1 THE HISTORY AND ADVENTURES OF AN ATOM. BY, Dr. SMOLLETT. TWO VOLUMES IN ONE. VOL. I. Cooke's Edition. EMBELLISHED WITH SUPERB ENGRAVINGS. London: Printed for C. COOKE, No. 17, Paterno er-Row, And fold by all the Bockfellers in Great Britain and Ireland. T. SMOLLETT, M. D. TOBIAS is name with honour to pofterity, was BIAS SMOLLETT, an author whofe writings will born in 1720, at a small village called Dalquhun, within two miles of Cameron, on the banks of the Leven, in Scotland. He received a claffical education, at the grammar school of Dunbarton, and was put apprentice to a furgeon in Glasgow, and afterwards attended the medical claffes in Edinburgh; but left the university without taking a degree. While he pursued his medical ftudies at Edinburgh, he wrote at the age of eighteen a tragedy founded on the ftory of the affaffination of James I. of Scotland by his uncle Walter Stuart, Earl of Athol, in 1437. In 1739 he went to London, the great field of genius and exertion: but did not meet with that fuccefs which he expected would have been the result of the patronage of fome literary friends, to whom he had been ftrongly recommended; fo that his outfet in life was in the capacity of a furgeon's mate in the navy. It is faid, and probably with fome truth, that the chief incidents in the early part of his life were given to the public, in one of the first and best of his productions, the Novel of Roderic Random; however, whether that report is well founded or not, certain it is, that he was at the fiege of Carthagena, and, in the beforementioned novel, he has given a faithful account of the management of that ill-conducted expedition, which he cenfures in the warmest terms, from circumstances which fell under his own particular obfervation; and he is fuppofed to have been the editor of A Compendium of authentic Voyages, digefted in a Chronological Series,' 7 vol. 12mo, publifhed in 1756; amongst which is inferted a fhort narrative of the expedition to Carthagena, in 1741: written with great fpirit, but abounding with too much acrimony. By means of his acting in this capacity in the navy, he acquired his knowledge of fea characters, which he has drawn in fo mafterly a manner, and at the fame time fo correctly technical as to excite ge A neral neral admiration, and afford a finished model for future novelifts and dramatifts to copy. His connection with the fea feems not to have had a long continuance, and it is probable, that he wrote feveral pieces before he became known to the public by his capital productions. The first piece we know of with certainty is The Advice and Reproof, a fatire in two parts, printed first in the years 1746 and 1747, and fince reprinted in the collection of his poetical pieces. About this period he wrote for Mr. Rich an opera, intituled Alcefte, which has never been performed nor printed. The mufic to it was compofed by Mr. Handel, who, finding that no ufe was intended to be made of it, afterwards adapted it to Mr. Dryden's leffer Ode for St. Cecilia's Day. In 1747 he prefented his tragedy of the Regicide, for performance at Drury Lane Theatre, and experienced that treatment which young authors frequently meet with from theatrical managers and affected patrons; for after being buoyed up and flattered for a confiderable time, his play was finally neglected. In the preface to the publication of this piece, by fubfcription, in the year 1749, he bitterly exclaimed against falfe patrons, and the duplicity of theatrical managers, He tells us that his Tragedy with fome recommendations from his literary friends, was taken into the protection of one of thofe little fellows, who are fometimes called great men, and like other orphans, neglected accordingly.' Stung with refentment,' he adds, at what I took for contempt, I refolved to punish this barbarous indifference, and actually difcarded my patron, confoling myfelf with the barren praifes of a few affociates, who in the moft indefatigable manner employed their time and influence in collecting from all quarters, obfervations on my piece, which in confequence of these fuggeftions, put on a new appearance almost every day until my occafions called me out of the kingdom.'--The warmth and impetuofity of his temper hurried him, on this occafion, into unjust reflections against the late Lord Lyttleton, and Mr. David Garrick; the character of the former he fatirized in his novel of Peregrine Pickle, and he added a burlesque of the Monody written by that Nobleman on the death of his Lady. Against Mr. Garrick he made illiberal, ill founded criticifms, and, in his Novel of Roderick Random, gave a very |