I THE PURSUITS OF LITERATURE A SATIRICAL POEM IN DIALOGUE. WITH NOTES. PART THE FOURTH AND LAST. THE THIRD EDITION. [price three shillings and six-pence. ] * 8 2 6 THE PURSUITS OF LITERATURE: A SATIRICAL -POEM IN DIALOGUE. WITH NOTES. OvV aXxoaxoTTfni/ ejj^e xce.wv Evo(n%9&>v Kat yao a 9ay/x«£&iv -hero IItoXs/xovts M»^7]vts, TvJ/8 £7T* axporxrr,; x.opu$r>$ 2«//.a vXr,sa(Tr,s evSsv Traaa I&tj, ©§r/("xj7)S", yap s(pa»v£To /iaev OiXJVETO OS Ylpioc^oio 7roAt;, X«» we* Ayjxiwi' &.uri%a. 5' e^ o§eo? xaTECvKraro oraiTraXosvTo?. Ixsro TPI2 ^av ogt&rr' »*rv, TO AE TETPATON tsx/a^ Aiyay.svQ* 5s 5* xKvrx WaTaBEN©E2I AIMNH2 ai£«. X§y(T£a (jiafiJ-xipoyrx nrtvy^xrxi, OLtyQira, Hom. II. 13. v. 10. PART THE FOURTH AND LAST. THE THIRD EDITION. REVISED AND CORRECTED WITH MANY ADDITIONS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. BECKET, No. 81, PALL MALL. 1797. Lately Publijhed (price is. dtd.) A New Edition of The IMPERIAL EPISTLE from Kien Lono, E.nperor of China, to George the Third, King of Great Britain, &c. &c. in the Year 1794. Transmitted from the Emperor, and presented to his Britannick Majefty by his Excellency the Right H m. George Earl Macartney, of the Kingdom of Ireland, KB. AmbaiTador 7 Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor o* China, in the Years 1792, i793» *794« Tranflated into Englifh Verse from the Original Chinefe Poetry. With notes by various Per- fons of Eminence and Difiinc'tion, and by the Tranflator. lgnotum Rutulis Carmen caloque Latino Fingimus, et Finem egreui Legemque priorum. N. B. It is thought proper to mention, that The Imperial Epistle is not a burle/que Poem in any fenfe of the word. But it is a Poem built upon the circumftances of the times, delineating the Characters of the Statesmen of Great Britain, with satire, plea- fantry, or with praife; and exhibiting a picture of Europe at the period of its date. The whole" is as the title implies conveyed under Chinefe imagery and allufions, illuftrated by references to original Writers, confident with its Plan and Subject. Printed for T. Becket, Pall-Mail. ERRATUM. In the Preface to the Third Part of the P. of L. page 8. 1. 2. " " from the bottom, for sufficient,'* read insufficient.'* 4-3 ?7 ADVERTISEMENT THE FOURTH AND LAST PART w OF THE t PURSUITS OF LITERATURE. i'ombra sua torna ch'era dipartita ! Dante, ** Hear lis but thou sjieech % say nought?* " But one word more :—" *' He will not be commanded /" Macbethi June 1797. Ai.S I have now brought my Poem to the conclufion which I intended, it is proper and, as I think, respeft- °° ful to offer some considerations to the public, tor whose ^1 use it was written. No imitation of any writer or of any was the to the <£> poem proposed, except adherence princi- cs* pies of juft composition and a general observation of the cc finished models of classical literature be considered as ^ such. In the Preface to the Firft Part I said, what I now repeat, that I would not have printed it, but from a full conviftion of it's tendency to promote the public welfare. My particular ideas on the nature and subject of Satire I expressed clearly and fully in the Advertisement to the Second Part, and under the influence and impreffion of those sentiments (a) I wrote the Poem. In my introdu&ion to the Third Part, the importance of in it's various Feeling " my subject branches, I asserted that, Literature, well or ill •• conducted, is the great engine by which, lam i* fully persuaded, all civilized States must ul- t* timately be supported or overthrown,'" I am now IV. b || Part more §"" NOTE. A"k7.oif [a] x.ypu%»<, Avror scJqxi.ovjj-, Such is the condi* tioa of a Satirist. 300965 ( a ) more and more deeply impressed with this truth, if we consider the nature, variety and extent of the word, Literature.* We are no longer in an age of ignorance, and information is not partially distributed according to the ranks, and orders, and functions, and dignities of social life. All learning has an index, and every sci- ence it's abridgment. I am scarcely able to name any man whom I consider as wholly ignorant. We no longer look exclufively for learned authors in the usual place, in the retreats of academic erudition and in the seats of religion. Our peasantry now read the Rights #/ Man on mountains and moors and by the way fide; and fhepherds make the analogy between their occupa- tion and that of their governors. Happy indeed, had they been taught no other comparison. Our unsexed •female writers now instruct or confuse us and them- selves in the labyrinth of politics, or turn us wild with Gallic frenzy. But there is one publication of the time too peculiar fend too important to be passed over in a general reprehen- sion. There is nothing with which it may be compared. A legislator in our own parliament, a member of the 'House of Commons of Great Britain.an elected guardian «nd defender of the laws, the religion, and the good man- ners of the country, has neither scrupled nor blushed to depict and to publish to the world the arts of lewd and systematic seduction, and to thrult upon the nation the moll open and unqualified blasphemy againft the very code and volume of our religion. And all this, with his name, style, and title, prefixed to the novel or romance called "The MoNK."(^)And one of our pub- lic theatres has allured the public attention still more to this ' ' " " - NOTE. i " »(&) The Monk, a Romance in 3 volumes by M. Lfewia, Esq. M.P." printed for Bell, Oxford Street. At fine I thought that the name and title of the author were fieri- hinted it. I tioiw,-end ferae of the fiublic papers But have been solemnly and repeatedly assured that it is the writing and publication of M. Lewis, Esq. Member of Parliament. It is sufficient forme to point out Chap. 7. of Vol. 2. As a composition the work would have been better, if the offen- sive f W ) this novel, by a scenic representation of an- Episode in it, not wholly, uninteresting. ." Proceres, Censove b 2 opus NOTE. sive and fcandalous passages had been omitted, -aud.lt is disgraced by a diablerie and nonsense fitted only to frighten children in the nursery. I believe this 7th Chap, of Vol. a. is actionable at Common Law. Edmund Curl in the first year II. was the General Sir- of George prosecuted by Attorney ( Philip Yorke afterwards Lord Hardwicke) for printing two obscene books. The Attorney General set forth the several obscene passages, and concluded, that it was an offence a- gainst the King'speace. The defendant was found guilty and set in the See Str. 1 Barnardist We pillory.* 788. 29." know the proceedings against, the -book, entitled Me- moirs of a Woman of Pleasure,'' by John Cleland. To the passages of obscenity, (which certainly I fhall not copy in this place) Mr. Lewis has added blasphemy againfr the if the following passage may be considered a*s Scriptures;" such. He (the Monk) examined the book which she " (Antonia) had been reading, and had now placed upon *' the table. It was the Bible. • How,' said the Prior " ' to himself, Antonia reads the Bible, and is still soigno- *' rant ?" But upon further inspection he found that Elvira " mother of Antonia) had made the fame re- " (the exactly mark. That mother, while (he admired the beau- " prudent ties of the sacred wk itings, was convinced, that unre- stricted) NOTE ON THE NOTE. • The indictment Mich. Term 1 G. II. thus : " (in begins UdmundCurl, et scelcratus " Existeushomoiniquus nequitermachi- nans et intendens bonos mores sub Jitarum " hujus regni corrumfieret et eos obscenum libellum intitu- " adnequitiam inducere, quendam /<7/,"&c.&c.—SeeSirJohn Strange'sRep. p-777.Ed.1782. two In or three days after the point had been solemnly argued, and the judges had given their refpective opinions, Sir J. " as Strange observes, They gave it their unanimous opinion, that this was a temporal offence.^ And they declared alao that if the famous case of the Queen against Read (6 Ann. in B. R.J was to be adjudged {by them) they should rule it etherwise i. e. — ; contrary to LordCh.J. Holt's opinion. The Judges were Sir Robert (afterwards Lord) Raymond, For- tescue, Reynolds, and Probyn. ( » ) a 0pui est, an Haruspice nobis?*" I consider this as new is it to species of legislative or state-parricide. What the NOTE. il strieted, no reading more imp.rop.er could be permitted a young 11 narratives looman. Many of the can only tend to excite ** the a breast is ideas worst calculatedfor female ; every thing " it's the an- called and by own name ; and " roundly plainly nals of a brothel would scarcely furnish a greater choice of inde~ 41 this is the wo- cent expressions. Yet book which young •* men are recommended to study, which is put into the 4t hands of children, able to comprehend little more than " those which had better remain and " passages of they ignorant, which but toofrequently inculcate the first rudiments of vice, and u the alarm to the still this give first sleeping passions. Of ** Elvira was «o fully convinced, that me would hzvtfire- ** fared putting into her daughter's hands Amadis de Gaul, *' or Tirante the and the Valiant Champion White ; would *' sooner have authorised her studying the lewd exploits of Don Ga« *' ]aor,er the lasciviousjokes of the Damzel Plazer de mi vida." (p.