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dour than credit. This man, as if he had owed mankind a grudge for those disappointments, which were solely owing to his own want of principle, left behind him a magazine of mischief, entrusted to the care of one of his most hopeful pupils, for publication. Mallet, the heir to this precious deposit, gave out such reports of the contents, as by exciting the fears of the pious, and the expectations of sceptics, were best adapted to fill his pockets at the expense of credulity. On the day when the cargo of infidelity was to be opened to the public, Mallet, with unblushing impudence, dared to exclaim in the shop of the publisher, while looking at his watch, "In half an hour, Christianity will tremble." Though this impious boast soon terminated in disgrace and mortification, it is certain that the friends of religion were for a time greatly alarmed, not for the cause of truth, which they knew to be impregnable, but for the welfare of society. A host of writers, there fore, came forward to refute the sophistry contained in the posthumous works of Bolinbroke; which in a short space sunk into contempt. While, however, they yet hovered above the chaos of night, and appeared portentous of incalculable evils, Mr. BURKE, then young and unknown to the world, hit upon a method of attack, that evinced his own incomparable powers, and completely exposed the empty pretensions of the deceased infidel. Early in 1756 he published, "A Vindication of Natural Society; or a View of the Miseries and Evils arising to Mankind from every species of Artificial Society. In a letter to Lord

By a late Noble Writer." The style of Bolinbroke, lofty, declamatory and rapid, is not easy of imitation, yet so closely was it caught in the present instance, that many persons were deceived into the belief, that the pamphlet was a genuine production of this celebrated nobleman; and some there were who actually praised it above his best performances. It was soon discovered, however, by men of deeper judgment, that the anonymous author had a better object in view, than that of availing himself of a popular name to impose an ingenious fraud upon the public. They saw in this imitation of Bolinbroke, the best confutation of his delusive mode of reasoning, by the application of it to a point of experience, in

which all men are personally interested, and of which there are few who cannot form a correct opinion. The sceptical pretender to philosophy, in his attempts to overthrow all religion, whether natural or revealed, drew his arguments entirely from the abuses which superstition, fanaticism, and craft, have, in various ages, devised and established as of divine prescription. This fallacious mode of reasoning, indeed, was not new, but it was artfully adapted to cheat people of light minds out of their faith, by persuading them that the corruptions so prominently exhibited, were the necessary consequences of the doctrines which they had been accustomed to regard as of sacred authority. Bolinbroke's rhetorical genius gave him many advantages in throwing a de lusive glare over his parodoxes; and it was, therefore, reasonable to apprehend that the boldness of his assertions, and the examples adduced for their support, would furnish the licentious with arguments, which though they had not wit enough to find them out by their own exertions, they might be able to apply with destructive effect, to stagger the principles of others. As an antidote to this poison, therefore, Mr. BURKE adopted Bolinbroke's own plan of reasoning, and employed it to shew that the same energies which were used for the destruction of religion, might be directed with equal success for the subversion of government; and that specious arguments might be adduced against those things, which they who doubt of everything else, will never permit to be questioned.

With this view the "Vindication of Natural Society" came out, to convince mankind, that if Revelation is an imposture, the association of men in greater or lesser communities is an evil; and that if the one be, as the unbelievers say it is, a tyranny over minds, the other is, in an equal or rather a greater degree, a pernicious despotism over persons.

To support this paradox, which reduces mankind at once to the savage state, it was indispensable that the author should be dogmatic in his assertions, vehement in his language, and copious in his illustrations, otherwise he would have failed in his design, and his imitation, instead of counteracting, would rather have strengthened the sophisms of Bolinbroke. Yet it is too remarkable to be passed

over in silence, that at a subsequent period, when the French anarchists were busily engaged in the work of demoralization, some of their ardent admirers in this country, presumed to republish the "Vindication of Natural Society," as a piece of serious argument, and thus endeavoured to pervert the irony into a weapon of deadly malignity against the principles which it was constructed to defend. The ravages of war, and the other calamities which the author of the tract has so forcibly pourtrayed, these visionaries, to call them by no worse a name, would fain ascribe to the social state and the legislative principle, as the necessary results of what they are pleased to deem an unnatural compact, and an arbitrary imposition. All this might have passed as the dream of political madness, had it not been for the barefaced impudence of pressing BURKE into a service which no man ever held in greater abhorrence, and which he, in this early production of his pen, actually held up to public ridicule.

While the imitation of Bolinbroke engaged the public attention, and continued to be the subject of general discourse, the Author was busily employed in conducting through the press, a performance of another description, entitled, "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful." This elegant disquisition which appeared without a name at the beginning of 1757, is divided into five parts; the first is devoted to an examination of the passions immediately connected with, and excited by, the two objects of investigation; in the second and third the Author enters into a minute discussion of the properties of those things in nature, which produce in us ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The fourth is directed to the physical cause by which those properties in things are fitted to raise correspondent affections in the mind; and in the last he considers the operation of words.

The inquiry opens by establishing the doctrine of a distinction between positive and relative pain and pleasure; after which the passions are reduced to two heads, those of self-preservation, and those of society. To the first of these principles are referred all the passions which have their origin in positive pain, and relative pleasure; while to the latter are assigned all the relative pains and positive pleasures,

Hence it is inferred that the former is the source of the Sublime, as the latter is of the Beautiful.

Under the head of Society, the author considers three passions, as those which cause the greatest part of the pleasure, which we take in the fine arts, namely, Sympathy, Imitation, and Ambition. The second part of the inquiry opens with a definition of the passion, caused by the great and sublime in nature, and which in its highest degree is astonishment, or "that state of the soul wherein all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror." This leads the author to the consideration of Terror, as being in some mode or other, the great instrument in producing the Sublime, by exalting small, and increasing the effects of large, objects. This position is illustrated by many apposite examples, particularly by the noble description of Death, in Milton, a portrait which is justly said to "astonish with its gloomy pomp and expressive uncertainty." The inquirer then enters more fully and minutely, into a discussion of the difference between Clearness and Obscurity, for the purpose of proving that the latter generates more sublime ideas than the former. "It is our ignorance of things," says he, "that causes all our admiration, and chiefly excites our passions. Knowledge and acquaintance make the most striking causes affect but little. It is thus with the vulgar, and all men are as the vulgar in what they do not understand. The ideas of eternity and infinity, are among the most affecting we have; and yet perhaps there is nothing of which we really understand so little, as of infinity and eternity." Having fixed this principle firmly by uncontested experience, and an appeal to universal feeling, the author resolves all general privations into causes of the Sublime; such as Vacuity, Darkness, Solitude, Silence, and Extent. To the idea of Vastness, he refers in some degree another impression, that of Infinity which arises when we do not see the bounds of any large object, or when its parts are so continued to any indefinite number, that the imagination meets no check to hinder its extending them at pleasure.

Having examined extension, the author proceeds to consider Light and Colours. He observes that in general, Darkness is a more sublime idea than Light, because

the latter unless it be unusually splendid, is of too common occurrence to affect the mind. On the same principle he makes dusky colours, or at least those which are very strong, causes of the Sublime in preference to those which are light and brilliant.

We are next called to the other senses, the principal of which is Hearing; and here, conformable to the general doctrine, great loudness is stated to be grand in the highest degree, while intermitting sounds, the cries of animals, and sudden silence are considered, according to circumstances, as accessory causes of the Sublime. The fourth part of the Inquiry treats of the connexion which subsists between certain qualities in bodies, and particular emotions of the human mind, in order to discover the efficient cause of the Sublime and Beautiful. In the course of this abstruse disquisition, the bodily effects of Pain and Terror are described, from whence arises a question, how anything allied to such impressions can be productive of delight. In answer to this, the author observes, that inaction is a very noxious principle, and the cause of many dangerous distempers by the languor it occasions; that exercise which resembles labor and pain, in being an exertion of the contracting power of the muscles, is the best cure for dejection and spleen, and that therefore it is accompanied with a degree of pleasure.

After this the nature of Vision comes under examination, in order to shew how bodies of vast dimensions, are capable of exciting the contraction or tension of the nerves; which property is attributed to the impressions made on the eye, by the rays reflected back upon it from those objects.

The Inquiry is next directed to the nature of Succession, and the uniformity of Sounds in order to explain their effects, and the analogy between them and visible things. Our author now enters into contact with Locke on the subject of Darkness, which that great writer says, does not naturally convey an idea of terror. Mr. BURKE, on the contrary, maintains that there is an association which makes obscurity terrible, and he supports his opinion by an appeal to experience; for in utter darkness, it is impossible to know in what degree of safety we stand; we are ignorant of the objects that surround

us; we may every moment strike against some dangerous obstructions; we may fall down a precipice, the first step we take; and if an enemy approach, we know not in what quarter to defend ourselves; in such a case, strength is no sure protection; wisdom can only act by guess; the boldest are staggered; and he who would pray for nothing else is forced to pray for light.

Having largely explicated the physical cause of the passion, in which the principle of sublimity originates, the inquirer proceeds to a consideration of Love, as the passion naturally produced by Beauty: and here among various remarks of uncommon force and elegance, is one on the contrast between small and vast objects, which cannot easily be paralleled by anything in the writings of ancient or modern philosophers.

The fifth part on the influence of Words, is no less argumentative and original than the rest of the Inquiry. In this part, words are divided into three clases.-The first class comprehends those which are aggregates, or such as represent many simple ideas united by nature to form one determinate composition, as man, horse, tree, &c. The second class consists of words, which stand for one simple idea of such compounds and no more, as red, blue, round, square, and the like; these are called simple abstract words. The third class is formed by an arbitrary union of both the others, and of the various relations between them, in greater or less degrees of complexity; as virtue, honor, persuasion, magistrate, and the like. These last are the compound abstract words, of which the author says, that not being real essences, they hardly cause any real ideas. This, however, is a doubtful position, and somewhat paradoxical, for surely, though determinate images cannot be raised in the mind by such terms, simply expressed, it seems too far from a just conclusion, that no ideas whatever are suggested by them. Virtue for instance is a word that cannot excite an image, or be embodied, as it were, to the mind's eye, yet where is the person of understanding, who is destitute of an idea of what is meant by the expression, though it is out of his power to give a precise definition of it.

There is another questionable assertion in this part, and that is where the inge

nious author says, "So little does Poetry depend for its effect on the power of raising sensible images, that I am convinced it would lose a very considerable part of its energy, if this were the necessary result of all description-because that union of affecting words, which is the most powerful of all poetical instruments, would frequently lose its force along with its propriety, and consistency, if the sensible images were always excited."

In opposition to this doctrine, it is sufficient to adduce the authority of Longinus, to whom alone, as a philosophical critic, is BURKE inferior. That elegant writer in his section on imagery, says, "Visions, which by some are called images, contribute very much to the weight, magnificence, and force of composition. The name of an image is generally given to any idea, however represented to the mind, which is communicable to others by discourse: but a more particular sense of it has now become prevalent: when for instance, the imagination is so warmed and affected, that you seem to behold yourself, the very things you are describing, and to display them to the life, before the eyes of an audience. Rhetorical and poetical images, however, have a different object; the design of the latter is surprise, that of the former is perspicuity.”

Thus the greatest critic of antiquity, held imagery to be the highest effect of mental exertion; whereas our illustrious modern will not allow that Poetry can with any propriety be called an art of imitation; in which opinion, we believe, he has had but few if any followers. Nor indeed has the principal doctrine of his admirable work, that of making Terror the great cause of the Sublime, been suffered to pass without contradiction, and some writers of late, have held it up to ridicule in a manner, which shows more malignity_than_acumen. To the second edition of the Inquiry, the author prefixed an excellent discourse concerning Taste, which faculty he does not presume to describe by a formal definition, though he ascribes to it the general power of forming a judgment on works of imagination and the arts.

In the same year with this original Treatise, came out, a compilation in two volumes, entitled, "An Account of the

European Settlements in America ;" which the public voice long concurred in ascribing to Mr. BURKE, without any contradiction of it on his part; nor was it till sometime after his demise, that his right to the work was called in question. That the performance was worthy of his pen, few persons who have read it carefully will venture to deny; and certain it is that the ablest judges of literary composition, and those the most intimate with Mr. BURKE, very readily acquiesced in the general opinion of its origin. The Abbe Raynal, in particular, was so sensible of the value of this history of the European Colonies in America, as to incorporate almost the whole of it in his own elaborate and philosophical work on the Indies. Another publication, but of a more permanent character, which at this period did credit to the fertile genius and indefatigable industry of BURKE, was the Annual Register. There is reason to believe, that the idea of this valuable compilation, suggested itself during the progress of the preceding history, occasioned by the difficulties which the author found in his research, after the facts necessary for the elucidation of his subject. Upon this he drew up the plan of a yearly volume, to contain a digested record of foreign and domestic events; an arrangement of public papers with other documentary matter; and extracts from new books of importance, illustrative of the literary, scientific, and political history of the times. The plan being submitted to Dodsley, was readily adopted by that active publisher, and in the month of June 1759, the first volume made its appearance, all the original matter of which was furnished by Mr. BURKE, who continued to write the historical part, and to superintend the whole collection for many years afterwards.

These laborious exertions, which had for their object, the attainment of an honorable independence, produced a debility in the frame of Mr. BURKE, that. gave great alarm to his friends. Among these was Dr. Christopher Nugent, a physician, and brother to Dr. Thomas Nugent, an author by profession, but chiefly known to the literary world by his excellent translations. Both these gentlemen were the countrymen of BURKE, great admirers of his talents, and zealous in promoting his interests. On perceiving

the inroad which an incessant application to study had made in his constitution, the benevolent physician earnestly intreated him to quit his chambers in the Temple, and take apartments in his house. This proposition was complied with, and the good effects of it soon appeared in the renovation of health and strength. But another consequence resulted from it, and that was a sympathetic affection between the invalid, and the daughter of Dr. Nugent; which, within a short space, terminated in a marriage; and though the young lady had not a shilling of portion, a happier couple never existed, insomuch that to the end of his days, Mr. BURKE was wont to say to his friends, that "In all the anxious moments of his public life, every care vanished when he entered his own house."

But though this alliance was not lucrative, it was extremely fortunate, by bringing our author into an extensive circle of acquaintance, consisting of persons in the highest stations, and others of established credit in the world of letters. The benefit of these connexions was quickly felt, and when the earl of Halifax was appointed at the beginning of October, 1761, to the viceroyalty of Ireland, Mr. BURKE obtained a situation in his suite as one of his secretaries. The government of lord Halifax lasted only a few months, he being recalled the following summer to take an active part in the administration at home: and Mr. BURKE returned with him, having previously secured a pension of two hundred a year, on the Irish establishment. It does not appear that he enjoyed any preferment in England, at this time, though his friend William Gerard Hamilton continued in favour with Lord Halifax, and was appointed his under secretary of state. That gentleman is said to have soon after wards quarrelled with BURKE; who in consequence threw up his pension, and once more had recourse to his pen for a support. The feelings of the public, were at this period much agitated by the ascendency of lord Bute, and the prospect of a peace, so that the field of politics presented an abundance of matter for the exercise of a mind stored with reading, inured to writing, and fertile in argument.

BURKE, however, had the good sense and magnanimity, notwithstanding the neglect which he had experienced, to avoid the vulgar topic of the day, and con

fined himself to a subject of general in. terest. He entered into the question of peace with ardour, and in some able pamphlets, endeavoured to impress upon the minds of ministers, the necessity of adding to our colonial strength in the West Indies, by extending our possessions in the vicinity. Most of the tracts which he published on this occasion are now lost, or forgotten; since up to this period, and beyond it, he never affixed his name to any of his publications. But the performances of which we are speaking, were known to Johnson, through whom the author became introduced to Mr. William Fitzherbert, the father of lord St. Helens. This gentleman who was member of parliament for the town of Derby, brought Mr. BURKE acquainted with the marquis of Rockingham and lord Verney, at the very time when the former of those noblemen became the head of a party, which in a short time effected a change in the administration. The measures of Mr. George Grenville, particularly in regard to the imposition of a Stamp Duty in America, giving general offence, occasioned his dismissal from office at the beginning of 1765; and in the new arrangement which took place, the marquis of Rockingham was made first lord of the treasury. This was a brilliant prospect to Mr. BURKE, for he was immediately appointed private secretary to the prime minister, as his brother William was to general Conway, one of the secretaries of state. The same year, Mr. EDMUND BURKE was elected into parliament for the borough of Wendover, in Buckinghamshire, on the interest of lord Verney. This administration was formed under the mediation of the duke of Cumberland, with the co-operation of the duke of Newcastle, who it was expected would have taken the lead in the new cabinet. But the old statesman declined the distinction, when the honour was offered to him, and the report went current at the time, that during the settlement, he plainly told the marquis of Rockingham, that he must be first lord of the treasury, and that when his lordship objected to the appointment, on the ground of inexperience, his grace facetiously answered: "It does not signify, marquis, first lord of the treasury you must be; care shall be taken to appoint proper persons to assist your lordship in the business

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