhaps both are to be reprehended. The poet either drily didactive gives us rules, which might appear abftrufe even in a fyftem of ethics, or triflingly volatile writes upon the most unworthy fubjects; content, if he can give music instead of fense; con. tent, if he can paint to the imagination without any defires or endeavours to affect; the publick therefore with juftice difcard fuch empty found, which has nothing but a jingle, or, what is worse, the unmufical flow of blank verfe to recommend it. The late method also, into which our newspapers have fallen, of

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giving an epitome of every new publication, muft greatly damp the writer's genius. He finds himself in this cafe at the mercy of men, who have neither abilities nor learning to diftinguish his merit. He finds his own compofition mixed with the fordid trafh of every daily fcribbler. There is a fufficient fpecimen given of his work to abate curiofity, and yet fo mutilated as to render him contemptible. His firft, and perhaps his fecond work, by thefe means fink, among the crudities of the age, into oblivion. Fame he finds begin to turn her back : he therefore flies to Profit which invites him, and he enrols himself in the lifts of Dulnefs and of Avarice for life.

Yet there are still among us men of the greatest abilities, and who in fome parts of learning have furpaffed their predeceffors: Juftice and Friendship might here impel me to fpeak of names which will fhine out to all pofterity, but Prudence restrains me from what I should otherwise eagerly embrace. Envy might rife against every honoured name I fhould mention, fince fcarcely one of them has not those who are his enemies, or those who defpife him, &c.

OF THE OPERA IN ENGLAND.

THE rife and fall of our amufements pretty much resemble that of empire. They this day flourish without any visible caufe for fuch vigour; the next they decay without any reason that can be affigned for their downfall. Some years ago the Italian opera was the only fashionable amufement among our nobility. The managers of the playhoufes dreaded it as a mortal enemy, and our very poets lifted them

felves in the oppofition; at prefent the house seems deferted, the caftrati fing to empty benches, even Prince Vologefe himself, a youth of great expectations, fings himself out of breath, and rattles his chain to no purpose.

To fay the truth, the opera, as it is conducted among us, is but a very humdrum amufement; in other countries the decorations are entirely magnificent, the fingers all excellent, and the burlettas or interludes quite entertaining; the beft poets compofe the words, and the best masters the mufic, but with us it is otherwife; the decorations are but trifling and cheap; the fingers, Matei only excepted, but indifferent. Inftead of interlude, we have thofe forts of skipping dances, which are calculated for the galleries of the theatre. Every performer fings his favourite fong, and the mufic is only a medley of old Italian airs, or fome meagre modern Capricio.

When fuch is the cafe, it is not much to be wondered if the opera is pretty much neglected; the lower orders of people have neither tafte nor fortune to relish fuch an entertainment; they would find more fatisfaction in the Roast Beef of Old England than in the fineft clofes of an eunuch, they fleep amidst all the agony of recitative: on the other hand people of fortune or tafte can hardly be pleafed, where there is a vifible poverty in the decorations, and an entire want of tafte in the compofition.

Would it not furptife one, that when Metastasio is fo well known in England, and fo univerfally admired, the manager or the compofer fhould have recourfe to any other operas than those written by him. I might venture to fay, that written by Mctaftafio, put up in the bills of the day, would alone be fufficient to fill an houfe, fince thus the admirers of fenfe as well as found might find entertainment.

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