of the parties, it is too often impeded by perfonal diflike and perfonal predilection, by doubts upon facts, which they who entertain them think it not worth while to fettle, and by opinions of character which it is fcarcely poffible to alter. The hiftorian commands attention, and reHistory wards it, by felecting the more brilliant circumftances of great events, by unfolding the characteristic qualities of eminent perfonages, and by tracing well-known effects through all the obliquities, and all the receffes of their secret causes. From the ordinary occurrences of life, as they influence the conduct of extraordinary men, the play biographer collects fuch fcattered rays as may be concentrated into one bright affemblage of truth upon the character which he has undertaken to delineate. Even the novelift throws his enchantments around the fancy by fictitious reprefenta- hralisttions, which he can at will embellish into beauty, or exalt into dignity; and the polemic exercifes his dominion over the reafoning faculty, by poignancy of remark, and by fubtilty of confutation. But none of thefe advantages fall to the lot of him who engages in such a narrative as I am compelled to purfue. He afcends no eminence, he repofes under no fhade, but is continually toiling onward without the cheering consciousness of progreffion, fometimes oppreffed with languor, amidft the dulnefs and the famenefs of the scenes which furround him, and fometimes roused into exertion, by the noxious weeds that may offend his fenfes, or by the rude briars that would intercept his way. Upon fuch occafions as this, the ftouteft advo cate in the best cause seldom has it in his power to produce in the minds of others, thofe emotions which he may himself most keenly, and most fincerely feel. Though proofs be accumulated, though arguments be framed, though eloquence be difplayed to break the uniformity of narrative, and though wit be called in to temper the feverity of reafon, the exertion of all these various powers will be filently counteracted and finally defeated, by the want of bulkiness, or the want of fplendour, in the fubject itself. Confcious of little real fympathy, and expecting no ufeful inftruction, men begin to read with vague inquifitiveness, they continue to read with growing indifference, and, at laft, with fecret fatisfaction they ceafe to read. The candid are not pleafed, the prejudiced are not convinced, the indolent are wearied, and the impertinent, or the malevolent alone are gratified. Even the members of thofe petty cabals, which are fometimes formed in confequence of petty difputes among their ac quaintance, cannot long retain their importance, or their ardour. When they tell the tale which has often been told before, and tell it with fresh vehemence, unaccompanied by fresh evidence, they foon find themselves unable to allure a hearer, or to provoke an opponent. Parties of this kind ftart up like a bubble, fuddenly and noifily, and like a bubble too, they diffolve and pafs away, without notice, and without effect. To all these general confiderations, which prudence fuggefts as reftraints upon committing to the prefs the minute particulars of a private quarrel, quarrel, other reafons may be added. I could derive little advantage from vanquishing Mr. Curtis as a difputant. I'muft expect yet less honour from excelling him as a writer. I fhould feel no pleasure at all in exposing him as a man. But the force of these numerous and formidable difcouragements from publication has been, on a fudden, deftroyed, by the measures which the Reverend Mr. Curtis, brother to Alderman Curtis, has lately been pleased to adopt. While this Gentleman was content to pour forth his gloomy complaints, or his loud accufations in private company, I remained in a state of entire indifference. After he had circulated his printed paper, I preserved a quiet, though a watchful, neutrality. But when he proclaimed, or fuffered to be proclaimed, a partial tale in the Newfpaper, I felt myself under the unpleasant, but irrefiftible neceffity of fupplying his omiffions, and of rectifying his mistakes. By that countless and harmless fwarm of fcribblers who amufe themselves, and readers equally idle with themselves, by paragraphs upon my opinions in politics, my peculiarities in drefs, or my love of ancient literature, I have too much firmnefs, and indeed, too much understanding, to be offended for one moment. My character, I am told, prefents a wide front for attack to thefe puny affailants, and fo long as they abftained from the poifoned weapons of malevolence, I often smiled, as, no doubt, I often shall smile again, at the light and feeble fhafts of ridicule. But when a clergyman fhews, like Mr. Curtis, a fixed determination to inflict, if he can, fome deep deep and deadly wound upon my moral feelings, I will not refrain from doing that juftice which I alike owe to him and to myfelf. The regard which I have generally, and juftly paid to literary reputation, muft, in this one inftance, give way to the fenfe I entertain of perfonal honour. "Omnino probabiliora funt quæ laceffiti dicimus, quàm (6 quæ priores." Vid. Cicero de Orat. Lib. II. Upon one fubject, where Mr. Curtis could not mean very well, I have chaftifed him for the unfeemlinefs of his expreffions. Upon another, where he reafoned very ill, I have examined the force of all he faid, or meant to fay; of all that will meet the mind of fome readers, and more than meets the eye of any; of all that malice has hitherto been content to murmur, and all that credulity has been incited to babble. To harrafs Mr. Curtis himself with a number of fuccefive proofs, was therefore no lefs an act of deliberation, than to opprefs his caufe under their collective weight. Had I been contending with an opponent of giant ftrength, I should have launched the thunderbolt, and endeavoured to overwhelm him in one inftant, by one blow. But upon Mr. Curtis I have fhowered down the pelting hail * with equal effect. Solidity may be crushed, but feeblenefs can only be annoyed. If upon every occafion, indeed, that prefented itfelf, I had been difpofed to lafh him with ridi *Singula levia funt, & communia, univerfa vero nocent, etiamfi non ut fulmine, tamen ut grandine. Quintilian, lib. 5, cap. 12. Rollin's edition. Mr. Curtis will not take fright at this expreffion, for he knows under whofe aufpices he received a charter" to fit at ease, midst showers of fierce hail of peafe." paper, and cule, cule, or to ftun him with argumentation, easy would have been the task, and the infliction just. -But I was not willing to decorate fo unfledged a writer as Mr. Curtis, with too rich a plumage of that importance, which oppofition fometimes beftows upon the noify flutter of vanity, and the unavailing ftruggles of imbecillity; nor was I forgetful, that the fame circumftances which had been adduced to warrant my fufpicions before private witnesses ought to be laid before a public tribunal in the fame form. Let me, however, not diffemble the mortification I have felt, more than once, upon reflecting, that the fubject which cannot be adorned, is feldom regarded, and that the fidelity which challenges contradiction, fometimes drives away attention. Upon tranfactions fo destitute of dignity, and fo barren of utility, I am forry to trouble the Reader with a detail, which, I am aware, will not grow in importance, as it grows in extent, and in which fome of the facts may be faid rather to incumber by their multiplicity, than to relieve by their variety. But upon collecting and reviewing the materials of different kinds, and different fizes, which really belong to the fubject, I was fometimes perplexed to determine their comparative fitnefs to be rejected or admitted; and I farther knew, that many particulars which, separately confidered, would appear frivolous, might, by a proper arrangement, contribute to the general perfpicuity of the following pamphlet. I, therefore, determined not to omit any circumftances that may tend to throw the smallest light upon the origin and progrefs of a conteft which Mr. |