the Vindicator of Messrs. Porson and Kidd. 28 fulness of his temper. But all my peaceable overtures have been made in vain; and he has replied to my candid urbanities in a style of savage discourtesy, and with a vituperative volubility that might vie with the petticoated philippics of any public speaker in Billingsgate. But my own good humour and gentleness are immoveable; and in spite of all his provocations I will still try to overcome his antipathy to sound criticism and good sense, by the language of reconciliation. I recollect once to have heard a gentleman, who like myself, had a tiny antagonist to deal with, express a determination to treat him with extreme severity. His friend attempted to dissuade him and to disarm his austerity, and begged him to omposition; remember Pope's injunction against the food of breaking "a butterfly on the wheel."and veget-"True," replied Aristarchus, "but in o any other. what part of his works shall we find any soil might be law of mercy in favour of a grub'9" My ness for par- charity however extends, as N. N. will where ferns be glad to see, over grubs as well as avourable to butterflies. Not that I intend to go over s. It is also the field of battle again;t for really I rive well to have no pleasure in running my sword to one ano- through a dead body, or in copying the ted several of vindictive wrath of the warrior of old, require pecuromotes the ; lands which "When thrice he slew the slain." DRYDEN. Your readers, Mr. Editor, no doubt have long ago determined to whom the palm of victory belongs in this contest.On the present occasion, therefore, I may well be spared the trouble of drawing once again my victorious sword:-let it suffice to cast that sort of rapid glance over some parts of the ground, which may best befit the insignificance of the controversy, and the feebleness of my antagonist. And first, I am happy that a sense of decorum has, at length, compelled him to deduct something from the thick varnish of praise originally spread over the moral character of Porson. His habits of intemperance are now reluctantly acknowledged and regretted by N. N. but a word, methinks, might opportunely have been added expressive of I perfectly concur in opinion with an eminent prelate who says, " In all addresses to mistaken men, where our purpose is to reform or amerem, the gentlest applica tions are best, because these ex act their virtue exum iter omne ix. 891. 288 A Word to the Vindicator of Messrs. Porson and Kidd, [May 1, sorrow not only for the debasing exhibitions which the Professor made in this way, but also for the impaired condition of his wonderful powers which these crapulous excesses naturally induced, and the consequent abridgment of his exertions in the field of criticism and of classical literature. My opponent, by way of dispelling the darkness of my understanding, had told me that there were numberless expressions of conceit and self-sufficiency in the Prefaces of Gilbert Wakefield. I immediately turned to the prefaces of his two largest and most elaborate works, and found them full of expressions conveying compliments to his learned cotemporaries, and a modest distrust of his own powers. With a low bow of courtesy I whispered to my opponent the mistake he had made; but he, not possessing magnanimity enough to acknowledge his érror, and thank me for the kindness of my correcting hand, thinks to pose me with a low equivocation, and says, "I did not mean to direct you to his prefaces-oh! no, though I said and wrote the word-but pray look over all the notes attached to all his works, and perhaps in that illimitable ocean you may fish up something which may have an indirect bearing upon my assertion."-I leave, with silent scorn, this specimen of low chicanery to the indignation of my readers. In the thing which N. N. has put forth, and called, with a marvellous violation of language, a Vindication, he has been quite unable to defend an out-post of incalculable importance to the very salvation of his citadel. It will be remembered that he appealed to the Museum Criticum as a fair, impartial, infallible oracle of judg ment on the merits of Mr. Kidd's farfamed work. Without loss of time I shewed him that his jewels were counterfeit, and that the work itself in which this high-flown éloge was conveyed, was written and conducted, printed and published by the cohors porsoniuna in Cambridge-in other words, by Mr. Kidd himself, in co-operation with his immediate friends, adherents, and fellow-academics! This N. N. is unable to deny, and all his powers of sophistry are baffled by so undeniable and well known a fact:-yet with incredible effrontery he maintains, that the fountain from which this system of fetid adulation issues, is perfectly pure and unpolluted; and that it would be egregious folly in any one to suppose that the panegyric of the Museum Criticum was given from any other than the most honourable and unprejudiced In my last letters I detected N. N. in several plagiarisms, and I referred my readers, in the most distinct manner, to the several sources whence these stolen goods had been purloined. To these severe charges--so discreditable both to his liberality as a scholar, and his honour as a gentleman, he has not uttered one word of vindication! To these instances and proofs of felonious aggression on the property of others, I lament that I am now obliged to add another, more intrepid and unpardonable than all the rest, in which, like an Italian footpad, he has added insolence to robbery. Be it known then, Mr. Editor, that the insulting quotation from Herodotus applied to me in the commencement of my opponent's last letter is cribbed from an article in the Edinb. Review, vol. xiv. p. 364, on Mr. Dibdin's edition of Sir T. More's Utopia. Now whatever of wit, or even of justice there might have been N. N. says at the close of his last letter, with his customary spirit of insult, that I am "safe in generalities, but flounder when I come to particulars." I believe, however, that if he has any conscience, he will find my memory in the detection of his literary lar cenies a little too particular for his ease and comfort. If my opponent, in this contest with me, has been bruised by the lion's paw, and is now licking "the sores of wounded vanity," be it remembered that he was the aggressor, and challenged me to the field. I am not responsible for his lacerated head and shattered limbs. Doubtless there are some antagonists low enough for competition even with the limited faculties of N. N. but on this occasion he has overstrained himself, and mis-measured his height; and when he fain would have strutted like a giant, he appears in the eyes of all with the insignificance of a pigmy. His situation has brought forcibly to my mind an incomparable epigram, which was given me by a Parisian beauty a few years ago :-It was written, I 1818.] A Word to the Vindicator of Messrs. Porson and Kidd. 289 in the primary application of these words from Herodotus to an inditer of adulatory addresses, and a mercenary O compiler of black-letter bibliography, there is no one, I apprehend, who would not think me justified in tying two or three knots, hard and fast, in my correcting lash, and applying it, with a just forgetfulness of mercy, to this scurrilous de linquency of my adversary. But my usual spirit of compassion shall predominate over the call, though loud and importunate, of justice; and I leave once again, in tender and compassionate silence, the conduct of N. N. to the generous contempt of my readers. Since the publication of my last letter, Mr. Kidd's Tracts have been reviewed in the Monthly Review, [See M. R. vol. lxxxv. p. 18.] and I have a real pride and pleasure in finding all my strictures on the bad taste of Mr. K. as a biographer, and the confused arrangement of his work, &c. confirmed and counter-signed by this very able journal-a journal, distinguished above all others by its fondness for works of classical literature, by the equity of its critical decisions, by its admiration of Porson's wonderful gifts, by the friendliness of its disposition towards him, and by zealously and sanguinely partaking of the same political sentiments which he was well known to entertain.* And yet with all these strong prepossessions in favour of him, and of those who were his friends and admirers, the writer of the article in question is impelled at once by a sense of duty, and the omnipotent force of truth, to declare that Mr. K's farrago "is the most singular specimen of biography that was ever presented to the public," believe, by Monsieur de Fumars, and N. N. may see himself in it, as in a mirror:— Petit de corps, petit de renommée, Messire Jean un jour, si la fable ne ment, Las de sa taille accoutumée, Monte sur une chaise: on le trouva tres grand. Attendez, ce n'est rien, vous m'allez voir Géant :" Il grimpa sur un mont, et parut un Pygmée! N. N. blames me in great bitterness for the wit and vivacity of my notes. I thought there was no harm in irradiating a dull ground with a few coruscations of fun and fancy. But a heavy pedant will always undervalue that which he despairs of attaining The motions of his spirit are dull as Night, And his affections dark as Erebus. SHAKSPEARE. and that," it is almost as ludicrous, but not quite so entertaining as the wellknown memoirs of P. P. clerk of this parish," page 18. It is added also that, a more ardent admirer, or a more injudicious biographer of R. P. cannot well be imagined than T. K." and in regard to Porson's gentleness, and that extravagant commendation of the sensibilities of his nature, which, in a former letter, I took the liberty of reprobating, it is said, we must honestly confess that we as little expected to find gentleness as waterdrinking ranked amongst his virtues," page 20. I forgive with all manner of readiness the sarcasms of N. N. against my profession. There will always be a set of low and ribald banterers with whom a schoolmaster's clothes are accounted fair game. There is a good story told of South, whose præcor ingenium as a wit blossomed in his tenderest years. He was educated at Westminster under Busby, and when that inexorable Orbilius, (of whose right-handed prowess in the sweep of the birchen sceptre, I am a most degenerate imitator) was about to punish him, he suddenly and unexpectedly arrested his descending arm, and said, "I forbid the banns!" "Why?" exclaimed Orbilius, in an accent of thunder and with eye-balls of fire: “Because," replied the culprit in a weak tone, half-sinothered by terror-" because-the parties are not agreed!"Busby's rage was disarmed, and the rogue for this time was forgiven. There is much more to the same purpose; but I hasten to conclude with an earnest exhortation, (not unaccompanied with a spirit of kindness and charity towards him) that my opponent will read and digest the whole of this very judicious article; and then let him come forward and make a manly retractation of the mistakes in judgment into which he has fallen, and to correct which I have taken so much trouble.— Such submission will be imputed to magnanimity; and I shall be the first to forgive the indecent neglect he has hitherto paid to my advice, and the waspish vindictiveness he has shewn throughout the whole of this discussion. Should he, however, (which I almost fear will be the case) be "deaf to the voice of the charmer," should he cling with pertinacious folly to the errors of his critical faith, and deal out to me again the language of unkindness and reproof, I shall console myself, under his ingratitude, with the sentiment of a great genius 290 Causes of Pauperism and Mr. Owen's Plan of Preventing it. [May 1, "Vituperatus qui sit," says Milton, "haud mediocri sanè honorí sibi ducat, se tam absurdo, tam stolido nebuloni displicuisse." Resp. ad Salm. p. 162.-I remain, Mr. Editor, respectfully yours, A PROVINCIAL SCHOOLMASTER. P. S. In the admirable article above referred to in the M. R. I am abundantly confirmed in what I observed relative to the mock humility of Porson, who, it is most truly remarked by the excellent critic "lived more with boys than with men in the university, and carried his professions of humility to a length which made them altogether questionable, if not disgusting, &c. A hundred instances might be adduced," page 26. But my opponent is inflexibly obstinate, and still persists in construing all these affected humilities of the Professor according to the literal import of the words. In Swift's Correspondence mention is made of a seaman who had an implicit belief in the life and adventures of Captain Lemuel Gulliver, and who further declared that he was personally acquainted with the adventurous voyager. I have heard it confidently said that N. N. is lineally descended, by the mother's side, from this simple-minded sailor! It is truly observed by the great philosopher, Kal υπερβολή, και η λίαν ἔλλειψις ἀλαζονικόν.—Eth. Nic. lib. iv. chap. 13. And to the same purpose Quintilian, with his customary good-sense: "Aperte gloriari nescio an sit magis tolerabile, vel ipsa hujus vitii simplicitate, quam illa jactatione perversa, si abundans opibus pauperem se neget, nobilis obscurum, AUT SI SE DISERTUS IMPERITUM PLANEET INFANTEM VOCET.--Lib. xi. c. 1. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. THE condition of the lower orders appears still to command the attention of our intelligent and reflecting country. men. The alarming strides which pauperism has already made upon our once happy and industrious peasantry, cannot but excite the most painful apprehensions in the breast of the enlightened patriot; since a man once degraded to a pauper rarely exhibits a recurrence to those frugal and virtuous habits, which once enabled him to depend upon his own exertions for an honourable maintenance. The great increase of pauperism has been in part, and perhaps justly, attributed to an erroneous construction of wise legislative enactments, and to the heavy burdens which protracted war fare must inevitably impose upon those nations which engage in this ruihous pastime. The powerful tendency to create a new population which a destructive contés: must occasion, is frequently overlooked by those who have notwithstanding wit nessed its dire effects in the exhaustion and lassitude which pervade the whole body politic, on its first return to a sound and healthful regimen. The elegancies and refinements of a highly civilized state of society must also be enumerated as conducing to the increase of the existing evil, since every portion of capital drawn away from agricultural pursuits and the coarse ma nufactures, for the purpose of being em ployed in those of a more refined and er quisite workmanship, must augment the general sum of pauperism, by diminishing the stock on which the poor subsist.Every individual also, who, by the lure of higher wages, is induced to change the spade for the silk-loom immediately be comes a dependant on that most capricious race of mortals, the fashionable part of society. The daily improvement of machinery must likewise tend to aggravate the dis order, as the interest and science of man are perpetually urging him to adopt more efficient and productive substitutes for human labour. It must be obvious, that some of the above recited causes of pauperism, result from the natural progress of society, and may be considered as comparatively partial evils, emanat ing from great and substantial benefits. But are we then to consider pauper. ism as the necessary concomitant of a great and flourishing nation? Are we compelled to purchase our national advantages at so costly a price as that of the wretchedness and degradation_of tens of thousands of our countrymen?Are we for ever to witness the ghastly and emaciated countenance of hunger and distress gradually supplanting the healthful freshness of cheerful competence? Can we contemplate with apathy that bitter cup of which those are doomed to partake, who, with all the irritation and excitement produced by the immoderate use of ardent spirits, are left to the despotic tyranny of their own turbulent passions? Or can we survey unmoved another class of victims, the virtuous modest poor, whose cruel sufferings, not unfrequently terminating in death itself, are not the less afflicting because met with pious and silent resignation? How do these humble yet truly exalted characters reprove our impatient pride 1818.1 Causes of Pauperism and Mr. Owen's Plan of Preventing it. 291 under trifling disappointments? But how does the existence of such heart-rending calamities reprove our selfishness and indifference, which can still allow us to enjoy so many of the luxuries of life, without making one enlightened and powerful effort to rescue tens of thousands of our fellow-creatures from these awful visitations! Among the numerous systems which have been presented to the notice of the public for the permanent relief of the poor, one only appears to have embraced all the principles which are essential to the subject. Notwithstanding the visionary and enthusiastic manner in which it was at first introduced, the plan of Robert Owen, for the employment and maintenance of the poor, possesses the strongest claims to public support, as he is the only individual who has clearly developed the true principles of successful management. The following appear to be some of the valuable results of his new combination: 1st. Independent self-support. 2nd. A larger share of comfort than can be at present obtained at a fourfold expence. 3rd. The excitement of a strong interest in favour of order and good conduct. 4th. Education, in which the prevention of crime, and the formation of good habits, will constitute essential parts, 5th. The great facility afforded for the inculcation of the christian religion, 6th. The advantageous employment of the accumulating capital of the country. The friends of the system of improved management have been greatly confirmed in their assurance of ultimate success, from the nature of the opposition which they have hitherto experienced. The public mind was at first strongly excited against it, from the apparent temerity and enthusiasm which accompanied its first introduction. Of late a smile of pity only has been awarded to the visionaries, who could entertain the wild notion of enabling the destitute poor to support themselves in villages formed upon the basis of mutual co-operation. Notwith standing the clamour of the unreflecting, and the contemptuous pity of the more sagacious opponent, the advocates of the new method do not hesitate to challenge them to the field of rational argumentation, in order that both parties, may be tried by the severe and impartial tests of reason and enlightened experience. The gauntlet, however, has not yet been taken up by a champion wor thy of the name: not one has appeared to vindicate the character of existing society from the charge of irrationality and injustice in its management of the destitute poor, Mr. Malthus in his Inquiry on Population, has unconsciously blended the views of Mr. Owen with those of a small misguided party of violent reformists. But whilst desirous of acquitting Mr. Malthus of intentional misrepresentation, we cannot but mark the inconsistency which can in one page recommend attention to Mr. Owen's suggestions on the education and training of the poor, and in another part of the same work, endeavour to depreciate the labours of the individual who has proposed the only system of education and training, in which the moral restraint, so highly extolled by Mr. Malthus as the most legitimate barrier to excessive population, can with certainty and facility be introduced. But the fallacy and prejudices which have hitherto obscured the public mind on this important subject must soon disperse. Already have the principles of the minds of some of the best informed the new institution taken deep root in in society, and rapidly must they obtain quainted with the superiority of their among those, who are at present unaccombination. The ultimate prevalence and requires but an unprejudiced and of the system is now no longer doubtful, close examination, to convince the most sceptical of its absolute and unrivalled claim to universal support. A. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine, and a noble example of attention to ALTHOUGH Shakspeare set an early character, yet it is surprising that he has had few or no imitators. His successors have found it easier to make the various personages of their drama utter the common places of poetry than express the language of nature. In this respect, indeed, Shakspeare stands quite alone; none, either in ancient or modern times, can so much as bear a comparison with him. He has entered into all the diversity of character, both gay and grave, difficult to determine whether his strength with such equal facility as to render it lay chiefly in tragedy or comedy. He has also soared above" existence' bound ed reign," and introduced us to all the different orders of preternatural beingsghosts, fairies, witches, goblins, &c.; among whom also may be included dreamers and madmen. Into the whole |