Nec Barringtonum (4) fileam, plumafque crematas, "Comefos artus, indifcretumque cadaver, "Perdicis nondum vulgatæ, &c." Mifcellaneous and Literary Anecdotes. Bishop Butler charge of Popery that fome of his e AUTHOR of the analogy of Re- nemies would have brought againft ligion to Nature; a book in praise of which too much cannot be faid. The purity of the intentiou, the force of reafoning, and the copioufnefs of illuftration, render it one of the greatest performances that the combination of virtue with intelligence evergave rife to. It is occafionally obfcure from the nature of the fubject, as well as from the extreme pains, its ingenious author took to prevent its being fo; the endeavouring (as he used to tell a friend of his) to anfwer, as he went along, every poffible objection that might occur to any one against any pofition of his in this book; fo that, perhaps, "inopem illum copia fecit." The world have great obligations to the bishop of St Afaph (Dr Halifax) for an Analyfis of it, which must be of great ufe to young perfons, and to men not much used to abftrufe reasoning. It has, appended to it, a very elegantly written Account of his Life, in which he very ably defends him against a 1 him, for inferting a white marble crofs into the pannel of the altar of his private chapel. Bishop Butler published a volume of Sermons, in which there are three that have a particular relation to his larger work. Thefe are analysed by Dr Halifax in his account of his life and writings. He was a prelate of many virtues, of great liberality, and was connected with that illuf trious band of friends of which Lord Talbot was the head. What he once faid to a friend of his, might be well applied to fome incidents in the prefent times: "Are not bodies of men occafionally feized with a phrenzy as particular perfons are?" His charge to the clergy of his diocefe is a molt excellent one; it is published at the end of the account of his life and wri tings. M. de Chamouflet, The counterpart of our illuftrious Mr Howard. Mandeville and Rochefou cault ing an obfcure and undignified member of a Society which is directed by the cele brated Mr G. (μ) Barringtonum.] The Hon. Daines Barrington, a fkilful and worthy Naturalift and Antiquary, who unconfcioufly roafted and eat a non-defcript Partridge, before the letter, defigned to announce its quality, had arrived. To complete his misfortune, his maid burnt the feathers of the bird under his nose, while he was in a fainting fit on receipt of the foregoing intelligence. I am, Sir, your very humble servant, &c &c. H. H. The Printer thinks it incumbent on him to apologize for his omiffion of the English tranflation that accompanied the forgoing hexameters. Had the whole of it been as faithful as its beginning "Why fhould I wake old Pegge's or Brereton's name? be would willingly have published it; but, to fay the truth, Mr B. is as licentious in his verfions from Dr Parr's poetry, as he has formerly been from his profe. Whether negligence, or defign, occafioned fuch departures from his original, it is not a Printer's office to determine. would have found that reciprocation of benevolence he was anxious to procure. He was fo forcibly ftruck with the wretched fituation of the great Hofpital of Paris (the Hotel Dieu, as it is called), where the dead, the dying, and the living, are very often crowded together in the fame bed (five perfons at a time occafionally occupying the fame bed), that he wrote a plan of reform for that Hofpital, which he fhewed in manuscript to the famous John James Rouffeau, requesting him to correct it for him. "What correction," replied Rouffeau, can a work want, that one cannot read without fhuddering at the horrid pictures it reprefents? What is the end of writing, if it be not to touch and intereft the paffions?" M. de Chamouffet was occafionally the author of many benevolent and useful fchemes; fuch as the establishment of the Penny Poft at Paris; the bringing good water to that city; a plan for a Houfe of Affociation, by which any man, for a small fum of money depofited, may be taken care of when he is fick; and many others; pot forgetting one for the abolishment of begging, which is to be found in Les Vues d'un Citoyen." M. de Chamouffet was now fo well known as a man of active and ufeful benevolence, that M. de Choifeul (when he was in the War Department) made him, in 1761, Intendant General of the Military Hofpitals of France, the King Louis XV. telling him, cault may write till they are blind, if they please, they can never put man kind, in general, out of conceit with the dignity and excellence of human nature. They wrote from themselves, and from their own fituation; the one being a dependent, low-minded, tho' an ingenious brute; the other being a courtier, and a difeur des bons mots. Where do you find all this mifanthropy, all this ingratitude, all this vice, that you attribute to the human race?" faid fome blunt Frenchman to a countryman of his, a great maxim-monger, and a great degrader of the human character." In my own heart," faid the other. To return, however, to M. de Chamouffet: He was born at Paris in 1717, and deftined to fupply his father's place in the Parliament of that city as a Judge, as well as that of his uncle in the fame fituation. He made choice of the one of them that would give him the least trouble, and afford him the moft leifure for his benevolent projects. Medicine was his favourite ftudy. This he practifed on the poor only, with fuch an ardour and activity of mind, that the hours which many perfons give to fleep he bestowed on the affiftance of the fick. To make himfelf more useful to them, he had learned to bleed, which operation he performed with all the dexterity of the moft experienced Surgeon. His difpofition to do goed appeared fo ear ly, that, when he was a boy, he fed to give to the poor the money which other boys spent, in general, in an i- that he had never, fince he came to dle and unprofitable manner. He was the Throne, made out an appointment oncevery much in love with a young la- fo.agreeable to himfelf ;" and added, dy of great beauty and accomplish-"I am fure I can never make any one ments; but imagining that he would not that will be of fuch service to my make him a fuitable affiftant, in his troops." The pains he took in this attendance on the poor, he gave over employment were incredible. His all thoughts of marriage; not very attention to his fituation was fo great, wifely, perhaps, facrificing to the ex- and conducted with fuch good fenfe treme delicacy of one woman only his and understanding, that the Marshal attachment to that fex, in whofe ten- de Soubife, on vifiting one of the great dernefs of difpofition, and in whofe Military Hofpitals at Duffeldorf, under inftinctive quicknefs of feeling, he the care of M. de Chamouffet, faid, This is the first time I have been fo happy as to go round an hospital without hearing any complaints. Another Marshal of France told his wife: "Were I fick," faid he, "I would be taken to the hofpital of which M. de Chamouffet has the management." M. de Chamouffet was one day faying to the Minifter, that he would bring into a Court of Juf tice the peculation and rapine of a particular perfon. "God forbid you hould," answered the Minifter; "you run a risk of not dying in your bed." * I had rather,” replied he, "die in any manner you please, than live to fee my country devoured by fcoun drels." This good man died in 1773, at the age of fifty-fix years only. He is fuppofed to have haftened his death by not taking fufficient care of himfelf in his illaefs; faying always, when preffed to do fo, that he had not time to fpare for it. He died, as he lived, with the fentiments of a good chriftian, and left a confiderable fum in charity; taking, however, very good care of his relations and dependants. His works are contained in two volumes, 8vo. confifting of his different fchemes and projects of humanity and utility; to which is prefixed an Account of his Life, by a Doctor of the Sorbonne. The title of them is: "Euvres complettes de M. de Chamouffet: Contenant fes Projets d'Humanité, de Bienfaifance, & de Patriotifme." Paris. 1783. The First Lord Shaftesbury: A man of such talents and fagacity that, at twenty years of age, he carried a proposal of his own for fettling the differences between the King (Charles I.) and his Parliament, to the two parties concerned in the difpute. It met, however, with no fuccefs; nor would perhaps, a propofal made by Machiavel himself have fuc ceeded better when the fword was once drawn. In the reign of Charles II. after having filled fome great offices, he was appointed to that very dignified and illuftrious one of Lord Chancellor, though he had never studied the law, and had never been called to the bar. On that account he used to prefide in the Court of Chancery in a brown filk inftead of a black filk gown. Dryden him felf praises his conduct whilst he administered this great office, faying of him : "Yet fame deferv'd no enemy cam The itatefeman we abhor, but praise the grudge, judge. In Ifrael's courts ne'er fat an Abethdin With more difcerning eyes, or hands more clean; Unbrib'd, unfought, the wretched to redrefs, Swift of dispatch, and easy of accefs." Yet in another place he calls him : "For close designs and crooked council Reftlefs, unfix'd in principles and place, He was engaged in all the party and political disputes in Charles II.'s reign, occafionally with the King, and occafionally against him. He was at laft, however, obliged to fly to Holland, where he died, at Amfterdam, of no great age, 57, E believe, de la goutte remontée, as Davaux fays in his Memoires; a ftriking inftance of the little utility of great talents, either to the poffef for of them, or to the world in general, when they are not directed by just and good principles; and exemplifying what Roger Afcham, in his Schoolmaster, fays: " Commonlie men very quick of witte be also very light of conditions. In youth they be readie fcoffers, privie mockers; and ever over-light and merry; in age they are taftie, very wafpifh, and alwaies over-miferable. And yet fewe of them come to any great age, by reafon of their mifordered life when they are yonge; but a great deal few er of them come to fhine any great countenance, or bear any great authority abroade in the world; but either live obfcurely, men wot not how, or dye obfcurely, men mark not when." One of Lord Shaftesbury's fchemes given to his master was, that of fhutting up the Treafury, to which be willingly enough afiented. Lord Shaftesbury was one of the ableft fpeakers of his time; and had often turned the debates in the Houfe of Peers by the dexterity of his management of them, and the acuteness of his reafoning. Mr Locke was wonderfully fruck with his fagacity on every fubject; and though he was a man of ach reading, yet nothing, in Mr Locke's opinion, could be more juft than the judgment he paffed upon the books which fell into his hands. He prefendly faw through the defign of a work; and, without much heeding the words (which he ran over with great rapidity), he immediately found whether the author was mafter of his fubject, and whether his reafonings were exact. But, above all, Mr Locke admired in him that penetration, that prefence of mind, which prompted him with the beft, expedients in the molt defperate cafes; that noble boldnefs which appeared in all his public difcourfes, always guided by a folid judgment, which, never allowing him to fay any thing that was improper, and regulating his leaft word, left no hold to the vigilance of his enemies. Lord Shaftesbury has been fuppofed to have affifted Mr Locke very much in his Treatife upon Toleration. L. fhop Burnet fuppofes him addicted to judicial aftrology. It has been faid, though, that his Lordship affected to believe this folly when in company with the Bishop, to prevent his en deavours to wind out of him his political intentions. In the complete edition of Mr Locke's Works there are fome fcanty Memoirs of this extraordinary perfon's life; which, were it written with proper information, would make a biographical article of much amufement, and of useful inftruction; the subject of it having been engaged as a principal agent in all the Dædalian political tranfactions of his time; and being, befides, a man of wit, of knowledge, and of elegance of manners. Abbe de Saint Pierre, The jeft of every practical and profigate politician, who calls the benevolent and patriotic fehemes of this honeft aud good, as well as enlightened, man, "Reveries." Cardinal Dubois, however, with more honefty than fome of his companions in iniquity, calls them the "Reves d'un homme de bien," the "Reveries of an honest and well-intentioned man." He was born in Normandy, in 1658, and was an Ecclefiaftic, being Almoner to the Dutchefs of Orleans, and having a commendam Abbey. He was of the French Academy; but having, in one of his works,, fpoken flightingly of Louis XIVth's manof governing, he was excluded, for not having treated the memory of the Founder of the Academy with fufficient refpect; and at his deain, which happened in 1743, the customary eulogium upon the Academicians was not fpoken over his bier. The Regent, who knew him to be a man facrificed to the manes of Louis XIV. would not fuffer his vacant place, a. mongst the forty, to be filled up in his life-time. The complete collection of his works is in eighteen volumes, in twelves; they confift chiefly of Projects with the Annals of the Reign of Louis XIV. which gave great offence to the idolizers of the memory of that Prince. His ftyle is inelegant and diffufe; There is a picture of his painting, at Caen Wood, Lord Mansfield's. It is the portrait of Betterton, after Sir Godfrey Kneller. He ufed to fay, had not his eyes been bad, he should have made a tolerable painter. If the converfation did not take a lively turn, he used to fall afleep in company. He had good reafon to be pleafed with Sir Robert Walpole. He procured from Cardinal Fleuryan Abbey, in France, for his friend Mr Southcote. His fifter ufed to fay, that when he was a child he was exceedingly handfome. She imagined that excess of ftudy had distorted his body. At ten years of age he wrote a fatire on his Schoolmaster. He Mr Pope was anxious to have his defects of fhape concealed in any buft or portrait that was taken of him. His eyes were remarkably vivid and bright; and, as an eminent painter faid of them, had a pellucidity which he had not often feen, and fpoke "fenfe diftinct and clear," would occafionally fit with his head upon his hand, and leaning upon a table, for an hour together, without opening his mouth. He was an unpleafant inmate in a house, giving the fervants of it a great deal of trouble, but always paying them with great liberality. VOL. XL. No. 65. X x The diflike of Mrs Blount to Mr Allen is fuppofed to have arisen from Mr Allen's refufing to fend his coach to take her to the Masshouse at Bath, when he was on a vifit to Prior Park. Pope was as much afraid of this lady as fhe faid fhe used to be of Swift, who used to own he felt his own inferiority when he was in company with Lord Bolingbroke. Of Mr Pope's Man of Rofs, Mr Kyrle, there appears to be but little known. At the King's Arms Inn at Reading, there used to hang up a picture of him fome years ago. It reprefented him as a man of a grave and ferious afpect, with a long flowing wig, and a night-gown. There are fome collateral relations of his now living at Bristol. The Clerk of Rofs, who died fome years ago at a very advanced age, remembered Mr Kyrle very well. He fays, he kept open house. on a market day, and treated his guests (the farmers of the neighbourhood) with great hofpitality, giving them always a buttock of beef, and plenty of ale and cyder. His arms are, I think, on one of the entrances into the area (near the church) where the refervoir for water is. Of late years they have erected a monument to his memory in the church of Rofs, with Mr Pope's very beautiful lines (by way of infcription). Much of what has been faid to have been done by Mr Kyrle was done by the contributions of others, who very willingly depofited in the hands of a man of known integrity, and active benevolence, what fums they thought fit to bestow upon acts of charity, or works of utility and elegance. Mr Pope is fuppofed to have had no particular plan either in his Effay on Criticifm, or in his Efay on Man, however his learned commentator may have chofen to have dignified thofe two productions with a folemn and ferious Commentary. He wrote them both as Horace did his Art of Poetry, taking particular thoughts, which he |