rendered the experiment unsuccessful, and he soon gave up all thoughts of practice. Retiring, therefore, to Chelsea, he devoted the whole of his time to literary occupation, and, in 1753, published his Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom. His account of a law-suit inserted in this performance, drew on him the resentment of the lawyers, which was shortly afterwards manifested, on the trial of our author, for chastising a Mr. Gordon, when the counsel for the prosecutor abused Smollett in language, which induced the latter to demand an apology. In 1755, appeared his translation of Don Quixote, in which he was charged with betraying ignorance of the Spanish language; but on this point he is defended by one of his biographers, Dr. Moore, who says that "although he never was in Spain, he certainly had a very considerable knowledge of the language." Be this as it may, Smollett had requisites for such a work, of which few translators could boast; a complete knowledge of his own language, and the power of adapting it, with admirable felicity, to phraseology, solemn, familiar, comical, and burlesque.

In 1756, Smollett undertook the chief direction of The Critical Review, a new literary journal, in which he displayed his satirical and acrimonious spirit, in a manner that raised him a host of literary enemies. Among others, he offended Admiral Knowles, by severely reflecting upon his conduct in the unfortunate expedition to Rochefort, respecting which the admiral had published a pamphlet. A prosecution was commenced against the printer of the Review for a libel; but on the intimation of the admiral's counsel, that his client's object "was not with a view to punish a wretched printer, but to discover who had written the article; that if he proved to be a gentleman, another kind of satisfaction might be demanded of him;" Smollett avowed himself to be the author, and that he was ready to give the satisfaction alluded to. The admiral, however, instead of sending a challenge to, commenced a new prosecution against, our author, who was, in consequence, fined £100, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment.

His next publication appeared without his name, under the title of A

Compendium of Authentic and Entertaining Voyages, &c., in seven volumes; and in 1757, a two-act comedy of his composition, called The Reprisal, was acted at Drury Lane. In 1758, appeared his Complete History of England, from the descent of Julius Cæsar to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in four volumes, quarto; a work which he is said to have composed and finished for the press in fourteen months. In the year following, the history was reprinted in numbers, and in that form the weekly sale amounted to ten thousand; on its completion, it was published in eleven volumes, with a dedication to Mr. Pitt. In this publication, he was accused of defection from his Whig principles, a charge which he ingeniously replied to in a letter to Dr. Moore: "Whatever may be its defect," he says, alluding to his History, "I protest before God I have, as far as in me lay, adhered to truth, without espousing any faction, though I own I sat down to write with a warm side to those principles in which I was educated; but in the course of my inquiries, some of the Whig ministers turned out such a set of sordid knaves, that I could not help stigmatizing them for their want of integrity and sentiment." In 1762, he published his Sir Launcelot Greaves, the whole of which had previously ap peared, in detached portions, in The British Magazine. Much of it was written during his confinement in prison, and he described in the novel many of the characters which he there met with. "This work," says Dr. Moore, "seems to have been conceived and executed with precipitation: some parts of it are, however, delightfully written." About this time he was also engaged in writing for the modern parts of The Universal History, to which he is supposed to have contributed the Histories of France, Italy, and Germany.

At the commencement of the reign of George the Third, when Lord Bute was appointed prime minister, Smollett undertook to write in favour of his administration, and for that purpose brought out a paper called The Briton. This led to the establishment of the famous North Briton, which was brought out in opposition to Smol

lett's by Wilkes, who, on hearing that Lord Bute had engaged the assistance of the former, said, "After having distributed among his adherents all the places under government, his lordship is determined, it would seem, to monopolize the wit also." Mr. Wilkes's grand point of attack against the minister was with reference to his country, and Smollett finding the whole Scottish nation included in the attack, considered himself personally affronted, and replied with a keenness and asperity that soon dissolved the friendship that had previously subsisted between himself and Mr. Wilkes. The Briton was not received by the public so favourably as the author's former writings had been; and "he had reason to regret," says Dr. Moore, "that he ever became a party writer, by which he lost some of his old friends, and acquired but very cold-hearted new ones in their stead."

About the year 1763, the loss of his daughter and only child severely affected him; and his own health having been injured by too intense application to study, he, at the request of his wife, left England, and remained in France and Italy until 1765. In the following year, he published an Account of his Travels, in letters, in one of which he describes himself, at the period of his departure from England, as "traduced by malice, persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by domestic calamity." In this state of mind it is not singular that he should have viewed every thing with a gloomy and querulous eye, and thus gained a title to the character of " Smelfungus," under which name, Sterne has represented him in his Sentimental Journey. In 1766 was published, in two volumes, quarto, after it had previously appeared in numbers, his Continuation of the History of England, taken up from the Revolution, where Hume left it, and brought down to the year 1765. After a visit to Scotland, Smollett, still a valetudinarian, visited Bath, where it is probable he wrote his History and Adventures of an Atom, which appeared in 1769, in two volumes, duodecimo. This publication was in ridicule of different administrations, especially those of Lord Chatham; and he also found reasons for altering his

opinion of Lord Bute and Mr. Pitt. Continued ill-health induced him to comply with the advice of his physicians, in making a second tour to Italy, where he arrived in the early part of 1770. He took up his residence near Leghorn, after having made a vain attempt to obtain the appointment of English consul; and here, under the influence of increasing disease and mental disappointment, he composed The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, which, in the opinion of many, is the most entertaining and agreeable of all his works. This was the last flash of his genius; he died in the neighbourhood of the town abovementioned, on the 21st of October, 1771, in the fifty-first year of his age. A monument was erected to his memory by his wife, with a Latin inscription by Dr. Armstrong; and three years after his death, a monumental pillar was also erected in honour of him, on the banks of the Severn, near the house where he was born, by his cousin, James Smollett, Esq., with a Latin inscription, revised and corrected by Dr. Johnson.

In person, Smollett was stout and well-proportioned, and had an engaging countenance; his manner was reserved, and had an air of dignity about it, that seemed to indicate he was not unconscious of his own powers. His disposition was generous and humane; though free from vanity, he had a considerable share of pride and sensibility; and his passions, easily moved, were too impetuous when roused. "He was," says Dr. Moore," of an intrepid, independent, imprudent disposition; equally incapable of deceit and adulation, and more disposed to cultivate the acquaintance of those he could serve, than of those who could serve him." He is said to have drawn his own character, and described his manner of living, in the Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, where young Melford, introduced to Dick Ivy, is supposed to dine with him at his house in Chelsea. In this sketch he describes himself as " of the few writers of the age that stand upon their own foundation, without patronage, and above dependence," and adds, "S is not without weakness and caprice; yet he is certainly goodhumoured and civilized; nor do I find that there is any thing overbearing,

one

cruel, or implacable in his disposition." He died so poor, that the tragedy of Venice Preserved was performed for the benefit of his widow, some time after his death, with a prologue, written by Houston Nicholson, Esq., in which the various works of Smollett are enumerated.

His fame as a writer will be perpetuated only by his works of fiction; the historian will be forgotten in the novelist, and if not, he is, in this character, too much surpassed by Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, to make a permanent impression on posterity. With these, however, he is not unworthy of comparison; for, although immeasurably distanced by them in the qualities of judgment, accuracy, and impartiality; in elegance and animation of style, he is not exceeded by any of them. He has been accused of mutability in his political sentiments, and he certainly has bestowed upon the same persons both praise and invective; but he did this from no sordid motive; and if, in the heat of prejudice, he does not always preserve his consistency, he never once seems to have forfeited his independence.

No author approaches him in fecundity and versatility of writing; and whether we view him as a poet, novelist, historian, or critic, he presents us with a degree of excellence in each, that few could have obtained, who had attempted all of these departments of literature. No review has yet appeared

equal to The Critical Review, for analyzation and research; and, to say nothing of the merits of the subject of our memoir as a novelist, his poetry alone would entitle him to a distinguished rank among the bards of the last century. His Tears of Scotland, and Ode to Leven Water, evince great tenderness, polish, and feeling; and Dr. Aikin justly remarks, that his Ode to Independence has, perhaps, few superiors in the lyric strain.

The following characteristic and affecting anecdote is told by Dr. Moore, of Smollett, on his going to Scotland to visit his mother, as a stranger, after a long separation from her:-With the connivance of Mrs. Telfer, on his arrival, he was introduced to his mother as a gentleman from the West Indies, who was intimately acquainted with her son. The better to support his assumed character, he endeavoured to preserve a very serious countenance, approaching to a frown; but while the old lady's eyes were rivetted with a kind of wild and eager stare on his countenance, he could not refrain from smiling: she immediately sprung from her chair, and throwing her arms round his neck, exclaimed, Ah, my son! my son! I have found you at last!" She afterwards told him, that if he had kept his austere look, and continued to gloom, he might have escaped detection some time longer; "but your old roguish smile," added she, betrayed you at once."

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MARK AKENSIDE, the son of a butcher, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born there on November the 9th, 1721. His parents were dissenters, and, being intended for a minister of that sect, he was, in 1739, sent to the University of Edinburgh, after having completed the first part of his education at the grammar-school of his native town. ferring, however, the study of physic to that of divinity, he honourably returned a sum he had received from the dissenters' fund for the assistance of young men of scanty fortune, about to become

Pre

pastors; and, in 1741, he went to Leyden, where, on the 16th of May, 1744, he took his degree of M.D. His thesis upon this occasion, was published, entitled De Ortu et Incremento Fœtus Humani; and in the same year appeared his Pleasures of Imagination. When the copy was first presented to Dodsley, the publisher, for the price of £120, he consulted Pope as to the value of the work, who, having looked into it, advised him not to make a niggardly offer, for "this was no every-day writer." His poem was received with

great applause, and at once established his poetical fame; but a portion of it, in which he had adopted Shaftesbury's assertion of the efficacy of ridicule for the discovery of truth, drew upon him the attack of Warburton, against whom he was defended by an anonymous friend, afterwards discovered to be Mr. Jeremiah Dyson.

His next publication was An Epistle to Curio, under which name he attacked Pulteney, Earl of Bath, on account of his political conduct, with great vehemence. Johnson calls it "a very acrimonious epistle;" whilst Hutchinson, in his Biographia Medica, terms it an "impressive, moral, and sensible production." In 1745, he published his first collection of odes, and shortly afterwards he commenced the practice of his profession at Northampton. From hence he removed to Hampstead, where he continued about two years and a half, and then fixed his residence in London, where he would, in all probability, have fallen into indigence, but for the assistance of Mr. Dyson, who allowed him £300 a-year. In time, however, he acquired a tolerable share of practice, and considerable medical reputation; and he was successively appointed a fellow of the Royal Society, physician to St Thomas's Hospital, and one of the physicians to the queen, having been previously admitted, by mandamus, to the degree of M.D. at Cambridge, and elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. In his medical character, however, he never attained to considerable eminence, though he might probably have done so, had not a putrid fever cut short his existence, and deprived him of life on the 23rd of June, 1770, in the fortyninth year of his age. In addition to the works already mentioned, Akenside published several professional treatises, most of which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions; besides his Dissertatio de Dysenteriâ, which has been justly commended as an elegant specimen of Latinity, and was twice translated into English. His poems were collected and published in a quarto volume in 1772.

As a poet, Akenside's reputation rests solely upon his Pleasures of Imagination, which, for chasteness of design, purity of moral, and richness of imagery,

must ever be admired. The remark, however, of Johnson, is in some measure just, that "the reader wanders through the gay diffusion, semetimes amazed, and sometimes delighted; but, after many turnings in the flowery labyrinth, comes out as he went in." His versification is one of the most perfect models of blank verse; "his periods," says Mrs. Barbauld, "are long but harmonious; the cadences fall with grace, and the measure is supported with uniform dignity." From a desire, however, to avoid low and trivial expressions, he occasionally approaches nearer to stiffness than stateliness; becomes obscure through fear of simplicity, and feeble through too rich a redundancy of ornament. Of his odes, Johnson observes, nothing favourable can be said; and with respect to his lyrics, that his thoughts are cold, and his words inelegant; but his odes to the Bishop of Winchester, to the Earl of Huntingdon, to Mr. Hall, to Dr. Hardinge, and to the celebrated Charles Townshend, are sufficient evidence that the great critic's opinion was not well considered. Nicholls says, in his Literary Anecdotes, that Mr. Elliott, father of Lord Minto, being commended on all sides for an admirable speech made by him in support of the Scotch militia, replied, "if I was above myself, I can account for it; for I had been animated by the sublime ode of Dr. Akenside."

Various representations of the character of our poet have been given; some affirming that he was morose, haughty, servile, and deistical; and others, that he was friendly and liberal, benevolent, and consistently independent. Certain it is, that he had more philosophy than religion; that, on his appointment of physician to the queen, he changed more than one line of his verses in a second edition, to acconimodate them to the politics of the court; and that whatever his conduct might have been among friends, it was with strangers repulsive and disgusting. His greatest praise is, that he was a man of honour and morality, and a lover and encourager of virtue and learning. The physician in Peregrine Pickle is well

known

to have been intended, by Smollett, for Akenside; it is, doubtless, overdrawn, but it is not so wide of the mark as Mr. D'Israeli, in his Calamities

Sir

One

of Authors, seems to insinuate. John Hawkins describes him as a most entertaining companion; and says, "his conversation was of the most delightful kind, learned, instructive, and, without any affectation of wit, cheerful, and entertaining." As a physician, Dr. Lettsom relates him to have been the most supercilious and unfeeling one, in his treatment of pupils and patients at the hospital, he had ever known. of the latter, not being able to swallow the boluses of bark, ordered by Akenside, he directed the sister of the ward to discharge the sufferer from the hospital; adding, "he shall not die under my care." Sometimes he would order some of the patients, on his visiting days, to precede him with brooms to clear the way and prevent the diseased from too nearly approaching him; and, being upbraided, on one of these occasions, for his cruelty, by one of the

governors," Know," said he, "thou art a servant of this charity." He would, however, at times, condescend to explain, skilfully, a case to his pupils, of which, notwithstanding his irritable temper, he had a greater number than the more urbane and equally able Dr. Russell.

He

A peculiarity of Akenside was the neatness and elegance of his dress; he wore a large white stiff-curled wig, and carried a long sword; and this, together with a hitch in his gait, and a pale, pompous, and solemn countenance, made his appearance altogether unpromising, if not grotesque. never married, and is said to have spoken of females with harshness and disgust, in consequence of a disappointment in love; but "hapless," observes Dr. Lettsom, "must have been that female, who should have been placed under his tyranny."

WILLIAM COLLINS, the son of a hatter, was born at Chichester, about the year 1721. He was educated at Winchester School, and, at the age of nineteen, stood first on the list of scholars upon the foundation, for New College, Oxford, but there being no vacancy, he was admitted a commoner of Queen's, and, in 1741, was elected a demy of Magdalen College. His literary exercises at the university are said to have exhibited much genius and great indolence, and a mind ill calculated to pore over the intricate and puzzling problems of Euclid. Whilst he was at Magdalen College, he wrote his poetical epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, and his Oriental Eclogues, which, in the year 1742, were published under the title of Persian Eclogues. The best of these is Hassan the Camel Driver; but the whole evince much poetical taste and feeling, though, it seems, they met with but moderate success. After having graduated B.A. he, in 1744, came to London, with no other prospects than those of a literary adventurer, with many projects in his head, and little money in his pocket.

This was soon dissipated, and although he had abilities that would have quickly supplied his pecuniary wants, his natural indolence would not suffer him to act beyond the sketch of a plan or a title-page. Among other schemes, he published proposals for the History of the Revival of Learning, but it does not appear that a page of it was ever written. At length, in 1746, after having endured the servility of dependence to a most degrading extent, he published his Odes, descriptive and allegorical, the sale of which, it is said, was not sufficient to pay for the printing. Such was the disgust of Collins, that he returned to the publisher, Millar, the trifling advance that was made to him, and burnt all the unsold copies. His indignation is not to be wondered at, when it is considered, that among these odes were some that are now the most popular in our language, and that one of them was his celebrated Ode to the Passions. His pecuniary distress now increased, and being arrested shortly afterwards, he procured his release by an advance from the booksellers, on his undertaking a translation of Aristotle's Poetics.