THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, Mr. URBAN, For JULY, 1815. July 1. HE enclosed Rural Inscriptions Tanay, in all probability, be not unamusing to the readers of your Magazine. If they yield any gratification to persons of taste, my pains in communicating them will be fully rewarded. 1. For a Cottage. J. C. Around my porch and lonely casement spread, [vine, The myrtle never sere, and gadding With fragrant sweet-briar, love to in tertwine; And, in my garden's box-encircled bed, The pansy pied and musk-rose white and red, The pink and tulip, and honey'd wood- Fling odours round the flaunting egDeck my trim fence, and near, by silence led, [cell; The wren has wisely plac'd her mossy And far from noise, in courtly land so rife, Nestles her young to rest, and warbles well. [glen, Here, in this safe retreat and peaceful 1 pass my sober moments, far from men, Nor wishing death too soon, nor asking life. J. BAMFYLDE. II. For a Shepherd's Hut. IV. At the Seat of Dr. YOUNG at Welwyn. On the Entrance of the Garden. Audissent vocem Dei deambulantis in horto ad auram post meridiem. Liber Genesis, c, iii. v. 8. On an Alcove. Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens Uxor; neque harum quas colis arborum Te præter invisas cupressos Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. Hor. B. 2. Öde XIV. On a painted Board, representing a Summer-house at the end of a Visto. Splendide mendax ! Mr. URBAN, EVER July 2. VERY admirer of the unaffected simplicity and excellence of Holy Scripture must be disgusted to see the Prayers addressed to the Deity translated in the Plural Language. The Gentleman who signs M. (Part. I. p. 422.) wishes to be referred to some foreign book in which that mode of expression is used. He is requested to inquire for the Version printed at Trevoux in 1702, and that at Monsin 1710; in both which he will find the Plural instead of the second person Singular; a custom, I believe, invariably adhered to in all Catholic New Testaments. I may be permitted to add that some Protestant Editors render the Greek pronoun (John xxi.) in the Plural number. Two copies of their translation, one in French, and the other in English, are now in my possession; but, if a new Version of our authorized Bible should ever appear, it is hoped, even in this age of elegance and re finement. finement, that the old practice will be still adopted. It must be matter of regret that in all Oxford Editions of the Bible, the verse, Luke xxiii. 32. "There were also two other malefactors," is still retained. For a very obvious reason the word other should be expunged. I observe, R. C. has added a new word to the English language. Sanctimoniousness, though rather of uncouth sound, appears of sufficient. importance to enlarge the Catalogue of English substantives, though hitherto omitted in our Dictionaries. I equally agree with him, to use the words of an old author, distinguished for his learning and piety, that true Religion" does not consist in the morosity of a Cynic, in the severity of an Ascetic, or in the demureness of a Precisian; it is neither a drooping head, a mortified face, or a primitive beard; but it is something very different, and much more excellent *." Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, J. C. July 8. OU are particularly requested to You insert the following passage, taken from "Letters to Dr. Priestley," which were published in 1789 by one of his very learned opponents. "But, if you think that, notwithstanding such repeated expressions, wherein divine titles, divine attributes, and divine works, are ascribed to Jesus Christ, the people would not conclude that Jesus Christ was God; I request you only to try the following experiment. On some Sunday when you go into the pulpit to preach to your own congregation, speak of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Apostles have spoken of Him in the passages before mentioned +: make use of their very words, quote the places where they may be found, and leave it to your hearers to judge of the sense and meaning of them. And I * Essays by the Rev. J. Norris. dare say that before the next Sunday, you will find it to be rumoured about in every place that you have changed your principles; that from an Unitarian you have become a Trinitarian; and that, as you formerly accounted Jesus Christ to be no more than any other man, you now look upon him to be God. This is a very easy experiment; and, if you will but undertake to make it, I am fully persuaded you will soon be convinced what it was that the whole body of the Jewish Christians believed concerning the Divinity of Christ when they heard the Apostles preaching in the same words." Mr. URBAN, THE July 13. HE language, which Mr: Belsham has been accustomed to hold respecting the Established Clergy, leaves no room for surprise at the conclusion of his Answer to my Second Address. What claim to "the common courtesy of civilized life" has a Writer, who refuses to shew such courtesy to a whole profession? to the whole Ministry of the Church of England? whom the wise and good of other countries universally respect for their learning and virtue; but whom Mr. Belsham calls "impostors, and bigots, and persecutors," with whom "truth is necessarily an object of aversion and abhorrence?" What claim can he have, who, in contempt of all law and decency §, calls the Religion of his Country "the wretched +"At the beginning of this letter." In Gent. Mag. for June, 1815, p. 500. "Another species of offences against religion (says BLACKSTONE) are those which affect the Established Church. -And first of the offence of reviling the ordinances of the Church. This is a crime of much grosser nature than the other of mere non-conformity; since it carries with it the utmost indecency, arrogance, and ingratitude: indecency, by setting up private judgment in virulent and factious opposition to public authority: arrogance, by treating with contempt and rudeness what has at least a better chance to be right than the singular notions of any particular man. However, it is provided by Statutes 1 Ed. VI. c. J. and 1 Eliz. c. 1. and c. 2. &c. The terror of these Laws (for they seldom, if ever, were fully executed) proved a principal means, under Providence, of preserving the purity as well as decency of our National Worship. Nor can their continuance to this time (of the milder penalties at least) be thought too severe and relick of a dark and barbarous age?" What right has he to complain of discourtesy on my part, who calls me a Bonner, and a persecutor, because I have thought it my duty to make my public protest against the repeal of the Law against Blasphemy,-against the publication of blasphemous and antichristian doctrines? Unitarianism is a system of unbelief, which I have shewn to be founded on misrepresentation, prevarication, and falsehood; and to be wholly antichristian. In the dissection of such a system, and of the means by which it is supported, the courtesy, which conceals its deformities, and thus tends to render doubtful the truths, which the Scriptures have recorded, and the Primitive Church bas transmitted to us, appears to me to be nothing less than a compromise of truth and duty. Mr. Belsham says, "he has done." He has done his utmost (I have no doubt) in defence of Unitarianism. But he has not done what the publick had a right to expect from him. He has left uncorrected his suppression of the authority of Tertullian,—an authority which is essentially adverse to his opinions of Christianity. He has made no reply to the alleged evidence of the orthodoxy of the Church of Jerusalem, both before and after the time of Adrian, though that orthodoxy aunihilates the pretended Unitarianism of the Primitive Church. He does not yet perceive, that "the question whether the Church of Elia Consisted chiefly of orthodox Hebrew Christians, who abandoned the rites of the Law, for the sake of sharing the privileges of the Elian colony," is no part of the main question respecting the faith of the Primitive Church. He challenges me to discover any traces of that fact, previous to the time of Mosheim, though it was Dr. Priestley's and his business to have proved that there were no traces of it, before the former bad called it a forgery of Bp. Horsley's, and the latter, an invention of Mosheim's. The traces are obvious enough to persons conversant in ecclesiastical antiquity. I will, in a subsequent communication, bring proofs of the fact long previous to the time of Mosheim. In the mean while Mr. Belsham "has done." He retires from ground which he finds no longer tenable. His system is indeed utterly untenable, but by means to which the cause of truth bas never occasion to resort. Mr. Belsham says, he has "taken his leave of me." The calumniator of the Church of England, and of the Clergy, complains of discourtesy,with the same policy, and with just as much consistency, as Buonaparte used to clamour against "the tyranny of the seas," at the very time that he was harassing the Continent of Europe with the most horrible and vexatious oppression. Mr. Belsham has "taken his leave of me." But he will not acknowledge, that the system, which he has adopted, is untenable; nor will he do the justice that is due to the Established Church, by confessing that his objections to her doctrines have been proved to originate in false principles, opposed to the authority of Scripture, in misconception and perversion of Scripture, and in ignorance of ecclesiastical antiquity. Mr. Belsham has "taken his leave of me." But it will be some time before I shall take my leave of him. I have already provided ample materials for his consideration, which have not yet attracted his notice; and I have more in reserve. My inquiries into the grounds of Unitarianism did not commence from personal reasons, nor will they be prevented or impeded by personal obloquies. I shall pursue my way "through evil report and good report;" and confine myself chiefly to the writings of Mr. Belsham, with this single view, that I and intolerant; so far as they are levelled at the offence, not of thinking differently from the National Church, but of railing at the Church." BLACKSTONE'S Commentaries, vol. IV. p. 49. ed. 1803. * In the following Sermon and Tracts: "The truth, to which Christ came into the world to bear witness; and the testimony of Christ's contemporaries to his declaration of his Divinity, confirmed by his discourses, actions, and death: A SERMON preached at Llanarth and Carmarthen." 2. "Evidence of the Divinity of Christ, from the literal testimony of Scripture, containing a Vindication of Mr. Sharp's Rule from the objections of the Rev. Calvin Winstanley. Second Edition." 3. "The Bible, and nothing but the Bible, the Religion of the Church of England; being an Answer to the Letter of an Unitarian Lay-Seceder." may "I was very unfortunate in not having opportunity to meet you when in London, that I might have paid my debt for the bookes sent (had I known the value, I would have left it) and enjoy'd a few minutes of your good company; but I was soe hurried about with businesse, having been long absent from the town, that I had noe time att my dispose. I remember the last time I had the happinesse to see you, you had some thoughts of sending for a collection of seeds of herbaceous plants from the King's Gardens, to Mons Tournefort. I should be glad you those in tentions; but they must now be speedily perform'd, the season coming on apace. If soe, I must be a beggar for a few; for I have been disappointed of severall sent: one particularly I lament, because I know well collected, sent forward by Dr. Sherard, but came noe farther than them, died, as I had lately advice; and Lyons, where Dr. Carr, who brought others expected from Carolina, lost in a shipwreck on the Isle of Wight; soe that I am like to be poor this year if not assisted by some of my friends. I beg pardon that I could not stay for you longer on Saturday morn; for I had a pressing occasion, which call'd me away, and when I came where I design'd, met there fresh businesse, which sent me back to the other end of the town again, and gave me a very wearysom journey before I gott to Enfield att night. Your servant, when I call'd upon you, seem'd to signifie you had some commands for me; shall be readier to assure you of a willing if you please to lett me know them, none complyance therewith than, Sir, your oblig'd and most humble servant, ROB. UVEDALE. Enfield, Jan. 11th, 1698." Mr. URBAN, June 24. T is recorded, that when Sir Chris topher Wren schemed his famous column on Fish-street-hill, so well known by the name of The Monument, he formed it hollow, to serve as a tube for an astronomical purpose, which he laid aside, on finding it liable to be shaken by the continual passing of carriages along the street below. This discovery appears to be of so momentous a nature, that it is to be lamented, as well as wondered at, that it did not induce him to give up the choice of a pillar altogether, as well as his astronomical application of it. But, perhaps, the business might then * Vol. LXXXIV. Part II. p. 206.-Some account of Dr. Uvedale may be seen in Dr. Pulteney's "Botanical Sketches," vol. II. p. 30, and a description of his garden at Enfield in Archæologia, vol. XII, article XVI. in which volume is a short account of several gardens near London, with remarks on some particulars wherein they excel, or are deficient, upon a view of them in December 1691, by J. Gibson. -When Enfield Church was repaired in 1789, the hatchments were removed; and the hatchment containing the arms of Dr Uvedale impaled with those of his wife, (Mary, second daughter of Edward Stephens, esq. of Cherrington, co. Gloucester,) is now in the Church of Langton juxta Partney, co. Lincoln. One of the escutcheons used at the Doctor's Funeral is now in my possession; as is also the very cu rious funeral escutcheon of Oliver Cromwell, which Dr. Uvedale (in 1658, when at Westminster under Dr. Busby,) snatched from the bier of the Protector; and an account of which is given in Gent. Mag. vol. LXI. p. 114, vol. LXIV. p. 19. + Where are several other Letters from Dr. Uvedale to Sir Hans Sloane, &c. also two Letters to Sir Hans Sloane from Mr. Uvedale, the translator of that valuable work, "The Memoirs of Philip de Comines," be be too far advanced, for the design to be altered; or, which is as likely to have been the case, this objection did not appear to be otherwise so formidable to him, as I confess it does to your present Correspondent. The very idea of a spindle of such daring altitude, without the advantage of a spire in tapering to a central point, trembling by the passage of heavy carriages at its foot, is painful; and on that account alone renders the design of a pillar objectionable. The incessant reiteration of these shocks, however slight, must tend to loosen the connexion of the materials, and accelerate decay; which gives alarm ing weight to the objection. That this pillar has already stood considerably above a century, may be thought to justify the principles of its construction; but, if we compare its great height with its small body, and the diminutive base allowed for its support, we cannot deem its purpose fulfilled, as a secure memorial of a past disaster. Its safety rests too much on the soundness of the materials in every part all the way up; while its perpendicularity will render repair, in some cases, almost impracticable: partial decays may prove fatal before they are discovered, or before they can be remedied; and an earthquake, a storm of lightning, or even of wind, may furnish a new monument with a new æra to date from. Such disasters, which it is at all times peculiarly exposed to, might prove fatal to the crowded buildings and inhabitants beneath, against which, the only security is by counteracting the temerity of the builder in raising a memorial too high for its own duration to be relied on: and this ought to be done while it is safe for workmen to attempt it. In raising a structure of the nature here alluded to, compact solidity was the first indispensable requisite; and while a pyramid was the best figure for attaining it, had there been space enough for the base of it a pillar, however it suited the ill-chosen situation in this respect, was as obviously the very worst. What is a pillar? a slender detached support of a super incumbent building, contrived to take up as little room below as possible, receiving stability in the support it gives, and generally used in associa tion. But Sir Christopher Wren's co lumn is a solitary pillar of enormous height, raised to support nothing *!. and only inspiring the apprehensive beholder with wonder how it supports itself. In which view, it is skill misapplied to produce an absurdity, that the sooner we get safely rid of, the better; for, if it be left to accident, or natural decay, the catastrophe must be of a lamentable description. Were this hazardous stretch of masonical ingenuity taken down to its square pedestal or base, and that pe destal, containing all the inscriptions. and sculpture, crowned with a dome, or a well-proportioned pyramid, surmounted with a burst of flame + from the top of it, suitably gilt, such an ́ appropriate monument might answer all desirable purposes, and insure the safety of the neighbourhood, without subjecting the minds of spectators to unwelcome emotions. As these cursory remarks possess no claim to regard as the dictates of a professional pen, they ought perhaps to have been expressed with rather more diffidence; but the diffidence that prompted the writer, may have been too confidently urged in describing his own feelings on the subject. It is therefore now closed, especially, Mr. Urban, on your account: and the writer assures you, he will find no drawback from his satisfaction, in being convinced of the futility of his apprehensions. J. N. I Mr. URBAN, Middle Temple, July 9. SHOULD be much obliged to any Correspondent who can add any particulars to those I now send you,concerning a very learned Divine, the Rev. George-Henry Rooke, of Trinity College, Cambridge; B. A. 1724; M. A. 1725; afterwards Fellow of Christ's College; B. D. 173.. He was an associate with the knot of learned men who wrote the "Athenian Letters;" and in consequence enjoyed the friendship of the Sons of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, particularly of the Hon. there is a small plain round turret raised It may be mentioned, indeed, that within the balcony or open gallery on the summit of the column, that appears as if intended for a dove cot. + Not a pan of coals, dignified by the name of an urn, to destroy the proper idea, by exhibiting fire under controul and management. |