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has done him, in prefixing his name, (and in 'such respectable company,) to the two Sermons, 'with which Dr. Parr has obliged the public, ' and from the perusal of which he has received 'the greatest and most rational pleasure, satis

stitute, for living prolific principles, bewildering speculations; but by enlarging our view of the sphere, in which they act, and unfolding as well the ends, for which they were implanted, as the natural sanctions, by which they are guarded and enforced, to ascertain and to adjust their respective boundaries, to stimulate the languor of some, to curb the impetuosity of others, to ratify the authority of all, and to supply that authority, (where requisite,) by the aid of civil institutions, and a sense of religious obligation."

"This Letter," says the biographer of Mr. Green p. 44, “ affords a very fair specimen of the close reasoning and ingenuity of its author. It is written with great clearness, vigor, and elegance, and possesses considerable merit. Although Mr. Green has, for the most part, adopted the opinion of Adam Smith on the Theory of Morals, yet he has adorned it with such additional arguments, and enforced it with such earnest eloquence, that his work may be considered as a valuable addition to the treatises on this interesting and much controverted subject." E. H. B.]

give it, when fairly brought before him in a moment of ease and reflection, his heartiest good wishes, or even concur in any reasonable plan to promote it. All this I readily admit: but to convert this remote regard into the primary principle of all action, is quite a different affair. Such a scheme must necessarily be delusive, because it controverts, at its outset, the strongest instincts of our nature; because it is at war with what neither mortal strength nor subtlety can abolish or supplant; and grounds its success on the extinction of powers, which fanaticism may counteract, indeed, but never can extirpate. We cannot change our nature. By a law of that nature, we proceed from personal

faction, and information.

Tuesday, June 10, 1780.'" (Memoirs of Dr. Parr p. 112.) But my friend is here under a great mistake. 1. The individual addressed by Dr. Parr in the Dedication of the two Sermons is the Rev. John

affection to general regard: from the love of offspring, of kindred, of neighbours, and acquaintance, to that of our district, our community, our country, and our kind. In this order our affections are diffused; and in this order, by the constitution of our being, they weaken as they spread.

'God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
'Must rise from individual to the whole.
'Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
'As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;

‹ The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
'Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
'His country next, and next all human race:

"Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind,
'Take every creature in of every kind.'

Sings Pope, as he winds up his Essay on Man, with the correctness of a philosopher and the spirit of a poet. In vain we endeavour to think otherwise; in vain we act as if otherwise we thought: the original feeling remains, and cannot be subdued. The warmest philanthropist would eat his dinner with good appetite, though one of the Philippines, with all its inhabitants, were swallowed by an earthquake, or the plague were raging on the shores of the Hellespont; and would weep in bitterest affliction at the untimely death of his only child. I am not contending that this disposition of things is right. It is not the place to do it. Let him who dares, arraign it. But I maintain it is the fact; and a fact, which, without a violence on nature, we cannot alter. To invert this natural series, to transform the last and remotest extension of our regards into the original spring, from which we are to derive all

Greene, A. M. 2. The person, who resided at Ipswich, never lived at Norwich, and was Thomas Green, Esq. He was born at Monmouth Sept. 12, 1769. and was consequently only 10 years old, when the first of these two Sermons

others, to do more — - to set it up as the only legitimate principle of action, superseding every other motive and every moral corrective on these motives, is sheer infatuation."

The Greek writer, to whom Dr. Parr refers, is Hierocles, and the passage is thus translated in an interesting little volume by my philosophical friend, Mr. Taylor, entitled - Political Fragments of Archytas, Charondas, Zaleucus, and other ancient Pythagoreans, preserved by Stobæus; and also, Ethical Fragments of Hierocles, the celebrated Commentator on the Golden Pythogoric Verses, preserved by the same Author, Chiswick, 1822. 8. p. 106.:— "The consideration of the duties pertaining to (our other) kindred is consequent to the discussion of those that pertain to parents, brothers, wives, and children; for the same things may, in a certain respect, be said of the former as of the latter; and on this account may be concisely explained. For, in short, each of us is," as it were, circumscribed by many circles; some of which are less, but others larger, and same comprehend, but others are comprehended, according to the different and unequal habitudes with respect to each other. For the first, indeed, and most proximate circle is that, which every one describes about his own mind as a centre, in which circle the body, and whatever is assumed for the sake of the body, are comprehended. For this is nearly the smallest circle, and almost touches the centre itself. The second from this, and which is at a greater distance from the centre, but comprehends the first circle, is that in which parents, brothers, wife, and children are arranged. The third circle from the centre is that, which contains uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers, and the children of brothers and sisters. After this is the circle, which comprehends the remaining relatives. Next to this is that, which contains the common people, then

was preached. 3. Mr. Green did not write any pamphlet under the title given to it by Dr. John Johnstone; but the title was An Examination

etc.

Having now made all the necessary extracts from Mr. Green's Diary, I shall resume the subject of the Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, as one of the greatest importance in the biography of Dr. Parr, and therefore prolixity is pardonable in the biographer. But a topic, involving

that which comprehends those of the same tribe, afterwards that which contains the citizens; and then two other circles follow, one being the circle of those, that dwell in the vicinity of the city, and the other, of those of the same province. But the outermost and greatest circle, and which comprehends all the other circles, is that of the whole human race."

"This admirable passage is

Mr. Taylor observes in a note: so conformable to the following beautiful lines in Pope's Essay on Man, that it is most probably the source, from whence they were derived. In Hierocles, however, the circles are scientifically detailed; but in Pope they are synoptically enumerated. Pope, too, has added another circle to that, which is the outermost with Hierocles, viz. the circle which embraces every creature of every kind. But, as Hierocles in this fragment is only speaking of our duties of kindred, among which the whole race is, in a certain respect, included, he had no occasion to introduce another circle, though the Platonic doctrine of benevolence is as widely extended as that of Pope." But I am more inclined to consider the resemblance between Pope and Hierocles as accidental, because Pope had no great depth of scholarship, and was not likely 'to poach' in Stobæus. It is possible, however, that Warburton, or some other learned friend of Pope, might have directed the attention of the poet to the passage in question. E. H. B.

such eminent men as Bishops Warburton and Hurd, Doctors Jortin,* Leland, and Parr, cannot be otherwise than interesting to many readers.

I shall begin with transcribing from the Bibl. Parr. some notices of Hurd.

"J. Trapp, Prælectiones Poetica, Lond. 1736. 2 vols. 12mo; 1760. 2 vols. 8vo. These Prælectiones abound with good sense, with taste, with elegant Latin. They do not deserve the contempt, with which Hurd is pleased to speak of them in his Notes on Horace. S. P." P. 328..

"Acrimonious Remarks on Mr. Hume's Essay on the Natural History of Religion, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Warburton, written by Bishop Hurd, who at last avowed his name. It is sarcastic, and it is superficial."* P. 577.

*[" Dr. John Jortin's Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors, Ancient and Modern, 2 vols 8vo. 1731. This copy is extremely valuable, because it contains some additional criticisms from a Ms. of Dr. Jortin, and also the names of the different writers, from Dr. Jortin's own copy, lent to me by a friend. I can answer for its authenticity; and I consider it no mean acquisition to know who were the co-adjutors of the excellent writer, and what corrections or improvements he made in the course of his extensive and accurate reading. To this book a very sharp, and in some respects really learned, answer appeared in 1731, in Several Letters to a Friend I have it. S. P." Bibl. Parr. 308. E. H. B.]

*["The same year appeared Mr. Hurd's Remarks on

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