count of their counfels and proceedings; firft, as a manifeftation to mankind of the vifible hand and juft vengeance of heaven on a people, who had concurred with the unrighteous policy of their rulers, and had been the betrayers and murtherers of the just one: fecondly, as a call to the fad furvivors of those calamities; that the remnant being affrighted might give glory to God by their converfion. St. Matthew had fhown early, that they had made themfelves and their children refponfible for the blood of Chrift; and now St. John reminds them, that it had been required at their hands. These feveral circumftances are strongly on the fide of thofe, who maintain the late publication of St. John's gofpel. To thefe obfervations the author fubjoins fome general remarks on the authenticity of the gofpels. The evangelifts in fucceffion pursued a wife and fure me. thod of warranting the truth and genuineness of each former gofpel with all the authority of the latter. Let us for inftance fuppofe St. Peter to have been requested or to have defired to leave his teftimony with the church in St. Mark's gospel, of the authenticity of St, Matthew's. How was this to be effected? He might have mentioned it, as he does St. Paul's Epiftles, in terms of respect, and called it, The Gofpel of our beloved brother Matthew: by which or the like words he would doubtless have borne witnefs to the truth of it. But if a question should arife, not whether, St. Matthew had compofed a true gospel, but which was the true gofpel of St. Matthew, fuch a teftimony could no more decide it, than the ranking of St. Paul's Epiftles with the other fcriptures can determine, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews be St. Paul's. If then a gofpel was afterwards to appear under the title of The Gospel according to the Hebrews, which might be mistaken, and actually was miftaken by fome, for the authentic gospel of St. Matthew; how could St. Peter depofite with the church a better touchftone by which to detect the adulterate, than by incorporating much of the genuine into his own gofpel? Again, if St. Luke tranfcribed several paffages from St. Mark, we have the atteftation not only of St. Luke, but of his friend and principal St. Paul, to the verity of this gofpel, Laftly, St. John authenticated the three foregoing gospels by an oppofite method, that is, by omitting, not repeating, what they had related. Of which enough has been faid. As to St. John's gofpel, if it was written late, as many fuppofe, and I think with probability, the church of Chrift had then acquired fome ftrength and confiftence, and a more eafy and fettled correfpondence of its diftant members with each other. And perhaps no city was better fituated than Ephefus to fpread intelligence to the generality of places where any Christians refided. A city fo much frequented formed a con nection nection between the two great divifions of Europe and Afia. Here it is generally allowed, that St. John compofed his gospel; and the notoriety of the fact fuperfeded the want of another apoftle to atteft it.' The laft difcourfe is an enquiry concerning the hours of St. John, of the Romans, and of some other nations of antiquity. It was the way of the ancients to divide the day into twelve hours, and the night into as many. The first hour of the day was an hour after the rifing of the fun, and the twelfth was when it was fet. This was the way in Judea and to this the other evangelifts adhere. But our author fuppofes, that St. John reckoned the hours as we do, from midnight to noon, and again from noon to midnight; and, upon this hypothefis, he explains every paffage in the gospel of that evangelift, in which the hour is mentioned. • If, in treating the feveral queftions of these discourses, fome arguments are fet down, which appear of small value fingly, yet the collective fum of them, with the aids, which different parts reciprocally lend to each other, amounts, he thinks, to a proof, which may be deemed a moral certainty, that the order of the gofpels, and the main of the articles here afferted are true.' In these investigations the author has difplayed a confiderable degree of learning, accuracy, and judgement; and has purfued a fcheme, which gives much more fatisfaction to a critical reader, concerning the order, the dates, the authenticity of the gofpels, than the united teftimony of the fathers. Mifcellanies in Profe and Verfe, by Thomas Chatterton, the Suppofed Author of the Poems published under the Names of Rowley, Canning, &c. 8vo. 35. 6d. jewed. Fielding and Walker. TE HE poems, fuppofed to have been written by Rowlie, Canynge, and others, were published about the beginning of the last year*; and, fince that time, have occafioned a variety of conjectures, relative to their authenticity. It is faid, that the original manufcripts were found in an old chest in Redclift church, at Briftol, by Chatterton, the parish clerk, and that, after his death, they fell into the hands of his fon, who fent fome of them to the editors of the Magazines, and difpofed of others. Thomas Chatterton, the younger, was educated at a charity-school at Briftol, and at the age of fourteen was articled clerk to an attorney in that city. In April 1770, he came to * See Crit. Rev. vol. xliii. p. 88. Lon London, in hopes of advancing his fortune by his talents for writing; but he was fo miferably disappointed, that, in a fit of defpair, he put an end to his life, about the twenty-fourth of Auguft following, by a dofe of poifon, at the age of feventeen years and three quarters. With respect to Rowley's poems, fays the editor of these Mifcellanies, the prevailing opinion feems to be, that they were actually written by Chatterton [the fon]: for though the antique manner, in which they were clothed, had ferved greatly to dif guife them, yet it could not but be obferved, that the fmoothnefs of verfification, and the frequent traces of imitation of later writers, were utterly inconfiftent with the idea of their being the production of the 15th century. Thefe circumftances did not escape the obfervation of many gentlemen at their first appearance. But that forgeries fhould be attempted by one, who had not reached the age of feventeen years; and that those attempts fhould be conducted with a degree of fkill and judgement, which obliged the most intelligent to doubt, and at the fame time almoft compelled the most doubtful to affent, seemed to be hardly within the reach of probability; in the opinion of many, it rather bordered on impoffibility.' The argument against the authenticity of thefe poems, from the coincidences, which might be pointed out between them and others of a more modern date, is very properly urged and fupported, in a letter published in the St. James's Chronicle, May 21, 1778, and reprinted in this volume; from which we fhall take the liberty to extract the following parallel paffages: Ye goddes how ys a loverres temper formed! With what unequal tempers are we form'd; Ella. Fair Penitent. That he the fleeve unravels all theire fate.' Ravell'd fleeve of care.' Battle of Haftings. Macbeth. • The The grey-goofe pynion, that thereon was fett, The grey-goofe wing, that was thereon, Chevy Chaçe. • His noble foule came roufhyng from the wounde.' › Battle of Haftings. And the disdainful foul came rushing through the wound." Like cloudes of carnage.' Dryden's Virg. b. xii. • Clouds of carnage blot the fun.' • He clos'd his eyne in everlastynge nyghte.' • Clofed his eyes in endless night.' Gray. Gray. As oupbant faieries, whan the moone fheenes bryghte, greene, All living creatures flie far from their syghte, Ne by the race of deftinie be seen; For what he be that ouphant faieries ftryke, Battle of Haftings, • You moonshine revellers and fhades of night, You ouphen beirs of fixed destiny, &c. He who speaks to them fhall die. I'll wink and couch, no man their works muft eye.' As it is hardly probable, that thefe coincidences fhould be the effects of chance, we may reasonably conclude, that the poems afcribed to Rowlie, are the productions of an author, pofterior to Shakespeare, Dryden, and Gray: for these poets could not imitate a writer, who was never heard of before the year 1768. If it should be faid, that these imitations may be the additions of Chatterton, and that the rest may be Rowlie's, we muft obferve, that this notion is improbable, and unsupported by any evidence; and that, if it were admitted, it would obviate the greateft difficulty attending the contrary opinion: 'for it would prove, that this young literary adventurer was able to produce the compofitions in queftion. It may be farther obferved, that Chatterton's abilities for a work of this nature can hardly be doubted, if we attend either to his comments on the poems attributed to Rowlie, or to the prefent collection of pieces, which, we are affured, are • his nuine and acknowledged productions.' ge It has been prefumed, that it would be a wild conjecture to fuppofe a young man of fifteen or fixteen, capable of conducting fuch a complicated fraud. But it should be recol leЯed, Σ lected, that he was, as Dr. Warton obferves, a fingular inftance of prematurity of abilities;' that he was remarkably fond of poetry and English antiquities; and that there have been many such early geniufes in the republic of letters *. Cafper Bartholinus compofed very elegant orations in Latin and Greek at the age of thirteen. Boxhornius published feveral volumes, and particularly an edition of the Hiftoriæ Auguftæ Scriptores, with notes, before he was twenty. Daniel Heinfius, at the age of eighteen, read public lectures on Latin and Greek authors, and published his Crepundia Siliana, which is full of critical learning, foon afterwards. Peter Heylin wrote a tragedy at fixteen, which was acted in public. The poet Lucan wrote a poem on the combat between Achilles and Hector, and Priam's redeeming his fon's body, before he had attained eleven years of age. His fubfequent works were numerous, though he died before he was twenty-feven. Aldus Manutius was but fourteen, when he compofed his treatise on Orthography. Johannes Olivarius taught the Greek language, and wrote two comedies, in an elegant style, before he was eighteen. Dionyfius Voffius, the fon of Gerard Voffius, acquired a critical knowledge of Latin and Greek at ten, of Hebrew at fourteen, of Arabic at fixteen, of the Armenian, Ethiopic, Spanish, and other languages, at eighteen or nineteen; and wrote a tranflation of Maimonides on Idolatry, and other voluminous works, before he was twenty-one. His brother Ifaac was very little inferior to him in the early exertion of his talents. · Dr. Wotton, at the age of fix years, acquired a confiderable knowledge in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues. Dr. Johnfon has given us the life of one (John Philip Barretier +), who mastered five languages at the age of nine years.' But what may feem more to the purpofe, Mr. Pope in his fourteenth year tranflated the first book of Statius's Thebaid, with fo much accuracy and beauty; and, in about two years afterwards, displayed such strength of imagination, fuch delicacy of fentiment, and fuch harmony of numbers, in his Paftorals, that he aftonished the greatest poets and critics of the age. Thefe examples, collected extempore, may ferve to shew, that there is nothing, but what is very poffible, in Chatter • See Klefekeri Bibliotheca Eruditorum præcocium. Des Enfans devenus celebres par leurs études, ou par leurs écrits, par M. Baillet. Barretier was a Pruffian, Hebrew lexicographer at ten years of age, master of the mathematics at twelve, author of Enquiries concerning Egyptian Antiquities, &c. died 1740, aged 19 years and 8 months. ton's |