beft way he could. There is in Cumberland an ancient family, who have long poffefied and taken their name from the manor of Brougham, to which Chatterton feems to allude, when he mentions the Caftle of Bourgham in Northumberland. But the caftle was, we believe, an appanage, not of the De Bourghams, lords of the manor, but of the Veteriponts and Cliffords.

We now difmifs the works of the unfortunate Chatterton, heartily withing they may experience from the public kinder treatment than their unfortunate and proud-spirited author. To the admirers of poetry they will ever be acceptable; nor can their history be heedfully perufed, without imparting an awful lefon; for the fame of Chatterton is not merely light to be wondered at-it fhines as a beacon to point out the fhoals upon which he was wrecked. The youthful reader, if confcious of powers which elevate him above his fituation in life, may learn to avoid an overweening reliance upon his abilities, or an injudicious and unfair exertion of them. He may learn, that if neglect or contempt obftruct him in the fair purfuit of fame, it is better to prefer obfcurity, than to attain, by the crooked path of literary forgery, the ambiguous reputation of an ingenious impoftor. Above all, he may learn to guard against thofe fallies of an ill-regulated imagination, which buoyed up Chatterton with the most unreasonable expectations, only to plunge him into defpair and fuicide. And if there be one who, conscious of inferior mental powers, murmurs at being allotted but the fingle talent,' and looks with envy on the flights of fuperior genius, let him read the life of Chatterton, and remember that of him it may be truly faid,—

6

• Largus et exundans letho dedit ingenii fons.'

ART. XVIII. Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin, chiefly during his refidence at Lichfield, with Anecdotes of his Friends, and Criticifms on bis Writings By Anna Seward. London. 1804. 8vo. pp. 430

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has been long held, on high critical authority, that history muft always pleafe, independently of the particular mode, and even in fpite of the defects, of its execution and unquestionably even that moderate portion of fact which may be reasonably expected in the life of every eminent individual, can fcarcely be prefented under any difguife fo perverfely abfurd, as entirely to diveft it of intereft. Under the influence of stubborn curiofity, we have been accordingly carried through a faithful perufal of thefe Memoirs of the etlebrated author of the Botanic Garden :' and although we are bound to admit that our labour has not been entirely un

rewarded,

rewarded, yet Mifs Seward muft forgive us, if we add, that the moft ftriking leffon we have derived from her volume, has been the truly wonderful extent of that tolerant maxim to which we have alluded. The fhare which the appears to have long enjoyed of the intimate fociety of Dr Darwin, and her opportunities of accurate information relative at least to a confiderable portion of his life, had given to Mifs Seward fome peculiar advantages in becoming, as the terms it, the recorder of vanished genius. It is therefore the more to be regretted that the fhould not have been restrained, by fome vifitations of a better tafte, from clothing her narrative in a garb fo injudicious and fantaftic. But it would appear that Mifs Anna Seward has been too long accustomed to foar into the high and giddy regions of verfe, to be able to tread with fober ftep and becoming gravity of air in the humbler pathway of profe.

Of the matter and arrangement of thefe Memoirs, the Preface gives us the following notice:

My work confifts of the following particulars:-the perfon, the mind, the temper of Dr Darwin; his powers as a Phyfician, Philofopher, and Poet; the peculiar traits of his manners; his excellences and faults; the Petrarchan attachment of his middle life, more happy in its refult than was that of the Bard of Vauclufe; the beautiful poetic teftimonies of its fervor, while yet it remained hopelefs; an inveftigation of the conftituent excellences and defects of his magnificent poem, the Botanic Garden; remarks upon his philofophic profe writings; the characters and talents of those who formed the circle of his friends while he refided in Lichfield; and the very fingular and interefting hiftory of one of them, well known in the lettered world, [Mr Thomas Day] whofe domeftic hiftory, remarkable as it is, has been unaccountably omitted by the gentleman who wrote his life.' Pref. p. v. vi.

After perufing this table of contents, the reader will have himself alone to blame if he expect in this volume any exact or orderly deduction of the facts of Dr Darwin's life. Mifs Seward apparently fpurns the fetters of vulgar, chronological narration; and has chofen rather to expatiate, free and at large, under the impulfe of her own fpontaneous feelings, or accidental affociations. After having followed her with patience through her eccentric and capricious evolutions, we are unable to tay that our progrefs has been rendered more pleafing by this irregular variety, or that it has afforded us any tolerable compenfation for the want of a diftinct and intelligible narrative. An analysis of the first chapter of the work may ferve fufficiently to juftify thefe remarks, and may furnith a fufficient fpecimen of its plan and execution.

On the birth, parentage, and education of her hero, Mifs Seward has not deigned to beftow a fingle line. We are abruptly introduced

P4

introduced to him at the age of twenty-four, when he first came to practise physic at Lichfield in the autumn of the year 1756; and even then, instead of proceeding directly in her narrative, fhe ftops on the threshold to give us a fketch of his character and manners,' fuch as they had appeared to her in the fubfequent courfe of Dr Darwin's life. This inverfion of the ufual arrangement in biographical writing may be perfectly confonant to the defultory plan of these memoirs; but, in itfelf, it is fo palpably injudicious, that there is very little hazard of its adoption as a model. Within thefe few years, a fimilar innovation was attempted by a Scotish historian, who, at the commencement of every reign, introduced that general delineation of the character of the fovereign, which has ufually found a place at the close : but, if we may judge from our own feelings, the example of Mr Pinkerton will not probably prove more feducing than that of Mifs Seward.

"

Of this sketch of the character and manners of Dr Darwin,' we can only fay, that it leaves no very diftinct impreffion on the mind; and that impreffion, such as it is, has not, in our own cafe at least, been extremely favourable. But Mifs Seward does not ftand forth as the indifcriminating panegyrift of her deceafed friend; nor does the appear to have been withheld, by any viclent or undue partialities, from discharging those facred duties of biography, beneath the ever prefent confciousness' of which. the would be understood to have proceeded. Of the juftice of her claims to the praife of rigid impartiality, thofe only can be competent judges, to whom Dr Darwin was perfonally known; but it is perhaps lefs difficult to difcover that Mifs Seward was not altogether equal to the task of delineating with truth the various parts of his character, or of appreciating the qualities of which it was compofed. In this preliminary fketch, and in other parts of her work, we are, indeed, prefented with a number of ftriking traits of temper and of manners, fuch as must have been obvious to common obfervation; but in her attempts to mark the extent, the limitations, and the peculiar character and complexion of thofe higher powers of mind, by which alone the poffeffor becomes an object of ferious intereft-her defcription becomes feeble and indiftinct, and fhe takes refuge in vague, general, or exaggerated statement. Thus, we are informed, that beauty and fymmetry had not been propitious to his exterior; that he stammered extremely;' that he was fore upon opposition,' and overbearing and farcaftic in converfation; but whether from the confcioufnefs of great native elevation above the general flandard of intellect, we may be permitted to doubt. Moreover, we are told, that extreme was his fcepticism to human truth;'-that

habits of diftrust tinctured his converfation with an apparent want of confidence in mankind;-and that perhaps this pronenefs to suspicion mingled too much of art in his wisdom. Farther, we are told that he abstained from vinous fluid;' that he had an absolute horror of fpirits of all forts;' that his only tolerance was in favour of home-made wines; that acid fruits, with sugar, and all fort of creams and butter, were his luxuries; but that he always ate plentifully of animal food.' Of his virtues and talents, we learn that profeffional generosity diftinguished Dr Darwin's medical practice;' that his was the cheerful board of open-housed hofpitality;' and that generofity, wit and science were his household gods;' that nature had bestowed on him the feducing and often dangerous gift of a highly poetic imagination;' but that through the first twenty-three years of his practice as a phyfician, Dr Darwin, with the wifdom of Ulyffes, bound himself to the medical maft, that he might not follow thofe delufive fyrens, the mufes, or be confidered as their avowed votary;' nor was it till then, that the impregnable rock on which his medicinal and philofophical reputation were placed, induced him to contend for that fpecies of fame which fhould entwine the Parnaffian laurel with the balm of Pharmacy.'

Such, we can affure our readers, is the amount of the informa tion refpecting the character and manners of Dr Darwin, for which we are here indebted to his biographer. It may perhaps ferve to moderate the expectations of those who may have unwarily looked only to the enviable opportunities of obfervation which the appears to have enjoyed.

On returning to the dawn of Dr Darwin's profeffional eftablishment,' we are informed by Mifs Seward of the fudden fame he acquired by his fuccefs in a defperate cafe of fever, and of the imputations of rafhnefs which were ignorantly attached to his practice. Mrs Darwin is then introduced on the scene; and from the account given by Mifs Seward, fhe appears to have been an interesting and accomplished woman: but we must be forgiven if we are not greatly charmed with the felicity of a long oration which is put into her mouth while on her deathbed.

Soon after this lady's death, Dr Darwin purchased an old house in the city of Lichfield, on the lilliputian improvements of which Mifs Seward has lavifhed all her powers of picturesque defcription.

To this rus in urbe, of Darwinian creation, reforted, from its early rifing, a knot of philofophic friends in frequent vifitation. The Rev. Mr Michell, many years deceased. He was killed in aftronomic science, modeft and wife. The ingenious Mr Kier of Weft Bromich, then Captain Kier. Mr Boulton, known and refpected wherever mechanic phi Sofophy is underflood. Mr Watt, the celebrated improver of the fteam

engine.

engine. And, above all others in Dr Darwin's perfonal regard, the accomplished Dr Small of Bi mingham, who bore the blufhing honours of his talents and virtues to an untimely grave.

Tired already of her proper fubject, Mifs Seward again digreffes into the private hiftory of thofe who moved in the Darwinian fphere;'-of Mr Edgworth and his wives; of Dr Small, and the elegies and epitaphs written by his friends; and particu larly of Mr Thomas Day, the author of the popular little volumes of Sandford and Merton. Of the last of these gentlemen, a very full and disproportioned account is given, and a great many anecdotes are told, which we fhall not attempt to retail, but which, in their proper place, might ferve to illustrate the fagularly romantic and hair-brained character of this modern philofopher. With the history of Dr Darwin's life they have no intimate connexion: And fo ends the first chapter.

On refuming the recollected circumftances of Dr Darwin's life,' Mils Seward is unable for a moment to withstand her wayward propenfity to digreffion; and our attention is inftantly drawn afide to the contemplation of new groupes of vifitors and friends who made their appearance at Lichfield after Dr Small and Mr Michell had vanished from the earth, and Mr Day and Mr Edgeworth, in the year 1772, had left the Darwinian sphere.' But it would be vain to follow this lady in her meandering courfe; and by attempting it, we fhould equally fatigue our readers and ourfelves. Throughout the whole of that portion of the work which bears the femblance of narrative, it is only for a moment that we catch a glimpfe of the principal figure; and even then, our gratification is too often dafhed by the frivolity of the information which is conveyed. The reader may look in vain for any thing which merits the name of juft biographical narrative. Even when Dr Darwin is the fubject, little elfe is to be found than an inflated translation of the tea-table talk of Lichfield; nor will all the good things which have been uttered on fundry occafions by the choice fpirits of the place, be felt as any adequate compenfation for this radical defect.

In the year 1768,' we are told, Dr Darwin met with an accident of irretrievable injury in the human frame:' he was thrown from a whimfical carriage of his own invention, and broke the patella of his right knee. For the edification of the curious reader, we extract a philofophical obfervation suggested to Mifs Seward by this occurrence.

It is remarkable, that this uncommon accident happened to three of the inhabitants of Lichfield in the course of one year; first, to the author of these memoirs in the prime of her youth next, to Dr Dar win; and, lafliy, to the late Mr Levett, a gentleman of wealth and

confequence