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Memoir of ike late Rich . Hurd , D . D . Up . of Worcester . AS
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taps it is not very easy to understand , for the mere purpose of concealing an author ' s -name , ' the necessity of resorting to the lang uage of literary imposture . The dialogues in this volume xire six in number . The first is
46 On Sincerity in the Commerce pf the World betweerj Dr . Henry More and Fdinund Waller , Esq . " The unambitious philosopher here opposes the time-serving politician , whose muse Was equally ready , though , according to a wellknown anecdote , not equally
inspired to sing of Cromwell or of Charles . The second dialogue is " On Retirement , between Mr-Abraham Cowley , and the Hey . JV £ r . Thomas Spratt ^ ' founded on a passage in his life of Cowley ,, which has siijce fallen under the acute animadversions of the biographer of the English Poets * .
r riie third and fourth dialogues are < £ On the golden age of Elizabeth , between the Honourable Robert Digb y , Dr . Arburhnor , and Mr . Addison . " The scene is laid amidst " thc shattered remains of Kenclworth" the ruined
palace" of the great Earl of Leicester /' Such objects naturally introduce tjie political and personal character of Elizabeth , which Arbuthnot is made highly to ( wtol , and Addison to criticize with no small severity . The concluding dialogues
are , " on the Constitution ot the English Government , between Sir John Maynard , Mr . Somers , and Bishop Burnett . " The time supposed is just after tlie Revolution . The design of these dialogues is evidently to assert the very early traces ot freedom ^ in our political institutions .
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In pursuance of his p . lan Mr . Ilurd published in 1762 , C ( m Letters on Chivalry and Romance , serving to illustrate some passages in the third di&jogue . " In thesa letters to a real or imagined literary ' friend , the author maintains
" that chivalry was no absurd and freakish institution , but the natural and even sober effect of the feudal poljcy , whose turbulent genius breathed nothing but war , and was fierce and miii . tary even in its amusements . " Jloniance he
considers as a style of writing formed on the established modes and ideas of ' chivalry , " i ' rom which he describes the Fairy Queen in particular as deiiving ci its method , as wejl as the other characters of its composition ^ . "
In \ j 6 i appeared an additional dialogue , " On 'F oreign Travel , between Lord Shait . es bury and Mr . Locke . " This was evidentl y designed to suggest some improvement in the modes of university education , and to inculcate th ( e inefficacy of foreign travel ju an early age .
These separate pieces werp brought together in J 765 in 3 vols . IQmo . In this publication , to which Mr . Ilurd prefixed his namcj instead of the conversation between a bookseller and a supposed editor , there is a ' preface of some length u On the manner of writing dialogue , '* in which he displays an intonate acquaintance with the writers jxi that line of composition .
We have dwelt the longer on this worjk , because it is said to have procured the author ' s highest advancement ; and from the $ anie work occasion has t ^ een t * ifrcn to
* Johnson ' s J ^ ives , 8 vo ix . p , 16 . f Moral and'Political Dial . &c . iii , % o % & 268 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 459, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/3/
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