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opportunity of resigning his station in it. His marriage in 1779 was therefore soon followed by his acceptance of an invitation to undertake the office of classical tutor at the academy of Warrington. It has by some been represented as if on this occasion he became a Dissenter; but in fact he never entered that body considered as a particular sect, though thenceforth many of its members were his most valued friends, with whom he cordially concurred in the cause of free enquiry, and in attachment to civil and religious liberty. His own system of divinity was exclusively formed upon the study of the Scriptures, which he pursued with great assiduity, aided by a very uncommon extent of philological learning.

Mr. Wakefield early formed the design of a new version of the New Testament, of which he published a specimen in a "Translation of the first Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians," with an account of his plan, Warringt. 1781. It was followed in the next year by " A new Translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew; with Notes critical, philological, and explanatory," 4to. which displayed the copious store of collateral and illustrative knowledge of which he was possessed. On the dissolution of the Warrington academy he removed to Bramcote in Nottinghamshire, on the plan of taking private pupils. He there published in 1784 the first volume of an "Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian Writers of the three first Centuries concerning the Person of Jesus Christ," 8vo. a learned and elaborate performance, which however did not meet with encouragement sufficient to induce him to proceed in his plan. Subsequent removals to Richmond and to Nottingham, and the attacks of a painful disorder in one arm, rendered him unable for some following years to undertake any considerable literary task, though he continued occasionally to issue from the press writings on temporary and other topics. But in 1789 he made a commencement of one of his principal publications in the capacity of a critic and philologist, intitled "Silva Critica: sive in Auctores sacros prophanosque Commentarius Philologicus," of which the first part was printed in that year at the university-press of Cambridge. The author's intention in the plan of this work was "the union of theological and classical learning; the illustration of the Scriptures by light borrowed from the philology of Greece and Rome." Of this learned performance five parts appeared in succession to 1795; the three first from the Cambridge press.

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In 1790 Mr. Wakefield quitted Nottingham for a residence at Hackney, in consequence of his acceptance of the office of classical tutor in a new dissenting-college established at that place, to which he meant to unite private tuition. His services in this institution were highly esteemed; and his lectures were attended by the students with enthusiastic admiration on account of the eloquent and copious variety of illustration, and the refined elegance of taste, which they exhibited. Circumstances however occurred which rendered this but a short-lived connection, of which one of the most prominent was his peculiar notions concerning public worship. Though actuated by a warm spirit of piety, he withdrew from every public exercise of devotion, and openly maintained his sentiments on the subject in "An Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of public, or social, Worship," 1791. In that year his connexion ceased with the Hackney college; and having no longer the avocation of private pupils, he occupied himself with his own family and his literary labours. His "Translation of the New Testament, with Notes critical and explanatory," 3 vols. 8vo. appeared in 1792, very respectably patronized. language it preserves as much as possible of the old version. Its deviations from that in sense are numerous. A second edition of this work was given in 1795, 2 vols. 8vo. In the same year he published" Memoirs of his own Life;" a curious and entertaining performance, relating the events of his life down to that period, and interspersed with many anecdotes and characters of persons with whom he had been connected, marked by that unreserved openness and freedom from disguise, that simple attachment to truth and the whole truth, by which he was ever remarkably distinguished. Every year now produced proofs of his extraordinary mental activity, and of the variety of topics on which he interested himself. He defended revealed religion by his "Evidences of Christianity," and his " Replies to the two Parts of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason." He planned a new edition of Pope's works, the poet whose correctness of versification and splendor of diction particularly gratified his classical taste; and though his scheme was finally rendered abortive by Dr. Warton's edition of that poet, he proceeded so far as to print the first volume of the poems, a volume of " Notes on Pope," and an edition of his version of the Iliad and Odyssey. In the department of classical literature, besides continuing his " Silva Critica" to the 5th volume, he gave editions of some select

"Greek Tragedies," of "Horace," "Bion & Moschus," "Virgil," and in fine, 'of "Lucretius," in 3 vols. 4to. his opus magnum in this walk, and which alone would have transmitted his name with distinction among the most erudite and industrious of critical editors.

He also entered the dangerous path of politics. He had long upon principle been an enemy to war, thinking it absolutely incompatible, unless as a measure of direct defence, with Christian morality, and especially detesting it when employed to usurp upon the rights of mankind, and overthrow the plans of liberty. He thought it bore this character when it was waged against the principles of the French Revolution, an event which, in its commencements, he, in common with many other philanthropists, hailed as the promise of a much improved state of human affairs. When his own country therefore joined in the confederacy against France, he became a severe censurer of her policy, and exercised his energetic pen, with his habitual disregard to the dictates of personal prudence, in attempts to render it odious. A pamphlet which he wrote to this purpose in 1798, intitled " A Reply to some parts of the Bishop of Landaff's Address to the People of Gat Britain," brought on him a prosecution for libel from the Attorney-General, which, after impending many months over his head, terminated in a trial and conviction in February 1799. His sentence was an imprisonment for two years, at a distance from his friends and connections, in the county gaol of Dorchester. He felt it as a severe stroke upon his domestic confort, and a mortifying interruption to his course of literary occupation; but the calamity was considerably alleviated by the exertions of a number of generous friends, who, warmly attached to him for his private virtues, and the purity of his public principles, raised a subscription which not only indemnified him from any pecuniary loss in consequence of his prosecution, but exonerated him from a considerable part of his cares for the future support of his family. The derangement of his plans of study during his confinement rendered him unable to prepare for the press any other works than "Select Essays of Dio Chrysostom translated into English from the Greek, with Notes," 1800, 8vo.; and "Noctes Carcerariæ, sive de Legibus Metricis Poetarum Græcorum qui Versibus Hexametris scripserunt, Disputatio," 1801, 12mo. He also made considerable collections for an intended Lexicon, Greek and English, for which he issued proposals. His liberation took

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place in May 1801, and he was restored to society with the prospect of many future years of enjoyment and usefulness. He opened a course of lectures upon the works of Virgil in the metropolis, during the summer, of which he had delivered the first part, when at the close of August he was seized with a typhus fever, which terminated his life on Sept. 9th, 1801, in the 46th year of his age, to the irreparable loss of his family, and the keen regret of his numerous friends.

Mr. Wakefield's habits of life were those of a scholar of the old stamp. Early and regular in his hours, indefatigable in study, sober and temperate, drawn aside by no pursuits either of pleasure or ambition, he was always capable of bending the whole force of his mind to his work, and was thus enabled, in the course of a short life, to effect what in the common estimate would appear sufficient occupation for the longest. He says of himself, "What knowledge I have been able to acquire has been effected by a most methodical distribu tion, and parsimonious application of my time, with a punctuality, allied to religious scruple, in all my engagements, seconded by an incessant purpose of intellectual improvement." This devotedness to study was however by no means attended with a reserved or unsocial disposition; for no one could delight more in free conversation, or bear his part in it with a more truly social spirit. And if, in controversial and critical writing, he was apt to indulge in the contemptuous and severe expressions which he found too much sanctioned by polemical use; in disputation by word of mouth he was singularly calm and gentle, patient in hearing, and placid in replying. To conclude the topic of moral character, it was marked by an openness, a simplicity, a good faith, an affectionate ardour, a noble elevation of soul, which made way to the hearts of all who nearly approached him, and rendered him the object of their warmest attachment.

In his capacity of a classical critic and editor, in which he will be chiefly known to posterity, an able judge has said of him that "in conjectural criticism he exhibits much of the character of Bentley and Markland; men whom he esteemed according to their high deserts in that species of learning to which his own mind was peculiarly directed. Like them, he is always learned, sometimes bold, and frequently happy. Like them he had a mind which disdained to be held in a servile subjection to authority; and, in defiance of established readings, he followed without fear

wherever reason and probability seemed to lead the way." It may be added, that his very extensive reading, treasured in a faithful memory, supplied him with an inexhaustible store of passages for illustration or parallel, which often renders his annotations extremely excursive, while they seldom fail to be interesting and instructive on account of the nice perception they exhibit of all the minuter beauties of composition. Besides the works enumerated in the preceding sketch of his life, he published many others, of which an exact catalogue is given in the second edition of his Memoirs published after his death. There has since appeared a Collection of Letters in a correspondence between him and that illustrious statesman the Hon. Charles Fox, by whom he was greatly esteemed, chiefly relative to topics of Greek literature. —A.

WALAFRIDUS, surnamed STRABO or STRABUS, on account of a squint in his eyes, was a native of Swabia, where he was born in 807. He embraced the monastic state, and after being educated in the monastery of Reichenau, he proceeded to Fulda, in order to hear Rabanus. On his return to his monastery, he was made director of the school of that establishment, which he brought to a very flourishing condition. In the year 842 he became successor to the abbot Rudhelmus; and it is generally believed that he was for some time expelled by the monks, because he appeared to them to sacrifice the interest of the monastery to his studies; but however this may be, he must have again attained to his former dignity, for it is certain that while abbot he was sent by King Louis to his brother Charles the Bald, and that he died during this embassy, in the year 849. His principal works are short observations on the whole text of the Bible, known under the name of "Glossa Ordinaria," which are derived chiefly from the exposition of Rabanus. They are added to many editions of the Vulgate, printed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, toge.. ther with the glossa of Nicholas Lyra, where they are inserted between the text, while the latter are in the margin: "De Exordiis et Incrementis Rerum Ecclesiasticarum;" "De Vita beati Galli Confessoris, Libri ii.;" "Vita Otmari Abbatis S. Galli ;" "Poemata," among which are "Vita S. Mamma, S. Blaitmaici," "Visiones S. Wettini," "Carmen ad Ruadbernum ;" and "Hortulus," that is, a description of the garden which he cultivated himself, with an account of herbs and flowers, and their use in medicine, according to his

own experience. C. Hamberger's Zuverlässige nachrichten von den vornehmsten Schriftstellern vom Anfange der Welt bis 1500.-J.

WALÆUS, JOHN, an able anatomist, was born near Middleburg in Zealand, in 1604. He studied physic at Leyden, where he gra duated in 1631; and in that year he was deputed by the curators of the university to carry an invitation to Saumaise. In the next year he was nominated a medical professor extraordinary, and in 1648 he obtained a chair in ordinary. Though much engaged in practice, and in his academical duties, he found time to carry on his researches by dissection, especially of living animals; and by his experiments he threw much light upon the functions of digestion, the distribution of the chyle, and the action of the heart. He was one of the first who taught publicly the Harveian doctrine of the circulation of the blood; though jealousy of the glory of the inventor caused him to attempt to find vestiges of the truth in the writings of the ancients. Walaus died at Leyden in 1649. His anatomical observations are principally contained in "Epistolæ duæ de Motu Chyli et Sanguinis ad Thomam Bartholinum," Lugd. B. 1641, printed with Bartholine's edition of his father Caspar's "Institutiones Anatomicæ," several times reprinted. They are regarded as very excellent. Halleri Bibl. Anatom. Eloy. A.

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WALKER, GEORGE, the Rev. F.R.S. an able mathematician, and liberal writer, was the son of a respectable tradesman of the dissenting persuasion at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he was born about 1734. He received his early education in his native place, and at Durham, after which he was sent to the University of Edinburgh. He was there a pupil of the distinguished mathematician, Dr. Matt. Stewart, from whom he imbibed his taste for pure and elegant demonstration. From Edinburgh he removed to Glasgow for the study of theology and moral philosophy; and having completed his education, he sat down about 1756 at Durham as a dissenting minister, succeeding in that office a very respectable uncle. After occupying this situation some years, he accepted an invitation to Yarmouth, in which town he passed several more years, generally beloved and esteemed. His qualifications, indeed, were of no common kind. To a stock of classical knowledge, he added an intimate acquaintance with history, ancient and modern, a familiarity with the best authors of various classes, a natural and glowing eloquence, and a heart in which every kind and

social affection occupied a place. He married in Yarmouth, and soon after, in 1772, removed to Warrington to take the post of mathematical tutor in the academy of that place. He there published, in 1775, his "Doctrine of the Sphere," 4to. containing many plates for the demonstration of propositions; of a peculiar construction. The work is considered by good judges as a very complete treatise on the subject, and an example of the purest method of geometrical demonstration. In that year he changed his abode for Nottingham, where he was chosen one of the ministers of the High Pavement meeting. Mr. Walker had been always warmly attached to the principles of civil liberty, and had speculated deeply on the subjects connected with it; and being undaunted in the declaration of his sentiments, and gifted with a ready elocution, he greatly distinguished himself as a speaker at public assemblies for political purposes. The corporation of that town being under the influence of sentiments similar to his own, his pen was employed in their addresses and petitions relative to the popular topics then most engaging attention, and he marked them with his characteristic spirit and energy. Of one of these productions, recommending the recognition of American independence, Mr. Burke, then an advocate in the same cause, declared that he had rather have been the author, than of all his own compositions. This party-warfare must necessarily have given much offence to persons in opposite interests; but such was the kindness of his heart, and the ease and cheerfulness of his social conversation, that they who hated his principles could not hate the man. Nor was he only benevolent in words; he was bountiful and hospitable even beyond the measure of his income, and alive to every call of humanity. Having passed 24 years at Nottingham, he was at length induced by the death of friends and other circumstances to quit it, and undertake the office of theological tutor and superintendant at a dissenting academy in Manchester. Advancing years rendered this a too onerous task for him, and he resigned it, and retired to the neighbourhood of Liverpool. He had published during the period from his leaving Warrington several single sermons, and two volumes of sermons, distinguished by a manly and original train of thought, and a singularly lively and fervid manner and expression; and also an "Appeal to the People of England" upon the Test-laws, which was greatly admired by that liberal and

enlightened statesman, Mr. Fox. He had likewise published the first part of a "Treatise of Conic Sections," which was worthy of his mathematical reputation. Coming to London in 1807, for the purpose of publishing two more volumes of Sermons, and two volumes of Philosophical Essays, he was seized with a disorder at the house of a former pupil, which carried him off at the age of 73, regretted by all who knew him. Athenæum.-A.

WALLACE, Sir WILLIAM, a distinguished Scotch patriot and warrior, of the latter part of the 13th century, was the son of a small landholder of an ancient family in the west of Scotland. Possessing undaunted courage, a gigantic frame of body, and a constitution capable of enduring every hardship, together with magnanimity, and a devoted attachment to his country, he resolved to undertake the arduous task of liberating his native land from the foreign yoke of Edward I. King of England. Having in a quarrel put to death an English officer, for which he expected to be called to account, he fled to the woods, where he placed himself at the head of a band of outlaws, and commenced an incursive war against the English stationed in that country. His daring enterprize and local knowledge rendered him successful in these encounters; and though as yet joined by no persons of rank, he became the hero of his countrymen, and the terror of their oppressors. In 1297 he found himself strong enough to concert an attack upon the English justiciary, Ormesby of Scone; but this person, apprized of the danger, prevented it by flight, and all the other officers of that nation followed his example. Many of the barons now openly countenanced the designs of Wallace, and Robert Bruce secretly favoured the same cause. Earl Warenne, who had been entrusted by Edward with the government of Scotland, now collected in the north of England an army of 40,000 men, and advancing into Annandale, struck such an alarm, that many of the Scotch nobles submitted, and others joined the English army. Wallace with his partizans retired northwards; and when Warenne reached Stirling, he found this chief encamped at Cambuskenneth, on the opposite bank of the Forth. Cressingham, the English treasurer, was led by his precipitation to cross the river with his troops. Wallace, having suffered such a number as he thought proper to pass over, made a fierce attack upon them while yet in disorder, and defeated them with great slaughter, Cressingham being slain

in the action. Warenne thereupon retreated, and withdrew with his remaining troops into England.

This success so much enhanced the reputation of Wallace, that his followers declared him regent of the kingdom under the captive Baliol. Wallace now retaliated the English invasion by leading his army into the northern counties of England, which he laid waste with fire and sword, pushing his ravages as far as Durham, and recovering Berwick. Edward, informed of these events whilst in Flanders, returned, and marched with a host of 90,000 men to the northern frontier.

Wallace, sensible that his elevation had caused envy and discontent among the great nobility, nobly resigned his authority as regent, and only retained his command over his particular followers. The Scotch, under the Steward of the kingdom and Cumming of Badenoch, waited the approach of Edward at Falkirk in the summer of 1298. A battle ensued, in which the superior force of the English, and the skill of their archers, obtained an entire and bloody victory: Wallace, however, kept his separate body unbroken, and retired with it behind the banks of the Carron. Here the Scottish historians relate a conference to have taken place between the chieftain, and young Bruce, then serving in Edward's army, which terminated in his winning the latter secretly to the cause of his country. But Hume, though he copies the narrative, observes that two English authors of credit affirm that Bruce was not at that time with Edward. The story was probably borrowed from the interview between Arminius and his brother, related by Tacitus.

After the defeat at Falkirk, no force remained in Scotland capable of resisting the English arms; and Wallace appears to have taken to the fastnesses of the country. He still, however, retained an unsubmitting spirit, and asserted his independence with the few partizans whom he could muster. He is said to have hung upon the English army in another expedition northwards in 1303, but he found few opportunities of acting to advantage. So high, however, was his name, that Edward could not consider his conquest as secure whilst such a patriot was living. He employed various arts to discover the retreat of Wallace, and obtain possession of his person, and at length succeeded, through the treachery, it is said, of his friend Sir John Monteith. Edward indulged an ignoble spirit of animosity against his brave enemy.

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caused him to be conveyed to London, where, though he had never sworn fealty to the English sovereign, he was tried, condemned, and executed as a traitor, August 23. 1305. His memory is still revered in his native country; and his exploits have been the frequent subject of popular tradition and the songs of minstrels, with many fabulous exaggerations, indeed, but founded upon real achievements. Hume. Henry.-A.

WALLER, EDMUND, an eminent English poet, born at Coleshill, Hertfordshire, in March 1605, was the son of Robert Waller, Esq. a gentleman of an ancient family and good for tune, of Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire, and of the sister of the celebrated John Hampden. His father dying during his infancy, left him heir to an estate of 3500l. a-year, an ample fortune at that period. He received his school education at Eton, whence he was removed to Kings-college in Cambridge. The strength of his interest, if not the early display of his parts, is evinced by his premature election to parliament in his 16th or 17th year, an extraordinary fact, confirmed by some speeches of his printed in Grey's collection of debates. His appearance as a poet was not much later than that as a politician; for his verses on the "Prince's Escape at St. Andero" were written in his 18th year; and it is very observable that they exhibit a style and versification as perfectly formed as those of his latest and most mature productions. He must therefore have possessed almost instinctively a nicety of ear for poetical melody, which enabled him at once to surpass all his predecessors; for although he acknowledged that he had been indebted for the smoothness of his numbers to Fairfax's translation of Tasso, yet he improved this quality to such a degree, as justly to merit the praise of affording the model of English versification, especially in heroic couplet, as it has since been practised by the most correct writers. Waller again served in parliament before he was of age, and continued his services after that period. He also employed his muse on courtly topics; addressing the King (Charles I.) on the collected manner in which he received the news of the Duke of Buckingham's assassi nation, and congratulating the Queen on her fertility. Not insensible of the value of wealth, he augmented his paternal fortune by marriage with a rich city heiress, whom he carried against the interest of the court, which was employed for another suitor. In the long intermissions of parliament which occurred after 1628 he retired to his mansion of Beconsfield, where he

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