A work in all views, of the most transcendent merit, whether we consider the invention or the execution. A plain, simple argument, yet perfectly new, proving the divinity of the Mosaic law, and laying a sure foundation for the support of Christianity is there drawn out to great length by a chain of reasoning, so elegantly connected, that the reader is carried along it with ease and pleasure; while the matter presented to him is so striking for its own importance, so embellished by a lively fancy, and illustrated from all quarters by exquisite learning and the most. ingenious disquisition, that, in the whole compass of modern and ancient theology there is nothing equal or similiar to this extraordinary performance.-HURD, RICHARD, 1794, Life of Warburton.

His "Divine Legation of Moses, "-the most learned, most arrogant, and most absurd work, which has been produced in England for a century. JEFFREY, FRANCIS LORD, 1809, Warburton's Letters, Edinburgh Review, vol. 13, p. 346.

To the composition of this prodigious performance Hooker and Stillingfleet could have contributed the erudition, Chillingworth and Locke the acuteness, Taylor an imagination even more wild and copious, Swift, and perhaps Eachard, the sarcastic vein of wit; but what power of understanding, excepting that of Warburton, could first have amassed all these materials, and then compacted them into a bulky and elaborate work so consistent and harmonious? The principle of the work was no less bold and original than the execution. That the doctrine of a future state of reward or punishment was omitted in the books of Moses, had been insolently urged by infidels against the truth of his mission, while divines were feebly occupied in seeking what was certainly not to be found there, otherwise than by inference and implication. But Warburton, with an intrepidity unheard of before, threw open the gates of his camp, admitted the host of the enemy within his works, and beat them on a ground which was now become both his and theirs. In short, he admitted the proposition in its fullest extent, and proceeded to demonstrate from that very omission, which in all instruments of legislation merely human, had been industriously avoided, that a system which could

is one of the few theological, and still fewer controversial works, which scholars perfectly indifferent to such subjects will ever read with delight.-WHITAKER, THOMAS D., 1812, Hurd's Edition of Warburton, Quarterly Review, vol. VII, pp. 397, 399.

Parts of his system are true, and important, and well supported; but his main principle is a fallacy: unfounded in itself, and incapable of demonstrating the Divine Legation of Moses, were it even true.ORME, WILLIAM, 1824, Bibliotheca Bibleca.

Warburton, with all his boldness and ingenuity, was not profoundly read in the Greek philosophers: he caught at single sentences which favoured his own views, rather than fully represented the spirit and opinions of his authors. The great proof of the discernment of Warburton was his dim second-sight of the modern discoveries in hieroglyphics.-MILMAN, HENRY HART, 1839, Life of Gibbon.

The intrinsic merit and ingenuity of the "Divine Legation" must ultimately have won it attention; but an immediate and exaggerated éclat was conferred upon it by the cloud of insect assailants who immediately fastened upon it. The liberal section of the clergy, represented by Hare, commended, but with an evident coldness. The moderate orthodox, represented by the feeble Sherlock, timidly gave in their adhesion, rather as if they feared to alienate so much power than as heartily appropriating it. But the highchurch party, standing aloof in sullen opposition, felt at once, by an instinct far surer than intelligence, that the new candidate in the field of theology, however carefully he might have avoided committing himself against them, yet was not of them. They fell upon him immediately, to bury and to stifle, with the usual arms of the party-denunciation, not argument. -PATTISON, MARK, 1863-89, Life of Bishop Warburton, Essays, ed. Nettleship, vol. II, p. 125.

The book is remarkable for its arrogance and lack of "sweet reasonableness." It claims no attention from the student of

English literature, neither would Warburton himself were it not for his association with Pope.-DENNIS, JOHN, 1894, The Age of Pope, p. 239.

A strange feeling accompanies the modern reader on his way through the book; the mere count of years that have passed since it was written is no measure of the mental interval that separates us from the author; the whole problem has altered beyond recognition, the whole horizon of thought is changed. His curious multifarious learning, his subtile lawyer-like method in speculative matters, his almost incredible confidence in the torch of logic to light the way to truth, these are now subjects of antiquarian rather than of living interest. DIXON, W. MACNEILE, 1895, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. IV, p. 95.

His famous "Divine Legation of Legation of Moses," which would have been one of the most brilliant paradoxes in literature if the author had kept it down in size, and one of the most learned of works if he had attended a little more to accuracy. SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 632.

EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE

1747

Such is the felicity of his genius in restoring numberless passages to their integrity, and in explaining others which the author's sublime conceptions, or his licentious expression, kept out of sight, that this fine edition of Shakespeare must ever be highly valued by men of sense and taste; a spirit, congenial to the author, breathing throughout, and easily atoning, with such, for the little mistakes and inadvertencies discoverable in it. -HURD, RICHARD, 1794, Life of Warburton.

At length, when the public had decided on the facts of Warburton's edition, it was confessed that the editor's design had never been to explain Shakspeare! and that he was even conscious he had frequently imputed to the poet meanings which he never thought! Our critic's great object was to display his own learning! Warburton wrote for Warburton, and not for Shakspeare! and the literary imposture almost rivals the confessions of Lauder or Psalmanazar!-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1814, Warburton, Quarrels of Authors.

Always striving to display his own

acuteness, and scorn of others, deviates more than any one else from the meaning. -HALLAM, HENRY, 1837-39, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iii, ch. vi, par. 54.

If it were not painful to associate Shakspere, the great master of practical wisdom, with a critic who delights in the most extravagant paradoxes, we might prefer the amusement of Warburton's edition to toiling through the heaps of verbal criticism which later years saw heaped up. Warburton, of course, belonged to the school of slashing emendators.-KNIGHT, CHARLES, 1845, Studies of Shakspere.

Does

This prelate, not then mitred, was undeniably learned and able; but he was as undeniably assuming and arrogant in his personal demeanor, and he treated Shakespeare's works as he probably would have treated the player himself, had he been his contemporary. He set himself not so much to correcting the text, as to amending the writings of Shakespeare. His tone is that of haughty flippancy. he find a passage in which the thought, or the expression of William Shakespeare is at variance with the judgment of William Warburton?-he immediately alters it to suit the taste of that distinguished scholar and divine, saying: "Without a doubt, Shakespeare wrote, or meant, thus.". WHITE, RICHARD GRANT, 1854, Shakespeare's Scholar, p. 10.

In 1744 Theobald died, and three years afterwards appeared Warburton's edition of Shakspeare. It is to be hoped for the honour of human nature that there are few parallels to the meanness and baseness of which Warburton stands convicted in this work. His object was two-fold. The first and most important was to build the reputation of his own edition on the ruin of his predecessor's, and the next to insinuate that any merit which is to be found in Theobald's edition is to be attributed not to Theobald but to himself. After observing in the Preface that Theobald "succeeded so ill that he left his author in ten times a worse condition than he found him," he goes on to say that "it was my ill-fortune to have some accidental connection with him;" that "I contributed a great number of observations to him," and these, "as he wanted money, I allowed him to print." Having thus disposed of his dead friend in

the Preface, he proceeds to appropriate his labours. He adopts Theobald's text as the basis of his own; he steals his illustrations; he incorporates, generally without a word of acknowledgment, most of Theobald's best emendations, carefully assigning to him such as are of little importance, while in his notes he keeps up a running fire of sneers and sarcasms. COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, The Porson of Shakspearian Criticism, Essays and Studies, pp. 269, 270.

Though a few of Warburton's emendations have been accepted, they are generally marked by both audacious and gratuitous quibbling, and show his real incapacity for the task. Though this was less obvious at the time, a telling exposure was made by Thomas Edwards in "a Supplement" to Warburton's edition, called in later editions "Canons of Criticism." Johnson compared Edwards to a fly stinging a stately horse; but the sting was sharp, and the "Canons of Criticism" is perhaps the best result of Warburton's enterprise. -STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1899, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LIX, p. 306.

EDITIONS OF POPE

You have signalised yourself by affecting to be the bully of Mr. Pope's memory, into whose acquaintance, at the latter end of the poor man's life, you were introduced by your nauseous flattery; and whose admirable writings you are about to publish, with commentaries worthy of Scriblerus himself; for we may judge of them beforehand by the specimens we have already seen of your skill in criticism.-MALLET, DAVID? 1749, Epistle to the Most Impudent Man Living.

Soon after Pope's acquaintance with Warburton commenced, and the latter had published some of his heavy commentaries on that poet, his friend Lord Marchmont told him that he was convinced he was one of the vainest men living. "How so?" says Pope. "Because, you little rogue," replied Lord Marchmont, "it is manifest from your close connection with your new commentator you want to show posterity what an exquisite poet you are, and what a quantity of dulness you can carry down on your back without sinking under the load."-MALONE, EDMOND, 1789, Maloniana, ed. Prior, p. 385.

Dr. Warburton, endeavouring to demonstrate, what Addison could not discover,

nor what Pope himself, according to the testimony of his intimate friend, Richardson, ever thought of or intended, that this Essay was written with a methodical and systematical regularity, has accompanied the whole with a long and laboured commentary, in which he has tortured many passages to support this groundless opinion. Warburton had certainly wit, genius, and much miscellaneous learning; but was perpetually dazzled and misled, by the eager desire of seeing everything in a new light unobserved before, into perverse interpretations and forced comments. It is painful to see such abilities wasted on such unsubstantial objects. Accordingly his notes on Shakspeare have been totally demolished by Edwards and Malone; and Gibbon has torn up by the roots his fanciful and visionary interpretation of the sixth book of Virgil. And but few readers, I believe, will be found that will cordially subscribe to an opinion lately delivered, that his notes on Pope's Works are the very best ever given on any classic whatever. For, to instance no other, surely the attempt to reconcile the doctrines of the "Essay on Man" to the doctrines of revelation, is the rashest adventure in which ever critic yet engaged. This is, in truth, to divine, rather than to explain an author's meaning. -WARTON, JOSEPH, 1797, ed. Pope.

Warburton had more to do with Pope's satires as an original suggester, and not merely as a commentator, than with any other section of his works. Pope and he hunted in couples over this field: and those who know the absolute craziness of Warburton's mind, the perfect frenzy and lymphaticus error which possessed him for leaving all high-roads of truth and simplicity, in order to trespass over hedge and ditch after coveys of shy paradoxes, cannot be surprised that Pope's good sense should often have quitted him under such guidance. . The Doc

tor was latterly always the instigator to any outrage on good sense, and Pope, from mere habit of deference to the Doctor's theology and theological wig, as well as from gratitude for the Doctor's pugnacity in his defence (since Warburton really was as good as a bull-dog in protecting Pope's advance or retreat), followed with docility the leading of his reverned friend into any excess of folly.-DE

QUINCEY, THOMAS, 1848-58, The Poetry of Pope, Works, ed. Masson, vol. X1, pp. 69, 71.

Warburton, Pope's first editor, had a vigorous understanding, and possessed the enormous advantage that he carried on the work in concert with the poet, and could ask the explanation of every difficulty. A diseased ambition rendered his talents and opportunities useless. Without originality he aspired to be original, and imagined that to fabricate hollow paradoxes, and torture language into undesigned meanings was the surest evidence of a fertile, penetrating genius. He employed his sagacity less to discover than to distort the ideas of his author, and seems to have thought that the more he deviated from the obvious sense the greater would be his fame for inventive power. He has left no worse specimen of his perverse propensity than the spurious fancies, and idle refinements he fathered upon Pope. They are among his baldest paradoxes, are conveyed in his heaviest style, and are supported by his feeblest sophistry. His lifeless and verbose conceits soon provoke by their falsity, and fatigue by their ponderousness.-ELWIN, WHITWELL, 1871, ed., The Works of Alexander Pope, Introduction, vol. I, p. xx.

It will thus be seen that Warburton not only slurred over the explanation of difficult passages in Pope's text, but that to promote his interest, or to gratify his spite, he did not scruple to misrepresent the plain intention of his author, and to introduce into his notes irrelevant sarcasms of his own. Such a perversion of his trust of course raises the further presumption that he may have tampered with the text itself, which we know differs in several important respects from all the editions published in Pope's lifetime.

Quite enough evidence, however, remains of the untrustworthiness of Warburton's work to make us deplore the fact that his editions should have been taken as the starting-point for all succeeding investigations.- COURTHOPE, WILLIAM JOHN, 1881, ed., The Works of Alexander Pope, Introductory Notice to Moral Essays and Satires, vol. III, pp. 12, 13.

GENERAL

Mr. Warburton is the greatest general critic I ever knew, the most capable of

seeing through all the possibilities of things.—POPE, ALEXANDER, 1730? Spence's Anecdotes, Supplement, p. 256.

He joined, to a more than athletic strength of body, a prodigious memory; and to both a prodigious industry. He had read almost constantly twelve or fourteen hours a day, for five-and-twenty or thirty years; and had heaped together as much learning as could be crowded into a head. In the course of my acquaintance with him, I consulted with him once or twice,-not oftener, for I found this mass of learning of as little use to me as to the owner. The man was communicative enough, but nothing was distinct in his mind. How could it be otherwise? he had never spared time to think, all was employed in reading. His reason had not the merit of common mechanism. When you press a watch or pull a clock, they answer your question with precision. . . . But when you ask this man a question, he overwhelmed you by pouring forth all that the several terms or words of your question recalled to his memory; and if he omitted anything, it was that very thing to which the sense of the whole question should have led him and confined him. To ask him a question was to wind up a spring in his memory, that rattled on with vast rapidity and confused noise, till the force of it was spent; and you went away with all the noise in your ears, stunned and uninformed, I never left him that I was not ready to say to him, "Dieu vous fassel a grace de devenir moins savant!"-BOLINGBROKE, HENRY SAINT-JOHN LORD, 1735? Letters on the Study and Use of History, Letter iv.

It is my misfortune, in this controversy, to be engaged with a person who is better known by his name than his works; or, to speak more properly, whose works are more known than read.-EDWARDS, THOMAS, 1747, Canons of Criticism, Preface.

He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited inquiry with wonderful extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had not oppressed his imagination nor clouded his perspicacity. To every work he brought a memory fullfraught, together with a fancy fertile of original combinations, and at once exerted the powers of the scholar, the reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too

multifarious to be always exact, and his pursuits too eager to be always cautious. His abilities gave him a haughty confidence, which he disclaimed to conceal or modify; and his impatience of opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such contemptuous superiority as made his readers commonly his enemies, and excited against the advocate the wishes of some who favoured the cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman emperor's determination, orderint dum metuant; he used no allurements of gentle language, but wished to compel rather than persuade. His style is copious without selection, and forcible without neatness; he took the words that presented themselves; his diction is coarse and impure, and his sentences are unmeasured. JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Pope, Lives of the English Poets.

And whom we may compare, not altogether improperly, to a blazing star that has appeared in our hemisphere, obscure his origin, resplendent his light, irregular his motion, and his period quite uncertain. With such a train of quotations as he carries in his tail, and the eccentricity of the vast circuit he takes, the vulgar are alarmed, the learned puzzled. Something wonderful it certainly protends, and I wish he may go off without leaving some malignant influence at least among us, if he does not set us on fire. CUMING, WILLIAM, c1785, Letter, Illustrations of the Literatures of the Eighteenth Century, ed. Nichols, vol. II, p. 840.

While they (Leland and Jortin) were living, no balm was poured into their wounded spirits by the hand that pierced them; and if their characters after death remain unimpaired by the rude shocks of controversy and the secret crimes of slander, their triumph is to be ascribed to their own strength, and to the conscious weakness of their antagonists, rather than to his love of justice, or his love of peace.-PARR, SAMUEL, 1789, ed., Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian.

The learning and abilities of the author (of the Divine Legation) had raised him to a just eminence; but he reigned the Dictator and tyrant of the World of Literature. The real merit of Warburton was degraded by the pride and presumption with which he pronounced his infallible decrees; in his polemic writings he lashed

his antagonists without mercy or moderation; and his servile flatterers (see the base and malignant Essay on the Delicacy of Friendship), exalting the master critic far above Aristotle and Longinus, assaulted every modest dissenter who refused to consult the oracle and to adore the Idol. In a land of liberty, such despotism must provoke a general opposition, and the zeal of opposition is seldom candid or impartial. GIBBON, EDWARD, 1793, Autobiography.

Warburton had that eagle-eyed sagacity, which pierces through all difficulties and obscurities; and that glow of imagination which gilds and irradiates every object it touches. HURD, RICHARD, 1808? Commonplace Book, ed. Kilvert, p.

249.

Warburton, we think, was the last of our great divines-the last, perhaps, of any profession who united profound learning with great powers of understanding, and, along with vast and varied stores of acquired knowledge, possessed energy of mind enough to wield them with ease and activity. The days of the Cudworths and Barrows-the Hookers and Taylors, are gone by. He was not only the last of our reasoning scholars, but the last also, we think, of our powerful polemics. This breed, too, we take it, is extinct; and we are not sorry for it.

The truth is, that this extraordinary person was a Giant in literaturewith many of the vices of the Gigantic character. JEFFREY, FRANCIS LORD, 1809, Warburton's Letters, Edinburgh Review, vol. 13, pp. 343, 344, 345.

Nor is there, in the whole compass of our literary history, a character more instructive for its greatness and its failures; none more adapted to excite our curiosity, and which can more completely gratify it. Warburton was a literary Revolutionist, who, to maintain a new order of things, exercised all the despotism of a perpetual dictator. The bold unblushing energy which could lay down the most extravagant positions, was maintained by a fierce dogmatic spirit, and by a peculiar style of mordacious contempt and intolerant insolence, beating down his opponents from all quarters with an animating shout of triumph, to encourage those more serious minds, who, overcome by his genius, were yet often alarmed by