but he refused. On the eve of the trial his Lordship sent for him, and informed him that he knew 39 ways of plaguing an orthodox Clergyman, and assured him that he should revive some obsolete laws against the clerical body, if the Archdeacon persisted in prosecuting the Ro

abstains from anything like allusion to his labours in the same vineyard. Warton has one felicitous expression, with which even the exuberant luxuriance of Mr. Wakefield's style would have been enriched, Prose fringed with rhyme.'"

P. 63. Febr. 8. Pursued Wakefield's Observations on Pope. I exactly agree with him in the species of preference, which he gives to Pope's over Boileau's Imitation of Horace, in the account of the Visionary, (Epist. 2, 2, 192. and Sat. 4, 103.) but do not see how he mends the matter in his proposed improvement of verses 74 and 75, in the second Dialogue by way of Epilogue to the Satires. Wakefield possesses exquisite taste, and a most luxuriant fancy, as a critic; and one grieves that he should ever have misapplied his powers to politics and religion. Febr. 11. Read the Dunciad with Warton's and Wakefield's Annotations. Wakefield's attempts at humour, under the character of Scriblerus to the Dunciad, are very frigid and uncouth; he seems to have caught the grossness of Pope without his spirit, and occasionally displays the bigot."

P. 68. "March 12. Read Watson's Address and Wakefield's Answer. The Bishop is certainly wrong in supposing that an equal depression of all ranks would be a matter of no concern, as each individual would preserve his relative place in society; since, though the rich would in consequence suffer only a positive privation of superfluities, this privation, with the poor, would extend to the necessaries of life. He is equally wrong in supposing it possible to discharge the national debt by deducting a proportionate quantum of property from each individual, since a vast class of individuals have no property besides their annual, monthly, weekly, or even daily income; but I cannot forgive Wakefield's attempt, in his reply, to depreciate the national character; nor VOL. II. 2 X

man Catholics. But he wisely, though reluctantly, gave up the business.

The name of Lord Kenyon reminds me of another story. Dr. Parr once went into court, when Lord Kenyon was sitting in judgment; some law-Latin was quoted;

his ill-concealed complacency at our subjugation by France. I have no opinion of the man, who has lost the love of his country in more remote regards."

In consulting the Tracts and Miscellaneous Criticisms of the late R. Porson, Esq. by my friend, Mr. Kidd, great vigilance is necessary, lest something to the purpose of your enquiry should be omitted, because you have to refer to so many different parts of the volume. I find that I have inadvertently omitted to notice what Mr. Kidd says about Wakefield's Diatribe in his Preface p. lxx, and justice requires that it should not be omitted, though it will extend my note:

"EURIPIDIS Hecuba, 1797. This edition, in every respect worthy of the other hope of criticism, did not escape the carping reprehensions of ill-advised and unworthy resentment. A scholar, (Tanta in eo mutandi libido fuit, ut hoc ipsum eum delectaret, mutare, etiamsi causa non esset,) whom R. P. sincerely esteemed for his domestic virtues and independent spirit," (if Porson had said as much in print, perhaps the Diatribe would never have been published, and no unpleasant feeling might have possessed the mind of G. W. about critical matters,)" but to whom he was not ready to impute the gift of divination, felt indignant that his name was not recorded in the Preface and Notes on Hecuba, as it had been once in the Appendix to Toup. This is the fountain, from which all these waters of bitterness flowed. Whatever Mr. W. might think, it was, on R. P.'s part, an earnest of tenderness: Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos?

Besides,

λοιδορείσθαι δ ̓ οὐ πρέπει *Ανδρας ποιητάς, ὥσπερ ἀρτοπωλίδας.

Ran. 857.

and the nicety of Parr's Roman ear might have been offended at the harsh sounds, had not his Lordship with great readiness said to the learned Serjeant, who was in possession of the court, at the same time significantly glancing at Dr. Parr, You know, brother, the courts

R. P. seldom condescends to elucidate, (Præf. xvii. ed. 1.) where the text was sound; when he did, like the immortal Scaliger, he was rigidly faithful surely no man ever construed like Porson,

· πολλῆς ἐστὶ πείρας τελευταῖον ἐπιγέννημα. Here existed no ground for complaint. Quid sodes tu de me? nisi ipsum de te et tuis silentium in criminis speciem trahatur, quod non extra oleas et operis fines vagarer, te et tua citaturus. Sunt enim qui hoc indignantur, se in cujusvis scriptis suas laudes non reperire. (R. B. Clerico p. 209.) A few days before this extemporaneous effort appeared, R. P. met the author at the shop of his friend and bookseller, Mr. Payne, (at this shop, which is the conflux of learning, R. P. formerly discussed with G. W. a passage in Eur. Ion. 1198. see Crit. Rev. June 1803. p. 126.) They conversed together very amicably on literary matters. They afterwards sauntered down to Egerton's; thence back to Charing-Cross, where they parted as friendly as possible, each to his business or amusement. Shortly after this R. P. left Town for the countryhouse of a friend, where he was informed that W. was coming out with something against him.' At this news R. P. was surprised; though not afraid, he was curious. He returned to Town immediately, where he found all the world, that is, about twenty or thirty individuals, open-mouthed about this eagerly expected pamphlet. At length the awful moment arrived; and the Diatribe Extemporalis was ushered into public notice, as if it were destined to succour a sinking age, and to annihilate the dearlyearned reputation of R. P. A copy was immediately forwarded to our Professor, who at this time was in a very languid state, owing to the oppressive heat of the atmosphere. He, however, talked it over, and proved that there was as little skill in the execution, as prudence in the design; and intimated that a column

of law are not famous for good Latinity.' The Doctor was much pleased with the delicacy of the compliment.

In 1814, Dr. Parr sent to Lord Wentworth a long paper about Porson's compliment to Lady Tamworth : Thou art fairer than the daughters of the children of

or more in a morning-paper would be amply sufficient to show, that in all the parade of critical sagacity there was scarcely one grain of solidity." (It should be recollected that the Diatribe contains only forty octavo pages.) "A sincere and able friend answered Mr. W. more to his conviction than his satisfaction, (Monthly Rev. Jan. Febr. April, July, Aug. 1799. Feb. 1800. ‹ Sed apud

́ insanos, et in eo, quod semel dixerunt, obstinatos, nihil momenta

' rationum valent.') Mr. W., fully predetermined in his mind to urge on his own strictures without the least regard to the answers of others, attempted to renew the attack in a contemporary journal, (Crit. Rev. Nov. 1800. Jan. Febr. April 1801. Letters to Mr. Fox p. 177.) But anger has some claim to indulgence, and railing is usually a relief to the mind.' R. P. belonged to a club consisting of seven and a president ;—their regulation was to have no regulation. On the eve of this stupendous tract making its appearance, the members happened to meet, and in the course of the evening the president proposed that every member should give a friend, and accompany it with a suitable passage or sentiment from Shakespeare; which was agreed upon. When it came

to R. P.'s turn, I'll give you,' said he, my friend Gilbert Wakefield; What is HECUBA to him, or he to HECUBA?"" The brief and wary notice of the Diatribe in the Memoirs of the Life of G. WAKEFIELD, B. A. 2, 100. is this:

"While Mr. Wakefield was employed in the completion of his Lucretius, he devoted a few hours to the composition of an Essay, entitled, In Euripidis Hecubam, Londini nuper publicatam, Diatribe Extemporalis. It is well known that the work, to which he refers, was edited by Professor Porson. Of the talents and acquisitions of this eminent scholar, perhaps, no man had formed a higher or more just estimate than Mr. Wakefield, and from no

men, whose food was lentiles and wild herbs,' (Ps. 45, 2.) To eat the fruits of the earth, is an Homeric phrase used to denote a degrading characteristic of man. See the speeches of Glaucus and Ulysses in Homer, and Horace in (Ode 2, 14, 10.)

and (Epist. 1, 2, 27.)

Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati,

quarter would he have been more truly gratified by an acknowledgment of his own exertions in the same province. The motives, which in part dictated this publication, are announced, without disguise, in the Essay itself, and are such as, under the influence of candid judgment, cannot possibly be regarded as dishonourable to the author."

It will be not improper to allow G. W. to tell his own tale: he thus concludes the Diatribe :-" Jam vero tempus est ut huic oxediáo μari finem imponamus; quod pro meorum morum simplicitate, libere fateor atque ingenue,

Οὐκ ἐμπλέκων αἰνίγματ ̓, ἀλλ ̓ ἁπλῷ λόγῳ,

Ως περ δίκαιον πρὸς φίλους οἴγειν στόμα,

me hac de caussa potissimum, properanter conscripsisse, ut ii, qui literas humaniores colant, harum literarum humanitatem moribus expressam efficacius ac yita nobis præstent. Voluntarium inter eruditos commercium beneficiorum, sibi invicem favendo, collaudando, monendo, juvando denique, non ut alienorum meritorum obtrectatores, sed laborum potius haud ignobilium socii participesque, semper exoptatissimis miseræ mortalitatis commodis mihi

"Pro munere Wakefieldius dedit munera : non raro certe casus quartus T vesci jungi solet: vide Broukhus. ad Tibull. 2, 5, 64. nec negari potest, pluralem sententiæ accommodatiorem esse singulari," Doering.