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net, he was always very civil ;) and I received undoubted information, that he seldom missed an opportunity of speaking ill of me behind my back. Goldsmith's common conversation was a strange mixture of absurdity and silliness; of silliness so great as to make me think sometimes that he affected it. Yet he was a great genius of no mean rank: somebody, who knew him well, called him an inspired idiot. His ballad of "Edwin and Angelina," is exceedingly beautiful; and in his two other poems, though there be great inequalities, there is pathos, energy, and even sublimity."

In 1790 Beattie lost his eldest son; and in 1796, his remaining son. These successive shocks were too much for a tender heart! already half broken by the sorrow for their mother's incurable malady. From the last event he at times lost his senses. "A deep gloom," says he, "hangs upon me, and disables all my faculties; and thoughts so strange sometimes occur to me, as to make me "fear that I am not," as Lear says, " in my perfect mind."

Yet, on May 15, 1797, he wrote a letter to Mr. Frazer Tytler, somewhat in his former manner; from whence the following extract is derived.

"There is one translation, which I greatly admire, but am sure you never saw, as you have not mentioned it the book is indeed very rare; I obtained it with difficulty by the friendship of Tom Davies, an old English bookseller; I mean, Dobson's "Paradisus Amissus ;" my son studied, and I believe, read every line of it. It is more true to the original, both in sense and spirit, than any other poetical ver

sion of length, that I have seen. The author must have had an amazing command of Latin phraseology, and a very nice ear in har mony. ****.

"Being curious to know some particulars of Dobson, I inquired of him at Johnson, who owned he had known him, but did not seem inclined to speak on the subject. But Johnson hated Milton from his heart; and he wished to be himself considered as a good Latin poet; which however, he never was, as may be seen by his transla tion of Pope's Messiah. All that I could ever hear of Dobson's pri vate life was, that in his old age he was given to drinking. My edition of his book is dated 1750. It is dedicated to Mr. Benson, who was a famous admirer of Milton; and from the dedication it would seem to have been written at his desire, and under his pat ronage.*

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* Dr. J. Warton says, that Benson translation of Paradise Lost. Dobson "gave Dobson £1000 for his Latin had acquired great reputation by his translation of Prior's Solomon, the first book of which he finished, when he was a scholar at Winchester college. He had not at that time, as he told me, (for I knew him well) read Lucretius, which would have given a richness and force to his verses; the chief fault of which was a monotony, and want of variety of Virgilian pauses. Mr. Pope wished him to translate the Essay on Man, which he began to do; but relinquished on account of the impossibility of imitating its brevity in another language. He has avoided the monotony abovementioned in his Milton; which

monotony was occasioned by translating a poem in rhyme. Bishop Hare, a capable judge, used to mention his Solomon as one of the purest pieces of modern Latin poetry. Though he had so much felicity in translating, yet his original poems, of which I have seen contained no mark of genius. He had many, were very feeble and flat, and no great stock of general literature, and

1798. "I am acquainted with many parts of your excursion through the north of England, and very glad that you had my old friend Mr. Gray's "Letters" with you, which are indeed so well written, that I have no scruple to pronounce them the best letters, that have been printed in our language. Lady Mary Montagu's "Letters" are not without merit, but are too artificial and affected to be confided in as true; and Lord Chesterfield's have much greater fauts; indeed, some of the greatest that letters can have: but Gray's letters are always sensible, and of classical conciseness and perspicuity. They very much resemble what his conversation was. He had none of the airs of either a scholar or a poet; and though on those, and all other sub; jects, he spoke to me with the utmost freedom, and without any reserve, he was, in general company, much more silent than one could have wished."

he seems to have arrived at the utmost height, of which his pow. ers were capable; but this is far from being the case with the poe try he has left. Beautiful as is his Minstrel, yet, had he concluded it on the plan he originally intended, which I must venture, in opposi tion to Dr. Aikin, to say, was easily within the scope of his genius, he would have contributed very materially both to its variety and its interest. I will add that the innocent and exalted occupation might have soothed his broken spirits, and gilded the clouds of his latter days.

It is not easy to guess, when we consider the opinions which this excellent author himself promulgated in his philosophical works, on what ground he depreciated the dignity, or the use, of his capacity as a poet. But it is certain that, at least for the last thirty years of his life, he did slight and neglect it most unjustly. There is no adequate reason for considering it inconsistent

Dr. Beattie died Aug. 18, 1805, with his professional functions,

xt. 68.

His character has been as justly and eloquently, as briefly, sketched by Mrs. Montagu, in a letter to himself. "We considered you," says she," as a poet, with admiration; as a philosopher, with respect; as a Christian, with veneration; and as a friend, with affection." He clearly directed his ambition to excellence, rather as a philosopher, than as a poet; and yet it is apparent, that these studies were not congenial to his natural taste; but that they fatigued and oppressed him. In these paths

was by no means qualified to pronounce on what degree of learning Pope possessed; and I am surprised that Johnson should quote him, as saying, "I found Pope had more learning than I expected." Warton's Pope, V. 240.

which his exemplary virtue induced him to discharge with uncom mon industry and attention. It would, on the contrary, have relieved the toil of them, by a de lightful diversity of ideas. But it may be suspected, that there was a certain timidity in this good man's mind, not entirely consonant with the richness of his endow ments. In the cause of religion indeed, his piety made him bold; but he was otherwise a little too sensible of popular prejudices.

The goodness of the cause and the particular occasion, has added an accidental value to his great philosophical work, "The Essay on Truth." But I believe I am not singular in asserting, that his genius is least capable of rivalry. in that "Minstrel," on which he

bestowed so little comparative attention while it is apparent that, even there, his severer studies occasionally encumbered and depressed his fancy. Burns knew better the strength which nature had bestowed on him, and giving full scope to it, succeeded accordingly.

now

The Letters which are published, exhibit Dr. Beatie's moral character in the most amiable light. Their style unites ease and elegance; and they prove the correctness of his opinions, the nicety of his taste, and the sound-ness of his judgment.

They discover, above all, the tenderness of his heart, and the fervour of his religion. But the frankness of truth demands from me the confession, that they do not appear to me to possess those characteristick excellences, as literary compositions, which enchant us in the letters of Burns and Cowper; and which none but themselves could have written. He has nothing like the touching simplicity of the poet of Weston; nor any thing like the ardent eloquence of the

Bard of Airshire. He scarce ever indulges in sallies congenial with the rich warblings, which used to flow so copiously from the harp of the inspired Edwin.

I would now willingly enter into the peculiar traits both of the poetical and prose works, on which Beattie's fame was founded; but this article is already too long; (I hope my readers will not think it out of place ;) and I have now neither room nor leisure for more, except to say, that as a poet he possessed an originality, and an excellence, to which I doubt whe◄ ther justice has yet been done.t July 2, 1806.

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BIOGRAPHY.

For the Monthly Anthology.

LIFE OF RICHARD BENTLEY, D. D.

[Concluded from page 567.]

Τιμιωταται μεν και πρώτα τα περ την ψυχην αγαθα.-PLAT. de Leg. IV.

WE cannot enter into a particular examination of Bentley's corrections on the present occasion, as the life of our favourite critick has already extended far beyond the proposed limits. One emendation we must transcribe, as it is very happy, and elucidates a pas sage which was neither measure nor sense. Lib. V. 733.

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Ordo locum populumque equiti, popule
que subire
Vulgus iners videas, et jam sine nomine
turbam :

Sic etiam magno quædam RESPUBLICA

mundo est.

In the last line some copies have
respondere, and the best manuscript
has res pendere, instead of respub-
lica, which we owe to the critical
acumen of Dr. Bentley.
word was originally, he supposes,
written resp. and from this the blun
dering transcribers derived their

The

respondere of which the learned editor in his note says: Respon dere conjugationis tertia omnem darbariem exsuperat. Nec scias numeri an sententia sit pejor."

Toup mentions this passage in his Epistola Critica with its due portion of praise: "Quin et, dum hæc scribo, commodum in mentem venit emendationis Bentleiana in Manilium, quam hæc occasione monitus, hic in transitu sublevandam curabo, nam et mea post me lii curabunt scilicet." He then quotes the passage, and gives the last lines as it stands in the common copies :

Sic etiam magno quædam responderé mundo.

Locus elegantissimus, sed versus postremus manifesto corruptus estè emendabat Bentleii sagacitas :

Sic etiam in magno quædam RESPUBLI

CA mundo est.

Quod alii veri, alii falsi simile esse dicuntego vero nihil ertius esse affirmo. Fidem faciet Lactantius, Epit. cap. 2.

Sic IN MUNDI REPUBLICA, nisi unus fuisset modera tor, &c. There are several other emendations, which display as much critical sagacity, and equally merit adoption; though Bentley has been accused of pretending not to understand passages in Manilius, merely to have an opportu hity of exercising his abilities at correction. We do not pretend to vouch for the truth of this accusation, but must confess that we do not give it much credit. Such an affectation of ignorance could only produce ridicule, for if Bentley chose to be blind and dull himself, he could not suppose that the world would, therefore, be less sharp sighted.

The Astronomicon of Manilius was the last classical work which Dr. Bentley lived to publish, although he was among the first au

thors on whom he employed his corrective talents, with a view to publication. In the preface to his immortal dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, he says: "I had then prepared a Manilius for the press, which had been published already, had not the dearness of paper, and the want of good types, and some other occasions, hindered me."

In the former part of this life, we intentionally omitted mentioning Bentley's views, with regard to Manilius. We shall now transcribe from the same preface whatever relates to this subject.

Bentley had been accused by Boyle of sending a manuscript treatise about Theodorus Mallius, written by Rubenius, to Grevius, for publication, without mention ing Sir Edward Sherburn's name, from whom he had received it. This charge Bentley fully confutes. "I had prepared, he says, a new edition of Manilius; which de sign being known abroad, occasioned my acquaintance with Sir Edward Sherburn, who had formerly translated the first book of that poet into English verse, and explained it with a large commen tary. He had got together some old and scarce editions, which he courteously lent me ; and beside those, he had purchased at Antwerp, by the means of a booksel ler, a whole box full of papers of the famous Gaspar Gevartius's, who undertook an edition of the same poet, but was prevented by death."

Among these papers he found little of any consequence, but the manuscript already mentioned, which he sent to the learned Grévius, who quite forgot the circumstances of Sir Edward Sherburn's box, when he published the book, and incautiously dedicated it to Dr. Bentley. He, however, after

wards apologized very sufficiently for this neglect, in a letter to our learned critick, which he thus concludes: "Vale-et tibi persuade, te doctos omnes viros maximè facere, rumpantur ut ilia Codris; sed neminem esse qui te majoris faciat, et magis æstimet quam ego te facio." In the former part of the epistle, he confesses that the omission of Sir Edward's name was his own fault, and that Bentley was not in

the least censurable.

In the same box of Gevartius's papers, there were two copies of a discourse on the age of the poet Manilius, by the learned Godefridus Wendelinus. One of these Sir Edward presented to Bentley, who proposed to prefix the whole, or a part of it, to his edition of the Astronomicon. It is much, therefore, to be lamented, that the Doctor did not write the preface or prolegomena to this edition, as the learned world might then have been in possession of his senti ments with regard to this author, and his various editors and commentators, more fully than they are stated by his nephew.

In the account of Bentley's early life, one circumstance was omitted. About the time of the publication of his Epistle to Dr. Mill, on the Chronography of Malela, he published a specimen of a new edition of Philostratus, at Leipsic. Only one sheet was printed. This circumstance is mentioned by the indefatigable Fabricius, and by Olearius, in his preface to the works of Philostratus. They do not, how ever, mention, the reason of his laying his plan aside. He intended to have given the text in a more correct manner than former editors, with notes and a new Latin version. We cannot help lamenting that Bentley did not prosecute his design. Every edition of the ancients Vol. III. No. 12. 4G

executed by such a scholar must have been valuable; and it is rather surprising, when his deep knowledge of Greek is considered, that he did not devote his time seri ously to publishing more of the writers in that language. He executed, indeed, much less than he proposed; but the quarrels, into which he was involved by his enemies, may, in some measure, account for the fewness of the authors, whose works appeared under the auspices of the great Bentley.

In the year 1740 Dr. Bentley lost his lady, whom he had married soon after he was preferred to the mastership of Trinity-College. He did not long survive her, but died the fourteenth day of July, 1742, and was buried in Trinity-College chapel. The following short in scription is placed on the stone which covers his grave:

H. S. E.

RICHARDUS BENTLEY,

S. T. P. R.

OBIIT XIV. Jul. 1742.

ETATIS 80.

These are all the monumental honours of this great man, who needed not the inscription of a tomb-stone to transmit his memo. ry to posterity*.

He left behind him three children. His son, Mr. Richard Bentley, who was educated under the Doctor's inspection, at Trinity College, of which he was chosen fellow, succeeded his father as Royal Librarian at St. James's, but resigned that place in 1745. He died in the year 1782, and was more eminent for his elegant taste in the polite arts, than for his phi lological acquisitions. He display ed his ingenuity and fancy in the admirable designs which he made

* Biog. Brit. v. 1. p. 242. note FF.

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