to visit the shrine of the goddess " of my idolatry," and to enjoy a conversation with the descendant of her faithful friend and domestic, to whose character his illustrious lady had communicated a classic and deathless interest. The good curé blushed, bowed, and accepted my offering, with as much courtesy and a feeling apparently as deep, as if it had been of" one entire and perfect crysolite.' The spring was now patched up, and pronounced capable of carrying us to Rennes. We therefore bade an hasty adieu to our accidental acquaintance, and soon lost sight of the ancient and memorable towers of Le Château des Rochers.

S.

MEMOIRS OF DR. PARR. *

WE have already said so much of this great scholar, and almost last of a distinguished race of learned men, whose likenesses we are never destined to see again, that we shall notice the present work but very briefly. The class in which Parr must be placed, though it contributed little to the stock of our literature by finished works, conferred inestimable obligations upon those who came after. Undaunted diligence in the elucidation of obscure passages in the writers of antiquity, unwearied labour in clearing up difficulties, an astonishing zeal and perseverance, with an almost perfect knowledge of the languages of Greece and Rome, distinguished these scholars. Nothing seems to have escaped them; and the result has been to leave nothing for future explanation. Consequently, the expenditure of a large proportion of human life is now disposable by the student for other purposes, since what they left us is a sufficient key to all necessary critical knowledge. Their task completed, as fully perhaps as it could be, these men have revolved in their circle and are gone. We shall see few or no Bentleys again. A more spirit-stirring time approaches, and researches of unforeseen moment will attract the future scholar or man of science, and occupy human existence; while, in turn, the labours of these last will be condensed for their posterity, to whom fresh objects of study will unfold themselves, and

"New distant scenes of endless science rise!"

The subject of the present work, however, was not a scholar alone. He was not merely the disputer about a doubtful letter, or the origin of the digamma, but one of the most eloquent speakers and powerful reasoners of his day; a humble parish priest, a haughty fierce debater; a most liberal divine, a severe critic; a man of remarkable candour, an unflinching political partizan; a storehouse of the book knowledge of all ages, a mere novice in the world; a man of integrity, fearless in speaking the truth, but cautious and timid in acting; in friendship firm, yet in his private conduct often capricious and whimsical; charitable and kind to the poor; an encourager of genius, and free in imparting instruction to all fair inquirers; often overbearing to equals; impatient of arrogance and self-assumed knowledge; and a sealed book to those who asked only for asking's sake. Finally, he nearly closes the list of men of whom many pretenders to literature in the present day cannot estimate the value; and, as is usual among them, vituperate all they have not the natural ability to comprehend. Hence the abuse of Parr lavishly bestowed, in reviewing this book, by ephemeral scribblers.

The present work is written by the Rev. Mr. Field, an Unitarian minister, and friend of Parr. The life of a scholar affords little that is stirring and attractive to the reader of books merely for amusement; it is, for the most part, still life, a record of opinions, a table of criticism, or a recital of per

* Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Opinions of the Rev. S. Parr, LL.D.; with Biographical Notices of many of his Friends, Pupils, and Contemporaries. By the Rev. W. Field. Vol. I. 8vo.

sonal anecdotes and peculiarities. Mr. Field has introduced too many of the illustrious obscure' among Parr's acquaintance into his work, in whom no interest can be felt beyond half a dozen miles from Warwick; and has omitted notices of many characters and correspondents known at Hatton, which would be generally interesting. We can make allowance for this, when we find that he has had little or no aid from persons immediately connected with the deceased; no papers, letters, or documents. The individual to whom Parr looked as his biographer, did not undertake the office. One of the Doctor's executors, a medical person we believe, and by no means competent to the task, possesses what papers Parr left behind him, and has announced, that, some day or another, he intends to give them to the world. Mr. Field had therefore no alternative but to join his own recollections of the deceased (which commenced in 1790) to the communications of his friends, and bring out his work; which is all, probably, on the subject that will be published for a long time, judging from the announcements which have been made, and the continued absence of results.

Dr. Parr was born at Harrow, January 26, 1747. He was the son of an eminent surgeon, of Tory principles, settled there, who died in 1766, leaving a second wife his widow, who survived till 1805. The mother of Parr died when he was but thirteen years of age, in 1762. She was descended of the Mignards, a French family, which settled in England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Parr was educated at Harrow, and was one of a distinguished trio, equally remarkable for diligence and capacity at school, and for celebrity in after-life. Sir William Jones, Dr. Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, and Parr, were these three distinguished scholars. "They were accustomed," says Lord Teignmouth, in the Life of Jones," to divide the neighbouring fields, so as to bear in their imaginations some rude resemblance to the map of Greece; and each of them assumed, according to his fancy, some ancient name, and appropriated to himself some peculiar district, the honour and integrity of which he was to maintain against all assailants." They studied together the art of logic, and disputed on various topics in the syllogistic form. They even soared into metaphysics, and wrote short pithy sentences like "Phalaris' Epistles." Though these efforts might be supposed puerile from the juvenility of their authors, the employment of lads so young in such a way is a rare example among youth at seminaries of learning, and shows how early the ruling passion will sometimes be developed.

In 1761, Parr was removed from Harrow school to be brought up in his father's profession, for which he was wholly unfit. A surgical operation filled him with horror, from his nervous susceptibility. When forced to compound medicines, he used to revenge himself on his father by pointing out the bad Latin in his prescriptions, which was corrected by the reply-" Sam, damn the prescription! make up the medicine." Laudanum had been introduced into practice, and Parr was desired on one occasion to put a small quantity into a prescription. It had a good effect. The father talked of repeating the dose. "You may do that safely," said young Parr." Don't be rash, boy," was the reply; "beginners are always too bold. How should you know what is safe?"-"Because, Sir, when I made up the prescription, I doubled the dose," said the youth. "Doubled the dose !-how dared you?' "Because," said the son coolly, "I saw you hesitate." Parr was sent to Cambridge in 1765, which he abruptly quitted from lack of pecuniary means. He became head assistant of Harrow school, and was appointed to be curate of Willsden; he also stood as candidate for the mastership of Harrow, on the death of Dr. Sumner, which he lost by the base conduct of the governors. He left Harrow with sixty scholars, and opened a school at Stanmore in 1771. In 1776 he removed to Colchester, and thence to the head mastership of Norwich School, which he held till 1785; in that year he settled down at his last place of residence, Hatton near Warwick; and there, as a humble parish minister, he closed his eyes on the world after forty years' sojourn.

Parr published his celebrated Latin Preface to the three Treatises of Bellendenus in 1787, and shortly after "Tracts of Warburton and a Warburtonian,"

t

&c. His object was to chastise the insolence and intolerance which distinguished the Warburtonian school, and to protect, says Mr. Field, "the fair fame of two eminent scholars and excellent men." It was about this time that he became a political partizan, and stood forth a bold and ardent Whig. The candour of Parr, indeed, and his openness to conviction, ill adapted him to advocate the arbitrary doctrines of Toryism; his strong mind could ill brook stifling the clearest deductions of reason by pleas of expediency, or divine right. He could not, with Tory pliancy, substitute prejudice and custom for sense and justice. In the course of a life extending nearly to eighty years, he never once held back from the avowal of his political tenets from a fear of consequences. He could contemplate even the want of bread without apprehension; but the shame of being a renegade from a party, the principles of which he had adopted on mature deliberation, and on the side of which ranked the generous and noble of human nature, he dared not look upon. Let those who have deserted from one party to another, take a lesson from Parr's uncompromising integrity to their own condemnation. We hope these ridiculous party terms will soon cease, and that men who differ only on a single point or two, not essential to the welfare of their country, will in future sink the mere name of a distinction in their united efforts for the general good. We cannot forget, however, that the political changes first broached and supported by the Whigs, are those to which the generous and patriotic among the Tories have given way, so as to render their differences at present little more than nominal. The thorough-paced ultra-Tory, time alone will conquer, and plunge, with his man-degrading doctrines, into everlasting oblivion. It is singular that Parr was not friendly to the repeal of the Test Act in 1790, while he ranked on every other question upon the side of liberality. Mr. Field does not account for this satisfactorily, but we rather think that Parrthen believed tests necessary to the security of the church. He changed his opinion, however, subsequently, and stated that he saw "the injustice and inefficacy of all religious tests whatever."

Parr was, it seems, a great admirer of Dr. Middleton; but it was singular enough that he detected and exposed the plagiarism of this writer from Bellendenus, in his Life of Cicero. So bold was Middleton, that "whenever it suited his purpose, he made a mere transcript of the work!" In relation to his Preface to Bellendenus, Parr says he made Cicero his model, and he confesses he thought himself very inferior in Latin composition to Sir W. Jones, Bishop Lowth, Dr. P. Barton, Dr. Lawrence, or Sir G. Baker. The information given by Mr. Field respecting Parr's literary undertakings, and his controversies, is the most interesting part of the volume. That so little writing was left behind by a man so well able to instruct and please, is singular; but it may be accounted for by the insatiable thirst of acquiring knowledge rather than bestowing it, which was the passion of this celebrated scholar.

It seems that Parr's intercourse with Priestley was of the most honourable kind, and that though a churchman, he saw and despised the spirit that drove that immortal philosopher and excellent man from his native land. Parr bore testimony to his merits, sympathized in his sufferings, and wrote an inscription to his memory. When the Church and King rabble of Birmingham carried desolation through the country almost unchecked, Parr was himself threatened, but he never flinched from his friendship or spared his denunciations of the savages who perpetrated these outrages. He said his books were threatened to be destroyed, "for three days and three nights his family was agitated with consternation and dismay.” One of his exclamations peculiarly merits record: speaking of those riots in 1791, "In what age, or in what country, do I live? Whither, as an unoffending citizen, shall I flee for the protection of the laws? and where, as a diligent and faithful teacher of Christianity, shall I look for its salutary influence even among those who make their boast of being its most zealous defenders? O superbiam inauditam! alios in facinore gloriari, aliis ne dolere quidem impunitè licere! But the ways of Providence are unsearchable; and among all the anomalies which baffle conjecture and afflict sensibility, in the moral world,

the follies, the ficklenesses, and the passions of man are the most inexplicable and the most deplorable. He is a tyrant in defence of liberty. He is a plunderer in support of law. He is an oppressor for the honour of government. He is a very savage in the bosom of society. He becomes the unrelenting persecutor of his species, for the imaginary glory of God!"

As a parish priest the conduct of Parr was most exemplary. "It is pleasing to record," says Mr. Field, "that, with intellectual powers and attainments which would have reflected honour on the highest stations in the church, he bent down his mind to the duties of the humble sphere in which it was his lot to move; and that, during his long residence at Hatton, he presented in himself an almost perfect model of that truly estimable charactera faithful village pastor." We find that towards the close of Parr's life, the increased value of the prebend of Wenlock Barnes, given him by Bishop Lowth, once only worth twenty pounds per annum, enabled him to live in affluence.

But our allotted room forbids farther notice of the present and first volume, which is likely to be far less interesting than its successor, as the latter will embrace a more recent period of time, and in all probability events of more particular interest. It appears to us that Mr. Field has executed his task as well as under his circumstances, and with his materials, he could have done it; and if it be not all we wish, it is probable we shall never have any memoir of Parr more satisfactory to substitute in its place.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CLUBS.NO. I.

The Beefsteak.

SOME Curious matter relative to Clubs has appeared in a work lately published by Mr. Colburn. But the philosophy of clubs is an inexhaustible theme. It would astonish you, could you trace the countless touches, faint and delicate as they are, which a man's character receives from his club; could you ascertain the degree in which the jerks and twists it gets there contribute to its form and configuration. What an hospital too is a club for those unmated beings whose lonely tenement of a heart knows no inhabitant! There, their feelings are adjusted and set to rights-there, they learn how poor, how barren are their self-centred satisfactions compared to the homeliest of those which they share with others. In England, a country of Clubs, it is one of the primary wants of our nature. Without these little knots and combinations of whim and pleasantry, these inviting patches of verdure, shade, and fountain, these oases to refresh us on our way, human life would indeed be dull. The truth is, we fly to our club, not more to escape from inquietude, than as a relief from our enjoyments. Take the most engaging picture of domestic bliss that fancy can hit off; cull the fairest blooms of the only Eden which the fall has left us--an Eden often so enchanting, as to put us in good-humour with that fall— an angel sent to you on an errand of joy and love-the partner of your lonely, the pride of your social hour-the approving critic of your literary effusions-the beauteous companion of your studies; snatch any other colour dipt in heaven, to make it still more complete-realize it— it is your's-still it will not do, take my word for it, day after day. The ceaseless revolution of the same things within the same circle, will make your life a tread-mill. You must pay the tax of our common humanity for all this; you must suffer some dyspeptic symptoms for being so abundantly happy. Your wife too has a voice in the matter.

For new-married folks, the subject is a delicate one; and she will not, perhaps, be very ready to give it. very ready to give it. But her genuine suffrage--would it not be this? "You are the best of husbands, the tenderest of lovers. Yet there are seasons when I would willingly forego his society; and a few occasional absences would quicken and enhance the pleasure of his return. O that he had a club, where he could now and then prose away an hour or two!"

It has long been an article in my creed, that the Beefsteaks is the best club going; and in Mr. Colburn's publication there is a slight memoir of it. The picture, however, is sketchy, and deficient in some essential lineaments, several characters belonging to that museum of human anomalies having been omitted. Before I proceed, therefore, to the other clubs on my list, I shall endeavour to supply those omissions, inasmuch as they tend to injure its idiosyncrasy.

"Locus est pluribus umbris."

It is moreover a pleasing task, though tinged with something like melancholy; for it is wandering amongst the ruins of social delights, gone perhaps for ever, even whilst I am dreaming myself again into that most cheerful and laughter-loving circle.

I have lived almost a life of clubs. In none have I met with so full a soul of brotherhood as in this ;-so true a sympathy of all in the misfortunes of each; such unenvious joying over his successes: as if those kindly feelings, exiled from a world of show and selfishness, had there found a home and a refuge. As for the modern pedantry now abroad upon the subject of long after-dinner sittings, which exclaims against the protracted symposiac enjoyments of our forefathers, as so many proofs of barbarism-at the Beefsteaks, that horrid jargon is never tolerated. The senseless decree of Fashion, that allows you only an hour or two after the cloth is removed, has never penetrated into the refectory of the gridiron. It would be a space infinitely too circumscribed for the fancy, mirth, and conviviality of such a society to throw out their bright crystalline forms-their brilliant, prismatic irradiations. Old Rich, the founder, if in his "ashes live their wonted fires," would protest from his grave against so shocking an innovation. No. On each succeeding Saturday, from November to May, you will find there a merry unflinching band engaged in the only refutation which that damnable heresy deserves. Let the new Puritans clepe us by what name they will, no "swinish phrase will soil our addition." I wish you could have heard our brother T- the other night upon the subject of this very doctrine, which has considerably alarmed him. He is a man of few words, almost to a proverb, having an instinctive abhorrence of argument, as an useless waste of time and breath. But touch him upon the topic of port-wine; all the faculties of his soul are in arms. It is Cicero pro domo sua. A visitor (I believe a young physician) but evidently one of the new school which exorcises wine as poison, seemed rather zealous for the propagation of his faith. Unluckily, he addressed his lecture to T, and went on very glibly about the deleteriousness of port-wine, when taken to excess, which by his reckoning began at the third or fourth glass. All this to T was quite incomprehensible. Three or four glasses to T- --it was an image as ridiculous as allaying a mammoth's thirst with a teaspoon.