author of the "Moral and Political Dialogues," which abounds in these letters, would induce a suspicion that the worthy bishop had a mixed motive in this charitable donation. The warmth, however, of a mutual and ardent friendship may sufficiently excuse the rather overstrained panegyric of the respective authors, especially as they do not appear to have been either parsimonious of applause to their other friends, or extremely cautious in the censure of their opponents, or perhaps enemies. Their ingenuousness, if not their candour, is a proof of the natural goodness of their dispositions. The perspicacity, quickness, and ingenuous sensibility of Warburton were happily associated with the more grave insinuating suavity and neatness of Hurd. The former had wit, intrepidity of thought, and vivacity; the latter, humour, prudent circumspection, and diffident tenderness ;-the one depended on the boldness and originality of his conceptions for the attainment of his object; the other, on the usefulness and practicability of his measures. These, at least, are the impressions which the countenances of those two learned men would naturally make on the observing spectator unprejudiced by their writings; and they are not very different from the conclusions which might be drawn from the history of their respective lives. Mrs. Warburton, indeed, as sensible women are generally very accurate observers of character, considered Mr. Hurd as a "courtier" so early as 1750; and his subsequent appointment of tutor to the Prince of Wales and Duke of York confirmed the justness of her observations. Hurd's diffidence also not unfrequently assumed, to common observers, the character of meanness; and his timidity rendered him content with directing his own conduct by the laws of rigid rectitude, without attempting to check, as he ought to have done, the aberrations of others. In this manner he acted the supple courtier without very materially corrupting the natural purity of his own mind; and hence his upright example, unaccompanied with any pointed precept, was much less efficient than necessary to the welfare of society. It is to be regretted, that in bequeathing these letters to posterity, he has, with some exceptions, carefully concealed his own opinions, and given only such a number of his answers to Warburton, especially in the early part of their correspondence, as leaves us room to conclude that more of them might have been procured had the author thought proper. The first of the series is dated "Bedford-row, June 1, 1749," and the correspondence without intermission is continued to "Dec.

19, 1776;" during a period of twenty-seven years, and consisting of 257 letters, but a small number of which were written by Hurd. About 150 of the most distinguished writers of the last century are here criticised, or rather honoured, withi an opinion of their talents and principles; and although the utmost freedom is used, the observations appear not to be dictated either by personal malice or envy. We shall extract some of the remarks, all of which are characteristic of the author's usual acuteness, many of them profound and just, a considerable number paradoxical and visionary, and not a few totally false. Speaking of Hurd's Commentary on Horace's Epistles to Augustus and the Pisos, Dr. Warburton greatly preferred the commentator's reasoning on that to the Pisos, and thus expresses himself on Pope's imitations; which is so far curious, as he has been most unjustly accused of writing one opinion and believing another respecting the works of this poet.

"Mr. Pope, you know, uses the Roman poet for little more than bis canvas. And if the old design or colouring chance to suit his purpose, it is well; if not, he employs his own without ceremony or scruple. Hence it is, that he is so frequently serious where Ho-. race is in jest, and gay where the other is disgusted. Had it been his purpose to paraphrase an ancient satirist, he had hardly made. choice of Horace; with whom, as a poet, he held little in common, besides his comprehensive knowledge of life and manners, and a certain curious felicity of expression, which consists in using the simplest language with dignity, and the most adorned with ease. But his harmony and strength of numbers, his force and splendour of colouring, his gravity and sublime of sentiment, are of another school. If you ask then why he took any body to imitate, I will tell you— these imitations being of the nature of parodies, they add a borrowed grace and vigour to his original wit."

In a subsequent letter Dr. Bentley is defended against the cabal formed by Garth, Swift, and Pope, although his plagiarism from Vizzanius is admitted; and Dr. Warburton affirms, with his usual acumen, that Bentley's Defence, which the Oxford people could not answer, "was his conviction," as it proved that he originally translated from Vizzanius, and not Jamblicus, as he first pretended and afterwards actually did.. Of Hume the writer speaks several times; and the following observations, when treating of his Julian, will furnish a fine treat to the petit maitre of the Edinburgh Review, for a pompous declamation on the intolerance of English prelates, and a philippic against the English established church it will also affect his national prejudices, and

excite his vindictive ire on behalf of metaphysics and his

country.

"I am strongly tempted too to have a stroke at Hume in parting. He is the author of a little book called Philosophical Essays,' in one part of which he argues against the being of a God, and in another (very neediessly you will say) against the possibility of miracles. He has crowned the liberty of the press-and yet he has a considerable post under government. I have a great mind to do justice on his arguments against miracles, which, I think, might be done in a few words. But does he deserve notice? Is he known amongst you? Pray answer me these questions. For if his own weight keeps him down, I should be sorry to contribute to his advancement to any place but the pillory." P. 14. Sept. 28, 1749.

"There is an epidemic madness amongst as; to-day we burn with the feverish heat of superstition, to-morrow we stand fixed and frozen in atheism. Expect to hear that the churches are all crowded next Friday; and that on Saturday they buy up Hume's new Essays; the first of which (and please you) is The Natural History of Religion; for which I will trim the rogue's jacket, at least sit upon his skirts, as you will see when you come hither, and find his margins scribbled over. In a word, the Essay is to establish an atheistic naturalism, like Bolingbroke; and he goes upon one of Bolingbroke's capital arguments, that idolatry and polytheism were before the worship of one God. It is full of absurdities; and here I come in with him; for they show themselves knaves: but, as you will observe, to do their business, is to show them fools. They say this man has several moral qualities. It may be so: but there are vices of the mind as well as body; and a wickeder heart, and more determined to do public mischief, I think I never knew. This Essay has so much provoked me, that I have a great deal to say to him on other accounts.' P. 239. Feb. 1757.

"

"Hume has outdone himself in this new history, in showing his contempt of religion. This is one of those proof charges which Arbuthnot speaks of in his Treatise of Politicul Lying, to try how much the public will bear. If his history be well received, I shall conclude that there is even an end of all pretence to religion. But I should think it will not; because I fancy the good reception of Robertson's proceeded from the decency of it. Hume carries on his system here, to prove we had no constitution till the struggles with James and Charles procured us one. And he has contrived an effectual way to support his system, by beginning the History of England with Henry VII, and shutting out all that preceded, by assuring his readers that the earlier history is worth no one's while to enquire after." P. 282. March, 1759.

The respective dates of these sentiments will show that they are not the effusions of a momentary impulse, but the deliberate and confirmed opinions of ten years' experience. That Hume wrote his essays merely to attract attention by their extravagance, is confessed by himself, in the Memoirs of his own life: it is also acknowledged that they fell still

born from the press. When in France, he was considered. by Voltaire, and the other self-called philosophers, as an inflexible believer in Christianity; and was uniformly reproached for not having "disabused himself of the prejudices of education." It is no less certain that he still really believed in the principal doctrines of revelation, that he endeavoured to shape his conduct by its precepts, and that he hoped to atone for his speculative errors by the purity and virtue of his life otherwise. Vanity, insatiable vanity, led him to adopt any measures he could think of as the most probable to attain immediate celebrity. His shrewd mind readily perceived that great vices are always more promptly, and perhaps too more permanently (especially where they are in direct contradiction to the established habits of civil society), distinguished than great virtues; and, after witnessing the success of the French philosophers, he determined on the easiest and shortest road to fame, by attacking religion in a country which has always been eminent for its piety.

In one of these interesting letters, most of which abound in curious facts relative to literature, as well as literary opinions, we learn that the plan of the Essays on the Characteristics was originally given by Pope to Warburton, and from him to Browne. Pope observed, that "to his knowledge the Characteristics had done more harm to revealed religion in England than all the works of infidelity put together." The maxims of Lord Halifax are allowed to be generally solid and useful: Bishop Berkeley, it is added, "is indeed a great man, and the only visionary I ever knew that was."This anecdote of Whiston must show the vanity of human wisdom.

He

Pray did you feel either of those earthquakes? [In March, 1759.] They have made Whiston ten times madder than ever. went to an alehouse at Mile-end, to see one who, it was said, had predicted the earthquakes. The man told him it was true, and that he had it from an angel. Whiston rejected this as apocryphal. For he was well assured, that if the favour of this secret was to be communicated to any one, it would be to himself. He is so enraged at Middleton [author of the Free Inquiry into Miracles], that he has just now quarrelled downright with the Speaker for having spoke a good word for him many years ago in the affair of the mastership of the Charter-house. The Speaker the other day sent for him to dinner; he said he would not come. His lady sent; he would not She went to him, and clambered up into his garret to ask him about the earthquake. He told her, Madam, you are a 'virtuous woman-you need not fear, none but the wicked will be destroyed. You will escape. I would not give the same promise to

come.

'your husband.' What will this poor nation come to! In the condition of troops between two fires--the madness of irreligion and the madness of fanaticism."

P. 47.

The following reflexions on religion are worthy of attention, although the remarks on the Hebrew Bible are extremely precipitate.

"I hear Dr. Middleton has been lately at London (I suppose to consult Dr. Heberden about his health), and is returned in an extreme bad condition. The scribblers against him will say they have killed him. But, by what Mr. Yorke told me, his bricklayer will dispute the honour of his death with them. Seriously I am much concerned for the poor man, and wish he may recover with all my heart. Had he had, I will not say piety, but greatness of mind enough not to suffer the pretended injuries of some churchmen to prejudice him against religion, I should love him living, and honour his memory when dead. But, good God! that man, for the discourtesies done him by his miserable fellow-creatures, should be content to divest himself of the true viaticum-the comfort, the solace, the asylum from all the evils of human life, is perfectly astonishing. I believe no one (all things considered) has suffered more from the low and vile passions of the high and low amongst our brethren than myself. Yet God forbid it should ever suffer me to be cold in the Gospel interests, which are indeed so much my own, that without it I should be disposed to consider humanity as the most forlorn part of the creation!""

P. 55.

"I think you should begin [the study of the Bible] with those two great masterpieces of erudition, Morinus's Exercitations' and Capellus's 'Critica Sacra,' in the order I name them,-I need not say in the best editions. You will see, by this recommendation, of what party I am with regard to the authentic text; being persuaded, that, had it not been for the Septuagint, the Hebrew Bible would have been as unintelligible as any cypher is without its key, by which nothing could be learned; or rather, since the invention of the Hebrew points, a complete nose of wax, to be turned every way, and made say every thing. Which partly arises from the beggarly scantiness of the language, partly because no more remains of the tongue than is contained in one single book of no great bigness, but principally from there having been no vowel points affixed till many ages after it was become a dead language. This impenetrable darkness was a fit scene for mysteries, and out of this they rose abundance; first by the cultivation of Cabalistic Jews of old; in these latter times by Cocceius in Holland; and by Hutchinson amongst us; which now is growing into a fashionable madness." P. 59.

in

In 1750, Dr. Warburton observes, "our London books are like our London veal,-never fit for entertainment, or the table, till they have been well puffed and blown up :" but what would this learned author say, did he now see our public papers filled with booksellers' puffs of their own publications! The good bishop, however, was not so happy in all his re