with fuccefs, there is none more certain of meeting its punishment. The words of the poet are in general, with refpect to it, verified: "Rarò antecedentem fcetestum "Deferuit pede pcena claudo." Where guilt precedes, we feldom find That limping vengeance lags behind. It is, perhaps, prefumption in me to attempt to fay any thing new on a fubject which has employed the pens of fo many able writers; but I think I have noticed fome fpecies of this folly which have not been fufficiently expofed to the fhafts of ridicule; and thefe I fhall briefly mention. As for you, Mifs, I fhall not take your cafe under my confideration, former authors having treated of it with fuch ability: I thall, therefore, refer you to the XXXVIIIth Number of the Spectator, where you will find it very minutely defcribed. A-propos, I would advise you to perufe with attention the whole eight volumes of that work; I can affure you it will do you no ferious injury, and be almost as inftructive as a cut-and patte novel from the manufactory in Leadenhall-ftreet. I may extend this recommendation to the fair inhabitants of most of the boarding schools near the metropolis, which may be called, without much injuftice, fchools for teaching Affecta. tion. The firft fpecies I fhall mention is, Affectation of Philofophy. This, although not very common, is the most fucceísful; for on fome it has bestowed immortality. I cannot boaft, that, among my acquaintances, there is any affected in this manner, as the title of a philofopher is not a very general object of ambition; but allow me the fcope of ancient and modern times, and I can produce innumerable inftances. A few hall fuffice. I think it was this made Diogenes live in a tub, and Empedocles on the top of Mount Etna. To this caufe, alfo, I affign the tears of Heraclitus, and the laughter of Democritus. I am tempted to add to thefe ancient examples the modern Polytheism of Thus we fee, particularly in the last inftance, that great talents, great virtue, and great learning, may be depreciated in value by a fmall alloy of vanity. It is furprising fuch evident marks of Affectation as I have produced fhould ever have been confidered as the effects of philofophy. Affectation of Singularity has likewife been too fuccefstul; for, if it has not gained applause, it has often escaped without merited cenfure. Those who are affected in this manner do not pretend, like the former, to act through the convictions of reafon; but they pretend to defpife public opinion, and are determined to act contrary to it, whatever be the confequences. Conformity to the manners of our native country, in matters of fmall importance, is certainly the duty of every one; and those who deviate far from them, without affigning good reasons, may very juftly be confidered as offering a public infult, and as flaves to Affectation. This fpecies difplays itself in a variety of ways. Some are fingular in drefs: thus Chitus is not yet thirty years of age, and yet, by his appearance, one would fuppofe him at least fifty. He is commonly dreffed in a fky-blue coat, with old-fashioned lapelles, covered with buttons as big as a crown-piece: he wears a large cocked hat, filk breeches, and an embroidered filk waistcoat; instead of itrings in his fhoes, he wears a small pair of buckles. Aik Clitus the reafon, he will anfwer, "Fashions were made for fools; utility is my fathion." True, friend Clitus; and when you can convince me a cocked hat is more ufeful than a round one, or buckles eafier than ftrings, I fhall immediately clofe the difpute; but until that time, I fhall treat you with the contempt your affectation deferves. Eccentricity is fo common, that some people fuppofe it a trait in our national character. I know one Gentleman famous for eating raw eggs to breakfalt, and another for wearing a traw hat. It is unneceffary to particularite examples, as molt people can fupply them from their own perfonal knowledge; but, in fhort, I confider all that claís of Gentlemen who are denominated Odd Fellows, Queer Fellows, Strange Fellows, or Eccentric Fellows, as guilty of a high degree of Affectation, or deranged in intellect. The third, and lait, fpecies I fhall at prefent mention is, an Affectation of Employment. My friend Tom Loiter is the moft perfect example of this. He is continually at a lofs how to spend his time; for he has just enough of property to permit idlenefs, and has not fufficient exertion to enter into buli. nefs, or taste enough to employ him 66 felf without it. Notwithstanding this, if you ask Tom to dine with you, he bas either fome business to tranfact on, Change," or a "pre-engagement at the other end of the town. Tom acts thus through principle: he thinks by this method to make his company valued; but he should recollect, the value of a diamond arifes not wholly from its scarcity, but from its many unrivalled qualities. The perfon who, quite the reverfe of Tom, is always employed, and yet wishes to be thought constantly idle, is equally an example of Affectation. I fhall not, however, enlarge on his character, as I think I have feen it pour trayed by a more mafterly pencil. I could mention feveral other kinds of this folly quite as abfurd; but am happy to fay, in general, they need not my humble afliftance to expofe them. Every one, on confideration of the fubject, must be convinced of the imprudence of affuming characters which we are not qualified to fupport. Wif dom directs a very different course. If we are ambitious of poffefling an accomplishment within our power, let us earnestly endeavour to attain it; but until we have gained that end, let us freely own our deficiency. If the accomplishment we defire is beyond our attainment, let us not ridiculously strive after it, but examine our own faculties, and we fhall probably find some quality which, by induftrious improvement, may acquire a fplendour fufficient to render our defect unnoticed. The perfon is peculiarly unfortunate who poffeffes no fuch improveable quality, for nature has not often been fo partially, fevere. That beauty whom we difcover to be painted, though her features be exquifitely correct and elegant, feldom becomes an object of real attachment; but the artlets fair one, who appears with unaided natural charms, though, perhaps, we do not perceive in the that exquifite fymmetry, delights the eye, fatisfies reafon, and unalterably fixes the heart. May 1803, HERANIO. LIFE OF WILLIAM FALCONER. WILLIAM FALCONER was born at Edinburgh about the year 1735. His father, after having for many years followed the occupation of a barber and wig-maker in the Netherbow, was unfortunately reduced to a ftate of infolvency. The contributions of his friends afterwards enabled him to open a grocer's fhop: but he was either a man of mean capacity or of an indolent difpofition; for upon his being deprived, by the death of his wife, of a prudent and active coadjutor, his affairs were again deranged. The greater part of his life feems to have been spent in extreme indigence. His fon was educated at the private fchool of Mr. Webster, a teacher of little reputation. The period of his attendance, and the extent of his progrefs, cannot now be alcertained; but, from the poverty of his parents, we may fafely conclude, that he was foon releafed from the restraint of fcholaftic difcipline. Genius is a hardy plant of irregular growth: it fometimes fprouts with the fudden nefs of the hawthorn, and fometimes rifes with the flow gradation of the oak. In his earlier years, Falconer exhibited no marks of unusual capacity, but, on the contrary, was generally regarded as a youth of unpromising parts. The intellectual faculties of feveral other men who at length rofe to literary eminence, were equally flow in their pro grefs towards maturity. It would ap pear, therefore, that from the degree of facility with which a boy performs his: fcholaftic exercifes, we cannot always form a correct estimate of his future attainments. At an early period of life, the mif.. fortunes of his family compelled him to abandon his native country, and to enter himfelf as a failor in the royal navy. While he continued in this itation, he is faid to have attracted the notice of Mr. Campbell, the author of Lexiphanes, who was Purier of the hip to which he belonged. It is farther stated, that Campbell entertained him as his fervant, and delighted in communicating to him what knowledge he himself poffeffed. The profeffion which powerful neceffity had led him to embrace, was by no means congenial to his temper of mind. Of his own fevere destiny he fpeaks in a very interesting man ner: dreadful storm arofe; and at length the vessel truck upon a rock near Cape Colonna, on the Coast of Greece. Of the hip's company, Falconer and other two were the only individuals who had the good fortune to reach the shore. This melancholy event forms the fubject of his celebrated poem entitled the Shipwreck; which was published in 1762, and dedicated to Edward Duke of While yet a ftripling, oft with fond York, one of the brothers of his prefent Majefty. alarms His bofom danc'd to Nature's boundless blaft, The bloffom wither'd, and the dawn o'er- Forlorn of heart, and, by fevere decree, Though this boisterous profeffion may, in too many inftances, tend to blunt the fofter feelings of humanity, yet it cannot be fuppofed to effect a complete affimilation of character in thofe by whom it is exercifed. The poetical mind of Falconer, it is to be prefumed, was untainted by the forrounding contagion. The conitancy of intellectual exertion might preferve his faculties in a ftate of uninterrupted falubrity; as the fea is prevented, by its perpetual motion, from falling into putrefcency and flag nation. Upon revisiting Edinburgh in the year 1751, he published a poem Sacred to the Memory of his Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales. In the eighteenth year of his age we find him wandering about the port of Alexandria. Here he was engaged as Second Mate of the Britannia, a merchantman bound for Venice. While they proceeded on their voyage, a The hands which had been employed not found unfkilful in the management in adjusting the braces of a fhip, were genius role fuperior to the untoward of the golden plectrum. His native and the poem was immediately recircumstances incident to his ftation; merit. Such an unprecedented union garded as a production of fingular of poetical ingenuity with nautical fcience could not poffibly meet with a cold reception. During the life of the author it underwent feveral editions, the last of which varied confiderably from the firit; but, as a very judicious and rational critic has obferved, "it may reafonably be doubted, whether it has been improved in the fame proportion as it has been lengthened. There is frequently a copious fimplicity in firft defigns that no afterthought or labour can amend; an irregular beauty that every alteration mutt efface. In lengthening works, an author is apt to fall into repetitions, or to increase the number of words, without adding to the number or energy of the thoughts t." During this year his fong entitled the Fond Lover appeared in the St. James's Magazine for the month of October. After the publication of the Sipwreck, he paid a final visit to Scotland. He refided for fome time at the manfe of Gladfmuir, which was then poffeffed by his illuftrious kinfman Dr. Robert. fon. This great hiftorian, whose father was the coufin-german of old Falconer, feems to have been proud to acknow * Currie's Burns, Vol. II. p. 289.-Dr. Currie received this information from a Surgeon of a man of war, who was perfonally acquainted with both Falconer and Campbell. It must not, however, be implicitly received. What the fame Gentleman communicated respecting Falconer's birth, and the place of his nativity, is altogether erroneous. This palpable inaccuracy will incline us to view the whole account with a fufpicious eye. Yet Dr. Currie is by no means to be charged with precipitate credulity: the Surgeon whofe authority he quotes, undoubtedly related the anecdotes in a manner which left no room to fufpect the authenticity of his information. + Anderfon's Life of Falconer. ledge ledge his relation to the ingenious felf. taught poet. The patronage of the Prince to whom he had infcribed his work, procured him the purferfhip of the Royal George, a firit-rate man of war. His gratitude for this inftance of royal favour prompted him to compofe an Ode on the Duke of York's fecond Departure from England as Rear-Admiral. Towards the conclufion of the poem, he thus addrefles his benefactor: No happy fon of wealth or fame To court a royal patron came: A hapless youth, whofe vital page Was one fad lengthen'd tale of woe, Where ruthless fate, impelling tides of rage, Bade wave on wave in dire fucceffion flow; time was in poffeffion of fome fituation in the Navy Pay-office. The truth of this fuppofition may, perhaps, be ascertained at fome future period. In 1769 he published the Marine Dictionary, a work of the utmoft utility to the ftudents of naval tactics. His chequered life was now advancing towards a close., In the courfe of the fame year, the reflefs fpirit of adventure impelled him to embark on board the Aurora, with a view of fettling in the Eaft Indies. She arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the month of December, and, after a fhort interval, again proceeded on her voyage, but never reached the defired port. The veffel, together with its ill fated crew, is fuppofed to have perished by fire or ftorm. His untimely death left his widow To glittering ftars, and titled names, in a ftate little removed from indi unknown, Preferr'd his fuit to thee alone. The tale you facred pity mov'd; You felt, confented, and approv'd. In 1766 he published the Demagogue, under the affumed name of Theophilus Thorn. This is a political fatire directed against a certain party whom he regards in the light of incendiaries. Among other zealous partizans, he alfails the virulent Churchill, a writer of verfes who once enjoyed a reputation which his uncouth ftrains were by no means adequate to fupport. The evident intention of this fatire was to court the favour of adminiftration. It is probable that his political zeal was not totally unrewarded. The advertitement to an edition of the Shipwreck published in the last year of his life, is dated from Somerfet Houfe; a circumftance which affords room for conjecturing that he at that gence. The relations of Mrs. Falconer, whofe maiden name was Hicks, had been averfe from her forming a matrimonial connection with a Scottish adventurer, and were never completely reconciled to her after her marriage. From them, therefore, the derived little, or perhaps no, affiftance. In confideration of the rapid fale of the Marine Dictionary, Mr. Cadell, bookfeller, in London, prefented her, from time to time, with liberal pecuniary prefents. Her other refources are not accurately known. Having never born any children, fhe was fortunately unencumbered with the cares of a family. She died at Bath a few years ago. He had a brother and a fifter, both of whom were born deaf and dumb. The fitter is ftill living in Edinburgh: the is a conftant refidentiary in the Royal Infirmary. ESSAY ON DUELLING.. cr BY THE AUTHOR OF THE ESSAYS AFTER THE MANNER OF GOLDSMITH." "Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.” IN writing on the fubject of Duelling, I am aware of the many prejudices 'created and eltablithed in the minds of the clafs of people called Gentlemen, by the obitinate growth of pernicious fashions and examples which I fhall neceffarily have to encounter; but as it is my defign to treat with respect the nice and delicate fenfations, the fprings and caufes, of that dangerous and deftructive cultom, and as I come prepared to treat the fubject in a way that may radically cure fo overgrown an evil, and prevent the neceflity of Bell's Fugitive Poetry, Vol. XV. p. 157. fuch fuch interferences, I trust that my reafonings will be made welcome, and treated with candour. I have, therefore, in the firit place, carefully examined the nature and properties of honour, and have found it to be, in fact, no more than polifhed honesty, that is, honefty ornamented by the polith of education. Thence it will not be very difficult to fettle and determine the proper powers and authorities of that fovereign ruler over human conduct in the upper ranks of the people; and the happy refult will be, that Duelling will become folely the outrageous refource of brainlefs coxcombs and ignorant brutes, who cannot better advantage fociety than by killing each other off in thefe encounters, and "whofe fpace may be always better fupplied when they have made it empty." Much has been ineffectually faid on the fubject of Duelling, and many new and ingenious tribunals created in the imaginations of the well-meaning to prevent its practice; fuch as, making it felony without benefit of clergy, the eftablishment of courts of honour, &c. &c. but thefe are theories against which the strong character of a people revolts; and the fame punishment that would destroy the crime would deftroy the noble nature of the Englishman in the fervices in which he is wanted, and perhaps leave him without those energies fo highly neceffary to the protection of his country. Every one feels indignant at the taming of a lion. There is an high fenfe of honour in the Army and Navy that will not fubmit an infult offered to the difcuffion of punning Barristers and ignorant Juries, who are too apt to treat as light and contemptible the feelings of the poor, Gentleman, who, if it were not for this appeal, would become the make-game of every rich and powerful coxcomb. The reader will begin to think that I am the advocate of the Duellift. It is not fo; but I am aware, that in Duelling men act right upon wrong principles; and therefore fomething is to be reftored, fome portion of love and charity, fome juft and proper eftimate of. the mutual bleffings of benevolence neceffary to the reciprocal happiness of fociety that has been loft or neglected; and which may induce more courteous deportments and milder Manners among men. It is reafonable to think, that frict laws against Duelling would only increase the evil, and would be no fooner made than repealed, from their feve. rity. The Noble Judge who endea voured to make a levere example of the adulterer, only increased the crime of adultery; a fact well known. He was not aware that a moral contemplation of the crime would be superceded by an estimate of the probable damages in Westminster-hall. Thus thefe fentences became merely a new fpecies of papal indulgencies, which allowed the offender to do any thing he pleafed, if he paid well for it. How, then, are these things to be set to rights, better than by taking a larger portion of peace and good-will into fociety; let us be more like brothers, and the arrogancies of high birth or fortune will be softened by just and natural reflections on our true condition. There is nothing wanting but established principles of love and cha rity to make us carefully avoid giving pain to others, or too haftily judging ourselves offended. The reafon why duels are not near fo frequent in the Navy as in the Army is, that in the former men live, as it were, in the fame house, are together day and night, partners in the fame perils and dangers, and bred up, as it were, in a school together. Thus the word fhipmate acts as a charm that foftens the ruggednefs of their natures to each other; and the rough manners of the feamen are admirably governed by a warm and honeft brotherly love, that feldom permits great outrages, and is always ready to forgive. In the army the fame high fenfe of honour exifts, unchecked by like circumftances: men are not fo well acquainted with each other; they go fre quently from one regiment into another: enfigns are not bred up toge ther like Midshipmen; and the man. ners of modern foldiers are more tainted with the fashionable vices of the times. The manners appear to have undergone an entire change within half a century; and the character that then constituted a Gentleman is nearly extinet: he ufed, in thofe days, to wear a fword; but it was merely to diftinguish his clafs in fociety, and was feldom or never ufed offenfively: he was known by being mild, affable, and courteous, |