of the letter already noticed. When Dr. Price, who is here alluded to, preached his celebrated sermon at the Old Jewry, the French Revolution had already commenced with circumstances of the most atrocious nature. Orthophilus owns, that his judgement concerning this revolution was premature and over-sanguine. * Would it not, then, have been more prudent to have suspended that judgement, and not to have anticipated the event; but to have waited patiently and coolly for the accomplishment of those designs of Providence, which yet lie concealed in the bosom of futurity? Mr. Burke's sentiments on this subject are such, as will obviously occur to every candid reader. "I find," saith he, "a preacher of the gospel profaning the beautiful and prophetic ejaculation (commonly called Nunc Dimittis) made on the first presentation of our Saviour in the Temple, and applying it with an * The passage alluded to in Dr. Price's Discourse is the following: "What an eventful period is this! I am thankful that I have lived to it. I could almost say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I have lived to see a diffusion of knowledge, which has undermined superstition and error. I have lived to see the rights of men better understood than ever; and nations panting for liberty, which seemed to have lost the idea of it. I have lived to see thirty millions of people indignant and resolute, spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice; their King led in triumph, and an arbitrary Monarch surrendering himself to his subjects." inhuman and unnatural rapture to the most horrid, atrocious, and afflicting spectacle, that perhaps ever was exhibited to the pity and indignation of mankind. This leading in triumph, a thing in it's best form unmanly and irreligious, which fills a preacher with such unhallowed transports, must shock, I believe, the moral taste of every well-born mind. Several English were the stupified and indignant spectators of that triumph. It was (unless we have been strangely deceived) a spectacle more resembling a procession of American savages entering into Onondaga after some of their murthers called victories,' and leading into hovels hung round with scalps their captives overpowered with the scoffs. and buffets of women as ferocious as themselves, much more than it resembled the triumphal pomp of a civilised martial nation-if a civilised nation, or any men who had a sense of generosity, were capable of a personal triumph over the fallen and afflicted." * A. U. 6 * Burke's Works, V. 184. The signature of this communication, consisting of the last two vowels of Dr. Zouch's christian and sur-name, will remind the reader of the A. E. A. O. said to have been adopted, upon similar principles, by our most illustrious surviving scholar in one of his learned publications, II. As Dr. Zouch, in his Life of Walton, has given what he justly calls a "classic" version, by Mr. Tate, of Duport's Iambics, beginning Magister Artis, &c. (Musæ Subseciva, seu Poetica Stromata, p. 101.) addressed' Ad Virum optimum et Piscatorem peritissimum, Isaacum Waltonum; perhaps the reader will pardon the introduction of a second copy of verses from the same pen, in the same metre, and on the same subject. They will show, at least, that all the scholars of Cambridge did not adopt the sentiment of Gilbert Wakefield, as stated in No. I. ISACE, macte hac arte piscatoriâ: Hác arte PETRUS Principi censum dedit ; IMITATED. Hail, Walton, with that fisher-skill, * Suet. Aug. 83. Thee, friend, next Cæsar now we deem Deep lectures to a listening host. And master thou, and scholar I, (For I, too, watch the mimic fly) -A fisher was great nature's Lord. (F. W.) III. Upon the subject of the "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Philip Sidney," the following communications are preserved among Dr. Zouch's Papers. The first is addressed to a Nephew of his, the other to a Friend. DEAR SIR, I. 8th July, 1809. I HAVE read the Life of Sir Philip Sidney with much care, and as I expected, with much pleasure. I found in it nothing to blame, but much to admire. It is an highly interesting piece of biography, and a curious picture of the age. The stile is sweetly simple, and the arrangement of the materials clear. It is, in fact, a valuable accession to our stock of elegant literature. I beg you may offer my best thanks to your learned Uncle for the pleasure and information, which his work afforded me. The intimacy, which subsisted between Tasso and Sir Philip, was a fact quite new to me. Nor is it, I believe, noticed by Serassi, or any of the other biographers of Tasso. On reading the passage, it struck me that Sir Philip might also have known Guarini, who had been a student at Padua. He might, it is true, have met with him at Venice, or at the splendid court of Ferrara; but he had, I find, retired from Padua when Sir Philip was a student in the University of that city.-I think with Dr. Zouch, that the Arcadia of Sannazaro was, probably, the archetype of the English Arcadia. In referring (p. 141.) the first edition of the Italian Pastoral to 1504, Dr. Zouch follows Fontanini; but it appears, from a note in a little work published by Longman and Rees (see Hist. Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy, p. 64.) that there was an earlier edition. Dr. Zouch need not be reminded, that an interesting account of the Stephenses may be found in Dr. Irving's Memoirs of Buchanan. But it probably escaped his recollection that Mr. Todd, in the account of Spenser prefixed to his edition of his works, does not think with Warton that he died in Dublin. These are the few very unimportant remarks, that occurred in the perusal of your Uncle's book. In communicating them, I am only performing my promise to you, dear Sir, to whom I feel so much obliged. I have the honour to be, &c. J. C. W. |