166 PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE. monitions may not relate and be of service to themselves, and this quite distinct from a positive persuasion to the contrary, a persuasion from reflection that they are innocent and blameless in these respects. Sermon upon Self-Deceit. PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, born 1694, died 1773, famous in his day as a wit, a courtier, a politician, and patron of literature, is still remembered for his Letters to his Son Philip Stanhope, Lond., 1774, 2 vols. 4to; New edition, with Additions, edited by Lord Mahon [5th Earl Stanhope], Lond., 1845-53, 5 vols. 8vo. The first edition was republished in Boston, Mass., in 1779. Miscellaneous Works, with Memoirs by M. Maty, M.D., Lond., 1777-78, 2 vols. 4to; Supplement to his Letters, Lond., 1787, 4to. "It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the let ters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed virum volitare per ora. . . . Does not Lord Chesterfield give precepts for uniting wickedness and the graces? Son, I think, might be made a very pretty book. Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every gentleman."-DR. JOHNSON. It may here be remarked that Johnson's letter to Chesterfield was grossly unjust. GOOD BREEDING. A friend of yours and mine has very justly defined good breeding to be, sult of much good sense, some good nature, the reand a little self-denial for the sake of others, and with a view to obtain the same indulgence from them." Taking this for granted (as I think it cannot be disputed), it is astonishing to me that anybody who has good sense and good nature can essentially fail in good breeding. indeed, they vary according to persons, As to the modes of it, places, and circumstances, and are only to he acquired by observation and experience; but the substance of it is everywhere and eternally the same. particular societies, what good morals are to Good manners are, to society in general-their cement and their security. And as laws are enacted to enforce good morals, or at least to prevent the ill effects of bad ones, so there are certain rules of civility, universally implied and received, to enforce good manners and punish bad ones. And indeed there seems to be less difference between the crimes and punishments than at first one would imagine. The immoral man who invades another's property is justly hanged for it; and the ill-bred disturbs the quiet and comforts of private man who by his ill manners invades and life is by common consent as justly banished society. Mutual complaisances, attentions, and sacrifices of little conveniences, are as natural an implied contract between civilized people as protection and obedience are between kings and subjects; whoever, in either case, violates that compact justly forfeits all advantages arising from it. For my own sciousness of doing a good action that of doing a civil one is the most pleasing; and part I really think that, next to the conthe epithet which I should covet the most, next to that of Aristides, would be that of well-bred. Thus much for good breeding in general: I will now consider some of the various modes and degrees of it. the respect which they should show to those whom they acknowledge to be infinitely Very few, scarcely any, are wanting in princes, and public persons of distinguished their superiors, such as crowned heads, showing that respect which is different. The and eminent posts. It is the manner of man of fashion and of the world expresses and without concern; whereas a man who it in its fullest extent, but naturally, easily, it awkwardly; one sees that he is not used is not used to keep good company expresses but I never saw the worst-bred man living to it, and that it costs him a great deal; guilty of lolling, whistling, scratching his head, and such like indecencies, in company show that respect which everybody means that he respected. In such companies, therefore, the only point to be attended to is, to graceful manner. and experience must teach you. to show, in an easy, unembarrassed, and This is what observation upon to make part of them is, for the time at least, supposed to be on a footing of equality with In mixed companies, whoever is admitted the rest and, consequently, as there is no behaviour, and to be less ple are apt to take a greater latitude in their one principal object of awe and respect, peotain bounds, which are upon no occasion to be transgressed. But and so they may, provided it be within cerupon their guard: though no one is entitled to distinguished justly, every mark of civility and good these occasions, breeding. Ease is allowed, but carelessmarks of respect, every one claims, and very If a man accosts you, and talks to you ever ness and negligence are strictly forbidden. ness, it is brutality, to show him, by a manifest inattention to what he says, that you so dully or frivolously, it is worse than rudethink him a fool or a blockhead, and not worth hearing. It is much more so with regard to women, who, of whatever rank they are, are entitled, in consideration of their sex, not only to an attentive, but an officious good breeding from men. Their little wants, likings, dislikes, preferences, antipathies, and fancies must be officiously attended to, and, if possible, guessed at and anticipated, by a well-bred man. You must never usurp to yourself those conveniences and gratifications which are of common right, such as the best places, the best dishes, &c.; but on the contrary always decline them yourself, and offer them to others, who, in their turns, will offer them to you; so that, upon the whole, you will in your turn enjoy your share of the common right. It would be endless for me to enumerate all the particular instances in which a well-bred man shows his good breeding in good company; and it would be injurious to you to suppose that your own good sense will not point them out to you; and then your own good nature will recommend and your self-interest enforce the practice. There is a third sort of good breeding in which people are the most apt to fail from a very mistaken notion that they cannot fail at all. I mean with regard to one's most familiar friends and acquaintances, or those who really are our inferiors; and there, undoubtedly, a greater degree of ease is not only allowed, but proper, and contributes much to the comforts of a private social life. But ease and freedom have their bounds, which must by no means be violated. A certain degree of negligence and carelessness becomes injurious and insulting, from the real or supposed inferiority of the persons; and that delightful liberty of conversation among a few friends is soon destroyed, as liberty often has been, by being carried to licentiousness. But example explains things best, and I will put a pretty strong case: Suppose you and me alone together: I believe you will allow that I have as good a right to unlimited freedom in your company as either you or I can possibly have in any other; and I am apt to believe, too, that you would indulge me in that freedom as far as anybody would. But, notwithstanding this, do you imagine that I should think there was no bounds to that freedom? I assure you I should not think so; and I take myself to be as much tied down by a certain degree of good manners to you, as by other degrees of them to other people. The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connexions, and friendships require a degree of good breeding both to preserve and cement them. The best of us have our bad sides, and it is as imprudent as it is ill-bred to exhibit them. I shall not use ceremony with you; it would be misplaced between us; but I shall certainly observe that degree of good breeding with you which is, in the first place, decent, and which, I am sure, is absolutely necessary to make us like one another's company long. Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son. WILLIAM WARBURTON, D.D., born 1698, left school (he was never at college) 1715, and for about four years practised as an attorney at Newark; received deacon's orders, 1723, Preacher to Lincoln's Inn, 1746, Prebendary of Gloucester, 1753, and of Durham, 1755, Dean of Bristol, 1757, Bishop of Gloucester, 1759, died 1779. He was author of Miscellaneous Translations, Lond., 1723 (some 1724), 12mo; Critical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and Miracles, as related by Histo rians, Lond., 1727, 12mo (this and the Translations were suppressed); The Alliance between Church and State, Lond., 1741, 8vo; Julian, 1750, 8vo; and other works. His greatest production was The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, Lond., 1737, etc., never completed: new edition, Lond., Tegg, 1846, 3 vols. 8vo; Warburton's Works [edited by Bishop Hurd], Lond., 1788, 7 vols. 4to; new edition, Lond., 1811, 12 vols. 8vo. "Warburton's Divine Legation delighted me more than any book I had yet [at 15] read. The luminous theory of hieroglyphics, as a stage in the progress of society, between picture writing and alphabetic character, is perhaps the only extraordinary work; but the uncertain and probaddition made to the stock of knowledge in this ably false suppositions about the pantheism of the ancient philosophers and the object of the mysteries (in reality, perhaps, somewhat like the freemasonry of our own times) are well adapted to rouse and exercise the adventurous genius of youth."-SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH: Life, ch. i. "The Divine Legation of Moses is a monument, already crumbling into dust, of the vigour and the weakness of the human mind. If Warburton's new argument proved anything, it would be a demonstration against the legislator who left his people without the knowledge of a future state. But some episodes of the work, on the Greek philosophy, the hieroglyphics of Egypt, &c., are entitled to the praise of learning, imagination, and discernment.". EDWARD GIBBON: Miscell. Works, edit. 1837, 88, n. The reader will find a graphic portrait of Warburton by a good painter in our article on Lord Bolingbroke in this volume. BISHOP WARBURTON TO HURD. PRIOR PARK, Dec. 27, 1761. Let me wish you (as we all do) all the happiness that goodness can derive from this season. The honour this country derives from the Duke of York's visit can hardly compensate the bad news of a Spanish war, which puts the city of London in a consternation. This event does honour to Mr. Pitt's sagacity, and the wisdom of his advice upon it. Whether this war, which was foreseen by nobody to be inevitable but by him, can be successfully managed by anybody but by him, time must show; for I would not pretend to be wiser than our teachers, I mean, the news-writers, who refer all doubtful cases, as the Treasury does all desperate payments, to time. What you say of Hume is true: and (what either I said in my last, or intended to say) you have taught him to write so much better, that he has thoroughly confirmed your system. I have been both too ill and too lazy to finish my Discourse on the Holy Spirit. Not above half of it is yet printed. I have been extremely entertained with the wars of Fingal [Ossian]. It can be no cheat, for I think the enthusiasm of this superficial sublime could hardly be counterfeit. A modern writer would have been less simple and uniform. Thus far had I writ ten when your letter of Christmas-day came to hand; as you will easily understand by my submitting to take shame upon me, and assuring you that I am fully convinced of my false opinion delivered just above concerning Fingal. I did not consider the matter as I ought. Your reasons for the forgery are unanswerable. And of all these reasons but one occurred to me, the want of external evidence; and this, I own, did shock me. But you have waked me from a very pleasing dream; and made me hate the impostor, which is the most uneasy sentiment of our waking thoughts. Sterne has published his fifth and sixth volumes of Tristram. They are wrote pretty much like the first and second; but whether they will restore his reputation as a writer with the public is another question. The fellow himself is an irrecoverable scoundrel. I think the booksellers have an intention of employing Baskerville to print Pope in 4to; so they sent me the last octavo to look over. I have added the enclosed to the long note in the beginning of the Rape of the Lock, in answer to an impertinence of Joseph Warton. When you have perused it, you will send it back. I have sometimes thought of collecting my scattered anecdotes and critical observations together, for the foundation of a life of Pope, which the booksellers tease me for. If I do that, all of that kind must be struck out of the notes of that edition. You could help me nobly to fill up the canvas. JOSEPH SPENCE, born 1699, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, 1728-38, and Regius Professor of Modern History, 1742, Prebendary of Durham, 1754, was drowned in a canal in his garden, 1768. Among his works are An Essay on Pope's 1727, 8vo; Polymetis; or, An Enquiry conTranslation of Homer's Odyssey, Lond., cerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Ancient Artists, Lond., 1747, royal fol.; Crito, by Sir Harry Beaumont, Lond., 1752, Lond., 1753, 8vo. He left a valuable MS. 8vo; Moralities, by Sir Harry Beaumont, collection of Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters, which were first published in 1820, crown 8vo, two editions,-one edited lished the same day: Malone's edition is by E. Malone, one by S. W. Singer,-pubonly a Selection; Singer's edition, 2d edit., 1858, fp. 8vo, professes to be authentic. "Enough has been proved to show that, instead of a verbatim' reprint, what was wanted was a carefully revised, collected, and annotated edition, and that Mr. Singer's, neat and cheap, unhappily stops the way."-Lond. Athen., 1859, 250. THE ENEID AND VIRGIL'S GENIUS. It preserves more to us of the religion of the Romans than all the other Latin poets (excepting only Ovid) put together; and gives us the forms and appearances of their deities as strongly as if we had so many pictures of them preserved to us, done by some of the best hands in the Augustan age. It is remarkable that he is commended by some of the ancients themselves for the strength of his imagination as to this particular, though in general that is not his character so much as exactness. He was certainly the most correct poet even of his time; in which all false thoughts and idle ornaments in writing were discouraged and it is certain that there is but little of invention in his Eneid; much less, I believe, than is generally imagined. Almost all the little facts in it are built on history; and even as to the particular lines no one perhaps ever borrowed more from the poets that preceded him than he did. He goes so far back as to old Ennius; and often inserts whole verses from him and some other of their earliest writers. The obsoleteness of their style did not hinder him much in this; for he was a particular lover of their old language; and no doubt inserted many more antiquated words in his poem than we can discover at present. Judgment is his distinguishing character; and his great excellence consisted in chusing and ranging things aright. Whatever he borrowed he had the skill of making his own, by weaving it so well into his work that it looks all of a piece: even those parts of his poems where this may be most practised resembling a fine piece of Mosaic, in which all the parts, though of such different marbles, unite together; and the various shades and colours are so artfully disposed as to melt off insensibly into one another. One of the greatest beauties in Virgil's private character was his modesty and goodnature. He was apt to think humbly of himself and handsomely of others; and was ready to show his love of merit even where it might seem to clash with his own. He was the first who recommended Horace to Mæcenas. OBSERVATIONS ON HORACE. is in these that he shews that talent for criticism in which he so very much excelled; especially in his long epistle to Augustus; and that other to the Pisos, commonly called his Art of Poetry. They abound in strokes which shew his great knowledge of mankind, and in that pleasing way he had of teaching philosophy, of laughing away vice, and insinuating virtue into the minds of his readers. They may serve as much as almost any writings can, to make men wiser and better: for he has the most agreeable way of preaching that ever was. He was, in general, an honest good man himself: at least he does not seem to have had any one ill-natured vice about him. Other poets we admire; but there is not any of the ancient poets that I could wish to have been acquainted with so much as Horace. One cannot be very conversant with his writings without having a friendship for the man; and longing to have just such another as he was for one's friend. GILBERT WEST, LL.D., born about 1700 to 1705, died 1756, published among other things Odes of Pindar, with several other Pieces in Prose and Verse, translated from the Greek, etc., Lond., 1749, 4to; Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Lond., 1747, Svo. "This is one of the acutest and best-reasoned Resurrection of Christ."-ORME's Bibl. Bib., 464. works which have appeared in English on the Horace was the fittest man in the world for a court where wit was so particularly encouraged. No man seems to have had more, and all of the genteelest sort; or to have been better acquainted with mankind. His gaiety, and even his debauchery, made him still the more agreeable to Mæcenas: so that it is no wonder that his acquaintance with that Minister grew up to so high a degree of friendship as is very uncommon between a first Minister and a poet; and which had probably such an effect upon the latter as one shall scarce ever hear of between any two friends the most on a level: for there is some room to conjecture that he hastened himself out of this world to accompany his great friend in the next. Horace has been most generally celebrated for his lyric poems; in which he far exceeded all the Roman poets, and perhaps was no un"His work is noticed here on account of the lumiworthy rival of several of the Greek which nous and satisfactory manner in which he has harseems to have been the height of his ambi-monized the several accounts of the evangelical histion. His next point of merit, as it has tory of the resurrection."-HORNE'S Bibl. Bib., 138. been usually reckoned, was his refining satire; and bringing it from the coarseness THE SIMPLICITY OF THE SACRED WRITERS. and harshness of Lucilius to the genteel, easy manner which he, and perhaps nobody but he and one person more in all the ages since, has ever possessed. I do not remember that any one of the ancients says any thing of his Epistles: and this has made me sometimes imagine that his Epistles and Satires might originally have passed under one and the same name; perhaps that of Sermons. They are generally written in a style approaching to that of conversation; and are so much alike that several of the satires might just as well be called epistles, as several of his epistles have the spirit of satire in them. This latter part of his works, by whatever name you please to call them (whether satires and epistles, or discourses in verse on moral and familiar subjects), is what, I must own, I love much better even than the lyric part of his works. It I cannot forbear taking notice of one other mark of integrity which appears in all the compositions of the sacred writers, and particularly the evangelists; and that is the simple, unaffected, unornamental, and unostentatious manner in which they deliver truths so important and sublime, and facts so magnificent and wonderful, as are capable, one would think, of lighting up a flame of oratory, even in the dullest and coldest breasts. They speak of an angel descending from heaven to foretell the miraculous conception of Jesus; of another proclaiming his birth, attended by a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, "and saying Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men;" of his star appearing in the East; of angels ministering to him in the wilderness; of his glory in the mount; of a voice twice heard from vols. 8vo. Miscellaneous Works, by Rev. T. Morell, Lond., 1839, imp. 8vo. Letters, Shrewsb., 1790, 8vo. Memoirs, by Job Orton, Salop, 1766, 8vo. Life and Correspondence, Lond., 1831, 5 vols. 8vo. His Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, Lond., 1750, 12mo, has been frequently republished. people."-DR. ADAM CLARKE. the Bible affords all the opportunity a caviller "And let me tell you, a man who comments on could wish for. But your judgment is always so profitable a reader to you as the least of your true, and your decision so right, that I am as unflock."-BISHOP WARBURTON TO DR. DODDRIDGE, Cambridge, April 4, 1739. DEVOTIONAL FEELINGS. heaven, saying, "This is my beloved son ;" of innumerable miracles performed by him, and by his disciples in his name; of his knowing the thoughts of men; of his foretelling future events; of prodigies accompanying his crucifixion and death; of an angel descending in terrors, opening his sepulchre, and frightening away the soldiers "The Family Expositor is a very judicious who were set to guard it; of his rising from work. It has long been highly esteemed, and is the dead, ascending into heaven, and pour-worthy of all the credit it has among religious ing down, according to his promise, the various and miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit upon his apostles and disciples. All these amazing incidents do these inspired historians relate nakedly and plainly without any of the colourings and heightenings of rhet oric, or so much as a single note of admiration; without making any comment or remark upon them, or drawing from them any conclusion in honour either of their master or themselves, or to the advantage of the religion they preached in his name; but contenting themselves with relating the naked truth, whether it seems to make for them or against them without either magnifying on the one hand, or palliating on the other, they leave their cause to the unbiassed judgment of mankind, seeking, like genuine apostles of the Lord of truth, to convince rather than to persuade; and therefore coming, as St. Paul speaks of his preaching, "not with excellency of speech,-not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but with demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, that," adds he, "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." And let it be remembered that he who speaks this wanted not learning, art, or eloquence, as is evident from his speeches recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and from the testimony of that great critic Longinus, who, in reckoning up the Grecian orators, places among them Paul of Tarsus. PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D.D., born 1702, died 1751, published a number of theological treatises, sermons, &c., but is best known by his Family Expositor; or, A Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, with Critical Notes and Practical Improvements, Lond., 1760-62, 6 vols. 4to; with his Life by Dr. Kippis, Lond., 1808, 4 vols. 4to, or 6 vols. 8vo; new edition, Lond., 1839, imperial fol., also 1840, 4 vols. 8vo; other editions. Whole Works, by D. Williams and the Rev. E. Parsons, Leeds, 1802, 10 vols. 8vo and royal 8vo. A Course of Lectures on the Principal Subjects in Pneumatology, Ethics, and Divinity, published by Rev. Samuel Clarke, Lond., 1763, 4to; 3d edit., by A. Kippis, D.D., Lond., 1794, 2 I hope, my dear, you will not be offended when I tell you that I am, what I hardly thought it possible, without a miracle, that I should have been, very easy and happy without you. My days begin, pass, and end in pleasure, and seem short because they are so delightful. It may seem strange to say it, but really so it is, I hardly feel that I want anything. I often think of you, and pray for you, and bless God on your account, and please myself with the hope of many comfortable days, and weeks, and years with you; yet I am not at all anxious about your return, or indeed about anything else. And the reason, the great and sufficient reason, is that I have more of the presence of God with me than I remember ever to have enjoyed in any one month of my life. He enables me to live for him, and to live with him. When I awake in the morning, which is always before it is light, I address myself to him, and converse with him, speak to him while I am lighting my candle and putting on my clothes, and have often more delight before I come out of my chamber, though it be hardly a quarter of an hour after my awaking, than I have enjoyed for whole days, or, perhaps, weeks, of my life. He meets me in my study, in secret, in family devotions. It is pleasant to read, pleasant to compose, pleasant to converse with my friends at home; pleasant to visit those abroad-the poor, the sick; pleasant to write letters of necessary business by which any good can be done; pleasant to go out and preach the gospel to poor souls, of which some are thirsting for it, and others dying without it; pleasant in the week-day to think how near another Sabbath is; but, oh! much more, much more pleasant, to think how near eternity is, and how short the journey through this wilderness, and that it is but a step from earth to heaven. |