A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings | Page 3

as he professes to be. True, he harks back to Theophrastus in matters of style and technique. And he does not criticize him, as does La Bruyère,[6] for paying too much attention to a man's external actions, and not enough to his "Thoughts, Sentiments, and Inclinations." Nevertheless his mind is receptive to the kind of individuated characterization soon to distinguish the mid-eighteenth century novel. The type is still his measuring-stick, but he calibrates it far less rigidly than a Rymer analyzing Iago or Evadne. A man can be A Flatterer or A Blunt Man and still retain a private identity: this private identity Gally recognizes as important. Gally's essay thus reflects fundamental changes in the English attitude toward human nature and its literary representation.
Alexander H. Chorney Fellow, Clark Library Los Angeles, California
Notes to the Introduction
1. _The Characters, Or The Manners of the Age. By Monsieur De La Bruyère of the French Academy. Made English by several hands. With the Characters of Theophrastus..._ 1699. 2 vols.
2. Isaac Casaubon's Latin edition of Theophrastus appeared in 1592 and was reprinted frequently during the seventeenth century.
3. Eustace Budgell, The Moral Characters of Theophrastus (1714), Preface, sig. a5.
4. _Ibid._, sig. a6 verso.
5. For a full account of the shift in attitude see Edward Miles Hooker, "Humour in the Age of Pope," Huntington Library Quarterly, XL (1948), 361-385.
6. "A Prefatory Discourse concerning Theophrastus," in _The Characters, Or The Manners of the Age_, II, xxii.
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The Moral Characters of
THEOPHRASTUS.
Translated from The Greek, with Notes. To which is prefix'd
A CRITICAL ESSAY on Characteristic-Writings.
By Henry Gally, M.A. Lecturer of St. Paul's Covent-Garden, and Rector of Wanden in Buckinghamshire.
Respicere exemplar vit? morumque jubebo Doctum imitatorem, & vivas hinc ducere voces. Hor. in Art. Poet.
LONDON: Printed for John Hooke, at the _Flower- de-luce_ over-against St. _Dunstan's_ Church in _Fleet-street_. MDCCXXV.
* * * * *
THE
PREFACE.
The following Papers, which I now commit to the Public, have lain by me unregarded these many Years. They were first undertaken at the Request of a Person, who at present shall be nameless. Since that Time I have been wholly diverted from Studies of this Nature, and my Thoughts have been employed about Subjects of a much greater Consequence, and more agreeable to my Profession: Insomuch, that I had nothing in my Mind less than the Publication of these Papers; but some Friends, who had perus'd them, were of Opinion, that they deserv'd to be publish'd, and that they might afford an agreeable Entertainment not without some Profit to the Reader. These Motives prevailed upon me to give them a second Care, and to bestow upon them so much Pains, as was necessary to put them in that State, in which they now appear.
The first Piece that the Reader will meet with is, _A Critical ESSAY on Characteristic-Writings_: It treats of the Origin of those Writings: It points out the general Laws to be observ'd in such Compositions, and it contains some Reflexions on _Theophrastus's_ and Mr. _de la Bruyere's_ Performances in this Way. The Design of this at least is, I think, new. Mr. Fabricius mentions a [A]Book, which, by its Title, shou'd bear some Relation to this Essay, but tho' I have enquir'd after it pretty strictly, yet I never cou'd get a Sight of it, nor have I conversed with any Person that had perus'd it.
[A: Georgii Paschii Professoris Kiloniensis Diatriba de philosophia Characteristica & Par?netica. 4to. _Kilonie._ 1705. Vid. Fabric. Bib. Gr?c. L. 3. p. 241.]
The next Piece is a Translation of the Moral Characters of Theophrastus from the Greek. This is not the first Time that Theophrastus has appeared in a modern Dress. Mr. de la Bruyere translated him into _French_: And this was the Foundation of those Characters, which he himself compos'd, and which gave Rise to those many Performances, that were afterwards attempted in the same Way. [B]Mr. Menage has highly extoll'd this Translation. Elle est, says he, _bien belle, & bien fran?oise, & montre que son Auteur entend parfaitement le Grec. Je puis dire que j'y ay vu des Choses, que, peut etre, Faute d'Attention, je n'avois pas vues dans le Grec._ This is great; and it must be own'd that Mr. Menage was a Man of very extensive Learning, and a great Master of the Greek Tongue; but that his Judgment was always equal to his Knowledg of Words, will not be so readily allow'd. Besides, the Credit of the Books ending in ana runs very low, and in particular the Menagiana have been disown'd by Mr. _Menage's_ own [C]Relations, as being injurious to the Merit and Memory of that great Man. And therefore it must still be left to the inquisitive and judicious Reader to determine, whether those Faults, which I have observ'd in Mr. _de la Bruyere'_s Translation are justly censur'd or not.
[B: