ingratiate himself with them. It would be well for Virtue and Religion, if this humour would lay hold generally of our overheated bigots, and send them to cool themselves in the Indian Marshes. I fancy that Venn and Webster would make a very entertaining as well as proper figure in a couple of bear-skins, and marching in this terror of equipage like the Pagan priests of Hercules of old:

Jamque Sacerdotes primusque Politius ibant,

Pellibus in morem cincti, flammasque ferebant. Dear Sir, do me the favour to believe that nothing can be more agreeable than the hearing of you, but the hearing from you; and that I am your very affectionate and obliged humble servant,

W. WARBURTON.

**The Collection of Letters to Mr. Des Maizeaux, from which those of Mr. Warburton are extracted, principally written by persons of considerable literary eminence, fills nine large volumes; (see Ayscough's Catalogue, 4281-4289). A Letter or two from Mr. Des Maizeaux to Mr. Birch will be found in a future page of this volume.

ORIGINAL

ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM WARBURTON

TO THE REV. THOMAS BIRCH *.

LETTER I.

To the Rev. Mr. THOMAS BIRCH, in St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, London.

DEAR SIR,

Newarke, Aug. 4, 1736. I RECEIVED the very agreeable favour of yours of the 15th past, which I should have acknowledged much sooner, had not a journey of ten days, from which I am just now returned, prevented me.

You may freely command me in any thing you may imagine me capable of serving you, towards the perfecting the very useful work you are engaged in. What I could supply you with in any

* Of these Letters (the Originals of which are preserved in the British Museum, Birch MSS. 4320.) several Extracts were given by the late Rev. H. P. Maty in his "New Review," and thence transplanted into various parts of the " Literary Anecdotes." But the entire Letters of Bp. Warburton, whose habit it was to speak boldly of men and things, and not to spare even his most intimate friends, should not be withheld from the world. They disclose many particulars in the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century at present unknown; and the persons to whom he alludes are too far removed from the present scene of action to be affected either by his censure or applause,

This "useful work," the first of any consequence in which Mr. Birch engaged, was, "The General Dictionary, Historical and Critical;" wherein a new translation of that of the celebrated Mr. Bayle was included; and which was interspersed with several thousand lives never before published. It was on the 29th of April, 1734, that Mr. Birch, in conjunction with the Rev. Mr. John Peter Bernard, and Mr. John Lockman, agreed with the Booksellers to carry on this important undertaking; and Mr. George Sale was employed to draw up the articles relating

article would rather relate to the character of the man as a Writer, and of his Writings, than to any particulars of his Life.

.

As to Ben Jonson, I take it to be as you say, that his Life is very defectively and inconsistently told; but, not having any of his Historians by me, it is impossible for me to say any thing on that head much to your purpose. And I. conceive that neither in that article, nor any other, could I be of use to you, unless I had the article as you have drawn it up to peruse, or your particular queries on what sticks with you, to answer. And this the rather, because not having had an opportunity to see the numbers of your Work as they came out, I can but imperfectly judge, from the extreme few articles I can see, and which I highly approve, of the taste in which you carry them on; whether you confine yourself in an Historical manner to the text after the way of Mr. Des Maizeaux in his Lives of Chillingworth and Hobbes: or whether, in the cast of Bayle, you give a loose to any moral, philosophic, or philologic reflection, that can be started out of the circumstances of the text.

I beg you, dear Sir, to believe that I esteem your correspondence as a great honour; and shall be always proud of your commands, and of using every opportunity of shewing how much I am, dear Sir, Your very affectionate and most obedient

humble servant,

W. WARBURTON.

to Oriental History. The whole design was completed in ten volumes, folio; the first of which appeared in 1734, and the last in 1741. It is universally allowed, that this work contains a very extensive and useful body of biographical knowledge. We are not told what were the particular articles written by Mr. Birch; but there is no doubt of his having executed a great part of the Dictionary: neither is it any disparagement to his co-adjutors, to say, that he was superior to them in abilities and reputation, with the exception of Mr. Sale, who was, without controversy, peculiarly qualified for the department he had undertaken. See p. 19.

LETTER

LETTER II.

To the Rev. Mr. BIRCH.

DEAR SIR, Newarke-upon-Trent, Aug. 17, 1737. Mr. Gyles informs me that you left with him for me the fine edition of Greaves's Works *: for which favour I esteem myself highly obliged to you. But he told me at the same time that you had not received a letter which I did myself the honour to write to you immediately on the receipt of yours. He has given me your address; but whether it be the same I had before, I have forgot.

I had the pleasure of hearing of your health when I was last at Cambridge from one whom I dare say. we have an equal esteem for. I mean, my excellent friend Dr. Middleton, whom, on my return out of Suffolk from Sir Thomas Hanmer, I found just come home from London.'

Pray how goes on your Literary Society? What books are you printing? and are any of poor Sale's+ or Professor Blackwell's in the number? I was sincerely grieved at the death of the former gentleman, both for the sake of his family, and of learning. He would have proved the English Herbelot.

I have expected some time to hear of Professor Blackwell. I think he is in Scotland; but, if he be in London, I should be obliged to you to let me know it.

There is a book called "The Moral Philosopher," lately published. Is it looked into? I should hope not, merely for the sake of the taste, the sense, and

* See p. 71..

Of the institution and progress of this Society, see the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. II. p. 90.

+"Mr. George Sale translated the Koran of Mahomet; was one of the Authors of the Universal History, also of the General Dictionary, which includes Bayle, in translating of whom he exerted himself, as being a Work agreeable to his own genius. He was reckoned to understand the Oriental Languages better than any man in England. He died, in Surrey-street in the Strand, Nov. 15, 1736." Gent. Mag. vol. VI. p. 684.

learning

learning of the present age; for nothing could give me a worse idea of them than that book's being in any degree of esteem as a composition of a man of Letters. I have some knowledge of the Author*. An afternoon's conversation, when I was last in town, gave me the top and bottom of him; and though I parted from him with the most contemptible opinion both of his candour and his sense, he has had the art, in this book, of writing even below himself. It is composed principally of scraps ill put together from "Christianity as old as the Creation," larded with some of the most stupid fancies of his own that ever entered into the head of man, Such as Moses's scheme for an universal Monarchy, This, I take it, was a simple genuine blunder from Toland, who had said, with something more pretence, that Moses aimed at a perpetual Monarchy; and, by a true Irish blunder, this blockhead took perpetual to signify universal.

I hope nobody will be so indiscreet as to take notice publicly of his book, though it be only in the fag end of an objection. It is that indiscreet conduct in our Defenders of Religion, that conveys so many worthless books from hand to hand.

I beg, Sir, you will be assured that I shall have no greater pleasure than hearing of you from time to time at your leisure. It will be but charity to let me, who live out of the world, know now and then the literary state of it; and it will be a double satisfaction to hear of it from one so excellently qualified to report it. I hope to give one Volume of my Defence of Moses this winter, but this between you and me. I have sent both to Frenth and English booksellers for Melchior Zeidler's "Tractatus de

Thomas Morgan, M. D. Author of "The Moral Philosopher; in a Dialogue between Philalethes a Christian Deist, and Theophanes a Christian Jew," and several other Tracts, died at his house in Broad-street, Jan. 14, 1742-3,"with a true Christian resignation." Gent. Mag. vol, XIII. p. 51,