They Left It And
Went To The Continent; Though It Is Likely They Were The More Induced
To Do So By Certain Family Difficulties, And The Ill Effects Of The
Father's Turbulent Temper, Which Speedily Lost Him The Friends His
Uncommon Abilities And Erudition Had Procured.
The reader who desires
information respecting these two singular men, and the sentiments
entertained in general as to their improper conduct in the matter of
the publication, may turn to the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
It is, however, but justice to inform him, that the
account there given, bears decisive indications of party bias in more
senses than one; and that the strongest assertions it contains as to
the share which Forster the father had in the publication, are not
supported on evidence sufficient for the conviction of any
unprejudiced mind. The writer of that article, as of several others in
that very valuable publication, appears to have given up his
imagination to the prevailing terrors of the times, and to have
become, at last, almost incapable of discriminating betwixt personal
delinquency and epidemic immorality - the misfortunes incident to
individuals in every age or country, and the evils arising out of the
erroneous creeds and systems of a particular time and place. A single
quotation from the article now alluded to, may be conducive to the
reader's favourable acceptance of that portion of the Forsters'
labours from which it is proposed to supply many of the succeeding
notes. "An account of the voyage was published in English and German,
by George Forster; and the language, which is correct and elegant, was
undoubtedly his; but those who knew both him and his father, are
satisfied that the matter proceeded from the joint stock of their
observations and reflections.
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