Gents Mag 1850 part 1 p.356
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Gentleman's Magazine 1850 part 1 p.356
papers. Mr. Northcote said that he recollected one of Armstrong's paragraphs running something like this:- "Parry may learn from Reynolds, but there is one, now unknown and unpatronized, who will astonish, terrify, and delight all Europe" (meaning Fuseli). There is a violent passage against Armstrong in one of Churchill's poems (The Journey, vol.iii. p.229); but the author of the Pursuits of Literature says, "Armstrong's Art of Health is a poem which can never be sufficiently praised, read, and recommended." We could add much more information which never has been collected respecting this clever and eccentric poet; but at present only remark that in Knowles's Life of Fuselei some account of him will be found, vol.i. pp.47-59. We possess a Latin ode written by J. Theobald, 1747, "Adingenuum Virum, tum Medicis tum Poeticis facultatibus praestantem,Joannem Armstrong, M.D." beginning - Artisque Coae, O et Citharae sciens, Utroque mire dexter Apolline Quem Musa nascentem Deusque Arcitenens studiosiori Finxere cura, &c. P.136. "Hayes it was who edited those sermons which Dr. Johnson is supposed to have written for his friend Dr. Taylor."We believe that sufficient evidence exists, internal and external, to authorise us to use a more decisive expression than supposed. Murphy, in his Biography, has recorded them as Johnson's. He says, "The best of the discourses are the few which Dr. Taylor from time to time carries with him to his pulpit. He had the LARGEST BULL in England, and some of the best sermons." See also Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol.vi. p.326; and Bishop Porteus's letter to Beattie, in which he says, "Taylor was no more capable of writing them than a horse of making an epic poem." (1788.) Besides which, "Concio pro Tayloro," a "Sermon for Taylor," appears in one of Johnson's Diaries. This we think conclusive. Vol.ii. p.101. "I have lately read 'The Man of Feeling;' if you have never yet read it, do now from my recommendation. Few works have ever pleased me so painfully or so much."See on this novel, which we think inferior to Julia de Roubignáe, the remarks of Sir Walter Scott, in his Lives of the Novelists, vol.ii. p./149. On Mackenzie's charming story of La Roche, in the Mirror, being a view of David Hume's character, see Burton's excellent Life of Hume, vol.i. p.58. In No.30 of the Lounger, it is said of Mackenzie, "His writings have been long read with admiration and delight, and his exquisite pencil every reader of taste and discernment must distinguish," &c. P.194. "Martinus Scriblerus bore too strong a resemblance to Woodward," &c. Perhaps few of our readers are aware that the chapter of "The Double Mistress" in this work has been translated, altered, enlarged, the humour injured and destroyed, and the grossest indecency introduced, by Pigault Le Brun, in his Melanges Litteraires et Critiques, vol.ii. p.73-144, called Causes Celebres. He has cantharidised the story to suit French tastes. The original chapter might have been much enriched by quotations from Swan's Speculum Mundi, 4to. 1643. P.195. Mr. Lovell has very great abilities, he writes well," &c.Robert Lovell's poems were published by Mr. Park in 1808, among which is "Bristol, a satire." He married one of the sisters of Southey's wife. P.252. "I have made a discovery respecting the story of the Mysterious Mother. Lord Orford tells it of Tillotson. The story is printed in a work of Hall's 1652. He had it from Perkins the clergyman, whom Fuller calls an excellent chirurgeon at curing or adjusting a broken limb. He would pronounce the word 'damn' with such emphasis as left a doleful echo in his auditor's ears a good while afterwards. Hall adds that he afterwards discovered the story in two German authors, and that it really happened in Germany. If you have not had your transcription of the legend bound, here is a curious piece of information to annex to it."It was the editor's duty to have informed his readers about the work of Hall, which is here referred to, but not identified. It falls therefore on us to perform his unfinished task. It occurs in "Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved," 3d edition, 1654, p.412, additional Case iii. - "Whether an incestuous marriage contracted in |
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