BOOKS.

CORRESPONDENCE OF W./M.0LN AND NA SON.e This correspondence between Horace Walpole and Gray's friend and biographer Mason, the author of "The English Garden," the " Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers," and other works whose very names are forgotten by the reading public, strictly commences in 1763, and does not terminate till 1797, not long before the death of both writers. The letters are few in number before 1771, when Gray's death and the preparation of his Memoirs drew Walpole and Mason closer together, by engaging them on the same subject; and the correspondence practically closes in 1784, about which time the friends differed on the Coalition Ministry and the India Bill ; Mason, who was what would have been termed a Radical even in our day, being shocked at the violation of public decency as well as public morality in that unprincipled party proceeding ; while Walpole stuck by the Whigs through thick and thin, at least till the French Revolution frightened him. But though they differed they were coolly civil; perhaps the Whig petit maitre was afraid of Mason's satirical powers, such as they were.

The letters of Mason, says the editor Mr. Mitford, "formed part of the collection of manuscripts purchased of the Duke of Grafton as executor of the late Earl of Waldeerave, and were intrusted to me for publication." While Mr. Mitford was lamenting the imper- fect manner in which they would appear from the absence of Wal- pole's part in the correspondence, he was informed that it was pre- served by the son of Mason's friend and sole executor, in the rec- tory-house at Aston, to which the larger portion of them were directed ; and to the liberality of the Reverend Mr. Alderson the public are indebted for their present appearance. As completing the series of Walpole's letters, throwing a light

on Mason's biography, and containing various facts relating to the literary history of the period over which they extend, the letters were worth publication. They show the care and the pains which Mason took in editing the remains of Gray and writing his Me- moirs, and the readiness with which Walpole assisted him: the sub- jects are not very large, it is true, but the facts may be taken as indicative of the manner in which publication was set about in those days. The reader is admitted, 'though mysteriously, behind the scenes, to see how the publication of the "Heroic Epistle" was managed, the authorship being concealed on account of the satire against those in high places ; and we find Walpole employed in get- ting other things of Mason's published anonymously, including at- tacks upon the divine's diocesan. There is also literary, artistieal, and antiquarian gossip, sent by Walpole to his country correspond- ent, and a good deal of political news and comment, chiefly on the American war and the riots of London ; to which Mason re- plies with greater sense and less affectation than Walpole, but with some of the tone of his correspondent, which he seems to have caught for the occasion.

There is not much of real novelty or importance in the matter.

The period has frequently been treated by Walpole, and other writers, in its public events and its public scandals. The rarest morsels are reserved for personal communications, owing to a fear of the letters being opened at the post-office; a fear that would look mor- bid or absurd now if we did not know that it was generally en- tertained during the last century. The same cause makes the writers allude to the satires and squibs in which Mason was occu- pied, rather than speak of them, unless they send by " a sure hand." There is greater novelty in some of the personal or biographical matter ; but the attraction of that matter is somewhat faded, unless where the circumstances render it interesting.

The manner of Walpole is less his own than nsnaL He seems

trying to keep down the finical fine gentleman, and to write like a philosopher and a man of letters : but he is only partially success- ful. He rather veils his nature than conceals it. The sinecurist declaiming against places and pensions, the politician who could rise no higher in action than a vote, and the fashionable author de- precating all the wits and writers of the age except his corre- spondent and his friend Gray, appear more remarkable from the contrast between the ideas and character of the dilettanti and literary coxcomb and the sedate air of the philosopher. The inter- change of fulsome compliments towards each other, with the de- preciation of other men, forms one of the most striking features in the correspondence. Walpole, however, is by far the most con- spicuous in this concurrence of flummery.

Lyttelton and Chesterfield both died during the period of the correspondence, and come in, the first for transient slaps, the second for formal criticism. Walpole's judgment on Lyttelton is not so much out of the way, for he was a solemn piece of mediocrity ; though it may be questioned whether his contemporary fame had not as much to do with Walpole's censure as the Lord's demerits. Chesterfield is illnaturedly true enough, so far as it goes ; but War- pole could not comprehend Chesterfield in the extent of his worldly philosophy, and his excellence as a describer of manners and society.

" We are still expecting the works of Lord Chesterfield and Lord Lyttel- ton—on my part with no manner of impatience; one was an ape of the French, the other of the Greeks ; and I like neither secondhand pertness or solemnity. • • • • • " I was too late for the post on Thursday, and have since got Lord Org• terfield's letters; which, without being well entertained, I sat up reading last night till between one and two, and devoured above 140. To my great 'The Correspondence aaraceWal pole, Earl of Orford, and the eReverend Wy■ Hsnson.NwfirstpubedfromthecfriglomasEditedwithNoteuy tie levend J. Mittord. to two volumes. lldiabsd Beatigy.

surprise, they seem really written from the heart, not for the honour of his head, and in truth do no great honour to the last, nor show much feeling in the first, except in wishing for his son's fine gentlemanhood. He was sen- sible what a cub he had to work on, and whom two quartos of licking could not mould, for cub he remained to his death. The repetitions are endless and tiresome. The next volume, I see, promises more amusement, for in turning it over, I spied many political names. The more curious part of all is that one perceives by what infinite assiduity and attention his Lordship's own great character was raised and supported,—and yet in all that great character what was there worth remembering but his bon mots ? his few fugitive pieces that remain show his genteel turn for songs and his wit ;— from politics he rather escaped well than succeeded by them. In short, the diamond owed more to being brillianted and polished, and well set, than to any intrinsic worth or solidity. * •

" In defiance of my Lord Chesterfield, who holds it vulgar to laugh, and who says wit never makes one laugh, I declare I laughed aloud, though alone, when I read of the professor who died of turbot and made a good end.' If this is not wit, I do not know what is. I am much more in doubt of his Lordship's wit since I have finished his letters. Half of the last volume has many pretty or prettyish ones ; but sure no professor of wit ever sowed so little in two such ample fields. He seems to have been determined to in- demnify himself for the falsehood and constraint of his whole life by owning what an impostor he had been. The -work is a most proper book of laws for the generation in which it is published, and has reduced the folly and worth- lessness of the age to a regular system,. in which nothine.' but the outside of the body and the superficies of the mind are considered. If a semblance of morality is recommended, it is to be painted and curled ; and Hippolytus himself may keep a w— provided she is married and a woman of quality. In short, if the idea were not an old one, I would write on the back of this code,' The whole duty of man, adapted to the meanest capacities.' • * * " P.S. You will be diverted to hear that a man who thought of nothing so much as the purity of his language, I mean Lord Chesterfield, says, you and sue shall not be well together,' ' and this not once, but on every such occasion. A friend of mine says, it was certainly to avoid that female inac- curacy of they don't mind you and I' ; and yet the latter is the least bad of the two. He says too, Id. Chesterfield does, that for forty years of his life he never used a wordwithout stopping a moment to think if he could not find a better. How agreeably he passed his time !"

This is the announcement of Gibbon's first appearance as an his- torian.

"Lo, there is just appeared a truly classic work : a history, not majestic like Livy, nor compressed like Tacitus ; not stamped with character like Cla- rendon ; perhaps not so deep as Robertson's Scotland, but a thousand degrees above his Charles ; not pointed like Voltaire, but as accurate as he is inexact; modest as he is trenchant, and sly as Montesquieu without being so recherche. The style is as smooth as a Flemish picture, and the muscles are concealed and only for natural uses, not exaggerated like Michael Angelo's to show the painter's skill in anatomy ; nor composed of the limbs of clowns of different nations, like Dr. Johnson's heterogeneous monsters. This book is Mr. Gib- bon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He is son of a late foolish Alderman, is a Member of Parliament, and called a whimsical one because he votes variously as his opinion leads him; and his first produc- tion was in French, in which language he shines too. I know him a little ; never suspected the extent of his talents, for he is perfectly modest, or I want penetration, which I know too; but I intend to know him a great deal more. There ! there is food for your residence at York."

Gibbon's success, or something else, roused Walpole's polite spite, and on the appearance of the second volume he affronted the author. Gibbon admits that his second and third volumes were not equal to the first. " I am inclined to believe that, especially in the beginning, they are more prolix and less entertaining." It was not mere criticism, however, that prompted Walpole.

" You will be diverted to hear that Mr. Gibbon has quarrelled with me. He lent me his second volume in the middle of November. I returned it with a most civil panegyric. He came for more incense ; I gave it ; but alas! with too much sincerity, I added, ' Mr. Gibbon, I am sorry you should have pitched on so disgusting a subject as the Constantinopolitan history. There is so much of the Arians and Eunomians, and Semi-Pelagians, and there is such a strange contrast between Roman and Gothic manners, and so little harmony between a Consul Sabinus and a Ricimer duke of the palace, that thoughyou have written the story as well as it could be written, I fear few will have patience to read it.' He coloured; all his round features squeezed themselves into sharp angles ; he screwed up his button- mouth, and rapping his snuffbox, said, It had never been put together be- fore'—so well he meant to add—but gulped it. He meant so well cer- tainly, for Tillemont, whom he quotes in every page, has done the very thing. Well, from that hour to this I have never seen him, though he used to call once or twice a week; nor has sent me the third volume, as he promised. I well knew his vanity, even about his ridiculous face and per- son, but thought he had too much sense to avow it so palpably."

This is the sequel, with a drop of acid for Mason.

" Berkeley Square, Feb. 9, 1181.

"The lost sheep is found ; but I have more joy in one Just person than in ninety and nine sinners that do not repent; in short, the renegade Gibbon is returned to me, after ten or eleven weeks, and pleads having been five of them at Bath. I immediately forgave even his return: yet pray do not imagine that I write to announce this recovery ; no, it is to impart what he told me. He says that somebody asked Johnson if he was not afraid that you would resent the freedoms he has taken with Gray, 'No, no, Sir, Mr. Mason does not like rough handling.' I hope in the Muses that you will let him see which had most reason to fear rough handling. The saucy Cali- ban ! I don't know when I shall get you his blubber, but I have sent again to my bookseller about it."

Mason writes with more substance and solid sense than Wal- pole, generally with more earnestness in his subject : his letters will not be so generally entertaining owing to their matter, which, from his position in a country parish or at York, have not the same sort of historical interest as Walpole's. The following is a sample, on a subject that has been mooted to the present day.. " After thanking you for the very obliging offer you make of publishing his poems, &c. I will with the same freedom tell you my opinion upon that subject. I always thought Mr. Gray blameable for letting the booksellers have his MSS. gratis. I never saw anything myself beneath the dignity of a gentleman in making a profit of the productions of one's own brain. I fre- quently had disputes with him on this matter, which generally ended in a laugh; he called me covetous and I called him proud. What you think upon this head I know not, yet I trust you do not carry your ideas of this kind so far as Mons. de Nivernois, because I remember what you said, when you gave me an anecdote about him and the French punctilio with regard to authorship.

" Dodsley,. however, has (I doubt not) got some hundred pounds by Mr. Gray's suffering him to print his poems, as he has hitherto done; and in my ?pinion, Dodsley ' nor any of the great booksellers ought to have been an ob- ject of his beneficence. I should not wonder It present if Dodshiy claims a right in the copies of such things as he has already printed : yet I fancy he can show no title to such a claim, or at least his title cannot preclude aims ; and therefore it is not to be doubted that if I prepared an edition of the poems in question—with ever so little new in it, such an edition would stop the sale of his, and continue to bring in a considerable profit, whether I kept the right or sold it to any other bookseller. My first business, therefore, will-be to ascertain this right, and afterwards to make as much profit of the book as I possibly can. I hope you will do me the justice to believe that I shall dispose of the money that may accrue in a way that will ao honour to the memory of Mr. Gray; and in so doing, I flatter myself you will think that

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I shall do much better in this point than he did, who had certainly much better have taken the profits, and bestowed them on such benevolent pur- poses, for which his purse was never' till of late,. sufficient to answer the de- mands of his heart, and which might have been in some sort assisted by this means had he not thrown it away on the most undeserving of all objects, - printers and booksellers, and those rich ones into the bargain."

Perhaps Walpole really shone most as a critic on art: as the artists were not competitors, he gave his judgment fair play, and it was sound when not warped by some petty feeling or prejudice. These remarks on Reynolds are judicious.

"I have at last received your Fresnoy from Sir Joshua ; you have made it a very handsome book ; and I am pleased that you have added Gray's Chronologie List. Sir Joshua has lately given me too his last Discourse to the Academy; which I will tell you, entre noses, is rather an apology for or an avowal of the object of his own ;tyle, that is effect, or impression on all sorts of spectators. This lesson will rather do hurt than good on his dis- ciples, and make them neglect all kind of finishing. Nor is he judicious in quoting Vandyck, who at least specified silks, satins, velvets. Sir Joshua's draperies represent cloathes, never their materials. Yet more ; Tandy& and Sir Godfrey .seller excelled all painters in hands, Sir Joshua's are seldom even tolerably drawn. I saw t'other day one of, if not the best of his works, the portrait of Lord Richard Cavendish ; little is distinguished but the head and hand ; yet the latter, though nearest to the spectator, is abomi- nably bad ; so are those of my three nieces ; and though the effect of the whole is charming, the details are slovenly, the faces only red and white; and hisjourneyman, as if to distinguish himself, has finished the lock and key of the table like a Dutch flower-painter."

The notion of Bruce's mendacity was that of the age, not of Walpole in particular. Had the critic lived to our day, he would have learned more wonderful things from the tombs of Thebes than the musical instruments.

" Would you believe that the great Abyssinian Mr. Bruce, whom Dr. Burney) made me laugh by seriously calling the 'intrepid traveller,' has bad the intrepidity to write a letter to the Dr., which the latter has printed in his book, and in which he intrepidly tells lies of almost as large a magnitude. as his story of the bramble, into which his Majesty of Abyssinia and his whole army were led by the fault of his general, and which bramble was so tenacious, that his Majesty could not disentangle himself without stripping to the skin and leaving his robes in it ; and it being death in that country to procure or compass the Sovereign's nudity, the general lost his head for the- error of his march.

"In short, Mr. Bruce has not only described six Abyssinian musical instru-' ments, and given their names in the ancient Ethiopic and in the court lan- guage, but contributed a Theban harp, as beautifully and gracefully designed as if Mr. Adam had drawn it for Lady Mansfield's dressing-room, with a sphinx, masks, a Patera, and a running foliage of leaves. This harp, Mr. Bruce says, he copied from a painting in fresco on the inside of a cavern near the ancient Thebes, and that it was painted there by the order of Sesostris ; and he is not at all astonished at the mirical of its preservation, though he treats poor accurate Dr. Pocock with great contempt for having been in the cave without seeing this prodigy, which, however, graceful as its form is, Mr. Bruce thinks was not executed by any artist superior to a sign-painter, yet so high was the perfection of the arts in the time of &sac, that a common me- chanic could not help rendering faithfully a common instrument. I am sorry our Apelles, Sir Joshua, has not the sign-painter's secret of making his colours last in an open cave for thousands of years. "It is unlucky that Mr. Bruce does not possess another secret reckoned very essential to intrepid travellers, a good memory. Last spring he dined at Mr. Crauford's; George Selwyn was one of the company ; after relating the story of the bramble and several other curious particulars, somebody asked Mr. Bruce, if the Abyssinians had any musical instruments ? Musical instruments ? said he, and paused—vex I think I remember one lyre; Geo. Selwyn whispered his neighbour, ' am sure there is one less since he came out of the country.' There arc now six instruments there.

"Remember this letter is only for your own private eye ; I do not desire to be engaged in a controversy or a duel."