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she ought to be celebrated in as many languages as Lewis le Grand." -Johnson. Upon hearing a lady commended for her learning, Dr. Johnson said, "A man is, in general, better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. My old friend Mrs. Carter could make a pudding as well as translate Epictetus from the Greek." On another occasion, speaking of some eminent scholar, he said, "Sir, he is the best Greek scholar in England, except Elizabeth Carter." There was nothing of the pedant, however, about this excellent woman. She was as much distinguished by her modesty and piety, and by the quiet elegance of her conversation, as by her learning.

Lady Mary Montagu.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1690-1762, is connected &bout equally with the age of Pope and that of Dr. Johnson. She fills a considerable space in the history of the times, by the distinguished part which she played in social and diplomatic circles, by her intelligent and philanthropic efforts in the matter of inoculation for the small-pox, and by her Letters, which have become a valuable part of literary history.

Career.-Lady Mary Wortley was the daughter of the Duke of Kingston. Her husband being appointed ambassador to Turkey, Lady Mary accompanied him, and wrote to her friends at home a series of Letters, which were surreptitiously published in 1763, and permanently established the writer's fame.

Character and Writings. - Lady Mary was a noted wit, and her house was a meeting-place for men of letters and fashion. She was at one time very intimate with Pope, but afterwards quarrelled with him and became the object of his satire. She published during her lifetime some poems and a few essays, which have fallen into utter neglect. As a writer she is known to the public solely by her Letters. These are full of the gossip and scandal of the day, witty in descriptions, shrewd, and easy both in style and morals. They are the English counterpart of Madame de Sévigne's celebrated letters, but are shrewder and more forcible, and also more sarcastic. specimens of epistolary style they are among the best in English literature.

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A Philanthropist.— Lady Mary's name must not be forgotten, however, as that of a public benefactor. She was the means of introducing into England the Turkish practice of inoculation for small-pox, boldly subjecting her own children to the then dreaded operation. It was not until Jenner introduced the still better system of vaccination that her benefaction was superseded.

MRS. ELIZABETH MONTAGU, 1720-1800, belongs almost equally to the age of Dr. Johnson and to that of Cowper.

Mrs. Montagu was the daughter of Matthew Robinson, and was by marriage cousin of the celebrated Lady Mary Montagu. Mrs. Montagu's husband, Edward Montagu, died in 1775, leaving her in the enjoyment of a large fortune. Her house became the centre of literature and fashion. Her soirées were thronged with all the literary notabilities of the day. Mrs. Montagu herself was noted for her conversational powers, but she produced little in the way of authorship. Her only work of repute is an Essay on Shakespeare, written in reply to Voltaire. It is good as a refutation of Voltaire's flippancy, but has scarcely any positive merit of its own. The Letters of Mrs. Montagu, in two parts, were published after her death. They are lively, "gossipy " effusions, and form a part of the literary history of the times.

MRS. HESTER CHAPONE, 1727-1801, showed at the age of nine a decided taste for literary pursuits. She made the acquaintance of Mr. Chapone at the house of Richardson the novelist. Mrs. Chapone was acquainted with Dr. Johnson, and was for half a century the intimate friend of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter. She published Letters on the Improvement of the Mind; Letters to a New Married Lady; Miscellanies in Prose and Verse.

SIR JAMES PORTER, 1720-1786, was English Ambassador at Constantinople from 1747 to 1762, besides diplomatic service at other Courts. He was a man of letters and science, and wrote several valuable works: Observations on the Religion, Laws, Government, and Manners of the Turks; The Plague at Constantinople; Astronomical and Physical Observations in Asia, etc. His grandson published, in 1854, Turkey, its History and Progress, based upon Sir James's journal and correspondence.

Munchausen's Travels.

Munchausen's Travels are worthy of note among the curiosities of literature. The history of this singular work is quite as remarkable as the work itself.

Rudolph Erich Raspe was a learned German, connected at one time with the library of the University of Göttingen, afterwards a Professor at Cassel, and Keeper of the antique gems and medals belonging to the Elector of Hesse. Being detected in a theft of some of the treasures committed to his keeping, Raspe fled to England. There he fell into want, and finally, in order to earn his bread, he became a waiter in a German coffee-house. While in this humble position, he betook himself to the preparation of the curious literary work which has been named, and he has thus become famous, though his connection with it has only of late been fully known.

The Story of Munchausen. - In the latter part of the last century, a certain Baron Munchausen was living in the Electorate of Hanover. He had been engaged in early life in the Russian service against the Turks, and had experienced many wild adventures. He was a rollicking, jovial fellow, fond of the chase and of good cheer, famous for his hospitality and for his endless supply of capital stories. When the good baron had any guests who were given to drawing the long bow, he sometimes quietly punished them by telling stories of his own experience far transcending any. thing of theirs, and told so gravely that it was not easy to know when he was in earnest and when he was poking fun at his auditors.

Origin and Character of the Work. - Raspe had often been at the Baron's table, and heard many of these marvellous tales. When leading his miserable life in London, he bethought himself of those stories, and wrote out some of them from memory for publication. The publication being successful, he prepared a second and a third edition, each time enlarging and adding to the stock, from his own invention as well as from memory, until The Travels of Baron Munchausen became a really curious and unique book, hardly inferior to Swift's Travels of Gulliver. It has been translated into a great many languages, and has passed through almost innumerable editions. It is one of the books which have been illustrated by Gustave Doré. Soon after its first appearance, its republication in Göttingen was attempted, but Munchausen, who was then living, began legal proceedings and stopped the publication. The Baron died in 1797. Raspe's book was first published in London in 1785. The two most striking of these stories are that of the sounds which were frozen up and afterwards thawed out, and that of the cherry-stone shot into a stag's head, which sprouted and grew up into a tree.

JONATHAN SCOTT, LL. D., a learned Orientalist, Persian Secretary to Warren Hastings, translated many beautiful things from the Arabic and the Persian: BaharDanush, a romance from the Persian; Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters, from the Arabic and the Persian; Ferishta's History of the Dekkan, etc.

ROBERT WOOD, 1716-1771, is known by his work on Palmyra and Baalbec.

Wood was born at Riverstown, Ireland, and educated at Oxford. In 1759 Chatham made him Under-Secretary of State, which post he held for many years. He travelled in the East, and published by far the best descriptions which up to that time had been given of some of the ancient cities: The Ruins of Palmyra, with fifty-seven Plates; The Ruins of Baalbec, with forty-six Plates; View of the Ancient and Present Troas, folio. These works, particularly those on Palmyra and Baalbec, were remarkable for the beauty of the plates, the accuracy of the measurements, and the elegance of the descriptions; and these qualities, added to the wonderful character of the antiquities themselves, caused the works to produce a profound impression.

LORD GEORGE ANSON, 1697-1762, is celebrated for his Voyage Round the World, a work not written by himself, but compiled from his papers and published under his direction. Anson's Voyage was a work of great repute in its day, and according to the Edinburgh Review "it is still about the most delightful of any with which we are acquainted." It was published in 1740-44.

JOHN BELL, 1691-1780, a Scotch traveller, published Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Divers Parts of Asia, 2 vols., 4to, 1763, of which the London Quarterly Review says it is "the best model for travel-writing in the English language."

CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, 1728-1779, was a famous English navigator, who was killed in a quarrel with the natives at Owyhee, Sandwich Islands. His Voyages are the most noted of all those undertaken by the British. The account of them, made up from his notes, was published by the Admiralty in 8 vols., 4to, richly ornamented with plates by the most eminent artists.

DAVID DALRYMPLE, Lord Hailes, 1726-1792, a native of Edinburgh, was a lawyer of repute, and an industrious historian and antiquary. His chief publication was An

nals of Scotland: it is a standard work on that subject.-ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, 1737-1808, brother of Lord Hailes, was hydrographer to the East India Company and afterwards to the Admiralty, and is especially known for his zeal in collecting and publishing authentic accounts of Voyages to the South Seas.-JoHN DALRYMPLE, Earl of Stair, d. 1789, wrote much on subjects connected with political economy and affairs of State: The State of the National Debt; State of the Public Debts; Limits of Government Interference with the East India Company, etc.-SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE, 1726-1810, Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland, wrote many works on political subjects: A General History of Funded Property in Great Britain; The Policy of Entails in a Nation; Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, etc.

Bruce the Traveller.

James Bruce, 1730-1794, a Scotchman, descended from the royal house of Bruce, has a world-wide reputation as a traveller and a writer of travels.

While residing at Algiers as British Consul, it was proposed to Bruce that he should explore the antiquities of Barbary. Having spent a year and more in this work, he next visited Baalbec and Palmyra. Then he made a journey into Abyssinia to discover the source of the Nile. Having discovered the source of the Blue Nile, in doing which he encountered many dangers and hardships, he returned to England and published an account of his travels and discoveries, in 5 vols., 4to. "Who has not heard of Bruce, the romantic, the intrepid, the indefatigable Bruce? His tale was once suspected; but suspicion has sunk into acquiescence of its truth. A more enterprising, light, but lion-hearted traveller never left his native hills for the accomplishment of such purposes as those which Bruce accomplished.”- Dibdin.

JOSEPH EDMONDSON, 1786, is one of the celebrated antiquaries of England. His publications are numerous and elaborate, and are the more remarkable from the fact that he was originally a barber, without the advantages of early education. The following are his principal works: A Complete Body of Heraldry, 2 vols, fol.; Pedigree of the English Peers, 6 vols., fol.; Companion to the Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland, Svo; Historical Account of the Greville Family, 8vo, etc.

SIR JOSEPH AYLOFFE, 1709-1781, a graduate of Oxford, was highly distinguished as an antiquary. There are no independent publications of his own, but he aided largely in several other important works. He completed Mozart's Calendar of Ancient Charters, aided in the publication of Thorp's Registrum Roffense, and of the Vetusta Monumenta, and wrote some of the descriptions of the monuments in Westminster Abbey for Gough's Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain. He contributed papers also to the Archæologia. Gough styles Ayloffe the Montfaucon of England.

WILLIAM OLDYS, 1696-1761, was a zealous collector of books, and was indefatigable in the cause of English bibliography. He was librarian to Harley, Earl of Oxford. The British Librarian, a bibliographical work, and a Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, are the only publications of his generally known. The style of this latter is heavy, but it abounds in curious information.

RICHARD FARMER, D. D., 1735–1769, a learned divine of the Church of England, made himself famous by a collection of rare and curious old books, and by the publication of An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare. In this essay Farmer undertakes to prove, by a citation of examples, that the knowledge of antiquity which Shakespeare had was derived from translations, not from reading the original authors.

JOHN FELL, 1735-1797, was a Dissenting minister, and a classical teacher. He wrote Demoniacs, and Idolatry of Greece and Rome, in criticism of the theories advanced by Hugh Farmer. He also wrote Genuine Protestantism; Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity; English Grammar.

THOMAS BROUGHTON, 1704–1774, was one of the contributors to the Biographica Britannica. He wrote also Answer to Toland's Christianity as old as Creation; A Prospect of Futurity; Hercules, a Musical Drama; Bibliotheca Historico-Sacra, an Historical Dictionary of All Religions, 2 vols., fol.

THOMAS BLACKWELL, 1701-1757, a Scottish critic and author, Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Works: Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, 8vo; Letters Concerning Mythology, 8vo; Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, 2 vols., 4to. Blackwell is not in high repute as a writer. He displays more erudition than genius, and more affectation than elegance."

ANDREW BAXTER, 1686-1750, a native of Scotland, who was employed mostly as private tutor to young gentlemen, published a volume of some note, An Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, which is referred to by Hume, and is highly commended by Warburton.

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WILLIAM LAUDER, 1771, a native of Scotland, made himself notorious by his abortive attempt to prove Milton a plagiarist. The works which he published in this attempt were Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns, Letter to the Rev. Mr. Douglass, The Grand Impostor Detected, or Milton Convicted of Forgery against Charles I.

WILLIAM BAKER, 1742-1785, was an English printer, somewhat of the Robert and Henry Stephens's style,-a man of learning and classical scholarship, critically skilled in Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, with some knowledge of Hebrew. He published Peregrinations of the Mind by a Naturalist, and Remarks on the English Language.

GEORGE EDWARDS, 1694-1773, was a distinguished naturalist. He travelled through the northern parts of Europe, studying and making collections. Natural History of Birds, etc., with continuation, 7 vols., 4to; Essays upon Natural History, Svo.

HENRY BAKER, 1703–1774, was chiefly known as a naturalist, and as a contributor to the Linnæan and the Philosophical Transactions. His contributions to general literature were: An Invocation to Health, a Poem; The Universe, a Philosophical Poem; Original Poems; The Microscope made Easy; Employment for the Microscope. He married a daughter of Daniel De Foe. He was noted, also, for his success in teaching the Deaf and Dumb, though he made a secret of his method. — DAVID ERSKINE BAKER, 1774, a son of Henry Baker the naturalist, and grandson of Daniel De Foe. He was the original compiler of the Biographica Dramatica, in 2 vols., 1764. He published, also, The Muse of Ossian, and some fugitive poetry and papers in the Philosophical Transactions. -- HENRY BAKER, also a son of Henry Baker the naturalist, and grandson of Daniel De Foe, wrote Essays, Pastorals and Elegiacs.

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