THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW; For NOVEMBER 1795. DR. HENRY OWEN. DR. HENRY OWEN was, we be lieve, a native of Wales, and was born about the year 1719. Where he received his education we are not in formed, but at a proper age he was fent to Jefus College, Oxford, where, on the 14th of July 1743, he took the Degree of Mafter of Arts. Intending, it may be prefumed, to follow the profeffion of Phyfic, he proceeded to the Degree of B. M. the 17th Oct. 1746, and finally became D. M. March 29, 1753. Whether he ever practifed as a Phyfician, we have not heard. His preferments in the Church were but few, and thofe not equal to his merit as a Divine. In 1750 he was prefented to the Rectory of St. Olave, Hart freet, by private patronage, and had alfo the Vicarage of Terling in Effex. In 1776 he received from Dr. Barrington, now Bishop of Durham, then Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, the living of Edmonton. On the 3d September 1760, he married Mifs Mary Butts, daughter of the Bishop of Ely, and after a long and lingering illness, died the 14th October 1795, leaving one fon, the Rev. Henry Owen, to whom he had fome years refigned the living of St. Olave's, and four daughters. a more Such are the outlines of the life of a gentleman who certainly is entitled to ample memorial; one who to very extenfive and profound literature added the most amiable inanners, the ftri&teft attention to the duties of his ftation, and the most exemplary conduct in his feveral relations, both public and domestic. We should have been glad to have prefented our readers with a more detailed account of fo excellent a perfon; but this it may be prefumed will be executed hereafter by fome one who may be poffeffed of more enlarged information, and more intimate acquaintance with one who deferved well of the world, both as a scholar and member of fociety. Dr. Owen's works are as follow: 1. Harmonia Trigonometrica, or A Short Treatise on Trigonometry, 8vo. 1748. 2. The Intent and Propriety of the Scripture Miracles confidered and explained, 8vo. 1755. 3. Obfervations on the Four Gofpels, tending chiefly to afcertain the Times of their Publication, and to illuftrate the Form and Manner of their Compofition, 8vo. 1764. 4. Short Directions to Young Stu. dents in Divinity, and Candidates for Holy Orders, 8vo. 1766. 5. An Enquiry into the prefent State of the Septuagint Verfion of the Old Teftament, 8vo. 1769. 6. The Intent and Propriety of the Scripture Miracles confidered and explained, in a series of Sermons, preached at Bow in 1769, 1770, and 1771, at Boyle's Lecture; 2 vols. 8vo. 1773. 7. Critica Sacra, or A fhort Intro, duction to Hebrew Criticifm, 8vo. 8. Supplement to Critica Sacra; in which the Principles of that Treatife are fully confirmed, and the Objections of Mr. Raphael Baruh are clearly anfwered, 8vo. 1775. 9. Collatio Codicis Cottoniani Genefeos cum Editione Romana à viro Clariffimo Joanne Ernefto Grabe jam olim factâ, nunc demum fumma cura edita, 8vo. 1778. This ancient and beautiful MS. was faid to have been brought into England in the reign of Henry VIII. by two Greek Bishops. Queen Elizabeth made a prefent of it to Sir John Fortefcue, from whom it defcended to the Cotton Library. Walton fays, that there were five volumes of this MS. containing the whole Pentateuch, but that the four laft came into the hands of a Frenchman, who never returned them to the owner. This valuable MS. was nearly deftroyed by the fire which fo greatly damaged the Cotton Library in 1731. 10. Critical Difquifitions; containing fome Remarks, 1. on Mafius's Edition of the Book of Joshua, and, 2. on Origen's celebrated Hexapla, 8vo. 1784. 11. A brief Account, Hiftorical and Critical, of the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament. To which is added A Differtation on the comparative Excellency of the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch, &c. 8vo. 1787. 12. The Modes of Quotation ufed by the Evangelical Writers explained and vindicated, 4to. 1789. Befides thefe, Dr. Owen published in 1785, "Xenophon's Memorabilia," left unfinished by Dr. Edward Edwards, of Jefus College, Oxford; and in 1766,"Rowland's Mona Antiqua." He was alfo author of "A Collation of the Account of the Dedication of the Temple, printed in The Origin of Printing," 8vo. 1776; and "Remarks on the Time employed on Cæfar's two Expeditions into Britain, in" Archæologia" II. 159;" and contributed very liberally to Bowyer's Conjectures on the New Teftament, a copy of which prepared for a new edition, he is faid to have left to be hereafter published. To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. T. Mr. TOPHAM, in his illuftration of an ancient Picture in Windtor Castle, representing the embarkation of King Henry, preparatory to his interview with the French King, Francis the Firft (Archæologia, Vol. VI. Art. xxiv. p. 208), has offered fome doubts, not cafily to be obviated, which controvert the notion that this is a print of the Great Harry: a decifive opinion. cannot be, however, formed what may be the Ship exhibited, till it can be af. certained, whether the Engraver has given a faithful refemblance of the picture referred to. The Print was published by fubfcrip. tion, and in the Propoials, which were, as it may be prefumed, advertised in Newfpapers, and circulated in handbills. Allen might fuggeft the authority for his affertion, that the picture was really painted by Holbein. A copy of the Print, on a reduced feale, was inferted in the London Magazine of June 1756. Intelligence concerning the original Picture will be acceptable to many per fons, and the communication of it will much oblige the Inquirer. Your's, &c. An ESSAY in PRAISE of the FIRESIDE. S. D. the creife of it to their great patron Sun; and that they might enjoy its kind influences with more purity, we THE antient poets, who are generally fuppofed to be the greatest mafters of thought, attributed their happy exThe proper name of this Ship was Harry Grace a Dicu. An original Drawing of it is till proferved in the Pepyfian Library, in Magdalen College, Cambridge. (See Archæolog. as above). hind find them quitting the smoke and riches of the city for fome country retire ment, where they might temper the directer rays with cooling breezes, fhady groves, purling ftreams, and melody of birds, where they might behold nature without difguife, and copy her without interruption; where they might at once earn their laurels and gather them. Cur northern poets think themselves warranted to follow thofe great originals, who yet, from the difference of climate, &c. feem to ftand in little need of fuch cooling refreshments. It would make one fmile to fee them beyond even poetical fiction invoking the gentle gales, while they are shivering under the bleak north-caft, or at beft, when 1 of authority in the point before us, look upon it as their most comfortable retreat. Wearied with the fatigues, or, what is worfe, the impertinences of the day, they retire to their own home, as the mind does into her own breaft, and folace themselves in the most cheerful part of it. Difguife and restraint are here laid afide, and the foul, as well as the body, appears the more beautiful for its dihabille. That quinteffence of earthly happiness, which in warmer climates was expressed by fitting under one's own Vine, is with us more fenfibly felt by one's own Firefide. But the firefide is not only a friend to a bachelor in folitude, it is noted to a proverb to be always fo in company; it Lull'd by foft zephyrs through a bro- brings us to a nearer converse with one ken pane. I have often wondered why our writers fhould not fometimes lay the fcene of their poems, where in reality they took their rife. The Firefide is furely capa. ble of the moft furprifing imagery, by being diversified (if the poet pleases) with ferpents, crackers, rockets, and the like hort-lived gay creation of combuftibles. Thefe, Mr. Addifon has fomewhere obferved, are abundantly capable of fable and defign, and to our modern poets no lefs full of moral. Thofe that have not Italian fancy for fine profpects, and latent ruins, may by this means perpetuate their names (like the wifer Dutch) in fome over-glowing night-piece. I myself, methinks, am enamoured with my fubject, and ready, with Sir John Denham, to make it an example of just writing as well as the theme -For lo! my chimney affords me "A happy temperature of heat and light, "Warm without rage, and without glaring bright.' But I confine not my obfervations to the poets alone, I appeal to compofers of all denominations whether a brisk fire, and a clean fwept hearth, has not brightened their imaginations, produced ideas like a kind of hot-bed, and made them amazed at their own fecundity. The robuft, the bufy, or unthinking part of the world, perhaps, are little fenfible of the attractives of the hearth; but the men of fpeculation, the only men another, by which means it promotes reconcilement between enemies, and mirth and fociety between friends. There is a fort of fullennefs in the tempers of Englishmen and Americans, which the fire fofrens as it does metals,and renders them fit for ufe. How often has there been a room full of vifitants, who could not furnish out an hour's converfation, for no other reafon but because they were at too great a distance from one another ? The fame affembly, brought into clofer order, has proved excellent company; it has reminded me of the dogs in a chace (I hope I fhall be pardoned the comparifon), who open with lefs frequency when they spread round the field at first fetting out, bus when the game is started, and they have all one point in view, they run united in full cry. While I am fpeaking in praife of a fedentary life, I am not afraid to draw comparifons from the pleafures of the most active. The firefide difpels the gloominess of the brow, and throws upon the countenance not only the ruddiness of youth but its cheerfulnefs. Here I have feen a gay femicircle of ladies refemble the beauties of the rainbow without its tears; and at other times a galaxy of white aprons more enlivening than all the blue in the brightest sky. United with that sex by the firefide,how ferene are our pleasures, and how innocent! We have laughter without folly, and mirth without noife: Thereby,reflectingthe beams of the sunny bank before us, we make the chimney corner, I will not fay, in Cicero's expreffion, the forge of wit, but in our modern philofophical term, the focus of it. ACCOUNT |