436 Essay on
��was left to languish in poverty, the particulars of his life almost unknown, and scarce a vestige of him left except his immortal poem x . Had there been an Academy of Literature, the lives, at least, of those celebrated persons would have been written for the benefit of posterity. Swift, it seems, had the idea of such an institution, and proposed it to Lord Oxford 2 ; but Whig and Tory were more important objects. It is needless to dissemble, that Dr. Johnson, in the Life of Roscommon, talks of the inutility of such a project. * In this country/ he says, ' an Academy could be expected to do but little. If an academician's place were profitable, it would be given by interest ; if attendance were gratuitous, it would be rarely paid, and no man would endure the least disgust. Unanimity is impossible, and debate would separate the assembly.' To this it may be sufficient to answer, that the Royal Society has not been dissolved by sullen disgust ; and the modern Academy at Somerset-house has already performed much, and promises more 3 . Unanimity is not neces sary to such an assembly. On the contrary, by difference of opinion, and collision of sentiment, the cause of Literature would thrive and flourish. The true principles of criticism, the secret of fine writing, the investigation of antiquities, and other interest ing subjects, might occasion a clash of opinions ; but in that con tention Truth would receive illustration, and the essays of the several members would supply the Memoirs of the Academy. But, says Dr. Johnson, ' suppose the philological decree made and promulgated, what would be its authority ? In absolute govern ments there is sometimes a general reverence paid to all that
1 ' In this mist of obscurity passed last summer of Macaulay's life, the life of Butler, a man whose name says : ' I remember our sitting at can only perish with his language. the window through the best part The mode and place of his education of an afternoon, looking across Win- are unknown ; the events of his life dermere, and drawing up under his are variously related, and all that can superintendence a list of forty names be told with certainty is that he was for an imaginary English Academy.' poor.' Works, vii. 148. Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed. 1877, ii.
- Ib. vii. 167 ; viii. 202. See also 477.
for correcting, Q^c., the English for the first time held its Exhibition
Tongue. Works, ed. 1803, vi. 43. in Somerset House. Letters, ii.
Sir G. Trevelyan, describing the 150.
has
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