many valuable works are by degrees neglected, which were formerly in high repute. In collections of this kind, our defcendants will find the refpected publications of different æras, and, perhaps, learn, that in every age fomething valuable may be found. To reject what was formerly done, difplays as much bigotry as to value only what the ravages of time have mutilated and fpared. Dr. Kippis concludes his preface with apologies for his delay, which he tells us, in the words formerly employed in the Life of Dr. Lardner, arofe from the various difficulties incident to a literary undertaking; the quantity of new matter, and the large proportion, particularly, in the additions to the old lives which was neceffarily his own. No farther delay is we find to be apprehended, for the proprietors are determined to call in effectual aid. Corrigenda and Addenda to each volume are prefixed. Among these is a candid well written letter from Mrs. Walter, the widow of the reputed author of Anfon's Voyage. In the Life of Mr. Robins, by Dr. James Wilson, it is afferted that he was the compiler of this voyage; and that the narrative drawn up by Mr. Walter was little more than extracts from journals, and confequently confidered as unfit for the purpofe. If the language of this voyage be compared with that of Mr. Robins' other works, no great fimilarity will be found; but Mr. Walter's being clofely engaged in writing, to be able to fhow the fheets at fix every morning to lord Anson,' is no striking proof on the contrary fide, fince it is allowed that he had alfo compiled a narrative. This lady adds, that fhe has feen Mr. Walter correct the proof fheets for the printer, which it is unlikely Mr. Walter should have done if his work were fuperfeded, though she adds, that Mr. Robins was not at this time in England. While we highly commend the delicacy and propriety of Mrs. Walter's conduct, and think her letter an excellent one, fhe will allow us to fay, that we cannot confider Mr. Walter's claim, as completely established. We have mentioned the fubject at fome length, becaufe we think much is faid in his favour, and to give her an opportunity, if fhe pleases, of elucidating this fubject more fully. In the other corrections and additions, we do not perceive many important circumstances. Dr. Johnson is, perhaps, too frequently brought forward, and fome minute facts, if they had been added to the work, would not, perhaps, have greatly enhanced its value. There are a few additions, however, really interefting. The new lives in this volume are thofe of John Collins, mathematician; W. Collins, poet; P. Collinfon, naturalift, &c. J. Coneybeare, divine; Sir Anthony Cooke's four learned daughters, viz. Mildred, lady Burleigh, Anna, lady Bacon, Elizabeth, lady Ruffell, and Catherine, lady Killegrew; Jame Cooke, navigator; A. Afhley Cooper, third earl of Shaftfbury; Samuel Cooper, miniature painter; J. GILBERT COOPER, mifcellaneous and poetical writer; T. CORAM, projector of the Foundling Hofpital; T. CORYATTE, Traveller; G. Coftard, divine; C. Cotton, miscellaneous and poetical writer; P. F. Courayer, divine; COURTEN FAMILY, chiefly merchants, but the fourth, William, a naturalift; W. Coward, medical and metaphyfical writer; W. Earl Cowper, lord channellor of England; Sir R. Cox, lord chancellor of Ireland, and hiftorical writer; Willaim Craig, divine; Richard Crafhaw, poet; the Admirable Crichton; R. Cromwell, protector; H. Cromwell, lord Heutenant of Ireland; Samuel Croxal, divine, poetical and mifcellaneous writer; Alexander Cunningham, hiftorian; J. LORD CUTTS, warrior and poetical writer; T. Chatterton, poet; A. Cruden, author of the Concordance; and Sir J. Davies, poet, hiftorian, and writer on law. The lives in Italics are by Dr. Towers; thofe in capitals feem to be by perfons unknown: they have the fignatures N. N. R. CN. and N. refpectively. The life of Craig was written by Mr. Richardfon; that of Crafhaw by Mr. Hayley; and that of Cruden by Mr. Chalmers, of Throgmorton-street. In furveying this lift, readers will be differently attracted, according as their ftudies or predilections have led them to the different fciences which each author has purfued. We have gone over each, and looked for entertainment for the mathematician, in the life of Mr. Collins; for the naturalift, in that citizen of the world, P. Collinfon; and for the ladies, in Sir Anthony Cooke's learned daughters. But, in our situation, it is neceffary to enlarge on what is moft new, and moft generally interefling. The Life of Collins and of Collinfon afford little but what was before known, and the great merit of the ladies confifts in their claffical knowledge, by which they will not raife the envy of the prefent age. We fhall, however, tranfcribe the Latin lines of lady Killegrew to lady Burleigh, with a request that he would ufe her intereft with the minifter, that Sir Henry Killegrew (we follow the moft probable fuppofition) fhould not be fent to France: they are elegant, correct, and almeft purely claffical. "Si mihi quem cupio cures Mildreda remitti, * To Cecil. The The life, which feems to have been written with most care, and to afford moft novelty, is that of the third earl of Shaftefbury. He lived at the time when the Revolution had opened the eyes of Englishmen, and taught them to regard the general rights of mankind: he studied under the direction of Locke, and afterwards in Holland, the first state which had shaken off the fetters of defpotifm, with le Clerc, Bayle, &c. and had imbibed, in the writings of Plato, Xenophon, Epictetus, Arrian, and Marcus Antoninus, the love of virtue, true liberty, and a regard for the happiness of mankind. Why should we diffemble in politics he was the enthufiaft of liberty, and in morals the zealot of virtue. In the former, he respected the rights and dignity of a lawful fovereign; in the latter, he overlooked, or feemed to overlook, in his eagerness to enhance the dignity of morality, the dictates of Christianity. Yet he cannot be styled an infidel, or, uniformly, a Deilt, for he speaks of Hoadly, Tillotfon, Barrow, and Chillingworth, in terms of applaufe or of refpe&t. The circumstances of his life are drawn from the General Dictionary, or the Supplement to the former edition of the Biographia: in the former, the article was written by his fon. As a writer, the earl of Shaftesbury has been highly applauded, or violently condemned: on this account the editor examines his different works with peculiar attention: to thefe he probably alludes in his preface, when he fays, that many valuable productions, which in his youth it would have been a difgrace not to have read, are now laid afide.' Notwithstanding the fcepticism of the Characteristics, we hope, for the interefts of virtue and morality, that they may live a little longer.' We wish that we could have followed the editor in the examination. It is clear, copious, and candid. He produces the various opinions which have been given of lord Shaftesbury, and, in eftimating the merits of the Characteristics, fleers the middle courfe between the extremes of cenfure and applaufe. We think him, however, favourable to the earl, though we fufpe&t that we could occafionally find arguments to lead him to be still more favourable: The fate of lord Shaftesbury, he obferves, as an author, may furnih ufeful instruction to thofe who build their expectations on literary fame. For a confiderable time he stood in high reputation as a polite writer, and was regarded by many as a standard of elegant compofition. H's imitators as well as admirers were numerous, and he was efteemed the head of the fchool of the fentimental philofophy. Of late years he has been as much depreciated as he was heretofore applauded; and in both cafes the matter has been carried to an extreme. At length, it is to be hoped, that he will find his due place in the ranks of literature; and that, without being extravagantly extolled, he will continue to be read, and in fome degree to be admired. This tribute, at leaft, is due to his "Inquiry concerning Virtue," and to his "Moralifts," and in a great meafure to his "Advice to an Author." But whatever becomes of lord Shaftesbury's character as a writer, he was excellent as a man. This appears from every teftimony that remains concerning him. "It must be owned," fays biflop Warburton," that this lord had many excellent qualities, both as a man and a writer. He was temperate, chatte, honeft, and a lover of his country." There is a paffage in one of the earl of Shaftesbury's letters to Robert Molefworth, efq. which is worthy of notice. "I am perfuaded," fays his lordship, "to think no vices will grow upon me: for in this I have been ever fincere, to make myfelf as good as I was able, and to live for no other end." The man who could fpeak thus concerning himself, is entitled to the beft applaufe, the applaufe of the heart.' The notes on Horace, communicated by Mr. Huntingford, we have looked over with great fatisfaction. They breathe the true fpirit of candid criticifm, without licentious conjectures, or facility of admitting a corrupted text. Thefe notes are almost exclufively on the fatires and epiftles, the works of his later years, when, as Mr. Huntingford obferves, with no lefs propriety than elegance, the poet folemnly renounced the more fervile complaifance of his early life, and his attachment to Epicurean principles, for the more decent and fteady virtue of the Stoics. The poet's renunciation of Epicurean errors, and firm though polite language with which he again afferts his freedom, inclines us to draw a veil over thofe years, wherein he could be induced to facrifice his very fentiments to the opinions and practice of his patron; a conduct this, which however it may be justified on confiderations of mere worldly intereft, yet must it ever appear culpable on the principles of that morality, which taught him to be refigned indeed to the ways of Providence, but to difdain bafe compliance for the fake of exterior advantages. But the more grave, ferious, and dignified fentiments of his later writings abundantly compenfate the levity, of fome of his earlier odes, and the time-ferving maxims inculcated in fome of his earlier fatires and epiftles. And the experience of a man fo thoroughly verfed in the manners of the world, cannot fail of being inftructive to us; for it will teach us, as we value the integrity and peace of our minds, never to relinquish the ways of rectitude for the fallacious allurements of error, however great may be the emoluments which may reward a dereliction of virtuous principle.' We We cannot refift adding Mr. Hunting ford's concluding character of the earl of Shaftesbury: it is comprehensive, juft, and elegant. What the poet was in his earlier and latter days, that the noble critic uniformly continued to be through much too short a life. His principles were always on the fide of liberty, and confequently independent, benevolent, magnanimous his knowledge of ancient writers, particularly of the Greek, was extenfive and accurate; his tafte formed on the model of antiquity, was of courfe pure and refined. All thefe excellencies are difcoverable in his edited works. Nor is it to be wondered at that he was fo elegant a fholar, fo exact critic, fo generous a philofopher, fince he devoted to fedy and meditation thofe hours, which too many diffipate in the purfuit of trifling engagements, illiberal amufements, or irrational plea fures.' We could have wifhed to have tranfcribed different fpecimens of the notes; but they would lead us too far. The poet's conversion is particularly pointed out in the notes to the first epiftle; and again in line 310 of the Ars Poetica; but, while we are looking over them once more, we cannot refiit transcribing the earl's elucidation of the 19th line of the first epistle from the ancient philofophers: it affords a proof too with how much diligence and advantage he perused thefe refpectable fources of pure morality. "Subjungere."-vera lectio. Vide Ciceronem in Acad.Quæft. lib. 2. 45. prope finem. "Veruntamen (inquit) video quam fuaviter voluptas fenfibus noftri blandia ur. Labor ut affentiar Epicuro aut Ariflippo revocat virtus vel potius reprehendit manu; pecudum illos motus effe dicit: hominem jungit Deo, &c." Horatius nofter melius. Labor (inquit) ut affentiar Socrati, Zenoni, &c. revocat voluptas. in Arifippi et Epicuri præcepta relabor, virtutem veram defero. Fortunæ non reponto (Ut inf. v. 68.) fed fubfervio, Deo me nec jango nec fubjungo. Majare tento (Ep. 17. v. 4.) prefentibus (uti Ariftippus ipfe) baud equus. Et mibi res, non me rebus, &c. In hac ergo Epiftola pofteriorem fententiam, in illa 17 a. priorem probat. Hic fenefaens, illic nondum. Vide ipfa Ariflippi Verba, Mores, Conatus, in Dialogo ifto Socratico Xenophontis Azop 1. 2. in initio. et inter alia αλλ' εγώ τοι (εφη ο Αρίςιππος) δε εις την δέλειαν αν έμαυτον ταττω. Quæ verba Horatius proculdubio in animo habuit, cum fcripferit fubjungere. Sic Epictetus apud Arrian. Vulgatum eft Philofophiæ præceptum to curtattem vel ixTATTELY EQUTON TOIç 2015 (Vide Simplicium in Cap. Ench. 78. et Arrian. 1. 1. c. 12.) το συναρμοσαι την αυτε βέλησιν τοις γενομέναις. Lib. 2. c. 14. Sic in Enchirid. 77. 18. Sic M. Ant. 1. 4. 23. et lib. 6. 39.-Vid. fup. Sat. 2. 1. 1. v. 76. et infra Ep. 17. 34. B 4 Vide |