Globes," is ascribed to him on the authority of his late friend and neighbour, Mr. Edmund Allen. It needs, how ever, no other testimonial than its internal merit, M. G. "SIR, TO THE KING. IT is the privilege of real greatness not to be afraid of diminution by condescending to the notice of little things; and I therefore can boldly solicit the patronage of your Majesty to the humble labours by which I have endeavoured to improve the instruments of science, and make the globes on which the earth and sky are delineated less defective in their construction, and less difficult in their use. Geography is in a peculiar manner the science of Princes. When a private student revolves the terraqueous globe, he beholds a succession of countries in which he has no more interest than in the imaginary regions of Jupiter and Saturn. But your Majesty must contemplate the scientific picture with other sentiments, and consider, as oceans and conti nents are rolling before you, how large a part of mankind is now waiting on your determinations, and may receive benefits, or suffer evils, as your influence is extended or withdrawn. The provinces which your Majesty's arms have added to your dominions, make no inconsiderable part of the orb allotted to human beings. Your power is acknowledged by nations, whose names we know not yet how to write, and whose boundaries we cannot yet describe. But your Majesty's lenity and beneficence give us reason to expect the time when science shall be advanced by the diffusion of happiness; when the deserts of America shall become pervious and safe, when those who are now restrained by fear shall be attracted by reverence, and multitudes who now range the woods for prey, and live at the mercy of winds and seasons, shall, by the paternal care of your Majesty, enjoy the plenty of cultivated lands, the pleasures of society, the security of law, and the light of Revelation. I am, Sir, your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, and most dutiful subject and servant, GEORGE ADAMS." 1785, March. XXXIX. Letters relative to Handel. MR. URBAN, IN Dr. Burney's late Sketch of the Life of Handel, (enlarged from the Memoirs published by Mr. Maynwaring in 1760, which you abridged in the vol. for that year,) this ingenious biographer has omitted to mention, that when he first came to England in 1710, he wrote his name Hendel. This appears from the Spectator, No. V. and also by a letter in Mr. Hughes's Correspondence, vol. I. from Mr. Roner, a teacher of music, of which, as it relates to an early period of Handel's life, and is unnoticed by Dr. Burney, I have sent you a translation, Mr. Roner to Mr. Hughes. « Sir, Tuesday, July 31, 1711. HAVING received this morning a letter from Mr. Hen del,* I thought it my duty to send you, as soon as possible an extract of it, which relates to you, in answer to the compliment which you conveyed by me. I shall write to him next Friday, so you need only send me, if you please, what you intend for him; and I can assure you, Sir, that if the honour of your acquaintance is particularly pleasing to him, I am no less pleased with being the means of promoting your correspondence; and of giving you a proof of the extreme regard with which I have the honour to be, Sir," &c. Extract from Mr. Handel's Letter. "PRESENT my best compliments to Mr. Hughes. I will take the liberty of writing to him the first opportunity. If in the mean time he will honour me with his commands, and add to them one of his charming English poems, he will lay me under the greatest obligations. Since I left you, I have made some progress in that language," &c. *This great master (who was born at Hall, in Upper Saxony, Feb. 24, 1684,) arrived at London in the winter preceding the date of this letter. There cannot be a more eminent proof of Mr. Hughes's acknowledged skill in the two sister arts, than his being so soon noticed and distinguished by this modern Orpheus, who, probably in consequence of this introduction, composed Mr. Hughes's "Cantata of Venus and Adonis." XL. Letter from Partridge, the Almanac-Maker. MR. URBAN, THE invitation given in your last Magazine, to furnish any particulars relating to Dr. Partridge, the famous almanacmaker, occasions my sending you the following copy of a letter written by him; the original now lies before me in his own hand-writing, and is as follows: "OLD FRIEND, Lond. April 2, 1708. I DON'T doubt but you are imposed on in Ireland also by a pack of rogues about my being dead; the principal author of it is one in Newgate, lately in the pillory for a libel against the State. There is no such man as Isaac Bickerstaff; it is a sham name, but his true name is Pettie; he is always either in a cellar, a garret, or a jail, and therefore you may by that judge what kind of reputation this fellow hath to be credited in the world. In a word, he is a poor, scandalous, necessitous creature, and would do as much by his own father, if living, to get a crown; but enough of such a rascal. I thank God, I am very well in health; and at the time he had doomed me to death, I was not in the least out of order. The truth is, it was a high flight at a venture, hit or miss; he knows nothing of astrology, but hath a good stock of impudence and lying.-Pray, Sir, excuse this trouble, for no man can better tell you I am well than myself; and this is to undeceive your credulous friends that may yet believe the death of Your real humble servant, "This to Isaac Manley, Esq. Post-Master of Ireland, at his house in Dublin, Ireland." The above original letter is now in the possession of the immediate descendant of Mr. Manley, and this copy is forwarded to you by him. 1785, March. XLI. David Hume to Dr. Campbell. MR. URBAN, Montrose, March 4. THE following letter, which lately came into my hands, deserves a place in your Miscellany, which is the Repository of every thing curious. I do not think it has been printed before, and I have reason to deem it authentic. Perhaps it has come abroad without the knowledge of the possessor; but I was laid under no restrictions by the gentleman from whom I received it. I am, Sir, yours, &c. David Hume to Dr. Campbell. T. C. Edinb. 7 Jan. 1762. "DEAR SIR, IT has so seldom happened that controversies in philosophy, much more in theology, have been carried on without producing a personal quarrel between the parties, that I must regard my present situation as somewhat extraordinary, who have reason to give you thanks, for the civil and obliging manner in which you have conducted the dispute against me, on so interesting a subject as that of miracles. Any little symptoms of vehemence, of which I formerly used the freedom to complain, when you favoured me with a sight of the Manuscript, are either removed or explained away, or atoned for by civilities which are far beyond what I have any title to pretend to. It will be natural for you to imagine that I will fall upon some shift to evade the force of your arguments, and to retain my former opinion in the point controverted between us; but it is impossible for me not to see the ingenuity of your performance, and the great learning which you have displayed against me. I consider myself as very much honoured in being thought worthy of an answer by a person of so much merit; and as I find that the public does you justice with regard to the ingenuity and good composition of your piece, I hope you will have no reason to repent engaging with an antagonist, whom perhaps in strictness you might have ventured to neglect. I own to you that I never felt so violent an inclination to defend myself as at present, when I am thus fairly challenged by you, and I think I could find something specious at least to urge in my defence; but as I had fixed a resolution, in the beginning of my life, always to leave the public to judge between my adversaries and me, without making any reply, I must adhere inviolably to this resolution, otherways my silence on any future occasion would be construed an inability to answer, and would be matter of triumph against me. It may perhaps amuse you to learn the first hint which suggested to me that argument which you have so strenu ously attacked. I was walking in the cloisters of the Jesuits' College of La Fleeke, a town in which I passed two years of my youth, and engaged in a conversation with a Jesuit of some parts and learning, who was relating to me, and urging, sonie nonsensical miracle performed in their convent, when I was tempted to dispute against him; and as my head was full of the topics of my Treatise of Human Nature, which I was at this time composing, this argument immediately occurred to me, and I thought it very much gravelled my companion; but at last he observed to me, that it was impossible for that argument to have any solidity, because it operated equally against the Gospel as the Catholic miracles, which observation I thought proper to admit as a sufficient answer. I believe you will allow that the freedom at least of this reasoning makes it somewhat extraordinary to have been the produce of a convent of Jesuits, though perhaps you may think the sophistry of it savours plainly of the place of its birth. 1785, March. D. H." Feb. 1, 1755. XLII. Dr. Johnson to the Rev. Thomas Warton. DEAR SIR, I WROTE to you some weeks ago, but I believe did not direct accurately, and therefore know not whether you had my letter. I would likewise write to your brother, but know not where to find him. I now begin to see land, after having wandered, according to Mr. Warburton's phrase, in this vast sea of words.* What reception I shall meet with upon the shore, I know not; whether the sound of bells, and acclamations of the people, which Ariosto talks of in his last Canto, or a general murmur of dislike, I know not: whether I shall find, upon the coast, a Calypso that will court, or a Polypheme that will resist. But if Polypheme comes This letter was written just before the publication of his Dictionary E. |