ever
attempted and missed. The best thing in it is a Sermon, oddly coupled
with a good deal of coarseness, and both the composition of a clergyman.
The man's head, indeed, was a little turned before, now topsy-turvy with
his success and fame. Dodsley has given him six hundred and fifty pounds
for the second edition and two more volumes (which I suppose will reach
backwards to his great-great-grandfather); Lord Fauconberg, a donative
of one hundred and sixty pounds a-year; and Bishop Warburton[3] gave him
a purse of gold and this compliment (which happened to be a
contradiction), "that it was quite an original composition, and in the
true Cervantic vein:" the only copy that ever was an original, except in
painting, where they all pretend to be so. Warburton, however, not
content with this, recommended the book to the bench of bishops, and
told them Mr. Sterne, the author, was the English Rabelais. They had
never heard of such a writer. Adieu!

[Footnote 1: "_Mr. Home's other plays._" Mr. Home was a Presbyterian
minister. His first play was "The Tragedy of Douglas," which D'Israeli
describes as a drama which, "by awakening the piety of domestic
affections with the nobler passions, would elevate and purify the mind;"
and proceeds, with no little indignation, to relate how nearly it cost
the author dear. The "Glasgow divines, with the monastic spirit of the
darkest ages, published a paper, which I abridge for the contemplation
of the reader, who may wonder to see such a composition written in the
eighteenth century: 'On Wednesday, February 2, 1757, the Presbytery of
Glasgow came to the following resolution: They, having seen a printed
paper intituled an admonition and exhortation of the reverend Presbytery
of Edinburgh, which, among other evils prevailing, observed the
following _melancholy_ but _notorious_ facts, that one who is a minister
of the Church of Scotland did _himself_ write and compose _a stage
play_, intituled 'The Tragedy of Douglas,' and got it to be acted at the
theatre of Edinburgh; and that he, with several other ministers of the
Church, were present, and _some_ of them _oftener than once_, at the
acting of the said play before a numerous audience. The presbytery being
_deeply affected_ with this new and strange appearance, do publish these
sentiments,'" &c., &c.--sentiments with which I will not disgust the
reader.]

[Footnote 2: Walpole's criticism is worth preserving as a singular proof
how far preju