button to main menu  Gents Mag 1851 part 1 p.16

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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.16

Sussex, England. (L'Enfr.) #x0395;ιμι φιλανθρωπος, δημωκρατικος, αθεος. - #x039F; αφρων ειπεν εν τη καρδια αυτου, ουκ εστι θεος."
We have given in our extract merely a copy of the name of Mr. Shelley, without adding those of his travelling companions. The word in brackets is of course by some other hand, and is placed in that column appropriated to the name of the place to which the traveller is going.
Vol.vi. p.54. The account given of that eccentric man of genius, James Barry, the painter, by Mr. Southey, is interesting, and, being the result of personal acqaintance, authentic and valuable. There is in Prior's Life of Goldsmith an account of him by a lady in Pembrokeshire, see vol.ii. p.468. Mr. Payne Knight reviewed his works published in two vols. quarto, in the Edinb. Rev. vol.xvi. p.243, &c. In a manuscript letter of Horace Walpole, in our possession, he says (writing to Mason), "Barry has expounded all in a book, which does not want sense, though full of passion, and self, and vulgarism, and vanity. It is an essay to recommend himself to an establishment. - He calls Mortimer superior to Salvator Rosa, though his best merit is being Salvator's imitator. But there is one thought that pleased me extremely. He says, that in his Elysium (which I did not observe, for it is impossible to see a tenth part of it in one view), he has represented Titian offering his palette to Raphael." May 11, 1783.
p.91. "Bishop Hacket - his are comical sermons, half Roman Catholic in their conceits, full of learning, which would be utterly unprofitable, if it did not sometimes call forth a shrewd remark, &c."
This singular writer will richly repay the reader's time and attention, but more amply in his Life of Archbishop Williams than in his Sermons, though they also have sense and learning enough to make a library of modern divinity. Lord Campbell says of the Life of Williams, "One of the most curious pieces of biography in our language, and should be studied by all who would understand the history of James I. and Charles I.; full of rare quotations and quaint illustrations," vol.ii. p.508. See also Mr. Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, p.49, and his Literary Remains. Doctor Johnson is the only writer, whom we remember, who has spoken contemptuously of this writer and his work. He says in his Life of Ambrose Philips (who abridged the volume of Hacket), "The book is written with such depravity of genius, and such mixture of the fop and pedant, as has not often appeared." Hacket was also author of two Latin plays, Loyola, Stoicus Vapulans, &c.
P.100. "He (Sadler) has trampled upon the Malthusian theory, proving its absurdity and falsehood, &c."
Mr. Southey usually uses the language of indignation when alluding to this writer, who in place he designates as a "wretched Philistine." We, on the other hand, hold his argument to be impregnable, but that, like other subjects of political economy, it is difficult to bring it out clear of the multiplicity of details and exceptions which spread over the large surface on which it must be contemplated. We have no room to enter into such discussions now; but we may refer to Sismondi Etudes de l'OEconomie Politique, p.131, on the population of Geneva, and we will quote the following passage from Humboldt. "We know that, by the multiplication of one family, a continent previously desert may reckon in the space of eight centuries more than eight millions of inhabitants; and yet these statistics found on the hypothesis of a constant doubling in twenty-five or thirty years, are contradicted by the history of every country already advanced in civilization." See Personal Narrative, vol.vi. P.i. p.125. The weight of this argument lies in the last words, advanced in civilization, for, from the first settlement of America to the year 1800, the periods of doubling have been but very little above 20 years, i.e. before civilization was advanced, or when it was scarcely begun.
P.20. "I am greatluy obliged to you for your edition of Burnet's Lives, made still more valuable by your Introduction, &c."
Addressed to Bishop Jebb. This little book is worthy of all praise, both in design and execution, and was the pleasing employment of the amiable Bishop's declining life. The affectionate
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