In our own country, formerly, the ladies appear to have been equally sensible to poetical or elegant _names_, such as _Alicia, Celicia, Diana, Helena_, &c. Spenser, the poet, gave to his two sons two _names_ of this kind; he called one _Silvanus_, from the woody Kilcolman, his estate; and the other _Peregrine_, from his having been born in a strange place, and his mother then travelling. The fair Eloisa gave the whimsical name of _Astrolabus_ to her boy; it bore some reference to the stars, as her own to the sun.
Whether this name of _Astrolabus_ had any scientific influence over the son, I know not; but I have no doubt that whimsical names may have a great influence over our characters. The practice of romantic names among persons, even of the lowest orders of society, has become a very general evil: and doubtless many unfortunate beauties, of the names of _Clarissa_ and _Eloisa_, might have escaped under the less dangerous appellatives of _Elizabeth_ or _Deborah_. I know a person who has not passed his life without some inconvenience from his _name_, mean talents and violent passions not according with _Antoninus_; and a certain writer of verses might have been no versifier, and less a lover of the true Falernian, had it not been for his namesake _Horace_. The Americans, by assuming _Roman_ names, produce ludicrous associations; _Romulus_ Higgs, and _Junius Brutus_ Booth. There was more sense, when the Foundling Hospital was first instituted, in baptizing the most robust boys, designed for the sea-service, by the names of Drake, Norris, or Blake, after our famous admirals.
It is no trifling misfortune in life to bear an illustrious name; and in an author it is peculiarly severe. A history now by a Mr. Hume, or a poem by a Mr. Pope, would be examined with different eyes than had they borne any other name. The relative of a great author should endeavour not to be an author. Thomas Corneille had the unfortunate honour of being brother to a great poet, and his own merits have been considerably injured by the involuntary comparison. The son of Racine has written with an amenity not unworthy of his celebrated father; amiable and candid, he had his portrait painted, with the works of his father in his hand, and his eye fixed on this verse from Phædra,--