ually successor to Dr. Lawrence, then aged and infirm; upon whose death, which happened soon after, he became sole pastor, and continued to discharge the duties of that office till Christmas 1782, when his health, which had been long declining, rendered it necessary in his own opinion, and that of medical men, to discontinue his public services. He had not preached long at Monkwell-street, when his pulpit talents attracted general attention, and procured him general admiration. The number of the society was rapidly increased, aud he preached for several years, with the powers of eloquence, and the fervour of piety, to an audience always crowded, often overflowing.'

It would be unnecessary to enumerate, and in me persumptuous to criticise before this congregation, the writings of your late excellent and much lamented pastor. They have been extensively read, generally approved, and some of them translated into several European languages. In point of elegance and taste, they are excelled by few; in point of moral tendency, by none; and when I have said this, I need add nothing more, but that I wish a complete edition of his works were printed, and that every person, especially every young person in my hearing, were acquainted with them. With respect to his theological sentiments, they were in no extreme ;-liberal, as I account them; but perhaps not such as would be deemed worthy of that character by some in our day, who are outrageous for liberality.

His mind, however, held on in that progress, which an inquisitive mind generally does. His liberality increased with his age; yet without any of those very rapid transitions in sentiment, which are the indications of rash decision, rather than of sober inquiry of a light imagination, rather than a solid judgment.'

After resigning the pastoral care of this society in 1782, he spent the greater part of his remaining years at a retirement in Hampshire, in the neighbourhood of Lord Bute, with whom he lived in great intimacy, and to whose valuable library he had free access. Soon after the death of his brother Dr. William, he removed to Batlı, where, after suffering much from an asthmatic complaint, to which he had been subject many years, and enduring that, and other pains and infirmities incident to age, with a truly Christian spirit, he ended his days October 1*, in his 76th year, as I trust you all wish to end yours, with the peace of God in his heart, and the triumphant hope of christianity, to illuminate his future prospects and dispel the terrors of impending dissolution.'

Such characters as these afford an interesting and instructive lesson to young persons: we shall not, therefore, apologize for giving them a place in our work.

Art. 58. Preached, March 19, 1797, before the Corps of Hampshire Fawley Volunteers, at the Church of St. Thomas, Winchester. By George Isaac Huntingford, D. D. Warden of St. Mary's College, near Winchester. 8vo. IS. Cadell jun. and Davies. This discourse is well adapted to the occasion on which it was dehivered, and is with propriety dedicated to the Volunteer Corps at whose desire it was preached, and at whose request it is published.

Art. 59. A Charge given at the Visitation of the Archdeaconry of Salop, in the Diocese of Hereford, holden at Ludlow and Stratton, 21st and 22d June, 1796. By Joseph Plymley, M. A. Archdeacon. 4to. IS. Robinsons.

While the spiritual concerns of the church fall more immediately under the care of its constituted guardians, the bishops, and they are exercising their utmost vigilance, in days of peril, that "it suffers no detriment;" the charge of its substantial and visible form,-the edifices which are consecrated to its services, devolves on its inferior officers, the archdeacons. In the present decayed or decaying state of these venerable buildings, their task is scarcely less arduous than that of the diocesans themselves. Archdeacon Plymley, in the diocese of Hereford, appears to be taking most laudable pains to put, or keep, the churches of that diocese in repair; and to this object, he directs the whole attention of the clergy of his district, in the charge here presented to the public. He shews himself well read in the antient history of the churches of England, and a great admirer of the antient Gothic architecture. He appears very sensible of the great importance of preserving the buildings in such a state, as to render them comfortable and healthful to the worshippers. He reminds the churchwardens and clergy of an important truth, to which they might not perhaps have paid sufficient attention without such a monition; That a church which is cold, or damp, or that admits wind through. cracks in its walls, or the rain through crevices in its roof, cannot be, so safe or attractive, as a warm, dry, and well compacted building.' If this should be thought very obvious, it may nevertheless be recol lected that obvious axioms are the basis of all science.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The article concerning which Rusticus inquires was written, and sent to the press, before the receipt of his letter; nor has any alteration been made in it, in consequence of the opinion of our correspondent,―with which we are sorry not to agree.

Philo Libertas will see in this Number an account of the work which he mentions. We wish ever to observe the old maxim quoted by this correspondent,audi alteram partem: but in the present case the advo cate is too loud to be heard

Other letters remain for consideration.

In the last Review, p. 200. near the bottom, But the stoppage,' &c. dele But; and two lines farther, for The conduct,' &c. read By the conduct, &c.

1

P. 218. Art. 33. 1. 1. and 7. for start naked,' read stark naked.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For AUGUST, 1797.

ART. I. The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. With Notes and Illustra tions by Joseph Warton, D. D. and others. 8vo. 9 Vols. 31. 128. Boards. Law, Johnson, Cadell jun. and Davies, &c. &c. 1797.

ALTHOUGH it is desirable that the capital authors of all ages

and countries should appear before the public with every advantage, yet the degree in which they require the illustrative labours of an editor is very different. The pure text alone of some writers is sufficient for a full comprehension of their meaning; and annotations have then the effect of distracting our attention, and mingling the ideas of other men with those of the original author. There are also writers, who, treating on local and temporary topics, or abounding in allusions to particular persons, manners, and events, can with difficulty be understood by all readers even in their own times, and necessarily become more obscure as they grow more remote. A propensity, likewise, in an author of eminence, to copy thoughts and images from other persons, will ever make it an object of curiosity to trace the source of his ideas, and to point out in what degree they have undergone alteration and improvement in passing through his mind.-Perhaps few writers have furnished, in these several views, more scope for illustration and comparison than Pope; whose subjects are often peculiar and personal, and who was a free borrower, and a skilful improver of that which he borrowed.

The works of this great poet have already, indeed, been published with a suite of notes, extensive enough to answer every purpose that might be wished: but the leading character of Warburton's edition is that of a commentary on the opinions of the author, so managed as to give him the appearance of saying what the editor supposed he ought to have said, rather than what he really designed to say. The over-refinement and the disingenuity of this annotator,-for both these qualities are assignable to him,-have given very general offence to men VOL. XXIII.

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of candour and good taste; and this disgust has been aggravated by the many instances in which he has made his notes the vehicle of his own singularities of opinion, and of his illiberat sarcasms on individuals.

It was, then, decidedly to be wished that the text of Pope should be vindicated from such an association, and should be allowed to speak its own sense, illustrated only by proper appendages, historical and literary ;-and we believe that the accomplished writer, who has now executed the task, has long been destined to it by the hopes and expectations of almost all in the nation who could be interested in such a work. In such cases, however, hopes and expectations ever have a tendency to mount too high; though, for our part, we confess that we relied on finding "a glorious treat" for ourselves and for our readers, in the nine volumes of Warton's Pope; forgetful that originality is always scarce, and that there is a period at which all exertions are apt to flag. We had no pre-conception that this edition could be characterized in a sentence; and that, in order to give our readers a tolerably accurate general idea of it, we need say little more than that it is a selection of the most anexceptionable of Warburton's notes, together with the greater part of the matter of the celebrated Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope digested, totidem verbis, under its corresponding pages. There are likewise, it is true, various notes by other hands, but they are taken mostly from printed and well known books; and there is some original matter, of which we shall proceed to give a more detailed account.

The Life of Pope, prefixed to the first volume, is a fair, candid, and natural representation of the man; written in an unstudied, indeed not always an accurate, style, and containing little information which has not been given by former biographers. The editor's intimacy with the late Mr. Joseph Spence has been the chief source of additional anecdote. We shall copy the summary of the literary character of Pope, which may be regarded as the final judgment of one who has spent a life in similar investigations:

Whatever might be the imperfections of our great Poet's per son or temper, yet the vigour, force, and activity of his mind were almost unparalleled. His whole life, and every hour of it, in sickness and in health, was devoted solely, and with unremitting di ligence, to cultivate that one art in which he had determined to excel. Many other poets have been unavoidably immersed in business, in wars, in politics, and diverted from their favourite bias and pursuits. Of Pope it might truly and solely be said, Versus amat, hoe studet unum. His whole thoughts, time, and talents were spent on his Works alone: which Works, if we dispassionately and carefully

review,

review, we shall find that the largest portion of them, for he attempted nothing of the epic or dramatic, is of the didactic, moral, and satiric kind; and, consequently, not of the most poetic species of Poetry. There is nothing in so sublime a style as the Bard of Gray. This is a matter of fact, not of reasoning; and means to point out, what Pope has actually done, not what, if he had put out his full strength, he was capable of doing. No man can possibly think, or can hint, that the Author of the Rape of the Lock, and the Eloisa, wanted imagination, or sensibility, or pathetic; but he certainly did not so often indulge and exert those talents, nor give so many proofs of them, as he did of strong sense and judgment. This turn of mind led him to admire French models; he studied Boileau attentively; formed himself upon him, as Milton formed himself upon the Grecian and Italian Sons of Fancy. He stuck to describing modern manners; but these manners, because they are familiar, uniform, artificial, and polished, are, for these four reasons, in their very nature unfit for any lofty effort of the Muse. He gradually became one of the most correct, even, and exact Poets that ever wrote; but yet with force and spirit, finishing his pieces with a patience, a care, and assiduity, that no business nor avocation ever interrupted; so that if he does not frequently ravish and transport his reader, like his Master Dryden, yet he does not so often disgust him, like Dryde, with unexpected inequalities and absurd improprieties. He is never above or below his subject. Whatever poetical enthusiasm he actually possessed, he with-held and suppressed. The perusal of him, in most of his pieces, affects not our minds with such strong emotions as we feel from Homer and Milton; so that no man, of a true poetical spirit, is master of himself while he reads them. Hence he is a writer fit for universal perusal, and of general utility; adapted to all ages and all stations; for the old and for the young; the man of business and the scholar. He who would think, and there are many such, the Fairy Queen, Palamon and Arcite, the Tempest, or Comus, childish and romantic, may relish Pope. Surely it is no narrow, nor invidious, nor niggardly encomium to say, he is the great Poet of Reason; the First of Ethical Authors in Verse; which he was by choice, not necessity. And this species of writing is, after all, the surest road to an extensive and immediate reputation. It lies more level to the ge neral capacities of men, than the higher flights of more exalted and genuine poetry. Waller was more applauded than the Paradise Lost; and we all remember when Churchill was more in vogue than Gray.'

On this very just account, as we think it, we shall only remark that perhaps the force and activity of a mind, employed during 40 years in composing not a great number of poems, is estimated at too high a rate; and that some abatements might be made as to the uniform correctness and finishing attributed to his lines. The uncommon splendor of diction in some parts, and the wonderful energy and compression in others, are not seldom contrasted by extraordinary flatness and negligence; and if Pope had no better title to his elevated rank among poets than the mere evenness of a polished strain, it

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would