divisions of its contents. A second, which it is intended to publish with all convenient speed, will include Dr. Warton's Life of Virgil, his three essays on Pastoral, Epic, and Dramatic Poetry, his papers in the Adventurer, a continua tion of the correspondence, and a supplement.

From the Memoirs, to which our first and principal attention is due, we shall endeavour to collect the most important notices into a connected series.

Joseph Warton was born in the house of his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Joseph Richardson, Rector of Dunsfold in Surrey, and was baptized on the 22d of April, 1722. his father, who was Professor of Poetry in Oxford, he was chiefly indebted for instruction, till the year 1736, when he was admitted on the foundation of Winchester College, and manifested that vigour of intellect and that goodness of heart for which he was ever afterward distinguished. It is parti cularly mentioned that, in this early stage of his literary eareer, he joined with Collins and another boy in contributing to the Gentleman's Magazine certain verses, which obtained the flattering approbation of the author of the Rambler. In 1740, he removed to Oriel College, Oxford, where the superiority of his endowments was speedily recognized, and where he composed some poetical effusions. On taking his bachelor's degree, he was ordained on his father's curacy, and afterward performed the ministerial duties at different parishes, till 1748, when he was presented by the Duke of Bolton to the Rectory of Winslade, and married Miss Daman, to whom he had been for some time enthusiastically attached.

In the year 1751, he was called from the indulgence of connu bial happiness, and the luxury of literary retirement, to attend his patron to the South of France; for which invitation the Duke had two motives, the society of a man of learning and taste, and the ac! commodation of a Protestant clergyman, who, immediately on the death of his Duchess, then in a confirmed dropsy, could marry him to the lady with whom he lived, and who was universally known and distinguished by the name of Polly Peachum.'

On this occasion, the reverend biographer, to our utter astonishment, adopts the language, not of pointed reprehension, but of apology and extenuation. After all, Mr. Warton's continental tour was far from auspicious; for the Duke's impatience deprived him of his expected recompense; and the information, which the scholar was solicitous of acquiring in the course of his rambles, was often intercepted by his igno rance of the French language. The bald Latinity of a few Irish friars must have proved a wretched resource for the clas sical adept, whose national pronunciation of the Roman tongue

might render his communication with learned natives of France unmanageable and uncertain.

Soon after his return to England, Mr. Warton favoured the public with an edition of Virgil, in Latin and English, in which he adopted Pitt's translation of the Æneid, and supplied many valuable notes. In consequence of a very flattering in-1 vitation, he was next induced to furnish for the Adventurer twenty-four papers, chiefly relative to subjects of criticism and literature but his scheme of editing the select epistles of Politianus, Erasmus, Grotius, and others, on a scale sufficiently extensive to embrace the history of the revival of learning, was unfortunately abandoned. In 1754, he was instituted to the living of Tunworth; and, in the following year, he was elected Second Master of Winchester School, to which office were attached the superintendance and emoluments of a boarding house.

He entered on his honourable employment with all the energy a mind like his naturally conceived: but his zeal was tempered with judgement, and the eagerness of his expectations chastened by salutary patience. Ardent in provoking emulation, and rewarding excellence, he was at the same time aware that the standard of ap. proved merit must not be placed too high, or the laudable industry which gradually invigorates mediocrity of talent, be crushed by disproportionate demands. He knew that the human mind developed itself progressively, but not always in the same consistent degrees, or at periods uniformly similar. He conjectured therefore that the most probable method of ensuring some valuable improvement to the generality of boys, was not to exact what the generality are incapable of performing. As a remedy for inaccurate construction, arising either from apparent idleness or inability, he highly approved, and sedulously imposed, translation. Modesty, timidity, or many other constitutional impediments, may prevent a boy from displaying before his master, and in the front of his class, those talents, of which privacy and a relief from these embarrassments will often give proof. If Addison, in the prime of life and possession of the richest mental endowments, could confess when speaking of his deficience in conversation, that with respect to intellectual wealth" he could draw a bill for a thousand pounds, though he had not a' guinea in his pocket," it may be supposed that boys not really destitute of talent, or incapable of becoming scholars, are sometimes so oppressed by shyness or ftar, as not to do themselves justice in the common routine of public construction, and to require a varied method of ascertaining their sufficiency of information and intellect. This important end Dr. WARTON thought happily answered by translation; nor did he deem lightly of its value as a general system. A habit of composition he imagined to be gradually acquired by it; and the style and sentiments of an author deeply engraven on the memory of the scholar. These sentiments were confirmed by that most infallible test, experience; as he declared (within a few years of his death) that the best scholars

he had sent into the world were those whom, whilst second masterhe had thus habituated to translation, and given a capacity of comparing and associating the idiom of the dead languages with their

own.'

In 1756, he published his Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, and received a chaplain's scarf from his friend and patron, Lord Lyttelton. Ten years afterward, he was appointed Head Master of the seminary in which he had laboured with assiduity and success in the capacity of Usher. While thus advancing to fame and independance, he was deprived by death of the wife whom he tenderly loved: but, at no long intervalof time, he formed a second matrimonial connection, and was again peculiarly fortunate in his choice of an amiable and intelligent partner:

It is no (not) less reprehensible than remarkable, that the talents of the poet and critic, and the successful exertions of the instructor, had as yet received neither encouragement or (zor) remuneration. Nor had one man of power and patronage, though the sons of many were entrusted to his care, deemed it incumbent on him to confer either affluence or dignity on their Master. It remained for a Prelate most high in theological and classical reputation, for one who knew the value of literary acquirements, and was in his own person a distinguished example of the public benefit to which they may be converted, to do honour to himself and his situation by the preferment of Dr. WARTON. In the year 1782, the eminently learned and pious Dr. Lowth, then Bishop of London, bestowed on him a prebend of St. Paul's, and within the year added the living of Chorley in Hertfordshire, which, after some arrangements, the Doctor exchanged for Wickham."

In the same year, appeared the long expected sequel to the Essay on Pope. During the spring of 1786, Dr. Warton was visited with a severe domestic affliction, in the loss of his second son, a man of high talents and superior information. Within four years of this date, he had likewise to deplore the death of that brother to whom, from childhood, he had been invariably attached, and for whose genius and fame he had ever felt the most pure and liberal admiration.'-Having resigned the Mastership in 1793, he courted retirement, without renouncing those literary habits which he had, in some measure, identified with his existence. In 1797, he completed his edition of Pope, in nine volumes, octavo; and we are informed that he had finished for the press two volumes of His intended edition of Dryden, when, sinking under the pressure of disease, he expired on the 23d of February, 1800. I cannot but wish,' remaiks his biographer, that the possessor of the manuscript had found it convenient, or deemed it proper, to publish at least the two volumes left (and declared to be so

undes

under the Doctor's own hand) ready for the press, and had taken the earliest opportunity of giving to the world his father's last and sacred farewell to literature.'

Mr. Wooll thus portrays the character of his much respected author:

'Zealous in his adherence to the church establishment, and exemplary in his attention to its ordinances and duties, he was at the same time a decided enemy to bigotry or intolerance. His style of preaching was unaffectedly earnest and impressive; and the dignified solemnity with which he read the Liturgy (particularly the Communion service) was remarkably awful. He had the most happy art of arresting the attention of youth on religious subjects. Every Wiccamical reader will recollect his inimitable commentaries on Grotius in the Sunday evenings, and his discourse annually delivered in the school on Good Friday: the impressions made by them cannot be forgotten.

To descend to the minutiae of daily habits is surely beneath the province of biography. Free, open, and chearful to his friends, without rigour or sullen severity to those he disliked, Dr. WARTON in his general character could never deserve and seldom incur enmity. A playful liveliness, even on the most dry and didactic subjects, divested him of the smallest appearance of that pedantry which is too apt to attach itself to scholars by profession. None could leave his society without improvement, yet never was the man found who was oppressed by his superiority. The charm of unaffected ease and good humour prevented every feeling of inequality, every jealousy of receiving instruction: no individual perhaps ever possessed in a stronger degree the powers of enlivening conversation by extensive knowledge, correct judgment, and elegant taste. His chearfulness and resignation in affliction were invincible: even under the extreme of bodily weakness, his strong mind was unbroken, and his limbs became paralyzed in the very act of dictating an epistle of friendly criticism. So quiet, so composed was his end, that he might more truly be said to cease to live than to have undergone the pangs of death.'

We deem it superfluous to advert to the sedate and judicious criticisms which are blended with the biographical details; because the writings to which they refer have already passed the public ordeals, and sufficiently speak for themselves. The narrative, on the whole, is rather deficient in vivacity, and by no means rich in variety of incident. The writer has. indeed, laudably abstained from childish recitals and silly gossipping : but he has reported few anecdotes which paint character, or speak to feeling, and is wonderfully sparing of those appropriate traits of manner and disposition, which constitute the charm and physiognomy (if we may say so) of biographical writing. A marginal note, which occurs near the end of the volume, and which might with great propriety have been in

Q3

seried

serted in the Memoirs, will aptly exemplify the kind of information to which we allude:

Independant of the Duchess of Portland, Mrs. Greville, Mrs. Carter, and Mrs. Montagu, whose talents and information Dr. Warton held in the highest esteem, and with whom he frequently corres ponded; the sex in general were partial to him: and the Editor has frequently seen the young, the handsome, and the gay, deserted by the belles, to attract the notice of Dr. W.; whilst he was, on his part, thoroughly accessible, and imparted his lively sallies and instructive conversation with the most gallant and appropiate pleasantry. He was a great admirer of beauty, nor was it in his nature to use a rude expression to a female. He had moreover a great tenderness and love for children, and fully exemplified the maxim, that wherever there are an uniform attention to the female sex, and an indulgent notice of children, there is a warm and feeling heart. His politeness to the ladies however was once put to a hard test: He was invited, whilst Master of Winchester, to meet a relative of Pope, who, from her connection with the family, he was taught to believe could furnish him with much valuable and private information. Incited by all that eagerness which so strongly characterized him, he on his introduction sat immediately close to the lady, and, by enquiring her consanguinity to Pope, entered at once on the subject; when the following dialogue took place: Pray, Sir, did not you write a book about my cousin Pope?-Warton. Yes, Madam - Lady. They tell me 'twas vastly clever. He wrote a great many plays, did not he!Warton. I have heard only of one attempt, Madam - Lady. Ok no, I beg your pardon, that was Mr. Shakespear; I always confound them. This was too much even for the Doctor's gallantry; he replied, Certainly, Madam; and with a bow changed his seat to the contrary side of the room, where he sat, to the amusement of a large party, with such a mingled countenance of archness and chagrin, such a struggle between his taste for the ridiculous, and his natural politeness, as could be pourtrayed but by his speaking and expressive countenance. In a few minutes he quitted the company, but not without taking leave of the lady in the most polite and unaffected manner.'

The motives, which the editor assigns for publishing only a selection of his author's poetical works, we shall mention in his own words:

It is not a necessary consequence that the productions of a youthful poet, however valued at that time by himself or favourably received by the world, should bear the deliberate test of experience, or be sanctioned by the mellow judgement of maturer years and certain it is, that some pieces, though perfectly congenial with the glow of fancy and spirited force of poetical imagery which so strongly marked all the efforts of his mind, were consigned by the wishes of Dr. W. himself to oblivion! To revive such in a posthumous publi cation would be the height of cruelty.'

We