But Johnson and Knox can by no means compare with
the Reviewers. These attacked the mountebanks in the very midst of their
short-lived empire. Those have only brought up the rear of public
opinion, and damned authors already forgotten. They fought the battles a
second time, and "again they slew the slain."
Gentlemen,
It would have been easy to add twenty articles to this list. I might
have selected instances from the later volumes of your entertaining
works, in which your deviations from the dictates of imaginary taste are
still more numerous. But I could not have confronted them with the
decisive verdict of time. The rage of fashion has not yet ceased, and
the ebullition of blind wonder is not over. I shall therefore leave a
plentiful crop for such as come after me, who admire you as much as I
do, and will be contented to labour in the same field.
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
With all veneration,
Your indefatigable reader,
And the humblest of your panegyrists.
CONTENTS.
ARTICLE I.
_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward
Gibbon, Esq. Vols._ iv, v, vi, vii. 4to.
ARTICLE II.
_The History of America. By William Robertson, D.D. &c. Vols._ iii,
_and_ iv. 4to.
ARTICLE III.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151