flight but neceffary addition, in order to convey to the reader fome information refpecting the time and manner of his death.

The Bishop finifhed the whole of this work a very few days before it pleafed God to release him. He might very juftly wonder how fuch a weak, infirm body was fo long preferved; for few men, perhaps, had more conftant or feverer infirmities to combat with than himself. On Saturday, the 9th of February 1787, he began to find his breath much affected by the froft His complaints grew worfe and worfe till the Thursday following. He got up at five o'clock, and was placed in a chair by the fire; complained to his wife how much he had fuffered in bed, and repeated to himself that portion of the Palms, "() my God, I cry unto thee in the day-time," &c. &c. About fix o'clock he was left by his apothecary in a quiet fleep. Between feven and eight he awoke, and appeared rather more ealy, and took a little refreshment. He continued dozing till near nine, when he ordered his fervant to come and dress him, and help him down stairs. As foon as he was dreffed, he enquired the hour, and bid his fervant open the fhutter and look at the dial of St. Paul's. The fervant answered, it was upon the stroke of nine. The Bishop made an effort to take out his watch, with an intent to fet it; but funk down in his chair, and expired without a figh, or the leaft vifible emotion, his countenance ftill retaining the fame placid appearance which was so peculiar to him when alive.'

Thefe leading outlines of the Bishop's life are felected from the scattered materials which die before us, and which are fo blended and incorporated with anecdotes and relations of a foreign and fometimes heterogeneous nature, that a reader is apt to be confufed by them, and, without particular attention, may not always readily perceive when the narration fpeaks of himfelf, or of fome other perfon. We have, however, received great entertainment, and no fmall degree of curious information from the perufal of the whole. Some of the anecdotes are trifling; and a faftidious critic would affect to be offended at the garrulity of an old man, every where too difcernible in these theets: But to us, who with not to refine away our pleasures by a fqueamish tafte, the narrative hath all the charm of eafy and familiar converfation. Events that dignify the page of hiftory are generally viewed on the large fcale. Minute circumftances, with which they were connected, are always kept out of fight; but after we have received a ftrong impreffion from the former, we are ever prepared to receive amufement from the latter. It is the fame with great and distinguished names. After we have been taught to think of them with reverence, we are fond of any anecdotes that relate to their perfons, habits, or even accidental connections or adventures. We love to contemplate

them

them on the scale of common life, and familiarize them by common incidents. It is from this principle (which is general to the human mind) that narratives, like that which we have before us, are so pleasing and agreeable. We see the great foftened and mellowed by the easy and entertaining. Dignity throws off its reftraints, and invites us to a nearer intercourse. We love to be pleased by that which hath awed us, and are fond of those ftories which graft amusement on events which have excited admiration.

From this multifarious mafs we will felect a few anecdotes concerning fome perfons, and events of confequence and celebrity, which, we doubt not, will afford entertainment to readers who are not too nice and critical in their tafte. It fometimes happens (fays the Bishop's friend in the preface) that an old man's chit-chat is very agreeable.'

Of Bishop Smaldridge we have the following character:

He was a truly worthy prelate, an excellent ícholar, a found divine, an eloquent preacher, a good writer, both in Latin and Englifh, of great gravity and dignity in his whole deportment, and, at the fame time, of as great complacency and sweetness of manners: a character at once both amiable and venerable. He was so noted for good temper, that fucceeding Dr. Atterbury in the deaneries of Carlisle and Chrift-church, he was faid to carry the bucket wherewith to extinguish the fires which the other had kindled. . . . . . Mr. Whifton, in the memoirs of his life, would fain represent Bishop Smaldridge as an Arian, and a friend to him and Dr. Clarke. He was, indeed, a friend to all mankind, and converfed with thofe two learned men in the fpirit of meeknefs, and was for moderating the violent proceedings of the convocation against them: but Whiston was always too fanguine and opinionative. Whatever he took into his head he firmly believed; and because he wished the Bishop to be as himself, he fondly concluded him to be fuch an one. However, the report fo far prevailed, that the Bishop thought proper to difclaim it, and to affert his conftant belief of the Trinity, in a letter addreffed but a few days before his death, to Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Winchester, and by him attefted and made pub

lic.'

"In August 1722, not many days after performing the laft office at the magnificent funeral of the great Duke of Marlborough, Bishop Atterbury was taken into custody, and carried before a committee of the Privy Council, where, being under examination, he made ufe of those words of our Saviour, "If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not anfwer me, nor let me go:" and he was committed a prifoner to the Tower for treasonable practices. There is too much reafon to fear that the Bishop had been dabbling in this kind of politics; but a full and clear detection of the confpiracy was never obtained. . . . . . . . After the Welminfter election was over (in 1723), fome of the King's fcholars thought it a very proper piece of refpect to wait upon their late dean [Atterbury] in the Tower, as every body had then free admittance to fee and take

their leave of him; and among other things which he said to them, he applied to himself thofe lines of Milton:

The world is all before me, where to chufe

My place of rest, and Providence my guide.'

Of Dr. Bentley, and his antagonist Dr. Middleton, we have the following account:

Dr. Bentley was indeed an arbitrary mafter; attended little to the duties of his ftation; very rarely was feen in the chapel; and fet no good example, but that of hard ftudy. In his latter days he loved his bottle of old Port; and used to fay, that Claret would be Port if it could. However, he must be allowed to have been an excellent fcholar, a most acute and able critic, and had withal a great deal of wit and pleasantry. His edition of Paradise Loft may be said to be his most puny child; and his edition of the Greek Teftament (to the regret of the learned world) proved an abortion. It was faid, that a defign was formed of bringing over Le Clerc from Holland, and for conftituting him the Royal Librarian, which place was then poffeffed by Dr. Bentley, who, for this reafon, was fuppofed to publifh his edition of the fragments of Menander and Philemon, which Le Clerc had published before, in order to expose the futility of Le Clerc's criticisms, and thereby to difconcert the fcheme for his intended promotion. His edition of Terence engaged him in a controversy with Dr. Hare, another editor of Terence, which was the more extraordinary, as they had been good friends before, and drew a fevere reflection upon them from Sir Ifaac Newton, that two fuch divines, inftead of minding the duties of their function, should be fquabbling about an old play-book. His English writings are not fo numerous as his Latin. His fermons at Boyle's Lectures, being the firft that were preached upon that foundation; his Differtations on the Epifles of Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and fop's Fables, annexed to Wotton's Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning; his Remarks on Collins's Difcourfe on Free thinking, for which he received the thanks of the clergy; and his chief work, his Differtations on the Epiftles of Phalaris, with his Answer to the Objections of Mr. Boyle, afterwards Earl of Orrery. This work paffed under the name of Mr. Boyle; but it is generally known that he was affifted in it by Atterbury, who had been his tutor, and by other learned and ingenious men of Christ Church; infomuch that Swift, in the Battle of the Books, fays, that Boyle's fuit of armour was given him by all the Gods. The wits at that time generally gave the preference to Mr. Boyle, as Swift did in the Battle of the Books; for Dr. Bentley's Differtation having been first published at the end of Wotton's Reflections, &c. Swift reprefented Boyle with a lance, thrufting them through both together, and spitting them like a couple of woodcocks. Dr. Garth, likewife, has thefe memorable lines in his Difpenfary:

So diamonds take a luftre from their foil,

And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle.

• But all men of letters are now agreed, that Dr. Bentley has greatly the advantage in point of argument, as well as learning. It is a controverfy very well worth reading, for the uncommon erudition

displayed

difplayed therein; and the genteel fatire and irony on the one fide, and the rough wit and humour on the other, render it very entertaining. Some of thefe English pieces are become scarce; and out of justice to the memory of fuch a man, his fon, or his nephew, or fome of his family and friends, fhould collect them together, and cause them to be printed in a handfome and uniform manner.

One of Dr. Bentley's mott formidable enemies, was Dr. Middleton, as appears from feveral parts of his works, and particularly from Dr. Bentley's projected edition of the New Teftament; which remarks are fuppofed to be one principal obftacle to the publication of that work. But length of time having overcome all prejudices, it is much wished that the perfon who poffeffes the MS. would oblige the learned world, by fetting forth fo curious a performance. By the death of Dr. King there was a vacancy of the maflership of the Charter-house, a place which fome confiderable perfons at different periods have defired to fill. Bishop Benfon and Dr. Jortin used to fay, that there was a certain time in their lives when of all preferments they wished it the molt. And now the competitors to fucceed Dr. King were Dr. Middleton and Mr. Mann. When Dr. Middleton applied to Sir Robert Walpole for his vote and intereft, Sir Robert honeftly told him, that talking with Bishop Sherlock, he found the Bishops were generally against his being chofen Mafler. Mr. Mann had been tutor to the Marquis of Blandford, and when the Marquis was difpofed to be diffipated and idle, he would fay to him, that he should apply himself more to his books and to learning, or he would never make a figure in the world like the Duke of Marlborough. The boy replied, that he was already a better fcholar, and knew more of Greek and Latin than the Duke ever did; and why then fhould not he make as great a figure? The Duke of Marlborough was faid to be rather illiterate, and to fpell very ill, though in other refpe&ts he was one of the most illuftrious characters, as great a Statefman as a general, excelled equally in the cabinet and in the field, and never fought a battle but he won it, nor befieged a town but he took it. It was through the intereft of that family that Mr. Mann gained the afcendency over Dr. Middleton ; and when he waited upon the Governors at their respective houses to return his thanks, he faid very needlessly and impertinently to Archbishop Potter, "I fuppofe your Grace knows that you have made choice of an Arian." The Archbishop was ftartled; but foen recollecting himself, made anfwer, "An Arian, perhaps, may be better than a Deift." Dr. Middleton, it is to be hoped, was not a Deift, for late in life he accepted a fmall living in Surry, and of course took the ufual oaths, and made the regular fubfcriptions. It is not eafy to say what his religious principles were: they feem to have been va

A very correct edition of all the Differtations, comprehending the celebrated difpute with Mr. Boyle, under the fuperintendence of Dr. Salter, with fome original papers of Dr. Bentley, was published in one volume octavo, by Bowyer and Nichols, in the year 1777, accompanied with explanatory notes, and a copious index. Before this publication, the Differtations were become exceedingly fcarce, and their original price was more than doubled in the catalogues.

rious at various times. He was certainly a very unfair controvertit, and his quotations cannot be depended upon without particular examination. He was fometimes guilty of literary forgery, by additions or omiffions as beft fuited his purpofe. His first connections were amongst the High Church party, as they were called, but he plainly appeared to have been warped and drawn afide to heterodoxy by pique and refentment, for not being preferred according to his merits and expectations. He was much hurt and provoked at this difap pointment, and thinking Bishop Sherlock to be the primary cause of it, he wreaked his malice in his ill-natured and ill-timed animadver. fions on the Bishop's difcourfes on Prophecy, pretending that he had never feen them before, though they had been published several years, and had gone through feveral editions. Nor did he afterwards fpare the Archbishop and his chaplains, but took every opportunity of making Lambeth House the fubject of his wit and fatire. It is also well known that he wrote a treatife of the Inutility and Inefficacy of Prayer, which was communicated to Lord Bolingbroke, who much approved it, and advised the publication of it. Mrs Middleton, however, never thought proper to publish it in her lifetime; and the Bishop has heard, that Dr. Heberden, a particular friend of Dr. Middleton, and to whom the widow left all his papers, has fince committed it to the flames: an act worthy of fo good a man, and the fittest end of fuch a work.'

On this anecdote refpecting Dr. Middleton, we cannot avoid remarking, that the good Bifhop was fomewhat too credulous, and too hastily admitted reports that affected the reputation of thofe against whom he had imbibed a prejudice. It was affèrted by the Bishop, in his original account of the obnoxious manufcript, that Dr. Heberden purchased it of Mrs. Middleton, at the price that it was fuppofed it would fetch if it went to market; - infinuating, that the widow was equally indifferent to her husband's reputation, and the edification of the Chriftian world, provided the could fecure her own profit. Dr. Heberden having had fome intimation of this very grofs mistake, before the prefent work was publifhed, infifted that the leaf which contained it fhould be cancelled; declaring, at the fame time, his refolution to contradict it publicly, if it remained in its original flate. The leaf was accordingly cancelled, and the information brought fomewhat nearer to the truth; perhaps it ought to be admitted, with fome qualifications. We are no ftrangers to the freedom of Dr. Middleton's fentiments on fome points of religion; but we can scarcely believe that he wrote a tract to difprove the neceffity of prayer, though poffibly he might not entertain fuch ideas of its efficacy as Dr. Ogden and fome other divines, who reprefent it not only as the means of our own improvement, but as an inftrument to work on the Deity himself, as if his purposes could be changed, or as if he was altogether fuch a one as ourselves. Rev. Feb. 1783.

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