Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1812 edition. Excerpt: ... ESSAYS AND ILLUSTRATIONS REFERRED TO IN THB LITERARY ANECDOTES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. No. I. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY AT SPALDING, By MR. GOUGH And J. NICHOLS. J. HE progress of Literature is one of the interesting parts of History. Its connexion with Hie civiiiza* tion of mankind, and the cult'ration of the human mind, recommends it to every philosophic inc; .irer in a general point of view: but, considered m a national view, our curiosity is prompted to inquire into every vestige of it in our own country, and to * record our obligations to every individual or body of men who have contributed to extend and en- large it. The first public establishment of this kind in this kingdom, after the Universities, was the Royal Society, " not by favour of the many, but by the wisdom and energy of a few *," begun at Ox * Memoirs of Thomas Hollis., p. 20. Vol. VI. B ford, ford, in the chambers of a few Virtuosi, in the middle of the sixteenth century. It soon emerged into light under Royal patronage; and, by uninterruptedly diffusing knowledge in its regular publications, it has maintained a reputation proof against the ridicule or restlessness of a tew discontented individuals. The Society of Antiquaries, considered as a private meeting of a few learned men, is of prior establishment. But the times were not sufficiently favourable to it to keep it alive from the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century; when it was revived, with the highest lustre, by many of the greatest names in that walk of literature; and, under royal protection, it has maintained some degree of eminence. While these two learned Societies flourished in the capital, others were set on foot in different parts of the kingdom, not subordinate to the...