PERSONAL

You have doubtless heard of the loss I have had in Dr. Middleton, whose house was the only easy place one could find to converse in at Cambridge. For my part I find a friend so uncommon a thing, that I cannot help regretting even an old acquaintance, which is an indifferent likeness of it, and though I don't approve the spirit of his books, methinks 'tis pity the world should lose so rare a thing as a good writer.-GRAY, THOMAS, 1750, Letter to Thomas Wharton, Aug. 19, Works, vol. II, p. 198.

LIFE OF CICERO

1741

The style of Middleton, which is commonly esteemed very pure, is blemished with many vulgar and cant terms; such as, "Pompey had a month's mind," &c. He had not been successful in the translations of those many epistles of Tully which he has inserted, which, however curious, yet break the thread of the narration. Mongault and Melmoth have far exceeded him in their excellent translations of these pieces; which are, after all, some of the most precious remains of antiquity. . It is a pleasing and useful work, especially to younger readers, as it gives a comprehensive view of a most interesting period in the Roman history, and of the characters principally concerned in those important events.- WARTON, JOSEPH, 1756, Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope.

A man of real taste and politeness. His "Life of Cicero" will live to do him honour when his other works are forgotten. HURD, RICHARD, 1808? Commonplace Book, ed. Kilvert, p. 246.

The style of Middleton is considered to be as pure English as can be read; and whether Hume did, or did not, form his

own style upon that of this author, it is certain that the late Mr. Fox (no mean arbiter in literary taste) always spoke warmly of the biography of Cicero, by Middleton; for its style as well as its matter. There was scarcely a family of distinction at the time [of its publication] but what possessed a copy of Middleton's "Cicero."-DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1824, Library Companion, p. 520.

Never was there a mind keener or more critical than that of Middleton. Had the doctor brought to the examination of his favourite statesman's conduct but a very small part of the acuteness and severity which he displayed when he was engaged in investigating the high pretensions of Epiphanius and Justin Martyr, he could not have failed to produce a most valuable history of a most interesting portion of time. this most ingenious and learned man, though

The

"So wary held and wise That, as 'twas said, he scarce received For gospel what the church believed," had a superstition of his own. great Iconoclast was himself an idolater. The great Avvocata del Diavolo, while he disputed, with no small ability, the claims of Cyprian and Athanasius to a place in the Calendar, was himself composing a lying legend in honour of St. Tully! He was holding up as a model of every virtue a man whose talents and acquirements, indeed, can never be too highly extolled, and who was by no means destitute of amiable qualities, but whose whole soul was under the dominion of a girlish vanity and a craven fear. Actions for which Cicero himself, the most eloquent and skillful of advocates, could contrive no excuse, actions which in his confidential correspondence he mentioned with remorse and shame, are represented by his biographer as wise, virtuous, heroic.-MACAULAY,

THOMAS BABINGTON, 1834, Lord Bacon Edinburgh Review; Critical and Miscellaneous Esssays.

Middleton's "Life of Cicero" may be considered as a most important branch of Roman history. It is an admirable work. The life of that great man spreads over the whole interesting period of the dying convulsions of the Republic. . . The eventful life of Cicero; his splendid public services; his exalted patriotism; his surprising industry; his immense erudition; his profound sagacity; his incorruptible integrity; his almost Christian philosophy, are thoroughly apparent in his works, and elegantly delineated in Middleton's life of him.-KENT, JAMES, 1853, Outline of a Course of English Reading.

Reviewing the whole of the celebrated orator's public career, and the principal transactions of his times-mixing up questions of philosophy, government, and politics with the details of biography, Middleton compiled a highly interesting work, full of varied and important information, and written with great care and taste. An admiration of the rounded style and flowing periods of Cicero seems to have produced in his biographer a desire to attain to similar excellence; and perhaps no author, prior to Johnson's great works, wrote English with the same careful finish and sustained dignity. The graces of Addison were wanting, but certainly no historical writings of the day were at all comparable to Middleton's memoir. CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 1876, Cyclopædia of English Literature, ed. Car

ruthers.

GENERAL

Dr. Conyers Middleton, of Cambridge, hath just written and put out a twelve penny pamphlett in English, to prove Caxton the first printer in England; and makes the "Ruffinus" or "Hieronymus de Fide," printed in Oxford anno 1468, to be a cheat, as if there were no such book then printed there, or at least if there were such a book printed there, he says, the date should be 1478. He runs down Atkins' book about printing, as he does also the register at Canterbury, making the record to be a forgery, because the register is now wanting. But his whole But his whole performance is poor and mean, and tho' he endeavours to rob Oxford of an honour that no one pretended to take from her, yet

Middleton detrahere ausus hærentem capiti, multa cum laude, coronam, hath plainly shew'd, that he envys us this glory, which no one need wonder at, that considers a much bolder stroke of his lately, which made a great noise, and very deservedly blasted his reputation, which was his book (for he is known to be the author, tho' his name be not to it) to prove that Moses was not an inspired writer. 'Tis certain, that Middleton is an ingenious man, but if he soars at all, and considerable, very uncommon, must be that genius that succeeds.-HEARNE, THOMAS, 1734-5, Reliquiæ Hearniana, ed. Bliss, March 3, vol. III, p. 171.

This man was endowed with penetration and accuracy. He saw where his principles led ["Free Inquiry into the Miracles"]; but he did not think proper to draw the consequences.-GIBBON, EDWARD, 1764, Journal, Feb. 25.

Dr. Middleton was a man of no common attainments: his learning was elegant and profound, his judgment was acute and polished, his taste was fine and correct: his style was so pure and harmonious, so vigorously flowing without being inflated, that, Addison alone excepted, he seems to me without a rival.-PARR, SAMUEL, 1787, Bellendus de Statu.

Conyers Middleton being the original author of the feud which so greatly agitated the University and interested the public, felt himself called upon to vindicate the conduct of the majority, who had so readily embraced his cause. This distinguished writer was not one of those who are early familiar with the press; his present pamphlet happens to be the first published specimen of a style, which for elegance, purity, and ease, yields to none in the whole compass of English literature. In this first essay he showed himself to possess all the talents, and to understand the use of all the weapons of a controversialist. The acrimonious and resentful feeling which prompted every line is in some measure disguised by the pleasing language, the harmony of the periods, and the vein of scholarship which enlivens the whole tract.-MONK, JAMES HENRY, 1830-33, Life of Richard Bentley, vol. II, p. 67.

This celebrated man was the most malignant of a malignant crew. In his Review of Bentley's Proposals for Editing the

Greek Text of the Greek Testament, he stings like a serpent, more rancorous party pamphlets never were written. He hated Waterland with the same perfect malignity; and his letters to Warburton, published in a quatro collection of his Miscellaneous Tracts, show that he could combine the part of sycophant, upon occasion, with that of assassin-like lampooner. It is, therefore, no unacceptable retribution in the eyes of those who honour the memory of Dan. Waterland and Bentley, men worth a hecatcomb of Middletons, that the reputation of this venomous writer is now decaying,-upon a belief at last thoroughly established that in two at least, and those two the most learned, of his works, he was an extensive plagiarist. -DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, 1857, Richard Bentley, Collected Writings, ed. Masson, vol. IV, p. 124, note.

He was "a man of war from his youth;" and, had his judgment been equal to his learning, he might have obtained a place in the first rank of English letters. If we were disposed to allow his rigid orthodoxy, and this would be a large demand upon the charity of a theological critic, it is impossible to deny his passion for controversy. He seems never to have been so much pleased as when, by broaching some startling point of disputation, he succeeds in horrifying the mind of his more orthodox brethren.- ALLIBONE, S. AUSTIN, 1870, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, vol. II.

Whatever may be the cause, there is a vein of bitterness in his later controversial writings. Middleton has the tone of a disappointed man. Probably he felt himself to be in a false position. He is more open to the charge of insidious hostility to Christianity than such writers as Tindal and Collins; for, whilst expressing sentiments almost identical with those of the deists, he retained ecclesiastical preferment to the end of his life. Disappointment at the discovery that he had forfeited his chances of higher preferment by overstepping the conventional limits of orthodoxy, and possibly some of the discontent often felt by men doomed to academical retirement whilst ambitious to be regarded as men of the world, may have contributed to sour him. At any rate, we feel a certain suspicion of his loudly expressed claims to disinterested

love of truth, and contempt for the trammels of worldly ambition. His bestknown book, "The Life of Cicero," is the chief foundation of his claims to a peculiar excellence of style; but his other writings, in spite of the blemishes of sentiment, showed a juster appreciation of the true conditions of the argument than any hitherto noticed, and may be counted as amongst the most powerful agents in the intellectual development of the time. Middleton, who had held his own against Bentley, could not summarily be put down as an ignorant dabbler in matters too deep for him.-STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1876, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, vol. 1, p. 254.

It has been considered that Middleton's covert attacks upon the credibility of miracles and other matters of Protestant creed, marked the beginning of a new tide of critical religious speculation in England. His "Free Inquiry into Miraculous Powers" caused quite a sensation when it appeared in 1747. The arguments of Middleton were ridiculed by Wesley, and scandalised Gray, but they strengthened the hands of Hume, and they helped to mould the conscience of Gibbon.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 278.

Following the various lines which the literature of the century presents to us, we find in Middleton a distinct type, which is clearly distinguished from what has gone before, and is carried on consistently in certain features to the end. His learning, within its limits, is clear, practical, and free from pedantry. All his equipment is well assorted and adaptable; there is nothing about it either of cumbrousness or mystery. His style is exact, logical, and full of common sense; if it is bald it therein reflects the limitations of the man. CRAIK, HENRY,. 1895, ed., English Prose, vol. IV, p. 3.

His place here, however, is that of the most distinguished representative of the absolutely plain style-not colloquial and vernacular like Bentley's, but on the other hand attempting none of the graces which Addison and Berkeley in their different ways achieved-a style more like the plainer Latin or French styles than like anything else in English.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 541.

lordship. I beg my most humble service to him and his lady.-BOLINGBROKE, LADY F., 1713, Letter to Lord Harley, Aug. 18. Oxford was removed on Tuesday: the queen died on Sunday. What a world is this! and how does fortune banter us! -BOLINGBROKE, HENRY SAINT-JOHN LORD, 1714, Letter to Swift, Aug. 3.

And so poor Harry is turned out from being Secretary of State, and the seals. are given to Mar; and they use poor Harry most unmercifully and call him. knave and traitor, and God knows what. I believe all poor Harry's fault was that he could not play his part with a grave enough face; he could not help laughing now and then at such kings and queens. -STAIR, LORD, 1716, Letter to Horace Walpole, March 3.

It is necessary that I should make you share my delight at a journey I have made to La Source, the abode of Lord Bolingbroke and Madame de Villette. I have found in this eminent Englishman all the learning of his country, and all the politeness of ours. I have never heard our language spoken with more energy and justice. This man, who has been all his life immersed in pleasure and in business, has, however, found time for learning everything, and retaining everything. He is as well acquainted with the history of the ancient Egyptians as with that of England. He knows Virgil as well as Milton. He loves the poetry of England, France, and Italy; but he loves them differently, because he discerns perfectly the difference of their genius.-VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET, 1721, Letter to Thiriot.

Though you have not signed your name, I know you: you are an infamous fellow, a perjured, ungrateful, unfaithful rascal of so profligate a character, that in your prosperity, nobody envied you, and in your disgrace nobody pities. You were in the interests of France and of the Pope, as hath appeared by your writings, and you went out of the way to save yourself from the gallows. You have no abilities; you are an emancipated slave, a proscribed criminal, and an insolvent debtor. You went out of the way to save yourself from the gallows, and Herostratus and Nero were not greater villains than you. You have been a traitor and should be used like one. And I love my

master so well that I will never advise him to use you, lest you should jostle me out of my employment. I know you to be so hot-headed that when you read this you will vent all your malice against me. But do I not value it, for I would rather have you my enemy than my friend. Change your name and be as abusive and scurrilous as you please, I shall find you out. You may change to a flame, a lion, a bull, or a bear, I shall know you, baffle you, conquer you, and contemn you. All your opposition will redound to my honour and glory.-WALPOLE, SIR ROBERT, 1727 Political Pamphlet.

Lord Bolingbroke is one of the politest as well as greatest men in the world. -He appeared careless in his talk of religion.

In this he differed from Fenelon: Lord Bolingbroke outshines you, but then holds himself in, and reflects some of his own light, so as to make you appear the less inferior to him.-RAMSAY, CHEVALIER, 1728-30, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer,

Come then, my friend! my genius! come along;

O master of the poet and the song!
And while the muse now stoops, or now
ascends,

To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the stream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust re-
pose,

Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,

Shall then this verse to future age pretend Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? -POPE, ALEXANDER, 1732, An Essay on Man, Epistle iv, v. 373–390.

I would never be acquainted with Lord Bolingbroke, because I always looked upon him as a vile man. MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY, 1740-41, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 176.

As to the Lord Bolingbroke's general character, it was so mixed that he had certainly some certainly some qualifications that the greatest men might be proud of, and many which the worst would be ashamed of: