PREFACE.
The Quarrels of Authors may be considered as a continuation of the Calamities of Authors; and both, as some Memoirs for Literary History.
These Quarrels of Authors are not designed to wound the Literary Character, but to expose the secret arts of calumny, the malignity of witty ridicule, and the evil prepossessions of unjust hatreds.
The present, like the preceding work, includes other subjects than the one indicated by the title, and indeed they are both subservient to a higher purpose—that of our Literary History.
There is a French work, entitled “Querelles Littéraires,” quoted in “Curiosities of Literature,” many years ago. Whether I derive the idea of the present from the French source I cannot tell. I could point out a passage in the great Lord Bacon which might have afforded the hint. But I am inclined to think that what induced me to select this topic was the interest which Johnson has given to the literary quarrels between Dryden and Settle, Dennis and Addison, &c.; and which Sir Walter Scott, who, amid the fresh creations of fancy, could delve for the buried truths of research, has thrown into his narrative of the quarrel of Dryden and Luke Milbourne.
From the French work I could derive no aid; and my plan is my own. I have fixed on each literary controversy to illustrate some principle, to portray some character, and to investigate some topic. Almost every controversy which occurred opened new views. With the subject, the character 230 of the author connected itself; and with the character were associated those events of his life which reciprocally act on each other. I have always considered an author as a human being, who possesses at once two sorts of lives, the intellectual and the vulgar: in his books we trace the history of his mind, and in his actions those of human nature. It is this combination which interests the philosopher and the man of feeling; which provides the richest materials for reflection; and all those original details which spring from the constituent principles of man. Johnson’s passion for literary history, and his great knowledge of the human heart, inspired at once the first and the finest model in this class of composition.
The Philosophy of Literary History was indeed the creation of Bayle. He was the first who, by attempting a critical dictionary, taught us to think, and to be curious and vast in our researches. He ennobled a collection of facts by his reasonings, and exhibited them with the most miscellaneous illustrations; and thus conducting an apparently humble pursuit with a higher spirit, he gave a new turn to our studies. It was felt through Europe; and many celebrated authors studied and repeated Bayle. This father of a numerous race has an English as well as a French progeny.
Johnson wrote under many disadvantages; but, with scanty means, he has taught us a great end. Dr. Birch was the contemporary of Johnson. He excelled his predecessors; and yet he forms a striking contrast as a literary historian. Birch was no philosopher, and I adduce him as an instance how a writer, possessing the most ample knowledge, and the most vigilant curiosity—one practised in all the secret arts of literary research in public repositories and in private collections, and eminently skilled in the whole science of bibliography—may yet fail with the public. The diligence of Birch has perpetuated his memory by a monument of MSS., but his, touch was mortal to genius! He palsied the character 231 which could never die; heroes sunk pusillanimously under his hand; and in his torpid silence, even Milton seemed suddenly deprived of his genius.
I have freely enlarged in the notes to this work; a practice which is objectionable to many, but indispensable perhaps in this species of literary history.
The late Mr. Cumberland, in a conversation I once held with him on this subject, triumphantly exclaimed, “You will not find a single note through the whole volume of my ‘Life.’ I never wrote a note. The ancients never wrote notes; but they introduced into their text all which was proper for the reader to know.”