Observer.

[From the same Work.] THE OBSERVER. Of this very valuable paper, the composition of Mr. Cumberland, it will be necessary, in the first place, to relate what the author has himself thought proper to say of its origin, progress, and character. In the Memoirs of his own Life he has favoured us with the following account: :-"I first printed two octavos (of the Observer) experimentally at our press in Tunbridge Wells; the execution was so incorrect, that I stopped the impression as soon as I had engaged my friend, Mr. Charles Dilly, to undertake the reprinting of it. He gave it a form and shape fit to meet the public eye, and the sale was encouraging. I added to the collection very largely, and it appeared in a new edition of five volumes: when these were out of print, I made a fresh arrangement of the essays, and, incorporating my entire translation of The Clouds, we edited the work thus modelled in six volumes; and these being now attached to the great edition of the British Essayists, I consider the Observer as fairly enrolled amongst the standard classics of our native language. This work, therefore, has obtained for itself an inheritance: it is fairly off my hands, and what I have to say about it will be confined to a few simple facts; I had no acknowledgments to make in my concluding essay, for I had received no aid or assistance from any man living. Every page and paragraph, except what is avowed

"I have been suspected of taking stories out of Spanish authors, and weaving them into some of these essays as my own, without acknowledging the plagiarism. One of my reviewers instances the story of Nicolas Pedrosa, and roundly asserts, that, from internal evidence, it must be of Spanish construction, and from these assumed premises leaves me to abide the odium of the inference. To this I answer with the most solemn appeal to truth and honour, that I am indebted to no author whatever, Spanish or other, for a single hint, idea, or sugges tion of an incident, in the story of Pedrosa, nor in that of the Misanthrope, nor in any other which the work contains. In the narrative of the Portuguese, who' was brought before the Inquisition, what I say of it as being matter of tradition, which I collected on the spot, is a mere fiction to give an air of credibility and horror to the tale: the whole, without exception of a syllable, is absolute and entire invention.

"I take credit to myself for the character of Abraham Abrahams; I wrote it upon principle, thinking it high time that something should be done for that persecuted race; I seconded my appeal to the charity of mankind, by the character of Sheva, which I copied from this of Abrahams. The public prints gave the Jews credit for their sensibility in acknowledging my well-intended services: my friends gave me joy of honorary presents, and some even accused me of ingratitude for not Y y 4

making

my thanks for cace. I will speak us point; I do most they had flattered ... soave token, however which I might have said, is a tribute to my philanand delivered it down to dren, as my beloved father Na to me his badge of favour from the citizens of Dublin; but not a word from the lips, not a ne did I ever receive from the pen of any Jew, though I have found myself in company with many of their nation; and in this perhaps the gentlemen are quite right, whilst I had formed expectations that were quite wrong; for if I have said for them only what they deserve, why should I be thanked for it? But if I have said more, much more, than they deserve, can they do a wiser thing than hold their tongues?

"I think it cannot be supposed but that the composition of the Observer must have been a work of time and labour; I trust there is internal evidence of that, particularly in that portion of it which professes to review the literary age of Greece, and gives a history of the Athenian stage. That seJies of papers will, I hope, remain as a monument of my industry in collecting materials, and of my correctness in disposing them; and when I lay to my heart the consolation I derive from the honours now bestowed upon me at the close of my career, by one, who is only in the first outset of his, what have I not to augur for myself, when he who starts with such auspicious promise has been pleased to take my fame in hand,

and link it to his own? If any of my readers are yet to seek for the author to whom I allude, the Comicorum Græcorum fragmenta quædam will lead them to his name, and him to their respect.

"If I cannot resist the gratification of inserting the paragraph (page 7), which places my dim lamp between those brilliant stars of classic lustre, Richard Bentley and Richard Porson, am I to be set down as a conceited vain old man? Let it be so!--I cannot help it, and in truth I don't much care about it. Though the following extract may be the weakest thing that Mr. Robert Walpole, of Trinity College, Cambridge, ever has written, or ever shall write, it will outlive the strongest thing that can be said against it, and I will therefore arrest and incorporate it, as follows: Aliunde quoque haud exiguum ornamentum huic volumini accepit, siquidem Cumberlandius nostras amicè benevolèque permisit, ut versiones suas quorundam fragmentorum, exquisitas sane illas, mirâque elegantià conditas et commendatas huc transferrem.""

Forty numbers of the Observer in an octavo volume, and printed at Tunbridge Wells, were published in London in 1785. This collection being well received, both by the public and the critics, it was reprinted by Dilly, the succeeding year, in three volumes, crown 8vo. with such numerous additions as augmented the numbers to 93. In 1788, a fourth volume was given; and in 1790, the fifth and last. Of this arrangement in five volumes, a new impression was published in 1791,

which is the edition in my possession, extending to 153 essays. The Observer, in six volumes, appeared in 1798; in 1803, it was incorporated with the British Essayists; and in 1808 it was reprinted in three vols. 12mo.

The essays which compose these interesting volumes, may be classed under the appellations of Literary, Critical, and Narrative; Humorous, Moral, and Religious.

To the Literary papers, which amount to about forty in number, we are indebted for the most original feature in the work. These include, together with some account of the civil history of Greece, a compressed and connected detail of Grecian poetry, from the earliest era to the death of Menander. The research has been particularly directed to the remains of the Greek dramatists, and more especially to the writers of the Old, the Middle, and the New Comedy. Of these, the fragments, which the desolating hand of Time has spared, have been translated with uncommon felicity by Mr. Cumberland, and merit the eulogium which Mr. Walpole has so happily expressed. The easy and flowing metrical style of Fletcher and Massinger furnished Mr. Cumberland with an appropriate model for his version, which he has imitated with fidelity and spirit. The patience and persevering labour required for the due execution of this task, may be estimated from the declaration of the Observer, that it was his ambition to give the world "a complete collection of the beauties of the Greek stage, in our own lon

guage, from the remains of more than fifty comic poets."

The papers strictly Critical, in the Observer, amount to seventeen, of which eleven are devoted to the consideration of dramatic character and conduct. Among these, the contrast between the characters of Macbeth and Richard; the parallel between Æschylus and Shakespeare; the observations on Falstaff and his group; and the comparative review of Rowe's Fair Penitent with the Fatal Dowry of Massinger; are peculiarly interesting and conclusive. The essay on style, in No. 133, contains many just remarks on the diction of Addison and Johnson; with the judicious recommendation of the former as the safer model for the student. The character of Mr. Cumberland's own style, indeed, partakes much more of the elegant and idiomatic simplicity of Addison, than of the elaborate, though splendid, composition of Johnson; with the exception of a few phrases, which are too flat and colloquial, it is easy, fluent, aud

cortect.

Of the Narrative portion of the Observer, which occupies no smali share of the work, it is impossible not to speak highly. Powerful invention, strong delineation of character, and adherence to cos. tume, distinguish the greater part. of our author's fictions. The stories of Abdullah and Zarima; of Chaubert, the Misanthrope; of the Portugues Gentleman who

died by the rack; of Ned Drowsy, and of Nicholas Pedrosa, may be instanced as fully supporting the opinion that we have advanced;

the

the last two more especially abound in the richest traits both of pathos and humour.

There are many papers, likewise, in the Observer, which may more exclusively be termed Humorous; such as the Letters from Mr. Jedediah Fish, in Nos. 45 and 69; the Letter from Rusticus, in No. 80; the Letter from Posthumous, in No. 92; the Characters of Simon Sapling and Billy Simper, in Nos. 129, 131, and 132; the Adventures of Kit Cracker, in No. 134; and the Letter from Tom Tortoise, in No. 149. These, and others of a similar kind, very agreeably relieve the literary and didactic portion of the work; and at the same time exhibit a knowledge of the world, its follies, and eccentricities.

It may be affirmed of this periodical paper, very highly to its credit, that almost every part of it, either directly or indirectly, possesses a Moral tendency; a considerable number of essays is avowedly appropriated to subjects of this kind, subjects calculated to improve the manners and meliorate the heart; and even in those which are set apart for literary and critical inquiry, great care has been taken to render them, in almost every instance, subservient to the best purposes of virtue and instruction.

No should we fail to notice, that some papers of great value, strong in argument, and curious in research, are devoted to Religious topics. The comparison of Pythagoras with Christ, in No. 12; the defence of our Saviour's Miracles, in No. 13; the morality of Christianity, as compared with that of natural religion, in No. 83; and an argument for the evidences of the Christian religion, in No.93; together with three papers in volume the fourth, in answer to the cavils and objections of David Levi, are of this kind, and impress us with a deep sense of the piety of their author.

The Observer, though the sole labour of an individual, is yet rich in variety, both of subject and manner; in this respect, indeed, as well as in literary interest, and in fertility of invention, it may be classed with the Spectator and Adventurer; if interior to the latter in grandeur of fiction, or to the former in delicate irony and dramatic unity of design, it is wealthier in its literary fund than either, equally moral in its views, and as abundant in the creation of incident. I consider it, therefore, with the exception of the papers just mentioned, as superior in its powers of attraction, to every other periodical composition.

POETRY.