and that its misrepresentations are never intentional." *

In a life so tumultuous and varied as was Swift's, connected with so much political transaction, and associated with the most important events and characters of the time, novelty, extent, and diversity of information, might be reasonably required; whereas in the biography of a mere literary man, the incidents are few, and generally connected with publications that fix precisely the era of their occurrence; whilst what is expected from the biographer, either as matter of utility or amusement, is in a great degree drawn from his own intrinsic resources. In a detail of this latter description, where moral reflection, criticism, and arrangement, where elegance of composition, weight of sentiment, and literary disquisition are merely demanded, Hawkesworth would have greatly excelled, and would have produced a work fully as valuable, perhaps, to the best interests of man, as the narrative of political struggle and ambitious intrigue, however connected with talent, wit, and humour. On the subject which he had chosen, however, as he failed in industry of research and originality of document, he has been nearly consigned to oblivion.

Yet, as an editor, the year following the publication of bis Life of the Dean, enabled him to oblige the world with "Letters of Dr. Swift and several of his Friends, published from the Originals, with Notes Explanatory and Historical," in three vols. 8vo. ; a col

lection which had been presented by Swift himself to Dr. Lyon, and transferred by this gentleman to Mr. Thomas Wilkes, of Dublin, and who again disposed of it to the booksellers.

The preface which Dr. Hawkesworth has written for these volumes, contains some very just observations on the instruction and amusement to be derived from familiar and confidential letters; the following passage, especially, most eloquently describes the value which should be attached to the publication of a correspondence such as he was then presenting to his readers.

"In a series of familiar letters between the same friends for thirty years, their whole life, as it were, passes in review before us; we live with them, we hear them talk, we mark the vigour of life, the ardour of expectation, the hurry of business, the jollity of their social meetings, and the sport of their fancy in the sweet intervals of leisure and retirement; we see the scene gradually change; hope and expectation are at an end; they regret pleasures that are past, and friends that are dead; they complain of disappointment and infirmity; they are conscious that the sands of life which remain are few; and while we hear them regret the approach of the last, it falls, and we lose them in the grave. Such as they were, we feel ourselves to be; we are conscious to sentiments, connexions, and situations like theirs; we find ourselves in the same path, urged forward by the same necessity;

and

and the parallel in what has been, is carried on with such force to what shall be, that the future almost becomes present; and we wonder at the new power of those truths, of which we never doubted the reality and importance."

Soon after the appearance of Swift's Letters, our author commenced a translation of Fenelon's Telemachus, which was published in 1768, in one volume, 4to. No person could have been selected better calculated to do justice to the epic romance of the amiable Archbishop of Cambray than Hawkesworth. The harmonious style, the glowing sentiment, the elegant and classical imagery of the original, were transfused without any diminution of their wonted Justre; and the version may be pronounced not only far superior to any other which we possess of Telemachus, but one of the most spirited and valuable in our language.

The celebrity which Dr. Hawkesworth had now attained, as a literary character, was aided by the friendship of Garrick, who recommended our author to Lord Sandwich; the mean of procuring for him one of the most honourable and lucrative engagements that has been recorded in the annals of literature.

The anxiety of the public to be acquainted with the events which had befallen the navigators of the southern hemisphere, at the commencement of the present reign, was greatly increased by the return of Lieutenant Cook from his first voyage round the globe, in May, 1771; and government, in the following year, entrusted to

Hawkesworth the task of gratifying the general curiosity.

A few attempts, in the mean time, had been made, though with little success, to anticipate the authenticated narrative, which came forth so early as 1773 under the following title: " An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the Order of his present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, &c. Drawn up from the Journals which were kept by the several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq. By John Hawkesworth, LL.D. Illustrated with Cuts, and a great variety of Charts and Maps relative to Countries now first discovered, or hitherto bat imperfectly known." Quarto, 3 vols.

na

In order that a work, which might properly be termed tional, should appear with every requisite illustration, government withheld no necessary expense. Dr. Hawkesworth had the princely remuneration of six thousand pounds; and the charts, engravings, and maps, were executed in a very splendid, and, with a few exceptions, in a very correct manner. The first volume includes the journals of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret; and the second and third are occupied by the still more interesting voyage of Cook.

The merits and defects of Hawkesworth, in the execution of this work, are very prominent. Of his fidelity, as to matter of fact, there can be no doubt, since the manuscript of each voyage was submitted to the perusal of the respective commanders, and received their correction and apNa 2 probation:

probation the literary texture too is elegant, animated, and graceful. Of the faults which have disfigured this publication, one may be deemed venial, and was to be apprehended from the previous studies and character of the man; though the narrative is given in the first person, the colouring of the style, and many of the observations, reflections, and descriptions, are such as clearly indieate their origin, and betray the disciple of the portico, with all his professional acquirements.

Incongruities arising from this source, though they break in upon the verisimilitude which was meant to be supported, were readily forgiven; but who could have expected from the director of female education, from the author of the Adventurer, from the dignified defender of morality and religion, the metaphysical reveries, the licentious paintings, of the sceptic and the voluptuary!

To the charge of inaccuracy, of nautical mistake, or defective science, he was ready and willing to reply; but against the strong and numerous accusations of impiety and indecency, against the flagrant proofs, as taken from his preface and his journals, of his denial of a special providence, and of his wanton pictures of sensu ality, he was unable to defend bimself.

To the vexations which he hourly experienced from these attacks,, many of which took their source rather from a spirit of malignity than a love of virtue and moral order, was added the extreme mortification of being rendered accessory to the purposes of

the most abandoned depravity; for shortly after the publication of his Voyages, notice was given by the infamous editors of a certain magazine, that "all the amorous passages and descriptions in Dr. Hawk-th's Collection of Voyages should be selected, and illustrated by a suitable plate," a threat which was immediately after carried into execution; and thus was the doctor condemned, after a life hitherto spent in the support of piety and morality, to subserve the iniquitous designs of the ministers of lewdness and debauchery.

That Hawkesworth ever meant, by his doubts, his queries, and descriptions, to shock belief, or inflame the passions, cannot be admitted. His practice was correct; but his theory, both in philosophy and theology, was often inconsistent and unsettled; and he was apt to indulge himself in speculations, the ultimate tendency and bearings of which, could he have accurately appreciated them, he would have shrunk from with abhorrence. His descriptions of sensual indulgence too, though probably correct representations, were, he should have reflected, not calculated for a popular work; there was no necessity for their introduction; and the language in which they were clothed, by veiling, in a great measure, the grossness of the imagery, rendered the poison more subtle and pernicious.

The sensibility of Hawkesworth was keen, and easily wounded; he felt through every nerve the envenomed weapons of his accusers, and his peace of mind was destroyed

to his income or his consequence could now soothe his feelings; for though his circumstances were comparatively affluent, and he had the unprecedented honour of being chosen, on account of his literary talents, a director of the East India Company, in April, 1773: he died, exhausted by chagrin and disappointment, on the 10th of the November following. He was buried in the church of Bromley, in Kent, where, on an elegant marble, is the subsequent inscription, part of which, as the reader will immediately perceive, is taken from the last number of the Ad

venturer.

To the Memory of

John Hawkesworth, LL. D.
Who died the 16th of November,
1773, aged 58 years.

That he lived ornamental and useful
To society in an eminent degree,
Was among the boasted felicities
Of the present age;

That he laboured for the benefit of society,

Let his own pathetic admonitions
Record and realize.

"The bour is hasting, in which whatever praise or censure I have acquired, will be remembered with equal indifference. Time, whe is impatient to date my last paper, will shortly moulder the hand which is now writing it in the dust, and still the breast that now throbs at the reflection. But let not this be read as something that relates only to another; for a few years only can divide the eye that is now reading, from the hand that has written."

Dr. Hawkesworth was, if not a man of deep learning, sufficiently acquainted with the classical and modern languages to maintain the character of an elegant scholar. His writings, with the exception

tendency uniformly conducive to the interests of virtue and religion; and we may add, that the errors of that unfortunate production must be attributed rather to a defect of judgment, than to a dereliction of principle.

His imagination was fertile and brilliant, his diction pure, elegant, and unaffected; he possessed a sensibility which too often wounded himself, but which rendered him peculiarly susceptible of the emotions of pity, of friendship, and of love. He was in a high degree charitable, humane, and benevolent; his manners were polished and affable, and his conversation has been described as uncommonly fascinating; as combining instruction and entertainment with a flow of words, which, though unstudied, was yet concisely and appropriately eloquent.

His passions were strong, and his command over them was not

such as to prevent their occasional

interference with his health and peace of mind; but to the heartwithering sensations of long-cherished resentment, of revenge or hatred, his breast was a perfect stranger. He died, it is said, tranquil and resigned, and, we trust, deriving hope and comfort from a firm belief in that religion which his best writings had been employed to defend.

Manners and Customs of the Tupinambas, exemplified in the extraordinary Adventures of Hans Stade. [From Mr. Southey's History of Brazil]

Hans had a German friend settled at St. Vincente, as overseer of some sugar-works, which belonged to Giuseppe Adorno, a Genoese. His name was Heliodorus, and he was son of Eoban, a German poet of great celebrity in his day; he was from the same country as Hans, and bad received him into his house after the shipwreck, with that brotherly kindness which every man feels for a countryman when they meet in so remote a land. This Heliodorus came with another friend to visit Hans in his castle. There was no other market where he could send for food to regale them except the woods,

but this was well stocked. The wild boars were the finest in the whole country, and they were so numerous that the inhabitants killed them for their skins, of which they made a leather that was preferred to cow-hides for boots and chair bottoms. He had a Cario slave who used to hunt for him, and whom he never feared to accompany to the chase; him he sent into the woods to kill game, and went out to meet him the next day, and see what success he had had. The war-who p was set up, and in an instant he was surrounded by the Tupinambas. He gave himself up for lost, and exclaimed, Into thy hands, O Lord, do I commit my spirit. The prayer was hardly ended before be was knocked down; blows and arrows fell upon him from all sides but he received only one wound, in the thigh.

Their first business was to strip him; hat, cloak, jerkin, shirt, were presently torn away, every one seizing what he could get. To this part of the prize possession was sufficient title; but Hans's body, or carcase, as they considered it, was a thing of more consequence. A dispute arose who had first laid hands on him, and they who bore no part in it amused themselves by beating the prisoner with their bows. It was settled that he belonged to two brethren; then they lifted him up and carried him off as fast as posible towards their canoes, which were drawn ashore, and concealed in the thicket. A large party who had been left in guard, advanced to meet their triumphant fellows, showing Hans their teeth, and biting their arms to let him see

what