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concludes with a very impressive quotation from a sermon, by Dr. South.

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18.-BROME, D.D. the author of the Spectator, No 302, descriptive of the character of Emilia. This paper had been claimed by Mr. Duncombe for his friend Mr. Hughes, and the portrait was said to have been drawn for Ann, Countess of Coventry; but "the real writer," says the annotator upon this number, was Dr. Brome, the clergyman of the parish in which the lady lived, who is celebrated here, under the name of Emilia. She was the mother of Mrs. Ascham, of Connington in Cambridgeshire, and grandmother of the present Lady Hatton. This very amiable lady was a great benefactress to Mrs. Ockley, the daughter of Dr. Simon Ockley, who was left at the death of her father not in very easy circumstances. Mrs. Ockley, on whose unsuspicious testimony this information rests, affirms from her own personal knowledge of the real lady, that the character is faithfully delineated. An internal circumstance in the paper itself, the repeated mention of the name of Bromius, seems to corroborate the testimony of Mrs. Ockley, and to vouch for the propriety of the assignment of this paper to Dr. Brome."*

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Spectator, vol. iv. p. 289-note, edit. of 1797.

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There is reason to suppose from the tenor of this paper, that the virtuous and accomplished Emilia was the wife of Dr. Brome; and as the passage, on which this construction is founded, will add some slight information to what we have already learned concerning our author, and at the same time will present an admirable lesson to the married of the fair sex, I shall make no apology for its transcription.

Emilia "having for some time given to the decency of a virgin coyness, and examined the merit of their several pretensions, she at length gratified her own, by resigning herself to the ardent passion of Bromius. Bromius was then master of many good qualities, and a moderate fortune, which was soon after unexpectedly encreased to a plentiful estate. This for a good while proved his misfortune, as it furnished his unexperienced age with the opportunities of evil company, and a sensual life. He might have longer wandered in the labyrinths of vice and folly, had not Emilia's prudent conduct won him over to the government of his reason. Her ingenuity has been constantly employed in humanizing his passions, and refining his pleasures. She has shewn him by her own example, that virtue is consistent with decent freedoms and good-humour, or rather that it cannot subsist

without them. Her good sense readily instructed her, that a silent example and an easy unrepining behaviour, will always be more persuasive than the severity of lectures and admonitions; and that there is so much pride interwoven into the make of human nature, that an obstinate man must only take the hint from another, and then be left to advise and correct himself. Thus by an artful train of management and unseen persuasions, having at first brought him not to dislike, and at length to be pleased with that which otherwise he would not have bore to hear of, she then knew how to press and secure this advantage, by approving it as his thought, and seconding it as his proposal. By this means she has gained an interest in some of his leading passions, and made them accessary to his reformation."

To the praise of utility and moral precept, which this paper by Dr. Brome deservedly merits, I wish we could add an eulogium upon the elegance and correctness of its style; it is, how ever, in these respects, deficient, and even the extract we have given, will, in more than one or two instances, evince the truth of our accusation.

19. FRANCHAM, MR. It is greatly to be regretted, that of many of the contributors to the

Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, we can now collect little that is likely to gratify curiosity. All that we are able to ascertain with regard to Mr. Francham, for instance, is, that he was an inhabitant of Norwich, and that he wrote N° 520 of the Spectator on the death of his own wife. This is a paper, however, of so much excellence, that every person who peruses it will naturally wish that his contributions had been more numerous; it may be pronounced, indeed, one of the most pathetic of the series of essays to which it belongs; and of impenetrable materials must that heart be constructed which can refuse to sympathize with feelings and sufferings described with so much touching simplicity, with tenderness so truly unaffected.

20. DUNLOP, MR. Greek Professor in the University of Glasgow, is reported upon the authority of the annotators, to be the author, in conjunction with a Mr. Montgomery, of Spectator, N° 524. It had, prior to this ascription, been given to Professor Simpson of Glasgow; but what were the circumstances which induced the alteration are not specified. Mr. Dunlop is the author of a Greek grammar of some celebrity in Scotland; and Mr. Montgomery was a merchant of high credit and reputation, of a very amiable charac

ter, and possessed of very considerable abilities. "He traded," relates the annotator, "to Sweden; and his business carrying him there, it is said, that in consequence of something between him and queen Christina, he was obliged to leave that kingdom abruptly. This event was supposed to have affected his intellects, much in the same manner as Sir Roger de Coverley is represented in these papers to have been injured by his passion for a beautiful widow."*

The essay which these gentlemen united to compose consists of a Vision, typical of the effects of heavenly and worldly wisdom. It displays no small portion of invention; and, as Steele justly observes, is written much in the spirit of John Bunyan, though, it should be added, in diction of much greater purity and dignity. This, however, is no mean praise, for few books have been more popular than the Pilgrim's Progress; it has gone through more than fifty editions, and has been translated into most of the European languages. Though treated with contempt by the learned on its first appearance, and for many years afterwards, owing chiefly to the coarseness and vulgarity of its language, it has lately received the applause to which it is entitled for strength and fertility of imagination.

• Spectator, vol. vii. p. 284----note, 8vo. 1797.

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