ON

THE PURSUITS OF LITERATURE,

FROM THE MORNING HERALD

MAY AND JUNE 1799.

For the MORNING HERALD.

A SERIES of LETTERS, containing OBSERVATIONS on the Poem, called " THE PURSUITS OF LITERATURE."

FROM the time when you firft published the inimitable Rolliad, and the ftill more exquifite Probationary Odes, I have always confidered the MORNING HERALD as the firft literary Public Paper in this country. Upon this principle I have chofen to tranfmit to you, Sir, fome remarks which have

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have occurred to me on reading the far-famed Poem on the Purfuits of Literature, which may fhew the juftice, propriety, and connection of the parts of this work, which I confider as a whole, and not as a defultory compofition, as fome perfons regard it. I have observed uniformly, that impartiality, literary and political, has been preferved better in your Paper than in any other, which has obtained the approbation of the Public for fo long a period. But if your ner and purfuits are incompatible with my defign, I fhall Par defift from my obfervations, or, in the event, willingly tranfmit them to a Magazine (which I dislike), and therefore Thall more probably commit them to that guardian, which is the fafest and most incorruptible of all the guardians of literature, the fhrine of Vulcan. So thought the Caliph Omar; and fo think I in part; but I hope the Attorney General will not think too deeply in the same strain, or all writing will ceafe. Some tares must always be fuffered to grow together with the wheat, till the time of harvest.

I fhall not trouble you with Latin or Greek citations, or tranflations of citations. Both the one and the other may be praise-worthy or venial in the present cafe; but whether they are necessary or not, I shall omit them. I write for the people of sense in every rank; I ask no language but my own, as I think it adequate to every purpose of life, and I shall take the advice of the Author of the work in question, that if a Latin paffage should occur to my memory, I shall give it in English, though it may lofe fomewhat of its fpirit. But I will be plain: no man is offended with a labourer's dress, and he may be forgiven, if, when the weather permits, he follows Virgil's advice, and lays aside his cloaths altogether, when he ploughs, and when he fows. You underftand me, Sir: I have lived long enough to think and fee, that if the

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career of French philofophy, and all their doctrines, fhould not be restrained, and perhaps by the fingle efforts of this country, and by its public and fecret Councils, and Counfellors, the words of Lord Bolingbroke will indeed be verified, that "this world will become the Bedlam of every other fyftem of intelligent creatures." If that fhould be the cafe, I fhall not be a candidate for the office of Phyfician to the ge. neral hofpital. I would rather follow the great advice of preventive policy, and fhew that this has been the example given and beft followed up by the poet of this age, on whofe work I am to comment.

I shall not commence my remarks in this letter, because I do not yet know whether they will be acceptable to you, and be admitted into your pages. I hate to labour without an end; but I am ready to fecond what I conceive might be useful to the Public. I own I think, in regard to the Poem itself, as with its name and subject, "Age cannot wither it, nor custom ftale its infinite variety." I shall send you my leaves from time to time; and if the wind of your printing preffes fhould either difplace, or blow them away altogether, they will never be regretted like those by the priestess of Cuma. We are told by a great writer, that when a noble Roman had, in public Senate accufed one of the greateft pefts of his age and country, he observed, that the vigour with which he purfued the enemy of the Republic, made some worthy men uneasy; but he fatisfied himself with the reflection, that, in respect to confidence or fear, it made a material difference whether men were unwilling you should undertake the work at all, or not approve the manner of executing it. The first of these every good man must encourage; and the second is matter of judgment and choice. If it is well, it is as the writer wifhed; if it falls fhort, it is only according to his power

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power. We are no longer at a lofs to know what any man may expect from infidelity, bigotry, and democracy, who engages without referve or compliment in the cause of Religion, Government, and the common peace of the world.

I have, perhaps, been rather too long in these preliminary lines; but I mean to follow them up, as on a foundation, which may in time grow into a fpecies of literary building, not unfitly framed when compleated. I would not fend them, however, if I thought they were the observations of a man whose works would do any difcredit to a Newspaper. At present they are my own; but an old and wife proverb fays, that "a man's words are no longer his own, than while he keeps them unfpoken." With a defire of an early refusal or approbation of my plan, I subscribe myself your conftant friend and daily reader,

May 17, 1799.

HORATIO.

WHEN the affairs of a great kingdom are conducted to

that crifis, in which action and not reasoning, works and not words, fupplies and not debates, are alone ftrong unto the national falvation, the time is fully arrived when compliments to Authors, and flattery to Ministers, muft give place to higher concerns, and truth, facred, moral, and political, muft alone be heard, neither dubious in its meaning, nor indirect in its application. I have long waited in the hope of feeing this realized, while our cities are yet peopled and opulent; our villages and farms cultivated and improved; our religion vindicated from insult, and fupported with dignity; the principles of morality and government maintained against atheists and dramatifts; learning encouraged

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