MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL PEF YS.

that though its author was indisputably more | no notices worth naming-a bare intimation
of a gentleman, a scholar, and a man of taste of the deaths of Waller, Cowley, and Daven-
than our actuary, it is far inferior both in in- ant, and a few words of Dryden-Milton, we
terest, curiosity, and substantial instruction, think, not once mentioned. There is more
to that which we are now considering. The of the natural philosophers of Gresham Col-
two authors, however, we are happy to find, lege, but not much that is valuable-some
were great friends; and no name is mentioned curious calculations and speculations about
in the latter part of the Diary with more uni-money and coinages-and this odd but au
form respect and affection than that of Evelyn thentic notice of Sir W. Petty's intended will.
-though it is very edifying to see how the
shrewd, practical sagacity of the man of busi-
ness, revenges itself on the assumed supe-
riority of the philosopher and man of letters.
In this respect we think there is a fine keep-
ing of character in the sincerity of the fol-
lowing passage-

"Sir William Petty did tell me that in good
earnest he hath in his will left some parts of his
estate to him that could invent such and such
things. As among others, that could discover truly
the way of milk coming into the breasts of a wo-
express to another the mixture of relishes and
man! and he that could invent proper characters to
tastes. And says, that to him that invents gold, he
gives nothing for the philosopher's stone; for (says
selves. But, says he, by this means it is better
he) they that find out that, will be able to pay them-
than to go to a lecture; for here my executors, that
must part with this, will be sure to be well con-
their money."
vinced of the invention before they do part with

"By water to Deptford, and there made a visit to Mr. Evelyn, who, among other things, showed me most excellent painting in little; in distemper, Indian incke, water colours: graveing; and above all, the whole mezzo-tinto, and the manner of it, which is very pretty, and good things done with it. He read to me very much also of his discourse, he The Appendix, which seems very judicioushath been many years and now is about, about Gardenage; which is a most noble and pleasantly selected, contains some valuable fragments piece. He read me part of a play or two of his of historical information: but we have not now own making-very good, but not as he conceits them, I think, to be. He showed me his Hortus left ourselves room for any account of them; Hyemalis; leaves laid up in a book of several plants and are tempted to give all we can yet spare kept dry, which preserve colour, however, and to a few extracts from a very curious correslook very finely, better than an herball. In fine a pondence between Mr. Pepys and Lord Reay most excellent person he is, and must be allowed and Lord Tarbut in 1699, on the subject of a little for a little conceitedness; but he may well be so, being a man so much above others. He read the Second Sight among our Highlanders. me, though with too much gusto, some little poems Lord Reay seems to have been a firm believer of his own that were not transcendant; yet one or in this gift or faculty-but Lord Tarbut had two very pretty epigrams; among others, of a lady been a decided sceptic, and was only conlooking in at a grate, and being pecked at by an verted by the proofs of its reality, which occurred to himself while in the Highlands, in eagle that was there." the year 1652 and afterwards. Some of the stories he tells are not a little remarkable. For example, he says, that one night when one of his Celtic attendants was entering a house where they had proposed to sleep, he suddenly started back with a scream, and fell down in an agony.

And a little after he chuckles not a little over his learned friend's failure, in a speculation about making bricks-concluding very sagely, "so that I see the most ingenious men may sometimes be mistaken!"

shortly a dead coffin would be carried out of it, for many were carrying it when he was heard cry! I others of the servants he was very sorry for it, and neglecting his words and staying there, he said to that what he saw would surely come to pass: and though no sick person was then there, yet the landlord, a healthy Highlander, died of an apoplectic fit before I left the house."

We meet with the names of many distinguished men in these pages, and some char"I asked what the matter was, for he seemed to acteristic anecdotes,—but few bold characters. He has a remarkable interview with Claren- me to be very much frighted: he told me very seridon-in which the cautious and artful de-ously that I should not lodge in that house, because meanour of that veteran politician is finely displayed, though on a very trivial occasion. The Navy Board had marked some trees for cutting in Clarendon Park without his leave at which he had expressed great indignation; and our author went, in a prodigious fright, to pacify him. He found him busy hearing causes in his chambers, and was obliged to wait. "After all done, he himself called, Come, Mr. Pepys, you and I will take a turn in the garden.' So he was led down stairs, having the goute, and there walked with me, I think above an hour, talk ing most friendly, but cunningly!-He told me he would not direct me in any thing, that it might not be said that the Lord Chancellor did labour to abuse the King; or (as I offered) direct the suspending the report of the purveyors: but I see what he means, and will make it my work to do him service in it. But Lord! to see how we poor wretches dare not do the King good service, for fear of the greatness of these men!"'

There is no literary intelligence of any value to be gained from this work. Play collectors will probably find the names of many lost pieces-but of our classical authors there are

Another occurred in 1653, when, in a very rugged part of the country, he fell in with a man who was staring into the air with marks of great agitation. Upon asking what it was that disturbed him, he answered,

"I see a troop of Englishmen leading their horses down that hill-and some of them are already in the plain, eating the barley which is growing in the field near to the hill.' This was on the 4th of May (for I noted the day), and it was four or five days before any barley was sown in the field he spoke of. Alexander Monro asked him how he knew they were Englishmen: he answered, because they were leading horses, and had on hats and boots, which took little notice of the whole story as other than a foolish vision, but wished that an English party were there, we being then at war with them, and the

he knew no Scotchmen would have on there

We

place almost inaccessible for horsemen. But the he had been seen with a dagger run into his beginning of August thereafter, the Earl of Middle-breast-and though nothing ever happened to ton, then lieutenant for the King in the Highlands. him, one of his servants, to whom he had having occasion to march a party of his towards the South Islands, sent his foot through a place called given the doublet which he wore at the time. Inverlacwell, and the forepart, which was first down of this intimation, was stabbed through it, in the hill, did fall to eating the barley which was on the very place where the dagger had been the little plain under it.' seen. Lord Reay adds the following additional instance, of this glancing, as it were, of the prophecy on the outer garment.

Another of his lordship's experiences was as follows. In January 1682, he was sitting with two friends in a house in Ross-shire, when a man from the islands

"Desired me to rise from that chair, for it was an unlucky one. I asked Why?' He answered, Because there was a dead man in the chair next to it. Well,' said I, if it be but in the next, I may safely sit here: but what is the likeness of the man?' He said he was a tall man with a long grey coat, booted, and one of his legs hanging over the chair, and his head hanging down to the other side, and his arm backward, as it were broken. There were then some English troops quartered near the place, and there being at that time a great frost after a thaw, the country was wholly covered over with ice. Four or five Englishmen riding by this house, not two hours after the vision, where we were sitting by the fire, we heard a great noise, which proved to be these troopers, with the help of other servants, carrying in one of their number who had got a very mischievous fall and had his arm broke; and falling frequently into swooning fits, they brought him to the hall, and set him in the very chair and in the very posture which the seer had proposed: but the man did not die, though he revived with great difficulty."

These instances are chiefly remarkable as being given upon the personal knowledge of an individual of great judgment, acuteness, and firmness of character. The following is from a still higher quarter; since the reporter was not even a Scotchman, and indeed no less a person than Lord Clarendon. In a letter to Mr. Pepys in 1701, he informs him, that, in 1661, upon a Scottish gentleman being in his presence introduced to Lady Cornbury, he was observed to gaze upon her with a singular expression of melancholy; and upon one of the company asking the reason, he replied, "I see her in blood!" She was at that time in perfect health, and remained so for near a month, when she fell ill of small-pox: And "Upon the ninth day after the small-pox ap. peared, in the morning, she bled at the nose, which quickly stopt; but in the afternoon the blood burst out again with great violence at her nose and mouth, and about eleven of the clock that night she dyed, almost weltering in her blood!"

"John Macky, of Dilril, having put on a new suit of clothes, was told by a seer that he did see the gallows upon his coat, which he never noticed; but some time after gave his coat to his servant, William Forbess, to whose honesty there could be nothing said at that time; but he was shortly after hanged for theft, with the same coat about him: my informer being an eye-witness of his execution, and one who had heard what the seer said before."

His lordship also mentions, that these visions were seen by blind people, as well as those who had sight, and adds, that there was a blind woman in his time who had the faculty in great perfection; and foretold many things that afterwards happened, as hundreds of living witnesses could attest. We have no time now to speculate on these singular legends-but, as curious mementos of the lubri city of human testimony, we think it right they should be once more brought into notice.

And now we have done with Mr. Pepys. There is trash enough no doubt in his journal, -trifling facts, and silly observations in abundance. But we can scarcely say that we wish it a page shorter; and are of opinion, that there is very little of it which does not help us to understand the character of his times, and his contemporaries, better than we should ever have done without it; and make us feel more assured that we comprehend the great historical events of the age, and the people who bore a part in them. Independent of instruction altogether too, there is no denying, that it is very entertaining thus to be transported into the very heart of a time so long gone by; and to be admitted into the domestic intimacy, as well as the public councils, of a man of great activity and circulation in the reign of Charles II. Reading this book, in short, seems to us to be quite as good as living with Mr. Samuel Pepy's in his proper person, and though the court scandal may be detailed with more grace and vivacity in the Memoires de Grammont, we have no doubt but even this part of his multiThere is a great number of similar stories, farious subject is treated with far greater reported on the most imposing testimony-fidelity and fairness in the work before usthough, in some instances, the seer, we must say, is somewhat put to it to support his credit, and make out the accomplishment of his vision. One chieftain, for instance, had long been seen by the gifted, with an arrow sticking in his thigh; from which they all inferred, that he was either to die or to suffer greatly, from a wound in that place. To their surprise, however, he died of some other infliction, and the seers were getting out of reputation; when luckily a fray arose at the funeral, and an arrow was shot fairly through the thigh of the dead man, ind spot where the vision had shown it other occasion, Lord Reay's gra

while it gives us more clear and undistorted glimpses into the true English life of the times-for the court was substantially foreign than all the other memorials of them put together, that have come down to our own.

The book is rather too dear and magnificent. But the editor's task we think excellently performed. The ample text is not incumbered with ostentatious commentaries. But very brief and useful notices are supplied of almost all the individuals who are mentioned; and an admirable and very minute index is subjoined, which methodises the immense miscellany-and places the vast chaos told that at our disposal.

(July, 1808.)

A History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second; with an Introductory Chapter. By the Right Honourable CHARLES JAMES FOX. To which is added an Appendix. 4to pp. 340. Miller, London: 1808.

Ir it be true that high expectation is almost always followed by disappointment, it is scarcely possible that the readers of Mr. Fox's history should not be disappointed. So great a statesman certainly has not appeared as an author since the time of Lord Clarendon; and, independent of the great space which he fills in the recent history of this country, and the admitted splendour of his general talents, -his known zeal for liberty, the fame of his eloquence, and his habitual study of every thing relating to the constitution, concurred to direct an extraordinary degree of attention to the work upon which he was known to be engaged, and to fit a standard of unattainable excellence for the trial of his first acknowledged production. The very circumstance of his not having published any considerable work during his life, and of his having died before bringing this to a conclusion, served to increase the general curiosity; and to accumulate upon this single fragment the interest of his whole literary existence.

No human production, we suppose, could bear to be tried by such a test; and those who sit down to the perusal of the work before us, under the influence of such impressions, are very likely to rise disappointed. With those, however, who are at all on their guard against the delusive effect of these natural emotions, the result, we venture to predict, will be different; and for ourselves, we are happy to say, that we have not been disappointed at all; but, on the contrary, very greatly moved and delighted with the greater part of this singular volume.

To those who know Mr. Fox only by the great outlines of his public history,-who know merely that he passed from the dissipations of too gay a youth into the tumults and cabals of a political life, and that his days were spent in contending about public measures, and in guiding or averting the tempests of faction, the spirit of indulgent and tender feeling which pervades this book must appear very unaccountable. Those who live much in the world, even in a private station, commonly have their hearts a little hardened, and their moral sensibility a little impaired. But statesmen and practical politicians are, with justice, suspected of a still greater forgetfulness of mild impressions and honourable scruples. Coming necessarily into contact with great vices and great sufferings, they must gradually lose some of their horror for the first, and much of their compassion for the last. Constantly engaged in contention, they cease pretty generally to regard any human beings as objects of sympathy or disinterested attachment; and, mixing much with the most corrupt part of mankind, naturally come to regard the species itself with indifference, if not with contempt. All the softer feelings are apt to be worn off in the rough conflicts of factious hostility; and all the finer moralities to be effaced, by the constant contemplation of expediency, and the necessities of occasional compliance.

Such is the common conception which we form of men who have lived the life of Mr. Fox; and such, in spite of the testimony of partial friends, is the impression which most private persons would have retained of him, if this volume had not come to convey a truer and a more engaging picture to the world at large, and to posterity.

We do not think it has any great value as a history; nor is it very admirable as a piece of composition. It comprehends too short a period, and includes too few events, to add much to our knowledge of facts; and abounds By far the most remarkable thing, then, in too little with splendid passages to lay much this book, is the tone of indulgence and unhold on the imagination. The reflections feigned philanthropy which prevails in every which it contains, too, are generally more re- part of it;-a most amiable sensibility to all markable for their truth and simplicity, than the kind and domestic affections, and a sort for any great fineness or apparent profundity of softheartedness towards the sufferings of of thinking; and many opportunities are ne- individuals, which seems hitherto to have glected, or rather purposely declined, of en- been thought incompatible with the stern digtering into large and general speculations. nity of history. It cannot but strike us with Notwithstanding all this, the work, we think, something still more pleasing than surprise, is invaluable; not only as a memorial of the to meet with traits of almost feminine tenderhigh principles and gentle dispositions of its ness in the sentiments of this veteran statesillustrious author, but as a record of those man; and a general character of charity sentiments of true English constitutional in- towards all men, not only remote from the dependence, which seem to have been nearly rancour of vulgar hostility, but purified in a forgotten in the bitterness and hazards of our great degree from the asperities of party conmore recent contentions. It is delightful as tention. He expresses indeed, throughout, a the picture of a character; and most instruct- high-minded contempt for what is base, and ive and opportune as a remembrancer of pub- a thorough detestation for what is cruel: But lie duties: And we must be permitted to say yet is constantly led, by a sort of generous a word or two upon each of these subjects. prejudice in favour of human nature, to admit

suaded, they would have acted with the sam spirit;-nay, in consequence of the ma general diffusion of education and intell gence, we believe they would have been more zealous and more unanimous in cause of liberty. But we have of late be exposed to the operation of various cause which have tended to lull our vigilance, relax our exertions; and which threaten, less powerfully counteracted, to bring gradually, such a general indifference forgetfulness of the interests of freedom, prepare the people for any tolerably form of servitude which their future rule may be tempted to impose upon them.

all possible palliations for the conduct of the | from their ancestors in the days of the Revol individual delinquent, and never attempts to tion. In the same circumstances, we are shut him out from the benefit of those natural sympathies of which the bad as well as the good are occasionally the objects, from their fortune or situation. He has given a new character, we think, to history, by this soft and condescending concern for the feelings of individuals; and not only left a splendid record of the gentleness and affectionate simplicity of his own dispositions, but set an example by which we hope that men of genius may be taught hereafter to render their instructions more engaging and impressive. Nothing, we are persuaded, can be more gratifying to his friends, than the impression of his character which this work will carry down to posterity; nor is it a matter of indifference to the country, that its most illustrious statesman should be yet more distinguished for the amiableness of his private affections.

The first, and the principal of these causes however paradoxical it may seem, is the ac tual excellence of our laws, and the suppose inviolability of the constitution. The second is, the great increase of luxury, and the tre mendous patronage of the government. The last is, the impression made and maintained by the events of the French Revolution. We shall say but a word upon each of these pro lific themes of speculation.

This softness of feeling is the first remarkable thing in the work before us. The second is perhaps of more general importance. It is, that it contains the only appeal to the old principles of English constitutional freedom, and the only expression of those firm and temperate sentiments of independence, which Because our ancestors stipulated wisely are the peculiar produce, and natural protec- the public at the Revolution, it seemed t tion of our mixed government, which we recol- have become a common opinion, that nothing lect to have met with for very many years. was left to their posterity but to pursue the The tone of the work, in this respect, recalls private interest. The machine of Gover us to feelings which seem of late to have ment was then completed and set agoingslumbered in the country which they used to and it will go on without their interferenc inspire. In our indolent reliance upon the Nobody talks now of the divine right, or the imperishable virtue of our constitution, and dispensing power of kings, or ventures to pr in our busy pursuit of wealth, we appeared to pose to govern without Parliaments, or be forgetting our higher vocation of free citi-levy taxes without their authority-there zens; and, in our dread of revolution or foreign fore, our liberties are secure and it is or invasion, to have lost sight of those intestine factious or ambitious people that affect a dangers to which our liberties are always jealousy of the executive. Things go on very more immediately exposed. The history of smoothly as they are; and it can never the Revolution of 1688, and of the times im- the interest of any party in power, to attem mediately preceding, was eminently calculated any thing very oppressive or injurious to th to revive those feelings, and restore those public. By such reasonings, men excuse the impressions, which so many causes had in abandonment of all concern for the comm our days conspired to obliterate; and, in the nity, and find, in the very excellence of the hands of Mr. Fox, could scarcely have failed constitution, an apology for exposing it to co to produce a very powerful effect. On this ruption. It is obvious, however, that liber account, it must be matter of the deepest re-like love, is as hard to keep as to win; an gret that he was not permitted to finish, or indeed to do more than begin, that inspiring narrative. Even in the little which he has done, however, we discover the spirit of the master: Even in the broken prelude which he has here sounded, the true notes are struck with such force and distinctness, and are in themselves so much in unison with the natural chords of every British heart, that we think no slight vibration will be excited throughout the country; and would willingly lend our assistance to propagate it into every part of the empire. In order to explain more fully the reasons for which we set so high a value upon the work before us on this particular account, we must be allowed to enlarge a little upon the evil which we think it calculated to

correct.

We do not think the present generation of our countrymen substantially degenerated

that the exertions by which it was original gained will be worse than fruitless, if they not followed up by the assiduities by whe alone it can be preserved. Wherever ther is power, we may be sure that there is will be, a disposition to increase it; and there be not a constant spirit of jealousy a of resistance on the part of the people, even monarchy will gradually harden into a tes potism. It will not, indeed, wantonly provok or alarm, by seeking again to occupy the very positions from which it had once b dislodged; but it will extend itself in cle quarters, and march on silently, under . colours of a venal popularity.

This indolent reliance on the sufficiency the constitution for its own preservation fords great facilities, no doubt, to those vt may be tempted to project its destructor but the efficient means are to be found chick