throne. A great and extraordinary Genius, lately deceased, struck with this wonderful coincidence, hath written with his own hand, in the margin of the page, these words, A manifest Prophecy. You know who I mean. But every one must judge for himself, unless (which I had rather) you would give us your sentiments upon it. But, now my hand is in, as you have had one of his Visions, you shall have a Dream too, as he tells it in the 12th page of the first, and the 8th page of his second Edition." My heart was for London; and, as one Mr. Oliver Thomas preached, Cant. ii. 10. "Arise up, my love, my fair-one, and come away;" my heart was allured with it, that I thought it was a hastening of me to London; and at that time, in a Dream, methought I was on Islington-hill by the Water-house, and London appeared before me as if it had been burnt with fire, and there remained nothing of it but a few stone walls: but I made nothing of this Dream." -Whosoever reflects upon what we are told by Burnet, in the History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 231. of the condition in which the works were put up at the Water-house at Islington, when the Fire of London happened, cannot but think Evans' making this the scene of his dream a very unaccountable circumstance. His telling us that he made nothing of this Dream adds to the credit of his relation. W. WARBURTON. Prior Park, July 5, 1751. The Discourse on the Somnium Scipionis is, by your account, a master-piece in its way. I shall * This was a shilling pamphlet published in May 1751. It was intituled, "The Theology and Philosophy in Cicero's Somnium Scipionis explained; or, a brief Attempt to demonstrate that the Newtonian System is perfectly agreeable to the Notions of the wisest Antients; and that Mathematical Principles are the only sure ones." On this pamphlet of 55 pages, which was the production of Mr. (afterwards Bp. Horne), a long and curious critique is given in the Monthly Review, vol. V. p. 96.—And see Jones's Life of Bp. Horne, p. 38. seek seek after it *, but would sooner go to a house of office after it than to a Magazine. Well may those immortal treasures continue the delight of the Parsons, when they hear the Author of admits them into his study §. In short, you deserve, as * "There is one book, and that no large one, which I would recommend to your perusal. It is called, The Theology and Philosophy of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis examined.' It is indeed the ne plus ultra of Hutchinsonianism. In this catchpenny pamphlet Newton is proved an Atheist, and a Blockhead: and what would you more?" Letter to Mr. Hurd, Sept. 22, 1751. † On this unseemly sample of witticism, see the Rev. Edward Jones's remarks in " Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 628. This may be read "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History." "The connexion between these two very eminent Scholars is a melancholy instance of the Quarrels of Authors. For several years their intimate friendship was unshaken. They corresponded in terms of the greatest confidence; and reciprocally asked and received from each other information in their respective literary researches." I have by me," says an eminent Writer *, a large collection of the civil things which these learned friends have been pleased to say of one another; and it would amuse you to see with what an energy and force of language they are delivered." From 1747 to 1749 Mr. Jortin was occasionally an assistant to Mr. Warburton, then Preacher at Lincoln's Inn; and at that period the one was collecting materials for “Julian," the other for the "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History;" and to these subjects the Fragments here reprinted principally apply.-In a paragraph in the Notes on " Julian" (as it stands in the Author's last Edition p. 316) Mr. Warburton, "who had just been treating a piece of Ecclesiastical History," says, But this I leave, with Julian's Adventures, to my learned Friend, Mr. Jortin; who, I hope, will soon oblige the Publick with his curious Dissertations on Ecclesiastical Antiquity; composed, like his life, not in the spirit of controversy, nor, what is worse, of party, but of truth and candour †.” Let us now turn to Jortin; who, in his "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. I. p. 377, speaking of the Vision of Rice Evans, as "containing some things not unworthy of notice," says, "Mr. Warburton has given me the following remarks on the man, and on his predictions; and the Bishop of Bangor ‡, and he, have been willing to appear as my friends, and my coadjutors in this Work. "Ibit et hoc nostri per sæcula fœdus amoris, *Bp. Hurd's Works, vol. VIII. p. 259. Forsan + Ibid. p. 299. Dr. Zachary Pearce, whose "Dissertation on the Destruction of Jerusa lem" Mr. Jortin had printed in a former page of his "Remarks." Shakespeare says, to have your eyes picked out with a Ballad-maker's pen. Would you believe it, there is not in all this neighbourhood the Greek Ecclesiastical Historians! The Divines here are farther gone in Tradition than the Papists themselves. W. W. Forsan et extinctum non spernet Patria dulcis, Livor in hæc poterit juris habere nihil." This was written in November 1750; and six months after,“ April 2, 1751, Mr. Jortin, in a note to Mr. Birch, says, "Mr. Warburton is now in town; and would be very glad to see you. Therefore this is to invite and summon you to meet me at his house, on Wednesday morning, to breakfast there, and to settle such points as may arise." What could promise a more lasting duration than this mutual reciprocity of assistance and acknowledgment? Yet, alas, it was soon to be dissolved. The fatal "Sixth Dissertation" of Jortin, and the Seventh, by Mr. Hurd, 66 on the Deli-* cacy of Friendship," converted the intimacy of years into absolute hatred and contempt. The idea is so melancholy, that I forbear to enlarge upon it; though there may perhaps be an opportunity of resuming it in another place. Meantime I copy Jortin's picture of himself, from the conclusion of his "Lusus Poetici :" "The ambitious Muse, with early-daring flight, ORIGINAL ORIGINAL LETTERS * OF THEOBALD †, THIRLBY, AND WARBURTON. LETTER I. To Mr. MATTHEW CONCANEN, Fleet-street. DEAR SIR, Wyan's Court, Aug. 23, 1726. YOU gave me a disappointment in not returning the other day, as I thought you proposed; and to be revenged, I will punish you with my thoughts on that passage of our Friend SHAKESPEARE, which, as you may remember, then stuck with us, and could not be made out by the help of our Glossaries. * The whole of this Correspondence, except the three first Letters, and the sixth, are printed from the Originals, communicated by Edward Roberts, Esq. of Ealing-to whom they were many years ago presented by Mr. Theobald's Son (at that time, by the patronage of Sir Edward Walpole, a Clerk in the Annuity Pelloffice in the Exchequer), as a small but grateful return for favours conferred on him by Mr. Roberts. + Of Mr. Lewis Theobald, I shall take an opportunity, in a future page, of giving some regular biographical notices. Mr. Concanen was a native of Ireland, the descendant of a good family. He was born in 1701, and was bred to the Law, a study too dry for his volatile disposition; and in 1721 was the Author of "Wexford Wells, a Comedy," acted and printed at Dublin in that year; and about the same time published "A Match at Football, a Poem, in three Cantos," dedicated to Mr. Bettesworth. In 1722 he published a volume of "Poems on several Occasions," dedicated to the Duchess of Grafton; and soon after came to London, literally to seek his fortune. He published, in 1724, a volume of "Miscellaneous Poems;" by himself and others; and, at the date of the above Letter, was intimately connected with The London Journal,' to which he communicated the ingenious critique of his friend Theobald, with the following introduction: It is a debt which the World owes to those who have deserved well of it, to preserve their reputations as CORIOLANUS, p. 191. [Pope's 4to Edition.] As is the ASPREY to the Fish; he'll take it By Sov'reignty of Nature. It is very usual with Mr. Pope, you know, to take passages implicitly from the preceding Editions; and suppose, without giving himself the trouble of I as long as the materials of which they are formed can be made to last. To this kind of reward I think no sort of men better entitled than the Poets; whether we consider them as seldom receiving any other, or as they really are Benefactors in a very high degree to mankind. This is in a great measure confessed by the practice of other Countries towards the memory of such as have excelled among them, and by the consent of all Nations in their admiration and applause of the Antients. We are the only people in Europe who have had good Poets among them, and yet suffer their reputation to moulder, and their memory as it were to rust, for want of a little of that Critical care, which is as truly due to their merit as to that of the antient Greek and Roman Writers. You perceive what I aim at. It is to observe to you, that some tolerable Comments upon the Works of our celebrated Poets are not only expedient, but necessary. Every Writer is obliged to make himself understood of the age in which he lives; but, as he cannot answer for the changes of manners and language which may happen after his death, those who receive pleasure and instruction from him are obliged, as well in gratitude to him as in duty to posterity, to endeavour to perpetuate his memory, by preserving his meaning. This is what the French have done by their Marots, Rabelais's, and Ronsards; nay even Boileau, who died within our memory, is thus armed against the assaults of Time. The Italians, who are not thereto provoked by a changing Language like ours, have not a tolerable Writer in their tongue whose Works are not illustrated by some useful Notes; while we, whose manners are so variable, and whose Language so visibly alters every century, have not one Poet (though there are several whom we admire) who has met with the good fortune of a kind hand endeavouring to secure him against mortality. Strange humour! Much pains have been taken to preserve to us the Picture of Chaucer, while nobody has thought it proper to render that better picture of him, his writings, intelligible to future ages. Butler has had a Monument erected to his memory in Westminster-Abbey; how much more emphatically might it be said to be erected to his memory, if it were a Comment upon his excellent Hudibras: which, for want of such illustration, grows every day less pleasing to his Readers; who lose half his wit and pleasantry, while they are ignorant of the facts he alludes to. I own, it grows daily more difficult to perform this duty to old Authors; and therefore the Italians say, that |