8 Benson's Memoirs of Arthur Collier. [July, heterodox opinions, corresponding with those of Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea. His heresy consisted in maintaining that as regards the sacred person of the Trinity-the godhead was united or mingled with the body of a man, and that the Logos, or eternal Wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place and office of a human soul;" or in Collier's own words, "that the pre-existent Word or Son of God, was not united to a created human soul or spirit, but was himself the man called Jesus and the Christ." From the resemblance between the opinions of Collier and Apollinaris, the former has been termed by Dr. Parr, an Apollinarian. Collier embodied these treatises in a volume called Logology, or a Treatise on the Logos or Word of God, in seven sermons, on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verses of the first chapter of St. John,-a book, Mr. Benson says, of great rarity, and which we never saw. An analysis of its contents has been given by Dr. Parr in the Metaphysical Tracts (p. 129.), though at the same time, the learned Doctor shook his august wig not a little at Collier's paradoxes, and pronounced that he was neither convinced by his reasoning, nor enlightened by his opinions. We confess ourselves to be of the Doctor's side : "and though we strain To fill the crannies of our brain With metaphysic truths-they fly, But Collier descended occasionally from the metaphysical regions to the earth, and entered into the subject which, in the reign of good Queen Anne, excited so many controversial pens into action, viz. that of occasional conformity. Mr. Benson says, he has a MS. lying before him, entitled, "Moderation not a Virtue or the Principles of all low Churchmen reduced to a System, and Confuted." His opinion was, that occasional conformists should not be admitted to the sacrament until they had renounced their schism, or, in other words, their dissent from the Church of England; but as he was more acute and intelligent, so he was more liberal and charitable than most of his Tory brethren;-of course he could not overlook the Sacheverell controversy. Mr. Benson sums up his opinions on this subject by saying, "It was his opinion that, on Christian. principles, all men are obliged to submit to the higher powers for the time being; and who those higher powers were, was a mere question of fact: and that Christians had nothing whatever to do with the title of the gubernant authority. This opinion he collected from the New Testament, and more particularly from the often-cited 1st verse of the 13th chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans: "Let all men," &c.-a text on which he published a sermon, hitherto sought for in vain." Like a sturdy logician, he placed the whole dispute in the strong cage of a syllogism; and thus satisfied the scruples of his conscience. 1. God wills that I should be subject to the regnant power. 2. This or that person is the regnant power. Ergo, God wills that I should be subject to this or that power. In the Bangorian Controversy, which followed next, Collier's active mind and acute intellect were not idle, and he acted as a kind of moderator between the dissentients. He considered that Hoadly had misinterpreted the passage which formed the text of his famous sermon, in which remark we are inclined to agree, and he also drew a distinction between what he called the primary and secondary laws of Christ. The primary he considered to be expressly determined by Christ, and that our obedience was pre-engaged; by the secondary laws he understood those in them selves indifferent, but rendered of consequence from being enjoined by a competent ecclesiastical authority; and he instanced regulations for the greater order and decency of God's worship, and the better edification of the worshippers. Having proceeded thus far, he argued that there is nothing in its nature so indifferent, but what may become matter of conscience; adding, in opposition to Hoadly, "we ought to be very cautious how we so far limit the authority of the Christian governor, as to say that he can make no law in what pertains to conscience and eternal salvation." We next find Collier addressing a letter to Dr. Samuel Clarke on the subject of a well-known scripture miracle:- · ""Tis (he says) an usual objection against the Copernican system of the heavens, that it is contrary to the words of Scripture, particularly to Joshua x. 12, 12. Sun, stand thou still, and the sun stood still,' &c. But now, besides the usual answers that have been made to this argument, this, methinks, has something in it, that it is said in the same place, that the moon also stayed her course. Now here I suppose, or beg, that the motion of the moon may be the natural or immediate effect of the motion of the earth, supposing that the earth does move; and, consequently, that the cessation of the moon's motion is the natural effect or consequence of the cessation of the earth's but, I think, I need not beg this, on the other hand, but the motion of the sun, supposing that it docs move, cannot be any natural cause of the motion of the moon; and therefore that the cessation of the moon's motion cannot be the effect or consequence of the cessation of the sun's. Now, light, we all know, and nothing else, was that which Joshua wanted. But I do not see how it contributed at all to this end for the moon to stand still together with the sun. If not, yet we know for certain that the moon did stand still, or stay its course at this time, and therefore we must either say, that this phenomena was either the effect of the earth's motion,-which is thus the whole question gained on the side of the Copernicans, or that God in this did something unnecessary or to no purpose, which is the greatest absurdity," &c. Thus ends our brief narrative of Mr. Collier's literary occupations; for the history of his private life but few are the materials which are left. He lived in constant interchange of kinduess with his brother William, who was rector of a neighbouring parish, and whose studies were similar to his own. Abstruse as was the nature of their respective mental occupations, for they were both hard-headed metaphysicians, yet they did not disdain to mix, like kind, simple-hearted men, in the cheerful amusements of their neighbours; and this unexpected trait in their characters gives an opportunity to Mr. Benson to express his own opinion on a subject which divides much the sentiments of the Christian world, and which will put a bar to his rising in the law, if ever Sir Andrew Agnew should become Lord Chancellor. "They were quite free (he says) from any of those small superstitions by which, in modern times, persons with a tenth part of their acquirements can cheaply earn a reputation for sanctity. They seem to have often shared, and in a manner hallowed the diversions of the people. The Diary proves that they attended the races of the villages around, sometimes joined in the dance, played occasionally at cards (what would be said of this at the palaces of Farnham and Fulham ?) and in their own houses enjoyed the performance of music. But these matters (could not Mr. Benson have found a better word than matters ?) were not peculiar to them. The clergy of the period appear to have entertained, in many respects, far loftier* notions of the great Being who presides over the universe, than some of *Loftier' does not seem to convey to us the appropriate meaning of this passage. We ourselves certainly do not lean at all to puritanical doctrines; and in the country we partake, though we do not presume to hallow, certain popular diversions-but we have nothing to say against the opinions of those who think that human life is too serious a thing to be played with, and too short to allow any of its inestimable moments to run to waste. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,' is a declaration that seems incompatible with any great portion of time passed in B GENT. MAG. VOL, VIII. . their successors of the present day. The grovelling spirit of Puritanism had not debased their hearts, and fooled their understandings into the idea, that a petty warfare against the amusements of social life could be acceptable to the Almighty. Their writings, abounding in piety and learning, prove how often and how deeply they must have reflected on the Divine Attributes; while their lives for the most ་ part displayed a pattern of unostentatious obedience to the precepts of the Gospel; thus affording examples worthy of imitation by those of the present day, who first humanizing God, and then deifying themselves, strike at the root of all that is ennobling in religion, and, what is worse, minister to superstition on the one hand, and to intolerance on the other." Collier married Margaret Johnson, a niece of Sir Stephen Fox; and whose father was his clerk, while the former was paymaster of the army. Mr. Johnson died in 1682, and left Sir Stephen Fox guardian of his children, executor, and trustee. Sir S. Fox, it appears, was loth to part with the fortunes of his wards, and they brought an action against him for the recovery of it. This gives rise to a letter from Collier, which Mr. Benson says, " combines the utmost acuteness of perception and mastery of reasoning, with a tone of severe yet respectful reproof, hardly to be matched in the whole range of English literature." However that may be, it occupies about ten pages, and in it the writer very justly observes, ' that all is not justice in the sight of God, that may be done in a course of law.' The matter, we believe, was compromised. But this did not end the worldly distractions of this primitive psychologist. His lady was more expensive than became a country parson's wife; who, if she be neat, cleanly, and wholesome in her person, should strive for nothing more. Under this pecuniary pressure, Collier could think of no other remedy than quitting his manse and taking lodgings at Salisbury, "where (he says) we eat once a day with our landlady, and in all other things find ourselves." This, however, would not do. We suppose Mrs. Collier was pertinacious in furbelows and falbalas; for her husband, as a last resource, was forced to sell the reversion of Langford rectory to Corpus Christi College, for the sum of 1,6007., after it had been nearly a century and a quarter in the family. All troubles, whether derived from wives, mistresses, or publishers, will have an end; and poor Collier was fortunately released from his in 1732; when he escaped the future disputes of mantua-makers, metaphysicians, and minute philosophers; and shuffling off his mortal coil, woke in company with Wolff, Leibnitz, and Samuel Clarke. Mr. Benson thinks he died suddenly, for he was meditating a new course of syllogisms, and his Logology had just appeared. His eldest son is described, in Coote's amusement; and we must recollect that but a small part of time is occupied in acts of gaiety and pleasure, compared to the space they usurp on the mind before and after. Nevertheless, we eschew all persecution; and detest the plan of driving men to devotion, as we drive bullocks to Smithfield. We prefer more attention to personal duties, and personal and private devotion, and less engagement in Societies and Public Meetings, and forms of Centralization. The attempt, to make a wealthy, populous, luxurious metropolis, like London (in which the higher classes set the example of turning night into day, and thus themselves loosing one link of social order, viz. regularity and orderly habits), as sober, strict, and religious as such a city as Geneva, where the Burghers and Syndics are all in bed by ten, is preposterous and impracti cable. If you will have wealth, you must have luxury, and with luxury, over-abundance and want, and vice in all its forms. But the cupidity of the rich is even more deplorable and more mischievous than the profligacy of the poor. Hundreds of poor people staggering under two pots of porter in their brain instead of one, will not injure the social frame, the moral community, like the fearful bankruptcy of the avaricious and desperate millionaire. The poor must be profligate in a metropolis where the rich set them the example. Lives of the Civilians, as an ingenious but eccentric person. One of his daughters (Jane), was the author (Mr. Benson saith authoress-as he perhaps would have called Mrs. Glasse Carveress, or Mrs. Leadbeater Plumberess and Glazieress) of " the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting ;" and the other, Mary, accompanied the celebrated Fielding in his voyage to Lisbon. No descendants of Arthur Collier are supposed to be now alive. Having now conducted the biography of this ingenious person to its final exit, we must thank the learned biographer for having thus piously rescued his memory from future neglect, and placed it permanently among his brother worthies in the Temple of Fame. But least the singularities of the subject of the memoir should act injuriously on the conduct, or make impressions fatal to the prosperous course of all young and unfledged metaphysicians, Mr. Benson has prudently terminated his volume by a solemn warning to persons of either sex, that they do not permit their mental occupations to interfere with their necessary domestic arrangements; not to put on their wigs or caps awry; not like a late famous mathematician, burn their shoes off their feet while solving a problem of Archimedes; or, like the late Mr. W. Windham, walk down Pall Mall with the kitchen poker for a cane; and take another lady home to dinner by mistake for Mrs. Windham. If a man of genius will live in an air balloon, instead of walking the earth, let him be cælibate: let him keep aloof from the bewitching daughters of Eve; and not beget little, wild, speculative, metaphysical children, dancing in the upper regions of the earth, like so many air bubbles, as beautiful as they are evanescent and eccentric. "It is painful (says Mr. Benson of Collier) to dwell on the absence of worldly prudence which seems to have marked his character. His favourite speculations were fitted rather for the seclusion of a cloister, than for the practical business of human life; and although bodily sensuality is doubtless one of the chief sources of man's degradation, still intellectual indulgence may also be oursued to excess, and induce a neglect of domestic affairs, as fatal to his comfort as the former. This seems to have been fully exemplified in the character of Arthur Collier. He knew, indeed, as an old writer expresses it, how to spell heaven out of earth, to knit his observations together, and make a ladder of them all to climb to God;'* but at the same time forgot, that while the earth is our temporary resting place, our social duties demand that by spiritualizing we become not unfit to discharge them. Thus he who was the greatest ornament of his family, in one respect became their greatest misfortune. The advowson of Langford Magna, which for three generations had been the means of supporting a clergyman's family at least in respectability, was in his hands sacrificed, not indeed to habits of debasing immorality, but to their very antagonists; to habits of abstruse speculation, which seem to have unfitted him for all considerations of worldly prudence, and to have displayed in his fate a fresh proof of the propinquity of extremes." DIARY OF A LOVER OF LITERATURE. (Continued from Vol. VII. p. 358.) Jan. 31.-Read D. Stewart's account of the Life and Writings of Reid, containing a most masterly exposition and defence of his system of philosophising. He here inculcates the propriety of attending-even objectively as subjects of speculative inquiry-to all the powers, intellectual and moral, with which the mind is endowed, from a sense of the mischief which arises from cultivating some of these powers at the expense of the rest. Bishop Earle's Microcosmography, edit. Bliss, p. 94. + This sentence is not expressed with Mr. Benson's usual clearness and grace. Feb. 17.-Read George Stevenson's Advertisement prefixed to his ShakHis inpeare, 1793; pregnant with wit and sense most happily combined. tellects appear to have emerged quite unimpaired from these editorial drudgeries which seem to have obtunded in a great degree those of his colleagues. Perused Ritchie's Life of Hume."-I am not quite pleased with Robertson for indulging the thought of writing the History of England after Hume; of whose incomparable literary frankness, candour, and good temper so far removed from all jealousy and envy-he had received such striking proofs. The idea which Hume suggests to him of writing a series of lives, something after the manner of Plutarch, seems a very happy one, and ought not to be lost. Feb. 18.-Perused Ritchie's Hume.-Rousseau's transaction with him here, proves the former incontestibly insane. Walpole's affected aristocratic contempt,-affected, because he can evidently be in a great passion on the subject himself-is above measure disgusting, and is most properly rebuked by Hume, though hardly with sufficient severity. Hume, I think, no where appears to greater advantage than in this business; the mock indictment against him, most humorously and happily closes the affair.-I was not aware that Hume, in 1767, succeeded Burke, as Under Secretary to the Secretary of State, General Conway.-I should not have expected that Hume would have purchased his burial ground in Calton Churchyard, nor that he should have ordered to have inscribed on the tomb, what I have seen, merely his name and the date of his birth and death, "leaving it to posterity to add the rest." Feb. 22.-Read Twining's preface to his Translation of Aristotle-admirably written. He remarks that, though Aristotle has not expressed his taste in the Poetics, † he has discovered it and never loses sight, as many The defects of Hume's History are-1. Political prejudice.-2. Want of research in original documents, manuscript or printed.-3. Deficiency of knowledge in constitutional law. His merits it would be useless to enumerate, for he who has not discovered them, and felt them, himself, will not profit by their being pointed out to him. They are such as have thrown all other historians (whatever their merits may be,) into the shade.-EDIT. We know not any prose translation of any classic worthy to be compared with Twining's Poetics, for elegance, correctness, and pure Anglicism. The notes are a treasure of classical information, and the two preliminary dissertations are among the earliest specimens of philosophical criticism. Twining understood his author well, and has shown clearly, how grossly, if not wilfully, the French interpreters have misunderstood him. It is to be regretted that he is not as bold in advancing his own clear view of Aristotle's purport, as in demolishing the flimsy comments on Bossu and Dacier. It was much that he dared keep his common sense and common eyes; but he might have discovered much more had he used the discourse of an imaginative philosophy not that he wanted imagination or philosophy either, but he was afraid to trust them together,' &c.-Coleridge's Biographia Borealis, p. 416 —On Twining, see Miss Burney's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 312.-"The notes of Twining," says Dr. Parr, "are very learned, and considered as a Translator of a Greek original, his work is not, I believe, surpassed by any translation in the English language."-The following MS. lines are written under a print of him, by a friend, and now, for the first time, printed: With Attic wit combining humour's play, With learning, taste refined, his mind was fraught, His life the model of the peace he taught. -The second line alludes to his musical skill and ear. He played on the violin.EDIT. |