which the introductory paragraph shall be transcribed as well pourtraying his character *. On a spacious black marble slab, in the passage between the Church and Palace of Lambeth, is the following short inscription: * "Your Grace's most exalted station in the Church, your distinguished zeal for the advancement of Religion, true piety, and sound morals, your indefatigable endeavours to suppress vice, and every nursery thereof, and your Grace's powerful influence, not only in the Cabinet but likewise in the Senate, have determined me most respectfully to approach your Grace, as the natural Patron of the following proposal; no ways doubting but that it will be agreeable to your known character and public spirit, when it is perceived that it hath a tendency to check, and, if your Grace's wise deliberations may be further improved, to remedy all or any of the evils resulting from the too frequent resort of the middling and lower class of people to public diversions, which, in the general opinion, are but real allurements to idleness and vice." † A remarkable circumstance, which happened previous to the Archbishop's death, was thus noticed at the time by my late venerable Friend the Rev. Dr. Pegge: According to the excellent Memoirs you have given us of Abp. Secker, a very extraordinary accident befel him but a few days before he died. The account goes thus, that as he was turning himself on his couch, he broke his thigh-bone. It was immediately set, but it soon appeared there were no hopes of his recovery. After his death it was found that the thigh-bone was quite carious, and that the excruciating pains he so long felt were owing to the gradual corrosion of this bone, by some acrimonious humour. The Archbishop was in his seventy-fifth year. Now it is related in the life of Dr. Ralph Bathurst, who died in his eighty-fourth year, that his death was occasioned by the like accident of breaking his thigh, while he was walking in his garden. And it is added on the occasion, It is said that at first, and for some time, he refused to submit to the operations of the surgeon, declaring, in his tortures, that there was no murrow in the bones of an old man. Dr. Bathurst was bred a Physician, and was of great eminence in his profession, insomuch that some regard, as it should seem, ought to be paid to a declaration of this kind coming from him, and yet I vehemently suspect the truth of it, on account of what here follows. At Christmas, 1697, an old gentlewoman, confined to her bed by illness, and Letters from Dr. THOMAS SECKER, To the Rev. Dr. DODDRIDGE. "REVEREND SIR, Cuddesden, Sept. 29, 1743. "I return you many thanks for your favourable opinion both of my Sermon and its Author, though expressed in a manner which you would have forborne if you had known me better. Plain men should be treated in a plain way: and nobody should have things said to him which he doth not deserve; and ought not to hear if he did. Let us all endeavour to do what good we can; and give those who seem to endeavour it faithfully, the comfort of knowing we think they do; but never tempt one another to forget we are unprofitable servants. I am in no danger of transgressing this rule when I say that I have read your works with great satisfaction, and, I hope, some benefit; and both rejoice and wonder that, in the midst of your other occupations, you continue able, as I pray God you long may, to oblige your Fellow Christians so often and so highly from the press. Indeed it must, and ought to be owned in general, that the Dissenters have done excellently of late years in the service of Christianity; and I hope our common warfare will make us chiefly attentive to our common interest, and unite us in a closer alliance. I believe, on the best enquiry I can make, that what I have said in favour of our Charity Schools is true; and you do very well to propagate a sense of Religion amongst your own people by the same method. I have read Dr. Watts's Essay on the subject, which fell into my hands but yesterday, with much pleasure, and a lit in the 84th year of her age, had occasion in the night to use the bason; and being very weak and helpless, she tumbled upon the floor as she was endeavouring to reach it, and broke her arm. She had a fever upon her at the time, and yet this notwithstanding, and notwithstanding her extreme old age, the arm was set and united well, and in a reasonable time; and she had tolerable good use of it before she died, which was on the 20th of October, 1768. In short, the affirmation, or supposition rather, of Dr. Bathurst, appears to me to be a subject that ought to be enquired into by those who have opportunities of making the trial. S. PEgge." For various other particulars relative to Abp. Secker, see the pages referred to in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VII. pp. 372. 672. (particularly vol. III. p. 748); and vol. IX. p. 499. See also, Gent. Mag. vol. XXXVIII. pp. 451. 523; vol. XL. p. 123; vol. LIV. p. 170; vol. LXVIII. pp. 559. 931. 1106. tle tle surprise, to see in how many points we have coincided; an evidence, I presume, that we are both in the right. I congratulate you heartily on the prospect you have of success in your Hospital; and as I am very sensible of what peculiar advantage it would be to have one at Oxford, so I have not only taken all opportunities of expressing and inculcating my opinion, but should long before now have made some trial what could be done in the matter, if hopes had not been given me that Dr. Radcliffe's Trustees, when his Library is finished, will employ some part of the residue of his money in this excellent work. You were much to blame in not letting me see you at Gloucester: and the Bishop, when he knows it, will be as sorry as I am, that you passed by us in the manner you did. The time of my being in town, and that of your coming thither, I am afraid, are different. But, if any occasion bring you near me, either there or here, I beg you will not think you need any introducer: for I am, with great esteem and regard, Sir, "Your very humble servant, THO. OXFORD." "REVEREND SIR, St. James's, Westminster, Feb. 21, 1744-5. "I thank you for your candid reception of my small Remarks. Your favourable opinion of the Church of England gives me no surprise, but much pleasure. And as I agree with you heartily, in wishing that such things as we think indifferent, and you cannot be brought to think lawful, were altered or left free, in such a manner, as that we might all unite; so I have no reason to believe that any one of the Bishops wishes otherwise; and I know some that wish it strongly, whom I fear many of the Dissenters take to be of a different spirit; nor, perhaps, were the body of the Clergy ever so well disposed to it as now. But still I see not the least prospect of it; for they who should be most concerned for it are most of them too little so. And of others, few that have influence think it can be worth while, either to take any pains, or spend any time, about matters of this nature; and too many judge the continuance of a separation useful to their particular schemes. Amongst these last, the Enemies of Religion are apt to consider the Dissenters as their Allies against the Established Church. But, as I hope they will never have cause to join in any designs against it, so I am fully persuaded they will never think a combination with such persons justifiable, either in point of prudence, or of conscience. "The Bishop of Gloucester desires you to accept his thanks and compliments; and I am, Reverend Sir, "Your very humble servant, TO BROWNE WILLIS, Es1. THO. OXFORD." "DEAR SIR, St. James's, Westminster, Nov. 5, 1747. "At Oxford the first Register Book is 1543-1601; but there are no Institutions registered from 1569 to 1604. The second is 1604-1642 but there is nothing registered from March 9, 1622, to July 21, 1627; nor from May 28, 1642, to July 18, 1660. The third is from 1660–1702: but there are no institutions from Nov. 15, 1664, to March 9, 1675; nor any Ordination from Sept. 25, 1664, to Jan. 20, 1669; nor from Feb. 26, 1670, to Dec. 21, 1673. The fourth Register Book is from 1669 to 1736, in which last year several things are wanting. The fifth is from 1737 to the present time. THOMAS OXFORD." To Miss CARTER *. "GOOD MADAM, Cuddesden, Sept. 13, 1749. "This naughty girl [Miss Talbot] hath sealed up her packet without giving me notice; and so you must take what I have to say by itself. Arrian is not a Commentator on Epictetus, as Simplicius is; but professes to exhibit his very conversation and discourses, as Xenophon doth those of Socrates: and a Translator should represent him in our tongue such as he appears in his own not indeed copying the peculiarities of the language he speaks in, but still preserving his genuine air and character, as far as ever is consistent with making him rightly understood. Where the terms of his philosophy are now become obscure, or the manners of his age and country unsuitable to ours, I allow the one to be cleared up, and the other softened, to a requisite degree, in the Translation itself, and still more in a short note. Nay, some parts, those for instance where he digresses into logical niceties, provided a general notice be given of what nature they are, I think they may be passed over. Et quæ desperes tractata nitescere posse, relinquas. But, with proper exceptions of this kind, every ancient writer should, in common justice, be laid before the modern reader, if at all, such as he is. And Epictetus in particular should, because he will make a better figure, and have more influence in his own homely garb, than any other into which he may be travesti. Abruptness and want of ornament very often add much force and persuasion to what is said. They shew the speaker to be in earnest, which hath the greatest weight of any thing: and the same sentiments delivered in a smooth and polite, a florid and panegyrical, or a formal and professional style, are no longer the same. These last were the methods in vogue when Epictetus lived; and they had brought Philosophy into disregard and disgrace He saw it with grief; and reproved Messieurs les Philosophes with an honest zeal. Surely then we should be very careful to do nothing that may but seem to approach towards transforming him into one of these gentlemen. And I am fully persuaded, that plain and home exhortations and reproofs, without studied periods and regular connexions, in short, such as they might be supposed to come extempore from the fullness of the old man's good heart, will be more attended to and felt, and consequently give more pleasure, as well as do more good, than any thing sprucer that can be substituted in their *The strong sense of this Letter, and the justness of the reasoning contained in it, bad the desired effect of convincing Miss Carter." PENNINGTON. room. room. I do not mean by all this to vindicate my own specimens. I confess myself to have bent the stick as strongly as I well could, the opposite way to yours. But I am content to divide the difference with you; which, perhaps, after we have both explained ourselves, will be no great one. Yet indeed, of the two, I think a rough and almost literal translation, if it doth but relish strongly of that warm and practical spirit, which to me is the characteristick of this book, infinitely preferable to the most elegant paraphrase, that lets it evaporate, and leaves the reader unmoved. I know you experience so much of this way of thinking in general, that I may very safely trust you with the particular application of it; and therefore shall only add, that I am, with high esteem, and every good wish, Madam, "Your most obedient humble servant, THO. OXFORD." Lambeth, Dec. 5. 1759. To Dr. ROBINSON *, Archdeacon of Northumberland. "GOOD MR. ARCHDEACON, "I thank you most heartily for your excellent Charge. It is at the same time the genuine growth of the soil in which you are planted, and fruitful of most seasonable instructions to the Clergy throughout every part of the Nation. I am surprized that I had not seen it before, nor heard of it till about a fortnight ago. You ought, by all means, to advertise it in London; indeed, to re-print it there, unless the impression in the North was so large as that a considerable number of copies are still remaining for there are few such admonitions, and there is need of many. What you say of ordaining persons without academical education is very just, and not confined to the distant counties. I have found such Ordinations necessary in Kent. God reward you, good Mr. Archdeacon, for the service which you have done to his Church, and give you many years of health and strength to do much more. I am, with great esteem, "Your loving brother, THO, CANTUAR." To her Royal Highness PRINCESS AMELIA. 1760. “ MADAM, ' "I am honoured with your Royal Highness's request in relation to Mr. Hebbes †. I have now been Archbishop about two years, and in all that time have presented only to one Living, and that not 100l. a year, and in Romney Marsh. If my Clergy should continue to be so healthy (as it is my duty to hope they will), it will be some time before I have it in my power to shew with what respect I am, Madam, "Your Royal Highness's dutiful servant, THO. CANT." *Whose "excellent Charge" is registered in Gent. Mag. vol. XXXIX. p. 544. Another, equally excellent, was published by the same Author in 1761. See also Gent. Mag. for that year, p. 605. + Lecturer of Kensington.-His Grace soon after collated him to the Vicarage of Hern-hill, where he died in 1777. To |