Biography, which were at one time extremely popular; also translated several works from the French, and published one or two volumes of Sermons, and one volume of Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity.

JOHN HEY, D. D., 1734-1815, was a learned clergyman of the Church of England, and Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. He published An Essay on Redemption, a Seatonian prize poem; Lectures on Divinity, 4 vols., 8vo; Discourses on Malevolent Sentiments; General Observations on the Writings of Paul.-RICHARD HEY, LL. D., barrister-at-law, a brother of the preceding, was likewise a man of great learning. He wrote The Captive Monarch, a Tragedy: Edrington, a Novel; Civil Liberty and the Principles of Government; Dissertations on Gaming, Duelling, and Suicide; Happiness and Rights, in answer to Tom Paine.

Horne.

GEORGE HORNE, D. D., 1730-1792, an eminent divine of the Church of England, belonging to what is known as the Hutchinsonian school of theology, published a valuable Commentary on the Psalms.

Horne was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Dean of Canterbury, and Bishop of Norwich. Besides several controversial works, in favor of Hutchinson and against Sir Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, Law, Kennicott, Priestley, and others, he wrote Letters on Infidelity, in reply to Hume, and A Commentary on the Psalms. The work last named is his best, and is in high favor, even to this day.

"His Commentary on the Psalms is his capital performance, and the one by which he will be known so long as piety and elegant learning are loved in England. It is altogether a beautiful work. The preface is a masterpiece of composition and good sense. The exposition implies more learning and research than it displays; and the views of Christian doctrine contained in it are generally very correct. Perhaps he carries his applications to the Messiah and his Church occasionally rather far; but this is less hurtful than the opposite extreme, which has more generally been adopted.” -Orme's Bibl. Bib.

JOSEPH MILNER, 1744-1797, a learned scholar and divine of the English Church, besides several works of less importance, published A History of the Church of Christ, in 5 vols., 8vo, which has been often printed, and which has led to much discussion.

"If Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History has been, a little too epigrammatically, styled the History of Sinners, that of the late Dr. Milner has been as concisely called the History of Saints, But the latter is a learned and valuable work, dashed though it may

be with some little spice of Calvinism."- Dibdin.

"Of the two most popular compilers of church history, Mosheim gives the mere husk of history; Milner, nothing but some separated particles of pure farina.”—Isaac Taylor.

WILLIAM NEWCOME, D. D., 1729-1800, Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland, is well known by his Harmony of the Gospels, and by his various writings on the subject of a new revision of the English version of the Scriptures.

Besides the Harmony, he published the following works: An Attempt towards an Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Prophet Daniel and of the Twelve Minor Prophets; An Historical View of the English Biblical Translations; An Attempt towards Revising an English Translation of the Greek Scriptures; The Chief Difficulties in the Gospel History respecting Our Lord's Resurrection; The Duration of Our Lord's Ministry; Observations on Our Lord's Conduct as a Divine Instructor, etc.

Newcome's Gospel Harmony was a most valuable contribution to the literature of this subject. His labors towards a revision of the translation of Scripture have also been very useful in keeping the attention of scholars awake to this important subject.

JOHN PARKHURST, 1728-1797, is chiefly known by his Hebrew and English Lexicon, and his Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament. Both are faulty and are now superseded, but they had a great run in their day. Besides his Lexicons, Parkhurst wrote A Serious and Friendly Admonition to John Wesley, in opposition to the doctrine of assurance; and The Divinity and Pre-Existence of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in reply to Priestley. Parkhurst was of the Hutchinsonian school of philosophy.

BEILBY PORTEUS, D. D., 1731-1808, a dignitary of the English Church, for a long time Bishop of London, is held in great respect by Christians of every name. A collective edition of his works has been published, in 6 vols., 8vo. The best known of his writings are the following: Lectures on Matthew; Sermons on Several Subjects; Life and Character of Archbishop Secker; Charges, Tracts, etc.; Summary of the Evidences of Christianity. Bishop Porteus's Lectures on Matthew, and his Sermons, were popular far beyond what is usual in such publications, and each of them has gone through twenty or more editions.

Bishop Hurd.

RICHARD HURD, D. D., 1720-1808, a learned Bishop of the English Church, is favorably known by his various works as a classical and biblical critic and commentator.

Hurd was a native of Staffordshire, and was educated at Cambridge. His principal works are: Commentaries on Horace's Ars Poetica and the Epistola ad Augustum, Dialogues on various abstract and political subjects, An Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies concerning the Christian Church, a collection of Sermons, and a Life of Warburton.

"Hurd has perhaps the merit of being the first who in this country aimed at philosophical criticism; he had great ingenuity, a good deal of reading, and a facility in applying it; but he did not feel very deeply, was somewhat of a coxcomb, and having always before his eyes a model (Warburton) neither good in itself nor made for him to emulate, he assumes a dogmatic arrogance, which, as it always offends the reader, so for the most part stands in the way of the author's own search for truth." - Hallam.

WILLIAM ROMAINE, 1714-1795, a divine of the Church of England, educated at Oxford, came first into notice by an attack upon Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, which involved him in a controversy with that pugnacious prelate. He was a zealous and fearless preacher, and held several important offices in the Church. His chief works are the following: The Life of Faith; The Walk of Faith; The Triumph of

Faith; The Scriptural Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; Essay on Psalmody; Discourse on the Law and the Gospel; The Lord our Righteousness, etc.

RICHARD WATSON, D. D., 1737-1816, a learned Bishop and theologian of the Church of England, is known chiefly by An Apology for Christianity, in reply to Gibbon, and An Apology for the Bible, in reply to Paine.

Watson was born at Haversham, and educated at Cambridge. He was Professor of Chemistry there, and afterwards Regius Professor of Divinity. Besides several works on Chemistry, and the two works which have already been named, he published a collection of Theological Tracts, 6 vols., 8vo, selected from various authors, and intended for the use of theological students. Watson's Theological Tracts have an excellent name, and have had an extensive circulation.

JOHN FLEETWOOD, an English theological writer, published The Christian Dictionary, and The Life of Christ. The latter has had a large sale.

REV. RICHARD CECIL, 1748-1810, a clergyman of the English Church, was celebrated as an evangelical preacher. Works: Life of Rev. John Newton; Life of Rev. W. B. Cadogan; and Life of John Bacon; Sermons; Remains.

REV. CHARLES BUCK, 1771-1815, is known by two works which have had a very large sale, both in England and America: Religious Anecdotes; and Theological Dictionary.

REV. ANDREW FULLER, 1754-1815, was a Baptist divine of great eminence. His writings are chiefly in defence of the Calvinistic system of theology.

The following are his principal works: The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems examined and compared; Socinianism Indefensible; The Gospel its Own Witness; The Backslider; Discourses on the Apocalypse; The Harmony of Scripture; Expository Discourses on Genesis; Dialogues, Letters, and Essays on Various Subjects, etc. His complete works, 3 vols., 8vo, have been issued by the American Baptist Publication Society.

ALEXANDER GEDDES, 1737-1802, was a Catholic divine, with a high reputation for learning and diligence.

Geddes undertook to give a new translation of the Scriptures, with critical notes; but his commentary was o tinctured with infidel glosses that he was suspended from the priesthood, and the work was discontinued.

REV. JOSEPH BERINGTON, 1743-1827, was a Catholic clergyman, and a writer of some note.

His chief publications were: A Letter on Materialism, in reply to Hartley; Immaterialism Delineated; The State and Behavior of English Catholics, from the Reformation till 1780; Address to the Protestant Dissenters; An Exposition of Roman Catholic Principles, with reference to God and the Country; On the Depravity of the Nation, with a View to the Promotion of Sunday-Schools; The Rights of Dissenters from the Established Church; History of the Lives of Abelard and Heloisa; History of the Reigns of Henry II. and of Richard and John; The Literary History of the Middle Ages. The work last named is the one best known and of most general interest.

CHAPTER XIV.

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

THE chief public events during the first quarter of the present century were the Napoleonic wars, and the political settlements which followed the downfall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France. No English writer during this period filled so large a space. in the public mind as Sir Walter Scott.

The writers of this period may be divided into six sections: 1. The Poets, beginning with Byron; 2. The Novelists, beginning with Scott; 3. The Reviewers and Political Writers, beginning with Gifford; 4. Philosophical and Scientific Writers, beginning with Dugald Stewart; 5. Religious and Theological Writers, beginning with Scott the Commentator; 6. Miscellaneous Writers, beginning with Mrs. Barbauld.

I. THE POETS.

Byron.,

George Gordon, Lord Byron, 1788-1824, was, on the whole, the greatest English poet of his day, although he had many illustrious competitors. His poems are indeed very unequal, and abound in passages open to criticism. At the same time, it should be remembered that the amount which he wrote was large. If he often falls below the standard, and much that he has written could well be spared, a

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large amount still remains that is of a very high order of poetry, and there are passages in his works that are unsurpassed by anything in the language, except in the writings of Shakespeare.

Career. Probably no English poet that has ever lived was so much read, quoted, and canvassed, during his lifetime, as Lord Byron. Everything in his social position, in his personal history and character, and in the character of his writings, seemed to contribute to this result. He was of noble family, though his estate had been impoverished by spendthrift and prodigal ancestors. In person, though not faultless, he had yet such attractions of form and features and voice as amounted almost to a fascination. His talents, if not of the very highest order, were yet wonderful, and were precisely of the kind that dazzle and bewilder.

Byron's first attempt at authorship led to an issue at arms with the highest critical authority then known, the Edinburgh Review, and by the very fierceness of the attack and reply brought his name immediately to every one's mouth. His marriage only led to an open scandal, the mystery of which is not even yet solved; and by the high social position of the parties caused every utterance of the poet to be watched and analyzed. In addition to these things, the peculiar and irregular style of his lordship's writings, as well as of his life, caused everything to be in request that came from his pen.

First Publication.-Byron's first publication, issued at the age of nineteen, was Hours of Idleness. It contained little worthy of notice, and it might have passed quietly into oblivion but for the ferocious criticism upon it by the Edinburgh Review, then at the height of its power. Byron was furious, and under the impulse of his first burst of passion, he wrote, almost at white heat, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, in which he slashed away, right and left, with great injustice, but with a degree of daring and vigor that gained for him at once the public ear and sympathy. He afterwards condemned his youthful poems as heartily as the Reviewer had done, and suppressed them in England and wherever he could control the matter. He also acknowledged the injustice of his invective. But the affair gave him instant notoriety. It awakened him also to a consciousness of his powers.

Subsequent Career. —Soon after this affair, Byron travelled on the continent, and gave the result of his observations in the first portion of his next and greatest poem, Childe Harold. If the first publication made him notorious, this made him famous.