Πέφευγεν· οὐ γὰρ μηπότ ̓ εἰσόψει νέον.

Τέθνηχ ̓ ὁ δή· τάχιστα πάσχουσ' οἱ ̓γαθοί.* A rival nibbled a little at one or two places in these verses, upon which the Professor challenged him to single combat, and offered to tie up a leg, and an arm, and swim across the Hellespont with him for any sum he should propose, and to contend in any mood, Dorian or Lesbian, grave or gay, Pindaric or Anacreontic, in prose or verse, quovis pignore. The challange was not accepted."

The rival was, I take for granted, Dr. Parr; he was, however, no rival of Porson, (who was a Turk, and could bear no rival near the throne,) but, according to the various lights of his mental and literary character, the inferior, the equal, the superior.

In the Facetic Cantabrigienses, consisting of Anecdotes, Smart Sayings, Satires, Retorts, etc. by or relating to Celebrated Cantabs, dedicated to the Students of Lincoln's Inn by Socius, Lond. 1825. 12mo. p. 8. we read thus: "On a time, a certain personage, enjoying his afternoon's pipe with the late Professor Porson, turned triumphantly to the Greek Professor and said:- Porson, with all your learning, I do not think you well versed in metaphysics.' 'I presume you mean your metaphysics,' was the reply. At another time, when something, which the same gentleman had written and published, much interested the public attention, and occasioned many squibs, paragraphs, and controversial letters in the Newspapers, Porson wrote the following Epigram :

Perturbed spirits, spare your ink,

And heat your stupid brains no longer;

[I have corrected these inscriptions from the more correct copies in my worthy and learned friend, the Rev. T. Kidd's Tracts and Misc. Criticisms of the late R. PORSON ESQ. p. 2. E. H. B.]

The notices of Porson, which occur in the Bibliotheca Parriana, are these:

P. 86. "The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken, 4 vols. 1768. 12mo." (2nd edn.) "a collection made by Richard Baron. A favourite work of Professor Porson's. S. P."

P. 520. "TH. GORDON'S Cordial for Low Spirits, being a Collection of curious Tracts, 3 vols. 1765. 12mo. A favourite work of Porson's. S. P." Thomas Gordon was the translator of Tacitus (1728-31. fol.) and Sallust, (1744. 4to.) "once distinguished for his religious and political writings, was born at Kirkcudbright in Galloway, about the end of the 17th century, died 1750." Dr. Watt's Bibl. Brit. These publications were sent forth in association with John Trenchard, Esq. There is a third work, (Bibl. Parr. 530.,) of which I possess Dr. Parr's copy, entitled A collection of Tracts by the late JOHN TRENCHARD, Esq. and THOMAS GORDON, Esq. 2 vols. Lond. 1751. 12mo.* From the same

* In the Learned Dissertation upon Old Women, (i. 251.) occur the following words: — "There is a waggish acquaintance of mine, who carries the analogy between old women and grave barristers, further than, in my judgment, need requires he should. 'Don't you observe,' says he, that they have the same enmity to silence, and possess the same eternal wetness of beard? Pray distinguish, if you can, between pleading and scolding; and, whatever you do, mark that hobbling amble in the gate; that involuntary nod of the head; that contracted plodding forehead; that wise unmeaning face, and these desolate gums! and then, confess the invincible likeness-I would furthermore put you in mind of their equal taste in dress, and their equal resemblance

quarter emanated Cato's Letters or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and other important Subjects, 4 vols. Lond. 1748. 12mo. John Trenchard was born in 1669, and died in 1723.; and Richard Baron was a dissenting Minister, born at Leeds, and died in 1768. Such a triumvirate of literary republicans, and anti-sacerdotal de

therein-black gowns and red peticoats! two colours in which it is hard to say, whether my Lord Je mimicks granny, or granny my Lord J-e! Granny moreover wears forward nightcloaths, and ties her pinners before to hide a bald pate; and Mr. Serjeant, and his betters, bury their faces in mighty periwigs. which inviron either chap, and lie, like comely mares' tails, on either breast-for why, they are only hairy machines to conceal long ears!' At the Assizes in Carmarthenshire, some years ago, a Welshman, who had never seen so fine a shew before, asked a neighbour of his, who was knowing in these matters, 'What shentleman was that upon the pench in hur cown, and hur pelt, ' and hur plack cap? Why marry, quoth Morgan, hur is an old < woman, that takes her nap upon her cushion, and then hur tells the shewry her tream." Now the fit of pleasant quotation is on me,

I must needs cite a facetious passage from the Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken p. 66.:

"D. A bishop must be apt to teach.

"E. They must be qualified, by their study of the scriptures, and their great skill in explaining them, to instruct and feed the flock committed to their charge. And how can they be otherwise, when the whole business of their lives has been to turn over and meditate upon those sacred pages? when they have the bible ad unguem, and have spent the choicest of their time, their breath and strength in catechising, in expounding, and preaching? They unravel all difficult places, all the similes, types, parables, examples, allegories; they reconcile seeming contradictions, and can repeat you all the parallel texts from the beginning to the end. They are no obscure persons, that the world never heard of till they were called to the chair; they are no novices, or, (as the old translation

mocrats, as Thomas Gordon, John Trenchard, and Richard Baron, associated on the firm principle of idem velle atque idem nolle, has perhaps never before or since been witnessed!

P. 121. "The Argument of the Divine Legation' fairly stated and returned to the Deists, to whom it was original

has it,) no young scholars, lest they swell and fall into the judgment of the evil speaker; they are no fresh men, no raw, unfledged, pen-feathered divines, but ripe and in full plumage, the most staunch and celebrated doctors of the first class, the admired orators and preachers of the age. They have taken their degrees, regularly, in our universities, where their names will be immortal; they performed their exercises with applause, and the schools rung with the acclamations of the audience; they preached Latin sermons, read lectures, were solid and acute in disputations, famous for defending the primitive and pure doctrines of Christianity, against Athiests, Deists, Socinians, Papists, Fanatics, Enthusiasts, Methodists, Turks, Jews, and Heathens; their doctrinal and controversial writings are admired, and almost adored all Europe over; their sound is gone out into all lands, and their names and their fames too, unto the ends of the world. How can they be but apt to teach, when they have read over all the expositors, the commentators in all languages, all the doctors of the eastern and western churches? There is not a man of them, but may safely say of himself, what the Oxford Muse so sweetly warbles:

Notior at nulli vox est sua quam mihi quicquid

Graius, Arabs, Italus, Chaldæus, Hebræus et Assur,
Æthiopesve sonant sacrum aut Memphitica Coptos,
Is sum qui latices ex ipso fonte petitos

Malim, quam longo circum deducere rivo.

Hinc, ut me laudem, legi Targumque, Masoramque,
Onkelon et Kimchi, quæ te vel nomina terrent,
Commentatores Rabbinos, Kabbala quicquid

Implicuit nodis, cæcoque ænigmate texit.

ly addressed: to which is added an Appendix, containing Letters between DR. MIDDLETON and MR. WARBURTON, on the Characters of Moses and CICERO, 1751. 8vo. The foregoing is a very curious and scarce book, and was given to me by Professor Porson."

P. 174. "My copy of the Roman Eustathius belonged

I was exercising my poetic fancy, sometime ago, in translating these lines into English verse; you know I have a pretty knack at poetry, though I do not make it my profession: but,

Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori.

My Muse forbids the worthy man to die.

I am glad I can repeat them; for, I am sure you will be pleased. There's no man's voice is to himself more known

Than is to me the holy religion

Of Grecian, Arabian and Italian,

Chaldæan, Hebræan and Assyrian,

What the Ethiopians teach, and what the Copti,
I am the man; with bucket and a rope I

Chuse to draw water from the fountain-head,

Than from the wand'ring streams the rivers shed;

And tho' I praise myself, I have read the Targum,

The Masora, Onkelos and Kimchi's jargon,

Whose very names would fright thee, and the devil into the bargain,
The Rabbins' comments, and the Kabbala,

That foldeth up its meaning, I do say,

In twisted knots and dark ænigmata.

What think you of that, my boy! but if you chuse to have it rather in scripture-phrase, it will run thus: Parthians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia, and in Judæa and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do all hear them speak in our own tongue the The world would not be

surprised to see a new translation of the bible from the present bench of bishops; there is not one of them but is capable to exe