ARCHBISHOP SHARPE - DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE. is at the point of death, killed, like Coventry and others, by white lead, of which nothing could break her." HORACE WAL POLE, Letters, vol. 3, p. 209. [Pope's Homer 333 intended to convey; so that, indeed, those discourses which are published to the world are only, as it were, the dead letter, in comparison of what they appeared under the persuasive power of his delivery, and want that quickening spirit that gave such life and inimitable beauty to them in the -a very pretty Book-but mouth of their author."-Life of Archbishop not Homer.] Sharpe, vol. 1, p. 35. "To cultivate the wild heaths, if not to exalt the majestic heights of Homer; to diffuse over them a perpetual bloom; an elysian fragrance, Pope found it necessary to exert all his ethereal spirit, all his luxuriant but well regulated fancy, all his elegant and Attick taste. He applied every touch of the great painter, and with exquisite judgment, only where they were indispensable, and where the respective object would have been disagreeable, or flat, without them. Whatever pertinent and forcible epithet, flowing, harmonious, and golden verse, and spontaneous and happy rhyme could do, to warm the cold narrative, and to adorn the homely and low comparisons of Homer, was effected by the art and the genius of Pope. In translating the old Grecian bard, our powerful and sweet magician well knew that his masterly command of rhyme was absolutely necessary to give relief to common and tedious rhapsodies, and to complete the poetical fascination." — Memoirs of Percival Stockdale, vol. 2, p. 50. [Archbishop Sharpe's persuasive power of delivery.] "He had naturally no ear for music; and yet there was something very engaging and harmonious in his elocution, owing to the regularity and justness of his cadences, and the happy accommodation of the tone of his voice to the subject matter of which he was speaking, together with an observance of swift or slow measures of utterance as best suited the texture of his expressions, or best served to enliven the sentiments he [Provision for the Clergy.] "THERE was great reason why this way should be chosen rather than any other; because it was sufficient for the persons to be provided for; it was most equal with respect to the persons who were to find the maintenance; it was the way most anciently steps of it before the law, it being comand universally practised (there being footmanded by the law, it being received by many of the heathen nations); and lastly, it was the way that obtained in almost all Christian countries, when churches (especially when parishes) came to be settled."Life of Archbishop Sharpe, vol. 2, p. 13. wwww Soul and Body. "GREAT Nature she doth cloathe the Soul A Fleshly Garment which the Fates do spin; 334 OSBORNE - MADAM DE MAINTENON - CRADOCK. of a larger cash than they have occasion to make use of in the way of trade, whereby they are always provided against accidents, and are enabled to make an advantageous purchase when it offers. And in this they differ from the merchants of other countries, that they know when they have enough; for they retire to their estates, and enjoy the fruits of their labours in the decline of life, reserving only business enough to divert their leisure hours. They become gentlemen and magistrates in the counties where Et ce n'est point là une hypocrisie; car dans cette circonspection il n'y a nulle ombre de fausseté; et dans l'hypocrite tout est faux. Il ne faut donc rien laisser voir à nos meilleurs amis, dont ils puissent se prévaloir quand ils ne seront plus. Il est bien fâcheux d'avoir à rougir dans un tems de ce que l'on aura fait ou dit par imprudence dans un autre."-MADAME DE MAINTENON, Mémoires, tom. 6, p. 150. Cambridge.] their estates lie; and as they are frequently [Dr. James Scott and the Feet-Scrapers of the younger brothers of good families, it is not uncommon to see them purchase those estates that the eldest branches of their respective families have been obliged to part with." - OSBORNE'S Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 1, p. 149.- Voyage of D. Gonzales. [Bristol Shopkeepers.] “THE shopkeepers of Bristol, who are in general wholesale men, have so great an inland trade, that they maintain carriers, just as the London tradesmen do, not only to Bath and to Wells and Exeter, but to Frome, and all the principal counties and towns from Southampton even to the banks of the Trent."-Voyage of D. Gonzales.— OSBORNE'S Collection, vol. 1, p. 100. [Necessity of Watchfulness over Words and Actions.] "WHEN a preacher was very obnoxious to the students at Cambridge, it was the custom for them to express disapprobation by scraping their feet. A very eloquent but intriguing preacher, Dr. James Scott, known as a political partizan by the pamphleteer and newspaper signatures of AntiSejanus and Old Slyboots, being one day saluted thus,signified his intention of preaching against the practice of scraping; and very shortly afterwards he performed it, taking for his text, 'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they consider not that they do evil.' On its announcement, the galleries became one scene of confusion and uproar; but Dr. Scott called to the Proctors to preserve silence. This being effected, he delivered a discourse so eloquent, as to extort universal approbation."-CRADOCK's Memoirs, vol. 4, p. 229, note. [French Ignorance of English Character.] WHEN a tragedy imitated from the Game "IL y tant de choses qu'on entend mal, tant d'autres qu'on gâte en les ôtant de leur place, ou en les dépouillant de ce qui les environne, il y en a tant qui échappent en certains momens de relâchement et de foi-ster was brought upon the stage in Paris in blesse; tant, qui dites avec naïveté peuvent être mal interprétée, qu'on ce peut trop veiller sur ses paroles et sur ses actions, quand ce ne seroit que pour empêcher nos amis de prendre nos saillies pour des sentimens, et ces premières idées que la réflexion détruit pour l'état habituel de notre âme. 1768, a French poet expressed his indignation in verses which show how little he understood the character of his own country men. "Laissons à nos voisins leurs excès sanguinaires : Malheur aux nations que le sang divertit! BACHAUMONT - BISHOP MIDDLETON - DR. DONNE. 335 soldier whose ashes were covered by the monument adjoining. Curious however to learn, whether so celebrated a family had become extinct, I made diligent enquiry throughout the parish, and at length discovered in a mean cottage a labouring man, who claimed the honours of descent from this illustrious stock. He spelt his name somewhat differently from his forefathers, yet observed that his father before him did the same; but to convince me of the authenticity of his claims, he produced a pair of spurs, which the great general, his ancestor, had worn at Marston-Moor. They had come down regularly from father to son; and they will,' concluded the poor man, 'be all the fortune which my boy will inherit.' BISHOP MIDDLETON, Country Spectator, p. 208. [Religion is Christianity.] "You know," says DR. DONNE, "I never fettered nor imprisoned the word religion; [Instability of Fortune.-Stability of a good not straitening it friarly ad religiones facti Name.] "THE most stately monument which our Churchyard boasts is that of a gentleman conspicuous in the history of the wars of Charles I. If we may credit the inscription, he possessed a very ample fortune, which he considerably impaired by his loyalty to his sovereign. When the royal party had been completely defeated, and the unhappy monarch had been led to the block, the gentleman retired to France, where he died in the year 1659. His body, however, was sent for interment to his native town, and two sons performed the last sad office. Of one of these I can find no memorials; the remains of the other are deposited near those of his father, and a modest stone simply stiles him miles. After this I discover no vestiges of the same family till 1749, which is the date of an epitaph informing the reader that the deceased was a tradesman, who had lived in indigence, but was lineally descended from the loyal and brave tias (as the Romans call well their Orders of Religion), nor immuring it in a Rome, or a Wittenberg, or a Geneva: they are all virtual beams of one sun, and wheresoever they find clay hearts they harden them and moulder them into dust, and they entender and mollify waxen. They are not so contrary as the North and South Poles, in that they are connatural pieces of one circle. Religion is Christianity, which being too spiritual to be seen by us, doth therefore take an apparent body of good life and works; so salvation requires an honest Christian. These are the two elements, and he which is elemented from these hath the complexion of a good man and a fit friend. The diseases are, too much intention into indiscreet zeal, and too much remissness and negligence by giving scandal; for our condition and state in this is as infirm as in our bodies, where physicians consider only two degrees,-sickness and neutrality,—for there is no health in us."-Letters, p. 29. [Delusion of Romanism.] "I THINK," says DONNE, "that as Copernicism in the mathematics hath carried earth farther up from the stupid centre, and yet not honoured it, nor advantaged it, because for the necessity of appearances, it hath carried heaven so much higher from it; so the Roman profession seems to exhale and refine our wills from earthly dregs and lees, more than the Reformed, and so seems to bring us nearer heaven. But then that carries Heaven farther from us, by making us pass so many courts and offices of Saints in this life, in all our petitions in this life, and lying in a painful prison in the next, during the pleasure, not of Him to whom we go and who must be our Judge, but of them from whom we come, we know not our case."-Letters, p. 102. [Short Prayers.] "I WOULD rather," says DONNE, “make short prayers than extend them; though God can neither be surprized nor besieged; for long prayers have more of the man, as ambition of eloquence and a complacency in the work, and more of the Devil by often distractions; for after in the beginning we have well intreated God to hearken, we speak no more to him."-Letters, p. 111. [A Question propounded relative to the Supremacy of the Romish Church, and the Prerogative of temporal Kings.] "In the main point in question, I think truly there is a perplexity (as far as I see yet); and both sides may be in justice and innocence; and the wounds which they inflict upon the adverse part are all se defendendo. For clearly our State cannot be safe without the oath; since they profess that and that all the rest may be none to-morrow. Clergymen, though traders, are no subjects, And as clearly, the supremacy which the Roman Church pretend, were diminished, if it were limited; and will as ill abide that, or disputation, as the prerogative of temporal kings; who being the only judges of their prerogative, why may not Roman Bishops (so enlightened as they are presumed by them) be good witnesses of their own supremacy, which is now so much impugned."-DONNE'S Letters, p. 161. must be sought and preserved diligently. And since it grows without us, we must be sure to gather it from the right tree."DONNE'S Letters, p. 45. wwwww [Ourselves are our own Umbrellas, and our own Suns.] "TRULY wheresoever we are, if we can but tell ourselves truly what and where we would be, we may make any state and place such for we are so composed, that if abundance or glory scorch and melt us, we have an earthly cave, our bodies, to go into by consideration, and cool ourselves; and if we be frozen and contracted with lower and dark fortunes, we have within us a torch, a soul, lighter and warmer than any without; we are therefore our own umbrellas, and our own suns."-DONNE's Letters, p. 63. [One Man's Meat another Man's Poison.] "As some bodies are as wholesomely nourished as ours with acorns, and endure nakedness, both which would be dangerous to us, if we for them should leave our former habits, though their's were the primitive diet and custom: so are many souls well fed with such forms and dressings of religion as would distemper and misbecome us, and make us corrupt towards God."— DONNE's Letters, p. 101. [Idleness to be resisted on Religious Grounds.] "ONLY the observation of others upon me," says DONNE, "is my preservation from extreme idleness; else, I profess that I hate business so much, as I am sometimes glad to remember that the Roman Church reads that verse A negotio perambulante in tenebris, which we read from the pestilence walking by night, so equal to me do the plague and business deserve avoiding."Letters, p. 142. [Love of Sacred Song.] "You took me too literally, if you thought I meant in the least to discourage you in your pursuit of poetry; all I intended to say was, that if either vanity (that is a general and undistinguishing desire of applause) or interest, or ambition, has any place in the breast of a poet, he stands a great chance in these our days of being severely disappointed; and yet after all these passions are suppressed, there may remain in the mind of one, ingenti perculsus amore (and such I take you to be), incitements of a better sort, strong enough to make him write verse all his life, both for his own pleasure and that of all posterity." - GRAY to Beattie, Mitford's Ed. vol 2, p. 459. [Political Impostors.] "I DESIRE to die," says HORACE WALPOLE to his friend Montagu, "when I have nobody left to laugh with me. I have never yet seen, or heard, any thing serious that was not ridiculous. Jesuits, Methodists, Philosophers, Politicians, the hypocrite Rousseau, the scoffer Voltaire, the Encyclopedists, the Humes, the Lyttletons, the Grenvilles, the atheist tyrant of Prussia, and the mountebank of history, Mr. Pitt, are all to me but impostors in their various ways Fame or interest are their objects; and after all their parade, I think a ploughman who sows, |