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p. xiv. And Mr. Valpy, the editor, talks of resentment,' on
account of some criticisms in that work. We recollect, several
years ago, to have seen a series of attacks upon his Æschylus,
some of them plainly intended to provoke him to a reply by
their impertinence; but none passing the bounds of dulness.
To such minds as Dr. Blomfield's they were calculated to occu-
sion any feeling rather than resentment': indeed we
'
again express a doubt whether they were ever half read by him,
or by any one else—we well remember having ourselves failed in
the attempt. However this may have been, the Classical Jour-
nalists were left unanswered-fortunately for the cause of litera-
ture and of religion, Dr. Blomfield was better employed than in
controverting such adversaries.

must

Mr. Barker, in justification of his personalities and invective, brings forward several incidents of a private nature with which his readers can have little concern; and, by a fatality which seems to attend all his remarks, it happens, that whatever he advances is honourable to the object of his attack. The following are the facts which in some way or other he makes matter of charge against Dr. Blomfield.—Before the personal rudeness with which he was assailed in the Classical Journal, he had written to Aristarchus two obliging and good-natured notes, both which are of course printed, as it is observed that they address him in the language of affection, Dear Sir' !!—Pref. p. x. Once, it seems, at a public meeting, when an indecent toast was proposed, a Judge being in the chair, he resisted the attempt. Pref. p. xiii.-He is now domestic chaplain to the Bishop of London, p. 40.-Upon the appearance of Hermann's Elementa Doctrina Metrica, he wrote him a letter of expostulation on the language which he held towards the scholars of this country, p. 60.-And finally, he has been preferred to the valuable Living of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, 'reported,' as Mr. Barker tells us, to be worth £2000 a year.' Pref. p. xii. We cannot answer for the truth of this report; we only hope that the good-natured estimate of Mr. Barker may be correct; for who will deny that this preferment has been bestowed upon merit?

The reader is now in possession of a pretty full account of the contents of Aristarchus Anti-Blomfieldianus. With respect to the style in which it is written, he will probably feel satisfied with the specimens which we have quoted: if, however, he wishes to see more of the writer's eloquence, he must have recourse to the book itself.

It

seems, however, that Mr. Barker despaired of making a sufficient impression upon this gentleman's character by his awful title of Aristarchus. He has the precaution, therefore, to

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engage an auxiliary: having heard that Dr. Blomfield's editions of the Persæ of Eschylus and of Callimachus had been harshly censured in a Review published at Jena, he has procured a translation of those papers, executed,' he tells us, by a gentleman, in whose acquaintance with the German language, and whose accuracy he places great reliance.' Pref. p. xvi. With Mr. Barker and his grievances these critiques have not the remotest connection; but he thinks that they may tend to lower the reputation of his countryman, and he prints them accordingly, upon the same principle as other spirited persons engage the assistance of a champion on emergencies to which they feel their own prowess inadequate. However, the expense of this auxiliary force will have purchased, for our Aristarchus, nothing but the credit of having employed it; for the critiques, though written by a scholar, are so palpably unfair, and betray such a determined spirit of hostility, as to destroy their intended effect.* Let those authors who complain of the severity of English Reviewers, look at the article on the Persæ, and rejoice that they are not amenable to a German literary tribunal.

We must now take our leave of this publication, but not before we have given this author a little friendly advice; which if he will receive and follow, he will be a far greater gainer by our notice of him, than a sufferer by our exposure of his absurdities. Mr. Barker is an industrious and laborious person, and has amassed a considerable quantity of information; which, under the guidance of sound judgment, or of sober advice, might be turned to purposes useful to the world and creditable to himself; but which, from his incredible want of discretion, affords him but little prospect of attaining either object. He has, besides, an eager and voracious appetite for praise: but by his impatient efforts to obtain fame, before the public chooses to award it, he entirely defeats his own purpose; and secures only an unenviable reputation for arrogance and railing. The same overweening presumption that makes him give the world enormous dissertations, which nobody will or can read, leads him to charge with malignity those who show insensibility to what he deems his transcendant merits. We do not now counsel him to think or to speak of himself with more

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It is both amusing and edifying to remark the inconsistencies into which a man may be carried by angry feelings. Mr. Barker, in his resentment against us, denounces the whole race of reviewers: p. 3. Reviewers,' says he, may be more fitly styled the scavengers of literature, who fling their dirt on all around them' (which by the bye scavengers do not.) When he wrote this, he had probably not determined to inform the world, as he does in his preface, that he had himself been a frequent writer of reviews, and moreover a stinging' one. And after this sentiment, so elegantly and so accurately expressed, and so befitting an Aristarchus, he actually invokes the assistance of one of the most rough-handed of these 'scavengers,' from the heart of Germany.

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modesty;

modesty; since in the present frame of his mind this is obviously impossible: but we do earnestly recommend him, as he values his future credit and peace of mind, to desist from speaking of himself altogether. Let him only use this forbearance, however great an effort it may cost him, and he may be assured that the public voice will in the end do justice to his deserts, be they what they may. All that he can say of his own genius and learning will not have the least influence in making the world more favourable to his productions. That people will not read and admire his Classical Recreations, (a book of which he speaks much, and seems to think very magnificently,) his papers in the Classical Journal, and his 'extraneous criticisms' in the Thesaurus may be provoking; but as he cannot cure them of their bad taste, he had better not indulge in complaints of neglect, which will only excite ridicule and lead to reflections not very favourable to his understanding. He has two other propensities, the indulgence of which he will also do well to surrender; we mean his love of personal invective, and his trick of publishing private letters, which may happen to contain any civil or complimentary expressions. However, these admonitions of ours, though sincere and well-meant, will probably prove unsuccessful: we apprehend that the Valpy-presses will, for some time to come, groan under the volumes of Mr. Barker's resentment; and that the abusive terms found in his Aristarchus will be put afresh into every possible combination of passionate obloquy, and then fulminated at our heads. Under this expectation we shall just give him one hint: his censures hurt nobody but himself; for, after the gross charges and scurrilous epithets which he has thrown out against such a character as Dr. Blomfield, there is no person living who would dread to be the object of his abuse.

To Mr. Valpy, who is far the most rational of the two complainants, we wish to give every satisfaction in our power. He has evidently listened to the extravagant invectives of his coadjutor, till he has begun to believe that there must be some truth in his charges of malignity' and 'hostility': and he writes, besides, under a serious impression of alarm for his great pecuniary interests vested in the undertaking. We assure him, therefore, that far from wishing to impede his success, or abridge his profits, we sincerely hope, that the result may be more favourable than he expects, and that he may derive from it such an advantage as his zeal, enterprize, and industry deserve far from imputing to him, as he supposes, either meanness or rapacity, we gladly bear our tribute of applause to the liberality with which he has collected his extensive materials; and we think that he gives a proof of the same spirit in the resolution lately announced of increasing the quantity of

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of letter-press in his future numbers to 400 pages. His printing, as far as our observation extends, is executed with beauty and accuracy; and having received an academical education, and being himself a respectable scholar, his profession seems to have held out to him an opportunity of conferring benefit on literature, and honour on his country. It must have occurred to many persons, that the re-publications and improved editions of classical books recently executed by the London booksellers, might have proceeded in a more useful and creditable form from the press of Mr. Valpy. But this gentleman appears, unhappily, to have surrounded himself with a set of writers, who, unable to attain, by creditable means, to literary distinction, endeavour to make themselves notorious, some by courting disputes with persons known and respected in the world, others by assailing the Scriptures and the religion of their country. To this description of persons, who will ever constitute the opprobrium of letters, all his interests are sacrificed; he embraces their quarrels, and, as in the present instance, he echoes their slanders.* If he cannot disengage himself from the influence of these associates, he will lose all the advantages of which we have spoken, as well as that resulting from the respectability of his family; quidquid vita meliore paravit, Ponendum æquo animo: he must content himself with being reputed the Curll of his day. Let him only have the sense and spirit to break loose from this degrading thraldom, and he will find that his honest and zealous efforts in the cause of literature will meet with the cordial support, and be cheered by the applause, of every scholar in the country.

ART. VII.—1. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. 4to. 3 vols.

1820.

2. Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. Svo. 3 vols. 1820.

TH

HOUGH the subject of Horticulture may appear at first sight beyond our province, yet the extraordinary interest which it

Mr. Valpy charges Dr. Blomfield, in terms of great asperity, with 'plagiarism;' because Mr. Barker, whom he ought to have known too well to take as his authority, does the same. This accusation rests upon no better foundation than two or three instances adduced by Seidler and Hermann, in which his emendations had been previously made by some German scholars. To believe that Dr. Blomfield could have been aware at the time that he had been thus anticipated, only shows that they have a very inadequate notion of the honourable and delicate feelings which must actuate the genuine scholar. That such a character is capable of purloining from another the petty credit of an insulated, and perhaps an obvious correction, is absolutely incredible. It happens, however, that these plagiarisms are stated to have been committed from books, which, at the period spoken of, during the interruption of our communication with the continent, had not been imported into this country, and with which, therefore, Dr. Blomfield could not possibly have had the least acquaintance.

has

has of late excited, and the decided lead which it seems to have taken, among the rural pursuits of the higher classes, have induced us to depart, in some degree, from our apparent course.

The term Gardening has now acquired a much more extensive signification than it had two centuries ago, when it was almost exclusively confined to the culture of culinary vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The necessity of rearing plantations of trees was then unfelt, for the greatest part of Europe abounded sufficiently in natural forests to supply the inhabitants. As population increased, however, it was found necessary to clear more ground for pasture or cultivation; and more timber and fuel being also required, a scarcity was soon experienced, especially in Britain and hence arose, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the art of planting and rearing trees for those purposes; a new and distinct branch of rural economy, which, from the kind of skill and the manual operations which it requires, belongs more properly to gardening than to agriculture. Another branch, of yet more recent invention is, that of picturesque gardening, perfectly distinct from ornamental gardening, or the culture of flowers and flowering shrubs on the one hand, and from planting for profit, on the other: its leading principles, (as Price and Knight have ably shewn,) except as they militate against convenience, being those of landscape painting.

Considering Gardening, therefore, as a generic term, its species may be thus described:-1. Horticulture, the object of which is the culture of culinary vegetables and fruits. 2. Ornamental gardening, or the culture of curious and beautiful plants, shrubs, or trees. 3. Planting, or the culture of trees for timber, fuel, or other useful purposes. 4. Landscape gardening, or the disposition of the external scenery of a country residence, so as to form agreeable or picturesque scenery.

We shall confine ourselves, in this article, to the first two branches, as being those to which the Societies, whose works stand at the head of our Article, seem principally to have devoted their

attention.

The origin of Horticulture, like that of every other art of primitive necessity, is unavoidably involved in obscurity. The first vegetable production which attracted attention as an article of food, was probably the fruit of some tree; and the idea of appropriating such trees, (protecting them where they stood, or removing them near the habitation of man,) may naturally be supposed to have given rise to a garden. All the writers of antiquity agree in putting the fig at the head of the fruit trees first cultivated; and next, the vine, the fruit of which serves for food as well as for drink. The almond and pomegranate were early cultivated in Canaan; and it appears, by the complaints of the Israelites in the Wilderness, that

the

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