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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Rev . Mr . Higginson ' s vindication of the late pr . Percivai ' s character shall appear as early as our various pledges will permit .
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2 ^ 2 Currcsj ) O 72 dtnce .
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We scarcely know what to do with the following letter , from an unknown hand . It is written with too tniich good humour to be angrily thrown aside , and at the same time with ^ ome portion of that levity , which it is designed to rebuke . In all douKtful cases , however , . we incline in favour of our correspondents , especiall y when our own conduct is arraigned . Such as it is , then , the reader shall have it : if we deservei * fhe lash of irony , » we will not , by a stretch of prerogative , skreeri ourselves from , it .
A GENTLE REBUKE OF THE EDITOR . To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .
Mr . Editor , Idle Lane , May 19 th , 1808 . I am a new correspondent of your ' s , though not quite an unpractised writer For several years , I have amused myself with collecting materials for an edition of Tom Durfey ' s " Pills to purge Melancholy , '* which has been long out of print . To the ' * Mirror of Fashion , " I am an occasional contributor . I also communicated thiee jests , undoubted originals , to the last edition of *< Joe Millar . " Such are my claims to your regard , though I little expected , till very lately , to become a correspondent of th « " Monthly Repository . "
The title of your work was known to me from Its commencement . I have a neighbour whom J , with a few honest fellows like myself , occasionally visit , from common courtesy , and because he is a well-meaning man , though too sombre for us , and indeed a quits , s He has often tried to make us in love with your magazine , declaring- that it was entertaining as ivell as , instructive . The last epithet was enough to spoil all , and , in phrase theatrical , you were immediately damned . . Looking in at my neighbour ' s this morning , when he happened to be from home , I saw your last number on his table , open at a page where he had written " Com * jnon stuff . " Knowing his false taste , I was encouraged to read ; but I am unable to express to you Mr , Editor , how I was gratified with , the " Original Anecdotes « f Dr . Goldsmith , * ' which my dull neighbour had disapprove *! . The Monthly Repository is now really entertaining . Thus it is when a mere particle of fun comes into the possession of a skilful artist . By minute accuracy and ingenious amplification , he can , like a gold-beater ^ spread it over two pages and a ha'f .
1 had before heard of a forged letter as a trick often played off by apprentices upon cook maids . The candle and the «« Cheshire cheese , " I am persuaded , is an original . The scene was so admirably described that I could not jrefrain from shewing it to a caricaturist of my acquaintance , who eagerly seized it as a subject for his pencil ; the town Joeing much in want of something new . Look
pbout you , Mr . Editor , in the high streets , an 4 you may perhaps discover a view of J > r . JVfilner ' s kitchen , William in a morning dregs , suited to a footman , who ** cjeans shoes , &c , ' * and Goldsmith in an usher ' s dishabilJe . " Over the fire placein the kifcehen , " the pretended and the " real candle . " ? My friend promises to make gi due acknowledgment at the bottom of his print , by a reference to " the Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature . *'
1 had before met with anecdotes of Goldsmith , but with none possessing * ' h ** r mour and chee \ fulness , " to suit my taste . I just remember one which describes the poet pn ) iis rambles through Switzerland , as securing a supper and a lodging fry the enticement of his viphn at a peasant s door ; but this story was intermixed with wis , esaws upon the distresses and resources Of genius , suited ^ only to those whose favourite motto is written , I believe , «* Utiledulci . ^ My motto , Mr . Editor , always was , and I Jiope always will be , " Vive la bagatelle ; ' pray adopt this in future instead of those hard words on your blue cover . —
Go pn , Sir , to give us anecdotes a la bagatelle ; and then , though you may displease a few dull souls , depend on al \ my relations as constant readers and occar sional correspondents . * W ' c arx * 4 very Jargefanuly , as you will ailow when I have fUib $ cribe 4 myself , your ' s , PICKY QQSSIP * J ? . S . I depend on seeing this in youi ? iie * t *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1808, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2392/page/64/
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