THE ANTIJACOBIN Review and Magazine, &c. &c. &c. For JANUARY, 1809. Loquor de docto homine et erudito, cui vivere est cogitare. CICERO. Letters from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Friends. 4to. II. 7s.; 8vo. 12s.; with profiles of Bishops Warburton and Hurd. Cadell and Davies. 1809. THE private literary converse (for confidential letters are nothing but conversations divested of their oracular tautology, and reduced to writing) of such men as Bishops Warburton and Hurd, cannot fail to interest all persons of taste and learning, not only in the present, but also in future ages. It has been justly observed, by several French writers, that "les lettres des hommes celebres sont, ordinairement, la partie la plus curieuse de leurs ecrits;" and when they are published, as in the present instance, without any alterations or modulations to the public taste, they furnish the best and most interesting specimens of literary biography, which we can ever hope to see. The originals of this correspondence were deposited in port-folios under the following inscription and character, in the hand-writing of the late Bishop Hurd. "These letters give so true a picture of the writer's (Warburton's) character, and are, besides, so worthy of him in all respects (I mean, if the reader can forgive the playfulness of his wit in some instances, and the partiality of his friendship in many more), that, in honour of his memory, I would have them published after my death, and the profits, arising from the sale of them, applied to the benefit of the Worcester Infirmary. 66 January 18, 1793. R. WORCESTER.” So far these volumes may be directly useful to the cause of humanity; but the glowing aud reiterated praise of the No. 127. Vol. 32. Jan. 1809. B |