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juftly fufpended. For to this purpofe was the fummons iffued. No vindication was allowed. A crime was to be confeffed, which had not been committed. A fentence was to be allowed juft, which was without precedent or parallel.

The only remedy which was now eft Bentley was, an appeal to the delegates of the University, and this was arbitrarily refufed. On October 15th a congregation was called, and the Vice-Chancellor reported, that he had received no answer to his requifitions, which he ordered to be registered; and at a future meeting, though not without feveral irregularities, the great Bentley was deprived of all his honours and degrees, by a vote of the heads of the University, by a majority of an hundred and two voices to fifty. All the fteady friends of government were among the latter.

We forbear comments. The fufpenfion was at once illegal, arbitrary, and unftatutable. Dr. Bentley now prefented a petition to the King, to intreat his protection as fupreme vifitor of the University. Upon this, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Gooch, was ordered to attend his Majefty in council, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 1718. The cafe between Bentley and the Univerfity was heard, and referred to a committee of council. The miniftry, however, appeared unwilling to interpofe their authority, and the bufinefs was referred in a judicial way to the Court of King's Bench.

For feveral years the affair remained in this fituation. During this time feveral pamphlets were publifhed. Of thofe against the Profeffor, Dr. Middleton, who muft have felt the moft unbounded exultation on the degradation of his enemy Dr., Bentley, was the principal author*. These are sprightly and well written, but facts are obftinate antagonists. The names of the writers who answered him, and took the oppofite fide, we have never heard, though one of them is pointed out by Middleton, who began his literary career in this difputer and now

firft ftarted into public notice, as the action" which he commenced for the recovery of his money gave the first motion to this famous proceeding."

An account of an old complaint of Laughton's, while he was proctor, against Middleton, and feveral other refpectable characters who were supping at a tavern with Mr. Annefley, afterwards Earl of Anglefey, while he flood candidate to reprefent the Univerfity in parliament, in the year 1710, was now printed, in order to leffen Middleton's reputation. He immediately, however, anfwered the charge, and rather gained than loft any advantage by the publication.

During thefe difputes, he alfo endeavoured to re-kindle the half extinguifhed flames, which had threatened and almoft deftroyed the peace of Trinity-College fome years before, by publifhing an anonymous pamphlet, intituled "A true Account of the prefent State of Trinity-College, under the oppreffive Government of their Mafter, Richard Bentley, late D. D. 1720. 8vo."

Some improper reprefentations in this account induced Bentley to commence a profecution against a person, whom he fufpected to be the author, till Dr. Middleton publicly owned it, and attempted to justify his affertions. We are informed, however, by the ingenious author of British Topography, that he was foon afterwards compelled to afk pardon, if not to pay a fine, for an expreffion in the dedication to his "Eibliothecæ ordinanda methodus.”

During this fufpenfe, it might be fuppofed, that Bentley, degraded from his honours, would have loft his relish for his claffical pursuits, and have found his fpirits damped and courage funk. But this was far from being the cafe: he gave no opportunity to his enemies to exclaim,

"Qualis erat! Quantum mutatus ab illo!"

He ceafed to be Doctor of Divinity, indeed, but he never ceafed to be Bentley! The Univerfity stripped him of his degrees, but they could not tear from him that confcious dignity of 3 Y 2 character,

For a list of them fee Gough's British Topography, Vol. I. p. 244. Thirlby alfo wrote against Bentley. + In one of his pamphlets he styles himself an author not used to the press.

character, which, in all his difputes, proved a firm and certain fupport.

He ftill continued to beftow his attention and leifure time on his longpromifed and long expected edition of the Greek Teftament. About the year 1721, he published his propofais, which confifted of eight articles. To thefe he added the lait chapter of the Apocalypfe, with a Latin verfion, and the various readings of his manufcripts in

the notes.

In this edition, Bentley intended to have republished the Latin verfion of St. Hicrom, who afferts that a literal translation from Greek into Latin is only neceflary in the Scriptures, where the very order of the words is mystery. From this paffage our critic inferred, what on examination he found to be true, that on comparifon, the exactest refemblance would be found between the original text and this tranflation. He, therefore, determined to publish them together.

He propofed to confirm his lections, by exhibiting the various reading of manufcripts and tranflations. He altered not a fingle word without authority. He offered no changes in the text except in his Prolegomena. He adopted the mode of publifhing by fubfcription, on account of the great expences that must attend the printing of fuch a work. It was to have made two volumes in folio, and the price was to have been three guineas for the fmaller paper, and five for the larger.

John Walker, of 'Trinity College*, was to have corrected the prefs, and to have 'fhared the profits or lofs of the edition with Bentley.

In one part of thefe propofals he fays of himfelf: "In this work he is of no fect or party; his dengn is to ferve the whole Chriflian name: he draws no confequences in his notes, makes no oblique glances upon any difputed points, old or new. He confeciates this work, as a Kanałów, a Kμ ssa, a Charter, a Magna Charta to the whole Chriftian Church, to laft when all the ancient manufcripts here quoted may be loft and extinguifhed."

Such were the views of Dr. Bentley, and fuch were his wifhes with regard to his edition of the Greek Teftament. He found, however, an opponent in Middleton, who had already, in a great meafure, been the cause of reducing him to the fituation of the lowe member of the Univerfity. He published an answer to the propofals, paragraph by paragraph. He was initigated to publish this anfwer, he fays, by a thorough conviction, that Bentley poffeffed neither materials nor abilities adequate to the execution of fo important a defign.

This pamphlet was published at a period when the name of Bentley had loft part of its dignity. This may, in fome measure, account for its fuccefs, which was wonderful, and, in our opi nion, far above its deferts. It is well written, indeed, and fometimes weighty in argument; but still he frequently refines too much, and does not treat his adverfary with candour or propriety.

An anfwer was published to thefe remarks, which was attributed to Bentley, and feveral pamphlets were pub lifhed on both fides of the question. The event was, that he gave up his defign. It were an endless talk to purfue the difputes through all the pamphlets which were published on the occafion. We must not, however, omit that Dr. Colbatch was fuppofed to be the author of the firft remarks, and was ftigmatized in the anfwer, which was published with the fecond edition of the propofal. Upon this attack, he publickly declared, that they were written without his concurrence and knowledge, and the Vice-Chancellor and heads pronounced the answer to the remarks a virulent and fcandalous libel.

Bentley never affigned any reafons for declining the publication of his Greek Teftament. All who contributed to this event certainly injured the caufe of facred literature in the highest degree. The completion of his defign was the principal employment of his latter life, and his nephew Dr. Thomas Bentley travelled through

Europe

The Vice-Mater of Trinity College, whom Pope introduced with Bentley into the Dunciad,

1

Europe, at his expence, in order to collate every manufcript that was accefìible*.

Middleton was not the only champion who attacked our literary Goliah in 1721. Alexander Cuninghame, in the fame year, publifhed animadverfions on the edition of Horace. A cold, crofs critic, of Northern extraction, with little genius: ill-natured and forbidding: correct, but fpiritlefs. He dedicated his book to Bentley himfelf, but with fuch a marked air of imagined fuperiority, that is abfolutely difgufting. Let it not, however, be fuppofed, that we allow him no merit. We think that he was an opponent of much greater confequence than any who preceded him; but his decifive mode of ftating his objections, and offering his own emendations, though it might attract a few admirers, yet it must be condemned by the learned world in general. Sometimes, indeed, he improves greatly upon Bentley, and in one of the paffages, which we formerly quoted, he would read aftuatque, instead of ejus atque, which is certainly more poetical and better than exeatque, though, perhaps, not fo near the reading of the manufcripts. His corrections, indeed, are frequently valuable, but as a writer, he is very deficient in that ftrength, that vigour, and that livelinefs of fancy, which renders the critical works of Bentley and Toup fo entertaining, as well as fo inftructive.

In the following year, Thirlby publifhed an edition of Justin Martyr's two apologies, and of his famous dialogue with Trypho, which he dedicated to Lord Craven. Of the fcholars who flourished in that age Thirlby was in

ferior to few, in point of tafte and learning.

The dedication is a wonderful compofition. In this fpecies of writing he is baud ulli fecundus! - fecond to none; and few are there who can claim an equal rank. In the fame class may be reckoned Barton's preface to Plutarch's parallel Lives of Demofthenes and Cicero. Such difcernment, such fancy, fuch folid judgement and deep erudition have rarely been feen, nor would it be eafy to point out a third, who might complete a triumvirate.

In Thirlby's preface we have frequently been pleafed with a fullen truth, which he tells, when he mentions his having found feveral conjectures in the notes which Davis communicated to him, fimilar to those which he had before inferted in his own obfervations: "Do not imagine I fhall praife that which is in a great meafure my own, or that I fhall adopt the cultom of critics, and tell you, that I was rejoiced to find my conjectures confirmed by the authority of fo great a man. Believe me, fuch a concurrence never gave real pleasure. No author ever wishes that the praifes, however trifling they may be, which are due to his difcoveries fhould be fnatched from him, or fhared by another."

The notes are likewife admirable. No dull comments, no daring affertions, no hazardous conjectures, or tattelefs, long-winded remarks upon trifies. He was a first-rate critic, and he entertains by his fprightlinefs, while he furprifes by his learning and acumen. He was Bentley's avowed enemy, and fpeaks of him with great contempt in fome of his notest.

It

* Bentley had received two thousand pounds from subscribers, which he returned, when he formed a refolution that the work fhould not appear during his life time. It is now in the hands of his executor, and we hope will yet be published.

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+ One of thefe notes, as it relates to Bentley, we fhall tranfcribe as a specimen of the work, and to juítity our character of Thirlby. Juttin uies, p. 17. the fuperlative inftead of the comparative degree; on which the Editor remarks: "Hæc autem fuperlativa ex abfurda Atticorum elegantia ponuntur pro comparativis. Sic in cohortatione Mofem Talw To oder au pwy TOSSCUTatov eile fæpe dicit. Sic omnes Attici. Quod cum ignoraret, qui nihil fe ignorare dudum fibi per fummam ignorantiam perfuafit, Phileleutherus Lipfientis in hoc verfu Philemonis, "avely apiolov Bolivia (no abrius," iftud apolov x, optimum quam, ita enim vertit, ferre non potuit, atque ideo legit y ab. Nempe in opere extemporali quandoque per nimiam feitinationem, falva exiftimatione, viro patal labi licere æquum eft. Tu vero, lector, fi hic unquam cujufquam five tamæ five fortunis pepercit, ei parce, et crede emendationes has in Fragmenta Menandri et Philemonis una alterave diecula ei natas effe, qui ante viginti annos fragmenta omnium græcorum

y

It was afferted, that Dr. Afhton, the Mafter of Jefus College, affifted Thirlby in this edition, although he lived in habits of friendship with Bentley, and was one of the few whom he honoured with his regard. Such treachery and fuch cowardly conduct would deferve no quarter; but on the other hand, it has been faid, that Ashton was fo far from beftowing any of his notes on Thirlby, that he published a criticifm on his edition in one of the foreign journals. We hope the latter is the true ftory.

This edition was mentioned in a poem, which was published about this time, and was intituled, "The Seffion of the Critics." After difplaying the pretenfions of Jortin and others, the author adds:

"From his garret, where long he had rufted,

came down

Toby Thirlby, cockfure that the prize was his own,
Crying, Z-ds! where's this Bentley? I'll give
him no quarter!'

And haul'd out the preface to his fam'd Juftin
Martyr."

In this year Waffe published a copy of Greek Trochaics, adureffed to Bentley, on his edition of Horace. Thefe were inferted in Jebb's Bibliotheca Literaria, and were followed by a long and, indeed, tedious Latin elegy, addreffed likewife to our critic, and on the fame fubject. In all probability, Bentley was not much flattered

Τ

by thefe compofitions. In the Greek the laws of Profedy and of the Trochaic meafure are frequently violated. Waffe, however, was a good fcholar, but poffeffed more learning than tafte, and more reading, perhaps, than judgement. His acquaintance with books was very extenfive, and his memory must have been uncommonly tenacious, for Jortin affirmed, as we have been told, that he never knew any man who could cite authorities for words and phrafes from the Greek and Latin writers with fo much promptitude and accuracy as Waffe.

As the editor of Salluft and Thucydides, Waffe is well known to the literary world. Befides his notes on thefe authors, and his papers, in the Bibl. Literaria, he wrote little. There is, however, in the Philofophical Tranf actions, an account of an earthquake by death happened while Taylor was wrihim, which is little known. His ting his Lectiones Lyfiacæ, in which he has inferted a fhort eulogium of this great fcholar, by which it appears that he was much valued by his learned contemporaries. As to his erudition, no doubts can be afcertained, as befides his labours as a commentator, Bentley faid, as it is reported, that after his own death Waffe would be the most learned man in England.

(To be concluded in our next.}

FOR THE LONDON MAGAZINE.
AIR-BALLOON S.

IT has ever been the policy of minifters, on any national emergency, to create fome novel, eccentric amufement, to prevent the commonalty from thinking! A few years fince, when parties ran very high, Garrick was employed by adininiftration, to give a Jubilee in honour of Shak fpeare, at Stratford upon Avon; the fcheme fucceeded beyond all expectation. Wilkes

and invaded rights were no longer thought of. Inftead of parties to badger the minifter, parties were made for the Jubilee. Inftead of addresses to remove wicked minifters, dreffes to cover them were the only topics. Whigs (not full bottomed ones) and Tories only difputed on the precife habit for the Jubilee mafquerade; and took off one majk to put on another! In the middle

poetarum edere conftituerat, quique ex eo tempore, quicquid habebat otii ab Horatio commaculando et nobiliffimo collegio perdendo, id fere omne contriverat in excogitandis emendationibus quas olim ficubi occatio ferret, ex adverfariis fuis extempore defcriberet. Contumelias, male dicta, illiberales jocos, quibus ittas cmendationes, condire voluit homo facetus, revera eum extempore, nulloque labort, ut ferebat natura, fcripfiffe non nego.

* Of this work, which is fearce, fee fome account in Nichols's Anecdotes of the Life of Bowyer. To this entertaining work we are indebted for the quotation from the Seffion of Critics.

middle of an unfuccefsful war, the French obliged us with the Veftris! And if any trifling piece of bad news arrived, fuch as the lofs of a whole army, or a defeat by fea, a ballet tragique foon restored mirth and goodhumour. Last year, when an inglorious and inadequate peace followed the triumphs of Rodney, Eliott, and Curtis, the popular rage (that a few years back, would have vented itself on the authors of our calamities) was Siddonized into tears for Belvidera, Ifabella, &c. when every British heart fhould have bled for its country's caufe! The foregoing obfervation is not meant as the leaft difrefpect to that celebrated actress, it is only a proof, among a million of others, that a temporary entertainment makes us callous to our most desperate fituation! Whether the French have adopted our maxim, or if it is a child of their own brain I know not; but when the miniftry found the Caifle d'Efcompte on the point of failing, they wifely amufed the multitude with an air-balloon, to keep up their fpirits!The event

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juftified the propriety of the idea, and when the blow fell, all eyes were flaring at a bladder in the Champ de Mars!-Bankruptcy and ruin were no longer the topics; gas and inflammable air filled all the mouths of the fluttering every where propofed; and gum taffeta Parifians!-Parties to the moon were cicatrized the bleeding wounds of the credulous and verfatile Frenchman!Such is man, pleafed like a child (during the run of the execrable E O with a toy!-I remember to have seen tables) a gentleman lofe a thousand pounds!- his rage and defpair are easier conceived than expreffed!-But lo! his anger was foon removed by the fight of table-keeper to all lofing gamelters gratis! a fupper, artfully prefented by the and a few flices of ham, and a bottle of Madeira, confoled him for the loss of if our prefent rulers have any schemes a thoufand pounds!-We fhall foon fee to carry: if they have, as the Operahoufe is now opened, let the improvement or non-improvement of the Veftris every where fuperfede political dif cuffions!

DIOGENES.

LITERARY REVIEW.

ARTICLE XXXI.

SIX Difcourfes delivered by Sir John Pringle, Bart. when Prefident of the Royal Society, on Occafion of fix annnal Affignments of Sir Godfrey Copley's Medal. T which is prefixed the Life of the Author, by Andrew Kippis, D. D. F. R. S. and

S. A.

8vo. Cadell.

DR. Kippis, who is fo well known to the literary world as the editor of the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, has now republished the difcourfes which his late friend Sir John Pringle delivered before the Royal Society, as prefident, at the prefentation of Sir G. Copley's medal.

To thefe fix papers he has prefixed a life of their author. It is a wellwritten narrative. The ftyle is manly, neither too highly ornamented, nor too fimple. The anecdotes related in it were derived either from the perfonal knowledge of the ingenious author, or from the communications of

his friends. Their authenticity is un-
questionable.

courfes. The following are the sub-
After the life* follow the fix dif-
jects:

of AIR, delivered November 30, 1773,
I. ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS
medal for his Obfervations on different
when Dr. Priestley obtained the gold
Kinds of Air, which has been published
in the Philofophical Tranfactions. As
ley is, perhaps, the firft in the world.
an experimental philofopher, Dr. Prieft-
Offic omnia!-Why will he enter into
theological difcuffions?

II. ON THE TORPEDO, delivered
Nov.

*From the materials which the ingenious Dr. K. has here collected, we propofe, in a tuture Magazine, to prefect our readers with the life of this great phyfician.

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