a future state.' I remark one distinguishing excellence in Paley, which has a powerful effect in winning confidence; he is never so engrossed with a view he is taking of a subject, as not to be disposed to give due consideration and weight to its other bearings.

Oct. 7. Perused Hutchinson's Memoirs. What days of romance were those when a grave gentleman actually expires for grief and anguish at the decease of a gentleman whom he never heard of, but from the deploration of the loss; and when that mirror of excellence Col. Hutchinson himself, becomes smitten with his lady, and sickens at her supposed marriage, long before he saw her-merely from report. Yet, from former experience of something analogous, I believe devoutly that all this is in nature. Mrs. H.'s account of her husband's first passion for her is given with much simplicity and tenderness; one is amazed how much devotion mingled itself with all the feelings of this day; her view of political or rather religious affairs from the Reformation to the long Parliament is very interesting. One gets by the narrative at the root of the feelings of the times on the subject. The fashionable Protestant doctrine of passive obedience' to princes, she considers as originating in opposition to the mad prostrating doctrines of its enthusiastic members, the Munster Anabaptists, &c.; and Elizabeth's execution of that Jezebel Mary Queen of Scots, to the danger from a Papist successor to the English throne. There are many passages of most beautiful writing, as when she talks of the thunder in 1639 heard rattling afar off, and flashes penetrating the most obscure woods, forerunners of the storm which next year was more apparent, and of the mischief "when hands which were made only for distaffs, affect the management of sceptres." The passage too respecting Buckingham is fine. "That he seemed an unhappy exhalation drawn up from the earth, not only to cloud the setting but the rising sun." The pious and candid Mrs. Hutchinson almost invariably denominates the royal party, "debosht malignants," and her own, "the godly." The account of Colonel Thornhagh's death, at the battle of Preston, is a fine history piece, and may be placed beside Wolfe's. It is curious to observe how seriously she ascribes all impulses on extraordinary occasions to a call from the Lord. The Colonel sought this call by prayer, in sitting in judgment on Charles the First; what a fertile field for delusion and hypocrisy. Cromwell's irresistible powers of cajoling are exemplified by many anecdotes most important to a life of h'm.

Oct. 25. Began Mad. Cottin's Mathilde: the style and sentiments are pure and delicate, but appear tame and feeble beside the glowing colours of Corinne; the infant passion scarcely felt and not recognized, gradually rising by imperceptible accretions in the bosom of Mathilde, is designed with exquisite delicacy; but on the whole there is too much refinement of sentiment, and the occasional descriptions of natural scenery are much too elaborate, and put on like studies from another hand, instead of springing naturally from the circumstances in which they occur. As one proceeds, the extravagance of the fiction, rendered more insupportable by being grafted upon fact, gradually damps and extinguishes that interest, which length of narrative has a natural tendency to cherish, and one hurries over the latter volumes with impatience to reach the close. In the 27th chap is a just reflection which I do not remember to have seen so fully exhibited. Il n'ya de vraies et durables jouissances que celles que les longues esperances ont achetées, passant en un instant du desir au bonheur, nous passerions en un instant du bonheur au degoût, et du

2

degoût à la mort peut-être, car elle est moins cruelle que lui. Ainsi un jour aurait suffi pour devorer notre rapide existence, et souvent encore l'aurions nous etrouvé trop long.

Nov. 7. Called on Clubbe yesterday before dinner; in a hideous state; afraid to die, and terrified by his apprehension into a persuasion that he must; expressed himself quite satisfied with his reasoning, and practice in his profession.

Nov. 20. Read the first piece in the collection of Paley's Tracts. Considerations on subscription; a most exquisite morceau of controversial writing, replete with keen and just criticism, but nothing after Paley's manner, except in viewing a topic and an argument with its exact limitations, and various bearings; a species of discernment of inestimable use in conflict with a loose writer. I should not have expected that Paley would have taken so decided a part in favour of full freedom of inquiry, and against subscription to Articles. He would have the pulpit like the press, restricted solely to subsequent reprehension, and not by the imposition of any previous limitation. He speaks very happily of the advantage of altering our Articles, "in freeing the governors of the Church from the difficulty of defending some of its decayed fortifications, and the indecency of destroying them."

Nov. 27. A wretched day, never stirred out; read the first three of Paley's Sermons, collected in his Tracts. The first delivers some very judicious cautions against applying scriptural expressions, which were only applicable at the time they were delivered, to present circumstances.Regeneration-for example, (which might truly be applied to the state of a person converted to Christianity), to any supposed sudden change in a person, brought up and professing the Christian religion, when it can have no place. The second gives some excellent advice to young clergymen→ from the third, BURKE seems to have taken the argument in his Reflections, in favour of different orders of the Church, as adapting ministers of religion to the different ranks of civil society;* and perhaps the spirit of his remark on ballasting the vessel, according to circumstances in which she is placed, may have been borrowed from a subsequent recommendation, on the doctrines to be proposed, or discontinued, according to the prevailing propen. sity of their minds at the time.

Nov. 28. Beautiful effect of the setting sun pouring its bright effulgence on the town, relieved by the azure hills, and mountain-like clouds. Yet I am still of a fixed opinion, that in engravings, drawings, and paintings, the sky is usually made too forcible,† solid, and substantial, for the ground.

Dec. 15. Finished Franklin's Works.-Priestley's closing letter, giving an account of Franklin's character and conduct, is highly interesting. Of

Cowper's severe strictures on this position of Paley, in his Letters, is probably known to most of our readers. Had Paley taken different ground, and argued abstractedly, that such a variety of orders in the church would be advantageous, his argument would have been right; his error lay, in asserting absolutely, that the different orders of the church perform distinct duties to distinct ranks of society, which is perfectly false.-ED.

+ Does Mr. Green intend to say, that the sky, in paintings in general, is too substantially painted to imitate nature; or does he mean, to produce its proper effect in a picture? If the latter, it would convey a general censure on landscape painters; if the former, it is answered by Joshua Reynolds completely in his Lectures.-ED.

GENT. MAG. VOL. III.

D

Franklin's wish to preserve the connection between America and Britaka, ĺ presces stronger evidence than any he has adduced. His narrathe of the circumstances attending, and the mode in which Franklin received Wedderburn's severe and cutting philippic, on the examination before the Privy Council, is inestimable; simplicity and sagacity appear to have been the two distinguishing traits of Franklin's character.

Dec. 16. Began Warburton's Letters to Hurd, and read them with woch eagerness. A rich repast, replete with bold and original thoughts, acute criticism, profound reflections, daring paradoxes, boastful exultations, ingenious and frank avowals, fervent demonstrations of friendly regard, strains of manly and indignant eloquence, strokes of true and genuine humour, coarse and contemptuous invectives on his enemies, and traits, which evince throughout his eager and jealous desire of literary dominion: bringing out in high relief the lineaments of character admirably and forcibly depicted by Parr in his preface and dedication, as Hurd's deferential and adulatory letters, occasionally inserted, do his. Warburton's and Hurd's, different and opposite as their characters are in many respects, seem formed by nature to have been dovetailed to each other; incorporated they might have formed one capital whole. The lights thrown by these letters on the literary history of the period, are above measure interesting. Parr must be infinitely delighted with the perusal of them.

Dec. 17. Finished the perusal of Warburton's Letters. The gradual decay of mind evinced in the later letters, exhibits a most afflicting spectacle; we watch, as we go along, expiring genius. Warburton (Lett. 3.) considers Petronius's curiosa felicitas, as consisting in using the simplest language with dignity, and the most adorned with ease. He is confident that nothing but the light (Lett. 17) derived from Prophecy can support Christianity in its present circumstances. Berkeley, (Lett. 20) he calls a great man, and the only visionary whom he knew as great. Enthusiasm (Lett. xl) he defines-"such an irregularity of mind as makes us give a stronger assent to the conclusions than the evidences shall warrant." His plan of attacking his own work, preparatory to a defence of it, against threatened attacks (Lett xlvii) is curious and instructive. Nothing can be more felicitous than his badinage on a grand tour round St. James's Park, (Lett. lx). In letter 84, he imparts to Hurd the cause of the origin (which the latter afterwards adopted in his Dialogues) of Protestant divines preaching the duties of divine right and non-resistance, in opposition to the Papal assumed power of deposition. Speaking of the Divine Legation, he solemnly affirms (Lett. 95) 'that he shall never wittingly advance one falsehood, or conceal, or disguise one truth.' If this be believed, he must have had vast powers of self-preservation, and his temperament favours this belief. Fit and right-(he remarks, (Lett. 45) in politics are two things, though in morals but one.'-Hurd (Lett. 150) appears to have been taken in by the morality of the New Heloise, on its first appearance, and Warburton in the next follows; but seems well acquainted with the character of Rousseau, so far as it had then (1761) developed itself. In Let. 183, he delivers this maxim, “In your commerce with the great, if you would have it turn to your advantage, endeavour, when the person is of great ability, to make him satisfied with you: when, of none, with himself." He seems (Lett. 231) to have received the fatal disclosure, in which Gil Blas so failed with the Archbishop of Grenada, with great composure and complacency, and to have yielded without a struggle. Warburton's abuses of his enemies are horrid. Hume is consigned to the

Pillory in his first curious notice of him, (Lett. 6, 1749,) and afterwards, (Lett. 100, 1757,) he is described as possessing a more wicked heart than he ever met with. Johnson's remarks (he says), on his Commentaries on Shakspeare (Lett. 175,) are full of insolence and malignant reflections, which, had they not in them as much folly as malignity, he would have reason to be offended with. Priestley, (Lett. 220) is that wretched fellow. The gloomy and malignant Jortin, (Lett. 227, dies of eating his own heart. Evanson, (235) is a convicted innovator. Walpole, an insufferable coxcomb. Spence, a poor creature and dunces and blockheads thunder through his epistles without number. Yet it is impossible not, on the whole, to admire Warburton's heart as well as genius, as they are poured forth in these artless but vigorous effusions. Hurd's character as a man, whatever he might hope from the association with his illustrious friend, must be greatly sunk by their publication.

Dec. 31. Douce affirms, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, that Cupid's blindness is not warranted by the authority of any ancient* classical author, and that Chaucer is the first English writer who has noticed it.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. BY SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Characters of the Members of the Cabinet, in the Reign of James the Second. As Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution is at present only to be obtained by the purchase of a volume which is large and expensive, it has been considered advisable to extract from it one of its most finished and attractive parts-the Historical Characters. These portraits are drawn with knowledge and discrimination; and the skill and elegance with which they are designed, will place them in no inferior situation, beside those of Clarendon and Hume. It is, however, to be hoped that the late work of this eloquent and enlightened writer, will be given to the public in a cheaper and more commodious form, separate from the very imperfect biography which accompanies it; and from the continuation, which proceeds from the pen of a person, whose political opinions are not at all in accordance with the sentiments entertained by the Historian.

EARL OF SUNDERLAND.

Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who soon acquired the chief ascendancy in this administration, entered on public life with all the external advantages of birth and fortune. His father fell in the Royal army at the battle of Newbury, with those melancholy forebodings of danger from the victory of his own party, which filled the breasts of the more generous Royalists, and which on the same occasion saddened the dying moments of Lord Falkland. His mother was Lady Dorothy Sydney, celebrated by Waller under the name of Sacharissa. He was early employed in diplomatic missions, where he acquired the political knowledge, insinuating address, and polished manners, which are learnt in that school, together with the subtlety, dissimulation, flexibility of principle, indifference on questions of constitutional policy, and impatience of the re

Consult Chartarii Imagines Deorum qui ab Antiquis celebantur,' p. 331, 4to. If Mr. Douce means by blindness, Cupid's eyes being bandaged, he is certainly in error. If Cupid's blindness is not authorised by the ancients, when is it first mentioned? for Petrarch, in one of his Latin Poems, alludes to it,

Non oculis captum, Pharetrâ sed enim, atque sagittis,
Armatum.-ED.

Extanta sé panniar gvernment, which have been sometimes contracted by Engin Annaswartors in the course of a long intercourse with the minis sea of ananuite Fraca. A faint and expericial preference of the general pornequea of sizi icerty, was blended in a manner not altogether unusual w us figiamate TEEL He seems to have gained the support of the Drenem vé Paramonth to the administration formed by the advice of Sir a liam Temple, and to have then gained the confidence of that incomperacle jerina, wie prosessed all the honest arts of a negotiator. He gave a a sex of the inconstancy of an over-refined character, by fluctuKing teen the excision of the Duke of York, and the limitation of the kogu prerogative. He was removed from the administration for his are on the sull of excission. The love of office soon prevailed over his fexnie spirit of independence, and he made his peace with the Court, by the notion of the Duke of York, who had long been well disposed to Alm; and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, who found no difficulty in reconcling the King to a polished as well as a pliant courtier, an accomplished neg kator, and a minister more versed in foreign affairs than any of his ontagues. Negligence and profusion bound him to office by stronger though coarser ties than those of ambition. He lived in an age when a delicate parity in pecuniary matters had not begun to have a general influence on statesmen; and when a sense of personal honour, growing out of long habits of co-operation and friendship, had not yet contributed to secure them against political inconstancy. He was one of the most distinguished of a species of men who perform a part more important than noble in great events; who by powerful talents, captivating manners, and accommodating opinions, by a quick discernment of critical moments in the rise and fall of parties, by not deserting a cause till the instant before it is universally discovered to be desperate, and by a command of expedients and connections which render them valuable to every new possessor of power, find means to cling to office, or to recover it, and who, though they are the natural offspring of quiet and refinement, often creep through stormy revolutions without being crushed. Like the best and most prudent of his class, he appears not to have betrayed the secrets of the friends whom he abandoned, and never to have complied with more evil than was necessary to keep his power. His temper was without rancour; he must be acquitted of prompting, or even preferring the cruel acts which were perpetrated under his administration: deep designs and premeditated treachery were irreconcileable both with his indolence and his impetuosity; and there is some reason to believe that, in the midst of total indifference about religious opinions, he retained to the end some degree of that preference for civil liberty which he might have derived from the example of his ancestors, and the sentiments of some of his early connections.*

EARL OF ROCHESTER.

Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, the younger son of the Earl of Clarendon, was Lord Sunderland's most formidable competitor for the chief direction of public affairs. He owed this importance rather to his position and connections than to his abilities, which however were by no means contemptible. He was the undisputed leader of the Tory party, to whose

• On the fall of Sunderland, see continuation of Mackintosh, p. 450.