self. All that I hope and wish is, that the Scribblers will let his memory alone: for though (after the approbation of the good and wise) one cannot wish any thing better for one's self, or one's friend, than to be heartily abused by them in this life, because it is as certain a sign of one's merit, as a dog's barking at the Moon is of her brightness; yet the veil that Death draws over us is so sacred, that the throwing dirt there has been esteemed at all times, and by all people, a profanation. If the Romans suffered their slaves to abuse their Heroes on the day of triumph, they would have regarded the same ribaldries with horror at their funerals.

As to Dodwell; I believe Middleton, when he first commended his book, overshot himself in his politics. He had an early design of answering his Book, and he had a mind to make it a little considerable by his commendations. But the publick, which is easily duped, took him at his word, and so, by duping themselves, duped him, and reduced him to the necessity of crying down what he had cried up.-But now what Dunce is it to whom the publick will give the honour of his death? For the literate vulgar deal as much in murders of this kind, as the illiterate, in the judgments which overtake murderers. I believe as few men die of the rage or envy of Dunces, as of the frowns of their Mistresses: and there is as little mischief done by literary as by amatory squabbles.-I am well assured the farthest this unhappy man went with regard to Revelation was only to suspend his belief; and this not so much from the force of any particular objections against it, as from his natural turn to academic scepticism. I have letters from him, which convince me of the truth of what I say. But this will be credited by all who see (as every body may by examining) that this is the key to his writings on religious subjects, and the only one that can clear up all the ambiguities and, seeming inconsistencies in his conduct,

1750. I do not at all disapprove of your parting with your Library *; for I am fully persuaded Mr. Pope's prophecy will be fulfilled before Will Whiston's: and that his son Jack will see to the end of Learning before the Father gets to the beginning of his Millennium. However, do not be over-hasty; for your books will sell best when there is nobody that can understand them. That thriving Auctioneer will tell you there are always the most buyers where there are the fewest readers. This is the best reason I have why you should suspend your project. For the rest, if you would get up into the higher forms, you must now do at Lambeth what you formerly did at the Charter-house ‡, learn your lesson without book. I confess myself a dunce: I could never learn this necessary trick, neither in youth nor age; and have thriven accordingly. But my friends have more cause to regret that than I.

DEAR SIR §,

October ..., 1750. You desired to have a more particular account of a certain Prophecy of one Rice Evans, which you have heard some of your friends speak of in terms of astonishment; as I have his Book, which is scarce, I am able to give you that satisfaction. But it may not be amiss first to let you into the character of the Prophet. Rice Evans lived and flourished in the last century, during the time of our civil confusions. He was a warm Welshman, and not disposed to be an idle spectator in so busy a scene. So he left his native country for London; and finding, on his arrival.

* This does not appear to have taken place.

† Alluding to his intimacy with Abp. Herring, with whom he. had been acquainted at College, and who was through life his kind and constant friend.

Where Jortin had received the early part of his education. § First printed in Jortin's "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History," vol. I. p. 379.-This volume, though dated in 1751, was published in December 1750 ;-" Julian" in the April preceding.

there

there, that Inspiration was all running one way, he projected to make a diversion of it from the Round-heads to the Cavaliers, and set up for a Prophet of the Royalists. He did and said many extraordinary things to the Grandees of both parties : and it must be owned, he had a spice of what we seldom find wanting in the ingredients of a modern Prophet; I mean, Prevarication*. Of this he has himself given us a notable example, in the 42d page of his Tract, called, An Eccho from Heaven, &c. which, because it contains an uncommon fetch of wit, I shall transcribe. "There are two confessions," says he, "subscribed by my hand in the City of London, which, if not now, in after-ages will be considered. The one was made at the Spittle, and subscribed with the right hand, in the aforesaid vestry, before Sir Walter Earl; and that is a confession made by the inner man, or new man: The other confession is a confession of the flesh, called the outward man, or old man; and the confession I made before Green [the Recorder], and subscribed with the left hand, as the difference in the writing, being compared, will make it appear. I know the Bench and the people thought I recanted; but, alas! they were deceived."

"My thoughts are the same with Mr. Warburton's, that the Visions of Evans are a curiosity deserving to be known, but not a foundation to build any thing upon. If there be in them any forgery, which the difference between the first and second editions once inclined me to suspect, they who can detect it will oblige us and many others by the discovery. Evans says, p. 16 of Edit. 1652, - Being perfectly awake-a voice said to me, Go to thy book, whereupon I suddenly started up and to the table I went, where my Bible lay open, immediately fastening my eyes upon Ephes. v. 14. being these words, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light, &c. The same thing he did at other times. Evans, who was illiterate, little thought that he was practising a kind of divination in great request among the Pagans, and the ancient Jews and Christians, who had recourse to their Sortes Homerica, Virgiliana, Evangelica, and Biblica. The same causes produce the same effects; and nothing is more like one Enthusiast, Mystic, Caballist, or Quietist, than another." J. JORTIN.

WellTM

Well, but this very man has in the 77 and 78. pages of this " Eccho, printed for the Author in 12mo, and sold at his house in Long Alley in Black Friers, 1653, Second Edition *, with additions," a Prophecy which astonishes all who carefully consider it. It is in these words:

"A Vision that I had presently after the King's death. I thought that I was in a great hall, like the Shire-hall in the Castle in Winchester, and there was none there but a Judge that sat upon the Bench, and myself; and as I turned to a window North-westward, and looking into the palm of my hand, there appeared to me a face, head, and shoulders, like the Lord Fairfax's, and presently it vanished again; then arose the Lord Cromwell, and he vanished likewise;. then arose a young face, and he had a crown upon his head, and be vanished also; and another young face arose with a crown on his head, and he vanished also; and another young face arose with a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another young face arose with a crown upon his head, and vanished in like manner: And as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me, and looked, there did appear no more in it. Then I turned to the Judge, and said to him, There arose in my hand seven, and five of them had crowns; but, when I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and there appeared no more: so I awoke.-The interpretation of this Vision is, that after the Lord Cromwell there shall be Kings again in England, which thing is signified unto us by those that arose after him, who were all crowned, but the generations to come may look for a change of the blood, and of the name in the royal seat after five Kings reigne once passed. 2 Kings x. 30,"

*It is observable, that in the first Edition, printed in the year 1652, Evans reckons up five, not four young faces in his hand, and he concludes only thus: "All that I apprehend by this vision is, that after the Lord Cromwell we shall have a king again in England." J. J.

The

The words referred to in this text are these: And the Lord said unto Jehu, because thou hast done well, &c. thy Children of the fourth Generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

The Restoration of the Monarchy is here plainly predicted; together with the Crown's passing from the House of Stuart into another family. But the Prophet at first sight appears to be doubtful about the number of reigns before that event. He reckons up in his hand only four successions to the Monarchy; yet, in his speech to the Judge, he calls them five; in his interpretation he says the change shall be after the reign of five Kings; and yet referring, in conclusion, to a text in the Second Book of Kings, we are brought back again to the number four. But it is this very circumstance which makes the prodigious part of this affair. A good guesser (who, an ancient Writer says, is the best Prophet) might reasonably conjecture the Monarchy, after the subverter of it, Cromwell, was taken off, would be restored; and, if it continued in the same family for four or five generations, that was as much as, in the ceaseless revolutions of human affairs, could be expected. But we shall find there was something more in this matter. The Succession of the House of Stuart, during the course of these four generations, was disturbed, and that circumstance our Prophet has distinctly marked out. The four crowned heads he saw in his hand denote Charles the Second, James the Second, Queen Mary, and Queen Anne. They are afterwards called five; and so they were; for King William the Third shared the sovereignty with Queen Mary, and reigned alone after her. But, he being of another family, when the succession in the House of Stuart is reckoned up, he could not be numbered: so they must be there called four. When the Prophet reckons the reigns, King William comes in, and then they are called five. The key to this explanation is the text he concludes with-Thy children of the FOURTH generation shall sit on the

throne.