ty, and sacrificing reputation to the thirst of lucre. Thus, many
of the English manufactures, being found slight and unserviceable, grew
into discredit abroad; thus the art of producing them more perfect may
in time be totally lost at home. The cloths now made in England are
inferior in texture and fabric to those which were manufactured in the
beginning of the century; and the same judgment may be pronounced
upon almost every article of hardware. The razors, knives, scissors,
hatchets, swords, and other edge-utensils, prepared for exportation,
are generally ill-tempered, half finished, flawed, or brittle; and the
muskets, which are sold for seven or eight shillings a-piece to the
exporter, so carelessly and unconscientiously prepared, that they cannot
be used without imminent danger of mutilation: accordingly, one hardly
meets with a negro man upon the coast of Guinea, in the neighbourhood
of the British settlements, who has not been wounded or maimed in some
member by the bursting of the English fire-arms. The advantages of
this traffic, carried on at the expense of character and humanity, will
naturally cease, whenever those Africans can be supplied more honestly
by the traders of any other nation.

GENIUS.

Genius in writing spontaneously arose; and, though neglected by the
great, flourished under the culture of a public which had pretensions to
taste, and piqued itself on encouraging literary merit. Swift and Pope
we have mentioned on another occasion. Young still survived, a venerable
monument of poetical talents. Thomson, the poet of the Seasons,
displayed a luxuriancy of genius in describing the beauties of nature.
Akenside and Armstrong excelled in didactic poetry. Even the Epopoea did
not disdain an English dress; but appeared to advantage in the Leonidas
of Glover, and the Epigoniad of Wilkie. The public acknowledged a
considerable share of dramatic merit in the tragedies of Young, Mallet,
Home, and some other less distinguished authors. Very few regular
comedies, during this period, were exhibited on the English theatre;
which, however, produced many less laboured pieces, abounding with
satire, wit, and humour. The Careless Husband of Gibber, and Suspicious
Husband of Hoadley, are the only comedies of this age that bid fair for
reaching posterity. The exhibitions of the stage were improved to the
most exquisite entertainment by the talents and management of Garrick,
who greatly surpassed all his pred