likely to succeed, the reader need not these extracts, for the whole appears be informed by me. There is a te- to me a tissue of absurdity. In the merity too in the attempt, which xxi stanza Satan is ridiculously made could have been justified only by to say, “Jove himself might quake at success: for who can hope to rival such a fall!"-But enough: I know Milton? Yet, in this fragment, we of no benefit that protracted censure have Satan convoking an internal as- could produce. I agree with Mr. sembly, haranguing them, and an Southey that the two last stanzas are endeavour to discriminate these evil affecting, because there Henry mournagents by an appropriation of lan- fully relapses into himself again: but guage and manner: but to me, the for the rest, I wish it had had never whole appeared so unequal, so ludi- been printed. crous, that I wondered at the indis- I observe particularly in these postcretion of Mr. Southey in permitting humous productions of Henry a liit to disfigure these posthumous vo- centious use of words unauthorised lumes. It is scarcely better in some by any English writer; such as hectic, parts than a travestie of Milton: but for the patient afflicted: enchasten'd, that my assertion may not appear un- encheers, solium, spanglets, im supported by proof, I will adduce a mantled, querimonious, jingly, &c. few of those passages that excited this Of these, the greater part are extractidea in my mind. Let my readers ed from the Christiad:" and had recollect the opening of the se- he lived, his increasing good taste cond book of Paradise Lost, 66 High and judgment would have deterred on a royal seat, &c." and then read him from such wanton infraction the following with what gravity they upon the stability of our language. So, ere the tempest on Malacca's coast Satan then informs them that he has failed in his endeavours to tempt our Saviour, and afterwards breaks forth into the following puerile strain of invective. What then! shall Satan's spirit crouch to fear! Shall he who shook the pillars of God's reign Drop from his unnerv'd arm the hostile spear? Madness! the very thought would make me fain To tear the spanglets from yon gaudy plain And hurl them at their maker! Fix'd as fate I am his foe! Yea, though his pride should deign Of his prose compositions with which the second volume concludes, I cannot say much, either in praise or censure. They are creditable for his years, but they betray an immaturity of judgment; and in nothing greater than in the exuberant praises of the two Bloomfields. But here he might plead the infatuation of graver heads, who confounding what admired in is excellent with what is singular, tailor, such poetry as they would shoemaker and a have read with scorn in the pages of a scholar. Ann Yearsley have had their day: But Stephen Duck and and why should not Robert and Nathaniel Bloomfield have theirs? a In the Essay on Tragedy Henry makes a parade of learning without the possession of it. He talks familiarly of De Bos and Fontenelle, although it is evident he knew no more of them than what he obtained from David Hume's essay on the same subject. His prose is stiff and inelegant; full of such phrases as whereby, and whereas: he seems not to have attained the art of modulating his periods. He succeeds best in narrative: the tale of Charles Wanley is pleas ingly told. I should suspect the vision, p. 228, to have a personal alI forbear to specify what is bad in lusion to something concerning him. To sooth mine ire with half his regal state, hate. self in those parts which relate to the will be received at the Literary Fund pert cit," and the reply of "Me- Office, the use of which has been lancholy." generously offered to the committee I have thus concluded my remarks for the purpose, and where the model upon this extraordinary youth, and of the intended monument may be if they have given as much pleasure viewed by the public. I am, Sir, to those who have read them, as they Yours, &c. &c. have to me in writing, my time has not been misemployed. I remain, &c. June 11th, W. MUDFORD. - On the proposed MONUMENT to LOCKE. AN ADMIRER OF LOCKE. London, June 10th, 1808. P.S. The committee have also signified that each subscriber is to have an elegant engraving of the monument, and that subscribers of five guineas shall be presented with a medal executed by the celebrated Mr. WITH what grateful emotions Bolton, of Soho, with the head of does the enlightened mind Locke, and on the reverse a reprecontemplate its vast obligations to the sentation of the monument; and those benefactors of mankind! To those of ten guineas, the same in silver. philosophers, scholars, and moralists, SIR, W I Sir, WIVES. Sir, whose deep and laborious researches ACCOMPLISHED versus DOMESTIC have so largely contributed to our mental culture! What secret stores of knowledge have they not unfold- READ with some pleasure and ed! How many facilities of acquiring some astonishment a paper in wisdom and science have they not your last number on the comparative furnished! How have they enlarged merits of literary and domestic wives. the faculties of the human mind! Your correspondent seems a strenuGrateful for the labours of such ex- ous supporter of homely comforts, alted characters, nations have vied and would doubtless choose his wife, with each other in doing them honor. if he be not already married, by her What then is our surprise and re- skill in making apple-dumplings or gret, that the immortal John Locke, pickling young cucumbers. one of the greatest philosophers and there is a relative merit in every thing best of men, that this or any other which should never be overlooked; age or country ever produced, is, in and I was rather surprised at seeing the land of his fathers, neglected, D attempt to establish, as incontrounhonoured, and undistinguished, by vertible, the superiority of a domestic any monumental pile. But can his over a literary wife. While I write name or his worth be forgotten? this sentence, I feel the sort of senOr shall we be satisfied that the name sation which the expression, “liteof a Locke should only be embalmed rary wife," will excite in the bosoms in our grateful recollections? That of many of your readers: they, like he should have been neglected for D. will imagine to themselves a vain, more than a century, is at once mat- talkative woman, presuming upon a ter of regret and astonishment. To little superficial knowledge, perpe do justice to his exalted memory, and tually gabbling about what she does as a stimulus to others who labour in not understand, and neglecting what the mines of knowledge, and who she ought to understand. But there are anxious for human improvement, are coxcombs in both sexes: and a to redeem the honour of our country, literary coxcomb in either is detestaand to prove to an enlightened world ble. My business, however, is not our love of virtue, and sense of na- with the silly and impertinent pretional obligation, at length we resolve tender to unpossessed acquirements; to raise a monument to his fame. and I consider your correspondent as The committee for carrying into ef- having used an unfair mode of argufect the above dignified object, have, ment, when he attempts to designate through the channel of the newspa- literary accomplishments in such a pers, published their intentions. Sub- sneering manner. His aim, howscriptions of two guineas and upwards, ever, being to exalt a plain, goodly, home-keeping feline sort of wife, would wish to consult, to advise with, over a rational and sensible one, I to be advised: but it is in vain he wonder he did not reçur to every fo- looks for any of this, in such a woreign aid which his opinion evidently man as your correspondent draws: stood in need of. He prefaced his she is nierely a passive instrument: paper with a quotation from Milton: she never aspires to the dignity of that same author would have fur- thinking: she embarks her temporal nished him with many more grave welfare in the vessel of matrimony, homilies in praise of domestic wives: but commits its guidance through and why? he, poor man, had felt the life's boisterous sea to the discretion of pains of wandering ones, and thought her husband: there are men, indeed, that the reverse of wrong must be whom such humble acquiescency can right. please, and whose poor ambition is I do not propose to examine mi- gratified by the superiority which this nutely your correspondent's paper. deferential conduct implies. Such My end will be obtained as amply by beings would certainly choose a wife a shorter process. I will reason on of your correspondent's recommenthe opposite side of the question, and dation. leave it to your readers to decide The tendency of knowledge to rewhose arguments ought to prepon- fine the character and expand the derate. feelings needs no illustration from my I have, before, said there is a rela- pen. An ambiguously honest action tive propriety in every thing. I performed by a poor man is admired would not advise a shoemaker or a in him, because he is uneducated; butcher to look out for accomplished while, if the same action were done women: let them obtain what suits by a scholar and a gentleman, it them: and if their wives keep their would be regarded without praise or houses clean, mend their linen, and admiration.Why a cultivated mind rear their families with attention, they in a female should be supposed in-. can have nothing to wish beyond. compatible with the feminine characThe happiness of such men is con- ter, I am at a loss to conceive: why Sned within the circle of the senses. the virtues that are peculiar to the sex But let us go a step farther: let us would not be illustrated and even enimagine a man capable of the plea- forced by the liberal feelings of edusures of intellection; capable of so- cation it would be difficult to shew. ciety; capable of rational communi- All pleasure leans upon our fellow cation. He then requires a union of creatures: a bauble becomes estimathe two characters: and, whatever ble in our eyes if the world delight in your correspondent may think, such it: and a man will feel a higher gratia union is not only possible, but pro- fication in the company and possession bable: not only probable but real. of his wife, when his own opinions It is mere sophistry that would per- of her are echoed back by society. suade us otherwise. The general infelicity of marriage It is not enough to such a man that is proverbial. Were I asked to ashis home be decent, and his fire-side sign a cause for this, I should, withcomfortable; it is not enough that out hesitation, say that it springs from bis dinner be well cooked, and his the defective education which our children cleanly kept; it is not enough, females receive. They are tricked that if he be ill, she attend him with out merely as objects of sense: solicitude: these things, though not they are like fashionable toys, that unessential to happiness, yet certainly possess all that is alluring to the eye, cannot constitute it entirely, except it without any thing to recommend be to a very humble mind. There them to the mind. They are taught are moments when a man wishes to to consider themselves as beings deenjoy the pleasures of conversation: pendent upon the wantonness of man, not merely that conversation which and they are early instructed in the turns upon topics of domestic eco- arts that are supposed necessary to nomy, but something which may in- ensnare our capricious sex. The terest the feelings and produce plea- consequence of this is, that we regard sure: there are moments when he them precisely as they are; feast our senses at the expense of our hearts ter every thing that is needful to and happiness; and when those senses are cloyed with satiety wake to a conviction of our own deception. "It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit, Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit, That woman's love can win or long inherit." When the romantic ardour of love subsides, reason resumes her sway, and with her return would come a rational and durable affection, were there food for it. But, when personal delights are over, what gratification can we find in the tame virtues man's happiness in the conjugal state, VINDICATOR. Mr. HALL on the Use of VINE ROM the I have of a woman, whose knowledge does Fried, I find that, on being dried, not extend beyond the economy of a house, and whose conversation can- which should be done in the shade, not soar above the level of common the leaves of the vine make an excelevents? The tie that held a man lent and extremely wholesome tea, and woman before, and a short while though somewhat different, both in after, marriage, being snapped asun- taste and flavour from that generally der, no new one succeeds: the body used. I have also found that, besides palls upon the sense; the mind is ste- being admirably calculated for makrile: small errors are magnified into ing vinegar, the prunings of the vine, vices in those we cease to esteem: on being bruised and put into a vat or asperity of language ensues, and this mashing-tub, and boiling water pourbegets all those fruitful curses of the ed on them, in the same way as is conjugal state, which so many have done on malt, produce a liquor of a had cause to lament. fine vinous quality, which, being fermented, forms a fine substitute for beer; and which, on being distilled, produces a very fine spirit of the nature of brandy. As this is the season for pruning the vine, many thousand cart-loads of which are, year after year, thrown away as useless, where there are not goats to eat them; and the idea here suggested is, not only new, but of high importance to the inhabitants of this country, particu larly at the present juncture, your inserting it in your useful and interesting miscellany will oblige, Sir, I need not here add that I speak of an accomplished woman in a liberal sense of the word: not as your correspondent invidiously describes her,a female pedagogue: but a woman whose mind has been enlarged by reading, and whose conversation, consequent 'ly, is capable of proving a source of entertainment to a rational man: a woman, who so far from feeling her domestic duties impeded by this cultivation of intellect, reckons it one of them to render herself the friend and companion of her husband, as well as his nurse, his cook, and his housekeeper; a woman, in fact, who has qualified herself for this double capacity by the strong direction of common sense. I approve some parts of your correspondent's essay: I approve of the picture he draws of the sphere of a domestic woman, and the bliss she is enabled to shed around her: I detest, as much as he does, such a character as FAUSTINA: but what I censure, is, that he should seem to exclude the mind of woman from a component part of her qualifications: and to cen your constant reader," St. Martin's-lane, stultè, et diu perseveråsse, turpe est. attack, and carry conquest, desolaThis is a solemn introduction; and tion, and misery to distant shores! Cicero was, perhaps, never before brought forward to vindicate any thing so trivial. I am, Sir, your humble servant, CLIO RICKMAN. June 7, 1808. I would ask, Sir, whence has arisen that exemption or privilege, by which THE natural defence by men is commackerel and milk (especially the for- mon to all nations; but artificial demer) are alone allowed to be cryed fence, as an auxiliary to human through the streets of London on a strength, must be adapted to the local Sunday. Why, of all other kinds of condition and circumstances of a fish, mackerel possesses this immu- country. nity; and why too, of every other What may be suitable to one counkind of necessary, milk is singled try, or in one state of circumstances, out, which, it appears to me, like may not be so in another. other commodities, might as easily be procured on a Saturday. I would thank any correspondent who can satisfactorily explain the cause of this; not by telling me it is so, because it is so: but the why it is so; and remain, &c. Manchester-sq. QUESTIUNCULA. On the comparative Powers and Ex- I Sir, The United States have a long line of coast, of more than two thousand miles, every part of which requires defence, because every part is approachable by water. The right principle for the United States to go upon, as a defence for the coast, is that of combining the greatest practical power with the least possible bulk, that the whole quantity of power may be better distributed through the several parts of such an extensive coast. The power of a ship of war is alto gether in the number and size of the SEND to your excellent Maga- guns she carries, for the ship of itself zine the following little produc- has no power. the ship, and half on the other; and as she can use only the guns on one side at a time, her real power is only equal to half her number of guns. A seventy-four can use only thirtyseven guns. She must tack about to bring the other half into action, and while she is doing this she is defenceless and exposed. tion of Mr. Paine, as being well Ships cannot struggle with each worthy the notice of your readers, other like animals; and besides this, and of Englishmen in general; par- as half her guns are on one side of ticularly too at a moment when millions are squandering upon useless land fortifications along the coasts, and on the works in and about Dover, &c. The observations of a great man are always deserving of notice; and those which follow carry so complete a conviction of their propriety and truth along with them, that the English reader cannot but be led to reflect on the very opposite plans pursad in protecting our own coasts; if, indeed, that may be called protection which we are now adopting. As this is the case with ships of war, a question naturally arises therefrom, which is, whether 74 guas, or any other number, cannot be more effectually employed, and that with One thing most recommendatory much less expense, than by putting of the gun-boats has, I think, not them all into one ship of such an been sufficiently enlarged upon in enormous bulk, that it cannot apMr. Paine's essay, but which, while proach a shore either to defend it or we lament that any system of war attack it; and though the ship can should be necessary, surely speaks change its place, the whole number highly in favour of them, viz. that of guns can be only at one place at a while they protect a nation from in- time, and only half that number can sult and are undoubtedly its best de- be used at a time. fenders, their size renders it impossible for them to go far, and annoy, and UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL, IX. This is a true statement of the case between ships of war and gun-boats 3 P |
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