gifted correspondents. As a controversialist, he is keen and dexterous, but deals too much in mere satire and invective; his personal conduct was also frequently marked by the rancour of party. Smalridge styles him, "vir in nullo literarum genere hospes, in plerisque artibus et studiis duo et feliciter exercitatus, in maxime perfectis literarum disciplinis perfectissimus." Dr Warton says, " Atterbury was, on the whole, rather a man of ability than a genius. He writes more with elegance and correctness, than with force of thinking or reasoning. His letters to Pope are too much crowded with very trite quotations from the classics. It is said, he either translated, or intended to translate, the Georgics of Virgil,' and to write the Life of Cardinal Wolsey,' whom he much resembled. Dr Warburton had a mean opinion of his critical abilities, and of his 'Discourse on the Iapis of Virgil.' He was thought to be the author of the Life of Waller,' prefixed to the first octavo edition of that poet's works. The turbulent and imperious temper of this haughty prelate were long felt and remembered in the college over which he presided." Pope has written an epitaph on Bishop Atterbury, in the form of a dialogue between himself and his daughter, who is supposed to be expiring in his arms. It is as follows:

SHE." Yes, we have lived,- -one pang, and then we part!
May heaven, dear father, now have all thy heart!

Yet, ah! how much we lov'd, remember still,

Till you are dust like me."

HE." Dear shade, I will!

Then mix this dust with thine. O spotless ghost!

O more than fortune, friends, or country lost!

Is there on earth, one care, one wish beside?

Yes! Save my country, Heav'n! he said, and died."

Jeremy Collier.

BORN A. D. 1650.-DIED A. D. 1726.

JEREMY COLLIER was born in 1650. His father and grandfather were both clergymen in the church of England. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. A. in 1672, and that of M. A. in 1676. Having entered into priest's orders, he obtained the rectory of Compton in Suffolk, which he filled for six years. In 1685, be removed to London, where he held for some time the Gray's-inn lectureship. He soon after got engaged in a very sharp controversy with Dr Burnet, afterwards bishop of Salisbury.

In December, 1688, Dr Burnet published a smart pamphlet under the title, An Inquiry into the present State of Affairs, and in particular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these circumstances, and whether we are bound to treat with him, and call him back again, or not?' In this piece, the doctor gives his sentiments very freely as to the behaviour of King James, and the conduct that was to be observed towards him, as the reader will see from the following short quotation. "In all that I have said concerning his desertion, I limit my reflections to his first leaving of Whitehall; for the accident at Feversham, and

what followed after that, cannot be called a return to his people; and since the seals never appeared, and the king never spake of a parliament, nor altered his measures in any thing, but still prosecuted his first design by his second escape, his deserting is still to be dated from his first going from Whitehall; and he having given that just advantage against himself, which came after all that series of injustice and violence that had gone before it, no man can think that it was not very fitting to carry it as far as it would go, and not to treat him any more upon the foot of acknowledging him king." It was in answer to this treatise, and particularly to the argument insisted upon in this passage, that Mr Collier wrote the piece entitled, "The Desertion discussed, in a Letter to a Country Gentleman,' London, 1688, 4to. He labours in this short pamphlet to show, that the king, before his withdrawing, had sufficient grounds to be apprehensive of danger; that his leaving any representative behind him was impracticable at that juncture; and that there were no grounds, from the laws of the realm, to pronounce the throne void from such a retreat. To this pam

phlet of Collier's, an answer was written by Edmund Bohun, in which he gives Collier the following character. "The author of it is my acquaintance, and a person for whom I have a great esteem, both on the account of his profession, and of his personal worth, learning, and sobriety; so that I cannot believe he had any ill design, either in the writing, or the publishing of it, his zeal for the church of England's loyalty, and the difficulty, and the unusualness of the present case, having been the occasions, if not the causes, of his mistake; and therefore I will endeavour to show him, and the world, his error, with as much candour and sweetness, as he himself can wish; because I have the same design for the main that he had, viz. the honour of the church of England, and the safety of government, and especially our monarchy." Collier's performance gave such offence, that after the government was settled, he was seized and committed to Newgate, where he continued a close prisoner for some months; but was at length discharged, without being brought to a trial. He still, however, adhered closely to his original principles, in the defence and exposition of which he published a variety of pieces of greater warmth than cogency of argument. His zeal brought him into frequent collision with the government, which, upon the whole, treated him with considerable lenity, considering the extreme unguardedness with which he both wrote and spoke. Collier, and two other clergymen, of the names of Cook and Snatt, attended Perkins and Friend on the scaffold, and administered absolution to them. This affair made a great noise at the time, and caused the whole three to be outlawed. Bishop Kennet notices it in these terms: "On April the 27th, the lord-chief-justice (Holt) of the king's-bench, did likewise represent to the grand jury, the shameful and pernicious practice of those three absolving priests. Whereupon the jury made a presentment to the court, that Collier, Cook, and Snatt, clerks, did take upon them to pronounce and give absolution to Sir William Perkins, and Sir John Friend, at the time of their execution at Tyburn, immediately before they had severally delivered a paper to the sheriff at Middlesex, wherein they had severally endeavoured to justify the treasons for which they were justly condemned and executed. And that they, the said Collier, Cook, and Snatt, had thereby countenanced the

same treasons, to the great encouragement of other persons to commit the like treasons, and to the scandal of the church of England established by law, and to the disturbance of the peace of this kingdom. Upon which the court ordered an indictment to be preferred against them; and on May the 8th, Mr Cook and Mr Snatt were committed to Newgate, for suspicion of high-treason and treasonable practices. But such was the lenity of the government, that no manner of punishment was inflicted on them; and Mr Collier, with great assurance, published several papers to justify his practice."

6

The next controversy in which our ecclesiastic engaged was, if possible, of a still more formidable character than any of the preceding: it was no less than an exposition of the immorality of the English stage, in the course of which he had to contend, almost single-handed with such men as Dryden, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and all the leading wits of the day. In 1698, he published a book entitled: A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, together with the Sense of Antiquity upon this Argument.' In this book, he begins with showing the immodesty and indecency of the stage, and the ill consequences that attend it; he proves next, that the Roman and Greek theatres were much more inoffensive than the English, and then produces the authorities of Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and the French poet Corneile, against the modern stage. He then proceeds to open the indictment by a charge of profaneness, which he supports by instances from several pieces of Mr Dryden, Mr Otway, Mr Congreve, and Vanbrugh. His second charge is the abuse of the clergy. His third relates to immorality encouraged by the stage. He then descends to some remarks upon Amphitryon, exposes what he calls the horrid profanenesss of the comical history of Don Quixotte; criticises The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger;' and concludes with producing the opinions of the heathen philosophers, orators, and historians, the restraints imposed upon the stage by the laws in several countries, and the sentiments of the church. In answer to this, Mr Congreve published a little piece, entitled, Amendments of Mr Collier's false and imperfect citations from the old Batchelor, the Double Dealer,' &c. Mr Vanbrugh, afterwards Sir John Vanbrugh, likewise published a small piece in support of his own performances, under the title of 'A short Vindication of the Relapse, and the Provok'd Wife.' To these and other opponents, Collier briskly and promptly replied in several successive pieces; and, in the issue, drove his antagonists fairly from the field. A more pacific subject next engaged his fruitful pen, namely, a translation of Moreri's excellent dictionary. It is well-executed, and, in the additional original matter affords a very creditable specimen of the extent and accuracy of Collier's attainments. The two first volumes were printed in the year 1701, and the author gave notice in his preface, that such of the articles as were of a later date than the year 1688, were composed by another hand. The third volume was published under the title of A Supplement,' &c. in 1705, and was reprinted in 1727. The fourth and last volume, which in the title-page is called 'An Appendix,' as in reality it is to the other three, was printed in 1721. The whole is certainly a great treasure of historical, geographical, and poetical learning.

His next great work was entitled, An Ecclesiastical History of

Great Britain, chiefly of England, from the first planting of Christianity, to the end of the Reign of King Charles II. With a brief Account of the Affairs of Religion in Ireland. Collected from the best ancient Historians, Councils, and Records, fol. 1702, vol. i. which comes down to the Reign of Henry VII. "The method in which this History is written," says the author of his life in the 'Biographia Britannica,' "is very clear and exact; his authorities are constantly cited by the author, his remarks are short and pertinent, and, with respect to the dissertations that are occasionally inserted, they are such as tend to illustrate and explain those perplexed points of which they treat, and contribute thereby to the clearer understanding of the narration. The style is very uniform and grave, which is the more remarkable, because the author, in other writings, has shown as lively a fancy, and as much quickness of wit, as any writer of his own time; but he knew this would be improper here, and therefore it is with great judgment avoided. He speaks modestly and respectfully of most of the Historians who went before him, and if he is any where severe, he takes care that his reason shall go along with his censure. His own peculiar sentiments with respect to religion and government may be in some places discerned; but taking the whole together, it will be found as judicious and impartial a work, as the world, in doing justice to his talents, could have expected."

In 1713, Collier was consecrated a bishop by Dr Hickes, one of the non-juring clergy, who had himself received consecration from the hands of the deprived bishops of Norwich, Ely, and Peterborough. He died in 1762.

"Collier," say Dr Johnson, "was formed for a controvertist; with sufficient learning; with diction vehement and pointed, though often vulgar and incorrect; with unconquerable pertinacity; with wit in the highest degree keen and sarcastic; and with all those powers exalted and invigorated by just confidence in his cause. Thus qualified, and thus incited, he walked out to battle, and assailed at once most of the living writers, from Dryden to Durfey. His outset was violent: those passages which while they stood single had passed with little notice, when they were accumulated and exposed together, excited horror: the wise and the pious caught the alarm, and the nation wondered why it had so long suffered irreligion and licentiousness to be openly taught at the public charge. Nothing now remained for the poets but to resist or fly. Dryden's conscience, or his prudence, angry as he was, withheld him from the conflict; Congreve and Vanbrugh attempted answers. Congreve, a very young man, elated with success, and impatient of censure, assumed an air of confidence and security. His chief artifice of controversy is to retort upon his adversary his own words; he is very angry, and hoping to conquer Collier with his own weapons, allows himself in the use of every term of contumely and contempt: but he has the sword without the arm of Scanderbeg; he has his antagonist's coarseness, but not his strength. Collier replied; for contest was his delight; he was not to be frighted from his purpose, or his prey. The cause of Congreve was not tenable: whatever glosses he might use for the defence or palliation of single passages, the general tenour and tendency of his plays must always be condemned. It is acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his

works will make no man better; and that their ultimate effect is to represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those obligations by which life ought to be regulated. The stage found other advocates, and the dispute was protracted through ten years: but at last comedy grew more modest, and Collier lived to see the reward of his labour, in the reformation of the theatre. Of the powers by which this important victory was achieved, a quotation from 'Love for Love,' and the remark upon it, may afford a specimen. Sir Sampson. "Sampson's a very good name; for your Sampsons were strong dogs from the beginning." Angelica. "Have a care- -If you remember, the strongest Sampson of your name pulled an old house over his head at last." Here you have the sacred history burlesqued, and Sampson once more brought into the house of Dagon, to make sport for the Philistines.'"

Edmund Calamy.

BORN A. D. 1671.-DIED A. d. 1732.

EDMUND CALAMY, the third of his family who attained to distinguished reputation as a divine, and as an asserter of religious liberty, was the grandson of Edmund Calamy, B. D., and son of Edmund Calamy ejected from Moreton, in Essex. He was born in Aldermanbury, April 5th, 1671. He received his grammar-learning in Merchant-tailors' school under the celebrated Mr Hartcliffe. Such was

Mr Hartcliffe's esteem of his pupil, that he volunteered his services to procure him admission into one of the universities. But his own inclinations, as well as the wishes of his friends, led him into a different course. He was first sent to Mr Doolittle's academy at Islington, and subsequently to another dissenting academy kept by Mr Samuel Cradock at Wickham-Brook, Suffolk. In 1688 he went to the university of Utrecht. While resident there he was offered a professorship in the university of Edinburgh, by Mr Carstairs the principal. This he declined, but soon after returned to England. In May, 1691, he went to Oxford for the purpose of prosecuting his studies, and informing himself more fully respecting the points in dispute between the conformists and nonconformists. Here he enjoyed the friendship of Pocock, Barnard, and Dodwell.

We shall select a few sentences from an interesting part of his journal, in which he relates the steps by which he was led to sacrifice very fair prospects of a temporal nature, and unite himself with the dissenters. "I had it now," he writes, "particularly under consideration whether I should determine for conformity or nonconformity. I thought Oxford no unfit place to pursue this matter in. I was not likely to be there prejudiced in favour of the dissenters, who were commonly run down and ill spoken of. I was entertained from day to day with what tended to give any man the best opinion of the church by law established. I was a witness of her learning, wealth, grandeur, and splendour. I was treated by the gentlemen of the university with all imaginable civility. I heard their sermons, and frequently attended their public lectures and academical exercises. I was free in conversation as opportunities offered; and was often argued with about consort2 L

IV.