MEMOIR OF BUTLER

"His name is great

In mouths of wisest censure."-SHAKSPEARS.

WHATEVER merit may attach to the subordinate writings of BUTLER, he "lives, and moves, and has his literary being" in the renowned poem of 'Hudibras,' a work, as Dennis describes it with equal point and truth, "in which he knew no guide, and found no followers." This singular and felicitous attempt is the rock upon which his reputation entirely rests, and which still promises to sustain it, while precepts of imperishable wisdom deserve the study of the world, or ve ses of unrivalled pleasantry are entitled to their praise.

The personal notices of BUTLER, though collected as they have been with extreme diligence, are scanty and uncertain, nor

would they bear the test of more than a very brief report, but on account of that interest which so naturally prevails about every celebrated author. We shall, therefore, on this occasion, reverse the usual order of a biographical essay, and commence our statements with the character of that immortal production, which excites all the curiosity we feel for some knowledge of BUTLER'S domestic life, and inspires all the reverence we pay to his name.

This mingled task of analysis and criticism has been so successfully performed by Dr. Johnson, that we shall both adopt the same opinions he has delivered, and borrow the precise terms in which he conveys them. The "fumes of faction," observes Smollett, "not only disturb the faculty of reason, but pervert the organs of sense." Johnson too often fell a victim to such vile influence; but here the congenial politics of his author soothed and won him, and the following summary of Hudibras,' bears the most obvious marks of close perusal, correct perception, and impartial judgment.

"The poem of Hudibras' is one of those compositions of which a nation may justly

boast; as the images which it exhibits are domestic, the sentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the strain of diction original and peculiar. We must, not however, suffer the pride, which we assume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment upon justice, nor appropriate those honours which others have a right to share. The poem of 'Hudibras' is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the 'history of Don Quixote;' a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without disgrace. Cervantes shows a man, who having by the incessant perusal of incredible tales, subjected his understanding to his imagination, and familiarised his mind by pertinacious meditation to trains of incredible events and scenes of impossible existence; goes out in the pride of knighthood to redress wrongs and defend virgins, to rescue captive princesses, and tumble usurpers from their thrones, attended by a squire, whose cunning, too low for the suspicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his

master.

"The hero of Butler is a presbyterian justice, who, in the confidence of legal autho

rity and the rage of zealous ignorance, ranges the country to repress superstition and correct abuses, accompanied by an Independent clerk, disputatious and obstinate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him.

"Cervantes had so much kindness for Don Quixote, that, however he embarrasses him with absurd distresses, he gives him so much sense and virtue, as may preserve our esteem. Wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is made by matchless dexterity, commonly ridiculous, but never contemptible.

"But for poor Hudibras, his poet had no tenderness; he chooses not that any pity should be shown, or respect paid him. He gives him up at once to laughter and contempt, without any quality that can dignify or protect him. In forming the character of Hudibras, and describing his person and habiliments, the author seems to labour with a tumultuous confusion of dissimilar ideas. He had read the history of the mock knightserrant, he knew the notions and manners of a Presbyterian magistrate, and tried to unite the absurdities of both, however distant, in one personage. Thus he gives him that pedantic ostentation of knowledge, which

has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with martial encumbrances, that can add nothing to his civil dignity. He sends him out a colonelling, and yet never brings him within sight of war. If Hudibras be considered as the representative of the Presbyte rians, it is not easy to say why his weapons should be represented as ridiculous or useless; for whatever judgment might be passed on their knowledge, or their arguments, experience had sufficiently shown that their swords were not to be despised. The hero, thus compounded of swagger and pedant, of knight and justice, is led forth to action, with his Squire Ralpho, an Independent enthusiast. Of the contexture of events planned by the author, which is called the action of the poem, since it is left imperfect, no judgment can be made. It is probable that the hero was to be led through many luckless adventures, which would give occasion, like his attack upon the Bear and Fiddle, to expose the ridiculous rigour of the sectaries, like his encounter with Sidrophel and Whachum to make superstition and credulity contemptible; or like his recourse to the low retailer of the law, discover the