By JOHN BASKERVILLE.
The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great; the fame
of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth; and, like the
man himself, they are not matured in a day. The present generation
becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future will discharge that
debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble
in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in
full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death.
This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in
1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60_l_. per annum, which, fifty years
after, while in his own possession, had increased to 90_l_. He was
trained to no occupation; but, in 1726, became a writing-matter in
Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught school in the Bull-ring, and is said to
have written an excellent hand.
As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of
japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.
He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north
west of the town, to which he gave the name of _Easy-hill_, converted it
into a little Eden, and built a house in the center: but the town, as if
conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with
buildings.--Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his
carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be
considered _the pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful
pair of cream-coloured horses.
His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts
towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit; sunk
600_l_. before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some
thousands before the shallow stream of profit began to flow.
His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one
guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the
Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics, etc. in various sizes,
with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself.
In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now
Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting the purchase
of his types; but received for answer, "That the French, reduced by the
war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were
unable to repair their public buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to
rot before them."
In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of show: a
figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure
with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light timbers of a
frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line.
During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life,
he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense thinking are
not always found together.
Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture,
architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers,
bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.
His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his
remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of 69.--Many
efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types; but, to the
lading discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in
the whole commonwealth of letters. The universities coldly rejected the
offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit.
The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a
literary society at Paris, in 1779, for 3700_l_.
It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this
island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so
little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton to want
bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract
notice? or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents?
Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune Baskerville
ought to have been rewarded with? "The _most_ which can be comprised in
five figures." If you farther ask, what he possessed? "The _least_;" but
none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great
man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune of
opulence, and a life of genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest
of all human inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country,
were hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?
We must _revere_, if we do not _imitate_, the taste and economy of the
French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge
of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in 17 years, to purchase
Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and expend an
hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of Voltaire!