y judicious and
fortunate. By descent and education Dr. Maty, though born in Holland,
might be considered as a Frenchman; but he was fixed in London by the
practice of physic, and an office in the British Museum. His reputation
was justly founded on the eighteen volumes of the Journal Britannique,
which he had supported, almost alone, with perseverance and success.
This humble though useful labour, which had once been dignified by the
genius of Bayle and the learning of Le Clerc, was not disgraced by the
taste, the knowledge, and the judgment of Maty: he exhibits a candid and
pleasing view of the state of literature in England during a period of
six years (January 1750--December 1755); and, far different from his
angry son, he handles the rod of criticism with the tenderness and
reluctance of a parent. The author of the Journal Britannique sometimes
aspires to the character of a poet and philosopher: his style is pure
and elegant; and in his virtues, or even in his defects, he may be
ranked as one of the last disciples of the school of Fontenelle.
His answer to my first letter was prompt and polite: after a careful
examination he returned my manuscript, with some animadversion and much
applause; and when I visited London in the ensuing winter, we discussed
the design and execution in several free and familiar conversations.
In a short excursion to Buriton I reviewed my essay, according to his
friendly advice; and after suppressing a third, adding a third, and
altering a third, I consummated my first labour by a short preface,
which is dated Feb. 3, 1759. Yet I still shrunk from the press with the
terrors of virgin modesty: the manuscript was safely deposited in my
desk; and as my attention was engaged by new objects, the delay
might have been prolonged till I had fulfilled the precept of Horace,
"nonumque prematur in annum." Father Sirmond, a learned jesuit, was
still more rigid, since he advised a young friend to expect the mature
age of fifty, before he gave himself or his writings to the public
(Olivet Hist. de l'Acad. Francoise, tom. ii. p. 143). The counsel
was singular; but it is still more singular that it should have been
approved by the example of the author. Sirmond was himself fifty-five
years of age when he published (in 1614) his first work, an edition of
Sidonius Apollinaris, with many valuable annotations: (see his life,
before the great edition of his works in five volumes folio, Paris,
1696, e Typographi