CHARACTER OF DR. BENTLEY. 15 doctrine; for he was the most patient hearer and most favorable interpreter of first attempts at argument and meaning that I ever knew. When I was rallied by my mother, for roundly asserting that I never slept, I remember full well his calling on me to account for it; and when I explained it by saying I never knew myself to be asleep, and therefore supposed I never slept at all, he gave me credit for my defence, and said to my mother, 'Leave your boy in the possession of his opinion; he has as clear a conception of sleep, and at least as comfortable an one, as the philosophers who puzzle their brains about it, and do not rest so well.' Though Bishop Lowth, in the flippancy of controversy called the author of 'The Philoleutherus Lipsiensis' and detector of Phalaris, aut Caprimulgus aut fossor, his genius has produced those living witnesses, that must for ever put that charge to shame and silence. Against such idle inconsiderate words, now dead as the language they were conveyed in, the appeal is near at hand; it lies no further off than to his works, and they are upon every reading man's shelves; but those, who would have looked into his heart, should have stepped into his house, and seen him in his private and domestic hours; therefore it is that I adduce these little anecdotes and trifling incidents, which describe the man, but leave the author to defend himself. His ordinary style of conversation was naturally lofty, and his frequent use of thou and thee with his familiars carried with it a kind of dictatorial tone, that savored more of the closet than the court; this is readily admitted, and this on first approaches might mislead a stranger; but the native candor and inherent tenderness of his heart could not long be veiled from observation, for his feelings and affections were at once too impulsive to be long repressed, and he too careless of concealment to attempt at qualifying them. Such was his sensibility towards human sufferings, that it became a duty with his family to divert the conversation from all topics of that sort; and if he touched upon them himself he was betrayed into agitations, which if the reader ascribes to paralytic weakness, he will very greatly mistake a man who, to the last hour of his life, possessed his faculties firm and in their fullest vigor: I therefore bar all such misinterpretations as may attempt to set the mark of infirmity upon those emotions, which had no other source and origin but in the natural and pure benevolence of his heart. He was communicative to all without distinction that sought information, or resorted to him for assistance; fond of his college almost to enthusiasm, and ever zealous for the honor of the purple gown of Trinity. When he held examinations for fellowships, and the modest candidate exhibited marks of agitation and alarm, he never failed to interpret candidly of such symptoms; and on those occasions he was never known to press the hesitating and embarrassed examinant, but oftentimes, on the contrary, would take all the pains of expounding on himself, and credit the exonerated candidate for answers and interpretations of his own suggesting. If this was not rigid justice, it was, at least in my conception of it, something better and more amiable; and how liable he was to deviate from the strict. line of justice, by his partiality to the side of mercy, appears from the anecdote of the thief, who robbed him of his plate, and was seized and brought before him with the very articles upon him: the natural process in this man's case pointed out the road to prison; my grandfather's process was more summary, but not quite so legal. While commissary Greaves, who was then present, and of counsel for the college ex officio, was expatiating on the crime, and prescribing the measures obviously to be taken with the offender, Doctor Bentley interposed, saying, 'Why tell the man he is a thief? he knows that well enough, without thy information, Greaves.- Harkye, fellow, thou seest the trade which thou hast taken up is an unprofitable trade, therefore, get thee gone, lay aside an occupation by which thou canst gain nothing but a halter, and follow that by which thou mayst earn an honest livelihood.' Having said this, he ordered him to be set at liberty against the remonstrances of the by-standers, and insisting upon it that the fellow was duly penitent for his offence, bade him go his way, and never steal again. I leave it with those, who consider mercy as one of man's best attributes, to suggest a plea for the informality of this proceeding, and to such I will communicate one other anecdote, which I do not deliver upon my own knowledge, though from unexceptionable authority, and this is, that when Collins had fallen into decay of circumstances, Dr. Bentley, suspecting he had written him out of credit by his 'Philoleutherus Lipsiensis,' secretly contrived to administer to the necessities of his baffled opponent, in a manner that did no less credit to his delicacy than to his liberality.1 1 Anthony Collins was a gentleman of ample estate, who devoted his leisure to literature and philosophical inquiries. As a metaphysician, he discovered no mean ability, and displayed equal candor and courage in avowing the conclusions to which his studies conducted him. In 1713 he published 'A Discourse on Free-thinking.' The object of the work was to vindicate the unlimited freedom of inquiry, and to expose the tyranny exercised by the abettors of priestcraft, under paganism, Popery, or any other corrupt form of CHARACTER OF DR. BENTLEY. 17 A morose and overbearing man will find himself a solitary being in creation; Dr. Bentley, on the contrary, had many intimates; judicious in forming his friendships, he was faithful in adhering to them. With Sir Isaac Newton, Doctor Mead, Doctor Wallis of Stamford, Baron Spanheim, the lamented Roger Cotes,' and several other distinguished and illustrious contemporaries, he lived on terms of uninterrupted harmony, and I have good authority for saying, that it is to his interest and importunity with Sir Isaac Newton, that the inestimable publication of the 'Principia' was ever resolved upon by that truly great and luminous philosopher. Newton's portrait by Sir James Thornhill, and those of Baron Spanheim and my grandfather by the same hand, now hanging in the Master's lodge of Trinity, were the bequest of Dr. Bentley. I was possessed of letters in Sir Isaac's own hand to my grandfather, which, together with the corrected volume of Bishop Cumberland's 'Laws of Nature,' I lately gave to the library of that flourishing and illustrious college. The irreparable loss of Roger Cotes in early life, of whom Newton had pronounced, 'Now the world will know something,' Doctor Bentley never mentioned but with the deepest regret; he had formed the highest expectations of new lights and discoveries in philosophy from the penetrating force of his extraordinary genius, and on the tablet devoted to his memory, in the chapel of Trinity College, Doctor Bentley has recorded his sorrows and those of the whole learned world in the following beautiful and pathetic epitaph: H. S. E. Rogerus Roberti filius Cotes, religion. Collins, though distinguished both for moral and intellectual elevation, was nevertheless a disbeliever in Revelation. In his Discourse, he seemingly intended to attack Revealed Religion generally. This called forth Bentley, whose reply was entitled 'A Letter to F. H. (Francis Hare), D. D., by Philoleutherus Lipsiensis.' Cumberland, I suspect, has fallen into an error, when he speaks of Collins' circumstances. I find no mention, in the biographical works I have consulted, of his suffering from pecuniary difficulties. He was born in 1676, and died in 1729. This celebrated philosopher and mathematician, who died at the early age of thirty-four, inspired all men of science with the highest opinion of his abilities. He died too soon to fulfil the promise of his youth; but what nobler eulogy could he covet, than Newton's exclamation, on hearing of his death:'If Mr. Cotes had lived, we should have known something.' He was born in 1682, and died in 1716. 'Delivering early to the voice of fame Philosophiæ Professor Plumianus ; Sed egregia, sed admiranda, Cui ad summam Doctrinæ laudem, Obiit. Jun. V. MDCCXVI. His domestic habits, when I knew him, were still those of unabated study: he slept in the room adjoining to his library, and was never with his family till the hour of dinner; at these times he seemed to have detached himself most completely from his studies; never appearing thoughtful and abstracted, but social, gay, and possessing perfect serenity of mind and equability of temper. He never dictated topics of conversation to the company he was with, but took them up as they came in his way, and was a patient listener to other people's discourse, however trivial or uninteresting it might be. When 'The Spectators' were in publication, I have heard my mother say he took great delight in hearing them read to him, and was so particularly amused by the character of Sir Roger de Coverley, that he took his literary decease most seriously to heart. She also told me, that, when in conversation with him on the subject of his works, she found occasion to lament that he had bestowed so great a portion of his time and talents upon criticism instead of employing them upon original composition, he acknowledged the justice of her regret with extreme sensibility, and remained for a considerable time thoughtful and seemingly embarrassed by the nature of her remark; at last recollecting himself, he said: 'Child, I am sensible I have not always turned my talents to the proper use for which I should presume they were given to me; yet I have done something for the honor of my God and the edification of my fellow creatures; but the wit and genius of those old heathens beguiled me, and as I despaired of raising myself up to their standard upon fair ground, I thought the MY GRANDMOTHER. 19 only chance I had of looking over their heads was to get upon their shoulders."1 Of his pecuniary affairs he took no account; he had no use for money, and dismissed it entirely from his thoughts; his establishment in the mean time was respectable, and his table affluently and hospitably served. All these matters were conducted and arranged in the best manner possible by one of the best women living; for such, by the testimony of all who knew her, was Mrs. Bentley, daughter of Sir John Bernard, of Brampton, in Huntingdonshire, a family of great opulence and respectability, allied to the Cromwells and Saint Johns, and by intermarriages connected with other great and noble houses. I have perfect recollection of the person of my grandmother, and a full impression of her manners and habits, which, though in some degree tinctured with hereditary reserve and the primitive cast of character, were entirely free from the hypocritical cant and affected sanctity of the Oliverians. Her whole life was modelled on the purest principle of piety, benevolence, and Christian charity; and in her dying moments, my mother being present and voucher of the fact, she breathed out her soul in a kind of beatific vision, exclaiming in rapture as she expired, 'It is all bright, it is all glorious!' I was frequently called upon by her to repeat certain scriptural texts and passages which she had taught me, and for which I seldom failed to be rewarded, but by which I was also frequently most completely puzzled and bewildered; so that I much doubt if the good effects of this practice upon immature and infantine understandings, will be found to keep pace with the good intentions of those who adopt it. One of these holy apothegms, viz: 'The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,' I remember to have cost me many a struggle to interpret, and the result of my construction was directly opposite to the spirit and meaning of the text. I was also occasionally summoned to attend upon the readings of 1 Bentley was born on the 27th January, 1662. Thomas Bentley, his father, is said to have been a blacksmith, and his mother, the daughter of a stonemason. To those, however, who value merit, in some measure according to its pedigree, it may be well to mention that his ancestors, in the ascending degrees, belonged to the higher class of English yeomen. What Shakspeare is among poets, and Bacon among philosophers, such is Bentley among critics. As a man, however, we cannot join Cumberland in speaking his praise. Learned, arrogant, rapacious and oppressive, he seemed to be actuated by no higher motives than power and interest. His government of Trinity College,' says the 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' 'was that of an unprincipled despot.' The particulars of his life are too well known, or too easily referred to, to be repeated here. He died, July 14th, 1742. |