comedies, and the admirable sketches of living characters with whom he associated; and possessing so many and such high claims to consideration, it seems peculiarly hard that he should appear to be indebted to the stigma attached to his name for any part of his well-earned celebrity.-DUNHAM, S. ASTLEY, 1838, ed., Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. III, p. 276.

Pope has made himself ridiculous, as he generally did in his petty malice, by making Theobald the hero of the Dunciad, because he had convicted Pope of gross ignorance of Shakspeare. He now made himself ridiculous a second time, by exalting to that dull eminence, Colley Cibber, one of the wittiest and most sprightly authors of the day. Cibber's letter of remonstrance to Pope was unanswerable. -ALLIBONE, S. AUSTIN, 1854-58, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, vol. I, p. 383.

Who makes himself a conspicuous ass. -FORSYTH, WILLIAM, 1871, The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century, p. 246.

Although Cibber was not a good poet, he was persevering and consistent, and his integrity has never been questioned. As an actor and author he excelled in comedy; to say that he did not succeed in tragedy is no detraction from his other merits. Wanting all the higher attributes of a poet, his Laureate Odes were never collected, simply because they were not worthy of preservation.-HAMILTON, WALTER, 1879, The Poets Laureate of England, p. 172.

All things considered, both in this controversy [with Fielding] and the later one with Pope, Cibber did not come off worst. His few hits were personal and unscrupulous, and they were probably far more deadly in their effects than any of the ironical attacks which his adversaries, on their part, directed against his poetical ineptitude or halting "parts of speech." Despite his superlative coxcombry and egotism, he was, moreover, a man of no mean abilities. His "Careless Husband" is a far better acting play than any of Fielding's, and his "Apology," which even Johnson allowed to be "well-done," is valuable in many respects, especially for its account of the contemporary stage. In describing an actor or actress he had few equals-witness his skilful portraits of Nokes, and his admirably graphic vignette of Mrs. Verbruggen as that "finish'd Impertinent," Melantha, in Dryden's "Marriage à-la-Mode."-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1883, Fielding (English Men of Letters), p. 66.

Cibber's "Odes" are among the most literature. contemptible things in KNIGHT, JOSEPH, 1887, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. x, p. 358.

One of the most delightful autobiographies ever written, and a comedy which is in its way a masterpiece, have been powerless to counteract, nay even to modify, the impression left on the world by the portrait for which Pope made Colley Cibber sit.-COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, Essays and Studies, p. 264.

PERSONAL

Let us not then aggravate those natural inconveniences by neglect; we have had

Sale and Moore will suffice for one age at least. But they are dead, and their sorover.-GOLDSMITH, OLIVER,

rows

are

GENERAL

Mr. Moore was a poet that never had justice done him while living; there are few of the moderns have a more correct taste, or a more pleasing manner of expressing their thoughts. It was upon these Fables he chiefly founded his reputation, yet they are by no means his best production.-GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1767, The Beauties of English Poetry.

His style is easy and unaffected, and always appropriate to his subjects, which have great variety. If he had not more knowledge of the world than some of his predecessors, he could at least employ it very agreeably. He had professed that the paper had contained novelty of ridicule, and it must be allowed that he seldom betrays the servile copyist, when treating of those subjects which had been handled by others. Moore excelled principally in assuming the serious manner for the purposes of ridicule, or of raising idle curiosity However

trite his subject, he enlivens it by original turns of thought. Some of the papers are mere exercises of humour, which have no direct moral in view, and for this he in one place offers an apology, or at least acknowledges that he aimed at no higher purpose than entertainment. In the last paper, the conclusion of the work is made to depend on a fictitious accident which is supposed to have happened to the author, and occasioned his death. When the papers were collected in volumes, Mr. Moore superintended the publication, and actually died while this last paper was in the press.-CHALMERS, ALEXANDER, 180823, The British Essayists, vol. 22, The World, vol. I, Historical and Biographical Preface, pp. 22, 23.

Of the papers of Moore, which form more than a fourth of the whole work, ["World,"] the characteristic is a grave and well-sustained irony, that not unfrequently displays a considerable share of original humour. The style which he has adopted, if not very correct or elegant,

is, however, easy and perspicuous, and not ill suited to the general nature of his subjects. DRAKE, NATHAN, 1810, Essays Illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler, vol. 11, p. 263.

The "Fables" of Moore rank next to those of Gay, but are inferior to them both in choice of subject and in poetical merit.-CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Carruthers.

His "Fables for the Female Sex" have an excellent moral turn, but are somewhat deficient in the sprightliness which is especially demanded in that species of composition. . . . His domestic tragedy, "The Gamester,' though it set tradition at nought by being written in prose, was on the whole a success. The prologue and some of the most admired passages, including the greater part of the scene between Lewson and Stukely in the fourth act, were written by Garrick, who played the principal part. The piece ran with applause for eleven nights, and has since kept the stage.RIGG, J. M., 1894, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxvIII, p. 347.

The most noticeable except the "Rambler" and the "Adventurer" (a sort of imitation "Rambler," edited by Hawkesworth, the great ape of Johnson, and contributed to by Johnson himself) was the "World," which appeared between 1753 and 1756. This is noteworthy, because an attempt was made to make it a distinct "journal of society." The editor, Edward Moore, was a man of letters of some ability, who played the main part of "Adam Fitz Adam"-the eidolon who, according to the etiquette of the scheme, was supposed to produce the paper-very fairly. Its interest for us consists in the fact that among the contributors were some of the very chief of those men of fashion, Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, Soame Jenyns, Hanbury Williams, who at the time affected literature.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 620.

PERSONAL

His person was of the middle size and well proportioned. His complexion fair, his features regular and handsome. His countenance open, ingenuous, and animated. He was peculiarly neat in his person and attire. He was an early riser, and punctual in the employments of the day; methodical in the order and disposition of his library, papers, and writings, as the companions of his thought.-HARTLEY, DAVID, 1791, ed., Observations on Man, Life.

I now devoted myself to poetry and to the study of ethics and psychology; and so profound was my admiration at this time of Hartley's "Essay on Man," that I gave his name to my first born.-COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, 1817, Biographia Literaria, ch. x.

Hartley died on the 25th of August, 1757, aged fifty-two, and left a name so distinguished for piety and goodness, that it in a great measure shielded his doctrines from the reprobation they have often incurred when promulgated by others. LEWES, GEORGE HENRY, 1845-46, Biographical History of Philosophy, p. 604.

Hartley's was a quiet, useful, unromantic life,unromantic in all respects, except in that steady devotion to truth and fact which tinges the most uneventful life with a hue of romance, too often of pathos. Eminently typical of the century in which he lived, comfortable, and ready to comfort others, -disposed to ponder and wait, not very prone to action, unambitious, he was always in a mood to make allowances for the frailty of others, and to take things as they came, while he was utterly destitute of the "passion for reforming the world," which possessed James Mill. On the other On the other hand, if his life was not lit by other aims as that of his great successor, he had all the compensating advantages incidental to a lack of enthusiasm. While he was not to the same extent as Mill the cause

of good to unseen masses of men, he made far more friends and intimates out of those whom he did know. The bitterness and violence, which in Mill's case were engendered by consuming earnestness, were unknown to him. No zeal could eat him up. His philosophical system was not converted by him into a dogma or discipline; by thus having no practical reference, while it won him no partisans, it made him no enemies. Though accurate and precise in his reasoning, and methodical in his daily habits, Hartley was far removed alike from pedantry and fussiness. He was polished and gay in society, and eloquent in conversation, without becoming importunate or a bore; and he was entirely without the vices of pride, selfishness, sensuality, or disingenuousness.-BOWER, GEORGE SPENCER, 1881, Hartley and James Mill (English Philosophers), p. 6.

GENERAL

Hartley has investigated the principal of Association more deeply, explained it more accurately, and applied it more usefully, than even his great and venerable predecessor, Mr. Locke.-PARR, SAMUEL, 1774, Sermon on Education.

This tract is printed from the second volume of Dr. Hartley's "Observations on Man; it is written with singular closeness of thought, and to be well understood must be read with great attention. -WATSON, RICHARD, 1785, Collection of Theological Tracts Selected from Various Authors.

He thus united all the talents of his own mind for natural and moral science, conformably to that universal system of final morality, which he inculcates, by which each effort of sensation or science. in the various gradations of life must be esteemed defective, until it shall have attained to its corresponding moral consummation. It arose from the union above mentioned, of talents in the moral science with natural philosophy,

and particularly from the professional knowledge of the human frame, that Dr. Hartley was enabled to bring into one view the various arguments for his extensive system, from the first rudiments of sensation through the maze of complex affections and passions in the path of life, to the final, moral end of man.-HARTLEY, DAVID, 1791, ed., Observations on Man, Life.

It was a reference to "Dr. Hartley's Observations on Man," in the course of our Lectures, that first brought me acquainted with that performance, which immediately engaged my closest attention, and produced the greatest, and in my opinion the most favourable effect on my general turn of thinking through life. It established me in the belief of the doctrine of Necessity, which I first learned from Collins; it greatly improved that disposition to piety which I brought to the academy, and freed it from the rigour with which it had been tinctured. Indeed, I do not know whether the consideration of Dr. Hartley's theory contributes more to enlighten the mind, or improve the heart; it affected both in so supereminent a degree. PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH, 1795, Autobiography, ed. Rutt, P. 24.

The intentions of both [Bonnet and Hartley] are allowed, by those who best knew them, to have been eminently pure and worthy; but it cannot be said of either, that his metaphysical writings have contributed much to the instruction or to the improvement of the public. On the contrary, they have been instrumental in spreading a set of speculative tenets very nearly allied to that sentimental and fantastical modification of Spinozism which for many years past has prevailed so much and produced such mischievous effects in some parts of Germany. STEWART, DUGALD, 1815-21, First Preliminary Dissertation, Encyclopædia Britannica.

It is fashionable to smile at Hartley's vibrations and vibratiuncles; and his work has been re-edited by Priestly, with the omission of the material hypothesis. But Hartley was too great a man, too coherent a thinker, for this to have been done, either consistently or to any wise purpose. For all other parts of his system, as far as they are peculiar to that system, once removed from their mechanical

basis, not only lose their main support, but the very motive which led to their adoption.-COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, 1817, Biographia Literaria, ch. vi.

of intellectual man to that of physical It is the first attempt to join the study man.-COUSIN, VICTOR, 1828-29, Course of the History of Modern Philosophy, tr. Wight.

The capital fault of Hartley is that of a rash generalization, which may prove imperfect, and which is at least premature. All attempts to explain instinct. by this principle have hitherto been unaVailing: many of the most important processes of reasoning have not hitherto been accounted for by it.-MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES, 1830, Second Preliminary Dissertation, Encyclopædia Britannica.

The writer who has built most upon Hobbes, and may be reckoned, in a certain sense, his commentator, if he who fully explains and develops a system may deserve that name, was Hartley. . . . Hartley also resembles Hobbes in the extreme to which he has pushed the nominalist theory, in the proneness to materialize all intellectual processes, and either to force all things mysterious to our faculties into something imaginable, or to reject them as unmeaning, in the want, much connected with this, of a steady perception of the difference between the Ego and its objects, in an excessive love of simplifying and generalizing, and in a readiness to adopt explanations neither conformable to reason nor experience, when they fall in with some single principle, the key that was to unlock every ward of the human soul.-HALLAM, HENRY, 1837-39, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iii, ch. iii, par. 153.

While acknowledging the defect of Hartley's system, let us not forget its excellence. If the doctrine of Association was not first applied by him, it was by him first made a physiologico-psychological basis. He not only applied it to the explanation of mental phenomena; he applied it, and with great ingenuity, to those physiological phenomena which still. interest and perplex philosophers, namely the voluntary and involuntary actions. His twenty-first proposition, and the elucidations which follow, deserve to be read, even in the present day.-LEWES. GEORGE

That there is great value to be attached to much which Hartley has drawn from the law of association, and that he has afforded an explanation of many phenomena, before very imperfectly understood, cannot be denied. The very ardour, however, with which he threw himself into his system, and the very closeness with which he analysed the facts in the case, necessarily imparted a one-sidedness to his philosophy, and led to the neglect of some other facts equally important. MORELL, J. D., 1846-47, An Historical and Critical View of Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century.

A majority, probably, of those who have followed his track of thought have considered his Theopathy and his Christianity were rather extraneous grafts upon the rest of his teaching. It has puzzled them to discover what these had to do with the spinal marrow or the white medullary substance of the brain. But there have been others, and perhaps more than we know of, who have taken, along with the associations and the vibrations, Hartley's whole conception of a moral sense which recognizes beauty and revolts at deformity, and his belief of a divine revelation which touches chords that respond to it in the nature of man. Some have for a time been enabled through him to attain perceptions of the harmony of the world which have afterwards blended with principles that seem most to clash with his. And perhaps his illustrations of the facts of association will be welcomed most cordially by those who most demand a ground for association which he has not discovered to them. Perhaps the moralist and metaphysician are destined to receive the greatest aid from the anatomist and physiologist in tracing the vibratiuncles in the human body to those vibrations which they find first within, and which are produced, as their hearts tell them, by an invisible Musician. --- MAURICE, FREDERICK DENISON, 1862, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, vol. II, p. 478.

Hartley clearly distinguished the synchronous and successive cases or forms of association. He also noticed that the strength of associations is twofold, depending on the vividness of the feelings or ideas associated, and the frequency

He shows that as ideas become complex, so they become decomplex by association. Indeed, it would be difficult to find any distinction or principle of the more recent forms of the associational psychology which was not anticipated by Hartley. The more recent discoveries in physiology and in the comparative sciences of nature are more largely used by the later writers, as Bain and H. Spencer, but always in the interest of the principles common to themselves and Hartley.- PORTER, NOAH, 1874, Philosophy in Great Britain and America, Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, vol. II, p. 388.

The difference between Hartley and the older metaphysicians may be described by saying that, with them the type of all reasoning is to be found in pure mathematics, whilst with him it is to be found applied mathematics. He seeks to do for human nature what Newton did for the solar system. Association is for man what gravitation is for the planets; and as Newton imagined that God's will must be the efficient cause of gravitation, so Hartley imagined the same will to be the cause of those movements in the human organism which are the immediate cause of all mental phenomena. He is about the last writer who affects the mathematical form common to the metaphysicians of the previous generation, but in his mind the analogy is not with the pure mathematics which, dealing with ideas of space and time, seem to have an a priori validity, but with those laws of motion which he would have asserted (as indeed he would have asserted of all axiomatic truths) to be derived from experience.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1876, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, vol. II, p. 66.

The styles of the two philosophers were as dissimilar as possible. Hartley was gifted with the "copia fandi," while Mill's style and mode of reasoning were severely simple. The two, indeed, were alike in their formal and scholastic methods, and in their love of packing their doctrines into a syllogism or pocket formula. But Hartley was not prevented by these precise and orderly habits from giving free vent to those sentiments, which Mill and his school would have scorned as sentimentalities, nor from