A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE

TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE CABINET,

MR. CONDUCTOR,

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I AM a sort of Literary Lounger, though no Connoisseur, yet an Idler, like myself, will always assume right to turn Observer upon every Adventurer; and, whether you may subscribe to my opinions or not, yet (as I mean to subscribe to your work) I shall offer them very freely.

Too many publications promise much at their outset, and perform little in the sequel; great expectations will be formed of what may be produced by the members of a British Cabinet; and in case of failure, every Guardian of his own Rights will become a Tatler, you will be accused as a Rambler from your engagements, and, your downfal, the World will be an unconcerned Spectator; while, on the contrary, by proper polish and reflection, you may be styled the Mirror of all Monthly Magazines in the metropolis.-So much for your Title, I shall next make some remarks as to the general conduct of the work itself.

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With regard to the engraved heads prefixed to each number, and called portraits, I would certainly advise that they should bear some resemblance to the originals; this, notwithstanding it may be but a trifling recommendation to some readers, will often prove an advantage; for, however singular it may appear, I have frequently purchased a picture myself, for no reason than that it put me in mind of the person it professed to represent.

I am conscious, however, that there may be ехсерtions to this general rule; indeed I know a very worthy vender of prints, who keeps in his cellar some hundreds of admirals, and generals, ready engraved, and by cutting off the arm of one, or clapping a convenient patch on the eye of another, he is always ready, before any of his competitors, to present the town with striking likenesses of any, or all, of those persons who so frequently claim our attention and gratitude. However, as there is no subject on which people are apt to disagree so pointedly as on the precision or dissimilarity of

a copy from nature, you may safely steer clear of all criticism, and perhaps please all parties, by embellishing your incipient number, with a face combining Cooke's nose, Kemble's chin, and Munden's mouth, with the arch eye of Lewis, and writing under it

"The Head of an Eminent Actor."

Thus every one will recognise the feature of a favourite, and one feature in a whole face, is as much as they ought to expect.

Admit no Puns into your Miscellany. Dennis, the Critic, has said, and I know not how many others after him, that a punster is no better than a pickpocket, and with truth, for how dare any quibbling varlet attempt to rob his neighbour of any portion of that delightful inflexibility, the very taciturnity of which bespeaks what wisdom may lie buried in a grave demeanour? Be not too sentimental neither; nor copy the infantine simplicity of those dear little children of the Della Cruscan School, who " lisp in numbers."---Do not let them lisp in any number of the Cabinet. No, sir, like Sir Peter Teazle, I say, 66 curse your sentiments ;"for the man whose effeminate ideas, expressed in effeminate accents, would contribute to lessen the manly character of the English nation, deserves to be lost in a labyrinth--as I am now, and left in the lurch for a finish to each sentence he commences.

On the other hand, you must carefully shun the affectation of bombastic diction--it is lamentable to see a pre-elucidated theme rendered semidiaphonous, by the elimination of simple expression, to make room for the conglomeration of ponderous periods, and to exhibit the phonocamptic coxcombry of some pedant, who mistakes sentences for waggons, and words for the wheels of them.

Avoid alliteration, allowed by all to be the very vehicle of vicious verbosity, particularly in a periodical publication; therefore, the thought that dully depends, during lengthened lines of lumbering lucubration, on innumerable initials introduced instead of rhyme or reason, is really reprehensible. Shakspeare, scorning the sufferance of such a sneaking style, said "Wit whither wilt?"

Lest you should put the same question to me, I will give you my concluding piece of advice, which is, that you should beware of introducing second-hand Rural

Tales and Essays, from the successful labours of your predecessors. Such things have happened more than once, and I remember reading a letter to the editor, in the first number of a new magazine, which was unfortunately signed by, An OLD SUBSCRIBER.

P. S. I meant to have called myself a Constant Reader, but, if you follow my advice, you will have so many of those, you will not know how to distinguish me from others. I shall, therefore, address my future correspondence, provided you insert this, under the signature of my proper initials,

S. L. U. M.

ACTS OF INSOLVENCY,

METHINKS, these Acts which are becoming so frequent, should be called Acts of solvency; since they enable men to pay debts, and (which is extraordinary) without money or effects. But to be serious. Acts of insolvency are occasional acts, by which persons are discharged from suits and imprisonment, upon surrendering their all to their creditors*. It hath often been agitated, to whom

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th benefit of these acts should extend; whether to all indifferently, or only to some, who could with propriety be deemed proper objects of it? But, though to draw the line, and define boundaries, be generally difficult in human affairs, yet here it seems easy. Let a court or committee of equity be ordained, to sit at stated times upon prisoners for debt: and let all, whom misfortunes have brought into durance, be released; but let defaulters or rogues be detained, or otherwise disposed of according to some wise police. To think of releasing all, the guilty as well as innocent, would be as unjust and partial, as it would be weak and impolitic; and were any one to propose this, "perhaps to be popular," I should deem him knavish as well as foolish. As deliberate schemes, as ever were concerted for a burglary, have been concerted to gain trust and credit, in order to defraud and rob: and getting into debt, with such concerters, is nothing else but a certain mode of robbing.

*Blackstone's Commentaries, ii. 31.

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REVIEW OF BOOKS.

PROBATQUE CULPATQUE.

The Life of John Milton, By Charles Symmons, D. D. of Jesus College, Oxford. 8vo. Johnson. pp. 566. London 1806.

THE Biographers of Milton have been many; Aubrey, Wood, Philips, and Toland; Dr. Johnson, Hayley, and Todd; have given us the Life of this pride and boast of the English nation. How Dr. Johnson has treated the character and political principles of Milton is known to every body; no two men could entertain more opposite sentiments, on the subject of kings, and government, and popular rights. That Johnson had no veneration for Milton as a man, or as a patriot, there can be no doubt. It is no less true that he has spoken of him with unwarrantable acrimony, and done injustice to his memory by imputing unworthy motives to some parts of his public conduct; but, while we lament that Dr. Johnson's political prejudices should so far have misled him, we can by no means join in the Hue and Cry which has been raised against the Doctor since his death, first by Mr. Hayley, and now by Dr. Symmons, who, however laudable their intentions, and successful their efforts, as far as regards the character of Milton, certainly pass all limits of truth and reason in their abuse of the great b.ographer.

Johnson was a Tory, Dr. Syminons

"Glories as he professes himself to be a WHIG, to be of the school of SOMMERS and of LOCKE, to arrange himself in the same political class with those enlightened and virtuous statesmen, who framed the BILL OF RIGHTS, and the ACT OF SETTLEMENT, and who, presenting a crown which they had wrested from a pernicions bigot and his family, to the HOUSE OF HANOVER, gave that most honourable and legitimate of titles, the FREE CHOICE OF THE PEOPLE, to the Sovereign who now wields the Imperial sceptre of Britain."

Those who follow Milton through the troubles of England in which he bore a part, will think well or ill of his conduct, according as they have formed their opinion of the two parties at that time struggling for predominance; he will be considered by some, as the instiga

tor and advocate of rebellion; by others, as the honest, uniform, and undaunted champion of the liberties of his country. Hence the different hue and aspect under which Milton is exhibited to us by Dr. Johnson and Dr. Sym

mons.

The life of the poet by Dr. Johnson, is stigmatised by Dr. S. as 66 an atrocious libel." If Dr. Johnson were alive, he would probably consider the present performance as a hyperbolical panegyric.

Dr. Symmons' production is designed to accompany the edition of Milton's prose works. It is written with remarkable elegance and vigour, and we have no hesitation in declaring, that it is the fullest, the best arranged, and the most eloquent life of Milton which has yet been given to the world. It would be tedious, and from the purpose,' to attend the biographer through all the different stages of the poet's life; we shall advert chiefly to those points which have excited controversy, and which,we think will prove the most interesting to those who are already pretty well acquainted with the particulars of the immoral Bard's history.

Dr. Syminons examines the several authorities upon which the report of his suffering corporal punishment at the university is supposed to rest, and seems to think Dr. Johnson guilty of disengenuousness in the conclusion he draws from the words et cætera, in the verses to Diodatus, "What was more than threat was evidently punishment." We should be glad to get entirely rid of this story of the birch, which, even allowing it to be true, would reflect no disgrace upon Milton, unless it could be proved that he merited the castigation. We think it is now quite settled that he neither deserved nor sustained any such indignity. Dr. S. also very ably defends the Epitaphium Damonis from Johnson's censure of its be ing written with the common, but childish imitation of pastoral life. Of this elegy he gives the original, and a translation. The latter is correct and elegant, but somewhat cold. We think Dr. S. will not be displeased if we refer him to an animated version of it by the late unfortunate Derinody, inserted in his life by Mr. Ray

mond.

The charge against Milton, of interpolating the Ikon Basilike with a prayer from Sydney's Arcadia, is likewise satisfactorily repelled; and, Dr. Johnson," that libeller of Milton!" as he is called, comes in for a smart