This project was no sooner fixed than, transiently, it appeared to
him to be executed; so quick was the rush upon his imagination of
illuminating and varying ideas; and so vast, so prolific, the material
which his immense collection of notes, abridgments, and remarks,
had amassed, that it seemed as if he had merely to methodize his
manuscripts, and entrust them to a copyist, for completing his purpose.
But how wide from the rapidity of such incipient perceptions were the
views by which, progressively, they were superseded! Mightier and
mightier appeared the enterprize upon every new investigation; more
difficult, more laborious, and more precarious in all its results:
yet, also, as is usual where Genius is coupled with Application, more
inviting, more inciting, and more alluring to the hope of literary
glory. ’Tis only where the springs of Genius are clogged by “the heavy
and retarding weight” of Indolence; or where they are relaxed by the
nervous and trembling irresolutions of timidity, that difficulties and
dangers produce desertion.
Far, however, from the desired goal, as was the measured distance of
reality compared with the visionary approaches of imagination, he had
nothing to lament from time thrown away by previous labours lost: his
long, multifarious, and curious, though hitherto unpointed studies,
all, ultimately, turned to account; for he found that his chosen
subject involved, circuitously, almost every other.
Thus finally fixed to an enterprize which, in this country, at least,
was then new, he gave to it all the undivided energies of his mind;
and, urged by the spur of ambition, and glowing with the vivacity of
hope, he determined to complete his materials before he consigned them
to their ultimate appropriations, by making a scientific musical tour
through France and Italy.
A letter,[38] of which a copy in his own hand-writing remains,
containing the opening view of his plan and of his tour, addressed to
the Reverend William Mason, will shew how fully he was prepared for
what he engaged to perform, before he called for a subscription to aid
the publication of so expensive a work.
Through various of his friends amongst persons in power, he procured
recommendatory letters to the several ambassadors and ministers from
our Court, who were stationed in the countries through which he meant
to travel.
And, through the yet more useful services of persons of influence in
letters and in the arts, he obtained introductions, the most felicitous
for his enterprize, to those who, then, stood highest in learning, in
the sciences, and in literature.
None in this latter class so eminently advanced his undertaking as Mr.
Garrick; whose solicitations in his favour were written with a warmth
of friendship, and an animation of genius, that carried all before
them.
Here stops, for this period, the pen of the memorialist.
From the month of June, 1770, to that of January, 1771, the life of
Doctor Burney is narrated by himself, in his “Tour to France and Italy.”
And few who have read, or who may read that Tour, but will regret that
the same pen, while in its full fair vigour, had not drawn up what
preceded, and what will follow this epoch.
Such, however, not being the case, the memorialist must resume her pen
where that of Dr. Burney, in his narrative, drops,—namely, upon his
regaining the British shore.