the sincere satisfaction that dr. burney had experienced in having influenced the nomination of dr. hawkesworth to be editor of the first voyage of captain cooke round the world, together with the revisal and arrangement of the voyages of captain wallace and admiral byron, was soon overcast by sorrow, through circumstances as impossible to have foreseen as not to lament.
dr. hawkesworth, though already in a delicate state of health, was so highly animated by his election to this office, and with the vast emolument which, with scarcely any labour, promised to give the dignity of ease and comfort to the rest of his life; that he performed his task, and finished the narratory compilation, with a rapidity of pleasure, resulting from a promise of future independence, that filled him with kind gratitude to dr. burney; and seemed to open his heart, temper, and manners, to the most cordial feelings of happiness.
but the greatness of his recompense for the smallness of his trouble, immediately disposed all his colleagues in the road of renown to censure; and all his competitors in that of profit, to jealousy and
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ill-will. unfortunately, in his introduction to the voyages, he touched upon some controversial points of religious persuasion, which proved a fatal opening to malignity for the enemies of his success; and other enemies, so upright was the man, it is probable he had none. his reasoning here, unhappily, was seized upon with avidity by his infuriated enviers; and the six thousand pounds which flowed into his coffers, brought six millions of pungent stings to his peace, by arraigning his principles.
a war so ungenial to his placid nature, and hitherto honoured life, breaking forth, with the offensive enmity of assumed superior piety, in calumnious assertions, that strove to blacken the purity of his faith and doctrine; occurring at the moment when he had thought all his worldly cares blown away, to be succeeded by soft serenity and easy affluence; made the attack so unexpected, that its shock was enervating; and his wealth lost its charms, from a trembling susceptibility that detached him from every pleasure it could procure—save that of a now baneful leisure for framing answers to his traducers.
in his last visit, as it proved, to queen-square, where he dined and spent the evening, dr. burney
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was forcibly struck with concern at sight of the evident, though uncomplaining invalid; so changed, thin, and livid was his appearance.
he conversed freely upon the subject of his book, and the abuse which it had heaped upon him, with the doctor; who strongly exhorted him to repel such assaulters with the contempt that they deserved: adding, “they are palpably the offsprings of envy at your success. were you to become a bankrupt, they would all turn to panegyrists; but now, there is hardly a needy man in the kingdom, who has ever held a pen in his hand for a moment, who, in pondering upon the six thousand pounds, does not think he could have done the work better.”
dr. hawkesworth said that he had not yet made any answer to the torrent of invective poured upon him, except to dalrymple, who had attacked him by name; for a law-suit was then impending upon parkinson’s publication, and he would write nothing that might seem meant to influence justice: but when that law-suit, by whatever result, should be decided, he would bring out a full and general reply to all the invidious aspersions that so cruelly and wantonly had been cast upon him, since the publication of the voyages.
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he then further, and confidentially, opened to dr. burney upon his past life and situation: “every thing that i possess,” he cried, “i have earned by the most elaborate industry, except this last six thousand pounds! i had no education, and no advantage but such as i sedulously worked to obtain for myself; but i preserved my reputation and my character as unblemished as my principles—till this last year!”
rallying a little then, from a depression which he saw was becoming contagious, he generously changed the subject to the history of music; and begged to be acquainted with its progress; and to learn something of its method, manner, and meaning; frankly avowing an utter ignorance of the capabilities, or materials, that such a work demanded.
dr. burney read to him the dissertation,—then but roughly sketched,—on the music of the ancients, by which the history opens: and dr. hawkesworth, confessing its subject to be wholly new to him, warmly declared that he found its treatment extremely entertaining, as well as instructive.
after a visit, long, and deeply interesting, he left his friend very anxious about his health, and very impatient for his promised pamphlet: but, while still
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waiting, with strong solicitude, the appearance of a vindication that might tranquillize the author’s offended sensibility, the melancholy tidings arrived, that a slow fever had robbed the invalid of sleep and of appetite; and had so fastened upon his shattered nerves, that, after lingering a week or two, he fell a prey to incurable atrophy; and sunk to his last earthly rest exactly a month after the visit to dr. burney, the account of which has been related.
had the health of dr. hawkesworth been more sound, he might have turned with cold disdain from the outrages of mortified slanderers; or have scoffed the impotent rage of combatants whom he had had the ability to distance:—but, who shall venture to say where begins, and where ends, the complicate reciprocity of influence which involves the corporeal with the intellectual part of our being? dr. hawkesworth foresaw not the danger, to a constitution already, and perhaps natively, fragile, of yielding to the agitating effects of resentful vexation. he brooded, therefore, unresistingly, over the injustice of which he was the victim; instead of struggling to master it by the only means through which it is conquerable, namely, a calm
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and determined silence, that would have committed his justification to personal character;—a still, but intrepid champion, against which falsehood never ultimately prevails.
