Illustrated with Cuts, and a great variety of Charts and Maps relative to Countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known." 4to. 3 vols.

In order that a work which might properly be termed national should appear with every requisite illustration, Government withheld no necessary expence. Dr. Hawkesworth had the princely remuneration of six thousand pounds; and the charts, engravings, and maps, were executed in a very splendid, and, with a few exceptions, in a very correct, manner. The first volume includes the journals of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, and the second and third are occupied by the still more interesting voyage of Cook.

The merits and defects of Hawkesworth in the execution of this work are very prominent. Of his fidelity, as to matter of fact, there can be no doubt, since the manuscript of each voyage was submitted to the perusal of the respective commanders, and received their correction and approbation; the literary texture too is elegant, animated, and graceful.

Of the faults which have disfigured this publication, one may be deemed venial, and was to be apprehended from the previous studies and character of the man; though the narrative is given in the first person, the colouring of the style, and

many of the observations, reflections, and descriptions, are such as clearly indicate their origin, and betray the disciple of the portico with all his professional acquirements.

Incongruities arising from this source, though they break in upon the verisimilitude which was meant to be supported, were readily forgiven; but who could have expected from the director of female education, from the author of the Adventurer, from the dignified defender of morality and religion, the metaphysical reveries, the licentious paintings, of the sceptic and the voluptuary!

To the charge of inaccuracy, of nautical mistake, or defective science, he was ready and willing to reply; but against the strong and numerous accusations of impiety and indecency, against the flagrant proofs, as taken from his preface and his journals, of his denial of a special providence, and of his wanton pictures of sensuality, he was unable to defend himself.

To the vexations which he hourly experienced from these attacks, many of which took their source rather from a spirit of malignity than a love of virtue and moral order, was added the extreme mortification of being rendered accessory to the purposes of the most abandoned depravity; for shortly after the publication of his

Voyages, notice was given by the infamous editors of: E a certain magazine, that "All the amorous passages and descriptions in Dr. Hawk~ -th's Collection of Voyages should be selected, and illustrated by a suitable plate," a threat which was immediately after carried into execution; and thus was the Doctor condemned, after a life hitherto spent in the support of piety and morality, to subserve the iniquitous designs of the ministers of lewdness and debauchery.

That Hawkesworth ever meant, by his doubts, his queries, and descriptions, to shock belief, or inflame the passions, cannot be admitted. His practice was correct, but his theory, both in philosophy and theology, was often inconsistent and unsettled; and he was apt to indulge himself in speculations, the ultimate tendency and bearings of which, could he have accurately appreciated them, he would have shrunk from with abhorrence/ His descriptions of sensual indulgence too, though probably correct representations, were, he should have reflected, not calculated for a popular work; there was no necessity for their introduction; and the language in which they were clothed, by veiling, in a great measure, the grossness of the imagery, rendered the poison more subtle and pernicious.

The sensibility of Hawkesworth was keen, and

easily wounded; he felt through every nerve the envenomed weapons of his accusers, and his peace of mind was destroyed for ever. No addition to his income or his consequence could now soothe his feelings; for though his circumstances were comparatively affluent, and he had the unprecedented honour of being chosen, on account of his literary talents, a director of the East-India Company, in April, 1773, he died, exhausted by chagrin, and disappointment, on the 16th of the November following. He was buried in the Church of Bromley, in Kent, where, on an elegant marble, is the subsequent inscription, part of which, as the reader will immediately perceive, is taken from the last number of the Adventurer.

Of the present age;.

That he laboured for the benefit of Society,
Let his own pathetic admonitions

Record and Realize.

The hour is hasting, in which whatever praise.. " or censure I have acquired, will be remembered

"with equal indifference.-Time, who is impa-
"tient to date my last paper, will shortly moulder
"the hand which is now writing it in the dust,
" and still the breast that now throbs at the re-
"flection. But let not this be read as something
"that relates only to another; for a few years
only can divide the eye that is now reading, from
"the hand that has written."

Dr. Hawkesworth was, if not a man of deep learning, sufficiently acquainted with the classical and modern languages to maintain the character of an elegant scholar. His writings, with the exception of his last ill-fated work, have a tendency uniformly conducive to the interests of virtue and religion; and we may add, that the errors of that unfortunate production must be attributed rather to a defect of judgment, than to a dereliction of principle.

His imagination was fertile and brilliant, his diction pure, elegant, and unaffected; he possessed a sensibility which too often wounded himself, but which rendered him peculiarly susceptible of the emotions of pity, of friendship, and of love. He was in a high degree charitable, humane, and benevolent; his manners were polished and affable, and his conversation has been described as uncommonly fascinating; as combining instruction and entertainment with a