Cain, but much rather that of the good Abcl. Cain would never pay the tenth, nor go to mafs. Abel, on the contrary, always paid "it with the fairest and best, and never once mifled a mafs." Grotius, on the fubject of tenths and donations, fays, "that the fcruple of "Tiberius in accepting-fuch gifts, fhould make the monks ashamed "of their rapacity." For the laft, we shall quote the laft note of the fection, to which the learned tranflator has prudentially added a wife reflection of his own; well confidering, no doubt that, to a man of his profound fagacity, Helvetius to Hooper, mult be a mere novice. "The re-union of the temporal and fpiritual powers in the fame hands, is indifpenfable. Nothing is done against the facerdotal body by merely making it more humble. Who does not entirely annihilate it fufpends, and not deftroys its influence. A body is immortal; a favourable circumftance, fuch as the confidence of a prince, or a revolution in the state, is fufficient to reftore its primitive power. It will then revive with a vigour the more redoutable, as by being instructed in the caufes of its abafement, it will be more attentive to overthrow them. The ecclefiaitical body in England is at prefent without power, but it is not annihilated. Who then can affirm, faid a certain nobleman, that it will not one day reaflume its original ferocity, and again caufe as much blood to flow as it did formerly? One of the greatest services that could be rendered to France, would be to employ a part of the extravagant revenues of the clergy to the liquidation of the national debt. What could the clergy object, if, careful of their welfare, they were to preferve their benefices during life, and if after that they were to be alienated? Where would be the evil of bringing fo large a quantity of riches again into the circulation *?” (To be Continued.) Letters from the late Moft Rev. Dr. Thomas Herring, Lord There is not ing displays the true difpofition and character of men fo much as their private and familiar letters +. If they are of eminence, therefore, fufficient to render the knowledge *On this note the tranflator makes the following: "Our author will be excufed this wild fuppofition; as, being a foreigner, and not fufficiently acquainted with our excellent conftitution, fuch an alteration in the power of the clergy would totally destroy that equilibrium in which the effence of our liberty confifts." The fame may be faid of their opinions and fentiments; which are often better collected from their private correfpondence than from their public writings. Thus it were a matter of much difpute, whether Cicero believed in a future ftate, were we to judge folely from the latter; whereas a fingle paffage, in his letters to Atticus (fuppofing thefe were not intended for the public eye), feems conclufively to confirm it. Tempus eft nos de illâ perpetua jam, non de hac exiguâ má, cogitare. Rev. of a of fuch perfonal character a matter of public curiofity, the world is under proportional obligation to the editor of them. Archbishop Herring was not a man of a brilliant or ftriking genius; he was, yet, a man of good fenfe, erudition, and folidity of judgement. The moderation and benevolence, alfo, with which he difcharged the duties of his ftation, were remarkable and worthy of adoption by every other Archbishop in Chriftendom. The circumftances, of his life, may be couched in a narrow compafs. "He was born in Norfolk, at Walfoken, of which his fa ther was rector, in 1693; and was educated at Bennet College, in Cambridge. In 1722, he was collated to the rectory of Barley in Hertfordshire, by Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, to whom he was chaplain. In 1726, he was appointed preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. In 1731, he was prefented to the living of Blechingly in Surry by Sir William Clayton; and foon afterwards promoted to the deanry of Rochefter, by the King. He was made bishop of Bangor in Jan. 1738, tranflated to York in April 1743, and to Canterbury in October 1747. He died March 13, 1757, aged 64." The correspondence before us opens, in the year 1728, with a letter from Dr. Herring to Mr. Duncombe, paying acknow ledgements to the latter, for two anonymous letters printed in the newspapers, in juftification of a fermon, preached by the Doctor at the chapel of Lincoln's Inn, against the Beggar's Opera, then in reprefentation at the theatre. In this fermon Dr. Herring condemned that celebrated drama, as pernicious to the morals of the people, and therefore improper for public performance. Nor was the good Doctor fingular in his opinion even at that time, refpecting the immoral tendency of that performance, The celebrated Mrs. Rowe was, particu larly, very much hurt by the encouragement given, and the encomiums paffed on, it, by the firft wits and critics of the age. Dean Swift, on the other hand, attacked Dr. Herring with great acrimony, on account of the fermon above-mentioned, declaring, in the third number of his Intelligencer, that "it would probably do more good than a thousand fermons of fo ftupid, fo injudicious, and fo proftitute a divine." This decla ration was certainly dictated by a party fpirit, not the moft ftrongly attached to truth. It were elfe hardly poffible, how ever ftrangely doctors differ, that two reverend divines could be fo egregiously mistaken in the confequences, which, we are told by the magiftracy, experience hath even taught their very thief-takers*. In confequence of whofe critical advice and apparent affiflance, the Drama in queition has been lately altered and acted at Covent-Garden thea tre, in a mode more agreeable to practical (though not poetical) juflice. Rev. In the course of the correfpondence we meet with fome characteristic defcriptions, judicious criticifms, and literary anecdotes, that may afford both entertainment and information to the reader. Of our late Twickenham Poet, Dr. Herring, in one of his Epiftles fpeaks thus. "I would fain think as well of Mr. Pope's probity, as I do of his ingenuity; but his compliments to Bolingbroke, upon topics of behaviour, in which he is no torioufly infamous, fhock me fo, that it quite difconcerts my good opinion of him; I have bought his works, however, in the pompous edition, and read them with peculiar pleature. The brightnefs of his wit, his elegant turns, his raifed fentiments in many places, and the mufical cadence of his poetry, charm me prodigioutly!" In one of the Letters, we meet with the following anecdotes, relating to the deceafe of that excellent verfifier. "Frith-Street, June 10, 1744. "Mr. Pope, I hear, has left the bulk of his fortune to Mrs. Blount, a lady to whom, it is thought, he either was, or, at least, ought to have been married. The Earl of Marchmont, Lord Bathurst, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Arbuthnot, are his executors. He has bequeathed all his manufcripts to Lord Bolingbroke. "I am told that he has left many plans and fragments, but few finished pieces. A report is fpread about town, that, during his illness, a difpute happened, in his chamber, between his two phyficians, Burton (who is fince dead himfelf 1) and Thompson; the former charging the latter with hattening his death, by the violent purges he had prefcribed, and the other retorting the charge. Mr. Pope at length filenced them, by faying, "Gentlemen, Lonly learn by your difcourfe, that I am in a very dangerous way; therefore, all I have now to ask is, that the following epigram may be added, after my death, to the next edition of the Dunciad, by way of poftfcript: "Dunces, rejoice, forgive all cenfures past, "However, I have been fince told, that thefe lines were really written by Burton himself; and the following epigram, by a friend of Thompfen, was occafioned by the foregoing one: "As phyfic and verfe both to Phoebus belong, "Dr. Thompson is going to publifh Pope's cafe. I find he is in high repute with feveral perfons of diftinction. "I fhall leave the Doctor and Mr. Pope, with a few lines taken from a Poetical Epistle, addreffed many years ago to the Duke of *Now Earl Mansfield. + Of the Court of Exchequer, only Son of Dr. Arbuthnot. Chandos, Chandos, by my friend, Dr. Cowper *, which might pafs for an enco mium on the latter, if he had made a proper application of his wit and fine genius. "Good-natur'd wit a talent is from heaven, Studious to picafe, it feeks not others harm, In beauteous colours dreffes home-fpun truth, Like you inftructs them, and like you delights." Of Lord Bolingbroke and his Writings Dr. Herring write as follows. "Lord Bolingbroke, as you justly obferve, is obfcured in a cloud of unintelligible metaphyfics, in many parts of his work is dark and ob feure, and defultory throughout; has no confiftent fyftem; is most tirefomely long; his mifchievous tenets, fome of them abfurd (as the denial of final caufes, &c.), and the poifon of his book fo diluted, that it cannot, I think, do much hurt. But if injudicious writers fet themfelves to extract the effence of it, and draw all his fire (an ignis fatuus as it lies) to a fecus, the remedy fhould be very strong, and the ope rator an able chemist, to prevent its doing mitchief. This work fhould not be trufled to bunglers, "Befides, the people in danger from Lord Bolingbroke's writings, are the loole and the wits, who will never fit down to read grave and folid answers. Irony and joke, in the literary way, are the only means to deal with him; and one cannot help wishing, that the age which produced Lord Bolingbroke had produced fuch an antagonist wit as Mr. Bayle was, who could render him ridiculous while he confuted him. Dr. Warburton, you fee, attempts this; and, if he had more delicacy, it would be with more fuccefs. However, there are many excellent things in his fecond letter, and I think he has expofed his reafonings well upon the moral nature of the Deity.” His Grace's remarks on the negligence and careleffness of our English tranflators, in the inftance of Tindal's tranflation of Rapin, is a reproof fo juftly to be applied to almoft all the prefent tribe of tranflators, that we cannot close this article, without inferting it by way of public reprehenfion. "I have read over your criticifms upon Tindal's tranflation, and think them exceedingly juft and neceffary; fuch hafty mercenary tranflators really put an affront upon the public, and feem to take for granted, that men have neither tafte nor judgement. The inaccuracies of style, and lownefles of expreffion, and the many omiffions in this Son of Judge Cowper, then Rector of Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, and one of his Majefty's Chaplains. tranflation, tranflation, are prodigiously offenfive. The history of Rapin Thoyras is fo much debated and mangled by them, that one would think, the tranflator had a defign upon his character, and intended to make him appear ridiculous, by putting him into an awkward English drefs; for really, if Mr. Tindal does not take a little inore pains, Rapin Thoyras will become of the fame clafs with the rest of our English hiftorians, The Guardian, I remember, has made a few very juft obfervations upon the style of the great Lord Verulam; which if Mr. Tindal had confidered, he would not have fallen, as he often does, into that very bulgar and abject manner of expreffion." To thefe Letters is added an Appendix, containing feveral pieces alluded to in the correfpondence: among which are the letters that paffed between M. de la Motte and Archbishop Fenelon, on the former's tranflation of the Iliad. Remarks on Lord Bolingbroke's idea of a God: together with the arguments of Balbus, on the fame fubject, tranflated from Cicero by Mr. Duncombe. S. Remarks on Bishop Hard's Charge, delivered to the Clergy of the Diacefe of Lichfield and Coventry, at the Bishop's primary Vifitation in 1775 and 1776, and printed at their Requeft. In a Letter to his Lordship. By a Country Clergyman. 1s. Johnfon. We have here a fenfible, modeft, and moderate remonftrance against church government and ecclefiaftical authority; or, as the remonftrant terms it, "human fyftents of religious faith and doctrines." "The amount," fays he, and full feope of the arguments for human fyftems of religious faith and doctrines, whether placed in array to confront the Scriptures, or more arefully pietended to be a neceflary and rightful interpretation of them, are equally derogatory from their abfolute fufficiency. Under this perfuafion, it is painful, to a fin ere believer in Chriff, to find repeated occafion to detend, in a Christian and Proteftant country, the paramount and exclufive authority of the written Word of the infallible God, against the claims and ufurpa ions of fallible man. And yet this is in truth the cafe, however con. founded or concealed under the feveral notions of right, peace, utility, or expedience. -- "Univerfal agreement and conformity," continues he, are the phantoms of vitionaries. For though we have one common text to which we feverally reter ourselves,the meature of our understandings, the degrees of our acquirements, the prejudices of education, are fo very different in different men, that fuch diverfity of gifts should feem necellarily, by the wife ordering of Providence, to lead to a dis verfity of judgements. But thefe unhappy delufions have drenched the annals of all church hittory in torrents of blood. Nor can any one fect party, alas! claim exempion froin the difgraceful relation, of have Q.12 ing |