memory of his predecessor ; and though his harangue was deco rated with the colours of eloquence, and was, for that reason, called panegyric, yet being pronounced before qualified judges, who knew the talents, the conduct, and morals of the deceased, the speaker could not, with propriety, wander into the regions of fiction. The truth was known, before it was adorned \ The Academy saw the marble, before the artist polished it. But this country has had no Academy of Literature. The public mind, for centuries, has been engrossed by party and faction ; by the madness of many for the gain of a few* ; by civil wars, religious dissentions, trade and commerce, and the arts of accumulating wealth. Amidst such attentions, who can wonder that cold praise has been often the only reward of merit ? In this country Doctor Nathaniel Hodges, who, like the good bishop of Mar seilles, drew purer breath 3 amidst the contagion of the plague in London, and, during the whole time, continued in the city, administering medical assistance, was suffered, as Johnson used to relate with tears in his eyes, to die for debt in a gaol 4 . In this country, the man who brought the New River to London was ruined by that noble project 5 ; and in this country Otway died for want on Tower Hill 6 ; Butler, the great author of Hudibras, whose name can only die with the English language,
1 Hannah More in 1786 read 'an Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 107. Eloge on the humility of the Virgin ' In the plague of Marseilles, in the Mary, ' delivered at the Academic year 1720, the Bishop distinguished Frangaise by one of the Quarante. himself by his zeal and activity, being Mons. Tourreuil informs her [the the pastor, the physician, and the Virgin] that her humility is still magistrate of his flock whilst that further rewarded, by her having the horrid calamity prevailed.' NOTE honour of being made the subject BY WARTON.
for the prize of eloquence by the most 4 Life, ii. 341, n. 3.
enlightened Academy in the world.' 5 ' Myddelton, though never a rich
More's Memoirs, ii. 44. man, and much impoverished by his
2 ' Party is the madness of many work on the New River, was enabled for the gain of a few.' Pope, Thoughts to end his days in comfort, and on Various Subjects. Warton's Pope's leave a respectable patrimony to his Works, 1822, vi. 381. children.' Colonel Myddelton, whom
3 'Why drew Marseille's good Johnson visited at Gwaynynog (*/<?,
bishop purer breath v. 443), was of the same family. Diet.
When nature sicken'd, and Nat. B:og.
each gale was death?' 6 Johnson's Works, vii. 176.
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