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how much foever differing in opinion from the deceased, will refrain from embalming his memory with a tear, and crying "Peace be with him!"

In Dr. Priestley's mental conftitution were united ardour and vivacity of intellect, with placidity and mildness of temper. With a zeal for the propagation of truth, that would have carried him through fire and water, he joined a calm patience, an unruffled ferenity, which rendered him proof against all obftructions and difappointments. It has been fuggefted, that a man fo much in earnest, and fo vigorous in controverfial warfare, could not fail of being a perfecutor, should his party gain the fuperiority: but this was an erroneous fuppofition. Not only were the rights of private judgment rendered facred to him by every principle of

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his understanding, but his heart would not have fuffered him to have injured his bittereft enemy. He was naturally dif pofed to chearfulness, and when his mind was not occupied with ferious thoughts, could unbend, with even playful eafe and negligence, in the private circle of friends. In large and mixed companies he ufuallv fpoke little. In the domeftic relations of life he was uniformly kind and affectionate. His parental feelings (alas! how keenly were they excited!) were thofe of the tendereft and best of fathers. Not malice itfelf could ever fix a ftain on his private conduct, or impeach his integrity.

Such was the man who adds one more

imperishable name to the illuftrious dead of his country.

Stoke Newington, 20th April, 1804.

Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters.

BEN JONSON.

HE noon of night, a poetical expreffion now focommon, was first introduced into our language by Ben Jonfon, who appears to have been fo diffident of the reception it might meet with, or whether the licence he had taken would be approved by cuf ton, that he refers, in the margin, to the author of whom he borrowed it. The phrafe is Varro's; in Latin, meridies noctis; and it occurs in the fixth chapter of Nonius Marcellus.

DINNER.

Ten o'clock was, in this country, the ancient hour of dining, and continued fo in the University of Cambridge even in the reign of Edward VI. as appears from a very remarkable paffage in a ferinon of Thomas Lever, at Paul's Cross, Dec. 14, 1550. About the middle of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the dining hour was fome. what later, though even then it was still kept up to ten o'clock in the universities, where the established fyftem is not so eafily altered as in private families. "With us (fays the author of the Defcription of England, in the Preface to Holin(hed) the nobilitie, gentry, and ftudents, do ordinarilye go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to fupper at five, or between five and fix, at afternoone. The merchants dine and fup feldome before twelve at noone and at fix at night, especially in London. The husbandmen dine alfo at high-noone, as they call it, and fup at Leven or eight; but out of the terme, in

J. AIKIN.

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In the fifteenth century, and very pro bably much earlier, one of the principal modes of education in ufe was, the refidence of children in the houses of the bifhops and nobility, where they were inftructed in learning, and occafionally filled up the retinue of their masters. Pace, the friend of Erafmus, and one of the principal reftorers of letters in England, imbibed the rudiments of learning in the palace of Langton, bishop of Winches ter; and Croke, one of the first restorers of the Greek language, in that of Archbifhop Warham. Sir Thomas More, too, was educated as a page with Cardinal Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, about 1490, who was fo ftruck with his genius, that he would often fay, at dinner, "This child here, waiting at table, is fo very ingenious, that he will one day prove an extraordinary man."

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tic, prefenting Apollo with a very fevere cenfure upon an excellent poem, was afked for the good things in that work; but the wretch anfwering, he minded only the errors, Apollo ordered a fack of unwinnowed wheat to be brought, and the critic to pick out and take all the chaff for his pains.

ORIGINAL LETTERS.

EXTRACTS of LETTERS from DR. MID

DLETON to LORD HERVEY.

Communicated by his Lordship's Brother to the Rev. William Talbot, Rector of Kineton, Warwickshire.

July 1ft, 1733.—It is my misfortune to have had fo early a taste for Pagan feience, as to make me very squeamish in my Christian ftudies.

Aug. 25th, 1733-I had pleafed myself with the thoughts of fpending one day philofophically with Chubb.

September 15th, 1733.-The orthodox think to tame me as they do wild-beafts, by fuffering them to take no reft; but I fhall have grace ftill to follow my own reafon in fpite of all their nonfenfe, and am more thankful to God for what I do rot believe than for what I do. In the one I may poffibly be biaffed by custom, authority, intereft, but the other is the triumph of my reafon over prejudices that involve the greatest part of mankind. If I am fo happy as to pleafe by my performances, I can only fay, ecce opus manuum tuarum. An inviolable attachment to her Majefty and her family is the only merit and virtue I pretend to.

Oct. 21st, 1733.-Dr. Berryman's Preface is void of all candour and good fente. Dr. Waterland's great Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity is a furprizing piece of nonfenfe and irreligion.

Aug. 10th, 1734-Sunday is my only day of reft, but not of liberty; for I am bound to double attendance at church, to wipe off the ftain of infidelity. When I hall have recovered my credit (in which I make daily progrefs) I may ufe more freedom; but at present the fubjection I am under of ufing all forms, obliges me to put an end to your Lordship's trouble.

July 27th, 1735.-I like both the degn and the doctrine of Bishop Hoadley's plain Account of the Sacrament, as I do every defign of uniting religion with reafon; or, where that cannot be, of bringing them as near together as poffible His enemies will infult him with the charge of leffening Chriftian piety; but the candid will fe that he fecks only to

deftroy a fuperftitious devotion, by establifhing a rational one in its place. But as, by throwing down the fhrines and altars of the church, he will raise no small ftir from the men of craft, fo I rejoice much, with your Lordthip, that he has fecured the good caftle of Farnham for a

retreat.

Feb. 8th, 1735-6.-You would advise him (Dr. Hoadley) to wafte no more of his time in controverfy, which, generally Speaking means nothing more, at the best, than to make plaufible to weak men what is contemptible to men of fenfe.

March 30th, 1736.-(On Lord Ilchefter's marriage to a great heiress.)-This happy event will, I hope, convince him, that whatever elfe is tranfacted there, matches, at least, are made in heaven.

Sept. 13th, 1736.-Those flumberers in ftalls fufp. et me very unjustly of ill defigns against their peace. For though there are many things in the church that I wholly dislike, yet while I am content to acquiefce in the ills, I fhould be glad to tafte a little of the good, and to have fome amends for the ugly affent and confent which no man of fenfe can approve. We read of fome of the earlieft difciples of Chrift, who followed him, not for his works, but his loaves. These were certainly blameable, because they saw his miracles; but to us, who have not the honour to fee the one, it should be allowed to have fome inclination to the other.Your Lordship knows a certain prelate, who, with a very low notion of the church's moft facred bread, has a very high relish, and a very large fhare, of her temporal. My appetite to both is equally moderate, and would be fatisfied almoft with any thing but mere emptiness. I have no pretenfions to riot in the feat with the elect; but with the finner only, in the gospel, to gather up the crumbs that fall from the table.

Two LETTERS from DAVID HUME to
DR. HUGH BLAIR, on the SUBJECT of

OSSIAN'S POEMS.

DEAR SIR,

I LIVE in a place where I have the pleasure of frequently hearing juftice done to your differtation; but never . heard it mentioned in a company, where fome one perfon or other did not exprefs his doubts with regard to the authenticity of the poems which are its fubject; and I often hear them rejected with dif dain and indignation as a palpable and most infamous forgery. This opinion has indeed become very prevalent among the

men

men of letters in London; and I can forefee, that in a few years the poems, if they continue to stand on their prefent footing, will be thrown afide, and will fall into final oblivion. It is in vain to fay that their beauty will fupport them, independent of their authenticity. No : that beauty is not fo much to the general tate as to infure you of this event; and if people be once disgufted with the idea of a forgery, they are thence apt to entertain a more disadvantageous notion of the excellency of the production itfelf. The abfurd pride and caprice of Macpherson himself, who fcorns, as he pre tends, to fatisfy any body that doubts his veracity, has tended much to confirm this general fcepticism: and I must own, for my own part, that though I have had many particular reasons to believe thefe poems genuine, more than it is poffible for any Englishman of letters to have, yet I am not entirely without my fcruples on that head. You think that the internal proofs in favour of thefe poems are very convincing. So they are but there are alfo internal reafons against them, particularly from the manners, notwithilanding all the art with which you have endeavoured to throw a varnih on that circumftance and the prefervation of fuch long and fuch connected poems by oral tradition alone, during a courfe of fourteen centuries, is fo much out of the ordinary courfe of human affairs, that it requires the strongest reafons to make us believe it. My prefent purpofe, therefore, is to apply to you, in the name of all the men of this, and, I may fay, of all other countries, to eftablish this capital point, and to give us proofs that thefe Poems are, I do not fay fo ancient as the age of Severus, but that they were not forged within thefe five years, by James Macpherson. Thefe proofs must not be arguments, but teftimonies. People's ears are fortified against the former; the latter may yet find their way, before the Poems are configned to total oblivion. Now, the teftimonies may, in my opinion, be of two kinds. Macpherfon pretends that there is an ancient MS. of part of Fingal in the family, I think, of Clanronald. Get this fact afcertained by more than one perfon of credit: let thefe perfons be acquainted with the Gaelic; let them compare the original and the tranflation, and let them teftify the fidelity of the latter.

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But the chief point in which it will be neceflary for you to exert yourself, will be, to get pofitive teftimony, from many different hands, that fuch poems are vulgarly

recited in the Highlands, and have been there long the entertainment of the people. This teftimony must be as particular as it is pofitive. It will not be fafficient that a Highland gentleman, or clergyman, fay, or write, to you, that he has heard fuch poems. Nobody questions that there are traditional poems in that part of the country, where the names of Offian and Fingal, and Oscar and Gaul, are men. tioned in every ftanza. The only doubt is, whether these poems have any farther refemblance to the Poems published by Macpherfon. I was told by Burke, a very ingenious 'Irish gentleman, author of a Tract on the Sublime and Beautiful, that, on the first publication of Macpherfon's book, all the Irish cried out, "We know all thefe poems we have always heard them from our infancy:" but when he asked more particular queftions, he could never learn that any one had ever heard, or could repeat, the original of any one paragraph of the pretended Translatien.

This generality, then, must be carefully guarded againfi, as being of no authority. Your connections among your brethren of the clergy may here be of great ufe to you. You may easily learn the names of all the minifters of that country who understand the language of it. You may write to them, expreffing the doubts that have arifen, an defiring them to end for fuch of the bards as remain, and make them rehearfe their ancient poems. Let the clergymen have the Tranflation in their hands, and let them write back to you, and inform you, that they heard fuch an one, (naming him,) living in fuch a place, rehearse the original of fuch a paffage, from fuch a page to fuch a page of the English Tranflation, which appeared exact and faithful. If you give to the public a fufficient number of fuch teftimonies, you may prevail. But I venture to foretel to you, that nothing lefs will fo much as command the attention of the public.

Becket tells me, that he is to give us a new edition of your Differtation, accompanied with fome remarks on Temora ; here is a favourable opportunity for you to execute th's purpofe. You have a juft and a laudable z al for the credit of thefe Poems. They are, if genuine,`one' of the greatest curiofities, in all refpe&ts, that ever was difcovered in the cominonealth of letters, and the child is, in a manner, become your's by adoption, as Macpherfon has totally abandoned all care of it. Thefe motives call upon you to exert yourfelf; and I think it were fuitable to

your

your candour, and moft fatisfactory alfo to the reader, to publish all the answers to all the letters you write, though fome of thefe anfwers fhould make fomewhat against your own opinion in this affair.We fhall always be the more affured, that no arguments are trained beyond their proper force, and no contrary arguments fuppreffed, where fuch an entire communication is made to us.

Becket joins me heartily in this application; and he owns to me, that the believers in the authenticity of these Poems diminish every day among the men of fenfe and reflection. Nothing less than what I propofe, can throw the balance on the other fide. I depart from hence in about three weeks, and fhould be glad to hear your refolution before that time.

This journey to Paris will certainly contribute much to my entertainment, and will certainly tend much to improve my fortune; fo that I have no reason to repent that I allowed myself to be dragged from my retreat. I fhall henceforth converfe with authors, but fhall not, probably, for fome time, have much leifure to perufe them; which is not, perhaps, the way of knowing them most to their advan tage. I carry only four books along with me-a Virgil, a Horace, a Taffo, and a Tacitus. I could have wifhed alfo to carry my Homer; but I found him too bulky. I own that, in common decency, I ought to have left my Horace behind me, and that I ought to be ashamed to look him in the face: for I am fenfible, that, at my years, no temptation could have feduced him from his retreat; nor would he ever have been induced to enter fo late in the path of ambition.-But I deny that I enter into the path of ambition; I only walk in the green fields of amufement and I affirm, that external amufement becomes more and more neceffary as one advances in years, and can find lefs fupply from his own paffions or imagination. I am, dear Sir, Your's most fincerely, DAVID HUME.

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(Signed) Life-freet, Leicefter-fields, Sept. 19, 1765.

LETTER II.

MY DEAR SIR,

I AM very glad you have undertaken the task which I used the freedom to recommend to you. Nothing less than what you propofe, will ferve the purpofe. You need expect no affiftance from Macpher fon, who flew into a paffion when I told him of the letter I had wrote to you: but

you must not mind fo ftrange and heteroclite a mortal, than whom I have scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable. He will probably depart for Florida with Governor Johnstone; and I would advile him to travel among the Chickafaws and Cherokees, in order to tame him and civilize him.

I fhould be much pleased to hear of the fuccefs of your labours. Your method of directing to me, is, under cover, to the Earl of Hertford, Northumberland-house, London. Any letters that come to me under that direction, will be fent over to me at Paris. I beg my compliments to Robertfon and Jardine. I am forry to hear of the state of Ferguson's health.John Hume went to the country yesterday with Lord Bute. I was introduced the other day to that noble Lord, at his defire. I believe him to be a very good man-a better man than a politician.

Since I wrote the above, I have been in company with Mrs. Montague, a lady of great distinction in this place, and a zealous partifan of Offian. I told her of y ur intentions, and even used the freedom to read your letter to her. She was extremely pleafed with your project; and the rather, as the Duke de Nivernois, the faid, had talked much to her on that fubject last winter; and defired, if poffible, to get collected fome proofs of the authenti city of thefe Poems, which he proposed to lay before the Académie des Belles Lettres at Paris. You fee, then, that you are upon a great ftage in this inquiry, and that many people have their eyes upon you. This is a new motive for rendering your proofs as complete as poffible. I cannot conceive any objection a man, even of the graveft character, could have to the publication of his letters, which will only atteft a plain fact known to him. Such fcruples, as they occur, you must endeavour to remove. For on this trial of your's will the the judgment of the public finally depend. Lord Bath, who was in the company, agreed with me, that fuch documen:s of authenticity are entirely neceffary and indifpentable.

Please to write to me as foon as you make any advances, that I may have fomething to lay on the subject to the literati of Paris. I beg my compliments to all thofe who may bear that name at Edin burgh I cannot but look upon all of them as my friends.

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I am your's fincerely, (Signed) DAVID HUME. P. S. I depart hence in eight days.

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN APRIL.

As the List of New Publications, contained in the Monthly Magazine, is the ONLY COMPLETE LIST PUBLISHED, and confequently the only one that can be useful to the Public for purposes of general reference; it is requested that Authors and Publishers will continue to communicate Notices of their Works, (poft paid), and they will always be faithfully inferted FREE of EXPENCE.

AGRICULTURE.

Gramina Britannica; or, Reprefentations of the British Graffes with Remarks, and occafional Defcriptions. By F. L. Knapp, Efq. F. L. S. &c. luftrated with coloured Plates. Royal 4to. 81. 8s. boards.

A general View of the Agriculture of Hertfordshire; drawn up for the Confideration of the Board of Agriculture; by the Secretary of the Board. Svo. 6s. fewed.

COMMERCIAL.

British Indian Book-keeping; a new Syftem for the practical Purposes of the Gentleman and the Merchant; being calculated to Supply a Defideratum in the Act, by a perfpicuous Procefs never before adverted to; complete of itself, and easy of Incorporation with any regular Method now in Ufe, effecting a conftant Exhibition of the Balance, independent of a ledger. By J. W. Fulton, of the Board of Revenue, Bengal. 8vo. 6s.

DRAMA.

The Counterfeit; a Farce. By Andrew Franklin. 2s.

A Dramatic Synopfis; containing, an Effay on the political and moral Use of the Stage; involving Remarks on the Dramatic Writers of the prefent Day, and Strictures on the Performers of the two Theatres. 4s. fewed. Maids; a new After-piece. 18

The new Melo Drame, called Valentine and Orfon; as now performing at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Written by T. Dibdin.

From Inn to Inn; an Operative Comedy; with Engravings. 3s.

The Sailor's Daughter; a Comedy. By Richard Cumberland, Efq. now performing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. 2s. 6d.

Obfervations in Defence of the Scenic Exhibitions at the Royalty Theatre, and on the intolerant Cenfure of the Drama in general; contained in the folemn Proteft of the Rev. Thomas Thirlwall, in the Name of the Society for the Suppreffion of Vice. By John Percival, Efq. is. 6d.

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Effays on Hiftory; particularly the Jewish, Affyrian, Grecian, and Roman: with Examinations, for the Use of young Perfons. By John Holland. 12mo. 400 pages. 5s. boards.

The Wonders of the Microscope; being an Illuftration of the Wonders of the Creation in the minuter Parts of Nature. Embellished with feveral exceedingly large and highly curious Plates. 2s. 6d. Tabart and Co.

HISTORY.

Volney's View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of North America; to which are annexed, fome Accounts of Florida, the French Colony on the Scioto, certain Canadian Colonies, and the Savages or Natives. Tranflated from the French of C. F. Volney. With Maps; large 8vo. 12s. boards.

LAW.

An Abftract of the Act, commencing the 5th of April, 1804, for repealing all the former Duties on Houfes, Windows, Servants, Carriages, Horfes, Dogs, Horfe Dealers, Hair Powder, and Armorial Bearings; and granting new Duties on Carriages conftructed by Coachmakers, and on Perfons felling Carriages by Auction or Commission: with an Index to the Act for confolidating the Regulations contained in all preceding As relative to the Affeffed Taxes. (The Abstract and Index fold feparately.) 2s. 6d.

The Practice of the Commiffioners, Col. lectors, and other Officers, under the Authority of the Acts relating to the Affeffed Taxes, including the Powers of Juftices of the Peace: a correct Abridgment of the feveral Statutes; with Tables of the Duties, adjudged Cafes, explanatory Notes, and original Precedents. By Thomas Walter Williams, Barrister. 4s. 6d. boards.

The Income A&t explained; wherein its Intricacies are rendered intelligible. By R. Elfe, Clerk to the Bath Commiffioners, 2s. 6d.

The important Trial, John and George Cowell verfus the Treasurer of the Weft India Dock Company, upon the Question of Cooperage on Rums, tried before a Special Jury, on the 7th of March, 1804; in which Mr. Garrow's Speech is given verbatim. IS.

The Trial, A. Wallace and Co. verfus the Treasurer of the West India Dock Company, relative to an Order prohibiting Brokers and Agents from following their accustomed Bufinefs; with Mr. Garrow's Speech. 15.

The Trial at large of William Sparling, Efq. and Samuel Martin Colquitt, Efq. at the Affizes held at Lancaster, April the 4th,

on

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