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and Dugald Stewart, should have yielded, the former after some hesitation, the latter without any hesitation, complete assent to the arguments of Dr. Parr in a matter, in which my illustrious friend was undoubtedly mistaken, is an extraordinary instance of the magic of a distinguished and venerable name; but very few persons can exercise a sound and independent judgment against high authority; the mind is not satisfied by honest conviction, but acquiesces by passive obedience; it distrusts its powers, and reflects not, investigates not, decides not; if any doubt lurks within, it is impatient to relieve itself by expressing an approbation, which, while it feels not, it dextrously succeeds in persuading itself that it is fully felt. Dugald Stewart was a scholar of but moderate pretensions, and he was partly perhaps afraid to encounter the cumbrous, and cyclopean, and tremendous learning of Dr. Parr; but Dr. Copleston is a scholar of a much higher order.

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IV.

Extracts from the Memoirs of the Life of GILBERT WAKEField.

"We are very happy in having it in our power, by the kind permission of Dr. Parr, to insert a Letter written to Mr. Wakefield, with all the warmth of friendship, in the former part of which he alludes to his late affliction.

MY DEAR AND LEARNED friend,

I condole with you on the loss you have lately sustained. To the latest hour of my life I shall remember the agony I myself suffered for the death of a child; and your sensibility, I am well aware, is quite as keen as my own. Let me hope, however, that before this time, you and Mrs. Wakefield have nearly recovered your spirits.

"Grieved should I be, if at the close of a tedious, and, without meaning irreverence to the laws, I would add, most unmerited confinement, you should meet with any obstacle to your happiness; for happy you will be on your return to society, where so many wise and good men are preparing to welcome you with so much sincerity, and so much warmth.

"It is my lot to share with you in the imperfections that belong to such a creature as man, from his ardour in

the defence of principles, which he believes to be not only true, but important. But, when I contemplate the whole extent of your character, I see in you, and seeing I must revere, the disinterestedness of a patriot, the purity of a Christian, and the magnanimity of a martyr.

"In the number of contributions, which you have made to literature and to theology, you far surpass all your countrymen now living; and, although attainments such as yours will provoke much envy, and writings such as yours, on difficult and profound subjects, must contain some mistakes, yet, dear Sir, I am glad to find that foreign scholars,* as well as the majority of our learned countrymen, are impressed with the same sense of your excellence, which, as a man of letters, I have myself long entertained.

"Indeed, Mr. Wakefield, my thoughts are often turned towards you; nor does any man living either profess or feel more respect for your talents and erudition, more affection for your virtues, more sorrow for your sufferings, or more indignation against your calumniators. May you soon be delivered from your present situation, and, pursuing your literary labours without interruption, may you lead the rest of your life in perfect tranquillity and honourable independence! Such are the unfeigned wishes of my heart.

'

I rejoice in the opportunity of doing some little homage to your intellectual and moral worth by the present of my Sermon, and whatever opinion you may form of it as a

See the Letters of Professors Heyne and Jacobs, in the Appendix.""

+"A Spital Sermon, preached at Christ-church, upon EasterTuesday, April 15, 1800.'

VOL. II.

2 N

composition, I hope you will give me credit for having written it in the spirit of a Christian, and for having published it with such intentions.

Believe me,

Dear Sir,

Most truly your friend and obedient servant,
S. PARR."

"Hallon, May 14, 1801."

"The death of such a man as Mr. Wakefield, under circumstances so affecting, would naturally call forth expressions of regret from his various connections. Among numerous Letters received on this occasion, the following from Dr. Parr, which we have obtained his permission to publish, does equal honour to the amiable sensibility of the writer, and to the memory of him, who is the subject of it. This Letter was written to an intimate friend of Mr. Wakefield in reply to one, which announced the circumstance of his death:

SIR,

I was yesterday-evening honoured with your Letter; I read the contents of it with inexpressible anguish; I passed a comfortless night; and this morning I am scarcely able to thank you, as I ought to do, for your delicacy in averting the shock, which I must have suffered, if intelligence so unexpected, and so distressing, had rushed upon me from the Newspapers.

"In the happiness of the late Mr. Wakefield I always took a lively interest; many are the inquiries I made about the state of his health, and the course of his studies, while he was at Dorchester; great was my anxiety to see him after his sufferings were at an end; and when his name was announced to me at my lodgings in Carey

street, I seized his hand eagerly, -I gazed stedfastly upon his countenance, I was charmed with the freshness of his spirits, and the apparent stoutness of his constitution,— I anticipated for him a succession of years after years, during which he might have smiled at the malice of his enemies, and enjoyed the sympathies of his friends,—and at parting I received from him a book, which the circumstance of captivity, under which it was written, endeared to me, and which his death has now consecrated.

"Auget etiam molestiam, quod magna sapientium civium honorumque penuria, vir egregius, conjunctissimusque mecum studiorum multorum societate, alienissimo reipublicæ tempore extinctus, et auctoritatis et doctrinæ suæ triste nobis desiderium reliquit: doleoque quod non adversarium aut obtrectatorem laudum mearum, sed socium potius et consortem gloriosi laboris <amisi.'

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“The illustrious man, who wrote nearly these words upon the loss of Hortensius, would not complain of any diminution in their truth, or their dignity, if he could know that I had applied them to my own feelings on the decease of Gilbert Wakefield.

"To the learning of that most excellent person my understanding is indebted for much valuable information, but my heart acknowledges yet higher obligations to his virtuous example. I loved him unfeignedly, and though our opinions on various subjects, both of criticism and theology, were different, that difference never disturbed our quiet, nor relaxed our mutual good-will.

"When we reflect upon the injury, which literature has sustained from the disappointment of his numerous plans, and from the cessation of his useful labours, we

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