Warburton entertained a very different opinion of Johnson's conduct towards him; and Hurd has printed an extract from a letter of Warburton, in which he says,-"The remarks he [Johnson] makes in every page on my commentaries are full of insolence and malignant reflections, which, had they not in them as much folly as malignity, I should have had reason to be offended with," &c. In another letter to Hurd he writes,"Of this Johnson you and I, I believe, think much alike." Now what Hurd thought of Johnson is very well known; and Johnson's opinion of Hurd is indicated by Boswell.

There was no kindred feeling between Johnson and Hurd, but there certainly was between Johnson and Warburton. Both of humble origin, and both raised into celebrity; both dictators in literature, and both intolerant of a rival; both arrogant and impetuous; both indulging in coarse and unpolished language; although

Warburton sometimes flamed into an extravagance of passion, from which the tenderer conscience of Johnson for the most part protected him. They were both profoundly versed in the history of letters; though Warburton knew more of philosophy and Greek, and Johnson more of poetry and miscellaneous literature. A tender heart lay within the rude framework of each. When the husband of Warburton's sister was unsuccessful in business, he took her and her children to his own home, and shared with them his small revenue; and he did this, as he told a friend, with " much greater satisfaction than others spend theirs in their pleasures." Of Johnson's generosity and charity examples are abundant. Perhaps the defects of their moral and mental physiognomy may be accounted for by their vast bulk and stature of intellect. We rarely find harmony of feature upon so large a scale. Johnson survived Warburton; and, in saying this, let me not forget the admirable eulogy of Parr,--" He praised him when living, amid the clamour of his enemies; and he defended him when dead, amid the silence of his friends." A noble panegyric, and worthy of the pen of Dryden or of Junius. In reply to a

* Fifth Sermon on the Lord's

Scotchman who talked against Warburton, Johnson declared that he possessed more literature than had been imported from Scotland since the days of Buchanan. Upon another occasion, he mentioned an interview with Warburton at the house of the Bishop of St. Asaph. Warburton looked on him at first with some surliness; but having been "jostled into conversation," they retired to a window, and, on their separation, Warburton patted Johnson.

September 30.-Literature has suffered a severe loss in that history of the monastic orders which so long occupied the study and thought of Southey,

"Monastic domes! following my down. ward way,

Untouch'd by due regret, I mark'd your fall!"

Within those solemn walls were preserved the treasures of philosophy and poetry; and from those gates issued the architects who scattered their miracles of grace and beauty over the land. If corruption and superstition dwelt there, so also did burning zeal and sincere devotion. Let us endeavour to imbibe the pure spirit of these antique foundations. The excellent Bishop Latimer—the eloquent preacher and the triumphant martyr-will give us instruction. It is, said that illustrious man, a common speech among the people, that all religious houses are pulled down; which is a very peevish saying, and not true, for they are not pulled down. "That man and that woman, who live together godly and quietly, doing the work of their vocation and fear God, hear his word and keep it ; that same is a religious house, that is the house that pleaseth God."* These words should be written in letters of gold.

October 1.-Read the "Life of Newton" in Library of Useful Knowledge. They speak of Clarke, the pupil and defender of Newton, as

the most profound theologian and the most sublime preacher in England." I should hardly have ventured to employ words of such untinctured panegyric. The name of Clarke is familiar to us as the opponent of Leibnitz, and more especially

Prayer. Edit. 1584. P. 152.

as the antagonist of Collins. Under this aspect of his character he appears to very great advantage. Ramsay, who was for many years secretary to Fénélon, pronounced Clarke the finest reasoner whom he had ever met; having a transparency of mind peculiar to himself. The Queen placed his bust in a hermitage with those of Newton, Boyle, Locke, and Wollaston; a compliment which Pope has not forgotten in his pleasant satire,"Even in an ornament its place remark,

Nor in a hermitage set Dr. Clarke."

A cause for the enmity of Pope has been discovered in Clarke's refusal to use his court interest in behalf of Lord Bolingbroke. The poet certainly bent his bow at the preacher with some malignity. In the Dunciad he says,

"Let Clarke make half his life the poor's support;

But let him give the other half at court."

Green notices the favour shewn to Clarke in that curious poem which he called The Grotto,

"Need less it is the busts to name

Of men, monopolists of fame." This grotto was built in Richmond Gardens by Queen Caroline, who committed its guardianship to Stephen Duck, a name well known in the history of rhyme.

Clarke never ought to be styled "the most sublime preacher in England." Let us hear the opinion of Hurd, writing to Bishop Warburton, upon the subject of popular preaching, using the phrase in its honourable sense," I have lately turned over Dr. Clarke's large collection, for the use of my parish; and yet, with much altering and many additions, I have been able to pick out no more than eight or ten that I could think passable for that purpose. He is clear and happy enough in the explication of Scripture; but miserably cold and lifeless. No invention, no dignity, no force; utterly incapable of enlarging on a plain thought, or of striking out new ones. In short, much less of a genius than I had supposed him." To this letter Warburton replied, "Your judgment of Clarke is, like your other judg

* Vide Spence.

it.

ments of men, perfectly exact and true." Maury complained of his metaphysical abstraction; and Blair, though he admires the perspicuity of his style, thinks that he shews us our duty without exciting us to perform Johnson's dislike of Clarke was at one period so vehement, that he assured Dr. Adams, the Master of Pembroke, that he had made a rule not to admit Clarke's name into his dictionary. This prejudice gradually wore away. The notions of Clarke respecting the sacred doctrine of the Trinity, Johnson considered to be his only weak point; and upon his death-bed he urged his physician, Dr. Brocklesby, to read Clarke's sermons: because, said Johnson, "he is fullest on the propitiatory sacrifice." The following character of Clarke appeared, many years ago, in the Gentleman's Magazine, and well deserves quotation for its elegant terseness,—

"In each several part of critical learning, perhaps, without a superior; in all united, certainly without an equal; in his works, the best defender of religion; in his practice, the greatest ornament of it; in his conversation, communicative and instructive; in his preaching and writings, strong, clear, and calm; in his life, high in the esteem of the wise, the good, and the great; in his death, lamented by every friend to learning, truth, and virtue."

October 2.-I have been reading Windsor Forest.

Joseph Warton was the earliest critic who denied that Pope possessed the accomplishment of rural description.

But the account of the tributaries of the Thames-so briefly and yet so clearly discriminated-ought to have modified that opinion. The description of a pheasant, dropping before a gun, is very picturesque; although Byron called it a description by a poulterer,—

"Ah! what avail his glossy, varying dyes

His purple crest, and scarlet-circled

knowledges it to be, is excelled by the picture of the dying dolphin in Falconer's Shipwreck; and that the representation of a stag-chase is inferior to a corresponding passage in Somerville. With respect to the former part of the criticism, I suppose that nothing need be said. There can be no analogy between the death of a dolphin and of a pheasant; and it is scarcely just to institute any comparison. From a poet, like Mr. Bowles, of so pure a taste and so refined a fancy, I should always differ with hesitation and modesty. The parallel between Pope and Somerville is more appropriate. Pope might have seen the hunters sweep through. the forest glades; but of the chase he knew nothing. Somerville shared in the excitement

of the sport. His picture would, accordingly, be a copy of nature, painted on the spot; nor should we expect to find in it any artifices of light or shade, any rich background, or any remarkable elegance of composition. Those pieces in which "pure description held the place of sense" presented no attractions to Pope : the same temper of mind which ́inclined him to stoop to truth would also restrain him from wandering among fields and trees too long. If he visited rural scenes, it was in connexion with human life, in its joys or sorrows. A landscape without figures was never sketched by his pencil. In his embowered walks, the statue of some philosopher,

"Who taught that useful science, to be good,'

always arrests our footsteps. Some inscription to generosity, to charity, or wisdom, mcets our eye in his garden.

October 3.-How beautiful are the gleams of poetic feeling which break

from some of the martyrs in their vigils of suffering and hope! Rays of Eden-sunshine seem to have played upon those dungeon-floors; and through those dim and imprisoning windows, their eyes of faith wandered down the cedarn alleys, and through the gates of pearl. The following lines occur in an epistle from the martyr Smith to his children. They are not only pathetic, but naturally elegant, and are justly praised by Southey,―

"That ye may follow me, your father and your friend,

And enter into that same life which never shall have end,

I leave you here a little book for you to look upon,

That you may see your father's face when Í am dead and gone;

Who for the hope of heavenly things, while he did here remain,

Gave over all his golden gears in prison and in pain.

Where I, among mine iron bands, imprisoned in the dark,

Not many days before my death did dedicate this work.

To you, mine heirs of earthly things which I have left behind,

That ye may read and understand, and keep it in your mind,

That as you have been heirs of that which once shall wear away,

Even so ye may possess the part which never shall decay.

In following of your father's foot, in faith and eke in love,

That ye may also be his heirs for evermore above.

And in example to your youth, to whom I wish all good,

I preach you here a perfect faith, and seal it with my blood."

This is unadorned rhyme, but it conveys that language of the Christian heart which will live after all "lyric and Pindaric art" is forgotten.

malady would not allow him to take possession of it.

In the evening the Prince dined with his staff and the members of the commission at Government-house. All the civil and military authorities of the island were invited. On Saturday the 10th, the pilgrimages from the roadstead to the tomb recommenced. There were no willowbranches remaining. The skeleton of the one which had been uprooted by the wind was carried away in the mass we divided it aboard. We also carried away all the flowers and plants which grew about the tomb, as well as the leaves and branches of all the neighbouring trees-nay, the very briars, fern, and green turf, we took with us. When we had stripped the grave of every thing like vegetation, we returned to seek basketsful of the earth. More than a thousand bottles were filled with the water of the sacred source. Each one amongst us wished to baptise his children or those of his relatives with this water. With the same intent we carried away with us a vast quantity of St. Helena salt. The worship of relics was never carried to a more extravagant pitch. It was a species of delirious fanaticism. At length the Prince, in unison with the local authorities, was obliged to take measures to prevent the complete devastation of the spots adjacent to the tomb. We were received by the inhabitants of St. Helena with the most cordial kindness, and the most friendly and prompt hospitality. They sought to beguile the tediousness of our sojourn, which was rendered almost wearisome by the wretchedness of the weather. This, however, was the commencement of the spring at St. Helena, and corresponded with the first days of April in France. On Sunday the 11th, M. Las Cases and some of our officers went to visit Briars, a pretty spot about a mile from the town. tained the permission to accompany them. The emperor sojourned more than seven weeks in this spot after he had left James Town, and before he went to fix his residence at Longwood. At present Briars is inhabited by Lieutenant-Colonel Trelawny, commandant of the artillery, an excellent and worthy man, who treated M. Las Cases and our officers with the greatest politeness. The pavilion, so well de

I ob

scribed in the memorial of St. Helena, still exists. I recognised the little garden where the emperor was wont to walk, and the vine which sheltered it. M. Las Cases shewed us, and I touched with respect, a small wooden scat on which he loved to sit. The garden is indeed there; but Toby, the Indian gardener, has been dead for many years.

On the evening of Monday the 12th, the French officers were invited to dinner by the English officers of the 91st regiment, the artillery, and engineers. The chairman was Lieutenant-Colonel Trelawny; the vice-chair, Captain Blackwell. There reigned throughout the evening the greatest politeness and good-fellowship. After divers toasts, a Frenchman proposed the following:·- "To the indissoluble union of the two countries." This sentiment was received with a thunder of applause. The night of Wednesday the 14th had been fixed on for the exhumation. Here I ought to inform you that it was not in my power to be personally a spectator of this act. That which I tell you I learn from the officers, and from the plumber, Héroux, called as a witness in that quality. It was foreseen that these labours would be long and difficult. At ten o'clock in the evening MM. de Las Cases, De Chabot, the Abbé Coquereau, &c. &c., left James Town, wending their way up the mountain through a piercing cold wind, accompanied by small rain and fog. The moon at first shone forth brightly, but anon became dimmer as she silently glided on in her course over the crest of those bluish clouds which partially veiled her progress. length there was a total darkness, and now all nature seemed to lend herself to the religious mourning of our countrymen. Arrived at the summit, we perceived at the bottom of the valley an uncertain light. These were the lamps prepared to light the workmen. From time to time our people passed before pickets of English soldiers which had been posted on the spot since sunset. At twelve o'clock our people arrived before the sacred spot. The commissaries of the two governments successively called on the persons who were to be witnesses of the solemn act about to be accomplished. On

At