have so surlily despaired. How he behaved we cannot narrate; probably he delivered himself with as great simplicity at the table of the Lord Treasurer, as on the wrong side of Cambridge Castle gate. The embarrassment this simplicity drew him into, is very fully stated in the following copious apology he addressed to the Earl of Oxford, which we have transcribed from the original; perhaps it may be a useful memorial to some men of letters as little polished as the learned Ockley :

"MY LORD,

"Cambridge, July 15, 1714.

"I was so struck with horror and amazement two days ago, that I cannot possibly express it. A friend of mine showed me a letter, part of the contents of which were, 'That Professor Ockley had given such extreme offence by some uncourtly answers to some gentlemen at my Lord Treasurer's table, that it would be in vain to make any further application

to him.'

66

"My Lord, it is impossible for me to recollect, at this distance of time. All that I can say is this: that, as on the one side for a man to come to his patron's table with a design to affront either him or his friends, supposes him a perfect natural, a mere idiot; so on the other side it would be extremely severe, if a person whose education was far distant from the politeness of a court, should, upon the account of an unguarded expression, or some little inadvertency in his behaviour, suffer a capital sentence.

"Which is my case, if I have forfeited your Lordship's favour; which God forbid! That man is involved in double ruin that is not only forsaken by his friend; but, which is the unavoidable consequence, exposed to the malice and contempt, not only of enemies, but, what is still more grievous, of all sorts of fools.

"It is not the talent of every well-meaning man to converse with his superiors with due decorum; for, either when he reflects upon the vast distance of their station above his own, he is struck dumb and almost insensible; or else their condescension and courtly behaviour encourages him to be too familiar. To steer exactly between these two extremes requires not only a good intention, but presence of mind, and long custom.

"Another article in my friend's letter was, 'That somebody had informed your lordship, that I was a very sot.' When first I had the honour to be known to your lordship, I could easily foresee that there would be persons enough that would envy me upon that account, and do what in them lay to traduce me. Let Haman enjoy never so much himself, it is all nothing, it does him no good, till poor Mordecai is hanged out of his way.

"But I never feared the being censured upon that account. Here in the University, I converse with none but persons of the most distinguished reputations both for learning and virtue, and receive from them daily as great marks of respect and esteem, which I should not have, if that imputation were true. It is most certain that I do indulge myself the freedom of drinking a cheerful cup, at proper seasons, among my friends; but no otherwise than is done by thousands of honest men who never forfeit their character by it. And whoever doth no more than so, deserves no more to be called a sot, than a man that eats a hearty meal would be willing to be called a glutton.

"As for those detractors, if I have but the least assurance of your lordship's favour, I can very easily despise them. They are nati consumere fruges. They need not trouble themselves about what other people do; for whatever they eat and drink, it is only robbing the poor. Resigning myself entirely to your Lordship's goodness and pardon, I conclude this necessary apology with like provocation, That I would be content he should take my character from any person that had a good one of his own.

"I am, with all submission,

To the honour of the Earl of Oxford, this unlucky piece of awkwardness at table, in giving "uncourtly answers," did not interrupt his regard for the poor oriental student; for several ars afterwards the correspondence of Ockley was still acceptable to the Earl.*

66

In the meantime, Ockley was one of those unfortunate persons, whom Pierius Valerianus would have recorded, in his book 66 De infelicitate literatorum." In his "Inaugural Oration," printed in 1711, he calls fortune venefica and noverca, speaks of mordaces cure as things long familiar to him; and, in Dec. 1717, we find him actually under confinement for debt. In the introduction to the second volume of the first edition of his Saracenic History," he not only tells us so, but even stoically dates from Cambridge Castle. His biographer thus accounts for his unfortunate situation :-Having married very young, he was encumbered with a family early in life; his preferment in the church was not answerable to his reputation as a scholar; his patron, the Earl of Oxford, fell into disgrace when he wanted him most; and, lastly, he had some share of that common infirmity among the learned, which makes them negligent of economy and a prudential regard to outward things, without which, however, all the wit, and all the learning, in the world, will but serve to render a man the more miserable.

If the letters of the widows and children of many of our eminent authors were collected, they would demonstrate the great fact, that the man who is a husband or a father ought not to be an author. They might weary with a monotonous cry, and usually would be dated from the gaol or the garret. I have seen an original letter from the widow of Ockley to the Earl of Oxford, in which she lays before him the deplorable situation of her affairs; the debts of the Professor being beyond what his effects amounted to, the severity of the creditors would not even suffer the executor to make the best of his effects; the widow remained destitute of necessaries, incapable of assisting her children.

Thus students have devoted their days to studies worthy of a student. They are public benefactors, yet find no friend in the public, who cannot yet appreciate their value-Ministers of state know it, though they have rarely protected them. Ockley, by letters I have seen, was frequently employed by Bolingbroke to translate letters from the sovereign of Morocco to our court; yet all the debts for which he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle did not exceed two hundred pounds. The public interest is concerned in stimulating such enthusiasts; they are men who cannot be salaried, who can

not be created by letters patent; for they are men who infuse their soul into their studies, and breathe their fondness for them in their last agonies. Yet such are doomed to feel their life pass away like a painful dream !*

As to the literary character of Ockley, it is certain that he was extremely well skilled in all the ancient languages, and particularly the oriental; so that the very learned Reland thought it not too much to declare, that he was ❝ vir, si quis alius, harum literarum peritus." He was, likewise, very knowing in modern languages, as in the French, Spanish, Italian, &c. and, upon the whole, considered as a linguist, we may presume that very few have exceeded him.†

D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors.

For this biography, which is principally written by Dr. Heathcote, we are indebted to Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary and D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

THE Arabians, a people but little noticed by the Greek and Roman authors, notwithstanding the nearness and the extent of their country, have, since the time of Mohammed, rendered themselves universally remarkable, both by their arms and learning. The understanding, therefore, of their affairs seems no less if not more necessary than a knowledge of the history of any people whatsoever, who have flourished since the decline of the Roman empire. Not only have they had as great men, and performed as considerable actions, as any other nation under heaven; but, what is of more concern to us Christians, they were the first ruin of the eastern church.

It might reasonably have been expected, that the Greeks, who bore the greatest share of that grievous calamity, and whose vices and divisions, it is to be feared, brought it upon the Christian world, would have taken particular care to have given a just account of it. But, on the contrary, they have been more jejune and sparing in this particular, than is allowable in any tolerable historian, even when relating matters at the greatest distance. Not to enumerate a long catalogue of their defects, I shall content myself with producing the words of an ingenious author,* who was well aware of the imperfections of the Greeks with relation to this history, and fully expresses the true sense of that matter in these words: "This," says he, "in substance, is the account of those wars, and of the beginning of the Saracenic empire, which is left us by the Grecian writers of that age, who are justly accused of brevity and obscurity, in a subject that deserved to be more copiously handled; for undoubtedly it must needs have been various as well as surprising in its circumstances, containing no less than the subduing of whole nations, altering ancient governments, and introducing a new face of affairs in the world." There is nothing more just than this observation; and what lame accounts must we then expect from those who compile histories of the Saracens out of the Byzantine historians?

I was no sooner convinced of this, but, having, by the study of their language, fitted myself in some measure for reading their authors, I felt a great desire to communicate some part of this hitherto unknown history to the world; being equally affected with wonder and concern, that, considering the multitude of learned men which the last age produced, it should have been so long neglected. The reason of this is, I conceive, that the very few who were masters of the Arabic learning were otherwise employed, spending their time in publishing such books as were absolutely necessary to pave the way for posterity to attain a competent skill in that difficul language. Others, insufficiently acquainted with that nation, have entertained too mean an opinion of them, looking upon them as mere barbarians. and this mistaken notion hindered all further inquiry.

* Echard's Roman History, vol. ii. p. 304.