Eighteenth Century Essays (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...The versatility of a man of great genius will prove the source of ruin and destruction to men of more moderate abilities who may be unwise enough to struggle after it. Thus it not unfrequently happens that he who, by devoting his entire attention to one single object, might have attained, if not fame, at least a fair and enduring reputation, may, by frittering away his talents on half-a-dozen different objects, wholly lose the applause that might have attached to him through steadfast devotion to one, and may become, as has been the case with Cumberland, the mere shadow of a name. To nine readers out of every ten of the present day it is probable that the name which stands at the head of this chapter is almost wholly unknown, while in the minds of at least half the remainder it will simply arouse vague and cloudy visions of a figure in a bag wig and sword, mixed up in some half-intelligible way with Johnson and the men of his era. Yet it is hardly fifty years ago since the announcement of his name threw James Smith (" Mr. Smith the poet") into a flutter of delight only equalled by that with which the young Victor Hugo received the visit of the veteran poet of his youth, Chateaubriand. Richard Cumberland forms, indeed, one of the great connecting links between the last and the present centuries; and those who know him, though only at second-hand, can (like Mr. Thackeray with the old friend whom he mentions at the beginning of his lecture on the reign of George I.) "travel back for seven score years of time; have glimpses of Brummell, Selwyn, Chesterfield, and the men of pleasure; of Walpole and Conway; of Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith; of North, Chatham, Newcastle; of the fair maids of honour of George II.'s court; and of the German retainers o...