and he thought, in number and talent, the Sams had proved themselves the greatest men. There was Sam. Butler, Sam. Johnson, Sam. Parr, Sam. Butler of Shrewsbury, and last his servant-man Sam, who was as great a man as any of them. When any distinguished persons were present, he was courteous in the extreme, giving them every title that belonged to them. My friend Mr. Berry, who had dined at Hatton, when Dr. William Bennett, the Bishop of Cloyne, was at table, remarked that the Doctor never addressed him but as my Lord Bishop,-Will your Lordship take any more mutton?' But when alone he heard the Doctor, who was on the library ladder in search of a book, say to the Bishop, Bill, bring the One anecdote more, and we must "Dr. Parr carried his singularities into the church. On those days when the Athanasian Creed was ordered to be read, he invariably laid an emphasis on the candle.' Dr. Parr was one of the few persons bold enough to maintain his opinion of civil and religious liberty at the fearful times of the Birmingham riots. Soon after this, dining in a public company, he was called upon to drink 'Church and King,' the watchword of a party, and the reigning toast of the times. At first he declined; but, compliance being pressed upon him, with much solemnity and great energy of voice he spoke thus, 'I am compelled to drink the toast given from the chair, but I shall do so with my own comment. Well then, gentlemen, Church and King-once it was the toast of Jacobites, now it is the toast of Incendiaries. It means a Church without the Gospel, and a King above the Law.'" pass to another portrait. first Person in the Trinity, and slurred over, in a rapid tone, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Some learned persons visiting him, who attended the Morning The "Sams," however, are surpassed by the "Richards." See in the Anglorum Пetadt, in Dr. C. Burney's Tentamende Metris Eschyli, "Quantus ille Primus, quantus enim Postremus, Ricardi illustres; Bentleium dico et Porsonum." The Pleias consists of the names of R. Bentley, R. Dawes, J. Markland, J. Toup, J. Taylor, T. Tyrwhitt, and R. Porson. We will find room for Dr. Burney's eulogy on them :-" At quantus ille primus, quantus enim Postremus. Si tamen in ceteris singulis singulas facultates-si mirabilem regularum metricarum scientiam-si facilitatem in veteribus sanandis exquisitam-si notitiam Attici et Romani juris uberrimam -si multiplicem eruditionem in obscuris locis illustrandis prompte et feliciter adhibitam si præstantiam ingenii sagacitate excellentem-laudaverunt æquales, laudabunt posteri." v. p. 12, Pref. The character of this prelate has been drawn in such bright colours by Dr. Parr, that we think it worth extracting for the entertainment of our readers, particularly as it is only to be found in a pamphlet of the Doctor's, now seldom referred to by scholars, and never heard of by the public. "Among the fellows of Emanuel College there was one man, whom I cannot remember without feeling that all my inclination to commend, and all my talents for commendation, are disproportionate to his merit. From habits not only of close intimacy, but of early and uninterrupted friendship, I can say that there is scarcely one Greek or Roman author of eminence, in verse or prose, whose writings are not familiar to him. He is equally successful in combating the difficulties of the most obscure, and catching a glance at the beauties of the most elegant. Though I could mention two or three persons who have made a greater proficiency than my friend in philological learning, yet, after surveying all the intellectual endowments of all my literary acquaintances, I cannot name the man whose taste seems to me more correct or pure, or whose judgment upon any composition in Greek, Latin, or English, would carry with it higher authority to my mind. To those discourses which, when delivered before an academical audience, captivated the young and interested the old, which were argumentative without formality, and brilliant without gaudiness, and in which the happiest selection of topics were united with the most luminous arrange. ment of matter, it cannot be unsafe for me to pay the tribute of my praise, because every hearer was an admirer, and every admirer will be a witness. As a tutor he was unwearied in the instruction, liberal in the government, and anxious for the welfare of all entrusted to his care. The brilliancy of his conversation, and the suavity of his manners, were the more endearing, because they were united with qualities of a higher order, because in morals he was correct without moroseness, and because in GENT. MAG, VOL. XI. 2 H Service in his church, in a difficult passage of Scripture, he chose to quote the original Greek at some length; but before he began, he said to his congregation, in a familiar tone, 'I am going to address myself to some learned men that sit yonder. I'll talk to you presently.' The Doctor was very proud of his bells* and his choir, and always encouraged them to sing a long hymn or anthem before the sermon, during which he used to steal into the vestry and smoke his pipe. When they had done, the clerk informed him; and, if the Doctor had not finished, he would to say, 'John, tell them to sing the last two verses over again-my people love singing, and I love smoking.' It mattered not what part of the service he was in, his colloquial style would break out. A farming man coming in rather late, the Doctor stopped short and said, 'John, how many times am I to tell you not to stump up the aisle in those hob-nailed shoes.' These eccentricities, however, were not confined to the rebukes of Damon or Tityrus, but showed themselves in matters of more questionable propriety. We have heard of late much animadversion on two of our bishops for subscribing to Unitarian sermons; but 'e'en in a bishop we may spy desert,' compared with the Doctor's heretical singularities. Dr. Rees preached in the Unitarian chapel at Leamington, when Dr. Parr attended, who spoke thus of his sermons, 'I am sure that no personal partialities have influenced my judgment in my estimation of the sermons you gave to Mrs. Parr. I have preached more than half of them! They guide me and they animate me as a preacher; they satisfy me as an orator; they strongly resemble the sermons of Jortin, and they impress me with no painful feeling of inferiority when they have been interrupted by his discourses, and those of Clarke, Bishop, Pearce, and Sherlock. I wish you were an eye-witness of the ardour which they inspire, when I deliver them from the pulpit.'" And so ends our account of the great Hierophant of Hatton. We are obliged to omit the very lively and pleasing account of Mr. Thomas Moore, whether at Castle Donnington, or at Hornsey; and we confess a little feeling of malice in the poet's having shewn Lord religion he was serious without bigotry. From the retirement of a college he stept at once into the circle of a court; but he has not been dazzled by its glare, nor tainted by its corruptions; as a prelate he does honour to the gratitude of a patron, who was once his pupil, and to the dignity of a station where in his wise and honest judgment of things, great duties are connected with great emoluments. If from general principles I were permitted to descend to minute detail, I should say that in one instance he exhibited a noble proof of generosity, by refusing to accept the legal and customary profits of his office, from a peasantry bending down under the weight of indigence and exaction. I should say that upon another occasion he did not suffer himself to be irritated by perverse and audacious opposition, but, blending mercy with justice, spared a misguided father for the sake of a distressed, dependent family; and provided at the same time for the instruction of a large and populous parish, without pushing to extremes his episcopal rights when invaded, and his episcopal powers when defied. While the English Universities produce such scholars, they well, indeed, deserve to be considered as the nurseries of learning and virtue. While the Church of Ireland is adorned with such prelates, it cannot have much to fear from that spirit of restless discontent, and excessive refinement, which has lately gone abroad. It will be instrumental to the best purposes by the best means. It will gain firm security and fresh lustre from the support of wise and good men. It will promote the noblest interests of society, and uphold in this day of peril the sacred cause of true religion. Sweet is the refreshment afforded to my soul by the remembrance of such a scholar, such a man and such a friend as Dr. William Bennett, Bishop of Cork," &c. Mr. Gardiner informs us that the tuning of Bells is a difficult task, inasmuch as some of them do not emit a distinct or homogeneous tone. As all bells utter more sounds than one, they should be so cast that the key note predominates over every other sound, and that the harmonies should be the twelfth and seventeenth above the low note. This combination produces that sprightly ringing tone which every one admires. But there is a great caprice in bells, they utter all sorts of tones. The tenor of St. Martin's Leicester gives out the minor third, which imparts to it a mournful effect. The lively bell at St. George's is the note A, which is not a foundation note. An attentive listener may hear the key-note F murmuring a major third below. Dr. Parr wrote, it appears, a curious letter upon Bells. "Music of Nature," p. 449. See also the account by Mr. H. S. Boyd on Bells, in Parriana (1st vol.) from memory! Byron's Memoirs to Mr. Gardiner; while we are still in amaze that its dark contents, and its author's darker history, are locked and barred in the secrets of Dr. Lushington's bosom. We also should find it dangerous to pause with our author at Dr. Samuel Butler's of Shrewsbury, among his shelves and binns, his octavos and quartos; for Mr. Gardiner says, that the Bishop has not only books of all languages in his study, but sixty different kinds of wine in his cellar.* Though, like Walter de Mapes, this good and truly learned prelate will not say, "Mihi sit propositum in tabernâ mori, Vinum sit appositum morientis ori," &c. We must also eschew the company of Mr. Godwin, and his memorable saying," that literary men should be born with two heads; " and we cannot accompany Mr. Martin, the painter, in his practice of walking seven and twenty miles on a Sunday, which he calls worshipping God in the fields, for on beautiful days it is a sin to go to church. We must leave Lablache to the caustic witticisms of the fair wives of Leicester; and Paganini “in the full persuasion of the transmigration of souls, to put a leathern tube over the mouth of his mother, at the instant of her departure, and receive her last breath at the S holes of the fiddle, with which magical violin he then set out on his travels; "† and we must dedicate what parting time we have to the remembrance of Robert Hall, who first appears in a conversation with Mr. Gardiner, when he asked him, "Who in his opinion was the greatest writer that ever appeared?" He replied, "Voltaire was the most powerful of any author he had read." He afterwards named Bossuet. I asked him if Cicero was not very great. "Yes, sir," he replied: "Cicero did not write for a paltry island, he wrote for the whole earth." Now assuredly Bossuet was a great writer, though we think Mr. Hall might as well have mentioned Pascal, whom we think still greater; and assuredly also, Cicero did not write for an island; but we must demur much and long before we could come to the conclusion that Voltaire was a powerful writer. If he had been called clever, witty, graceful, shrewd ;—if his style had been described as light, easy, and animated, we should have agreed in the character bestowed; but in what respect can he be distinguished as "the most powerful of any author?" To which of his works can Mr. Hall allude? To the "Esprit des Mœurs," his great historical work. Alas! it would be now reckoned too superficial even for an elementary work. To his Dictionnaire Philosophique?-a compound of the most disgusting profaneness, the grossest obscenity, the shallowest sophisms, and most superficial knowledge. We would say a word or two on this subject, now that it comes before us; for we have undergone the task of reading nearly the centenary of his works; but, as our opinions may be reckoned prejudiced, our criticisms incorrect, and our authority on such a subject without weight, we will express the sentiments, though we “Dr. Butler showed me that rare production, 'The Three Impostors', of which there are but two other copies in Europe!!" At one time a great controversy raged as to who was the author of this work; when at length it was discovered that no such work was ever written. Quere? what was the book or bottle which Mr. Gardiner saw. + After a performance at the Opera House, a French valet waited on Paganini the next morning, and told him that when a lad he had been a lover of his mother, and that with inexpressible delight, while listening to his performance, he recognised her voice in the tunes of the violin ! Bossuet's eulogy has been well given in a few words. "Cet homme dit ce qu'il do not translate the words of one of the most virtuous, learned, and enlightened of his own countrymen. "Refuse the honour of genius to him who abuses its gifts,'-a law whose severity would soon diminish the number of mischievous productions, and which should keep us from exalting beyond bounds all authors of works injurious to society, and especially him who has unknowingly pronounced against himself this terrible judgment, Un esprit corrompu ne fut jamais sublime.' Nothing can be more true; and Voltaire, with his hundred volumes, was never more than joli. I except his tragedies, where the very nature of the work forced him to express noble sentiments that were strangers to his character; and yet, even on the stage, which is his field of triumph, he does not deceive the eyes of the experienced. In his best tragedies he resembles his two great rivals, as an accomplished hypocrite resembles a saint.* I do not deny his dramatic powers; but I hold myself to my former assertion, that when Voltaire speaks in his own character, il n'est que joli, nothing can give him a noble enthusiasm, not even the battle of Fontenoy. 'He is charming,' says one; I agree, but I contend this word to be also a criticism; for the rest, I cannot suffer the exaggeration that would call him universal. I see great exceptions to this. As a lyrical writer, in the ode he is nothing; and who can wonder? Systematic impiety had quenched the divine flame of enthusiasm. His lyrical dramas are as open to ridicule; his ear was shut to the beauties of harmony, as his eye was to the enjoyment of art. In those departments of art, appa- veut, rien n'est au-dessous, ni au-dessus de lui." He writes with the sublimity of a prophet; but Pascal as if he had the prophet's inspiration; one as if he had the "gift of tongues ;" and one as if he had the "discerning of spirits! There is in some passages a depth, a force, a moral sublimity in Pascal, above all writers I ever read. The disclosures of truth, when he speaks of life and death, of the nature, duties, and destinies of man, makes one tremble; assuredly he is the greatest writer France ever produced. Bossuet is but the second: he is the only French writer to whom Voltaire allows the title of eloquent. * We felt as M. de Maitre, when we read Voltaire's Commentary on Pascal, that it was, "Le honteux Commentaire ;" and we must agree with him, when he says, "Il n'y a pas dans les jardins de l'intelligence, une seule fleur que cette chenille n'ait souillée." We firmly believe, that as true science, solid erudition, just principles, and sound philosophy are spreading in France and Europe, the ill-founded fame of this man must rapidly decline; and be contracted, perhaps, at last, into one night's representation in the season of Mahomet or Merope. See Euvres de Vauvenargues, vol. i. p. 193. "Il n'y en a aucune de ses tragedies qu'on ne joue au moins une fois chaque année." + Sir James Mackintosh acknowledges that "sometimes Voltaire laughs at the most valuable truths," v. Mem. vol. I. p. 44. As the language we have used regarding Voltaire has been of the strongest kind, we will endeavour to support the justice of it by directing the attention of our readers to the following subjects in the Philosophical Dictionary. The passages, even if we had room, we could not quote at length without grave offence to decency and piety: but our charges are made out. deliberate prostitution of a genius created to praise God, and to extol virtue. He cannot allege in excuse, as many others, his youth, his inexperience, the force of his passions, or the melancholy weakness of our nature. Nothing can acquit him; Art. Abraham.-Adam: in the following manner, this article commences: "La pieuse Mad. de Bourignon était sûre qu' Adam avait été hermaphrodite," &c. ending thus: "On ne parlera pas de la seconde femme d'Adam nommée Lilieth; il faut convenir qu'on sait très peu d'anecdotes de sa famille." Under the article Adultere: "Pour juger valablement au preuves d'adultère, il faudroit que douze hommes et douze femmes fussent les juges, avec un hermaphrodite, qui eut la voix preponderante en cas de partage." Agar-Amour Socratique.-Asphalte.-Atheisme.—Baiser : see a note on Epiphanius.—Christianisme.—Dejection.—Enfers.-Ezechiel; an article more than commonly disgraceful and disgusting, ending, "Quiconque aime les Propheties d'Ezechiel merite de dejeuner avec lui."-Femme: see the sentence beginning "Aucun anatomiste, &c. Génealogie.-Genese.- Histoire; see sect. v. Job.-Samson: "Samson, qui attacha trois cents rénards l'un à l'autre par la queue, et tua mille Pheniciens avec une machoire d'ane, de laquelle il sortit une belle fontaine d'eau pure, qui à été très bien réprésentée à la Comédie Italienne." Impuissance.-Initiation.-Livres in the second section of this article occurs the critical examination of the Lord's Prayer, to prove that it is altogether heretical !—Lois: see sect. ii. note art. Marie Magdalene.-Messe.--Miracles: an article full of the worst blasphemies of Woolaston.-Noël: "it is remarkable that the two equinoxes and the two solstices are marked by the birth of Jesus and John; that the solstice in which Jesus was born is the epoque of days lengthened; of John, the time when they are shortened. This the forerunner of Christ insinuated in a mystic manner in these words, when speaking of Jesus, he says, "He must increase, and I must decrease."- Onan: a terrific article.-Paul: "est il vrai que Paul n'entra dans la société naissante des Chrétiens, qui etoient alors demi-Juifs, que parceque Gamaliel, dont il avait été le disciple, lui refusa sa fille en mariage; il ne parait pas que Paul ait fondé un convent de filles."-Prophètes: "il faut convenir que c'est un méchant métier que celui de Prophète. Pour un seul qui comme Elia, va se promener de planètes au planètes dans un beau carosse de lumière, trainé par quatre chevaux blancs, il y en a cent qui vent à pied, et qui sont obliges d'aller demander leur diner de porte en porte."-Religion: "Quer. Ne leur dites vous pas une fois que vous étiez venu apporter le gloire et non la paix? Rep. de J. C. C'est un erreur de copiste : je n'ai jamais écrit. On a peu changé ce que j'avois dit. Quer. Quoi en aimant Dieu on pourroit manger gras le vendredi? Rep. J'ai toujours mangé ce qu'on a donné, car j'etais trop pauvre pour donna diner à personne."-Resurrection: "cette Resurrection se fera au son de la trompette, a ce que dit St. Paul. Il faudra nécessairement quil il y a plusieurs trompettes, car le tonnerre lui-même ne s'étend jamais plus de trois ou quatre lieues à la ronde. On demande combien il y on a des trompettes. Les théologiens n'ont pas encore fait leur calcul. Mais il le feront." Samson: "cette histoire était faite pour la farce Italienne."-Siecle: this article seems given to introduce a piece of buffoonery, in which the hair (la chevelure) of Absalom is valued at two thousand four hundred guineas. Tolerance; "moi que dirai-je à mon frère le Juif? Lui donnerai-je à soupé ? Oui, pourvu que pendant le repas l'âne de Balaam de s'avise pas de braire, qu' Ezechiel ne mêle pas son dejeuner avec notre souper, qu'un poisson ne vient avaler quelques des convive, et le garder trois jours dans sa ventre, qu'un serpent ne se mêle pas de la conversation pour séduire ma femme, qu'un prophète ne s'occupe pas de coucher avec elle après souper, comme fit le bon homme Osée, pour quinze francs et une boisseau d'orge. Surtout qu' aucun Juif ne fasse le tour de ma maison en sonnant de la trompette, ne fasse tomber les murs, et ne m'engorge moi, ma femme, mon père, ma mère, mes enfans, mon chat et mon chien, selon l'ancien usage des Juifs," &c. See also Les Lettres d'Amabed in the Romans. Such is the manner throughout in which a Philosophical Dictionary is written: as devoid of all deep research, sound erudition, or powerful argument, as of candour, modesty, seriousness, and piety. The arguments against Scripture are most superficial and wretched throughout; many borrowed from the works of our English infidels: the insulting language used towards the Deity, may be probably his own-On questions of theology, morals, and even history, the opinion of the Patriarch of Ferney can have for the future little weight: if it is any satisfaction to his admirers, if such he still has, we will say that in the literature of his own country, at least, in the region of taste and criticism, he is still supreme: |