knight,) as Miss Burney, and so good and severe a woman as Hannah More, have given similar testimony. Burke repeatedly declared that " every care vanished the moment he entered under his own roof;" and one morning, on the anniversary of their marriage, he wrote and presented to Mrs. Burke a beautifully descriptive paper-The Idea of a Wife, -heading the paper thus, "The character of," leaving her to fill up the blank.

BURKE'S FIRST AVOWED WORKS.

Burke's first productions experienced various fates. His poem on the Blackwater, so much applauded by his friends, was lost by his father, who had borrowed it. Soon after he reached London, he printed some anecdotes of Henry Brooke* and Mrs. Woffington, which may probably be traced in pamphlets or periodicals of the time. The Essay on the Drama, preserved in his works, is believed to be of the same date.

His first avowed work was the Vindication of Natural Society, which was the first manuscript copied by Emin. This was published in 1756, in a pamphlet of 106 pages: it is, especially for a young man of 26, in all respects a very remarkable production. First, it is written in imitation of the style and manner of Lord Bolingbroke, which, in literary society, had been declared inimitable. Lord Chesterfield and Bishop Warburton, among others, are said to have accredited the Vindication; and so generally was this believed, that Mallet went to Robert Dodsley's shop, in Pall Mall, and there, in the presence of many critics and authors, declared the pamphlet not to have been written by Bolingbroke. Its design was to produce a correct mimicry both of that writer's style and principles, and by pushing the latter to their ultimate results, to force conviction of their unsoundness, by showing that the arguments employed by Bolingbroke against religion applied as strongly against every other institution of civilized society.†

* Author of The Fool of Quality, a novel, reprinted in 1859.

+ To Mallet, a brother infidel, Bolingbroke left the office of ushering

N

The style is brilliant and flowing; but it is chiefly deserving of attention as indicating the peculiar direction the mind of the author had already taken, and as proving how early there had been formed in it at least the germs of that philosophy of morals and of society which may be traced in all his writings, and his subsequent public conduct. The following passage contains the key to the purpose of the pamphlet:

"The editor is satisfied that a mind which has no restraint from a sense of its own weakness, of its subordinate rank in the creation, and of the extreme danger of letting the imagination loose upon some subjects, may very plausibly attack everything the most excellent and venerable, that it would not be difficult to criticise the creation itself; and that, if we were to examine the divine fabrics by our ideas of reason and fitness, and to use the same method of attack by which some men have assaulted revealed religion, we might with as good colour, and with the same success, make the wisdom and power of God in his creation appear to many no better than foolishness."

A few months after this pamphlet, Burke published the second manuscript copied by Emin-his Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, which, however, he is said to have begun when he was only 19. Its leading doctrine is, that the feeling of the sublime means the delight we experience whenever we have an idea of pain and danger, without being actually in such circumstances and that the feeling of the beautiful means the delight

his legacy of Deism into light, which drew from Dr. Johnson, when asked his opinion of it, the exclamation: "A scoundrel! who spent his life in charging a popgun against Christianity; and a coward! who, afraid of the report of his own gun, left half-a-crown to a hungry Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death."

Mr. Burke used to relate at his table, that the first Lord Lyttelton told him that Lord Bolingbroke never committed any of his works to paper himself, but invariably dictated to a secretary. This accounted for the tautology and repetitions so common in his writings. In company he was fluent and eloquent, speaking, or rather dictating to his hearers with an air of authority more resembling the formal harangue of the House of Commons than the usual tone of conversation, and seldom allowing himself to be contradicted or interrupted.-Prior.

that is excited in us by all such qualities in things as induce in us a sense of affection, tenderness, or some other passion the most nearly resembling these: while we are yet altogether unaffected by the physical passion, the object of which is the beauty of women. To Hume this tract was a pretty treatise, to Johnson a model of philosophical criticism: it was well received by the public, and immediately brought the author into much notice.

Among those who testified to its merits was Goldsmith, who spoke well of it in the Monthly Review; admitting the criticism to be elaborate and excellent, he objected to many parts of the theory, and especially to the materialism on which it founded the connexion of objects of pleasure with a necessary relaxation of the nerves; but these objections, discreet and well-considered, gave strength and relish to its praise; and Burke spoke to many of his friends of the pleasure it had given him.

To the second edition he prefixed a brief Discourse on Taste, and an excellent Preface, in return for a copy of which his father sent him 100%.

BURKE, AND HIS LITERARY FRIENDS IN LONDON.

At the expiration of the usual time, Burke was not called to the Bar. He became, however, still more strongly attached to general literature, and in London met many old friends, school and college acquaintances. He renewed his friendship with Dr. Brocklesby, then practising in Broadstreet, and living with the strictest economy, never suffering himself to have a want that was not accommodable to his fortune."

66

Meanwhile, Burke's father knew nothing of his son's leaving professional routine: he did not stop the remittances, but made them so sparingly, that to literature Edmund began to look for subsistence. He had already become acquainted with Arthur Murphy, who, a few months previously, had commenced his Gray's Inn Journal. He found

the young philosopher full of information: they may have often met at George's coffee-house, in the Strand, one of Murphy's haunts, and at Macklin's British Inquisition, in Covent Garden; but the tone of Murphy's dedication of his Translation of Tacitus to Burke does not bespeak any close intimacy. Edmund next joined the Robin Hood Debating Society, held in Essex-street; but, as the debaters were only allowed to speak seven minutes, Burke had little room for his flowers of oratory to expand. He was now a constant attendant in the pit of Drury-lane Theatre; and through Murphy, or some other means, was introduced to Garrick, and between them was formed a friendship which only ended with their lives. Burke's frequent visits to the green-room may have given rise to a scandalous story of an intrigue with Margaret Woffington, the probability of which is disproved in Mr. Macknight's Memoirs, by the actress's absence from England until 1756.

Dr. Bisset tamely says of this accusation : He frequently passed his leisure hours in the company of Mrs. Woffington. This several of his detractors have endeavoured to make a subject of ridicule. But it is certain that this lady's conversation was no less anxiously courted by men of wit and genius, than by men of pleasure. It is equally certain that he was, on the whole, a man of great temperance. Whether he was so completely chaste as to resist the attractions of that engaging woman, I cannot affirm. If instead of standing candidate for being Professor of Logic at Glasgow, he had applied for orders in the Kirk, and Mrs. Woffington had been within its jurisdiction, an inquiry would probably have been instituted; but as that was not the case, I have no means of satisfying the curious in that branch of biography."-Life of Burke, p. 26.

BURKE'S ENGLISH HISTORY, AND DODSLEY'S ANNUAL

REGISTER.

Burke had already a high reputation, when his father died. He now wrote for the booksellers with great industry. In April, 1757, he completed for Dodsley an Account of the European Settlements in America, in two volumes, which Dugald Stewart termed a masterly sketch, and the Abbé Raynal profited by in his history. This work reached a seventh edition, yet is not retained in Burke's works: hence it was doubted whether it was really written by him; but the assignment of the copyright to Dodsley, for fifty guineas, is in Burke's handwriting, and was sold at an auction of autographs, by Evans, in Pall Mall, in 1837.

About 1757, Burke, under pressure of temporary difficulty, is said to have sold his books, as disclosed by the arms pasted in some of them. Yet, he worked hard for the press, and was kept from discreditable shifts. He now lived at Battersea; and before the close of the year, he sent to press an Abridgment of English History; only 70 pages were then printed, and may be seen in the British Museum; they were found by Nicol, the successor of Dodsley, in Pall Mall, and given by him to Dr. Burney. These 70 printed pages extend only to the year 388 of the Christian era, whereas Burke's manuscript reaches 1216, and was published in the quarto edition of his writings, some years after his death. He is supposed to have discontinued his History because Hume was engaged on the same labour; but this is improbable, as Burke is known to have declared the earlier part of Hume's work to be very superficial; and Hume himself is said to have acknowledged to Burke that he had not studied, but merely dipped into, the original authorities.

Burke now arranged with the Dodsleys to publish a view of the history, politics, and literature of each year, to be called the Annual Register. The first volume appeared in 1759: it contained a history of the War, from its com