A volume of the most gigantic magnitude demands a place
in the Library. We must have a shelf raised on purpose for it. It can only be put among the State Papers or the publications of the Record Commission, It is more than a quarto, and not less than a folio. It is not to be read without a ladder. We walk from one end of the line to the other, and run up and down the library steps, as we descend the page or refer to a passage. The turning of the pages is hard work in hot weather ; but we are rewarded, not by the contents of the leaf, but by the breezes its sail-cloth sheets create as they turn over and over. This mighty volume contains the Private Correspondence of little GARRICK, the great player. He himself could with difficulty have carried his own publication. It seems that .GAeatcx was a very methodical character; he folded, dated, and docketed all the letters he received from persons great and small, and deposited them in leathern trunks. Since the death of Mrs. GARRICK, these letters have come into publishing hands ; and here they are bodily before the public,—a work un- equalled in size and in variety of contents. We wish we could say more. It contains letters from nearly every great man of the latter half of the last century ; and as a collection of autography, would have been rich indeed. A biographer might have extracted many facts and dates, and have illustrated portions of the lives of GARRICK and his friends, by reference to passages in the letters. But certainly, the rashest and most ill-advised publication as a whole, is the work before us. The letters of GARRICK are few, and not remarkable : pages upon pages of common notes occur, the only interesting part of which is the signature. There is scarcely a man who ever lived, who, if he chose to send a trunk or two of letters to COLBURN, could not produce a work of more merit—though, perhaps, the interest might be less. There are some pleasing letters from Lord CHATHAM : one of them is accompanied by a few verses, which, coming from so great a man, are interesting—we surely have met with them very long ago. " TO SIR. GARRICK,
IN ANSWER TO ISIS VERSES FROM MOUNT EDGECUMBE,
" Leave, Garrick, the rich landscape, proudly gay, Docks, forts, and navies, bright'ning all the bay : To my plain roof repair, primeval seat I Yet here no wonders your quick eye can meet: Save, should you deem it wonderful to find Ambition cured, and an un-passion'd mind : A Statesman without pow'r, and without gall, Hating no courtiers, happier than them all; Bow'd to no yoke, nor crouching for applause, Vot'ry alone to freedom and the laws.
Herds, flocks, and smiling Ceres deck our plain, And interspersed, an heartsenliv'ning train Of sporting children frolic o'er the green ;
Meantime, pure Love looks on, and consecrates the scene.
Come then, immortal spirit of the Stage, Great Nature's proxy, glass of every age; Come, taste the simple life of Patriarchs old, Who, rich in rural peace, ne'er thought of pomp or gold."
The work is edited, or rather inedited, by somebody.
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