at the end of an avenue, as they do in Holland, than to facrifice the health, cheerfulness, and comfort of a country refidence, to the wild but pleasing scenery of a painter's imagination.'

Again,

I cannot help feeing great affinity betwixt deducing gardening from the painter's ftudies of wild nature, and deducing a government from the uncontrolled opinions of man in a favage ftate. The neatnefs, fimplicity, and elegance of English gardening, have acquired the approbation of the prefent century, as the happy medium betwixt the wildness of nature and the ftiffness of art; in the fame manner as the English conftitution is the happy medium betwixt the liberty of favages and the restraint of defpotic government; and fo long as we enjoy the benefit of thefe middle degrees betwixt extremes of each, let experiments of untried theoretical improvement be made in fome other country.'

This letter, which has been written, at various opportunities, during my journey into Derbyshire, has infenfibly grown to a bulk which I little expected when I began it: I thall therefore caufe a few copies to be printed, to ferve as a general defence of an art, which, I truft, will not be totally fuppreffed, although you fo earnestly recommend every gentleman to become his own landscape gardener; with equal propriety might every gentleman become his own architect, or even his own phyfician: in fhort, there is nothing that a man of abilities may not do for himfelf, if he will dedicate his whole attention to that fubject only. But the life of man is not fufficient to excel in all things: and as a little knowledge is a dangerous thing," fo the profeffors of every art, as well as that of medicine, will often find that the most difficult cafes are thofe, where the patient has begun by quacking

himfelf.'

We cordially join with Mr. Repton in his termination:

I fhall conclude this long letter by an allufion to a work, which it is impoffible for you to admire more than I do. Mr. Burke, in his Effay on the Sublime and Beautiful, obferves, that habit will make a man prefer the tafte of tobacco to that of fugar; yet the world will never be brought to say that fugar is not fweet. In like manner both Mr. Knight and you are in the habits of admiring fine pictures, and both live amidst bold and picturefque fcenery: this may have rendered you infenfible to the beauty of thofe milder fcenes that have charms for common obfervers. I will not arraign your taste, or call it vitiated, but your palate certainly requires a degree of "irritation" rarely to be expected in garden fcenery; and, I truft, the good fenfe and good talle of this country will never be led to defpife the comfort of a gravel walk, the delicious fragrance of a fhrubbery, the foul expanding delight of a wide extended profpect, or a view down a steep hill, because they are all subjects incapable of being painted.'

Mr. Price has published an answer to Mr. Repton, which we hall speedily notice.

Mars....

ART. XVIII. A Difcourfe, by Way of general Preface to the Quarts Edition of Bishop Warburton's Works; containing fome Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author. 4to. pp. 150. (Not fold.) 1794.

N air of myftery and ftudious concealment not only excites but sharpens curiofity. When, therefore, we announced (vol. lxxxi. p. 352.) the quarto edition of Bishop Warburton's works, and fubmitted to the confideration of our readers the promiflory note given with it, informing the purchasers that there was a life of the author prepared, which would be published and delivered to them on their producing the note, but that it was withholden for the prefent,-for reafons which would be feen hereafter, we felt a ftrong defire to fee this myfterious book; and no fooner was it brought to us, than we threw afide our other ftudies, and poftponed the payment of fome critical debts, in order to fit down in the fnug luxury of our armchair to the immediate perufal and examination of this difcourfe. First, we ran it over in hafte; and, when the keen edge of curiofity was blunted, we gave it a more fteady perufal. Here, however, it has fared with us, as no doubt it fared with many of the initiated into the antient myfteries; we have found lefs than we expected, and lefs than we had good reason to expect; for we are not told why this performance was withholden for fo many years, and not fuffered to accompany the collected works of Dr. Warburton in the year 1788, to which it may be deemed a neceflary preface.

The Billop of Worcester (Dr. Hurd) did not fay, in the promiffory note, that this difcourfe was then printed, but only that fuch a work had been prepared;' and it may be that, in revifing and re-revifing it, fuch erafements and alterations have been made as have removed his original objections to its now venturing abroad, in order to be prefixed to the works. Suppofing, however, that the Right Reverend editor and biographer has accommodated matters in this refpect to his own fatisfaction, he has not answered the expectation of the purchafers; who were promifed, among the Warburtonian myfteries, the reasons which induced the editor to fo fingular a procrastination. Perhaps the keen eye of the learned editor of Trails by Warburton and a Warburtonian may yet difcover thefe motives; though the general reader will probably look for them in vain. Reafons for fome timidity, on the part of the Right Reverend biographer, may be feen in his treatment of Warburton's opponents; fome of whofe friends and admirers will perhaps offer their ftrictures on thefe parts of this difcourfe. There are other parts on which we might raife conjectures, and offer particular comments: but, abstaining from all minute and invi

dious criticism, we applaud Bifhop Hurd for the refolution which he has at length taken, and congratulate the public on the appearance of this biographical preface.

"If (as Johnfonremarks in one of his Ramblers) a life bedelayed till intereft and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but we must expect little intelligence;" and though, as he also remarks in the fame paper, the biographer "owes more respect to knowlege, to virtue, and to truth, than regard to the memory of the dead;" yet it must be confidered that, while that very friendship, which interefts itfelf in tranfmitting to pofterity the particulars of departed worth or genius, has its bias, to it we are indebted for the most interefting details of biography. Let us not be moved to wrath if the zealous friend fometimes throws over the portrait, which he intends to delineate, the fhade of apology, and at others enriches it with the glowing tints of panegyric. Allowance must be made for the partial hand that guides the pencil; and, as long as friendship mildly exercises its privilege, and does not, in order to exite admiration or to prevent cenfure, deftroy the refemblance, we view its efforts with fatisfaction-but, when it indulges itself in intemperate encomiums, in laboured juftifications, and in flimfy apologies, both amusement and inftruction ceafe, and difguft fucceeds. The - Bishop of Worcester, with all his good fenfe, has been fo far in danger of running into this extreme, that it may be more than queftioned whether he has fairly appreciated the subject of his memoir. With this tribute to Bishop Warburton's memory, he is, doubtlefs, himself fatisfied, as harmonizing with his own feelings: but, in justifying Warburton, others are at times undervalued; and there are paffages which cannot be deemed liberal in a proteftant bishop, and a polite fcholar, at the clofe of the 18th century.

This memoir commences with an account of Dr. Warbur ton's family and birth: but, as great parts and learning can receive neither luftre nor degradation from pedigree, this part of the subject is difmiffed in a few words:

WILLIAM WARBURTON was defcended from an ancient and very honourable family in Cheshire, at the head of which is the prefent Sir Peter Warburton, Baronet, of Arley, in that county.

I leave the reft to the genealogift, and go no farther back in his pedigree than to his grandfather, of the fatne name, who diftinguished himfelf in the civil wars of the last century. He was of the royal party. He had three fons, the fecond of whom, (George) was Mr. Warburton's father; who was bred to the law, and practifed as an attorney at Newark; where the fubject of this memoir was born, Dec. 24, 1698.'

Of his juvenile ftudies, nothing fingular is recorded. In April 714, he became clerk to Mr. Kirke, an attorney at Great

Markham, and continued with this gentleman till the year 1719 but juris nodos legumque ænigmata folvere fuited not his inclination. His wishes were directed to the church, as more congenial with his thirst for knowlege :-he was ordained deacon, Dec. 22, 1723; and, March 1, 1726-7, he was ordained prieft by Bishop Gibson, in St. Paul's, London.

The want of an univerfity education was more than compenfated by Mr. Warburton's fevere application to study. Without the ordinary advantages, he acquired a vast stock of learning, and at an early period commenced author. Of his juvenile compofitions, his biographer thus fpeaks, in order to justify himself from the cenfures of thofe who have difapproved of his having excluded them from the bishop's works:

The fruit of his induftry, during this interval (from 1723 to 27) appeared in fome pieces, compofed by him for the improvement of his tale and flyle, and afterwards printed (moft of them without his name) to try the judgment of the public. As he never thought fit to reprint or revife them, they are omitted in this edition.'

.

In 1728 he was prefented to the rectory of Brand-Broughton in the diocefe of Lincoln, and in this fituation he spent the best part of his life, from 1728 to 1746. An account follows of his intense application to letters in this retirement, and of his mode of ftudy. Here he compofed "The Alliance* between Church and State," published in 1736; and on this book much encomium is lavished by the Right Reverend biographer. This performance was followed by the publication, in 1738, of the first volume of his greateft work, "The Divine Legation of Mofes demonftrated." As to the argument of this work, we fhall content ourselves with Dr. Hurd's epithet, that it is paradoxical; and as to the impreffion which it made on the minds of Mr. Warburton's friends, the fagacious reader may form the cleareft judgment from feveral extracts of letters here given which fhew that they esteemed it (as all critics must,) as pregnant with learning and ingenuity, but not with demonftration. When we have read Warburton's defence of Mofes's divine legation, Eugene Aram's laboured defence of himself obtrudes on our minds. Both writers labour to establish a proof which is disadvantageous to their cause. Aram + hanged himself `

The word Alliance has been confidered inappofite. Alliance implies two or more independent powers forming a contract; whereas the Church is a part of the State, or one of its members, (as the army or navy,) and cannot properly be reprefented as entering into alliance with it. As well might we talk of an alliance between the Royal Society and the State as between Church and State. This incorrectnefs, in the title of the book, deferves notice.

Sce M. Rev. vol. lxxi. p. 366.

by his ingenuity; and Warburton, by piling fuch huge maffes of learning, in order to demonftrate the million of the Jewish law, excites an idea of the vast difficulty of the proof, and in courfe leaves the mind to vibrate back towards the point of infidelity *.

In 1741, a fecond volume of the Divine Legation appeared. We shall pafs over Mr.W.'s correfpondence with Dr. Middleton, (which, through difference of opinion, at last subsided,) and proceed to his acquaintance with Mr. Pope, which commenced in confequence of his defence of that great poet's Effay on Man against Monfieur de Croufaz, and was gradually ripened into a confidential friendship. Through Mr. Pope, Warburton became acquainted with Mr. Murray, afterwards Earl of Manffield, and with Mr. Allen; of whom juft and well-exhibited characters are drawn by the Right Keverend biographer.

The next memorable event in Mr. Warburton's life was his marriage, which took place in the beginning of the year 1746: but though this in general be a prominent feature in biographical records, it makes no figure in the prefent memoir. It is flightly noticed in the following words: After an acquaintance of fome years, Mr. Allen had now feen fo much of his friend, that he wifhed to unite him more closely to himself by an alliance of marriage with an accomplished lady of his own family, Mifs Gertrude Tucker, his favourite niece.'

Prior Park, the fplendid villa of Mr. Allen, was now become Warburton's principal refidence ;-hence he was invited to the Preachership of Lincoln's Inn. In 1747 he published his edition of Shakespeare.-In 1749 he vindicated Mr. Pope's conduct in the well-known affair of Bolingbroke's Patriot King t; which work the Right Reverend biographer ftyles

* The biographer, after having pronounced it paradoxical, calls the argument of the Divine Legation plain and fimple, yet perfectly new, proving the divinity of the Mofaic law :' but we defire to fubmit it to his confideration whether its perfect novelty be not a little fufpicious? We will agree with him that the Divine Legation abounds with exquifite learning and most ingenious difquifition; and that, in the whole compaís of modern and antient theology, there is notning equal nor fimilar to this extraordinary performance.

In imitation, perhaps, of Warburton's interference in behalf of Pope, Bishop Hurd here interrupts the thread of his narrative, to refcue the character of Mr. Addifon from the imputation of his heving acted with duplicity towards Mr. Pope in regard to his ver.. of the Iliad. Mr. A., while feeming to encourage that work, has b accused of tranflating, or of employing Mr. Tickel to tran first book of the Iliad, in oppofition to it. The grounds of a