to writing; but not in perfect good taste after final revision, and press correction. We admire in the author, too much, the fine fancy of the painter and the poet, the warmth of the man of feeling, and the right impulse of the man of worth, to intend to give him pain, when, owing it to our own character, we observe, that, in attempting to sustain an unvarying style of high excitement, he has unavoidably diminished the effect of passages of unquestionable power and eloquence. We only wish that in his page, as in his canvas, there had been a little more keeping; and that the good taste and judgment which invariably guide his pencil had controlled his pen.

We rather think he might, with good effect, have spared much poetical quotation, as well in length as number of extracts. Here and there, only, a brief stanza or couplet gives spirit to prose composition. There is, farther, too much enumerating and lauding of friends and fellow-citizens, to be relished in any other "county, city, or place;" which although not unsuitable to letters of really private correspondence, ought to have been considerably modified when these are arranged and corrected for publication.

Last of all, while we admire the spirit of the sketches which the volumes contain, and the beauty of the engravings, we regret the great enhancement of price which these last have occasioned; and strongly recommend lithography to all future authors who illustrate their works by engravings. The effect, for all common purposes, is equal; and the cost, we believe, something about one-twentieth.

After these unavoidable strictures, we are solicitous of parting friends, cordial friends, with an author who has given us so much pleasure. His faults are not in the essentials, but in the mode and manner of the work. As a picturesque view of Italy and Greece, and an able report of the state of the fine arts in these countries, it has profitably and delightfully occupied a field, in which, notwithstanding the labours of preceding travellers, much remained to be gleaned.

ART. VI. 1. Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters, of Books and Men. By the REV. JOSEPH SPENCE. Arranged with notes, by the late Edmund Malone, Esq. London. Murray. 1820. Pp. 216. 8vo.

2. Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men. Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and other eminent persons of his time. By the REV. JOSEPH SPENCE. Now first published from the original papers, with notes, and a life of the author. By SAMUEL WELLER SINGER. London. Carpenter. 1820. Pp. 540. 8vo.

WE know not why these two works appear together, or why either of them appears at all at this particular time. The first of them is intended, it has been announced, to form a companion to Dr. King's Anecdotes, formerly noticed by us; but as its contents, almost entirely, we may safely say chiefly, have been given to the public in various biographical sketches, especially those from the pens of Warton, Johnson, and Malone, we must consider it of less value than we assigned to that collection. It is, however, equal to it in one respect, as it appears without the name of its editor, and as it is as meagre in preliminary informa tion respecting the author. The second, which is owned by a man of letters of some repute, presents a short, but not uninteresting account of Mr. Spence; furnishes a few notes not quite unimportant; and publishes certain letters principally addressed to Mr. Spence, by various characters of eminence in his day, which we would rather had been doubled than not given. But even this latter work is liable to the charge adduced against its rival, that a great deal of it is a repetition of what is elsewhere to be found. Something may, nevertheless, be said about the conveniency of having such materials brought into one volume, that reconciles us to the idea of its abstract consequence. Of its relative merits, we shall merely say, that, admitting the anecdotes themselves to be of some worth, we should never hesitate to pay the difference of price between it and the other copy.

Mr. Spence was a man of learning and taste, exemplary manners, unblemished character, engaging temper, and a generous disposition-qualities or attainments, abundantly enviable and highly to be praised, but not exactly the kind of things which make most noise in the world, or which attract the solicitous inquiries of posterity, however they may have ennobled the possessor in the estimation and affectionate regards of his contemporaries. He was known and beloved by men, whose names are

still recognised as land-marks in the history of English intellect; but he himself has for many years nearly ceased to be spoken of, unless by the hunters after folio books, and the advocates for neglected literature. There is, indeed, something in his fate, that ought to sober the ambition of students. An Essay on Pope's Odyssey procured him a very flattering reputation in England, and introduced him to an intimate acquaintance with the poet whose praises it is the main object of this collection to blazon; and the Polymetis, his magnum opus, as Mr. Singer rather ambiguously denominates it, underwent several editions, notwithstanding its dimensions, and was for some time appealed to as an authority in a curious, if not an essential department of classical learning. Contemporary writers united in commendation of both of these works, to say nothing of his minor pieces; and a succeeding labourer in literature thought he did good service to the cause, when he rendered the contents of the latter more accessible to the community by an abridgment. We allude to Mr. N. Tindal, the translator of Rapin's History of England, whose "Guide to Classical Learning; or Polymetis abridged," published in 1764, answered the purpose of a school book for many years. We confess ourselves to have perused it in our younger days. The original work now maintains its place, very quietly, among the fundamental strata of general libraries. Both have been superseded by other works, especially the Classical Dictionary of Dr. Lempricre. The Essay, again, pronounced by Dr. Warton, certainly no contemptible judge, "a work of true taste," has not been once spoken of, so far as we can recollect, for more than a quarter of a century. Even the splendid fame of Pope himself, whom Spence idolized, has suffered a partial eclipse from the interposition of newer planets; and their blaze again may probably be surpassed by the coruscations of future genius. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Of an author thus irreversibly sentenced to oblivion, as we imagine him to be, we do not think it judicious to attempt the resuscitation. But perhaps a few notices of him may be hazarded, for the benefit of those persons who desire to be satisfied as to the opportunities he had of acquiring the information respecting greater men which he has given in his anecdotes. We hope to content them with the slightest sketch of his life.

Joseph Spence was born at Kinsclere, Hants, in 1699. His early education was conducted under the eye of an opulent female relative. In his tenth year, he was sent to a school in Berkshire, which he left for Eton College, whence he proceeded in a short time to that of Winchester, and afterwards to New College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1722. He entered into Holy Or

ales in 1794, took the degree of A. M. in 1727, was chosen Prokassar of Poetry in the following year, and about the same time ghe Rectory of Birchanger, in Essex. His fellow collegian, Christopher Pitt, writing of him at this period, says, with all

cable simplicity: "He is the completest scholar, either sold or polite learning, for his years, that I ever knew. Besides, he is the sweetest tempered gentleman breathing."— An encomium from which, as we happen not to be able to estimate the extent of Mr. Christopher Pitt's acquaintance—far less to tell the number of all the sweet tempered gentlemen living in his day, we have no intention to detract.

In 1780, Mr. Spence set out on the tour of France and Italy, as companion, rather than governor, of the young Earl of Middlesex, afterwards Duke (the second) of Dorset. While on this expedition, he met with the poet Thomson, with whom an intimacy, which had formerly commenced, was confirmed, and which ended not till the death of our eminent countryman. He got acquainted also with the Marquis Maffei, of whom he speaks highly and affectionately in the correspondence with his mother, which details the events of his journey. It was at Rome, Mr. Singer suggests rather pompously, that "the thought was first

elicited which gave rise to his Magnum Opus, the Polymetis; as Gibbon conceived the design of his history, amid the ruins of the Capitol!" He returned to England in 1733, only a few days after having been re-elected Professor of Poetry for another period of five years.

His Essay on Pope's Odyssey had appeared in 1726, and, as already mentioned, got him the favour of Pope, whom it would seem to have been one of the principal occupations of his life to seek all imaginable ways of eulogizing. That poet, quite accessible to such adoration, furnished him with ample opportunities of exercising it, and in return, bestowed a large measure of his good opinion and confidence. The consequences are well known to those who are familiar with the history of Pope, whether as roughly got up by Mr. Owen Ruffhead, with the powerful aid of Warburton,-communicated in the vastly more agreeable pages of Dr. Warton,-or emanating from the discriminating pencil of Dr. Johnson, In reality, all of these authors were indebted, in their respective works, to copies, more or less complete, of Mr. Spence's Ânecdotes. Alluding to the last mentioned, Mr. Singer says:

“These anecdotes were indeed almost the sole documents he had for the life of Pope, and they will enable the admirers of that capital specimen of critical biography to appreciate his skill in forming so interesting and eloquent a narrative from such slight materials.”

The admirers of Dr. Johnson, we shrewdly suspect, will give themselves no such trouble. But we admit it to be perfectly correct in Mr. Singer to make the remark, as it is clearly of importance to be apprised of the sources, whence works which we admire have been deduced. Dr. Johnson himself acknowledges the assistance, with which, it seems, he was favoured by the loan of the Duke of Newcastle's manuscript copy, procured for him by Sir Lucas Pepys.

"In the lives of Addison, Tickell, and others, he has also made use of the infor mation they contain. At a subsequent period, the late Mr. Malone was favoured with the free use of the anecdotes, when engaged in writing the life of Dryden, and he availed himself of the privilege of making a complete transcript for his own use."

To return to Mr. Spence. At the desire of Mr. Pope, in 1736, he republished Sackville's tragedy of Gorbuduc, of which we gave some account in our review of Drake's Shakspeare and his Times. In 1737, he revisited the Continent, in company with Mr. Trevor, returned in the spring of the following year, and set off again for it in 1739, with the Earl of Lincoln, afterwards Duke of Newcastle, with whom he arrived in England in 1742. It was in this last journey that he had an opportunity of cultivating acquaintance with that singular character Lady Mary Wortley Montague, of whose history and peculiarities he does not fail to take notice.

In the year last mentioned, he was presented by his college to the rectory of Great Horwood, Bucks, and obtained the regius professorship of Modern History, as successor to Dr. Holmes.

"From this time he resided chiefly in London for some few years; but his health, since his return from abroad, having been precarious, he was advised by his friends to abandon his studies; and, however disagreeable the remedy, he would probably have listened to their entreaties. The Polymetis, which had now occupied his attention for several years, for which he had made very large collections, and had obtained very large and numerous subscriptions, was about to have been abandoned; had not Dr. Mead interposed and prescribed to him a middle course, advising him to apply moderately, and at short intervals, to his literary pursuits, rather than entirely and at once to abandon them: he followed this friendly advice, and it had the desired effect.

"After the publication of his Polymetis in 1747, by which he had realized up. wards of fifteen hundred pounds, he entertained thoughts of indulging his propensity (for rural enjoyment and gardening) by the purchase of a small house and a few acres of ground in the country. Having occasionally mentioned this intention to his friend Lord Lincoln, he very generously offered him, as a gift for his life, a house of this kind at Byfleet in Surry, in the immediate vicinity of his seat at Oatlands. Thither Spence removed in the year 1749, and immediately proceeded to turn his fields into pleasure grounds, and to plant and adorn the face of the country round his abode. From this time to the end of his life, rural improvement became his favourite amusement; he expended a great part of the profits arising from his Polymetis in embellishing his little seat, and acquired much reputation by the judgment he displayed. He was from time to time consulted by his friends and others when any thing of the kind was meditated; his suggestions were listened to with respect, and generally followed without deviation. Walpole, whose opinion will be allowed to have much weight on this VOL. HI. NO. ILL 2 B