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formists, which his opponents answered by having him put in the pillory, having his ears cut off, fining him, and casting him in prison, where he died.

BENJAMIN BENNET, 1674-1726, was an eminent Non-conformist divine, some of whose works produced a marked effect. They were chiefly theological. A Memorial of the Reformation, and a Defence of the same; Irenicum, a work on the Trinity; Christian Oratory, or Devotions of the Closet; The Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.

THOMAS RIDGLEY, D. D., 1667-1734, an Independent Calvinistic divine, is chiefly known by his work, A Body of Divinity, being the substance of a course of lectures on The Assembly's Larger Catechism. This work, published originally in 1733, in 2 vols., folio, and now in 4 vols., 8vo, is still in current use, and is a standard work on theology among Presbyterians, and indeed among all Calvinists.

DANIEL NEAL, 1678-1743, a Dissenting minister, educated partly at Rowe's Academy, and partly in Holland, wrote many works, but is known almost exclusively by one, The History of the Puritans, 4 vols., 8vo. This is the story of the Non-conformists, as seen and told by themselves; and it is usually applauded or condemned, according as the judge is a dissenter, or a member of the Church of England. There is no question, however, of its being a work of ability and research. "Heylin, in his History of the Presbyterians, blackens them as so many political devils; and Neal, in his History of the Puritans, blanches them into a sweet and almond whiteness." - D' Israeli.

Boston.

REV. THOMAS BOSTON, 1676-1732, was a Scotch preacher of great note, whose Fourfold State used to be one of the household treasures in almost every religious family.

Boston's complete works were printed in London in 1852, in 12 vols., 8vo. The following are the ones best known: The Doctrines of the Christian Religion, comprising a complete body of divinity, and filling 3 vols.; The Crook in the Lot; and Human Nature in its Fourfold State, of primitive integrity, entire depravation, begun recovery, and consummate happiness or misery. "If another celebrated treatise is styled The Whole Duty of Man, I would call this The Whole of Man, as it comprises what he was originally, what he is by transgression, what he should be through grace, and what he will be in glory." - Hervey.

JOHN ABERNETHY, 1680-1740, of Ireland, noted as a Presbyterian divine, wrote Sermons on the Being and Perfections of God, and Posthumous Sermons (4 vols.). The former of these was famous in its day, and went through many editions.

GEORGE BENSON, D. D., 1699-1763, an English dissenter, educated at Glasgow, was the author of numerous works. He was educated a Calvinist, but early went over towards Arianism. "His works are held in high reputation for learning and accuracy."― Darling. They are: A Paraphrase and Notes on Six Epistles of Paul, 2 vols., 4to; The History of the First Planting of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., 4to; The Reasonableness of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., 8vo; The History of the Life of Jesus Christ, 4to.

SAMUEL CHANDLER, D. D., 1693–1756, was a Dissenting minister, who in connection with his preaching kept a book-store, and did a good deal in the way of authorship. A Vindication of the Christian Religion; Plain Reasons for being a Christian; Para

phrase and Commentary on Joel; Paraphrase and Notes on Galatians, Ephesians, and Thessalonians; A Vindication of the History of the O. Testament; A Critical History of the Life of David; Sermons, etc. "He possessed great learning, very strong sense, inflexible resolution, and was a zealous advocate of revelation." - Dr. E. Williams.

JAMES FOSTER, D. D., 1697-1753, was a Dissenting minister in London, whose pulpit eloquence attracted great crowds of hearers. He began, in 1728, a series of Sunday Evening Lectures, which were continued for twenty years, and which were thronged by people of all ranks, by those of all religions and of no religion. "Here was a confluence of persons of every rank, station, and quality-wits, free-thinkers, numbers of clergy; who, whilst they gratified their curiosity, had their professions shaken and their prejudices loosened.” — Dr. Fleming.

"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel

Ten Metropolitans in preaching well. "- - Pope.

Foster's principal publications are the following: Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtues, 2 vols., 4to; Sermons, 4 vols., 8vo; Essay on Fundamentals; Defence of the Christian Religion, written against Tindal.

JOHN SHUTE BARRINGTON, 1678-1734, in the earlier part of his career engaged in politics, and became Lord Viscount of Ireland. At the age of forty-five he retired from political life, and devoted himself to theological research. He published a work in two vols., Miscellanea Sacra, which was considered as of high value.

RICHARD CLARIDGE, 1649-1723, was an eminent writer among the Society of Friends. He was educated for the Church of England and took orders in that church. He afterwards became a Baptist, and finally a Friend. Some of his works are in Latin. His chief English writings are: Answers to Richard Allen; Mercy Covering the Judgment Seat; The Novelty and Nullity of Dissatisfaction; Gospel Light, etc.

CHARLES DODD, - 1745, a Catholic priest, wrote The Church History of England, 3 vols., folio, intended as a reply to Burnet. The author is said to have spent thirty years in its compilation. A new edition, 14 vols., 8vo, was begun in 1839.

THOMAS CHUBB, 1679-1746, a Unitarian writer of some notoriety, wrote the following works: The Supremacy of the Father Asserted; The Previous Question with regard to religion; A Discourse Concerning Reason with regard to Religion and Divine Revelation; Tracts, etc.

THOMAS EVELYN, 1663-1743, a learned divine, wrote much in advocacy of Arianism, and was prosecuted and imprisoned for it. His chief work was An Inquiry into the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ. His Works, with a Memoir, have been published in 3 vols., 8vo. He believed Jesus to be the first of created beings, the Creator of the world, and an object of worship, but not strictly divine or equal to the Father.

JOHN TAYLOR, D. D., 1694-1761, was a learned Unitarian clergyman, for a long time at the head of an Academy at Warrington, Lancashire. His works elicited replies from John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and others of equal note. Taylor wrote the following works: The Scriptural Doctrines of Original Sin proposed to Free and Candid Examination; The Scripture Doctrine of Atonement Examined; A Scheme of Scripture Divinity; A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistle to the Romans.

CHAPTER XII.

DR. JOHNSON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

AFTER the death of Pope, 1744, the person who for the next forty years figured most largely in literature was Dr. Samuel Johnson. The time of Johnson's supremacy covers, in round numbers, the first twenty-five years of the reign. of George III., 1760-1785. It includes among its political events the celebrated trial of Warren Hastings, and the still more important issue, the American Revolutionary War.

The writers who belong to this period are divided into four sections: 1. Miscellaneous Prose Writers, beginning with Dr. Johnson; 2. Novelists, beginning with Richardson; 3. Poets, beginning with Goldsmith; 4. Theological Writers, beginning with Warburton.

I. MISCELLANEOUS PROSE WRITERS.

Dr. Johnson.

Samuel Johnson, LL. D., 1709-1784, was for nearly an entire generation the acknowledged autocrat of English letters. He was the centre of attraction for such men as Goldsmith, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Garrick, Reynolds, and Gibbon; his presence and conversation were everywhere courted as though he had been the great Mogul of literary opinion.

Early Career. Dr. Johnson was born at Lichfield, the son of a bookseller. He was afflicted from boyhood with scrofula, which weakened his eyesight and otherwise indisposed him to bodily exertion. Notwithstanding these obstacles, he was, on his admission to the University, uncommonly well versed in the preparatory studies. After remaining three years at Oxford, he left for want of means to continue his residence, and did not take his degree. He taught for a short time as usher in an academy, but found the duties irksome and gave up the position. He then formed an engagement in Birmingham to write for a paper. His first book, a translation from the French, brought him the sum of five guineas.

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Marriage. At the age of twenty-seven he was married to a widow nearly twice his age, with vulgar manners, a loud voice, and a florid complexion. They seem, however, to have lived happily together, and on her death, sixteen years afterwards, he mourned her loss to a degree that for some years unfitted him for literary labor. She brought him a fortune of £800, and with this he attempted to set up an Academy. He obtained, however, only three pupils, one of them the celebrated Garrick. The academy failing, Johnson determined to go to London and enter upon a life of authorship. Garrick went with him to seek fame and fortune as an actor.

Hardships in London. - The first few years of Johnson's life in London were miserable enough. He often suffered from actual hunger, and at times he and the poet Savage walked the streets together at night, because too poor to pay for lodgings. The first work of his which brought him into note was London, a Satire, in imitation of Juvenal. There were in this short piece a vigor of thought and a polish of expression, that marked the author as a man of no common order. Pope, then in his meridian, recognized at once the unknown author as a dangerous competitor, yet had the generosity to help to bring him into notice and favor.

Better Times. Johnson's fortunes after this gradually improved. He found employment for his pen in a variety of literary enterprises, so that he was no longer in actual want, and in 1762, at the age of fiftythree, he received from King George III. the grant of an annual pension of £300. His last days were spent in comparative ease and comfort. He became the centre of a circle of men rarely equalled for brilliancy and genius; he was honored with titles from the Universities; his voice was everywhere listened to as that of the greatest literary magnate of the realm.

Works. His principal works are the following: London, a Satire, already men. tioned; The Vanity of Human Wishes, his only other poem of note or value; Irene, a Tragedy, generally admitted to be a failure; Rasselas, or The Happy Valley, a story with little incident, but embellished with a sonorous and flowing eloquence; The Rambler, of which he wrote 204 out of the 208 numbers; The Idler, another series of essays of a like character; A Life of Savage, the poet: The Lives of the Poets, filling many volumes; A Journey to the Hebrides; A volume of Political Essays, originally published as pamphlets; An Edition of Shakespeare, with Preface and Notes; and lastly, A Dictionary of the English Language.

Merits as a Lexicographer. — Johnson was not a linguist; he knew nothing of the science of language, and next to nothing of the requirements of lexicography, as now understood. Yet, in the preparation of his English Dictionary, he achieved a great and lasting work, the most important single contribution to English letters of the age in which he lived. The collection of examples which he made from his own reading and research, in illustration of the meaning of the words, and the surpassing clearness with which in most cases he expressed the meaning in his definitions, have won the admiration of all competent judges, and have made his work the basis of all subsequent efforts in the same line.

Character as an Essayist. As an Essayist, Johnson lacks the grace and simplicity and exquisite humor which were the peculiar charm of Addison; yet he was a fearless advocate of morals and religion, when it was the fashion among men of wit to decry them both; and he undoubtedly, by his courage in this matter, and by the masculine force of his understanding, gave a tone to the public mind on this subject, the effects of which have been felt ever since.

Critical Judgments. — Johnson was a man of violent prejudices, an ultra Tory in politics, and, as such, opposed to republicanism in every shape. He was not only bitter against the Americans, but he did scant justice to Milton, as the poet of the Commonwealth. His judgments, indeed, in matters of poetry, are the least valuable of his opinions. He could appreciate didactic or satiric poetry, like his own, or like that of Dryden, but he would have been as incompetent to feel the finer beauties of Tennyson, as he was to feel those of Shakespeare. His edition of Shakespeare, indeed, except portions of the Preface, was an utter failure. His Lives of the Poets, however, contains some of the best things he has written, and the work, with all its acknowledged shortcomings, is a valuable part of the permanent literature of the language.

Boswell's Life of Johnson. - In enumerating the works of Johnson, Boswell's Biography of him should always be included. That biogra

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