Slike strani
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER VII.

LETTERS TO AND FROM DR. WARBURTON, BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER.

LETTER I.

Dr. Warburton to Dr. Doddridge.

Dear sir,

February 14, 1743.

[ocr errors]

I should not have been so long in making my best acknowledgments for your last kind letter, had not my absence from home, and a late unhappy domestic affair, prevented me, and engrossed all my thoughts,-the misfortunes of an excellent sister and her children, by her husband's ill success in trade, though attended to with the utmost honesty and sobriety. He has been a considerable benefactor to the public; and his creditors are at last no losers, but he himself is undone. I do not know whether this is an alleviation, or an aggravation, of the misfortune. But I can tell you with the utmost truth, that I share with this distressed sister and her children (who all live with me) the small revenue it has pleased God to bless me with; and this I do with much greater satisfaction than others spend theirs on their pleasures. I can assure you my chief concern on this occasion, was for an incomparable mother, whom I feared the misfortunes of a favourite daughter would too much affect. But, I thank God, religion, that religion of which you make so amiable drawings in all your works, was more than a support to her.This is a subject I never choose to talk of; yet I could not forbear mens

1

tioning it to a man whom I much esteem,

heart I know to be right.

and whose

It was with great concern I found Mrs. Doddridge so ill at Bath. I know the grief this must have occasioned you. But I know your sufficiency. I trust in God she has by this time received the expected benefit from the waters. It was by accident that I saw her name in Leake's book, (for then I had not received your last letter,) a little before I left Mr. Allen's. I visited her twice. The first time, she was going out to drink the waters; the second time, a visiting: so I had not the pleasure of much of her company. You may be assured, I would not hinder her the first time; and I made a conscience not to do it the second: for it was a new ac quaintance she was going to make; a matter perhaps as useful to her amusement, while she stayed at Bath, as the other for her health.

Thus you see, my good friend, we have all something to make us think less complacently of the world. Religion will do great things. It will always make the bitter waters of Marah wholesome and palatable. But we must not think it will usually turn water to wine, because it once did so. Nor is it fit it should, unless this were our place of rest. I do the best I can, and I should, I think, do the same, if I were a mere pagan, to make life passable. To be always lamenting the miseries of it, or always seeking after the pleasures of it, equally takes us off from the work of our salvation. And though I am extremely cautious what sect I follow in religion, yet any in philosophy will serve my turn, and honest Sancho Panca's is as good as any; who, on his return from an important commission, when asked by his master whether they should mark the day with....

1:

black or a white stone, replied: "Sir, if you will be ruled by me, with neither; but with good brown ochre.” What this philosopher thought of his commission, I think of human life in general; good brown ochre is the complexion of it.

I returned home a little before Christmas, after a charming philosophical retirement, for two or three months, in a palace, with Mr. Pope and Mr. Allen. The gentleman whom I mentioned last, is, I verily believe, the greatest private character that ever appeared in any age of the world. You see his munificence to the Bath Hospital. This is but a small part of his charities; and charity but a small part of his virtues. I have studied his character even maliciously, to find where his weakness lies; but I have studied in vain. When I know it, the world shall know it too, for the consolation of the envious; especially as I suspect it will prove to be only a partiality which he has entertained for me. In a word, I firmly believe him to have been sent by Providence into the world, to teach men what blessings they may expect from Heaven, would they study to deserve them*.

I received your present of your pupil's Sermons, with your Life of him, which my nephew has read with

Mr. Allen rose to great consideration by farming the cross posts; which, very much to the public advantage, as well as his own, he put into the admirable order in which we now find them. He was of so generous a nature, that his mind enlarged with his fortune; and the wealth which he thus honourably acquired, he spent in a splendid hospitality, and in the most extensive charities. His house, in so public a scene as that of Bath, was open to men of rank and worth, and especially to men of distinguished parts and learning; whom he honoured and encouraged, and whose respective

great pleasure; and you have our most hearty thanks for it. He is now of Jesus College in Cambridge. But I take what care I can myself of his education. He is very promising; and I hope he will prove a comfort to an excellent, though unfortunate mother.

I have not a moment more than to assure you, with my best respects to Mrs. Doddridge, that I am, dear sir,

Your most affectionate friend and brother,

William Warburton.

LETTER II.

Dr. Warburton to Dr. Doddridge.

Dear sir,

Prior Park, Sept. 2, 1751.

Your kind letter gave me, and it will give Mr. Allen, great concern for ourselves, not for you. Death, whenever it happens, in a life spent like yours, is to be envied, not pitied; and you will have the prayers of your friends, as conquerors have the shouts of the crowd. God preserve you! if he continues you here, to go on in his service; if he takes you to himself, to be crowned with glory.

I order an inquiry to be made of your health, from

merits he was enabled to appreciate, by a natural discernment and superior good sense, rather than by any acquired use and knowledge of letters. His domestic virtues were above all praise. With these qualities, he drew to himself universal respect; and possessed, in a high degree, the esteem of Mr. Pope, who, in the following lines, has done justice to his modest and amiable character.

"Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”

time to time; but if you fatigue yourself any more in writing, it will prevent me that satisfaction.

I am, dear sir,

Your most affectionate friend and brother,

Rev. sir,

William Warburton.

LETTER III.

Dr. Hurd to Dr. Warburton.

Cambridge, July 2, 1754.

I thank you for your kind favour of the twenty seventh past. Sir Edward Lyttelton thought himself so much honoured by your notice of him, that I knew it could not be long before he found or made an occasion to acknowledge it. I am very happy in your candid opinion of him. He has the highest esteem and veneration for you.

As you give me no hopes of seeing the excellent family here, I shall set forward directly for Shifnal, in Shropshire; where I propose staying till the end of the month, and I shall then return, by the way of sir Edward Lyttelton's, to Cambridge.

I

Mr. Balguy is to meet me there, on invitation, from Buxton. But if there were not more in the matter, believe my laziness would find pretences to excuse me from the trouble of this long journey. The truth is, I go to pass some time with two of the best people in the world, to whom I owe the highest duty, and have all possible obligation..

I believe I never told you how happy I am in an excellent father and mother very plain people; they are farmers, but of a turn of mind that might have honoured any rank and any education. With very tolerable, but

« PrejšnjaNaprej »