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458 Memoir of the late Rich . Hurdy D . Z > . Bp . of Worcester .
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another edition of his Horace which deserves to be mentioned as it had the fortune to find a re * viewer of no ordinary character . Gibbon , in 1762 , then a captain
in the militia , amused himself with these volumes in his quarters , and has left remarks upon them ainons ; his miscellaneous works , extended ovei" more than twenty quarto . pages . Of . the commentator he prefixes the following opinion .
Mr . Hurd the supposed author is one of , those valuable writers who cannot be read without improvement . To a great fund of well-digested reasoning , he adds a clearness of judgment , and a niceness of penetration , capable of taking things from their first principles , and observing their most minute differences . I know few writers' more deserving of the great , though prostituted name of critic : but like many critics , he is better qualified to instruct than to execute . His ' mariner appears to me harsh and affected , and his style- clowded with obscure metaphors , and needlessly perplexed with expressions exotic or technical . His
excessive praises ( not to give them a harsher name ) of a certain living critic and divine , disgust the sensible reader , as much as the contempt affecied for the same person , by" many who are very unqualified to pass a judgment upon him * . To conclude the account of Mr . Hur'd ' s Horace . In 1766 he published vrith his name a fourth edi-
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tion iii 3 vols . 12 mo . To > thijr ig annexed the " Discourse o ^ Peetical Imitation , " with the * addition of two critical dissertations u on the Idea of Universal Poe * try , " and ' * on the Province of the Drama . "
Among the first fruits of our author ' s leisure in his rural parsonage was a work entitled ct Mo ,. ral and Political Dialogues , between divers eminent persons of the past and present age , with critical and explanatory notes , by the editor , ' ' which appeared
in 1759 , and came to at second edition during the following yean The dialogues are prefaced by a conversation between the booksel * ler and the qditor , in which even the licence of literary fiction seems to be exceeded . The bpokseller
asks if he may cc depend on tbe dialogues being truly original ?" lie is answered that he may depend upon it they are precisely what the editor sives them for **' In the preface to the next edition it is observed that this represent
tation was-given not Ci for any purpose so silly as that of imposing on the ptiblic , but for reasons of another kind , which it is not difficult to apprehend . " Yet
pernof any other of the great advocates for liberty about the court ,, or in parliament * made the lea .-t motion all thi » While , that 1 know of , for true Christian liberty ; I mean the easing the consciences of those honest clergymen , who groan under the burden of the present impositions in Athanasian creeds , Athanasian forms of prayer and doxologies , and Athanasian and Calvinist articles of faith . " Wh'iston adds in his Memoirs , that Dr . Hare , " finding it rather an hindrance to' the preferments he soon afterwards was seeking Jfory aimed * to conceal his being che author . ( of . the "Difficulties , " &c . ) which , yet every body was satisfied he really was . " Warburton attempts to shew ( D L . Ded . ) that the doctrine of this pamphlet applied only to the
« ' important juncture" when xt -was published . JLet any , if there now are any , who leave the church for conscience sake , or tjhupse who remain in it . for their familks-sake , decide , whether there are not still ** difficulties and discouragements which attend the study of the scriptures in the way .. of private judgment ?*' * Gibbon ' s Miscel . Works , , ii . ay . Gibbon in 1770 wro ^ e , on the same side with Jo rtiii , against Warbui ; jon * s ^ explanation of the 6 th J 3 Encid " Critical Observations ** , which ^ r « High ly applauded by the Editor of Tracts , &c > « - ~ Gil } b » n ' s Life * i 136— W ' ¦ ¦ - ,...- .. ..... . ¦ , v ; . ^ fc
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 458, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/2/
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