JAMES BURGH, 1714-1775, was a native of Scotland, and cousin of Robertson the historian. Having failed in business, he turned his attention to literary pursuits, and became the author of several works: Britain's Remembrancer; Thoughts on Education; a Warning to Dram-Drinkers; The True Inquirer; Dignity of Human Nature; Political Disquisitions, etc.

DAVID JENNINGS, D. D., 1691-1762, a Dissenting clergyman, and a tutor of divinity at Coward Academy, wrote An Introduction to the Use of the Globe and the Orrery, which held its place as a popular text-book for half a century; An Introduction to the Knowledge of Medals; Jewish Antiquities, 2 vols., 8vo; The Scripture Testimony; Sermons to Gay People.

WILLIAM GUTHRIE, 1708-1770, was a Scotchman, a native of Brechin. He taught school for a time in Aberdeen, and afterwards went to London and followed authorship. He wrote A History of England, 3 vols., fol.; A History of the English Peerage, 4to; A General History of Scotland, 10 vols., 8vo; A General History of the World, 12 vols., 8vo; besides works on Geography, Chronology, etc. He wrote also several political pamphlets, and contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine.

Ferguson the Astronomer.

James Ferguson, 1710-1776, a native of Scotland, and an eminent astronomer and mechanician, rose to high distinction without any of the ordinary advantages of education.

Ferguson was taught to read by his father, who was a common day. laborer, and in the various mechanical and servile occupations in which he was employed, he picked up knowledge by scraps from one and another with whom he was associated, but he never attended any kind of school, except for a brief period. Yet such were his ingenuity and his genius that he became the inventor of many important machines, and he was at the time of his death the greatest living astronomer in a land and an age celebrated for its philosophers. His collected works, edited by Sir David Brewster, fill 5 vols., 8vo. They consist of Astronomy, Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, and made easy to those who have not studied Mathematics; Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Optics, etc.

"He was universally considered as at the head of astronomy and mathematics, in a nation of philosophers; and he might justly be styled self-taught, or rather heaventaught, for in his whole life he had not received above half a year's instruction at school." —- Encyclopædia Britannica.

RICHARD ROLT, 1724-1770, who took part in the Irish revolt of 1745, afterwards lived in London as an author. Here he published numerous songs, sketches, miscellaneous articles, and one or two operas. Among his works are several volumes of histories, such as the History of Greece, of England, of France, etc.; also the Lives of the Principal Reformers. His Dictionary of Trade and Commerce is pronounced by McCulloch, “a wretched compilation."

THOMAS DAVIES, 1712-1785, one of the minor literary celebrities of the time of Johnson, studied at the University of Edinburgh, and became author, actor, and bookseller. He was a good deal mixed up with the theatrical celebrities of the day, and was married to a famous beauty, Miss Yarrow, daughter of one of the actors. The success of Davies as an actor was but moderate, and he was driven from the stage entirely by the ridicule of Churchill:

"With him came mighty Davies:-on my life,
That Davies has a very pretty wife!

Statesman all over,-in plots famous grown,

He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone."-The Rosciad.

The want of success as a player, however, did not lack compensations. He wrote A Life of David Garrick, 2 vols., 8vo, which brought him both fame and fortune. He wrote also Lives of Sir John Davies, John Eachard, Lillo, Henderson, Massinger, and others.

WILLIAM RUFUS CHETWOOD,

1766, was connected with the dramatic literature of

his day. He wrote The Lover's Opera; Plays; A General History of the Stage; The British Theatre; A Life of Ben Jonson; Theatrical Records, etc. "A blockhead, and a measureless and bungling liar."— Steevens.

JOHN CAMPBELL, LL. D., 1708-1775, was a voluminous writer, chiefly on historical subjects.

Campbell was a native of Edinburgh, but went early to London, and made author ship his business. His principal works are: A Military History of Prince Eugene and of the Duke of Marlborough, 2 vols., folio; Lives of British Admirals, 4 vols., 8vo; Voyages and Travels, from Columbus to Anson, 2 vols., folio; The Present State of England; The Highlands of Scotland; Trade of Great Britain to America; A Political Survey of Great Britain. Ile contributed also to the Biographia Britannica and the Universal History. "I think highly of Campbell. In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second place, he has very extensive reading; not, perhaps, what is properly called learning, but history, politics, and, in short, that popular knowledge which makes a man very useful.”— Dr. Sam. Johnson.

THOMAS BIRCH, D. D., 1705–1766, was an historian and biographer of immense industry and perseverance.

Birch's first undertaking was a translation of Bayle's General Dictionary, with additions and corrections, 10 vols., folio. In this work he had several assistants. Birch also edited Lord Thurlow's Collection of State Papers, 7 vols., folio. He wrote A History of the Royal Society, with Supplements to the Philos. Transactions, 4 vols., 4to, and he left a large quantity of valuable MSS. to the British Museum.

GEORGE BALLARD, 1775, a tailor of Gloucestershire, had a great fondness for study, and received in consequence a pension and a small appointment at Oxford, which enabled him to pursue his studies. He published Memoirs of British Ladies Celebrated for their Writings or their Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, or Sciences. Sixty-two of these celebrated women are included in his Memoirs. He left a large collection of manuscripts containing his researches in the Bodleian Library.

THOMAS DILWORTH,

1780, was an English schoolmaster, whose school-books were in great vogue in the last century, both in England and in the colonies; indeed, their use in the United States continued until times within the memory of many still living. Works: Book-keeper's Assistant; Schoolmaster's Assistant; Arithmetic; Guide to the English Tongue, etc.

JOHN ENTINCK, 1713-1773, was employed by the booksellers in compiling various works: Latin and English Dictionary; The Present State of the British Empire, 4 vols., 8vo; A General History of the Late War [in America] 5 vols.; A New Naval History, fol.; A Survey and History of London, 4 vols. Entinck's Latin Dictionary had a long run. It is even still in use.

THOMAS NUGENT, 1772, is chiefly known as the compiler of Nugent's Pocket French Dictionary, a work which still retains its value, and has run through several revised editions. Mr. Nugent also translated Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, Henault's Chronological Abridgment (of the history of France), and other works.

WILLIAM KENRICK, LL. D., 1720-1779, is now known, so far as known at all, mainly by his English Dictionary.

Kenrick was a belligerent critic, who, in the pithy language of Disraeli, "could criticize all the genius of his age faster than it was produced." Kenrick succeeded in embroiling himself with almost every notable literary personage of the times, including Goldsmith, Johnson, Akenside, and Garrick. The last named, indeed, sued him for libel, in consequence of his poem called "Love in the Suds." Kenrick's principal works are his Epistles, Philosophical and Moral, his Review of Dr. Johnson's New Edition of Shakespeare, and A Dictionary of the English Language.

JOHN ASH, LL. D., 1724–1779, is likewise chiefly known by his English Dictionary, published in 1775. It is one of the standard works in the history of English lexicography. It contains a large number of words now obsolete, and many provincial and cant words.

Four Shakespearian Editors.

EDWARD CAPELL, 1713–1781, is distinguished for his labors as an editor of Shakespeare. He spent a great part of his life in the attempt to ascertain the true text and to throw light upon the meaning. Ilis Notes and Various Readings form a part of the Variorum Editions, though there is much difference of opinion as to their value.. His judgment does not appear to have been equal to his industry.

GEORGE STEEVENS, 1736-1800, has a place in literature as a commentator on Shakespeare. He was educated at Cambridge, was rich and ill-tempered, and managed for the most part to keep himself and others in a ferment. He contributed to Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Dodsley's Annual Register, and other works of that kind, and was much addicted to making anonymous attacks in the newspapers upon other authors. Johnson's and Steevens's edition of Shakespeare first appeared in 1773, in 10 vols., 8vo. This was increased and supplemented by various authors, from time to time. The sixth edition, in 1813, combining the critical labors of Johnson, Steevens, Reed, and Malone, was in 21 vols., 8vo.

EDMUND MALONE, 1741-1812, a native of Ireland, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, was a gentleman of leisure, who devoted himself to literary pursuits, and

chiefly to Shakespearian researches. He published an edition of Shakespeare, in 10 vols.; An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage, etc. Malone spent much labor on his various critical editions, but he had little judgment or taste, and his notes and criticisms are now esteemed of almost no value.

ISAAC REED, 1742-1807, is also known by his connection with Shakespearian and dramatic literature. He was a lawyer by profession, but occupied himself mostly with books. He published an edition of Shakespeare, 10 vols.; Dodsley's Old Plays, 12 vols.; contributed largely to Johnson's Lives of the Poets; and did a good deal more literary work of this kind.

II. THE NOVELISTS.

Richardson.

Samuel Richardson, 1689-1767, came before the public a little earlier than his great rival, Fielding, and is sometimes called the Father of the English Novel. But this epithet belongs more properly to the latter writer. Richardson's three novels, however, Pamela, Clarissa Harlowe, and Sir Charles Grandison, are among the memorable works of the age, and ensure to their author a permanent and honorable place in English literature.

Career. Richardson was a printer by trade, and he succeeded in gaining for himself a competency long before he ever thought of turning his attention to writing. As a boy he evinced a fondness for reading, and skill in the use of the pen, so that the young women of the village frequently employed him to write their love-letters. In this way Richardson laid the foundations for that knowledge of woman's heart and woman's ways, which afterwards stood him in such good stead. Indeed, he seems to have been, throughout life, a chatty, not to say gossipy, soul, and never so much at home as when the centre of a small circle of kind-hearted if not particularly strong-headed female admirers. The greater part of Clarissa and of Sir Charles Grandison was thus read aloud, from day to day, in manuscript, by the author dressed in his morning-cap and gown.

Works. - The composition of Pamela might almost be called an accident. Two booksellers applied to Richardson to write a small volume of letters on subjects that might be of use to country readers unable to write for themselves, or in need of advice. This volume was published under the title of Familiar Letters. While writing those of the letters which were intended to instruct handsome girls in service how to protect their virtue, the story of Pamela occurred to Richardson's mind, and was developed by him into the well-known novel. The success of Pamela aroused the emulation of Fielding, then unknown to fame, agd resulted in the publication of his Joseph

Andrews, which was intended primarily as a satire upon the sentimentalism of Pamela. Clarissa Harlowe, which soon followed Pamela, only heightened Richardson's fame, and even spread it over to the continent. Diderot, among many others, was carried away by the work. The theme is a painful one - the long averted but inevitable seduction of the heroine. Sir Charles Grandison, which divides admiration with Clarissa, is not much different in style, and may be summed up perhaps as the adventures of a very proper, moral, male flirt, and the tragic madness of an interesting woman whose intense affection is thrown away upon the hero. Pamela is simply the story of a beautiful servant who escapes all snares and marries well and happily.

Character of his Novels. In judging Richardson's merits we must take into account the age in which he lived and the circumstances under which he wrote. Before him there had been no novel; nothing but romances in imitation of the French, where the loves of princes and princesses were narrated in very vaporous and stilted language. Richardson brought the scene from the moonshine down to the earth, and was the first to give a real episode from English life, with real English men and women for actors.

Sentimentalism. — The characters in Richardson are all sentimental, and the general tone is what we might call lackadaisical. But we should bear in mind that the eighteenth century was pre-eminently the age of sentimentality. This morbid state did not reach its climax, it is true, until several years later, when Rousseau gave it final expression and immortality in his Nouvelle Heloise and his Confessions. Still, the seeds had long been sown, and the crop was fast ripening to the harvest. The state of the public mind was that of reaction from the utter frivolity of the Restoration and Queen Anne.

Morality.-Richardson, marked according to our standard, might be set down as licentious. As compared with Fielding, however, and others of his age, his works appear to great advantage, and show a distinct moral tendency. Richardson himself probably never dreamed but that he was furthering the cause of good morals; and the favor with which Pamela and Clarissa were read and recommended by the best and wisest of the day, shows us how careful we must be in our estimates of writers of works of imagination.

His Style. As a writer, Richardson is open to grave criticism. His style is not finished, in our sense of the term. There is nothing either fresh or profound about it, nor is it easy or racy. Upon the whole it may be pronounced plain. The plot is insufferably tedious, and the conversation stilted. Unlike the great master of sentimentality, Rousseau, Richardson has no truly ideal characters, and none of those concise, passionate utterances that burn with the intensity of genius. With all his defects, however, he has put English literature under heavy obligations. His works will always be read by the curious and sympathetic, and must be studied by all who wish to understand the course of English literature.

Fielding.

Henry Fielding, 1707-1754, may be considered as the true father of the English Novel. There were other writers of fiction before him, as there were other poets before Chaucer. But Fielding first showed by example the great resources and power of this species of literature,