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the State of the Dead, as described by Homer and Virgil)' asserting with great erudition and ability the antiquity of the doctrine of a future state, interfered with Dr. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses.' This gave rise to a piece, published by the late Bishop Hurd,* under the title of "A seventh Dissertation on the Delicacy of Friendship;" an illiberal attack on Jortin, because he had too much independence of mind to compliment Warburton in the indiscriminate manner, which was then become fashionable among his admirers. Jortin made no reply; but in his Adversaria' the following memorandum occurs, proving that he opposed the notions of other men not from any spirit of envy or contradiction, but from the full persuasion that he was in the right. "I have examined," says he, "the State of the Dead as described by Homer and Virgil, and upon that Dissertation I am willing to stake all the little credit that I have as a critic and a philologer. I have there observed, that • Homer was not the inventor of the fabulous histories of the gods; he had those stories, and also the doctrine of a future state, from old traditions.' Many notions of the Pagans, which came from tradition, are considered by Barrow, II. viii., in which sermon

Modeste enfin, et modéré, il n'attache point la gloire à déprimer ceux qui courent la même carrière, ou qui pensent différemment de lui. A ces traits, que mon cœur a tracés, que la voix publique confirme, et qu'un Prélat universellement respecté des gens de lettres et des gens de bien a consacrés, il est peu de lecteurs, du moins dans notre isle, qui ne reconnoissent M. le Docteur JORTIN.'

* But the Prelate paid the penalty of his intemperate attachment to his Right Reverend Patron, in the severity with which he was treated by the learned editor of Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian.'

the existence of God is proved from universal consent. See also Bibl. Chois. I. 356, and Bibl. Univ., IV. 433."

In 1758, he gave to the world his Life of Erasmus,' in one volume quarto; * and in 1760, a second,

* For the motto of this work, he chose a passage from Erasmus himself: "Illud certè præsagio, de meis lucubrationibus, qualescunque sunt, candidiùs judicaturam posteritatem; tametsi nec de meo seculo queri possum." Yet it is certain, that he had very slight notions of posthumous fame or glory, and of any real. good which could arise from it; as appears from the following note on Milton's Paradise Regained,' which as a specimen both of his philology, and his feeling upon that subject, is here inserted:

'To whom (Satan) our Saviour calmly thus replied:
"What is glory, but the blaze of fame,

The people's praise, if always praise unmix'd?
And what the people but a herd confused,

A miscellaneous rabble, who extol

Things vulgar and, well-weigh'd, scarce worth the praise?
They praise, and they admire they know not what,
And know not whom, but as one leads the other:
And what delight to be by such extoll'd,

To live upon their tongues, and be their talk,
Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise;
His lot, who dares be singularly good!

Th' intelligent among them and the wise

Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised,' &c.

(iii. 43.) · This passage, observes Jortin, deserves attention. The love of glory is a passion deeply rooted in us, and with difficulty kept under. Την κενοδοξίαν, ὡς τελευταίον χιτώνα, ή ψυχή πέφυκεν αποτίθεσθαι, says Plato. Helvidius Priscus, as Tacitus relates, was 'possesed of all the virtues, which make a great and a good man.' He was a Stoic into the bargain; and therefore bound, by the principles of his philosophy, to set a small value upon the tax sợ

And yet, erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur; quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur. (Hist. iv. 5.) As at Rome and in Greece a spear, a crown of oak or laurel, a

containing Remarks upon the Works of Erasmus,' and an Appendix of Extracts from Erasmus, and

statue, a public commendation was esteemed an ample recompence for many brave actions; so it is as true, that many of their great men were over-fond of fame, and mere slaves to the love of it.

Let us see, what the philosophers have said concerning a greedy desire of glory-such a desire, as leads men to make it the ruling principle of their actions, and invites them to do well only or chiefly in order to be admired. We shall find them condemning it, and saying things agreeable enough to what Milton puts into the mouth of our Saviour:

• Illud autem te admoneo, ne eorum more, qui non proficere sed conspici volunt, facias aliqua.' (Senec. Epist. v.)

'Qui virtutem suam publicari vult, non virtuti laborat, sed gloria. Non vis esse justus sine gloria. At, mehercule, sæpè justus esse debebis cum infamiâ; et tunc, si sapis, mala opinio benè parta delectat. (Id. Epist. cxiii.)

• Cavenda est gloriæ cupiditas is a lesson delivered by one, who in that particular did not practise what he taught.' (Cic. Offic. I.) Laudis amore tumes? Sunt certa piacula, quæ te

Ter purè lecto poterunt recreare libello.' (Hor. Ep. I. i. 36.) 'An quidquam stultius quàm, quos singulos sicut operarios barbarosque contemnas, eos esse aliquid putare universos? Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 36.) Upon which Davis remarks, "Egregium hoc monitum Socrati debetur, qui Alcibiadem in concionem populi prodire veritum ita excitavit : « Ου καταφρονεις, είπε Σωκράτης, εκείνες τι σκυτοτομε;” το ονομα είπων αυτό. Φησαντὸς δε το Αλκιβιάδος, υπο λάβων παλιν ὁ Σωκράτης, « Ετι δε τε εν τοις κυκλοις κηρυττοντος;” η, 66 εκεινε τε σκηνοῤῥαφε;” Ὁμολογόντος δε τ8 Κλεινιε μειρακι8, ἔφη ὁ Σωκρατης, ὁ δῆμος Αθηναίων εκ τέτων ήθροισαι; και, ει των καθ' ένα καταφρονητέον, αρα και των ηθροισμένων

66 Ouxer,

Epictetus, Enchirid. 45. says, Eneid #goxomтertog ydera Veyes, εδένα επαινεί, εδένα μέμφεται, αδενα ἑαυτε λέγει κα εγκαλεί, εδεν Tigi τις αυτον επαινη, καταγέλα τε επαίνοντος αυτος παρ' έαυτων και ψυχή, εκ añoλoysTα. Signa proficientis sunt: neminem vituperat, neminem laudat, de nemine queritur, neminem incusat; nihil de seipso dicit. Et, si quis ipsum laudet, ridet laudantem ipse secum; et, si vituperet, non se purgat.

Idem, apud Stobæum: Oudiis piñoxeywætos, xui Prandovos, xas Pide.

other Writers.' In the preface to the former he says, that Le Clerc, while he published the works of Erasmus at Leyden, drew up his Life in French, collected principally from his Letters, and inserted it

δοξος, και Φιλανθρωπος· αλλα μονος ὁ φιλοκαλος. Nemo pecuniæ amans, et voluptatis, et gloria, simul homines amat; sed solus honesti

amans.

So Plato, De Republ. I. says that "a fondness for glory is as mean a vice as a fondness for money."

◄ Many such passages might be added, particularly from Marcus Aurelius, and other Stoical writers. The Stoics, though they refused to give fame and glory a place among good things, yet I think did not slight the esteem of good men: they distinguished between gloria and claritas. Thus Seneca, Ep. cii. Gloria multorum judiciis constat, claritas bonorum.-[Sed claritas] potest unius boni viri judicio esse contenta.

* I cannot forbear inserting here a passage from Seneca, which I believe will please the reader as much as it does me. It relates to that fond hope, which we writers good, bad, and indifferent are apt to entertain, that our name and labours shall be immortal; and it tells us, as elegantly as truly, what we have to expect. Profunda supra nos altitudo temporis veniet: pauca ingenia caput exserent; et in idem quandoque silentium abitura oblivioni resistent, ac se diu vindicabunt. (Ep. xxi.) We expect that Time should take the charge of our writings, and deliver them safe to the latest posterity; but he is as surly, and whimsical, as Charon :

Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum,
Tendebantque manus ripa ulterioris amore :
Navita sed tristis nunc hos, nunc accipit illos;

Ast alios longè summotos arcet arenâ. (Æn. vi. 313.)

•If we have the mortification to see our works die before us, we may comfort ourselves with the consideration, which Seneca suggests to us, that a time will come when the most excellent and admired compositions shall perish." Nor is the consolation much smaller, which offers itself to us when we look back, and consider how many good authors there must needs have been, of whom no memorial is left; and how many, of whom nothing but

in the Bibliothéque Choisie: that as this Life was favourably received by the public, he had taken it as a ground-work to build upon, and had translated it, not superstitiously and closely, but with much freedom and with more attention to things than to words;' but that he had made continual additions, not only with relation to the history of those days, but to the Life of Erasmus; especially where Le Clerc grew more remiss, either wearied with the task, or called off from these to other labours.' He subsequently recommends himself to the favour of his friends, while he is with them, and his name, when he is gone hence;' and entreats them to join with him in a wish, that he may pass the evening of a studious and unambitious life in an humble but not a slothful obscurity, and never forfeit the kind continuance of their accustomed approbation.'

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But whatever he or his friends might desire, he was not to live either so studiously, or so obscurely, as in imagination he had anticipated: scenes more public, than any in which he had hitherto been en

the bare name survives; and how many books are extant indeed, but never read.

Aufer ab hinc lacrimas, barathre, et compesce querelas—
Lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancu' reliquit,

Qui melior multis quàm tu fuit, improbe, rebus.

(Lucret. iii. 967. 1037, 1038.)

To these motives of contentment under such circumstances I need not add, what every neglected author says to himself, that the age he lives in has no taste.'

A long and able discussion of this passion occurs in Mr. Wilberforce's' Practical View of Professed, as contrasted with Real Christianity,' IV. § 3. particularly in p. 245 of the 8vo. ed. of 1805, where the stile sympathises with the splendor and the sublimity of the subject.