rules, the young mind gladly indulges the flights of imagination. Cicero, as well as many other ancient philosophers, órators and historians, are known to have sacrificed to the muses in their earlier productions. Dr. Jortin adds to the number of those who confirm the observation. In his Lusus Poetici, one of the first of his works, are united classical language, beautiful sentiments, and harmonious verse. Among the modern Latin poets, there are few who do not yield to Dr. Jortin. His Sapphics, on the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, are easy, elegant, and poetical. The Lit the Ode, in which the calm life of the philosopher is compared to the gentle stream gliding through a silent grove, is highly pleasing. to the mind, and is perfectly elegant in the composition. The Lyrics are indeed all excellent. The Poem on the Immortality of the Soul, is ingenious, poetical, and an exact imitation of the style of Lucretius. In short, the whole collection is such as wouldTM by no means have disgraced a Roman in the age of Augustus.

"Time, if it does not cool the fire of imagination, certainly strengthens the powers of the judgment. As our author advanced in life, he cultivated his reason rather than his fancy, and desisted from his efforts in poetry, to exert his abilities in the disquisitions of criticsism. His observations on one of the fathers of English poetry needs but to be more generally known, in order to be more generally admired.

"Classical productions are rather amusing than instructive. His works of this kind are all juvenile, and naturally flowed from a classical education. These however were but preparatory to his higher designs, and soon gave way to the more important enquiries which were peculiar to his profession. His discourses on the Christian Religion, one of the first fruits of his theological pur suits, abound with that sound sense and solid argument, which entitle their author to a rank very near the celebrated Grotius.

"His Dissertations are equally remarkable for taste, learning, originality, and ingenuity.

"His life of Erasmus has extended his reputation beyond the limits of his native country, and established his literary character in the remotest universities of Europe. Erasmus had long been an object of universal admiration; and it is matter of surprize, that his life had never been written with accuracy and judgment.

This task was reserved for Dr. Jortin; and the avidity with which the work was received by the learned, is a proof of the merit of the execution.

"His remarks on Ecclesiastical History are full of manly sense, acute remarks, and profound erudition. The work is highly be neficial to mankind, as it represents that superstition which dis graced human nature in its proper light, and gives a right sense of the advantages derived from religious reformation. He every where expresses himself with peculiar vehemence against the infatua tion of bigotry and fanaticism. Convinced that true happiness is founded on a right use of the reasoning powers, he makes it the scope of all his religious works, to lead mankind from the errors of imagination, to a serious attention to dispassionate

reason.

"Posthumous publications, it has frequently been remarked, are usually inferior in merit to those which were published in an author's life time. And indeed the opinion seems plausible, as it may be presumed, that an author's reason for not publishing his works, is a consciousness of their inferiority. The Sermons of Dr. Jortin were however, designed by their author, as a les gacy to mankind. To enlarge on their value, would only be to echo back the public voice. Good sense and sound morality appear in them, not indeed dressed out in the meretricious ornaments of a florid style, but in all the manly force and simple, graces of natural eloquence. The same caprice, which raises to reputation those trifling discourses which have nothing to recommend them but a prettiness of fancy, will again consign them to oblivion but the Sermons of Dr. Jortin will continue to be read with plea sure and edification, as long as human nature shall continue to be endowed with the faculties of reason and discernment.

The transition from an author's writings to his life is frequently disadvantageous to his character. Dr. Jortin however, when no longer considered as an author, but as a man, is so far from being lessened in our opinion, that he excites still greater esteem and applause. A simplicity of manners, an inoffensive behaviour, an universal benevolence, candour, modesty, and good sense, were his characteristics. Though his genius, and love of letters, led him to choose the still vale of sequestered life, yet was his merit Conspicuous enough to attract the notice of a certain primate, who

i

did honos to episcopacy. Unknown by persoal acquaintance, and unrecommended by the solicitation of friends, or the interposition of power, he was presented by archbishop Herring, to a valuable benefice in London, as a reward for his exertions as a scholar and #divine. Some time after this, he became chaplain to a late bishop of London, who gave him the vicarage of Kensington, and appointed him archdeacon of his diocese. This was all the preferment he had, nor had he this till he was advanced in life. While blockheads were made bishops, a man who had been uncommonly eminent in the service of learning and religion, was left to pine in the shade of obscurity. Secker has been thought by many to have had only the shadow of piety and learning, but he had the substantial reward of them. Jortial was acknowledged to possess true virtue and real knowledge, but was left to receive his recompense in the suggestions of a good conscience, and the applause of 'posterity.q stow dollw sa

ti The following character of Dr. Jortin is also given in a work attributed to the learned Dr, Par...

>«Asto Jortin, whether I look back to his verse, to his prose, to his critical, or to his theological works, there are few authors to whom I am so much indebted for rational entertainment, or for salid instruction. Learned he was, without pendantry, He was ingenious, without the affectation of singularity. He was a lover of truth, without hovering over the gloomy abyss of scepticism; and

friend to free enquiry, without roving into the dreary and paths less wilds of latitudinarianism. He had a heart, which never disgraced the powers of his understanding. With a lively imagina tion, an elegant taste, and a judgment most masculine and most correct, he united the artless and amiable negligence of a schoolboy. Wit, without ill nature, and sense without efforts, he could, at will, scatter upon every subject; and in every book, the writer presents us with a near and distinct view of the real man.'

15

-"His style, though inartificial, is sometimes elevated; though familiar, it is never mean; and though employed upon various topics of theology, ethics and criticism, is not arrayed in any delusive resemblance, either of solemnity, from fanatical cant, of pro, foundness, from scholastic jargon, of precision, from the crabbed formalities of cloudy philologists, or of refinement, from the te chnical babble of frivolous connoisseurs.

"At the shadow and fleeting reputation which is sometimes gained by the petty frolics of literary vanity, or the mischievous struggles of controversial rage, Jortin never grasped.

*

Truth, which some men are ambitious of seizing by surprize in the track. less and dark recess, he was content to overtake in the broad and beaten path, and in the pursuit of it, if he does not excite our astonishment, by the rapidity of his strides, he at least secures our confidence by the firmness of his step. To the examination of positions advanced by other men, he always brought a mind, which neither prepossession had seduced, nor malevolence polluted, He imposed not his own conjectures as infallible and irresistable truths, nor endeavoured to give an air of importance to trifles, by dogmatical vehemence. He could support his most serious opinions without the versatility of a sophist, the fierceness of a disputant, or the impertinence of a buffoon-more than this-he could relinquish or correct them with the calm and steady dignity of a writer, who while he yielded something to the arguments of his antagonists, was conscious of retaining enough to command their respect. He had too much discernment to confound difference of opinion with malignity or dullness, and too much candour to in sult, where he could not persuade. Though his sensibilities were neither coarse or sluggish, he yet was exempt from those fickle humours, those ranking jealousies, and that restless waywardness, which men of the brightest talents are too prone to indulge. He carried with him, into every station in which he was placed, and every subject which he explored, a solid greatness of soul, which could spare an inferior, though in the offensive form of an adversary, and endure an equal with, or without, the sacred name of friend. The importance of commendation as well to him who bestows, as to him who claims it, he estimated not only with justice, but with delicacy, and therefore, he neither wantonly lavished it,

nor with-held it austerely. But invective he neither provoked nor feared; and as to the severeties of contempt, he reserved them for occasions where alone they could be employed with propriety, and where, by himself, they always were employed with effect-for the chastisement of arrogant dunces, of censorious sciolists, of intolerent bigots in every sect, and unprincipled impostors in every profession. Distinguished in various forms of literary composi tion, engaged in various duties of his ecclesiastical profession, and blessed with a long and honorable life, he nobly exemplified that rare and illustrious virtue of charity, which Leland in his reply to the Letter Writer, thus eloquently describes : " Charity never misrepresents, never ascribés obnoxious principles or mistaken opinions to an opponent, which he himself disavows; is not so earnest in refuting, as to fancy positions never asserted, and to extend its censure to opinions, which will perhaps be delivered. Charity is utterly averse to sneering, the most despicable species of ridicule, that most despicable subterfuge of an impotent objector, Charity never supposes that all sense and knowledge are confined to a particular circle, to a district, or to a country. Charity never condemns and embraces principles in the same breath; never professes to confute what it acknowledges to be just ; never presumes to bear down an adversary with confident assertions. Charity does not call dissent insolence or the want of implicit şubmission, a want of common respect."

L

** Authorities. Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Jortin, written by Dr. Heathcote, and prefixed to the last edi tion of his Sermons. Jortin's Tracts, Philological, Critical, and Miscellaneous. Nichol's Anecdotes of Bowyer. Knox's Essays, Moral and Literary, edt. 1788. Tracts by Warburton and War, burtonian, 8vo. 1789.