EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
705
1760, Feb. 1. 7%e Miuical Magazine, No. 1.
1760, March 1. The Universal Review; or, a critical commentary on the literary productions of these kingdoms. No. 1 .
1760, Aug. 1 . The Lady"! Muteum ; consist- ing of a course of female education, and a variety of other particulars for the information and amusement of the ladies; by the author of the Female QiUxole, [Charlotte Lennox*] No. 1.
1760, March. The Friend, twice a week.
1760, April I. The Monthly Melody, No. 1.
1760, June. The ChritHan't Magazine, edited by Dr. William Dodd, whose dissipated life and disgraceful death are sufBcienllv known to the public.f He was also the conductor and chief author of the Visitor, which was inserted in the Public Ledger during the years 1760 and 1761. Dodd was assisted in the composition of these papers by several of his friends, among whom were Mr. Thompson and Mr. Duncombe. The Visitor, as it appears in volumes, consists of eighty-five numbers, of which very few rise above mediocrity, either in style or matter.
1760. The Citizen of the World, which, though termed Letters, have very little claim to that ap- pellation. They are in number one hundred and twenty-two. By Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. He also, in this year, engaged in another periodical work, called the Gentleman's Journal, in which he was assisted by the communications of various writers; notwithstanding all their efibrts, it soon ceased to exist, dying, as Goldsmith phrased it, " of too numy doctors." " The periodical writings of Dr. Goldsmith are possessed of great, and marked excellence. Their style is inferior to no compo- sitions in the language ; it is remarkably unaf- fected, easy, and elegant; whilst,at thesame time, it is correct in its construction, and plastic in its powei-s of adaptation. Wit,humour,imaginatioD, and pathos, by turns relieve and interest the reader ■of these essays, who experiences during their pe- rusal asingularfascination,arising from the pecu- liar manner or naivete of the writer." — Drake.
1760. 7^ Schemer. This paper was origi- nally published in the London Chronicle, at various periods, for more than two years; and in
- This ingenioiu lady was born at New Yorki and
besides the Female Quixote^ was Uie aathor of several novels ; the Sister , a comedy. ShaktpeareiUuainUed, three vols. l2ino., Tranalatitms of Sullj/*t Memoirs^ and Bur. ney's Greek Theatre. She died Jauoary 4, 1804. In dis- tressed circumstances.
t William Dodd was born at Bourne, in Uncolnstalre, (of which perish his father was vicar,) May 29, 1729, and received his education at Clare Hall, Cambridge ; and in 1753, entering into orders, became a popnlar preacher in the metropolis. In 176fi, he took the degree of LL.D., at which time he was cluiplaiD to the king. The estimation in which he was held by the world, was soffldent to give him expectations of preferment, and hopes of riches and honour, and these he mi|(ht probably have acquired, had he possessed a common portion of prudence and discretion. But impatient of his situation, and eager for preferment, he rashly fell upon means which in the end were the occasion of his ruin. To extricate himself from those difficulties in which he was involved, he forged a bond for aSi.ViO, upon the earl of Chesterfield, to whom he had been tutor ; the fraud being discovered, he was tried and -condemned, February a4, 1777, and executed the S7th of June following, at Tybom. He was the aathor of several works of merit.
1763'it was reprinted in one volume ISmo. with the following title-page: The Schemer; or. Universal Satirist, by that great phUosephtr Helter Van Skelter. The author of this whim- sical but entertaining work was the rev. James Ridley, author of the Tales of the Genii, and the eldest son of the rer. Dr. iSloucester Ridley.* Mr. James Ridley died whilst attending his duty as chaplain to a marching regiment at the siege of Belleisleinl761.
1760, Oct. 25. Died, George II. king of England, whose character may be summed up in a few words : he exhibited no glaring vice, nor did he practice any great virtue ; neither was he an encourager of literature or the arts. He was born at Hanover October 30, 1683 ; created prince of Wales on the accession of his father to the English throne ; proclaimed king of England June 16, 1727; and crowned with nis queen, at Westminster, October 11, in thesame year.
In taking a review of the progress of literature during the reign of George II. we shall find that the commercial intercourse of Great Britain had rapidly increased, and had given rise to various alterations in our mode of living, and to charac- ters which had not hitherto subsisted. The dissi- pation and manners of the metropolis, which during the reign of queen Anne, had few oppor- tunities bf spreading far beyond the capital that gave them birth, possessed at this period a free and rapid access to every quarter of the kingdom. The state also both of the capital and the country bad received great modification from the wide dissemination of literature. To be acquainted with letters was now no longer a disgrace to the fine gentleman ; classical studies, indeed, were deemed necessary to all whose circumstances placed them above manual labour ; and ladies, to whom spelling and writing had been formerly acquisitions of great magnitude, were very uni- versal partakers of the most elegant refinements of education ; and they had but badly read the signs of the times, who did not pj^rceive that a great moral revolution had commenced in the world, of which the increased influence of the press was at once a cause and effect ; a cause, ibr it had generated a spirit of enquiry, " whose appetite increaseth by that which it feedeth upon ;" an effect, for the new wants that were thus created, and opened new marts for the dis- posal of literary wares — demands, as usual, being followed by supply. This may absolutely be considered as forming a kind of^ literary epocha. In nothing was this more conspicuous than in the wide and extended distribution of literary in- telligence, which is to be attributed, in great part, to the introduction of the monthly magazines ; for until newspapers, magazines, reviews, and cyclopsedias, were established, the people, even the middle classes, could not fairly be said to have possessed themselves of the keys of know- ledge. Previous to Cave's projection, periodicals were few in numbers, and mostly confined to
- Dr. Oloncester Ridley, died November 3, 1774, aced
7* yean.— See Nichols's LOemrg Aneedota, vol. 1. p. S41.
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