uage will sometimes
be less polished. But the delicacy so much demanded, by softening the
colours weakens the drawing. Mr. Brown has been charged with inequality
in his writings: which is inseparable from humanity.

Our author's letters, though written carelesly to private friends, bear
the true stamp and image of a genius. The variety of his learning may be
seen in the Lacedaemonian Mercury, where abundance of critical questions
of great nicety, are answered with much solidity and judgment, as
well as wit, and humour. But that design exposing him too much to the
scruples of the grave and reserved, as well as to the censure, and
curiosity of the impertinent, he soon discontinued it. Besides, as this
was a periodical work, he who was totally without steadiness, was very
ill qualified for such an undertaking. When the press called upon him
for immediate supply, he was often found debauching himself at a tavern,
and by excessive drinking unable to perform his engagements with the
public, by which no doubt the work considerably suffered.

But there is yet another reason why Mr. Brown has been charged with
inequality in his writings, viz. that most of the anonymous pieces which
happened to please the town, were fathered upon him. This, though in
reality an injury to him, is yet a proof of the universality of his
reputation, when whatever pleased from an unknown hand was ascribed
to him; but by these means he was reputed the writer of many things
unworthy of him. In poetry he was not the author of any long piece, for
he was quite unambitious of reputation of that kind. They are generally
Odes, Satires, and Epigrams, and are certainly not the best part of his
works. His Translations in Prose are many, and of various kinds. His
stile is strong and masculine; and if he was not so nice in the choice
of his authors, as might be expected from a man of his taste, he must be
excused; for he performed his translations as a talk, prescribed him
by the Booksellers, from whom he derived his chief support. It was the
misfortune of our author to appear on the stage of the world, when
fears, and jealousies had soured the tempers of men, and politics, and
polemics, had almost driven mirth and good nature out of the nation:
so that the careless gay humour, and negligent chearful wit, which
in former days of tranquility, would have recommended him to the
conversation of princes, was, in a gloomy period, lost upon a people
incapable of relishi