POSTSCRIPT.

[1]He had once enlisted as a private soldier in the Guards, for a protection. See p.152.

49. The Discovery. This scarce plate is acknowledged as genuine by Mrs.Hogarth. The subject is a black woman in bed; her eyes archly turned on her gallant just risen, who expresses his astonishment on the entrance of three laughing friends, one of them with a candle in his hand. Underneath the print is this apposite motto:

Qui color albus erat nunc est contrarius albo.

A similar circumstance occurs inFletcher's Monsieur Thomas, and inFoote's Cozeners.

I know not of any among our artist's works that displays so little character. It must have been one of his early performances.

It should be observed that, being founded on a private occurrence, this print was never designed for general circulation. Mr.Highmorethe manager ofDrury-Lane, who boughtCibber'sshare in the patent, is the Hero of it. A few copies only were distributed amongHogarth'sparticular friends, and the gentlemen whose portraits it contains. At the bottom of the plate there is no descriptive title.The Discoverywas that by which Mrs.Hogarthmentioned it when she recollected the very laughable circumstance here commemorated by her husband's pencil.

* 50. The Cottage. An impression from a breeches-button, the size of a crown-piece; a sketch made for Mr.Camfield, a surgeon, on a subject that will not bear explanation. There is a copy of this little plate by Mr.S. Ireland.

51.Pugthe Painter. This has been usually understood as a satireon Hogarth, rather than a designbyhim. Mr.Irelandonce told me it was etched byDawes, and that our artist gave a copy of it, as his own design, to Mr.Kirby. But I am assured with superior confidence by another gentleman, that the true author of it is to be sought among those artists whomHogarthhad provoked by his contemptuous treatment of their works. IfPugwas not designed as his representative, why is the animal exhibited in the act of painting the ridiculous figure of thePriestinThe Good Samaritan?

52. A Head in an oval, coarsely engraved, and subscribed "Samuel ButlerAuthor ofHudibras." Several connoisseurs, beside Mr.Thanewho possesses the plate, conceive it to be an undoubted work ofHogarth. For what purpose it was executed, and why suppressed (for no one has hitherto met with even a proof from it) it is vain to enquire. I am silent on the subject, heartily wishing that throughout this work I had had the opinions of more friends to record, and had offered fewer sentiments of my own.

53. "A very rare hieroglyphic print; representing Royalty, Episcopacy, and Law, composed of emblematic attributes, and no human features or limbs; with attendants of similar ingredients. Beneath is this inscription. Some of the principal inhabitants of the Moon, as they were discovered by a telescope, brought to the greatest perfection since the last eclipse; exactly engraved from the objects, whereby the Curious may guess at their Religion, Manners, &c. Price Six-pence."

A kind of scaffold above the clouds is the theatre of this representation. Monarchy, Episcopacy, and Law, appear characteristically seated. Their faces are—a Crown-piece—aJew'sHarp, and—a Mallet. The monarch holds a globe and sceptre, with crescents on the tops of them. Instead of a collar ofesses, he wears a string of bubbles; his side is ornamented with a pointed star; and a circle, the emblemof perpetuity, is embroidered on the cloth under his throne. Episcopacy is working at a pump (a type I suppose of the Church) by the assistance of a bell-rope. The Bible is fastened to the handle of the pump, and out of the nose of it issues money that falls into a chest discriminated by an armorial escutcheon, containing a knife and fork, properly emblazoned, with a mitre by way of crest. The lid of the coffer leans against a pillar, that serves also to support a triple pile of cushions. Over the top of the pump (which is fashioned much like a steeple) is a weathercock on a small pyramid supported by balls; and below it, through a circular opening, a little bell appears to ring. Under the sacerdotal robe, a cloven foot peeps out. Law sustains a sword; and behind him appears a dagger thrust through the bottom of a sieve. The attendants on Monarchy are of various materials. The bodies and legs of such as seem designed for soldiers, are composed of circular fire-screens resembling shields. The trunks of the courtiers are large looking-glasses, the sconces with candles in them serving for hands and arms. The face of the chief of these is the reverse of a sixpence; and a key significantly appended to his sash, at once denotes his sex and office. Under the figure of law are a male and female modishly drest. Her head is a tea-pot, her neck a drinking-glass, and her body a fan half spread. On the oval that forms the countenance of her paramour, is a coat of arms with supporters. His right honourable legs are fan-sticks, and he seems in theact of courtship. How this couple are immediately connected with Law, is not very clearly pointed out.Hogarth, however, we may suppose, had planned some explanation of his hieroglyphics, as the lettersa, b, c, d, e, f, g,are placed over some of them, and beneath others.

From the form of the perukes exhibited in this design, I should suppose it was made above forty years ago. Other circumstances in it need no decyphering.

* 54. The Master of the Vineyard. St.Matthewchap. xxi. v. 28. "Son, go work to-day in my Vineyard."

* 55. TheLondonInfirmary for charitably relieving sick and diseased Manufacturers and Seamen in the Merchants' service, their Wives and Children. A blank certificate for Pupils in Surgery and Anatomy, printed on a half sheet, folio.

56. A ticket for the benefit ofSpillerthe player. He died in the year 1729.

In the plate before us, which possesses no small share of humour, poorSpilleris represented in a melancholy posture. His finances are weighed against his debts, and outweighed by them. His taylor's bill appears to be of great length, and many others for ale, gin, &c. are on the ground near him. A bailiff is clapping him on the shoulder—a prison is in sight—ladies and gentlemen are taking tickets, &c. This very uncommon and beautiful little print is, at present, found only in the collection of Mr.Ireland.

57. St.Mary's Chapel. Five at night. Several performers playing on different instruments.William Hogarth inv. G. Vandergucht sculpt.

This was certainly an ornament at the top of a ticket for a music-meeting. The name ofHogarthis affixed to it, and the whole designmighthave been his. I do not, however, believe itwasso. A few of the figures appear to have been collected from his works by some other hand, rather than grouped by his own.Vanderguchttoo was so thoroughly a mannerist, and especially in small subjects, that he was rarely faithful to the expressions of countenance he undertook to trace on copper. There is no humour, and indeed little merit of any kind, in this performance. It has not hitherto been met with on the entire piece of paper to which it must originally have belonged.

A print calledThe Scotch Congregation, byHogarth, is almost unique, on account of its extreme indecency. One copy of it was in a collection of his works belonging to Mr.AlexanderofEdinburgh. He is said to have had it from Mrs.Hogarth. A second copy is reported to exist in the possession of another gentleman. No more impressions of it are known.

A correspondent atDublininforms me, that in the collection of Dr.Hopkinsof that city are the following seven prints byHogarth:

1.The History of Witchcraft. Humbly dedicated to the Wise. Allegorically modernized. Part theFirst. Published according to act of Parliament.Hogarth inv. et sculpt.

Half sheet print. At one end, Witches attending the punishment of two human figures; at the other, several at their different occupations.

2.The History of Witchcraft. Part the Second. Published according to act of Parliament.Hogarth inv. et sculpt.

Same size as the former. Witches dancing; others at various amusements. These two prints contain a great variety of distorted figures.

3.A Suit of Law fits me better than a Suit of Clothes. Invented and engraved byW. H.and published pursuant to an Act of Parliament, 1740.

An upright half-sheet. A Man in embroidered clothes, his hat under his arm. A scroll in his left hand, inscribed, "I'll go to Law." Huntsmen, dogs, and horses in the back ground. Four lines in verse underneath.

Useful in all families. Invented and engraved byW. H.and published pursuant to an Act of Parliament, 1740.

4. The same man in a tattered garment in a wild country; a staff in his right hand, and a scroll in his left, inscribed, "To shew that I went to law, and got the better." Four lines at the bottom.

These two may be classed among his indifferent prints.

5.The Caledonian March and Embarkation. Hogarth invent. London, printed forT. Baldwin.

A number ofScotchmenembarking in theCaledonianTransport. Labels issuing from their mouths.

The Laird of the Posts, or the Bonnets exalted.Printed forT. Baldwin, London. Hogarth inv.

6.A Scotch Nobleman and his Friends taking possession of several posts, having kick'd down the former Possessors. Labels from their mouths too tedious to copy. A Lion on the fore-ground, hood-winked by aScotchplaid.

Supposed to be printed forThe London Magazine.

7.The Lion entranced. Printed forT. Baldwin, London. Hogarth inv.1762.

A Lion in a Coffin. A plate on the cover, inscribed, "LeoBritanicus, Ob. An. 1762. Requiescat in pace." Attended by state mourners with labels as above. In one cornerHiberniasupplicating for her Sister's interest.

A respect for the obliging communicator has induced me to publish thissupposedaddition to the foregoing catalogue ofHogarth'sworks. But, without ocular proof, I cannot receive as genuine any one of the plates enumerated. The name of our Artist has more than once been subscribed to the wretched productions of others; and a collector atDublinmust have had singular good fortune indeed, if he has met with seven authentic curiosities unknown to the most confidential friends ofHogarth, and the most industrious connoisseurs aboutLondon. I may add, that two, if not three, of the above-mentioned anti-ministeral pieces, appeared in 1762, the veryyear in which our artist was appointedSerjeant Painter. Till that period he is unsuspected of having engaged his pencil in the service of politicks; andT. Baldwin(perhaps a fictitious name) is not known to have been on any former occasion his publisher. So much for the probability ofHogarth'shaving ushered performances like these into the world.

Chance, and the kindness of my friends, have not enabled me to form a more accurate series ofHogarth'slabours. Those of the collector, however, are still incomplete, unless he can furnish himself with a specimen of several other pieces, said, I think, to have been produced a little before our artist's marriage. I forbear to keep my readers in suspense on the occasion.Hogarthonce taking up some plain ivory fishes that lay on his future wife's card-table, observed how much was wanting to render them natural representations. Having delivered this remark with becoming gravity, he proceeded to engrave scales, fins, &c. on each of them. A few impressions have been taken from these curiosities, which remain in Mrs.Hogarth'spossession. As abuttondecorated by her husband has been received into the foregoing catalogue of his works, it can hardly be disgraced by this brief mention of the ornaments he bestowed on acounter.

There are three large volumes in quarto byLavater, a minister atZurich(with great numbers of plates), on Physiognomy. Among these are two containing several groups of figures from differentprints ofHogarth, together with the portraits of LordLovatandWilkes. For what particular purpose they are introduced, remains to me a secret.[1]

In "An Address of Thanks to the Broad Bottoms, for the good things they have done, and the evil things they have not done, since their elevation, 1745," is what the author calls "A curious emblematic Frontispiece, taken from an original painting of the ingenious Mr.H——th;" a palpable imposition.

Mr.Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, Vol. IV. 63, observes, that "Hogarthdrew the supposed funeral ofVanaken, attended by the painters he worked for, discovering every mark of grief and despair." To explain this passage, it should be added, that "he was employed by several considerable artists here, to draw the attitudes, and dress the figures in their pictures."

The merits ofHogarth, as an engraver, are inconsiderable. His hand was faithful to character, but had little acquaintance with the powers of light and shade. In some of his early prints he was an assiduous imitator ofCallot, but deviated at last into a manner of his own, which suffers much by comparison with that of his coadjutors,RavenetandSullivan. In the pieces finished by these masters of their art, there is a clearness thatHogarthcould never reach. His strokes sometimes look as if fortuitously disposed, and sometimes confusedly thwarteach other in almost every possible direction. What he wanted in skill, he strove to make up in labour; but the result of it was a universal haze and indistinctness, that, by excluding force and transparency, has rendered several of his larger plates less captivating than they would have been, had he entrusted the sole execution of them to either of the artists already mentioned. His smaller etchings, indeed, such asThe Laughing Pit, &c. cannot receive too much commendation.

Mr.Walpolehas justly observed, that "many wretched prints came out to ridicule" theAnalysis of Beauty.He might have added, that no small number of the same quality were produced immediately after theTimesmade its appearance. I wish it had been in my power to have afforded my readers a complete list of these performances, that as little as possible might have been wanting to the history of poorHogarth'sfirst and second persecution. Such a catalogue, however, not being necessary to the explanation of his works, it is with the less regret omitted.[2]

The scarceness of the good impressions ofHogarth'slarger works is in great measure owing to their having been pasted on canvas or boards, to be framedand glazed for furniture. There were few people who collected his prints for any other purpose at their first appearance. The majority of these sets being hung up inLondonhouses, have been utterly spoiled by smoke. Since foreigners have learned the value of the same performances, they have also been exported in considerable numbers. Wherever a taste for the fine arts has prevailed, the works of this great master are to be found. MessieursTorréhave frequent commissions to send them intoItaly. I am credibly informed that the Empress ofRussiahas expressed uncommon pleasure in examining such genuine representations ofEnglishmanners; and I have seen a set of cups and saucers withThe Harlot's Progresspainted on them inChinaabout the year 1739.

Of all such engravings as are Mrs.Hogarth'sproperty, the later impressions continue selling on terms specified many years ago in her printed catalogue, which the reader will find at the end of this pamphlet. The few elder proofs that remain undisposed of, may be likewise had from her agent at an advance of price. As to the plates which our artist had not retained as his own property, when any of these desiderata are found (perhaps in a state of corrosion), they are immediately vamped up, and impressions from them are offered to sale, at three, four, or five times their original value. They are also stained to give them the appearance of age; and on these occasions we are confidently assured, that only a few copies, which had lurked in some obscurewarehouse, or neglected port-feuille, had been just discovered. This information is usually accompanied by sober advice to buy while we may, as the vender has scarce a moment free from the repeated solicitations of the nobility and gentry, whom he always wishes to oblige, still affording that preference to the connoisseur which he withholds from the less enlightened purchaser. It is scarce needful to observe, that no man ever visited the shops of these polite dealers, without soon fancying himself entitled to the more creditable of the aforesaid distinctions. Thus becoming a dupe to his own vanity, as well as to the artifice of the tradesman, he has speedily the mortification to find his supposed rarities are to be met with in every collection, and not long afterwards on every stall. The caution may not prove useless to those who are ambitious to assemble the works ofHogarth. Such a pursuit needs no apology; for sure, of all his fraternity, whether ancient or modern, he bent the keenest eye on the follies and vices of mankind, and expressed them with a degree of variety and force, which it would be vain to seek among the satiric compositions of any other painters. In short, what is observed byHamletconcerning a player's office, may, with some few exceptions, be applied to the designs ofHogarth. "Their end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his own form and pressure."

I may add, that, since the appearance of Mr.Walpole'sCatalogue, a disposition to attribute several anonymous plates, on ludicrous subjects, toHogarth, has betrayed itself in more than a single instance:[3]a supposition has also prevailed that there was a time whenHogarthhad the whole field of satire to himself, and we could boast of no designers whose performances could be mistaken for his own. The latter notion is undoubtedly true, if real judges are to decide; and yet many prints, very slightly impregnated with humour, continue to be ascribed to him. It should therefore be observed, that, at the same period,Bickham, Vandergucht, Boitard, Gravelot, Laguerrethe younger, &c. were occasionally publishing satirical Sketches, and engraving laughable frontispieces for books and pamphlets. To many of these, for various reasons, they forbore to set their names; and we have at present collectors, who, to obtain the credit of having made discoveries, are willing to adopt such performances as the genuine effusions ofHogarth, although every way beneath his talents, and repugnant to his style of engraving. Perhaps also the names of other painters and designers have been occasionally obliterated, to countenance the same fallacy.Copies likewise have been palmed on the unwary for originals. "Therefore" (gentle reader) for once be content to follow the advice ofPistol, "Go clear thy chrystals, andCavetobe thy counsellor." For if all such fatherless engravings, as the vanity of some, and the interest, or the ignorance, of others, would introduce among the works of our artist, were to be admitted, when would the collector's labour and expence be at end?

Among other anonymous plates ascribed toHogarth, but omitted in the present catalogue, is the following,A living Dog is better than a dead Lion, or,The Vanity of human Glory; a design for the Monument of General Wolfe, 1760. A medallion of our hero appears on the side of a pyramid. On the base of it is the well known speech ofShakespeare's Brutus,

Set Honour in one hand, and Death in t' other,And I will look on both indifferent:And let the Gods so speed me, as I loveThe name of Honour more than I fear Death.

At the bottom a dying Lion is extended, while a Dog (withMindenon his collar, andHonour's a jest, &c. issuing from his mouth) is at once lifting up his leg against the noble brute, and treading on a wreath of laurel.Here lies Honour, is also written on the side of the expiring animal. I have since been assured that this print was by another artist, whose name I omit to mention, because perhaps he would wish it, on the present occasion, suppressed.

[1]This book, I am told, is now translated intoFrench.

[2]One of these productions, however, should be singled from the rest. The print, entitledThe Connoisseurs, was suspected to be a work ofHogarthhimself. It is placed with some of his other undisputed designs in the back-ground ofThe Author run Mad(which is known to be one of Mr.Sandby'sperformances), and has the following reference—"A.his ownDunciad."

[3]Thus the frontispiece toTaste, designed, if not etched byWorsdale(for whose benefit this dramatic piece was performed), andSawney in the Bog-house, an anonymous satire on theScotch, that made its appearance near forty years ago, and was revived during the administration of LordBute, are at present imputed to our artist, whose name is already engraved at the bottom of the latter.

The Author of this pamphlet, being convinced that, in spite of all his care and attention, some errors may still be found in his catalogue, list of variations, &c. will think himself highly obliged by any gentlemen who will point them out, and enable him to correct them. Such favours shall be gratefully acknowledged, if the present rude Essay towards an account ofHogarth'sdifferent performances should happen to reach another edition.

As in consequence of the extraordinary prices lately paid for the collected works of this great master, certain dealers, &c. are supposed to be assembling as many of his prints as they can meet with,—binding them up in pompous volumes,—writing "fine old impressions" either over or under them—specifying the precise sums pretended to have been disbursed for several of them (perhaps a guinea for a three shilling article)—preparing to offer a few rare trifles to sale, overloaded with a heap of wretched proofs from our artist's more capital performances;—exhibiting imperfect suites of such as are cut out of books; and intending to station puffers at future auctions, whose office will be to intimate they have received commissions to bid up as far as such or suchan amount (i. e. the sum under which the concealed proprietor resolves not to part with his ware), &c. &c. it is hoped the reader will excuse a few parting words of admonition. Perhaps it may be in the power of Mrs.Hogarthto select a few sets from such of her husband's pieces as have remained in her own custody from the hour of their publication. Let the multitude, who of course cannot be supplied with these, become their own collectors. Even ignorance is a more trusty guide than professional artifice. It may be urged, indeed, that the proportionate value of impressions[1]can be ascertained only by those who have examined many of them in their various states, with diligence and acuteness. But surely to qualify ourselves for estimating the merit of the curiosities we are ambitious to purchase, is wiser than to rely altogether on the information of people whose interest is commonly the reverse of our own. Let it also be remembered, that the least precious ofallHogarth'sproductions are by far the scarcest; and that when, at an immoderate expence, we have procured impressions from tankards ornamented by him, or armorial ensigns engraved for the books of his customers, we shall be found at last to have added nothing to his fame, or the entertaining quality of our own collections. By such means, however, we may open a door to imposition. A work likeThe Harlot's Progresswill certainly remain unimitated as well as inimitable; but it is in the power of every bungler to create fresh coats of arms, or shop bills with our artist's name subscribed to them: and wherein will the Lion or Griffin ofHogarthbe discovered to excell the same representation by a meaner hand? A crafty selection of paper, and a slight attention to chronology and choice of subjects, with the aid of the hot-press, may, in the end, prove an overmatch for the sagacity of the ablest connoisseur. A single detection of such a forgery would at least give rise to suspicions that might operate even where no fallacy had been designed. How many fraudulent imitations of the smaller works ofRembrandtare known to have been circulated with success!—But it may be asked, perhaps, from what source the author of this pamphlet derives his knowledge of such transactions. His answer is, from the majority of collectors whom he has talked with in consequence of his present undertaking.

He ought not, however, to conclude without observing, that severalgenuineworks ofHogarthyetremain to be engraved. He is happy also to add that a young artist, every way qualified for such a task, has already published a few of these by subscription.

J. N.

[1]Prints have, of late years, been judiciously rated according to the quality of theirimpressions. But the very termimpression, as applied to copper-plates, perhaps is a novelty among us. If we refer to the earliest and most valuable assemblage of portraits (such as that catalogued byAmes, afterwards purchased by Dr.Fothergill, and lately sold to Mr.Thane), we shall have little reason to suppose any regard was once paid to a particular of so much importance. As fast as heads were met with, they were indiscriminately received; and the faintest proofs do not appear to have been excluded at a time when the strongest might easily have been procured. In consequence of anàmásso carelessly formed, the volumes already mentioned, were found to display alternately the most beautiful and the most defective specimens of the graphic art.

J. N.had once thoughts of adding a list of the copies made from the worksof Hogarth; but finding them to be numerous, beyond expectation, has desisted from a task he could not easily accomplish. This pursuit, however, has enabled him to suggest yet another caution to his readers. Some of the early invaders ofHogarth'sproperty were less audacious than the rest; and, forbearing to make exact imitations of his plates, were content with only borrowing particular circumstances from each of them, which they worked up into a similar fable. A set ofThe Rake's Progress, in which the figures were thus disguised and differently grouped, has been lately found. But since the rage of collection broke out with its present vehemence, those dealers who have met with any such diversified copies, have been desirous of putting them off either as the first thoughts ofHogarth, or as the inferior productions of elder artists on whose designs he had improved. There, is also a very small set ofThe Rake's Progress, contrived and executed with the varieties already mentioned;and even this has been offered to sale under the former of these descriptions. Thus, asShakspearesays,While we shut the gate upon oneimposition,another knocks at the door.

It may not be impertinent to conclude these cautions with another notice for the benefit of unexperienced collectors, who in their choice of prints usually prefer the blackest. The earliest copies ofHogarth'sworks are often fainter than such as have been retouched. The excellence of the former consists in clearness as well as strength; but strength only is the characteristic of the latter. The first and third copies ofThe Harlot's Progresswill abundantly illustrate my remark, which, however, is confined to good impressions of the plates in either state; for some are now to be met with that no more possess the recommendation of transparency than that of force. I may add, that when plates are much worn, it is customary to load them with a double quantity of colour, that their weakness, as far as possible, may escape the eye of the purchaser. This practice the copper-plate printers facetiously entitle—coaxing; and, by the aid of it, the deeper strokes of the graver which are not wholly obliterated, become clogged with ink, while every finer trace, which was of a nature less permanent, is no longer visible. Thus in the modern proofs ofGarrickinKing Richard III.the armour, tent, and habit, continue to have considerable strength, though the delicate markings in the face, and the shadows on the inside of the hand,have long since disappeared. Yet this print, even in its faintest state, is still preferable to such smutty impositions as have been recently described. The modern impressions ofThe Fair, andThe March to Finchley, will yet more forcibly illustrate the same remark.

To the original paintings ofHogarthalready enumerated may be added a Breakfast-piece, preserved inHill-Street, Berkeley-Square, in the possession ofWilliam Strode, Esq; ofNorthaw, Herts. It contains portraits of his father the lateWilliam Strode, Esq; his mother LadyAnne(who was sister to the late Earl ofSalisbury), ColonelStrode, and Dr.Arthur Smith(afterwards Archbishop ofDublin).

Four Times of the Day, p.250.

It should have been observed, that the third of these plates was engraved byBaron, the figure of the girl excepted, which, being an after-thought, was added by our artist's own hand.

The following letter, printed inThe Public Advertisersoon after the first edition of the present work made its appearance, may possibly contain some authentic particulars of the early life of the famous MonsieurSt. André. Mr.Woodfall'singenious correspondent does not, however, dispose me to retract a syllable of what is advanced in the text; for he fails throughout in his attempts to exculpate our hero from any one of the charges alledged against him. On the contrary, he confirms, with additions, a considerable part of them, and strives only to evade or overwhelm the rest by studied amplifications of the little good which industrious partiality could pick out of its favourite character. I shall now subjoin his epistle, with a few unconnected remarks appended to it. A rambling performance must apologize for a desultory refutation.

"Sir,

"The entertaining author of the last biography of the admirableHogarth, in the excess of commendation of a particular risible subject forhis pencil, has written too disadvantageously of the late Mr.St. André. One who knew him intimately (but was never under the smallest obligation to him) for the last twenty years of his life, and has learned the tradition of his earlier conduct seemingly better than the editor of the article in question, takes the liberty to give a more favourable idea of him, and without intending to enter into a controversy with this agreeable Collector of Anecdotes, to vindicate thisnotorious man, who must be allowed to have been such; but it is to be hoped in the milder sense LordClarendonoften or always uses the epithet. The making a subject of Mr.St. Andréis therefore merely accidental. The writer expects to derive no praise from exhibiting that person as the Hero of a page. He thinks it is only doing justice (for the Dead deserve justice as well as the Living) when he draws his pen against some very injurious insinuations, thrown out with more inadvertence and at a venture than in malice, against the memory of an acquaintance and of a foreigner (to whom perhaps more mercy is due than to a native), who is more roughly handled than he appears to deserve.

"Mr.Nathaniel St. Andrécame over, or rather was brought over, very early fromSwitzerland, his native country, in the train of aMendez, orSalvadore, or someJewishfamily. Next to his countrymanHeidegger, he became the most considerableperson that has been imported from thence. He probably arrived inEnglandin no better than a menial station. Possibly his family was not originally obscure, for he has been heard to declare, that he had a rightful claim to a title, but it was not worth while to take it up so late in life. He had undoubtedly all the qualifications of aSwiss. He talkedFrenchin all its provincial dialects, and superintended the press, if the information is to be depended upon, and perhaps taught it, as his sister did atChelseaboarding-school. He was early initiated in music, for he played upon some musical instrument as soon as he was old enough to handle one, to entertain his benefactors. He had the good fortune to be placed by them with a surgeon of eminence, and became very skilful in his profession. His duty and gratitude to his father, whom he maintained when he was no longer able to maintain himself, was exemplary and deserving of high commendation. Let this charity cover a multitude of his sins! His great thirst for anatomical knowledge (for which he became afterwards so famous as to have books dedicated to him on that subject), and his unwearied application, soon made him so compleat an anatomist, that he undertook to read public lectures (and he was the first inLondonwho read any), which gave general satisfaction. The most ingenious and considerable men in the kingdom became his pupils. Dr.Hunter, now atthe head of his profession, speaks highly of his predecessor, and considers him (if the information is genuine) as the wonder of his time. He continued his love of anatomy to the last, and left noble preparations behind him, which he was continually improving. The time of his introduction into Mr.Molyneux'sfamily is not known to the writer of this account. Whether anatomy, surgery, knowledge, or music, or his performance on theViol de Gambo, on which he was the greatest master, got him the intimacy with Mr.Molyneux, is not easy to determine. Certain it is, that he attended his friend in his last illness, who died of a dangerous disorder (but not under his hands), which Mr.Molyneuxis said to have pronounced, from the first, would be fatal. Scandal, and Mr.Pope'ssatirical half-line, talked afterwards of 'The Poisoning Wife.' She, perhaps, was in too great a hurry, as the report ran, in marrying when she did, according to the practised delicacy of her sex, and her very high quality. The unlucky business in which oneHoward, a surgeon atGuildford, involved him, who was the projector, or accessary of the impudent imposture ofMary Tofts, alias the Rabbit-woman ofGodalmin, occasioned him to become the talk and ridicule of the whole kingdom. The report made bySt. André, and others, induced many inconsiderately to take it for a reality. The public horror was so great, that the rent of rabbit-warrens sunk to nothing;and nobody, till the delusion was over, presumed to eat a rabbit. The credulousWhistonbelieved the story (for to some people every thing is credible that comes from a credible witness), and wrote a pamphlet, to prove thismonstrous conceptionto be the exact completion of an old prophecy inEsdras. The partSt. Andréacted in this affair ruined his interest at Court, where he had before been so great a favourite with KingGeorgeI. that he presented him with a sword which he wore himself. Now, on his return out of the country, he met with a personal affront, and never went to Court again. But he continued anatomist to the Royal Houshold to his dying day, though he never took the salary. He probably was imposed upon in this matter. And has it not been the lot of men, in intellectual accomplishments vastly above his, such asBoyle, for instance, a man infinitely his superior, to be over-reached and misled? He took up the pen on the occasion (and it was not the first time, for he wrote some years before a bantering pamphlet on Dr.Mead), which could at best but demonstrate his sincerity, but exposed the weakness of his judgement, on that case. It had been insinuated he adopted this scheme, to ruin some persons of his own profession. If he had a mind to make an experiment upon the national belief, and to tamper with their willingness to swallow any absurdity (which a certain nobleman [Duke ofMontagu] ventured to do, in the affair of a manwho undertook to jump into a quart bottle), he was deservedly punished with contempt.Swift(according toWhiston), and perhapsArbuthnot, exercised their pens upon him. The cheat was soon discovered, and rabbits began to make their appearance again at table as usual. But they were not at his own table, nor made a dish, in any form of cookery, at that of his friends. Perhaps they imagined that the name or sight of that animal might be as offensive to him, as the mention ofFormosais said to have been toPsalmanazar. It is told, that, on his asking for some parsly of a market-woman ofSouthampton, and demanding why she had not more to sell, she, in a banter, assured him, 'That his rabbits had eat it up.' The fortune he acquired by marrying into a noble family (though it set all the lady's relations against him, and occasioned her being dismissed from her attendance on QueenCaroline) was a sufficient compensation for the laughter or censure of the publick. His high spirit and confidence in himself made him superior to all clamor. So that people did but talk about him, he seldom seemed to care what they talked against him. And yet he had the fortitude to bring an action for defamation inWestminster-Hallagainst a certain doctor in divinity, and got the better of his adversary. He was not supposed, in the judgement of the wiser and more candid part of mankind, to have contributed, by any chirurgical administration,to the death of his friend Mr.Molyneux, nor to have set up the imposture atGodalmin. Though he was disgraced at Court, he was not abandoned by all his noble friends. The great LordPeterborough, who was his patron and patient long before he went toLisbon, entertained a very high opinion of him to the last. His capacity in all kinds, the reception he gave to his table and his garden, with his liberality to the infirm and distressed, made him visited by persons of the highest quality, and by all strangers and foreigners. He did not continue to enjoy the great fortune his marriage is supposed to have brought him, to the end of his life, for a great part went from him on the death of LadyBetty. He by no means left so much property behind him as to have it said, he died rich. His profession as a surgeon, in a reasonable terms of years, would probably have put more money into his pocket than fell in the golden shower so inauspiciously into his lap, and have given him plenty, without envy or blame. He was turned of ninety-six when he died; and though subject to the gout, of which he used to get the better by blisters upon his knees, and by rigid abstinence, yet, when he took to his bed (where he said he should not lie long), and permitted a physician to be called in to him, he cannot be said to have died of any disease. In one sum of generosity, he gave the celebratedGeminianithree hundred pounds, to help him to dischargehis incumbrances, and to end his days in comfort. The strength and agility of his body were great, and are well known. He was famous for his skill in fencing, in riding the great horse, and for running and jumping, in his younger days. He, at one time, was able to play the game at chess with the best masters. After a slight instruction atSlaughter'scoffee-house, he did not rest till, in the course of two nights sitting up, he was able to vanquish his instructor. He was so earnest in acquiring knowledge, that he whimsically, as he told the story, cut off his eye-lashes, that he might not sleep till he arrived at what he wanted. His face was muscular and fierce. One of his eyes, to external appearance, seemed to be a mass of obscurity (as he expressed it ofHandel's, when he became stark-blind), at least it had not the uncommon vivacity of the other. His language was full of energy, but loaded with foreign idioms. His conversation was seasoned sufficiently with satire and irony, which he was not afraid to display, though he ought never to have forgot that he was once a proper subject for it. He built; he planted; he had almost 'from the Cedar ofLebanonto the hyssop that groweth upon the wall,' in his hot-house, green-house, and garden. If he was not deep in every art and science (for even his long life was not sufficient for universal attainment), he cannot be reckoned to have been ignorant of any thing. He was admiredfor his knowledge in architecture, in gardening, and in botany, by those who should have been above flattery. But praise, from whatever quarter it comes, is of an intoxicating nature. Those who found out that he loved praise, took care he should have enough of it. He kept a list of the wretched and the indigent, whom he constantly maintained; and their names might be written alphabetically. The poor ofSouthamptonknow they have lost their best friend. Call it, reader, ostentation or vanity, if you will; but till you know it did not proceed from his goodness of heart, this tributary pen considers his giving away his money to relieve the necessitous, as a spark of the spirit of the Man ofRossor the Man ofBath. He was all his life too much addicted to amours, and sometimes with the lower part of the sex. His conversation, which he was always able to make entertaining and instructive, was too often tinctured withdouble entendre(a vice that increases with age), but hardly ever with prophaneness. He may be thought to have copiedHermippus, and to have considered women as the prolongers of life. How far he was made a dupe by any of them at last, is not necessary for relation. He died, as he lived, without fear; for to his standers-by he gave no sign of a ruffled mind, or a disturbed conscience, in his last moments.

"If the preceding memoir ofSt. Andréhad not been composed entirely from memory (a faculty which, like the sieve of theDanaids, is apt to lose as much as it receives), and had not been conveyed to the press with so much precipitancy, the writer, by a second recollection, might have made supplementary anecdotes less necessary. WhilstSt. Andréwas basking in the sun-shine of public favour inNorthumberland-Court, nearCharing-Cross, under pretence of being wanted in his profession at some house in the neighbourhood, he was hurried through so many passages, and up and down so many stair-cases, that he did not know where he was, nor what the untoward scene was to end in, till the horrid conclusion presented itself, of which he published an extraordinary account inThe GazetteofFeb.23, 1724-5, no less than of his being poisoned, and of his more extraordinary recovery. Such uncommon men must be visited through life with uncommon incidents. The bowl of poison must have been for ever present to his imagination.Socrateshimself could not expect more certain destruction from the noxious draught he was forced to take down, than seemed inevitable toSt. André. Nay, a double death seems to have threatened him. Probably it was not any public or private virtue for whichSocrateswas famous, and which occasioned him to suffer, that endangered our hero's life. His constitution was so good, that he got the better of the internal potion. Thetruth and circumstances of the story could only be known to himself, who authenticated it upon oath. His narrative partakes of the marvellous; and the reader ofJuly, 1781, is left in total ignorance of the actor, and the provocation to such a barbarous termination. His case was reported, and he was attended, by the ablest of the faculty: and the Privy Council issued a reward of two hundred pounds towards a discovery. A note in the second supplemental volume ofSwiftinformed the writer of this sketch, a day or two ago (who takes to himself the reproof ofPrior, 'Authors, before they write, should read!'), thatSt. Andréwas convinced he had been imposed upon respecting the woman ofGodalmin, and that he apologised handsomely to the public in an advertisement, datedDec.8, 1726.—'He's half absolv'd, who has confest.'—In the autumn, before the heat of the town-talk on this affair was over, he was sent for to attend Mr.Pope, who, on his return home fromDawleyin LordBolingbroke'scoach and six, was overturned in a river, and lost the use of two fingers of his left-hand (happy for the lovers of poetry they were not the servants of the right one!), and gave him assurance, that none of the broken glass was likely to be fatal to him. It is highly improbable, thatPopeandBolingbrokewould have sufferedSt. Andréto have come near them, if he had been branded as a cheat and an impostor. He died inMarch, 1776, having survivedall his contemporary enemies, and, which is the consequence of living long, most of his ancient friends. Such men do not arise every day for our censure or our applause; to gratify the pen or the pencil of character or caricature. He may be considered, asVoltairepronounces ofCharlesthe Twelfth, an extraordinary, rather than a great man, and fitter to be admired than imitated.

"Impartial."

In the first place, I avow that the epithetnotoriouswas not meant to be employed in the milder sense of LordClarendon. Had I undertaken to compile the life of a man eminent for virtue, I should have been happy to have borrowed the softer application of the aforesaid term from our noble historian. But having engaged to delineate a mere impostor's character, there is greater propriety in adopting the disputed word with that constant signification affixed to it by the biographers ofBet Canning, orFannythe Phantom ofCock Lane.—I shall absolve myself no farther from the charge of "malice," than by observing that there are always people who thinksomewhat much too rough has been said of Chartres.

The dead, declares our apologist, deserve justice as well as their survivors. This is an uncontested truth; nor will the precept be violated by me. I may observe however, with impunity, that the interests of the living, for whose sake a line of separation between good and bad characters is drawn, shouldbe consulted, rather than the memories of the flagitious, who can no longer be affected by human praise or censure, should be spared.

Our apologist next assures us, that perhaps more tenderness is due to a foreigner than to a native. The boastedamor patriæis not very conspicuous in this remark, which indeed was dropped, to as little purpose, by a learned counsel on the trial of theFrench Spywho was lately executed.

"Next to his countrymanHeidegger," adds our apologist, "Mr.St. Andrébecame the mostconsiderableperson that has been imported fromSwitzerland." To judge of the comparative value of the latter, we must estimate the merits of the former.Heideggeris known to us only by the uncommon ugliness of his visage, and his adroitness in conducting Operas and Masquerades. IfSt. Andréis to be regarded as a person stillless considerablethanHeidegger, can his consequence be rated very high?

ThatSt. Andréarrived here in a menial station, is not improbable. The servility of his youth afforded a natural introduction to the insolence of his riper years. He was indeed (if I am not mis-informed) of the same family with the fencing and dancing-master whomDrydenhas immortalized inMacFlecknoe;

"St. André'sfeet ne'er kept more equal time;"[1]

and was intended for the same professions; a circumstance often hinted at by his opponents during theRabbit controversy. Having been thus early instructed in the management of the foil and kitt, no marvel that he so often prated about the art of defence, or that "his gratitude to his benefactors" broke out in the language of a minuet or a rigadoon.

That he became famous enough in his profession to have anatomical works occasionally dedicated to him, will easily obtain credit among our apologist's readers; for many of them must have seen a book on surgery inscribed to Dr.Rock, a political poem addressed toBuckhorse, and a treatise on religion sheltering itself under the patronage of the late LordBaltimore. St. André, however, was not the earliest reader of anatomical lectures inLondon. Bussiere, the surgeon who attendedGuiscard(the assassin ofHarley), was our hero's predecessor in this office, and I am told even he was not the first who offered public instructions to the students at our hospitals. Dr.Hunter, who has been applied to for intelligence on this occasion, declares that he never describedSt. Andréas "the wonder of his time," but as a man who had passed through no regular course of study, and was competent only in the article of injections, a task as happily suited to minute abilities as to those of a larger grasp.

Æmilium circà ludum faber imus et unguesExprimet, et molles imitabitur ære capillos.

The art of pushing fluids through the vessels was at that period a secret most scrupulously kept by the few who were in possession of it, so that a great showmight be made at the expence of little real knowledge. I am also informed, thatSt. André, like the workman described byHorace, had no general comprehension of any subject, but was unable to have put two propositions together:—that he neither extended the bounds of the chirurgical art by discoveries, nor performed any extraordinary cures; and, boasting somewhere that he had detected vessels in the cuticle or scarf-skin, a foreigner of eminence in the same profession offered (through the medium of a printed book) to lay him a wager of it, a challenge which he prudently declined. I am also told, that when solicited to exhibit his preparations, he always declared the majority of them to have been destroyed in a fire. What remain, I am instructed to add, deserve little or no commendation. Thus, on enquiry, sinks our "enthusiast in anatomy" down to a frigid dabbler in the science; while his "noble preparations, which he was continually improving," dwindle into minutiæ of scarce any value.

Though the dreadful crime, which is indistinctly mentioned in the text of the foregoing pamphlet, has been alluded to with less reserve by the apologist ofSt. André, it shall be explained no further on the present occasion. Many are the common avenues to death; and why should we point out with minuteness such as we hope will never be explored again? Till I perused the defence so often referred to, I had not even suspected that the "poisoning wife"[2]bore theleast allusion to any particular circumstance on the records of criminal gallantry; nor, without stronger proofs than are furnished by this expression (perhaps a random one), shall I be willing to allot the smallest share of blame to the Lady, such alone excepted as must unavoidably arise from her over-hasty marriage, which was solemnized atHessonnearHounslowinMiddlesex, on the 27th ofMay, 1730. This act, however, as well as her derogation from rank, being mere offences against human customs, are cognizable only upon earth.—By "the wiser and more candid part of mankind," who suspected no harm throughoutSt. André'sconduct in this affair, I suppose our apologist means any set of people who had imbibed prejudices similar to his own, and thought and spoke about his hero with equal partiality and tenderness. But the Memoir on which these remarks are founded, proves at least that whatJ. N.had hinted concerning the death of Mr.Molyneux,[3]wasof no recent invention. So far from it indeed, thatSt. Andréwas openly taxed with having been the sole cause of it, in a public news-paper (I think one of the Gazetteers), by the Rev. Dr.Madden, the celebratedIrishpatriot, who subscribed his name to his advertisement. It is related (I know not how truly) that on this account our hero prosecuted and "got the better of his adversary," whose accusation was unsupported by such proofs as the strictness of law requires. How many culprits, about whose guilt neither judge nor jury entertains the smallest scruple, escape with equal triumph through a similar defect of evidence! I may add, that so serious a charge would never have been lightly made by a divine of Dr.Madden'srank and character.

All that is said on the subject of family honours to whichSt. Andréwas entitled, his gratitude to hisfather, what he gave to the celebratedGeminiani"in one sum of generosity," must be admitted with caution, for truth was by no means the characteristic of our hero's narrations.[4]These circumstances therefore may be regarded as gasconades of his own. The author of the defence pretends not to have received any part of his information fromSt. André'scountrymen or contemporaries; but, on the contrary, confesses that both his early friends and enemies had long been dead.

The affair of the Rabbit-breeder has no need of further illustration. Several ballads, pamphlets, prints, &c. on the subject, bear abundant testimony toSt. André'smerits throughout that business, as well as to the final opinion entertained of him by his contemporaries, afterCheselden, by order of QueenCaroline, had assisted in discovering the deceit. Her Majesty was urged to this step by finding the plausibility of our hero had imposed on the King, and that some of the pregnant ladies about her own person began to express their fears of bringing into the world an unnatural progeny.—If Mr.Boylewas occasionallymisled, his errors were soon absorbed in the blaze of his moral and literary excellence.St. André'sblunder, alas! had no such happy means of redemption. His credulity indeed was not confined to this single transaction. The following is a well-attested story—Two gentlemen atSouthampton, who felt an inclination to banter him, broke a nutshell asunder, filled the cavity with a large swan-shot, and closed up the whole with glue so nicely that no marks of separation could be detected. This curiosity, as they were walking withSt. André, one of them pretended to pick up, admiring it as a nut uncommonly heavy as well as beautiful. Our hero swallowed the bait, dissected the subject, discovered the lead, but not the imposition, and then proceeded to account philosophically for so strange a phænomenon. The merry wags could scarce restrain their laughter, and soon quitted his company to enjoy the success of a stratagem they had so adroitly practised on his ignorance and gullibility.

Were there any colour for supposing he had patronized the fraud relative toMary Tofts, with design to ruin others of his profession (an insinuation to his discredit, which the foregoing pamphlet had not furnished), it was but just that he should fall by his own malevolence and treachery. From the imputation of a scheme resembling that contrived by the Duke ofMontagu, his want of equal wit will sufficiently absolve him.

That rabbits never were permitted to appear at any table where he dined, is a strong mark of the adulation paid to him by his entertainers. I hope, for similar reasons, had he been seized with his last illness inLondon(that his organs of hearing might escape an equal shock), his attendants would not have called any physician namedWarrento his bed-side, summoned an attorney fromConey CourtGrays Inn to have made his will, or sent for the Rev. Mr.Bunnyto pray by him. The banishment of rabbits, however, from a neighbourhood that affords them in the highest perfection, was a circumstance that might as justly have been complained of, asPythagoras'sprohibition of beans, had it been published inLeicestershire. I heartily wish that the circumstantial author of the preceding epistle, to relieve any doubts by which futurity may be perplexed, had informed us whetherSt. Andréwas an eater of toasted cheese, or not; and if it was never asked for by its common title of a WelchRabbitwithin his hearing.

That he wrote any thing, unless by proxy, or with much assistance, may reasonably be doubted; for the pamphlets that pass under his name are divested of those foreign idioms that marked his conversation. Indeed, if I may believe some specimens of his private correspondence, he was unacquainted with the very orthography of our language. The insolence of this shallowSwitzer'sattempt to banterMead, we may imagine, was treated with contempt, as the work described has not been handed down to us; andfew tracts are permitted to be scarce for any other reason than because they are worthless.

It is next remarked by our apologist, thatSt. André's"confidence, &c. made him superior to all clamour; and so that people did but talk about him, he did not seem to care what they talked against him." This is no more, in other language, than to declare that his impudence and vanity were well proportioned to each other, and that a bad character was to him as welcome as a good one. He did not, it seems, join in the Poet's prayer,

Grant me an honest fame, or grant me none!

but was of opinion, as his apologist likewise admits, that wealth was an ample counterbalance to the loss of reputation.—That he might evade accusation (as I have already observed) in one particular instance, and therefore recover damages, is no proof of his innocence, that his general conduct would admit of defence, or that much of the manifold censure passed upon him had no foundation.

How LordPeterboroughhappened to become his patron, &c. may be accounted for without any great degree of credit to either party. His lordship (as LordOrreryobserves) "in his private life and conduct differed from most men;" and, having often capricious disputes with the court, was sure to favour those who, likeSt. André, had been dismissed from its service. Our hero's musical talents, indeed, if they were such as they have been represented, might procure him access to his lordship and many othernoble adepts in the sublime and useful science of harmony. The lovers of a tune urge no severe enquiries concerning the heart of a fidler. If he be a mercenary, while he teaches female pupils, he is watched; and, if he performs in concerts, he is paid. If above pecuniary gratifications, he is rewarded with hyperbolical compliments. Articulate for inarticulate sounds is ample retribution.

His defender adds, that he was visited byallstrangers and foreigners. It will be supposed then that his house was never free from company. May we not rather think, that if he was at any time sought after by these peregrine worthies, &c. it was because the keepers of inns and mistresses of boarding-houses had been instructed to disseminate attractive tales of his "capacity in all kinds," his curiosities and good dinners? Besides, all foreigners who have arrived inEnglandhave not travelled toSouthampton, and consequently could not have seenSt. André, who for upwards of the last twenty years of his life had resided only there. It is nearer the truth to say, that not a singleFrenchman, &c. in fifty thousand, ever heard of his name.

That "his profession as a surgeon, in a reasonable term of years, would probably have put more money in his pocket" than he gained by his union with LadyBetty Molyneux(i. e. £30,000. a sum that elevated him into a state little short of madness), I cannot believe. The blast his reputation had received respecting the business atGodalming, being secondedby his expulsion from court, he must have felt his business on the decline. Indeed, I am told that he staid long enough in town to try the experiment. Marriage therefore might have been hisdernier resort.

The exaggerations of this impostor's generosity and accomplishments, which are next brought forward by his panegyrist with no small degree of pomp, are such as we may suppose himself would have furnished, had he undertaken, like the ChevalierTaylor, to compile his own memoirs. The majority of circumstances collected for the purpose of proving him to have been

Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes,Augur, schænobates, medicus, magus,

could only have been derived from those very flattering testimonials to his merits which he was always ready to exhibit on the slightest encouragement. Those who were content to admit so partial an estimate of his abilities, &c. found it necessary to express their belief that he could have beatenHerculesat quoits, played a better fiddle thanApollo, out-wittedMercury, disarmed theGod of War, and forged such chemic thunders, that, compared with the produce of our hero's laboratory, the bolts ofJovewere no louder than a pot-gun. So far was he from being deficient in commendation of his own talents, that he thought his very furniture might claim a proportionable extravagance of praise. He was possessed of some foreign tapestry which he was proud on all occasions to display. But the eulogiums ofothers, lavish as they might be, fell considerably short of his own, so that the spectator retired with disgust from an object which the excessive vanity of its owner would not permit to be enjoyed without the most frequent and nauseous intrusions of self-congratulation.

As to the history of his eye-lashes, which he sacrificed to vigilance, and his sudden proficiency in the very difficult game of chess (provided his instructor, whom he afterwards vanquished, was a skilful one)credat Judæus Apella.—That his language did not want energy, may more easily be allowed, for force is the characteristic of vulgar phraseology. Conceits, expressed with much vigour, are current among sailors; and such nervous denunciations of revenge may occasionally be heard atBillingsgate, as might emulate the ravings ofDryden's Maximin. No man will be hardy enough to assert that the figure, manners, and language, ofSt. André, were those of a gentleman.

If one of his eyes was a "mass of obscurity" (notwithstanding the other, like that of LadyPentweazle'sGreat Aunt, might be a piercer), perhaps he ought to have been sparing of his satire on the personal disadvantages of his acquaintance. Yet, the last time my informant saw him was at the Theatre atSouthampton, where, sitting near a gentleman and lady not remarkable for handsome faces, he had the modesty to express a doubt (and in a voice sufficiently audible) which of the two would furnish the most comic mask.

Mr.St. André'sapologist observes, that "he cannot be reckoned to have been ignorant of any thing." But the contrary may justly be suspected, and for no inconclusive reason. I aver, that on whatever subject he was haranguing, the moment he discovered any of the company present understood it as well as himself, he became silent, never choosing to descant on art or science but before people whom he supposed to be utter strangers to all their principles. For this reason, he would have entertained SirJoshua Reynoldswith remarks on the genera and cultivation of plants, and talked toLinnæusabout the outline and colouring of pictures.

That he died poor (for such was really the case), should excite no astonishment. His fortune, like his good qualities, was chiefly in supposition. Much of his wealth he had expended on buildings, which he never long inhabited, and afterwards sold to disadvantage. His first essays in architecture were made atChepstowon theSevern, an estate purchased by LadyBetty Molyneuximmediately after the death of her husband. In short, our hero was a fugitive inhabitant of several counties, and never settled till he reachedSouthampton; for in no other place did he meet with that proportion of flattery which was needful to his happiness, if not to his existence.—About a mile from hence he erected the whimsical baby-house dignified by him with the title ofBelle-Vue, a receptacle every way inconvenient for the purposes of a family. Being once asked if this was not a verysingular mansion,—"Singular!" (replied he) "by G—I hope it is, or I would pull it down immediately. I would have you to know, Sir, that it is constructed on the true principles of anatomy." The attempt to apply anatomical principles to the arrangement of passages, doors, and windows, is too glaring an absurdity to need animadversion, or to render it necessary for me to deny in form, that he could ever be "admired for his knowledge in architecture," except by such as knew not wherein its excellencies consisted.—He had, however, another dwelling within the walls of the town already mentioned. Here he pretended that his upper apartments were crowded with rarities, which he only wanted space to exhibit. But, alas! after his decease, Mr.Christie'sauction-room bore abundant witness to the frivolity of his collections. What became of his boasted library of books, which he always said was packed up in boxes, I am yet to learn. Perhaps it existed only in his description.[5]

"Those who found out he loved praise (says his apologist) took care he should have enough of it." I discover little cause for disputing this assertion, and shall only observe on it, that adulation is a commodity which weak old men, reputed rich, and without ostensible heirs, are seldom in danger of wanting,though they may not enjoy so much of it as fell toSt. André'sshare.

His disbursements to the poor might be proportioned to the real state of his fortune; but yet they were conducted with excess of ostentation. He may be said to have given shillings away with more parade than many other men would have shown in the distribution of as many guineas.—What honour his apologist means to confer on him by saying that "the names of those whom he maintained might be written alphabetically," is to me a secret, because names of every kind may be arranged according to the series of the letters.—Suspected characters, however, often strive to redeem themselves by affectation of liberality. Few are more generous than opulent wantons toward their decline of life, who thus attempt to recover that respect which they are conscious of having forfeited by the misdeeds of their youth. The benefactions of such people may in truth be considered as expiatory sacrifices for past offences, having no foundation in a natural propensity to relieve the indigent, or indulge the heart in the noblest luxury, that of doing good.

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