Sweet'ning her note; while the soft lamp of night Her still nocturnal watch.-'Tis pleasing thus Slow as the silent fowler roves, who steps The fresh-plow'd glebe, and in each furrow quests E'en when she wears her virgin shroud of snows, *Joel, II. 31. JOHN HAWKESWORTH, L.L.D. BORN 1715.-DIED 1773. O! let me haste to yonder rustic seat Of the family from which John Hawkesworth was descended we have no account; his father was probably a watchmaker, which may explain the assertion that has found its way into most of the biographical sketches extant of him, of his having been originally destined for that mechanical employment. He was born at Bromley,* in Kent, and according to his epitaph, *So says Lempriere, upon what authority we know not: -The circumstance of his being a native of Bromley is not mentioned by any other biographer that we are aware of; and being born among the dissenters, a reference to parish registers would not settle the point. which is the best authority we have, in 1715, but most of his biographers fix the date of his birth later by four years. His family was of the Presbyterian sect, and he was himself in the early part of his life a member of Bradbury's congregation, a celebrated preacher of that time, from which he is said to have been expelled for some irregularity. Whatever may have been his original destination, it is asserted by Sir John Hawkins, that he was a hired clerk with Mr. Harwood, an attorney in the Poultry; this assertion is in some degree confirmed by the character of his hand-writing, which is decidedly that of a law-writer, and it is most probable that his employment in the office was merely that of a transcriber, which may account for the term hired, as applied to his clerkship. It is certain that this occupation did not satisfy him, and that he took the earliest opportunity that offered to resign it, for the more congenial pursuits of literature. Of his education we know nothing; he was probably taught Latin and French, both of which languages are to be found in his communications to the Gentleman's Magazine. Sir John Hawkins, in his life of Johnson, gives the following account of his literary attainments. "He was a man of fine parts, but no learning: his reading had been irregular and desultory: the knowledge he had acquired, he, by the aid of a good memory, retained, so that it was ready at every call; but on no subject had he ever formed a system. All of ethics that he knew, he had got from Pope's Essay on Man, and Epistles; he had read the modern French writers, and more particularly the poets; and with the aid of Keill's Introduction, Chamber's Dictionary, and such other common books, he had attained such an insight into physics, as, enabled him to talk on the subject. In the more valuable branches of learning he was deficient. His office of curator of the Magazine, gave him great opportunities of improvement, by an extensive correspondence with men of all professions: it increased his little stock of literature, and furnished him with more than a competent share of that intelligence which is necessary to qualify a man for conversation. He had a good share of wit, and a vein of humour." This summary way of deciding upon the attainments of an author by profession, and presuming to point out the very books from which he drew the information he possessed, shews a degree of arrogance in the writer which may reasonably lead us to doubt the correctness of his. assertion. Hawkesworth had indeed no pretension to the character of a learned man, if by a learned man be meant one whose memory is loaded with all the literary lumber of schools; but that he derived from nature the finest capacity, that he had read much. and observed more, is amply proved by the number, variety, and the excellence of his productions. Whatever may have been his qualifications, it is certain that he considered himself possessed of a competent stock to commence the arduous career of an author, and it is probable that in the early part of his life he subsisted upon the productions of his pen, part of which may, perhaps, have been of the mere mechanical kind. His talents however, if not his learning, led him into the best literary society: he associated with Johnson and his friends, became a member of the club in Ivy-Lane, and in the year 1744 succeeded Johnson in the employment of compiling the Parliamentary Debates for the Gentleman's Magazine, then considered the most important part of that popular work. He did not confine himself to this alone, he contributed largely to the original poetry of the Magazine for the years 1746, 1747, 1748, and 1749. The pieces he wrote may be found in the several poetical indices for those years, under the title of poems by H. Greville; and a list of them has been given on the authority of the Rev. Mr. Duncombe, in which there are some errors, arising from the circumstance of his having confounded them with others by a different pen, and signed J.G. though there is certainly some resemblance in the subjects and style. 'There is no difficulty in referring to the poems written by Hawkesworth; in the indices for 1746, 1747, and 1748, they are classed together and described as by Mr. or H. Greville: in the index for 1749 they are not classed together, but arranged under their several titles; they are however in every instance described as written by Mr. or H. Greville. What share he took in the prose department of the magazine at this time, or whether he took any, is not known; later in his life he was considered the principal conductor of it, and it is probable that during these years, some of the prose essays were written by him. L At this period Mr. Hawkesworth was a married man; his wife's name was Brown, who, with her mother, kept a boarding-school at Sydenham, where he officiated as writing master; when he married we are ignorant, but they afterwards removed to his native town of Bromley. Some of his biographers assert that his pecuniary means in the early part of life were confined; this may be doubted: from the time of his marriage he was certainly a resident at Bromley, which from its vicinity to London afforded him the means of ready |