her husband, was never separated from him. During his stay abroad, his company was courted by many foreigners of high birth and great merit. An Italian prince requested that he would favour him with some very striking or affecting scene in one of the most admired English tragedies; Garrick immediately recited the soliloquy of Macbeth, which is spoken during the instant of time when a dagger is presented to his disturbed imagination. His ardent look, expressive tone, and impassioned action, quite overcame the prince, though almost ignorant of the language employed by the consummate tragedian.

On the death of Lacy, joint-patentee of Drury Lane in 1773, the whole management of the theatre devolved on Garrick; but, in 1776, he sold his share of the patent, and formed a resolution of quitting the stage. He was, however, determined, before he left the theatre, to give the public proofs of his abilities, to delight them as highly as he had ever done in the flower and vigour of his life. To this end, about a fortnight or three weeks previous to his taking his final leave, he presented them with some of the most capital and trying characters of Shakspeare,-with Hamlet, Richard, and Lear, and some other parts which were less fatiguing. Hamlet and Lear were repeated; Richard he acted only once, and by the king's command. He finished his dramatic career with one of his favourite parts, Felix, in 'The Wonder, or a Woman Keeps a Secret.' When the play was ended, Garrick briefly addressed the audience with much visible emotion. He then retired, amidst the tears and acclamations of a crowded and brilliant assembly.

Garrick, when disengaged from business, often attended the debates of the house of commons, especially on such important questions as he knew would bring up all the best speakers of both parties. In the spring of 1777, he happened to be present in the gallery when an altercation occurred between a right honourable member and another honourable gentleman, which proceeded to that degree of warmth that the speaker and the house were obliged to interpose. Whilst the house was in this agitation, a Shropshire member happened to observe Garrick in the gallery, and moved to clear the house. Whereupon Burke rose, and appealed to the honourable assembly, whether it could possibly be consistent with decency and liberality "to exclude from the hearing of their debates a man to whom they were all obliged, one who was the great master of eloquence, in whose school they had all imbibed the art of speaking, and been taught the elements of rhetoric?" He was warmly seconded by Fox and Townshend, both of whom enlarged on the merits of their old preceptor as they termed him, and reprobated the motion of the gentleman with great warmth and indignation. The house almost unanimously concurred in exempting Mr Garrick from the general order to quit the gallery.

In Christmas 1778, Mr and Mrs Garrick were invited to the countryseat of Earl Spencer, where they had frequently been welcome guests. In the midst of much social happiness, Garrick was seized with that illness which carried him off in a few weeks. He died on the 20th of January, 1779. Garrick's disease was pronounced by Mr Pott to be a palsy in the kidneys. On Monday, the 1st of February, the body of Mr Garrick was conveyed from his own house in the Adelphi, and magnificently interred in Westminster Abbey, under the monument of

his beloved Shakspeare. His remains were attended to the grave by persons of the first rank.

"Mr Garrick," says Galt, "was small in stature, but handsomely formed, and his deportment was graceful, easy, and engaging. His complexion was dark, but his countenance was enlivened with black eyes, of singular brilliancy. His voice was distinct, melodious, and commanding, and possessed an inexhaustible compass, or rather seemed to do so, for he managed it with such appropriate discretion that it was never heard pitched beyond his power. It would be unfair towards the character of this great artist, to say that he was never excelled. In some parts others have surpassed him, but all his contemporaries agree that he beggared competition in those characters for which he was most celebrated; and that he never performed any part without impressing his audience with admiration. In every department of the drama he did not exceed all his rivals; but there were characters in which he had none, and in which he gave the passion with the fidelity of nature, and the regularity and beauty of consummate art. His talents as an author were not of the first class; but he possessed, in many of his compositions, an ease and grace of no ordinary kind; and had he not been the glory of the stage, he would have in consequence commanded the respect of posterity for the magnitude and variety of his works as an author, in which capacity, however, he has been praised too much."

Mr Davies says that "Garrick's manner of living was splendid, though somewhat below his income, as became a prudent man. By some he was said to be parsimonious, nay, avaricious; others gave out that he made too great and ostentatious a parade of magnificence, unbecoming the condition of a player. To those who knew the sums he constantly gave away, it would appear that his sole end in acquiring wealth was the benefit of others. I shall not talk of his more public charities and contributions; I mean such actions only as were less known to the world; his benevolence was uniform,-not a sudden start of humour proceeding from whim and caprice, or like scanty streams from a small rivulet; no, his bounty resembled a large, noble, and flowing river,

'That glorified the banks which bound it in.'

It was a very honourable circumstance in his life, that, in the very dawnings of success, when he first tasted of Fortune's favours, and had acquired a very moderate portion of riches, he opened his hand to those who solicited his kindness, and was ready to assist all who applied to him." He was very intimate with an eminent surgeon, a very amiable man, who often dined and supped with Mr and Mrs Garrick. One day after dinner the gentleman declared that his affairs were in such a situation, that, without the assistance of a friend, who would lend him a thousand pounds, he should be at a loss what to do. "A thousand pounds!" said Garrick, "that is a large sum! Well, now, pray what security can you give for that money?" "Upon my word," replied the surgeon, "6 no other than my own!" "Here's a pretty fellow!" cried Garrick, turning to his wife, "He wants a thousand pounds, and upon his own security! Well, come, I'll tell you one thing for your comfort; I know a man that at my desire will lend you a thousand pounds." He immediately drew upon his banker for that sum, and gave the draft to his friend.

Thomas Gray.

BORN A. D. 1716.-DIED A. D. 1771.

THIS eminent poet was born in Cornhill, London, on the 26th of December, 1716. His grandfather was a considerable merchant; but his father, though he also followed business, is stated to have been of an indolent and reserved temper, so that he rather diminished than increased his paternal fortune. Young Gray received his grammatical education at Eton, under Mr Antrobus, his mother's brother; and, when he left school, entered a pensioner at Peterhouse, Cambridge. While he was at Eton he contracted a particular intimacy with Horace Walpole, and with Richard West, whose father was lord-chancellor of Ireland. When he had been at Cambridge about five years-where he took no degree, because he intended to profess the common law-Horace Walpole invited him to travel with him as his companion. He accepted the invitation, and they arrived at Amiens on the first of April, 1739. Mr Gray's letters contain a very pleasing account of many parts of their journey; but unfortunately, at Florence, Walpole and he quarrelled and parted. Mason-to whom we are chiefly indebted for the materials of our author's life-says, that he was enjoined by Walpole to charge him with the chief blame in their quarrel, candidly confessing that "more attention and complaisance,―more deference to a warm friendship, to superior judgment and prudence,—might have prevented a rupture that gave much uneasiness to them both, and a lasting concern to the survivor." In the year 1744 a reconciliation was effected between them by a lady who wished well to both parties.

After their separation Mr Gray continued his journey in a manner suitable to his own limited circumstances, with only an occasional servant. He returned to England in September, 1741, and in about two months after buried his father, who had, by injudicious waste of money upon a new house, so much lessened his fortune that Gray thought his circumstances too narrow to enable him, in a proper manner, to prosecute the study of the law. He therefore retired to Cambridge, where he soon after became bachelor of civil law; and where, as Dr Johnson expresses it," without liking the place or its inhabitants, or pretending to like them, he passed, except a short residence at London, the rest of his life."

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In 1742 Gray wrote his 'Ode to Spring,' his Prospect of Eton College, and his 'Ode to Adversity.' He began likewise a Latin poem, De Principiis Cogitandi.' He wrote, however, very little, though he applied himself very closely to his studies. In 1750 he published his celebrated Elegy, written in a Country Churchyard,' which first made him known to the public. In 1753 several of his poems were splendidly published, with designs by Mr Bentley. In 1756 some young men of the college, whose chambers were near his, diverted themselves with disturbing him by frequent and troublesome noises. This insolence, having endured it a while, he represented to the governors of the college; but finding his complaint little regarded, he removed to Pembroke-hall. In 1757 he published The Progress

of Poetry,' and 'The Bard.' This year he had the offer of the poetlaureateship, but declined it. Two years after, he quitted Cambridge for some time, and took an apartment near the British museum, where he resided near three years, reading and transcribing. In 1765 he undertook a journey into Scotland. In 1768, without his own solicitation, or that of his friends, he was appointed regius-professor of modern history in the university of Cambridge. He lived three years

after this promotion, and died on the 31st of July, 1771.

The poems of Gray are few in number, but they possess a very high degree of merit. A complete edition of them, with memoirs of his life, including many of his letters, was published by his ingenious friend Mason. Gray was one of the most learned men in Europe. He was well-acquainted both with the elegant and profound sciences. He was extensively read in every branch of history, both natural and civil ; had read all the original historians of England, France, and Italy; and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his study; voyages and travels of all sorts were his favourite amusements; and he had a fine taste in painting, prints, architecture, and gardening. His greatest defect was an affectation in delicacy, or rather effeminacy, and a visible fastidiousness, or contempt and disdain of his inferiors in science. He also had in some degree that weakness which disgusted Voltaire so much in Congreve. Though he seemed to value others chiefly according to the progress they had made in knowledge, yet he could not bear to be considered himself merely as a man of letters; and though without birth, or fortune, or station, his desire was to be looked upon as a private independent gentleman, who read for his amusement. Some of the poems of Gray have been treated with great critical arrogance and injustice by Dr Johnson; but they have been ably defended by several ingenious writers. Perhaps one reason that induced Johnson to attack Gray's poems with so much severity was, that he had obtained great reputation, though he was a Cambridge man; for such prejudices, however absurd, are known to have operated on the mind of Johnson.

David Hume.

BORN A. D. 1711.-DIED A. D. 1776.

THIS celebrated metaphysician, moralist, and historian, was a Scotsman by descent and birth. He was born at Edinburgh in 1711. There was some noble blood in his ancestral line on both sides,-a circumstance of which, in spite of his philosophy, he was always extremely vain. His juvenile years, says his biographer, Mr Ritchie,' were not marked by any thing very noticeable. His father died while he was yet an infant, leaving the care of his three children to their mother, a lady of considerable prudence, who, Mr Ritchie says, acquitted herself in this charge with very laudable assiduity, although it appears, from her son's own confession, that his religious education had been so greatly

Account of the Life and Writings of David Hume, Esq. by T. E. Ritchie, Lendon. 1807.

neglected in childhood that he had only a very slight acquaintance with the New Testament.

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Being a younger brother, and possessing only a very slender patrimony, he was urged to apply himself to the study of law, on his finishing his academical course; but although his studious disposition, his sobriety, and his industry, gave his family a notion that the law was a proper profession for him, he had already imbibed tastes and feelings of little congeniality with the profession thus designed for him. "I found," says he, an insurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring." The patrimony of a younger Scottish brother, however, would not allow of entire devotion to a life of letters, without some sources of emolument greater considerably than literature at that period presented to the young aspirant. "My very slender fortune," he says, "being unsuitable to this plan of life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent application, I was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very feeble trial for entering into a more active scene of life. In 1734 I went to Bristol, with some recommendations to eminent merchants; but in a few months found that scene totally unsuitable to me. 1 went over to France with a view of prosecuting my studies in a country retreat; and I there laid that plan of life which I have steadily and successfully pursued. I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in literature. During my retreat in France, first at Rheims, but chiefly at La Fleche, in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature. After passing three years very agreeably in that country, I came over to London in 1737. In the end of 1738, I published my Treatise, and immediately went down to my mother and my brother, who lived at his country-house, and was employing himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvement of his fortune."

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He speaks apparently with much equanimity of the signal failure of his first performance, and he deserves commendation certainly for the good hope he maintained in a crisis so discouraging to every literary adventurer as that through which it was his lot to pass. But there is a curious note subjoined to Mr Ritchie's account of this portion of our philosopher's life, which gives another representation altogether of the affair. In the 'London Review,' edited by Dr Kenrick, there is a note, says Mr Ritchie, on this passage in our author's biographical narrative, "rather inimical to the amenity of disposition claimed by him. The reviewer says: so sanguine, that it does not appear our author had acquired, at this period of his life, that command over his passions of which he afterwards makes his boast. His disappointment at the public reception of his Essay on Human Nature had indeed a violent effect on his passions in a particular instance; it not having dropt so dead-born from the press but that it was severely handled by the reviewers of those times, in a publication entitled "The Works of the Learned," a circumstance which so highly provoked our young phi