you feem to apprehend an agreement between Brook and me.-Now, I beg to affure you in the most folemn manner, that I will not knowingly do any thing that may be the leaft prejudice to you; and I earnefly beg you to believe, that from the time you wrote to me to have no more to do with Brooke, I complied-I thought I gave you undoubted proof of my gra titude for your undeserved favours, when having gueffed by Mr, Brook's eagerness to get the other 200 pages of the hiftorical part I absolutely refufed to give them, least he might pretend to form himself a history from them to your prejudice. Poor as I am, I vow to God,he fhould not have them and never fhall though I affure you I had not the command of fix-pence thefe two months, nor do i know where to borrow it, and must venture to beg you will lend me 31. to bear my expences to the country-they would be fent by Thomas Cuffe of Rofcommon to your ever grateful and obedient,

R. DIGBY."

That Mr. O'Connor was fatisfied with thefe folemn declarations, appears from his having fent the money to Mr. Cuffe-and the post-mafter general, Mr. Norrifs's acknowledg ing the receipt of it for Mr. Digby, by a letter dated March 26, fhews that Mr. O'Connor must have advanced the money almost the moment he had read Digby's letter.

Digby himself acknowledges it in a letter dated April 2 1744, and adds"your introduction with the fections "annexed to it, and five pages anteceding, makes 74 pages folio-I "hereby promise to return it to "and ain, &c.

you,

"R. DIGBY."

But the pleasure Digby's letter afforded was only momentary, and his de lays and mysterious proceedings, as well as his refufing to anfwer Mr. Contarine s or Mr O Connor s letters, fo difgufted the former,that he obliged the latter to write a faithful narrative of the whole tranfaction, which he concluded in the following man

ner :

"My MSS were far from being fufficient for a genuine hiftory, though they might be allowed to pass under the original title of tales; and I will not be anfwerable for the interpolations or falfehoods in matter of facts, which gentlemen muft fall into who pretend not to the leaft knowledge of our ancient M, S. S.

This letter to the printer, Mr. O'Connor fent to his friend and kinf man, Luke Dowel, Efq of Mantua, for his opinion of it -A Spanish ininvafion projected this year by the Duke of Ormond, brought fuch a fevere perfecution on the members of his communion, that the mere idea of a catholic gentlemans being made a fubject of public converfation awoke apprehenfions of a ferious nature among his friends.

A proclamation iffued against papifts was fo violently enforced, that their clergy were dragged to prifon even in their facerdotal ornaments, and taken even in the act of celebrating the mafs In this fituation he confulted Mr. Dowel, whofe connexions were great, and whofe information was extenfive, whether it would not bring dangerous confequences on him and his friends, to draw the public eye towards Belanagare, in fuch terrible times.-Mr. Dowel s answer as follows:

Mantua, Apri', 22 1741.

"Dear

ate his ordination after the manner of the Romish Church;" befides, faid he," to my knowledge a prieft muft know fome Latin, but here is a booby that cannot read a word of English." The arrival of Lord Chesterfield as Viceroy, ferved to mitigate the feverity of thofe unfocial times, and he a vailed himself of an accident which was univerfally spoken of, to foften the rage of perfecution.-AMr Fitzgerald happened to fay mafs in the garret of a very old houfe, which gave way on account of the immenfe crowd that was affembled; the priest and rine perfons were killed and numbers wounded, by the ruins-People in power were touched with tranfitory pity, which Lord Chesterfield's humanity took care to cultivate. The chapels were allowed to be open on St. Patrick's day, and were never after fhut, not even during the rebellion which blazed out in Scotland in the year 1745.

During that memorable enterprize Mr. O'Connor and his friends thought it adviseable to fee each other but feldom. Frequent meetings might give rife to frequent caluminy, and fufpici on was fo much awake, that every thing but perfect folitude, might be conftrued into combination: he therefore mixed with no fociety though frequently applied to by letters and perfonal folicitations.

The great object of rational being in this tranfitory life, istomaketheidea of futurity predominent in the mind, particularly in times when the paffions are enfaned by great temptations. when we must arm ourselves with fortitude to bear the exceffes of joy or forrow, the allurements of good fortune, or the threats and the afflictions of calamity. Such to Mr. O'Connor the year of the rebellion was "Over "fays he, in a letter to Dr. Dig. han there is a ftorm gathering which is likely to involve us all indif eriminately in one common calamity;

US

an otium cum dignitate, that give birth to fome of his best productions.

His friends complained of his retirement, from 1745 to 53; they did not reflect, that knowledge is to be acquired only by ftudy, and ftudy is to be profecuted only by folitude. When a King afked Euclid, if he would not explain his art in a more compendious manner, he anfwered that there was no royal way to geometry. Mr. O'Connor could fay in like manner that there was no idle way to his antiquarian refearches, to his extenfive knowledge of the particular hiftories of our ancient families, to his Dirtations and his Principles, which though never intended for the public, I think if not fuperior, at least equal in point of argument and precifeness to all his other productions. There is a feriousness and a folemnity of manner in it, which evinces that he was not led away by the prejudices of infancy, but guided by dictates of reafon." Since I am to be perfecuted," faid he,let it not be for my obftinacy in the prejudices of education, but for tubborn and honest conviction." I do not think it amifs to give the following.

EXTRACT FROM HIS PRIN

CIPLES.

"I have often asked myself why I fhould be punished, fince I feel myfelf guilty of no crime. I have alfo afked myself, would I behave to others as cruelly as they behave to me? Would I allow any man of any perfu afion not evidently fubverfive of humanity to be punished merely for believing what he believes? would I be a beaft of prey on my own fpecies?

I know that my paffions have the fame effect on me, they have on all men they often hurry me beyond my principles, but I do not know my felf fo well as to be able to afcertain precifely how far they prevail. I have feen fo many good men corrupted by power and estranged by riches, that I dare not fay what I would do in other

circumftances, but I am convinced, I can bear patiently what I fee others unable to endure, and though I cannot pretend to fay what I would do in another fituation more humble or more exalted, I know that in my prefent fituation I love truth more than I love any thing and I think I could refign a crown fooner than refign my principles.

I believe that men whofe wants are few, are the happiest, and therefore there is more contentedness in the humble walks of private life, than in thofe exalted stations, in which perpetual rotation or dear-bought pleafure is but painted woe. But I think there never was perfect happiness în this world, and I think there never will.

For not the brave, nor wife, nor great, E'er yet had happiness complete; Nor Peleus, grandfon of the fky, Nor Cadmus, fcap'd the shafts of pain, Tho' favor'd by the pow'rs on high,

At beft, it is but a relative fatisfaction, and that proportioned to the fewness of our wants, and calmness of our confciences.

I never contradicted any man to fhew my learning, but either to teach him what I knew,or to learn from him what I knew not.

I pity all thofe who are in errot, but I judge them not, it is poffible that their ignorance is not imputed to them; and even though it should, it is poffible that they may be converted, and I a reprobate. *

NOTE.

However

*Ifelected this paffage, as it feemed to me a complete refutation of the ar guments against catholic emancipation made ufe by of Mr.P. Duignan in the Houfe of Commons, on the fcore of exclufive falvation.

However I firmly hold, that every man is bound, as far as he is able, to enquire for truth with patience, diligence and invincible attachment. Every man is bound to love it above all things, to fet nothing in competition with it, to make no compromife with error, by fubmitting to it for the purpole of gratifying our paffions, and not hesitate facrificing the things of this life, which are fluctuating and evanefcent, for thofe of the next, which are more fteady than the course of the fun and more lafting, than the elements of things.

I have myself dabbled in controverfy, and have but too often found that in controverfial debates the fole view of both parties is to raise objections. Neither feems to be aware that they contend for an opinion, not because it is a true one, but because they efpoufe it themselves.

Education, you fay, contributes more than examination to the affent of men in religious matters. This is a fatal truth, but it only proves what a bleng it is to be born in fuch circumftances as bring education to fupport truth, and what a misfortune to be born in fuch circumstances as bring education to bear against it; for education may be a fupport to error, as well as to truth, though it cannot change the immutable nature of either. It cannot make what is true to be falfe, or what is falfe to be true. Education on the fide of error, is a great misfortune for its tendency is to render error perpetual. But education on the fide of truth, is a great bleffing, for its tendency is to render truth perpetual.

Education will make people adopt the most prepofterous customs. It will make the indian think it meritorious to murder his father in order to fave him from the infirmities of old 36, but it will not make those cuftoms not to be prepofterous and im

pious, juft as a vitiated tafte, which holds gall to be fweet, and fugar bitter, will not make the fugar to be bitter nor the gall to be sweet.

Education muft impofe on a schoolboy, but it ought not to impofe upon a man. Reafon cites before her ftern tribunal the virtues themselves in the exiftence of which she had no share and does not attribute them to education alone, the attributes them to chance, the attributes them to custom, the attributes them to inftitutions which drag you along in their vortex, fhe attributes the merit of them to every thing but to herself.

Lycurgus conveyed two dogs into the affembly of the Lacedemonians: one was wicked and ferocious, the other fawned upon every perfon prefent. Cne devoured voraciously every thing it could come at; the other fcarce dared to approach even what was led before it. When the Lacedemonians expreffed their furprise that two dogs of the fame breed fhould differ fo widely, Lycurgus affuming a grave and fevere afpect, faid to them--Lacedemonians! thefe dogs have been pupped by one bitch at one litter, but I have reared them dif ferently; do you learn from this to fet a proper value on education,

A child who from his infancy hears any thing, perfon, or opinion, fpoken of with horror or difdain, will never after unite with that thing, perfon, and opinion: hence the hereditary harshness of the Manlian and Appian families, and hence the heriditary, amiable confideration of the Publicola family to the Plebeians of Rome.

But you will fay, if a man's reafon be too weak to get the better of his education, who is he to blame?

In this fuppofition which is hardly admiffable againft the voice of unerring reafon, when reafon is calmly confulted, he has no other refource than in a hearty willingness to do and to think what truth enjoins. I like the