we cannot refrain from noticing, with fome degree of pride, the Letters on Chinese Literature, with which our Mifcellany has been enriched: the vaft learning which they difplay, and deep penetration in detecting the forgeries and empiricifm of Dr. Hager, are fuch as cánnot be furpaffed in that abftrufe department of literature a department fo little cultivated, and consequently fo little known: in fact, we may reckon them among the moft valuable of our articles, as they are what no other work in England can poffefs befides ours. The portion already before the public presents a complete hiftory of the Chinese Characters, accompanied with curious and expenfive engravings. Our Critical Department likewife contains accounts of many valuable publications; while our Theatrical Information embraces a more extenfive fcope than any other periodical work whatfoever that is not exclufiveby devoted to the bufinefs of the stage. It is not, however, our intention to go over the whole of the volume already published: it is now before the public, that tribunal which muft ultimately award either praise or cenfure to the productions of the human mind; and from their decifions there is no appeal. ---But we may be allowed to fay, that whatever have been our exertions, they will still continue to increase, until we either gain that enviable pre-eminence which we anxiously feek for, or perish in an attempt where many have perished before us. THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. No. I. of VOL. I. For JANUARY 1804. A BIOGRAPHICAL I SKETCH OF DR. WATSON, LORD BISHOP Fit be true that biography is in itself an inftructive and important branch of literature, moft affuredly that biography must be pre-eminently advantageous and de-, lightful, which undertakes to commemorate the actions of virtue, the exertions of piety, and the labours of learning. The lives of a Nero, a Timur Bek, and a Cataline, can be deemed important or inftructive only to a diftinct clafs of readers, poffeffing ftrong difcriminating minds and enlarged principles; but all may perufe with the ardor of confcious virtue, and the fatisfaction of enlightened individuals, the private and public actions of a Fenelon, a Johnson, a Tillotson, and a Locke. With the latter illuftrious names, illuftrious for their learning and their genius, but more for their virtues, we proudly rank the venerable and justly celebrated object of the following memoir; happy in being thus enabled to hold up to public refpect and obfervation, the peaceful virtues of the prelate, the ftrenuous advocate of his country, and the diftinguished pupil of learning. Richard Watfon, Bishop of Landaff, was born in the village of Evefham, about five miles from Kendal, in the county of Weftmoreland, in the year 1737. He received the whole of his fchool education, prior to his entering the University of Cambridge, at the Free Grammar School of Kendal, of which his father (who was a clergyman, and poffeffed very fupeVOL. I. B NEW SERIES. [NE rior abilities, though little known to the world) was mafter. There cannot exist a doubt, that the inftruction he received from an able and affectionate parent muft have produced the developement of his mind at a much earlier age than is ufually attendant upon the mere exertions of fcholaftic pedantry. It is not easy to calculate the immenfe moral advantages which would refult to fociety, and to individuals, if this task were always performed (circumftances admitting) by every father; for fuch a co-operation of powerful caufes would thus be produced as can never take place under any other form. When he went to the University of Cambridge, it is related that he was diftinguifhed for his intense application to his ftudies, and the uni form fimplicity, not to fay fingularity, of his drefs, which confifted fimply of a coarfemottled Weftmoreland coat, and blue yarn stockings. To this place, however, he brought a plentiful stock of claffical knowledge, engrafted on his mind by the labours and affiduity of his fire, added to the perfevering habits of industry of his young pupil. When he took his degrees, he/ ftood high among the controverfialists; and the even tenor of his manners, the strict regularity of his conduct, and the pre-eminence of his talents, procured him not only a fellowship, but a college tutorfhip. This laft office, in an English univerfity, is at once refpectable and useful. A tutor is entrusted with one of the most important charges which can well devolve upon the human mind: the fuperintendance of youth, the direction of their ftudies, and the unfolding of the principles of their minds! The hours of their privacy are directed by him; he watches over their actions with folicitude and zeal; he enters into all their views; he corrects their wanderings; he guides the infant energies of their hearts, and lays the folid foundation on which to erect the future emanations of knowledge, piety, and virtue. We may readily conceive with what unwearied zeal, and unbending perfeverance, Dr. Watfon conducted his important avocations. A fplendid teftimony of his merits may be perceived in the bequeft of his pupil the late Mr. Luther, of Ongar in Effex, who, at his decease in 1786, left him, as a mark of gratitude, the fum of 20,000l. About this time he became acquainted with the Duke of Grafton, in a manner highly creditable to the feelings of both parties. Dr. Watfon fpiritedly oppofed an improper recommendation of a candidate made by his Grace, which fo far from producing acrimony on either fide, was the direct means of their commencing an acquaintance which has fince confolidated into a perfect, and it is to be hoped an unalienable, friendship. About the year 1766, Dr. Watfon was elected Public Profeffor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge; though he was at the time by no means converfant even in the firft principles of that science. But this defect was foon fupplied: the want of preparatory acquirements was foon removed by diligence and ftudy. A truly great and comprehenfive mind can never want expedients. Dr. Watfon felt his duty to the public, and the neceffity there was that he fhould not appear incompetent to the task which had devolved upon him. He paffed whole days and fometimes nights in the laboratory, affifted by a practical chemift, whofe name was HoffIn their first experiments their fuccefs was fmall; their dif man. appointments numerous. They deftroyed various retorts, injured their health, endangered their lives, actually blew themfelvés up, and at length did the fame by their workshop. But thefe to an ardent and indefatigable mind were trifles; trifles which might be furmounted by patient perfeverance: this perfeverance Dr. Watson happily poffeffed in a very eminent degree: he was not to be intimidated by difcouraging circumftances; he boasted an unwearied mind which was deftined to overcome difficulties. With the fruits of his induftry the public have been prefented. His chemical character was at length completely established, and his lectures were crowded with auditors, and acquired him at the fame time a diftinguished reputation. His Efays on Chemistry in five volumes are deservedly celebrated. They are dedicated to the Duke of Rutland, with whofe education he had been entrusted. The subjects which they embrace are multifarious, but yet they are always interefting and ufeful. But their chief excellence confifts in their popular and perfpicuous explication; and this is an excellence which Dr. Watfon equally difplays on every occafion. On whatever topic he may chufe to employ his pen, he is certain to throw a pleafing, a clear, and a fafcinating light upon it. His periods are full, manly, and decifive: here it may in general be obferved, that as a writer he is diftinguished by a ftyle plain and neat, but strictly pure, nervous, and argumentative. In the preface to thefe Effays, Dr. Watfon offers a modeft but expreffive apology for having devoted his attention to natural philofophy. He obferves, that in defence of his conduct he pleads the " example of fome of the greatest characters that ever adorned either the University, or the Church of England." This remark is certainly juft and even were fuch precedents wanting, what reafons fufficiently powerful can be adduced why the two offices fhould not be united? Surely the man who inculcates the moral precepts of his God may likewife illuftrate his works when done with that humble reference to a FIRST CAUSE, which every pious mind must strongly perceive when inveftigating the operations of nature. Nay, perhaps fuch investigations receive an added value when purfued by the clerical character, by a mind chaftened in religion for it is lefs apt to run into wild and fanciful theories, having conftantly before its eyes the certain ultimate fuperintendance of God. All caufes are but effects of other caufes: the chain muft at laft be traced to the Great Difpofer of all things, who alone could form, and can alone direct, the operations of the universe. Dr. Watfon juftly obferves, that "The books of Nature and Revelation equally elevate our conceptions, and excite our piety; they mutually illuftrate each other; they have an equal claim to our regard, for they are both written by the finger of the ONE ETERNAL INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD, TO WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER. AMEN." On the decease of the learned Dr. Rutherforth, he was advanced to the Regius Profeffor fhip of Divinity, in which fituation he fhone with peculiar luftre. About this time alfo he married. Dr. Watson early became known in the career of politics by his attachment to those principles, which, till lately, uniformly diftinguifhed Cambridge from her fifter Univerfity. He first distinguished himself in this refpect by a fermon which he preached before the University on the anniversary of the Restoration, and which was printed under the title of "The Principles of the Revolution Vindicated." This work excited a degree of popular attention, which is exceeded only by Bishop Hoadley's celebrated fermon on the Kingdom of Christ. A short time after this (1776), he became more generally known by his work entitled, "An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters, addreffed to Edward Gibbon, Efq." This production raifed his fame very high, both as a controverfialist and a polite writer. The friends of the chriftian religion felt their obligations to him; and even its foes were abafhed. The manner in which he treats the hiftorian has been defervedly admired. Gibbon, however, declined entering into a difcuffion with Dr. Watson, though he wrote him a very polite letter, which received an anfwer equally polite. This correfpondence has been printed by Lord Sheffield. It difplays the characters of two cele brated men, and at the fame time exhibits a fpecimen of the good effects refulting from that urbanity which fhould always characterize controverfial writings. In 1782, Dr. Watfon's merits and the recommendation of the Duke of Rutland procured him a feat on the epifcopal bench, on the translation of Bishop Barrington from the fee of Landaff to that of Salisbury. But this bishopric not being celebrated either for its extent or its riches, he was permitted to hold with it the archdeaconry of Ely, a rectory in Leicestershire, and the divinity profefforfhip, to which is annexed the valuable living of Samefham. Thefe advantages, in toto, enfured him a handsome income, fo that he was not, as Bishop Warburton faid of Dr. Doddridge, compelled to "look for his reward folely in another life.” Soon after his elevation to the fee of Landaff, he addreffed a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he states with great animation and pathos the hardships of the inferior clergy, and the necef fity of an equalization of church preferments. Laudable as this intent certainly is, and every way worthy of the humane principles of its author, yet there were many perfons, friends to the fcheme, who thought him rather too precipitate. The irregularity indeed of an addrefs, through the medium of the prefs, from the junior prelate on the bench to the metropolitan, could not but ftrike every mind very forcibly; and in confequence, Mr. Cumberland, a writer of confiderable powers, paffed fome very fevere ftrictures on this step. In 1786 his Lordship published at Cambridge, "A Collection of Theological Tracts," in fix volumes, Svo., defigned entirely for the ufe of ftudents in divinity. This is a valuable work, and cannot but prove an inestimable library of divinity to every candidate for holy orders. The preface is excellent, and is written with great liberality and candour. It may be remarked, as rather fingular, that the greater part of the tracts of which this collection is compofed are written by diffenters. But for this the Doctor offers an admirable apology. In June 1791, the Bishop delivered a charge to his clergy, in which he did not neglect to offer a few remarks upon the great revolution which had then recently happened in France, and at the fame time adverted to the state of things at home. But his beft, and certainly his most useful, work was his " Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters, addrejed to the Author of the Age of Reason:" in 1796. He here combats with great dignity, moderation, and force, the pernicious and vile tenets with which that work abounds. He pointedly adverts to the felf-complacency of Mr. Paine, who imagined that the bible might fall, through his exertions, though he defires not to be confidered as the caufe of it. Dr. Watfon juftly obferves, that the bible has withstood the "learning of Porphyry and the power of Julian"" the genius of Bolingbroke and the wit of Voltaire"furely not to be overwhelmed at laft by the abhorred endeavours of Mr. Paine! But the event has proved his imbecility. In the year 1798 his Lordship printed a very seasonable and animated "Addrefs to the People of Great Britain." He waves every enquiry as to the juftice or injuftice of the war itfelf: he only contends, that we were then in a most perilous fituation; a fituation which demanded all our energies, all our exertions: which left no man at liberty to fay "I am not wanted!” He infifts upon the neceflity of great facrifices on the part of the people, in order to a vigorous profecution of the conteft. In We are now called to pay our attention to the last work which has iffued from his Lordship's pen;, a work, which will for ever ftand as a glorious monument of his patriotifm, virtue, and independence. November 1803, he published "The Subftance of a Speech, intended to have been Spoken in the House of Lords, Nov. 22d, 1803;" in the advertisement to which he observes, that, as he proceeded in the contemplation of the subject, he found he could not comprehend in a fhort speech all that he wished to obferve; he, therefore, forbore to trouble their Lordships' with an extenfive harangue, but chofe rather to commit his thoughts to the prefs. This is, perhaps, one of the most clear, forcible, and animated productions which ever prefented itfelf to public attention. Satiated as we have been by the numerous placards which every ftreet prefented (written certainly with the most laudable and the most patriotic views), it might have been feared, that novelty was exhaufted, and language drained of every expref |