^^^^^ 
 
 HE SPARKS 
 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 [imSCELLANY.] 
 
 Collected by 
 
 JARED Sparks, LL.D., 
 
 President of Harvard College. 
 
 Purchased by the Cornell University, 
 
 1872 
 
avA-rr,^ Cornell University Library 
 BX4705.G35417 G64 
 
 ''"KiiiiiiiiSfiiiiMi'i'ilf,,.,?!'''' ""■"'"Ss of the 
 
 olln 
 
 3 1924 029 432 105 
 
A Cornell University 
 y Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240294321 05 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 THE REVEREND 
 
 ALEXANDER GEDDES, LL. D. 
 
E.EV? AlilEXAKBlEM. GEBBE S 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF xtaE 
 
 LIFE A^Ti WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 tHE REVEREND 
 
 ALE^^ANDER QEDDES, LL. D, 
 
 By JOHN MASON GOOD. 
 
 ' gc/i-B:- 
 
 '"jfU FEHEUNIOUS is, WtM, SI ilCERET, JUEtCEM MlHI EXPET^ESEM J aUA?f» 
 
 ' ij'OablDEM TV. IN LITEMS BIBUCIS HABITAS, IN EODEM STADIO MAGNA CUM LArra 
 
 ■ JDECURRIS, OMNEjaUE DliFICULTATES ET MOLESTIAS, OUffi TALEM CURSHM IMPE- 
 
 blUST^ IPSA EXPEHIENTIA EnOCTOS, NOiTI; tJT ADEO NEMO FACIEE AD JUDICIUM 
 
 TAM SaUIUS OUAM BECJHIS FElteNDUM COGITASI I'OSSIT." 
 
 EJCUUORX ad GEVDES.-^-^i'e Appefldix, p. 543, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 l'RI^fTED FOR G. KEAKSIE^, FLEET-STEJBET, 
 
 BY R. WILKS, CHANCEaY-tANE. 
 
 1603, 
 
TO 
 THE EIGHT HONORABLE 
 
 ROBERT LORD PETRE, 
 BARON OF WRITTLEj &C. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING MEMOIRS 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE. AND WRITINGS 
 OF THE 
 
 rev/alexander GEDDES, LL. D, 
 
 ARE, 
 
 WITH HIS lordship's PERMISSIOK, 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To write the life of a friend is a difficutl 
 and a delicate undertaking : the public 
 are entitled to a correct impartiality of 
 statement, while the heart of the writer, 
 from a sacred regard to the duties which 
 friendship itself inculcates, is perpetually 
 prone to magnify the merits and to 
 soften the imperfections of the character 
 he attempts to delineate. This difficulty 
 is considerably augmented when the bio- 
 graphy relates to a man of pre-eminent 
 talents and acquisitions; for, as a stronger 
 light produces a darker shadow, superi- 
 ority of genius is not infrequently ac- 
 companied with a superiority of eccen- 
 tricities and defects. Yet to abstain 
 from the task altogether, or to entrust it 
 to the more frigid hands of a stranger, is 
 «till wider to deviate from the inviolable 
 claims of friendship, than to hazajd the 
 
Vm PREFACE. 
 
 commission of an act of injustice by a 
 defective and incompetent portraiture. 
 In the present, instance, however, I have 
 felt more at liberty, from a full know- 
 ledge that the character I have attempte4 
 to trace would ask, if he could speak, 
 that nothing but the plain unvarnished 
 truth should be related of him— would 
 seek for no apolpgy — and be solicitous 
 alone that his virtues and his en'ors, his 
 merits and his jimperfections, should be 
 weighed in the same impartial balance. 
 I have pursued therefore, as far as I have 
 been able, the plan which I am per- 
 suaded would be most acceptable to 
 -himself. I have freely commended and 
 I have freely blamed — I have deviated 
 from his opinions where I have seen rea- 
 son for dissent, and I have vindicated 
 him in instances where I have conceived 
 the motives of his conduct to have been 
 misrepresented or misunderstood. The 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 office I have undertaken is, aftef all, by 
 no means discharged to my own satisfac- 
 tion, and I am afraid still less so to that of 
 the public. Be the defects of the ensu- 
 ing volume however what they may, I 
 am not the only person responsible for 
 them, having merely engaged in it at the 
 repeated and flattering solicitations of a 
 friend, for whom to request is to com- 
 mand, but who, to have ensured success, 
 jDught to have written it himself. 
 
A CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE WORKS OF 
 
 THE REV. ALEXANDER GEDDES, LL. D. 
 
 IN THE ORDER OF THEIR PUBLICATION. 
 
 J. — 1779, Select Satirfls of Horace, translated into English 
 Verse and for the. most Part adapted to the present Times and 
 Mianners. Cadell, quarto, pp. 123. 
 
 IL-^1781. Linton, a Tweedale Pastoral. Elliot, Edinburgh, 
 quarto, pp. 9. 
 
 JIL — 1783-, Cursory Remarks on a late Fanatical Publication, 
 entitled a full Detectjon of Popery, &c. submitted to the can- 
 did Perusal of the liberal-minded of every Denomination. 
 
 Keating, octavo, pp. 53. 
 
 ' - j. -, 
 
 JV. — 1786. Prospectus of a new Translation of the Holy Bible, 
 from corrected Texts of the Originals, compared with the an- 
 tient S'^ersions ; with various Readings, explanatory Notes, and' 
 critical Observations. Faulder, quarto, pp. 151. 
 
 y.-^l787. Letter to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lon- 
 don, containing Queries, Doubts, and Difficulties,'relative to 
 a vernacular Version of the Holy Scriptures. Faulder, quarto, 
 l)p. 87. ' 
 
 VI. — 1787. Letter to the Rev. Dr. Priestley, in which the Au- 
 thor attempts to prove, by one prescriptive Argument, that the 
 Divinity of Jesus Christ was a primitive Tenet of Christianity. 
 Faulder, bctavo, pp. 36. 
 
 yiL — 1787. Letter to a Member of Parliament, on the Case of 
 the Protestant Dissenters, and the Expediency of a general Re- 
 peal of all penal Statutes that regard religions Opinions. Faul- 
 der.octavo, pp. S7. 
 
 Vlll. — 1788. Proposals for printing by Subscription a New 
 .T-'ranslation of the Holy Bible, fiom collected Texts of the 
 
( ^^ ) 
 
 Originals, -with various Readings, explanatory Notes, and cri- 
 tical Observations— with a Specimen of the Work. Faulder, 
 quarto, pp. 22. 
 
 IX. — 1790. Dr. Geddes's General Ansvfer to the Queries, Coun- 
 sels, and Criticisms, that have been communicated to him 
 since the Publication of his Proposals for printing a New 
 Translation of the Bible. Faulder, quarto, pp. 32. 
 
 X.— 1790. An Answer to the Bishop of Comana's Bastoral Let- 
 ter, by a protesting Catholic. Faulder, octavo, pp. 36. 
 
 XI.— 1790. A Letter to the Right Rev. the Archbishops and 
 Bishops of England; pointing out the only sure Means of pre- 
 serving the Church from the Dangers that now threaten her. 
 By an Upper Graduate. Johnson, octavo, pp. 25. 
 
 XII. — 1790. Epistola Macaronica ad Fratrera, de iis quae gesta 
 sunt in nupero dissentientium Conventu, Londiui habito, prid. 
 id. Febr^ 1 790. Johnson, quarto, pp. 21 . 
 
 XIII.— Epistola Macaronica, &c. with an English Version for the 
 Use of the Ladies and Country Gentlemen. Johnson, quaito, 
 
 pp. SO. 
 
 ^' 
 XIV.— 1790. Carmen Sjeculare pro Gallica Gente tyrannidi 
 aristocraticae erepta : with an English Translation.* Johnson, 
 quarto, pp. 11. • ' ' 
 
 XV.— 1791. EncycUcal Letter of the Bi&hops of Rama, Acan- 
 thos, and Centuriae, to the Faithful, Clergy, andLaity, of their 
 respective Districts, with a continued Commentary for the 
 Use of the Vulgar. Bell, octavo, pp. 28^ ' ' • ' ' ■ ' 
 
 XVI.— 1792. An Apology for Slavery; or Six cogent Argu- 
 ments against the immediate Abolition of the Slave Trade. 
 Johnson, octavo, pp. 47. ■ ' 
 
 XVIl._i792. The first Book of the lliadofHomer, verbaUy ren- 
 dered mto English Verse ; being a Specimen of a new Trans- 
 lation of that Poet: with critical Annotations. Debrett. oc 
 
 , tavo, pp. 37. 
 
: ( xiii ) 
 
 XVni— 1792. L'Avocatdu.Diable; The Deyir's Advocate : or 
 Satan versus Pictor. Tried before the Court of Uncommon 
 Pleas — Die — mens — ann. Johnson, quarto, pp. 19. , 
 
 XIX. — 1792. The Holy Bible ; or the Books accounted sacred 
 by Jess's and Christians; otherwise called the Books of the Old 
 arid New Covenants': faithfully translated from corrected 
 Texts of the Originals, with various I^eadings, explanatory 
 Notes, and critical Remarks. Vol. I. Faulder, quarto, pp. 430. 
 
 XX.-T-1793. Carmina Sxcularia Tria, pro tribus celeberrimis 
 Libertatis Gallicse Eppchis. No Publisher's Name, quarto, 
 pp. 27. 
 
 XXL — 1793. Ver-Verl ; or' the Parrot of Nevers : a Poem in four 
 Cantos, freely translated from the French of j. B. Cresset. 
 , Bell, quarto, pp. 48. 
 
 XXII.— 1793. DrlGeddes's Address to tie Public on the Publi- 
 cation of tlie first Volume of his New Translation of the Bible. 
 Johnson, pp. 25. 
 
 XXin— 179*.' ■Letter from the Rev. Alexander Geddcs, LL. D. 
 trd the Right Rev. John Douglas, Bishop of 'Centurije, and 
 'Vica.r Apostolic in the London District. Faulder, Quarto, 
 
 pp. 55. -' - '-'': - - 
 
 XXIV— 179'4: AT^orfilk Tale; or a Journal from London to 
 Norwich : with a Pfologu'e and an Epilogue'. Johnson, qiiarto, 
 pp. 60. ' 
 
 XXV— 1795. Ode to fhe, Hon. Thomas PelKam, "occasioned 
 by his Speech in the Irish House of toinmons on the Ca- 
 tjiolie Bill. Johnson, quafto,;pp.,l.9- 
 
 XXVI.— 1796. A Sermon preached before the tJniversIty of 
 Cambridge,, by H, W. C. T D^^D. i&d published by re- 
 quest; and now (for the SakpM Freshmen and the Laity) by 
 Bequest translated into English Metre. By H..H. Hopkins, 
 A, M. Keaisley, octavo, pp. 42. 
 
( xw ) 
 
 ; feVlI.-il797'.= The Battle of B—ng—r; or the Church's tri- 
 .- « umph : a Comic-Heioic Poem, in nine Cantos. ■ Johnson,- 
 , . octavo, pp'< 74. 
 
 S£X.Vni.— 1797. The Holy Bible; or the Books aceount^dsacrerf 
 
 ■ by Jews and Christians; otherwises called, the Books p^ the Old 
 
 i. amti New Covenants: faithfully tra|i)slated frpm corrected 
 
 Texts of the Originals, with various Readings, explanatory 
 
 Note?, and-criticaLRemarks. Vol. II. Faulder, quarto, pp.S94. 
 
 XXIX— 179S. A New-Year's Gift to the good People of Eng- 
 
 • land ; being a Sermon, or something like a Sermon, in Defence 
 
 of the present War, preached on the Day of public Thainjcs- 
 
 giving,,by Tbepmophilus Brown, Curate of P^. — r^— — n. Nw 
 
 Publisher's Name, octavo, pp. 43. 
 
 XXX. — 1799. A Sermon preached on the Day pf General Fast,- 
 , ^eb. 37,. ,1799, by Th^omophilus Brown, Jforijaejcly Curate^ 
 
 now Vicar, of F 'n. No Publisher's Name, octavo, 
 
 pp. 24» 
 
 X3^I. — 1.800. A Modest Apology for the Rpman Cathqlics pf 
 Great Britain, addressed to; all^ moderate Protestants, particu- 
 larly to, the Members, of both Houses ©f Parliament^ F3,iilder, 
 octavo, pp. 271. 
 
 ,XXXII.— 1800. Critic^ Remarks on ^ HebreiJ^ Scriptures, 
 corresponding with aNew 'Translation of the Bifaie, containing 
 the Pentateuch. Vol. I. Faulder, pp. 475. ^, 
 
 XXXIII. — 1800. Bardomachia — ^Poemji Macarpnico-Latinum. ' 
 Johnson, quarto, pp. I4. 
 
 XXXIV.— .1800. Bardonjachia; or the Battle of the Bards : trans- 
 lated from th^ original L,atin. Johnson, quarto, pp. \p, 
 
 XXXV.»-l86l. Paci filiciter reduci Ode Sapphtea. Anctbre 
 A. G. Johnson, quarto, pp. 9. 
 
( XV ) 
 
 INEDITED. 
 
 1.^1799. Epistle to the King. A Poem in English Iambics, still 
 in Manuscript; About 500 lines.— N. B. It is replete with 
 professions of loyalty and attachment to his Maje^y, whose 
 persons^l virtues are much extolled ; but its chief objeit is to 
 point out the necessity of a change of ministry and public 
 measures.. 
 
 II. — 1801. A New Translation of the Psalms, from corrected 
 Texts of the Original, with occasional Annotations. Octavo, 
 pp. 20?.— N. B. The Translator died in the midst of this 
 version, which in consequence extends only to the cxviiith in- 
 clusively. It is thus far printed, and will be shortly published. 
 
 FUGITIVE PIECES, 
 
 Printed on Angle flieets, or in conjunftlon with other 
 papers, and here enumerated to preclude his be- 
 ing charged with what were not his own. 
 
 L — 1799- A Dissertation on the Scoto-Saxon Dialect; together 
 with three Poems, written in the same Dialect, consisting* of, 
 1. An Epistle to the President, Vice-President, &c. of the So- 
 ciety of Antiquaries, on his being elected a correspondent 
 Member. 3. The first Eclok of Virgih 3. The first Million 
 of Theocritus, translatit into Scottis Vers. • Published in 
 the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 
 Quarto, Caddel. 
 
 II. — ^The Northern Hunt, or Brunswick Beagles. 
 
 III. — ^The Blessings of a free Press. 
 
 IV. — Trial by Jury, 
 
 v.— 1795. Ode Pindarico-Sapphico-Macaronica in Guliehni 
 
 Pittii, &c. Laudem. Morn. Chron. Jan. IS, \ 
 y I.— ^1795. Translation of the same. Morn. Chron. Jan. SO, 
 
( xvl ) 
 
 Xn.—n&r. Brother Burke to Brother Windham. Januai^i 
 
 VIII.— 1798. Abolitioitof Saints Days. Mon. Chron. Mar. 5. 
 
 IX.— 1798. Ode to the Right Hon. W. Pitt, by W. Wilberforc^^ 
 
 Esq. Courier, June 21 ; 2d edition in August following. 
 
 X. — 1798. Epistle to Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart- Morn. Chron. 
 Nov. 11. 
 
 XI. — 1801. In Obitum honestissimi, integerrimi, meique ami- 
 cissimiyiri, Domini dePetre. Monthly ;Mag. Sep. 
 
 -XII.— 1801. Ad Umbram Gilberti Wakefield 'Elegia. Monthly 
 Mag. Nov. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 1 HE' birth and earlier education of Mr. Geddes — his 
 propensity to biblical studies — ^A short account of the 
 chipf vernacular versions of the Bible common' to Ro- 
 man catholic countries, and the great want of such 
 a version among the catholics of Great Britain — Mr. 
 Geddes prosecutes his studies at Scalan in the High- 
 lands — removes to the Scotch college at Paris— ac- 
 quires the friendship of the professors — returns to 
 Scotland^officiates as priest at Dundee — resides in 
 tlae family of the earl of Traquaire — returns to Paris — 
 ^nd again to his own country. A. D, 1737 — 1769. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 jVlr. Geddes accepts tlie charge, of -a catholic congrega- 
 tion at Auchirihalrig — ^builds a new chapel and par- 
 soiiage-house^r-his domestic employments and popu- 
 larity among his flock— his connexions with many 
 protestants of rank and literature^his pecuniary em- 
 barrassments, and the assistance afforded him by the 
 late duke of Norfolk — takes a small farm — erects, a 
 new chapel at Fouchabers — is again involved in diffi- 
 culties — commences poet, and publishes a translation 
 of select satires froni Horace — is engaged to instruct 
 lady Findlater in the English language — becomes ac- 
 quainted with Mr.. Buchanan, and occasionally at- 
 tends upon his ministry — is reproved by bishop Hay, 
 and at length deposed from his pastoral office. He 
 quits Auchiphalrig, to the great regret of his coiigre- 
 
 b 
 
XVlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 gation— is created doctor of laws by the university of 
 Aberdeen. A, D. i7ۤ^1779- ^^ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Institjition- of the Royal Sosiety of Antiquaries in Scot- 
 land by the exertions of Dr. Geddes and others— 
 elected a resident, and afterwards a corre^ondiBg 
 member— quits Enzie— arrives in Losdon in coth- 
 paigf with lord Traquaire— ofiiciates as priest in the 
 Impea-ial ambassador's chapel — is introduced by the 
 duchess of Gordon to lord Petre — Lord Petre highly 
 appro ves.of the doctors's plan for translating the Bible, 
 and patronizes him with an aimple salary — He quits 
 the Imperial chapel, 4he establLsment being supprest, 
 and officiates occasionally in the chapel in Duke- 
 street, Lincoln's Inn Eejds— r-revisit,s Scotland, and ii 
 , again a resident with the earl of Traquaire — ^pub- 
 lishes his Tweeddale pastoral — the occasion of it- 
 Riots in Scotland on account of sir George Saville s 
 bill for rdieving papists — Riots in England on the 
 same account — Protestant association headed by lord 
 George Gordon — Conflagration of tlie mdtropoHs — 
 Di*. Geddes writes his Modest Apology fot the Roman 
 Catholics of Great "Britain— by the advice of his 
 friends suppresses its publication— jeplies to Mr. 
 Williams's fanatical pamphlet — the pamphlet and re- 
 ply shortly examined. A. D. 1779— 1782. . 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Pr. Geddes accompanies lord and lady Traquaire in a 
 toiir to the south of France— returns to London— be- 
 comes acquainted with Dr. Kennicott— is introduced 
 
CONTENTS. XlS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 to Dr. Lowth — advised by the latter to draw "up a 
 Prospectus of his initended version efShe Bible — ac- 
 cedes to the advice:— publishes i' y'^^ K Dedication 
 to lord Pptre— Analysis of the Prospectus. A. D. 
 1782—1786. . . , . .84 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Letter to the Bishop of London, designed as an Appendix 
 to the Prospectus — Letter to the Rev. Dr. Priestley 
 •^Application of the Pirotestant Dissenters to Par- 
 liament for a repeal of the Test Act — Letter to a 
 Member of parliament on the Case of the Protestant 
 dissenters. — Dr. Geddes engages in, the Analytical 
 Review — List of the Articles he wrote in this Journal 
 —He publishes his Proposals for printing his Transla- 
 tion of the Bible—General Answer to the Queries, 
 Counsels, and Criticisms communicated to him. 
 A. D. 1786— 1790. ■ . . /147 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Application of the English catholics to the legislature 
 for additional relief in the matter of praemunire— The 
 protest and oath proposed on this occasion— Contro- 
 versy among the body of the c.atlioUcs upon tills sub- 
 ject — Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Comana — Dr. 
 Geddes replies to it — First and second Encyclical 
 Letters of the Vicars Apostolic — Dr. Geddes repub- 
 lishes the latter with a continued and sarcastic com- 
 mentary — Progress of the bill through both houses of 
 Parliament,— it passes, and receives the royal assent-^^^ 
 Termination of the controversy; and advantages gained 
 to the catholic community by this additional act in 
 thdir favor. A. D. 1790— 1791. . .204 
 
SS CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER Vir, 
 
 PAG« 
 
 Dr. Gteddes's Macaronic Epistle to his Brother — His 
 Secxilar Ode on the AfFairs of France — Observations 
 on these poems — The poet's attachment to Mr. Fox; 
 and peculiar animation when reciting his merits— 
 Hi§ general learning and extensive talents — Univer- 
 sality of study no impediment to perfection in any in- 
 dividual branch of science. A. D. 1791 — 1792-. 354 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 General execration of the slave trade-^-Dr. Geddes sa- 
 tirizes . it in his Apology for Slavery^ — The question 
 introduced before parliament — Condxict of Mr. Pitt 
 and Mr. Dundas — Result of parliamentary interfer- 
 ence — Mr. Covvper's Translation of Homer's Iliad — 
 Dr. Geddes's high opinion of Mr. Cowper's poetic 
 talents — Mr. Fuzeli,; the assistance he rendered Mr. 
 Co,wper' — Dr. Geddes's Translation of the first Book 
 of Homer's Iliad : comparison between the versions 
 of Cowperj Geddes, Burger^ and Voss — L'Avocat du 
 Diable: tlie occasion of this humorous poem — The 
 profession of the law not an unfavorable subject, 
 evinced by, Mr. Anstey's Pleader's Guide. A. D. 
 1792—1793. ,.- . . . .269 
 
 CHAPTER IX., 
 
 The Biographer's first introduction to Dr. Geddes : 
 impression made upon the former during tliis inter- 
 view—Anecdotes respecting the latter: his attach- 
 
 • ment to Physiognomy as a science — System and Trea- 
 
CONTENTS, XXl' 
 
 PAGg 
 
 fiuc on Eisiognomy — rAnecdote of his skill in this 
 individual branch of moral aiiatoneiy — Destructio;i of 
 his Treatise and probable change in his sentiments— r 
 Engages a house in New Koadj Mary-le-bone — His 
 mechanic employments and dexterity in the use of 
 ' mechanic tools — His attachment to horticidture-^ 
 Green-house, and- schemes for, its improvement — 
 Three Secular Odes upon the French Revolution — 
 Trpnslation of the Ver-Vert of Gresset-r-Remarks on 
 thi* translation. A. D. 1792—1793. . . 300 
 
 , CHAPTER X, 
 
 Dr. Geddes's Translation of tlie Bible —Observations 
 upon his Translation — Critical jRemarks Hpon the 
 Pentateuch — Observations upon the Remarks — ^An,- 
 ticipated Version of the Psalms — Observations upon 
 the Version. A. D. 1792— 1793. . . 330 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Additional observations upon Dr. Geddes's Bible — Va- 
 rious oppositions he had to encounter — Hostility of 
 the catholic bishops resident in Englandj after having 
 intimated their approbation — Death of bishop James 
 Talbot, and appointment of bishop Douglas by the 
 Roman see, in opposition to the address of the Eng- 
 lish catholics — Animosity of tlie great body of the ca- 
 tholics to Dr. Geddes — Encyclical prohibition qf his 
 Translation of the Bible, subscribed by bishops W^ms- 
 ley, Gibson, and Douglas, but refused to be subscribed 
 by bishop Thomas Talisot — Dr. Geddes's Address to 
 the Public — Private correspondence between bishop 
 Dcxjglas and himself— His suspension by Mr. Dou- 
 
XXll CONTENT&r 
 
 yA6B 
 
 glas from all ecclesiastical functions — His public Let- 
 ter to theKig^t Rev. John Douglas. Bishop of Centu- 
 riae, and Vicar Apostolic in tlje London District — Ob- 
 seiTations upon the controveny. A. D. 1793 — 1704. 397 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 Dr. Geddes's mind much affected by the contumelies 
 hrf received — consoled by his friends, especially the 
 titular bishop of Dunkeld, and his patron lord Petre — 
 sinks into a low and irritable fever, which incapaci- 
 tates him from all exertion for many months — pro- 
 gressively recovers— Makes a tour into Norfolk — ■ 
 composes his Norfolk Tale— Selection of an anec- 
 dote ftom this poem highly creditable to his general 
 benevolence — Character of his poetiy — Ode to the 
 Hon. Thomas Pelham, occasioned by his speech in 
 the Irish House of Commons on the catholic bill — . 
 Humorous metrical translation of Dr. Coulthurst's 
 Sermon, preached before the university of Cambridge, 
 Oct. 25, 1796 — Dispute between the bishop of Ban- 
 gor and Mr. Grindley — Dr. Geddes's Comic-Heroic 
 poem, entitled The Battle of Bangor — his anonymous 
 Fast-Day Sermon and New-Year's Gift. A. D. 
 3794—1799. . . , . . .431 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dr. Geddes perseveres in his Translation, of the Bible— 
 again oppressed with pecuniary difficulties — discloses 
 his situation to his friends— their generous and af- 
 fectionate assistance — Again in a state of ease and 
 independence-^publishes his Modest Apology for the 
 Roman Catholics of Great Britain — the cause of his 
 publication at the present petiod— An analysis of the 
 ■work. A.D. 1799— 1800. . . ,463 
 
CONTENTS, XXlll 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 FAGB 
 
 General observations— Death of lord Petre — Deep dis- 
 tress of Dr. Geddes — Kindess and condolence of his 
 friends — ^Elegy on lord Petre — Bequest of his lordship 
 — Generous offer of T. Brown, Esq. — Munificent ' 
 salary of the present lord Petre — Dr. Geddes endea- 
 vors to resume his accustomed cheerfulness — ^his tem- 
 poraiy amusements— Battle of the Bards — Ode on 
 ;tlie Return of Peace — Illness and gradual decay — 
 , Alternations from extreme pain to moderate ease— 
 Elegy to the Shade of Gilbert Wakefield — Last inter- 
 view between the biographer and Dr. Geddes — his 
 death. A. D. ISOO— 1S02. . . ,452 
 
 Conclusion, . ... 52Q 
 
 Afpendix, 1 ; . V £39 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 , OP THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF THB LATE 
 
 REV. ALEXAOT3ER GEDDES, LL. D. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Tht birth and earlier education of Mr. Oeddes— 
 hispropenfity to biblical Jiudies. — A Jhort account of 
 the chief yernacular verjions of the Bible common to 
 Jtqman catholic countries, and the gfeat want offucb 
 a verjion among the catholics of (jreat Britain.—^ 
 Mr. Geddes profecutes his Jiudies at Scalan in 
 the Highlands — removes to the,. Scotch colleg& at. 
 'Parts — acquires the friend/hip of the frofeffors-—. 
 retuxns fe Scotland — officiates as prieJiat'J3undee—~ 
 rejides in.the family of the earl cfTraquaire — returns 
 to Paris- — and again to his own country. A, D. 1737 . 
 , , — 1769- 
 
 AtteXANDER Geddes, who was born in the year 
 1737, defcended, like moft other men of letters, 
 frQjn parents who had no pretenfions to worldly, 
 opulence or honours. But, though not rich, they 
 were, in every fenfe of the word, refpeftable ; and, 
 though not ennobled, they had a fpjrit fvifficjently 
 exalted to devote the little of which ^they were 
 
 B 
 
poffeft to the beft purpofes of human life. His 
 father, named alfo Alexander, the fecond of four 
 brothers, derived his livelihood from a fmall farm 
 fituated in Arradowl, in the parifh of Ruthven 
 and county of Banff in Scotland ; in which occu- 
 pation he endured, in common, perhaps, vdth the 
 greater body of fmaller tenants in that part of the 
 united kingdoni, many fevere oppreflions from a 
 tyrannic landlord. The maiden name of his mo- 
 ther was Janet Mitchel ; flie was a native of Nether 
 Dalachy, in the parilh of Bellay, and was equally 
 exemplary as a wife and a parent. 
 
 It is curious to obferve from what apparently 
 trifling incidents we fometimes derive the whole 
 bent pf the difpofitions and fludies of our future 
 lives. In their religious profeflion the parents of 
 Mr. Geddes were Roman catholics ; their library 
 confifted of but a very few volumes ; and, of thefe, 
 die principal book was an Englifti Bible. Having 
 been taught to read in the hunible manfion of a 
 fchool-miftrefs whole name was Sellar, a village 
 matron whofe goodnefs of heart, with a recollec- 
 tion that did honour to his feelings, he was a'ccuf- 
 tomed occafionally to make mention of to the 
 lateft years of his life, and who, if fhe were not 
 initiated in all the modern metaphyfics of juve- 
 nile education, knew at leaft, according to the 
 teftimony of her pupil, 
 
s 
 
 Bight well— ———each temper to clefcry> 
 To thwart the proud, and the fubmifs to raife; 
 
 Some with vile copper prize exalt on high, 
 And fome entice with pittance fmall of praife : 
 
 the book that chiefly (truck his attention, in the 
 meagre catalogue to which his infant choice was 
 confined, was this family Bible; which, whatever 
 might have been at that time his thirft after 
 knowledge, could not afford him more pleafure 
 to perufe, than it did his parents that it fliould be 
 perufed by him. " They taught me," fays he, 
 *' to read it with reverence and attention*." 
 His tafte was thus fixed from his childhood. 
 From the moment he began to read he became 
 a biblical critic in embryo : it was a paffion to 
 which, the more he reflected, the more he fur- 
 rendered himfelf ; and which, qonfequently, as 
 may naturally be expefted. 
 
 Grew with his growth, and Arengthened with his firength. 
 
 Endowed with a mind comprehenfive as the 
 whole circle of the fciences, and animated with 
 an ardent genius that muft have enfured him pre- 
 eminence ia whatever field he might have con- 
 tended, it is a queftion that will admit of much 
 doubt, whether, if he had been born under any 
 
 * General Anfwer to Queries, Counflls, and Crlticifnis, 
 &cwp. 2. 
 
other circumftances, and particularly if his father's 
 library had allowed him a greater latitude an^ va- 
 riefy of fludy, ecclefiaftical hiftory and a critical 
 inyeftigation of the facred records would have 
 formed ' his chief purfuit. The die however was 
 thrown : and fuch was the entertainment the Bible 
 afforded him, and fuch the correfponding vigour 
 with which he perfevered in its perufal, that it is 
 a well knowri fafl:, and a faft in feveral inftances 
 publicly adverted to by himfeif, that before he had 
 reached his eleventh year he knew all its hiltory 
 by heart *. A laudable example of application 
 direfted to the beft of objefts, and which may 
 well challenge the attention of young perfons, 
 whether catholic or proteftant. 
 
 It is, I well know, a common belief in this 
 country, that Roman catholics are not allowed the 
 ufe of any vernacular edition of the Bible. Such a 
 belief is in the main unfounded, although the Ro- 
 man catholics themfelves, and efpecially the ftrifter 
 clafs of papifts, have contributed in no fmall degree 
 towards its fpread. The liturgy of the catholic 
 communion is ftill uniformly rehearfed in Latin ; 
 and, excepting in the Galilean church, which has 
 always afferted a degree of independency beyond 
 that of any other in connexion with the Roman 
 
 * General Anfwer, p. a, compared with his Profpeft\?s, 
 p. }, tad his Addrefs to the Pul^lic, faj^vif. 
 
fee, has never been correfted fince the pontificate 
 of Urban VIII. ; tvhich is nearly two centuries ago. 
 For the continuation of this Latin verfion, I be- 
 lieve, however, there is nothing but precedent, 
 for I am not aware of the decree of any oecumeni- 
 cal council by which it has been enforced : and 
 why, to adopt the language of Dr< Geddea,,him4 
 felf, " it has not already appeared in a yernacula,r 
 drefs, and diverted of every odd, exotic ornament, 
 has often appeared to me a problem which ad- 
 mitteth no other folution than Sic volueT;e patresl ■ 
 The day, however, I trufl/' continues he, and 
 every man fhould cordially unite with him in the 
 fame hope, " is not at a great diftanee when every 
 national church will open her eyes, to reafoh, and 
 perform every part of the divine office in the. 
 language of her own country, unaccompanied 
 with any ceremony that has the leafl refemblance 
 of farcical exhibition *." 
 
 In the refolutions of* a provincial fynod affem-' 
 bled at Thoiildufe in 1229^ and which feems to 
 have invented the horrid fyfteih of a religious irf- 
 quifition tj wfe meet with a canon reftricHng the 
 perufal of the Bible to the original languages \. 
 
 * Modeft Apology for the Roman Catholics, p. 170. 
 f See Capitula, i, 3,3,4, 5> ^> ^'^'t alpudLabbe xi. 427; 
 :{: Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Teftamenli aut 
 JMovi laidi petmittantur habere: nifi forte Pfal^terium vel 
 
But this is a prohibition that has never obtained 
 any degree of credit with the catholic church, 
 which had been long before exhorted by Chyfo^ 
 ftom, Bafil, Ambrofe, and other illuftridus fathers^ 
 to read and ftudy the Scriptures daily. Nor can 
 the decree of the council of Trent, as to the au- 
 thenticity of St. Jerom's verfion, and its fupe- 
 riority to all others in the Latin tongue, be intro* 
 duced as favouring the fame idea ; for the canon 
 relating to it fhould unqueftioaably be confidered 
 as limited and referring to Latin v^rfions alone, 
 refpeftmg which it fhows clearly the tafte and 
 good fenfe of the fynod, by the preference it 
 manifefted. Vernacular tranflations have indeed 
 been ocqafionally prohibited by the Roman fee, 
 and efpecially by Pius VI. and Clement VIII.: 
 but, fb far from fuch authority having been ac- 
 knowledged, or the prohibition attended to, there 
 is no country in Europe in which national veriioiis 
 have not appeared from a very early period of 
 time, and few in which a variety of them have 
 not preferited a rival appeal before the bar of the 
 public. In Germany feveral printed editions were 
 in general circulation before that tsf Luther, which 
 
 BrevUriutn pro diviiiis o^clls, aat Horas %. Matiae ali(]uft 
 ek devotione habere Velit: fed ne praeraiiTos libros ha)}eant 
 in vulgari tranflatos> arftiffime inhibeisus. Ooncil. Tho- 
 16&11. cap. xiv. 
 
was completed in 1535, and is the earlieft verna- 
 cular Bible among the pnroteftants. In France 
 there were twelve printed editions prior to that 
 of Olivetan: Spain can at leaft boaft of two or 
 three, befides feveral detached books of the Bible, 
 "Vhich are admirably rendered by Luis de Leon of 
 the univerfity of Salamanca ; and, even in Italy, 
 Bruccioli tranflated the, Latin of Pagninus as early 
 as 1532, aftd Marfriochini the Vulgate about fix 
 yeairs afterwards, dedicating it exprefsly to the bilhop 
 of Rodee ; independently of which, the-verfion of 
 Malermi underwent not lefs than thirteen editions 
 in the fpace of half a century, anterior even to the 
 sera of the Reformation : and it was an exprefs 
 propofition of the late intelligent and liberal pon- 
 tiff, that the Scriptures " are fources to^ which all 
 ought to haxe free accejs, in order to draw from 
 them a found doftrine and a pure morality *.*' 
 
 The Englifti catholics have however been lefs 
 fortunate, or perhaps in this refpe^ more pre- 
 judiced, than their continental brethren. For, 
 although the vulgar verfion has been at their 
 
 * Optime fentis fi Chrifti fideles ad leflionem divinarnm 
 literarum magnopere excitandos exiftinses. Jlli enim funt 
 fontes uberrimi, qui cuique patere debent ad hluriendam 
 et morum et doftrina: fanftitatem. See his Letter to Abbate 
 Martini, 177S, as alfo Geddes's Profpe4lus, and Mo4eft 
 Apology. 
 
8 
 
 command, as well as many detached portions o£ 
 the facred writings excellently tranflated by raert 
 of eminence of their own perfuafion ; the former,, 
 as a body, they have abfolutely refufed, and ta 
 the latter they have in general paid biit little at- 
 tention. " The greater part of the Roman catho- 
 lics of Great Britain and Ireland," obferves Dr^r 
 Geddes, " may be faid to be without a Bible. The 
 commdn national verfion they would not ufe, be- 
 caufe, forfooth, it was the work of heretics, and alfo 
 becaufe feveral books which the council- «f Trent 
 had decreed to be canonical were either entirely 
 omitted in the editions of the eOmmon verfion, or 
 accounted apocryphal. Precluded thus from the 
 ufe of the common verfion, they had no alterna- 
 tive for more than a century but to put up with a 
 barbarous tranflation made at Rheims and Douay, 
 from an uncorreded copy of the Latin Vulgate, 
 accompanied virith virulent annotations againft the 
 proteftant religion, and manifeftly calculated to 
 fupport a fyftem, not of genuine catholicity, but 
 of trarifelpine popery. About the middle of the 
 prefent (the late) century it was, indeed, remo- 
 delled on the Clementine edition of the Vulgate, 
 and modernized into fomewhat better Englifh by 
 the late Dr. Chaloner, who put it into a more 
 convenient form, and ftripped it of almoft all its. 
 mofl odious notes. Yet ftill, in thofe which he 
 
retiuned or altered, the fpirit of theologic f^em. 
 is but too yifible; and as to the tranflation:itfel^ 
 the changes in it are chiefly made from that fame 
 common verfion which had been fo mujch viHfied 
 land burlefqued by our rhimers and divines*/* Of 
 this tranflation Dr. Chaloner's edition was, fome 
 years ago, fo nearly exhauiled that it was difficult 
 to obtain a copy. . Since this period, however, a 
 third edition has- been printed at Dublin with 
 notes, and is faid to have been revifed by Dr. 
 Troy. , ,,, . 
 
 We trace then eafily whence the general opi- 
 nion has arifen in this country, that Roman ca- 
 tholics are not permitted the ufe of a vernacular 
 verfion of the Bible, They accufliom themfelves to 
 a Latin verfion of their liturgy, andrejeft theefla- 
 bliflied tranllationof the Scriptures altogether- Such, 
 howevei; is not the cafe with all of them. In fpite 
 of religious prejudices, the more enlightened have 
 for a long time preferred the latfer to the edition 
 of Rheims and Douay ; and of this number were 
 ^e parents of the late Dr. Geddes, for with them 
 
 * Addrefs to the Public, p. 3, The ofi^nfive (Iri^iures'and 
 parodies he chiefly refers to in this paflage, are A Difcoverj 
 of the manifeft Corruptions of Holy Scripture, &c. by Gre- 
 gory Martin, printed at Rheims 158a j and England's Re- 
 formation, a Poem in the manner of Hudibras, by Thomas 
 Ward ; as alfo his Errata of the Proteilant Eibles. 
 
10 
 
 the family feble was the vulgar Englifli. Theif 
 fon mi^t well boaft, therefore^ as he has done* 
 when alluding to this cirtsumftance in his General 
 Anfwer, p. 2, that "* his parents, although they 
 were Roman catholics, were not bigots." 
 
 Having CKhaiifted all the flore of kno'wJedge 
 which the meritorious matron of the village* 
 whofe diftinftioii of him, he has, often declared,- 
 was a fource of one of his earlieft mental pleai^ 
 flires, could afford, our young pupil was next 
 entnlfted to the care of a ftudent of Aber- 
 deen, whofe name was Shearer, and whom the 
 laird of the diftrift had engaged to educate his 
 two fons. In the femily of this gMitleHftan the 
 inftrudion of Mr. Geddes was gratuitous. The 
 worthy laird had witneffed the anxiety of his ■ 
 parents to gratify his growing thirft after learn- 
 ing, and, with an example well worthy of imita- 
 tioti by men of opulence in every village throughout 
 the kingdom, he admitted him to a participation of 
 vhis own ' family" tuition; and, together with himfelf, 
 two other boys of fimilar cireumftances and age^ 
 of whom one was his coulin. Of Shearer I have 
 received no information beyond hi& prefejit con- 
 nexion with the laird of Arradowl; but, from the 
 future eminfehce of the two Geddeses, he muft 
 have been either peculiarly fiartunate^ or pecu- 
 liarly Ikilful : for, while Alexander was exhibiting 
 
n 
 
 proofs of profound fcientific r^fearch, andrlfiiig 
 into the firft ranks of literary diftinftion, his coufin 
 was progreffively advancing through many laf the 
 chief dignities of the catholic church, and was at 
 length inftalled into the titular bifliopric of Dun- 
 keld. He was alfo well known as an able theo- 
 logian, and his writings are oGcafionally referred 
 to by Dr. Geddes with much deference and 
 refpeft*. 
 
 From the hdfpitable manfian of the laird cf 
 Arradowl, and by the immediate interference of 
 his patron, our pupil, at the age of fourteen, was 
 removed to Scalan, a free Roman catholic fenu- 
 ttary in the Highlands, of obfcure feme, and limited 
 to boys who are deftined for the church, sad 
 'Vvhofe ftudies are defigned to be completed m 
 fome foreign unive^rfity. 
 
 The vale in which this feminary was fituat«4 
 was fo deeply excavated aJnd overhung by far- 
 rounding hills, as to require almoft as perpetaal a 
 afe of the lamp as the fubterraneaft cell of Be- 
 Maoftheftes. Of its fonibre and melancholy afpe^ 
 the reader may form feme idea from' the following- 
 reply of Mr. Geddes to one of his fellow ftudents, 
 who had obtained leave to pay a vifit to his friends 
 3i a diftance, and who alked him if he had aiiy com- 
 
 * 
 
 * See panlculariy his Profpeftus, p. 145; 
 
12 
 
 mands he could execute. " Pray be fo kind," 
 replied Geddes, " as to make particular inquiries 
 after the health of the sun : fail not to prefent my 
 compliments to him, and tell him I ftill hope I 
 fiiall one day be able to renew the honour of a 
 perfoiud acquaintance with him." 
 
 To a knowledge of the Bible in the vulgar 
 Englilh, he added in this academy a knowledge of 
 it in the vulgar Latin ; but it does not appear that 
 he made much further proficiency in claffical eru- 
 dition: for he himfelf affures us that in the year 
 1760, long after he had left Scalan, and when he 
 muft have acquired the age of twenty-three, the 
 vulgar Latin and the vulgar Englifh were the only 
 two verfions of the Bible with which he was ac- 
 quainted, and that it was not till the year 1762 
 that he began to read it in its original languages*. 
 Had he been initiated into the Greek tongue in 
 his prefent fituation, there can be no doubt, from 
 his uninterrupted attachment to the Bible hiftory, 
 that one of the firft books he would have perufed 
 in this language would have been a Greek Tefta- 
 ment^ but as he did not begin to read either a 
 Greek Teftament or a Septuagint till four years 
 after he had quitted the Highlands, we have every 
 xssSon to fuppofe that his attention was folely di- 
 
 * General A nfwer, p. 3 . 
 
13 
 
 refted in this feminary to a general knowledge of 
 Latin, and principally to the Latin Bible of the 
 vulgar or St. Jerom's edition ; a verfion which 
 affords a notle inftance of the powers of the hu- 
 man mind, which was defervedly fanfl:ioned by 
 the council of Trent, and which, in its different 
 impreffions, conftituted, for eleven hundred yeai-s, 
 the general text-book of all the weftern churches. 
 
 As no man has more critically orphilologically 
 inveftigated this fubjeft than Dr. Geddes, and as 
 it appears to have comprifed ailmoft the fole topic 
 of his ftudies in the fchool in whidh we have thus 
 far accompanied him, it . will by no means be 
 foreign from the purpofe of thefe memoirs to pre- 
 fent the reader with his own hiftory of St. Jerom's 
 very valuable undertaking, and the judgment that 
 he himfelf formed of it in his maturer years. " The 
 firft Latin verfions of the Bible," fays he, " were 
 made from the Greek of the Septuagint, and as 
 the Greek copies greatly varied, the Latin veirfions 
 varied ftill more; becaufe they were not only done 
 from different archetypes, but alfo by many different 
 hands: for every one, fays St. Auguftine, who had 
 got a tinfture of Greek learning, fell to tranjlating 
 for himfelf; fo ,that,before the end pf the fourth 
 century, the tranflations had become innumerable. 
 
 ** To remedy this glaring inconvenience, St. Je- 
 fom undertook to revife that which was chiefly 
 
14 
 
 ttfed, and known by the name of Italic, on the moft 
 correa copies of the Greek. Having now occa- 
 fionto confult the works of Origen, he foon per- 
 ceived that the Greek itfelf was in many places 
 corrupted; or, at leaft, that it differed widely from 
 the Greek verfians that had been more recently 
 made from the Hebrew ; and this it probably vfas%. 
 that gave him the firft idea of the neceffity of a 
 new tranilation. For that purpofe, he applied 
 eagerly to the ftudy of the Hebrew language, 
 confulted the moft learned of the Jewilh doctors, 
 compeU'ed all the Greek verfions with one another 
 and with the original ; and, at length, convinced 
 of the infufficiency of the old Latin verfion, even 
 with all his own correftions and improvementsi 
 he fedoufly fet about makiag a new one, from 
 the beft Hebrew copies he could procure. This 
 he accomplished at different intervals, and rather 
 byftarts thznja continual labour, in the fpace of 
 ^fifteen years, amidft many contradiftions, re- 
 proaches, and the moft bitter inveciives. 
 
 " Forfcarcely had his firft effays made their ap- 
 pearance, when the cry from every quarter was 
 fet up againft them, as a daring and dangerous 
 innovation, that tended to difcredit a verfion fo 
 long ufed in the Latin church, and made from 
 one generally believed to have been the work of 
 the Holy Ghoft. . 
 
J5 
 
 '■'." Although Jerom, confclous "of th^reftitu^ of 
 his intentions and of the goockieib of his caufe, de* 
 fpifed, at firfl, the unjufl and invidious C&viljujf 
 bis. adverfarifes ; yet tjiey 'W^ere fo often repeatedj 
 and eouHtenanc:ed by futh high charafters in th0 
 ehurch, that he was £am to yid,d to the Beceflity 
 of the timeSj and to make apology after apology 
 for his condua. Still, however, he continued tQ 
 tranflate, without following any o^i^ order th&n 
 what the requefts of his particular fri^ds occafi^a- 
 ally fuggefted to him. The four books ©f K^^ 
 were firft publifhed in the y6ar 391 j feoa ^ftei: foK 
 lowed the Prophets ; then tie books of ^oltmv^i 
 Job, the Pfalms, Ezra^ Nehemiah, Gteoifi^SS 
 and, laft of gtU, the Odateuch, about the year 405* 
 By this time the ftoria ^t had been raffed 
 againft hlnfi was nearly blofwfn over, and he lived 
 to fee his labours appla,uded by Ibme oi thofe who 
 had been the firft to condemn them. In lefs than 
 a century after his death His verfibh liad become 
 of equal authority with its now only rival, the 
 Italic ; and gradually grew in eftimatien^ tell, at 
 length, it was, with fome litteitatifiBiSi ur^erfelly 
 adopted by the Latin churches. 
 
 " In many relpeffe it deferved that preference. T^ 
 had been wade immediately fifom the original, by 
 one who had every aeceflary qualification for fiich 
 an undertaking. His learning, wheth^ facred op 
 
16 
 
 profane, was not lefs extenfive than Origen's ; his 
 ^Mgment and tafte were more correft and exqui- 
 iite. He had a perfeft knowledge of the Greek 
 and Latin languages ; and was fufficiently verfed 
 in the Hebrew. He had correft topics of the 
 Hexapla *, if not the autograph itfelf, before 
 him. He was at no great diftance from a famous 
 fchool of JeWifh rabbins, whom he might con- 
 fult as he faW occafion. He had traverfed the 
 land with his own feet, and feen with his own 
 ^yes the principal places mentioned in facred hif- 
 tory. He was acquainted with the manners and 
 cuftonis of the coimtry. He knew its plants, its 
 aniiiials, and its other produftions. With all thefe 
 advantages, and his fuperior talents, it was im- 
 poffible he fhould not fucceed. He adopted, in 
 general, that mode of tfanflating, which had been 
 before, fo much admired in Symjiiachus; and which, 
 
 * This is one pf^the raofl. complete poljglotts of Origen, 
 but not altogether fo. Diflatisfied with every biblical ver- 
 iion of his day, he began to correft obfcure and queftionable 
 phages by a collation of different copies in dififerent lan- 
 guages. His firA publication appeared about the year ^31, and 
 coniifted of the four Greek veriions of Ac^uila, Symmachus, the 
 Septuagint, and Theodotion ; whence it was called his Te- 
 trapla. To thefe he -fuccefljvely added, however, different 
 codices from the original Hebrew, which, as they increafed in 
 number, were progreffively denominated Hexapla, Oflapla, 
 and Enneapla. 
 
\1 
 
 indeed/ is the beft calculated to eXpiJefS the full 
 ineaning of the original, without either hurting its 
 integi'ity, oi transferring its idiotifms. His ftyle is 
 plain, eafy and- unafFe£ted ; and, although his la- 
 tinity is not that of the Auguftan age, it is neither 
 barbarous nor inelegant. In his diftion and phra- 
 feology there is a peculiar grace and noble fim- 
 plicity, which it is not eafy to imitate ; and which 
 no other Latin verfion, except that of Houbigant, 
 in any degree poffeffes*." 
 
 He admits, however, that this work of St. Jerom 
 is not altogether perfeft ; that, in few words, with- 
 out entering into a minute catalogue of its infir- 
 mities, it partakes, when fubjefted to the micro- 
 fcope of critical inveftigation, of the common de- 
 feftis of human nature ; but that, neverthelefs, it 
 manifefts a confiderable fuperiority to the Englifh 
 tranflation. He afferts that, from the moment he, 
 began to ftudy it with accuracy, the latter ap- 
 peared to him rugged, conftrained, and often ob- 
 fcure, where the former was fmo&th, e^y, and 
 intelligible: that the. one feemed to read like a 
 tranflation, the other like an original. His firft 
 prejudices, however, were fo ftrong in favour of 
 the 'vulgar Englifli, that it was with no fmall diffi- 
 culty he was able to furmountthefia : but having 
 once triumphed over thefe prejudices, he was pre. 
 
 ' • Prpfpeftus of a new Tranflation of the Bible, p. 44. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 pated to acquire a more eafy viftory over others 
 which were at leaft as inveterate, and which the 
 exercife of his judgment told him were diametri- 
 cally contrary to truth and reafon. But of thefe 
 as we proceed. 
 
 Having attained the age of twenty-one, he was 
 removed from Scalan, in Oftober 1758, to the 
 Scotch college at Paris ; where, however, he did 
 not arrive till the enfuing December, in confe- 
 quence of a very dangerous paflage from Aber- 
 xieen to Campbire; in thecourfe of which he 
 narrowly efcaped fhipwreck, and fuifered fo fe- 
 verely from the roughnefs of his voyage, that it 
 was judged necefiary for him to recruit his fttength 
 by fome degree of relaxation and quietude, before 
 Jie profecuted his journey any further. On his 
 arrival at Paris, a field of literature was pre- 
 fented to him to which he had hitherto been a 
 ftranger. He determined to avail himfelf of every 
 pofGble advantage with every power of his mind ; 
 and the progrefs he foon attained was a fource of 
 equal pleafure and aftonifhment to the profefibr$ 
 under whom he ftudied. Of the Scotch college 
 into which he officially entered, Mr. Gprdon was 
 at that time principal; and to him he was recom- 
 mended by introdudory letters, as well as by his own 
 comprehenfive talents and ingenuoufnefs of heart : 
 a double foundation of efteem, and which, as may 
 
19 
 
 eafiiy be imagined, did not fail of. fuccefs. He 
 had heard much of the college of Navarre, and of 
 the lectures delivered in this celebrated feminary j 
 and with an inextinguifhable thirft after know- 
 ledge, he commenced his attendance upon feveraJ 
 of the" latter a few days after he reached Paris. 
 He opened bis courfe with rhetoric, of which 
 fcience M. Vicairewas at that time profeffpr ; and 
 notwithftanding the general emulation he excited, 
 and the prior exiftence in the clafs of two veteran 
 pupils, his unwearied affiduity foon placed him at 
 its head ; and, which was at leaft equally honour- 
 able, and far more advantageous to him, fecured 
 him the friendfhip of the profeffor^, which con- 
 tinued without interruption till M. Vicaire's de- 
 ceafe* 
 
 According to the routine of ftudy in the uni- 
 verfity to which he was now transferred, he jhould 
 in the enfuing year, 1-759, have entered upon a 
 courfe of natural and experimental philofophy ; 
 ■but his predile<Slion for divinity ftill prevailed, 
 and he was eafily perfuaded by »feveral friends, 
 who juftly eftimated his talents as a dieologiau, 
 to relinquifli the common order, and apply to di- 
 vinity in the firft inftance. To this branch of 
 icienoe' he now rtherefore began to dired almoft 
 the whole of his public ftudies ; and to the theo-^ 
 logical leftures of MM. Bure and de Saurent, at 
 
20 
 
 the college of Navafre, he added a fcrtipulous 
 attention to thofe on the ftudy of Hebrew de- 
 livered at the Sorbonne by M. I'Avocat, profeffor 
 of the Orleans chair ; an inftitution fo denomi- 
 nated from its having been founded in 1751, for 
 •the pul^ofe of reviving oriental learning in the 
 univerfity of Paris, aftd of explaining the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, by the duke of Orleans, fon of the 
 celebrated regent, and who was one of the moft 
 pious and learned princes of his age. Here he 
 was at leaft as fortunate as in the college of Na- 
 varre ; for no profeffor was ever perhaps better 
 qualified for fulfilling this double obJ€,ft than 
 M. I'Avocat. " He had a penetrating genius, an 
 aftonifliing memory, a correft judgment, and an 
 exquifite tafte. He was the moft univerfal fcholar^ 
 the moft pleafant teacher, the moft benevolent 
 man, and the moft moderate theologian I ever 
 knew.- Had he lived a little longer, and enjoyed 
 more leifure to accomplifh the work he meditated 
 on the Scripture, ^e ftiould now poffefs a treafure 
 of great value ; but a weakly conftitution and too 
 conftant an application to his profeffional duties 
 hurried him away in his 56th year, to the great 
 regret of 'all who knew him ; but of none," fays 
 his grateful and affe£tionate- pupil, who thus de- 
 fcribes him, " more than of him who dedicates thefe 
 lines to his memory." M. I'Avocat left nothing be- 
 
21 
 
 hind hira, however, but a few thefes, and fome* 
 valuable but unprinted critical effays. We can^- 
 not wonder at the regret of Mr. Geddes upon the \ 
 death of the profeffor, which occurred about the 
 year 1780, fince the latter conceived for him, at 
 an early period after his introduftion into the 
 univerfity, a very high efteem and affedirion, and; 
 even ftrenuoufly preffed him at length to a fettle- 
 ment at Paris. This, however, was altogether* 
 inconfiftent with the plan he had conceived^ 
 at an early age of life, of forming a newEnglifli* 
 verfion of the Bible for the ufe of his fellow- 
 countrymen of the catholic church, and which, 
 plan was in his own mind daily advancing to- 
 wards maturity. He had at this time an oppor- 
 tunity, and he improved it to its utmoft extent, of 
 adding to his knowledge of the Latin Vulgate a 
 clofe acquaintance with the oaiginals, with which 
 he, moreover, perpetually compared the eftabliihed 
 verfion of England. He was foon therefore able 
 to fpeak with more critical accuracy upon the 
 comparative merits of the Latin of St. Jerom, 
 and the Englifh of Icing James's tranflators : " I 
 had both verfions," fays he, " conftantly before 
 me, and I now difcovered the caufe of the great 
 difference between them. The fludy of the Eng- 
 lifh tranflators, I found, had been to give a flriftly 
 literal verfion at the expenfe of almolt every other 
 
22 
 
 confideration; while the author of the Vulgate had 
 endeavoured to render his originals equivalently, 
 into fuch Latin as wks current in his age, If ever 
 I tranflate the Bible," faid I then, " it muft be 
 after this manner *." 
 
 School divinity and biblical- criticifm by no 
 means, however, occupied the whole of his at- 
 tention. He entered deeply into an analyfis of 
 the Greek Jind Latin languages, purfued with in- 
 fatiable avidity thofe exquifite mines of precifion 
 and judgment, of tafte' and fancy, which are no 
 where elfe to be met with in an equal degree, and 
 laid the foundation for that elegance and facility, 
 that fecundity and correftnefs of ftyle,. with which 
 he afterwards engaged in Latin and Greek com- 
 pofitions, and which have not often been exceeded 
 by any of his countrymen fince tlie age of George 
 Buchanan. To thefe important acquifitions he 
 alfo added a ftudy of feveral of the modem lan- 
 guages of Europe. The J'rench was indeed be- 
 come almoft vernacular to him, and required no 
 further ftudy whatever : his firft ferious engage- 
 ment was therefore in the Italian;, and having Short- 
 ly maftered the few diiEcuities which were here 
 prefented to him, he carried his purfuits fuccef- 
 fively to the Spariifh, the Germap,. and the Low 
 
 * General Anfwer ,to the Queries, CounfiU, and Critl- 
 cifrtis, &c, p, 3, 
 
23 
 
 Dutch* To the mathematics he never difcovere4 
 much attachment: at which I have often been jcon- 
 fiderablyfurprifed; for no man was ever a fhrewder 
 logician, or followed with keener penetration, in a 
 controverfy, the bearings of an adverfary's argu- 
 ment through all the lights and fliades, not merely 
 of every fyllogiftic propofition, but of almoft every 
 phrafe and every individual word *. The mathe- 
 matics, however, which have feldom been in any 
 high degree of favour with our neighbours , of 
 France as a branch of general education, did not, 
 I believe, conftitute any prominent part of the 
 courfe of inftruftion delivered at the Scotch Pa- 
 rifian univra-fity, and hence perhaps his diftaije for 
 a fcience for which he was h well qualified by 
 nature. To many of the branches of natural and 
 experimental philofophy he paid, neverthelefs, a 
 confiderable portion of attention; devoting to them 
 almoft the whole of his intervals at home, and pur- 
 fuing, them rather as a relaxatbn from the feverer 
 duties of ftated inftrutStion, than as comprehending 
 a neceffary part of fuch inftrudioii itfelf. 
 
 Having, although with fome reludtance, refufe4 
 the friendly propofal of profeffor 1' Avocat to fettle 
 
 • In this refpeft he difplayed no fmall refemblaijce tq 
 bifliop Berjjeley, who like himfelf was an admirable logician, 
 but had the utmoft averfion for mathematics, and regarded 
 tb; do£tri|i$ of fiu^ions a^ puerile and uncertain, 
 
24 
 
 at Paris, and take a fhare in the public labours 
 of the college, he returned to Scotland in 1764, 
 after an abfence of fix years; and, ftiortly pof- 
 terior to his arrival at Edinburgh, was ordered 
 to Dundee to officiate as priefl among the ca- 
 tholics in the county of Angus. Here he was 
 fcarcely fettled when he received an offer, far 
 more agreeaWe to hirafelf, as it allowed a larger 
 portion of time for ftudy, of being a refidentin 
 the family of the earl of Traquaire ^, whofe pa- 
 ternal domain was fituated in the delightful fcenery 
 of Tweeddale. This o(Fer he readily accepted,- and 
 in May 1*765 became an inmate in his lordlhip's 
 family. He was now at full liberty to profecute 
 the whole fcope of his literary inclinations ; and 
 the efteem and friendftiip with which the noble 
 earl began to honour him, and which from this 
 period never ceafed between them, ftill furthei 
 •facilitated the uniform objeft of his heart. Of his 
 iituation and purfuits at the prefent- moment he 
 gives the following account : " On leaving the 
 
 * In what capacity, otherwi'fe than that of a friend, he at 
 this time lived with his lordftiip, I have not been able to learn. 
 It is generally faid that he ofKciated as dcpieftic chaplain j 
 but I have the authority of lord Bushan for denying th's 
 report, who has obligingly'informed me, through the medium 
 of mifs Hamilton, that the Abbfi Grant »nd Mr. Cruikftiank 
 fucceffively filled this ofSce at the time of which I am now 
 fpeaking. 
 
S5 
 
 xiniva-rity I was fortunately 'placed in a' noble*, 
 man's family, where I had plenty of time and a 
 tolerable library to enable me to continue my &- 
 vourite ftudy. The ancient verfions in the Poly- 
 glott were now alternately read, and occaiiohally 
 compared ; and from this le£lure and comparifon 
 I was every day more and more fatisfied, that a 
 verbal vo-fion of the Bible is not the moll prefer 
 to convey its meaning and difplay its beauties, t 
 obferved, that even thofe tranflators who had the 
 text to render, not into a different language^ but 
 only into different dialefts of the fame language, 
 had not attempted a ftriftly literal verfion ; and 
 that thofe of them who were the leaft literal had 
 the moft forcibly and intelligibly rendered' their 
 text. 
 
 " But when from the ancient I turned to the 
 moderpi verfions, my bpiruon was foon ftrengthened 
 into conviftipn. There were feven modern verfions 
 to which I had then accefs j the French of Ge- 
 neva, the Italian of Bruccioli, the Dutch national j 
 and in Latin, thc»fe of Munfter, Caftalio, Junius, 
 and Pagninus. Of thefe feven, the one which I 
 opened with prejudice was the one which I 'ee&d 
 through with the greateft pleafure. 
 
 " I had been taught to confider Caftalfo's tranf- 
 lation as a prophane burlefque of Holy Writ. 
 What was my furprife to find that he Tiad fazed 
 
26 
 
 the very fprit of the original, and transfufed it 
 into elegant Latin! I faw indeed, and was forry 
 to fee, that, through his exceffive refinement, a 
 part of the firaplicity of his original had evapo- 
 rated in the operation, and in this refpefl: his ver- 
 fion is inferior to the Vulgate : but ftill the /pirii 
 of the original is there ; whereas that of his con- 
 trail Pagninus appears like an almoft tjreathlefe 
 body, dragging along its limbs in the moft awkward 
 and clumfy manner. Yet this fame Pagninus has 
 been the general model of vernacular verfions*." 
 Such were the additional ftores with which our 
 indefatigable" fcholar was now enriching his mind, 
 and fuch his progrefs towards that critical acumen 
 which it afterwards fo pre-eminently difplayed. Of 
 the two oppofite verfions referred to, and con- 
 trafted in the laft paragraph of this citation, that 
 of Santes Pagninus was firft printed at Florence 
 in 1528 : it occupied him not lefs than twenty, 
 five years 'in its completion ; and, notwithftanding 
 the bald and barbarous latihity it uniformly ex- 
 hibits, has been generally extolled, both by Jews 
 and Chriftians, above the 'Vulgate of St. Jerom. 
 Its chief merit is that of a literal adherence to the ' 
 idioms and even the verbiage of the original : as 
 a compofition it is therefore not only perpetually 
 
 * Geneial Anfwer, 8fc. p. 3. 
 
27 
 
 uncouth, but very frequently unintellrgible ; yet it 
 may IHU anfwer the purpofe of a tolerable gram, 
 matical gloflary. The befl edition of Caftalio was 
 printed at Bafil in folio, in the year 175S, and, as 
 already obferv^d, is in every refpe£t the very re» 
 verfe of that of Pagninus. Caftalio is generally 
 fuppofed to poflefs more courage than prudence. 
 With a noble independence of mind, he refolved 
 to be no longer the flave of the rabbins j he re- 
 linquifhed the Maflbra, and was determined to 
 think for himfelf. The prefent Hebrew text was 
 indeed his perpetual guide; but he never neg- 
 lefted to compare it with the ancient verfions, 
 and, where doubtful or obvioufly erroneous, to 
 avail 'himfelf of their affiftance in explaining or 
 corre£Hng it. To the common books of the 
 Bible he alfo adjoined thofe of the Apocrypha, 
 as an effential pai-f of the Sacred Hlftory, which, 
 though afterwards fuppreffed by St. Jerom, are 
 vmiformly met with in the moft ancient copies of 
 the Greek, Syriac and Latin verfions, where they 
 are admitted to an equal rank with the reft; while, 
 jn order the more thoroughly to connect the Old 
 Teftament. with the New, " heinferted," fays Br. 
 Geddes in another place, " two excellent fup- 
 plements abridged from Jofephus ; the one after 
 the fourth book of Efdras, and the other at the 
 end of the Maccabees." It is this dfevlation from 
 
 6 
 
28 
 
 the more generally received verfions, which has 
 brought upon him fo frequently the cenfures of 
 both Jews and Chriftians, catholics and proteftants. 
 By many of the befl biblical critics of our own 
 and feveral other nations, however, and particu-; 
 larly Simler, Huetius, Buxtorf, Duport, Epir 
 fcopius and Mead, he has been fully vindicated 
 againfl every unjuft afperfion, and his tranflation 
 maintained to be in the higheft degree both faith- 
 ful and elegant *. 
 
 Viciffitude is the lot of man in every fituation ; 
 and obfcurity of rank and deep retirement from 
 the world, ,which generally afford an impenetrable 
 ihield againft the attacks of misfortune, forego at 
 times their accullomed office, and cruelly affift its 
 triiimph. Such, unhappily, was the fate of the fub- 
 je£t of thefe memoirs. The very circumftances 
 which feemed to affure to him a' long continuance 
 of happinefs, conflituted the very rock upon which 
 his peace of mind was firft wrecked, and call him 
 for years, like Ulyffes in purfuit of Ithaca, upon 
 the tempeftuous ocean of an unfriendly world, 
 with little affiflance, fave that of the proteQang 
 providence of Heaven, to defend his feeble Ikiff 
 
 * Guam, habita muhis in locis coUatione, non modo lati- 
 nifTimam, fed etiam accuratiffimam, et ad fenfum mentetnquq 
 diftorum, tam Hebrais quam in Graecis, maxime accommo-i 
 4?tain deprehendi. Mead. Prsff, in Med. Sacrji. Se? a,lfq^ 
 Qeijdes's Profpe6\us, 
 
59 
 
 agamft the perils to which he was inceflantly ex- 
 
 pofed: 
 
 AvSpa. iroXvrpWav, i; jxaXa woXX* 
 
 nxay%fli) 
 
 IIoAXaJv S'avSpuJTf'MV ihv ocffYsa,, %Hi vocy syv'ji. 
 IloJkXa S'oy' sv itoyTui itxisv aXyta. w Kara, Suftoy*. 
 
 He had at this time reached his twenty-eighth year, 
 and had refided in the hofpitable manfion of lord 
 Traquaire for confiderably more than a twelve- 
 month. From every branch of this worthy as well 
 as illuftrious family he had received the mofl une- 
 quivocal proofs of friendfhip and efteem, and never 
 was there a heart created upon which fuch generous 
 qualities were more calculated to operate. Un- 
 fortunately fpr his perfonal quiet they had in one 
 inftance taken a different direftion from what he 
 himfelf had intended, and certainly from what was 
 ever expefted in the quarter from which they had 
 proceeded. "Why fhould J conceal that which was 
 produftive of honour to all parties ? A female 
 relation of the noble earl was at this time a co- 
 refident in the houfe, and cbnflituted a part of 
 the family. The merit of Mr. Geddes was pro- 
 minent; her own charais and the regard fhe 
 
 * A man deep-verfed in wifdom's various lore. 
 In many a trouble tried o'er many a ftiore, 
 Long by the world'a wild tempeft toft amain 
 Ere yet he gained the port be ftrove to gain. 
 
3d 
 
 openly prafefled for him were not lefs Co : too 
 foon he felt himfelf the prey of an impreffion 
 which he well knew it was not poffible for him 
 to indulge, and BujsitoriF was in danger of being 
 fupplanted by Ovid. He turned philofopher: but 
 it was in vain ; felf-expoftulation w^ ufelefs ; and 
 the weil-raeditated refoiutions of a day were often 
 put to flight i» a moment. But one ftep remained 
 to be taken : he embraced it ; and, with more 
 hardihood than is often neceffary to obtain a vic- 
 tor}'^, founded a retreat. He had made, perhaps 
 too haftily, his vow of religious celibacy, and its 
 fanftity was not to be trifled with. Of two evils 
 he had ft;ill the confolation to think that he had 
 chofen the leafl '; and with much reluftance of 
 heart, but an approving and fuftaining confcience, 
 he abruptly broke away from the delightftd fhades 
 and the more delightful converfations of Tweed- 
 dale, in lefs than two years after his arrival there ; 
 and leaving behind him a beautiful but confidential 
 little poem, and as fuch not to be communicated 
 in the prefent narrative*, entitled The Cmfejfional^ 
 addreflied to the fair yet innocent author of 
 his misfortunes, he once more took leave of his 
 native country, and tried to forget himfelf amidft 
 the greater varieties and volatilities of Paris *. 
 
 * If 1 had not received explicit information upon this fub- 
 jeft, I (hould have regarded it with at leaft foma degree of 
 
• SI 
 
 In this alternating region of wit and folly,, of 
 diffipation and letters, he continued for about 
 eight or nine months, beloved with an equal de- 
 gree of warmth by his former friends, but in- 
 capable for fome time of making any ferious im- 
 provement in literature or criticifm of any kind. 
 Paris however, which had never pleafed him much, 
 now pleafed him far lefs than before ; and having 
 gradually obtained the felf-poffeffion he had been 
 in purfuit of, an effefl: produced rather perhaps by 
 time and diftance, than by the. operation of any 
 other caufe, he direfted his courfe homeward, 
 and once more arrived in North Britain in the 
 j^ring of 1 769 ; after having, notwithftanding his 
 general liftleflhefs for ftudy, made a variety of 
 very valuable extrads on biblical criticifm from 
 the public libraries of the city. 
 
 fcepticifm ; for the earl of Buchan, who was at this time 
 intimately acquainted both \irith lord Traquaire and Dr. 
 Geddes, and who reveres the memory of the latter with as 
 fond an atFeftion as any friend who has furvived him, does 
 not remember the exiftence of any fuch penchant. I am 
 informed, however, that it was at this time locked up in the 
 hofom of Mr. Geddes himfelf, and was only communicated to 
 the fair objeft of it on the moment of his quitting her. 
 
32 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 3Ir. Geddes accepts the charge of a catholic congregation 
 at Aucbinhalrig— 'builds a new chapel and. parfon- 
 age-boufe—bis damejiic employments and popularity 
 among his Jlock—bis connexions ivitb many pro- 
 tejants of rank and literature— his pecuniary embar- 
 rajfmentsy and the afjijtance afforded him by the late 
 duke of Norfolk — takes a fmall farm — ereSs a new 
 chapel at Fbticbabers — is again involved in difficulties 
 —commences poet, and publifhes a trariflation offele& 
 fatires from Horace — is engaged to inJiruH lady 
 Findluter in the Englifb Lilguage — becomes ac- 
 quainted with Mr. Buchanan, and oecajionally attends 
 upon bis mtniflry — is reproved by hifhop Hay, and at 
 length depofed from his paftorol office. He qu:ts Au- 
 cbinhalrig, to the great regret of bis congregation — 
 is created do3or of laius by the aniverfity of Aber- 
 deen. A. D. 1769 — 1779. 
 
 J.N returning a fecond time to his native country, 
 Mr. Geddes dared not entruft himfelf to the fafci- 
 nating fpot, or re-engage in the domeftic fituation 
 from which, in the preceding year, he had found 
 it fo neceffary.to fly. He accepted th§refore of the 
 charge of a catholic congregation at Auchinhalrig 
 in the county of Banff, not far diftant from ^he 
 place of his nativity. This congregatidh, though 
 numerous, laboured under a variety of difadvan- 
 
33 
 
 tages, and at the time in which the fubjefl:. of this 
 biography was elefted to the paftoral office, was 
 equally diininifhing in zeal and number. The 
 members of whom it confuted w^rb'for the mofl 
 part poor, their chapel was in a ftate of irreparable 
 dilapidation, the condition of the parfonage houfe 
 was but little bettei*, and the mofl unchriftian ran- 
 cour had long fubfifted between themfelves and 
 their more wealthy as well as more numerous 
 brethren of the proteftant community. 
 
 Never was there a man better qualified for cor- 
 refting the whole of thefe evils than Alexander 
 Geddes,and never did man' apply himfelf with more 
 ardour to their removal. Aftivity and liberality 
 were indeed the charafteriftic principles of his foul: 
 much worldly prudence he never poffeffed ; but 
 his heart overflowed with the milk of human kind- 
 nefs, and his nerves, when in their utmofl ftate of 
 difeafed irritability, ftill vibrated with benevolence. 
 He propofed that the old chapel fhould be pulled 
 down ; he projedted a new one ; he rebuilt it on 
 the fpot which the former had occupied. He re- 
 paired the dilapidations of the parfonage-houfe; he 
 ornamented it with frelh improvements, and ren- 
 dered it one of the pleafanteft and moft convenient 
 in his country. He not only, indeed, fuperintended 
 thefe buildings, but laboured at them himfelf, being 
 as ready a carpenter, and as expert in the ufe of the 
 faw and the plane, as , if he had been profeflfedly 
 
 D 
 
brought up to the trade. Gardening and carpen- 
 tering were in reality at all times favourite amufe- 
 ments with him ; they conftituted his chief relaxa- 
 tions from the feverity of ftudy to the laft moment 
 of his life; andlhave frequently ralliedhim,when at 
 work, upon the multiplicity of his tools, which, in 
 the article of planes of different mouldings, were 
 more numerous than thofe of many profeffed artifts, 
 and on the dexterity with which he handled them. 
 To his humble but neat and hofpitable cottage, 
 it is to be ekpefted therefore that he added the 
 luxury of a good garden. Mr. Geddes had drawn 
 his knowledge of botany rather from practice than 
 theory, which neverthel^fs he had not altogethei* 
 Jieglefted. Satisfied with the indigenous bounties 
 as well as beauties of nature, he did not largely 
 feek for exotic ornaments ; nor would the paucity 
 of his means have admitted of any confiderable 
 indulgence in this refpeft, had he even poffeffed 
 the inclination. But his flower-, his fruit-, and his 
 kitchen-garden, though little boaftful of foreign 
 produftions, were each of them perfefl: Jn its 
 kind, and the admiration of his flock, who were 
 generoufly fupplied, according to their refpedive 
 wants, from the abundance it afforded: 
 
 . i . . dapibus tnenfas onerabat ineinptis. 
 
 ViRG. Georg. iv. 133. 
 
 He piled their tables with unpurchafed ftoref. 
 
S5 
 
 Never indeed was there a man more liberal in 
 diffufing to others the little of which he, was 
 poffeffed than himfelf ; never was a prieft better 
 beloved by the members cf his congregation. I 
 did not know him myfelf till many years after- 
 tvards ; but I have been credibly informed by a 
 Variety of perfons who did know him at the time 
 We are now fpeaking of, and were' intimately 
 acquainted with his fituation, that he feemed to 
 live in the hearts of every one of his hearers, that 
 his kindneifs and affability excited theii" affec- 
 tion, his punftilious attention to the duties of 
 his office their veneration, and his extenfive repu- 
 tation for learning their implicit confidence in his 
 opinions. 
 
 I have faid that at the time of his fixing at 
 Auchinhalrig he found a high degree of rancour 
 and illiberality fubfifting, and mutually fomented, 
 between his own congregation and the furround- 
 ing community of proteftants. -To corred: this 
 gvil, than which a greater cannot exift, nor one 
 more hoftile to the fpirit of the facred pages 
 to which both parties reciprocally appeal, he 
 laboured with all his might. By an extenfive 
 ftudy and a deep knowledge of ecclefiaftical hif- 
 tory, he had freed himfelf completely from the 
 bigotry which ftill attaches in no inconfiderable 
 
S6 
 
 degree to the more ignorant of hisownperfuafion. 
 He knew as ' well, and was ready to admit as 
 largely, as. any proteftant whatever, the alter- 
 nate fyftems of force and fraud by which the fee 
 of R9me has endeavoured to obtain an unjuft 
 temporal fupremacy over the great body of the 
 catholic church Itfelf, to enflave the confciences^ 
 of the laity to its own views of peculation and 
 power, and to exercife in a variety of highly im- 
 portant concerns an authority which had never 
 been officially conceded to it, and concerning 
 which the reader will meet with a more detailed 
 account when we advance to an analyfis of the 
 controverfial writings into which he was ftiortly 
 afterwards compelled. Free and independent in. 
 his ovm mind, he took the facred Scriptures alone 
 as his ftandard of faith, and exhorted every mem- 
 ber of his congregation to do the fame, to fludy 
 for himfelf, to interpret for himfelf, and to fub- 
 mit to no foreign control, excepting in matters 
 fairly decided by the catholic church at large 
 affembled in general councils. He could ridicule 
 the infallibility of the pope, and laugh at images 
 and relics, at rofaries, fcapulars, agnusDeis, bleffed 
 medals, indulgences, obiits and dirges, as much as 
 the moft inveterate proteftant in his neighbour- 
 hood, Sfad. coulci as abundantly abhor the old- 
 
. 87 
 
 fafliioned and Iniquitous do£trIne, that faith ought 
 not to be held with heretics. Claiming the fulleft 
 liberty of confcience for himfelf, he was ever ready 
 to extend it in an equal degree to others, and could 
 therefore with the utmoft cordiality embrace the 
 proteftant as well as the catholic. Honefty of 
 heart was the only paflfport neceffary to enfure 
 his efteem, and where this was confpicuous he 
 never hefita.ted to offer the right hand of fellow- 
 Ihlp. 
 
 By fuch a condu£t he could not fail of foften- 
 ing that rigid difinclinatlon to affociate, which ope- 
 rated as a wall of partition between the proteftauts 
 and catholics of Scotland ; while it enabled him 
 to eftablifh many of his clofell literary connexions, 
 as well as moft Intimate alliances, amongft feveral 
 ofthemofl diftlngulflied charadters of the former 
 perfuafion. Of thefe may be enumerated the 
 duke and duchefs of Gordon, who fpqnt a great 
 part of every fummer at Gordon caftle in his 
 immediate vicinity, and who became clofely at- 
 tached to him, and contributed very largely to 
 the happlnefs of his fituatioii ; the venerable 
 earl of Buchan, count Murray of Melgum, lord 
 FIndlater, principal Robertfon, Drs. Reid and 
 FIndlay of Edinburgh, Dr. Beattle of Aberdeen, 
 and indeed almpil all the prpfeflbrs of this celei 
 
38 
 
 brated univeriity ; and paiticularly the reverend 
 Mr. Crawford, a very worthy prelbyterian clergy- 
 man of -an adjoining parifli, and a brother or 
 coufin of that juftly celebrated philofopher and 
 phyfician the late Dr. Crawford of Lincoln's Inn- 
 Fields, who has contributed fo largely to a know- 
 ledge of the animal oeconomy by his valuable trea- 
 tife on animal heat. 
 
 But though -he had the pleafure of difperfing 
 many of the prejudices, and of melting into chrif- 
 tian charity many of the hearts of his own cdngre- 
 gatlon, he was fo far from influencing the great 
 body of furrounding papifts, and efpecially thofe 
 of the priefthood, to imbibe his opinions, and de? 
 viate with an equal degree of boldnefs from the 
 vulgar creed,- that a violent hue and cry was raifed 
 againft him for his liberality ; an epiftolary, and, 
 I believe, a printed correfpondence was entered 
 into between bilhop Hay, his diocefan, and him- 
 felf ; from which, however, as it was never pub- 
 lilhed, I am not at liberty to make any quota- 
 tion ; and he was menaced with the pains of 
 fufpenfion from his ecclefiaftical duties, unlefs he 
 became more circumfpeft as to his conduQ: and 
 converfation, and efpecially as to his occafional 
 attendance upon the miniftrations of his frigid 
 Mr. Crawford, Little did fuch bigots knoAj? 
 
39 
 
 the fpirit of the man they were oppofing, and 
 how impoffible it would have been for all the tor- 
 tures of a Portuguefe inquifition to have made him 
 retrafl; his opinions, or deviate in any refpefl; from 
 a conduft fandioned alike by his religion and his 
 reafon. He defpifed the menaces of the haughty 
 prelate, and they were not at this time carried 
 into executioii. 
 
 Still, however, he was not happy; his heart was 
 afflided by the ^injurious treatment he thus met 
 with, and he grieved for the illiberality of his cleri- 
 cal brethren. But this was not his fple, nor eveii 
 his chief caufe of anxiety of mind. The fcanty 
 income to which he was limited, deflroyed every 
 hope he had for ye^rs indulged of offering to the 
 public a new and more correO: tranflation of the 
 Bible : he was ftill without a patron and without a 
 library, which were equally indifpenfable for the un^ 
 dertakittg : and, mortifying as it mull have been to 
 him, he appears in confequence hereof to have re- 
 linquifhed every profpeft of accomplifhing it,aild to 
 hiave banifhed the very idea from his mind- There 
 was alfo another evil he was doomed to fuftainj 
 and which proceeded in like manner from the 
 narrowrtefs Sf his finances. In prpjedlingithe re- 
 building of his chapel, and the improvements of 
 his own houfe, he relied with too fanguine a con,'. 
 
40 
 
 fidence upon the pecuniary affiftance of perfons of 
 his own perfuafion. He was difappointed in his ex- 
 pedbations; and having become perfonally refpon- 
 fible for the different debts contrafted, he. found 
 himfelf in no fmall degree embarraffed and dif- 
 treffed. To aflume the chara£ter of a public 
 beggar, did not accord with the independence of 
 his foul ; but without fome confiderable contri- 
 bution it was irnpoffible to refift the demands that 
 were perpetually urged againft him. Here, how- 
 ever, he became more fortunate, and in a way 
 that could not fail of gratifying him to the utmoft. 
 The late duke of Norfolk,, who occafionally vifited 
 and refided upon a large family-eflate in Cumber- 
 land, and who was himfelf a catholic, had heard 
 of the zeal, liberality and learning of the prieft of 
 Auchinhalrig,andexpreffed a wifh for his acquaint- 
 ance, An interview fhortly enfued, through the 
 medium of lord Traquaire ; and upon the firft in- 
 timation of the difficulties in which he was, in^ 
 volved, his grace took the deficit upon himfelf, 
 and extricated our unfortunate fpeculator froni 
 |:he troubles that befet him. 
 
 Being now completely relieved from every pe- 
 cuniary diftrefs, he >vas refolved to guard againft 
 gi fimilar evil by getting before hand with the 
 lyorjd J and for this purpofe, tothe fpiritual charge 
 
41 
 
 of his church he added the temporal care of afmall 
 farm at Enzie in Fouchabers, in the immediate vi- 
 cinity of Auchinhalrig ; and having been, accom- 
 modated with a fufficient loan of money to flock it, 
 he fet to work with his ufual ardour and con- 
 fidence, and expefted in a few years, as his per- 
 fonal wants were inconfiderable and eafily fatis- 
 fied, to reaUze what would to him be an inde- 
 pendent fortune. And fo far had the golden 
 dream of fuccefs, takeii poffeffion of his mind, 
 that, in the defire of making the benefits of his 
 religion cdmnxenfurate with his worldly profperity, 
 he a£tually planned, and. with but little foreign 
 affiftance ereSed, a fecond chapel at Fouchabers, 
 on the vgry borders of his farm-hbule ; which, 
 though fmall in its dimenfions, was equally neat 
 and commodious, and where he propofed to offi- 
 ciate as well as at Auchinhalrig. ' 
 
 Men of letters are but feldom men of figures, and 
 the pofTefTor of genius is perhaps never more out df 
 his element than when he plunges into the calcula^ 
 tions of the eounting-houfe. Mr. Geddes's treafures 
 werenpt of the counting-hdufe defcription, aiid he 
 was never deftined to be rich. Money he could bor- 
 row, and his farm he could flock : but he could 
 not command the feafons ;, nor could he, which is 
 an affair of much greater fa9ilityi command that 
 
42 
 
 time and attention which, are indifpenfably necef- 
 fary in the commencement- of every new under- 
 taking, and efpecially of an undertaking in which 
 the projeftor has but little perfonal fkill. He had 
 been long in the habit of devoting the greater part 
 of his time and talents to concerns of a very differ- 
 ent defcription ; and whatever might be the pro- 
 fpeft of gain with which he fondly flattered him- 
 felf, he could not .break off a habit he had fo long 
 indulged and fo pertinacioufly adhered to. It was 
 in or about the year 1 775 that he ventured to com- 
 mence agriculturift ; and in the year 1 778, from a 
 perpetual. fucceflion of unpropitiokts harvefts, he 
 found himfelf not only incapacitated from paying 
 the arrears ftill due upon the chapel at Foucha- 
 bers, but from an accumtilation of undifcharged 
 interefl upon the money borrowed to complete his 
 farming flock, in a ftate of embairafTment nearly 
 equal to that fi"om which his grace of Norfolk had 
 relieved him but a few years before. 
 
 His native good humour and amenity of dif» 
 pofition ftill however adhered to him. His daily 
 motto feenas to have been that of the FreAQh poetj 
 
 Si fortune me tormente, 
 L'efperance me conteiite j 
 
 tod being completely foiled in the labours of hJs 
 Jiands, he was determined %o try Vhether thofe of 
 4 
 
43 
 
 his head might not be more produdlve. It cannot be 
 fuppofed, that although a reclufe, and clofely Ihut 
 lip in a nook df the iiland but little known to fame, 
 Alexander Geddes fhould be as ignorant of what 
 was tranfpiring in the worjd as Alexander Selkirk 
 in the ifland of- Juan Femandes. He had been an 
 attentive aDad even a critical obferver of men and 
 manners ; and viewing them from a diftance, and 
 free from the infectious fever of the multitude, 
 he was perhaps more competent to draw a corred 
 fketch of them than if he had been in the centre 
 pf the fcene, and partaken of the general tumult: 
 
 'Tis pleafant through the loop-holes of retreat 
 To peep at fuch a w;orld j to fee the ftir 
 Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd ; 
 To hear the roar (he fends through all her gates 
 At a fafe dlflance, where the dying found 
 Falls a foft murmur on th' uninjured ear. 
 
 Mr. Geddes had for a long time not only thus noti, 
 ced the tranfadions of his, contemporaries, but had 
 frequently endeavoured to defcribe them ; and, 
 taking Pope for his example, to defcribe them by 
 an adaptation, of the fatires of Horace to his own 
 time. We have now therefore to trace him in 
 a new charader, that of a poet ; a charafter 
 which he had occalionally indeed affumed before, 
 though he has left us few fpecimens of his earlier 
 produftioRs, 
 
44 
 
 The publication I now refer to, the firft in order 
 of time of all his writings which have fallen into 
 my hands, was printed in the enfuing year 1779, 
 and entitled " Selefl: Satires of Horace tranllated 
 into Englifli Verfe, and for the moll part adapted 
 to the prefent Times and Manners." To this title 
 he fubfixed his name; a condud. he did not 
 always purfue, and which in many inllances dif- 
 covered his prudence. Thefe fatires are nine in 
 number, and comprife the firft four and the eighth 
 of book. I. and the fecond, fourth, fifth and feventh 
 of book II. of the original. They were not writ- 
 ten, at leaft not all of them, upon the fpur of the 
 moment, but had occafionally occupied his pre- 
 vious leifure, and been gradually accumulating to 
 the date of their publication. " Early in life," 
 fays he, in ^ fhort prefa^qe by which they were 
 ufhered into the world, " fpme d^mon whifpered 
 me that I had a turn for poetry. I readily, per- 
 haps too readily, believed him. I wrote, was pleaf- 
 ed with my produdHons, and now begin to publifh 
 them in hopes of pleafing others. In tranflating I 
 have followed a medium between a clofe literal 
 verfion and a loofe pvaphraie. I have not wil- 
 lingly omitted any of Horace's thoughts, but I 
 have clothed them as well as I could in a modem 
 drefs. I vnftied it tp be the Roman foul trans^ 
 
45 
 
 fiifed into a Britilh body. I have preferred the 
 Hudibraflic meafure for two reafons: firft, becaufe, 
 from the quick returns of ryme, it is lefs apt to 
 be clogged in its march by expletives and un- 
 meaning epithets/; and fecondly, becaufe I always 
 thought it much fitter to exprefs thejermo pedejiris, 
 the plain and pomplefs manner of Horace, than 
 our more folemn verfes of ten fyllables." 
 
 Our author, however, was not the firft who 
 thought in this manner, although he alludes to 
 no archetype: for Swift had preceded him in the 
 fame mode of verfification; and Pope, as is well 
 iMiown, had in many inftances purpofely imitated 
 Swift. The decifion itfelf may perhaps admit of 
 a doubt, fince the perfedlion exhibited in either 
 ftanza is probably rather the refult of a predilec- 
 tion for fuch ftanza, and hence of increafed facility, 
 of compofition, than of any neceflary advantage 
 which the one maintains over the other. In Swift, 
 who preferred the Ihorter verfe, we have, I admit, 
 an equal portion of concentration and eafe; but 
 we have not lefs of either in Churchill oi' Cowper, 
 the latter of whom v/as unifoi;mly, and the former 
 occafionally, addifted to the longer line. Thus 
 again in Pope, who like Churchill has indulged 
 with fimilar readinefs in each, it is almoft impoffible 
 to exercife a choice ; and perhaps the celebrated 
 
46 
 canon which IS applied by Pope hitnfelf, and, m 
 the opinion of many, objeftionably, to the-fubjed 
 of political governments, may here be advanced 
 with far more pertinence and general confent. 
 
 Whatever 's beft adminiftered is beft. 
 
 Mr, Geddes, I fully believe, made' the beft choice 
 for himfelf, and in this choice he certainly has not 
 been iinfuccefsful. , His verfification poffeffes all 
 the eafe we could defire, and in this refpeO: ha^ 
 frequently the advantage of his predeceffors ; but 
 in his wifli to appear eafy he is often carelefs and 
 incondite, occafionally indeed vulgar; atid in 
 his endeavour to avoid " being clogged with ex- 
 pletives," he too frequently- fuppreffes the article 
 itfelf : an elifion, I well know, from repeated con- 
 verfations with him upon the fubjeft," of which he 
 much difapproved in the latter years of his life. 
 For the moft part he has, neverthelefs, very 
 thoroughly transftifed, to adopt hisownphrafeok)* 
 gy, " the Roman's foul into a Britifh body j" and 
 Horace, were he confeious of the tranfmigration, 
 could have no reafon to repent of his new tene-' 
 liient. From the lift of fatires I have given, it is 
 obvious that he wais generally careful to avoid 
 direft competition with Mr. Pope ; though he has 
 injitated him in addreffing the generality of them 
 
47 
 
 to fome particular friend, fome literary or exalteii- 
 charadter ; and in one inftance, to wit, the/econd 
 of book II., he has ventured to beconie a rival. 
 From the latter part of this fatire I fhall feleft aft 
 example of the whole ; and that the reader may- 
 be the better enabled to appreciate the value of 
 his poetic talents in this line, I fhall contraft it^with 
 the fame paffage as tranflated by Mr. Pope, and 
 add the orrginal Latin at the foot of the page. 
 Of his friend Mr. Crawford I have already fpoken; 
 the allufion Is truly happy ; and, in correlpond- 
 ence with the Roman bard, has an advantage over 
 his antagonift. Indeed Geddes is at all times a 
 clofer copyift than Pope, and as a tranflator may 
 therefore be much more fully depended upon by 
 the Englifh reader. The termination is very cor- 
 red ; though in the fix or eight lafl lines d£ Mr. 
 Pope's verlion, there is an energy and fpirit which 
 are perhaps equally fuperior to Flaccus and Ged- 
 des, and afford a deviation of tvhich no one can 
 repent. 
 
48 
 
 GEDDES. 
 Thus Crawford preached : nor was there aught 
 But what he pra£lifed, as he taught ; 
 1 've known him in his better days. 
 When fortune flied her kindly rays, 
 Ufing the felf-fame moderation 
 As in his prefent- humbler ftation. 
 
 See ! where he fits, in fober ftate. 
 At yonder little cottage gate j 
 And, mid his playful children, fmokes 
 His pipe, and cracks his honed jokes. 
 "'Tis known (he ftys, and fmiles) that I 
 Was never given to luxury : 
 On common days, my common cheer 
 Was beans and bacon, bread an^ beer j 
 But when a long-expeiEled friend 
 , Came weary off his journey's end, 
 Or bufinefs, bargain, or bad weather 
 Bropght neighbours, two or three, together j 
 I did not fend, exprefs, to town 
 To fetch your dainty filhes down > 
 But kid, or dapon, if I.hadit, 
 Were to the ufual quantum added. 
 With fruits the table next was fraught. 
 Such as the foil and feafon brought ; 
 
 ■ HORACE, Sat. ii, 2. 
 Quo magis his credaa : puer hunc ego parvus Ofelluiti 
 Integ'ris opibus novi non latins u'fum, 
 Quam nunc accifis. Videas metato in agello 
 Cum pecore et natis fortem mercede colonum, 
 •' Non ego, narrantem, temere edi luce profeit^ 
 Quidquam praeter olus fumofa: cura pede pernse. 
 Ac mihi feu longum puft tempus venerat hofpes. 
 
49 
 POPE; , ^ 
 
 Thus Bethel fpoke, who always fpeaks hia thought, 
 
 And always thinks the very thing he ought : 
 
 His equal mind'I copy what I can, 
 
 And) as I love, would imitate the man. 
 
 In South-Sea days not happier, when furmifed 
 
 The lord of thoufands, than iiiu>yn exeifed ; 
 
 In foreft planted by a father's hand. 
 
 Than in five acres now of rented land. 
 
 Content with little, I can piddle' here 
 
 On broccoli and mutton- round the yearj 
 
 But ancient friends (though poor or out of play) 
 
 That touch my bell, I cannot tjirn away. 
 
 'Tis true, no turrets dignify my-boards, 
 
 But gudgeons, flounders^ what my Thames affords. 
 
 To Hounilow- heath I point, and Panfted-down ; 
 
 Thence comes your mutton, and thefe chicks ray own ! 
 
 jFrom yon old walnut-tree a fliower Ihall fall. 
 
 And grapes, long lingering on my only wall ; 
 
 And figs from ftandard and efpalier join,— 
 
 ^|!'he devil is in you if yo)^ C9nt),ot dine. 
 
 HORACE. 
 
 Sive operum vacuo gratus conviva per imbrem 
 Vicinus y tene erat, non pifcibus urbe petitis, 
 Sed pullo atque hsedo: turn penfilis uva fecundas, 
 Et nux ornabat menfas cum duplice ficu. 
 Poft hoc ludus erat cupp4 potare magiftra ; 
 Ac venerata Ceres, ut culmo furgeret altoj 
 Explicuit vino contraftas feria frontis. 
 
 Sffiviat, atque novos moveat fqrtuna tutnultug j 
 Quantum hinc imminuet ? quanto aut ego parcius, aut vos, 
 
 £ 
 
50 
 
 GEDDES, 
 Thdp thanks and praife were duly given 
 To all-providing, bounteous Heaven j 
 A cheerful humper crowned the day, 
 And drove our killing cares away. 
 
 Let Fortune new encroachments make j 
 How little from me can fhe take 1 
 Have you, my children, felt her hand 
 More heavy fince we loft our land ? 
 What though thefe, fields I once could claim 
 ^t prefent bear another's name ? 
 By nature, neitber he nor I 
 Has any lafting property. 
 Lord Umbra drove me from my place j 
 Him, too, another foon fliall chafe ; ' - i 
 Himfelf (hall be his own undoing. 
 Or dubious law-fuits work his ruin : 
 At beft, and fpite of all his care. 
 He muft reiign it to his heir. 
 
 Therefore be brave in every flate. 
 And laugh at Fprtune and at Fate. 
 
 HORACE:. 
 O pucrl', nituiftis, ut hue novus incola venit ? 
 Nam propriap tellurig herum natura, neque ilium. 
 Nee me, nee quemquam llatuit. N05 expulit ille j. 
 Ilium aut nequities, aut vafri infcitia juris, 
 Poftrerao expellet certe vivacior haeres. 
 Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli 
 f)iftus, erit nulli proprius : fed cedet in ufurn 
 Nunc mihi, nunc alii. Quocirca vivite fortes; 
 fprtiaque adverfis opponite pedgra rebiis. 
 
'51 
 
 POPE. I 
 
 Then cheerful healths (your miftrefs fhall have place,) 
 And, what's more rare, a poet (hall fay grace. 
 
 Fortune not much of humbling me can boafk ; 
 Though double taxed, how little have I loft ! 
 My life's amufements have been jjift the fame 
 Before and after (landing armies came. 
 My lands are fold, my father's houfe is gone. 
 I '11 hire another's: is not that my own. 
 And yours, my friends ? through whofe free opening gate 
 None comes too early, none departs too late. 
 (For I, who hold fagc Homer's rule the beft. 
 Welcome the coming, fpeed the going gueft.) 
 *' Pray heaven it laft ! (cries Swift) as you go on ; 
 " I wifli to God this houfe had been your own! 
 " Pity ! to build without a fon or wife : 
 " Why, you'll enjoy it only a)l your life." 
 Well, if the uft be mine, can it concern one 
 Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon ? 
 What 's property ? Dear Swift ! you fee it alter 
 From you to me, from me to Peter Walter j 
 Or, ifa a mortgage, prove a lawyer's fliare j 
 ' Or, in a jointure, vanifli from the heir : 
 Or, in pure equity (the cafe not clear). 
 The Chancery takes your rents for twjsnty year. 
 At belt it falls to fome ungracious fon. 
 Who cries " My father's damned, and all 's my own." 
 Shades that td Bacon could retreat afford 
 Become the portion of a booby lord j 
 And Helmflcy, once proud Buckingham's delight. 
 Slides to a fcrivener, or a city knight. 
 Let lands and houfeshave what lords they will, 
 Let us be jixed and our own. mailers ftill. 
 
52 
 
 The publication of thefe fatires, which were neatly 
 printed in quarto, conftituted one of the moft for- 
 tunate adventures upon which the worthy prieft 
 of Auchinhalrig had hitherto fpeculated, and far 
 exceeded the profits of his agricultural concerns. 
 Towards the conclufion of his preface he infornis 
 his readers, " If what I now pubHfli fhould hapr 
 peij to be well deceived, the reft of the fatires 
 may poffibly foon follow, on the fame plan, and in 
 the fame form." This intention, however, he 
 never executed ; yet not from want of fuc^refs, 
 as the paflage may feem to implicate, but from a 
 multiplicity of other occupations into which he 
 fhortly afterwards plunged, and which totally ab- 
 forbed his time and diverted his attention. His 
 impreffion of this eifort of his genius, on the con- 
 trary, which ext9n4ed to feven hundred and fifty 
 copies, procured for him a clear gain of i^early one 
 hundred pounds fterling ; a fum which he received 
 not only with exultation, but Avith admiration at 
 his own good fortune. This he duly applied to the 
 liquidation of his arrears ; and having been alfo 
 fortunate enough to receive additional affiftance 
 from feveral other quarters, which he directed to 
 the fame objeft, he once more found himfelf com- 
 pletely refcued from the difficulties in which, for a 
 fecond time, the natural ardour and benevolence of 
 his mind had involved him. 
 
 The feries of calamities, however, which he ha4 
 
53 
 
 fuftamed for nearly ten years, during the whole 
 period he had refided at Enzie and Auchini* 
 halrig, and the experience he had now acquired 
 that his pen was more Ukely to be of fervice to 
 him than his plough, determined him to relinquilh 
 his retirement, and to try what fuccefe his abilities 
 might obtain for, him in London: although fuch 
 was his attachment to his flock, that I much quef- 
 tion whether he would have realized his determi- 
 nation, had not another circumilance occurred 
 which gave additional vigour to it. Upon the 
 marriage of lord Findlater with the daughter of 
 count Murray pf Melgum, Mr. Geddes was foli- 
 cited to inftruft the fair bride in the Englifli lan- 
 guage, and readily accepted the taflc. He now 
 formed an intimate acquaintance with the re- 
 verend Mr. Buchanan, who had been preceptor to 
 his lordfliip, and was fo delighted with his good 
 fenfe and liberality of heart, that he occalionally 
 attended upon his miniftry in the church at 
 CuUen. The indignation of bifliop^ Hay was 
 again excited upon a knowledge of this fafl: : he 
 at firfl; expoftulated, but foon found that expoftu- 
 lation was vainly urged- againfl; a man whofe con- 
 fcience djd not accufe him of offence : from ex- 
 poflulation the irritated prelate advanced to acri- 
 nionious rebuke, and menaces of fufpenfion : thefe 
 were equally difregarded. There remained but 
 
54 
 
 one.more ftep to fihifli the climax ; it was, to put 
 his threats into execution. Mr. Geddes expefted 
 it, and he was not difappointed : he vras aftually 
 depofed from his office, and prohibited from preach- 
 ing within the extent of bifhop Hay's diocefe, a 
 fhort time after he had received the menace. 
 
 This event gave an irrevocable ftamp to his de- 
 clfion of quitting his native country. He freely 
 communicated his refolution and the double caufe 
 of it to both his congregations, who received it 
 with an equal mixture of anger and afHiftion of 
 heart. Neverthelefs, the profpeQ; that their beloved 
 paftor would derive advantage from his leaving 
 them confoled them in fome degree for the great 
 and irremediable lofs they were about to fuftain. 
 Towards the end of the prefent year ( 1 779), there- 
 . forcj he took a nioft affetSaonate leave of them ; 
 gud fuch was the enthufiaftic regard with which 
 his courteoufnefs, his kindnefs, his perpetual at- 
 tention to the duties of his office, and efpecially 
 to the inftr^Qiion of the younger branches of his 
 flock, had infpired them, that, at the fale of his 
 houfehold goods at Enzie, every one preffed for- 
 ward to teflify, by an extravagant Hdding, his 
 Veneration and love, as well as to obtain poffef- 
 lion of fome monument of a man whofe name and 
 charafler were fo juftly dear to them. I am told, 
 by a lady who was prefent upon the occafion, that 
 
55 
 
 themoft infignificant articles of furniture, even cups 
 and faucers, though imperfeft or broken, were 
 caught at with' the utmoft avidity ;. and thait the' 
 people appeared to prize the different lots they 
 were fortunate enough to procure, rather as relics 
 of a patron faint than as memdrials of a beloved 
 paftor. 
 
 Nor were the catholics, or rather the inhabit- 
 ants at large of the parifhes of Fouchabers and Au- 
 chirihalrig, the only perfons who manifefted any 
 regard for Mr. Geddes at the time of his depar- 
 ture. His learning was well knbwn throughout 
 Scotland: he had, as I have already obferved, 
 contrafted an intimate acquaintance with many of 
 the literati of Aberdeen ; and the univerfity of this 
 city now ftepped. forwards with a liberality highly 
 creditable to itfelf, and in the beginning of the en- 
 fuing year ( 1 Y80) granted him a diploma, by which 
 he was created doftor of laws. 
 
 The national eftablifliments of Scotland, and 
 even the univerfity profeffdrs themfelves, have gene- 
 rally been accufed of a narrow and bigoted fpirit, 
 not only in England but upon the continent. Of 
 late years', however, the accufation has been cer- 
 tanily unjuft : the prefent inftance of conferring a 
 diploma of doftor of laws upon a catholic prieft is 
 a fufficient exoneration of the profeffors and univer- 
 
56 
 
 fity of Aberdeen from fo opprobrious a charge; 
 while, at Edinburgh, it is well known that Mr, 
 Hume, notwithftanding the avowal of his^deiftical 
 principles, was on terms of the moft free and inti-. 
 mate friendlhip with dodiors Roberifon, Stuart, 
 and Reid, as well as with almoft every one of 
 their colleagues or literary affociates. 
 
57 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 tnfiitution of the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Scotland 
 hy the exertions of Dr. Geddes and others — eleded a 
 refident, and afterwards a correfponding ^member — 
 <juits Enzie — arrivis in London in company with lord 
 ' Trdquair£ — officiated as friefi in the Imperial ambaffa- 
 'dor's chapel — is introduced hy the duchefs of Gordon to- 
 lord Petre. — Lord Petre highly approves of the doBor's 
 flan for tranftating tl^e Bible, and patronizes him with 
 an ample f alary, —r-He quits the Imperial chapel, the 
 ejidhli/hment being fupprejl, and officiates occafionally 
 In the chapel in Duke-Jireet, Lincoln's Inn Fields — re~ 
 liifits Scotland, and is again a refident with the earl 
 ef Traquaire—rpuhli/hes his Tweeddale pajloral—the 
 occajion of it. — Riots in Scotland ori account of fir 
 George Saville's bill for relieving papi/ls.— Riots in 
 England on the fame account, — Proteflant affociation 
 headed by lord George Gordon. — Conflagration of the 
 metropolis, — T>r, Geddes writes his Modefl Apology 
 for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain— by the 
 advice of his friends fuppreffes its publication- — replies 
 to Mr. VFilliams's fanatical pamphlet — the pamphlet 
 and reply fhortly examined. A. D. 1779 — 1803. 
 
 In determining to quit his native country, Dr. 
 Geddes did not determine without regret, He 
 had the fincereft Iqve for his congregation, and in 
 the performance 6f his paftoral duty among 
 them he placed his fupreroe delight. Neceffity, 
 
ss 
 
 however, compelled him, and he quitted them 
 amidft a profufion of prayers and tears on their 
 fide, and an honeft and afFeftionate benediflion 
 on his own. There was alfo another circiimftance 
 which ftrongly influenced him at the prefent mo- 
 ment to a longer refidence in his native country. 
 The Society of Antiquaries in Scotland was at 
 this period juft embodied, and Dr, Geddes had 
 taken a very aftive part in the inftitution, as well 
 by his perfonal attendance as by his peh. The laft 
 literary labour, I believe, in which he engaged be- 
 fore he quitted Enzie, was a IXiffertation on the 
 Seoto-Saxon Dialed!;, written exprefsly for this in- 
 fant eftablifhm^nt, and publifhed, in conjunftion 
 with feveral other pieces with which he favoured 
 it, in its volume for 1792. The lofs of fo aftive 
 and able a contributor to its patriotic as well as its 
 literary defigns was feverely felt by the fociety, 
 who unanimoufly eledled him, on his quitting 
 them, a correfponding member; in confequence 
 of which he again refumed his pen, and thanked 
 them for this additional honour conferred on him, 
 in an elegant epiftle in the Scottifli dialefl:, ad- 
 dreflTed to the prefident, who was the earl of 
 Buchan, the vice-prefident, and the members at 
 large*. 
 
 * I am not, I believe, acquainted with all the papsrs he 
 contributed to this learned inAitution ; but, in addition to 
 thofe I have already' mentioned, the vohime pttWilhed in j 792 
 
59 
 
 He now departed from Enzie, devoted a few 
 weeks to viiits of perfonal friendfliip, and in com- 
 pany with lord Traquaire arrived at London in the 
 beginning of the year 1780, where, by the kind 
 exertions of this excellent nobleman, he was foon 
 invited to oiEciate as priefl: in the Imperial amba& 
 fador's chapel. A new fcene was now therefore be- 
 fore him, and one equally gratifying to his talentat 
 and his inclinations. His friend the earl of Buchan 
 was at this period in London, and occupied a 
 houfe in Leicefter-fquare, which was always opea. 
 to him, and where he renewed the happinefe which 
 for a feries of years he had antecedently enjoyed ii| 
 his own country from the courtefy and converla- 
 tion of this illuftrious fcholar. His perfonal wants, 
 however, were but few, and his income was equal 
 to their demand ; his own literary fame, and the 
 complimentary letters of his friends in the North, 
 had . introduced him into an acquaintance with 
 many of the firft Englilh fcholars of the day ; and 
 
 conUins "The firftEklog of Virgil," and "The firft IdylHonof 
 Theocritus, tranfl^titt' into Skottis Vers,", by the fame writer ; 
 in the former of which the Edinburgh diale£l is chiefly imi- 
 tated ; arid in the latter the Buchan, which may be properly 
 called the Scottilh Doric. He alfo compofed a Carmen Secuv 
 lare for the fociety's anniverfary of 1788, which I have never 
 feen, but which the noble prefident afferts, in a letter before 
 me, " will remain to late pofterity as a moft happy fpecimen 
 of his abilities in that mode of writing." 
 
66 
 
 from the unreftrained life of feveral public and 
 private libraries which he found thrown opeij to ■ 
 him, he" was once more feduced into the hope of 
 being able to accomplifh a new tranflation of the 
 Bible. To crown the whole career of his pro- 
 fperity, he now, for the firft time, had the honour 
 of an introduiSion to the late lord Petre, whom 
 he met, by exprefs invitation, at her grace the 
 duchefs of Gordon's, within whpfe hofpitable 
 manfion he had been welcomed, from the moment 
 of his arrival in London, with all the courtefy and 
 friendlinefs he had been accuftomed to receive 
 from the fame noble family when in Scotland. 
 
 The want of a good vernacular verfion of thfe 
 . Bible, for the ufe of Englifti catholics, was an evil 
 which had been long lamented by lord Petre ; 
 and it confUtuted a fource of immediate connexion 
 between himfelf and Dr. Geddes, that, under the 
 patronage of the former and the abilities of the ' 
 latter, fuch a defideratum was how likely to be 
 accomplifhed. The connexion became gradually 
 more clofe and unreftrained, and each, I believe, 
 experienced till the day of his lordfhip's deceafe, 
 which preceded but a few months that of our inde« 
 fatigable bibliaft, an increafmg efteem and attach- 
 ment for the other. 
 
 To enable the docEtorto profecutehis plan with- 
 out any impediment whatfoever, this moft excellent 
 
61 
 
 jiobleman, with an almoft unparalleled generofity, 
 " a princely munificence," as Dr. Geddeshas juftly 
 and emphatically denominated it, engaged to allow 
 hjm a falary of two hundred pounds, and took upon 
 himfelf the entire expenfe of whatever private 
 library the doflior might judge requifite to eftablilh 
 in the profecution of his favourite objefl:, leaving 
 him, in this refpefl:^ indeed, totally unlimited, and 
 mafter of his own condufl:. 
 
 With a heart overloaded with gratitude, and 
 exulting with joy, our biblical ftudent now fet feri- 
 oufly to work in the arrangement of his plan, and in 
 the fame year, 1780, publilhed his firfl imperfect 
 flcetch of it, under the title of an " Idea of a New 
 Verfion of the -Holy Bible, for the Ufa of the Eng- 
 lifh Catholics." I call it an mperfe£i Jketcb, for 
 he has fo admitted it to have been himfelf. It has 
 already been obferved, that the only verfion of 
 the Bible at this time in the hands of the Englilh 
 
 t catholics was Dr. Chaloner's edition of the bar- 
 barous tranflation made at Rheims and Douay; 
 an edition ranodelled on the Clementine Vulgate, 
 and modernized into fomewhat better Englifti, as 
 well as into a more convenient fbrrn. *' It was 
 my prefent intention," fays the doftor, *' to tranC- 
 Jate from the Vulgate, and even to make the 
 JDouay verfion, with' Chaloner's amendments, in 
 
 .|bme refpefts the bafis of mine j and of fuch a 
 
G2 
 
 plan I publilhed a fliort view in 1780, which I 
 called Idea of a New Verfion of the Holy Bible, 
 &c. But I foon found that this was an abfurd 
 idea-, and that, by patching, and piecing what 
 already had been pieced and patched, I ftxould 
 make a ftrange compofition indeed. 
 
 " An entirely new tranflation from the Vulgate, 
 but with fuch correflions as were manifeftly war- 
 ranted, was next in my contemplation, and partly 
 executed. But a very fliort trial convinced me, ' 
 that neither would this method ever produce a 
 tolerable verfion. Had I purfued this method, I 
 muft have been perpetually confronting the Vul- 
 gate with the Originals, and very often correding 
 it by them ; or prefented my readers with a very 
 unfair and imperfefl: reprefentation of the Sacred 
 X'sxt, The former of thefe inconveniences had, 
 I faw, been the fate of thofe latter French, Ger- 
 man, and Italian tranflators, who have taken the 
 Vulgate for tKeir original. In almoft every page, 
 they are making lame apologies for the Latin text, 
 or refcMTning and explaining it from the Hebrew 
 and Greek. Yet, after all fuch explanations and 
 correftions, and notwithftanding the very great 
 freedoms whidh they allow themfelves in render- 
 ing, there is no uniformity of ftyle nor regularity 
 of features in any of their verfions. 
 
 " Nor was this inconvenience to be avoided, 
 
63 
 
 but by firft giving an uniform face to the Latiii: 
 itfelf, as had been before attempted by the catho- 
 lic Clarius, and the proteftant Oleafter. For the 
 great defedt of St. Jerom's verfion is its want of 
 uniformity ; it being fometimes ftrift and fometim^ 
 loofe, now barbaroufly literal, aiid now widely 
 paraphraftic : every tranflation made from it, then, 
 muft partake of this variety. 
 
 *' This is not all. A confiderable part of the 
 Vulgate, including the whole Pfalter, is not St. 
 Jerom's, but a tranflation from a tranflation none 
 of the bell, and moreover contaminated by cor- 
 ruptions that are not in the Greek, from which it 
 was originally made : henCe it is often unintelli- 
 gible. Bellarmine laboured many years, and with 
 much zeal, to remove its obfcurities ; and has in- 
 deed thrown confiderable light on his fubjeS;: 
 but how ? By havirtg conftantly recourfe to the 
 original Hebrew, fuch as he found it in the 
 common maforetic copies of his day. 
 
 *' Yet a ftronger motive than all thefe I had 
 to give up my firft inconfiderate plan. Biblical 
 criticifm had recently taken a new turn, and been 
 carried to a degree of perfe£tion which it had 
 never before attained ; and which, in the old 
 rabbinical fyftem, it- could not attain. The inve- 
 terate prejudices of both catholics and proteftants 
 }iad in a great degree yielded to the dictates of 
 
64 
 
 fpber fenfe. The abfolute authenticity of the 
 Vulgate was generally given up by the former"; 
 and the abfolute integrity of the original text was 
 defended but by few of the latter. The learned 
 of both i.arties were agreed about the expediency 
 of not only correding the errors of tranflators, but 
 of alfo purging, the Originals themfelyes from fuch 
 corruptions as time and the negligence of copyifls 
 had introduced : and both differed but little con- 
 cerning the means" of accomplilhing fo defirable 
 an end. 
 
 " The firft of thefe means was a collation of 
 the raanufcript copies with the printed text,' and 
 of the various editions with one another. By the 
 accumulated labours of Mills, Kufter, Wetflein, 
 Griefbach, and others, this had already been well 
 nigh accompliflied with refpe£t to the New Tefta- 
 ment; and Dr. Kennicott had gone la great length 
 in doing the fame with refpe£l to the Old. De 
 Roffi had greatly contributed toward the- fame 
 laudable purpofe, and almoft completed the work: 
 fo that we have now before us the true prefent ftate 
 of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as of the Greek: 
 and the only difficulty that remains is to diftin- 
 guifli, in fuch a mafs of various readings, the 
 genuine from the fpurious, or the more probable 
 from the Jefs probable. This is the tafk of criti- 
 cifm, and of criticifm only : for no authority on 
 
AS • 
 
 earth can inake a ^text genyine or .fpurious, tli^t 
 was not fiich priginally : nor can the drofs be dif- 
 criminated .frpm the filver but in the crucible of a 
 fevere rational critique : a critique of the Veiy fatt^e 
 nature y(ith,that by -which iwe afcert^iin the true 
 or mG)re probable readings of Homer, Virgil, 
 .MiltQn, Shakfpeare : for why the grammatical 
 errors that have crept ipto .the conipofitions of 
 ,the Jejwifh 'vp'iters .fliould not be corre^ed by the 
 Jame rules, ?is .£^11 other ^nqient compofitipns, is 
 .^hfit.I never could comprehend- 
 
 -" To'tellme that tliere is a manifeft di^rjspre, 
 
 ^arifmg froin'this, that the latter are only, hunian 
 
 woifks, the. former diviiie; is, as J conceive, to 
 
 tell fHie . nothing to thejjurpofe. ^For^^ranting, 
 
 .t?hat I ne^d.not.grapt, tjjat every.f^ijtence, word, 
 
 fyllable, apex ofvthe -^ible ivere qriginally divjnej 
 
 that is to faiy, direftly and immediately infpifed by 
 
 ,the Spirit of God, dpes it hence follow, that they 
 
 j^hpiii'itrti:ajifcribed.thpfe $|:iYine^yinfpired volumes 
 
 ,{rom4:he.aut(^gr3phs,^nd they who copied and re- 
 
 .cppied th,fie. through qvery^age, were likewife di- 
 
 ,yinelyiinfpired ? I , fcar<;ely think, rthat , the greateft 
 
 Jewifli.ftickler for the integrity of the. Hebrew text 
 
 ^will, iat.thisday, niainta^p.fo.ftrange a paradox. 
 
 " pCh||t,^}iF^ffi^°5 iftPJ^^id ^ver have thpnght fo 
 is, tp me, bey&nd,;^ll 'things aftonilhing. For l?t 
 |cne;alk, Js^thje Jewii§bi-cpde,Hipre l^acred-thaath^ 
 
G'6 
 
 Chriflian code? or ,has the Lord God taken 
 more infallible meafures to preferve the defeSlive 
 elemenis of a temporary and local difpenfation, 
 than to preferve the great and ultimate revelation 
 communicated to all mankind by his Angularly 
 beloved Son ? We all knovsr that this fuperior 
 code of laws, though written much later than the 
 other, and tranfmitted in a language more uni- 
 verfaUy known, has neverthelefs been handed 
 down to us with fuch a variety of leftion, as is 
 hardly to be met with in any profane writer. 
 The reafon is obvious: it has been more fre- 
 quently copied' than any other writing, and too 
 often copied by ignorant or carelefs apographifts. 
 " But not to wander from my prefent fubjeft : 
 finding, as I have faid, facred criticifm in a favour- 
 able progrefs towards perfeftion, having before 
 me the various readings of the texts of Scripture, 
 and the feveral verfions made frorh them, with 
 a biblical apparatus (through the princely munifi- 
 cence of lord Petre) which few individuals poflefs: 
 grieved befides, to obferve among the Englifli 
 catholics an dlmoft total want of tafte forbilS- 
 tical ftudies, and wifhing to remove a reproacli, 
 which in proteftant literary companies I had often 
 heard made on that account ; a reproach too well 
 founded' to be repelled : I thought I could not 
 better ferve the caufe of Chriftianity in general. 
 
67 
 
 Uor better confult the particular ifttereft of that 
 body to which I more immediately belonged, thart 
 by employing that, whatfoever, portion of talents 
 which had fallen to my fhare, in attempting a new 
 and faithful tranflation of the Bible from correfited 
 texts of the original, unaccompanied with any 
 glpfe, commentary or annotations, but fuch as 
 werfe neeeflary to afcertain the literal meaning of 
 my text ; and free of every fort of interpretation 
 calculated to eftablifli or defend any particular 
 fyftem of religious credence." 
 
 At the clofe of this y^ar he Ceafed to officiate 
 in his facerdotal charadter in the Imperial am- 
 baflador's chapel, the entire eftabliihment being, 
 at this period, fuppreft by an exprefs order from 
 the emperor Jofeph II. He preached however oc-^ 
 cafionally at the chapel in Duke-ftreet, Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields, arid continued to perform the fame 
 kind of occafional fervice till the Eafter holidays 
 of 1782 ; after which period he found his time fo 
 mtich abforbed by domeftic literature, and efpe- 
 cially by his tranflation; of the Bible, that he vo- 
 luntarily .withdrew from every ftated minifterial 
 funftion, and feldom offiqiated in any ehapd 
 • whatever. >-, 
 
 In the fummer of 1781 he paid a vifit to his 
 friends in Scotland, whofe kindnefs was ftill deeply 
 engraven on his bofom ; and being now freed, by 
 
68 
 
 - diftafice of time, as Well as a variety df other cir- 
 cuiiiftances, from the effedts of a too fufdeptibk 
 heart, he accepted an invitatibft from his'triedffoiaUi 
 and firft patron the €iarl of Tra<jukire, and once 
 more vifited the delightful fcenery of Tweeddale. 
 His lordfllip had at this time Ijecoriie a htifblaiid, 
 and was dn 'the 'point of 'becGrtiiftg ia father : -he 
 had married into the illtiftrioUs family of 'the 
 RavehfcroftSj'and Was aftually bleffed with ail hdr 
 'during the.period of the' doctor's ^ifit. 'Gould he, 
 as a poet, wifh for a more propitious op|x)rtunity df 
 Coiflplimenting his noble hdft and 'ho'ftefs ? The 
 fiibj^ft'of ybung Marcelliis, thoi%% moretra^cal, 
 can fcarcely be conceived to have been iiiofeintereft- 
 'it!^; and though precluded'from'cqiyihgViFgil in 
 his '^heid, he was determined to 'iitlilfate him ih 
 his Eclogues. Pollio 'was the poem liie feleflred- fdr 
 his proto-type: an old prophetic -itiinftM of the 
 country, denominated Thbmas of Lermouftt, hatt 
 'predifted tHat when aft eajgle fhould be the <iff- 
 ■fpring of a raven aiid a rook, joyful tidiiigs ftiould 
 'arife for the bonny men of Tweecidafe. Now it hap- 
 'pened happily enough for our poet, who did not fail 
 'to take advanta^^^f tlie incident, thlat%hiie the fe- 
 cond oi thefe three birds compofed the ^ais of the 
 Ravenfcroft family, the third 'e<Sftflfated't1ie^refl 
 in the armorial bearing^ of the Traquaires ; inde- 
 pendently of which , the vigour^^f Ibe infant offspring 
 
6.9 
 
 ^ die. marriage, \Kag a fortunate ei^ible^ of th? 
 e^let. Tfl}^ ayguffl^nt k th,us ejf- 
 and the y€r(a.til:e. genius of Dx. Ge(l- 
 4es, ^, coni^fti^g thefe ?§3^^$ed. ^^^a ^^W^^ 
 ^ Tweed4aie paftpm^, whi^hj,. ^x the fag^r^at 
 gild feqond titk q£ lug , nojjlg boft, he denomi- 
 nated Linton. In this, as may be fuppofedj^ h^ 
 afferts thfit the prophecy of the old ininftrel 
 was on the point of being acco^plifhed by the 
 birth of the iiii^nt Iq?4 Lin^Qn ; e^;^^ that t|ie. bonny 
 men of Tweeddale would bf in %iU repoffeffion 
 of the golden days of Saturn at the period of his 
 majority; when 
 
 — war an(i difcoj^anii dlQrojs^^W ftr^fg. 
 And all the other w,oss of bumao life. 
 Death, &m(ne, plague, itidrtalitjT} ihallceaf^, 
 And all, be health, and faannony: and peace. 
 
 This amiable tribute pf.friendfhip, if Jt diji not ^ 
 produce to t|ie •writer quite a.s n^^py fefterces as 
 were paid to Virgil for the Gompofitioa of the 
 fixtlj. book of his ^neid, w^s ngt meant to be 
 tljus remunerated. It was a far higjier grati|ica- 
 tion tp our popt that it was received wjth mjich 
 applaufe by the illuftripus pair for wh^m it was 
 4eiigned, and whp immedifitely gaye orders for its 
 being printed at Edinburgh. I cannot, however, 
 fegar4 it ?is Qp,e of the happieft'^effufions c^ the 
 doctor's fancy : bis verMcat^oQ does not po^efs 
 
•70 
 
 his ufual vigour ; his imitations are, for the moft 
 part, devoid of felicity, and in his original ideas 
 he is meagre and enfeebled. Polemics and the 
 Bible, as may be expe£ied, are ftill uppermoft in 
 his mind, and the following verfes may be feledted 
 as a fair fpecimen of the general merit of the 
 poem: 
 
 At length the fun ftarU from Us nuptial led. *, 
 With beams of new-borri radiance round his head ; 
 joyous beffringsi to run tV ethereal courfe. 
 And, Hie a giant, glories in bis forced i 
 The hours and feafons wait upon his nod. 
 And own the empire of the ruling god. 
 
 No more Religion, with fanatic hand, 
 Shall fan the iire of faftion in the land ; 
 But, mild and gentle like her heavenly Sire, 
 No other flames but thofe of love infplre. 
 Papift and proteflant ihall Arive to raife. 
 In different notes, one great Creator's praife. 
 Polemic volumes on their ihelves (hall rot, 
 And Hays apd Abernethies be forgot. 
 
 3uch were uniformly the wiflies of our very liberal 
 ^d coraprehenfive fcholar ; but fuch was not the 
 univerfal wifh of the day in which he thus ex- 
 prefled them, I have already noticed the ani-. 
 mofity which fubfifte4 ip Scotland at the period 
 
 * Tanquam fponfus procedens de thalamo fuo. Pf. xviii, 
 tj- Exultavit, ut gigas, ad currcndanj vianj fuam. Ibid. 
 
n 
 
 of his fixing in Auchinhalrig. In. the year 1778 
 a bill was introduced into the houfe of jcommons 
 ■by that illuftrious charafter fir George Saville, 
 which was intended " to relieve his majefty's fub- 
 jefts profeffing the popifh religion, from certain 
 penalties and difabilides impofed on them by, an 
 aa made in the eleventh and twelfth years of 
 William III." The objed of this liberal inter- 
 ference of the legifiature was to remove merely 
 a part of the very^ heavy and more obnoxious 
 punilhments to which the catholics of Great Bri- 
 tain, were at this time amenable; and to. allow 
 them, upon taking an path of allegiance to the 
 king, renouncing the claims of , the pretender, and 
 denying the power of the pope in all political con- 
 cerns, to enjoy an ujidiftufbed profeffion of their 
 religion, and to purchafe and. bequeath pftates in 
 any part of the Britifh dominions. It is to the 
 praife of the Englifli ckarafter,, that this bill upon 
 its;intrpdu£tion to the legiflatiire received the moll 
 manifeft marks of univerfal approbation, was car- 
 ried wth general confent, and had the profpe£l of 
 being; fpeedily followed by o'ther^ of a more liberal 
 tendency ftill. Such however was not the effe£t 
 it produced in Scotland, upon a report foon after- 
 wards propagated, that the benefit of this a£t was 
 defigned to be extended to that part of the united 
 kingdom. The jealous foul of bigotry was alarmed 
 
at M ittefe id6a- df reHeviiig' piipifts in aiiy ^sey ;^ 
 and its jatindked eye pretended to beihoIiJ itf th^ 
 f fefertt very- cii'cumfcribed- aift of gj'atee,- ar I'^-iri-' 
 ffoduaion' of all tKe pofifli abfwditie^ and' tyran^^ 
 nies of formfer times, are-converfion of the ^feoplei 
 fo the popifh religion, a total def^i'uSibft 6*f th'tf 
 conftitutibii, and a frefh triumph of ffie poftfificial' 
 tiara. With all the fpeed of d6£tricity this- wild 
 a'nd fanatical terror t^sts prbpaigated fronl btrfbiit 
 to bofom, from churth to chutch, from to^Wl tc* 
 town, throughout the whole extent of ScotlariAi 
 Societies were iilfhituted for the defence, aS it 
 was called, of the pto'tertant fstifh; coriinritte^ 
 were appointed, the Jttoft inflainfflatdfy pant- 
 phlets written, approved, aild citctilated gratufe 
 toyfly amofig the comnion: people, and e^ery fEepf 
 feforfed to which cduld (end to e^cit^ theit ftiry*.- 
 in moll of the principal citfes, and ef][yetiafly' Jtt 
 Edinburgh arid Gldgow, the fpirit of perfectrtiort 
 broke out info opeii afts of Violehte and <hhiAif 
 againft p&;pifts who had Ittttg reflded there t^kft 
 feputatiori aiid credit; Send the Britilh gd^dtit- 
 meht, fearful of the confeqU'endfes of tBJs i-eli* 
 gious phrerify, in a itldlheiit of frigid prydence arid 
 puerile imbecility, fofbore' its b^etolettt, putfKrfd,- 
 and relinquiffied the idea df benefiting the catholitS 
 on the iidrthefri fide of the I'w^eed, 
 It was not eriaugh, howevei', that the W^idte Of 
 
73 
 
 Scotland ha:d obtained dids peilfbnal triath^h. 
 Thef pretended thasfi ^f did not coUicelvie them-' 
 MveiS^ Me A*hik the reMoteft degree of fayotuj 
 was ^teed tot^raf ds Roman datfe^lkis in any paiai 
 of theifladiid. Piimphiets o£ the moft tehemenit 
 *eal, writfew iti the North, were circmlated -with 
 aflj)oflit>le jfidtoftry throughout the South; and 
 imongft t-hefe' I am< much aftoiniihed to find 
 e«ie yf the lat-e v'er^ aaniaible and learned Dr. 
 CampbeM, who was at that tiaie pfmcipal of tha 
 Marifchaii college in Abefdefen* It h entitledy a 
 "' Vindication of the OppoMofi to the late intended 
 BiB for the ELelief €rfRortis[ttCath0liG& in Scotlaad." 
 It pioffeffes More tnodei-ation, neverthelefs, thanthft 
 greate* part of thofe Krhieh fera^nied at this time 
 from the prefe, ^nd with much declattiatioil inter- 
 x^elves fcttSce few threads of argutttsat. It is well 
 k^o-v^j how^ef, and it becomes me to ftate as 
 mtiehj that the worthy principars views upcai 
 Ihife fttbje^- were cohfiderably changed' during 
 the teter year§ of his life: and the fpirlt o£ 
 liberality and candouf which blizes forth, with 
 a V6iy different fort of flame, through every page 
 ^f" his LeSures on ik:clefiaftical Hiflory, if they 
 do not completely atofie for- the prejudices he at 
 this time difcotered, ought at leaft to Ihield him 
 from the anathemas of the catholic church on 
 the aiimvisifarie^ of her eOi^i^niation. 
 
 9 
 
74 
 
 The efforts of tjie Scotch bigots werd unfor- 
 tunately but too fuccefsful in England. Here, 
 alfo, we had protejtant 'ofociations formed in 
 different parts of the country; and the opera-r 
 tions of the immenfe body affembled under this 
 denomination in London, and, who eledted lord 
 George Gordon their prefident, (a Scotch noble- 
 man, who had formerly been one of the raoft 
 violent firebrands in his own country in favour of 
 the prdteftant faith, and who afterwards abjured 
 this peculiar faith, and even the Chriftian re- 
 ligion itfelf, in favour of Judaifra,) are to this hqiH? 
 fo indehbly impreffed on the. mind of every one, 
 that it would be ufelefs to detail them.; It is fuffi^ 
 cient to add, that parUament had too much fpirit 
 to yield to 'the., lawlefs violence of a fanatic and 
 inebriate mob ; that the repeal, which was thus ill&r 
 gaily, and in the midft of perfbnal infults and trei 
 mendous conflagratic^s, demanded gf both houfes, 
 ■was not granted; and that the aft pal^ with the 
 limitation above fpecified with refpe£t-ta Scotland, 
 
 At this period of national tumult and difgrace 
 it is not to be fuppofed that the a£iive foul c^ 
 Albtander Geddes could remain afleep. Under 
 the title of " A Modeft Apology for the_ Roman 
 Catholics of Great Britain, addreffed to all mo- 
 derate Proteftants, particularly to the Members of 
 both Houfes of Parliament," he drew up a hillory 
 
-75 
 
 of the Roman catholic church, comparing it, as he 
 proceeds, with that of the church of England, in 
 relation to her jurifdiftion, her do6trines, her dif- 
 cipline; which, on account of its profound hifloric 
 refearches, the undaunted freedom of its difcuiEons, 
 and the candor and liberality which flow through 
 every page, is a moft valuable produdHoh, and 
 well worthy the attention of every perfon who 
 is folicitous of acquiring a knowledge of the real 
 principles of the Roman catholic religion. So 
 much agitated however was the public mind, by 
 the difgraceful riots and dreadful mifchiefs under 
 which the city of London was at this moment 
 groaning, and fo little profpefl; did there ap- 
 pear of fixing the general eye "with a due. de- 
 gree of fteidinefs to this important appeal, that, 
 -valuaTale as the work was in itfelf, and highly 
 worthy of the moft extenfive circulation, it was 
 the opinion of the author's, friends it ■should be 
 prudent to fupprefs' its publication at prefent, and 
 to wait till the public terror and exacerbation 
 Ihould be allayed, and the public attention be 
 more at liberty. The advice was taken, and 
 the volume did not make its appearance till 
 1800, being very nearly twenty years after its 
 compofition. I pals it by, therefore, for the pre- 
 sent without further notice y -and fhall refume my 
 
76 
 
 aecoom of it whens, i« tfee-fH-Qgrefs qf ouiiUaire^tive, 
 we Ihall' reach the period of itsiffning feom the prefs. 
 
 Otuf aaothor c©iild; not, neverthelefs,. content 
 himfeM -odth, heiiag totally fil-ent ;, a<n<i having ac>» 
 ddraitaiEy laid his hands on one of the Hptpft fu-t 
 rious and Bigoted pamphlets cf the day, e#i|le4 
 *' A Foil Deteftioa of .Popeyy, and Defence of 
 a Protelilant Barrier to be preferved by a mQr^ 
 general Affociationi of Proteftaints," printed at 
 Durham, and which in its fecond edition, oif 
 yfha£ was pretended ta be its fecond editioii, afc 
 fumed, as the writer's name, the fignature of JohtS 
 Wiilaamsy with a dedication to fir James Low- 
 ihier, he inftantly replied to it by an anony- 
 inou& critique, which he de'ttominated *' Curfory 
 Remarks on a late Fanatical Publication, entitled 
 A Full Deteftion, &c. fubmitted to the candid 
 Perufal of the liberal-rminded of every Denorai- 
 nation.'* Printed for the Author, and fold by 
 Keating, Faulder, and Debrett, 178S. 
 
 The writer of this Full DeteQion deferved 9. 
 fevere caftigation for hia ignorance and his vio- 
 lence, and in thefe Remarks he has met with one 
 equal to his demerits. He has abfurdity enough 
 to attribute the infurreftion and conflagrations of 
 the metropolis to fanatic p^ifts. inftead of pro^ 
 teftants, the latter of whom were in his opiaiott 
 
77 
 
 -the nfere tools of tthe former : and madly aflerts, 
 that the whole cataftrophe was publk/lyJTpd&ai of 
 ^t Rome, befeire hs pei;petration in JlRgkad,: — 
 *' a prdof," vcontitiues he, *' of its having besa 
 ^preconceived in that eityrpkialy >to ruin the .cha- 
 'rafter of protdftantifm, and on its al^es to raife 
 'that papal idolatry, which is more dbhorrelit, be- 
 ^atifeit tcd^es tthe -name of thrift 'to fett£tify it^ 
 and is the great machine of .flavery." In the 
 courfe of thisenthuiafticijjhiljppic, fheldng him- 
 'felf isaccnfed'of.beiijg "'aipapiflatheart.;" and 
 -eoantry gentknien are exhortBd:to.affockte.inde- 
 f«ftc-e'Of4he^proteftaHt religion, rfrom the-Gonlide- 
 ration -that~they-do fo for'the more.trivial;jj)u^ofe 
 of preferving iheir^-game. Withthefe, fandimany ■ 
 other 'ftill groffer abfurdities, are intfiKweven ,a 
 Variety of -more popular but equally erroneous 
 ideas : 'of which f I may be allowed -to notice two, 
 as they feem by no means to have loit their v ope- 
 ration in '- the iprefent day. ^The firft is, that .in 
 'Gonfe,q4i^Ge.of fir-Geovge ^Saville's %»fl:, Roman 
 catholics were re-inftated • in the poffeflion tof lall, 
 -Or nearly -all, the, privil^g«s and immunities o-of 
 •which -^yi-ted been depriv^by other, aflsrpf 
 ■the legiflature, and were. admitted io -an equal, 
 or nearly -axx ^ual, jparticjpationt of .rights .with 
 . f rot^ftants. ■ I have -already .-ftated 'the- extent ^i 
 
78 
 
 the relief obtained for them by this interference 
 of the legiflature, that it confifted— and merely in 
 confequence of taking an oath, drawn up as fully 
 and as ftrongly as words could conveyr— in an ex- 
 emption from certain very fevere and impolitic 
 reftriaionft contained in an zQ. of the eleventh and 
 twelfth of William III. leaving them ftill fubjed 
 to ^11 the different penalties and punifhments fpe- 
 cified in the feveral ftatutes enaded previous to 
 this period for prohibiting the exercife of the po- 
 pifii religion ; and as much as ever difabled from 
 occupying any civil, military, cm* legiflative poll : 
 a difability to which they are even at the prefeiit 
 hour almoft as much fubjed as at any time, not- 
 withftanding the additional and important benefits 
 they have fince obtained by the ad of the Sift 
 of his prefent majefty, of which the reader will 
 meet with a further account as he proceeds. 
 
 Another erroneous idea, common at the pre- 
 fent day with the period • in which this libellous 
 and incendiary pamphlet was publiflied, and 
 which is repeatedly brought forward in its pages, 
 is an afcription to modern catholics of jiU the 
 trafli and abfurdities believed by their forefathers 
 in the darkeft and moft ignorant ages. Within 
 the term of the laft century, there is fcarcely a 
 religious fed of any defcription which has not ex- 
 
79 
 
 iiibited fome variation injts creed, its difciplihe, 
 or its manijers. The articles of our own efta- 
 bliflied church are differently interpreted by many, 
 even of the right reverend bench itfelf, from vrhat 
 they were formerly, and .it feems doubtful from 
 modern controverfies, whether their bafis be chief- 
 ly Arminian or Calviniftic. The prefbyterian has 
 affumed a fuavity of charafter unknown to his 
 more rigid ancestors : and even the quakers, who 
 were unqueftlonably unitarians at an earlier age, 
 have now conformed to a belief in the trinity, and 
 have lately Clehced, by a fynodic refolution, one 
 or two of their beft fpeakers, whp have fliown a 
 difpolition to revert to their original faith. But 
 papifts, and papifts alone, are fuppof^d to be un- 
 changed, and unchangeable : and becaufe ' the 
 great mafs of their forefathers. Tome centuries 
 ago, admitted of indulgencies, ipilgrimages, the 
 damnation of heretics, papal infallibility, the wor- 
 fhip of Ihrines, piftures, and bleffed medals, it 
 
 ,is conceived that .every papift muft neceffarily do 
 the fame, at the prefent day ; and that the dawn 
 of fcience, which has irradiated and humanized 
 every feff befides, has for them only arifen in vain, 
 
 , and diffufed a ufelefs luftre. " Having croffed 
 the Alps and Pyrenees," fays the writer of this ab- 
 iUrd pamphlet, " I have examined the temper, and 
 
«0 
 
 feen the. dilpo^tioiv pf this extenfive.part,of th^ 
 enU|fhtened world, and defy any man to affert 
 that a Jiti^le Jhade is taken ofF m the modeiay 
 which, in the^early period of time, had b^en re- 
 ceived from bigotry." I fhall fuffer our re- 
 markerto attach the whple of this obfervation in 
 his own words. " Xo ! .Mr. WUliams," .fays h^ 
 *' has croffed the Ajps and Pyrenees,! And furgly 
 Tie has travelled. to fome purpofe,,fince he has feen 
 what no other tour-maker is .likely to tiifcover. 
 ^lidifon, who was at leaft as accui3.te an obferv^ 
 as Mr. Williams, feems to have beqn pF a diife- 
 rent opinion. He found, even in his time, ' that 
 .there had .been, a, kind of fecret reformation vsv^e 
 in the Rpman catholic church, lincp the fpread- 
 ing of the proteftajjt religion:' and thpu^h, ,in 
 my opinion, he afcribes this to a wrong, or at leaft 
 only a partial. £aufe, the fad itfelf 4s indifputabl6. 
 'The cloud of ;fuperftition, which gathered dur- 
 ing, the ciges4f- ignorance, and which had fo loijg 
 hung over the ChrjIHan world, has been conti- 
 nually diffipating fince the revival pf letters ; ap.d 
 ,the catholic ^ -^^W as the frit^Jlant hemifphere 
 grows ev«ry day brighter and brighter, -If fome 
 fpots of darknefs ftill remain, it is h9ped,that the 
 funflun« of a fober philofophy will fopn. ^difpel 
 them, and ^o^uce at length ,tbat ,ferenily pf 
 
81 
 
 difpofition among the human fpecies, which every 
 generous heart muft wifh to* behold. In the 
 mean time, I would advife Mr. Williams to crofs 
 the Alps and Pyrenees once again, and Examine the 
 temper and difpojition of that part of the globe a 
 little more narrowly, before he ventures to make 
 fuch another ridiculous defy. If he travels with 
 open eyes, he will fee, at Rome itfelf, proteft- 
 ants careffed, encouraged, and rewarded, ac- 
 cording to their degree of eminence^ induftry, 
 and merit ; he will fee Englifli proteftants, in 
 particular, meet with more regard and attention 
 than perhaps at any other court in Exurope ; he 
 will fee, in fome parts of Italy, that political and 
 religious liberty is as well underftood, and as te- 
 nacioufly maintained, as in any other country; 
 he will fee the power of an odious tribunal 
 abolilhed at Naples, abolifhing at Madrid, and 
 abridged at Lifbon ; he will fee a great number 
 of idle feftivals retrenched from the calendar, and 
 frugal induftry take place, on thofe days of diffi- 
 pation ; he will fee the learned and zealous 
 of the clergy ufing their utmoft- endeavours to 
 eradicate old prejudices, to explode falfe miracles, 
 to expunge fabulous legends, to correfl: all po- 
 pular abufes, and to excite their refpe£tive flocks, 
 both by words and example, to live ' foberly, 
 juftly, and pioufly,' according to the rules of the 
 
82 
 
 gofpel. In fine, he will fee an intelligettt pon- 
 tiff authorising vernacular tranilations of the Holy 
 Scripfures; and declaring in the moft' explicit 
 manner, that ' they are fources ta which all the 
 faithful ought to have free accejs^ . in order thence 
 to draw a found doftrine, and pure morality*.' '■ 
 
 I fhall difmifs the doftor's obfervations upon this 
 pamphlet with the following very -pertinent and 
 liberal paragraph, with which; his Reply eon., 
 eludes: " Let us learn from the example of a 
 neighbouring nation, ' how good and how pleaW 
 it is for brethren to dwell in unity/ There the 
 proteftants, inftead of petfecuting the catholics, 
 do every thing in their power to make their fitu- 
 ation comfortable ; and even build chapels for 
 them, where they are too poor to do it for thera- 
 felves. Behold, in Germany, a catholic prince 
 purfuing the fame conciliating plan, and rearing 
 temples for proteftants. 
 
 " At a time when all countries have either"be- 
 gun, or are beginning, to break the chains of in- 
 tolerance, when proteftants arereftored to their 
 juft rights in catholic kingdoms, and catholics 
 in proteftant — in kingdoms, where the general 
 rights of mankind are too often trampled upon 
 
 * Fontes uberrimi, qui cuique pafere debent, ad haufien- 
 dam et doarina: et morum fanftitatfra. Letter of the late 
 pope to abbate Martini. 
 
es] 
 
 by arbitrary power — ^fhall England, who glories 
 in being the genial parent and patronefs of liberty, 
 deny her catholic fubjeds the benefits of a free 
 conftitution, and remain the laft perfecuting na- 
 tion in the Chriftian world ! -Every generous 
 
 thinking Engljfhman cries. No, no, no!" 
 
'S4 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JDr. Geddes accompanies lord and lady Traquatre m A 
 tour to the South of France — returns to London^he' 
 comes acquainted tvitb Dr. Kennicott — is introduced 
 to Dr. Loivth — advifed by the latter to draw up d 
 ProfpeSus of his intended verjion of the Bible — ac- 
 cedes to the advice — fubli/hes, it with a Dedication to 
 lord Petre^-Analyjis of the ProfpeSus. A. D. 1782 
 —1786. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ardor with which Dr. 
 Geddes hid engaged in the controverfy upon the 
 fubjeft of toleration, he did not, neverthelefs, 
 relax in his biblical ftudies. The greater part of 
 the riots produced by the bill for the relief of 
 Roman catholics occurred during his refidence at 
 Linton. Upon their having a little fubfided, 
 previous however to his recurring to his more 
 recondite labours, he accompanied his noble hoft 
 and hoftefs tq^ Paris, and readily confented to 
 forget the diftreffing fcenes they had witnefled 
 or heard of, in the recreation of an agreeable 
 tour through the South of France. From France 
 he foon returned to Scotland, and from Scot- 
 land to London, now burning with impatience 
 to refume his theological purfuits, and accomplilh 
 the prime objeft of his bofom ; of which he 
 
85 
 
 might truly have faid in the tender language of 
 .Goldfmith to his brother, 
 
 Where'er I roam^ whatever climes I fee. 
 My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee. 
 
 A fortunate accident introduced him at this 
 period of time, 1783, to Dr. Kennicptt, and 
 ftimulated him more than any event that had yet 
 occurred in the whole courfe of his life, fave the 
 patronage of lord Petre, in this important under- 
 taking. No man knew better than this illuflri- 
 ous fcholar the great want to the nation, and in- 
 deed to the world at large, of a new tranflation 
 of the Sacred Scriptures, from correfted copies of 
 the originals ; for no man was better acquainted 
 •with the defefts of every exifting verfipn, and no 
 man had labored more fuccefsfully to colledt 
 materials for fuch a purpofe. The fame of our 
 author's talents had reached him, and he received 
 from his own niouth, with much fatisfaQ:ion and 
 delight, a more general account of his plan. . His 
 friendfhip, however, did not termjbate in epipty 
 profeffions of fatisfadlion ; he generoufly offered 
 him every affiftance in his power, and cordially 
 introduced hina to the firft bjblical feholars of the 
 ^ge. " I had hardly made known, my defign," 
 fays the dodtor, " when he anticipated my wiflies 
 to have his advic? , an4 affiftance towards the exe^ 
 
86 
 
 cution of it, ■with a degree of unreferved frank- 
 nefs and friendfhip which I had never before 
 experienced in a ftranger. Not c<5ntented with ap- 
 plauding and encouraging me himfelf, he puflied 
 me forwards from my obfcurity to the notice of 
 others : he fpoke of me to Barrington ; he intro- 
 duced me to Lowth. The very ftiort time he 
 lived, after my acquaintance with him, and the 
 few opportunities I had of profiting from his 
 converfation, are diftreffing refleflions: but ftill 
 I count it a happinefs to have been acquainted 
 with a man, whofe labours I have daily occafion to 
 blefs, and whofe memory I muft ever revere *." 
 
 Of his acquaintance with this inefliimable prelate 
 Dr. Geddes was accuftomed to fpeak with an equal 
 degree of pleafure and pride-—" quem honoris 
 cauia," fays he in his Addrefs to the Public, " no- 
 mino femperque nominabo." Dr. Lowth was as. 
 much pleafed with the intention as Dr. Kennicott ; 
 and, at his immediate fuggeftion, our biblicift 
 now engaged in writing an ample Profpedus of 
 his verfion. This occupied his pen throughout 
 the remainder of the prefent year and the fpring 
 of 1784: and when completed, he availed him- 
 felf of his lordlhip's courteoufnefs, and fubmitted 
 it to his infpeftion; requefting, at the fame time, 
 
 * Profpeftus, p. J43. 
 
87 
 
 that he would mark with a black Theta whatever 
 
 ' . - - ■ ■ 
 
 paflage might appear objectionable. The anfwer 
 of this excellent man, as well as admirable fcho- 
 lar, is of too much confequoice to the charader 
 of both of them to be omitted in this place. 
 The following is a copy : 
 
 " The bilhop of London prefents his compli- 
 ments to Dr. Geddes, and returns, with thanks, 
 bis Pro^eftus, which he has read with fome car^ 
 and attention, and with the lixlleffl: approbation. 
 He finds no room for black Thetas ; and he 
 doubts not that it will give univerfal fatisfadtion. 
 He cannot help wilhing that Dr. Geddes would 
 pubiyhit: it would not only anfwer his defign of 
 introducing his work, but would really be a 
 ufefiil and edifying- treatife for young ftudents in 
 divinity." 
 
 ** Thisteftimpny alone," obferves Dr. Geddes 
 modeftly, *' from one of the moft elegant fcho- 
 lars and firft biblical critics of the age, was more 
 than fufficieht to remove my ftill remaining timo- 
 roufnefs, and to make me purfue my projeft with 
 confidence and refolution. This," continues he, 
 " was in the year 1 785. In the enfuing fpring my 
 Profpe£tus was publifhed, and met with a recep- 
 tion which could not but be flattering to an ob- 
 icure individual, whofe name was hardly known 
 in the republic of letters, and who had neither 
 
S8 
 
 credit nor connexions to pufli him forwards into 
 confideration*." 
 
 The Profpedus, though not publiflied till the 
 fpring of 1786, was printed however towards the 
 clofe of the preceding autumn, and at a Glafgow 
 prefs : from which latter circiimftance we may 
 Conjefture that he at this time paid another vifit 
 to his native country, and engaged a prmter with 
 whom he had formerly been in the habit of ac- 
 quaintance. I know not the number of copies of 
 Xyhich the impreffion confifted. It was put to 
 prefs on his own account, and had a very ge- 
 neral and fatisfaftory circulation. " Were I to 
 print all the letters of compliment," fays he, 
 *' which I was favoured with on that occafion, 
 they would form not a petty volume. Not only 
 were praifes liberally bellowed, but valuable com- 
 munications were imparted from different quarr 
 ters of the kingdom, ai^d even from foreign 
 countries f." 
 
 And moft juftly was it entitled to the reception 
 it experienced ; for it comprifes a riegular feries of 
 
 * Addrefs to the Public, p. 8. . 
 
 t Ibid. — Of a great variety of literary charafters, who fa- 
 voured him at this time with important communications and 
 other tokens of approbation, he gives a particular fpecifica- 
 tior. in his Letter to the Bilhop of London, p. 84 and fol- 
 lowing, 
 
89 
 
 biblical hiftory from the earlieft ages of the world 
 to the clofe of the laft century, extrafted with 
 unwearied afllduity from libraries of mufty and 
 moth-eaten parchments and other records, in con- 
 jjundlion with the affiftances of modern times ; con- 
 denfed with confummate judgment; exhibiting 
 the moft ample proofs of liberal criticifm and 
 perfpicuous arrangement ; and oifering to the pub- 
 lic a volume of equal importance and entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 It is briefly but elegantly dedicated to his patron 
 lord Petre, " as the firft fruits of many years of 
 painful labour, in the pleafing hope of being, one 
 day, able to lay before him the whole harveft." 
 To fuch a dedication his lordfhip, indeed, was en- 
 titled, and the grateful heart of Dr. Geddes never 
 neglefted a lingle opportunity of teftifying the ob- 
 ligations of which it was fenfible. " If my work," 
 fays he, in the body of this fame publication, 
 " fhall have any merit, the world will ftand prin- 
 cipally, indebted for it -to the right honourable 
 lord Petre ; at whofe requeft it was undertaken, 
 and under whofe patronage it is carried on. For 
 although the plan itfelf is a plan of twenty years 
 ftanding ; and although the author had never any 
 . thing fo much at heart as its ,accomplifhment ; 
 yet his circumflances in Ufe were fuch as muft 
 have rendered that impoffible, without the provi- 
 
90 
 
 dentlal interpofitlon of fuch a patron. But lord 
 Petre is not only the author's patron, he is in 
 fome refpedls the author. It was his great love 
 for religion, and his extreme defire of fedng fcrip- 
 tural knowledge more generally promoted among 
 thofe of his own communion, that fuggefled to 
 him the idea of procuring a new tranflation, be-, 
 fore he knew that I had ever entertained a fimilar 
 idea, and at a time when I had almoft defpaired 
 of feeing it realized. His Iprdfhip, I truft, will 
 pardon me for inferting without his knowledge 
 this public teftimony of his piety and munifi- 
 cence; which I could not fupprefe without vio- 
 lence to my own feelings, and which the public 
 has, in fome fort, a right to 'know*." 
 
 The objeQ of the ProfpeQ:us is to explore the 
 caufes which hav6 concurred to render former 
 tranflations of the Bible defedive, and to point 
 out the means by which many of their defe£ts 
 may be removed. Of the caufes of imperfeQion 
 he enumerates feveral. One of the chief is the 
 imperfedion and inaccuracy of the originals them- 
 felves, from, which our modern tranflations are 
 derived: for if,- which is an admitted fad, the 
 text itfelf, from the ignorance, carelefsnefs, and 
 inaccuracy of copyifts, be in many places cor, 
 rupted, the verfion muft neceffarily pardeipate of 
 * FrofpeSjUs, p. 144, 
 
91 
 
 its errors. The Jewilh rabbins contend, indeed, 
 that they are in poffeffion of a fcheme, derived 
 immemorially from their forefathers, which pro- 
 tefts it from all poffibility of vitiation ; and that 
 in every difputable point they have nothing to do 
 but to have recourfe to this fchterae or book, vsrhich, 
 from the term "IDJO (Mafr), or tradition, they de- 
 nominate Mafora, and that an incontrovertible 
 decifion is hence immediately obtained. It may 
 not be known to all my readers, that, in its earlieft 
 ftate, the Hebrew Bible, confiftently with the ori- 
 gmal cuftom of moll oriental languages, was writ- 
 ten without any breaks or divifions in its text into 
 chapters, verfes, or even words ; every individual 
 letter being placed at an equal diftance from that 
 which followed it throughout every feparate^ook. 
 When bresdts and divifions were firft of all, there- 
 fore, introduced into the tranfcription of indivi- 
 duals, it is eafy to conceive what vaft differences 
 mufl have exifled in different copies, each inter- 
 preting for himfelf, and confulting his own judg-- 
 ment alone as to the fenfe and intention of the 
 original text. The Mafora endeavoured to re-' 
 medy this variety of leftion, by numbering not 
 only every chapter and feftion, but every verfe, 
 word, and letter, of which every book of the Sa- 
 cred Scriptures conflfts ; and this by the introduc- 
 tion either above or below of vowel pants,' ac- 
 
;92 
 
 cents, and paufes; Who were the authors of this 
 pretendedly infallible canon we know not. By 
 many of the rabbins it is aflerted to becoeval with 
 the delivery of the law to Mofes on mount Sinai, 
 having been communicated to him in their opi- 
 nion at the fame time, and handed down to 
 pofterior ages of the Jews by tradition. There 
 are others again who aflert that the fyftem was 
 invented in the time of Ezra; while Dr. Ken. 
 nicott will not allow it to be of an older date than 
 the beginning of the ninth, and Morinus than 
 that of the tenth, century of the Chriftian ara. 
 Be this however as it may, fince we know not 
 who firft invented it, nor what authority its in- 
 ventors had for their own opinion rather than 
 &r that of any other ancient copy affording a 
 different divifion, it is obvious that even at its firft 
 inftitution it was as open to the charge of cor, 
 ruption as any rival tranfcript. But if this be true 
 of the Maforetic text at firft, what ought to be 
 our opinion of the different manufcripts and im- 
 preffions of it, which have fince been circulated 
 through the world, encumbered and perplexed 
 with this immenfe burthen of diacritic marks, 
 g,nd hereby rendered infinitely more difficult to 
 copy and even to comprehend, than the more 
 fimple and undivided charafters it was intended 
 toillyftrate? ^ 
 
9S 
 
 *' To give the reader, who is not acquaiiitfed Vnth 
 Hebrew grammar, fome, not unfavourable, idea 
 of Maforetic punftuation, let us fuppofe that the 
 prefent Enghfli verfion of the Bible were the origi- 
 nal ; and written, as the original formerly was,. 
 in one uniform charadter, . and without any of our 
 modem marks of diftinftion. In this fuppofition, 
 the text would run thus : 
 
 INTHEBE GINNING GOD C RE At 
 EDTHEHEAUENANDTHEEARTH 
 
 .Let us next fuppofe that fome ingenious pedar 
 gogue, remarking the great difference between 
 this orthography and the prefent orthoepy ; and 
 obferving, alfo, that fo clofe and connefted an 
 arrangement of words and letters is attended with 
 fome difficulty to unprad^ifed readers ; fhould fpt 
 himfelf to contrive expedients, to remove thofe 
 inconveniences; and, for that purpdfej IhouM 
 Jreafon in the following manner : ' Our alphabet 
 has but five vowels, to exprefs fifteen vocal foimdsj 
 • — Some qf our confonants vary their powers ac- 
 cording to their fituation; and fome of them 
 have occafionally no power at all. The fame 
 letter is fometimes an afpirate and fometimes 
 not. Many words have more than one fignifi- 
 cation vdthout any diflFerence in the mode of 
 utterance. Our written language has no paufal 
 marks, and our profody is not regulated by any 
 
d4 
 
 tonic difl:in£tions. To remedy thefe evils, and to 
 fix the true Englifh prononciation for all time 
 to come, let our fifteen vowel founds be repre- 
 fented by as many diiferent fymbols. 
 
 A open by t ' 
 
 E (hort by 
 
 long by • 
 
 A clofe by 
 
 E obfcure by < 
 
 O fliort by *> 
 
 A broad by T^. 
 
 1 long^ by ' 
 
 • U long by • * 
 
 A Hender by ,-' 
 
 I fliort by 
 
 U ftiort by ) 
 
 £ long by 
 
 I French by >- 
 
 UEngliOi s 
 
 Then, let the hard founds of C and G, I and V 
 confonants, and all quiefcents be marked with 
 a dot above, and the afpirate H and hiffing S 
 with a fmall horizontal Une.— Let all words be 
 feparated by proper fpaces, and diftinguiihed 
 by proportionate paufes. Let 
 
 A full paufe be marked thus . 1 ^^^j^ ^^^^ ^^^ j.^^^ 
 A fmaller paufe thus a J 
 
 A ftiUfmalier paufe thus : Koth abov* the line.' 
 And the fmalleft of all thus ■: J 
 
 " He faid, and ftraightway fell to work : and 
 lo ! the whole Bible, in his induftrious hands, af- 
 fumed in due time this rare appearance. 
 
 IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED 
 
 THE HEAUEN AND THE EARTH 
 
 * The fymbols of I fliort, O long, and U long, are the 
 fame ; but the firft is placed below the line, the fecond above, 
 and the lad in the middle. 
 
95 
 
 " It is of no iipportance, whether thefe fymbols, 
 which are indeed the very rabbinical points, are as 
 accurately combined, and adapted to our language, 
 as they might be : they are fufEciently fo to ex- 
 prefs the idea that is meant to be conveyed ; and 
 now, my good reader, what think you of this im- 
 provement ? ' The diftinftion of words,' you will 
 fay, 'is well enough: the marks of paufation, 
 though multiplied without neceffity, may alfo 
 have their ufe : but to attempt to fix a pronun- 
 ciation that is ever fluduating, and tones that 
 are continually changing, by any other rules 
 than the prefent ufage, and the pradtice of the 
 belt fpeakers, is a foolilh and fruitlefs attempt. 
 For how are the powers' of thefe very fymbolg 
 afcertainedj but by an immediate appeal to living 
 founds, and the now prevailing modes of utter- 
 ance? If thefe happen to change, as ,we know 
 they imperceptibly do, what will be the ufe of 
 your boafted fymbols at any future period i and 
 by what canons will their refpe£tive powers be 
 afcertained ? Granting even, that they had, like 
 Ezekiel's myftic wheels, a living and felf-inter- 
 pretating fpirit wfthin them, that could effeftually 
 and for ever arreft fd fleeting a thing as vocal ^ir; 
 why is their pofition in the text fo awkward and 
 unnatural ? Why are they generally placed^ not 
 beneath the vowels, the various povrers of which 
 
 7 
 
96 
 
 they Tire fuppofed to denote, but beneath the pre- 
 ceding or following confonant?' Stop, my ho- 
 neft friend ; you are now quite miftaken : there 
 are, no more, any vowels in the Englifh alpha- 
 bet. ' What ? a, e, i, o, u, not vowels ?' By no 
 means : they are all confonants j mute confo- 
 nants! — Have you any thing more to objed ? — 
 * I have : Such a motley multitude of pricks and 
 points disfigure the beauty and fymmetry of the 
 text, and often confufe the mind, as much as 
 they bewilder the eye,: and I diflike every thing 
 that produceth confufion.' Good ! But what if 
 our pedagogue had crowded the fcene with a 
 whole hoft more of regal and minifierial atten- 
 dants (for fo the Hebrew grammarians denote 
 their accents), w'lxh. fakeph -batons and Jakeph- 
 gadols ; pajhtas and karneparas ; Jhaljhaleths and 
 mercakephalas, and twenty other fuch barbarous 
 names j of which, although it requires a little 
 code of laws to marlhal them, and although 
 Bohlius is faid to have in vain employed feven 
 long years for that laudable purpofe, yet neither 
 he nor any one elfe could ever point o\it the ufes? 
 What if, inftead of the true Englilh pronunci- 
 ation, he had given you a Scotch or Irifli one? 
 What if even his divifion of words and fen- 
 tences were .often not only trifling but palpably 
 erroneous ? What if other pedagogues, improving 
 
9Y 
 
 «fl fais ■imjai-&^emess, had tfirowii out, by de* 
 ■grees, the original vowels, now become iifeliefe 
 ■lumber; and if inftead of GOD, HEAVEN, 
 EARTH, you were prefented with GD, HVNj 
 ERTH, befpattered with pricks and patches aS 
 above ? What if fuch elifions were called natural 
 anomalies of Engli/h gf animar ? What-^' Sweep 
 all that trafli away,' you would undoubtedly ex- 
 claim, ' and give me again the plain old un« 
 pointed text -of my Bible.' 
 
 •" Such trafli is the greatefl p^rt of the Mafore- 
 tic points, which rabbinical pedagogues would im- 
 pofe upon us as the only fure interpreter -of the 
 Hebrew Scripture ! , Whoever wifhes to fee to what 
 degree of abfurdity, or^ infanity, even Chriftian 
 Writers have been led by this impofitioh, may 
 read Wafmuth's Injlitutipris -, Oufel de Accentuu" 
 time Hebraicd ; or Walter -Crofs's Taghmicd Art^ 
 publilhed at London in the year 1098." 
 
 And yet the Jewifh rabbins for the moft partj 
 and the greater nuTnber of Chriftian poleiiucs flnce_ 
 the revival of literature, and efpedally of the ear-^ 
 lier proteftants, have uniformly cdntended that the 
 t-ext of the Hebrew Scriptures is hot only in- 
 corrupted, but effentially incorruptible, in confe- 
 quence . of this Maforetic fyllem, to which they 
 have equaJly appealed. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 " So generally difFufed, and fo ftrongly Hvet- 
 ed," obferves our author, " was this preju' 
 dice, that when Capellus firft ventured to un- 
 clinch* it, in his Critica Sacra, he was account- 
 ed a fort of apoftate from the found doftrine 
 of the reformed churches, and could not find 
 a proteftant bookfeller to print his work. And, 
 what is ftill more ftrange, when Dr. Kennicott, 
 not many years ago, publifhed his excellent 
 Dijfertations on the ftate of the Hebrew text, 
 thofe were not wanting, even in this country, 
 who brought the fame charges againfl; him as had 
 been formerly brought againfl Capellus; nor did 
 it depend on them, that the greateft literary un- 
 dertaking of this, or indeed of any other age, 
 was not quaflied in its very begirmitig, as hurtful 
 to Chriftianityt." 
 
 • In p. 80 of his Letter to the biftjop of London, the 
 doftor inforrtis us that this word had been objefted to by fome 
 correfpondent as inelegant, and he propofes . to fubftitute 
 ■undo. This, however, is but a forry fubftitute after all, and 
 has little more elegance than the former. To " unclincb," 
 or " tindv," a diffufed and riveted prejudice, are phrafes not 
 projefted in our author's happieft moments of. compolition : 
 perhaps attack might be more to the purpofe than either 
 of them ; though the fentence will be ftill incongruous and illo- 
 gical ; for to be diffufed 'implies freedom, but to be riveted, con- 
 finement: while it was iht public mind which was chained or 
 riveted, and not the prejudice, which formed the chain or rivet 
 itfelf. t Profpcftus, p. 8. 
 
,99 
 
 "Befidethefe cirtfuihftantial and Extraneous caiifes 
 of miftake, that are nlore or lefs common to them 
 with all old writings, there iare others which make 
 the Hebrew Scriptures particularly liable to chiro- 
 graphical errors J and which may be called inti-m- 
 fic fources of corruption. At one period, the 
 whole' text was changed frorii the Hebrew to the 
 Chaldee chafaclerSi Many of the letters iii both 
 alphabets have a ftrong refemblance to one an- 
 other; and, in fome of them, the diacritic marks 
 are hardly diftinguifhablei The invention of 
 vowel-points, by rendering the genuine vocal ele- 
 ments quiefcentj gave frequently bccafion to 
 throw them out as ufelefsj and that very thing j 
 which was abfurdly looked upon as the chief pre* 
 fervative of the facred text from future errors, 
 largely contributed to make it ftill more erro- 
 neous. 
 
 " If, with all this, AVe take into confideration the 
 colloquial tautology of the Scripture ftyle, the 
 frequent occurrence of the fame words and phrafes, 
 the repetition of the fame or nearly the fame fen- 
 tences, the proximity and contiguity of the fame 
 terminations, the xonftant return of the fame 
 particles, pronouns and proper names, and the, 
 deceptions continually arifing from the aflfociation 
 of ideasj fimilarity of founds and equivalence of 
 
loo 
 
 meaning, we fhall be oblige'd to cenfefs that it was 
 fparcely poflible for the moft diligent and atten- 
 tive tr^nfcriber to avoid committing many over- 
 %hts. 
 
 " That m^ny fuch overfights have been adually 
 coi^mitted, and that a great number of corrup- 
 tions have, by that means, gradually crept into- 
 tjie text, are pofitions which have, of late, been 
 fo invincibly eftabliflied, that no one, we truft, 
 will in future prefume to call them in queftion.; 
 But let not this alarm the pious reader, as if 
 the authenticity of the Scriptures were thereby 
 \jreakened, of their authority rendered precarious. 
 Were it neceffary, to conftitute an authentic deed, 
 that the moft recent and remote copies of it fliould 
 b,e exaftly the f^me with the firft autograph, there 
 would be no fuch thing in the world as any; 
 ancient authentic deed, of which the autograph 
 had been loft: there could be no fuch thing, with- 
 out a continual miracle. It is enough, that there 
 is fufficient evidence of its being effentialJy the 
 fame with the original; and that the changes it 
 has undergone, whether from defign or accident, 
 are not fuch as can affeft its autljority, as a genuine, 
 record. 
 - " Such, precifely, is the cafe of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. Notwithftanding all the various cor- 
 
101 
 
 ruptiOnS,' of whatfodver fort, that now disfigure 
 them; it is as certain, as any pofition of this kind 
 can poffibly be, that they are Ml eflentially the 
 fame; and that the whole hiftorical tenor of the 
 divine ceconomy towards man has been preferred 
 in them, without any important alteration, to the 
 prefent time. Take the moft modern and moft 
 imperfed trjmfcript of their originals, that now 
 exifts; or even the moft erroneous copy of the 
 moft erroneous verfion, that ever was made from 
 them; and yba fliall find in it every thing that is 
 fibfolutely neceffary to conftitute an authentid 
 writing.; and to anfwer all the great purpofeS for 
 which they were intended. 
 
 " For befide the internal markfi of genuinenefs, 
 which they fupereminently poffefs; they are fup-i 
 ported by fuch ^ continued and clofely connefted 
 chain of external evidence, as is not to be met 
 with in favour of any other compofition whatJ 
 f ver. Who, but the paradoxical Hardouin, evei^ 
 doubted of .the authenticity of Plato's Dialogues, 
 or Demofthenes'g Orations? Yet they have come 
 down to us with not half the number of vouchers 
 that accompany the Jewifti writings ; and it would' 
 be eafier to find ingenious arguments to prove 
 that thoje were invented by the monks in the 
 thirteenth century, than that theje were fabricated 
 gt finy particular periodv 
 
1(^2 
 
 *' It is true, they have been tranfmitted witfa 
 many errors, and are at this day extremely incor«. 
 teQ. : but, here again, they have an advantage oyer 
 moll other writings ; the means of corredting 
 them are more Obvious and abundant. What 
 tbefe are, and how they are to be employed, it 
 is now time to inquire ^."■ 
 
 Gur author's firfl fource of emendation is a 
 collation and comparifon of manufcripts, partica* 
 larly of the Samaritan Scripture, fq far as it ex- 
 tends (for it only contains the Pentateuch), with 
 the Chaldee. To the Jewifh manufcaripts he does 
 not attach ^n equal degree of importancej, as be- 
 ing written pofterior tp the introduftion of the 
 Mafora, and, for the moft parti remodelled by 
 fome exemplar of it. They neverthelefs, as he 
 admits, afford many important readings with re- 
 gard to the fenfe, and an almofl' infinite number 
 of grammatic corre£lions. The invaluable la-: 
 bours of Dr. Kennicott, and De Rqffiof Parma, 
 are, therefore, appreciated as they deferve ; the 
 former of whom has collefted his various render- 
 ings from more than fix hundred manufcripts, as 
 well as all the printed copies he could procure ; 
 while the latter has fince made a refearch through 
 upwards of four hundred, of which feveral are 
 
 • Profpeftus, p. 15. 
 
103 
 
 of the fevehth and eighth centuries, ?ind there-, 
 fore probably prior' to the inftitution of the Ma- 
 fora, and has ranfacked a confiderable number of 
 rare and unnoticed editions*. 
 
 Our author deduces his two next fburces of 
 emendation from a cdmparifon of the parallel 
 places of the text itfelf, as in thofe paffages of 
 Scripture in which the fame precept is iterated, 
 the fame hiftoric' faft repeated, or the fatne can- 
 ticle, pfalm, or prophecy, entirely or partially re^ 
 inferted ; and from the quotations made at diife- 
 rent times from the original Scripture-text, whe- 
 ther by Jewifli or Chriftian writers, efpecially 
 where they haye not the a,ppearance of beiijg in- 
 troduced from niemory alone, 
 
 * A collation of all the manufcript copies of the moft an- 
 cient Greek verfions has been undertaken fince this period, by 
 Pr. Holmes, of Oxford j and it cannot he ip better hands, 
 A fimilar collation of the Syrian vgrfions ia. ftill wanting, 
 fhe very valuable work of De Roffi has beeji fince com- 
 pleted. It was finiflied in the year 1787, in four volumes, 
 about a twelvemonth after the publication of this Profpeftus, 
 The firft volume, befides a fenflble preface, canons, and clavis 
 or catalogue of the MSS. ufed by the author, contains vari- 
 pus readings on Geneiis, Exodus, and Leviticus : the fecond 
 carries them to the end of Kings : the third comprifes the 
 Prophets and Megilloth : and the fourth includes the remait\i 
 ^ef pf the facied writings' 
 
104 
 
 " Another, mpfh copious fource of emendation 
 of the Hebrew te'Xt, are the tranflatiqns that have 
 beenonade of it, at ^different periods, and in dif- 
 ferent languages ; wliiqh, while tjieyferve in ge-. 
 neral tp. evidence its authenticity, enable us at 
 the fame time to correft,^ or even reftore, many 
 particular palTa^es, that, are now either entirely 
 loft or ftrangely corrupted, : an advantage which, 
 belongs not, in the fame degree, to; any other 
 ancient writing *." 
 
 The Septuagint here occupies his firft notice, of 
 which he gives a full arid entertaining hiftory with 
 refpe£h to its origin,, its progrefs, and, till nearly 
 the end: of the firft century of the Chriftian sera, its. 
 authority both among, Jews and Chriftians. He 
 next adverts to the Greek manufcript tranflations 
 of Aquila, Theodotion, and: Symnaachus, as 
 well as thofe which. followed, and are generally 
 known by the denomination of the fifth-, fixth, 
 and feventh" verfions, from the order in which 
 they were communicated to the world. Of none 
 of thefe have we any thing more left than a few. 
 fcattered fragments; while the very names and 
 chronology of the authors of the three latter 
 have been long configned to oblivion ; though it 
 is fvifpefted by many critics, and was intended 'to 
 
 * Profpeftus, p, 2z. 
 
105 
 
 have been proved by our aurfior, had his life beeii 
 fiifEciently elongated, that the fixth of thefe ver- 
 fions, in the order of time, is nothing more than 
 an interpolated edjtioa of the Septuagint by fome 
 Gomraentator of the Chriftian church*. The 
 edition of Aquila of Pontus,^ who was firfl; a con- 
 vert from Paganifm to Chriftianity, and, then a 
 profelyte to Judaifm, appeared about the year 129 ; 
 liHid,was defigned by his lewijh brethren to luper- 
 fede the Septuagint, which they now began to difc 
 cover, from the ufe which was made of it by the 
 Chriftian ftithers, to be more fevourable to the 
 Chriftian caufe than the .original Hebrew; and 
 which is, indeed, fufpefted by our author to.dif- 
 play in fome inftances a bent of this kind, fronx 
 a miftaken zeal, fo as to make it fpeak more ex- 
 plicitly the language of Chriftianity. From this 
 fragments that now remain of Aquila, he deter, 
 mines him to have been an uncouth and barba- 
 rous -vynter — the Arias Montanus or Malvenda) 
 of his day. His more ftrifl: adherence, however,^ 
 to the Hebrew letter would render him Angularly 
 ufeful in difcovering the ■ ftate of its text at that 
 time, and might afford us the literal meaning and; 
 etymology of many Words, whofe ffgnificatipn it 
 
 * This intentioq he has notLcfd in his Frofpeftus, p. ^9. 
 
106 
 
 is now difficult to afcertjun. On this account it 
 is affuredly to be regretted, that we have no copy 
 ef his tranflation extant. 
 
 The verfipn o£ Theodotion, who had been firft. 
 adifciple of Tatian, then a Marcionite, and lafliy 
 a Jew, was publifhed about the year 184. It 
 was littld ttiore than a new edition of the Septua- 
 gint or Alexandrian, altering, adding, or re-, 
 trenching' wherever he found the latter differ 
 frwn fuch Hebrew manuferipts as the Jews put 
 into his hands ; and it feems to have rifen into 
 notice alone from the obfcurity and femlity of 
 the verfion of Aquila. In confequence of its 
 greater refemblance to the Septuagint, the Chrift 
 tians themfelves became in fome degree attached 
 to it, and hence we have larger portions of it 
 preferved thaii of Aquik's labours, 
 
 Symmachus, according to Eufebius, was firft 
 a Samaritan, next a Jew, then a Cbriftian, and 
 laftly ail Ebionite. The Greek verfion of this, 
 tranflator appeared about the end of the firft or 
 the beginning of the fecond centuiy. It was lefs 
 literal, but far more elegant^ than either of the 
 former, and afforded St. Jerom the model of his' 
 Latin tranfcript. Being principa,lly compofed, ho\v- 
 ever, for the ufe of the members of his owr^ 
 communion, who were equally abhorrent to both. 
 
107 
 
 Jews and Chriftians, it is by no means wonder- 
 ful that it has perifhed, with an almoft total anni- 
 hilation. 
 
 I ought n6t here to omit noticing the learned 
 and well applied labors of Origen, who, with in- 
 defatigable zeal, endeavoured to reftore to the pub- 
 lic the whole of thefe Greek tranflations, in four 
 fucceffive works, denominated, from the number 
 of columns they contained, Tetrapla, Hexapla, 
 Oftapla, and Enneapla. Of thefe. the firft gave 
 the veriions of > the Septuagint, Aquila, Theo- 
 dotionj and Symmachus alone ; while the laft, 
 extending to nine columns, added the three ano- 
 nymous tranflations, the original Hebrew text, 
 and its mode of pronunciation, in Greek charac- 
 ters. Not fatisfied, however, with being a -com- 
 piler, the learned father aimed at being a correc- 
 tor of the Septuagint text ; which . at length be- 
 came fo patched and pieced with paflages from the 
 latter verfiqns, and particularly that of Theodo- 
 tion, as to refemble the copies of the Vulgate of 
 the prefent day, which, have paffed through the 
 Mofaic manufa£tory of Clarius, and fome other 
 moderns. In the hands of fo fldlful an artift as 
 Qrigen, we, fliould have had little, however, 
 to fear from fuch a pra(£tice ; and were we now 
 iji poffeflion of his autograph, or of an immacu- 
 
108 
 
 late copy, it woold be of iiieftimable advantage 
 to -the biblical ftudent. But the great authority 
 of Origen made every one who was poffeffed of a 
 Greek bible revife his text by the Hexaplar ftan- 
 dard; till in a (hort period there t?as fcarcely a 
 manufcript to be met with that was not briftled 
 oyer with afteriflcs and obeliiks, lemnilks and 
 hypolemnifks without number : which again from 
 the carelelfnefs of ignorant tranfcribers, or the 
 caprice of conceited cOrre£tors, became at length 
 fo varied and confufed as to fet all reftoration at 
 defiance. Following,, moreover, the example of 
 Origen, other critics, jpd moft if not all of thenj 
 far lefs capable than himfelf, attempted to give new 
 correftions to the Septuagint. Of thefe tihle prin-. 
 cipal were Lucianus and Hefybhius ; the formeit 
 of whom produced an exemplar which vs^'as unit 
 fbrmly adopted by all the churches from Antioch' 
 to Conftantinople.; and the latter, emendations 
 which were received with equal authority at Alex, 
 andria, and throughout the whole of Egypt; while 
 the Chriftians of Paleftine adhered pertinacioufly 
 to the copy of the Hexapla of Origen, fAirnifhed- 
 them by Pa.mphilus, one of his moft celebrated- 
 (jditors ; and which feems, indeed, to have genei< 
 yally prevailed through all the Eaft. 
 ^ Erom whicli of thefe copies^ or- editions, the 
 
1.09 
 
 p^rtieukr manuferipts now extant in difTerent 
 parts .of the world are derived, and what manu- 
 fcript deviates ieaft from the Alexandrian or ori- 
 ginal verfioni it is impoffible to determine uiitil 
 the manufciipts themfelves be collated and com- 
 pared. We know not at prefent whether there 
 be a fingle copy of any one of thefe various editions^ 
 ejcifting initspriftine purity. The tranfcriptof thev 
 Septuagint by- Origen, however, together with the 
 other Greek vgrfions -that compofed his Tetrapla, 
 might be fufficiently reftored for the purpofes of 
 collation, by a fcholar of moderate enterprife and 
 fortune ; fince a Syriac verfion of it containing the 
 Propliets and Agiographa^— in reality its entire con- 
 tents excepting, the Pentateuch— is preferved in the 
 Ambrofian library at Milan. Our author intimates, 
 in a n^e, that there were at the time of writing, 
 his Prqfpeftus, great hopes that this vei-fion, 
 through the rhedium of M. Norberg, might be 
 fpeedily communicated to the public. But the 
 fituation' of Europe has fmce been very unfavor- 
 able to the cultivation of literature of every kind j 
 and though feventeen years have elapfed fincfr 
 thefe hopes were expreffed, I cannot find that we 
 are nearer the poITeffion of a tr'anfcript from the 
 Ambrofian volume, than we were at the moment - 
 they were firft indulged.. This, in conjundion with 
 the Arabic verfion of the Pentateuch of Origen, 
 
no 
 
 from the Bodleian library, would profeffor White 
 turn from the more fafliionable and alluring pur- 
 fiiit of' the hiftory of Egypt to fuch an undertak- 
 ing, could not but be of incalculable advantage 
 to the critical biblicift. 
 
 Of the Greek verfion in common uft, out* aii- 
 thor proceeds to inform us that we have four dif- 
 ferent edited exemplars; that of Alcala, or the 
 Complutehfian, printed in 1515, with a moft 
 prpcife and perplexing typothefis in the Polyglott 
 Bible of Ximenes : that of Venice, firft pub- 
 lifhed in 1518 by the heirs of Aldus, and hence 
 denominated the Aldine edition : that of Rome, 
 which made its appearaace in 1588, and to which 
 Nobilius adjoined a Latin verfion : and that of 
 Oxford, more important perhaps than any of the 
 others, which was printed from the celebrated 
 Septukgint manufcript in the Mufeum, of at leafl: 
 equal antiquity with, arid in fome refpefts more 
 valuable than^ that of the Vatican ; which laft his 
 late holinefs intended to have had repubhlhed, 
 and would have accomplifhed before his deceafe, 
 had not the invafion and inteftine commotions of 
 Italy prevented him. The Oxford edition was 
 prepared for the prefs by Gratz — ^who aftually 
 publiflied the firft and fourth volumes of the 
 work at the prefs of this celebrated univerfity in, 
 the years 1707 and 1709, leaving the' third jmd 
 7 
 
Ill 
 
 fourtli inedited ; which were nevertheMs dfter* 
 wards brought forward in 1719 and 1720, by 
 Lee and Shippen, with the affiftance of bifliop 
 Potter. Of all thefe verfions different impreffions 
 have been given to the world in different places, 
 which are diftinftly noticed by our author, but 
 need not be repeated in this abftraft. 
 
 He now proceeds to a confideration of the affift- 
 ance to be derived from the various readings already 
 collated ; of which the greater part are crowded 
 together in th,e, lower naargin of Bos's edition — 
 but which are, not of extreme value j arid of the 
 different manufcripts of which few general and 
 continued collaiiohs have yet been made. Of 
 thefe, however, he enumerates the moll imf 
 portant, and adds, that at the time of writing he 
 himfelf was actually employed in collating a va- 
 luable and well-preferved oftateuch belonging to^ 
 the univeriity of Glafgow : " a particular accoimt 
 of which," continues he, " fhall in due time be 
 given to the public." Alas ! that time will never 
 arrive !. Attention to his* own 'verfion, mental vex- 
 ation, affld a long feries of corporeal pain, pre- 
 vented the aecomplifhment,of fo: laudable an ob- 
 je£t, and he died without having added to thepro- 
 grefs alluded to in this pafTage. ..- • 
 
 ,- , The.Septuagint afforded a great variety of tranf- 
 latipns,. ;, Of thefe we, have ftill, either-in part or 
 
112' 
 
 whole, in ffrint or manufcript, the Latin4taiid, 
 the Syriac, Samaritan, Ethiopia, Arabic, Arme- 
 nian and Coptic ; of all which the firft was the 
 mofl: celebrated in its day ; and the laft, in con- 
 fequenceof its high antiquity and verbal adherence 
 to its text, is the moll valuable at prefent. 
 
 Our author next proceeds to appreciate the 
 other terfions from the original Hebrew of which 
 we have any account, or, at leaft, whence any 
 valiiable knowledge can be attained* At the* 
 head of thefe he places the Syriac, which he ad* 
 mits to be of very high antiquity, although he 
 pays no attention to the tradition which transfers 
 it to the reign of Soloman. To the Syriac he. 
 adds the Chaldee verfions and paraphrafes ; par- 
 ticularly thofe of Onkdos and Jonathan, (the 
 former of whom, however, tranllated the Penta* 
 teuch alone,) the Aratnc verfions of Saadias, Er- 
 penius, and efpecially a manufcript tranflation 
 from the Samaritan Pentateuch, of which a fpeci- 
 men from the Barbariini triglot was publifhed by 
 Hwiid in 1780 ; and then advances to an hiftori-' 
 cal det^l of the Vulgate, the admirable produc- 
 tion of St. Jerom, of which I have already given 
 an ample account in page 13, &c. It Ihould be 
 ftated, however, that the edition now known by 
 the name' of the Vulgate is not the genuine and 
 unfopliifticated verfioa of St. Jerona, but a medley 
 4 
 
lis 
 
 containing the greater part of his labours united to 
 certain portions of the Italic, and a variety of cor- 
 reftions from Aquila, Theodotion, and Symma- 
 chus, as well as the Maforetic Hebrew. 
 , " It has undergone many correftions and altera- 
 tions at different periods. Towards the end of 
 the eighth century it was revifed by Alcuin at the 
 defire of Charlemagne. In the twelfth it was, 
 with the affiflance of fome Jews, made morq con- 
 formable to the Hebrew by Stephen abbot of Ci- 
 teaux *. It was again, in the next age, correfted 
 with great care and labour by the French Domi- 
 nicans ; ' and enriched with a number of various 
 readings, not only from Latin manufcripts, but 
 alfo from the Hebrew and Greek copies f. This 
 inoft ufeful work, by that conjunftive and fubor- 
 dinate induftry that diftinguilhes religious focieties, 
 was foon multiplied or abridged over all the or- 
 der ; and was confidered as a fort of canon to cor- 
 refl: other manufcripts by. 
 
 *' Whether they, who gave the firft printed edi- 
 
 * Ciftertium. 
 
 t The autograph of this correBorium is to be feen in the 
 library of the Dominicans, rue St. Jaques, Paria. A good 
 account of it is given by Fabricy (Titres primitifs, torn. ii. 
 p. 132.) It is to be regretted that the projeft of making a 
 fair copy of itj formed in 1749, did not take place ; though 
 it is not doubted but it will be refumed and executed in the 
 bed manner. 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 tion at Mayence in the year 1462, ufedit; or 
 what manufcript ferved them for an archetype, it 
 is not known. One thing is certain ; the firft 
 printed editions are extremely fauhy. That which 
 was publifhed in the year 1515, in the Complu- 
 tenfian polyglott, is more corred than any that 
 preceded it ; but as the corredlions were not al-. 
 ways made on the authority of manufcripts, and as 
 the. editors have not told us what other fources 
 they drew from, we read it with doubt and dif- 
 truft. The firft who ■ gave a good copy of the 
 Vulgate was the celebrated Robert Stevens. All 
 his editions are correct and beautiful ; but that of 
 1540 is fuperlatively fo. It was made from four- 
 teen defcribed manufcripts, and the three princi- 
 pal printed editions of Mayence, Bafil and Alcala. 
 It was republiflied with fome alterations by Hen- 
 tennius in 1547, with various readings from thir- 
 ty manufcripts, which are accurately defcribed. 
 Hentennius's edition was improved by Lucas Bru- 
 genfis; and publifhed, with his long promifed 
 annotatibns, in 1580; and again, more fplendid- 
 ly, in 1583*. 
 
 " Seventeen years were now elapfed fince the 
 council of Trent had decreed the Vulgate to be 
 an authentic copy of Scripture ; and ordered it to 
 
 * Of the fame year, there is an elegant and commodious 
 edition of it in fmall o£lavo. Both are by Flantin. 
 5 
 
115 
 
 be henceforth (exclufively of all other Latin ver- 
 fions) univerfally ufed and appealed to. The charge 
 of having it carefully correded, and accurate- 
 ly printed, was committed to the Roman pontiff; 
 but littie had been done during the troublefome 
 reigns of Pius IV. and Pius V. ; fo that Sixtus V., 
 who was born for great things, had the honour of 
 executing the great commiffion. He had already, 
 as has been faid, given an excellent edition of the 
 Greek verfion of the Septuagint, in 1587 ; and 
 he now gave, in 1590 *, the firft entire Latin Bible 
 that was publiftied by papal authority. 
 
 " But neither papal authority itfelf, nor the ana- 
 themas denounced againft thofe who fhould pre- 
 furae to alter the fmalleft particle of it, could pro- 
 cure it a long duration. The imperious and un- 
 popular Sixtus was hardly cold in his grave, when 
 the copies of his edition were called in and fup- ^ 
 preffed f } and a new one, with above two thou- 
 fand alterations, was publifhed, in 1592, by 
 Clement VIII., of which all the qther editions, that 
 have fmce been made, are literal copies J." 
 
 * The bull of publication is dated in 1589, but the book 
 was not made public till the year after. 
 
 t It was pretended that Sixtus himfelf had refolved on the 
 fupprefGon; but of this there is no proof, and little probability. 
 
 J " When I fay literal copies, I do not mean that there have 
 been no changes made in the Vulgate, fince the Clementine 
 edition. It is well known that many little correftions, and 
 
116 
 
 A third fource of emendation of the Hebrew text 
 of the Old Teftajnent our author derives from its 
 quotations fcattered throyghout the New. Thefe 
 however, he obferves, muft be ufed with great 
 circumfpe£tion, fmce they are cited in a different 
 language, and not always from the original, but 
 frequently the Septuagint or fome other early ver- 
 fion ; and are occafionally quoted in fo vague a 
 manner, that we are at a lofs to Iqiow whence they 
 were taken, or whether they be meant as ftrift quo- 
 tations or fimple inferences. Under this head, he 
 fpeaks with high encomium of the labors of Dr. 
 Randolph, who publifhed an accurate coUeftion 
 of them in 1782, at Oxford, together with the 
 Hebrew text, the Septuagint verfion, and a confi- 
 derable bbdy of learned annotations. 
 
 After the Sacred Scriptures themfelves, in their 
 various verfions and ediitions, our author places 
 the works of Philo and Jofephus, the two princi» 
 pal Jewilh writers of antiquity, as fources of occa- 
 fional correftion. Since the former, howeveri 
 was a Hellenift of Alexandria, and probably there- 
 fore quoted only from the Septuagint tt-anfla- 
 tion ; he prefers the latter, who was of Hebrew 
 
 amendments that had been pointed out by Bellarmine and 
 others, have from time to time been admitted, even into the 
 Vatican iroprefliona ; and thence have found their way into 
 Tnoft other poiterior editions. " 
 
.117 
 
 Origin, and has given us a continued hiftoiy df th^ 
 Jews, extracted from the Hebrew copies of their 
 own canonical bookfe, and at.firft partly written 
 by himfelf in the Hebrew language. 
 
 " In fine," adds the author of the Profp6£luSj, 
 " when the corruptions of the text cannot be re- 
 moved either by the collation of manufcripts, or 
 the aid of verfions, internal analogy or external 
 teftimony, the laft,refource is conje£tural criticifm." 
 This mode of corredion is, I admit, the mofl dan- 
 gerous of any, and requires, whenever allowed, 
 a mind chaftifed from every bias, — a judgment 
 feverely accurate" and fober. And, nbtwithftand* 
 ing the very valuable canons which, under this 
 head. Dr. Geddes advances for the regulation of 
 his own conduft and thatof future biblicifts, I will 
 here freely acknowledge that I think he has occa- 
 fionally, in his own verfion, indulged in conjee-' 
 tural criticifms fomewhat too frequently, and 
 preffed them in fome inftances too far. But of 
 this, more as we proceed. 
 
 Yet the corruptions of the text, as our author 
 pbferves, are not the fole difficulty a tranflator has 
 to furmount. To afcertain the true meaning, is 
 often as arduous as to afcertain the true reading. 
 This he inftances as being particularly the cafe in 
 all Hebrew writings, from the very nature of the 
 language itfelf, and more efpecially when com- 
 
118 
 
 bined with the abfurd fyftem of illufttating and 
 perpetuating it, invented by the Maforites. To 
 remedy this inconvenience, a full knowledge of 
 the Hebrew language by long analytical and com- 
 parative ftudy is of prime neceffity ; next to which, 
 as already remarked, a careful and affociated per- 
 ufal of the ancient verfions ; and laftly, of thofe 
 of more modern times, whether Latin or verna- 
 cular, which have appeared fince the revival of 
 letters. 
 
 Of thefe laft we have a copious account, com- 
 mencing with the Latin, and comprehending that of 
 SantesPagninus, firft printed at Florence in 1528*, 
 the model, indeed, of almoft all the reft ; that of 
 Munfter, which appeared about the year 1534; 
 that of Leo-Juda, commonly called the Trigurine 
 Bible becaufe publifhed by the divines of Zurich, 
 the firft edition of which is dated 1543 ; that of 
 Caftalio, highly prized, as I have already obferved, 
 by our author, and of which the beft edition was 
 printed at Bafil in 1573 : and that of Junius and 
 Tremellius, containing the Old Teftaraent alone, 
 of the date of 1575 ; to all the fubfequent editions 
 of which was added Beza's tranflation of the New 
 Teftaraent. Independently of thefe, he pays par- 
 ticular attention to the Latin verfions of cardi- 
 
 * Republiihed at Leipfic with the Hebrew text in two 
 vols. 4to, 1740. 
 
119 
 
 nal de Vio Cajetan, publifhed, though incomplete, 
 at Lyons in 1639 ; of Malvenda, a Spanifh Domi- 
 nican, publifhed at the fan;ie place in 1650, but 
 extending only as far as Ezekiel ; of Sebaftian 
 Schmidt, printed at Stf afburg in 1 696, after hav- 
 ing been on the anvil nearly forty years ; of John 
 Le Clerc, publifhed complete at Amfterdam in 
 1731 ; and, though lafl not leafl, of the truly- 
 erudite Houbigant, who died only three years 
 prior to the publication of this Profpedlus, and of 
 whofe amiable and facetious manners, and occa- 
 iional paroxyfms of abftra£bion from " this vifible 
 diurnal fphere," when more profoundly engaged 
 in his critical elucidations, I have heard many anec- 
 dotes from feveral learned Parifian emigrants who 
 were intimately acquainted with him. The ver- 
 fion of Houbigant, accompanied with the Hebrew 
 text of Vanderhooght, his prolegomena, and critical 
 notes, was publifhed in the moft fplendid manner 
 at Paris, between the years 1747 and 1758, in 
 four volumes folio, and is already become a rare 
 and coftly book*. 
 
 To thefe more celebrated tranflators.our au- 
 
 * The elegant and admirable Latin verfion of the whole 
 of the Old Teftament, in 5 vols. 8vo, by M. Dathe, profeffor 
 at Leipfic, had not at this time made its appearan9e. It was 
 publifhed in 1790^^ aad has fince been fucceeded by a tranf- 
 lation of the New Teftament. 
 
120 
 
 thor adds the names of a variety of fcholars of 
 lefs repute, and who have individually given not 
 more than verfions of fome particular book, or 
 even portions of a book. After w^hich, he reca- 
 pitulates the modern vernacular tranflations, which 
 " are all call," fays he, " as it were in the fame 
 mold ; all fcrupuloufly literal verfions. of the fame 
 faulty originals, and, almoft always, imder ths 
 guidance of Pagninus." 
 
 Of thefe, the firft in order of time is that of 
 Luther, printed in the German tongue, and pub- 
 liflied in parts, between the years 1522 and 1533, 
 and of which a more correft edition, carefully 
 revifed by himfelf, yith the affiftalice of fome of 
 the moft learned men of the age, appeared in 1 542 ; 
 as alfo a third juft before his death in 1545. 
 Luther's verfion, tranflated into their refpeftive 
 tongues, and with occafional alterations, was the 
 only one in ufe for nearly a century among the 
 Belgic and other northern churches ; till, in con- 
 fequence of a decree of the fynod of Dort, the 
 States General of Holland ordered a new Dutch. 
 tranflation to be made from the originals, which 
 was publifhed in the year 1636. From the Dutch 
 and German our author proceeds to, notice the 
 Danifh verfion, publilhed by Refenius, bilhop of 
 Seelandt, in 1 607, under the ,patronage of Chrif- 
 tian IV., and the very modern and valuable tranf- 
 9 
 
121 
 
 lation into Swedifh ; after which he immediately 
 adverts to the different French exemplars of moft 
 celebrity: particularly thofe of Olivetan, affifted by 
 Calvin, publiflied at Neufchatel in 1535 ; of 
 Diodati, publiflied at Geneva in 1644 ; arid of Le 
 Cene, which appeared, upon a more original 
 plan, in 1707, but did not meet with the recep- 
 tion the tranflator expefted *. From the French 
 he paffes to the Italian verfions, of which, how- 
 ever, he enumerates but two ; that of Bruccioli, 
 (faid to be deduced from the originals, but which 
 is little more than a verfion of Pagninus,) firfl: pub- 
 liflied at Venice in 1532, and afterwards improved 
 and re-edited by Rufldcius at Geneva in 1562; 
 and that of Diodati, publiflied at the fame place in 
 1 607 : to which our learned critic afcribes a very 
 confiderable preference. 
 
 He proceeds in his biblical excurfion to Spain. 
 " Although the Spanifli," fays he, " be, perhaps, 
 of all the European tongues, that in which the 
 Scriptures would appear in their greatefl; dignity j 
 
 * Our author has here forgotten to notice tHe fynodic 
 verfion of the Genevefe church, publiflied in one large volume 
 4to, in 1693, by Sam. ide Tournes. " Le tout reveu," fays the 
 title-page^ "et confere furies testes Hebreux et Grecs paries 
 pafteurs et lesprofefleurs de I'Eglife de Geneve.'' — It is the 
 copy generally adopted in the prefent day ; but the revifions 
 of the worthy paftors, who edited it, have produced few im^ 
 portant variations from the verfion of Diodati. 
 
122 
 
 we have, as yet, no Spanifh verfion of them that 
 deferves much notice. Thofe made by the Jews 
 are barbarous beyond Conception, and that of De 
 Reyna, with all De Valera's improvements, is 
 little more than a fervile verfion from the Latin of 
 Pagninus and Leo-Juda." I have attended with 
 fome degree of accuracy, as well to this, as to the 
 verfion publifhed by the Jews in 1553 at Fer- 
 rara, and canftot avoid thinking that the con- 
 demmation in both thefe inilances is by far too 
 fevere. The verfion of Cafliodoro de Reyna, 
 which was publiflied in 1569, exhibits a degree of 
 freedom and elegance, without deviating from the 
 fpirit of the original, to which Pagninus has no 
 pretenfions : and although that of the Jews be 
 not equally elegant, it is a bold and unfhackled 
 interpreter of the original, and afibrds a different 
 and in many inftances, if I miflake not, a more 
 correfl: verfion of particular parts than the gene- 
 rality of vernacular tranflations. It was certainly 
 compofed with a careful attention to many of the 
 beft manufcripts, for it has occafionally borrowed 
 from them ; and as a further proof of its gene- 
 rally efteemed merit in its day, it not only obtain- 
 ed the fan£tion of the duke of Ferrara, but was 
 re-edited fliortly afterwards at Amfterdam by^ 
 Gillis Jooft. 
 I completely agree with our learned critic, ne- 
 
123 
 
 vertheiefs, that by far the beft tranflator of the 
 facred records among the Spaniards was F. Luis 
 de Leon, an AugulHnian friar, and interpreter of 
 the Scripture in the univerfity of Salamanca. 
 *' I know not," fays he, fpeaking of his tranflation 
 of the book of Job, " if there be, in any language, 
 a verfion, that to the ftrifleft; fidelity joins fo 
 much elegance, precifion and perfpicuity." Luis 
 de Leon, however, unfortunately for his coun- 
 trymen, tranflated nothing more than the book 
 of Job, edited pofthumoufly at Madrid in 1779; 
 and the Song of Solomon, wrenched from him 
 by his friends, and p'ublifhed in his life time, but 
 without his knowledge, towards the clofe of the 
 feventeenth century; "forwhich,".faysour author, 
 " he fuffered five years imprifonment in the dark 
 and inaccedible dungeons of the Inquifition." 
 There muft, however, I think, have been fome 
 other caufe for fo fevere a fentence, than the 
 mere tranflation of the Song of Songs : for both the ~ 
 verfions of the Bible I have juft adverted to con- 
 tain it without the fuppreflion of a fingle verfe, al- 
 though they were each of them fubmitted to the 
 court of Inquifition for examination, and pub- 
 lifhed with its exprefs permiffion: "viftayexa- 
 minada per el officio de la Inquificion," fays that of 
 Ferrara in its very title-page. I have ftated, that 
 this latter appears to have been ftudioufly com- 
 
124 
 
 pared, in its progrefs, with many valuable ma- 
 nufcripts, and occafionally to have adopted their 
 text : and without detaining the reader by a ufe- 
 lefs enumeration of inflances, I will only refer 
 him to one or two in the book before us. In the 
 common copies of the Song of Songs, vi. 1 2. we 
 meet with the exprefEon, " as the chariots 
 (an3''Dj;) of Aminadib ;" but in feveral of the 
 manufcripts this laft term is divided, into two, 
 in: ""ay which alters the phrafe to " the chariots 
 of my willing people:" and fuch, evidently from 
 manufcript authority alone, is the interpretation 
 given in the Ferrara verfion. No fe, mi-alma me 
 pufo quatrequas de pueblo voluntariofo. In ver. 1 3 
 of the fame chapter we meet with another devi- 
 ation from almoft all the verfions, in which the 
 word rbxya is tranflated " conflict," e. g. " as 
 the conflidl of two armies." n'7nQ equally 
 fignifies, however, " a rufhing together or en- 
 counter (contre-dance) of a company of dan- 
 cers," and is therefore rendered in the fame 
 edition, " como danqa de los reales." I do not 
 notice thefe deviations from the common interpre- 
 tation, as approving of either; although they have 
 been adopted by feveral of the firft biblical critics 
 of our own country; but as merely manifefting a 
 laudable extent of refearch, and indepen<iency of 
 fpirit in tranflating. 
 
125 
 
 Our author next advances to the catalogue of 
 EngHfh Bibles, refpefting which, as an ample 
 hiflory has already been given by Levnls, and fince 
 ' byarchbifliopNewcome, from; the former of which 
 writers the abftra£t of 'Dr. Geddes is for the moft; 
 part borrowed, it is fcarcely neceffary to do more in 
 this place than to enumerate them. The oldefl 
 complete edition is that of Tyndal and Coverdale: 
 the firft of whom tranflated from Genefis to 
 the end of Chronicles, the book of Jonah, and 
 the whole of the New Teftament ; while the laft 
 extended his labours to the reft of the Englifh 
 Scriptures, fo as to make the verfion complete. It 
 was printed in 153Y, and known by the name of 
 Matthew's Bible. Cranmer's greai Bible, and all 
 the others publifhed during the reigns of Henry 
 VIII. and Edward VI., are only improved copies 
 of Tyndal's; with a few additions in fome of 
 them from the Greek or th6 Latin Vulgate. 
 In the time of Mary, the Englifh refugees at 
 Geneva introduced a new verfion, apparently from 
 the French of Olivetan as revifed by Calvin and 
 Beza: it was accompanied with notes by the latter, 
 and hence obtained his name. It became the 
 favourite verfion of the puritan party, and went 
 through many editions during the ' reigns of Eli- 
 zabeth and James J though, having been produced 
 by perfons obnoxious to the epifcopalians, it was 
 
126 
 
 never received as a public ftandard. In 1586 was 
 publiflied Parker's or the Bifliops' Bible, which 
 was appointed to be read in churches as Cran- 
 mer's had been before. It was objefted to this 
 verfion, though for the moft part wrongfully, 
 that it deviated too much from the original in 
 favor of the Greek and Latin copies. The ob- 
 jedion however prevailed, and it was foon fuper- 
 feded by the prefent ftandard, which was projefted 
 on the acceflion of James to the throne of England, 
 and finifhed in the fpace of three or four years 
 afterwards; although it was not publiflied till 
 1611; when, by his majefty's ipecial command, 
 it was appointed to be read in churches, and has 
 continued ever fmce to be the public authorized 
 verfion., 
 
 *' The means and the method employed to pro- 
 duce this tranflation promifed fomething extremely 
 fatisfaflory; and great expeftations were formed 
 from the united abilities of fo many learned men 
 felefted for the purpofe, and excited to emula- 
 tion by the encouragement of a munificent prince, 
 .who had declared himfelf the patron of the work. 
 Accordingly, the higheft eulogiums have been 
 made on it, both by our own writers and by 
 foreigners; and, indeed, if accuracy, fidelity, and 
 the ftrifteft attention to the letter of the text, be 
 fuppofed to conftitute the qualities of an excellent 
 
127 
 
 verGon, this of all verfions muft, in general, he 
 accounted the moll excellent. Every fenlence, 
 every word, every fyllable, every letter and point, 
 feem to have been weighed with the niceft ex- 
 aftitude, and expreffed, either in the text or 
 margin, with the greateft precilion. Pagninus 
 himfelf is hardly more literal ; and it was well 
 remarked by Robertfon, above a hundred years 
 ago, that^it may ferve for a lexicon of the Hebrew 
 language; as well as for a tranflation. 
 
 *' It is, however, confeffedly not without its 
 faults. Befide thofe that are common to it with 
 every verfion of that age, arifmg from faulty 
 originals and Maforetic prepoiTeffions, its own 
 intrinfic and peculiar blemilhes appear to be the 
 following. 
 
 " Firft, from a fuperftitious attention to render 
 the Hebrew and Greek into literal Englifli, its 
 authors adopted modes of expreflion which are 
 abhorrent from the Englifh idiom; and, perhaps, 
 from that of all other modern tongues. Our ears, 
 indeed,are now accuftomed tothisphrafeology ; and 
 the language is become familiar to us, by being the 
 language of the national religion: but a proof that 
 many of thofe expreflions are neither natural nor 
 analogous, is, that they have never yet been able 
 to force their way into common ufage, even in' 
 converfation; and he who fhall employ them 
 would be fuppofed to jeer at Scripture, or to af- 
 
128 
 
 fea the language of fanaticifm. In fhort, what 
 Selden faid of it is ftriftly true : ' It is rather 
 tranflated into Englifli words than into Englifli 
 phrafe.' From the fame caufe, it is, in many 
 places, obfcure and ambiguous, where a fmall 
 variation in the arrangement of the words would 
 have made it clear and unequivocal. 
 
 ** Secondly, there is a manifeft want of uniform- 
 ity in the mode of tranflating. This was, indeed, 
 unavoidable. The different parts of the Bible 
 were affigned to fo many different perfons, or at 
 ieaft to fo many different quorums; and although 
 the whole was ultimately committed to the revifal 
 of fix perfons affembled for the purpofe, it does 
 not appear that they made any great change in 
 its firlt texture. When we confider, that they 
 were only nine months about this revifion, we 
 cannot well look for a rigorous examination of 
 the fidelity of the verfion; much lefs, for a reduc- 
 tion of its ftyle to the fame color and complexion. 
 The books called Apocrypha are, in general, I 
 think, better tranflated than the reft of the Bible; 
 for v/hich one reafon may be, that the tranflators 
 of them were not cramped by the fetters of the 
 Mafora. 
 
 " Thirdly, king James's tranflators miftook the 
 true meaning of a great many words and fen- 
 tences, by depending too much on modern lexi- 
 cons, and by paying too little attention to the an- 
 
129 
 
 cient verfions. Many of tliofe miftranflations 
 have been noted and redified by different com- 
 mentators, but many ftill remain unnoticed, and 
 feem to cry for amendment. 
 
 " Fourthjiy, in compliance with a novel opinion, 
 that not a word nor particle fhould be in a verna- 
 cular yerfioh, that has not another word and par- 
 ticle, exaftly correfpOnding with it, in the He- 
 brew; and, at the fame time, to prevent an 
 obfcurity, which wotild be the neceflary confe- 
 quence of that mode of tranflating; perhaps, 
 alfo, to obviate the reproaches of want of fideli- 
 ty, that tad been thrown out againfl: the Bilhops' 
 Bible, both by the catholics and the puritans; 
 they encumbered their verfion with, a load of 
 ufelefs Italics ; often without the leafl neceffity, 
 and aln^ft always to the detriment, of the text. 
 In faft, eithfer the words in Italics are virtually 
 implied in the Hebrew, or they are not. In the 
 former cafe they are a real part of the text, and 
 Ihould be printed in the fame charader: in the 
 latter, they are generally ill afforted and clumfy 
 ekes, that may well be fpared ; and which often 
 disfigure the narration under pretence of con- 
 necting it. 
 
 " Fifthly, king James's tranflators, like all the 
 tranflators of their day, were too much guided 
 by theological fyftem ; and feem, on fome occa- 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 fions, t6 have allowed their religious prejudices 
 to have gotten the better of their judgment. To 
 point out examples would be an invidious talk ; 
 but it is extremely proper that every tranflator 
 Ihould have them conftantly in view, as fo many 
 cautionary mementos to himfelf. 
 
 " In fine, through the conftant fluftuation and 
 progrefs of living languages, there are many 
 words and phrafes, in the vulgar verfion, now 
 become obfolete ; a fpecimen of which may be 
 feen in Pilkington's judicious Remarks, publilhed 
 at Cambridge in 1759. The conftruftion, too, 
 is frequently lefs grammatical than . the prefent 
 ftate of our language feems to require : and the 
 arrangement of words and fentences is often fuch 
 as produces obfcurity or ambiguity." 
 
 Our author now haftily glances at a variety of 
 private Englilh verfions, either of the whole or 
 of diftindl p&rts, of the Sacred Scriptures which 
 have appeared fince this sera. Among thefe we 
 find the names of Gell and Canne, who merely 
 planned and commenced, but did not publifb 
 their refpeftive tranflations : Ainfworth, who tranf- 
 iated the Pentateuch, Pfalms, and Song of Solo- 
 mon : Julius Bate, whofe verfion of the Penta- 
 teuch, Jofliua, Jiidges, and the four books of 
 Kings, was publifhed pofthumoufly, with obvious 
 marks of hiis having defpifed the Rabbinical, but 
 
1^1 
 
 tidmired the Hutchinfonian Cdhbala : Anthony 
 Purver, who gave to the public in l^64< \a.& 
 New and liteYal Tranflation of all the Books of the 
 Old and New Teflament, with Notes critical and 
 explanatory ; which is laid to have been theiwork 
 of thirty years ; and, although a rude and incon- 
 dite mafs, carries with it undeniable proofs of much 
 reading and labor: Mr. Lookup, who pub-i 
 lifhed'in 1740 a tranflation of the book of Ge- 
 nefis, and dedicated it to the archbifliop of Can^ 
 terbury: Abraham Dawfon, who tranflated not 
 more than the five firft chapters of 'the famd 
 book, the three firft of which were publifhed in 
 1 763, with inarginal illuftrations and critical notes: 
 and Mr. Green, of Cambridge, who gave the 
 public his new tranflation of the Pfalms in 1762 j 
 and the poetic parts of the Old Teftament in 
 1781 ; of whom our author fpeaks handfomely, 
 while he regrets his undue attachment to the 
 Harian fyftem of Hebrew metre. 
 
 " Still a model was wanting that? fhbuld claim 
 every fuifragej and ' merit univerfal applaufei 
 Need 1 inform my intelligent reader that fuch a 
 model at length appeared in the, year 1779; when 
 bifhop Lowth favored the public with his new 
 tranflsltibn of Faiah ? Nsver did facred criticifm 
 appear with greater dignity than in this invalu- 
 able work. Never were the gejitleman, the fcho* 
 
132 
 
 lar, the grammarian and the theologue more 
 happily united. 
 
 " So rare an example, fet by fuch a charafter, 
 tould not fail to be copied. Mr. Benjamin Blay- 
 ney, reftor of Polfhott in Wilts, has lately pub- 
 lifhed a tranflation of Jeremiah, on the fame 
 plan ; and with great fuccefs. I truft he is now 
 employed in fome other fimilar work. 
 
 " On the' fame plan biihop Newcome is labor- 
 ing on the Minor Prophets ; and great expefta- 
 tions are juflly formed, from his well known abi- 
 Kties and acumen, 
 
 " Mr. Hopldns, vicar of Bolney, has given a 
 eorreded edition of the vulgar verfion of the 
 book of Exodus; in whicli be lias judicioiffly 
 mferted the Samaritan and Septuagint fupple- 
 ments — ^wheii he had reafon to think them ge- 
 nuine. His notes are fliort, but generally appo- 
 fite. May neither 'age nor infirmity' prevent him 
 from 'profecuting fuch ufeful ftudies!' 
 
 ", We have feveral Englifh tranflations of the 
 Song of Solomon ; fome in verfe and fome in 
 profe ; and moft of them have confiderable me- 
 rit *. We have, likewife, poetical verfions of 
 
 * " Particularly an anonymous one, printed for Millar 
 J75I; and tiiat of Dr. Hodgfon, juft now publiflied." Our 
 author has forgotten to enumerate another anonymous tranfla- 
 tion of the fame book, mofl admirably executed, and en riched 
 
Job, the Pfalms, and other detached parts of 
 Scripture 5 which may be occafionally ufeful to a 
 profe-tranflator : and there are a number of par- 
 ticular paflages throughout the Mi^hole Bible, well 
 rendered and explained, in various critical Com- 
 mentaries, Effays, Ledures and Sermons; of 
 which a general colle£tion would be of great 
 utility. 
 
 " Of the New Teftament, befidethe verfion al- 
 ready, mentioned, of 1729, we have, fince that, 
 three complete new tranflations by Wynne, Wort 
 ley and Harwood ; two of St. Matthew by Scott 
 and Wakefield ; and we foon expeft, from the 
 pen of Dr. Campbell, a capital work on the 
 four Gofpels. But of all thefe I (hall have oc- 
 cafion to fpeak more at large in proper time and 
 place. 
 
 " A foeiety lately formed for promoting the 
 knowledge of the Scriptures have already publilhed 
 fome numbers of Commentaries and EJfays ; in 
 which, among other things, they propofe to give 
 * an accurate tranflation of the paffage to be ex- 
 plained, with proper divifions into paragraphs and 
 fentences, and pointed with the utmoft correft- 
 nefs.' We applaud the plan^ and heartily wifli 
 
 with a commentary, and annotations j printed for Dodfley in 
 1764, and fuppofed to be the work of Dr. Percy, the prefent 
 bilhop of Dromore, 
 
134 
 
 them fuccefs : may we take the liberty to beg of 
 them, to beware of fyftem * ? 
 
 " From the above review of the principal ver- 
 fions made by ' proteftants, it will, I prefume, 
 appear, that their chief and peculiar imperfeftion 
 is owing to the tranflators having followed too im- 
 jplicitly the Maforetic text, and paid too little re- 
 gard to the ancient verfions. Let us next fee 
 what are the fpecial defefts of the tranflations 
 that have been made by catholics." 
 
 The number of thefe, our author obferves, is 
 comparatively but fmall, an idea having long pre- 
 vailed that the Scripture fhould not be trariflated 
 into vulgar tongues. He traces the fource of this 
 idea. — examines the ftatesin which it became moft 
 predominant — the caufes of fuch predominancy — 
 and its inconfiftency with reafon, religion, found 
 policy, and the pradice of better ages. 
 
 " I have feen," fays he, " but four French tranf- 
 lations made from the Latin : that of Louvain, that 
 of Benoit, that of Corbin, and that of Sagi. The firfl; 
 two are little more than the Geneva verfipn accom- 
 modated to the Vulgate : the third is beneath 
 criticifm : the laft is an elegant, fecondary, ver- 
 sion ; and has, with very little variation, been a 
 
 * The numbcK, at firft publifhed feparately by this fo- 
 clety, have been lb multiplied fince the period here referred to, 
 as to fill at prefent two volumes 8vo. They are fold, if I 
 ID iftake not, by Johnfon, St. Paul's church-yard. ' 
 
135 
 
 text-book to all the Frerich commentators for a 
 century paft. It 'appears, however, to be too 
 much a paraphrafe ; and feldom retains the fim- 
 plicity and dignity even of the. Vulgate verfion, 
 
 " Until the year 1750, the German ~ catholics; 
 had no, tolerable verfion of the Bible. That of 
 Dietenberg is a bad tranfcript, or rather miferftble 
 interpolation, of Luther's ; and Ulenberg's is 
 difguftingly literal and obfcure. But, at the fore- 
 nientioned period, a new tranflation was pub-: 
 lifted by the Behediftines of Ettenheim-Munfter, 
 under the direftion of F. Cartier, which is, I 
 think, the beft tranflation from the Vulgate that 
 has yet been made. The reafon is obvious : the 
 authors had recourfe to the originals, in all da--. 
 bious cafes; and* did not ftrifitly adhere to the 
 letter of their text. 
 
 " The Flemings have two tolerable verfidns, the 
 one by De Witt, and the other by Vander-Schu- 
 ren : but the French language has, for fome time 
 paft, been fo much cultivated by them, that Sa9i's 
 Bible is almoft as frequently to be met with in 
 the French Netherlands as in France itfelf. 
 
 " There are two or, three old Italian tranflations 
 rhade from the Vulgate ; or adapted to it, from 
 Pagninus's Latin verfion : but, they have not been 
 reprinted for many years back ; and have,, in rea- 
 lity, little to recommend them.; I have not feen 
 
136 
 
 Martini's recent verfion, but I am informed it is 
 very elegant. 
 
 " In Spain there is not, I believe, at this day a 
 fingle edited verfion of the whole Bible. That 
 which was printed in 1516 was fo totally de- 
 ftroyed, that hardly a copy of it is to be found. 
 Some particular books have been lately publiflied; 
 and it is not to be doubted that the reft will foon 
 follow. The torch of learning is but newly 
 lighted up in that ingenious nation : but, if we 
 are not greatly miftaken, it will foon break forth 
 into a blaze of uncontmon fplendor. 
 
 " Our Saxon anceftors had vernacular verfions 
 of the Scripture as early as the reign of Alfred, 
 who is, himfelf, faid to have been one of the 
 tranflators. Some parts of Adfiic's verfion of 
 the Old Teftament were publilhed by Thwaites 
 in 1698. And we have two different editions of 
 a Saxon New Teftament. All thefe were made 
 from the Vulgate. Hampole, Wiclif and Perry 
 tranflated alfo from the Latin ; though, in fome 
 of their verfions, they noted the differences of 
 the Hebrew and Greek, from St. Jerom, Bede 
 and De Lyra. 
 
 " From the days of Wiclif there was no ver- 
 fion made from the Vulgate until the year 1582 j 
 when the Englilh catholics, who had, in the be- 
 ginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, taken refuge 
 
137 
 
 in Flanders, and were now removed to Reims 
 on account of the war, publifhed a tranflation 
 of the New Teftament only, in one quarto vo- 
 lume. The publication of the Old did not take 
 place till after their return to Douay in 1609*. 
 Hence the whole verfion, which is in three vo- 
 lumes; is known by the name of the Douay 
 Bible. It is a literal and barbarous tranflation 
 from the Vulgate, before its laft revifion ; and 
 accompanied with acrimonious and injurious an- 
 notations. Their refidence in a foreign country, 
 and what they deemed a cruel exile from their 
 own, had corrupted the tranflators' language, 
 and foured their tempers ; and it was, unhappily, 
 the common cuftom of thofe lamentable times, 
 to feafon every religious controverfy with gall and 
 vinegar. We do not find that Withers, Fulke 
 and Cartwright, who drew their quills againfl: the 
 Douay annotators, were a bit more courteous in 
 their retorts. 
 
 * Wicliff's tfanflatioji of the New Teftament was pub- 
 lifhed by Lewis, in folio, in 173 1. His prefs- copy was col- 
 lated with ten MSS. the principal various readings of which 
 are marked in the margin. Befide the manufcripts of Wicliff's 
 verfion, at Cambridge, Oxford, and in the Britifti Mufeum, 
 there is a beautiful copy of the New Teftament in the Ad- 
 vocates Library at Edinburgh ; and one of the Seven Catho« 
 lie Epiftles in the Univerfity Library of Glafgow. 
 
138 
 
 " The late moft pious Dr. Chaloner revifed the, 
 Douay verfion, on the Clementine edition of the 
 Vulgate ; greatly curtailed the annotations ; and 
 correfted the ftyle, chiefly from king James's 
 tranflation. There are two editions of this revi- 
 fion; one in the year 1750, and the other in 
 1764; both in -five volumes, fmall oftavo. I 
 am told another edition is preparing by the gen- 
 tlemen of the Enghlh college at Douay ; and pro-, 
 pofals for republilhing it at Dublin, in one quarto 
 volume, are now handed about in London. 
 
 *' Mr. Caryl, a gentleman who had followed the 
 fortime of king James II., publiflied at St. Ger- 
 main's a new verfion of the Efalms in 1700; in 
 \vhich, taking Bellarmine ■ for his guide, he has 
 often exprelTed the meaning of the Vulgate much 
 better than the Douay tranflators. 
 
 " In 1719 Dr. ComeUusNarypublifhed his New 
 Teftanaent at Dublin, in one volume oftavo ; and 
 Dr. Witham's appeared in 1730, in two volumes 
 oftavo. There are many good renderings in both 
 thefe verfions. 
 
 " Mr. W. Webfter, curate of St. Dunftan's in 
 the Weft, tranflated the New Teftament fron^ 
 the Vulgate, through the medium of F. Simon's, 
 French verfion, and publifhed it at London, in 
 two volumes in quarto, in 1 7^0. . >■ 
 
 " I have in my poflfeffion a manufcript New 
 
139 
 
 Tdlament prepared for the prefs, by the late 
 Mr. Robert Gordon, of the Scotch college at Paris ; 
 in which fome confiderable miftranflations of all 
 the preceding veirfions are noted and reftified. 
 
 " But although the catholics, in general, have 
 made their vernacular verfions of the Bible from 
 the Vulgate ; they haye not done fo without ex- 
 ception. Two of theforementioned Italian tranf- 
 lations, a^-e profeffedly made from the originals. 
 In Fr?ince, befides Codurc's verfion of Job, Pro- 
 verbs, Ecclefiaftes,' and the Song of Solomon, 
 we find a tranflation of the Pfalms by Rodolphe 
 le Maitre ; another by Ifaac le Maitre, and an- 
 other by Dupin ; all made from the Hebrew in 
 the . lafl century : not to mention two cqmplete 
 manufcript verfions of the whole Bible ; one by 
 Dom. Lubineau, a Benedidine monk ; and. the 
 pther by F. Feraud of the Oratory. 
 
 "In the^year 1737 a newverfion of the Pfalms 
 was publiftied by Dom. Maur d' Antine ; and in 
 1739 appeared Le Gros's firfl edition of The 
 Holy ^ Bible tranjlated from the original Texts, with 
 the various Readings of the Vulgate, See. printed 
 on a very fmall type, and in one thick oftavo vo- 
 lume. It was republiflied, with the author's lafl 
 correftions, at Cologne, in 1753, in fix volumes 
 in twelves. In this tranflation the ^dditibnsof the 
 Vulgate are inferted in the fame charafters with 
 
 5 
 
, 140 
 
 the text ; but within crotchets. , What is added 
 from other ancient verfions is alfo within crotch- 
 ets, but in Italics ; and the fupplements, deemed 
 neceffary to corred or illuftrate the text, are in 
 Italics, without crotchets. 
 
 " About the middle of this century a fchool of 
 dapuchins was formed at Paris, under the direc- 
 tion of abbe de Villefroi, for the laudable purpofe 
 of elucidating the original Scriptures. The popes 
 Benedifl: XIV. and Clement XIII. were fo well 
 pleafed with the defign, that they both teftified 
 their approbation by fpecial briefs ; and the latter 
 honored the little fodety with the title of Cle- 
 mentine. Befides an elegant tranflatioh of the 
 Pfalms, and fome other books of the Old Tefta- 
 ment, they have already publifhed a great many 
 volumes of Princifes dijcutes, in which there is 
 much ingenuity and confiderable erudition : but 
 a ftrong tindlure of rabbinifra imbibed from their, 
 mailer, and a violent attachment to a fpecious 
 but delufive and dangerous fyftem of interpreta- 
 tion, have often led them afide from the right 
 road, and expofed them to the too fevere though 
 juft animadverfions of more rational critics. 
 
 *' We have alfo a curious and fanciful French 
 verfion of the Pfalms from the Hebrew by Lau- 
 geois ; in which, although he has certainly taken 
 by far too great liberties with his original, and 
 
141 
 
 given novel and arbitrary fignificatlons to a number 
 of Hebrevsr words, there are, neverthelefs, many ele- 
 gant and fome uncommonly happy renderings. 
 
 " The amiable and pious author oiSpeSlade de 
 la Nature left behind him a French verfion o£ 
 the Pfalms, and fome other finall portions of 
 Scripture, which, though puofeffedly made from 
 the Vulgate, has a conftant allufion to the He- 
 brew, and contains fome valuable elucidations, 
 efpecially in the notes. 
 
 " The abbe du Contant de la Motte has, fmce the 
 year 1111 r- publifhed the following works on the 
 Holy Scripture : La GemJeExfliquee, 3 vol. 12mo. 
 L'lExode Exfliquey 3 vol. Le Levitique Explique^ 
 2 vol. Les Pfeaumes Expliques, 3 vol. In all 
 which works, though he has retained Calmet's 
 verfion made from the. Vulgate, he is continually 
 corre£i:ing it either by the Hebrew text, or by the 
 other ancient verfions j and fo far his work may 
 be accounted a tranflation from the originals. 
 The Journal des S9avans of lafl year announces 
 two new French verfions of the Pfalms ; one in 
 eight volumes, 12mo. by Berthier, the other in 
 two volumes, by Bauduer, both faid to be eftiy 
 mable works ; and of w'hich the latter is imme- 
 diatdy made from the Hebrew *. 
 
 * I have correfted this paffage from our author's Letter to 
 the Bifhop of London, p. S3, agreeably to his exprefs defter. 
 
" But a ftill more important work haS been re-" 
 cently announced : a French tranflation - of the 
 whole Bibj!e by the late F. Houbigant ; the pub-^ 
 lication of which is committed to his learned col- 
 league F. Lalande; and will not, we hope, be 
 long delayed." 
 
 He next, examines what afliftance a tranflator 
 may derive from interpreters and commentators. 
 His refearch in this part of his fubjefl: extends as 
 far back as to the fathers of the firft and fecond 
 century. In the courfe of his elaborate review, 
 to follow him fo as to give a minute account of 
 his obfervations would be to occupy too much 
 time. I fhall therefore only obferve, that he 
 ipeaks with chief approbation of Poole's Synopfis ; 
 the Critica Sacra of Capellus ; Michaelis ; Kenni- 
 cott and Lowth; to the two lafl of whom, in 
 conjunftion with a cloud of compatriot critics, he 
 pays the higheft and at the fame time the mofl 
 juftly merited compliments. With refpeft to the 
 myriads of other commentators and interpreters 
 of different nations, glanced/ at as he proceeds, 
 it is impolTible in this epitome to offer any ac- 
 count of his opinion of their abilities, or even to 
 enumerate their names. 
 
 " Having thus," fays he, " pretty copioufly treat* 
 ed on the principal caufes of the imperfeftion oftno- 
 
143 
 
 dern verfions, and pointed out what I deemed the 
 fureft means of removing them, I will now venture 
 to give my opinion of the diftinguiftiing charafters 
 of a good tranflation ; and of the chief qualifica- 
 tions neceffary for a tranflator." 
 
 Upon the former fubjeft he offers us four im- 
 portant canons. The firfl is, that a tranflation of 
 the Bible ought to be faithful ; that is, ought to 
 exprefs all the meaning, and no more than the 
 meaning, of the original. Secondly, that it ought 
 to be perfpicuQus. Thirdly, that it fhould pof- 
 fefs elegance ; but an elegance of a fpecial Jsind, 
 and of peculiar charadteriftics ; that it fhould 
 cpmprife a jufl and proper felefliion of terms, ar- 
 ranged in the moil natural order, and divefted of 
 every meretricious ornament. Fourthly, that it 
 fliould pofTefs as ftrift an uniformity of ftyle and 
 manner as is confiftent with the foregoing proper- 
 ties. On the latter fubjeft, or that which relates 
 to the qualifications of a good tranflator, he gives 
 us the following lift of effential properties. The 
 tranflator fhould be well acquainted with the lan- 
 guage from which, and the language into which, 
 he tranllates ; and for this purpofe fhould have 
 made a long and ferious ftudy of both. He 
 fhould be conve:rfant with Greek and Roman 
 learning ; and have a general knowledge of an- 
 
144 
 
 dent and modern hiftory, as well as ancient and 
 modem fciences. He Ihould be a man of acute 
 penetration, of nice difternraent j and a fure and 
 delicate, tafte formed on the beft models of anti- 
 quity. He fliould be endowed with a conftitution 
 fit to endure, and an inclination to undergo, af- 
 fiduous and perfevering labor; a qualification 
 too rarely conjoined with quicknefs of apprehen- 
 fion, and elegance of tafte. And laftly, to crown 
 the whole, he fliould poffefs an honeft impartiality, 
 and be divefted of fyftems of every kind, literary, 
 phyfical, and religious. 
 
 S«ch exadions, it may well be obferved, are 
 enormous, and fuch a poffeffion of talents, of 
 rare occurrence indeed. But our author fhall 
 here once more fpeak for ^imfelf. 
 
 " Some reader," fays he, " may here be dif- 
 pofed to aflc : Are you poffeffed of all thefe qua- 
 lifications? To this not unnatural queftion I beg 
 leave to give an anfwer, fomewhat fimilar to that 
 'which Cicero gives on a fimilar occafion ; though 
 on a different fubjedt. Having defcribed, with 
 inimitable eloquence, the qualities of anaccom- 
 pliflied orator, he modeftly declares that he has 
 given, rather an idea of what he conceived to be 
 poffible, than of what he ever expedled to fee. 
 How much greater reafon h^ve I to acknowledge 
 
145 
 
 that my ideal portraiture of a good tranflator of 
 tke Bible is far beyond the reach of my own 
 ^ilities. 
 
 " To be ffiU more explicit and ingjesnuaas : al- 
 tboagh I have Itaag endeavoaared jrfter the quali-' 
 fications. above mentioned, to afiirni pofitively that 
 I have adtually acquired them all, or any one of 
 them in an eminent degree, would be an unconfci- 
 entious and rafli affertion. In learning, genius and 
 judgment, I know myfelf to be inferior to many; 
 fome few may exceed me in diligence, affiduity 
 and laborioufnefs ; but in candor, impartiality and 
 uprightnefs of intention, I will yield to none." 
 
 I h3.ve thus given a minute analyfis of this ela- 
 borate work ; more minute indeed than I fhall find 
 it neceffary to offer refpe£l:ing any one of the 
 doftor's remdning publications : the Profpeftiis 
 being an important document in the elucidation 
 of his life, as well from the general entertain- 
 ment and inftru6:ion it .cannot but afford the 
 reader, as from its laying a foundation for many of 
 the chief publications and events that charac- 
 terize his future hiftory. I have purpofely re»- 
 frained from obfervations of my own, excepting 
 in a few inftances, in which I thought to the Eng- 
 lifh reader they might be illuftrative of the fub- 
 je£t difculTed, or for fome other reafon of equal 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 prominence and cogency ; having been more fo- 
 licitous to perform the talk of an honeft reporter 
 than of an acute critic: Of the high merit of 
 the work the world has been fenfible from the 
 moment of its appearance, and no eulogy of 
 mine could add to the reputation it has fo long 
 maintained. 
 
147 
 
 CHAPTER V; 
 
 heller to the B'ljhop of London, dejigned as an Appendix, 
 to the ProfpeSus. — Letter to the Rev. Dr. Priejlley — 
 Application of the Protejiant tyiffenters to Parliament 
 far a repeal of the Tejl AB—^Letter to a Member of 
 Parliament-on the Cafe of the Protejiant iiijfenters.-^^ 
 tor. Geddes engages in the Analytical Review — Lj/Z 
 of the Articles he wrote in this Journal — fie puhli/bes 
 his Propofals for printing his Tranflation of the Bibh 
 • — General Arfwer to the- Queries, Gounfils.and Cri' 
 . ticifms, communicated to. him. A.D. 1786-^1790. 
 
 We inuft ftill accofepany. the doftor as a, bibli-' 
 cift ; though , the extent and verfatility of his ta- 
 lents will occafionally prefent him to lis in feve- 
 ral widely different charafters. "the favorable" re* 
 caption of his Profpedus, and. the <:ompliments 
 p^d him on a perufal of it by many fcholars of 
 the firft eminence and erudition, I have already 
 noticed.' He regarded them as an omen of his 
 future fuccefs, and was ftimulated in a ten-fold 
 degree to a perfeverance in his labors. ' 
 
 The poffeffion or probability of public applaufe, 
 though when doubtful- the moft powerful incen- 
 tive to getiius — is not always (when the doubt is 
 
i4a 
 
 bvercome) moft advantageous either to the work 
 orihe agent to whom it relates. Some perfons, 
 goaded on to reap the harveft before it be ripe, 
 have difappointed the high-raifed hopes of the 
 world by prefenting to it an immature and preci- 
 pitate performance; white otherst ha^e relaxed 
 from their prior feyerity of attention, have funk 
 into the v.ery lap of carejtefsngfs and indulgence, 
 and have proved themfelyes hereby eqxially un- 
 faithful to th^ powers of their own mi^ds, and 
 the generoi^s es^eftatip^s. of, the public. In nei- 
 ther of thefe; claffes however are we to rajok the 
 fubj eft of the prefent memoirs. He had now j uft 
 attained his fiftieth year ; his faculties, in acquir- 
 ing their full vigor, had acquired at the fame 
 time a d^greie of: fteadinefc which rendered them, 
 fuperior to the intpxicating cup' c^ populs^ ap- 
 plaufe : his life had been, half devoted to one prime 
 purfmt,,and he bad obtaiined patience enough, to 
 refolve upon fpending the. remainder of hi? days- 
 in laboring It to perfeQ:ion,by new inveftigations 
 and improvements, rather thaii haften to the ha- 
 ven of reft before him, -without haying fully ac-. 
 compliftifid the obje£t of his voyage.. Inftead, 
 therefore, of ftying precipitately to the prgfs with 
 his manufcript verfion, he determined to avfiil 
 himfelf of the general and ardent inclination to 
 affift him, which appeared to predominate in the 
 
149 
 
 republic of letters, and with 'kudabW modefty once 
 moreaddreffed himfelf to the public through the 
 medium of " A Letter to the rightrev. the Bifliop 
 of London, containing Queries, Doubts and Diffi- 
 culties relative to a veriiacuiar Verfion of the Holy 
 Soripifiares." This addrefs was defigned as a di- 
 neiSt appendix to his Profpeftus : it was publifhed 
 in the enfuing year (17^87), and was accompa^ 
 nied with a fuccefsj as he 'himfelf aflures us, equal 
 to that of his former pubiicsplion *. 
 
 Aware as ourtranflator was, from the firfl idea of 
 his undertaking, that the tafk would be accompa- 
 nied with very numerous and confiderable difficul- 
 ties, hre candidly confefles that he was not aware 
 of all the difficulties which occurred to him as he 
 proceeded. " If I had been," he obferves, " I 
 ihould perhaps have prudently declined an enter- 
 prize which I cannot, without pufilknimity, now 
 relinquifli." The chief objefts of this Letter are 
 to inquire how far the ftyle and phrafeology of 
 our prefent English verfion ought to be adopted 
 or receded ? To what, extent we fhould admit the 
 introdudtion of Hebr;iifms, or modes of phrafing 
 peculiar to the Hebrew tongue ? Whether, in cafes 
 of their occafional rejef^ion, they ftiould be re- 
 tained in the margin ? Whether, if it be allowable 
 to vary the idiotifm or phrafeology, it may not 
 * Addrefs to the Public, p. &, 
 
150 
 
 be equally lawful to fupprefs thofe expletive and 
 redundant words, which originating throughout 
 every language in colloquial dialed, are too often 
 continued by the beft and moft elegant writers, in 
 fpite of all grammar arid philological confiftency, 
 firom a want of hardihood to expunge them? 
 Whether, if the pleonafm be retrenched, the ellip- 
 fis fliould not be fupplied, if the fupplements be 
 virtually contained in the elliptic phrafe ? How 
 far, arid in what circumftances, it may be expe- 
 dient to follow the Hebrew arrangement of words 
 and fentences ? And whether, the prefent ortho- 
 graphy of proper names fhould be preferved, der 
 duced, for the moft part, from the Maforetic 
 punftuation ; or, confiftently vsdth the plan of our 
 firft Englilh tranflators Tindal,and Coverdale, a 
 nearer approximation to the Greek and Latin ex- 
 emplars may not be indulged for the fake " of 
 euphony ? 
 
 To follow him through the whole extent of 
 thefe queries^ — to exhibit the foundations of his 
 doubts, or the grounds of his decifions, would 
 be to copy the whole pamphlet of feventy quarto 
 pages into the prefent wojrk. It is enough to offer 
 a few extrafts and obfervations upon particular 
 parts, and to notice generally, that as no critic or 
 philologift will perhaps agree with the author 
 }n every individual dogma he has ventured to 
 
151 
 
 fiiggeft; fo he himfelf - fhortly afterwards, as I 
 fhall have occafion to remark, upon more ma- 
 ture confideratioiij or hints communicated to 
 him by other perfons, . with a liberality not every 
 day to be met with, departed in a variety of in- 
 ftances from the opinions here advanced, and gave 
 the public due notice of his recantation. 
 
 He appears fully to have fubftantiated this pofi- 
 tion^ that " there is in our laft national verfion 
 a blamable want of uniformity in the mode of 
 tranflating. ' ' Th6r^ are undoubtedly many words, 
 and even fentences, which admit, and often re- 
 quire, a different rendering :. but there is a ftrange 
 want of precifion in rendering nil!^ at one time 
 a locuft, and at another a grafshopper y T\'y;h warm- 
 wood and hemlock ; tyiap nettles and thorns ; ti7j<"i 
 hemlock and gall ; n^T* an owl and an ojlrich ; tt^ty 
 linen -ixAfilk ; nsp the cormorant and the pelican. 
 In like manner 1D3 is rendered indifcriminately i 
 nephew and a grandfon ; V\T\ a tabret and a timbrel^ 
 yn^ a coat of mail, an habergeon, a breaft-plftte, and 
 a brigandin-e. The tranflators have moreover ma- 
 nifefled the fame unneceffary diverfity in tranflat- 
 ing whole fentences, or parts of fentences,' which 
 Dr. Geddes has thus noticed with regard to indi- 
 vidual words. 
 
 " There are no phrafes," fays he, "in the 
 rendering of which they have fhown more variety 
 
152 
 
 than in thofe of vifhjch the worck p and U?"ijift 
 jnake a part. The firft of thde, which piimau- 
 «ly figiiifjfis a7^*» ^^'^ fecoiujarily a ^efcendant of 
 any kind, has, in the oriental dialects, a much 
 wider accq)tatjon ; and is applied not only to the 
 offspring of the brute creation, but alfo to pro- 
 duiaions of every fort ; and, what is flill more ca- 
 tac^eftical, even to confequ^itial or concomitant 
 relations : fo that an arrow is called" the Jon of the 
 how ; the morning ftar, the fon of the morning ; 
 tbrejhfd-out corn, the fon of the floor ; and anoint- 
 ed per/ons, the fons of oil. 
 
 , " Now our tranflators have, in rendering fuch 
 phrafes, for the moft part foftened the Hebraifm j 
 but after no uniform manner. Sons of Belial ""D^ 
 bvbl is furely not more intelligible to an Englifli 
 reader than fons of oil ; and much lefs fo than 
 Jons of valour'y fons, of righteoujnejs , Jons of ini~ 
 quity : yet, while they retain the firft Hebraifm 
 with all its original harlhnefs, and partly in its 
 original form*, they mollify the three lall into 
 valiant men, righteous men, wicked men. 
 
 * " Even here they are not confident. For, if once they ad- 
 mitted the word Belial, they (hould have retained it through- 
 cut 5 and faid a thing of Belial, a heart of Belial, aiuitnefs 
 of Bdial, the floods of Belial : which, however, they rendet' 
 an eml difeaje, a wicked heart, an ungodly witnefs, the floods 
 of ungodlinefs. Nay they have, once or twice, tranflated 
 
ISS 
 
 " The feme inccmfiilency holds ■with regard to 
 TpihJ in a fimilar conftruQ:iOn. If they could, without 
 hurting the Englilh idiom, translate a man of war, 
 a man vf under ft mding, a man of Jorrowj, a man (f 
 firife^ a man of wicked devices, the man of thy 
 right hand i why not alfo i^ man of peace, a man (f 
 truth, a man of violence, a man of iniquity? 
 
 *' The fame variety appears in the rendering 
 of non'70 ©""i^ a man of war. Thus Exbdus 
 Kv. 3. ' The Lord is a man of war : ' but Pfalm 
 xxiv. 8. * The Lord mighty in battle.' Again^ 
 Num. xitxi. 4<9« ' Thy fervants have taken the 
 ~fum of the men of war :' but in the fame chap- 
 ter, ver. 2Y. ' Them that took the war upoa 
 themi* I The LXX generally rendered the 
 words by iro\i^i.<yvy\q ; and our tranflators have 
 ufed warrior and warriors in the fame fenfe, 
 on fimilar occafions. 1 Kings xii. 21. ' Four- 
 fcore thoufand men which were warriors/ 
 nnrt'^a T\W ; which 2 Chron. xxvi. 1 1. they ren- 
 der ' fighting men.' 
 
 " * Come ye after me ' is as intelligible as 
 
 bybi t!?iS and VjJ^'i'S D'lH a <w\cked man. At any rate, if fuch 
 phrafes were not good Englifti in the Old Teftament, hoW 
 came they to adopt them in the New? For there we meet 
 with ' the child of hell, the children of light, the children 
 of wrath, the fori of perdition, fee' 
 6 
 
154 
 
 * follow me ' — ' To cut ofF the ends or extremi- 
 ties of a country ' is as intelligible, and it fliould 
 feem lefs vulgar than ' to cut a country Ihort.' 
 See 2 Kings -vi. 19. and x. 23. So Prov. iv. 26. 
 
 * Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy 
 ways be eftablifhed.' The Hebraifm of the laft 
 part of this fentenge, ' and all thy ways (hall 
 be ordered aright,' which is the marginal ren- 
 dering, .is no lefs clear and expreffive than what 
 has been adopted in its ftead. Again, Prov. vi. 
 1 6. ' Six things doth, the Lord hate ; yea, feven 
 are an abomination to him.' I miftake if it 
 would not have been better to retain the Hebra- 
 ifm; ' yea, feven are the abomination of his 
 foul.' Prov. xxvi. 20. the Hebrew has, ' With- 
 out wqod. the fire goeth out,' which our tranf- 
 lators, with the help of Italics, paraphrafe thus: 
 
 * Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out :' 
 ■vyhich, compared with the other, appears languid 
 and drawling. Pfalm xci. 16. ' With long life will 
 I fatisfy him.' The Hebraifm, ' with length of 
 days, &c.' feems not only as- clear, but more 
 energetic and poetical. 
 
 " Theperfonal pronouns sin and XVT feem 
 redundant m fuch phrafes as thefe : ' The wo- 
 man, whom thou gaveft to be with me, fhe 
 gave me of the tree And Debora, a prophet- 
 
155 
 
 efe, the wife of Lapidoth, floe judged Ifrael at 
 
 fhat time ^NowHannah,</2»(?fpokem her heart 
 
 But your little ones, which ye faid Ihould 
 
 be a prey, them will I bring in Your carcaffes, 
 
 they fliall fall in this wildernefs.' I am well 
 aware that this has been called an emphatical 
 mode of expreffion -, and, in fome inftances, ac- 
 counted a particular beauty ; as when the people 
 exclaini, 1 Kings xviii. 39. * The Lord, he is 
 the God J The Lord, he\& the God.' Be it foj 
 yet, even hiere it has all the air of vulgar 'tauto- 
 logy ; and brings to one's mind the old fong : 
 * Bell, y^i? is my darling, &c.' Were it at all 
 deemed neceffary to tranflate the redundant word 
 for the fake of emphafis, I Ihould prefer giving 
 it another turn, and fay, ' That woman, &c. The 
 prophetefs Debora, &c. — Thofe litt,le ones, he.-, — 
 Jehovah himfelf, &c.' — Although in general it 
 would, perhaps, be more agreeable to the fim- 
 pliclfy of the Scripture-ftyle to leave the pronoun 
 un^ranflated*." 
 
 On the fubje£t of arrangement, he thus ex- 
 preffes his motives for deviating from the general 
 
 * " Our tranliators did not always render it. Thus Exod; 
 iv. 14. we have^ ' I know that he can fpeak well j' which in 
 the original is, * I know >that he can fpeak well, he^ corre- 
 fponding exaftly with the French, vulgarifm, '' Je vous le di's, 
 >noi — II fe tait, lui.'' 
 
156 
 
 opinion of modem cratics -re^efliing the lineai 
 divifioa of Hebrew poetry. 
 
 " But fliould a verfion of the poetieaJ parts of 
 Scrq)tur-e be divided into lines 'Or bemiftich&, <:or- 
 reipondmg with whsBt is called Hiebrew metre ? 
 This fflaethod^ firft praOifed by the Ga?inan&, has 
 been adopted by the writers of mod 6th^ na- 
 dons ; aad more fefpecially by thofe of our own. 
 Bifliop Newcome'has even made jt one of his 
 fifteen rules for a good tranflation. 
 
 " Notwithftanding ali this^ I cannot help fe» 
 rioufly doubting of its propriety. I can fee no 
 force or beauty it adds to the text, nor profit 
 nor pleafure it can bring to the reader. On the 
 contrary, I think, it cbnfiderably disjcMnts and dif» 
 figures the one, and often perplexes and puzzles 
 the other. Permit me to lay before your lord* 
 fliip a fpecimrai from your oxvn If^ah -, the firft 
 that prefents itfelf : 
 
 And It fliall be, when Moab fliall fee 
 
 That he hath wearied himfelf out on the high plac?^^ 
 
 That he fliall enter into his fanfluary 
 
 To intercede : but he fliall not prevail. ■ 
 
 ' Ifaiah xvi. J3. 
 
 " Or the following from bifliop Newcome's Ze- 
 chariah : 
 
 In that day Jehovah will defend 
 The inhabitants of Jerufalem : 
 
157 
 
 And he that is. feeble among them IhalL bft 
 In- that (}»]!) as David. 
 
 *' Does it really appear to your lordfliip^ that 
 in either of thefe inftaiiices the' text looks to ad- 
 , vantage i or that the reader will be better pleafed 
 to fee it arrayed in this whimiical manner, than 
 in the fober garb of meafured profe? I greatly 
 fear he will npt. 
 
 " Indeed this mode of dividing a tranflatioa 
 of the Hebrew poetry feemis very fimilar to that 
 which was followed in the old literal Latin, ver- 
 fions of Homer -, which not only give, us no ade- 
 quate idea of the beauties of the great original ; 
 but create an eternal difguft to the reader, by dif, 
 playing before his eyes all the external appear- 
 ance'of verfe, without any of its properties. Yet 
 thofe Latin lines have one advantage over your 
 Enghfh ones : we are fure they correfpond ex- 
 at^y with fo many Greek verfes ; whereas no 
 one will, I prefume, affert the fame of any fti- 
 chical verfion made from the Hebrew. 
 
 " You, my lord, of all men know beft, how 
 little we are acquainted with the meafure and me- 
 ,chanifm' of Hebrew verffe ; and how capricious^ 
 for the moft part, are the divifions that have been 
 made of them, even by the moft; learnai Hebra- 
 ifts. What one would divide into long lines. 
 
158 
 
 another would divide into fhort ; and wHafby 
 this one would be Combined into ftanzas, would 
 by that one be arranged in feparate hemiftichs. 
 So that, in reality, to give a veffibn divided into 
 line^ of any fort, would be "to give, us no more 
 than the arbitrary notions of the divider; and 
 could only ferve to imprefs a falfe, or at leafl an 
 uncertain idea on the mind of the reader ; with- 
 out contributing either to his inftryfliion or edifi- 
 cation* 
 
 *' For what inftnidiion or edification cant the 
 mere Englifh reader receive from fuch irregular 
 arid ill-conne£ted lines as thefe, prefented to hinj 
 as an exethplification of Hebrew verfe ? 
 
 In the houfe of Ifrael I h4ve feen a horrible thing : 
 There Ephraim committeth fprnication j 
 ifrael is polluted, , 
 
 Moreover, O Judahj an harveft is appointed of thee 
 Among thofewho lead away the captivity of my people. 
 
 Zech. viii. 21. 
 
 Or thefe: 
 
 And th? inhabitants of one city lliallgo 
 
 Into another, faying : 
 
 Let us furely go to entreat the face of Jehovah^ 
 
 And to feek Jehovah God of Hofts ; 
 
 I will go alfo. 
 
 Were the text for public fervice to be. thus di- 
 vided, the beft readers would, I believe, make but 
 
159 
 
 an dwkward appearance in delivering the rnofl 
 fublime oracles of religion. The feye and ihe e^ 
 would be at continual variances the tones and 
 cadehces would be perpetually confounded, anci 
 grating difliarmony attend the pronunciation of 
 almoft every period. 
 
 " On the whole, then, may I not appeal to 
 your lordfliip's judgment, even from your own 
 pra6:ice i that in giving a verfion for genei'al read- 
 ing, fuch a divifion of thofe parts which are fup- 
 pofed'to be poetry, would be attended with iha- 
 nifeft inconvenience, and with no vifible advan- 
 tage ; and that,, therpforej a plain profe-like ver- 
 fion,; which fliould preferve as much as poffible 
 of what your lordfhip has fo ably proved to con- 
 ftitute the effence of Hebrew poetry, would be 
 greatly preferable ? 
 
 " The public will, perhaps, here tax me with 
 prefumpition for offering to differ from , fo many 
 learned men. But I truft I have done it with all 
 due deference and modefty. I have candidly 
 propofed my own doubts ; I wilh to have them 
 canvaffed; am ready to hear what may be faid 
 on the other fide of the queftion, and difpofed to 
 give up~iny opinion to the general voice." 
 
 There appears fo much propriety in the fol- 
 lowing obfervations refpefting the term Jeho- 
 vah^' which has lately been gaining fo prodigious 
 
160 
 
 sai afceadeiicy in all our moft a^Koved verfians 
 of (Efldnft jjarts'- of the Old Teikzmenit, that I 
 cannot avoid iHtrodutcing theim* 
 
 *' The God of the Ifraelifies is partrcnfcuiy 
 fiftiflgmiied by the name nirT' (Jeve) ;. of which 
 neither the precife meaning nor the genuine pro- 
 Hnnieiaa©!! is weM known- Jehovah is a barbarous 
 term, that was- never heard of before the fixteenth 
 centwfy } neither J*agranus, nor Munfter, nor even 
 MGntaHfuej ulfed it in their verfions: but Junias 
 and Cafkafia having onee given k a :^£l!iony it 
 came gradually into gemeral ufage among Latin 
 tranflators and commentators ; and has of late 
 inade its way into ver naeular verfions. Bajte, yoaaf 
 l0?<Mhipj Green, Blarney, and bifliop Newcome, 
 have all adopted it ; and the laft-mentioned wri- 
 ter thinks it fliould always be ufedv 
 
 " I hswe, nofiwichfljanding, ftome doutot about 
 it ; which I beg leave to propofe. As tihe word 
 LoKD has been fo feng employed among Cbrif. 
 tians^ to dfenete the Supreme Being, and is the 
 only one in flhe' New Teftatment by which he is 
 known, I fhouM be ftrongly inclined' toi retero it 
 in the Old ; fo much the more, becaufe the am- 
 cient Greek, Syriac, Latin and Arabic interpre- 
 ters refpeftively rendered mm by a fmiflar term 
 Kvptogy snia, Dominus, n"i. Beftd'es, we forae- 
 times meet with mn"" in conflrudioa with mK3S : 
 
161, 
 
 whijh W;e could hardly render * Jehovah of 
 Hofts ;' and bilhop Newcome himfelf allows that, 
 in fuch cafes, we mufl: fupply nipbUi and fay * Je- 
 hovah God of Hofts.' 
 
 " There is only one objedtion that now occurs. 
 The. word ynn is alfo tranflated Lord, and with 
 the fuffix my Lord, although it is only a term of 
 refpe(Et applied to human beings ; and moft pro- 
 bably never applied to the Deity without the repe- 
 tition of Di3lNn, 'Lord of Lords.' It fhould feem, 
 therefore, that a diftinftion Ihould be made be- 
 tween the terms. Our tranflators made a diftinc- 
 tion. They rendered mrc The Lord, and put 
 it in capitals ; and ''3^^^< my Lord, in common let- 
 ters. If a further difcrimination be deemed ex- 
 pedient, let fome other term be ufed to exprefs 
 '^'Tnik', and I fee no one fo proper as Sir. It 
 will, perhaps, be faid that the term is too trite 
 and familiar ; but it is not more fo than ">3ni< 
 mufl have been in Judeaj nor can it, on that 
 account, be more improper in the Old Teftament 
 than in the New ; where we have- ' Sir, thoji haft 
 nothing to draw with,' John iv. 11. And in the 
 fame chapter, * Sir,' give me this water. — Sir, I 
 perceive thou art a prophet. — Sir, didft -not thou 
 fow good feed in thy field, &c.' And in the plu- 
 ral. Ads xxvTi. 21. ' Sirs,' (faid St. Paul) ' ye 
 (hould have hearkened unto mej' and ver. 23. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 * Wherefore, Sird, be of gbod cheer.' The 
 Greek indeed is here av^ps^ ; but if the apdftle 
 bad fpoken in. Hebrew, it wbuld have been >mJ*. 
 At any rate, the term has the authority of our 
 laft traftfkbtors. Nay, we meet with it, once at 
 leaft, in the Old Teftameat. " O -Sir,' (faid 
 Jofeph's brethren to the fteward) ' *e came in- 
 deed dmrh at the firft time to buy btead.' Gen. 
 xliii. 20; I would therefore propofe ufing, through- 
 out, the word Lord for mtT', and the word Sir 
 for iDllK. 
 
 He iiiquires whether the words 'oohirtfirrt, 
 therefore, : "Jnherein, therein y tdhereof, therebf, 
 wherehy, thereby, whiereunto, thereunto, here- 
 tofore, theretofore, and other fimikr tdmjJoufids, 
 ought to be retained or difcard^d ? " To be con- 
 yfeiced," fays he, " that they are not ftridtly gram- 
 matical, we have only to analyfe them ; for who 
 could bear /or there, fiir where, in ivhere, in there, 
 cf where, of there, (£c. ? And yet," continues he, 
 " I ffear we cannot do well without them, particu- 
 larly the two firft." — Of fuch compound adverbs, 
 how^Vd-j I think we may fay with lady Macbeth 
 on a very diferent occafion, 
 
 .,- Thefe thingi luuft not b& thought 
 
 After thefe ways 
 
 There arej indeed, few of them in any lanjgltage 
 
163 
 
 that wiii ftahd the teft of this kind of analyfis. 
 It may, perhaps, apply to fuch as kchScos, prop' 
 terea, qmre, qnamobrm, fercib or perdocch^, 
 pourquoi, or" its Spaiiifli and Portugiiefe fynonymS 
 porque and paraque — but what are tye to make 
 of BTTBi^riTTs^, quandoquidem, equidem, inde, dein^ 
 ddnde, proinde^ perinde, &c» which are mere 
 firings of adverbs or prepofitions, tiot only in- 
 capable of grammatical conftruftion, btit in 
 many itiAandes United without any oftenfible mo-* 
 tive? P^hehunto, wherewithal, and fome others 
 of the fame limping length and aWkward appear- 
 ance, notwithftanding the authority of feveral of 
 our beft virriters, and particularly of Bean Swift, 
 may perhaps be baniflied for their inelegance ; but 
 I am afraid, if the profcription were to extend to 
 the entire family, Sve fhotild be frequently at a lofs 
 for a fubftitute* 
 
 it is but fiiir, hbWever, to ftate that t)f . Geddes 
 is not alone in the opinion he has offered upon this 
 clafs of adverbs. Mr. Hume was guided by a 
 limilar tafte, and has thus expreffed his averfion 
 to'th^.whole fraternity in a humorous letlfer written 
 to his friend l)r. Robertfon, upOii the firft appear- 
 ance of his Hiftory or Charles V., a letter which is 
 preferved in the Life 'of the latter, publilhed about 
 two years fmce by Dr. Stewart. " You know, 
 8 
 
164 
 
 that you and I have always been on the footing of 
 finding in each other's prodijftions fomething to 
 blame and fomething to comniend ; and there- 
 fore you may perhaps expefl: alfo fome feafoning 
 of the former kind ; but really neither my leifure 
 nor inclination allowed me to make fuch remarks, 
 and I fmcerely believe you have afforded me very 
 fmall materials for them. However, fuch parti- 
 culars as occur to my memory I fhall mention. — 
 Yrha|:,the devil had you to do with that oldr 
 falhioned dangling word wherewith ? I fhould as 
 foon take back whereupon, wheremto, and where- 
 withal. 1 think the only tolerable decent gentle-? 
 man of the family is wherein, and I fhould not 
 choofe to be often feen in his company. But I 
 know your affeftion for wherewith proceeds from 
 your partiality to Dean Swift, whom I can often 
 laugh with, whofe llyle I can even approve, but 
 furely can never admire. It has no harmony, no 
 eloquence, no ornament, and not much correft- 
 nefs, whatever the Englifh may imagine." 
 
 The doftor next inquires whether, confiftently 
 with the uniform practice of the ftandard Bible, 
 the pronoun ye fhould not be ufed as a nominative 
 plural, inftead of what he denominates the accu- 
 Jative you, notwithflanding the propenfity in mo- 
 dern writers to fubflitute xh/e, latter in its place ? 
 
165 
 
 and whether the termination eth fliould be retained 
 in the third perfon fingular of the indicative 
 mood ? ' 
 
 Univerfal cuftoift has of late given us two plu- 
 ral nominative cafes to the fecond pronoun perfon- 
 al ; for, in concurrence with almo'ft every language 
 of Europe excepting the German, it has made a 
 nominative of the oblique cafe ; fo that we now 
 ufe the terms ye and you indifcriminately, or at 
 leafl with this only difference, that in daffical 
 EngKfli the latter alone is applicable to an indi- 
 vidual. Te is ftill in frequent acceptation, and 
 efpecially in the vocative cafe ; and there can be 
 no reafon, therefore, for its being banilhed from a 
 modern verfion of the Bible. As to the termi- 
 nating eth, this is affuredly both as uncouth and 
 as obfolete as the terms wheremto, wherewithal ', 
 and there can be no reafon for rejefting the latter, 
 unlefe the former accompany them in their exile. 
 We Ihall ftill have ths enough left to excite the 
 abhorrence and break the' teeth of almoft every 
 foreigner who vifits us. Hume, in the letter I have 
 juft quoted, expreffes his objedioh upon this point 
 ttipre forcibly ftill. " But you tell me that Swift 
 does otherwife. To be fure, there is no reply to 
 that ; and we muft fwallow your hath too, upon 
 the fame authority. I will fee you d — d fooner." 
 
 There are, I well know, many fenfible men 
 
lee 
 
 and ' admirable fcholars, who contend that the 
 phrafeology of the Bible ought not to be changed 
 on any account; that much of its fanftity and 
 impreflive power depend upon the venerable dic- 
 tion in which it has been handed down to us } 
 and that, although it do not contain the language 
 of the prefent day, it contains a language with 
 which we are fufficiently familiar to comprehend 
 the whole of its meaning, as well as to relifh the 
 whole of its beauties. If it be univerfally judged 
 ^ght that, independently of the vernacular tongue, 
 we Ihould have a Shanfcrit, a hpu yKooa-a-oc or Ian* 
 guage peculiar to the facred writings in Great Bri- 
 tain, as "vs^ell as in Hinduftan, I have no objedion to 
 fuch an opinion ; but flio^ld wifh, on the contrary, 
 that the Bible diftion fliould be thifs retained un- 
 frittered and entire ; and that, like the Shanfcrit, 
 or the column lately imported from Egypt, it 
 fhould be ?ilfo linuted to its Qrigin<il and appror 
 priate characters, its tsptx y^ufji.f/.eiTix, and there- 
 fore be reprinted with the venerable black letter. 
 If we once admit of innovation, and fnffer it to be 
 modernifed in ^ny refpeft whatever, no reafon can 
 be urged why we fhould not perfevere till the 
 whole be remodelled upon the chafteft and moft 
 elegant examples. 
 
 Our author concludes his Letter with a variety 
 pf other grammatic and orthographic queries ; 
 
167 
 
 which, ^though for the moft part of minor confir 
 4fratiioo, incontefta,bly, prove ^lew maturely he had 
 weighed the fubjed upon which he was engaged, 
 in all its ramifications, and exhibit a ftrong proof 
 of excellent judgement and correft tafte. I ftiould 
 not, however, omit to mention, becaufe he has ad- 
 hered to it in his Verflon, the rule prbpofed refpeft- 
 ing the final i& appended by the tranflators of our 
 ftandard edition to the generality of Hebrew proper 
 names Which terminate with the vowel n, and that 
 is, to retain it for the mere purpofe of diftinguifh- 
 jng mafculines from feminines. To this I confefs 
 I cannot altogether accede. I agree with Dr. 
 Geddes that the h is, in fueh cafes, completely ufe- 
 lefs, and I would therefore equally expunge it from 
 both genders. "We do not want it either in Greek or 
 Latin; and it mufl be quite as eafy to determine 
 that Juda as that Cinna is of the male gender, with- 
 out a terminating h to afcertain the fex; which, in 
 reality, is not lefs fupernumeraryinthe former than 
 in the latter. I am very much aftonifhed, indeed, 
 at the inclination which appears to prevail amidflthe 
 generality of our oriental fcholars for introducing 
 this ufekfs appendage not only into the Hebrew or 
 Chaldaic, but into the Perfian and Arabic; and, 
 for my ovm part, would extend the canon here pro- 
 , pofed to a much wider fpaee, and never admit of 
 a terminating h to an appellation, whether mafcu-- 
 
168 
 
 line or feminine, in any of thefe tongues, unlefs 
 aftually expreffed in the original languages by an 
 n, 9- or A. 
 
 To the Letter before us is fubjoined a Poftfcript 
 containing a corredion of feveral errors which 
 had crept into the Profpedlus : anfwers to cor- 
 refpondents who had either made inquiries or 
 offered advice : and a lift of perfons who had 
 particularly promoted our author's defign: in the 
 laft of which claffes I ought not to omit the illuf- 
 trious name of fir William Jones, here and in one 
 or two other places erroneoufly entitled bart., who 
 very kindly favored him with a manufcript com- 
 mentary on the whole Bible: " in which," fays Dr. 
 Geddes, " although there be not much criticifm, 
 there is a great deal of good fenfe and many perti- 
 nent refieftions." He does not ftate whether this ma- 
 nufcript were a produftion of fir William's own, or 
 of fome other perfon: if the former, why has not 
 fo valuable a work, for every thing muft be valu- 
 able from the hands of fuch a fcholar, made its 
 appearance among his other publications, in the 
 fplendid edition brought forward by the Robin- 
 fons? 
 
 Our author's liberal fentiments had, at all times, 
 allowed him to affociate with the learned and the 
 virtuous of every religious perfuafion ; and his li- 
 9 
 
169 
 
 terary charader had now,,for a confiderable period, 
 introduced him to an acquaintance with Dr. I^ieft- 
 ley. The ardor with which this celebrated polemic 
 followed up his own opinions, whether of philofo- 
 phy or religion, and the perfeverance with which 
 he preffed them upon the world at large, are known 
 to every one. Dr. Geddesj who gave him credit 
 ioy a greater degree of orthodoxy in the former 
 inftance than the majority of theoretic chemifts 
 have fmce been difpofed to allow him, could not, 
 neverthelefs, remain lilent under his public avow- 
 als of heterodoxy in the latter; and uniting in the 
 confederacy agairift this undaunted theologian, he 
 publiflied in the prefent year a fmall pamphlet, 
 entitled " A Letter to the reverend Dr. Prieftley, 
 -in which the Author attempts to prove, by onepre- 
 fcriptive Argument, that the Divinity of Jefus Chrift 
 was a primitive Tenet of Chriftianity." 
 
 This " prefcriptive argument" is drawn from the 
 general, though perhaps not univerfal, affent among 
 theearlieft fathers of the Chriftian church to the 
 doftrine here fupported, and from the dired means 
 they mull have poffefled of informing themfelves of 
 the fentiments of the apoftles; and more efpecially 
 from their unanimous decifion upon this fubjed 
 in the celebrated ecumenic council at Nice- " I 
 grant you," fays our author, " that the fathers 
 affembled at Nicea were, both feverally and con- 
 
170 
 
 jiinaiy, an affembJy of fallible men: but when I 
 make this conceffion, I expeQ: that you, on your 
 part, -win allow them to have been men of com> 
 mon fenfe and common integrity. Many of theol 
 were remarkable for the fanftity of their lives ; 
 fome had fhown the higheft degree of chriftian 
 fcfftitude in confeffing Jefus before tyrants and per- 
 fecutors; and there were thofe among them, whofe 
 learning and abilities would not difgrace the moft 
 enlightened age. In fhort, if I Ihould fay that they 
 were altogether the raofl; refpeflable body of eccle> 
 jfiaftics that ever met, and the freeft from every fort 
 of control, I hardly think that you would call my 
 aflertion unguarded. But I content myfelf with 
 jny firft demand; and fuppofing them only men of 
 common Jmjs and common integrity, I aft you whcp 
 ther you think it in the fmalleft degree probable, 
 that three hundred and eighteen of the principal 
 |)allars ■ in the Chriftian church, convoked from 
 the three parts of the then known world, could 
 poffibly combine to eftablifh a doftiine different 
 from that wluth they had hitherto taught their re- 
 fpedtive flocks, and which they , had themfelves re- 
 ceived from their predeceffors inthe miniftry?" 
 
 This argument is not, I think, quite fo con- 
 thifive as our author feems to fuppofe. For, 
 without entering into the hiftoryv'^'id auth<^y 
 of Theodoitus, Ebion, Cerinthus, the Clmm* 
 
Ill 
 
 tine romance, as he choofes to denominate it, and 
 whatever elfe is appealed to by the fupporters of 
 ynitarianifm, — ^it is fufficient to remark that not 
 only the Chriftian world, but the world at large, 
 has with a much greater degree of univerfality em» 
 braced erroneous opinions- upon other fubjefts — 
 and adhered to theiri for a greater lapfe of age$ 
 with a pertinacity equal to that with which the 
 dodlrine of the divinity of Jefus Chrift has been 
 maintained. Does the earth or the fun conftitute 
 the centre of the folar fyftem ? does the former 
 exhibit an annual circuit around the latter, or the 
 latter a diurnal circuit around the former ? Jews, 
 Chriftians, and Heathens from the beginning of 
 time to the sera of Copernicus have with a voice 
 almoft imanimous concurred in afferting the latter. 
 A few heterodox protefts, it is true, have occa- 
 fionally been entered, from an early period of the 
 world, againft the common creed j fqjr Nicetas of 
 Syracufe not only introduced the idea of the 
 earth's diurnal motion round her own axis ; but 
 Philotas, one of the firft dif<;ipJe5 of Pythagoras, 
 aftually difcovered its annual motion in the eclip- 
 tic : a conjoint doftrine, whidi, as we are inform' 
 e4 hy Archimedes, was revived about a thouiand 
 years afterwairds by Ariftarchus the Samian ; and 
 which is well known to have laid the foundation 
 for Copernicus to work upon, But thefe philo* 
 
173 
 
 ■ fophic herefiarchs have either been fo few in 
 number, and poffeffed of fo little authority, as to 
 receive no attention from the multitude ; or, when- 
 ever they have been thus fuccefsful, have been 
 fure to excite the whole concentrated force of both 
 Ipiritual and temporal powers againft them. Co- 
 pernicus, after having fuffered his difcovery to be 
 extorted from him by his friends, is generally be- 
 lieved to have died from terror alone of the tor- 
 tures to which he hereby became expofed. The 
 punifhmentof Galijeois well known : nothing but 
 a public recantation could releafe him from impri- 
 fonment ; and he was ftill condemned to the pe- 
 nance of repeating once a week for the enfuing 
 three years the feven penitentiary pfalms. Virgi- 
 lius, bifliop of Salsburg, during the papacy of 
 Zachary was reduced to the fame dilemma : he 
 was accufed by Boniface, archbilhop of Mentz, of 
 maintaining the erroneous and blafphemous doc- 
 trine of the antipodes : and the fupreme and 
 infallible prelate pre-decreed, that if upon his trial 
 he fhould be convifted of holding this abominable 
 error, which he had thus uttered againft the Lord, 
 and againft his own foul, to wit, that there are 
 other worlds, other men under the earth, other 
 funs, and other moons, — a confiftory fliould imme- 
 diately be convened, that he fhould be degraded ' 
 from the honor of the priefthood, and be excom- 
 
173 
 
 municated from the church. The world at large 
 might not approve, perhaps, of fuch cruel and un- 
 juftifiable violence — but it approved, almoft with^ 
 out a diffenting voice, of the.dodrine in favor, of 
 which it was difclofed 5 a doftrine founded upon 
 the fenfible phenomena of nature, arid fuppofed 
 to be confirmed by the facred Scriptures of both 
 Jews and Chriftians. It is now, however, uni- 
 verfally admitted that this univerfal opinion, not 
 of councils alone, but of every nation on earth, 
 was an error, and that the Bible eftabliflies no 
 fuch tenet as it was then deemed blafphemy to 
 doubt of. The mere opinion of fallible men, 
 therefore, whatever be their honefty or their 
 judgement, whether affembled in councils or fe- 
 cluded in clofets — ought in all important and 
 queftionable fubjefts to be received with hefita- 
 tion : aijd univerfality of concurrence forms no 
 abfolute proof of truth. The Scriptures which 
 were open to the Nicene fathers are ftill open to 
 us, and it is to them alone we ought to apply for 
 full and fatisfaftory conviftion. 
 
 With refpe£t to the labors of the council of 
 Nice, there is alfo another very confiderable 
 draw-back from the authority to which it might 
 otherwife pretend. The convened clergy admitted 
 unanimoufly, it is true, the pre-exiftence of Jefus 
 Chrift — but they difputed and difagreed concern- 
 
174 
 
 fog his co-eternity and co-equality with the Fathet*.- 
 Dr. Geddes, in the pamphlet before us, contends 
 that " they were unanimous in their belief of his 
 divinity :" but the divinity afcribed to him by the 
 Arian party was of a very different and inferior' 
 fpecies to that attributed both by themfelves and 
 their Trinitarian brethren to the Father : and con- 
 fequently, we can hardly look up to a council in 
 wMch fuch a diverfity of opinion prevailed upon 
 the very fubjeS: in queftion, with much confidence! 
 in any refolution they may have adopted refpefl:* 
 ing it. 
 
 The pamphlet is, neverthelefs, upon the whole 
 a very ingeni(Mis performance: and there is nd 
 reader but mull be pleafed with the liberal and 
 swaiabie manner in which it concludes. " I cannot 
 allow myfelf to believe that the divinity of Jefus 
 will ever be without defenders, or that its ableffe 
 defaiders will not be Englilhmen: but let its de- 
 fenders be mild and moderate ; let them imitate 
 the conduft of him whofe caufe they undertake 
 to plead ; let not thar zeal, however fervefttj 
 tranfport them beyond the bounds of decency and 
 decorum. Thar Hyle will not be the lefs nervousj 
 becaufe -it is void of afperity ; nor their arguments 
 the lefs conclufive, becaufe unmixt vrith injuries* 
 To difcover Truth is profeffedly the aim of us all : 
 kt us purfue the path that feems the moft likely 
 
175 
 
 to lead us to her abode, with ardor but not -witli 
 atiiiholity ; and if we be convinced that we have 
 been happy enough to find it out, let us not infult 
 thofe who, in our eftimatibn, may have been lefs 
 fuccefsfiil. Non contumeliis et p-obris vexemus alii 
 alios •,pd honefte pojitifytts ffajttdicUSi caufam dij- 
 ttptemus." 
 
 It was about this period (1789) that the proteft- 
 ant diffenters made their celebrated application to 
 parliament for a repeal of the teft adi ; having been 
 encouraged by the previous promifes. of Mr. Pitt, 
 whofe memory, on this as well as on many other 
 fubjefe, exhibited a Hioft convenient facility of 
 fbrgetfiilnefe. The qUeftion was brought forvrard 
 in the lower houfe with much confidence by Mr. 
 Beaufoy — but Mr. Pitt the minifter was a dif- 
 ferent mati from Mr. Pitt the -patriot. Having in 
 a confiderable degree rifeninto office on the backs 
 of the diffenters,- he deferted them the moment he 
 had no further occafion for their fervices : he op- 
 pofed the queflion, and it was lofl. The diffenters 
 were very angry, and had much reafon to be an- 
 gry : for treachery of memory was not the only 
 treachery of which they publicly accufed him. 
 The fcheme was planned with his entire know- 
 ledge, and at leafl his implied concurrence : he 
 was waited upon by a deputation of the diffenting 
 body,. only a few days prior to the difcuf55oB. of 
 
176 
 
 the rq)eal in the fenate j and he gave them every 
 reafon to fuppofe that his fentiments upon the fub-. 
 je& of religious liberty v?ere not changed, and 
 that it was his intention to fupport Mr. Beaufoy's 
 motion. 
 
 If, however, the dilTenters had reafon to com- 
 plain of the minifter, the catholics had reafon to 
 complain of the diffenters : who certainly endea- 
 voured to juftify themfelves, and the condud of 
 their anceftprs, at the expenfe of the former, by 
 maintaining in almoft every pamphlet publilhed on 
 this occafion, not only that all the different difabili- 
 tating ftatutes from the twenty-fifth of Charles II., 
 in which both parties were equally included, were 
 intentionallf levelled againfl papifls alone; but 
 that the grounds of emancipation on behalf of 
 themfelves were widely different from what could 
 be advanced by the latter : — that the danger to be 
 hereby apprehended was infinitely lefs ; and that 
 their claims upon government were incontroverti- 
 bly more cogent. This was mofl unqueftionably to 
 enforce a juft claim by an illiberality of fentiment 
 unworthy of the tolerant and enlightened period in 
 which it was urged before the public ; and was 
 more peculiarly injurious to the Englifti catholics, 
 becaufe they alfo were, at this very naoment, me- 
 ditating a plan for a more plenary toleration than 
 they had hitherto enjoyed, in which they had 
 
177 
 
 imucH reason to expefl; the countenzinee and ap- 
 ' pfC|bation of government. 
 
 One of the, inofl: popular of the ephemeral pro- 
 4i[ftions in which thefe argmnents were advanced 
 yras a fmall anonymous pamphlet j • entitled " The 
 Cafe of the Proteftant Diffenters with reference' 
 to, the Tefl;and Gorporation Afts:" and as the 
 Engliih catholics were more violently oppugned 
 in, this, than in any other publication of the fame, 
 clafs, our very able champion of the catholic 
 caufe ^oulci not refrain from an anonymous reply 
 to it in a pamphlet of about an equal length, en- 
 titled " A Letter to a Member of .Parliament on 
 the ' Gafe of the Proteftant Diffenters,' and the 
 Expediency, of a general Repeal of all Penal Sta- 
 tutes that regard religious Opinions." It bears 
 the date pf 1787 ; .and is intended to fhow, in op- 
 pofition to the author of, the Cafey that proteftant 
 diffenters from the sera of the Re|loration have 
 been at all tinaes as obnoxious to government as 
 papifts ; that the difi^ualifying ftatutes which em- 
 brace both parties were^ in every inftance,. as 
 mych levelled againft the fornier as againft the 
 latter ; and that, allowing any evil to be appre- 
 hended from a general , repeal of fuch ftatutes, 
 government would have more to dread from the 
 machinations of the firft thaii of the laft. Upon 
 ^11 .thefe ,fubje(3:s the dodtor has given us a fu,fE- 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 dent ind fatisf^ftory refererie^ to' hiftofy : — but 
 I think, as a mere queftion of debate, he h^is 
 completely failed in the eftablifhment of hisde- 
 dud^iofts ; — --and that the events and records he has 
 cited are altogether fubverfive of his own objeS 
 and argument. I completely agrfee ttrith him, 
 however, that the plan purfued by the diffenters 
 "■■^ds highly illiberal with refpeft to the catholics, 
 and in a great degree puerile and partial with re- 
 ^efl: to their own body. It was botforiied upon 
 no broad and politic principle whatevei". Inftead 
 of entertaining the tvhdle queftion as a mattei^ of 
 municipal right, to which all Svere equally enti- 
 tled who could take confcientibufly (and the Rb- 
 nian catholics were admitted td be in fuch a ftate 
 at the very moment) an oath of allegiance to the 
 reigning princfe and exiffing government — it li- 
 mited its operation to a very frfiall portion of thte 
 great body, who were fuflerihg under the difelnfi- 
 tating fyftera ; it confented to fupplicate as a favor, 
 in behalf of this inconliderable mfnority^ what ft 
 fliould have brought forwards as an aft of hatiofaal 
 juftice ; and, in the fupplication bf this fevor foi 
 this microfcopic minority, confined itf^to two &c 
 three exceptionable points alone, of niete merce- 
 nary confideration,..inftead of attacking^ and pro- 
 telling againft the whole theory of ^political pains 
 and penalties Vfhich would flill have difgraced the 
 
179 
 
 ftatvrte-book, and fubje&ed them, if rigidly en- 
 forced, to feverer evils than any from which they 
 petitioned to be liberated. 
 
 *^ The indulgence requefted,'' fays our author, 
 ♦* would only go to relieve a part of proteftant 
 diffenters from a grievance wihich many proteftant 
 diffenters find a very fmall one, and which the al- 
 moft annual afts of indemnity render no grievance 
 ^t all ; while there are penal and even bloody fta- 
 tutes remaining againft a confiderable part of their 
 proteftant brethren, for whom no relief is afked 
 ia this c^fe. Not to menton that occafional con- 
 formity has not only been very generally praftifed 
 by proteftant diffenters, but has the approbation 
 of fame of their moft eminent divines, and even 
 e£ whole affemblies*. 
 
 <' The jH-efent application of proteftant diffenters, 
 then, being a pitiful and partial application, hr 
 wkit is hardly worth foliciting, and what they: 
 already in foniB meafure poffefs, will probably 
 meet with little regard from any part of the legif- 
 
 * " In (a.Bi, art not our parliament, ouf armies, our navies, 
 our corporations even, filled with proteftant diffenters ? who 
 e.ither make no fcrupTe to qualify themfelves by the facramen- 
 tal left ; or are brought to no inconvenience from negle'fting it. 
 In fomg inAances they may avail themfelves of it to avoid pe- 
 nalties, which their fellow fubjedls ate liable to— witnefs the 
 <:afeofMr. Ev^ns, in 1757." 
 
180 
 
 ■laturfi. for tiiat' vei7 reafon. The -fficklers for 
 eftablifliment will confider it as theeffeft of a 
 refllefs and turbulent difpofitioh, that is never 
 contented ; and the real friends of rfeligious free- 
 dom, and univerfal toleration, mufl; look upon it 
 ' as a filly endeavour 'to remove a mole-hill, whilft 
 illPUJtitaihs reriiain uittouched. *ir##':, ij 
 
 i,3/' It may be urged _that thofe qppreifive and 
 fanguinary laws are a mere dead letter : but if fo, 
 let them be decently interred, and no longer re- 
 main a'pYibiic nuifence, to refleft. difhonoi* . on 
 the-polity of: a .civilized, nation, and expofeitta 
 t^ie fijiorn of mankind. If the penal ftatutes- are 
 bs:#iijlr cv/n nature .fo fevere and odious, that they 
 CSV .731 \be put in execution (which fome of 
 ;iem certainly are), to what.purpofe is it then to 
 retain them ? If they be deemed neceffary for the 
 confervatioh of the ftate, let them be pun£i:uaUy> 
 enforced ; if they be not neceffary, let thent be 
 annulled, f There is here no medium ; they muft 
 Hand in our ftatute-book, either for the national 
 Jafety or jhame ! 
 
 " -But is it true that they are all a dead letter ? 
 Qiiite the contrary : there is a "whole body of dif- 
 fenting lieges, on whom fome of them ftill operate 
 as directly ^and effeftiially as ev(;r ; and others, 
 which, though only of the difabilita!:ing kind, are. 
 In their confequences equal to a penalty, ai^ii feverg 
 
181 
 
 beyond example. If the other diffenters may be 
 faid to be * chaftifed; with whips,' this tlafs of 
 them is certainly ' chaftifed with Jcorpions;' and ^ 
 while the former complain of being overloaded; 
 with the ' little finger ' of government, the latter 
 have long patiently borne the prelTure of;, its, 
 * loins.' 
 
 *' You readily conceive, fir, that I mean the 
 Engliffi catholics, a body not numerous indeed, 
 but: confeffedly refpedtable ; and as firmly attached 
 to the prefent government, and the conftitution 
 of their country, as any of his majefly's fubjefts. 
 And here again the \vriters of the Cafe of the dif-- 
 fenters are blameable for the idle and impertinent 
 infinuations thrown out againft what they term, 
 popery mdpapifis ; terms that have been too often 
 employed to work upon the mjnds of the people, 
 and in^ire them with horror at their fellow-crea-,, 
 tures, by imputing to them tenets which they ex- 
 pj^efely difavow, ?^nd praftiges which they difclaim 
 and abjure. 
 
 ,; " Some of their tenets m^y be deemed abfurd, ■ 
 fpme of their praftices fuperftitioijs * ; but neither,. 
 
 '■."Even in thefe refpefts the catholics of the prefent day 
 and particularly the .Englifli. catholics, are certainly not the. 
 fame they were but; hajf a century ago. The (mail, the very. 
 fmall indulgence that;has been granted to thejn has already pro- 
 duced a confiderable revolution in their minds. Since they be- 
 
182 
 
 are bcompatible "wkh toy one fpdi^ of gowrit- 
 ment. The fufffettiacy of the Rotttan ^lidfF fe 
 the only thing in their do<9;rine that ha$ ike Bp. 
 pearance of political danger : and to be fure it wa% 
 once a dangerous dodrine, from the unwarrantable 
 conclufions that -were drawn ftom it, and thie|>eif- 
 nicious confequences that enfued. * The fen*SBH£e 
 tif an infalllible judge was a tremendous felAeiite, 
 a6d the thunders of the Vatican fhookthfe firttieft 
 thrones in Chriftendom. -Bat Syhat was it that 
 firft -gave infallibility to the ^iecifions ^f a fi&pe? 
 what rendered his thunders formidable? — ^&^ 
 lawlefs -anibition, the pious folly, or the flaviJh 
 •<*eaknefs of temporal princes, who, to fei«ve the& 
 own immediate purpofes, or to fati$fy their ilt 
 placed devotion, , concurred to aggrjiadlze tk$ 
 Roman fee, until it gradiially became the feat 6f 
 univerfal empire, »id its bifhop thefovereign ar» 
 biter of nations. In vain the clergy murmifted 
 and remonftrated againft the invafion dn. their 
 rights ; papal ufurpation, fupported by regal pow- 
 er, bore every thing down before k. The infti- 
 totion of religious orders contributed not a little 
 
 gan to tafte a fmall pohion of Britifli Uberfjr, they think, they 
 fpeak, they write like Britons. If we wlfti to fee further re- 
 forms among them, let them quaff it in full draughts ; and I 
 miftake it much, if that will not more effeAually bring about 
 the piBrpofe than penalties and profcriptipn," 
 
to (iipport the {>ope's pretenfions. The little 
 Ui^mxg that exifted, cadfted in the monafteries j 
 :ujd it was employed to aflert and extend the fup- 
 pofed prerogatives of the Roman fee ; on which, 
 diefpifing all oprdinary Jujrifdi^qai, they immedi- 
 ately depended. 
 
 " Thus was the p9f)ral ppwefj io tijnes of gene- 
 ral ignorance, ifcrewied up to the moft enormous 
 pitch ; when, like every oth^y overgrown empire, 
 it began to labor under its Qwn weight, has fallen 
 rpuch fafter -thap it rofe, and is at prefent nearly 
 reduQed to its piiftiAe narrow lijjiits. The odious 
 doftrine of depofir^g power, transferring crowns, 
 and difpenfing wilii oaths, has been long .exploded 
 in every catholic •univerfity. Even bulls, that re- 
 gard jpat^ers purely fpiritual, have no force un- 
 i^fs they be accepted by the na,|ional church to 
 , whicili they are direiSted. Provincial fynods, me- 
 lappolitans, nay, fimple bilhops, take upon them 
 to regulate the djfcipline of their refpetSlive diftrifts, 
 under the protection of the civil powers ; and a few 
 years more will .probably bring the form of the 
 catholic hierarchy back to that of the firft cen- 
 turies. 
 
 *' At any rate, there is no longer danger to 
 civil government from papal power. The prefent 
 biihop of Rome is, in that refpeft, as harmlefs, 
 » petfojiage as the man in the moon, and the 
 
184 
 
 fupremacy which the Englifh catholics allow to 
 Pius VI. is not more dangerous to the conftitUf 
 tion, than the primacy of his grace of Canter-r 
 bury." 
 
 Having enumerated feveral of the more promi- 
 nent evils to which Roman catholics were at that 
 time liable in our own country, our author, in 
 his ufual ftyle of manly and liberal fentiment, 
 concludes as follows : 
 
 " Such, fir, you know to be the fituation of 
 the Roman catholics of England; a fituation truly 
 pitiable, and of which the hardftiips are hardly 
 to be conceived but by thpfe who feel them. 
 Would it not,, then, have been more generous, 
 tmd more juft, for the proteftant diffenters to 
 have come forward on this occafion with a little 
 more candor and a little more manlinefs ? to 
 have made their petition to parliament as compre- 
 henfive as poflible ? and to have endeavoured to 
 open fo wide a door of toleration as to admit their 
 fellow diffenters, pf whatever perfuafion, to go in 
 along with them ? Or, if they felfifhly chofe to go 
 in alone, it furely did not become them to throw 
 fuch ftumbling-blocks in the way of their fuffering 
 brethren. The name of Chriftian is a much more 
 ancient and more honorable, as well as a more corri- 
 prehenfive tie, than that of proteftant ; and there is 
 a tie ftill more ancient and comprehenfive than 
 
185 
 
 i^ither — that of humanity. The time, I truft, is not 
 ?it a great diftance, when the full force of this laft 
 will be underftood and felt over all the poliflied 
 nations of the world, when philanthropy and com- 
 dutual interefts will be the fole links of fociety, 
 when tefts and penal laws will|be no niore deemed 
 neceffary for the fecurity of religion, and when 
 Papift and Proteftant, Athanafian and Arian, 
 Lutheran and Calvinift, Trinitarian and Unita- 
 rian, will be names of mere diftin^tion, not of 
 reciprocal odium, and much lefs objefts of reci- 
 procal perfecution. 
 
 " And have we not reafon to hope, fir, that 
 the Britifli legiflature will be among the firft to 
 bring about a fyftem fo defirable, and fo congenial 
 to the Britifh conftitution ? God knows, we have, 
 and ever Ihall have, political difputes enough to 
 divide us : why fhould thofe of religion come in 
 for A fhare ? Let £bme patriotic and enlightened 
 foul, then, move at once fqr a repeal of every 
 peUal religious ftatute, and every religious teft : 
 be the jpledge of the fidelity of the fubjeft in fu- 
 ture, his ordinary oath of allegiance, and his 
 fubfequent conduft, and let him be anfwerable 
 only for his own ; let religious principles be no 
 more confounded with political onesj but let 
 every Briton, without forfeiting his birth-right, 
 'profefs his own belief of the Divinity, and worfhip 
 
him after his o*wn mode : aadif he tifaoofes not td 
 worfliip at aM, what is that to -the ftate, if he 
 feithfuiljT ferve it in the Kbation he holds, or the 
 charge he is intruded with'? In a word, let the 
 only teft of a good citizen be an obligation to be 
 a peaceable JubjeSt and an honeft man." 
 
 It is duetothe chara£terifl:ic candorjof Dr.Geddes 
 to notice that, as he had fome doubts, after hav- 
 ing written this, letter, whether it might not injure 
 tlie caufe of the diffenters at that time -pending in 
 parliament, aiad to whom he wifljed a«iore-exten- 
 five fuccefs than they had applied for themfelves, 
 he poftponed the publication of it, and di4 not 
 fuiFer it to appear till the qneftion had been 
 completely di4>ofed of by a parliamentary nega- 
 tion. 
 
 It is alfo due to the faine manly principle to 
 obferve, that when, in the .enfiaing year, the pro- 
 teftaijit diifenters, ftill elevated with hopes of fuccefs 
 from the fmall anajcxrity by which their appUoi- 
 tionto parliament had been rejeded, renewed their 
 atjtenipt, and foUcited Mr. Fox to bring ,it once 
 more before the houfe, our author conteibuted 
 his affiftance to the fame Tide of the queftion by a 
 humorous and anonymous " Letter to the iRight 
 Reverend the Archbilhops and Bifhops of JEng- 
 land ; pointing out the only fure Means of pre- 
 ferving the Church iirom the Dangers that now 
 
J 87 
 
 threaten her. "By an Upper'^Gbaduate." This 
 light amd voliatile mode of engaging in an import* 
 ant futqeO: may perhaps be abje&ed to tby fome 
 of my graver readers; yet, "whoey<a: has any re- 
 coUeQioin of the tranfaftions of the day cannot 
 but remember that the prefs was fo deeply loaded 
 ■vpidi 'weightier publications — and that every folid 
 argument had been fo exhaufted and worn-out 
 by repeated ufe, wit and humor feem to have 
 been the only weapons at this time uneffayed. 
 Amd inrealiity it is impoffible not to fmale at the 
 wiiverfal agitationcand.alatnn-into whidi the dig- 
 nitaries and ) many of the laity of the eftabliihed 
 church' were thrown by fo trifling an incident : an 
 incident lipiich, if the iliffenters had proved fuc- 
 cefsful, inftead of endangering any one prinjciide. 
 of efeher church or ftate, would have tended 
 more than any other fcheme that could have been 
 devtfed, to the jdefouiElidn of their own frateunity 
 , alone, "by pulling down the great wall of feparatioti 
 which at prefent .divides them from the fiftablifli- 
 ment, and by amalgamating them hra-eby into 
 one uniform "mafs with the majority of their fellow 
 citizens, The diffenters once more loft their caufe, 
 however, and from their extreme violence and 
 impolicy they deferved to lofe it. Their principle 
 was good, but thar condud was in many in- 
 ft^nces unconftitutional and contradidory, Tefe 
 
188 
 
 were propofed to deftroy the exiflence of tefts : 
 and the parliament was attempted to be carried by 
 ftornl. The candor, moderation and eloquence 
 of Mr. Fox were exerted in vain, therefore, in- 
 favor of thofe who had ruined without the doors 
 of the houfe the very queftion he had undertaken 
 to fupport within ; and the majority againft them 
 was, in this renewed debate, not lefs than in the 
 proportion of 294 to 105. 
 
 I do not know that the i-eal author of this 
 " Letter to the Archbifhops and Bifhops '* was 
 ever fufpefted — but there are neverthelefs many 
 paragraphs which 'might have given fome fort of. 
 clue to the quarter whence it proceeded. Of 
 this the reader may judge by the following ex- 
 trad: 
 
 *' In vain, my lords, your defenders appeal to ■ 
 authorities. . What do diffenters care for the 
 great Cranmer, the learned Bucer, the venerable 
 Hooker, the incomparable Chillingworth, the or- 
 thodox Taylor, the ingenious Stillingfleet, the 
 reverend Hammond, &c. &c. ? — ^The Romanifts, : 
 they will tell you, ufe the fame fort of arguments,' 
 and with a much better grace. — They talk to you 
 of angelic, feraphic, and invincible dofto^rs!; 
 They run over the names of the great Bellarmine, 
 the learned Cabaffutius, the impartial Fleury, the.- 
 judicious Tilleraont, the admirable BoiTuet, &c-— tl 
 
1S9 
 
 And yet, my lords, they are not fo uhreafbn.abl« 
 as to ground the pretended exclufive privileges of 
 their church on thefe authorities. "^ 
 
 " In vain you conjure up poor Sherlock, to bear 
 teftimony in your behalf. The ghoft of Hoadly 
 purfues him whitherfoever he goes, and tortures 
 •his prelatic foul even in the Ihades of Elyfium !-*• 
 if Elyfium admit of torture. — Iil truth,; the argu- 
 ments of Hoadly in favor of a general, complete^ ' 
 undiftinguiflied toleration have never been an- 
 •fwered, and never will be anfwered, fatisfaQibrlly; 
 on the principles of reafon, Jeripure, and pro- 
 tefiantifm. 
 
 *' There is, however, one and only one effec* 
 tual way of anfwering them ; which I will now 
 point out and recommend to your lordfliips' at- 
 tention. .: 
 . '*' My lords, when you feparated from the 
 church of Rome, you probably did not forefee 
 what ufe the diflenters would, make of your plea 
 of feparation : much lefs, that you mighty one 
 day, be under' the neceffity of employing the fame 
 arguments againft Prelbyterians, Socinians, Arians, 
 and Anabaptifts, which the Romanifts urged 
 againft yourfelves, when you.prefumedto diflent 
 from their church. It was badly confidered, my 
 lords ! And^ ■ fince you retained fo many other 
 good things and good doftrines of that church, 
 
190 
 
 you> fhmild ailb hare retained 2 fhare of her IN- 
 TAXLisii.n'r^-iXshich was feirly worth all the reil. 
 Without it, indeed, all the reft are held on a 
 doabtfiil, precarioxis: tenure^ For what is chwch- 
 zuihodty uniefs it be infalMbLe ? A mere puppet, 
 my lotds, the wires of which the ftate may to- 
 day put into your hands, and to-morrow into 
 thofe' of others ! which, in England, are drawa 
 by bifhops ; in Scotland by prefbytera ; in fome 
 countries by neither." 
 
 The extenfive learning and indefatigable zSti- 
 vity of Dr. Geddes had, by this time, acquired for 
 him a high degree of celebrity, not only among 
 literary fcholars, but in the literary market. Se- 
 veral of his publications fold well, and he wasper* 
 petually preffed to give either a ftated or occaiiona} 
 afliftance to many periodical works of progreffive or 
 eftablifhed reputation.' With thefe requefts his 
 own laborious and augmenting occupatioDa pre* 
 vmted him from con^lying at leail with any de- 
 gree of frequency or regulafify. The Analytical 
 Review is the only litorary journal to which he 
 ftatedly or ferioufly contributed; diough, in his 
 moments of relaxation from feverer ftudies, he 
 cafually iasriched with fome of their beft fugitive 
 pieces, both in profe and verfe, the Morning Chro- 
 nicle, and another newfpaper or two of the lame 
 political bias. 
 
To t3i6 Analytical Revfevp' h6 AXras m^iifced to be- 
 coirte a profefSonal contributor, in confequence of 
 bis conftexion with Mu Jolinfoil, ef St. FtvU's 
 Chtireh-yard, who> now risked as his chief boo'k- 
 feH'ef, and ti'^as proprietor of thifrworki H& begaii 
 \vith its eotnmencfement, on M^y I, 178S; and 
 thfe very article with tlrhich it Opeiils is of feis 6wn 
 production. R is the firft, number of the Cri- 
 tique on the Varlse Leftiones of De Rofe; and 
 fi-om this time till Septetnber ll&B hd fUp- 
 piied not left thto forty-fereil articles, the laft of 
 whici is ^refted to an examination of Mr. \Vake-i 
 field's Silva Gritiea. Confining himfelf alnlbfl; ex^ 
 clufively, in thtefe proffeiEonal ftriftiireSi to biblical 
 ^riticifm arid ecclefiaftical hiftoty, the Value of 
 his contribtifions to the Analytical Review may be 
 eafily cafcillated, from the talents the reader muft 
 by this time allow him to have poffeffed, and the 
 aninterrupted application of thofe talents to thete 
 veiy fiibjedts. Truly defirable indeed would it 
 be, and I mean not to be cenforious in faying fo, 
 that every profeffional critic fhould be as well qua- 
 lified for the taik he undertakes: periodical reviews, 
 which, when well conduced, are at all times valu- 
 able, would then be of incalculable advantage to 
 every nation, by augmenting its knowledge and 
 Gonfummating its tafte. But this it is in vain to 
 ekpeQ:: few, even among men of well deferved 
 
192 
 
 Bterary reputation, are as comprehenfively endows 
 ed; and of thofe few, feldom indeed is it that 
 any one of them can be perfuaded to fubmit to the 
 drudgery of periodical crfticifm, even though the 
 liberality of the proprietor leave the amount of re- 
 muneration to himfelf. Thofe who have been long 
 engaged in the poffeffion and fuperintendence of 
 works of this defcription will readily adnait the 
 tnith of this obfervation; for it is a part of the 
 daily difficulties to which they are expofedy„^4ifpr 
 which they have a large claim upon the indul-, 
 gence both of authors and the public. Dr. ,Ged-« 
 des, in his connexion with the Analytical Review, 
 during 'a period of five years and a half, accompa- 
 nied it throughout its beft days: and when the 
 reader learns that its fuccefs was progreffive as 
 long as his affiftance was extended to it, and that, 
 it gradually declined from; the date of his fecefljpn, 
 hd wilj. furely allow me, without the charge of un- 
 due panegyric, to attribute no fmall portion of its 
 faireft reputation to himfelf. , To make the me- 
 ijioirs of his writings as perfeft as I am able, I have 
 thrown into a note below * a catalogue of the ar- 
 
 Year. Vol. Month. .Pag. * Subfcribed Letter. 
 
 1788 I May I De Roffi Variae Leftiones, 4 vol. 4to. E 
 1 2 Wefton' Tranflation of the Song of De- 
 
 borabi 4to. .A 
 
 16 King's Morfels of Criticifni, 4(0. . R. 
 
193 
 
 tides ^ he contributed; of which' his reviews of De 
 •RofE's Various Ledions, and fir W. Jones's Afi- 
 
 Year. Vol. Month. Pag. Sutfcribed Letter. 
 
 24 Prieflley's Ledlures on Hiftory, 410. R 
 
 July 269 De Roffi Variae Leftiones continued. E 
 
 294' Prieftley's Leftures on Hiftory con. R 
 
 Appendix j3p Wiikins's Heetopades, 8vo. R. 
 
 539 Newcome's Ezekiel, 410. E 
 
 II Nov, 274 Williins's Heetopades concluded. R 
 
 308 Hodgfon's Proverbs. E 
 
 311 Prieflley's Leftures on Hiftory con. R 
 
 Dec. 444 King's Morfels of Criticifm con. R 
 
 Appendix 559 De Rofli Varias Leftiones continued. E 
 
 1789 III Mar, 277 Campbell's Four Gofpets, a vols. 4to. R 
 
 286 Wrighte's Explanation of two firft' 
 
 Chapters of Qenefis, A 
 
 April 443 Campbell's Four Qofpels continued. R 
 
 Appendix 569 Levi's Lingua Sapra, 3 vols. 8vo. A 
 
 576- Levi on the Pentateuch, j vols. 8vo. A 
 
 578 Harmer's Obfervations, &c. vols. 3 
 
 nd 4, 8vo. E 
 
 58 1 Niftett on Palfages of the New Teft- 
 
 ament. E 
 
 583 Campbell's Four Gofpels concluded. R 
 585 Wakefield's Tranflation of certain 
 
 Parts of the New Teftament, 8vo. R 
 1789 IV June 190 Cooke's Tranflation of the Revela- 
 tions. £ 
 July 337 Symonds's Obfervatiops on revifing 
 the prefent Englilh Verfion of the 
 Four Gofpels and Afts, 410. R 
 Aug. 4S9 Willis's Tranflation of the Aftions 
 
 of the Apoftles, ^vo. £ 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 6tic Refearches form, in my opinion, the moft ela- 
 borate excurfions:. while his minute and liberal de- 
 tail of the Englifli Roman Catholic controverfy 
 
 Year. Vol. Month. Pag. Subfcribed Letter. 
 
 V 0<5!. 171 Wakefield's SHvaCritica.wl, I. 8vo. A 
 Appendix 559 Delgado'sTranflatioui of Pentateuch, 
 
 4to. R 
 
 1790 VI Feb. ifJg Jones's Afiatic RefeaTches continued. 
 N. B. The farmer parts of the cri- 
 tique in Vol. V. a®a and 334 were 
 by another hand. 
 Mar. 313 Ditto continued, 
 April 43 1 Ditto continued. 
 VIT June 209 Ditto concluded, R 
 
 VIII Ap. 490 Englifti (Catholic Controverfy. A 
 
 5 jS HeteVa Biblical and Religious Journal. 
 1791I3C Feb. 204 Dodfon's Ifaiah. E 
 
 Mar. 330 Englifli Catholic Controverfy. conti- 
 nued. N. B. The laft two pages 
 335 and 336 by another hand. 
 April 53S Seven Prophetical Periods, &c. 
 
 5^50 Englifli CatholicControverfy contin. 
 
 X May 66 Street*s Pfalins, a vols. 8vo, R 
 Appendix 522 Englifli Catholic Controverfy contin, 
 
 XI Oa, 136 Mariti's Travels, 1 vols. ?vo. DM 
 
 186 Wakefield's Silva Critica, yol. 2. 
 De^' 43 1 Englifli Catholic Controverfy. 
 
 442 Refle6lions on Duelling, ' R 
 
 1 792 XII Mar. 326 Wakefield's Tranflation of the New 
 
 Tefliament. 
 
 Xni Ap. 497 Ditto concluded. E 
 
 1793 XVII Sep. 52 Codex T&eod. Bezse, ^ Kipling, E 
 Appendix 499 Wakefield's Silva Critics, vol.- 3. A 
 
195 
 
 tfdnftitutei the moft valuable document relative to 
 this tranfaftion to which the polemic hiftorian 
 can apply for inforraationj the Blue Books of the 
 catholic committee alone excepted. 
 
 No new connexions or occafional digreffions 
 towards coUaieral fubje&s could ihduce our inde- 
 fatigjtljle fcholar^ however, to relax in his tranfla*- 
 tionofthe Bible; and in the beginning of the year 
 1788 he tbomght his labol-s fufficiently advanced, 
 to warrant another and a more explicit Addrefs to 
 thfe Public upon this prime objefl: of his pucfuits. 
 Accordingly, at this period,; he publiflied his " Proi 
 pofals for printing by Subfcription ANewTranlla'- 
 tion of the Bible, from correfted Texts of the origi- 
 nal; with various ReiidirigS, explanatory Notes, 
 and critical Obfervatioiis." His expeftations of fuc- 
 cefs were, at this timej very fattguine. " Such a 
 trariflation," fays he, " I have ventured to attempt, 
 and to attempt alone : and I truft, through the 
 bounty of that Gfrd whofe Oracles I have faiths 
 fully attempted to elucidate, and make more in- 
 telligible, that I ihall be able to bring it to a conclu- 
 fion." I-ie had, indeed^ reafon to be fanguine; for 
 a very numerous impreffion of his Propofals was 
 fold off in the coutfeof a fefw months; and before 
 the end of the ye;ar he found it neceflary to pub- 
 Kfh a new edition. In his Addrefs to the Public, 
 p. 8. he alfa ni*kes mention of anothet edition 
 
196 
 
 brought forward in the enfuing year : but of this 
 impreffion I have feen no copy, and cannot tellj 
 therefore, whether it varied in any refpefl: from the 
 two preceding. To each of thefe was fubjoined 
 a fpecimen of the undertaking. That of the earliefl 
 edition- confilled of the firft chapter of Genefis, with 
 excerpts from Exodus arid the fixteenth Pfalmj 
 the price of which was half a crown. At the fug- 
 geftion of feveral friends, however, the Pfalm and 
 paffages from Exodus were difcontinued in the 
 fecond imipreiEon, with a view of reducing the 
 price to eighteen pence; and the firft chapter of 
 Genefis was alone preferved vidth its confecutivfe 
 annotations. 
 
 Our author had, at this time, fuftained a heavy 
 and indeed irretrievable lofs, by the death of thofe 
 two prime ornaments of the eftablifhed church, 
 as well as chief promoters of his work. Dr. Ken- 
 nicott and Dr. Lowth, from whofe conjoint and 
 pre-eminent abilities he expedted to have derived 
 very eflential advantage in its profecution ; to 
 whofe opinions he would have yielded more im* 
 plicitly than to the opinions of any other contem- 
 porary fcholars; and from whofe eftablifhed credit 
 and recommendation he would very confiderably 
 have augmented the number of his fubfcribers. 
 His circle of literary friends and patrons, never- 
 thelefs, confiderably increafed: and he very c6r- 
 
197 
 
 dially embraces the opportunity offered him by the 
 publication of his Propofals, of returning thanks, 
 among other foreign correfpondents, to Dr. Law, 
 bilhop of Killala; Mr. Barret, of Dublin; coloneL 
 Valiancy; Dr. Madan, agent for the church of the 
 Canaries at Madrid; and the abbate Thomfon, at 
 Rome. 
 
 The principal conditions of the work, and which 
 he now for the firft time fubmitted to the public, 
 were: that it fliould be completed in fix large vo- 
 lumes in quarto; of which the four firft fliould 
 contain all the books ,of the Old Teftament, include . 
 ing the Apocrypha;, the fifth, the books of the New 
 Teftament; and the fixth, a generj^l preface, with 
 maps- and indexes:— that the price of each volume 
 to fubfcribers fliould be a guinea and a half:— that 
 the firft volume fliould be put to prefs as foon as 
 the number of his fubfcribers amounted to a thour 
 fand: — and that the volumes fliould follow each 
 other, as nearly as poflible, at the diftange of about 
 eighteen months. Of the fpecimen appended to 
 this trafl: I take no notice fit prefent, as it will 
 again fall under our confideration wheij we, come 
 to take a general furvey of fuch part of the work 
 at large as the author lived to ejcecute, It excited, 
 however, much difcuflion, both among Jews an4 
 Xhriftians; and having afferted, in his -Propo, 
 fals, that if any refp^ftable literary ghjiraftgr would 
 
198 
 
 Xeggeft hints of iTOprovemest, or point- entfouree* 
 of informations with refpeft to the plan and ^i^em^' 
 tiQH of his woi^, he would, without ple4gipg him.-, 
 ftlf to adopt his qpiniona, receive them with thank- 
 fulnefs, atidH^onfider them with due atteatianr.-. 
 our author foon found himfelf fq ovgnvbejmgd with 
 packets of queflions, criticifms, and advice, tlB«t,- 
 eKclaiming; with Erafmus, " Tantia ftudiorum 
 obruor laboribus, et innumerabilium epiftoli? f^e 
 undique provocor, ut fmgulis. refpondere CPU 
 queam," he was compelled, in the courfe of 3 
 few months, to the publication, of another traftj anr 
 terior to the appearance of the firft VQlume. of his . 
 verfion, which he brought forward in July I '?90, 
 and entitled " Dr, Geddes's General Aafwer tgr. 
 the Queries, Counfils and Criticifms that have, 
 been communicated to him fmce the Fubliea|iQH. 
 of his Propofals for printing a new TianflatJon «f 
 the Bible." 
 
 In this pamphlet it is fufiicient to r^nark, that . 
 while he reiifts the generality of the counfils. and 
 criticifms - communioated to him, from motives, 
 which he very candidly aflignfi, he yields to feveral^ 
 and liberailly expreffes his obKgMijans to the corv 
 refpond^ts who propofed them- In replying tp 
 different orders of querifts,' he flill difcov^cs that . 
 high indeqienctenee of fpirit which was the p^cw^ 
 liar chara£teriftic of bia diTpofition. Tq the queftioft. 
 
199 
 
 ft oija one pf his own religious cpramunjlon, 'whether 
 his verfion had been approved by bifliop Talbot, 
 the vicar t^poftdicqf the London diftric^, in •s&Mch 
 (Off be woul^willi*^^, he ajubjcriberl he replies as 
 follows *;, "I never fought the -approbation of 
 bifliop Talbot, or of any other bifliop whqiMifoever, 
 A bifliOjp's or even a pope's approbation can give 
 jjo intrinfic value to any work; and a work that 
 lias intrinfic v^lue needs not their approbation. 
 Whether mine be fuqh or not, it is for the learned 
 public to determine; and if their determination be 
 favorable, not the fentence of a whole fynod of 
 bifliops can reverfe it. In any event, I will never 
 walk in trammels, if I can avoid it; and leafl; of 
 &1I in jnental trammels. — If Roman catholics are to 
 read no books 'but fuch as are formally approved 
 by a bifliop, their libraries will not be very nu« 
 merous, nor very coftly. My querift, however, is 
 Hot, I find, the only Roman catholic who is in the 
 fame difagreeable fufpenfe: I mufl leave it to time 
 to relieve them. Mean while I cannot help faying 
 with a much greater man, ^i^ autem ingratius 
 quam fro tarn imme^^s Judoribus vigiliifque, quaS 
 tantum juvandi animo Jujceferis, et quibns nulla -paf 
 gratia referri queat, ref^ndi calumniam; idque fotif, 
 
 * Tor this venerable prelate's favorable opinion of his 
 work, notwithftanding the warmth of this reply, tl^e reader 
 m^Y ^;onfuit the heginoing of chap. xi. 
 
200 
 
 fmum ah Us, ad quos piiffimum operis utilitas fit 
 reditura?" 
 
 To the queftions urged in confequence of his 
 having allowed Dr. Prieftley /o be a Chrijlian, " Sir, 
 are you a Roman catholic? Sir, are you a Chrif- 
 tian?" his reply poffeffes an equal portion of bril- 
 liancy and liberality. " To the latter of thefe 
 queries," fay^ he, " I anfwer pofitively and per- 
 emptorily: I am a ' Christian.' — In order to 
 give a juft and cautious anfwer to the former, I 
 muft confult my old frieijd and countryman Duns 
 Scotus. Now Duns Scotus inftrufts me (very pro- 
 perly) to make a diftinftion between the two terms; 
 and to fay: ,' A Catholic I am abjolute, a Ro- 
 man catholic ov\y fecundum quid." If the querift 
 underftand Latin and logic, he will be at no lofs 
 to comprehend my anfwer; but in cafe he fhould 
 be a mere Englifh fcholar, and for the fake of other 
 Englifh readers (if there be any) who may enter- 
 tain any doubts about my catholicity^ I will make 
 my diftinftion as clear and explicit as he or they 
 can wifh. — If by the epithet Reman be only meant, 
 holding communion with the fee of Rome, and acr 
 kftowledging the primacy of its bifliop, I am cer- 
 tainly fo far a Roman catholic: but in any other 
 fenfe or fefpefl: I am no more a, Roman, than I am 
 a French, German, or Spanijh catholic. If to the 
 appellation catholic any difcfiminating adjunftive 
 
201 
 
 Were neceffary, L would call myfelf a Britijh ca- 
 tholic; but i rather adhere to the fimple declara* 
 tion of an ancient martyr; ' Christian is my 
 name, and Catholic my furname.' " 
 
 Such replies, however, and fuch perpetual de- 
 clarations in private life, for never was there a 
 man who at all times more openly difplayed the 
 whole interior of his mind than Dr. Geddes, wefe 
 not likely to obtain, for him any great fliare of po« 
 pularity within the pale of his own church. And 
 it is equally to the credit of proteftants, and the 
 difgrace of catholics, that although his labors, as 
 he ever moft openly and honeftly avowed, were 
 originally and principally defigned for the benefit 
 of the latter, they were principally promoted by 
 the former. In anfwer, therefore, to another 
 queftion, " what encouragement he had met with 
 from the eftabliflied church, from the proteftant 
 diffenters, and from thofe of his own communion?'* 
 *' As truth," fays he, " ought never to be afliamed, 
 I will tell the truth. From the two firft denomi- 
 nations I have received more, from the laft lefSi 
 encouragement than I had reafon to expe£t. Our 
 .Saviour fays, ' A prophet is no where unhonored 
 but in his own country.' It may in like manner 
 haplpen that an interpreter be no where lefs ho- 
 nored than in his own communion. While the 
 Jews gave a favorable teftimony to the merit of 
 
202 
 
 Jerom's verfion, his Chriftian brethren (whom he 
 called his dogs) were tearing it in pieces." 
 
 This anfwer is, indeed, fully confirmed by a 
 glance at the names of the fubfcribers, introduced 
 alphabetically at the end pf the pamphlet; in which 
 liftiiis catholic friends bear no proportion to thof^ 
 of the proteftant faith. The whole number of 
 copies fubfcribed for at this time, an account of 
 which had aftually reached him, appears, from this 
 document, to h^-ve been not lefs than three hun» 
 dred and forty"three : which, confidering the heavy 
 expenfe of the entire work, and how ihort was 
 the period that had elapfed fince the publicatioa 
 of his Propofals, was fuf^cient to aiford hini every 
 hope of complete and fp^dy fuccefs. Naturally 
 fanguine, and believing, with much reafon, that 
 many other names had. been fubfcribed, of whicl^ 
 he had hitherto obtained no notice from his differ- 
 ent agents, we cannot wonder at his having preci- 
 pitated himfelf into his favorite publication, with 
 a greater degree of hafte than mere worldly pru« 
 dence woyld perhaps have didtated. " Although," 
 fays he, towards the clofe of this pamphlet, " my 
 lift of fubfcribers is not yet nearly full; yet rely« 
 ing on th^ generofity of an enUghtened Public, 
 and trufting that my work will, fooner or later, 
 meet with its approbation, I have ventured to 
 fend it to the pref§ before the time ftipulated in 
 
203 
 
 my conditions. Ten flieets of the firft volume 
 are aftually printed, and the reft fhall follow with 
 as little interruption as poflible." His objedl, moft 
 unqueftionably, was not gaip.. It, was the true 
 "defire of doing good, in the moft important fenfe 
 of the term, combi^ed with a laudable afpiration 
 after the applaufe of the wife and the worthy, with- 
 out fome portion of which few men will labor, and 
 none obtain fuccefs, " My foul, thank heaven," 
 lays he in the fame pamphlet, *' is not a mer- 
 cenary one; I expedt not exceffive profits even 
 from exceiGve exertions: I truft I ihall never want 
 meat,, and clothes, and fije: to a philofophic apd 
 contented mind what more is neGelTaryr' Few 
 -men,^ indeed, could have burft "^iritb more-Gordia- 
 lity into- the celebrated apoftrophe of the Epicu- 
 rean poet, De Rei". Nat. ii. 14. ' 
 
 O mlferas hominum menteis ! 6 pedlora cseca ! 
 Qualibus in tenebris vi(a?, quantisque periclis 
 Pegitur hocc' KvL, quedquamque eft 1 nonneviderc eft 
 Nil aliud fibi naturam latrare^, nifi ut, quoi 
 C'orpore fejundlus dolor abfit, mente fruatur 
 J'ocundo ftnfu, cuta femota, ttietuqutr} 
 
 O wretched mortals ! race perverfe and blin3 ! 
 Mid what dread dark, what perilous purfuits 
 ^pend ye yonr deftined hours ! — Know, know ye not. 
 Of aH.ye toil £Qr» nature, nothing crgwes 
 But, for this bod;;!r, fr£edam from dUearfev 
 Andtweet^ uuAnAiious q^iet for the miiid! 
 
204 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Application 'of the Englifh catholics to the legi/lature 
 for additional relief in the matter of pramunire — 
 The proteji and oath fropofed on this occajion — Con- 
 troverfy among' the hody of the catholics upon this 
 fubje&^-PaJloral J^etter of the Bi/bop of Comana — 
 Dr. Geddes replies to it-^Firfl, and fecond Encycli- 
 cal Letters of the Vicars Apojlolic — Dr. Geddes re- 
 publifhes the latter, with a continued andfarcaflic com- 
 mentary — Progrefs of the hill through both houfes of 
 parliament ^ itpaffes, and receives the royal affent — 
 ferminaiim of the controverfy ; and advantages 
 gained fq the catholic community by this additional 
 a& in their favor, . A. D. 1790 — 1791. 
 
 At this period the attention of our author was 
 alfo direfted to another and a very important fub^ 
 jed; but one in, which from his previous habits of^ 
 ftudy, and efpecially his profound knowledge of 
 popifli polemics, he was eminently qualified to 
 take an a^ive part. The ad introduced by fir 
 George, Saville in 1778, in favor pf Ropian ca- 
 tholics, noticed in a former chapter, had been pro^ 
 duftive of the happieft effefls. This, indeed, not- 
 withftanding the popular fermentation which had 
 followed it, might readily have been pre-conceived 
 
205 
 
 upon the' comnion grounds of human conduft : 
 for, as perfecutipn for religious principles ferves 
 only to render the pferfecuted more inveterate in 
 thdr-prejudices, and progreffively to alienate their 
 affedlions from the government under which they 
 fuffer; religious toleration is the moft effeflual 
 ,ftep that can be taken to generate a fpirit of patri- 
 otic love, and to enlarge and enlighten the preju- 
 diced underftanding. While the catholics of Eng- 
 land lay under the preffure of the whole fyflem of 
 the penal laws of praemunire, they remained obfti- 
 nately attached to foreign powers and the mofl 
 dangerous doftrines: they were generally Jacobites 
 and papifts in the worfl: fenfe of thefe words. But 
 in proportion as this fyflem of intolerance had be- 
 come obfolete, , and had ceafedto be afted upon 
 with feverity — and more efpecially fmce its partial 
 revocation by the Saville a£t, they began to open 
 their eyes to political truths and falfehoods, and to 
 approximate their fellow citizens in charity and li- 
 berality of fentiments.— Confcious of this change 
 in their own body, and believing that government 
 was as confcious of it as themfelves, they meditated 
 greater and more advantageous changes ffill ; and 
 aimed at giving to parliament fuch^ convincing 
 proofs of their honeft recantation or total difbelief 
 of every obnoxious doftrine, as to obtain a title 
 for being put into poffeffion of as plenary a tol«- 
 
206 
 
 ration as any ether chfs of diffenters from the na^ 
 tional church. With a view of accomplifhing this 
 important point, as well as that of procuring bifliop* 
 in ordinary, and a college at home for the edu» 
 cation of their youth, they hiad now for fome time 
 eftablilhed general annual affociations in London, 
 whence fele£l committees were periodically chofeU 
 to fuperintend their common interefts, and manage 
 ' their common concerns. ' ■ 
 
 It was in 1 787 that the Committee thus appoihted 
 appears to have entertained for the firil time the 
 idea of a fecond application to pafliamenti and hav- 
 ing communicated their views to the body at largfej 
 they applied officially to Mr. Pitt, and feveral other 
 leaders of adminiftf ation, to know whether the to- 
 leration they were fblicitous of obtaining ftiight not 
 be extended to them, upon fubfcription of a new 
 and more comprehetifive avowal of their politicai 
 fentiments, as alfo to inquire ■vl'hat kind of an 
 avowal might be deemed fatisfai^ory for this pur- 
 pofe. The refult was, that a full and eD^plicit 
 declaration of their political aftd teligious opinions 
 was fpeedily propofed,- drawn up, and figned bjr 
 the four vicars apoftoHfe and their csadjatOfgj by 
 above nine hundred of the priftci|i*i laity, and by 
 almoft all the clefgy in the kiflgdoffi, abjuring in 
 the moft folemn manner the pope's infallibility, 
 his power of depofing kings, of abfolving .from 
 
207 
 
 oaths— and evef y other do£lrine yrhich might inca- 
 pacitate them from becoming liege and cordial ci- 
 tizens of a proteftant ftate *. 
 
 * The following ia' a verbal copy of the Declaration and 
 Proteftation referred to : 
 
 " We whofe names are hereunto fubfcribed, catholics of 
 England, do freely> voluntarily, and of our own accord, make 
 the following folemn Declaration and Proteftation. 
 
 " Whereas, fentiments unfavorable to us as citizens and fub,- 
 jefts have been entertained by EngUfti proteftants, on account 
 of principles wTiich are aiTerted to be maintained by us and 
 other catholics, and which principles are dangerous to fociety, 
 and totally repugnant to political and civil liberty ; — It is a 
 duty that we, the Eiigliih catholics, owe to our country as 
 well as to ourfelves, to proteft, in a formal and folemn manner, 
 againft,da£):iines that we condemn, and that conftituteno part 
 whatever of our principles, religion, or belief. 
 
 " We are the more anxious to free ourfelves from fuch impu- 
 tations, ■ becaufe divers proteftants, who profefs themfelyes to 
 be real friends to liberty of confcience, have, neverthelefs, 
 aivowed themfelves hoftile to us, on account of certain opi- 
 nions which we are fuppofed to hold. And we do not blame 
 thofe proteftants for their hoftility, if it proceeds (as we hope 
 it does) not from an intolerant fpirit in matters of religion, 
 but from their being milinformed as to matters of fa£^. . 
 
 " If, it were true that we, the Englifli catholics, had adopted 
 the. maxims that are erroneoufly imputed to us, we acknow- 
 ledge that we (hould merit the reproach of being dangerous 
 enemies to the ftate ; but we deteft thofe inchriftian-like and 
 execrable maxims : and we feverally claim, in common with 
 men of all other' religions, as a matter of natural juftice, that 
 we, the EngUlh catholics, ought not tofuffer for or on ac- 
 6 
 
20S 
 
 AcGcjrding to the tenor of this declaration, and 
 not^ithftanding the recent difcomfiture of the pro- 
 count of any wicked or erroneous do£trines that ihay be held 
 \>Y any other catholics ; which doftrines we publicly difclaim j 
 jUly more than Britifh proteftants ought to be rendered re- 
 fponltble for any dangerous doctrines that may be held by any 
 other pioteftants, which doctrines they, theBritiih proteAantSj 
 difa,VQW. 
 
 " ift. We have been accufed of holding, as a principle of our 
 religion, that princes excommunicated by the pope and coun- 
 cil, or by authority of the fee of Rome, may be depofed or 
 murdered by their fubje£ts, or other perfons. 
 ' " But fo far is the above-mentioned unchriilian-like and abo- 
 minable polition from being a principle that we hold, that we 
 lejeft, abhor, and deleft it, and every part thereof, as execrable 
 and impious; and we do folemnty declare. That neither the 
 pope, either with or without a general council, nor any pre- 
 late, nor any prieft, nor any affembly of prelates or priefls, 
 nor any ecclefiaftjqal power whatever, can abfolve the fubje£lg 
 of this realm, or any of them, from their allegiance to his ma* 
 jefty king George the Third, who is, by authority of parlia- 
 ment, the lawful king of this realm, and of all the dominions 
 thereunto belonging. 
 
 " zd, We have alfo been accufed of holding, as a principle of 
 our religion. That implicit obedience is due from us to the or- 
 ders and decrees of popes and general councils; and that there- 
 fore, if the pope, or any general council, (hould, for the good 
 of the'church, command' us to take up arms againft govern- 
 ment, or by any means to fubvert the laws and liberties of 
 this country, or to exterminate perfons of a different perfiia- 
 fion from us, we (it is aflerted by our accufers) hold ourfelves 
 bound to obey fuch orders or decrees, on pain of eternal fire : 
 
 " Wheieas we pofuively deny, that we owe any fuch obedi« 
 
209 
 
 teftatit diflenters *, a petition was drawn up, and 
 prefented to both houfes of parliament; and upon 
 
 * As I have ftated a few pages back that the Roman catho- 
 lics did not conceive themfelves to have been ufed in a verjr 
 friendly manner by the publications of feveral of the proteftant 
 diflenters,- duYing the time of their own application to parlia- 
 ment,, it is but juft that I fhould notice the liberality of the 
 condufl of the latter upon the prefent occaiion. The catholic 
 committee fpeak of it with much gratitude in the following 
 terms : f That part of our fellow fubjefls, from whofe prepof- 
 fefTions we had moft reafon to dread oppolition to our relief, 
 were, after they had confidered our-proteft, cordially reconciled 
 to the equity of the meafure. The proteftant dilfenters fur- 
 rendered, by immediate conviftion, every ancient jealoiify and 
 fufpicion, and gave us their good withes and fupport." Blue 
 Eookc, No. III. page 8. Letter to the Catholics of England. 
 
 enceto the pope and general council, or to either of them ; and 
 we believe that no a£l that is in itfelf immoral or difiioneft 
 can ever be juHified by or under color that it is done either 
 for the good of the church, or in obedience to any eccleiiallical 
 power whatever. We acknowledge no infallibility in the 
 pope ; and we neither apprehend nor believe, that.our difobe- 
 dience to any fuch orders or decrees (Ihould any fuch be given 
 or made) could fubjeft us to any punifhment whatever. And 
 we hold and infift. That the catholic church has no power 
 that can, dire£lly or indire£tly, prejudice the rights of proteft- 
 ants, inafmuch as it is flrifliy confined to the refuling to them 
 a participation in herfacraments and other religious privileges 
 of her communion, which no church (as we conceive) can be 
 expedled to give to thofe out of her pale, and which no perfon 
 out of her pale will, we fuppofe, ever require. 
 - ? 
 
SIO 
 
 a manl'feftation by the l^giflatufe of a dlfpofition 
 to attend to tltte petition, a bill was inftantly pre- 
 
 ^f And we(}o folemnly declare. That no church, nor any pre- 
 late, npr any prieft, nor any aflembly of prelates or priefts, nor 
 any epclefiaftical power whatever, hath, have, or ought to have 
 any jurifdiftion or authority whatfoever within this realni, 
 tb^t can, direiSly or indirectly, affefl; or interfere with the in- 
 dependence, fovereignty, jaws, conftitution, or government 
 tliereof i or the rights, liberties, perfons, or properties of the 
 people of the faid realm, or of any of them, fave only and ex- 
 cept by the authority of pafliamentj and that any fuch af- 
 ■fumption of p?wer would.be an ufnrpation. 
 
 " 3d,, We have likewife been accufed of holding, as a prin- 
 ciple of our religion, That the pope, by virtue of his fpiritual 
 povjer.'Can difpenfe with tjie obligations of any compadl or 
 oath taken or catered into ,by a catholic : that therefore no 
 oath of allegiance, or other oath, can bind us ; and, confe- 
 quently, that we can give no fecurity for our allegiance to any 
 government. 
 
 " There can be no doubt but that this conclufion would be jnft, 
 if tbe original propofition upon which it is founded were true ; 
 but we pofitively deny that we do hold any fuch principle. 
 And we do folemnly declare. That neither the pope, nir any 
 prelate, nor any prieft, nor any aifembly of prelates or priafts, 
 nor any ecctefikftical power whatever, can abfolve us, or any of 
 us, from, or difpenfe with, the obligations of any compaft or 
 oath whatfoever, 
 
 " 4th, "We have alfo been accufed of holding as a principlft 
 of bur religion, that not only the pope, but even a catholic 
 prieft, has power lo pardon the fins of catholics at his will and 
 pleafure ; and therefore, that no catholic can poffibly give any 
 fecurfty for his aflegiance to any government, inafmuch as the 
 pope, or a prieft, can pardon perjury, rebellion, and high- 
 treafon. 
 
2J1 
 
 pared, ^pid a new oath grounded upon the prin- 
 ciples of the proteft was introduced into it, to be 
 taken by all thofe catholics, or, as they were de- 
 
 " W&aGkHowledge alfo the juftnafs of tliis conclufion, if the 
 propogtioa upon which it is <fbunded were not . totally falfe. 
 But we do folemnly declare, That, on the contrary, we believ« 
 that no fin whatever can be forgiven at the will of any pope, or 
 of any prieft, or of any perfon whomfoever ; but that a fincere 
 forrow for paft fin, a firm refolution to avoid future guilt, and 
 "tvery poffiHe atonement to God and the injured neighbour, 
 are the previous and indifpenfable requifites to eftablifli a wsU- 
 found'ed expeftation of forgivenefe, . 
 
 " jth. And we have alfo been accufed of holding as a prin- 
 iciple of our religion, That ' no faith is to be kept with here- 
 tics s' fo that no government which is not catholic can have 
 any fecuriliy from us for our allegiance and peaceable beha-- 
 viour, 
 
 " This do&rine, that ' faith is not to be kept with here- 
 tics,' we rejeft, reprobate, and abhor, as being contrary to re- 
 ligion, morality, and common honefty : — and we do hold and 
 folemnly declare. That no breach of faith with any .perfon 
 whomfoever can be juftified by reafon of or under pretence 
 that fuch perfon is an heretic or an infidel. 
 
 " And we further folemnly declare. That we do make this 
 DeeUratjoq and ProtCiftation, and every part tbeKeof, in the 
 plain and ordinary fenfe of the words^ of the fame, without 
 any evafion, equivocation, or mental refervatioxi whatfoever. 
 
 *' And we appeal to the jufi;ice and candor of our fellow- 
 ci'tixens', whether we, the Englifti cathoUcs, who thus folemiiiy 
 (Jifcl^im, and fcom our hearts abhor, the above-mentioned 
 abpminable and unchrifi:iai).-like principles, ought to be put 
 upon .a Jevel with any other men whp may hold, and prof«fs 
 thofe principles ?" 
 
212 
 
 ndininated in the bill, protefting cathofic diflenter^, 
 ■who fhould be entitled to the additional indulgence 
 hereby to be fecured to them *. 
 
 * The following is a copy of the Oath, *bieh like that of 
 the Proteft I have inferted at length, as well for aeomparifon 
 with each other, as to give •feme official ftatement of the real 
 principles of the generality of EngUih catholics in the prefent 
 day : 
 
 " I A. B. do finccrely promife and fwear. That I will be 
 faithful and bear true allegiance to his tnajefly king George 
 the Third,' and him will defend to the utmoft of my power 
 againft all confpiracies and attempts whatfoever that ihall be 
 made againfl his peirfon, crown, or fiignity, and I will do my 
 utmoft endeavour to difclofe and make known to his majefty, 
 his heirs and fuccelTors, all treafons and traitorous confpira- 
 cies which may be formed againfl: him or them ; and I do 
 faithfully promife to maintain, fupport and defend, to the 
 utmoft of my power, againft any perfoii or perfons whom- 
 foever, the fuccellion of the crown in the family of his tnajefly f,, 
 
 f " I think the vi^ords fcored under too large and unqualified. In the 
 6th of Anne, chap. 7. fe£t. 20. the oath appointed to be taken after 
 the queen's death was to maintain the fuccefiion of the crown as it 
 ' flood limited by the i ith and 12th William III. ch. 2. to the princeff 
 Sophia, eleilrefs and duchefs dowager of Hanover, and the heirs of 
 her body, being proteftants. Here too, in like manner, I recom- 
 mend a reference to the fame aft for fettlement of the crown. F. H. 
 "In the fame aft of queen Anne the oath fo prefcribed is with a 
 blank, for the name of the king or queen on the throne for the time 
 being, and the oath is foUewed with a claufe, direfting how the 
 blank is to be filled up from time to time. This appears to me a 
 more correft and complete mode of framing and adjufling the oath 
 than is Iwre adopted ; becaufe it provided for Adapting the language 
 of the oath according to the time prefent, and fo renders a future 
 aft for altering the oath, on the acceflion of every princ^ unnecelfary, 
 
 F. H." 
 
213 
 
 The Englifh catholic community, which is di- 
 vided, into four diflrifts inftead of diocefes, the 
 London, or, as it is fometimes called, the fouthern^, 
 the middle, the northern, and the weftern, had at 
 this time for their four official prelates, or. vicars 
 
 aga'mft any other perfon claiming or pretending a right 
 to the crown of thefe realms : And I do fwear that I do re- 
 j.e6l and deleft, as an unchriftian and impious polition, that it is 
 lawful to murder or deftroy any perfon or perfons whatfo- 
 ever, for or under pretence of their being heretics : and alfo 
 that unchriftian and impious principle, that no faith is to be 
 fe&pt with heretics. I further declare. That it is no article of 
 my faith, and that I do renounce, rejedl, and abjure the opi- 
 nion, that princes excommunicated by the pope and council, 
 or by any authority of the fee of Rome, or by any authority 
 whatfoever, may be depofed or murdered by their fubjefts, or 
 any perfon whatfoever : And I do declare that I do not be- 
 lieve that the pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, pre- 
 late, ftate, or potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal 
 or civil jurifdi£lion, power, fiiperiority, or- pre-eminence, di- 
 r^ftly or indireflly, within this realm. • And I do folemnlyj 
 in the prefence of God, profefs, teftify, and declare., that [ 
 do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain 
 and ordinary fenfe of the words of this oath, without any 
 evafion, equivocation, or mental refervation whatfoever, and 
 without any difpenfation already granted by the pope, or any 
 authority of the fee of Rome, or any perfon whatever, and 
 without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or 
 man, or abfolved of this declaration, or arty part thereof, al- 
 though the pope, or any perfon, or authority whatfoeVer, ftiall 
 difpenfe with- or annul the fame, or declare that it was null 
 •r void." 
 
2T4 
 
 apoftolic, James Talbot, fupenntendant of thefifft, 
 "fhoirias Taltot of the* fecond, Matthew GMoff 6f 
 the third, and Charles Walmfley of the fourth: tnd 
 as in almoft every heretical country, excepting Ire- 
 land, which ftill' retains a regular and independent 
 hierarchy, the old prelatic titles have bee]ij drop- 
 ped, and new ones adopted in their ftead, takei^ 
 from the unconverted regions of Africa 6r Afia, 
 where hopes are entertained that churches ttiay 
 hereafter be formed— the firft of thefe vicars 
 apoftolic was dignified, by the papal chair, with 
 that of bifhop of Birtha ; the fecond, of Acone ; 
 the third, of Comana; and the fourth, of Rama. 
 Wheii the bill was drawn up, and the oath in- 
 troduced into it by an eminent lawyer, I believe 
 Mr. Sutler of Lincoln's Inn, it was not deemed ne- 
 cefTary by the committee to whom the whole was 
 fubmitted, that it ftiould be communicated indlvidu* 
 ally to eath of thefe prelates. The oath -Was founded 
 tipon the principles of the proteft which had 
 been fujjfcribed by all of them ; and the chief object 
 of its framer appears to have been, in order to avoid 
 every fhadoW of oppofition, to make the verbiage 
 of the oath lefs ftrong than that of the proteft, 
 which the reader, by a careful comparifon, will 
 find he has aftually accompliflied. In feveral in- 
 ftances, and upon its fubmiffion to the committee^ ' 
 it received the full and deliberate approbation of* 
 6 
 
; 21:5 
 
 one of' thefe prelates, biftiop Jailaes- Talbot, who 
 ^yas pf efent; as well, as of bifliop Qharles Bering. 
 ton, (a prelate unapipomted to the care of an Eiig^ 
 lifh diftrift;) and of Dr. Jofeph Wilks*. 
 
 ' . ' " ' ^ - . 
 
 * Iii'ftrift chronology the original bill was drawn up even 
 prior to the proteflatioii, which T^as compiled in confcquence 
 of the advice of a very warm and zealous parliamentary friend ; 
 and in l!he firfl: draft of the fcill there was no fuch dbjec. 
 tionable appellation as tha.t ai proiejing caibalic dtjfenters m- 
 troduced, nor was the oath in any refpeft diiferept frorn thaj: 
 of the ftatute of 1 8th G.eo. III., The advantage of.the.pro- 
 teftation to the catholic caufe foen became highly obvious; and 
 the friend who propofed the prolefl now ^jroptifed alfo, that 
 inftead of the oath of i8th<5eo. III. the committte fhould 
 ihtroduce a new one founded on the verbiage of the , d«clara- 
 tios.and.prot^'ation. The bufinefs preffed; and the vicar 
 of the London diilrift-declaredhimfelf competent to ]. renounce 
 Vppn it. The three clergymen wlio acceded to it, in the name 
 of the body at large,, had been chofen by ballot, and added to 
 ' the ecfmnaittee'at a. general meeting convened on May 15, lySS. 
 Being thus incorporated into the committee, thefe three gen- 
 tlemen, bifhop James Talbot, biftiop Charles Berington, and 
 Dr. jofeph Wilks, attended its maetings regularly 3 approved, 
 as I have already obferved, of the differen]; alterations in the bill, 
 and more (particularly of the newly fuggefted oath, as it was 
 occafional'ly varied by the perfon whi>fe office it Vifas to pre- 
 pare t'he public afts of parliament j and when, on November 
 19, the -whole was completed, gave it their entiiie ianflion i 
 and fo fcrupulous' was bifeop Talbot upon the fubjeft, that he 
 requeued to examine it at home. Where he kept it for two d^y« ; 
 dti^larlng, wbeii he returned it, that hefaw pothingjn jt con* 
 frary to faith or goo^ morals — nothing in the o^ih ^t 8, catfeq* 
 
216 
 
 The pride of Walmfley and Gibfon, of whom the 
 former was a Benediftine monk, and the latter had 
 received a bigoted education in the papal college of 
 Douay, was neverthelefs violently inflamed by the 
 condudt of the committee, in not confulting them 
 upon tliis individual point; and they refolved to 
 Gonfider it as a neglefl: altogether intentional, and 
 derogatory to their epifcopal charadter. This being 
 determined upon, the next thing was to find fault 
 with the oath itfelf; and to perfuade all the Jaco- 
 binical and inflammatory monks and friairs in the 
 kingdom, and who had from the firfl: oppofed the 
 whole attempt, 'to unite in their meditated oppo- 
 fition. The trumpet of zealotifm was founded; 
 the alarm became general in every quarter. They 
 fucceeded wonderfully in both refpefts: bifhbp 
 James Talbot, who was at this time laboring un- 
 der a dangerous difeafe, which deftroyed him a 
 
 lie might not fafely take. Upon this fubjeft the committee 
 contended that the original draft alone was the bill of their 
 own body. " Whatever deviations or alterations appear to 
 have been made from this, none of them were devifed, or even 
 thought of, by the committee. All originated with others, and 
 were received by us, not by choice, but neceffity. Againft 
 many of them we have ftriven with the greateft earneftnefs 
 and anxiety J and if we have atlaft acquiefcedin them, it has 
 been from a thorough conviftion that all our hopes of relief 
 depended upon our acquiefcehce.'' Letter to the Right Rev. 
 John, fiifhop of Centuria. Blue Books, No. II. p. 2. 
 8 
 
217 
 
 few days afterwards, was perfuaded to retrafl: his 
 approbation, and to join in an encyclical letter of 
 condemnation. The path was objected to gener 
 rally, yet not fpecifically; but the claufe in which 
 the epithet heretical is applied to the doftrine, that 
 kings excommunicated by the pope may be de- 
 pofed by their fubjefts, feems to have been pecu- 
 liarly obnoxious; concerning which the objeftors 
 declared, with equal ignorance of all the principles 
 of logic, and of their own ecclefiaftical hiftory, that 
 while they were ready to denominate the doftrine 
 falfe^ feditious, traitorous, and damnahk, they could 
 not call it heretical, as it had never been defined to 
 be herefy by the church of Rome*. 
 
 *" With refpeift to its being heretical (the doftrine here ad- 
 yerted to) we beg to call your attention to the diftinAion in 
 the fchools between a material and a formal herefy. A doftrine 
 contftry to the word of God, if it have not been ex{)refsly con- 
 demned as fuch by the authority of the church, is faid to be 
 materially heretical .^When it has' been exprefsly condemned 
 as fuch by authority of the church,' it is faid to be formally 
 heretical. — In the oath of allegiante, prefcribed by the ftatute 
 of James the Firft, is the following claufe : ' And I do further 
 fwear, that I do from njy heart abhor, deteft, and abjure, as 
 impious and heretical, this damnable doflrine and polition— 
 That princes which be excommunicated, or deprived by the 
 pope, may be depofed or murdered by their fubjefts, or any 
 other whatfoever.' Pope Paul the Fifth by three briefs repro- 
 bated this oath. The divine? of the univerfity of Paris being 
 confulted upon it, fifty-nine of them were of opinion that the 
 catholics of Engl md might take it with a fafe confcience, with- 
 out renouncing their faith : ' The ptopofition, fo far as it af- 
 
218 
 
 '■Iitthis difpute, a taail of the irritable feelings bf 
 Dr. GeddeS could riot afvoid taking a part; arid 
 llie kilowlt^^ which the reader muft already have 
 acquired of the liberality of his principles and the 
 independence of his mind, will inftantaneoufly 
 
 ferts that princes may be depofcd, being materially, that is, in 
 fubftance, heretical ; and fo .far as it aflerts that they m^ be 
 murdertd; being /orOT/7//>', that is, expfefsly pronounced by the 
 church, heretical.' See Dr. Hooke's Religionls Naturalis et 
 Revelatae Principia, Tol.iii. p. 581. — In the oath propofed to 
 the catholics of Ireland, in 1775, th'e third article runs as fol- 
 lows : ' J further profefs that it is no part of my belief, nay, 
 that I rejeft the opinion, that princes excommunicated by the 
 pope, or by the pope and council, or by any authority of the 
 fee of Rome, or by any-anthority whatfoever, may be depofed 
 or put to death by their fubjedSjOr by any other perfon what- 
 foever ; and therefore I promife that I will not hold, maintaioa 
 or countenance that, or any other opinion contrary to the 
 words' of this detdaration.' The Sorbonne, being confulteJ 
 upon,, this oath, gave th^ir opinion, dated 6th Nov. i775» 
 fjgned by all the do(ftors.i Upon the article in queflion they 
 thus esprefs themfelve* : 
 
 " ' Do£^ina aurem de csede & depofitione principum, nc' 
 quaquam probabilibus fententiis annumeranda eft: cum in 
 duplex vitium incurrat : ut nempe Gt hxretica materialiteTf 
 id eft, verbo Dei contraria,- quatenus deponi pofle principem ef- 
 fert j formaliter vero etlaro, quatenus et occidi pofle fiiperaddit.' 
 
 " ' But the king-killing and depofing doflrine is not to be 
 clafled among opinions merely probable. Upon two accounts 
 it is ba.d. — It is materially heretical, i. e. contrary to the 'wgjr4 
 ef God, fo far as it aflerts ;the lawfulriefs of depofing princes: 
 it is mpxioser forpially heretical, fo far as it fpperadds the law- 
 fulnefs of putting them to death.'" Blue Books, No. I. p. 7. 
 
219 
 
 pbhif 'bQt to him the fide h6 wotild neceffarily er- 
 pOufe. He wrote two partiplilets upon the occafion, 
 of which each was printed anonymoufly, as ^ere 
 ftiany others publifhed at that time by different 
 aiuthors, oh both fides of the controverfy. ft was 
 alfo generally believed, that he took a part in three 
 other pamphlets, which contained addreifes both to 
 the bifhops and to the catholic community at large; 
 and tvhich, from their having been bound in blue 
 Cov^i'S, were known at the Vatican by the name 
 of The Blue Books: but I have been fully informed, 
 as well by the doftot himfelf, as by one of the ac- 
 tual authors, that with thefe trafts he had ilo con- 
 cern Vi^hateVer: their merit, neverthelefs, is well 
 kno\<rn to have been great, and their fame to have 
 heen in proportion*. The firft was figned by feven 
 of the fcommittee, bilhop Charles Berington, Dr. 
 Jofeph Wilks, the late lord Petre, John Throck- 
 morton (now fir John ThrOckmortojl baronet), 
 William Fermor, John Townely, aiid Thom^ 
 Hotnyold, efquires ; and the two fucceeding by the 
 fame, together with three additional members, lord 
 StourtOn, fir H. C- Englefleld, and Mr. Lawfon. 
 The firft' of the two pamphlets, which I have af* 
 certained to have been the produftion of Dr. Ged- 
 des, is entitled " An Anfwer to the Blfhsp of Co- 
 mana's Paftoral ^Letter, by a protefting Cathdlic." 
 
 * They were- the joint produftion of the rev. Dr. Jofeph 
 Wilks of Bath, and Charles Butler, efq. of Lincoln's-Inn, 
 
220 
 
 It was publiflied by Faulder, and dated 1790. The 
 paftoral letter referred to had been addreffed to all 
 the clergy fecular and regular, and to all the faith- 
 ful ofthe northern diftria, being the diftrift, as I 
 have already obferved, to which the bifliop of Co- 
 mana had been appointed by the Roman pontiff. 
 This anfwer is a farcaftic comment upon the letter, 
 which is introduced into the fame pamphlet, and 
 runs in larger charafters at the head of every page. 
 The bifhop's objeft in this letter was to reprefent 
 the oath as *' impenetrably obfcure, and impervi- 
 ous to the piercing eyes of the keeneft theology;" 
 and as deviating from all the laudable marks by 
 which an oath fhould be diftinguifhedj " which," 
 continues his lordfhip,"its obligation being moft aw- 
 ful, ought to be, in the firft place, clear; fecondly, 
 true; axidthirdly,necejary." He alfo, in thefevereft 
 terms, reprehends the new appellation oiprotejiing 
 catholic dijfenters, by which the fupporters ofthe bill 
 had confented to be denominated; afferting, in con- 
 jundion with another writer on the fame fide, that 
 the term catholic dijfenters " is, in the univerfal lan- 
 guage and judgment of the catholic church, in all 
 paft agf s, as great a folecifm, as complete nojifenfe, 
 as Chriftian Turks, or catholic infidels :" and adds, 
 that the unanimous condemnation of the oath by 
 the four vicars apoftolic in England had perfedly 
 accorded with the declared fentiments of a number 
 of foreign prelates and ecclefiaftics, and among the 
 
2^1 
 
 feft, of his eminence cardinal B — n C gni*, 
 
 *' who," continues the addreffer, " is much at-; 
 tached to this nation, and completely converfant in 
 the Englilh language." 
 
 It muft be confeffed, that in this letter there is 
 little argument or folid ground of oppofition. 
 Where thefe occur, Dr. Geddes, in his anfvcer, 
 prefles them, and very fuccefsfully, with fimilar 
 arms: but having feldom'an opportunity of engag- 
 ing in clofe combat, he plies his antagonift more ge- 
 nerally with the lighter artillery of wit and fatire. 
 Thefe weapons are, for themoft part handled with 
 dexterity; thoUgh I think in fome inftances they 
 Ihoot rather too low, and difcover fome portion of 
 our author's conftitutional irritability. There is alfoy 
 if I miftake not, in the anfwer, too large an abun^ 
 dance of fpecial pleading or mere verbal logic. Yet 
 occafionally even this latter mode of attack is em- 
 ployed with good effefl:, and efpecially in defending 
 the appellation oiprotefting catholic dijfenters. '" We 
 do not 'plume' ourlelves upon the appellation 
 of protefting catholic dijfenters -, but we are not 
 alhamed of it. We are catholics; — we protest 
 againft odious doctrines imputed to catholics., 
 and (we I are forry to fee; 5 it) ftill patrbni;ied by 
 fome catholics. We are dissenters, becaufe 
 we diffent in religion from the national church. — 
 
 Jf all this, my lord, be not clear to your intelled, 
 * Buon Campagni, as I fnppofe. 
 
222 
 
 ITmceFely pity your lordfliip's inteHe£l. If we %re 
 found to have prstefied againft any article of ca- 
 tholic faith, or maxim of gofpel-morality, we will 
 immediately exclude thefe from the fubjeiS of our 
 proteftation. — ' TThe pesiod is probaibly at fame 
 <iSftance,'— '.' But it is aiked {/ay ycu\ Are we not 
 diffenters from the church of England in certain 
 points of faith? — Anf. Moft certainly ' not!' This is 
 aftrangeanfwer, my lord; one of tbofe imexpefted 
 ■anfwers, that confound one with aflonifhment. It 
 is a fort of logical paradox, which the bi^k of 
 miankind will hardly be able to comprehend, even 
 with your lordfhip's illuftrations. Is it really true, 
 then, my lord, tliat we do not, in fpme points of 
 faith, diffeni from the church, of England I Is it 
 true that we believe all that is contained in the 
 thirty -nine articles of the national creed ? If this be 
 not true, ' as moft certainly ' it is not, then we 
 muft neceffarily be dijmters^ in forae points, from 
 the church of England, 
 
 " But ' no,' fays your lordihip ; ' we • are not 
 diffenters from the church of England in the ^ceh- 
 Jiaftieal force t)f the word, which here ought to he 
 our rulej- — although I muft confefe that I cannot 
 for my foul comprehend the force or meaning of 
 this curious propofition, ' the ecclefiaftical/ar« of 
 the word is to be our rule.' I will fuppofe that you 
 probably intended to fey, that in religioifs matters 
 we are never ta ufe a term wkifh has mt been ufed 
 
223 
 
 before ^by ecclefiaftkal writers in the famefenje. If 
 fo, you would eftablifh an inquifition more tyran- 
 nifcal and arbitrary than that of Spain or Portugal 1 
 Should ybU or I, my lord, urged to embrace the 
 eftablifhed religion, write a treatife to fhew, that, 
 as cathoHcSj we cannot do it, becaiife there are 
 points of doftrine in thf eftabliflied religion to 
 which, as catholics, -wq' cannot affent ; would we 
 for that ceafe to be catholics ? But not to affent, my 
 lord, is, both in ecclefiafiical and civil language, 
 perfeftly equipollent to diffent. DiJJent, then, and 
 all its derivatives, may be lawfully ufed even ia 
 matters purely religious and ecclefiaftical. 
 
 " But the matter now before us is not a reli- 
 gious matte]*, as I faid before ; but in as far as it is 
 connefted with an oath which difclaims falfely im- 
 puted religious principles, it is a matter of policy 
 and law ; and, if the terms mull not be taken in 
 the language of common fenfe, in the language dF 
 the law they mufl be taken. 
 
 " To this expedient it feems your lordfliip 
 ■yould drive us : for you will not allow us to be 
 even grammatically dijSenters ! Your proof is truly 
 admirable: ' Error is defined a deviation or diffent 
 from the ftandard of truth.' Granted, my 'lord j 
 but every diffent is not an error, /widely difiia 
 from your hrdfhip in the prefent contrftverfy; yet 
 I truil I have not ' deviated' from the '^ ftandard of 
 truth ;' unlefs your lordfhip be that ftandard! 
 
224 
 
 " It was not error, my lord, that you had to 
 3efine, it was dijent : and of that, you have given 
 no definition at all. I will do it for you. To 
 dijfenty my lord, is to dif agree in opinion ; dijfent is 
 a dijagreement in opinion^ and dijfenter is one who 
 4ijagrees in opinion with another : and a catholic 
 dijfenter is a catholic who difagrees in opinion 
 with thofe of the eftabliflied religion. This, my 
 lord, is all tliat a grammarian can ever make out 
 of the word dijfent. 
 
 " But your lordfliip feems to defpife grammar, 
 even when you appeal to it. Your definition of 
 error is manifeftly erroneous. Error may be a di- 
 viaticn, but cannot be a dijfent^ from the flandard 
 of truth. "We do not dijjent from a ftandard, my 
 lord ; we dejert it : and you may with , equal pro- 
 priety fay to dijfent fi-om a may-pole as to dijfent from 
 a Jlandard. — Your continuation is all of a piece, 
 my lord : qualis ab incepto. ' Error prefuppofes 
 the exiflence of truth ; of courfe a church founded 
 on the fandy bafis of error is to be ftyled the \a\ 
 diffenting church.' Therefore, the EngUfli catho- 
 lics, who dijfent from the errors of the church of 
 England, cannot grammatically be ftyled catholic 
 dijjenters I No where, my lord, do we ftyle our- 
 felves the dijfenting church ; nor even a diffenting 
 church. We confider ourfelves as a fmall, a very 
 fmall portion of ihe.one true catholic churchy dijfent- 
 
225 
 
 ing from (i. e. difagreeing in fome religious points 
 with) tlie greater number of our fallow citizens; 
 who, as we think, have ereffced the ' ftandard of 
 error.' Can we be blamed for this,, my lord ? — 
 ' It revolts common ;fenfe to admit that (ruth can 
 be at the fanie time prior and pofterior to itfelf.' 
 It does fo, my lord, but . it is equally revolting to 
 common fenfe to infer, from this, that an orthodoti 
 catholic may not diffent from a heterodox church. 
 The whole of your lordfhip's paragraph is fuCh a 
 flagrant paralogifm, as cries for logical vengeance. 
 Nor is your champion, my lord, a much better 
 reafoner. Chriftim infidHs would, undoubtedly 
 ' be a folecifm :' but why fhould Chrijiian Turks 
 be one, any more than Chrijimn- Tartars, or Chri- 
 jiian Armenians, or Chrijiian En'glijhmen ? Do we 
 not daily pray for their convferiion? And in the- 
 fuppofition that but a few of them were converted, 
 could not that few call themfelves dtffenters from 
 the ellablifhed religion, of Turkey? Nay, my lord, 
 were not, the> firfl chriftians themfelves dijjenters 
 froin the eftablifhed idolatrous religion of the whole 
 Roman empire ? An^d do not our beft apologifls 
 give their realbiis for that dijfent ?" 
 
 The do£tor might have added, that the term 
 was not of their own creation. It was adopted 
 by government to avoid the did and more odious 
 ,a;ppellation of popilh tecufants, by which alone 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 they had been hitherto chafaOieriked by tH* le- 
 giflature. Had it, HtvPistier, beeil farced updtl 
 thetn, as there vi^aS ilo intrinfit evil in the phrafe 
 blbgy, and they \(^ere ftill at liberty tb explain 
 it as they chofe; it mttft have mahifefted the 
 height of foHy tO' have refiafed a fttlid bfeffing^ 
 becaufe atcompailied with an itnlpalatable but 
 empty fotod— ^e?^' f/ ftietetta tdhti. Yet the 
 term Wa^ nbt, I confefs, logically correfl: ; fince 
 conftititdrtg a part of an dder cbnttiluftion than 
 th^e eftabllfltedochurth of England, tK«y cottld 
 not ftriaiy fp'eaking be faid to dtffent, howeVet 
 they might differ, from that wlrich wa« created po^ 
 fterior to th'eir own exiftefice. 
 
 " Ye have ah unqti'efti,dnaMe right, Tof lord, 
 you atidybUr venerable brethren, to dieclareyour 
 fentiments bntMs or any Other oath tK&t may'ljer 
 prbpofed. It is tibt of this' that we comolain. I M 
 hot here even examine, -Cdifethtr tire fentiments ye 
 have lately given be ' iitijia*tial and unprejttdicedf,' 
 or the ebrtirrafy ; but We Cbmplain, aftd cotnplaitt 
 with juftice, that ye have afted the pait of judges 
 who condemn a man ttdthotrt hieJiria;g, without 
 conviftion, and without evetl l^ecifying his crime; 
 an omiffion, my lord. Which no English tribu- 
 nal but YOURS would" be grlilty of. No wonder j 
 then, if the committee feelingly ' regretted that 
 none of thofe perfotts whb jiad beeti concernied 
 
227 
 
 in- promoting an,4 conducing the bufin,efe were 
 called in to explain their fentiments.' Thofe 
 feelings, my lord, the comw^ittee have expreffed 
 in X^^ns, mwh more igq^erate th9.n your |ovdf 
 jfhig's (j^nduf^: ^eferved. f t^f f9l?JiRittee is com- 
 pofed of fefgeft;abie;i,in.t^lligjpntj ^d learned per*- 
 fqiifiges, chofen at ^ gen^r^aJ Hieeting of iEnglifli 
 eathqj^s to ajft for the w^Q^^ body. Two bi^qpp 
 and a prj^ are of the number, Npthing could 
 jB^Eceed the harmony ^nd y,ngmmity that prevailed 
 among thenj. Nothing was dpii^ with precipitct- 
 tipti, Biftiop .Jarrie^ Tajbot, wif>' at f^rft njade 
 Sip^e Qbjeftjons to the form, not t^iei^^tter^ of 
 the Qfkthj wai§ requefted to confider it at leifure. 
 *l5e returned ^t the epd of two days, and de- 
 etefid that he.fousd m^t^^S^ in it which a ji^tb?^ 
 lic:might not fwear tP- How he wag aftefwar^ 
 'iffidMQed to change his opinion you beft k^^y^ 
 i\it I feaiow, and the public (bopld IpVJW, that f^t 
 the period of ypur j»eetij}g, bifliop James TaJhQt 
 wis ©ot in a proper condi^qn to do ^y fort gf 
 bufinefs eit^^r fpiritual or temporal. At this niq- 
 m^t the good man i^, perhaps, no more ^ but it 
 was mpfl: cruel in yoy, my It^^d, tb take radv^ii- 
 tage of his t|jer( fituation, to make him %n tlje 
 condemnation of an oath, c^hich in 'liis fu|l 
 . fe^^fes :h^ h^4 approved ! — ^Were I a: T^j^^pT, my 
 
2^8 
 
 lord, I could not help refeii ting fo great an: in- 
 jury done to the meanefl of the nartie ! 
 
 " But, fuppofing that B. J. T. had relinquifh- 
 ed his own opinion, and adopted' yours, in the 
 full poffeffion of his memory and judgment ; and 
 that, in the mofl healthful ftate of mind and 
 body, he had agreed with .you in deciding agairtfl 
 the oath, and figning its condemnation ; ftill, my 
 lord, your condufl: • would be unjuftifiable, and 
 your fentence nugatory, for want of forma- 
 lity, and for want of qualification." 
 
 Our author, as the reader will readily perceive, 
 was not of a timid difpofition : the condu£l and 
 bpinions of individual prelates, though of his own 
 community, were to him but the conduft and- 
 opinions of individual men ; and, as he tells Uis 
 in another place. He was not afraid of grapplmg 
 in the caufe of truth, either with prelates or with 
 popes. In the following .paflage there is a dif- 
 tinftion which the doctor was always urgent to 
 bring forwards, and which cannot be too forcibly - 
 imprefled upon the minds of proteftants. 
 
 "' The enlightened and well principled catho- 
 lic," you'r lordfliip obferves, " remains unlhaken 
 'and'unfedu'ced." Certainly, my lord. But who is 
 the enlightened arid well-principled catholic .<' This 
 is yet to be demoriflrated.*^ The catholic reli- 
 
229 
 
 gion not only permits its children to be dutiful 
 fubjeds, but e^^prefsly' commands them to be 
 fuch: biit.not fo, my lord, the popish religion. 
 Thefe two ought never to be confounded. The 
 former is a moft amiable matron, who inculcates 
 nothing on the minds . of her childsen but the 
 peaceful maxims of the gofpel ; the latter is an 
 ambitious termagant, who has often encouraged 
 her children to dommit almoft every fort of crime. 
 It was the popish, not the qatholic religion, 
 my lord, which (not to go out of our own coun- 
 try, nor back to a remote period) couid in 1537 
 excite 20,000 men, under the conduft of a nionk, 
 to rife in, rebellion againfh Henry VIII. in confe- 
 quence of his fub]e£ts having been freed from their 
 oaths of allegiance by a bull of Paul III. It was 
 the fame popish religion that, in 1539, attempted 
 to depofe the fame king, and place on his throne 
 the dean of Exeter*. It was this' religion that 
 fent Radulpho into England in 1568, for the vile 
 purpofe of corrupting the loyalty of the jEnglifh 
 catholics, and to pave the way for the famous 
 bull of Pius V. which deprived queen Elizabeth 
 of her title, dominion, dignity, and privileges ; 
 and forbade all her fubjefts, under pain of ana- 
 thema, to obey her! It' was this religion that, 
 the very next year, . again erected theftandard of 
 
 * Afterwards cardinal, Pole. 
 
^§0 
 
 feditioh ima^r the earls of Nbrth'uinMrMia iM 
 Weftmorelahd ; and thieir want of fuccefs, the 
 Popifh Surrius thinks, might have been owing 
 to this, ibat the papal denakdaiidn had Mt behi 
 fufficiently made knowH to all the ca-f belies *. It waS 
 this reHgion that, in 15^0, f«llt Pairfoiife and Cam- 
 pian into England, with iiife qualified bull of 
 Gregory XlII. which, in the hands of thofe two 
 artful rhfen, was deemed a furer ihean of raiflng a 
 fuccefeful rebellion, thaii the more violent one cK 
 his pfedeceflbr. It was this religion th^, in 1588, 
 fent the Spanifh armada to invade England, 
 fraught with a powerful army, plenty of money, 
 and treafures of indulgences, for the purpofe of 
 dethroiiing a queen, againft whom Sixtus V. had 
 confirmed all the cenfures of Pills and Gregory ; 
 and grahted a full pardfan" to all who fhould em- 
 bark in thfe holy enterprize! Inlhort, iftf lord, 
 I make no hefitafioh to affirm that the polish 
 (not the catholic) reUgion has beeft, faiedl- 
 ately or immediately, the caufe of almcrfl all the 
 political dffturbances in Europe, fince the days 
 of Gregory VII. Xt is againft this religion, niy 
 Idrdj that we catholic riissEN'tERs proteft ; 
 
 * Non illos h^Kuer'e fucceflus conatus illorum ndbilium, 
 fortaFTiii qudd cathblicis oninibas ea denunciatio afecdum inn6- 
 tuiffet. 
 
231 
 
 '^nd -Wkpfe iiiterefts ye 'V1(?ar5 ,^p,psTpL].c ap- 
 paar tojbe contendijig ,^ !" 
 
 The paffage of the paftoral letter here referred 
 to, ought -to be -quoted, be)?a,ufe it AyjU at once 
 prove, the propriety of the diftinftion between ,th? 
 ^athplic a|id popifti r.e.%i0n as {pji . ftatedj and 
 -indeUbly fl;aijip his lordflup's meniory with the 
 worll charaderillics of the.ktter. 
 
 ■" Tfie whole mikm -XaJb ^.lo;^^ jbften witnefs, 
 orar jjLveter ate eneinies,lp,ay£, long been unwilling 
 witueffes ;to our unifpr^ jand- exemplary difcharge 
 pf every civil and fqci^l duty; peaceable com- 
 portment tpijie^J^s ©uf fijllow fiibjefts .6f . all dgno- 
 jninations ; prompt obedience to the civil kjvs 
 of our country; .fiifemiflion to temporal govern- 
 mentjUnaba-tedby tlSfi-Wirelentii^g rigour of cruel 
 and jsppreffive llatutes. Every fpecies of temp- 
 tation rhath b.e,enf held ,o^it to fhake our .principles, n 
 and feduce ; us,from • the :fai:rftd .paths ,of duty. A 
 .papal dilpenfation, ;a fingle ,a£t of mental rgferya- 
 ,tion, .ormerUorigtis .kind qf perjury, wQijld-h^ye 
 ^Ut, a .fiflal period to our jniTeries ; opened |he 
 javenuesrto^place^ of public trull and authority j 
 unfolded .1^6 .gates to •.honours, .emoluments, and 
 preferments. The enlightened .q,fid w-eU-principled 
 .CATHOiic Bewaips unihaken and ,u»feduced,; 
 chopfiflfg rather;to fit quietly under-.his own yine 
 ■or iws, Qwp4g-ttee, :than by offering lYoleiiqe 
 
2S2 
 
 to his confcience, 'wield the /word of magif- 
 tracy, (and) rife to the higheft rank or moft ele- 
 vated ftation." 
 
 Here we find a prieft, a prelate, a vicar apof- 
 tolic, prefiding over a diftrifl: of England, flill 
 inculcating to his inferior clergy and- his flock 
 the antiquated doftrines of fafal dijpenfations, of 
 mental refervatic'ns, of MEKiTOKiovs perjuries ! ! 
 a man who had aftually figned the protefl which 
 declares, in the plain and bbvious meaning of the 
 words themfelves, that, the entire principle upon 
 which the whole 'of thefe doctrines are founded 
 was falfe, unchrifiian-like, ahofninable, execrable, 
 and impidus, though he would not add, or rather 
 he would not fwear, it was heretical.. 
 
 Bifliop Gibfon mull furely have' been a moft 
 fturdy papift in the ftridtell fenfe of the term : 
 the zealous precepts he had imbibed, at the col- 
 lege at Douay, which is I believe entirely depen- 
 dent upon the Roman fee, had not been incul- 
 cated in vain : and it is difficult to conceive upon 
 what grounds he could poffibly have induced him- 
 felf to fign the proteft, excepting upon thofe very 
 grounds of pa;fial difpenfation, mental refervation, 
 and meritorious perjury, which he here covertly juf- , 
 tifies, and which in the proteft he had fubfcribed he 
 pledges himfelf to haye abjured by his hope? of 
 eternal' falvation. Unqueftionably. fuch a man, or 
 
2SS 
 
 fuch a body of men, ought not to be confounded, 
 with others, who, like Dr. Geddes, although they 
 admitted the fupremacy of the pope as a fpiritual 
 lord primate, abhorred as much as the moft bigot- 
 ted proteftant (for every communion has its bigots) 
 the doftrines here once mor-e revivified of papal dif- 
 penfations, &c. and maintained, for I have heard 
 the doftor maintain it repeatedly, that the man 
 who, as a principle of action, admitted the perfonal' 
 jnfallibihty of the pope, upon which alone; this 
 entire fyflem of abfurdity depends, could not fafe- 
 ly be entrufted with any municipal office what- 
 ever, whether in a proteftant or even a catholic 
 country ; fmce being the mere inftrument and 
 tool of the fovereign-pontifF, were another tyrant 
 like Gregory VII. or Paul III. to filL the papal 
 chair, and afpire in a fimilar manner after the 
 univerfal domination of Europe, no command 
 could iffue from the Vatican ' of fo inipipus and 
 frantic a nature, that he is not neceflarily bound 
 by his creed and his hopes of eternal happinefs 
 to endfeavor to execute. He is compelled by 
 the fame belief to exert himfelf in creating for 
 his defpotic lord find mafter an authority where 
 he has none, and in augmenting and fortifying it 
 wherever it exifts. 
 
 The'bilhop of Comana was not the only one 
 indeed who, at this period, ventured to glance at 
 
 9 
 
^4 
 
 fuch a toife of featimBfits. Whoever is conrver^ 
 fent irtdth the pamphlets ^f the 4ay canjaot have 
 forgotten the names of one or two others, whole 
 writings manifeftly rdifcovered an inclination to 
 the fatoe petniciotts doftrines. But let not my 
 readers be ftartled at fuch an affertion ; or be in 
 the remoteft degree f^duced into an illiberal and 
 intolerant fpirit againft the great body of the ca- 
 tholic church,^ and efpecially of Engiifh catholics 
 on this account. Madnven there will be in all 
 communities at all periods ;of the world : ramoiig 
 the catholics of this period they were, however, 
 compaBatively i>ut few ; at leaft but few who car- 
 ried their madnefs to the eaccefe here inlianced. 
 it is moreover a mania for which the late war has 
 furniihed a ifpedfic antidote : for reduced -and 
 degraded as the papal fee is at the psrefent mo- 
 ment ; converted as -is its religious profeffiis^n into 
 & mere engine of ftat-e in France j and loft as is 
 its pre-eminence in Germany, 'from the fuppref- 
 fion of (federal «colefiaftiG principalitie§, .and the 
 creattion o£ other new proteftant ones — a change 
 which has given to the latter a decided fupe- 
 riority in the (aggregate of eledoral votes, Mid 
 menaces a'fpeedy transfer of the imperial diaSem 
 from a catholic to a proteftant family — it mull be 
 aphsttiomenon in future to behold a-man conteft- 
 ing for 'the infallibility of a power ifo compamtively 
 
215 
 
 ddploable as that of the tiara, and an a^fo- 
 lute im^offibiiity for him to effeft any mifchief, 
 if he were to become an aflave agent in its fa- 
 vor. 
 
 Our author, in his l-eply, expreffes & hopS; 
 that, although the court of Rd|ne fliouid be ap- 
 pealed to in the prefent controverfy, as it was 
 Very fhortly afterwards, the prelatic party would 
 not be fo triumphant as they had ventured to ex- 
 pert. " After all, my lord," fays he, *' I would 
 not have you too fure of fuccefs even at Romfe ; 
 and if that court be fo political as -it is faid to be, 
 I fhould wonder miidi jf,- every thaig coflfidered, 
 your conduft met with approbation there." p. 18. 
 
 In the'fe expe&atioiis Dr.Geddes appears to 
 nave been deceived. He reafoned from the per- 
 fonal liberality of his late holinefs, arid few popes 
 have eshibited more liberality than Pius VI. ; but he 
 did. not confider that a very advanced age wais at 
 this time rendering him infirm both in milid, and 
 body, and that he was furrounded by a conclave" 
 of cardinals of whom all were not endowed with 
 his own fliare of candor. Buon Campagni was 
 alfeady aiTociated in the caufe of the oppdfers of 
 the Oath, and he was de'tefniined, in conjunf^ion 
 with feveral of his colleagues, to prevent its.obtain- 
 ing the fanftion of the pontificatew 
 
 The enqyclical letter, mean time, upon which the 
 
^56 
 
 hopes of the papal , party -depended, which had 
 been fubfcribed by the four vicars apoftolic, and 
 gave the firft alarm to the committee, received, 
 while printing, a fevere blow by the death of 
 bifliop James Talbot, apoftolic vicar of the London 
 diftria : an event by which its publication in this 
 diftrld was completely fruftrated ; while an admi- 
 rable and fpirited remonftrance from the clergy of 
 the middle diftrid to bilhop Thomas Talbot fuf- 
 pended, at the fame time, its publication within 
 the precinds of this latter jurifdiftion. Walmesly 
 and Gibfon were the only prelates therefore who 
 ventured to publifli it *. And while, in anfwer to 
 
 * This want of univerfality in the publication feems to have 
 been a matter of no fmall moment, as involving a queftion 
 refpefting the validity of the cenfure itfelf. The committee 
 thus exprefs themfelves upon this fubjeft, in a letter to biftiop 
 Douglas, upon the publication of the fecond encyclical letter, 
 figned by himfelf, Walmefly, and Gibfon, of the date of Ja- 
 nuary 19, 179'. 
 
 " My Lord, in your encyclical letter of the 19th of laft, 
 month, you have informed the catholics of your diftrift, that 
 the four apoftolic vicars, by their encyclical letter, dated 
 0£tober 2 lit, 1789, condemned the oath propofed at that 
 time to be prePented to parliament. But permic us, my 
 lord, to aik, if this is a fair ftatement of that circumflance. 
 Your lordftiip muft unqueftionably have "heard, that, of the 
 four preliites who (igned this cenfure, two fignified their moft 
 earneft wifti, that the publication of it (hould be fufpended, 
 and never could be induced to publifli it in their refpeftive 
 
237 
 
 the obfervations of the committee, the latter 
 brought forwards the *' paftoral letter" which I 
 have juft, noticed, a letter of fimilar defcription 
 was addreffed to the committee by the former 
 about the fame time in which he denominates the 
 oa,th " ambiguous in its general expreflions, dero- 
 gating from the principles of the catholic church, 
 and confounding the fpiritual and temporal powers 
 
 together*." In this addrels.he maintains more- 
 
 >* 
 
 dlftrifts. Now permit us, my lord, to declare, that no cen- 
 fure, or other judicial 'fentence, has any effeft till it is pub- 
 liftied. This iS admitted equally by canc'nifts and civiliins« 
 The encyclical letter of the 21ft of Oftober, 1789, was 
 never publiflied either in London or the Middle DWirifis, 
 How far, from this circumftance, it loft its integrity, and con- 
 fequently its validity, even in the two diftriiis where it was 
 publiihed, will certainly admit of doubt; but lurely the truth 
 of hiftory requires, that, when that cenfure is mentioned, 
 this remarkable circumftance attending it (hould not be for- 
 gotten." 
 
 * To eafe the tender confciences of the three recufant pre- 
 lates upon this laft point, the committee propofed to fubmit 
 the cafe to the opinion of two civil lawyers, two common 
 lawyers, and two catholic lawyers. This was not acceded to. 
 But the committee ftiU thought it advifeable, for the benefit 
 of many others of their community, to take a ftep fomewhat 
 fimilar. They therefore confulted upon the fubjeft, as the 
 perfon in whofe legal judgment they mpft relied, Mr. Hill, 
 his majefty's premier ferjeant at law, the firft lawyer at the 
 liar in point of office and precedence : and as his opinion upon 
 
238 
 
 over that the fenteoce of cgndena»?tiQn by th^ 
 cncycKal letter was, legal} and recjuires IwbHiifTiQn 
 
 a very intrwate point is fixppdfed to be drawn up with cqwal 
 elegan« and precifion, Xk% reader Wll|l here find a copy of it, 
 together with- the c<ife upon which it i.s founded. , 
 
 THE CASE. 
 
 " A doubt has arlfeo in the minds of fpnie catholics, vhe- 
 ther fomtf parts of the oath, particularly the claufe in red ink, 
 do not amount to a denial of the fpiritual rights with which, 
 accoidiiig to their religious tenets, the church and her mini- 
 fters, and particularly the pope, is invefted j as thofe of 
 preaching the Faith, adujiniftcring the £iacri«nents, ordain- 
 ing the minifters of the church, pviniihing by fpiritual cenr 
 fures. Sec. If it amount to a denial of the pope, t^e churcb, 
 and her minifters, being jiiuefled vvitb the rights pf this ma- 
 ture, it is an oath which a catholic cannot take confiftsptly 
 with his religious principlei;. 
 
 " Ontheother hand it ia ppnteudeil, that it isjwjt meant i-o 
 deny by the oath any fpiii»;uftl right of the ebvnrclj, but merely 
 tbe right of the church to interfere in temporal concern^ or 
 to ufetemporal means to enforce her fpiritual cenfures. 
 
 " Two propofitions are admitted on all fides. 
 
 " The one, that the church is invefted with a complete au- 
 thority in fpiritual concerns, and a power ^o enforce that au- 
 thority by the fpiritual means df cenfures j and that tl)e pope 
 is the fpiritual head of the church, 
 
 " The other, that neither the chvrch nor the pope have, 
 cither direftly or indireiSHy, any temporal power in this king- 
 dQfn. 
 
 " The queftion therefor? is, Whether the oath in quefjion, 
 and particularly that part of it wbich is written in red 
 ink, is a denial of the fpiritual authority of the church, 
 or the fpiritual fupremacy of the pope. 
 
239 
 
 to Its decifion ; ccmeliijfing' wfth a decla?ation that 
 thei'e is no appeal from It but to the pope, " the 
 vicar of Jefus Chrift himfelf." 
 
 The majerity of the catholics, however foon 
 learned that an appeal of this kind was likely tc 
 be of but little • aivail, and that the door of favor 
 was already bailed' againU tfiem. On the death 
 of bifliop James Talbot, the clergy of the London 
 diflri^ 'ha;Ving alfembled to conflder of the choice 
 of another vicar apoftolic, the general wifh fell 
 fttoft decidedly on Dr. Charles Berington, who 
 
 " No form of civil government, nor, any fyftem of laws,, 
 was tnftituted by Chrift or his apoftles, nor any com- 
 tiAffion granted to their fiicceffor to enfbrce the chriftian: 
 doftrine by temporal power. The autbarity of the 
 pope a,rtd; the- church is derived ffom them. The word* 
 ©f tjje oath do not import a denial of theft having thi* 
 authority: they only deny their having temporal' power, 
 or a right to enforce their fpifittral authority by temporal 
 power. Thifl is all the party who takes the oath will, 
 or can, be titiderftood to fwear or afflert, , when he fweara, 
 in the worde af the oath, • that they have no jurifdiSion 
 or autlontjl thctt can, either iireSly or mdire&ly, affeS at 
 interfere 'tvith the independence, foverelgnty, lo'uis, conjli- 
 iufion, or go-Oernment libereof, or tuith the rights, hkerties, 
 ferfons, or frtiferAes cf tie feefh ef the faid realm, er atef 
 ofthim \ — therefore I think the oath is not a denial of thfi 
 ^iritual aullMrit:y of the churcl^ or the fupremacy of the 
 pope. 
 " Lincoln's Inn, February i8, 1791. G. HILL.', 
 
 * The" words in Italics are ttiofe which were written jn red ink. 
 
 6 
 
240 
 
 had been coadjutor to bifliop Thomas Talbot, and 
 was defervedly efteemed for his candor and liber- 
 ality of mind; to which, almoft unanimous, voice 
 of the clergy, was added, moreover, the formal 
 approbation of the chief perfons among the laity. 
 His name was fent, therefore, to Rotne for the 
 approbation of the pontifical court, and an intima- 
 tion, was at the fame time communicated -of his 
 popularity amongft his brethren, ,and their general 
 fuffrage in his~ favor. To the name of Dr. Charles 
 Berington were added, for the fake of cuflomary 
 form, thofe of two other ecclefiaftics, Mr. Douglas 
 and Mr. Brown,, without the leaflideain the mind 
 of any perfon that the popular nominee would 
 have been difcarded, and either of the others ap- 
 pointed in his ftead. ' So, however, it happened. 
 Berington was well, known at the Vatican to have 
 fevored the oath, as well as the proteftation, and 
 to have been advqrfe to the encyclical letter.. The 
 manoeuvres of Walmefly and Gibfon fucceeded, 
 and bulls of confecration were in confequence di- 
 refted, not to himfelf, but to Mr. Douglas. Some 
 intimation of thefa manoeuvres had indeed been 
 conjmunicated to the committee, for a fliort period 
 anterior to the iffuing of the papal mandate; and, 
 to guard againft a difappointment, it was propofed, 
 by fdveral of this truly refpeftafcle body, and efpe- 
 cially by Mr., now Sir John Throckmorton, who 
 
24i 
 
 Wrote two excellent pamphlets exprefsly upoii 
 the fubjeft,. to, elefl: Dr. Berington for their bilhop 
 in the firft.ihftaiice, confiftently writh primitive 
 ufage, and then to inform the court of Rome of 
 their proceedings j. and requeft its approbation. 
 
 I am not furpa-ifed- that this advice was not ge^ 
 nerally acceded to.,^ The Roman catholics of 
 England db no>,>^j:rn a cljurch of themfelves : 
 they lofl their hierarchy , upon the reparation of 
 this country from the papal : fee ; and Gontinue;d 
 for upwards of a century deftitute of a regular 
 f riefthood, and without attaching themfelves to 
 any catholic church whatever. After fome fuch 
 interval, however, they applied to the Vatican for 
 affiftange, -and were irrjimediately received into the 
 bofpm of the papal, church, of which they have 
 ever fince conflituted a retnote part or colony, go- 
 verned by vicegerents or vicars apoftolic immedi-* 
 ately appointed by the pontiff, and as direftly fub- 
 jeSt to his control, I mean with refpeft to fpiritual 
 concerns, as the catholics of the pope's temporal 
 dominions, Whatever therefore may have been 
 the primitive ufage among Englifh catholics when 
 they had a church of their own, an.d the offence of 
 praemunire was founded upon fuch an ufage,* or 
 
 ♦ See Mr. Butler's hiftorical Account of the Laws refpefl*- 
 irtg Roman Catholics, p. 1—6. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 i^hatever may be the ufage among the GalHcaa 
 or any other catholic church at the prefent mo- 
 ment, as a branch of the papal church they are 
 bound to fubmit to the whole of its authority fo 
 long as they continue a branch : although it is 
 highly defirable that they fhould emancipate them- 
 felves from fuch a vaffalage, eftablifh a new hie- 
 rarchy, and entertain the fame fort of communion 
 with the Ron^an fee which fubfifts between it and 
 many catholic churches of the continent. 
 
 Such, therefore, being the fituation of the par- 
 ties, it was not to be expeded that the pope 
 would relinquifh his right, or depute as his vicar 
 apoftolic a perfon who was reprefented to him as 
 ready to relinquifh a confiderable portion of hh 
 authority, in preference to another of whofe ftre- 
 nuous attachment, both from his education in 
 Spain, and the affurances of Walmefly and Gibfon, 
 he could have no doubt. Dr. Berington was in 
 confequencepafledby, and Mr. Douglas appointed 
 in his ftead, under the title of bifhop of Centuria. 
 About the fame time alfo Matthew, bifhop of Co- 
 mana, and vicar apoflolic of the northern diftrifl:, 
 was attacked with a difeafe which proved fatal in 
 a few days: upon which, occafion, repeating his 
 difregard to the popular wifh, his holinefs ap- 
 pointed William, bifhgp of Acanthos, to fupply his 
 place. 
 
243 
 
 Ingratitede is not a crime of which thefe newly 
 elefted vicars can be impeached. Under the 
 guidance of their elder affociate tJifliop Walmefly, 
 they entered into the controverfy with the moft 
 determined alacrity and zeal j and on January 19, 
 1791, produced and ilTued a frefh encyclical let-' 
 ter, in which, although the oath had been alter- 
 ed in fome points which appeared moft objeftion- 
 able, and had hereby obtained the entire fandlion 
 of 'bilhop Thomas Talbot, apoftolic vicar of the' 
 middle diftri£t^ if was ftill condemned with as 
 much violence as before j the appellation of pro- 
 4:efting catholic diiTenters was ftilt cenfured ; and 
 the faithful were commanded to be on their guard 
 againft, and to rejefl: with deteftation, feyeral pub- 
 lications, as well which have appeared, as which 
 may appear hereafter : concluding with a declara- 
 tion that, " of thofe which have been publifhed,, 
 fome are fchifmatical, fcandalous, inflammatory, 
 and infulting to the fupreme head of the church, 
 the vicar of Jefus Chrift." 
 
 It is againft this letter, figned by the three 
 confederate and incorrigible vicars apoftolic, that 
 Dr. Geddes addrefled the fecond anonymous 
 p?imphlet which he wrote in the courfe of this 
 long and acrimonious controverfy, and which he 
 entitled an " Encyclical Letter of the Bifliops 
 of Rama, Acanthos, and Centuria, to the faithful 
 
244 
 
 clergy and laity of their refpeftive diflricts; with a 
 continued comrAentdry for the uje of the vulgar. ' ' The 
 original letter unqueftionably bears moft prominent 
 marks of precipitation, irafcibility, and inaccuracy: 
 and of thefe qualities the commentary very plen- 
 tifully avails itfelf, pointing out with much jocu- 
 larity, as it proceeds, the etymology of the titular 
 diftinftions of the fubfcribers, their refpedlive au- 
 thorities in England, and feveral fpecimens of the 
 grammatical, logical, and philological errors with 
 which this brief epiftle abounds. The commen- 
 tator is peculiarly fevere upon the pliability of 
 Mr. Douglas, bifliop of Centuria, and the newly 
 appointed apoftolic vicar to the London idiftrifl:. 
 " Centuria, I believe," fays, he, " fliould be writ- 
 ten Centuris. However that be, it is certainly 
 in the Numidian province of Africa. It had once 
 a bifhop named ^od-vult-Deus : that is, fVhat^ 
 God-wills. If its prefent bifhop cannot aflume 
 this name, he may take one fomewhat like to it, 
 ^od-vult-papa, JVhat-the-pope-wills." Upon the 
 declaration in the letter that all authority con- 
 cerning oaths " refides in the bilhops, they being 
 by divine inftitution the fpiritual governors in 
 the church of Chrift," — our commentator, with- 
 out impugning the general dodlrine, advances 
 this obfervation relative to the writers alone — 
 ■ *' Whether our vicars be bifhops by divine injlitu- 
 
245 
 
 tion^ is a queflion which may be catholieally dif- 
 puted. The right divine even of ordinary and 
 regular bifhops is not an article of faith any 
 more than the right divine of kings *. But whe- 
 ther irregular bifhops of Rama, Ac'anthos, and 
 Centiiria, are by divine injiitution the fpiritual. go- 
 vernors of Englifli catholics, is a queftion, I fay, 
 which may be fairly' end orthodoxly difputed j 
 and I am of opinion that it requires tieither much 
 difcuffion nor deep knowledge to decide with- 
 out ambiguity." 
 
 But the moft imprudent part of this apoftolic 
 epiftle was that in which, after the . application 
 
 . to parliaipent had been approved of, and the pi-o- 
 teftatipn which was the ground of the oath ac- 
 
 , tually figned by all the four pontifical vicars for 
 the time beirig^ and recommended in the moft.. 
 flrenuous manner to the faithful of their refpee- 
 tive diflrifts — they earneflly exhort every catholic 
 to unite in oppofmg the oath, by prefenting " a 
 proteflation or counter-petition," or by adopting 
 " whatever other legal and prudent meafure may 
 be judged the befl." The mifchiefs which mufl 
 neceffarily have refulted .from follov/ing fo incau- 
 tious an advice, and the impoilibility of effect- 
 
 * This latter propofition was often and warmly agitated 
 in the council of Trent ; and at length huflied into reft under 
 the cover of two equivocal canons. See Seff, 23, an. 1364. 
 
246 
 
 ing the propofed objefi if it were attempted, con- 
 fidering that neither the bill nor the oath, in its 
 ftate at that time, was the work of the committee, 
 are juftly adverted to, and pointed out: and it 
 is well obferved, that the catholics were, by fuch 
 an exhortation, placed in the uhhappy dilemma 
 either of difobeying the apoftolic exhortation itfelf, 
 ■ or, by adhering to it, of bemg reputed bad citi- 
 zens, and re-exciting againft themfelves all the 
 animofity of former times. 
 
 The bill, including the oath, was at this mo- 
 ment before parliament, and I ftiall clofe the 
 prefent chapter with a fhort account of its pro- 
 grefs, and of the manner in which the contro- 
 verfy terminated; which I am the better en- 
 abled to accomplifh from the full and obliging 
 informatidn I have received upon the fubjeft 
 from a gentleman who was at that time one of 
 the moft adlive members of the committee, as 
 well as from feveral authentic papers which have 
 been communicated to me for thispurpofe. 
 
 In compliance (and it is a compliance which 
 does credit to the liberality of the adminiftration 
 then exifting) with the prejudices of thofe who 
 objected to the oath as at firft drawn up, the 
 appellation of protefting catholic diffenters was 
 exchanged for that of Roman catholics, under 
 which defignation the members of the catholic 
 
247 
 
 church are now, for the firft time, known to the 
 legiflature of this country: — the term heretical 
 was withdrawn ; and eventually the Irifli oath, 
 fcarcely differing in a fijigle fentence from the 
 Englifli oath of the 18 Geo; III., was fubftituted 
 in the place of that originally introduced into the 
 new bill. In its paffage through the upper houfe 
 the bill itfelf h^d, indeed, to fubmit to fome few 
 additional claufes, and to a variation in two or 
 three of the old : but in neither inftance of any 
 effential confequence. The moft material fup- 
 preffion was that of the entire claufe, which would 
 have enabled Roman catholics to have prefented 
 to advowfons : and as this is an immunity exer- 
 cifed by every order of his majefty's fubjefts iur 
 dgpendently of themfelves, by diflenters, quakers, 
 and even jews, it is truly extraordiniary that the 
 jealoufy of parliament fliould, in this feafon of lir 
 beral and manly toleration^ have withheld from 
 them a right to which they are fo amply entitled: 
 but fuch, . however j was the fad j the claufe was 
 objeded to, the objedlipn was deemed valid, and 
 the demand was negatived. *' On its return to 
 the houfe of commons the bill met the fame 
 kind of reception which had attended it on its firft 
 entrance there. The fubftitution of the Irifh oath 
 was acquiefced in. After the bill had paffed through 
 the accuftomed forms of the houfe of commons. 
 
248 
 
 it was returned to the lords; who ateeded to it 
 without further oppofition, and on the 10th day 
 of June 1791 it received the royal afTent,*." 
 
 The prelatic party meanwhile continued to 
 teftify their decided difapprobation. Although 
 every conciliating effort had been manifefled by 
 the committee, the three dijentingzpo^olic vicars 
 ftill pretended to fome infuperable difEculty. It 
 was on January. 19, 1791, they had fulminated 
 their fecond ericyclical letter. To this the com- 
 mittee had replied on the fecond of February, by 
 a letter addreffed to. their own immediate fuperin- 
 tendant Mr. Douglas, vicar of the London or 
 fouthern dillrifl: j which is a model of candor 
 and legitimate ratiocination. On the eighth^ of 
 the fame month they had been fortunate enough 
 to obtain a conference with themj. at which, after 
 the profpeQ: of an amicable arrangement vainly 
 indulged for fome confiderable time, Gibfon, bi' 
 fliop of Acanthos, arofe abruptly from his feat, 
 .and faid that all fuch difcuffion was of no confe, 
 quence ; and that the only queftion was, whether 
 the committee would or would not fubmit ? This 
 unexpected requifition, and particularly the mode 
 and time in which it was made, ftruck the comr 
 
 * Letter addreficd to the Catholics of England by the (f^r 
 tl^olic Committee. Blue Books, No, III. p. lo, 
 
 9 
 
249 
 
 mitteewith aflonifhment, and they requefted to 
 have the requifition in writing, that- they might de- 
 liberate upon a reply. The queftion was penned, 
 and almoft immediately afterwards, with equal 
 deference and independence of fpirit, anfwered in 
 the negative, with the fignatures of bifhop Be- 
 rington, Dr. Jofeph Wilks, lords Sturton and Pe- 
 tre, fir H. C. Englefield barohet, John Throck- 
 morton (now fir J. Throckmorton bart.), Jphu 
 Towneley, and Thomas Hornyold, efqrs. ; the 
 committee at the fame time adding, that if the 
 objefting vicars would fuggefl any addition or 
 qualifying explanation, which could be admitted 
 confiftently with the inftcument of proteftation 
 fo uniformly fubfcribed, they would exert their 
 befl endeavours in negotiating the adiniffion of 
 fuch a fuggeftion. Upon this reply bilhop 
 Douglas obferved, that he intended the prefent 
 fhould have been an amicable conference, and 
 moved that the queftion and anfwer might be 
 thrown into the fire ; but his two colleagues 'be^ 
 Ing afked if. they would retraft the requifition, 
 both peremptprily refufed. And in this hoftile 
 manner the conference abruptly terminated. 
 
 The committee, however, were ftill refolded 
 to try every mean in their power to produce con, 
 ciliation. And whilft they inftantly applied to 
 their friends in parliajnent to obtain an alteration 
 
250 
 
 or fuppreflion of the more obnoxious terms of the 
 oath, they publiflied an additional letter, addreffed 
 to thefe three incorrigible vicars, offering new 
 grounds of juftification; informing through this 
 medium the catholics at large of the whole of 
 their conduft, and particularly of the tranfaftions 
 at the late conference ; and clofing with a folemn 
 proteft againft both the encyclical letters, as im- 
 prudent, arbitrary and unjuft, as a total mifrepre- 
 fentation of the nature of the bills to which they 
 refpeftively referred, and the oaths they refpe£tively 
 contained, as well as the conduft of the committee 
 in relation to them — as encroaching on their na- 
 tural, civil, and religious rights, and inculcating 
 principles hoftile to fociety and government, and 
 the lav/s and conftitution of the Britifli empire. 
 
 Their application to their parliamentary friends 
 was, meanwhile, as I have already ftated, attended 
 with confiderable fuccefs : and it was confidendy 
 hoped, that as there was certainly no remaining 
 ground for oppofition, the fpirit of altercation would 
 be refigned for that of wonted harmony and con- 
 cord. A general meeting to promote this pur- 
 pofe was convened therefore by the committee, 
 on June 9th of the fame year, a few days afta: 
 the bill bad been returned to the uppa- houfe 
 from the commons, with their approbation of the 
 alterations it had received : at which bifljopl)oug- 
 
251 
 
 las attended, and afferted that he had no objec- 
 tion to the form of the oath then prefcribed bf 
 parliament J thus adding his affent to that of K- 
 fliop Talbot, which had long before been obtained 
 and had extended to the general condufl: of the 
 committee. Neither Walraefly nor Gibfon conde- 
 fcended, however, to be prefent upon this occa- 
 iion, nor was there any perfon authorized to con- 
 vey their fentiments upon the fubjeft. On the 
 6nfuing day, as I have already obferved, the royal 
 affent was given to the bill; and all further op- 
 pofition being ufelefs, the two reculant vicars 
 learned, at length, to overcome their fcruples. 
 
 By this important and very liberal aft Roman 
 catholics are put, in almoft every inftance *, upon 
 a level ^ith other diifenters from the eftablifhed 
 church, excepting, as I have previoufly noticed, 
 in the article of prefentation to advowfons. The 
 objeftions raifed by diflenters againft a compliance 
 with the teft and corporation ads operate equally 
 upon both parties ; but the former being able to 
 take the oath of fupremacy, by which they deny 
 that any " foreign prince, perfon, prelate. Hate, 
 or potentate, hath or aught to have any jurifdic- 
 
 * For a particular ftatement of the polit'^cal difTerences at 
 prefent fublifting between thefe tvo clafles of firitilh fubjefls, 
 ^ee Mr. Butlef s hiflortcal Account of the Laws againil Romaa 
 Catholics, f . 24. 
 
252 
 
 tion, power, fuperiority, pre-eminence, or au- 
 thority, eccleftafttcal or/pritual, within this realm," 
 which. the latter cannot in confcience affent to ; 
 and which oath the legiflature requires to be ten- 
 dered to every voter at an elediion, as well as to 
 every member of either houfe of parliament. Ro- 
 man catholics are fubjeft to penalties and difabi- 
 Uties in both thefe cafes, which do not affefl: 
 proteftant diffenters ; and are precluded as well 
 from parliament as from exercifing the elective 
 fuffrage. The advantages they have obtained, 
 however, by the two ftatutes which have been 
 paffed in their, favor in the courfe of the prefent 
 reign,that of 18th and 31ft of Geo. III., are fo 
 very confiderable, that they may well reft fatisfied 
 with their acquifitions j although they have not 
 procured every immunity to which they are en- 
 titled, and which would moft probably have been 
 granted them had it not been for their own inter- 
 nal difputes, and the coniequent neceffity of va- 
 rying the oath inf^rted into the laft adt from its 
 original form. — " Thus," fay the committee, in 
 their, addrefs to the catholics at large upon the 
 clofe of this troublefonie undertaking, " fincq. 
 the year 1778 a new order of things is opened 
 to the catholics of England : they have recovered 
 the good opinion and cotifidence of their country- 
 men : in matters of' religion they are indulged in 
 
253 
 
 a confcientlous diflent from the legal eftabllfh- 
 ment, and may worfhip their God according to 
 the mo de which their faith ordains. In civil and 
 political concerns they form no feparate combina- 
 tion ; but may freely incorporate with their fel- 
 low fubjeds for the public good. No long^ 
 aliens in their native land, they niay now behold 
 the ggperal profperity without envy or depreffion 
 of fpirits. Their property is fecure, and ' no 
 longer held on the precarious and humiliating 
 tenure of fuffrance or connivance. They have 
 the fanftion of ■ law to tranfmit it to their off- 
 fpring. They may impart to their children the 
 bleffings of education. They are no longer 
 looked upon as a degraded fadtion, who harbor 
 principles hollile to the laws and liberties of their 
 country. In a word — they are Englishmen, 
 
 SUBJECTS, AND CITIZENS ; AND AS SUCH THEY 
 ARE AfcKNOWLEDGED BY THE KING, THE NA- 
 TION, AND THE LAW." 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER Vir. 
 
 Dr. Geddes's Macaronic Epiflle to his Brothtr-^Hit 
 Secular Ode on. the Affairs of France— Obfervations 
 on tbefe poems — The poet's attachment to Mr. Fox ; 
 and peculiar animation •when reciting bis merits-— 
 His general learning and extenjinie talents — "Univer- 
 Jality ofjiudy no impediment toperfeSion in arty indi- 
 vidual branch of fcience. A.D. 1791 — 179*' 
 
 The year 1790 comprifes one of the bufieft pe- 
 riods of Dr. Geddes's life. We have already traced 
 him deeply engaged in a variety of employ- 
 ments, both ferious and jocular : perfevering in 
 his tranflation of the Bible ; replying to the vaft 
 body of his anonymous correfpondents in the dif- 
 ferent ftiapes of querifts, critics, and counfellors j 
 addreffing the catholic bifhop of Comana, and 
 the archbifhops and bilhops of the eilablifhed 
 church : and we have now to notice, as having 
 been publilhed in the fame year alfo, his Epiftola 
 Macaronica ad Fratrem, and his Carmen Seculars 
 pro Gallica gente, which exhibit him altogether 
 in a new charafber,' and one in which, from the 
 former produftion more efpecially, he appears 
 to no fmall advantage ; to wit, that of a Latin 
 
. SS5 
 
 poet. The Epiftola Macaronica, as its title ex- 
 preffes, is a humorous poem upon many of the 
 incidents that occurred at a general dinner of the 
 proteftant diflenters at the London tavern in the 
 preceding February; at which phce they had 
 aflembled to wilh fuccefs to their conjoint eflForts 
 in obtaining a repeal of the teft and corporation 
 acts, as already ftated in Chapter V. 
 
 " It is the charaflreriftic of a macaronic poem," 
 obferves our author in an introdu(9:ory remark, 
 " to be written in Latin hexameters ; but fo as 
 to admit oecalionally vernacular words, either ia 
 their native form or with a Latin inflexion. Other , 
 licences, too, are allowed in the meafure of the 
 Unes, contrary to the ftrifl: rules of profody j of 
 which, however, very few have been here in- 
 dulged." 
 
 This fpecies of burlefque poetry is not very 
 common among ourfelves. At the end of the 
 fixth volume of Leland's Itinerary, Mr. Hearne 
 , has indeed given a macaronic poem on a battle 
 at Oxford, between the fcholars and the townf- 
 men, and part of the celebrated comedy- of 
 Ignoramus is compofed upon the fame model : 
 ,but on the continent Maccheronea, or Macaronics, 
 are by no means infrequent. The comedies of 
 Moliere, and efpecially his Malade Imaginaire, 
 fumifh us with abundant iaftances : while among 
 
256 
 
 the Italian poets they are more common thail 
 even in France. M. de Blainville, in his Travels 
 through Italy (vol. iii. p. 548), fpeaks of a 
 macaronic poem of Merlinus Coccaius, or rather 
 of Theophilo Folengi, undfer this name, a poet of 
 Mantua, 'who died as early as 1554 ; and which, 
 notwithflanding the high reputation of Folengi 
 for many other works communicated to the pub- 
 lic, was generally regarded as his mafterpiece. 
 It was entitled Baldus, and divided into not lefs 
 than twenty-five books. From this circumflance 
 the tranflators of de Blainville, Tumbull, Gu- 
 thrie, and Lockman, incline to the opinion that 
 Folengi was the inventor of this fpecies of verfifi- 
 cation. This indeed may be true ; but when 
 they tell us that macaronic poetry, which is a 
 mixture of Latin and Italian words, poffeffing 
 a Latin termination,' " is fo called from its being 
 fuppofed to referable (as being a mixture) the Ita- 
 lian Maccheroni, thefe being compofed of flower, 
 cheefe, and butter" — they difplay a woeful igno-, 
 rance of the fubjeQ: they attempt to elucidate. 
 Maccherone is a term in the Italian language,' 
 fignificative of a blockhead, an ignoramus, or 
 in equivalent Ehglilh a pudding-pated fellow: 
 and Maccheronea (Macaronics) are obvioufly, 
 therefore, burlefque imitations of the unclaffical 
 ftyle of fuch writers. 
 
2^:7 
 
 Tfais Macaronic Epiftle of Dr. Geddes is, in 
 my judgment, the beft of all bis fportive efFu- 
 fionsi- The fubjea was certainly a happy one ; 
 and he has infufed into it a portion of wit and 
 humor which even at prefent is fure to excite 
 no fmall deglree of laughter^ The different 
 charafters are well caught, and delineated with 
 good nature rather than feverity ; and the quaint 
 intermixture of Latin and Englifh, of terms claf- 
 fical and vulgar, comniencing with one laiir 
 guage and terminating in another, of which the 
 grave fpeeches of the refpeftive orators are com- 
 pofed, combine a greater quantity of burlefqu^, 
 and corafequentiy afford an ampler portion of 
 'merriment than can ever be derived from the 
 , liappieft ufe of the Anftyan ftanza; A few 
 •weeks, indeed, after the publication ofthis epiftle 
 bur kijthor printed a fecond edition "^f it with 
 an Englifli tranflation " favored him by a friend" 
 in this very ftyle of verfification. This tranf- 
 lation has its merit alfo : but, perhaps, for the 
 reafonsi juft ftated^ it appears bald and infipid 
 when compared with the original. ' The liame of 
 this " friend" I am -not acquainted with. The 
 Englilh reader himfelf will be able to form fome 
 idea of the ludicrous nature of this high-feafoned 
 ttiacaronic from the following ,vei;fes which de- 
 
258 
 
 fcribe the different clafles of thofe who were now 
 aflembled at the tavern. 
 
 Hlc, una in haJldL magnaque, altaque, treceni 
 Meetivere viri, ex diverfis nomine feftis : 
 Hi, quibus et cordi eft audacis dogma Socini ; 
 Hi, quibus arrident potius diftamina Arii ; t 
 Hi, qui Calvini myfteria dira tuentur ; 
 Hi, quibus affixum eft a bibaptifmate nomen : 
 All, in a word, qui fe oppreflbs mojl heavily credunt 
 Legibus injuftis, teJi-oath\h\xs atque profanis ; 
 While Mgh-cbtlrcb homines in eafe eX. luxury vivunt ; 
 Et placets, faftsiS, mercedes, munia, ^afp3.ni\ 
 Hi cunfti keen were ; fari aut pugnare parati 
 Prifca.pro caufa. 
 
 In enume'rating the clerical leaders, our author 
 has adverted with appropriate and pleafant curi- 
 ofity to the peculiar fentiments or manners of mod 
 of them. jJlvery one acquainted with the writings 
 of Mr. Blfmam, knows him to be a ftrenuousne- 
 ceflarian : the benevolentcharafters. of Dr. Difney 
 and Dr. Price are feized con amore, and given, 
 with the touch of a Carraccio ; and Dr. Prieft- 
 ley's grains of gunpowder, which excited fo much 
 idle imflammability and uproar among the high- 
 church party, are introduced with much dexterity 
 and eifeft. 
 
 Quid referam Cleri ilariflima nomina ? Reefum, 
 Lindrzeum, >Kippis, (07i/picilUfyue. Toemm 
 
359 
 
 Ifkfignetn — et (woe's me !) vjoUntd forte eaaSuni 
 Belfhamum j niveo candentem peBore Dlfney j 
 Et Price, humarii generis totius amicum. 
 
 Non aderis, Prieftley ! — potior te cura tenebat 
 Kure, ubi magn^ inter centuM mifacuta rerum, 
 Horflaei caput in riitilatitia fulmina forgis ; 
 Sulphuris etfatagiifuhtiJia grana parare, 
 Cburcl quihils et churchmen in calurii ilplliiwefe {Toflis. 
 
 Of all the charafters delineated, I have been! 
 chiefly pleafed, however, with that of the late 
 worthy but irafcible Mr. Fell ; who adhered, it 
 feems, to the party which very injudicioufly 
 ivould have deftroyed the harmony of the table, 
 by the introduftion of a fet of preconceived po- 
 litical refolutions. Fell, it is univerfally known, 
 had engaged in a keen controverfy with Mr. Far- 
 mer upon the demoniacs of the fcriptures ; and, 
 in oppolition to the latter gentleman, had power- 
 fully and violently contended for their aftual ex- 
 iftence; It is to this contefl our author obvioufly 
 alludes in the following verfes ; 
 
 Plurlbiis haec placuit fententia; jaraque (inlftris 
 Empteeas glajjas manibus ^fl/^anius, ut illas 
 -Fragrant! ex tefla impleremus Burdigalenfi j 
 Cum doftor, p'erversO AGiTAi'us djemone, Felfiis 
 Omnia j^w'i'avit — nam hncba flans fuper alts. 
 Verba quidem four, four, fatis &c facunda profatur; 
 
 it is remarkable, that in his defcription of Mr* 
 Foxj who was preferit on the occafipn, he drops 
 
260 
 
 abruptly all idea of macaronics, annJ, elevated by 
 the additional dignity of his fubjefl:, or the en- 
 thufiafm with whigh he contemplated this unri- 
 valled ii3.teixa.ciMf haxQiS, inta a Oxam. of claffical 
 and exquifite hexameters— 
 
 I carmma non prius 
 
 Audita, mufarum facerdos. 
 It is thus he delineates him— 
 
 ■ poft hunc, argntus lefTries, 
 
 Perdignus Chairman. — et poft hunc Foxius ipfe j 
 Toxius, elbquii nofiro Demoflhenis aevo 
 Unicus adfertor ; et libertatis arnator 
 Unieus; et nondum venalis>!— Plaudite, cives ! 
 Plaudite magnanitnutn coneivem ; plandite vernm 
 , Humani-juiift ultor^m ; et ducite plaufus 
 Ter ternos, donee reboabunt voce colamnz. 
 
 Thus again, when Mr. Fox rifes and totally 
 diffipates the difcontent tljat feems ftill to pre- 
 yail in one or two quarters, we meet with a de- 
 fcription which, if it were not for the barbarous 
 term lippis, would make us nearly forget the 
 ground on which we are treading: 
 
 , Gum (Deus^ ut volucer coelo delapfns ab alto) 
 Foxius apparet j nimbos et diffipat omnes 
 Flexanimis verbis, blandae et dulcedine vocia. 
 
 Non, mihi tercentum linguas fi coela dedifTetttr 
 Et'Calatnnm puro manantem ne6tare-r— non tuip, 
 Dicere fperarem vel fcribere jS^jjookt'* pofle, 
 8 
 
261 
 
 llliu8 ex lipfis qax mellea cutique fluebant 
 Sit latis effari, non p^i/.oti'a, vana fuilTe.- 
 
 Nam velut Aprili medio fi quando ferenum 
 I Turb^rit cojlum Boreas, denfilque nigrlrit 
 Nubibus, attonita et metuit natora ruinam 
 Oiandineo ex nimbo— fubito Sd imperat Euro 
 Alipedes ttt jungai equoe, fe&que fequaturl 
 \p{e (edens clirru, radiorum fpicula fpargit 
 Purpurea : a'£tutuin et toto denfliiGin^ ccbIo 
 JIubila depeUit. — ^SIc tunc diffufa per aulam 
 Aurea vox Foxi faevas jcompefcuit iras, 
 £t Ijetos, hilarefque ad pocula Qara, remilit 
 
 It is a curious obfervation,and, (xMiA&i&g the 
 little patronage Mr. Fox e\:er has, been or pethapS 
 ever will be pofleffed of — ^^an bbfervation highly cre- 
 ditable to the learning of the prefent day— ^to no- 
 tice how univerfally he has monopolized the en- 
 thufiafm of our moft eminent fcholars. Our mer- 
 chants may, indeed, ereCt monuments to the me- 
 mfdry of his rival, but I fcarcely know to what li- 
 terary charafl^r of eftablifhed reputation they 
 could apply for a voluntary infer jption; -v^ile Parr,. 
 Wakefield, (Gf^eddes, and a multitude of limlr 
 lar names, have eagerly preffed forward to offer 
 their pure tribute of unpurchafed praife, and to 
 conneft their own immortality with his *. But 
 
 * Dr. Parr and Dr. Geddes have both affimilated bis impe- 
 tuous and commanding eloquence to that of Pericles. The 
 former citing a forcible verfe of Ariftophanes upon the Gre- 
 cian orator, applies it with much happy appropriation to his 
 friend : 
 
262 
 
 of all his admirers none appears to have entertained 
 a more exalted idea of his talents OJi his virtues 
 
 HaVpaifr' •B'Spovfec, ^vvbhvxo, ■tr^v EAXaf«v- 
 
 He flafhed, he thundered, and all Greece he {hook. 
 
 The latter, in his addrefs to the-public, prefers, as more ex- 
 preffive ftill of Mr. Fox's chai-afteriflic oratory, the paffage of 
 Eupolis upon the fame redoubtable chief, which begins, 
 
 O TtoTs Ttoc^BXioi, ui<rits§ 0( yaflo( S^oiMet; &c. 
 
 The attachment of the |ate Mr. Wakefield to Mr. Fox is 
 well known, though like Dr. Geddes he had bu£ little perfonal 
 acquaintance with him, and no Expeftation of pecuniary affift- 
 ance or patronage. The mafterpiece of his literary labors, his 
 fuperb edition of Lucretius, he de4icate4 to him, with all the 
 fervor of veneration and afFedlion, in a truly elegant addrefs' 
 which thus opens : , , 
 
 VIRO 
 
 feculi fui 
 
 ILLUSTRISSIMO 
 
 et 
 
 VERE HONORABILI 
 
 CAROLO JACOBO FOX, 
 elegantioribus ingenii dotibus 
 
 EMINENTISSIMO J 
 
 eloquentiae veni 
 copiofae, facilis',, inaffeftatae, vividae, fublimis, 
 
 rROFLUENTIJ 
 
 virtutibusiis omnibus, 
 quae virum politicum exornent, 
 
 CONSVM MATISSIMO ; 
 
 fed ob teneros affeftus animi 
 humaniffimamque benevolentiam 
 
 JN FRIMIS VENERABILI. 
 
263 
 
 than Dr. Geddes : fpeaking m another place of 
 its haying been objedted to him that he was an i?^- 
 fiinafe vind a violent Foxite, he obferves that Fox- 
 ite is a name which, " next to thofe of chriftian 
 and cathoUc, I confider as the moft glorious one 
 Jf- can bear. I am undoubtedly a Foxite, an oblH- 
 nate !Foxite, and, if they will, as violent a Foxite, 
 iamy low walk of life, as any nian in the kingdom. 
 But why ? Becaufe I find in Mr. Fox, and in Mr. 
 Fox alone, almoft every thing that I wifh to find 
 ina Britilh ftatefman. I have narrowly watched 
 his public conduft for thefe fifteen years; and 
 whether he were in office, or out of office, I have 
 ever'obferved his conduft uniformly direfted to 
 the greater good of his country. I tajk not here 
 of his matchlefs .eloquence and irrefiftible force of 
 reafoning; they are felt and confefled by his 
 greatefl: opponents. It is his unequalled philan- 
 thropy, his unrivalled liberality of fentiment, his 
 honeft and manly candor, his inflexible firmnefs 
 and uncorrupted integrity, that principally fill me 
 with admiration and attachment. And Ihall I, 
 when every little dirty art is employed to mifre- 
 prefent- his aftions and render him unpopular, be 
 withheld from expreffing my fehtiments in his re- 
 gard, for fear of what may be thought or faid of 
 jne on that account? I have not, ' to my forrow 
 Ideclarej' the horjor of Mr. Fox's acquaintance.; 
 
264 
 
 I neyet fpoke to him but once in my life : I never 
 applied to him for any favor, and confequently 
 never obtained any. My pfaife then cannot be a 
 partial, at leaft it cannot be a mercenary praife, 
 nor indeed can it be of any confequence to Mr, 
 Fox. He ftands not in need of fo feeble a pane^ 
 gyrift. But it is my 'wiih (a felfilh wilh) -to! have 
 it known that I am one of thofe who confider 
 Charles James Fox as ope oi the guate^, and. 
 toijeft^ and heft of men." 
 
 To the Carmen Sseculare of Dr. Geddes, pub* 
 lifhed in the fame year, I cannot pay the compli- 
 ment which is due to his Macaronic Epiftle. Jt is 
 dedicated to the National Aflembly of France, and 
 it&fubjefl: is the Acceptance of the New Conftitu. 
 tion by the unfortunate Lewis. It is well known 
 that the generous bofom of our countrymen haile4 
 with an enthufiaftic ardor, and with very few ex-i 
 ceptions, the commencement of a revolution which 
 gave the faireft promife — a promife, alas ! that was 
 blighted in the very bud — of die triumph of li>s 
 berty over oppreffion, and a further extenfion of 
 tiie happinefs of the human race. Many of the 
 fcenes of outrage and hypocrify which accom- 
 panied even the earlieft tranfadions of this poli, 
 tical innovation were not known in our own 
 countfy at the time to which I am now alluding;, 
 and as it was univerfally hoped, fo it was generally 
 
?6S 
 
 Jjelieved, that the royal aflent and fanftlon •'wefe 
 akogether voluntary and unbiafed. Of thK nuoi- 
 ber was Dr. Geddes : animated with the facred 
 fury of the moijient, which feems to have born? 
 down every breaft before it, he flies to his mufe, 
 to give vent to the rapturous feelings that agitated 
 hisn. The mufe, however^ in direfl coQtradidioa 
 to what might 'haye been expected, does not ap- 
 pear to have been projdtipu$. There is a tamenef? 
 and infipidity pervading the entire ode — an oecar 
 fional inattention to profody and grammar which 
 renders it equally unworthy of the fubjeft and the 
 poet : no promirieht event is feized poffeffion of; 
 no fentiment aufpicioufly conveyed. The follow- 
 ing are, I believe» am^ng the beft ft^izas; or at 
 leaft they ponvey to us a favorable idea of the 
 author's piety, and his thorough belief of the 
 yirtue and honefty of the Frenth monarch. 
 
 Gentis humanx fat'or atque reflor. 
 Hoc tuum donum J tibi fint, bonoruip 
 OnMiium vere dator ac origo, 
 
 Gloria, laUfque ! 
 Aodiant omnes, timeantque reges : 
 Totius terras timeant tyranni ; 
 I'alleat quicuncque Imitatur illos 
 
 Nomine quovis ! 
 Xaipg, ter (elix Ludovice, x^'P^'^- 
 Tu tenes tandem innocuam coronam ; 
 Tu tenes tandem maculata nullo 
 
 Crimine fceptra ! 
 
266 
 
 The beginning of this extraft, however, unfor- 
 tunately reminds, us of the 
 
 Gentis humanx pater atque cuflos 
 
 of Horace, from whom our poet evidently derived 
 the firfl verfe, and forces upon us a comparifon 
 which is by no means advantageous' to him. To 
 this Latin ode the poet himfelf added an Englifh 
 verfion, -v^ihich has certaihly no boaft beyond that 
 of the original. The following is his tfanflation of 
 the paflage, above ; 
 
 Yes, Father of mankind ! thine is. the deed : 
 Our grateful voice of thanks to. thee we raife ; 
 
 To thee, the giver of each precious meed. 
 Be honor, glory, and eternal praife. 
 
 Let fovereigns hear and tremble ! — may the found 
 Reach every tyrant's ear from pole to pole j 
 
 Kings, emperors, princes, prelates, popes confound. 
 And fill with terror each defpotic foul. 
 
 Hail happy Lewis ! who can boaft you wear 
 A crown innocuous, lawfully obtained ! 
 
 Hail happy Lewis ! who can boaft you bear 
 A regal fceptre ^ilh no crime diflained. 
 
 Inftead of being furprifed, however, that Dr. 
 Geddes did not always fucceed in the different and 
 apparently oppofite branches of literature in which 
 he fo indifcriminately engaged, moft of my readers 
 will perhaps be rather furprifed at the verfatility 
 and magnitude of his powers, which enabled hira 
 
267 
 
 to engage at any time with fuecefs in all of them. 
 Yet this is not a correal idea. There are, I well 
 know, philofophers who, judging from the con. 
 trafted limits of their own minds, deny the poffi- 
 bility of any one man's acquiring perfeftion, or 
 any thing that may make a near approach to it, 
 in -more than one art or fcience, through the 
 whole courfe of his life. Such rend afunder, in- 
 ftead of claflifyihg, the different branches of hu- 
 man ftudy, an4 regard each as a ftumbling-block 
 and mortal enemy, inftead of a friend and help- 
 piate to every other; Buchanan, who like Geddes 
 was profoundly flailed m antient polemics and all 
 the politics of the day, was the firft poet of his 
 jage : Arillotle, the ' moft fubtle metaphysician of 
 Greece, evinced the moft perfeft relilh for the ef^ 
 fential beauties of poetry, and eftablilhed a code of 
 laws for its regulation, which has continued with 
 little deviation to the prefent hour. The genius of 
 Milton was almoft illimited : that of fir William 
 Jones equally competent to the whole circle of Sci- 
 ences; and Khakani (/ ^jLi'la*.), one of the moft 
 
 fublime and fpirited poets of Perfia, was alike ce- 
 lebrated for his fkill in every branch of pure and 
 mixed mathematics, Judgment is as neceflary in 
 the coihpofition of correft verfification, as in the 
 profe'cution of any other art or fcience whatfoever: 
 and a lively and brilliant imagination, when fub- 
 jefted to its reins, (j^nnpt poffibly retard, but may 
 
268 
 
 very confiderably quicken our progfefs in every 
 jbranch of human learning. All that we perceive, 
 and that can become the fubjeft of ftudy, has 
 emanated from one divine intelligence, and is fub- 
 jnittedto the lauie uniform powers of genius; and 
 the man who dares every thing will find, in 
 fdence as in battle,' that fortune generally favorsi 
 tile brave, 
 
169 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. , 
 
 General execration of fbe Jlave trade — Dr. Geddet 
 fatirifes it in his aptlogy for Jlavery-~-Tbe quejlion in- 
 troduced before parliament— rConduB of Mr. Pitt and 
 Mr. Dundas — 'Refult of parliamentarj interference-— 
 Mr. Coivper's Trati/lation of' Homer's Iliad'^Dr, 
 Geddes's- high opinion of Mr. Coivper's poetic ta- 
 lents — Mr. Fufeli ; the affiftance he rendered Mr. 
 Cowper-^Dr. Geddes's Tranjlationof the jlrjl Book of 
 Homer's Iliad: comparifon between the verjions of 
 Cowper, Geddes, Siirger, and Vofs — UAvocat du 
 Diable: the occafian of this humorous poem — The pro - 
 fefjion of the la'w not an unfavorable fubjeSl, evinced 
 by Mr. An/ley's Pleader's Guide. A. D. 179a — 
 1793- 
 
 If happened about this time that all Europe, 
 which had for ages, with little or no remorfe, per» 
 mitted the barbarous exercife of the flave trade in 
 its foreign fettlements, was fuddenly " vilited 
 with the compundlious feelings of nature" on ac- 
 count of its criminality. The attack began, for 
 fome reafon, of which I am ignorant, upon the 
 tender confcience of Mr. Wilberforce : and as the 
 fmallefl fpark is frequently fufficient to produce- 
 
270 
 
 an unlimited conflagration, it fpread with' refiftlef* 
 impetuofity over all England, and from England 
 over all the continent. Amidft the numerous wild-' 
 fires that fcorched, rather than enlightened man- 
 kind at the fame moment,, the ignes fatui of illu- 
 minifm, Gofmopolitanifm, and theophilanthropifmi 
 this, ; however, was a holy flame, and, inflead 
 of ridiculing its origin, we have only to lament that' 
 it poflelTed fo little of vefl:al perpetuity. Dr. 
 Geddes, who was too bold a mart and too found 
 a logician not to purfue a principle he had once 
 i'T.bibed through all the extent of its legitimate 
 confequences — for the very reafon that he had 
 longed for a more general toleration in England, 
 and hailed the apparent triumph of liberty in 
 France * could not' do otherwife than wifh fuccefs 
 to the abolition of African flavery. To wilh and 
 to afl: were with him the fame thing : and having, 
 obferved that every argument which could be fe- 
 rioufly advanced againft this abominable traffic, t6 
 adopt his own language, " in Greek and Latin, 
 French and Englifh, philofdphy and oratory, 
 profe and verfe, had been alternately and fuccef- 
 lively employed" in vain, he advances with an ar- 
 gument of a different defcription, and with an equal, 
 admixture of humor and feverity appeals advere- 
 cundiam, by pretending to embrace the converfe 
 fide of the queftion, aad thus to appear as a^ 
 
271 
 
 ftrenuoUs advocate for the trade in human blood t 
 he publiflied therefore at this period his " A'pc- 
 iogy for Slavery." Often as the feelings of na- 
 ture and humanity and the diftates of religion 
 had been introduced, to anathefnatize the whole 
 fyftein, our author fatirically demonftrates that the 
 two former have uniformly, arid the latter gene- 
 rally, encouraged and enjoined it. This pamphlet, 
 for obvious reafons, was publiflied anqnymoufly : 
 but the features of Dr. Geddes were as eonfpi- 
 cuous in his ftyle and arrangement as in his coun- 
 tenance, and no mafquerade of a foreign name or 
 of an anonymous introduftion could conceal him 
 from the eye of the inquifitive.- The following ex- 
 trafl: from the apology before us will fufficiently 
 explain what I mean : 
 
 " It remains to be examined how fa,r the cries 
 of religion have been heard^ are heard, or ought 
 to be heard, on the fubjefl: in queflion. 
 
 " And here, indeed,.! am obliged to own, that 
 a Being, called Religion, feems actually to have, 
 once at leaft, exerted her voice in favor of uni- 
 verfal freedom; and exerted it in fo benign, gentle, 
 arid,enchanting a manner, that, if the .'exertion had 
 long continued, I fear that nature and humanity 
 would- have loft their influence with refpe£l: to man. 
 Her voice was heard through the organ of Jesus, 
 in fo audible, diftinft^ and unequivocal a manner, 
 
'2V^ 
 
 as iiot to be mifunderftood. By his moutii fhrf 
 tells us, that, in point of liberty, fhe admits' df 
 no diftinctions. Jew and Gentle, Greek arid Bar- 
 barian, the circumcifed and undrcumcifedi are 
 there, eg^ually free. All men are onr neighbours, 
 our brethren j whom Ihe willeth us to love as our- 
 felves. The rule of our condud towards others 
 muft, according, to her, be that which we wilh 
 them to hold towards us. Cruelty, rapine, cozen- 
 age, and every.fortof oppreffion, for ever exclude 
 from HER kingdom. 
 
 *' That fuch a religion fhould weep over the mi* 
 fery of our Negroes, I am willing to believe. Het 
 great High-priest moft certainly did weep, in 
 her name, oter lefs mifery than theirs. He blended 
 his tears with thofe of two afFeftionate fifters, who 
 had loft their brother by fair death j and even 
 raifed him from the. dead to remove their caufe of 
 tears. He wept over the futui'e miferies of Jeru-r 
 falern^ when its inhabitants were plotting his de- 
 ftrafilion ! Such a religion, I fay, once exdfted, and 
 may poffibly ftill exift in Eutopia or in heaven i 
 but who, for thefe fifteen hundred years, has feeii 
 her, or. heard her crying, through, compaffion, on 
 this fublunary globe? — Her namejake, that affumed 
 her place in the reign of Confbntine,-fo far from 
 weeping at human mifery, has, ever fmce, beea 
 one of the principal caufes of it. She has literally 
 
Verified, what the chriftian legiflator faid of her 
 predeeeflbr, in a metaphorical fenfe : file has fet 
 the fori againfl: the father, and the father agairift 
 the fon, and put a fword in the hand of bn6 
 brother to flab another. — Not to mention Pagdm, 
 'jews,'6r Mahommedans; let the feO: of Chriflimi 
 be pointed out, in which Ihe has not abetted every 
 ipeeies of intolerantifm. Who, but fhe, prompted' 
 the Athanafians to calumniate and maltreat the 
 Ariansi and thefe to retaliate on the Athana- 
 fians ?■ Who, but file, excited the Donatift and 
 Vandalic perfecutions ? Who, but fhe, fowed the 
 feeds of diffenfion between the Greek and Latin 
 churches ; and made a breach of communion that 
 is never likely to be healed? Who, but fhe, autho- 
 rized Charlemagne to butchei* in cold blood four 
 t-hoiifand Saxons, and to dragoon as many more 
 df them into the, faith? Who, but fhe, made an 
 ambitious pope* facrifice his confcience to a cruel 
 ufurper f, for the vain title of Univerjal Bijhop ? 
 Who, but fhe, infpired his fucceffors in the fee of 
 Rome to attempt and ctceomplifh the fpiritual fub- 
 jugation of the weflern world to their affumed au- 
 thority ? Who, but fhe, emboldened Gregory VII. 
 to feize alfo the fword of civil power, and to cori- 
 fider kings and emperors as his vaffals and flaveS ? 
 Who, but fhe, infpired even the fathers of a gene- 
 
 * Boniface III. f Phocas. 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 ral fynod to vote* the burning of John Hufs and 
 Jerome of Prague, in fpite of the fafe condud of an 
 emperor ? Who, but fhe, was the mother of the 
 INQUISITION ? And who, but fhe, diftates'an au- 
 To-DE-FE ? "Who, but (he, in fhort, at once con- 
 dems the foul to hell, and the body to the flames ? 
 
 " Ghofts of the Albigenfes, fo cruelly butchered 
 by the religious Montfort, authorized by a papal 
 bull ! Ghofts of Vanini and Servetus, who fell, 
 the one ' a viftim to papiftic, the other to Galvi- 
 niftic zeal! Ghofts of papifts and proteftjuxts, 
 whom our fuprerae head of the church, the godly 
 Henry, burned at the ^fame flake ! Ghofts of Lati- 
 mer and Ridley, whom not even the wifh of a 
 cardinal could refcue from the fangs and faggots 
 of the orthodox Bonner ! Ghoft of the much-in- 
 jured amiable Mary, who fell a facrifice, not 
 barely to the jealoufy of our virgin queen, but to 
 the fafety of our infant church! — Say, could 1 
 fummon you from your feats of repofe, to atteft 
 to the truth of what I have here advanced, would 
 you not cry out with one voice— in the words of 
 Lucretius, ' Yes, yes ! tantum fotuit Juadere malo- 
 rum reUgio'!' 
 
 " "With what face, after this, c^ the fticklers for 
 the abplition of.flavery introduce Religion, even in 
 
 * Lata eflfententia fatrum, cremendos ejk eontumaces, Eneas 
 Sylv. 
 
275 
 
 her prefent dhriftian garb, pleading with tears for 
 liberty to a fet of unchriftened favages, to whom 
 the name of Christ is only known through the 
 blafphemies of their chriftian tafk-mafters ? ShEj 
 who makes no fort of fcruple to enflave, perfecute, 
 and torture her own baptized children ! — Mr. 
 Wilberforce and his affodates may be able to 
 point out a few individual clergymen of every de- 
 nomination, who' have openly declared themfelves 
 the enemies of flavery ; but their voice can nevep 
 be called that of Rehgion, who fpeaks only by ejia- 
 blijhed churches. Until then, the church of Eng- 
 land and the kirk of Scotland (for the chnrch of 
 .Rome is here out of the queftion) have clearly 
 delivered their oracles ex cathedra, and thundered 
 anathemas againft the flave trade, we muft con- 
 fider the genuine voice oiReligim, fuch as Ihe is in 
 thefe latter days, as on our fide of the queftion. 
 
 *' On the whole j. I truft, I haVe fully proved, 
 liiat the arguments derived by our adverfaries, 
 from the pretended cries of nature, humanity, and 
 reUgion, in favor of the abolition of flavery, are futile 
 and frivolous in the extreme. I proceed now to offer 
 my reafons why flavery ought not to be aboliflied." 
 
 Thefe are derived and purfued in the fapae iro- 
 nic manner from the laws of nature; the law of 
 nations J the diving pofitive law; the larws of felf- 
 iaterefl; the laws of luxury; and the laws of ftate- 
 
270 
 
 l^eifiency. Upon thefe I need not enlarge* as 
 the train of reafoning is fufEciently obvious already* 
 The following is a part of the paragragh with 
 which the writer concludes : *' Ye Foxes and 
 Windhams, ye Smiths and Wilberforces ! give up, 
 give up your vain purfuit. What though the mini'- 
 fter lend you his fingle voice ? what though he lend 
 it -YOVi Jerimjly ? The voice of the minifttr will, on 
 this Gccafion, be drowped by the voice of mi- 
 niftefiaUfts j and your oppoiition here will be as 
 ineffeftual with him on youy fide as it is every 
 where elfe when he is againft you." 
 
 Whether ornot a fudden emancipation or gra- 
 dual abolition of Weft Indian flavery be raoft coiw 
 fiftent with the dilates of reafon or even humanity 
 is not the queftion here agitated. If the traffic be in- 
 trinfically criminal it is impoffible to retain one man 
 for one moment in fo abafed a fervitude, devoid oi 
 fome portion of guilt j and yet, fuch is the dilemma, 
 if we may determine from the late fituation of 
 thofe French iflands in which the experiment has 
 been made, to which we are reduced, that an ab- 
 rupt and univerfal emantipation would probably 
 be attended with more moral and ptiyfical evi^ 
 than even a temporary but gradually relaxing per- 
 feverance in this very criminality itfelf. So true 
 is the obf^rvation which Ihave fom^wheremet in 
 the writings of Mr, Eiarke, that -if is poffible-fer 
 
a77 
 
 certjijn principles to be theoretically right vib^Q 
 they are praftically wrong. 
 , To the Britilh fenate both plans, however, have 
 been fubmitted, and fvibmitted fo repeatedly as to 
 become far more tedious than " a twice-told.tale." 
 How it came to pafe that^ with all the eloquence 
 conjoined with the vote of fuch a man as Mr. Htt 
 ^1 vfevor of the abolition of the flave trade, this 
 3(3: of national J uftice has not yet been obtained^ 
 and that " the voice of the minijier" has been ac-r 
 tually and repeatedly " Hrowned by the voice of 
 mmjierialifis'! XJxa& appear a myftery to ^hofe 
 who have not attended to the finefle and duplicity 
 ^hich Mr. Pitt feems never to have hefitated 
 tQ employ in cafes of political urgency. The ge- 
 jj,eral in;fluence of this nunifter over his own par- 
 j^9|jient is well known; and his warmeft and moft 
 ^©nfidential friends do not deny. that. he could 
 have obtained his .ufu^l majority in both houfes if 
 he had cordially ejterted hjiiifelf Jfor< this purpofe. 
 To fay that l^r. Diindas was againft the. queftion, 
 and th^Kefore it was loft, is to .espte a laugh at. this 
 gentleman's expenfe, Mr, Dundas has uniformly 
 difcovered top much complaifance for Mr. Pitt to 
 have entertained at any time ain opinion of hjs own, 
 when he knew his 'colleague to hp,ve been deter- 
 nuned upon the acqiiifition of any particular objefl:, 
 be it what.it:m^ht; and; admitting the fmcerity 
 of Mr. JPitt-T-that it ihould have been carried, ^s it 
 
278 
 
 aftually was once or twice in the lower houfe, and 
 at length loft in the upper, is more extraordinary 
 ftill— ^that it ftiould have been loft in that houfe 
 over which the Weft Indian merchants have but 
 little comparative control 5- and in which the peers 
 of Mr. Pitt's own creation were at the time fo nu- 
 merous asalmoft to have enfured him a majority 
 againft thofe of an earlier exiftence. In fad, when 
 we contemplate Mr. Pitt's total dereliftion of every 
 political principle he had profeffed on the moment 
 of his acceffion to power, we can fcarcely believe 
 him to have been fincere in his prior profeffipn of 
 thofe principles; when we examine his conduft 
 Tefpefting the repeal of the teft and corporation 
 aft, it is impoffible not to behold ja degree of difin-" 
 genuity towards the diffenters which cannot be 
 eftimated at lefs than deceit; and when, in the 
 prefent inftance, we furvey him confenting to Ibfe 
 a queftion repeatedly, in his own oftenlible opi- 
 nion founded equally on moral and political juf- 
 tice, and of the utmoft importance to the intereft 
 of Great Britain that it fhould be carried; when 
 we fee him trufting to the mental perfuafion of 
 his voice alone, without having recourfe^in any 
 one inftarice, to that phyfical and co-operating 
 influence to which upon every other occafion he 
 was accuftomed to refort, it is not in human nature 
 (to adopt a favorite phrafeology of his own) to be- 
 lieve that he was ferious in the caufe he pretended 
 
279 
 
 to efpoufe. He obtained neverthelefs the popula- 
 rity he fought after and was fatisfied. No party 
 indeed feems to have been highly difpleafed : the 
 people felt that they had at leaft triumphed by the 
 force of argument— and the Weft Indian merchants 
 by the force o/fafl:. In one refpedf however Mr. 
 Pitt has grofsly . deviated from his engagement 
 upon this fubjeft; for during the laft difcuffion of 
 it in the houfe of commons- he exprefsly afferted 
 that the abolition of the flave trade was fo inti* 
 mately conneded with the very exiftence of our 
 Weft Indian colonies, that if the motion were not 
 carried in the form in which it was then prefented, 
 he ftioiild feel it his indifpenfable duty to bring it 
 forwards ftiortly afterwards in his official chara£ter; 
 and he pledged himfelf to the houfe that he would 
 thus aft. Five long years, neiverthelefs, afterwards 
 rolled on, and Mr. Pitt's pledge ftill remained as 
 unfulfilled as that concerning a reformation of 
 parliament ; both of them indeed appearing to be 
 alike poftponed to the Greek calends. 
 • The work which at this time occupied the chief 
 attention of the public was Mr. Cowper's tranfla- 
 tion of the Iliad and Odyffey. The talents this 
 moft excellent but unfortunate bard had evinced, 
 and the reputation he had acquired by his poem of 
 The Tajk, ftamped a deep imprfiffion upon the 
 world in his favor ; and the verfion was at length 
 publiihed in two fplendid quartos, with a lift of 
 
?8Q 
 
 five hundred fubfcribers, including thenames of 
 almoft all the nobility and men of letters in the 
 nation. It is not to be wondered at therefore that 
 in this lift fhould appear the name of Alexander 
 Geddes, LL. D. Geddes indeed regarded Cbwper 
 as the firft poet of his day. I have repeatedly heard 
 him affert that,independently of the ftrength as well 
 as occafional beauty of his verlification, he believed 
 there was no man living to whom as a philologift thfe 
 Englifh language was fo much indebted as to this 
 admirable poet: for that there was no man who had 
 with fo much fuccefs refufcitated from the girave of 
 oblivion words which ought never to have become 
 obfolete; imported exotic terms which feemed fo 
 happily to harhionize with our own tpngue, that 
 almoft every one who met with them wondered 
 they had not been imported before ; or gaVe a new 
 and more charafteriftic fenfe to many \(rhich had 
 been long in common ufe. Among the books of hi^ 
 library was an edition of Johnfon's Diftionary in- 
 terleaved with blank pages for manufcript and 
 curfory remarks; anH among thefe the name of 
 Cowper occurs more frequently, I believe, than 
 that of any other author, as a fource of additicAi and 
 improvement to this valuable work. Dr. Geddes 
 has adverted to him on account of the pre-eminence 
 of his mufe in the pamphlet upon the Slave Trade, 
 ifrom which I have juft quoted; and in his Latin 
 
?8l 
 
 |;iegy. " .to theShacie of GilbfeEt Wakefield" he 
 aifigns him a place ia the iElyfian gardens among 
 Hoimer, Virgil, Lucretius, lyEIton, Shakefpear, and 
 feveral other poets of the firft celebrity in antient 
 and modern times. 
 
 -fecus ac Cowperus, flebilis ifiie. 
 
 Oreo quein ante dietq bills acerbadedit. 
 
 -Nor remotely roves 
 
 Pale Cowper, dill by many a friend bewailed. 
 Whom melancholy to the infernal groves 
 I Sent immature, ere nature half had failed'^. 
 
 , But however high the opinion of Dr. Geddes 
 concerning Cowper as an original poet, he did not 
 think him qualified to become a tranflator of Ho^s. 
 pier. Cowper had never, critically ftudied the 
 Greek language, and at the time of commencing 
 his verfion had nev^r read a fingle fcholiaft upoa 
 him, although iiis profefled objeS: . was to give a 
 yerfion verbally accurate and equivalent. Pope 
 was rivjreover the idol of Geddes, and eftimated 
 by him as highly above Cowper as Cov?per was 
 9,bpve liis contemporaries: £ind he could not but 
 look with a jealous eye upon every one ■yirhQ at- 
 tempted to rival the poet of his heart. 
 
 If Pope were a fuperficial Greek fcholar, he did 
 ?iot regard Cowper as more profound, and believ- 
 
 '-'■ » See the entire Hegyi in chap, xiv, of this work. 
 
282 
 
 liig him to have lefs talent in the mechanifin of 
 vei-fification, he was perfuaded he was lefs quali- 
 fied tq bend the mighty bow^of Ulyffes. The re* 
 fiilt has abundantly proved' that Geddes was not 
 miftaken. Mr. Cowper's tranflation has by no 
 mean^ fatisfied the expeftations of the^ public: he 
 has neither added to his own fame nor to that of 
 Homer. Geddes was difgufted from the very firfl 
 page, and in a fit of undue exafperatioa declared 
 he would tranflate Homer himfelf, and fhow that 
 it was poffible to make as good verfification, while 
 hepreferved not only all the epithets and phrafe- 
 blogies of the original, which Mr. Cowper has not 
 dons, but the very order itfelf. Yet, what appears 
 J)rincipally to have irritated him, was Mr. Cow- 
 per's declaration towards the clofe of his preface 
 of acknowledgnients to' " the learned and ingeni- 
 ous Mr. Fufeli," whom he-ftyies in the fame pl^ce 
 *' the beft critic in Homer I have ever met with." 
 Accident had frequently thrown Dr. Geddes and 
 Mr. Fufeli into the fame company, and much 
 learned duft had as frequently been excited be- 
 tween the two critical combatants, not at all times 
 to the amufement of the reft of therefpedlive par- 
 ties. Whatever opinion Mr. Fufeli may hence 
 have entertained of the powers of his antagonift, 
 it is certain that Dr. Geddes was not very deeply 
 impreffed,witlj thok of Mr. Fufeli, and that he 
 fcarcely allowed him the merit to which he is ac- 
 
283 
 
 tually -entitled. When, therefore, he found in 
 Mr. Coiyper's preface, that inftead of confulting 
 the profound erudition and fterling authorities of 
 Stephens,'^Clarke, Ernefti, and Villoifon, he had 
 turned to Mr. Fufeli as his only oracle, and had 
 gloried in fubmitting to the whole of his correc- 
 tions and emendations — to his difappointment at 
 the inadequacy of the verfion, waS added a con- 
 tempt of the quarter to which he had fled for at 
 fiftance. 
 
 To refolve and to execute were with Geddes 
 almoft the fame thing; and having precipitately- 
 determined upon a literal verfion of the Iliad in 
 Englilh iaitibics, the public were prefented with a 
 fpecimen of it, comprifing the wbole of the firfl 
 book, in the beginning of 1792: in the preface to 
 which the author, in oppofitidn to Mi-. Cowper, 
 who had afferted that he found more difficulty in 
 compofing blank verfe with its due variation of 
 paufe and cadence than in flringing rhymes — saf- 
 firms, that he has preferred blank verfe, becaufein- 
 dependehtly of its fuperior harmony it ismjuch ea- 
 fier to conftru£t than rhyme; that it is " haf dly 
 credible how readily the Greek of Homer tufmbles" 
 into verfe of the former defcription; and thinks 
 -he " can with eafe caft off a hundred lilies in a fore- 
 noon." In conclufion, "I beg leave," fays he, "to 
 affure the readers that neither Fufeli, nor any other 
 profound critic in Homer, has givenme the fmallefl 
 
?84 
 
 ^iftance. The whole merit or demferit of my ver^ 
 fi^onrefts folely with myfelf." 
 
 It would be extravagant to fuppofe, whatever 
 iftay have been our tranflator's own opinion upon 
 the fubjeft, that there can be any degfee of har- 
 mony or euphonious cadence in verfes thus preci- 
 pitately huddle4 together, and oftenfibly limited to 
 the very words of the original. The attempt there- 
 fi>re failed, and he never proceeded beyond the firft 
 book of the Iliad. It is never thelefs tolerably cd- 
 culated to fliowthe comparative adherence of other 
 tranflators to the Homeric' type; and had Mr. 
 Wakefield's Greek and Englifli Diftionary fuc- 
 qeeded, and introduced the cuftom of learning the 
 former ^thout the medium of Latin, it wduld 
 have anfwered the purpofe of a convenient EngUfli. 
 ordo. , The reader will not be difpleafed with a 
 fpecimen or two cdmpared with the fame paflages 
 from Mr. Cowper. The poem opens as follows v 
 
 Myjviv oceth Siea, ni]XT)iafsaiA;^fA,A.:jof 
 
 HoWcc; S' Kp^ifjuovi ^u%«f aiiSt iepoia.'^ev 
 Mfwuiv auTovi ^ sKtupta, feu^e xvvstrfftv, 
 Ouuvaiffi re ira.in.< Aiof S" ste^stero ?9«Xi)* 
 Egou Sij to. tlpuxtv. hx(rtr{ft(t sgia-avrs, 
 A-rpBtSyjs fi oivit,^ avSjuiv xai Sios A%iXXeuj. 
 
 Jhe parage is thus rendered by Mr. Cowper: 
 
 Achilles fing, O Goddefs ! Peleus' fon ; 
 Hi? wrath pernicious, who ten thoiifand wots 
 
285 
 
 Caufed to Achaia's hoft> fent manjr a foul 
 lUuftripusinto Ades premature. 
 And heroes gave (fo (tqod the w^U of Jove) 
 To dogs and to all ravening fowls a prey. 
 When fierce difpute had feparated once 
 The noble chief Achilles from the fon 
 Of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men. 
 
 In Dr. Geddes it occurs as follows : 
 
 XHe wrath fing, Goddefs ! of-the-fon-of-Peleus 
 Achilles, dire ; which myriads on the Greeks 
 Of woes impofed ; and many worthy fouls. 
 To Hades prernaturely'-fent of heroes; 
 And them a prey prepared to dogs, and all 
 The-ravenous birds ; (of Jove thus was-fulfilled 
 The will) from what time ^rflly difagreed 
 Striving, Atrides, king of-men, and the- 
 Divine Achilles. 
 
 Of thefe rival renderings it cannot but be 
 obferved,,that they are both more disjointed than 
 the original; the inverfions of which are, neverthe- 
 lefs, indigenous beauties, and appropriate to the 
 Greek tongue. They are alfo, nearly equally weak 
 and paraphraftic, each of them omitting, in direfl: 
 contradidion to their pretenfions, feveral of the 
 Grecian poet's happieft epithets and turns which 
 might haVe been retained, while in both we meet 
 with many others introduced that are not to be 
 "found in Homer. The tautolbgy in Cowper of 
 ** Achilles fing — =His wrath pernicious"— is tame, 
 8 
 
286 
 
 and has no fcnmdation in the original, which con- 
 fines the poet's prayer to " the wrath" of Achilles 
 alone. In thisTefped: the commencement of G^d- 
 des has the advantage, but the pofition of the epi- 
 thet dire in the fecond line is more remote from its 
 immediate predicate than in the Greek, and feems, 
 in fpite of the comma, to appertain to Achilles him- 
 /elfraXlxeT than to his wrath. Caufed, v. 3, is a very 
 imbecile term in Cowper;— and neither "'illustri- 
 ous" nor " worthy," as it is rendered by Geddes, 
 affords the real meaning of/^5/ji/.oiif, which is rather 
 bold, darings undaunted. " So stood the will of 
 Jove," y. 5, is a colloquial vulgarifm, which we 
 have fome how or other derived from the Ita- 
 lians, and which is altogether, unbecoming the dig- 
 nity of the epic mufe. Come sta, V. S., or " how 
 STANDS /'/ with you to-day " may do in a market- 
 place, but makes a forry appearance in iambic 
 poetry. It becomes me neverthelefs to obferve, 
 that Cowper is the firftEnglilh poet who has given 
 the true meaning of this fentence as it occurs in 
 the ■ original, A/os V iTsKits^o SouXj?, and has con- 
 fined it to an abrupt parenriietic reflexion of the 
 poet himfelf. Geddes has juftly followed him: 
 but in Dryden, and Pope, who was ever ready to 
 avail himlelf of Dryden's fuperior erudition, it 
 ^ompofes a part of the poet's direfl: addrefs to his 
 Oitjfe, and erroneoufly ftates that fuch was the will 
 
287 
 
 of Jove, not as a determination 'preordained , but 
 in conjequence of the difpute between the two Gre- 
 cian chiefs: thus the latter poet concluding mo e- 
 over with a ufelefs Alexandrine tautology that, to 
 adopt an image of his own, " like a wounded 
 fnake, drags its flow length along:" 
 
 Since great Achilles, and Atrides flrove. 
 
 Such was the fovcreign dooRi, and fuch the will of Jove. 
 
 Thephrafe " dijagreed^jirivhig," in Geddes is 
 extremely uncouth and pleonaftic, as well as total- 
 ly ihconfiftent with the original, which is far more 
 accurately rendered by his antagonift. , The terni 
 *' Agamemnon" in the laft line of Cowper is ne- 
 verthelefs altogether fupernumerary, and not to 
 be found in the original; and the epithet " nolle" 
 in the preceding is by no means equivalent to 
 %iog in the Greek. In reality its precife^ meaning 
 has not been caught by any of our poets. Pope 
 fays " great Achilles," which gives a fmaller va- 
 lue of the Greek than " noble-" Geddes divine 
 Achilles," and Dryden " godlike:' Of thefe 
 Geddes's interpretation is the beft, but ftill it is not 
 charafteriftic, the epithet referring to theceleftial 
 origin of the. hero, and only to be faithfully ren- 
 dered by fome fhch phrafe as keaven-fprung, hea- 
 •ven-begot, or Jove-defcended. It is placed in dire£t 
 oppofition to the charaSleriftic title of Atrides, who 
 is fignificantly denominated " king of mankind." 
 9 
 
28S 
 
 In Mt. Cowper's fecond edition, ptiblifhed fmcift 
 his deceafe, he has altered the paffage thus: 
 
 Sing, Mufe, the deadly; wrath of Peleus' fon 
 Achilles, fource of many thoufand woes 
 To the Achaian hoft, which nntnerbui fouls 
 Of heroes fent to Ades premature. 
 And left their bodies to devouring dogs 
 And birds of heaven (fs Jove his will performed^ > 
 From that dread hour when difcord firft embroiled 
 Achilles, andAtrides Hing of men. 
 
 The whole period runs much more fluently, and 
 though flxorter by a line than in the firfl edition, 
 gives equally the general fenfe ctf the original^ 
 The principal omiflions are that oiF iipQi^ovg, rent 
 dered, but improperly, " illuftrious" in the firfl; 
 copy, and the total fupprefjion of S/of,the ch^irac- 
 teriftic quality of the birth of Achjlles, before ren- 
 dered, but with equal inadequacy, " noble." Mvpt 
 (myri) isnowtranflated " msay thoitfafid ;" in the. 
 prior edition it is " ten thoufand:" Geddes has 
 given it more accurately by adopting its Englifl^ 
 derivative " myriads." 
 
 , Germany has lately produced two poets who 
 have been tiying their rival ftrength upon the 
 fame fubjeft, and each of thc'm with^ admirable 
 fuccefs. M. Burger of (Gottihgen, alrisady for hiR^ 
 bailads celebrated aniong ourfelves, and IVI. Vofs,. 
 who hasj'uft given a complete yerfxpn, of both ,th& 
 
289 
 
 Iliad and Odyffey. Each has followed Klopftok in 
 ' the ufe of hexameter verfe, which has now the 
 promife of being almcli exclufively appropriated 
 in this language to the epic mufe. If the reader 
 will excufe me from rambling fo far (it is claffic 
 ground we are traverfing) I will prefent him with 
 the above introduftion of the Iliad as rendered by 
 both. The firft is the produftion of M. Burger. 
 
 Gottin, finge den zorn der Peleiden Achilleus, 
 
 Jenen verderblichen, welcher der Gfeichen unennbare* 
 
 weh fchuf, 
 Viele tapfere feelen der helden dem Aides zuftieis, 
 Jhre leichnam aber den hunden und allem gevogel 
 Dar zum raubnnahl both. So ward Zeus wille vollendet 
 Seit der zeit, da zuerft Agamemron, hgrrfchcr der volk^r, 
 Und der gottliche held Acbilleus hadernd fich trenntcn. 
 
 Mf Vpf§ is not very different, 
 
 ■ Singe den zorn, O Gottin, des Peleiaden Achilleus, 
 
 Ihn der entbrannfe, den Achaiern unennbaren janvmer eregte 
 Und viel tapfere feeler) d«r heiderfohne ziim Ai's 
 Seitdete, aber fie felbll zum (aub darftellte den hunden, 
 Um dem gevogel umher. So ward Zeus wille vollendet : 
 Seit dent tag', als erfl durch bittern zank (ich entzweiten, 
 Atreus fbhn, der hepcher dcjs vqlKs, und der ed!e Achilleus.' 
 
 Both thefe v^rfions, while they poflefs more 
 fpirit and variety than thofe of either 'Cowper or 
 Geddes, are neverthelefs more true to the ori- 
 ginal : the latter, however, has the advantage in 
 Jsoldnefs and fubljmity, and is throughout aia in. 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 comparable produdtion.- The Jenen welcher of 
 the firft, and its parallel Ihn der of the-^ lafty are 
 too paraphraftic and tautological-^the; latter word 
 alone being fufEcient in each^ and all that occurs 
 in the original. The entbrannt of M. Vofs (fiery y 
 furious), gives by no means the value of ovKepa^jjv 
 -in Homer, and is far better rendered by M. 
 Burger, verderblicheit, or, in the wor-ds of Mr. 
 Cowper, " pernicious" and " deadly." I muft ob- 
 ferv.e alfo that neither of the German bards has 
 accurately interpreted Trpotu^sy, which -not only 
 implies to Jend or diffAifs, biit, in the language of 
 all our Englilh poet's, to ffefld'or MxciS& ■prematurely 
 or untimely. Nor is the charaderiffic epithet of 
 Achilles preferved better by the German than the 
 Englifh tranflators, the former, like Dryden, em- 
 ploying the term godlike " gottliche" and die 
 latter, like Cowper, Hohle "" edle." 
 
 Both, however, have cbmprifed their Verfion in 
 the fame number of lines, and nearly of fyllables, 
 as the original. It is faid' that the Engliih iambic 
 of ten fyllables is not competent to the verfion 
 of a Latin or Greek hexameter, which unqudlion- 
 ably exteiids to a number in fome degree larger. 
 But if we refleO; on thfe augmentation of fyllables 
 produced in the two latter tongues beyond that 
 of the former, I think it may be allowed that the 
 iambic meafure in Englifli is very nearly adequate 
 
291 
 
 tO' a conveyance of all the ideas which can bg iii- 
 tj;od«aed into the Greek hexameter; and perhaps 
 ako^ther fo, if we admit occafionally, which I 
 neverthelefs thiafc a blemifh in- Englifh poetry not- 
 withftanding. the frequency of the pra^ice, the 
 hypermeter or redundant fyllable at the termina- 
 tion of a verfe. II will endeavour to prove this 
 afl|rtion, if the reader will forgive the audacity of 
 iiich an aittempt after fuch a variety of fpecimens 
 &brti> poets and feholars of the firft eminence — 
 by rendering line for liae^ and idea for idea, this 
 very period we have been fo fcrupuloufly invefli-- 
 gating; premifmg that in Dryden, Pope, and the 
 fecond edidon of Cowper, it occupies eight verfes, 
 in Gedd'es eight and a half, and in Cowper's firft 
 edition nine. 
 
 The deadly wrath of Peleus-fpfung Achilles 
 
 Sing, Mufe! — that myriad wpesth' Achafans wrought,* 
 
 And many a foul untimely hurled to hell 
 
 Of heroes brave ; and ftrewed their limbsj to dogs. 
 
 To birds, a prey— (fuch JoveV determined will !) 
 
 From when, in ire, Atrides, king of men-, 
 
 Firft parted, and the goddefe-born Achilles, 
 
 In this verfion the only fuppreffion is that of 
 the adjundt allQzs-dca-i) before birds; and the only 
 variation is that of " their limbs" for " thernf elves" 
 
 * Or thus, 
 
 Sing, GocWefs ! myriad woes'the Greeks that wrought, &c. 
 
 , 9 
 
292 
 
 (eiVTOvg), which the reader may fubftitute if he 
 choofe, and which M. Vofs adbually has done by 
 the term Jie Jelbft ; but which, however confiftent 
 with Grecian mythology at the asra of Homer, is 
 fcarcely to be tolerated in the prefent day ; all 
 whofe various fyftems of metaphyfics regard the 
 foul as the man himfelf, or at leaft the beft part 
 of himfelf. ^ 
 
 I fhall prefent the reader with but one more paf- 
 fage, and ftiall take it at random from the elofe 
 ef Agamemnon's fpeech to Calchas, in which he 
 refufes to reftore the venerable prieft's daughter to 
 her father. 
 
 Bi) 5" cxxewv ifa^cc Siivcc &c. 
 
 So faid-he. Fear'd the old-man, and obey'd 
 The-mandate. — Went- he filentby the-lhore 
 Of-the-loud fovinding fea. — Much, after-that, 
 (Alone while walking) pray 'd-he to-his-king 
 Apollo, whom fairrhair'd Latona bare. 
 " Hear me, O-maftcr-of-the-filver-bow ! 
 "■ Who Chryfa round*abaut-prote£teft, and 
 •' The divine Killa ; and o'er Tenedos 
 ♦' Higli empire-holdeft ; rat-deftroyer, if 
 *' To-thee I ever have a-gracious fane 
 " Adorn'd ; or e'er to-thee the-fatTfat thighs 
 *' Have-burn'd of-bulls and goats j me grant this wifli : 
 '' Let, on-the-Greeks, thine arrows 'venge my tesirsi." 
 §p fsjd-he, praying— and hitn heard Apollo, 
 
293 
 
 t)own-canis-he from Olympus' top j his heart 
 Imbil'dj a-bow-upon-iH-flioulders having, 
 And-an-all-round-about-clofe-cover'd quiver. 
 Sounded the-arrows on his flioulders, as- 
 In-ire he-moved. Relembling Night, he-came. 
 Then, fitting at-fome-diftance from-the-fliips, 
 A-dart he-fped j and dreadful was the clang 
 Of-the-argentine bow. Theitnules he, firft, 
 Invaded, and the-dogs {mh-footed ; but, eftfoonsj 
 Againft-/i«-«e«-themfelves a'deadly ftiaft 
 tHe-took and flang. — And aye the-funeral-pyles ^ 
 Burh'd tbick-and-thick. Nine-days, indeed, thirougtibut 
 Tbe-army flew the-arrows of-the-God. 
 
 Cowper's copy at this time before Geddes was 
 as follows : , 
 
 tie fpake : the old priefl trembled and obeyed, 
 Forlorn he roamed the ocean's founding (hore, 
 And, folitary, with much prayer his king,. 
 Bright-haired Latona's fon, Phoebus, implored. 
 " God of the filver bow, who with thy poW'er 
 Encirclcft Chryfa, and who reign'ft fupreme 
 ' In Tenedos, and Cilia the divine, 
 Sminthian Apollo L if I e'er adorned 
 (Thy beauteous fane, or on thy altar burned 
 The fat acceptable of bulls or goats, 
 Grant my petition — with thy (hafts avenge 
 On the Achaian hoft thy fervant's tears." 
 
 Such prayer he made, and it was heard. The Gocl 
 iDown from Olympus with his radiant bow, 
 And his full quiver o'er his (houlder flung, 
 Marched in hi« anger ; ihaken as he moved 
 
294 
 
 His rattling arrows told of hts approach. 
 ■ Gloomy he came as Night ; fat from the fliips 
 Apart, and fent an arrow. Clanged the cord, 
 Dread-founding, bounding on the filver bow. 
 Mules firft and dogs he flruck, but at thenifelves 
 Difpatchingfoon his bitter arrows keen. 
 Smote them. Death-piles on all fides always blazed. 
 Nine days' thTongholit the camp his arrows flew. 
 
 This paflage is rendered by each of the tranfla- 
 tors more literally than that juft quoted. The 
 verfe in Geddes 
 
 Silent went he by the (hore 
 ' 0( the louji-Jbuttdmg {ez — 
 
 is fuperior to the fame in Cowper, and more true 
 to the original, 
 
 Forlorn he roamed the ocean's founding (hore. 
 
 In the fecond edition of the latter it is thus va- 
 ried and improved : 
 
 Silent he roamed the loud-remurmuring ftiore. 
 
 The phrafe raZ-^^ray^r, .however, which oc- 
 curs in Geddes is intolerably vulgar as applied to 
 Apollo. It is true it contains the literal meaning- 
 of the Greek ^^iv^cv (Smintheil); but as in the 
 prefent day we are in the habit of recurring to the 
 Grecian language for the greater part of our tech- 
 nical terms, it would have been far better to have 
 
295 
 
 followed theie?cample of Cowper :by. retaining the 
 joriginal. term, which the note upon this part of the 
 text already appended in Geddes's verfion .would 
 -have fufficiently explained. If the phrafe ."/«/Api- 
 ve'r" as in Cowper nxeet.fcarcely the whole idea pf 
 aijtjpi^s<psx (fiapyjT^'ijy^ that .of ;" an-^U-round-aboutr 
 i:loje-eover£d quiver," as interpreted by Geddes, is ^ 
 ■moft r^ound-about expreffion indeed. The poet 
 means to defcribe a quiver perfeftly filled and co- 
 vered over with arrows on every fide, and might 
 'have been rendered much more briefly " an alL- 
 o'-er-iove'nd-quiv.er." Vofahas.well .given. it rinjgven- 
 ifihlgffmbi-kocben. — ^Cowper's phrafe, " Gloomy he 
 ^ame. as night, "is admirable, and cannot but remind 
 us of Miltpn's ^' .Blaok-it flood m w/g-/&/,''i.wh}ch-the 
 latter- borrowed i^perhaps from this -very pi£lure of 
 ^.^jdllo. ^I am fbrry to 'find the paffage altered in 
 Cowper?s fecond edition Xo vthe more feeble phra- 
 seology of '•'■r'Likg imght .hs tame" which is far 
 more proiiiG,;and mot niore iftri€tLy literal than 
 -Geddes'^ ** R^emUii^g Might* ' The- firfl verfion 
 df Qowper is that of Vofs, but more fublime and 
 ^rhagi^Qeaty dieter wie'nachtgraun, "dark as the 
 ■night-g^om:" jingentine, ia Geddes, is not an 
 'EngUfli wprdj^and^if^oBJ- and-^jy^ are far too an- 
 -tiquated for -modern ufe;:but "funeral-piles" is 
 ^better than the '* death-piles" of las antagonift. 
 To -purfue^ tb& compaftfon ^any further would be 
 
296 
 
 ufelefs. It is abundantly proved, I think, that 
 Dr. Geddes completely failed in his obje£t; and 
 that, notwithftanding his fynthetic arrangement, 
 he has fcarcely given a clofer verlion of Homer 
 than Mr. Cowper, while in confequence of this ar- 
 rangement itfelf he has been betrayed into a per- 
 petual want of harmonious cadence, and a fre- 
 quent ufe of uncouth and obfolete expreflions. 
 That Mr. Cowper's tranflation is alfo highly im- 
 perfeft, is, I conceive, equally obvious; and in- 
 deed nothing can more clearly demonftrate his 
 own diffatisfadion with what he had done, than 
 the faft that in his fecond edition he has introduced 
 nearly one third of entirely new matter. By this 
 change, in many parts it has been Very effentially 
 improved : but I doubt much whether it will ever 
 become a popular work, or rival the more loofe 
 but more melodious verfion of Mr. Pope. 
 
 In the courfe of the fame year we meet with 
 another poetic efFuficoi, and in a ftrain altogether 
 humorous, and confequently far better managed, 
 from the pen of Dr. Geddes. It is a fliort poem 
 of one hundred and feventy-fdur lines, entitled 
 L'Avocat du Diable, and was written upon the 
 events of a fingular aftion for damages which, 
 many of my readers may ftill remember to have 
 been brought about this time in the court of 
 King's Bench, at the inftance of the late lordLonC. 
 
297 
 
 dale, againft the celebrated Peter Pindar, fof hav- 
 ing inlinuated in one of his ephemeral fatires that 
 Mr. Fufeli, after having been long hunting for 
 an appropriate figure whence he might paint a 
 ftriking likenefs of the devil, unluckily fixed upon 
 that of the ijoble earl. The defence was com- 
 mitted to the hands of Mr. Erfldne, who con- 
 duced it with hfs ufual addrefs, a,nd, by appealing 
 to the majeftic figure and deportment of Satan as 
 exijibited in the Paradife Loft, contended ftrenu- 
 oufly that his lordfhip could not be the perfon 
 defigned either by the poet or the painter, for that 
 no two perfonages were ever more unlike. The 
 little poem before us is a fort of parody upon this 
 part of the learned counfePs oration: and, follow- 
 ing up the argument, the jocular bard endeavors 
 to prove a total want of refemblance between the 
 two in almoft every quality both of body and 
 .mind J calculates the defamation of character which 
 the devil had hereby fuffered, and, as his advocate, 
 appeals to the Court of Uncommon Fleas, before 
 which the fpeech is fuppofed to be delivered, for 
 damages proportioned to the magnitude of the of- 
 fence. 
 
 The libel, my lords I ye, by this time, muft fee 
 To h&fcandal. magnat. in the higheft degree : 
 Yet, fuch is my client's good heart, he declin«t 
 To infill yxpoxipUhfy, prifah, ot fines .• 
 
298 
 
 And all that he alks is, that.neverjigaia 
 
 A flealei* in paint may his ehan^et .6.a,ia : 
 
 Th?' flev.^rag^iii, pr on panvas pr i>o!ird 
 
 His bead))e,depift;ir'd, like that of a Lohd. 
 
 This, my lords ! he expefts from the' laws of the land : 
 
 The court Qan't refuiebim To juft a demand. 
 
 I kpow, it has been hy alarri^er fsid, 
 That my client dare hardly call law to his aid. 
 Why, foriboth*?— iForfbis reafon— «"His hands -ai* not 
 
 clean. '' 
 .IJas feyer th,e petulant barriHer feen 
 The.hands o/my^idieBt ? J'll.wager a crown^ 
 That-^/i hands are as clean as the harri^ier's .«<((;». 
 
 Our author, in his introdiiftory addrefs to the 
 reader, after alluding to an alFertion of 'Mr. Pope, 
 that it was ealier.for him to exprds his ideas in 
 verfe than in profe even en ethical and metaphy- 
 iic fubjefts — continues, "1 am apt to think^ from 
 this fpecimen, that law matters are equally fufcep- 
 tible of verification, and that poetical pleadings 
 might be gradually introduced to the great im- 
 provement of the bar, and the no fmall fatisfa£tioft 
 of the judges and jury." Whether the reader 
 may be inducedto think with the doftor from his 
 own fpecimen I will not determine : but the ob- 
 fervation, though fportively advanced, is perfeftly 
 juft, and the trutji of it has , been .abundantly 
 proved fmce thispgriq^ bylVlr. Auftey's yeryrhu- 
 
29^ 
 
 morous and admirable poem, entitled " The Plead- 
 er's Guide;" who, from this piroof of faihily ta- 
 lent may almoft he ftyled, in the language of Mr. 
 Hayley, as applied to Torquato Taflb, 
 
 Of a poetic lire the more poetic fbn. 
 
300 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 T^e Biographer's Jirji introduSion to Dr. Geddes : int"- 
 frejpon made upon theformer^ during this interview — ' 
 Anecdotes refpeding the latter: his attachment to 
 Fbyjiogrmmy' as a fcience — -Syjiem and Treatife uport 
 'Rijiognortty — Aneddotc of- his Jkill in this individual 
 hranch of moral anatomy — DeJIruSion of his Treatife 
 and probable change in his fentiments — Engages a 
 houfe in Neiv Jload, Marj-le-bone- — His mechanic 
 employments and dexterity in the ufe of mechanic tools 
 — His attachment to horticulture — Green-houfe, and 
 Jchemes for its improvement — Three Secular Odes upon 
 the French Revolution — Tran/lation of the Ver- Vert 
 of Grejfet — Remarks on this tranflatian, A. D. 
 1793— 1793. 
 
 It was about this period, the ye^r 1793, 1 firll 
 became acquainted with Dr. Geddes. I met him 
 accidentally at the houfe of Mifs Hamilton, who 
 Las lately acquired a juft reputation for her excel- 
 lent Letters on Education : and I freely confefs 
 that at the firft interview I was by no means 
 pleafed with him. I beheld a man of about five 
 feet five inches high, in a black drefs put on with 
 uncommon negligence, and apparently never fitted 
 to his form. : his figure was lank, his face meagre, 
 
SOI 
 
 his hair ^ black, long and loofe, without having 
 been fufficiehtly fubmitted to the operations of the 
 toilet — and his eyes, though quick and vivid, 
 fparkling at that time rather with irritability than 
 benevolence. He was difputing with one of the 
 company when I entered, and the rapidity with 
 which at this moment he left his chair, and rufhed, 
 with an elevated tone of voice and uncourtly dog- 
 matifm of manner, towards his opponent, inftan- 
 taneoufly perfuaded me that the fubjeft upon 
 , which the debate turned was of the utmofl: mo- 
 ment, I liftened with all the attention I could 
 comniand ; and in a few minutes learned, to my 
 aftonilhment, that it related to nothing more 
 than the diftahce of his own houfe in the^ New 
 Road, Paddington, from the place of our meet- 
 " ing, which was in Guildford-ftreet. The debate 
 being at length concluded, or rather worn out, the 
 doftor took poffeffion of the next chair to that 
 in which I was feated, and united with myfelf and 
 a friend who fat on my other fide in difcdurfing 
 upon the politics of the day. On this topic we 
 proceeded fmoothly and accordantly for fome 
 time; till at length difagreeing with us upon fome 
 point as trivial as the former, he. again rofe ab- 
 ruptly from his feat, traverfed the room in every 
 direOion, with as indeterminate a parallax as that 
 , <?f a comet, loudly and with increafe of voice 
 
302 
 
 ifialritamiilg lUk pofifert ae eyeffft'ep he took. Not 
 Vl^iffliag to jirolo'% tike dilute, we yielded to hiut- 
 with(*iit ftirthtfi^ ifiteFfuptioft; attd ifl the couife of 
 jf fel* mitiules aftet' he hald clofed his harangue^ 
 he- agairi approached us, retook ^ffefllion- of his- 
 chair, and was all p%fiiliiefs, good hixiftor, anii 
 genuin'e -vi^it. 
 
 Upoii his retir'ettieiii; I irtqtiifed- of oitt aiftiabfe' 
 hoftells- whether this- were a fpecimeil ofhiscaffl- 
 rtiGrii difpofition, or whether any thing had parti- 
 cularlf ocGured to excite his irafcibilily. Fii(^ her 
 E learned that, with orie of thfi beft and mofl; bene- 
 vtofent hearts in the world, he was naturafly vgl?y 
 iffiiabld; but that his irritability was at the prefent 
 p&aM exacerbated by aflight degree of fevgr which: 
 had- for fome time affected his fpirfls, and wMcft 
 had probably been produced by S, confidferable de- 
 gree of very unmerited ill ufage artd difappoint- 
 Aient. I inftantly regarded hini iaa different light; 
 I fought his friendfliip, and I- obtained it ; and it 
 was not long^ before I myfelf wioieffed in his. ac- 
 tions a feries of benevolence and charitable exer- 
 tions, often beyond what prudence and a regard 
 to his own limited income would have didated, 
 that ftainped a higher efleem for him upon my 
 heart than all the general information and pro- 
 found learning he was univerfally known to 
 poflefs, and which gave him more promptitude 
 
60S 
 
 v^Tm' evfeiy fubj.g£i:' that happened t<> b& ftarted 
 thali'I-ever beheld in any othfer gerfoti.. I faw hira 
 irrJtafete^ but k was- the harmlefs eoiTufeation- of a 
 fimrfner evening's-' Aoirora— it no foonei? appeared 
 thain: it was fpenf, and no mifehfef enfuedi And 
 when* I- t'efleSed that if was- this^v-er-y irritability of 
 Ijerve that djscited'himto'tfthoufandaft-Sofkindiie-fe, 
 and prompted him tb debar himfelf of a thoufand 
 Uttie gi'atifications that he might? relieve the dif- 
 trelfed and' coftifbrt thd ferrow-ful,. I could fcarcelyr 
 laraerit that he pbffeffed it; or,, at leaft, T could 
 not avoid' contending that it carried a- very ample 
 apology: along widi its- Dr. Geddes himfelf was 
 by no- mean's- infenfible to this pfeeuliar chara^er- 
 iflsc of hib nature: he has' frequently lamentedit tef 
 mis in private, and I hav6 often beheld him. endea- 
 voring, to ftifle it in public, either by abruptly quit- 
 ting the room, or introduciing another- fubjedt. Oa 
 one octafron I remember particularly his doing 
 both. He was dining; with rtie in company with- 
 the^late Dr. Henry Flunt-er, of phyfiognoffionie 
 i&femory, the celebrated Abbe Delille; and feve- 
 ral dlSier. literary friends. Unfbr-tutiafely one of the 
 fubjefts advanced was phyfiogndmy itfelf. Ged- 
 des had read Lavater Avifh much attention, and ex- 
 preffedhimfelf extremely diffalasfied with the con- 
 fiifion and want of fyftem that feemed to prevail 
 in 'his writings; and -ftrhich, in his^ opinion, pre- 
 
304 
 
 eluded all poffibility of applying his doftrines with 
 precifion. Hunter, the friend and tranflator of La- 
 vater, immediately accepted the gauntlet, and be- 
 came his champion : the combat grew warm on both 
 fides ; the good humor of Dr. Geddes was foon 
 loft ; and, in proportion as he became violent, the 
 company at large gave evident tokens of efpoufing 
 the caufe of his antagonift. He perceived his er- 
 ror; and, at the moment when I moft trem- 
 bled for the confequences, he rofe fuddenly from 
 table, joined my two children who were playing in 
 the fame room before the fire,' and abruptly en- 
 tered into their amufements. A debate of fome 
 other kind however Ihortly afterwards occun?ed, 
 when, once more fenfible of an undue degree of 
 warmth in his language, he fuddenly retired with- 
 out daring to truft himfelf any longer in the con- 
 teft. No man, I fully believe, was more fenfible of 
 his prevailing defeft ; and no man ever took more 
 pains to remedy it : but it was inherent in his con- 
 ftitution, and he often labored to no purpofe. 
 "I am not ill-natured," fays he of himfelf, and with 
 ftria juftice, in his Letter to the Bifliop of Cen- 
 turia — " thofe who know me know the contrary. 
 Animated and irrafcible I am, but I am neither 
 malevolent nor refentful. I may fafely fay that 
 • the fun has never fet upon my wrath.' " 
 
 Having introduced the fubjeft of phyfiognomy^ 
 
SOS 
 
 I fhall take the opportunity it affords me of ob- 
 ferving, that it was a fcience to which about this 
 period he Was much attached and had devoted a 
 ■great portion of his time. I halve already remarked 
 that he was diffatisfied with the bulky and fenti- 
 mental work of M. Lavater; but he neverthelefs 
 approved of many of his general principles, and 
 had endeavored to form from one or two of them 
 a new, or rather, in his own opinion, a more accu- 
 rate theory of application. Lavater has obferved, 
 and perhaps juftly, that there is no mufcle or even 
 bone of the human body that does not in forae 
 degree or other fympathize in the prevailing paffion 
 ©f the mind, and bear evident marks of having 
 been operated upon by its influence; while, as the 
 ■bones and mufcles of the face are neareft the 
 fcene of aftion, and moll obvious to the view of 
 the fpeftator, the predominant difpofition may be 
 more eafily ftudied and calculated from thefe than 
 from any other, and efpecially'from the eye, which 
 is regarded by all phyfiognomifts as the moft 
 perfedt index of the foul. Admitting the gene- 
 ral foundation of this pofition, Dr. Geddes denied 
 the affertion which relates to the indicatory powers 
 of the eye as an organ fuperior to the reft. There 
 is fcarcely any organ, he contended, that is more 
 fubject to the control of the will than the eye itfelf, 
 when that control is ftrongly exercifed; and whea 
 
 X 
 
$06 
 
 it is not, no organ that is fo fluftuating and incef- 
 fantly operated upon, not by the prevailing and 
 habitual paffion of life, but by all the fleeting paf- 
 lions of the day, whether of joy, anger, tiniidity, or 
 grief; and confequently, however minutely it may 
 indicate the mental feelings of the moment, it is 
 too vacillating and uncertain an infttument by 
 which to afcertain the mafter-paffion of the man. 
 His objeft therefore was to fearch out fome feature 
 of the face that was lefs fubjefl: to tranfitions^ 2nd 
 for this purpofe he felefted the nofej and, volun- 
 tarily negkfting every other componeaat part of 
 the countenance, devoted a long and laborious 
 attention to this organ alone. He endeavored to 
 inveftigate and arrange its multitudinous varia- 
 , tions, and for this purpofe frequented, with confi- 
 derable conftancy, for many years our principal 
 places of pubhc refort, and efpecially Kenfington 
 Gardens; and he has repeatedly told me that he 
 has been occafionally fo pleafed with the ftrufture 
 of a particular nofe, that he has croffed and re- 
 croffed the perfon tq whom it belonged fo incef- 
 fantly, before he finally quitted him, as to give the 
 idea of inapertinenc^, and excite no very pleafant 
 degree of remark, in the party vdth whom he was 
 walking. Of all thefe he took rude fketches at 
 the moment; from which a lady of his acquaints 
 ance, whofe name I have-forgotten, but who was 
 
S07 
 
 poffefled of much fkill in drawing, made mor^jfinifli- 
 ed defigns at her leifure : they were then duly 
 fyftematized and arranged into claffes, genera, and 
 fpedes. He had perfefted his theory and com- 
 pleted his obfervations upon it about the year 
 1796, and nothipg but the expenfe of the en- 
 graviiigs prevented him from prefenting it to the 
 public. 
 
 It may appear to many readers that this new 
 fyftem of Rilibgnomy, or 'Nofology as we ufed fpor- 
 tively to denominate it, was founded lefs on fafl: 
 than on fancy. I will not oppofe fuch an affertion 
 having never profoundly engaged in the fcience: 
 but it is well known that the author of it has 
 been able, by the application of its principles, to 
 make fome very Ihrewd gueffes at the tempers of per- 
 fons who were total ftrangers to him. One inftance 
 indeed deferves to be recorded : a young lady, who 
 was a particular friend of the dofitor's, was ad- 
 drelfed on the fubjedl of matrimony by a gentle- 
 man of ample fortune and good perfoii, and fhe 
 was on the point of accepting his offers. She: firft 
 of all introduced her lover to Dr. Geddes, and fo- 
 licited in private his rifiognomonic opinion of his 
 predominant charafter arid difpofition. The doc- 
 tor replied, that fuch an opinion was not to be ex- 
 pedled from him; that he ftudied the fcience of" 
 ihe npfe, (as we would advife every other perfon to 
 
308 
 
 -ftudy-jt,) for-itidiyidual ufe alone ;" ■and tliat if he 
 Wei's to cOrtimunicate his ideas to the public, 
 w'hether juft or unjuft, he fhould foon makje more 
 than half the world his enemies. The lady was how- 
 ever importunate, and out- phyfiognomift, really 
 believing he might render hei- an eflential fervice, 
 at length fold her in confidence, that " the man was 
 a confirmed niifer, and that if-fhe married him flie 
 would find he would foon grudge her the very 
 clothes on her back." The lady departed with 
 much difiatisfaftion, and for the firfl: time in her 
 life difcredited the infallibility of her oracle. She, 
 who had had better opportunities of kno.wing her 
 lover, was convinced that he was pofTeffed of gene- 
 rofity, franknefe of heart, and every amiable quali- 
 fication. She gave him her hand, and in three 
 months aftetwards found the prediftiori flie had ex- 
 tortedverified in its utmoft extent, and only regretted 
 her infidelity at the time of its having been delivered. 
 Dr. Geddes himfelf, however, does not feehi ta 
 have been fo fanguine in his own fyftem towards 
 the laft three or four years of his life as at an ear- 
 lier period : he fpoke lefs of its powers as a general 
 ftandard of equitable decifion; and, upon his 
 death, not a fingle fcrap of paper relative to the 
 fubjedt'could be detefted among his writings. He- 
 -had either defpaired of offering it to the public in 
 the manner he defigned, or had been chagrined at 
 
309 
 
 repeated mlfcalculations, and in a fit of irritability ^ 
 Htid committed the whole of it to the flames. The 
 cynic may perhaps obferve that th& public has fuf. 
 tained no great lofs by ijuch a conflagration. A? 
 a curiofity, ithe work muft neverthelefs have been 
 entertaining ; and, as exhibiting, a deep and accu* 
 rate fludy of an important feature of the human 
 countenance, it muft have been fomething more — 
 it mufl'have been highly fcientific and ufeful. 
 
 To this fyftem of Rifiognoniy he has appealed in 
 feveral parts of his writings. Thus in L'Avocat 
 4u Diable, of which I have given an account in 
 the lafl chapter, fpeaking of the painters and the 
 devil, he fays, in the charafter, of his orator, 
 
 Then, tertio, my lords ! they have given him ctnofif 
 That betokens a mifer, which every one knows 
 My client is not — 
 
 But more particularly in his" Norfolk Tale," 
 a poem which yet remains to be noticed; but 
 from which I fliall extradb, in the prefent place, the 
 following defcription of one of the young ladies 
 of the hofpitable manfion in which he was vifit- 
 
 »ng; 
 
 ■ The NOSE of our Ann 
 
 Gets nigh tp petfeffions original plan : 
 For know, Catharina 1 when woman was born, 
 I mean, from the fide of her yoke-fyUow torn; 
 
510 
 
 The KOSE was by far the mofl beautiful feature 
 That adorn'd the fweet face of the new-fafliion'd creature.. 
 But when, heark'ning, alas ! to the voice of a fnake> 
 That apple forbidden ftie ventured to take. 
 Her form was disfigured (the Rabbis fuppofe) 
 And a part 6f the piinifliment fell on her Ttofe : 
 ■ Hence, rarely we find in the face of a Fair 
 A nofe that completely comes up to the fquare. 
 Have you ever yet feen one — that was not or crooked, 
 Or flatten d, or bottled^ or turn'd-up, or booked; 
 Too large, or too little, too Jhort, or too long; 
 In a word — that had nothing about it was wrong ? 
 Not ten 1 believe, fince the world firfl: began, 
 Had lefs imperfeftion than that of our Amn : 
 From which I conclude, that on her but a fmall 
 Share of fin was entail'd by her grandmother's fall. 
 And yet, that (he's fauUlefs, I cannot well think ; 
 This moment Ihe chode me for fpilling her ink J 
 And when Henneage difturbs or her pencil, or paint, , 
 She (hows that fhe's no canonizabh faint. 
 Nay once, if not oft'ner, I plight you my troth, 
 I heaird her pronounce the one halfoizn oath.— 
 But I will not the foibles of Fair ones expofe : 
 If Anna have any — pray look at her nose. 
 
 , Our author, who had hitherto contented him- 
 felf with lodgings in different parts of the town, 
 finding hiS library begin to fwell to a magnitude 
 that required more > fpace than lodgings could 
 eafily aflFord, engaged about this time a houfe in All- 
 fop's buildings, New-road, Mary-le-bone, which 
 promifed him, every convenience his heart could 
 
311 
 
 defire. It poffeffed a garden before and behind ; 
 and, while pleafant in front, commanded for its 
 back view the whole compafs of the fifter hills of 
 Highgate and Hampftead, affording one of the 
 moft lovely and luxuriant fceneries in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the metropolis,. Dr. Geddes, who wag 
 too independent a man to be in4ebted to any one, 
 even a mechanic, for any thing he could perform 
 himfelf, now found aS much labor carved out for 
 him ^s Alexander Selkirk when thrown without a 
 companion upon the ifland of Juan Fernandez. 
 His firft objedt was to arrange his library; and 
 having no one to pleafe but himfelf, he extended it 
 to every room in the' houfe, excepting the kitchen 
 and a chamber for his houfekeeper. He purchafed 
 a large box of carpenters' tools, laid in a confide;--; 
 able ftock of deals and mahogany, and began to 
 renew the building fyftem purfued at AucLinhal- 
 rig. He planed, fawed, and completed his fhelves, 
 which he equally hung .round parlours, drawing 
 rooms, and chambers; and which, though not 
 finifhed with all the fkill of the profeffional cabi- 
 net maker, were neat and commodious, and, 
 being edged with mahogany, by no means der 
 fijcient in elegance. One contrivance introduced 
 into the room in which he commonly wrote was 
 peculiarly advantageous to the purpofes of ftudy. 
 Our bookrcafes in general, after allowing fpace for 
 
312 
 
 two tiers of folios, from the floor, recede and be- 
 corne narrower for books of fmaller dimenfioris; 
 leaving at the point of recefs a kind of fhelf of 
 too little width to be of any real utility. This 
 flielf or covering for the folios below, which he 
 formed of mahogany flab, our felf-taught ar^fl; 
 proje£ted a few inches over the folios themfelves, 
 and carried the projedtibn regularly all round the 
 room; by which means he more effeftually fe- 
 cured them from dufl: , and obtained a kind of circu- 
 lar defli (for, by fuch contrivance, it was rendered 
 wide enough for this purpofe) on which to open 
 the various books he might have occafion to con- 
 fult, while he himfelf fat in the^ centre at his table. 
 By this ingenious fcheme he avoided a c6nlider- 
 able .portion of labor; 'fince, infliead of examining a 
 few volumes at once, and making manufcript refer- 
 ences to particular paflages as he clofed them, to 
 admit others to his table in their fteqd, he opened 
 at one time all the books for which he had occa- 
 fion, and confulting each in rotation as he pafled 
 round the room, reverted inftantaneoufly to that 
 he was determined to follow, copied it without 
 trouble, and with the fame facility gave references 
 in his text to feveral others, without the neceflity. 
 of a fingle previous memorandum, or having re- 
 peatedly to open and clofe the fame volume before 
 h.e had done witlT it. 
 
SIS 
 
 Having completed his library and arranged bis 
 books, he i^ext devoted his leifure hours to his 
 garden ; and in this he toiled, with all the induftry 
 of a laborer and all the zeal of a botanift, till he 
 could boaft of produftions both for ornament and 
 ufe intrinfically of prime excellence, but ftill 
 fweeter to himfelf as being the fruits of his owa 
 culture. 
 
 Primus vers rofatn, atque autumno carpere poma j 
 Et cum triflis hyems etiam nunc frigore faxa 
 Rumperet, et glacie curfus frsenaret aquarum, 
 lUe coni<.m mollis jam turn tondebat hyacyntbi* 
 ^ftatem increpitans feram, Zephyrofque morantes *. 
 
 Ceorg. iv. 134. 
 
 To the pure pleafure refulting from the cultiva- 
 ^on of indigenous plants, our indefatigable la- 
 borer now began to think of adding the luxury of 
 a little green houfe and a few exotics. He 
 tiiought, refolved, and executed. The expenfe 
 of fuch an additional indulgence under his ma- 
 nagement was but trifling, for he was once mor« 
 
 * At fpring-tide firft he plucked the full-blown rofe. 
 From autumn firft the ripened apple ehofe 5 
 And e'en when winter fplit^the rocks with cold 
 And chained the " reftlefs'',torreht as it rolled. 
 His blooming hyacinths, ne'er known to fail. 
 Shed fweets unborrowed of the vernal gale. 
 As, mid their rifled beds, he wound his way. 
 Chid the flow fun, and Zephyr's long delay. S0THE.IIT-. 
 
514 
 
 bk crwh mafon and carpenter, and the green houfes 
 or gardens of his friends fupplied him with a pa- 
 rent flock. This confei-vatory he ere^d ^^ the 
 front of his houfe, and fo completely adjoining the 
 fcoufe itfelf that one of the parlour windows 
 ferved him. for an entrance into it. Here, by a va.» 
 liety of little plans which the fertility of his fancy 
 perpetually fuggefted, and as perpetually induced 
 him to exchange for others, he confiderably. 
 amufed himfelf during the months of winter. At 
 one time his flue was heated by a fliove opening 
 into the front area; at another time, in a fit t>f 
 economy, he annulled the ftove altogether, and by 
 carrying the flue to the parlour chimney endea- 
 irored to heat it from the fire of his own room. At 
 one period he chofe to moiften his plants with a 
 common water pot ; at a fecond, by a pipe com- 
 ftmnicating with the cifternj and at a third, at- 
 tempting boldly to imitate the reviving dews of 
 the atmofphere, he contrived, by a largf copper 
 Tpefiel and a long copper pipe, to fupply them with 
 water in the f<?rm of tepid vapor. In this man- 
 ner invention fucceeded mvention; and though no 
 one fatisfied him long, it at leafl beflowed its ihare 
 of amufement, and afforded him that interchange 
 of nugatory recreation which the mind occafion- 
 ally requires in the midft of fevere and habitual 
 ftufiyj and has frequently recalled to my memory 
 
315 
 
 an obfervat^dn of the a,miablebut unfortunate Co>y- 
 per, who, with a fancy ftill idler, was often accuf- 
 tomed, at the clofe of day, to watch in foiitude the 
 bright-red cinders of his fire, affuming to his 
 imagination the fantaftic forms of trees, towers, 
 churches, and uncouth vifages; or from the footy 
 films that played penduloully upon the bars, to 
 calculate by the laws of old Englifli tradition the 
 arrival of letters or the approach of ftrangers : 
 
 'Tis thus the underfianding takes repo(e 
 In indolent vacuity of thought, 
 , And fleepa and is refrefhed. 
 
 Yet Dr. Geddes was by no means a reclufe. No 
 ' man was fonder of fociety than himfelf, and, ex- 
 cepting when under the influence of high-wrought 
 irritability, no man was poffeffed of more compa- 
 nionable qualities. His anecdote was always readyi 
 his wit always brilliant: there was an originaUty 
 of thought, a fhrewdnds of remark, an epigram- 
 matic turn of expreffion in ahnoft every thing 
 which efcaped him, that was fure to captivate his 
 companions, and to induce thofe whO' had once 
 met him, notwithftanding his habitual infirmity, 
 to Avilh earneftly -to meet him again. 
 
 Neither company, however, nor manual labor, 
 nor the ferious duties- of his pen, nor the fleeting 
 recreations of his fancy, could altogether rellrain 
 
SIS 
 
 him from his beloved intercourfe with the mufes. 
 The politics of France again furnifhed him with a 
 fubjeft, and, in imitation of a former poem in 
 Sapphic verfe, he this year committed to the prefs 
 two other Secular Odes, of which the one, indeed, 
 was compofed a few months antecedently, and 
 mil relates to the French king's acceptance of a 
 limited monarchy; while the other, written and 
 ' printed in the prefent year 1793, ridicules the ab- 
 furd manifefto of the duke of Brunfwick, aiid his 
 difgraceful retreat before the army of Dumourier. 
 They are both compofed with confiderably more 
 Jpiirit than the Carmen Sasculare for the year 1 789; 
 and, in feveral verfes, are poffeffed of true poetic 
 infpiration. In each of them. However, the infpira- 
 tion of the poet is far fuperioi^ to. tha,t of the pro- 
 phet : and the bard appears more profoundly in- 
 ftrufted in the general wifhes of man than in the 
 infcrutable decrees of Heaven. In the former of 
 thefe two odes we therefore meet with the follow- 
 ing prediftion, in which he apoftrophizes the ene- 
 mies of France: 
 
 Credltis, Francos iterum catenis 
 Colla conftringi rigidis daturos ? 
 Flammifer Pbcebus citius negabit 
 Lumina terris. 
 
 Of this, for want of a better, the reader muft /ac- 
 cept of the following verfion : 
 
517 ^ 
 
 Think ye that Frenchmen e'er agai* 
 Will ftoop to weir the galling chain ? 
 No : — fooner fliall the fun withhold 
 From earth his ftreams of lucid gold. 
 
 To "the fame effefl: is the enftiing terfe from 
 his Secular Ode for the year 1793, after the flight 
 of the king, the retreat of the duke of BruMwick, 
 and the eftabHfhment of the republic : 
 
 ^QUA LiBBRTAs folid4 coIumn4 
 Siftitiir taridera ; removepda nuUia 
 Viribus, nullo ruitura cafu 
 
 Cunfta per aeya. 
 
 Lo! EauAL Liberty, at length, 
 Stands with the column's folid ftrength ; 
 No power can fliake the pile fublime, 
 Viftor alikie o'er chance and time. 
 
 If our poet.erredi, he erred only, however, with 
 many of the wifefi: politicians and mod beiievo- 
 "ient philofbphers of his age. The revolutions of 
 France have of late taken a turn which it was im- 
 poffible for human forefight at this period to cal- 
 ciilate, and which is as widely different from the 
 anticipation of Mr. Burke as from that of Dr. Ged- 
 des. This lafh of the three Secular Odes clofes with 
 the following ftanzas, in which the Tree of Li- 
 berty is addreffed with more animation than I re- 
 member, to have: feenit in any other fugitive piece: 
 
318 
 
 Planta fis femper vlridis, decora et 
 FrucSibus ; rami teneri per oranetn 
 PuUulent orbem, citius daturi 
 
 Dulcia poma. 
 
 Fas mihi, fas fit, Pater O Supreme ! 
 
 His dies iftas occulis videre : 
 
 lata libens cedam, faturatus hofpes, 
 
 Alteram ad auram. 
 
 Interim caram citharara virentis 
 Arboris, Galli tibi quam dic&runt. 
 Sacra LieektasI liceat vel imo , 
 ' Pendere ramo. 
 
 Green be thy leaf, thy branches (hoot 
 O'er earth, fair tree ! adorned with fruit j 
 And fhortly be the precious Joad 
 On man's rejoicing race beflowed. 
 
 O give me, give me. Sire Supreme ! 
 To fee this plant thus nobly teem : 
 Then, gladly, fated with the fight, 
 I'll yield where fate dired my flight. 
 
 Meantime, O let me from the tree 
 The Gauls chafte Freedom! rear to thee. 
 Hang my loved harp, of voice benign. 
 Though e'en the lowlieft bough be mine. 
 
 It will readily occur to the reader that the 
 period of time in which thefe odes were printed 
 exaftly correfponds to that of the commencement 
 of the late war and of Mr. Pitt's adminiflration ; 
 arid as this sera was not very propitious to politi- 
 cal liberty of opinion, the friends of the author 
 
319 
 
 ftrentioufly advifed him to fupprefe thdr pub^ 
 cation for the prefent. With this advice, as th^ 
 Were a^ually printed in conjunftion with a fecond. 
 edition of his firll Carmen Sseculare, and very ele- 
 gantly printed too on a fuperfine woven quarto, 
 richly gilt at the edges, and accompanied with a 
 beautiful tinted vignette for each ode, it was no 
 eafy tafk to prevail on him to comply- Dr. Ged- 
 des, neverthelefe, at length yielded to their en- 
 treaties, and locked them up in his efcrfltoire till 
 the clbfe of the war ; at which period they were 
 again brought forwards to the public, aaod offered 
 either with or without another Latin Sapplnc ode, 
 which he addreffed to returning peace. Such, 
 however, had been the numerous verfatiliti^of the 
 conftitution of France, and the relative fituation 
 of Europe, that they were altogether unadapted 
 to the meridian of thefe latter times, and hav« 
 never therefore been able to claim the at:tentioii 
 to which they are intrinfically entitled. 
 
 In addition to this frefli trial of his powers ia 
 Latin Sapphics, Dr. Geddes in the fame year ofier- 
 ed to the public a tranllation in iambic rhyme of 
 Greffet's elegant and entertaining poem, entided 
 Ver-Vert, or the Parrot of Nevers. — Jean Baptifl: 
 Greffet was born at Amiens, in the beginning of 
 the laft century.' He entered at an early age into 
 the fociety, of the Jefuits, but quitted it a few years 
 aftervrards — married a lady poffeffed of conlidert 
 
S20 
 
 atjie wealthy and was fortunate enough to obtaiff, 
 independently of his wife's property, a lucrative 
 poft in the finances. In 1 748 he was received 
 into the French academy in the place of M. Dar* 
 chet, and was ennobled by the unfortunate Lewis 
 XVI, in confequence of having had the honor of 
 complimenting him, on his acceffion to the crown, 
 in the name of his co-ac^demiciansl He died at 
 Amiens, cl^ildlefs, in June 1777, aged 68, and his 
 eloge, if I recoIle£t aright,-was pronounced in the 
 academy by the amiable but ill-fated Baillie. 
 Greffet was the author of a variety, of poems ae 
 well as plays, but Ver-Vert has generally been re- 
 garded as his mafterpiece. It is divided into four* 
 cantos, and is of the fame clafs of poetry as the 
 Secchia Rapita of Taflbni, the Lutrin of Def- 
 preaux, or the Rape of the Lock of Pope, but 
 without the ufe df preternatural machinery-: -hav- 
 ing for its fubjeft the playful hiftory of a parrot of 
 the name df Ver-Vert, given to it by the nuns of 
 Nevers, with moll of whom the writer, from his 
 connexion in early life with the order of Jefus, 
 was intimately acquainted ; and which, on account 
 of thelaeauty of his plumage, the fweetnefs of his 
 temper, and the facility with which he learned all 
 the pure and pious languages of the nunnery, as 
 well as the confidential filence which he obferved 
 with refpedt to its numerous little intrigues, ob- 
 tained in the higheft degree the friendlhip of every 
 
321 
 
 tme, and formed the life and fpirit of the cloifters 
 in which he was confined. 
 
 No fancy coxcomb paroquet was he ; 
 Such as in barbers' fliops we fometimes fee ; 
 And who, in accents infolent and loud. 
 Blatter abufe upon the gaping crowd. 
 Ver-Vert's difcourfd was decent and devout j 
 He learn'd no evil, and no evil thought. 
 No word obfcene his niodeft lips efcap'd ; 
 For wicked •wordlings he had never ap'd. 
 But hymns, and ffalms, and canticles he knew ; 
 And rare ejaculations not a few : 
 Could promptly fay his lemdiciti. 
 And nStre mere, and votre cbaritL 
 Nay, 1 have heard, he fometimes tried his voice 
 On Mary Alacoquis* Soliloquies If 
 
 • Margaret Mary Alacoque was a vifionary of the fame 
 order ; of whom we have a very curious life, written by Lan- 
 guet, archbifhop of Sens. 
 
 ■j- II n'etoit point «ie ces fiers perroquets 
 
 Que I'air du fiecle a rendu trop coquets, 
 
 Et qui, fifles par des bouches mondaines, 
 
 N'ignorent rien des vanites humaines. 
 
 Ver-Vert etoit un perroquet devot, 
 
 Une belle ame innocemment guidee ; 
 
 Jamais du mal il n'avoit eu Pid^e, 
 
 Ne difoit pQint un immodefte mot : 
 
 Mais en revanche il favoit des cantiqueg, 
 
 Des oremus, des colloques miftiques, 
 
 II difojt bien fon benedieite, 
 
 Et natre mire, et votre ciariti. • 
 
 II favoit meme un p6u du foliloque, 
 
 £t dei traits fins de Marie AlaegquCi 
 Y 
 
S22 
 
 Unfortunately for his future happinefs the nuns 
 of Nantes had heard of his fame, and fek fuch a 
 longing defire to converfe with him, that they could 
 not avoid fending a letter to the holy fifterhood of 
 Nevers, requefting that this miraculous bird might 
 be fufFered to pay them a month's vifit. The re- 
 queft produced a general Ihriek of lamentation 
 through all the grated walls : but.it was at length 
 complied with. Ver-Vert was embarked upon the- 
 Loire, and took his voyage towards Nantes in a 
 galliot filled with company of a very different 
 kind from that to which he had hitherto been ac- 
 cuftomed within the immaculate cloifters of Ne- 
 vers. 
 
 In truth, poor Ver-Vekt Tadly felt thechange : ' 
 Their garb, their gait, their language — all was ftrange. 
 For not one fyllable of gofpel-lore. 
 Which he with fo much care had learn'd before, 
 Fell frorrt their antichritHan lips, I ween ; 
 But filthy words, and purpofes obfcene'. * 
 
 The modefty of Ver-Vert was at firft {hocked, 
 and he became penfive and filentj but by degrees 
 
 * Auffi Ver-vert, ignorant leurs fa^ons, 
 Se trouva-la comme en terre ^trangere j 
 Nouvelle langue & nouvelles legons. 
 L'oifeau furpris n'entendoit point leur ftile ; 
 Ce n'etoit plus paroles d'evangile } 
 Ce n'etoit plus ces pieux entretiens, 
 Ces traits de bible & d'oraifons mcntaies, 
 Qu'il entendoit chez nps doucfis veftales : 
 Mais de gros mots, & non des plus cbretieni. 
 
323 
 
 he began to drop his diflafte for the converfatioii 
 Which affailed his ears, and in a fhort time com- 
 pletely exchanged his former vocabulary for the 
 tnore bold and manly tongu^ of his fhipmates. 
 Thus unexpectedly metamorphofed, he at length 
 reaches the great parlour of theNantine convent, 
 'and mothers, nuns, and novices, all prefs with equal 
 precipitation to behold the woriHerful traveller'. 
 
 All come, all fee this objedt of delight ; 
 And all are ravilhed at the charming fight. 
 Nor without reafon — for the rogue had not 
 Of his attradions loft a fingle jot. 
 , His crimes had nothing in his form derang'd : 
 A fingle plume its colour had not changed. 
 Nay, his new, pert, and pttit-maitre air. 
 His warlike look, and confidential ftare, 
 Enhanc'd his other beauties— Why, juft heav'n 1 
 Should fuch attraftions to a knave be giv'n ? 
 Why fliould liot thofe who are devoid of grsce. 
 Have reprobation's marks upon their face ?* 
 
 * On voit enfini on ne peut fe repaitrb ^ 
 Aflez les yeux des beautes de.|'oifeau : 
 (i'^toit raifon ; car le fripon pour etre , 
 Moins bon gargon, n'en etoit pas moins beau. 
 Cet Gcil guerrier, et cet air petit maitre 
 L.ui pretoient meme un agrement nouyeau. 
 Faut-il, Grand Dieii, que fur le ^ront d'un traitrei 
 Brillent ainfi les plus tendres atraits !, 
 Que ne peut-on diftinguer etconnoitre 
 L^s cdeurs p.ervers %. de difibrihes tiaib ? 
 
324 
 
 Pirft caufe of fcandal this. — ^The priorefs 
 Would now the brazen-fronted fowl addrefs ; 
 And. in a ferious, half commanding drain, 
 Rebuk'd his petulance. — The bird, amain. 
 Replies (the anfwer ev'ry fitter ftuns) 
 •' Whatfooh, egad 1 ivbatfooU he allthe Nuns!" 
 This wicked" fragment of a wicked fong 
 The nymphs had taught hioi, as he failed along. 
 " Good tieavens !" cried mother Paula j " fuch a phraft 
 f I never, never heard, in all my days : 
 '• Fie, brother ! fie j fuch naughty tricks give o'er. " 
 The brother, rhyming richly, anfwer'd, Wb—el 
 " Vvoe Jdfus /'' Mother Magdalena cried : 
 " Five Jefus !'' Mother ilfonzVtf replied : 
 " Sure he's a forc'rer in a bird's difgulfe : 
 " How could our fitters fuch a parrot prize ? 
 •' How could they fuffer fuch a cannibal 
 " To live among them ?" Devil hurftyou all! 
 Was his r*^#n/«.-^Alternately, they try 
 His talk prophane to mend, or mortify. 
 They try without effeft : for he makes fun 
 Of ev'ry novice and of ev'ry nun. 
 He imitates, with a pedantic air, 
 The precious prattle of the younger fair : 
 But apes, with a more grave, important face. 
 The nafal gruntings of the antique race. 
 
 At laft, worn out his patience, he exclaims. 
 To the aftonifhment of all the dames: 
 •' Garce I bougre I f outre I facte ! •ventre-bleu !" 
 And all the other horrid terms he knew ! 
 Struck filent, here, each rev'rend mother fiand? ; 
 An4 lifts to heav'n her eye» and trembling hand* : 
 
S25 
 
 While the more limple as they hear him tpegk 
 Such hard, harfh words^ imagine it is Greek.* 
 
 A holy convocation Is now furamoned to de- 
 termine upon the fate of the reprQ,bate bird, and 
 
 * Premier grief. Cet air trop efTronte 
 Fut un fcandale aja coramunaute. 
 £n fecond lieu, quand la mere prieure, 
 D'un air auguAe, en fiUe interieure, 
 Voulut parler a I'oifeau libertitii 
 Pour premiers mots, & pour toute reponfe, 
 Nonchalamment, 8; d'un air de dedain. 
 Sans bien fonger aux horreurs qu'il prononce, 
 Mon Gars repond, ^vec un ton faquin^ 
 Par la cerileu ! ^e les nones font fqllfst 
 L-'hiftoire dit qu'il avoit, en chemin, 
 D'un de la troupe entendu ces paroles, 
 A ce debut, la 5g3ur Saint Auguflin, 
 D'un air fucre, voul^nt le faire taire, 
 Et lui difant, fi done, mon trcs cher frere S 
 X.e tres cher fr^re, indocile 8c mutjn, 
 Vous la rima tres richement en tain, 
 Vive Jefus ! II et forcier, ma mere, 
 Reprend la fosur. Juft Dieu ! Quel coquln ! 
 ©uoi ! C'eft donc-la ce perroquet divin ? , 
 
 Ici Ver-Vert, en vrai giblerde greve. 
 L'apoftropha d'un La pefte te crevf, 
 Chacune vint pour brjder le caquet 
 Du grenadier, chacupe eut fon paquet ; 
 Turlupinant les jeunes precieufes, 
 II imitoit leurs courroux babillardj 
 Plus dechaine fur les vieilles grondeufes^ 
 II bafovioit leur fermons nazillard ; 
 
 7 
 
S2S 
 
 fit length it is decided^to f^nd him back ab- 
 ruptly with an account of his naughty beha- 
 viour. He returns to Nevers— exhibits the fame 
 proofs of rebrobation— and is fentej^ced to bread 
 and water and folitary confinement for four 
 months, hi this ftate he foon difcovers figns o£ 
 the moft fincerfi contrition, and exchanges aU 
 his impious oaths for devout prayers and ejacula- 
 tions. ' 
 
 Such fymptons of repentance could not fail 
 With the moft rigid cafuift to prevail. 
 Had ftern Nicak, or Objlraet*, been his guide, 
 His abfolution had not been deny'd. 
 In the Divan \t, then, was wifely judg'd, 
 That Ver-Vert's penance ought to be abrldg'tl. 
 No time fa fit as when there hap'd to be 
 O'er all the church a gen'xal jubilee : 
 
 Ce fut bien pis^ qiiai^d d'un ton de corfairC) 
 Las, exc^e de leurs fades propos, 
 BoufB de rage, ecumant de ct)lere, 
 II entonna tous Its horribles mots 
 Qu'il avoit fu raporter des bateaux : 
 Jurant, facrant d'un voix diiTolue, 
 Faifant pafler tout I'enfer en revue, 
 Les B. les F. voltigeoient fur fon bee. 
 
 Les jeunea focurs crurent qu'il parloitGrec, 
 
 i. ' , • ' 
 
 * Two celebrated rigidifts of the laft century. 
 
32*7 
 
 And He wha holds on earth, the keys of heav'n. 
 Had then a plenary indulgence* giv'n: 
 By which, as every theologue can tell, 
 The greateft rogue may 'fcape, not only hell. 
 But ev'n that purging fire arid tranfient pain 
 Which fouls, not perfeftly contrite, fuftajn 
 In the next world ; if they have not ia this 
 , By due atonement pav'd their way to blifs. t 
 
 The day of jubilee arrives — the reconverted 
 parrot is fetat liberty, and unfortunately fo gorged 
 with fweetmeats, caffe au-clrtme and liqueurs of 
 various kinds, that he dies by the very glut of 
 luxury provided for him. He is interred in the 
 midfl of a flood of grief, under the ftiade of a 
 myrtle tree; a marble monument is erefted to 
 him^ fupporting an urn of polifhed porphery, on 
 which the foljowing epitaph is engraven in golden 
 letters : 
 
 " Young Novices, whene'er ye hap tp rove, 
 Without the Sifters' knowledge, to impart 
 
 To one another, in this facred grove, 
 The genuine feelings of a tender heart: 
 
 * A remittance of all the temporal puniftiment due to fin, 
 both in this life and in the next. 
 
 + Quand on fut fur 3e fa converfion, 
 Le vieux Divan defarmant fa vengeance, 
 De I'exile borha la penitence. 
 
 Our tranflator is here not a little paraphraftic : but he |lilj 
 iteeps up the fpirit of Greflet, 
 
S28 
 
 Sufpend, fwreet fouls, if poffible, your talk 
 One moment, my misfortunes to bewail} 
 
 And, as around this monument you walk. 
 
 Read, and rehearfe this fhort, but moving tale ^ 
 
 A fingle line this limple tale imparts : 
 
 Here Ver-Vert lies, with all the Sistebs' 
 
 HEARTS." 
 
 'Tis faid, however, with no fmall degree 
 Of analogic probability. 
 
 That Ver-Vert's felf not in this tomb repofes ; 
 But that He Aill, by a metemffychofis, 
 Tranfmits, like an hereditary chattel. 
 From Nun to Nun, his Sfirit and his Prattle ! 
 
 Upon the whole, this verfion of Dr. Geddes is 
 poffeffed of no fmall degree of merit; it is eafy, 
 fpirited, and perfpicacious. His rhymes are, how- 
 ever, occafionally ffeeble, and in feveral paflages 
 he deviates with an unnecefTary freedom from the 
 original. The part in which he moft fails is in the 
 epitaph with which the poem concludes, and which 
 in the French of GreiTet is exqnifitely tender and 
 elegant. I copy it that the reader may form a, 
 comparifon : 
 
 " Novices, qui venez caufer dans ees bdcages 
 
 A I'inlii de nos graves foeurs, 
 Un inftant, s'il fe pent, fufpendez vos ramages, 
 
 Aprene% nos malheurs. 
 
S29 
 
 Vous vous taifez : fi ce'ft trap vous contralndre, 
 
 Parlez, mais parlez pour nous plaiildre : 
 Un mot vous inftruira de nos tendres douleurs, 
 Ci git Vek-Viskt, Ci gifent toui les coeun." 
 
530 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Dr. Geddes's Tranjlafion of the Bible — Obfervaiiont 
 upon his Tranflation — •Critical Remarks upon the 
 JPentateuch — Obfervations upon the Remarks — Anti- 
 cipated Verjion of the Pfalms — Obfervations upon the 
 Verjion. A. D. 1793 — 1793. 
 
 '\^E now advance to the great and important 
 work for which our author feems almofl wholly to 
 have lived, and to w^ch for upwards' of twenty 
 years he direfted the full force and concentration 
 of all his faculties and talents; I mean his verfion 
 of " The Holy Bible, or the Books accounted fa- 
 credby Jews and Chriflians: otherwife called the 
 Books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully 
 tranflated from corrected Texts of the Originals, 
 ^ith various Readings, explanatory Notes, and cri- 
 tical Remarks." Such is the title with which this 
 elaborate work is ufhered before the public; and 
 fuch was the entire fcope of the author's inten- 
 tion had Providence prolonged his life to a fuf- 
 ficient date to have enabled him to have ful- 
 filled it. Intention, however, is all that, belongs 
 to man — its execution is the fole prerogative of 
 Heaven. Dr. Geddes- was fummoned from his 
 
■ 831 
 
 arduous and recondite labors, after ha;ving fearely 
 ^niflied three out of at leaft eight large quarto, 
 yolumes, to which the entire work, muft have 
 extended : leaving a mere fragment of this illuf- 
 trious and elaborate undertaking, in which the 
 nobleft powers of an enlightened mind are ap- 
 plied tothenobleftof purpofes. I well know that, 
 from the freedom of his language, and the undif- 
 guifed fmcerity with which, in his critical Remarks, 
 he lays open every idea of his foul, this event has 
 b6en a fource of mutual congratulation among 
 many chriftians, who were alarmed at the atidacity 
 of his opinions, and fufpicious of the motives by 
 which he was aftuated: while others have .exhi- 
 bited a fufBcient degree of bigotry and fuperftition 
 to blefs God for his removal, and to trace an im- 
 piediate interference of Providence in the abrupt 
 termination .of what they have been taught to 
 regard as an infidel work. 
 
 In writing the biography of Dr. Geddes, I am 
 not called upon to be his vindicator or even apo- 
 Jogift. I will freely acknowledge that in perufing 
 the volumes before me I have often wifhed he 
 had fuppreffed many, expreffions they contain, and 
 that upon many points he had conjeftured differ- 
 ently; but I neverthelefs cannot ceafe to regard 
 the whole as a moft valuable and excellent per- 
 formance ; and inftead of blefling God for the 
 
SS2 
 
 death of the writer, and the abrupt termination 
 of bis undertaking, I mofl fincerely lament that 
 he did not live to complete it, afld to have fuper- 
 added that correftive hand which he, hirhfelf was 
 well convinced it ftood in need of, and which 
 probably might have foftened many of its bolder 
 and more obnoxious features. " I am fallible," 
 iays he, " that the piftujre is imperfeft. ; nay, I 
 fear its imperfeffions are numerous ; and I fhall 
 make it the great bufinefe of my future life to re- 
 touch or amend whatever the remarks of my 
 friends, or my own obfervations, may point out as 
 a blemifh *» 
 
 In notjeing this vohjminous work it cannot be 
 fuppofed that, in the fhort fpace to which I am 
 nece^uily confined, I can enter into a critical iiv 
 vefligation, or even analyfis, of its total contents, 
 I fhall merely oflfer a few detached examples of its 
 text and annotations, as indicative of its general 
 meritj and though publifhed at long and diftinft 
 intervals, for the fake of greater perfpicuity, I fhall , 
 unite its different volumes in the prefent inflance, 
 and fubjedl them to one individual confideration. 
 In thus afting I am well aware that I am guilty of 
 a double anachronifm, for while volume the firfl 
 was publifhed in the year 1792, a few months 
 
 * Vol. i. Pref. XX. 
 
333 
 
 •anterior to feveral of the articles adverted to in 
 the foregoing chapter, volume the fecond did not 
 appear till 1797, and volume the third, contain- 
 ing the critical Remarks upon the Pentateuch, till 
 1800 J each conftituting a term of feveral years 
 beyond many publications which yet remcdn to be 
 noticed. But fmce to take a view of thefe volumes 
 feparately would be to deftroy their totality and 
 accordance, the reader will, I truft, excufe the 
 inconfiftency of the arrangement for the fake of 
 its advantage. 
 
 As a fair fpecimen of the verlion, I fliall extract 
 the account of the creation as it occurs in the firft 
 chapter of Genefis; which I am the more difpofed 
 to do, becaufe thofe who are in poffelEon of the 
 pamphlet which contains our author's propoMs 
 may compart it, in its prefent form, with that ia 
 which he then offered it to the public, and may- 
 perceive his readinefs to admit of any emendatioa 
 ■when fairly propofed to him. I {hall for the pre- 
 fent omit the notes. 
 
 Gen. 1. — Hijlory of the Six Bays Creation, 
 
 *' In the beginning God created the heavens 
 and the earth. The earth was yet a defolate 
 
334- 
 
 Vafte, with darknefs upon the -face of the deep; 
 and a vehement wind overfweeping the fiyrface of 
 the waters; when God faid : ' Let there be 
 J.IGHT;" and there was light. And God faw that 
 the h'ght was goodj and God diftinguiflied the 
 light from the darknefs; and God called the light 
 PAY, and the darkni^s he called night. 
 
 " The evening had come and the morning had 
 come^ ONE day J when God faid; 'Let there be an 
 EXPANSE amidft the waters, which may feparate 
 waters from waters;' and fo it was. For Gonf 
 made the expanfe, and feparated the waters beloW 
 the expanfe from the waters above the expanfe ; 
 and God called the expanfe heavens. This^ alfo^ 
 GoD faw to be good. 
 
 " The evening had come and the morning had 
 come, a second day ; when God faid : ' Let tb.& 
 waters below the expanfe be coUefted into one 
 place;, that the dry land may appear;' and fo 
 it was. For the waters below the expanfe were 
 coUeded into their places, and the dry land ap- 
 peared. And God called the dry land earth, 
 and the colleffidn of waters he called seas. This^ . 
 alfo, God faw to be good. "I 
 
 " Again God faid: ' Let the earth be green 
 with gIass, with feed-bearing herbs according 
 to their kinds, and with fruit-bearing trees, with 
 their feed in them, according to their kinds ;' an4 
 
335 
 
 fo It was. For green was the earth with grafa, 
 with feed-bearing herbs according to their kinds, 
 and with fruit-bearing -trees, with their feed in 
 them, according to their kinds. This, alfo. Goo 
 law to be good. 
 
 *' The evening had come and the momiiig had 
 come, a third dajj when God faid : ' Let there 
 be LUMINARIES in the expanfe of the heavens, to 
 illuminate thg, earth, and to diflinguifh the day 
 from the night: let them, alfo, be the fignals of 
 terms, times, and years. [And let them be for 
 luininaries in the expanfe, of the heavens, to illu- 
 minate the earth j'3 and fo it was. For God hav- 
 ing made the two great luminaries (the greater 
 luminary for the regulation of the day, and the 
 fmaller luminary for the regulation of the flight), 
 and the liars; he dilplayed them in the expanfe 
 of the heavens, to illuminate the earth, to regulate 
 the day and the night, and to diflinguifh the light 
 from the darknefs. This, alfo, God faw to be 
 good. 
 
 *' The evening had come and the morning had 
 come, a fourth day j when God faid : ' Let the 
 waters fwarm with living rjeptiles; and let fly- 
 ing-creatures fly over the earth, through the 
 wide expanfe of the heavens;' andfo it was. For 
 God created the great fea-monflers-j' and all the 
 other reptiles, with which the waters fwarmed, ac- 
 
S38 
 
 cording to their kinds; and every flying-creaturt 
 according to its kind. Tliis, alfo, God faw to be 
 good. And. God blefled them, faying : ' Be fruit- 
 ful and multiply, and fill the waters ofthefeas; 
 and let the flying-creatures multiply upon the 
 earth.* 
 
 '* The evening had come and the morning had 
 come,'a fifth day; when God *faid : ' Let the 
 earth bring forth animals according to their kinds ; 
 CATTLE, WILD-BEASTS, and REPTILES, accord- 
 ing to their kinds;' and fo it was. For God made 
 the cattle according to their kinds, the wild-beafts 
 according to their kinds, and every ground-reptile 
 according to its kind. This, aUb, God faw to be 
 good. 
 
 " Again GoDfaid: ' Let us make man after 
 our own image, and according to our own Uke- 
 nefs; who may have dominion over the fiflies of 
 the fea, over the flying-creatures of the air, over 
 the cattle and all the wild-beafls, and over every 
 reptile that creepeth upon the earth.* So God. 
 created mankind after his own image; after, the 
 divine image he created them ! He created them 
 MALE and female; and blefled them, and faid to 
 them : ' Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and 
 fubdue it; have dominion over the fifties of the 
 feas, over the'flyingi-creatures of the air, over the 
 cattle and the wild bealls, and over every reptile 
 
S37 
 
 that creepeth upon the ground. And, lo ! (fsdd 
 God) I give to you every feed-be;ari|ig herb on the 
 face of the whole earth, and every tree in whicli 
 there is a feed-bearing fruit; to be food both for 
 yourfelves, and for all the beafts of the earth, and, 
 for all the flying-creatures of the air, and fdr 
 every reptilq,upon the ear-th, in which there is 
 vital breath:— 'all forts of vegetables, for food.' 
 Thus it was, when GoDyteviewing all that he had 
 made, faw it to be excellent," 
 
 In the firft edition of this paffage, as It occurs in 
 the Propofals, the phrafe. Gen. i. 3, here rendered 
 " a vehement wind overfweeping the furface of the 
 waters,", was tranflated " a mighty wind blowing 
 on the furface," &c. The correfted reading is 
 perhaps the better of the two, though neither of 
 the terms, over/weeping or blowing on, give us the. 
 fair meaning of the Hebrew DSmD, which in 
 both the other inftances, (for there are but three), 
 in which the word occurs in the Bible, implies in- 
 ternal commotion, and might here perhaps have 
 been rendered m.uch more pertinently agitating. 
 Thus, Deut. xxxli. 11, "as an eagle ^utteretb 
 or hovereth over her young" — that is " agitatetb 
 them with kindly warmth;" fo, Jer. xxiii. 9, " all 
 my bones ;!?w^^ — I am like a drunken man," that 
 is, *' all my limbs ar^ agituted^' &c. Our author, fn 
 
 z 
 
S3S 
 
 Ills Critical Remarks, <5ontendis that every thing ii! 
 the conftru£H'on of the text determines thefe words 
 to appertain to the {(receding rather than the 
 fucceeding period : and the tranflators of our efta- 
 bliihed verfion appear, by their punftuation, to 
 have thought the fame. If this be true, the phrafe 
 mighty ox vebemM wind'vs, certainly "Irfore pertinent 
 than that in common uk,/pirit or breath of God, 
 which is neverthelefs the literal meaning of the 
 original; for it can fcarcely be conceived that the 
 fpirit or breath of God could move upon or agitate 
 the heterogenous fluid of the chaos anterior to the 
 commencement of the creation. Notwithftandin^' 
 however What is advanced by Dr. Geddes, it does 
 not appear to me decifivfe that this paffageisne- 
 ceflarily connefted with the antecedent period ; 
 I would rather couple it, on the contrary, with 
 that which follows, and retain the common read- 
 ing, breath oic fpirit of God, apprehending that 
 it difclofes the very firfl procefs in the order of cre- 
 ation. But in this cafe the punftuation in our 
 common Bibles muft be varied, and the full paufe 
 be removed from the clofe to the middle of the 
 fecond verfe, thus : " In the beginning God cre- 
 ated the heavens and the earth. The earth was 
 yet a defolate walle, with darknefs upon the face 
 of the deep. And the fpirit of God agitated the 
 waters even to the furfad'e. Then faid God, ' Be- 
 light.' And light was." 
 
Dr. Geddes has been reprehended b^ fome of 
 bur jjrofefEonal critics for not having adopted or 
 rather reftored this more concife and e3:iergetic 
 reading of " Be light, jmd light was;" inftead of 
 continuing the more tame and circuitous verfion 
 bf the ftaidard text. For myfelf, I heartily wifh 
 he had made fuch an exchange 5 yet it woiald have 
 been but fair in the revievver, who here reprpVes 
 him for want of tafte, to have add^d our author's 
 i&wn remark upon the fubjefi:, which is as follows : 
 " Let there he light, and there ilsas light." The 
 ©riginal, "nK-'TT'l "n>4 "Tf, is more concife and em- 
 phatical : "Be light, and light was." And this is 
 the rehderiii'g of our firft tranflator WicklifFe; who 
 Imiformly, in all fimilar phrafes, tifes the fimple 
 imperative : Be light — be a firmament — produce 
 earth— make we m&n^ And herfe I cannot help 
 wondering that biir language has not got rid of 
 that vile ex:pletive ther'e, than whifeh J know none 
 more ufelefs or infignificant. For example, in the 
 following ! " 7»?rif was a man in the land of Uz." 
 The phrafe is juft as bad, or f-ather more improper^ 
 than the vulgarifm that'- there ^ man. It feems-to 
 have crept into our dialed: from the Dufcch<: 
 Daer was een man, &cci JIow much more fimple 
 and elegant our Wickliffel "A man, Joob by name, 
 ivas in the land of Hus." So the Italian of Ma- 
 lermi, " Nella terra de Hus era un' huomoj" and 
 
340 
 
 BruccioH, " Nel paefe de Us fu un huomp,.',' So 
 alfo the Spanifh of Ferrara, " Varon fue in tierra 
 de Hus." The French phrafe, indeed, " II y avoit 
 un homme," is more ridiculous than ours; yet ftill 
 it equally keeps its hold : fo difficult is it to purify 
 a language from inveterate and authorized errors. 
 There, as an expletive, is bad chough alone|J)ut 
 when the word let precedes it, a double pleonafra 
 arifes; and the phrafe is not only more clumfy 
 and improper, but, when put in the mouth of 
 God, impertinent and degrading. Let is the fame 
 as permit ; and when God is made to fay, " Let 
 there be %ht," or even *' let light be," he is 
 made to fay " permit light to be:" fo, " let there 
 be an expanfe," is equivalent to *' permit an ex- 
 panfe to bej" and " let us make man" — " permit 
 us to make man !" Will no writer, of eftabUflied 
 credit be bold enough to deviate from the beaten 
 track? or fhall the dread panic of iniiovation 
 prevent us from any attempt at meliorating 
 either our language or our government*?" 
 
 It is truly wonderful that, poffeffing thefe 
 ideas, our author, who has manifefted even a fur- 
 plus of audacity on many other occafions, fhould 
 have been fo deficient in the prefent inftance. 
 The fubHmity of this paflage in the original, 
 
 * Critical Remarks, i. page 13. 
 
84.1 
 
 "v^hich has been fo much praifed by critics of every 
 nation, Pagan a;nd Mahommedan, as well as Jewiih- 
 ^nd Chriftian, depends principally upon its fimpli- 
 city and brevity : of which the former is nearly, 
 and the latter altogether, loft in our common En-: 
 glifh verfions. " He faid'," fays the Pfalmift, hap-, 
 pily commenting upon it, "and it was done:" 
 %T'1 "la^*■ Nin. The parallel eulogy of Longinus, 
 is. known to every one; and the Alcoran, by 
 an equally elegant rendering of the Pfalmift, has . 
 beftowed an equal panegyric upon th^ hiftorian, 
 
 i^iXo (J/ J'j Dixit ESToetFuiT. The Per- 
 
 fians and Arabians have indeed many allufions to 
 this admirable pidture, of which the following nu^y 
 liifBce, quoted from an Arabian poet by Ebn 
 Arabflidh. ' 
 
 '- Ki^^ iO^ C_5^' tX ji' /*^' ^ 
 
 . Fear not : — what God ordains thou yet-flialt fee j 
 Be, let him fay — and it fnall iflftant be : 
 Swift as the glancing eye can reft or rove^ 
 \. -The faving Power is prefent from above. 
 
S42 
 
 111 verfe 4, the word here tratnflated di/inguijhed/ 
 OUT author firft rendered fevered, and the altera- 
 tion is in no refped for the better. It is difficulf 
 to find a term in our own language that offers the" 
 comprehenfive oiteaning of the original ; and per- 
 haps the eflabliihed reading, divided, is preferable 
 to either of thefe expreffions. Yet the Hebrew does 
 not mean fimply to dwide, but to divide by affign- 
 ing a limit: " he partitioned, or dividfed hy a hmn^, 
 darjy^ the light from the darknefs." In the lan- 
 guage of Michaelis, " Er keftimmete darauf dem 
 lichte vmd der iinfternifs ihre granzen.'* No 
 modern meaning of the verb to dtjiinguijh com- 
 prizes this idea. It applies rawth. better, in rer. 1 S, 
 where the fame word in the orrginar recurs : butr 
 the Englifli word fartitiow mffght here alfo have 
 been introduced with perhaps greater accuracy. 
 
 In the reading before us our author has made a 
 parenthefis of ver. 1 6, whieh does not occur in his 
 firft copy, in which he followed the divifidn of the 
 ftandard text. By this variation he has acquired 
 a great^^egree of ele^nc^,-and; what is of more 
 confequence, has maintained a clofer adherence to 
 the brevity of the original. 
 
 In verfe 21, the expreffion, great Jea monflers, 
 was at firft written great crocodiles. In the ftandard 
 verfion it is great -whales. The meaning of the 
 original, Diji3n,is uncertain: but it appears rather 
 
343 
 
 to refer to the crocodile than th? \iv'hale. It 
 feems here however to be ufed as a generic term, 
 and the more extenfive meaning conveyed in the 
 text before us is therefore an improvement. 
 
 In verfe 24, his firfl reading, " cattle, reptiles, 
 and other terreftrial animals," is advantageoufly ex- 
 changed for " cattle, wiid-beafts, and reptiles." 
 The word reptiles is indeed well fubflituted for the 
 common rendering, " creeping things." 
 
 The fpecimen text of verfe 31 is as follows :. 
 ** Thus it was when God viewed all that he had 
 made; and lo! it was very good." I prefer this 
 reading to the amended copy before us: but I very 
 jnuch| prefer the ftandard pundtuation to that m. 
 both cafes introduced by our author; and can fee 
 no reafon why he fliould not have continued the 
 paufe ^fter the expreffion " And it was fo," as oc- 
 curs uniformly in the antecedent parts of his own 
 verfion; nor why the term good fhould in the 
 amended copy, and in this inftance alone, be ex- 
 changed for excellent. " And it was fo.. And 
 God reviewed all that he had made, and behold! 
 it was very good." 
 
 Thefe are the chief variations between our au- 
 thor's fpecimen text printed in 1788, and his cor- 
 reded copy, as it occurs in his franflatlon of the 
 Bible before us. ^ The changes were principally 
 introduced at the fuggeftion of correfpondents^ 
 
344 
 
 fome of whom were anonymous; and while they 
 are fufEcient to prove that he was not obftinately 
 wedded to his own opinion in matters of fair de-. 
 bate, they cannot but make us iregret that he was 
 fo abruptly fummoned away in the midft of his -la- 
 bors, without having been fuffered to avail himfelf 
 of the fame liberal fources of improvement with 
 which he would unqueftionably have enriched^a 
 fecond edition of his elaborate undertaking, had 
 he lived to have feen fuch an edition demanded. 
 
 In fpeculatively difcuffing the Mofaic narrative 
 of the creation, our author, following the. path of 
 Eichorn and Rofenmiiller, regards it as allegory 
 combined with literal truth. In his own words, 
 " I believe it to be a moft beautiful mythos, or 
 philofophical §6Hon, contrived with great wifdom, 
 drefed up in the garb of real hiftory, adapted to 
 the fliallow intellefts of a rude barbarous nation, 
 and perfeftly well calculated for the great and 
 good purpofes for which it was contrived ; namely, 
 to eftablifli the belief of one fupreme God and 
 Creator, in oppofition to the various and wild 
 fyftems of idolatry which then prevailed, and to. 
 enforce the obfervance of a periodical day to be 
 chiefly devoted to the fervice of that Creator, 
 arid the folacing repofe of his creatures*." For 
 this hypothefis Dr. Geddes fuftained riiuch ob- 
 * Critical Remarks, i. 26. ' 
 
345 
 
 loquy ; yet he modeflly advanced it^ leaving him-; 
 fejf ftill open to the correftion of other philo- 
 fophers and critics who might tje more fortun?ttein 
 their theories*; and the hypothefis itfelf fuppofes 
 afar lefs departure from the letter of the facred . 
 page than that contended for by the moll learned- 
 of the Jewifh Rabbis, as well as by Origenj and 
 almoft all the fathers of the chriftian church, ex-, 
 cept Epiphaaius and Jerom, who regarded the eri- 
 tirtJ defcription as allegoric, and appeals, to differ- 
 in no effential point from that of the more mode-, 
 rate bAuftin, who, affigned to the hiftory a fenfe 
 partly literal and partly fpiritualf, and whofe au- 
 thority contributed in no fmall degree toeftablifh 
 this opinion almoft exclulively among the wefteru 
 churches. 
 
 . Every geologic inveftigatipn however tends 
 progreffively to demonftrate the literal truth of 
 
 * " I have now fairly and candidly delivered my opinion of 
 the nature and purport of the Hebrew cofmogony." But I fet 
 not up for a dogmatift. I have read much on the fubjeft. I 
 have long revolved it in my mind, and placed it in everj; pof- 
 fibie point of vievV. I have not drawn my coi|clufions with 
 precipftation, nor till after a very ferious and minute invefti». 
 Ration ; and the refult is what you have been juft now reading. 
 
 ■ Si quid novifti redlius iftis 
 
 Candidus impertij li non> his utere mecum.'' 
 
 Critical Remarks, i. 29. 
 
 f Auguftin de Genell ad lit. torn, iii 137/ edit. Far. 1555. 
 
theMofaki narrative, and 'ciafiiequently to con- 
 firm our faith in the whole volume of the fcrip- 
 tures. Nature herfelf witneflethto the attentive 
 geologift that the earth muft hgceflsudly have ex» 
 ifted in a ftate of chaos — that the chaotic mafs waa 
 an aqueous and not a volcanic fluid — that its pre- 
 fent arrangement and ph^omena were hence 
 educed ; and this not inftantaneoufly, but by a 
 feries of feparateand creative operations — and that 
 this procefg'of creation followed moft precifely thd 
 order of the Hebrew hiftoriatij as divided into va^ 
 rious and. diftinfi a9:s or periods. That the diffe- . 
 rent fluids of vapor and water were, firft of all, 
 fecerned from the entire ma4 — that the water, 
 for a confiderable duration of time,' covered the 
 entire furface of the globe — that it, at length, gra? 
 dually fubfided, and difclofed the luttUniK of our 
 primary mountains, which were foon covered over 
 with vegetable verdure— rand that the various ge- 
 nera of herbs and fruit-tre^ followed in eafy fiic- 
 cefl!ionw It is equally obvious, confiftently with the 
 Mofaic account, that the waters were firlt animat- 
 ed with living creatures, the fhells and exuviae of 
 fuch being traced in immenfe quantities, even tq 
 the prefent moment, on the fummits of the loftieft 
 and moft inland primary mountains; whence it is 
 certain that they exifted, and that in prodigious 
 flioals, even prior to the fubfidence of the waters 
 
347 
 
 aiid the difclofure of the dry land. It is at leaft 
 natural to fuppofe, and is fiipported by the befi: 
 principles of ornithology, that theatmofpherewas 
 next inhabited, and that the different genera of 
 J)irds, many of which have long fince become ex- 
 tinS:, and perhaps exifted but for a fhort period 
 from the date of the general creation, but whofe 
 Skeletons are ftill occafioniilly detefted on the fur- 
 face, or but a little below the furface of our lof- 
 tieft hills— that thefe different genera drew their 
 nutriment from the fiimmits of our primary moim- 
 tains, which now began to be difclofed and to be 
 covered with verdnre; being the only animals, ex- 
 cepting fifhes, which hitherto polTefTed a habita- 
 tion. " It follows of neceflity, therefore, as ftated 
 jn the fame tiuthentic writings, that terreflrial ani- 
 mals muft have had a pofterior creation, the 
 furface of the earth now gradually afTuming 3 
 more folid and extenfive appearance, and accom- 
 modating them with an augmenting theatre of ex- 
 iftence: and that as the more fimple of this dafs 
 of animals was created firft, fo man, the lord and 
 mafterpiece of the whole, and for whofe ufe the reft 
 were refpeftively formed, completed the beautiful 
 climax, and clofed the order of creation. Accord- 
 ing to minute obfervation,' and the exprefs tefti- 
 mony of nature, this procefs, indeed, muft have 
 been fo extremely flow and gradual as to- have de- 
 
348 
 
 inanded not only fix days^ but perjiap& as many 
 centuries : yet if we once admit, that the Almighty 
 did) not create the whole by a fmgle'inftantaneous 
 effort, which he unqueflionably might have done 
 if he had chofen, but by a diftind and regular fe- 
 ries of exertions— there is no more difficulty in 
 conceiving him to have confumed fix years or fix 
 centuries than- fix days in the oitire operation : 
 and we have from the volume of nature as aniple 
 a proof that the term day impiies a longer period 
 in the prefent inftance than its literal interpretation 
 would juftify, as we have in any of the prophetic 
 writings, in which fuch a fuppofition is mutually ac- 
 (:eded to by Jews and Chriftians.- Thofe who wilh 
 to be more profoundly inflrudled upon this fubjedt, 
 ' may perufe Mr. Kirwan's Geological ElTays, in 
 which the fame accommodation of the Mofaic hif- 
 tory to the adual phsenoniena of nature is purfued 
 with a very maflerly hand, and With an equal de- 
 gree of benefit|to the caufe of religion and fcience. 
 The fpeech of Lamech, the mofl ancient frag- 
 ment of poetry in the world, and which preceded 
 the era of the deluge, is thus rendered by our 
 author. Gen, iv. 23 : 
 
 " And Lamech faid to his wives : ' Ada and 
 Zilla ! hear ray voice; wives of Lamech ! liflen 
 to my fpeech, A man I have killed ! but to my 
 own wounding : a young man ! but to my own 
 
349 
 
 bruifing* - If feven-fold vengeance be taken for 
 Cain, for. Lamech muft feventy times feyen-fold." 
 The hiftoryof "Lamech is given fo concifely, 
 that it is matter of mere conjedure upon what 
 occafion this fpeech was delivered. " As I am 
 totally ignorant of its meaning," fays the illuftri- 
 ous .Lowth, " I have lati§fied myfelf with fub- 
 joining the intel-Iineary verfion of Santes Pagni- 
 nus*," He heverthelefs ventufes to di«|de it into 
 the three following diflichs, of which each con- 
 tains two parallel ftanzas, and has rendered it highly 
 probable that fuch was its original arrangement. 
 
 I*?!? lynty n^'S.y my 
 fmati m^nin -jab '>i:?j 
 
 rp ap'> DTiyatt? ,o 
 
 Dr. Geddesjuppofes that the fpeech was deli- 
 vered to his two' wives Ada and Zilla,. in confe- 
 quence of his having flain a man who began 
 the, affault, and of cburfe in mere felf-defence; 
 having moreover been fevergly v/oun^ed in the 
 
 * Cum plane nefciam quae iit bujusloci fententia., contentus 
 fum fobjunxifle verfiojietn interlinearem Santis Pagnini. Prte* 
 le&. Academ. 
 
330 
 
 c(mte&.. To appeafe their fears on his acc6unt he 
 refers to the prote^ion afforded by the Almighty 
 even to his aneeftor Cain, and legitimately de- 
 duces, that if a fafeguard were granted to thei 
 wretch who flew his brother without a caufe, it 
 would certainly be extended to himfelf in a ten- 
 fold degree. Mr. Green has anticipated our au- 
 thor in this fuppofition, though his name is not re.; 
 ferred to ; and his verlion is, in my judgment^ 
 fuperior to that before us. It is more explicit, and 
 divided, like the original, as arranged by Dr. 
 Lowth, into three diftichs of two parallel ftanzas 
 each! The paffage being ftiort, I fliall quote it for 
 a comparifdnt 
 
 Lamech faid to his wiVds -^^ 
 
 Adah ^nd Zillah, heiar my voice; 
 
 Ye wives of Lamech, give ear ta ifiy fpeech; 
 
 - *■ 
 I have indeed flain a ttiari for my wound. 
 
 Even a yotifig dfiail for my hurt. 
 
 But if Cain (hall be avettged fcrven-foldj 
 Surely Lamech feventy times feven. 
 
 All the commentators have been perplexed td 
 find a meaning for Exodus xviii. 10, 11. In our 
 Ihindard verfion the paflage occurs thus a— And Je- 
 thro faid, " Blefledbe the Lord who hath deli- 
 vered you out of the hands of the Egyptians, and 
 out of the hands of Pharaoh, who hath delivered 
 the people from under the hand of the Egyptians^ 
 2 
 
361 
 
 Now I know that the Lord is greater than aH 
 gods; /or in the thing whenein they dealt prsudly he 
 was abjove them.** The rendering of this lafl: pat 
 iage is paraphraftic, with a view of forcing a meam 
 ing for the Englifh reader; which after ali is ftill 
 very obfcure and indefinite. Our author, differ- 
 ing from every prior expofitor, happily tranfpofes 
 it to the end of ver. 10; and by this trivial variation 
 renders the whole period clear and perfpicuous* 
 la his text it occurs thus :-~ And Jethro faid,t' Blet 
 fed be the Lord who hath refcued you from the 
 hands of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh ; who hath 
 refcued (fJy^^ the peoplefrom under the hands 
 of the Egyptians i becauje they h-ad deak heatghtily 
 with tbmi. And now I know that the Lord 
 is greater than all' other gods." 
 
 The following is a perfpicuous correffion tif the 
 common reading in the latter part of the fecond 
 commandment, Exod. xx. 5, 6: " For I the Lord 
 thy God am a jealous God, punifliing the iniquity 
 of fathers, whe^i they disregard me, in their 
 children, unto the third or fourth generation; 
 but fliQwing mercy unto the thousandth, when 
 they love me and keep my comiaandments.'* 
 
 By affigning to ini'', Numb. xxvi. S, the mean- 
 ing of to count or mufter, inftead of tofpeak, which 
 has hitheiJto been its general acceptation, but ta 
 
352 
 
 which our author fhows very plaufibly it is not ne- 
 cefTarily confined, he frees the original from a 
 difficulty which has uniformly.attached to it in the 
 cpntempladon of every critic. " So Mofes and 
 Eleazar muftered them on the plains of Moab, by 
 the Jordan, oppofite to Jericho; from the age of 
 twenty years tipward, as the Lord had given in 
 command to Mofes." Our tranflators of the efta- 
 blifhed verfion, not knowing what to make of the 
 paffage, have paraphrafed it by the introdudtion of 
 the following fentence ; " Take the fum of the 
 people :" of which ^t a word occurs in the ori- 
 ginal. ; 
 
 The phrafe, Deut. xxvii. 2, TtD3 Dni«} m©% in 
 our public verfion rendered " and plafter them 
 with plafter," is happily given in the text be- 
 fore us, " and join them with lime." Thus, "And 
 when ye Ihall have paffed over the Jordan into 
 the land which the Lord your God giveth to you, 
 ye fliall ereft large ftones, and join them with lime" 
 
 The exquifite ode of Deborah upon the tri- 
 umph of the Kraelites over the forces of Jabin, 
 Judges V, is tranflated with different degrees of 
 merit V but upon the whole is, in my eftimation,by 
 far thebeft we yet poffefs. The following palTage 
 is rendered with unrivalled beauty, and I have now 
 Mr. Green's verfion principally in view : 
 3 
 
3S3 
 
 BlefTed, above other women, be Jael, 
 
 The wife of Heber, the Kenite! 
 
 Above all tent-inhabiiing women be flie biefled! 
 
 Water ht afked, milk Ihe gave : 
 
 In a ooAly bowl flie prefented butter-milk. 
 
 With her left hand flie feized a pin. 
 
 And with her right a ponderous hammer: 
 
 She fmote Siferah : flie fmote him on the head ; 
 
 She pierced and perforated his temples! 
 
 At her feet he tumbled and fell down : 
 
 At her feet he tumbled and fell : 
 
 Where he tumbled, there he lay ghaftly dead ! 
 
 The latter part of this extraO; is, in the original, 
 uncommonly beautiful, and perhaps altogether in- 
 imitable. Our public verfion, however, has a 
 high degree of merit, and need not flirink from a, 
 comparifon with any tranflation whatever: 
 
 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down : 
 
 At her feet he bowed, he fell : 
 
 Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 
 
 This exquifite iteration cannot but remind us pf 
 the pathetic lines in Dryden's Alexander's Feaft, 
 in which the fame figure is indulged with an equal 
 degree of efFed : 
 
 Fallen! fallen! 
 
 Fallen 1 fallen! 
 Fallen from his high eflate 
 And weltering in his blo9d ! 
 2a 
 
S54 
 
 On the bare ground expofed he Iief, 
 Without a friend td clofe his eyes. 
 
 In the refponfe of Siferah's mother to hef o'wn 
 inquiries, 61: riather perhaps to thofe of her ladies 
 in waiting, as given by J)x> Geddes, there is one 
 line that drovers a ftrange waBt of tafte, though 
 I know that the fame colloquial phrafeology has 
 been adopted "by lir William Jones, in his tranf- 
 lation of the, odes.of perfiah and Arabic poets: 
 
 Surely they have found, and are dividing a booty ! 
 A girl, a couple of girls, to each btave man *. 
 
 But to make extrafts. would be endlefsi and I 
 ihall clofe the confideratiou of this part of our 
 
 * It is not in this inflance alone that our author, with a 
 view of rendering himfelf more clear and perfpicuous, has 
 adopted, with too little difcrimination, the colloquial dialed^ 
 of his day : thus Gen* xliii. 25, " and they made ready the 
 prefent againft Jofeph came at noon, for they heard that they 
 
 .Jbouldmt Iread^ theftj' as it occurs in our eftablilhed- verfion, 
 is gtven by Geddes, " for they heard that tley were to dipt 
 
 •there." So again, ver. 31 of the fame chapter, "and he 
 waihed his face and faid, /et on hreifdi" is rendered by our au- 
 thor, ' ' and he wafhed his face and Md, ferve up dinner." So 
 alfo, Exod. xii. 1 1 , for " it is the Lord's pafover," we have, 
 " it is ajkip-effering to th^ Lord !" It is needlefs to multiply in- 
 flances : and i-t becomes me to ftatei refpefting the laft example, 
 that he himfelf was foon diflatisfied with the change, and, in 
 his Critical Remarkf on the paCage, beg» the reader would 
 
S55 
 
 author's labors By quoting a fingle aUditional fpe- 
 ciiheri, and, for the fake of brevity, without any 
 critical remarks whatfoeyer. In doing this, I 
 open the fecond volume at random, and I find 
 prefented to me 1 Sam. iii. 3. The chapter is ftibrt, 
 
 altar the votd^ip-over, wherever it occurs, to PhaOih, the ori- 
 ginal term, and which is adopted with little variation in moft. 
 of the verfions. 
 
 The diftion of every writer is influenced in no fmall degree 
 by his common habit and manners. Thofe of Dr. Geddes 
 were plain and fimple:^ — his wifh was to reduce every fubjcft' 
 upon which he touched to'the cOmprehenfion of the vulgar j 
 and his idiotifms are occafionally therefore deficient in grace 
 a^d dignity. His friend Wakefield, on the contrary, was- ac- 
 cuftomed to devote the principal part of hir time to the poets 
 and philofephers of Greece and Rome ; Mr. Wakefield's lan- 
 guage is in confequence fcholaftic and reconditp; and in his 
 verfion of ^ the New Teftament, inftead of finking below, he. 
 often foars toovconfiderably, aborve, the common fendard,. as 
 in James i. i j, which in his firft edition is rendered " the 
 Father oflights with whom is no parallax nor tropical Jha- 
 dtyuj." If another example were neceflary 1 might refer to. 
 Dr. Horfley, one of the profoundeft fcholars aijd moft ^ble 
 critics of the preftnt day. In his admirable verfion of Hofea, 
 the paflage vi. j, in our common Bibles,. " therefore I have 
 hewed thcrn By the prophets," he has rendered, " it is 
 for this- that I have belaboured them." How this fentence- 
 would have been given by Geddes or Wakefield I know not ;- 
 but every one muff perceive it to be charafteriftic of the bifhop 
 hLmfelf,. a man poffefied of twice the mufcular ftrength of 
 either of them, and the moft renowned champion of his time, 
 whether in ecctefiaflic or legiflative pulemics. 
 
S2f6 
 
 and i fhstU copy the whole: thefeadfer may com. 
 pare it with the public verfion at his leifure. 
 
 Ti>e Lord revealeth himfetf to Samuel, &c. 
 
 *' The young man Samuel ftill miniftered to the 
 Lord, under Elif the prieft. In thofe days, di- 
 vine oracles were rare: vifionswere not frequent. 
 Now it happened, at that time, that, when Elij 
 whofe eyes were grown fo dim that he could not 
 fee, had lain down in his ovfujleeping-'^h.ce; and 
 Samuel had alfo lain down in the tabernacle of the 
 Lord, where the ark of God was (the facred lamp 
 not yet extinguifhed); the Lord called to Samuel; 
 who anfwered,: ' Here am 1.' Then, running to 
 Eli, h0 faid : * Here am I : thou calledft me.' 
 He repUed: ' I called not ; return to bed. '-—Again 
 the Lord called to Samuel : and Samuel arofe 
 and went to Eli, and faid : ' Here am I : thou cal- 
 ledft me.' He anfwered : * I called not, my fon ! 
 return to bed.' — Now Samuel knew not that it 
 was the Lord : for as yet no divine oracle had 
 been revealed to him. — Again, the Lord, a third 
 time, called to Samuel ; Vho arofe atid went to 
 Eli, and faid : ' Here am I : thou calledft me.' Eli 
 now underftood that the Lord had called to the 
 young man: So Eli faid to Samuel : * Go to bed; 
 
 « y«T. Rtai.'—\ Sep. Syr. Arab, and i MS." 
 
S57 
 
 and, if one call to thee, thou (halt fay : •-* Speak, 
 
 Lord! for thy fervant heareth." — Samuel re- 
 turned and lay down in his own place; when the 
 Lord accoftedhim, and called to him as before : 
 * Samuel! Samuel!' Samuel anfwered : ' Speak, 
 to Lord ! for thy fervant heareth.' — The Lord 
 then faid to Samuel : ' Lo! I am about to do a 
 
 ! thing in Ifrael, at which both the ears of every 
 one, who fliall hear of it, will tingle. In that day, 
 
 1 will bring upon Eli all that I have fpoken from 
 firft to laft, concerning his family. For 1 have 
 warned him, that I am about to execute judg- 
 ment on hishoufe for ever; becaufe, although he 
 knew that his fons difgraced themfelves, he re- 
 buked them not : therefore I have fworn, Tvith re- 
 fpe£l to the houfe of Eli,' that the iniquity of Eli's 
 houfe fhall never be expiated, either by viQ:im-.fa- 
 crifice, or donative.' 
 
 ** Samuel lay ftill until morning; when he 
 opened the doors of the tabernacle of the Lord, 
 Samuel was afraid to tell thevifion to Eli j but 
 Eli called to him, and faid : ' Samuel, my fon !' 
 lie anfwered J ' Here am I.' Eli faid : ' What is 
 it, that the Lord hath imparted to thee ? I pray 
 thee, conceal it not from me. May God do fo and 
 fo to thee, nay, more than that; if thou conceal 
 
 " yar.Read. — f Syr. Arab^Vulg. and fome copies of Sep, 
 %tz C. R,— y. 31, Sept, and partly Vulg. See C, R," 
 
358 
 
 aught from me, of all the things, that he faid to 
 thee!' Samuel then told him every thing, and con- 
 cealed from him nothing. ' He is the Lord,* 
 faid Eli : * let him do what, to himfelf, feemeth 
 right.' — Meanwhile, Samuel grew up, and the 
 Lord was with him : and all the Ifraelites, from 
 Dan to Beer-flieba, underftood that Samuel was 
 truly a prophet of the Lord : for the Lord con- 
 tinued to appear in Shilo; and to Samuel, in Shi- 
 lo, he revealed his oraclesj which Samuel an- 
 nounced to all Ifrael." 
 
 In his tranflation our author has uniformly 
 confined himfelf to the duties of a faithful inter- 
 preter. In a few doubtful paffages he may. per- 
 haps have overflepped the modefty of his office : 
 but in general 'his correftions are well fupported 
 by original arguments, by criticifms of prior com- 
 mentators, or the common confent of approved 
 readings. His ftyle is for the moft part plain and 
 perfpicuous, conveying the fenfe of the original 
 in its native firapUcity. But his language is oc- 
 cafionally unequal, and ftrongly partakes of the 
 alternations of his own phyfical conftitution; in 
 confequence of which, in the midft of a paifage, 
 moft exquifitely rendered in the main, we are at 
 times furprifed with fcholaftic and extraneous ex- 
 preflions, or difgufted with intolerable vulgarifras* 
 
S59 
 
 It Thould never be forgotten, however, that the 
 whole is the work of an individual unafTifled by 
 fellow-laborers, and th^t it conftitutes his firft at- 
 tenapt. Had he lived to have realized his own 
 wiflies, and to have revifed it by a fecond edition, 
 publilhed in twelves without his Critical Remarks, 
 there would have been little room for many of the 
 obfervations which the caufe of truth has thus 
 compelled me to hazard. As it is, it offers, fo far 
 as it proceeds, the moft intelligible verfion of the 
 facred records in the Englifli, or perhaps in any 
 language whatever j and there are few obfcure paf- 
 fages in our eftablifhed tranflation which this ver- 
 fion will, not illuminate. 
 
 But though in his interpretation he faithfully 
 Veftrifted hirnfelf to the duties of a tranflator, in 
 his volume of Critical Remarks our author con- 
 ceived himfelf at liberty to throw off every reftric- 
 tion whatever : and this part of his labors has, in 
 confequence, been open to much feverity of attack, 
 and the fource of no fmall degree of undeferved 
 opprobrium. 
 
 ' " In my tranflation and explanatory notes," 
 fays he, " I have made it a rule to confine myfelf to 
 the limited province of a mere interpreter; endea.- 
 vouring to give a faithful verfion df my correfted 
 originals, without comment orcriticifm. Inthefol-- 
 lowing Remarks I have taken a wider and bolder 
 range: I have throughout afted the cridc, and occa 
 
S60 
 
 fionally the commentator; although the office of the 
 , latter has always been made fubiervient to that of 
 the former. In both thefe charaders I have freely 
 ufed mine own judgment (fuch as it is) without 
 the fmalleft deference to inveterate prejudice or 
 domineering authority. The Hebrew fcriptures I 
 have examined and appreciated, as I would any 
 other writings of antiquity; and have bluntly and 
 honeftly delivered my fentiments of their merit or 
 demerit, their' beauties or imperfe9:ions, as be- 
 comes a free and impartial examiner. — I am well 
 aware, that this freedom will, by the many, be 
 coniidered as an audacious licenfe ; and the cry of 
 herefy! infidelity! irreligion! will refovmd fronj 
 fhore to ftiore. But my peaceful mind has been 
 long prepared for, and indeed accuftomed to, fuch 
 harfh Cerberean barkings: and experience has 
 made me (not naturally infenfible) callous to every 
 injury that ignorance or malice may have in ftore 
 forme, ^- 
 
 " I dnly enter my proteft againft dovmright 
 mifreprefentation and calumny. I difclaim and. 
 fpurn the imputation of irreligion and infidelity. 
 I believe as much as I find fufficient motives of crcr 
 dibility for believing : and without fufEcient mo^ 
 lives of credibility, th&re can be nq rational behef- 
 Indeed, the great mafs of mankind have no rational 
 belief. The vulgar Papill and the vulgar Proteftt 
 ant are here on ainiol^ equal terms ; fe\y, very feiy. 
 
361 
 
 of either clafs ever think of ferioufly examining 
 the primary foundations of their faith. 
 
 " The vulgar Papift refts his on the fuppofed 
 infallibiUty of his church j although he knows not 
 •where that infallibihty is lodged, nor in what it 
 properly cbnfifts : itis to him a general, vague, in- 
 definite idea, which he never thinks of analyfing. 
 He reads in his catechifm, or is told by his cate- 
 chift, that the church cannot err in what Jhe teaches-^ 
 and then he is told that this unerring church is 
 compofedonly of thofe who hold communion with 
 the biftiop of Rome, and precifely beheve as he, 
 and the bifhops who are in communion with him, 
 believe. From that moment reafon is, fet afide; 
 authority ufurps its place, and implicit faith is the 
 neceffary confequence. He dares not even ad- 
 vance to the firft ftep of Des Cartes's logic; he 
 dares not doubt: for in his table ' of fms, which he 
 is obliged to eonfefs, he finds doubting in matters of 
 faith to be a grievous crime. 
 
 " But, on the other hand, is the faith of the 
 vulgar Proteflant better founded ? He refts it on a 
 book, called the Holy Bible, which he believes to 
 be the infallible word of God. Is it by reading 
 the Bible, and unbiaffedly examining its contents, 
 that he is led to this precious difcovery ? No: he is 
 taught to believe the Bible to be the infallible 
 word pf God, before he has read, or can read itj 
 
S63 
 
 and fits down to read it with this prepoffeffion in 
 his mind, that he is reading the inf3,llible word of 
 God. His belief, then, is as implicit as that of the 
 vulgar Papift; and his motives of believing even 
 lefs fpecious. Both give up their reafon, before 
 they are capable of reafoning; the one on the au- 
 thority of his parents, or of his prieftj the other 
 on the authority of his parents or of his parfon : 
 but the prieft urges his plea with more dexterity, 
 and with a fairer outlide fhow of probability. If 
 the parf<?n be afked how he himfelf knows that 
 the book which he puts into the hand of his cate- 
 chumen is the infallible word of God; he cannot, 
 like the prieft, appeal to an unerring church; he 
 acknowledges no fuch guide : and yet it is hard to 
 conceive what other better argument he can ufe. 
 If he fay that the book manifefts its infallibility by 
 its own intrinfic worth, he begs the queftion. If 
 he affirm, that he knows it to be infallible by the 
 workings of the Holy Spirit in his heart, he plays 
 the enthufiaft; and his enthufiafm can be no ra- 
 tional motive of credibility for any other individual, 
 who feels not the like operations of the fame Spirit. 
 Twenty other difficulties furround his hypothelis, 
 which it certainly is not eafy to remove; and the 
 beft folutions he can give are but gilded fophifms. 
 — On reading the ;popiJh controver/y, as it is called, 
 from the days of Elizabeth to the prefent day, one 
 
S63 
 
 is apt, at le^.I am apt, to think that the Ro- 
 manifts had, on this point, the better fide of the 
 queftion; by fome of their controverfialifts not 
 improperly called the queftion of queftions. — Yet 
 this fame queftion of queftions -has never been 
 fatisfaftorily folved by the Romanifts themfelves. 
 They always reafoned in what is termed a vicious 
 circle; and proved the infallibility of the church 
 from the authority of fcripture, and the authority 
 £)f fcripture from- the church's infallibility. I know 
 what fhifts have been made by BelLarmine, Becan, 
 and many others, to get out of this coil ; but I have 
 never met with any one who had fucceeded. — 
 
 " The gofpel of Jesus is my religious code : his 
 doftrines are my deareft delight : ' his yoke (to 
 me) is eafy, and his burden is light :' but this yoke 
 I would not put on ; thefe doctrines I could not 
 admire; that gofpel I would not make my law, if 
 Reafon, pure Reafon were not my prompter and 
 preceptrefs. I willingly profefs myfelf a fincere, 
 though unworthy difciple of Chrift : Chriftian is 
 my name, and Catholic my furname. Rather than 
 renounce thefe glorious titles, I would flied my 
 blood : but I would not fhed a drop of it for v/hat 
 is neither Catholic nor Chriftian. Catholic Chri- 
 ftianity I revere wherever I find it, and in whatfo- 
 ever feft it dwells : but I cannot revere the loads 
 6f hay and ftubble which have been blended with 
 
&64, 
 
 its precious gems; and which Jtill in every fe£t, 
 with which I am acquainted, more or lefs tamifh 
 or hide their luflre. I cannot revere metaphyfical 
 unintelligible creeds, nor blafphemous confeffions 
 of faith. I cannot revere perfecution for the fake 
 of confcience, nor tribunals that enforce orthodoxy 
 by fire and faggot. I cannot revere formulas of 
 faith made the teft of loyalty, nor penal laws made 
 the hedge of church-eftabliftiments. In fliort, I 
 cannot revere any fyftem of religion that, for di- 
 vine doftrines, teacheth the didtafes of men; and by 
 the bafe intermixture of ' human traditions maketh 
 the commandments of God of none eSe&.' This I 
 fay even of Chriftian fyftems, and fhall I grant to 
 fyfteraatic Judaifm what I deny to fyftematic Chri- 
 ftianifm? Shall I difbelieve the pretended miracles, 
 the fpurious deeds, the forged charters, the lying 
 legends of the one, and give full credit to thofe of 
 the other ? May I, blamelefs, examine the works of 
 the ' Chriftian doftors and hiftorians by the com^ 
 mon rules of criticifm, explode their .fophiftry, 
 combat their rafh aflertions, arraign them of cre- 
 dulity, and even fometimesqueftion their veracity; 
 and yet be obliged to confider every fragment of 
 Hebre'iip fcripturei for a feries of 1000 years, from 
 Mofes to Malachi; every fcrap of prophecy, poefy, 
 minftrelfy, hiftory, biography, as the infallible 
 communicatit)iis of heaven, oracles of divine truth? 
 
S65 
 
 Truly^ this isf to require too much from credulity 
 itfelf. 
 
 " In the Hebrew fcriptures are many beauties, 
 many .excellent precepts, much found morality : 
 and they deferve the attentive perufal of every 
 fcholar, every perfdn of curiofity and tafte,' All 
 thofe good things I admit and admire, and would 
 eqUally admire them in the writings of Plato, 
 Tiilly, or Marcus Antoninus : but there are other 
 things in gteat abundance, which I can neither ad- 
 mire nor admit; withdut renouncing common 
 fenfe, and fuperfeding reafon : a facrifice which I 
 am not difpofed to make, for any writing in the 
 world. 
 
 ". This language will, I doubt not, feem: ftrange 
 to the fyftematic Chriftian, who has founded his 
 creed, not upon reafdn or" common fenfe, but' on 
 the prejudices of education; "who is a Papift at 
 Rome, a Lutheran at Leipfic, and a Calvinift at 
 Geneva; a Prelatift in England, and a Prefbyte- 
 rian in Scotland ; a Neftorian in Syria, in Arme- 
 nia an Eutychian— for fuch local nominal Chriftians 
 my Remarks were not intended, they would fpiim 
 them vrath zealous indignation. But if there be, 
 as I trnft there are, in each of thofe communions, 
 men who have learned to think for themfelvesj in 
 matters of faith as well as in matters of philofophy, 
 and who are not Chriftitos merely becaufe they 
 
366 
 
 were bom of Chrlftian parents, and bred up in 
 Chriftian principles; but becaufe, on the moft fe- 
 rious and mature examination, they find Chrifti- 
 anity a rational, a moft rational reEgien — to fuch 
 I addrefs myfelf with confidence; and by fuch I 
 es^ftto be lifteiied to vdth patient candour*." 
 
 This addrefs to the reader our author courteouffy 
 fubmitted to me in manufcript when firft' compof- 
 ed ; and it was the fubje«3: of much- private difcuf- 
 lion. I thought many of his concliifioris illogical, 
 and attempted to prove that the comparifon be- 
 tween the writings of the Pentateuch, and the le- 
 gendis and pretended miracles of many of the 
 chriftian churches was unfair and inadmifiible/ 
 Either the doftor, however, was too much at- 
 tached to his perfonai opinion, or which is more 
 likely, I did not do fufficient juftice to my own ar- 
 gument: in confequence of vs^hich the- addrefs 
 was prefixed to his volume of Remarks, and pub- 
 liihed with little or no alteration a few days after- 
 wards. 
 
 The chief objedHon that has been fairly urged' 
 againft him, upon a general perufal of the Remarks- 
 themfelves, and it is ah objefbion upon which almoft 
 every other is founded, is his difbelief in the di- 
 vine mifiion of Mofes and of the authority under 
 
 * Crit. Rem. Addrefs to the Reader, p. ir. 
 
S67 
 
 ivhich he pretended to a£t. " The hdc is,*' Ikys 
 he, " that all the antient legiflators required % 
 greater or lefs degree of implicit obedience to their 
 refpeftive lawsj and for that purpofe. feigned aa 
 intercourfe with fonae Divinity to make that obe- 
 dience more palatable to the credulous multi- 
 tude. 
 
 " But was this, it will be faidj the cafe with 
 JVTofes? Why not? And wh«re is the proof that 
 Mofes did not, in this, adt like other legiflators ? 
 This conceflion, fo far from diminifhinjg the cha* 
 rad:er of Mofes and the wifdom of his laws, greatly 
 enhances both; and is„ perfectly compatible with 
 the only divine in/piration, which fenfe and reafon 
 can admit — at leaft, which my fenfe and reafoii 
 can admit*. ,.. . , 
 
 " Indeed, I cannot conceive how Mofes could 
 haye goremed fo rude, fo ftubborn, fo turbulent a 
 nation; and made them fubmit to fuch a code of 
 laws as hedevifed for them; without feigning an 
 immediate intercourfe with the Deity, and afcrib- 
 ing to him every injundtion laid upon them. If, 
 in fpite of this precaution, and in defiance of Godj 
 they were conftantly murmuring and rebelling j 
 Hip^hat muft it have been, if Mofes had only fpoken 
 as from hirafelf? 
 
 * " For every good gift and, every perfeft boon cameth 
 down from above, from th'e Father of lights. Jam. i. 17." 
 
i568 
 
 ** But although his communications with Ood 
 were frequent, acid almofl on every emergency^ 
 he was particularly careful to keep the people at 
 a diftance from the intercourfe : no one muft ap- 
 proach the mount while he is receiving the Deca- 
 logue, uiyier pain of death : no one mult hear 
 the refponfes given from the oracle, but through 
 himj no one but he fees God * face to face :' 
 no one muft reafon againft any of his ordinances; 
 no one obje£l to any of his decifions : becaufe his 
 ordinances and decifions are all from the mouth 
 of God. In a word, the people muft have no 
 more religious or political knowledge than he is 
 pleafed to parcel out to them, by himfelf or his 
 brother Aaron, whom he makes his prophet and 
 prieft: the reft have nothing to do with the law 
 but to obey it*.'' 
 
 It is an infuperable objeftion to this part of our 
 author's creed that it is contradiftoryto itfelf. Dr. 
 Geddes admits his moft ample belief in the divine 
 authority of Jefus Chrift, " whofe gofpel is his re- 
 ligious code, whofe dodirines are his deareft de- 
 light:" but Jefus Chrift uniformly avowed the in- 
 fpiration of Mofes, by exprefsly adverting to fuch 
 infpiVation in the delivery of one prediftion ful- 
 filled in his own perfon. It is in every refped: in* 
 
 * Crit. Rem. p, 41. 
 
S69 
 
 confifteat and illogical therefore to accredit the 
 divine nyflion of the author, of the chriftian faith, 
 and yet- to deny the fame authority to the Hebrew 
 l^!t|ator. One principal ' reafon that operated 
 upon our author in fupport of this denial was, the 
 many afts of cruelty which were perpetrated at 
 the inftigation of Mofes, and from which he was 
 anxious to exculpate the Deity; and particularly 
 the total deftrudion and extermination of the 
 feven Canaanite nations, and the transfer of their 
 land and poffeffions to the Ifraelites. " I cannot 
 polEbly believe,". fays he, " that ever a juft, bene- 
 volent Being, fuch as I conceive my God to be, 
 gave fuch a fanguinary ordei" to^ Mofes and the 
 Ifraelites as in the book of Deuteronomy is faid to 
 hm& Jbeen given*.-" The expiration of this 
 tt^ni^dtion, advanced by the very learned and 
 Hbe>^al bifliop of LandafF in his Apology for the 
 Mile^is knowirto everyone, and is fatisfa£tory to 
 moft. But our author not only acknowledges 
 himfelf not fatisfied.with it, but labors, in a long 
 and argumentative note, to prove its impotence and 
 irrelevancy. He will: not allow any fimile drawn 
 from the phsenomena of nature, fuch as the ra- 
 vages of earthquakes, peftilences, or inundations, 
 to be coincident with- this event as recorded in the 
 Bible. " When the earthquake," fays he, " fwal- 
 
 * Crit. Rem, p, 425, 
 2b 
 
3*70 
 
 lows lip, the fea overwhelms, the fire confumes, 
 the famine ftarves, or the plague deftroys ; we are 
 totally ignorant by what laws of nature, or conca- 
 tenation of caufes, the defolating events. happen, 
 we fee only the difmal effefts : and no confe- 
 quence can rationally be deduced fronx them, 
 againft the principle of moral equity, fo often be- 
 fore mentioned. From fuch events no one could 
 derive an argument for the lawfulnefs of difpoffeff- 
 ing or injuring hi^ neighbour, either in his pro- 
 perty or perfon; no argument for the lawfulnefs 
 of burying alive idolators,'drowning heretics, ftarv- 
 ing atheifts, '&e. &c. From fuch events the fa- 
 mous bilhop of Cagliari, Lucifer, could never 
 have inferred, that it was the duty of the orthodox 
 to kill the Arians, and even the emperor Con-^ 
 flantius who abetted Arianifm. From theearthr 
 quakes at Catania, Lima, Lifbon, the Holy Inqui- 
 fition Gould never have concluded that it was law- 
 ful and meritorious to burn the bodies and con- 
 fifcatei the goods of Moors, Jews, and wicked ip- 
 fidels. But the exprefs command of God to ex- 
 tirpate whole nations, on account of their fins, and 
 to transfer their goods and chattels to another 
 chofen people,j was a precedent exa&ly fuited, to 
 their fanguinary purpofes, and triumphantly em- 
 ployed by them to obviate all obje£lions on the 
 fcore of cruelty. 
 
371 
 
 " The feme inferential arguments were made 
 Ufe of in the Valdenfian perfecution, and indeed in 
 every perfecution for the fake of religion, fmce 
 perfecution began. The fuppofed divine com- 
 miffion given to the Jews to extirpate the Chanaan- 
 ites and Apialekites, has ever been in the mouths 
 of Judaizing Cjjhriftians a pofitive and plaufible plea 
 for conimitting the mpfl, cruel injuftices*." 
 
 I freely .confefs I cannot fee the difference here 
 contended for: and eVenDr. Geddes himfelf mufl 
 have. admitted the pofGbility of God's predeter- 
 mining and prognofticating, as well as immedi- 
 ately ppjerating the total extermination of a. whole 
 people, or muft have difbelieved the tremendous 
 hiftory of the deftruftibn of Jeriifalem, and the 
 propagation of his predicted curfe upon the He- 
 brew race to the prefent moment. Here I think the, 
 fimile is at leaft adrniffible; and I ap furprifed 
 that our modern polemics have not occafionally 
 adverted to it. If it be confiftent with the juftice 
 and benevolence of the fupreme Being that the 
 Jewifti nation, his own peculiar people, fliould, on 
 account of the enormity of their fins, be in their 
 turn attacked in their inheritance; be fubjugated to 
 a foreign power; become the prey and plunder of 
 a long fucceffion of capricious, cruel, and avari- 
 
 *Crit. Rem. p. 425. 
 
872 
 
 dous tyrants; have theif city and temple at length 
 aflaulted; be loaded with every poffible calamity 
 tidiich peftilence, famine, and torture, their own 
 mutual treacheries and aiiimofities, and theimpla-^ 
 cable enmity and ingenuity of their adverfaries 
 could invent, during^ the continuance of this tre- 
 mendous fieger-if it be confiftent with the hxae 
 adorable attributes that upwards of a million of 
 them fhould fell viQirtis to fo conlplicated a 
 fcourge, and that the wretched remnant who ef- 
 eaped ftiGuld be fuffered to wander about as out- 
 cafts and Vagabt>nds over the fece ©f the whole 
 earth, equally defpifed and derided by every na- 
 tion among whom they might acquire a temporary 
 abode— if it be confiftent with thefe att^butes 
 that this tremendous vifitation fliould be ^erfe- 
 vered in for a period of at leaft eighteen centuries, 
 thus puniflittg' from age to kge the children for the 
 fins of their faihers-^-Si the cafe before us, which 
 we cannot but believe, be confiftent -vtrith thejuftice 
 and benevolence of the Deity — furely the cafe re- 
 corded (a cafe of far Inferior vengeance) demands 
 no' ■gt'^r ' credulity to obtain our aflent, nor 
 ftrength of reafoning to reconcile it with the moral 
 perfections of the fupreme Being. 
 
 It is in confequence of this difbelief of the in- 
 fpiration of Mofes that our author either totally re- 
 -je£ts the various miracles afcribed to him, or la^ 
 
37S 
 
 borS to reduce them to the ftlndard ^£ natural 
 phaeiiomena. This indeed is not a new attempt, 
 either in antient or modern times, by biblical com- 
 mentators who Would wifii to wreft from the Pen- 
 tateuch all thofe appearances of preternatural 
 agency in favor of one elefl: and ifolated people, 
 which are fuppofed to have been a ferious ftum- 
 bling-block with profeffed infidels. He has not, 
 however, beeft more fuccefsful than his prede- 
 eeffors: and I trufl: that the frequent failure of fuch 
 an attempt, even in "the hands of fcholars of l;iigh 
 mental endowments, and who are honeflly engaged 
 in the purfuit of truth, will deter pofterity from 
 fo fruitlefe and injudicious an effort. 
 
 Where this unreafonable incredulity however 
 does not obtrude itfelf, our author's obfervations 
 may uiaformly be read with a high degree of en- 
 tertainment and inftruftion. Th«y will be found 
 to Gomprife an aftonifliing mafs of biblical erudi^ 
 tion, and to evince a perfeverance and energy of 
 mind that fall to the lot of few theologians. In the 
 following inftance, and it is the laft I fhall feleft, 
 we have a happy proof of the fuccefsful applj^ 
 cation of his critical powers, to a cafe of real difR* 
 culty among both Jews and Chriftians of every de~ 
 fcription. — Exod. vi. 2, 3. " Again the Lord 
 fpake to Mofes and faid to Mm : ' I am the Lord 
 who manifefted myfelf to Abraham, to Ifaac,' and 
 
374 
 
 to Jacob, as God the omnipotent (Shadi); but 
 my name Jeve (he that will be) to them I did not 
 manifeft/" ' 
 
 From a curfory view of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 in their prejent Jiate, it fhould appear that the name 
 Jeve, or Jehovah as we commonly write it, was 
 known to all the patriarchs here enumerated, not- 
 withftanding this affertion to the contrary; and 
 confequently that the period of the delivery of 
 the Ifraelites from their Egyptian bondage was 
 not the aera jn which the D5ty firft cbminuned 
 with theni under this appellation. Upon this point 
 Dr. Geddes gives us the enfuing note, which I 
 fhall take the liberty of copying at large : 
 
 "5a/ mynamef lEVE [Jehovah] /o them I did 
 not manifeft. on"? '•nynj nb nw Titn. So both 
 Heb. and Sam. texts without any notable variety of 
 reading; and fo, negatively, all the Ant. v«rfions, 
 fave Saadias, who has this fmgular rendering^'7'7^4 
 ■'DDK! But God is my name. — But how can the name 
 J^hevah be faid not to have hem manifejied to the 
 niore ancient patriarchs, when it occurs fo fre- 
 quently in their hiftory? With refpefit to the mere 
 hiflorical narrative, the anfwer is obvious : the He- 
 brew hiftorian, whoever he was, to whom the 
 name Jehovah wa^ known, might vrithout any im- 
 propriety ufe it proleptically in fpeaking of the pa^ 
 
375 
 
 triarchs, and even in writing the hiftory of the cre- 
 ation. But there are paflages where the patriarchs 
 themfelves are found addreffing their God under 
 the very name Jehovah; which they could not 
 have done, if it had been unknown to them! Cer- 
 tainly not, and here lies the great difficulty in ex- 
 plaining the prefent paflage. Two principal ex- 
 pedients have, by comttientators, been employed 
 to remove the diiEcuhy. 1 . It has beert fuppofed, 
 that n'7 is here equivalent to sVrt; and that the 
 comma Ihould be rendered: ' and by my nam^ 
 Jehovah was I not manifefted to them ?' But this 
 interpretation is not only contrary to the common 
 rules of grammar, but deflroys the analogy of the 
 context, and would never have been thought of, 
 but for the fake , of reconciling contradiftions. — > 
 Another more fubtle folution is given by Vatable, 
 and retailed by Dathe and Rofenmiiller. I fhall 
 give it in the very words of Vatable: ' Quod fi, 
 quis contendat nomen mn'> fuiffe etiam patribus 
 ante Mofen cognitum et ufitatum; nihilominus 
 tamfen erit hujus loci fententia, quod Deus promi- 
 ferit qujdem patribus terram Chanaan, non tamen 
 impleverit temporibus patrum : nunc autem reipfa 
 impleturus fit} ut eonfirmetur Veritas nomlnis fui, 
 quo dicitur t\T[\ i. e. confiftens, conftans^firmus et 
 verax iu fromtffionibus Juis. In banc fententiam 
 quidam eti^m magni nominis apud Hebrseos eX'- 
 
376 
 
 ponit locum iflum in hsec verbx: " Promifi eis pijoi. 
 imfliones, etin omnibus eis dixi ad eos: EgoiUm 
 Deusomnipotens: at in nomine meo JVn'' non futti 
 notus faftus eis. Hlc non fcribitur Nan notumfe' 
 ci, fed'Nonnotus faStus Jam: \. e. non coitus foe- 
 tus Jum eis in froprietate veritatis mea^fr^eif quam. 
 vacatur nomen metim mrT": i. e. Vjerax,- Fj-D-ELiSi 
 CoNSTANS : quia ecce promifi eis, et nondum pra* 
 Jliti, Jeu tonfirmavi." ' Such is the amphibologioal 
 language, which eminent Jewifli and eminent Chii- 
 ftian interpreters put in the mouth of the Lord. — « 
 But what then are we to fay of thofe naffages 
 where the patriarchs addrefs the Lord by his 
 name Jehovah ? We muft fey that they are cor- 
 rupted paffages, ancf that mrr' has flipt into Xhesa. 
 fer DTt'7« or ">n«. It is well known how often 
 thefe words have been interchanged; and what va- 
 riety of leftion is in different copies, with vefpe£l 
 to them, — But let us review the feveral paffages 
 where the name Jehovah is put in the mouths «>f 
 the patriarchs, before Mofes.-^The fa-ft inilanc-@ 
 is an early one indeed : it is in Gen. 4. 1. where 
 Heva is made to fay mrv DX ©■« '>n''3p, literally, 
 ' I have gotten a man Jehovah ; ' or, as fome render, 
 ' from Jehovah.' But here Sep. Vulg. and both 
 Arabs have God inftead of Jehovah : jind I have 
 no doubt that this is the genuine reading. See the 
 Rem, on the place, — The next inftance is that of 
 
377 
 
 Noahs Qea. 9. g6. who in his benediflaon of 
 Shem fays 09 "TiVn rnri'' Till CPmmdnly rendered 
 * BleffedbetheLord God of $hem;' but which I 
 render ' Bleff^d of the Lord be Shem!' leaving f^be 
 f^ordm. the verfion, becanfe it is in aU the Hebrew 
 and Samaritan copies, and in all the verfions fave 
 the two Arabs ; but believing it a real interpolation, 
 as I have faid.in my Rem. on that place. 
 
 '" Thethir«d inftance is in Gen. 15* 2. where 
 Abraham is ,nadfi to fay mrr* i3iif4 My Lord Jeho- 
 vah. But here there is a variety of ledion to 
 which I refer my reader at p. 94, of thefe Re- 
 marks, The feme words occur again ver. 8 j but 
 here alfo is a variety of leftion both in the Text and 
 Verfions, Two MS. have ' Jehovah, myliord;* 
 pnd two, with Vulg. Syr. Ori(;. have ' Lord God.* 
 
 *' The fourth inftance is in Gen. 16. 2. where 
 Sara is nuide, to fay : ' Jehovah hath denied me 
 children :' and here indeed there is no variety of 
 iefliion, fave that both Arabs have ^ God.'-^ Again 
 in ver. 5. the fame Sara fays : ' May Jehovah be 
 judge between, me and thee :' but here all the co- 
 pies of Sep. as well as both Arabs, have ' God.' 
 
 " In Gen. 19. 13. the angels fay to Lot: * So 
 great before Jehovah, &c.' and * Jehovah hath 
 fent- us, &c.' and here the Arabs only have ' God/ 
 Jn ver. 14. Lot ufes the fame tferm, fpeaking to his 
 Ibns-in-law; where again the Arabs only have 
 *God.' 
 
378 
 
 « In Gen. 22. '44. Abraham is made to call the 
 altar which he builded on Mount Moria ' Ieve- 
 IRAE,' Jehovah will provide : and here all the ver- 
 fions, fave the Arabsj have alfo * the Lord.' 
 
 *' In Gen. 24. 3. Abraham adjures his fervantby 
 
 * Jehovah;' nor is thei-e here any variety of ledion, 
 fave in the Arabs.— -The fame is the cafe in ver. 7. 
 where Abraham fays : ' Jehovah the God of the 
 heavens, &c.' ' 
 
 *' In ver. 12. Abraham's fervant fays :. ' O Je- 
 
 , hovah, the God of my mafter, &c.' But here 2 
 
 MSS. have Adoni inftead of Jehovah, and 1 MS. 
 
 has Adoni Jehovah. The Arabs j as ufual^ have • O 
 
 God, the God of my mafter, &c.' 
 
 " In ver. 27. the fame fervant fays : ' Bleffed be 
 Jehovah, the God of my mafter, &c.' where all 
 the verfions accord : except the Arabs. So again 
 in the fame verfe, and in verfe 35. 40. 42. 48. 
 52. 5Q, 
 
 "In Gen. 26. 28. Abimelech fays to Ifaac: 
 
 * We have clearly feen that Jehovah is with thee.* 
 Where the Arabs only have God: and yet jt is 
 highly improbable that a king of Paleftjne fhould 
 ufe the word Jehovah. 
 
 " In Gen. 27. 7. Faac bids Efau bring him ve- 
 nifon : ' that I may blefs thee (fays he) in the pre- 
 fence of Jehovah j' where the Arabs only have 
 God. — In the fame Ch. ver. 20. Jacob fays: ' Jehor 
 vah, thy God, put it (the venifon) in my way.' 
 
S79 
 
 Here Vulg. has only voluntas Dei tut. — ^In ver. 
 27. Ifaac fays that the fragrance of his fon's gar- 
 ments is like the fragrance of a full-grown field 
 * which Jihovab hath blefled.* 
 
 " tn Gen. 28. 20. 21. Jacob twice mentions the 
 taxae Jehovah; according to Sep. and once ac- 
 cording to all the copies, fave the Arabs. 
 
 " In Gen. 99. S2. Lea is made to fay, on the 
 birth of Reuben : ' For Jehovah hath given me a 
 fon.' Here not only both Arabs, but alfo Syr. 
 andPerf. have Gop: and indeed it is barely cre- 
 dible th?it Lea ■^rould ufe the namg Jehovah,-— 
 Yet in thenext verfe ftie is made to ufe it again j 
 and likewife in ver. 35; in both which places the 
 Perfic verfion, a very literal one, and both Arabs, 
 have God. — In Ch. SO. 18. Ihe fays : ' God [not 
 Jehovah~\ hath given me my reward.' But here 
 Onk. and the Thargums have J^^(5'z;3>&.; 
 
 " In Gen. 30. 28. Rahel fays : ' Goihath taken 
 a^vay my reproach :' but here Onk. and the Thar- 
 gums, with three Hebrew MSS. have Jehovah.— r- 
 Again, ver; 24. Ihe fays: ' May Jehovah add to 
 me, &€.' but Sep. Syr. Perf. and both Arabs have 
 God. — In the fame Gh, ver. 27. Laban fays: ' Je» 
 ■ hovah, I guefs, hath bleffed me, &e.' But Sep. 
 Syr. Vulg. Perf, and both Arabs have God : nor 
 js it likely, that Laban, a Syiian, would ufe the 
 pther name.-TT-In ver? 30. Jacob fays : * Through 
 
380 
 
 my comduft Jebsveh hhSed thee:' where fome 
 copies of Sep. Perf, and both Arabs have God, 
 Some copies of Sep- have both, Kvpiog a Qsos; but 
 moft copies have Kvpug only, 
 
 " In Gen, 31. 49. Laban-fays: * May Jehovah 
 fpy between me and thee, &c.' but Sep. Perf, and 
 both Arabs have God. 
 
 " In Gen. 32. 9. al. 10. Jacob fays, * Thou, Je- 
 hovah,' -who f^dft to me:' and to this agree all the 
 verfions, fave the two Arabs. 
 
 "Gen. 49. 18. Jacob fays, or fome one for 
 him : 'Jehovah! from thee I wait for falvation:' 
 but this has very much the air of an interpofciiion j 
 as I have obferved on that.paffage. 
 
 " Thefe, if I miftake not, are all the places 
 where the Patriar(!hs, from Adam to Jacob iaclu. 
 fively, have diredly mentioned the name fehavah : 
 and they are certainly more than enough to prove, 
 that that name was known to them before the vo- 
 cation of Mofes ; if we were fure that they had ac» 
 tually fpoken the very words put in their mouths 
 by the compilers or copiers of the Pentateuch. 
 But who will affirm that this is the cafe ? The 
 number of places where D'hSk and nin» have 
 been interchanged is very great; and the variety of 
 fcaion between the Verfions and the Text, and be- 
 tween the copies of the Text itfelf, is aftonifhing. 
 Need we wonder then, that the word nin', once 
 2 
 
S81 
 
 become the peculiar name of the God of the He-^ 
 brews, fhould, by hiftoriais pofterior to that pe- 
 riod, be often fubftituted for the more ancient and 
 moregeneral name CDTiVKj even in addrefles to the 
 Deity, or in relations concerning him? A prcjlep- 
 fis is readily granted with refpefl: to the latter j and 
 we muft either grant it with r^pe£l to the former, 
 or fay that the writer of Exodus is in cpntradiftion 
 with the writer of Genefis: for it is, in my appre- 
 henfion, impofEble to reconcile the paffage of Ex- 
 odus that gave rife to the above obfervations, with 
 the name Jehovah's being known to the preceding 
 patriar^'hs.^If the name Jehovah were known be- 
 fore it was here communicated to Mbfes, and 
 Were the common appellation of the God of the 
 Patriarchs, the queftion of Mofes, Exod. 3* 13i 
 was needlefs, was impertinent : for God had be- 
 fore told him, ver. 6. , that he was ' the God of 
 his (Mofes'^) fathers, the God of Abr?Jiam, the 
 God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob.' It is clear 
 t^eh that Mofes, by.a&ing what was the name of 
 this fame God of his fathers, knew not that he 
 had any particular name; and that particular name 
 Jefhovah'is now for the firft time made known as 
 the peculiar God of the Ifraelitic nation. All this 
 is perfe^ly conformable to the prefent declaration, 
 Exod. 6. 3. * I am Jehovah; whomanifefted my- 
 felf (or appeared) to Abraham, Haac and Jacob, 
 
882 
 
 ■as God the Omnipotep HB^; h^ but my name 
 lEVE (Jehmiah) to them I did not manifeft.'— 
 In fa.ft it is by the former name he calls hirafelf 
 to Abraham,' Gen. 17. 1. Hit' Sf* 'JK ' I am 
 God the Omnipotent.*— To Jacob, Gen. 35. 11. 
 he makes the fame declaration; which Jacob him- 
 felf alludjBS to in his laft fpeech to Jofeph, * God, 
 the -Omnipotent, appeared to me at Luz.' Gen. 
 48. S. I know that in Gen. 28. 13. he is made 
 to fay: ' I am Jehovahj^'C^'s. God of thy fathers.' 
 But the word Jehovah is wanting in the beft co- 
 pies of Sep. and muft be charged on the interpo- 
 lators or correfling copyifts of the Hebrew Text. 
 For the general manner in which- God announces 
 himfelf to the Patriarchs is, merely by calling 
 himfelf the God of their father s\ as Gen. 28. 13. 
 — or the, very Godoi their fathers; as Gen. 46. 3. 
 — or by denominating himfelf from the place of 
 his appearance: as the God ofBethelf Gen. 30. 36. 
 and 31. 13. and Jacob more than once" denomi- 
 iiates him by the fame title. It is obfervable that, 
 although the patriarch Jofeph mentions the name 
 of God about twenty times, he never once men- 
 tions him by the name Jehovah. It may be faid 
 that he abftsuned from mentioning that name in 
 Egypt, either not to give offence, or becaufe they 
 would not have underftood him; but what Ihall we 
 fay, when we fee him ufing the fame caution to 
 
S83 
 
 his own brethren, after his making himfelf known 
 to them ? He tells them not that ' Jehovah fent 
 him before them, for their prefervation;' but 
 
 * God,' Gen. 45. 5. and repeats the fame words in 
 the verfes 7. 8. and 10. — ^^A more remarkable in- 
 ftance ftill is in Gen. 50. 17. and 19. In the for- 
 mer his brothers requeft him to forgive their tranf- 
 greffion againft him, becaufethey are the fervants 
 .of his ' father's God :* and in the latter, he de- 
 fires them not to fear : ' for (fays he) a reverer of 
 God am I.' — Surely here was the place for uflng 
 the name Jehovah^ if that nam:e was known either 
 to J^ofeph or his brothers. Again, when 'in the 
 fame Ch. ver. 24, he adjures his brethren to carry 
 his bones into the land of Chaiiaan; he fays not :. 
 
 * Jehovah will certainly vifit you — ' but ' Ga^ will 
 certainly vifit yoji;' and repeats , the fame wofds 
 in the next yerfe; 
 
 " The benediflgons of the patriarchs tend to efta- 
 blilh the fame reafoning. . ' May God, the Omni- 
 ptent, ♦rut> '7^f (fays Ifaac to Jacob, Gen. 28. 3.) 
 blefs thee and make thee fruitful.—^' May the 
 God, -^hoxa my fathers worfhipped (fays -Jacob 
 Gen. 48i 15.) the God who hath tended me until 
 this day, blels the lads.' — :And in the moft folema 
 benediftion of Jofeph, Gen. ,49. 25. Jehovah is 
 never mentioned — but ' the God of Jacob' — ' the 
 God of his father' — ' the Omnipotent,' ntJ'. 
 
SS4, 
 
 *«^ It matters not whether thefe were the very 
 words of Jacob and Ifaacy or of th^ poetical hifto- 
 rian who put them in. their mouths. The poetical 
 hiftorian mufl; have made them Ijpeak fomfithing 
 like the language of their age, arid ufe terms that 
 were then known^ In fhort, unlefs we fuppofe the 
 Pentateuch to be a compihition of |amng elements 
 affemblaged by different hands, we muft allow 
 that the name Jebovkh has been put in the mouths 
 of the patriarchs prior to Mofes, and in the mouth 
 f)f God himfelf by fome pofterior copier : for the 
 lame perfon who wrote the third verfe of the fixth 
 chapter of Exodus could not have been fo ihcon- 
 fiftent with himfelf, as to make the name Jehovah 
 femiliar to the patriarchs before that period. 
 
 "Let me juft add, that it is a ftroagprefump- 
 tion againfl: the name Jehovah being known be* 
 fore Mofes, that it enters not into the proper names 
 of either perfons or places; fave' in the name lEVE- 
 IRAE, already noticed ; whereas we find ^{< fre* 
 quently in fuch names. The very name oi Ifrttel 
 himfelf is of that clafs. But very early indeed 
 this ufage feems to have taken place. Two of 
 Cain's fons were fo denominated, Mehujael and 
 Methufael. Befides thefe, we have in the book of 
 Genefis, Mahalaleel^ Ifhmdel, Kemuel, Bethuely 
 Magdiel, Jahelel, Jemuel, Malchiel, — and in a dif- 
 ferent combination, Eldaah, and Eliphaz, whereas 
 
383, 
 
 there is .not a fingle perfon's name which has any 
 p2.rt.0i' Jehovah in it, either in its firll, or.laftfyl- 
 la.hle..—-yocha^ed, the . mother of Aaron, has, in- 
 deed, been alleged as one inftance to the con- 
 trary: ' Ex hoc nomine (fays Simonis) colligunt 
 falfum effe, quod quidam putant, Mofis demum. 
 tempore nomen Jehovah revelatum fuiffe, ob lo- 
 cum Exod. 6. S.' Onom,aft. p. 517., The infe- 
 rence is rafn, and unwarranted. For, in fierfirft 
 placcj it is not certain that^ all, names. beginning 
 with, V are . compounded of niriiVand fome other 
 word : perhaps none of them are fp compounded. 
 Clearly to- entitle Jochabed to fuch an etymology, 
 it ought to be, written l:i;Din'.-"But waving thi^, 
 .and ., gran ting that Jcchahd 1231' is a conjpound 
 qf n'land i:iD, may not this. name haye- been given 
 her by way ' of honour, even after her deauhc? Or 
 may fhenot have been ftill alive at the. time of 
 her fbn's miffion to Egypt, and then received this 
 hanle ? — At any rate, this fmgle name, whenfo- 
 eVer It be derived, or whenfoever it were given, 
 cannot ftand as a proof that the . name Jis'/^ot^^/S' 
 was known priorly to Mofes^, againfl fo pofitive a 
 teftimony as that of the paffage in Exodus which 
 gave rife to this difcuffion." 
 
 : . The. regular ieries of our author's tranflation 
 terminates with the Book of Ruth. At the re- 
 
 .2c 
 
386 
 
 plated and urgent requeft, however, of many of 
 his warmeft friends, he confented to anticipate the 
 time in which the Book of Pfelms would appear 
 in dieir proper order, and to prepare them for a 
 ieparate publication in tVekes, accompanied with 
 fuch critical notes alone as might be abfolutely ne- 
 ceffary for their elucidation. Thefe he expedited 
 to the prefs'as he completed their verfion, but he 
 "died in the very midft of their tranflation and 
 impreffion, Pfalm cxviii. cbnftituting tire laft to 
 •which he applied his corre£ling- haiid. Though 
 •printed, they have not yet therefore been'pub- 
 lifh'ed ; but it is intended they fhould be'fhortly, in 
 conjunftion with a preface which he had 'drawn up 
 -for the pUrpofe, the autograph of which israt 'this 
 time in my poffeffion. Upon thefe Pfalms he ap- 
 pears . to have l^eftowed an uncomftion degree of 
 ?ittenrion, and moft of the difficulties \«rhich at- 
 tach to them are fatlsfaftorilyfolved or confider- 
 ably diminiflied* Many of them indeed are ad- 
 mirably tranflated; though I will not deny that 
 while they are generally enriched with an ampler 
 portion of our author's common beauties, they are 
 at times degraded by his common defeds. We 
 meet with terms occAfionally introduced which are 
 inconfiftent with either elegance or fimplicity of 
 ftyle, and with phrafes ihharmonioufly involved 
 anddeftrudive of the -^ery rhythm they are inteiidt^ 
 
387 ^~ 
 
 to convey. There are two grand points in whichj 
 in his verfion oftBePfalms, he has deviated from 
 the plan hepropofed in his Profpefltus and Letter 
 to the Bifhop of London, and which, excepting in 
 one or two inftances, he has uniformly adhered to 
 in his regular feries of tranflation. The, one is in 
 rendering- the Hebrew term niiT (Jeve) Jeho- 
 Vah, inftead of Lord, and the other in dividing 
 the text into parallel lines correfpondent with the 
 idea of a poetic meafure in the original. 
 
 Having been neceflarily led into a notice of this 
 pofthumous remain of our author in the prefect 
 place, the reader may perhaps , expe£l: I fhould 
 offer fome fpecimen of its merit. I will not difap- 
 point him, and ihall for this purpdfe feleft Pfalm 
 Ixxxiv. 
 
 1 _ "for the fiblst musician, on the githith : 
 a' psalm of the sons of rokah. 
 
 a HOW lovely are thy tabernacles, Jehovah, God of 
 
 hofts! 
 
 3 my foul lorigeth, nay langulftieth for the courts of Je- 
 
 hovah ! 
 mine heart and my flefli cry aloud' for the living God I 
 
 4 The very fparrows find an abode, 
 
 and the fwallows a neft, where they may lay their 
 
 young, 
 by thine altars, Jehovah, G»J of hofts! 
 my king, and my Gob ! 
 
_5 ' Happy t,hey, who dwell in thy lioufd, 
 ahd are continually founding thy praife. 
 
 6 Happy they whofe ftrength thou art : . 
 fecurity reigns in their hearts; 
 
 7 If they pafs through a defolate valley, 
 they fliall drink from a fountain : 
 
 nay, tht rain llfelf (hall beftow iis bleflirigs. 
 
 8 They (hall go on, fromflage to ftage, 
 
 . utitil they appear before God, iri Zion ! 
 
 9 Jehovah, God of hoftsl. hear my prayer': 
 give ear to me, O God of •f'scob ! ... 
 
 JO . O G:i)D, our protedor, behold! -and regard thine an- 
 ointed. 
 
 11 For bfettef is a day, in thy courts, 
 thafi a thoufand elfenvbere! 
 
 1 would rather live at the threfliold of the houfe of my 
 
 Gqd, 
 than' dwell in the tabernacles of the wicked^ 
 
 12 For a fun and 3 Ihield is the God Jehovah: 
 , Jehovah giveth grace and glory : 
 
 be withholdeth nothing that is gooi 
 from thbfe who *alk in innocence. 
 Jehovah, Goif of hoftsl 
 happy thofewho truft in thee."- 
 
 "iVbto.— Ven 2. The f-waUrnvs. From a fimilarity of 
 found, the Hebrew word deror, or darur, is fuppofed to be the 
 ' Arabic dururi; which Forfkal faw in Egypt. But as he gives 
 not the Arabic name either in-Arabic or Hebrew charafters, 
 •the fimJlarity of fpund is an unfure authority. 1 have there- 
 fore, with the ahtients, l^ept to the fwallow, which we know 
 builds in the W:alls of houfes as \yell a» the fuar'row. For the 
 reft, fome interpreters, thinking it indecerit that birds fhould 
 iieftle in the temple of God, have violently wrefted the text 
 
tQ a different meaning: and our Green thus difpofes of it: 
 'Even t'he fp'arrow findeth herfelf a houfe, and the ring-dove 
 a neft, where flie may lay her young — But ivhenJhaU I af- 
 prodch thy houfe and thy altars?' A 'ftrange ellipfis this! — 
 But temples of everyfort have been every where the refort 
 of certain birds : and the orientalifts confider this fo far from 
 being a profanation, that they will not allow the neftlers to be ■ 
 difturbed. — Ver. 6, 7. Thefe verfes are to me altogether un- 
 intelligible in all the verfions that I have feen. I have tried 
 to make fenfe of them, without changing a tingle letter in the 
 text J but only giving new, and J truft well founded meanings 
 tp tbrep or four of them. But fee C. R." 
 
 Of the C. R. or Critical Remarks, here referred to, 
 unfortunately not a fyllable was ever written. And 
 it is the more unfortunate, becayfe there is a confi- 
 derable deviation in the prefent verfion from, every 
 one that has preceded it, and an elegance and per- 
 fpicuity which are well worth' fuppiortihg, I do 
 not know that I'fliall be rendering our tranflator , 
 any ferviCe by offering my feeble affiftance on the 
 prefent occafion, or that he himfelf would be fa- 
 tisfied with any obfervatipn I may be able to ad- 
 vance; but I will at leaft hazard the attempt, as 
 fome explanation feems abfolutely neceffary, - - 
 
 The chief deviations in the prefent from' all prior 
 fetiderings are in yer.' 6, 7, 8, as here numb ered; 
 refpedting which,, Ayhoever will take the trouble of 
 examining the common Englifh verfion, thofe of 
 Pagninus, Montanus, and the Septuagint — the 
 
390 
 
 expofitlon of Theodoret upon this laft, or of Je- 
 rom upon the original itfelf, and of comparing 
 then! with each other, will at once perceive the 
 truth of our author's aflertion, that all of them are 
 altogether, and he might have added equally, un-; 
 intelligible. He appears to have divided the paf- 
 fage intb the following metrical arrangement of 
 feven lines, which is a different conftrudion from 
 that generally chofen, by which it is limited to fix. 
 The divifion however is a matter of mere arbitrary 
 tafte^ and produces little or no influence on the- 
 fenfe. 
 
 « 
 
 •ji I'yrjy viti nu?** 
 
 NDnrr pow my 
 
 nmonDy mDiaoa 
 bTiba bnn is'?'' 
 
 Ver. 6. " Security reigns, in their hearts." In 
 the ftandard veriion, " in whofe heart ^r^ the ways 
 of them ;" the whole of which is unintelligible, 
 though nearly half is added to wh^t occurs in the 
 6riginal in order to make it fenfe. The tranfla- 
 tors followed the rendering of Pagninus, who has 
 
S91 
 
 given it juft as obfcurely as themfelvea: " Beatus 
 homo cujiis fortitu^p eft in te, et vi^ in coudS' 
 EORUM." The verfion of the vSeptuagint is very 
 different, and trends, fo. far as it is, capable of a 
 meaning, rather nearer to that before us, AvoiSacrsis 
 iv TY) yMp^isL avTcv he9iTo^ " he has pl?iGed exahations, 
 (' exalted fielings) in his heart :" or, as it is explained 
 by Theodoret, " pious thoughts upon God." The 
 expreffion " exalted,feelings,"h(}wever,£v^n as im- 
 plied in the Suptuagint, is a paraphrafe ; for avu^onrig 
 means fimply " aflent," " exaltation," " fublimity." 
 I have faid that this interpretation verges in fome, 
 degree towards that of Dr. Geddes : the original 
 term which the Seventy have rendered ava^aa-Hg is 
 , DvDDj the general meaning of which is neither 
 exaltation with the Septuagint, nor Jecuriiy with 
 the text before us, but fimply ways, as ren- 
 <^ered in our common verfion; yet the radical 
 ver^ '7D allpws of its being tranflated " high-ways" 
 Qj^'' acclivities^' and hence " momds" or " muni- 
 ^/o»j; "all which ideas' are allotted to different rami- 
 fications 'of this radix in different parts of our com- 
 monable, and particularly Jer. i. 26, Ifai. xlix. 11, 
 Job xix. 12. While the Septuagint therefore has 
 taken the former of thefe, fenfes, and applied it 
 figuratively. Dr. Geddes has taken the latter, and 
 applied it in the fame manner : " in their heart 
 * dwell' munitions" or " fecurities;" or in his own 
 
392 
 
 lafiguage, " fecurity ' reigns' in their hearts." In 
 Mendelfohn's German verfion : 
 
 Hell dem der ftandhaft ift, durch dich 1 
 Dies iriacht in ihrem finn gebahnte fteige. ' 
 
 Joy to him, who is ftedfaft'through thee— 
 
 It is a power which advances progreffively in their hear^. 
 
 Ver. 7. ^^ J dejalate valley." In the efta-' 
 blifhed text " valley of Baca." The meaning of 
 Baca we ki|ow not : it was probably fome bitter' 
 and difguflful fhrub, which we no longer recog- 
 nize, but which required a' con'fiderable portion of 
 moifture, and hence- only flourilhed in low fitua- 
 tions : on which account, " the valley of fiatca" 
 was perhaps a proverbial phrafe for the " valley 
 of tears," or that depreffiori of fpirits which is 
 uniformly produced by perpetual grief: and' it- is 
 thus, indeed, rendered both by the Septuagint and 
 Aquila ; the former, of whofe verfions, inftead of 
 ND^n (Abaca), has Ttkcxv^^tAivoi, " the valley of //&ff 
 place of mourners,'' and the latter xT^avSiJ^ou, the 
 " valley o/ weephg," or " of tears ;" while" Jerom, 
 with a bolder image Hill, renders it -per liallurri 
 mortis, " through the valley of i/fW/t)." The paf- 
 fage, how;ever, when ftriaiy, rendered, is as fol- 
 lows : " Pafs they through the valley of Baca — 
 they poflefsa well-fpring;" i. e. '" Pafs they through 
 the valley of bitternefs— ^they ' ftill' poffefs a ' re- 
 
S93 
 
 frefhing' fountain ;" or, in the language of Dr, 
 Geddes, 
 
 If they pafs through a defolate valley, 
 They ftiall drink from a fountain. ' 
 
 Id.—" The rain itjelf Jhall bejiow its bless- 
 ings." In the common verfion, " the rain alfo 
 filleth the pools." The Hebrew term rn212 
 may be rendered, with equal propriety, pools or 
 hlejfmgs : and from the extreme value of a heauti- 
 ful fheet ,or current of water, and the delightful 
 fenfation produced by its appearance in the arid 
 foil of 5aleftine, as well as in many other ori- 
 ental countries, the ufe of one general term to 
 eXprefs the two ideas is ftill common. Thus in 
 -Arabic ia^ " rain," ^j ^' a river," ^J.a>*j " a 
 
 torrent," imply alfo "* kindnefs" or " liberality." 
 The Perfian ^jl^b esitends equally to both ideas, 
 as does alfo the term (__^cXJ which in its primitive 
 
 fenfe is dew, and in its figurative benignity. In 
 the prefent inftance, however, the primitive fenfe 
 is with our author, for. riDIl can only fignify 
 a pool or river\, by a fecondary iiiteiyretatipn. His 
 own rendering is that uniformly preferred by the 
 Septuagint, Jerom, and Montanus, all of whom 
 write blejjing or bleffings : thus the firft of thefe 
 three, -mx,!. yap ETAOriAS ^jc<rii 6 vo^^iroov ; and 
 the fecond, who is followed' by Montanus, '^ be- 
 , 1 
 
394 
 
 il^icTioNi' quoqufr amicietur do£l:or/*>' The 
 tranflators of our common verfion, in their ren- 
 dering of thi&paflage, as in that of ver. 6j have 
 followed Pagninusj and with too clofe a ftep, who 
 tranflates " etiam'vlscii^AS oferit pluvia." Piscir 
 KAB, however^ which is literally fish-/oo/j, is , a 
 inoft inappropriate interpretatioQ,, confidering the 
 general fcenery of the original, which can fcarcely 
 be, fuppofed to. have fupplied fifties with an habir 
 tation. 
 
 Ver. 8. « They Jhall go. en." Almoft all th^ 
 verfions, except that of Pagninus, ufe the future 
 tenfe both, here and in ver. 7, inftead of the pre- 
 fent, which is adopted by hinifeff, and confe- 
 quently by our authorized tranflation : " they go, 
 &c." for " they fhall go ;?' « they make," for 
 " they Jhdl make, &c." 
 
 Id — •' From, fiage to Jlage." In the original 
 b'rtvl* 7>nO ; and I much prefer the common 
 lend^ijig,, " from ftrength'to firength," which 
 IB a mere Hebraifm for " with progreffive" or 
 ** increafmg ftrengthj" to the trjinflation before 
 us. nb'n niay unqueftionably imply -a fiage or 
 refiing place m. a journey, as well as the firengib or 
 mgor which is hence derived : but the latter fenfe 
 is moft agreeable to our interpreter's own context, 
 " happy they whofe strength tjiou art,,— secu- 
 rity reigns in their hearts;" and is the common 
 
393 
 
 verfion of all the translators. Thus the Septua- 
 ^M\ SK Ivvoi^oog SIS Suwapvi So Jeroffl, de fartitom- 
 dmein fortitudinem. So alfo MontaauSj- de 'il^ 
 fiife ad virfutem. In- like manner Mendelfohn, 
 
 So wallen IJe von kraft zu irafU 
 
 Pagninus forms alrAoft an individual exception; 
 and, in this- inftance, our authoriized Bible has> 
 laudably deviaited from him, "Eunt," fays he, 
 " de turm* ad turmam;" " they go from com- 
 pany to company," or, as it might be reiidered ia» 
 iteferfefice to the different forces of an army, 
 " they go from/or^^ x.o force" 
 
 In perufing Mr. Reeves's Collation, which is aa 
 higenious and excellent- performance, I find that, 
 in order to make fenfe of tfte period' before ns, 
 he has been compelled to alter m^DS into niSvO, 
 arid to break the unity of the paffage by the in- 
 trodu£tion *of two parenthefes. The prefent ver- 
 iion, if I miftake not, renders fuch an arbitrary 
 variation unneceffary. 
 
 The Githith or Gathith, for which, according 
 to the title, this Pfalm was compofed, is imagined 
 to have been a mufical inftrument invented at 
 Gath. The Nehiloth, mentioned Pfal. v. was a 
 wind inftrument, a fort of pipe or hautboy : the 
 Githith was, in all probability, a fort of lute or 
 iyre, an inftrument with firings. 
 
S96 C 
 
 Of the term r\^Q (fla, or, as It is generally 
 written, felah), which occurs at the end of ver. 4 
 and 8, our tranflator has taken no notice. It is 
 generally agreed to have been a mark.^announcing 
 a change of modulation in the mufic. Accord- 
 ing to Hederic, it was a dire£lion to the choriflers 
 in the temple-fervice to rai/e their voices on their 
 inflruments'. This can fearcely, I think, be correft, 
 as it generally occurs' in pfalms o/a plaintive air ^ 
 and in a note on Pfalm iii. Dr. Geddes has this ob- 
 fefvatiori: " The precife meaning of the word is not 
 well known. To me it appears to refemble what 
 the Italians call adagio, or mark oiflfiw timej and 
 perhaps'our wordj7ow fiLJlaw is derived from it." 
 The firft part of this conjeQ:ure is by no means im- 
 probable; and if there be much fancy in the laft, 
 it-is a fancy \yhich has been exceeded in the deriva- 
 tion of this very term by moft of our etymologifts, 
 and which Mr. Whiter, at leaft, may enlarge upon 
 to great adyantag^» J 
 
397^ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. . 
 
 Additional, ohfervations upon Dr. Geddes's Bible — Va- 
 rious -^o^pojttions he had to encounter — HoJIility of the 
 eatholie oijhofs'-rejident in England, after having 
 intimated their approhation — Dea,th of hifhop. Jatfigs 
 Talbot, and apppintmenf of hi/hop Douglas bji the 
 ■Romckn fee, in oppojition to t^e qddrefs of the ling- 
 lifh cdthoUes-T-Animofity of thfi \great body of the ca- 
 tholics to Dr. Geddes — Encyclical prohibition of his 
 Trariflation pf the Bible,, fuhfcribed by hifoops Walm- 
 fley, Gibfon', and Douglas, but r'efufed to befubfcrihed 
 by bi/hdp Thomas Taibot-^Dr. 'G'eddes's Addrefs to 
 the \Publui — Private correfpondence between bifhap 
 Douglas and htmfelf — His fufpenfion by Mr,, Douglas 
 from all ecclejiaflic funSt^ons — •His piubliQ Letter to 
 the Bight Bev. John Dot^las, Bifhop of Centuricc, 
 and Ficar Apoftolic in the London, DiJlriEl — Obfer- 
 vations upon the controverfy. A. D. 1793— 1794. ' 
 
 It cannot be, fuppofed that a work, pretendirig 
 to fuch an independence of mind as the tranflation 
 we have juff been revieAying, coihpofed by a main 
 who was determined on every occafion 'to think 
 for himfelf, and on many pccafions to deviate from 
 the beaten track,' however fanaified by 'a fuccef- 
 fion of ages, or fhe common confent of mankind, 
 
398 
 
 fhould make its entrance on the public theatre of 
 the world without producing fome degree of com- 
 motion, and exciting a greater portion of alarm 
 than of approbation. What may thus fairly be 
 conjedlured was actually realized; and the oppo- 
 fifiion and difficulties,our author had to. encounter 
 are amply related by himfel^j in an Addrejs to the 
 •TuibRp, which he brQx;ght, out ia the ehfuing year 
 
 It fliould -not he forgotten that at ^his period, 
 however, he had only appeared in the charaftea: of 
 a tranflator, and not of an expbfitor of the facred 
 wriijngs; hjs volume x>f Critical Remarics not hav- 
 ing been fubniitted to the public eye till at leafl: 
 rifeven years .afterwards. *' I have not," fays he, 
 *' fet up foran -interpreter of fcripture; my humble 
 walk is that of a mere eKpl^€a:j of a laborious 
 pioneer who endeavours to fmooth the way for fu- 
 ture commentators. I have not to my knowledge 
 thwarted a fingle word of holy writ to fupport 
 any one fyftem of religion. Ihave not fo much 
 ^attempted to difclofe its allegories or its ana-, 
 gogies, byt have -ftriaiy confined myfelf to the 
 bare literal meaning*." His fpeculative opi- 
 nions were neverthelefs fufpeded; and in fa£t 
 he never attempted to conceal, or even to foften 
 .them, uppn any occafion : he might at tiines 
 
 * Addrefs to the Public, p. 3. 
 
599 
 
 have been i liable to the charge of imprudence In 
 advancing them when there was no abfolute ne- 
 ceffity, "but his moft inveterate enemy could never 
 accufe him of hyprocrify. 
 
 While hisfriends therefore approved of his la- 
 bors, and flrongly exhorted him to perfevere, he 
 found that the voice of his feiends and the en- 
 couragement of the libefral artd imprejudiced was 
 ftrenuoufiy oppofed by the repeated clamors of ig- 
 norance, bigotry, and fiiperftition. He refifted the 
 ^orrent of abmfe to which he was daily expbfed with 
 the courage of a man who wasTelf-confcious. of rec- 
 titude of ihtention, and might fearlefsly appeal to 
 the Almighty as to the honefty of the motives by. 
 which he was a£tuated. *' Verging," fays he, 
 " towards the end of my Msour and of my life, I 
 coilfefs it woiild make the evefting of the latter 
 ■onpleafahtif I flioi^d be found to have laboured in 
 vain. I truft, however, that fuch will not be my 
 lot*." But though he ftiU hoped and coiirageouflf 
 refiflfed the calumnies and contumelies which were 
 excited agaihft him, they funk heavily upon his 
 heart, and highly exacerbated his irritable f^eOi. 
 A fever,- £h& joiiit o^priifg 6f difappointed hope 
 in a favorite purfuit, and of abufe "where he ex- 
 petted approtationi was the jfpeedy confequence, 
 
 * Addrtfi to the'PubUc,.p. i. 
 
400^ 
 
 and it was nearly a twelvemonth before he reco* 
 vered from the effefts of its feverity. 
 
 What principally afflifted him in the midft of 
 his complicated trials, was ' the violent oppofitioa 
 he experienced from the very church into which 
 he had been initiated from his birth, to whofe au-- 
 fhor-ity in all lawful points he readily and honeftly 
 fubmitted, and whofe fellow-members he had 
 chiefly hoped to benefit by his elaborate undertak- 
 iEng. To prevent, any hoftility from this quarter, he 
 had with more than ordinary prudence abftained 
 from all perfonal or at. leaft nominal interference^ 
 in the jcontroverfy which I have already itated to 
 have taken place refpefting the bill for the relief 
 of Roman catholics, as well as refpefting the ap- 
 pointment of bifliop Douglas to the ofHce of vicar 
 apoftolic to the London diftrift, inftead of bilhop 
 Berington, who was almofl unanimoufly recom- 
 mended for this purpofe to the Roman fee by the 
 Ccitholic body at large : and to influence his fellow 
 catholics in his favor; he bad waited upon bifliop 
 ' James: Talbot, the predeceflbr of Mr. Douglas, 
 upon the commencement of his verfion, frankly to 
 inform him of his defign,. and, ifpoffible, to ob- 
 tain his patronage. The liberality ;of this worthy 
 Jwelat&I have had occafion to notice already, and 
 his conduft upon the application of Dr. Geddes 
 was in, perfefl: accordance with the chara£ter he 
 
401 
 
 had uniformly eviiiced. He told him that he 
 would be very far from oppojing his defign, though 
 there were two reafons which would prevent him 
 from publicly patronizing it : the one was, a fear 
 of beiiig himfelf cenfured by many confcientious 
 but prejudiced catholics, w'ho he well knew would 
 difapprove it; and the other, that himfelf and 
 his brother vicars apoftolic had feme thoughts of 
 giving a revifed edition of the Douay tranflation, 
 with which the verfion of Dr. Geddes might in 
 feme ffieafure perhaps interfere, and which, added 
 he, is in fome degree our own property. They 
 feparated in the moft perfect friendlhip and good 
 humor. His Iprdlhip lived long enough to fee 
 and read: our author's Profpeftus, his Propofals, 
 and his Specimens; and though, confiftently with 
 his firft and ingenuous declaration, he never be- 
 came a fubfcriber to his work, he informed lord 
 Petre, in a corffefpondence upon this fubjeft, that: 
 he only withheld his name left it Ihould be infer- 
 red that he officially approved it; and he ufged; 
 the fame motive for his filence to Dr. Geddes, in 
 perfon,-a few months only before his deceafe. 
 
 Thus far therefore our author had noreafon 
 to expedl: any general want of' countenance, far 
 lefs any avowed and official Tioftility on the part 
 of his owij church. To enfure his fuccefe ftill 
 njore completely however, and,, as an ad of com- 
 
 2© 
 
402 
 
 mon refpeiSt and courtefy, at the fame tinie that 'he 
 fent his different introdiiftory pamphlets upoa 
 his Bible verfion to biftiop James Talbot^ under 
 whofe jurifdidtion he refided, he alfo fent copies 
 of them to the vicars apoftolic of two other catho- , 
 lie diftrids, bifhop Thomas Talbot and bifliop 
 Gibfon, who felt the politenefs of this attention, 
 and honored him with a vifit in return; in the 
 courfe of which interview they thanked him for 
 his repeated prefents, and fo far from infmuating 
 the minuteft difapprobation of his intention, hand- 
 fomely complimented him upon his induftry and 
 learning, and left him in the pleafing hope > that 
 he ftiould meet with their future applaufe. 
 
 Such applaufe however never followed : inftead 
 of encouragement he experienced abufe, and in- 
 ftead of applaufe, perfecution. The death of the 
 venerable bifliop James Talbot occurred fliortly 
 afterwards; and it was well known to bifliop Dou- 
 glas, his fiicceflbr, that notwithftanding his nomi- 
 nal filence upon the late catholic controverfy, and 
 the general predileclicai which was manifefted by 
 the catholics at large for his rival bifliop Bering- 
 ton, Dr. Geddes had in his heart efpoufed, in both, 
 inftanccs, the popular caufe, and was in habits of 
 the clofeft friendfliip* and intimacy with many of 
 the worthieft and moft opulent of its leaders^ 
 Mr. Douglas, therefore, upon his triumph at the . 
 
40^ 
 
 Vatican, andhis fxiccedingto the diflri£h of bifhcp 
 James Talbot, felt himfelf from the firft mpmeat 
 unfriendly, not merely to the works but to the: 
 very name of Dr. Geddes ; and readily joined firft: 
 of all with bifhop Walmfley, and afterwards with 
 bifliop Gibfon himfelf, neither of whom could yet 
 bury in oblivion their inglorious oppofition and de^ 
 feat in parliament, in fntftrating, as much as lay 
 in their power, our author's fanguine expe£la- 
 tions* 
 
 They comnienced their perfecution prior to the; 
 appearance of his firlt volume, by charging him 
 with an adherence to doftrines repugnant to the 
 catholic religion, and by citing him before their 
 tribunal, to reply to this heretical acculation:. — ' 
 It never was a part either of the praftice or creed 
 of Dr. Geddes to Contend againft the exercife of 
 an authority whofe principles he admitted to be 
 legitimate, be the organs of that authority who or 
 what they might. He obeyed the fummflBiSiy aaaid 
 notwithftanding the irrelevancy of many of the 
 quefliions propofed, one of which was, whether he 
 approved of the French r^votutioa of 1789 ? and 
 feveral others which, to adopt* has own langtta^, 
 " had no more to do with religion than with the 
 antipodes*," he difplayed fo much candor, fb 
 thorough a knowledge of the diSerei>t quefti(»K 
 
 * Letter to the Biiliapef CestwiS; {>. i&. 
 
40* 
 
 propofed, and fo firm an attachment to the ge- 
 nuine principles of primaeval catholicity, while he 
 ftrenuoufly contended for the right of private judge- 
 ment in. all matters that were not abfolutely de- 
 cided by the church, that his three judges ap- 
 peared perfeftly fatisfied. with his creed, or rather 
 were tliemfelves completely filenced and con- 
 founded, and fuifered him to depart without fur- 
 ther moleftation. 
 
 Dr. Geddes was not forry that he had thus en- 
 joyed an opportunity of ftating officially before a 
 court of competent jurifdidion his real opinions 
 and principles.. He trufted that both the voice 
 and hand of malevolence would now no longer be 
 exerted againft him; and to prove how thoroughly 
 he banifhed every idea of enmity from his owa 
 bofom, upon* the earliefl; publication of the firft 
 Yolimie of his tranflation of the Bible he prefented 
 a copy of it to bifliop Douglas, accompanied witk 
 the following letter : 
 
 July 10, 1793. 
 " I ^eg your Iordfhip*s acceptance of a 
 copy of ihejirji volume of my new Verfion of the 
 Bible; which I flatter myfelf you will find calcu- 
 lated to promote the real interefts of religion; 
 whatever fuperfieial readers and little critics may 
 think or fay to the contrai-y. 
 
405 
 
 .' " I fhouW have liked, and lodeed once expected, 
 ^to fee yourlordfhip's name in the lift of niy en- 
 cduragers : but unaccountable prejudices have, 
 moft probably, deprived me of that, fatisfaction. 
 This, however, fhall never hinder me to pay, at 
 all times, that deference to your character, which 
 Iknowfto be due. It is to you, thebifliop of Cen- 
 turiss, my lord, £is chief paftor of the catholics of 
 this diftrift, that I offer this mark of my catholi* 
 city, 
 
 " And have the honour to be, &c." 
 
 Thp prefent was retained, but no anfwer, I be^ 
 lieveijWas returned to the letter. Our author foon 
 became, feniib.le, hpweyer, of the fort of anfwer he 
 wasjikely to receive. ■Jkivy, ignorance, and ma- 
 lice, in the; various fliapes of monks, friar?,, and 
 yritlings, ,whi(ch- for many years antecedently had 
 been bufy in depreciating his labors, now ftalked 
 abroad more boldly than ever, and, countenanced 
 by official approbation, affailinated his reputation 
 with redoubled fury. 
 
 •' It would be endlefs," fays he, in his Addrefs 
 to the Public, " to enmxierate the whole cata- 
 logue of evil pfEces which, tbofe men have done, 
 or endeavoured to do me. Every fpecies of de- 
 traaion, from thp fly iafuiuating whifper to the 
 
406 
 
 bold and bare^^aced calumny, has been employecj 
 to render me odious to the Englifli catholics. Eli- 
 jah's vifion was here inverted, \!a& ftill Jmall voice 
 preceded the Umfefl : but, ' furely, the Lord was 
 neither in the temfeft nor in the'ftill JmaU voice. It 
 was a very different fpirit that prefided over this 
 progrellive ftorm : it was the fpirit which repre- 
 fented the precurfor of Jefus as a demoniac, be- 
 caufe he was uncommonly abftemious; and Jefus 
 himfelf as a wine-bibber, becaufe he ate anddrank 
 like -ether' men! ' 
 
 *' Even before my Ppfpeflus appeared, my very 
 intehtions were fcrutinized and fufpeflied. What- 
 ever impartiality I might profefs, they could not 
 but think that I meant to favour the caufe of Proi 
 tellancy, and that my Bibl^ (as they termed it) 
 wojuld turn out to be a ProteftEtfit Bible. They 
 Icnev/ me to be one, whofe principles were not 
 Ilriaiy orthodox; who lavifhed praifes on Heretics 
 and Herefi^rchs; who affociated with Churchl 
 msn, Dlffenters, Socinians; whp indulged paral 
 doxes; who laughed at rofa[ries,fcapulars, agnus 
 Peis, blelTed . medals, indujgenceSj obiits, dirges, 
 &c.; who was an enemy to religious orders, hoilile 
 to the pope's prerogatives, difrefpefllful of his vi- 
 'cars, arid an open abettor oi profane innovations ! 
 Thus blending fome truth with much falfehood 
 tley worked up a medley of imputatioiis, whiclj 
 
407 
 
 Could not fail to make a deep impreflion on the- 
 minds' of their credulous devotees; who hav6 ge- 
 nerally no other criterion to judge of men or 
 books, bulj the auroj ti^x of their good dire5lors. 
 Here the directed feem to have taken their leffoii 
 well. They feized on the wholefale cargo, and 
 carefully retailed it, with fome fmall adulterations, 
 among their friends and familiars : the mouth of 
 every devotee was converted into a trumpet of de-i 
 famation. 
 
 " The publication of my Profpe^us feems for a 
 while to have blunted the Ihafts of flander, and 
 foftened the fiercenefe of the foe. 'It was not, in- 
 deed, what they had expedled; at leaft, not what 
 they wijhed it to be : and, on that occafion, fome 
 t)f them joined or aiFefted to join in the general ap- 
 plaufe. But the demon of rancor foon returned 
 to~ take poffeffioh of his former holdj and, one 
 would think, brought along with Yavufeven other 
 Jpirits more wicked than himfelf. My Letters to the 
 Bifliop of London* and to Dr. Prieftley, the few 
 Critical Remarks that accompanied; my Propofals 
 
 * " It was imputed to me as a crime, that I applied to a 
 proteftant bifljop for counfel ; it was lil^e inquiring of the God 
 ofEkron,asifthere had been, no God in. Ifrael. I (hall only 
 fay, that if I had known either bilhop or prieft among the ca- 
 tholics equally capable of folving my queries, to him I ftiould 
 certainly have applied. " 
 
408 
 
 and Specimen, and my General. Anfwer to my cor- 
 t:efpondents, but efpecially my known attachment 
 to the catholic committee, and approbation of 
 their meafures, ftirred up the half-fmothered em- 
 bers, and rekindled the latent fparks of enmity 
 into an open and running jcqnflagratipn. 
 
 " Calumny, now grown ftamelefs, came ftark- 
 naked abroad : it was no more the pejiilence, that 
 Jtalked in darknefs, but the defiru^ion that wafietb 
 at noon-day* — It was now evident, they faid, that 
 my fcheme was inimical to catholicity (I fuppofe 
 they meant poperyy-y favourable to herefy, injuiar 
 0US to the church, and tending to infidelity. By 
 one friar it was aflerted, that I had the intolerable 
 prefumptioni to cfirreS the Holy Ghofil He claffed 
 me, indeed, with Houbigant, Kemiicott, and Mi- 
 chaelis, for which he has my thanks. Others 
 went about warning the pious faithful npt to fub- 
 fcribe to my work, and in this their -efcrts were 
 certainly not unfuccefsful : in the lift of my fub- 
 fcribers there are not fifty catholic names! A de- 
 vout lady, of the firft rank, was io fearful of 
 being contaminated, that fhe gave orders to her 
 ftationer, five; years before the work went to die 
 prefs, by no means to take in for hw Dr. Geddes's 
 Bible, But the Ihorteft and nioft efFeSual way to 
 
 *«Pf. xc. 6." 
 
409 
 
 hasct a work is to blacken its amthor's ch^a9:er. 
 For this purpofe all my fleps were watched; the 
 vifits which I made or received, the companies 
 which I frequented, the converfations which I 
 held, ithe friendlhips I contrafted, were all -nat-e4 
 down in the black book of thofe inquifitors, as 
 fo many K;hoice topics of future animadverfion. 
 Went i to Lanabeth or London Houiief 1 had 
 gone thither to read my recantation, and was on 
 th,e point of being a curate, a re£ior, a prebend, a 
 di^pi^ of the eftablifbed church*! Went I to Edin- 
 burgh or GJ3%0W^ I lad become a <iifcip}e of 
 Cretlvin, and abjured myform.er fsath fcefbre the 
 General Affembiy! Went I to iEfackney? I had 
 been feduced into Arianifm by Price, lor wheedle4 
 into Socinianifm. by Prieftley ; and was fopn to -be 
 one «f the profeflors of the New College;! Thus 
 was I alternately. a Churchmgn, a Prejfbyterian, 
 an Ajian, and an ^Unitarian, juft as it pleafed thdr 
 fancy, or ferved their purpofe. It is fame wonder, 
 that they upv^ fent me to the Tabernacle to em- 
 brace Methodifm, nor to the Synagogue to pro- 
 fefs myfelf a Jew! They have fent me to worfe 
 places tjjan either^ as will hereafti&r appear/' 
 
 * " One man,.at leaft, aTriafized upholftere'r, faw me with 
 bre own eyes, in broad day-lighrt, going to officiate in an Eng- 
 ]i<h chapel, in my cafibck and rurp1i4:e: and -this lie was be- 
 lieved by many' a- gaiad catholic." 
 
410 
 
 ■ At length, to finifh the climax of his perfect^, 
 tion, forth ifliies an ecclefiaftical edift, denomi- 
 nated aPaftoral Letter, figned by Walmfley, Gib- 
 Ibn, and Douglas, as apoftolic vicars of the weft- • 
 em, northern, and London diflrlQis, in which 
 this favorite undertaking of our author, and upon 
 which he had ieicpended upwards of twenty yearsj 
 was authoritatively prohibited to the faithful under 
 their refpeftive jurifdiclions. " As the church of 
 God," fays this epifcopal interdift, " has at all 
 times- watched with a moft jealous care over the 
 heavenly treafure of the leered Scriptures, and 
 has condemned the' praftice of printing the faid 
 Scriptures, or any expofitions of, or' annotations 
 uppn the fame, unlefs fuch have been feverally ex- 
 amined and app^9ved of by due ecclefiaftical au- 
 thority : hence it is incumbent upon us to warn 
 the Faithful committed to our. care againft the 
 ufe and reception- of a certain work of this Wind,' 
 as far as it has yet appeared, which is dellitute of 
 thefe fequifites; and which is enKtled The Holy 
 ftihle, or the Books accounted f acred by Jews and 
 Cbrijlians : otherwife 'called. The Books of the Old 
 and New Covenants ; faithfully tranflatedfrom thei 
 Originals ; %vith Various Readings, Eiiplanatory 
 Notes, and, Criticai Remarks; iy th? Rev, Akx4nri 
 der Geddgs, LL, D." ,. , 
 
 It is very obvious that this paftoral prohibitioi^ 
 
4lV 
 
 proceeded ratTier from a fpirit of party and perfo- 
 nal revenge than from any real regard to the caufe 
 of religion, not only from the filence with which 
 our author had been fo long fuffered to perfeyere 
 in his tranflation, and the compliments upon his 
 ■erudition with which he had previoufly been -flat- 
 tered by one or tw6 individuals of thefe fame vi- 
 cars apoftolic, but more efpecially frohi his hav- 
 ing been united in this ecclefiaftical cenfure with 
 his friend fir John Throckmorton, who, as I have 
 obferved' in a former chapter, had be^n one of the 
 moft zealous members of the cathoEccbmmittee, 
 and had written feveral -argumentative and un- 
 anfv/erable letters, both upon the fubjeift of the? 
 ■catholic bill, and the right inherent in Engllfli 
 ■as well as in French catholics of electing their 
 own ordinary in cafes of prelatic vacancy, leav- 
 ing to the tiara the^mere power' of cohfinrung 
 their choice. Thefe letters indeed, as more imme- 
 diately affeSing the interefts of the apoftolic vicars 
 themfelves, are more feverely reprehended in this 
 circular interdidt than Dr. Geddes's heretical ver- 
 ■fion; for while riot lefs than twelve propofitions 
 are cenfured in the former, and " the Faithful in 
 general committed to' our care, as they tender 
 their 'eternal falvation," are 'cautioned " againft 
 jnaintaining or adhering to tne doftrines above 
 jCenfpred j" and whilef the clergy under their re- 
 
412 
 
 fpeSIve dlflrias are prohibited^' from preaching, 
 teaching;, maintaining, or fupporting any of the 
 aforefaid condemned opinr&ns, under penaky of 
 fufpenfion from all divine fanSions*,'V the Tranf- 
 lation of Dr. Geddes, comprifing even the Expla- 
 natory Notes and ^ritieal Remarks, are only in- 
 terdifled becaiife, fays the fame inftrument;, "it 
 Wants the reqviifites -wiiich the church requires 
 in publifliing works on fo-ipture:" that is, adds our 
 authcfif upon this paflage, " which the difdpline of 
 the council of Trent requires." But the difcipline 
 of the Council of Trent is not the church, any 
 more th^i the church is the -difdpline of the 
 coundl of Trent. The point diredly -referred to 
 was, that it had not received' the official imprima- 
 tur of the author's ordinary. To whidi objec- 
 tion I ihall have occafion to revert in the courfe 
 of a few pages. 
 
 Tbefe, hoysrever, are not the only proofs that 
 the catholic prelate's, and the more violent of their 
 adherents, were at this time highly exacerbated 
 againft the members of the late catholic committee 
 and all who e^oufed their caufe. Of the mem- 
 bers of the committee itfelf there were few indeed 
 to whom fopae perfonal incivility had not been 
 toaxaS&ihedfi -an unwarrantable perfecution had at 
 
 * Paftoral Letter, p. 2 1. 
 
413 
 
 this very tune been opipinenced and urged with 
 goceat rigor againft Dr. Wilks, one of the very able 
 writers of the Blue Books; and Mr. Jof^h. Be- 
 rington, whofe learning and liberality refl^Q: credit 
 on the whole body q£ Engliflx catholics, had been 
 refufed the religious faculties for which he had ap- 
 plied, and was confequently incapacitated from:- 
 teachingi preaiching, andadminiflering the facra- 
 ments. 
 
 It is not to be fuppofed that a condu£l thus ar- 
 bitrary and uncharitable would be tamely fub- 
 nutted to by a man of the irritable nerves and po«' 
 lemic powers of Dr. Geddes; and while with real 
 pleafure aru), exultation he thanked, bifliop Tho- 
 mas Talbot, the vicar of the middle diftrifl:, for 
 withholding, his name from fo unchriftian an in- 
 terdifty he immediately commenced hoftilities 
 againft the fublcribing prelates, by the followinff. 
 letter to Mr. Douglas, agoftolic vicacof the dif^ 
 trift in which he ufuallj; refidedi 
 
 " January 4, 1 793, , 
 
 *' For the fake of your own. charafter, my 
 Iqrdi it truly grieves me to fee your name an- 
 nexed to fuch an ignoble piece of writing as that 
 -which you have lately publifhed with two other 
 pope's vicars. 
 
 " The feeble weapons which you employ againft 
 fir John Throckmorton he is well able t© r^ei 
 
414 
 
 Mmfeff, and will probably repel them, with t^Igoo* 
 and manlinefs, on his return to England; mean-' 
 while, fince you have been pleafed to go entirely 
 out of your road for thepurpole of aiming a fide- 
 thruft at me, you cannot take it amifs if I fhould 
 try to defend myfelf; and,, byway of requital, ex- 
 pofe to the public view the futilities, falfe reafon- 
 ings, and rafh affertions .that abound in your Pa- 
 ftoral Letter." 
 
 He fbon flilfilled his intention by his Addrefs 
 to the Public, in which, as I have already ob- 
 ferved, he minutely dates the difficulties he had 
 to contend with j and the fevere perfecution he had 
 foffered from the very body of chriflians in whofe 
 ^iritual welfare he was principally interefted,. and 
 for whofe fpirituai benefit he had principally de- 
 voted his time and talents. With his ufual candor, 
 and fimplicity of heart he confented to preadmo- 
 nilh bifliop Douglas of his intention, which he 
 did in the following addrefs : 
 
 " MY LORD, 
 
 June 35, iy{>j. 
 
 *' You muft remember that, on the 
 firfl: appearance of your Pajioral Letter, 1 hinted; 
 to you, that I meant to anfwer it j at leaft in as far 
 as it regarded me. More important objefts have 
 
415 
 
 hitherto prevented me Jfrom fulfilling my inten- 
 tion : but I now, again, tell your lordfhip that an 
 anfwer is preparing, and that I wifh you to fee it, 
 before it go to the prefs. For although yotir coa- 
 duft, my lord, toward me, has been neither that' 
 of a chriftian bifliop nor a polite gentleman, I am 
 not difpofed to imitate your condud. — As a pre- 
 lude to that Anfwer, I have at prefent in the prefe 
 An Addrejs to the Pablic, &c. in which there is one 
 paragraph that concerns your lordfhip. This pa- 
 ragraph I here fubjoin, that if there be any fafl: in 
 it which you can deny, or any part of the cafe 
 which you fliall think mif-ftated, you may have 
 /an opportunity of reflifying the one and contra- 
 difting the other. A written anfwer is immedi- 
 ately requefted, as I look for a proof-fheet in a 
 day or two. Meanwhile I have the honour ta 
 be, &c. 
 
 *' Paragraph allude^ to. 
 
 " It is ufelefs now to mince the matter : three 
 
 mean apojiolic, who call themfelves thebilhopspf 
 
 Rama, Acanthos, and Centuria, have. ^ ^dually 
 
 jffued a Pajioral Letter ; of which, indeed, the 
 
 main and primary purpofe is to cenfure an excel-* 
 
 lent work of fir John Throckmorton's, which 
 
 . they could not anfwer ; but into that cenfure they 
 
 1 
 
416 
 
 hase made an awkward Ihift to" lug me hmd and 
 iiiicjulders along with tile baronet;, and, in truth, I 
 am not ill-pleafed to findmyfelf in fuch company: 
 but I am not, I cannot be well-pleafed to fee a 
 ■work, on which I have fpent the better part of 
 my fljort days, condemned in the lump, and pro- 
 hibited without a hearing. This is truly to ereft 
 a court of nqu ifi tion, and to introduce a tranfal- 
 pine or tranfpyiBenean mode of profcription in the 
 face of Britifli liberty : to attempt toimpofe upon 
 us literary fetters, which, neither we nor our fa- 
 thers could bear. — I will pay my refpefts to thofe 
 Right Rev. Prelates, as foon as I am at leifure : 
 my prefent bufinefi is with the public at large, 
 and to the public at large, both catholic and pro- 
 teftant, I appeal from this unjufl, informal, and car 
 prjcious fentence." 
 
 The fort of anfwer he was likely to receive, 
 provided he received any at all, the reader who 
 has attended to the fpirit with which the entire 
 controverfy was conduced on the part of the op- 
 pofers of the catholic bill, will readily preconceive. 
 It arrived two days afterwards in the fbllowing 
 ffiape: 
 
 " London, June 27, 1793. 
 
 ■ S-IR 
 
 > 
 
 Smce it is evident from your letter to* 
 me that you adhere td an4 maintain the dodrines. 
 
417 
 
 wHieh were cenfured by the Paftoral Letter, to 
 which, you allude; unlefs you fignify to me, in 
 writing, on dr before Friday the fifth day of July 
 next, your fubmiffion to obferve the injunftion con- 
 tained in the 21ft page of the faid Paftoral Letter, 
 viz. " We prohibit our clergy, in particular, from 
 preachmg, teaching, maintammg^ or fupporting 
 any of the aforefaid condemned opinions," I here- 
 by declare you 'fufpended from the-^exercife of 
 your orders in the London diftrift. 
 
 " JOHN DOUGLAS, Vicar Apoftolic. 
 « Rev. Akx, Geddes, LL. D." ' , 
 
 Here the apoftolic vicar completely overfhot his 
 mark. In prohibiting ihe Faithful from perufing 
 our author's tranflatipn, it was in his power to do 
 him an eflential injiiry, and under the effefts of 
 that injury he was laboring at the prefent moment; 
 but I have, already obferved that he had long VO' 
 luniarily reHnquifhed theexercife.of his : religious 
 funftions, that he might enjoy the greater liberty 
 of attending to his favorite biblical exertions. This 
 Mr. Douglas muft neceffarijy have been apprifed 
 of from his owli official fituation : and to'fufpend 
 his antagonift from the exercife of what he never 
 had exehafsdiormzny 'years paft, is, at the fanie 
 time, to commit; a mbft ridiculous blynder, and to 
 evince the moft impotent malevolence. Ourau- 
 2e 
 
418 
 
 ffior, h6#ef^, \^a& as ffeady at his pan afe the 
 Bifliop, and inftead of waiting till the 2lft df the 
 tofaing months returned hiift the following an- 
 fwer a few hbnts afterwards. 
 
 " MY LORD, 
 
 '• June 28, 1 79^ 
 
 " I thank ^ou for havihg fo readily 
 anfwered my laft letter, if that may be called an 
 anfwer, which you have been pleafed to retumi 
 It is certainly not the ahfwer I expected : how. 
 ever, as it is an anrwei-, ahd a proiiipt anfwef, I 
 am fatisfied : it is probably thie beft you could 
 make: and, ad mpojjiibik nemo ienetur. 
 
 " From your profound filence as to the main 
 ©bjefl: of my Letter, I may fairly conclude that 
 my complaints ^isrere juft, and my fufpicions w;ell 
 founded : fo I will not prefs your lordflup furthe? 
 on that topic. But, my lord, I mull take th6 
 liberty to tell you, that you moft grievoufly mif- 
 take, when you fay, that " it is evident frona my 
 letter to you, that I adhere to and maintain the 
 doctrines which were cenfured in the PafboraJ 
 Letter." This, my lord, is hot only not eviJent^ 
 but utterly falfe.-r-ln my v^ole letter, I have not 
 faid a word about thofe do&ines, much lefs have 
 I t'eftified my adherence to them, and ftill lefs yet 
 have I Jnaintain'ed them. I have indeed called fir 
 
419 
 
 John Throckmorton's wprk an excellent one; 
 and fo I deem it : but has your lordfhip yet to 
 learn, that a work may be excellent on the whole, 
 and yet exceptionable in fome of its parts ? I think 
 the Annals of Baronius, on the whole an excellent 
 work, although there' are more than twice twelve 
 propofitions in it which I highly dilapprove. — 
 Hume's Hiftory of England I take to be the very 
 beft work of its kind; but do I, for that, adhere 
 to ox maintain all the principles of Hume?, Truly 
 this may be logic at Rome or V^lladolid ; but it 
 will never do in the meridian of London. 
 
 " By calling fir John's book an excellent 
 work, then, I have not expreffed my adherence to 
 -any one 5if the propofitions which you have cen- 
 Aired in it.^ — But I have faid, " You could not 
 lanfwer his book."-^I fay fo again, my Jordj at 
 Jeaft I have yet feen no anfwer to it : and indeed, 
 if you could have anfwered it, I hardly think you 
 .would have had recourfe to cenfure. My faying 
 th^n, that you could not anfwer it, is no evid.enf 
 ■proof-, is no j)roc/f.at ah,' that I adhere, to the doc^ 
 trines which you have cenfured in it. Whether 
 J really do adhere to thofe doctrines, or not, is 
 another queftion; which has nothing to do with 
 our prefent correfpondence : I m£^y, poffibly, let 
 .you into the fecret on fome other occafion : all 
 that I now affert, i§, that there is no fort of evi-» 
 3 
 
420 
 
 dence before your lordfliip that I adhere to or 
 maintain the fbrefaid dodbrines : cohfequently, my 
 lord, your hypothetical declaration is abfurd, ahu- 
 Jibe, zndi premature. 
 
 " But perhaps, my lord, you wifli to hav^ 
 another occafion of exerclfmg your epifcopal au- 
 thority, and of "playing with cenfures, as children 
 do with a ne"w ball. I Wifh your lordfhip much joy 
 of the bauble : but, beware, my lord, beware of 
 playing too often with it. — Read St. Chryibftom on 
 Ecclefiaftical Cenfures ; and learn from him a little 
 more moderation. Permit an old prieji to tell "yotl 
 that it is a very great ornament in z young hijhop. — / 
 As to myfelf, my lord, I am not afraid of your 
 threats, and fhall laugh at your cenfuresj as long 
 gs I am confcious that I deferve them not. I will 
 never fubmit to the injunSfion contained in the 21ft 
 page of you f Pdftoral Letter, becaufe I deem it a 
 rafh, ridiculous, and informal injunftion. If this 
 you think a fufficient reafon for declaring me JuJ- 
 pendedfrqm the exercije of my orders in the London 
 Diftrik, much good may that declaration do you ! 
 The truth is, t exercife no paftoral fubQiofl in 
 your diftria : I have neither taught, preached, 
 nor adminiftered any facrament in it for many 
 years ' back : I have not even faid prayers in any 
 public chapel for fix yearfe at leaft. To oblige a 
 friend or two, I have fometimes, not often, faicl 
 
421 
 
 private prayers at their houfes : buj lipce you f^em 
 to envy me the pleafure of obliging a friend, I 
 forego that too. But, my lord, you cannot hin- 
 der^ -me to pray at home; and at home / isDill^-tx^, 
 in defiance of you and your cenfure, as .often as I 
 plqafe. The chief Bijhop of pur fouls is always 
 acceflible; and, through him,, I can at all times 
 have free accefs to the Father; v/hp wilf not re- 
 jeft !me but for voluntary unrepented crimes, In 
 the panoply of cpnfcious innocence, the whole 
 thunder of the Vatican would in vain be levelled 
 at my head. 
 
 " Yqu fee, my lord, that I have not required 
 even the fliort time you grant me, to fignify my 
 difpoiition to fubmit to the injunftion in your Pa- 
 ftoral Letter. Such a fubmiffionj my lord, will 
 never be made by 
 
 « ALEX. GEDDES, 
 « A Prieil of the Catholic Church. 
 " To the R. R. John Douglas, 
 
 Bp. of Cent, and Vic. Ap. in 
 
 the JLondon Dijiri^.'^ 
 
 He had now completely broken all connexipn 
 with his apoftolic fuperior, and nothing remained 
 but to carry into efFeft the further menace con- 
 tained in his Addrefs to the PubHc, of paying his 
 refpeds to the Right Rev. Prelates who had thus 
 
425 
 
 mterdifted and injured him ex cathedra^ by af- 
 raignihg them in return before tfee tribunal of 
 the world at large. 
 
 To threaten with our author was to execute, 
 and before the expiration of the year we find an- 
 nounced in the pubic prints a quarto pamphl^-oF 
 55 pages, entitled " A Letter from the- Rev. 
 Alexander <5edde^, LL. t). to the Right Rev. 
 John Douglas, Bifliop of Centuriae, and Vicaif 
 Apoftolic in the London Diftrift." This letter is 
 introduced by a ihort preamble addreffed to the 
 Englifh catholics, in which he informs them that 
 It is (iefigned as a diatribe againft all the three 
 vicars equally, who fubfcribed the paftoral ediO: ; 
 and that he merely confines himfelf in the title to 
 rthe name of bifhop Douglas, as being the fupe- 
 rior of the diftrifl: in which he generally refided. 
 The letter itfelf is an examination of the unpopu- 
 lar mode by which the bifhop obtained his ap. 
 pointment to the vicarial chair, and the unconci- 
 liating charafter'he had evinced ever fince hispof- 
 feffion of it; the perfecution our author himfelf had 
 fuftained from his unquiet fpirit; an impeachment 
 of Mr. Douglas's condudi: as equally uncharitahle, 
 illiberal, and incompatible with the legitimate 
 powers with which the vicarial chair had veiled 
 him ; a defence of fir John Throckmcvrton's publi- 
 cation prohibited iij eonjunftion with his own j 
 
423 
 
 and an examination of thedoflrines and authority 
 of the council of Trent, to which alone the arbi- 
 trary eondu^t manif^^d againft himfelf CQuld ap- 
 peal for fupport. In advarting to his own perfo- 
 nal injury he obfervesj •* Here, then,, is a large^ 
 fanportant, expenfiye work, the darling child of 
 its author, and the chief prop of his literary repu- 
 tation, forbidden to all that clals of readers, for 
 whoni it was more efpecially defigned; without any 
 caufe affigned but the want of a mere formality, 
 which is no where ofbferved, Which was never ob- 
 farved, fave in thofe places where an inquifition of 
 fome fort or other had been eftabliflied. You fay 
 not, that you have examined it — You fay not, 
 that it is an unfaithful verfion— You point not out 
 a fingle fentence, which you find con^ry to faith 
 or morality— And yet yoii take upon you to pro* 
 fcribe it m Uto! and all this, ^ becaufe it wants,^^ 
 you fay, ^^ the requifites which the church re* 
 quires" in pjibliflnng ttrtftts on fcripture. You 
 (OiouM have &id, my lord, "which the difcipUne 
 gf the council of Tfent requires V for the difci- 
 jpjine of the ^puncil ,pf Trent is not the church, any 
 more than the church i$ ,the dif^i^line of the cpunr 
 cil of Trent; — However, let us fee what the countal 
 of Trent lays on this point of difcipline." 
 
 He th.Ki pro9eeds tg exarnine the 99ndufl: of th^ 
 :^m0Us f^od, fo far as it )^el^t^ tjp the point in 
 
424 
 
 queftioti— its mode of , ccmftitutidn — the validity, 
 of its authority, and hostr frequently it has been fe- 
 fifted by Bellarmine, Gretzer, .Suarez, and others 
 of the moft tdebrated. and reputedly 'orthodox 
 divines of the Roman- church. Then adverting 
 to himfelf; " at any rate," fays he^/' I am not 
 eonfcious of having tranfgreffedit inany fenfe, for 
 I recolleft- not a fmgle'text of fcripture which! 
 * have wrefted to a meaning contrary, to, the fenfe 
 of the catholic church, or to the unSuujnbus cpn- 
 fent of the Fathers.' " ' He next proceeds tOjdif- 
 cufs that part of the fame decree nyhiph. more ira; 
 ttiediatdy concerns himfelf, in which the fyiiod 
 fbrbidsthe fcriptures, or any expofitions of them, 
 to -be publiftied without the names qf th^ |>r;inter 
 and author; as alfo without a previous ex^inji- 
 tion and approbation; by the j?r^i»«ry; which ap- 
 jfsrobation ihall be givjeh in writing, a^d.appeaT 
 authenticated in the front of the bepk*. 
 
 " The firft part of this injun^bn," fays he, '-'J 
 have hot violated : my own name, and my piibater'? 
 .\._—^ . -.-.■ . . v>'% . . -%-■■- 
 
 * " NuUique Ijceat Imprimere, VeVim'primi facere, iquofvis 
 libros de rebiis facris fine nomine auftoris, neqne illos in fu- 
 turu% vendere,' aut etiam ap'u'd Te retinefe, nifi primum exa- 
 minatt probattque fuerunt ab bii:^'nair«o,_ fub poena anathema- 
 tis et pec^unix in canone concilii novi(^n)i Lateraneoii$ appo- 
 fnk. — Ipfa vero hujufmodi approbatio in fcriptis detur ; aXque 
 ideo in fronte librl, vel fcriptiyel ithprefB, authentice ajipa- 
 reaf. "tone. Tnd;tibifi4)ra;"'^ •''- --.--";-> «— .;; 
 
42.5 
 
 name, are confpicuous iij thgjtitl^-pag'e,, Itmuft', 
 therefor^, be on the latter part that yon groand.your 
 -prohibition, or your warning, eqviivalent to' aipro- 
 hibitjoii'j ijamely, becaufe my work h£^. not been 
 '; examined and _, approved of by the,, ordinary.' 
 T-feytsIs a r^'^'KJ^^^ which itfurely has not; which 
 it could not re^idily have, aijdwhich I ijever-nieant 
 it ftioi4ld -hafVe. :■ - , ' •• 
 
 ,. ,'.f-Xhe front of my ; book exhibits not the ap- 
 probation of any cr^wrj; nor has the bobkras 
 far. as I know, been ever examined by any ordi- 
 nary. Biit-if I had wifted tb have my work ex- 
 amined 9.nd approved of by an ordinary, where 
 was he ta be found ? You, my lord, arq .no ordi- 
 nary, in anyjenfe of the word. You are neither 
 an ordiiiary judge, nor an ordinary bifhop, nor an 
 ordinary inquifitor, nor an ordinary licenl^er of 
 books; nor, in fliort, any thing to which the tern^ 
 can be lawfully and canonically applied. You 
 are a mere vicar .apoflolic,. without any ordinary- 
 jurifdifliion wbatfoever : and even in your extra- 
 ordinary : vicarial capacity, my ]ord, I queftion 
 whether- you are empower^, by your liniited and 
 revocable/ faculties either to approve or to cen- 
 fure books of any fort; ^tjeafl fuch viearia,l facuU 
 ties as I^hs^e feen give RO-,fuch power. I am not 
 ignorant that you, jnay-ciaim fome fuc-h privilege, 
 in cpilfeque?iee ^f your bull of coixfecration :.and 
 
426 
 
 the^e is aifo a printed breVe of Benedia XIV. 
 which feem$ to grant fomd fuch privilege. But, t 
 repeat it, papal breves and bulls h^ve no coercive 
 authority in this country, and with me have no au" 
 thority at all, when they run counter to the tenor 
 of ancient canons, and infringe on the ordinary 
 powers, whether civil or eccletiaftical. 
 
 ** I fay, then, you are not, ftridly and truly 
 fpeaking, a canonical ordinary : but if you were a 
 Canonical ordinary, or even the ordinary of or* 
 binaries himfelf ; I fhould not have afked your ap- 
 probation of my work, as a neceifary requifite for 
 its publication. If I had thought you capable <^ 
 revifing it, I might have fubmitted it to your re- 
 vifal, and, in that cafe, would have liftened to 
 your obfervations: but your approbation as an or- 
 dinary I would not have requefted; much lefs 
 printed it in the front of my work. No, my lord, 
 no mprimatur {hzllever appear in the front, or in 
 the rear, of any work of mine. If, in my days, 
 it happen that fuch a reftraint be laid on the prefe, 
 I fhall ceafe to write, and weep over the expiring 
 liberty of my enflaved country. 
 
 *' The difcipline of the council of Trent I will 
 never deem obligatory, but in as far as it fhall 
 have been publicly received and promulgated in 
 the country where I refide ; and as it has never 
 been fo received in this country. (whatever Dod 
 
4^7 
 
 or Mllner ma,y fay to the contraty), I think ttiyfetf 
 fufficiently authorized to objeft to it wherever I 
 find it objeQaonable. — But what do I fay? Do you, 
 toy lord, admit and follow the -difcipline of the 
 council in all its parts? Have you always obferved 
 and enforced its difcipline, even with refped to 
 that injunftion in confequence of which you have 
 been pleafed to profcribe my veriion of the Bible? 
 The injun&ion includes not only fcripture, and ex- 
 pofitions of fcripture; but every book that treats 
 on /acred things. Now tell me how many books, 
 ■written by Englilh catholics, fi<nee the council of 
 Trent, carry on their front an authenticated appro- 
 bation of any ordinary, or of any vicar apoftolic ?'* 
 
 He might have added, that fo far as he had been 
 able to comp'ly with this requifition he had in re- 
 ality endeavored to aft up to itsfpirit: for, as I have 
 already obferved, he had, from the commence- 
 tnent of his undertaking, •communed with biihop 
 James Talbot, 'his vicarial fuperior at that time, if 
 not his ordinary, upon the fubjeS;, and had re- 
 ceived repeated afTurances from him that he would 
 not interfere to oppofe his intentions. 
 
 It is fufficiently clear therefore, from the fcope 
 and hiflory 'of this debate, that although our au- 
 thor's verfion was profcribed, it was profcribed 
 not on account of any peculiar fyftem ofopinioHS 
 introduced into its Critical Remarks^ but -merely 
 
428 
 
 ■ftorrt thje "motive of rhis not having complied 
 iwith what were faid to be certain requifitions of 
 |:he church, long fince obfolete, and devoid of 
 force from non-ufage, and now revived for the 
 firft time, for the purpofe of being played off 
 againft himfelf and feveral other enlightened and 
 liberal fcholars of the catholic church, who had, 
 much to their credit, labored affiduoufly to obtain 
 for- themfelves and their fellow catholics a more 
 equal rank in the political fociety of which; they 
 were members. 
 
 As to his own religious principles and even opi- 
 Jiions, they were well known to his fellow catholics 
 at large, although his volume of Critical Remarks 
 'was not at this time publilhed; and I cannot do 
 better than terminate the prefent chapter with a 
 recapitulation of them as contained in the clofe of 
 his Addrefs to the Public, Wihich he himfelf re- 
 garded as only a prelude to the letter addreffed tp 
 Mr. Douglas. " I am" fays he, " a Catholic ChriJ- 
 tian, who believe all that the catholic chriftian 
 chunh has at all times believed and taught. ■ ^od 
 Jemper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique creditum, id 
 ■ego credo. I do not fay that I believe nothing 
 elf« : but nothing elfe I hold to be an effential ar- 
 ticle of belief. What I find to have been taught by 
 Chrift and his apoftles, and by their fucceflbrs, in 
 every age and place, that I deem a point of genuine 
 
429 
 
 primitive catKolicity : but whatever bears not this 
 charafter, is, with me, no catholic principle. Chrif. 
 tianity was originally a very fimple yet accomplifhed 
 beauty; as a pagan writer confeffes*. But, under 
 Ithe paint and patches of pofterior times, het linea- 
 ments are barely difcernible; and fuch a load of 
 ufelefs ornaments has been added to her vefture, 
 that little appears of its priftine fimplicity. O pre- 
 lates! O pontiffs! wh^t have ye not to account 
 
 ■.for? 
 
 '* Hon^, "open-eiyed catholic reader! I trijfl: 
 
 I have convinced thee, that I am an orthodox ca- 
 tholic chriftian. But if I were not an orthodox 
 catliolic chriftian; if I were as arch an heretic as 
 ever dogmatized; might I not, for all that, be ca- 
 pable of giving a good tranflation of the Bible ? 
 Did the pretended, or real, herefy of Origen make 
 his biblical refearches lefs valuable ? Aqulla and 
 Theodotlon were obdurate Jews; Symmachus was 
 an Ebionite : yet their verfions of the Old Tefta- 
 ment \yere fought, read, and praifed by the chrif- 
 tian Fathgrs ; nay ^partly received into the Greek 
 exemplars of the fcripture. The great Erafmus 
 was greatly fufpedted pf herefy : yet his labours on 
 the New Teftament were approved of by a know- 
 ing pope, ' and applauded by the learned world ; 
 fi few bigots excepted. Sacy was reputed a rank 
 
 * «' Ris/mj'Iex et abfoluta. Am. Marcel.*' 
 
430 
 
 JanfenUl, and for his jiuifenifm was immured m 
 the Baftjle : yet his French verfion of the Bible, 
 partly made in ihat dungeon, has been long in 
 high eftimation in the Gallican church. — Now, 
 withput prefuming to compare myfelf with any of 
 thofe celelwated menj I furely may be allowed to 
 iay, that I fit ay make a good tranflation: and that if 
 I do make a good tfanflation; the imputation of he- 
 terodoxy cannot render it a bad one. In ftiort, it 
 mufl iland on its own intrinfic nierit; and if it 
 have none, it wiU foon fall, without the need of 
 epifcopal or papal fukninations." 
 
4B1 
 
 CHAPtER Xil. 
 
 Dr, Geddes^s mind much affeSl^d by the •contumelies he 
 received — confoled by his friends, e/peciallji the titiilar 
 bi/iop of Dunleld, eind his patron lord Petre— •Jinks 
 into a low and irritalle fever, which incapacitates him 
 from all exertion for many months — progreffively re- 
 covers — M:kes a tour into Norfolk~^compofes his Nor- 
 folk Tale—feleBion of an anecdote from this poem 
 highly creditalle to his general benevolence — Cbarac 
 ier of his poetry — Ode to the Hon. Thomas PelbaTn^ 
 occafioned by.hisfpeecb in the Irifh Houfe of Commons 
 on the catholic bill — Humerous metrical tranflation of 
 Dr. Coulthur/i's Scmon, preached before the univer- 
 Jity of Cambridge, 0&. 35, lygS-^Di/pute between 
 ike bi/hop of Bangor and Mr. Grlndley — Dr. Ged- 
 des's Comic- Heroic Poem,entitled The Battle of Ban- 
 gor — his anonymous Pafi-Day S^rtnon and New- 
 Year's Gift. A. D. 1794^1799. 
 
 It was during our author's recovery from the 
 long and lingering illnefs which I have already 
 •ftated he fuftained from the anxiety of his mind, 
 exacerbated by the backbitings of bigotry and 
 the malevolence of facerdotal pride, that he wrote 
 the various letters and addrei'es enumerated in the 
 
4S2. 
 
 preceding chapter. So deeply was he affected by 
 the undeferved feverity of his lot, that at one pe- 
 riod his fpirits became almoft defpondent ; and no- 
 thing but the afliduous attention and animating 
 efforts of his deareft and moft valued friends fuc- 
 ceeded, even at laft, in aroufing him from the 
 melancholy into which he had gradually funk. 
 To enumerate the names of thofe, whether ca- 
 thDlics or proteftants^ who, at this critical pe- 
 riod chiefly evinced their .attachment to him, and 
 prindpaJly fucceeded i]? difpelling the morbid 
 ■glopnx by which he was opprefled, would be a vife- 
 lefs, and in fome degree an invidious tafk; but 
 the names of two diftinguifhed charafters of the 
 former perfuafion I ought not to fupprefs, becatife 
 he himfelf h^s particularized them in his writings, 
 and did , not forget their prominent proofs of kind- 
 Iiefs to the laft moment of his life. Oif thefe, the 
 one was his old fchoolfellow and njuch eft,eemed 
 cpufm, the titular bifhop of Punkeld, whole cor- 
 dial participation in his injuries, and animating 
 exhortations to perfeverance, tended in a very 
 .C^nfiderable degree to reca-lLhim to afenfe pf hiis 
 duty, and to a conten^pt qf the ca|ymj>ie§, with 
 which he was afperfed. The other was his pobl? 
 ^nd incomparable patron the l^te lord Petre, 
 whofe confoling fympajthies and genesrous expoftu- 
 Jations forpied at all time? a fource of hi§<provideft 
 
433 
 
 and itioft pleafing recoUeftions, and are thus af- 
 fefiionately adverted to in ftrains of tender nielan^ 
 choly, while apoftrophizing the mufe of Zion, in 
 the Elegy he conipofed on his lordfhip's deceafe: 
 
 Quis tua, nunc, memet veftigia. Diva, legentem 
 
 Per vepres, feffum quia relevare velit ? 
 Me prope cum piguit tantos tolerare labores/ 
 
 Dejettos animos fuftulit ille meos. 
 Me cum mordaci lacerar^nt dente malignii 
 
 Et contra fremeret caeca fuperftitio ; 
 " Putida tu fperne illorum convicia (dixit) 
 
 " Cura tibi tantum— pergciatur opus." 
 
 Who now (hall foothe me as my path I wind, 
 
 Thy fooifteps following, through entangling briars ? • 
 When faint, the tafk, at times, I half reflgned, 
 
 He cheered ray foul, and roufed its latent fires. 
 When malice grinned with fg.ng fo oft that, daunts. 
 
 When bigots blind o'erflowed with frantic fnam, 
 " Spurn, fpurn," faid he, " thefe yile opprobrious taunts, 
 
 " Care but for this — to olofe th' important tome '." 
 
 The attentions of his beneyol,ep,t patron did not 
 terminate with perfonal condolences and advice. 
 As foon as the do£tor was fufEciently recovered to 
 derive benefit from the air and exercifes of the 
 country, he earneftly. preffed him to a vifit at his 
 feat in Norfolk, and adyifed him to recruit himfelf 
 as he proceeded, at Thorndon in ElTex, another 
 country manfion of the illullrious peer's, in the 
 
 *Sec the entire Elegy, in chap. xiv. of theprefent work, 
 2f 
 
434 
 
 courie of liis excurfion. Dr. Geddes acceded to the 
 friendly recommendation, and as foon as he was 
 able to commence his tour in his own way, pre- 
 pared himfelf for the journey. The doftor was 
 a pedeftrian as well from choice as principle. In 
 the earlier part of his life, the flendernefs of his in- 
 come rendered this a matter of abfolute neceffity, 
 and a habit was hence introduced which termi- 
 
 - nated in a preference to this mode of travelling, 
 ai^d accompanied him through life. His means, 
 however, at the prefent period, though amply ade- 
 quate to the common routine of his wants,, did not 
 admit of any large furplus for even perfonal lux- 
 uries*, and what little he could fpare he always 
 thought rather due to the neceffities of others 
 than to the gratification of himfelf. " Freely," 
 
 , faid he, "have I received, freely ought I to give." 
 Towards the end of Auguft 1783, therefore, 
 after he had broken all connexion with his vi- 
 carial fuperior, he began his walk thi'ough Effex, 
 Suffolk, ^d Norfolk. The increafing purity of 
 the atmofphere as he quitted the metropolis, and 
 the inartificial beauties of the country, which now 
 poured before him in a ■Wide and vddef theatre, re- 
 created his fpirits, and banifhed, for a fhort time, 
 from his memory both bifhop Douglas and his 
 own tranflation. He wooed ,the ruftic mufe; he 
 found her at hznd, Jtmpkx munditiis,.^'- in all her 
 
435 
 
 artleflhefs of neat attire j" fhe became compliant 
 with his wifhes, and by her affiftance he worked 
 up the few incidents that occurred into a poem, 
 which he fhortly afterwards printed and entitled 
 " A Norfolk Tale, or a Journal from London to 
 Norwich." , 
 
 This poem is introduced into the world under 
 the formidable arrangement of a prologue and epi- 
 logue, and of a divifion of the work itfelf into 
 three diftin,a parts. It is compofed with much 
 good humor and amenity of heart, and in its ver- 
 lification is eafy even to occafional negligence. It 
 is literally indeed z/ermo pedejiris, and aims not 
 at the loftier flights and more daring imagination of 
 the mufe when mounted on Pegafus. Mr. Johrifon, 
 our author's bookfeller, has told me, that when he 
 brought it to him, he advifed him not to publifli it, 
 as conceiving that it would by no means fufE- 
 cifently interefl the world to enfure the fale of an 
 adequate impreflion. This, however, was not 
 Dr. Geddes's mode of reafoning ; he had written 
 it, and the prefs mull follow as a matter of courfe. 
 And in this inflance he feems not to havereafoned 
 amifs; for if it did not interefl the World, it at lead 
 interefted the circle of his own friends; and either 
 through their repeated demands for it, or his own 
 liberal circulation, he not only difpofed of the firft. 
 
436 
 
 but adtually printed a /econd edition of it within 
 a few months of its compofition. 
 
 Nothing is more demonftrative of the fountain 
 whence a writer has imbibed his ideas, the foil in 
 which he has been accuftomed to labor, than the 
 ' peculiar train of images and allulions to which he 
 has recourfe. They, are not only indeed charac- 
 teriftic of the bent qf his niind, but meafure the 
 degree of his application and refearch. With Dr. 
 Geddes, the facred pages, both with refpeft to 
 their dodrines and' figurative language, were all 
 in all. He had fludied them almoft from his in- 
 fancy with the zeal of a chriftian and the accuracy 
 of a critic, and I have already had occafion toftate 
 that his metaphors and ornamental elucidations, 
 inftead of being drawn from the more polluted 
 ftrearris of Homer and Horace, are almoft unir 
 formly deduced from this overflowing fountain of 
 purity and fublimity. In the poem before us the 
 charafter of the man is equally confpicuous. I 
 Avill adcluce but two inftances in confirmatioix of 
 this remark. Fatigued with his expedition by the 
 time he had reached Bury St. Edmonds in Suf- 
 folk, he retired at an early period to reft^ and the 
 goddess Fame, more favorable to him in his fleep- 
 ing than in his waking hours, appeared in a plea- 
 fant dream, and in reward of all his troubles and 
 
437 
 
 perfecutions prefented to him a golden trumpet 
 with her left hand, while with her right fhe fur- ' 
 rounded his temples with- a gay and verdant gar- 
 land, 
 
 ■ Compos'd of all the flowers that ^ow 
 By Jehus or hy Jericho i 
 
 With graciovis look, flie faid : " My child,' 
 For twenty twelvemonths thou haft toil'd 
 To- earn a little honeft fame : 
 I come at leijgth to grant thy claim. 
 
 Long as the ancient Hebrew page 
 Mankind''s attention ftiall engage- 
 Long as the fon of Amram 'slaws 
 Shall meet with merited appldufe-i— 
 Long as the tones of David's lyre 
 All future minftrels fliall admire-^ 
 Long as the Song of Songs (hall prove 
 That death is not more firong than love— 
 Long as Ifaiah's ftyle fliall be 
 The teft of true fublimity — 
 And Jeremiah's plaint remains 
 The fi-rft: of elegiac ftrains — *• 
 
 Long as the Bible Aall be read — 
 This garland (hall adorn thy head ! 
 And this loud truinp's immortal found ■ 
 O'-er all the ifland fliallrebound !'' 
 
 The next example needs no introdufliion. He 
 is ftill purfuing his journey : 
 
 s Eight fcore of furlohgs yet I had >-• "' , 
 To traverfe — and the ways were bad. 
 
438 
 
 Not IfraeVi difcontented hoft 
 Such deferts met, on Edom's coaft ! 
 Nor was there on the dreary ground 
 A drop of Manna to be found. i 
 
 Two hours I thus my courfe purfae. 
 When, unexpefted, to my view 
 Appears a town of ancient fame : 
 But Tbetford is its modern name. 
 
 Herfe, I opin'd, poor cred'lous man, 
 I was not far from my ChanaSn : 
 And that the river Tbet might be 
 A yordan, ■<poWo\y to me ! 
 Judge, then, what was my great furprife, 
 When palling on, I rais'd mine eyes. 
 And faw I had to travel o'er 
 A greater defert than before. 
 
 In Part II. we meet with an anecdote which 
 ought not to be neglefted,, fince it is literally true, 
 and ftrongly illuftrative of our author's habitual 
 benevolence : 
 
 'Twal in the middle of a down. 
 Remote from village or from town. 
 Where a black-bellied cloud outlhed 
 Its dire contents upon my head : 
 And I, alas ! poor lucklefs fellow. 
 Had neither great-coat nor umbrella. 
 
 In this dlArefs, on my left hand, ' ^ 
 I fee a little cottage (land : 
 With joy 1 fee ; and, helter-fkelter, 
 I to the cottage run for (helter. 
 The door was open-r-In I go : 
 But ah ! my Kit I what fcenes of wo« 
 
439 
 
 Prefent themfelves ? Firft on a bed 
 
 A hufband, in bis prime, lies dead : 
 
 Lies dead, with fcarce a rag to hide 
 
 His lifelefs limbs.— —At the bed-fide 
 
 A weeping widow fits and fighs. 
 
 And lifts to heaven her piteous eyes : 
 
 While three" fweet orphans, round her, cry 
 
 For bread, which (he cannot fupply. 
 
 " O God ! (faid I, and rubb'd my brow) 
 
 Why have I not a fortune now i 
 
 But can I nothing^nothing giv^, 
 
 Thefe fellow creatures to. relieve ! 
 
 Yes ! — I can give a (hrowd to lay 
 
 That naked corfe in kindred clay. 
 
 Yes ! — I can give, wherewith to fave 
 
 His wife and childr^en from the grave. 
 
 This week — ^Tbe next, kind Heav'n may fend 
 
 A richer, not more feeling friend :'' 
 
 So faying, from my purfe I drew, 
 And on the lap of forrow tlarew 
 Three (ilver crQwi^j^— ''twas all, I fwear, 
 My little fcanty fob could fpare ! 
 
 Eager (he feized my hand and pred 
 It clofely to her throbbing breafl : 
 And while it on her bofom lies, 
 A pair of pearls drop from her eyes. 
 Warm as the weeper's grateful heart. 
 And fall on the uncover'd part. 
 Dear drops ! ah! could yoiir briny ftaiqi 
 A laftlng mark on me remain; 
 Not Francis' Stigmata* would be 
 A caufe of jealoufy to me ! 
 
 ^ See Wit'liesendin Bonavtnture^ «r the Reman Brtviary. 
 
1 
 
 440 
 
 Two other drops, before they fell, 
 (yes. Kit ! I'm not kftiamed to tell) 
 I intercept, as down they flow ' 
 Her cheeks> that now begin to glow : 
 My face upon her fade I fix; 
 And with her tears my tqars I mix. 
 
 And now the heav'ns appear'd ftrene, 
 As if to witnefs this laft fcene : 
 And Sol feemed willing to repay T 
 
 His abfence with a brighter ray 
 Than ufqal at the clofe of day. 
 
 Three miles, I ween, or nearly fo. 
 To Bingham, yet I had to go : 
 But ne'er was fiich a fpace of ground 
 Lefs tirefome to a trav'ler found, 
 Tho' cold, and wetted to the Ikin, 
 I felt a foftering flame within, 
 Which made me totally forget 
 That I wgs cold ! that I was wet ! 
 
 JESUS of Nazareth ! how true 
 The doftrine firft announced by you ! 
 Whecher in a difciple's name, 
 We, for a cup of water claim 
 A recompenfe ; or for a ftore 
 Beftow'd of the mofl precious ore ; 
 This ore, that cup, ev'n here on earth. 
 Are recompens'd beyond their *i^orth. 
 Can there a greater boon be giv'n 
 To mortal man by bounteous heav'n, 
 Than the delight fupreme that flows 
 From mitigating human woes ? 
 
 Here, for a moment, let me paufe} 
 And think on the myfterious laws 
 
441 
 
 Of Pfovidence, whofe wondrous chain 
 No human wifdom can explain. 
 
 Had I, that morn, refus'd to hear 
 The fpirit whifp'ring in mine ear 
 
 " Proceed to Norwich." Had I gone 
 
 At any other hour but One. 
 
 Had not keen hunger made me ftay 
 
 An hour at Wotton, on my way 
 
 I fhoulJ have pafied the difmal down. 
 Before the Ikies began to frown. 
 Or, had that providential ftiow'r 
 Fallen at any other hour, 
 I to the cottage had not run 
 That providential (how'r to fliunl 
 Or had I beena man of gold, 
 And in a gilded chariot loll'd ; 
 ■I (hould have pafs'd the lone&me plain, 
 Regardlefs of the falling rain ; 
 And confequently ne'er had been 
 A witnefs of the 'forefaid fcene : 
 Nor had the happinefs to fay : 
 " My friends ! I have not loft a day." 
 
 Such were the recreations of body and mind- 
 by which this indefatigable fcholar endeavored 
 to reacquire his accuftomed heahh and vigdr. It 
 was long, however, before he could fo far forget 
 the contumelious treatment he had received as to 
 be able to refume his biblical puffuits, and prepare ' 
 for a fecond volume of his tranflation. He was 
 ftill goaded by a variety of anonymous letters, 
 which in fpite ef all his philofo^hy, and the ani- 
 
• • 442 
 
 mating efforts of his friends^ damped his courage, 
 and preffed heavily upon his heart. He, never- 
 thelefs, at no period fuffered himfelf to be abfo- 
 lutely indolent ; and when incapable of feverer 
 ftudies, amufed himfelf by an indulgence of his 
 poetic talents. The pieces he at this time produced 
 were for the moft part therefore ephemeral : they 
 generally confifted of addreffes to his more inti- 
 mate friends or favorites upon trifling occurrences, , 
 and neither merit nor were meant to be perpetu- 
 ated. They neverthelels fully accomplifhed the 
 purpofe for which they were intended/and contri-' 
 -buted more than" any thing elfe to allay the irrita- 
 tion of his mind. To adopt his own language on 
 another occurrence. 
 
 Me nam dele£lant dulces ante omnia mufae, 
 Mufa mlhi cundtis eft medicina malis*. 
 
 On one or two occafions however he endeavored 
 to enlift the tuneful fifterhood into his fervice, and 
 to employ them upon fubjefts of more public con- 
 cern; and particularly in the affair of the' catholic 
 bill which was introduced into the Irilh parUa- 
 
 * The mBfes— every grief that beft beguilej 
 To me an antidote for every ill. 
 
 • Elegy addreffed to the Shade of Gilbert Wakefield : 
 fee the Elegy at large ia chap. xiv. 
 
%4>3 
 
 ment in the year 1795, by the great body of the 
 catholics themfelves, through a hope of being ad- 
 mitted to participate with their proteftant brethren 
 in the offices, emoluments, and honors connefted 
 with the government of the country, from the 
 whole of which they were excluded by their reli- 
 gion. The bill, however, failed bf fuccefs; and as 
 Mr. Pelham was one of the moil aftiye inftni- 
 ments in oppofing it, our indefatigable polemic, 
 on this tranfaftion, compofed and publifhed an 
 *' Ode to the Honourable Thomas Pelham, oc- 
 cafioned by his Speech in the Infli Houfe of Com- 
 mons on the Catholic Bill." The mufes, how- 
 ever, though duly woo^d, were not very propi- 
 tious to the poet's fuit in the prefent inflance, and 
 granted' him a reludtaht and parfimonious fuccour. 
 His prinie obje£t is to anfwer inverfe the chief ar- 
 guments which Mr. Pelham had advanced in 
 profe ; and he feeihs, from the cjonclufion of his 
 Ode, to have perfuaded himfelf that this poetic re- 
 ply could not be read with indifference even by 
 the politician to whom he addreffes it; for the fol« 
 lowing are its final ftanzas : 
 
 Pelham ! I now return to you, 
 ^ And bid you friendlily adieu 5 
 
 With this advice fincere : 
 Be it your ftudy, night and day. 
 To drive black prejudice away. 
 
 And keep your confcience clear. 
 
444 
 
 So fliall you, when you fpeak again. 
 Be more confident, pure, and plain j 
 
 And reafon not fo badly. 
 Pelham ! perhaps, you'll yet embrace 
 The doftrines which, to your difgrace. 
 
 You now oppugn fo madly. 
 
 On a tranfaftioR which occurred fhortly aftelr- 
 wards he was more fuccefsful in his application 
 to the maids of verfe. Dr. Coulthurft had preached 
 a fermon before the univerlity of Cambridge, 
 0£lober 25, 1796, on the anniverfary of his ma- 
 jefty's acceflion, whicli excited much converfation 
 on its delivery, but ftill more on its publication. 
 Every body knows that diicourfes of this kind 
 tend naturally to the politics of the period in which 
 they are compofed ; and every body knows alfo 
 (or at leafl every preacher), that from their innu- 
 merable repetitions all over the kingdom, it is ex- 
 tremely difficult to drag forth ideas upon the fame 
 {landing fubjedt which have not been anticipated 
 by preceding orators. The doftor, it muft be 
 confeffed, made a daring effort; and his cou- 
 rage was crowned with all the fuccefs it deferved. 
 The politics of the day conftitute his fubjeft, and 
 in common with his brethren in holy orders, he la- 
 ments the origin of jacobinifm, its rapid ftrides 
 and pernicious influence among the intoxicated 
 multitude : but while, in common a,lfo with his cle- 
 
' 445 
 
 rical colleagues, he deplores the mifchiefs which 
 have in this refpeft been produced by that " mo- 
 dern high-prieft of infidelity*," Tom Pairie, incon- 
 jundtion with the French revolution, he deviates 
 from prior preachers, who have afcribed to thefe 
 caufes the prime origin of our evils, and with a 
 deeper dip into the heraldry of political events 
 traces a genealogy which had hitherto been ton- 
 cealed from the eyes of our Porneys, our Heards, 
 and our Dallaways. Jacobinifm, it feems, from cer- 
 tain archives difcovered by Dr. Coulthu'rft, is of 
 much earlier date than has yet been conje£i:ured by 
 any man : the monfter was born in paradife — he 
 was the fruit of the criminal converfation of the 
 *' firft teacher of treafonf" with the common 
 mother of mankind, and after having lain dormant 
 for many thoufands of years, was at length nur- 
 tured into a ftate of aSlive citizenjhip by the Letters 
 of Junius \. 
 I feleQ; thefe ideas as containing a mere fample 
 
 * I quote from the dodlor's Sermon, p. 7. 
 
 ■j- Ibidem. 
 
 J 'f One grand «poch of difloyalty may fairly be dated from 
 the political exiftence of a certain celehnUed anonymous writer 
 in the earlier part of the prefent reign, whofe profligacy and 
 pertnefs bear no fmall proportion to the purity and el'egancff 
 of his diftion." Id. p. 9. 
 
446 
 
 6f the novelties which the dodtor had been fucceff^ 
 ful enough to cull from the flowery field of ima-J 
 gination after all the herborizing attempts of his 
 predeceflbrs. When the fermon was firfl publilhed 
 a copy of it was hurried by fome wicked wag of 
 the univerfity to an old college alfociate who refided 
 in London, with a requefl thiat he would notice it 
 in any way he chofe, fo as to increafe its merited 
 reputation. Scarcely had the poft delivered the 
 parcel, when, fome playful fpirit led Dr. Geddesto 
 the door of the perfon to whom it was addrefled. 
 A council was held upon the occafion, and it was 
 inftantly agreed to turn the whole fermon into 
 verfe. Our poet undertook the talk; he put the 
 pamphlet into his pocket, and tranflated and re- 
 turned a corred; copy of his verfion in about three 
 days. In about three days more it -^as printed; 
 and in the courfe of a fingle week reached Cam- 
 bridge, in due time to' conteft the palm with its an- 
 tagonift edition in profe. I have been informed, 
 indeed, of a ludicrous circumftance refpedling it, 
 with the truth of which the do£tor is beft ac- 
 quainted. It is faid that the perfon to whom the 
 fermon in metre was addreffed, or a friend of his, 
 waited upon Dr. Coulthurll the moment the 
 packet arrived, meaning to prefent him with a copy 
 in perfon. The dodtor was abfent, and on his vi- 
 
441 
 
 fitor's requefting pen, ink, and paper, to leave a 
 note, he was fhewn into a room, where he found a 
 variety of profe copies parcelled out and addreffed 
 to many of the doftor's friends who had not yet 
 been favored with this valuable prefent. *' Ex- 
 change," faid the arch intruder, " is no robbery:'* 
 and thus faying, he pocketed the profe fermons, 
 and placed an equal number of his poetic ver- 
 fions, with fuitable addreffes, in their ftead ; which, 
 according to the doftor's orders, who did not re- 
 turn till the enfuing day, were conveyed by his 
 fervant the fame evening agreeably to their refpec- 
 tive fuperfcriptions. Many of thefe were fent by 
 the poft to a confiderable diftance : his friends, 
 to whom they were addreffed, were aftonilhed to 
 find that the mufes had quitted Partiaffus for the 
 pulpit, while they equally admired the doftor's 
 new and original method of harmonizing holy 
 writ, and of captivating all the heads, and, I may ■ 
 add, all the ears of the univerfity. > 
 
 As a fpecimen of our author's merit in the pre- 
 fent fportive undertaking, I fhall exhibit his com- 
 mencement and conclufion of this two-fold dif- 
 eourie-r-idem et> alter^aad, for a comparifon, 
 fhall infert the fame portion of his exemplar at the 
 foot of the page. 
 
44S 
 
 ECCLESIASTES, X. 20. * 
 
 Curse not the king, no not in thought — nor curse 
 The man, leho hath a long- and weigMi/ purse : 
 for courtly parrots wilt the secret chatter; 
 And things with wings will hear, and tell thematter. 
 
 Although the book Ecdepaftes 
 Of a pecuh'ar typic caft is ; 
 Or may, like other fcripture-ftories. 
 Admit of types and allegories ; 
 Yet I, at prefent, think it better 
 To be contented with the letter : 
 And from its primary conftruftion 
 I mean to draw my whole indu£lion. 
 
 The exhortation of the text, 
 Tho' fomewhat, feemingly, perplext. 
 Is necefiary in this day 
 Of ftir, confulion, and affray ! 
 
 When villains wantonly curfe kings, 
 (Thofe, Angularly facred things) 
 
 * " ECCLESIASTES, X. 20. 
 
 '•* Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought ; and curse not the rich 
 in thy bedchamber : for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, 
 and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. 
 
 " The Book of Ecclefiafte?, as well as every other portion of 
 fcripture, has been interpreted typically and figuratively. It 
 is my prefent purpofe to content myfelf with the primary 
 and literal conftruftion ; and the exhortation in the text is pe- 
 culiarly neceflary in this day of tumult and confufion — when, 
 ' kings are wantonly curfed,' and infulted ; and the rich and 
 
449 
 
 And rogues, without ot fliaes or breeches, 
 
 Prefume t' upbraid the^man of lich^^ 
 
 Call bim. ufurper, pirate, thief !. . 
 
 Can it be ever the belief 
 
 Of any. well-taught godly wight^ 
 
 That fuch a fyftem can be right ? 
 
 Ne, certainly — but let us-c9ollyr 
 
 The thing qopfiderT^ for though, truly, 
 
 *Tis not'the province of the preacher 
 
 To be of politics a teacher :' 
 
 Yet, if a metaphyfic pieri 
 
 Have meddled with the rlglis of men } 
 
 And if, in Humk, it were lio fault. 
 
 As none it could be, to exalt 
 
 Stattfiics to the rank qifdence ; 
 
 Why may riot we, in Paihe's, defiance. 
 
 Deem it perinitteQ,us to mix 
 
 Tieolo^y with pohttcs? 
 
 Indeed, of all politic aeras, 
 (As far as> hift'ry ifaaek will ibear us) , ' 
 
 opulent are upbraided as the ufurpers and piratLcaLlnxaders 
 . of the common property-of mankind, — Can this, fyftemiof 
 policy' be deemed right ? — Certainly not — Let ils,- however, 
 calmly confider this matter. It is by no means the dutyjof 
 the clergy to difquiet thenifelves too much with fecular inqui- 
 ries : yet if Come metaphyficians * have been pleafed to exalt 
 politics to the dignity of fcience, why may not we, at certain 
 times>ahd feafons, juAly deen:i them to>be a portion of facred 
 fcience, and the fubjeft of facred deliberation ;? — And of all 
 the political periods in prrofane hiftoryy none fetms fo loudly 
 '* Hume. 
 
 2g 
 
4^0 
 
 None feem^fo loudly to demand 
 The exertion of the cleric band 
 As this,— For, fure/the celebration 
 And annual commemoration 
 Of this bleft day * we cannot deem 
 An idle rite of none elleem j 
 Tho' reftlefs fpirits," tiine dgo. 
 May probably have thbugUt it fo. 
 
 No, no i — if to myeflJgate 
 The theory of civil ftate, 
 And logically to .explain 
 Til' analyfis of man's donjain— i 
 If to call into animation 
 The public fpirit of the nation 
 Was ever needful — then, allow 
 *Tis doubly neceflar'y now. 
 When WE, not for diftinSions fmall, 
 VfYiicK capillary one may call j 
 Nor for tbofe atoms evane/cent. 
 That are, beyond all fenfc,' decrefcent. 
 Contend— But when thevery Wie' 
 Of government's the caufc of llrife j 
 
 to demand the attention and exeftisi^ pf the clergy as the 
 prefent ; for certainly the celiebratioh of this day's feftival 
 cannot now be deemed ufekfs or problematical, though fome 
 fuperficial and unquiet fpirits may have formerly thought it 
 fo. No— If it was ever neceiTary to inveftigate the theory of ci- 
 vil fubordination, and logically:.to explain the analyfis of pro- 
 perty; if it was ever neceflary to call, forth the public virtue 
 and public fpirit of the ki,ngdom, this neceffity is laid upon 
 UB now — wJien we contend, ■ not for little capillary . diftinc- 
 tions, or evanefcent atoms of the grand fyftem— when we 
 * Oftijiier 25th. 
 
451 
 
 Or, ftill more ftrorigly to exprefs 
 Th' idea in the nobler drefs 
 Of Tully : Non de terminls, 
 Sed de foffejjione. Lis /■■ 
 
 I fpeak not of thofe monfters fell, 
 The laft abortive fpawn of hell, 
 Whofe execrable ufurpation 
 Over a free and bnfpy nation. 
 Has deluged Gallia with a flood 
 Ol royal and of noik blood : 
 And wfho with glowing ardor pant 
 The tree of libei ty to plant 
 In foils where, yet, il cannot grow, 
 Or on the Rhine, or on the Po ; 
 Yea, hari'ow antichriftian Rome ; 
 I fpeak l)f enemies at hom«, 
 Who their envenom'd fhafts direft 
 'Gainft us, 'gainft us — the Lord's ele£l, 
 " Delenda eft," they proudly fay, 
 -" Delenda eft Ecclefia* !" 
 
 contend for the very exiftence of the goyernnient itfelf, or in 
 the language of Cicero — " Non de terminis,' fed de poffef- 
 fione tota contentio.'' 
 
 I fpeak not of thofe inhuman monfters, who by their abo- 
 minable ufurpationshave deluged the 'wide-extended plains of 
 France with blood, and have been panting with infatiable in- 
 dignation to plow Rome and harrow up Italy. I fpeak of 
 our enemies at home. Their outcry is moft vehemently di 
 refted agaihft us. ** Delenda eft Ecclefia !" We are deftined 
 * " The church mull be deftroyed.'' God defend us 1 
 
452 
 
 We are the victims firft defign'd 
 To' glut ttieir fanguinary. mind: . , 
 Yes, brethren ! yes-r-with frown indignant 
 
 NOTANT, ET OCULIS DESIGN ANT 
 
 Ad C^EDEM UNUMCUJEMQtIE NOSTRUM I 
 
 WJioe'er we be, who mount the- rpftrum 
 And preach up loyalty to kings. 
 Are truly death-devoted things ! , . 
 Ifiibefo — thie will of God n 
 
 Be done ! — we to his awful rod 
 Submit ourbacks.-!-And,wh€;n the d?7 
 And hour ihall come — God grant we may 
 Be ftrong it) hira, and in his might : , 
 And now, while day precedes the nig)it. 
 Let us do our endeavour to 
 The woik of minifters to do j , 
 And teach the people what they owe 
 To,Gop above, and kings below: , 
 
 to be the firft' viftrms. " * Notant et defignant oculis ad 
 casdem ununiquemque noft'rum." If it be fo, the will of God 
 be done-f-itfetus commit o«fCelves to him that jndgeth righ- 
 teoufly — and when that day and,that hour ihall come,, " God 
 grant that we may be ftrong in the Lord, and in the power of 
 his might !" — and whilft we are yet fparcd — " whilft it is yet 
 called to-day," let us humbly endeavour to do our duty as the 
 minifters of God, and to teach th?, people their'e — let us teach 
 thehti (^bat, greatly to their mifery gnd difgrace, the^ 
 feem now. to .have forgotten) "to render unto Caefar the 
 things th^t'are Caefar's, and unto God the thinga ^hat are 
 God's;" and " knowing that ye allj" among whqin I Ijave 
 
 * Cicero conti a Catilinam. 
 
4^3 
 
 TeacH them to give to God, thtiT'%eart ;' 
 And to iheklag^^theh: caj) iijipart. :,_ :c '; 
 
 • ,, And knowing that ye all (among) , 
 'Whom my fojournment has been (long) 
 Will, peradventure, in this place ■ - 
 NcTcr'agajn tehpld my face : 
 Pray give me leave, with deference dile, 
 ■ And- merited refpedt for you. 
 To finifh t'his my peroration 
 With this pathetic exh'orfatibn : 
 An exhortatiat), which, indeed, • 
 
 / Our i-ev'rend fucceflbrs may need : 
 
 Nay which — horrefcH reffrens*; " " 
 
 Ourfelves may need — fome fsw days hence. 
 
 This exhortation my readers will find in the fa- 
 cred text below, with which the-profe extraft con- 
 cludes. " I have not tranflated," fays Dr. Geddes, 
 *' this fcripture paffage for two reafons : fi'rft, it is 
 already as clear as it can be made ; andi fecondly, 
 it is too folemn and ferious to be prned into 
 rhyme." 
 
 long fojourned, will peradventure '* fee my face no more,'' 
 may I be permitted, with all deference and with all refpeft, 
 to conclude with that glorious declaration of our Lord— r 
 a declaration which fome of our reverend fucceflbrs, or, to 
 fpeak more to the purpofe, which we ourfelves (horrefco 
 leferens) may .one day moff affuredly need — " Fear not them 
 which kill the body, and afterwards have no more that they 
 can do : but I wiH forewarn you whom ye (hall fear.; fear 
 him, who after he hath deftroyed, hath power to caft both 
 body and foul into hellj ye^, 1 fay. unto you, fear him." 
 • I tremble to tell the tale. 
 
 ' 2 
 
454 
 
 About the fame time an incident occurred of ftill 
 more notoriety ; and which, as it attrafted much 
 of the pubUc attention, could not poflibly efcape the 
 vifion of our polemic Argus. I allude to the me- 
 morable eleftioneering affray at Bangor, in which 
 Dr. Warren, bifhop of the diocefe-, made fo con- 
 fpieuous a figure, and which afterwards became 
 the fubjefl: of an indiftment, againft himfelf and 
 feveral of his clerical friends, at the fuit of 
 Mr. Grindley, 'the deputy-regiftrar. Grindley, al- 
 though appointed to the ofEce he enjoyed through 
 the intereft of the prelate' himfelf, had for fome 
 time manifefted fymptoms of a refraftory fpirit, 
 and had deferted the church and flate party for 
 that of the profanum vulgus, or fwinifh multitude. 
 The' bifhop was determined to take vengeance on 
 the apoftate, and fallied forth, accompanied by a 
 blackfmith, at the head of feveral clerical fatellites,- 
 to tui-n him out from his office by main force, fmce 
 he had refufed to relinquifh it quietly : a fucceflion 
 of Ikirmifhes enfued, in the- courfe of which fortune 
 feems to have held the balance with an even 
 hand, fometimes inclining to the prelate and fome- 
 times to the, regiftrar. The latter, however, if I 
 recoUeft aright, eventually prevailed in retaining 
 poffeffion of his caftle, but he was fruftrated in hi^ 
 fuit at the Shrewfbury affizes. The fubje£t was 
 certainly well calculated for the difplay of poetic. 
 
455 
 
 wit an^hanjour: and it was greedily feized'by 
 Dr. Geddes, who in a comic-heroic poem of nine 
 pantos, entitled "The Battle of Bangor, or the 
 Church's Triumphj" labored with all his might 
 to eternize the tranfaftion. 
 
 The Battle of BSngor is unqu'eftionably the 
 beft produ&ion of our author's metrical pen. "It 
 exhibits more tafte and fancy in its imagery, and 
 more correftnefs in its verfific'ation, than any poem 
 he ever wrote; and, what is no fmall addition to 
 its merit, it al^punds with good humour, and a 
 playful amenity of heart. To analyze it would 
 be altogether a work of fupererogation. It is mo- 
 delled on Pope's Rape of the Loick, or rather the 
 Lutrin of Defpreaux. I Ihall confine myfelf to the 
 feleftion of a fpecimen or two of its geiibral merit. 
 It opens as follows : 
 
 The peerlefs Prelate, who, with well-aim*4^hruft. 
 Laid a prefumptuous laypiaa ia the duft, 
 Chafed from the precindls of the fadred fane ; 
 A Registkar rebellious, rafti, and vain, 
 Who dar'd 'gainft-Heav'n uplift his lawlefs rod. 
 And bid defiance to the'fon's of God, 
 I fing. — Be prefent, mufe of Defpreaux ! 
 And make my numbers like his numbers flQ,w ; 
 Or, rather, ftill more pcw'rful fuccours bring'; 
 A greater- hpro, mightier deeds I fing. 
 And tho.B, fweet nymph of a mote noble flock, 
 Who taught oijr bard to fing Belinda's locji,. 
 
456 
 
 ' Vouchfafc on thiefe more liumble ftriaiii* to fmile, 
 And~let them live — at I,e.aft a little while, . ' 
 
 . The palace of Zealot ifm, or Bigotry, and Ills ori- 
 gin from the lovely and amiably nymph ZeaU, in 
 confequence of a jape committed upon her- by a 
 lafcivious mcink of '^'hoiiloufe, are thus-claflically 
 conceived and expreffed. It is with^ tl\is paffage 
 that Canto III. opens. • .. 
 
 'Mong the celeflial goddelfes above. 
 That grace the manfion of almighty Jove, 
 A nyniph there is, whofe province is to raife 
 In man's cold heart devotion's malting blaze : 
 For oft, too oft, forgetful pf his God, 
 Poor earthly man betrays his native clod. 
 Her nameis.ZEALA- — through the world (he Hies, 
 liovein her looks, and ardor in her eyes: 
 Nor can the icicA mortal well withiland 
 The glowing touch of her enchanting hand. 
 Yet, neither ftiff, nor ftcrn, (he gently bends 
 Her willing vot'ries to her purpos'd ends. 
 Martyrs fhe mak.s, but martyrs meek and mild ; 
 Who ne'er revile, although they be reviled : 
 In Virtue's caiife, a vigor <he infpires ; 
 But ncvtr kindles Perfecution's fires. 
 
 Once on a time, as this celeflial maid. 
 In queft of converts, through' Tholofa ftray'd ; 
 There in a cpnvent (horrible to tell !) 
 A lecherous friar comprefs'd her in his cell. 
 From this commixtion a dire daemon came j 
 And Zeloti sm V s is thdt diemon's name — 
 
45? 
 
 Rapid his growth ; for his half-htav'nly birth 
 pave him advantage o'er the fons of earth. 
 Foftef'd by popes and kings, behold him rife. 
 In a (h(.rt fpace, to an enormous iize ! 
 His fa Tie by ftroUing priefts is blazed abroad ; 
 And men iniftake him for a demi^god. 
 Whole'riations eagerly embrace his lawsj 
 But, chief, Iberia's fons fupport his caufe. 
 There temples, there to him were altars rear'd-; 
 "With human blood thofe altars were befmear'd : 
 Religion fanAion'd the devouring flame. 
 And infants trembled at this Moloch's name. 
 
 Thus eril j but now he fees his pow'r decline: 
 No bloody trophies more bedeck his Ihrine : 
 No niry fan-benitos more adorn 
 The Moor or Jew, condemn'd to public fcorn. 
 Yet, yeta week of years ; the world fliall fee 
 His throne o'erturn'd j, and fair Iberia free ! 
 
 Yet ftill on Tajo's banks he holds his court : 
 Thither the zealots of the weft refort — 
 A hooded band, th' emiifaries of Rome, 
 Support his empire, and furround his dome. 
 
 In the firft porch of this itupendous ^lace 
 Stands Per'^ecution, with an iron, face. 
 In his right hand a fcorpion-fcourge he bears, 
 Eeting'd with human blood and human tears ; 
 And in, bis left he grafps a brand of fire 
 Ready to light the dread funereal pyre. 
 Cut deep in ftone, above the monfter's hrfad, 
 EI AE KAI *OBOr clearly may be read. 
 
458 
 
 In the -remoteft part of this abode 
 Is- the apartmeat of the grifly god. 
 There Phcebus never (hews his cheerful face |^ 
 Tapers of yellow wax fupply his place ; 
 Such as at difmal dirges are difplay'd 
 To half illuminate the half-damn'd dead. 
 High, on a throne of rough and rufty fteel. 
 Sedately fits the fpurious fon of Zeal. 
 
 Dame Superstition, his beloved bride, 
 Si^s, like another Thai's, by his fi^^^rf , 
 Pale is her vifage, peevlfh is her mien : 
 For Ihe is often troubled with the fpleen. 
 Her weeds are black ; but with a copious ftorc 
 OPgaudy trinkets they are tinfell'd o'er—* 
 Beads from LorettOj Agnus-Dei's from Rome| 
 And chriften'd relics frbm a catacomb : 
 Crbffes and medals with in'dulgeftce fraught ; 
 Apd images, that miracles have wrought : 
 Like that which lately, at Aticona, drew 
 Juftadoracion from the Turk and Jew ! 
 Behind his throne^ to catch his dire commands. 
 His armour-bearer, Fasatismus, Hands. 
 Screws, racks and pulleys j fulphur, pitch and tar; 
 With other implements of holy war ; 
 .Jjie piled around him : all in order fair, 
 As, in the Tow'r our guns and piftols are. 
 
 I fhall clofe the poem with the following ex- 
 trad. The redoubtatsle prelate fummoned and ar, 
 ranged his clerical army, and like another RoUa 
 endeavors, though not altogether, with equal fuc- 
 
459 
 
 cefs, to infpire them with courage, by appealing to 
 the facred caufe in which they are engaged, the 
 obftinacy of the foe, and the abfolute necdEty of 
 ftorming his caftle by a coup de main. 
 
 -" Servants of the Lord, 
 
 " Deans, doftors, priefts, and levitcs, hear my word— 7 
 " His caflle muft be ftormed, himfclf extruded : 
 " Such !■> my will."-^He faid, and fo concluded I 
 
 Mute for a while his myrmidons remain : 
 What pritft in ftorming caftles weuld be flain ? 
 BcGdes, fmall hopes of fure fuccefs they faw ; 
 They had no can1)on, fave the canon-ld'w : 
 Nor battering-engine, fave the hand and head ; 
 That was not iron,'and this was not lead : 
 And well ihey knew that gates of folid oak 
 Ave not by common engines to be broke, 
 Perplex'd they ftand : yet how refufe to fight. 
 Under a bifliop, for the church's right ? 
 They bow affent — yet in their looks appear 
 Some outward fymptomsbf an inward fear. 
 
 The Prelate faw the caufe, and frtiiling faid, 
 " Our plan- of war at dinner (hall be laid>^ 
 " , An ennpty ftomach lacks its ufual pow'r: 
 " Retire, refledt, and come again at four. 
 ff A turtle waits you; and a haunch of doe — 
 " That comes from Liverpool, and this from S*we5— 
 " With ftore of wine — I hope you will not fpare it ; 
 f For I havejuft laid in a pipe of claret." 
 
 As, when the fun vVith his imprefiiveray 
 Difpels rtie fogs of a NoSvembgr day» 
 
460 
 
 The fallen fides their wonted face affiime, 
 And fcera biit brightei' frbtti the previoqegloGUi j 
 . So, now, the bifliop's pow'rful words replace 
 Joy in each heart, -and, blood in every face. 
 They thank his Lordfhip with a joint accord. 
 And pledge themfelves tojoin the feftal board. 
 
 Such were the lighter and recreative employ- 
 ments in which the do£tor opcupi^d the greater 
 part of his leifure hours: yet he did" not exclu- 
 fively confine himfelf to metre. To expofe the 
 abfurdity of what at this time overflowed the nation 
 — war-feriMons delivered in the pulpit of peace — 
 he publifhed, under the fiftitiovis name of Polemor 
 philus BroVvm, two diftinfl: parodies upon feveral of 
 the more violent difcotirfes of this defcription, 
 which Had been printed by requefl. Of thefe the 
 former is dated ,1798, and entitled, " A New 
 Year's Gift to the Good People -of England 5 
 being a Sermon, or fomethipg like a Sermon, in 
 Defence of the ,prefent War : preached, on the 
 Day of Public Thankfgiving." The latter bears 
 the date of 1799, and is more laconically denomir 
 nated " A Sermon preached on the Day of Gene- 
 ral Tail, Feb. 27." 
 
 The " New Year's Gift" is iLilhered into the 
 world without either text or motto of any defcrip- 
 tion. " I hav^, placed," fays the author, " no 
 
461 
 
 particular text at the head of mine oration, for the 
 following' reafbns : — In the fi'rfl; place, Ihavp long 
 obferved that preachers rKverj^ick to their texts ; 
 and, indeed, it appeareth hardly poffible to make 
 any fmgle text the fubjeft of a whole difcourfe. 
 There is not a paffage ih the Bible, that rnay' not 
 be as" we'll explained in one minUte as in one 
 hour* Having, then, 'never 'heard, ^qr read a 
 fermon in which the text was ftriftly acjhered 
 to, I thought it would be prefumption in nip to 
 atte'mpt' to' achieve what had nev^r befbr.e. been 
 achieved. 
 
 " Secondly, I have hot been able to find, ei- 
 ther, in the Old or New Teftament, any fmgle in- 
 Julated text perfeftly fuited to 'my fubjed ; al- 
 though I turned over every leaf jn Cruden's Con- 
 cordance for that very purppfe." 
 
 The Faft-Day Sermon bears the devic^' of " No 
 bifhop, no king J no king, no bifhop." Refpect- 
 ing which, he obferves, " Thefe words are. not, I 
 grant, to be found in any part'of fcripture, fti;iQ:ly 
 canonical : -but they are not, for that, tfie lefs de- 
 ferving of attention. They were uttered by an au- 
 thor, whom our forefathers in God deemed to be, 
 fometimes at leaft, infpired. They were uttered 
 by a great riidnarch, the Solomon of his age, and 
 the arbiter of religious cbntroverfies ; who crufhed 
 both popery and prefbytery with a rod of iron ; 
 
462 
 
 and fWvered them in pieces, like a potter's- vef^ 
 fel ! Why, then, may not his wgrds be, in fome 
 fort, cqnfidered' as canonical ; although they 
 came too late to be inferted either in the Canon 
 of Ezra, or the Canon of Chalcedon ? At any 
 rate, they have as good a title to be made a text, 
 as any in the Book of Tobit, or other book apo- 
 cryphal." , 
 
 I refer to thefe writings of our author in the or- 
 der in which they ftand, without pledging my- 
 felf by any jneans to fupport all the doftrines, or 
 approve all the fentiments they inculcate. Much 
 has been objedted, and forcibly objefted, tqo, 
 againft the introduftion of politics into the pulpit ; 
 but I have never yet fe^n a line drawn which Kas 
 had even a profpefl: fcf producing fatisfaflion to any 
 party. No man who values the fociety in which 
 he is placed, his family affinities, or even his own 
 individual happinefs, canabftraft himfelf from the 
 affairs of his country, or become totally indii^r- 
 ent to its intereft. Were he never, therefore, to 
 meet his j^fellow citizens in public with a view of 
 joining in thofe penitential confeffions, thofe fuppli- 
 cations and thankfgivings at the throne of the 
 Great Parent of mankind, which are common to 
 the fe£t or nation of which he is a member, he 
 could not totally exclude the beautiful climax- of 
 
463 
 
 relatives, friends, country, and mankind at large, 
 from the private devotions of His clofet. His 
 own happinefs is cohne£led with the comrrion 
 weal of what furrounds him, and mediately or im- 
 mediately he mull refer to it. But if, bc^th from 
 the very conftitution of nature and the exprefs 
 di£tates of revealed religion, " /applications be" 
 thus " to be made for all men," to Him by whom 
 all men have been created, why Ihould. the dif- 
 courfe fubfequent upon fuch fupplications be de- 
 barred from partaking of the very effence of our 
 prayers ; and, inftead of being rendered equally 
 impreffive and diverfified .by a guarded and re- 
 fpe£tful reference to the national fafts or politics 
 of the day, be rigidly limited, from week to week, 
 to the doftrines of revelation- or the duties of mo- 
 rality ? I ajimit the difficulty of drawing the line, 
 the certi denique fines, towards which we may de- 
 cently approach, but ought never to overftep. I 
 am aware of the temptation to which almofl: every 
 preacher is hence at times expofed. I fee the dan- 
 ger of converting the pulpit into the roftrum ; but 
 I cannot bring myfelf on this account to op- 
 pugn what appears to me a duty incumbent upon 
 every man both preacher and hearer ; and I 
 wbiild much rather pardon that defeat of tafte, 
 or excefs of feeling, v/hich may occaiionally 
 
464 
 
 hurry a preacher beyond the bounds of critical 
 ,exa£Htude, than confent to his banifl^irigj'with 
 cold and fpiritlefs forbearance, the' memorial 
 of every national concern from the facred defk, 
 in which he appears in the twofold and vene- 
 rable character of the organ and iiiftruffor of 
 his auditory. 
 
463 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 l)r. Gentles perfevefes in bis Tratijlation of the Bihle-^ 
 Again oppreffed with peaiiniary dijffii'ilties — dtfaofes 
 his Jituation to his friends^ — their generous and affeC' 
 , tionate ajjijlance — again in ajiate of eafe and iiide- 
 fendince — Publijhes his Modejl Apology for the Roman 
 C .tholics of Great Britain — the caufe of his piiblijhlng 
 it at the prefent period — an analjjis of the wi^rk, 
 A. D. 1799-^1800. 
 
 The preceding chapter, which has been confined 
 to a notice of feveral of the lighter exsrcifes and 
 occupations of the fubjeft of thefe • memoirs, 
 exhibits him almoft as an idler in comparifon 
 ■with thofe feverer and more elaborate purfuits to 
 which his life was for the greater part devoted; 
 Yet' Dr. Geddes was at no time an idler, and lefs 
 _than any at the period of which we have juft beeii 
 taking a furvey : for though his literary recreations, 
 his garden, and his friends, made a happy diverfion 
 in his employment&, and fhared liberally in the.di- 
 vifion of his time, he- ftill attentively appli d him- 
 felf, in his more ferious hours, to his cfidcal and 
 Voluminous Tranflation of the Bible. Towards the 
 2h 
 
466 
 
 clofe of 1793 he found his health fufficiently re- 
 ftored, and his fpirits fufficiently reanimated, to re- 
 new the undertaking with affiduity : he perfevered,' 
 with few intervals of relaxation, through the two 
 enfuing years, completed his fecond volume in the 
 fpring of 1796, and publiftied it in 1797. The 
 flrft volume, as in duty bound, he had dedicated to 
 Lord Petre : and having difcharged this debt of 
 gratitude, heinfcribed the fecond " To her Royal. 
 Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, an 
 early, fpontaneous, and liberal encourager of the 
 Work ;" an infcription which, though unaccom- 
 panied with the formality of an expirefs permiffion, 
 was received, as I am affured, with much benevo- 
 lence and complacency. 
 
 On the completion of thefe two volumes he fet 
 ferioufly to work in arranging for the prefs his 
 volume of Critical Remarks upon the Pentateuch. 
 This, and this only, he lived to finifh. It made its 
 appearance ii^ 1800, and was ulhered into the 
 world without a dedicatipn to any perfon. At its 
 clofe, however, we meet with a poetic addrefs in 
 Latin, not altogether free from thofe errors quoi, 
 incuria fundit, fuperfcribed, "Ad Amicum mei 
 amantiffimum, J. D." — " To my very afFedionate 
 Friend, J. D :" the initials in which are well 
 known to defignate the name of Dr. Difney, a gen- 
 tleman of whofe friendftiip Dr. Geddes might well 
 
467 
 
 be proud, and who had indeed not only been his 
 affeftionate friend, but his perpetual benefaftor 
 and counfellor. As the verfes in which this Ad- 
 drefs is couched convey an explicit ftatement of 
 his opinion refpefting the infpiration of Mofes, I 
 ihall take the liberty of tranfcribing them. 
 
 AD AMtCUM MKl AMANTISSIMVM J. S. 
 
 Num fuerit Moses coelefti flamine motus i 
 
 Quxris — refponfum hoc ^abe, amice, meum. 
 Motus erat certo ccelefti flamine Moies ; 
 
 Moti quo Teutas, Numa, Lycurgus erant. 
 Nempe omnes Sophise facro de fonte biberunt : 
 , Hauferunt large hi; largius ille tamen. 
 Nee tamen Hunc femper latiees haufiiTe putato 
 
 Illimes ; luteas n'on femel haufit aquas. 
 Uni homini tantum h'cuit deducere lymphas 
 
 Omnino puras — ille homo Chkistujs erat. 
 Ille etenim foluSj divino numine plenus. 
 
 Leges perfeftas, jus fine labe tulit. 
 Ergo, alii fileant tegum quicunque latores } 
 
 Mi Jesus Chbistus legifer unus erit. 
 Ah ! pqfiem tantum tua, Chkiste, abfolvere dida,' 
 
 Tunc eflent votis cunfta fecunda meis. 
 Aft Tu, nate Deo, qui cum Patre omnia poflis, 
 
 Tu mihi fperatam, spes me'a! Tu fer opem. 
 Per Tb conceiTo, coelefti tobore fultus, 
 
 Promptusego tua veftigia, Christe, premam. 
 Nam tua calcanti veftigia facra falutem, 
 
 Es Tu polHcitus — fed tu.a verba manent. 
 •* Me, me qui fequitur, tenebris non ambulat," inquis : 
 
 En ego Te, poifum quomodo, Christe, fequor. 
 
-468 
 
 Sis ttiihlTu lumen ; ffs feraper clara lucernaj- 
 Sis certum indicium, dux fimul atque vise. 
 
 Te duce, callis ego metiienda pericula fpernam 
 Angufti, et tecum gnaviter allra petam.* 
 
 Of thefe three volumes, I do not know the ex^ 
 aft number of copies to which their fale has hi- 
 therto extended ; and ftill lefs the degree of com- 
 parative preference with which they have been 
 ■ fought after by the public : but I have every reafori 
 to believe that the demand for them did not keep 
 
 * The following is our poet's own tranflation of thefe verfes 
 into Englifti 5 with which, as well as feveral other documents, 
 I have been obligingly favored hy my friend Timothy Brown, 
 Efq. at the requeft of whofe faniily the tranflation was made. • 
 It is but fair to obferve, however, that the Englifti, although 
 freer from mere metrical defefts than the Latin, is at the fame 
 time lefs pointed.aad animated. It is here fimply introduced 
 as a tranflation. 
 
 You aflf me,ferhus, whether I believe 
 That Mofes was infpircd ?— My friend, receive 
 ThisycTOW anfwer : Yes, he was infpired 
 With that fame flame which Numa's bo&m fired. 
 Numa, Lycurgus, every other fage 
 Who legiflated for a'barbarous age 
 All drank from Wi/dom's fount, or Wifdom's rill ; 
 Large draughts they drew — but Mofet larger flill. 
 
 Yet think not all the draughts that Mofes drew 
 Were limpid draughts — fometimes a flimy hue , 
 Betlng'd the waters : — fince the world began, 
 One man 6xtw purely — Jesus was that man! 
 Jesus alone, full of the Godhead, brought 
 A code of laws divine, that lackcth nought. 
 
469 
 
 pace with our author's firft expeftations. In fuch 
 a declaratioili indeed, the reader has already per- 
 haps anticipated, me. Some parts of his verfion, I 
 have ah-eady obferved, are by no means rendered 
 with dignity or felicity of diftion ; many of his opi- 
 jiions were unpopular ; and the perfonal and un- 
 charitable oppofition which was excited againft 
 him by a variety, of different pe^fuafions in t;he 
 chriltian church, was highly injurious to the cirr 
 culation of the work : yet, after all, the tranflator 
 himfelf was perhaps its greateil enemy. The art 
 of pufliing a hook into notice, and forging it not 
 
 Then dumb let other legifiators be/' • 
 And Jesus only legiflate for me. 
 
 Ah ! Jesus ! could I but thy law fulfil, 
 I'd deem myfelf beyond the reach of ill. 
 Each wife complete : — but thou to whom is " given," 
 By thy great Sire, " all pow'r ia earth and heaven," 
 Do thou, my Hope ! the hoped-for aifl impart. 
 And with celeftial fuccour firing my heart. 
 Supported thus, 1 joyfully will trace 
 Thy facred footfUps with an eagerpace. 
 Since thou haft faid (whofe words were never vain) 
 That he who runs with thee the prize fliall gain, 
 " Me, mc who follows, cannot mifs the mark ; 
 " He ne'er fnall fall nor ftumble in the dark" — 
 Thee, Jesus ! thee I follow — as I may j 
 Be thou my light and leader on the way : 
 Tho' ftrait the path, its dangers I defpi'fe, 
 And truft ayiththee to reach the ftarry Ikfes. 
 
470 
 
 only upon the vie>^, but into the very hands of the 
 public, be its merits or demerits, the general incli- 
 nation or difinclination concerning it what they 
 may, is altogether of modern birth ; and Dr. 
 Geddes, who was never a man of the world eveii 
 in his youth, was wretchedly calculated in the latter 
 years of his life for an initiation into any fuch craft 
 or myllery.' Infteadj therefore, of fpending forty 
 or fifty pounds upon advertifing every feparate 
 volume, Mr. Johnfon, one of his bookfellers, has 
 informed me that he does not believe he ever fpent 
 five guineas upon advertifing the whole of them ; 
 and that when, upon our author's informing him the 
 volume containing the Critical Remarks was juft 
 ready for publication, he hinted the propriety of 
 preffing it upon the public eye by a continuance 
 of extenfive advertifements, his anfwer was, that 
 for his own part he did not fee there was any ne, 
 ceffity whatever for fuch. a ftep : he had already, 
 he added, informed his friends of its being printed, 
 and he fliould perhaps put an advertifement into 
 the Morning Chronicle — a paper to which, more- 
 over, he generally had a gratuitous accefs in'con- 
 fequence of the sifTiftance which he alfo had gratui- 
 toufly afforded it on particular pccafions ! 
 
 Dr. Geddes had either forgotten his paft em- 
 barraflments, or had never poffefled the important 
 talent of learning wifdom by misf^^rtune. The want 
 
471 
 
 of knowledge which he manifefted in this mode of 
 advertifing his work,he manifefted equally in all the 
 reft of his tranfaftions with the world. Such, there- 
 fore, being the hSt, had he never engaged in the 
 trade of authorlhip, and particularly in that branch 
 of it which confifts in becoming his own vender, he 
 muft necefTarily have exceeded the falary allowed 
 him by his noble patron, " magnificent," as he efti- 
 mated it, and juftly eftimated it, on its j&rft grant. 
 But by plunging himfelf, with many incumbrances 
 already on his back, and. no capital whatever in 
 hand, fave that of upright intention and mere 
 hope of fuccefs, into fo confiderable an expence 
 as the prefent, it was impoflible he Ihould not once 
 more become deeply embarraffed. His difficulties 
 and burdens indeed preffed him at length fo heavily 
 as to be altogether infupportable ; and the trifling 
 affiftanqes he had received from feveral friends, 
 who fufpefted hJ5 finances were not in the moft 
 flourifhing ftate, had only mjngled, like fo many 
 drops, in the general torrent of diftrefs, without 
 producing the remoteft degre? q{ fenfible varia- 
 tion. To his frjend lord Petre he did not choofe 
 to unbofom' hjmfelf ; he had no claim upon him 
 for any additional generofity, and, encumbered as 
 he was, he ftillfelt profoundly the liberality of the 
 ftipend he received. 
 
 Tp one pr two other friends he at length, how- 
 
472 
 
 ever, muftered courage enough; to di-tlore his en- 
 tire fituation ; and it is to the credit of the Britifh 
 name, and particularly of the age in which we 
 live, that the difclofure was no fooner eommuni- 
 cated than a plan was devifed for his extrication ; 
 almoft indeed without his knowledge, and cer- 
 tainly in a way far more calculated to gratify than 
 to wound the feelings of a heart naturally irritable 
 and impatient of misfortune. It is to the credit of 
 the age in which we live, that without any further 
 application on his own part, perfons of every rank 
 and religious perfuafion, proteftants and catholics, 
 clergy and, laity, nobility and gentry, feveral of 
 whom had never known him but by name, and 
 many of whom had openly prqfeffed a diflike of 
 his favorite tenets, united in pne charitable effort 
 to refcue him from anxiety and diftrefs ; nor fliould 
 it be forgotten that fome part, at leaft, of the 
 amount fubfcribed proceeded from the right reve" 
 rend bench itfelf. The names o thofe who thus 
 . generoufly interfered, together with the total of the 
 furas collefted, and the mode in which they were 
 applied, I have had an opportunity of njinutely 
 infpedling. Many of the accounts, thofe at leaft 
 which relate to the contributions of proteftants, 
 are ftill, I believe, in the poffeffion of Dr. Difney 
 and Mr. Brown, whofe united zeal is well known 
 to have been indefatigable upon the occafion: 
 
47S 
 
 tnd^ from the calcirlations I have been able to 
 make, I find that in about two years and a half, 
 from the beginning of 1 798 to the middle of 1800, 
 there was colledted and expended on his account 
 little lefs than 000/. fterling, independently of 
 the annuity- he ftill, as ufual, continued to re- 
 ceive from lord Petre. Moft of his involvement? 
 having, moreoverj been oceafioned by the volumi- 
 nous pubhcation in which- he was engaged, his ob- 
 ligations to paper-makers and printers, an addi- 
 tional propofal was at the fame time made, which, 
 if carried into effeft (and nothing but his prema- 
 ture death obftrufted it), would have neceflarily 
 precluded him from every fimilar evil in future : 
 this propofal was, that his friends Ihould take upon 
 thsmfelves the entire expenfe of his fubfequent 
 volumes, receiving from time to time their various 
 produce till fuch expenfe was completely liqui- 
 dated—provided the produce ihould be' adequate 
 to the hquidation— and that the author fhould 
 from this period receive the furplus for himfelfi 
 
 Never, therefore, was there any man thus re- 
 peatedly entangled in pecuniary embarraffments," 
 who, perhaps, found himfelf more fortunate 
 than Dr. Geddes. His heart on the prefentvery 
 liberal interference, as may naturally be exp'i&ed, 
 became lightened j he reaffumed his habitual vi- 
 
474 
 
 vacity; all nature, to his delighted' eye, appeared 
 to be invefled with new charms — 
 
 And, redolent of joy and youth. 
 To breathe a fecond fpring. 
 
 He now ferioufly applied himfelf to a revifal for 
 the prefs of a treatife upon the harmlefs nature 
 of the catholic religion, in relation to fecular 
 governments of eva-y defcription, when reduced 
 to its pure and primary principles, and diverted 
 of thofe temporal and inconfiftent powers which 
 the lawlefs ambition of the court of Rome has 
 at different* periods endeavored to introduce into 
 it^ This treatife, as I have already obferved*, 
 was originally drawn up in 1 782, during the riots 
 in Scptland and England, upon the fubjedl: of fir 
 George Saville's bill in favor of perfons profelC- 
 ing the Roman catholic religion, but was fup- 
 preft in its publication in confequence of the pre- 
 judices and intemperance of the times. The times 
 were, however, at length become more propitious ; 
 the good faith of the Britifli catholics had been 
 proved through a period of nearly twenty years ^ 
 the fpirit of animofity had fubfided ; and the wif- 
 dom of thofe indulgences which had been accorded 
 by parliament were rendered every day moje 
 
 *Chap.iii. p. ^. 
 
475 
 
 manifeft. The catholics of Ireland ftill labored, 
 however, under many grievances, to vsrhich thofe of 
 the fifter kingdom were no longer expofed ; and 
 this, notwithftanding the vaft majority of their po- 
 pulation in conp aril on with the members of the 
 eftablifhed church, and the repeated promifes by 
 which government had pledged itfelf to grant them 
 relief. The expediency of fuch relief, and the con- 
 dudt of the exifting adminiftration in this refpeft, 
 had now become a fubjeft of parliamentary in- 
 quiry ; tlie public mind was anxious for informa- 
 tion, and our author feized, with laudable avidity, 
 the opportunity which was thu§ prefented to him, 
 and brought forth his treatife under the' title' of 
 *' AModeft Apology for the Roman Catholics of 
 Great Britain ; addreffed to all moderate Proteft- 
 ants ; particularly to the Members of both Houfes 
 of Parliament." It was publifhed anonymoufly. Dr. 
 Geddes was vsrell aware that the introduftlon of his 
 own name would not, at this period, affift its cir- 
 culation ; and, by fuppreffing it, he gave an evi- 
 dent token of his attachment to the caufe he thus 
 attempted to ferve. He was foon known, however, 
 to be the author of it, as well from the intrinfic 
 teftimony of its ftyle as from the various rumors of 
 his friends. Yet it had now eftablifhed its reputa- 
 tion upon the bafis of its own real merit ; and 
 while it was fediiloiifly fought after at home, it 
 had met with e^joal fuccefs on the continent, and 
 
476 
 
 had been tranilated both into French and Ger» 
 man. 
 
 The objed of this Apology, as the author informs 
 us in his introduction, is to prove that fo far 
 from a neceffity for that intolerance which has 
 been too generally praSifed in Ireland, there is 
 nothing in the real principles of either pritifh 
 or Irifh catholics to render even thofe compara- 
 tively lighter difabilities neceffary, under w'hich 
 the- former are at prefent fufFering, notwithftand*. 
 ing the two ftatutes in their favor, which have 
 been enafted in the reign of Geo. III.: and that 
 every difability, if not a perfecution, is a difgrace» 
 and as fuch ought to be removed from a commu- 
 nity of fubjefts as loyal " as the difTenting pro- 
 teflants, or any other proteflants of the land." 
 He conceives that they are only allowed to con- 
 tinue from fome ftill remaining mijapprehenjion of 
 the real principles of this community ; and to era- 
 dicate fuch a mifapprehenfion he proceeds to draw 
 a parallel between the dodtrines and difgipline of the 
 catholic and the JEnglifh churches. In the preamble 
 to the work he thus liberally expreffes himfelf : 
 
 " Before I enter upon the fubjeft, I miift beg 
 leave to make a few previous obfervations. And;, 
 firft of all, in affuming the charafter of an apolo- 
 gift for thofe of my perfuafion, I mean not, in any 
 refped, to juftify the condudt of all thofe who 
 have, in diflferent times and countries, borne the 
 
47Y 
 
 name of catholks; and, under that name. Have 
 been often guilty of the moft extravagant exceffes. 
 It is, indeed, hard that this premonition Ihould be 
 rendered neceffary through the obftinacy of unge- 
 nerous adverfaries, who will continue to rake in 
 the rotten fepulchres of our crinunal anceftors for 
 filth to throw at their innocent pofterity, and to 
 <;olle£k from the fcandals and_facrileges of the ca- 
 tholics of all ages a fubjeit of impeachment againfl: 
 thofe of the prefent age. Of at leall a hundred 
 combatants, who have within thefe laft twenty 
 years declared themfelves the champions of pro- 
 teftancy, or rather the adverfaries of popery, I am 
 perfeflly fafe to fay, that there, are not five who 
 have not Ihot at us from; that envenomed quiver; 
 and I am forry to be obliged to add that their 
 fliafts have too: feldom miffed their aim. 
 
 " Yet furely nothing can be more illiberal and 
 iniquitous, -ffifop's wolf quarrelled with the poor 
 lamb for the pretended crimes of his immediate 
 fcither, but our more unreafonable perfecutors 
 Would make us accountable back to the tenth ge- 
 neration. . What, pray, have we of the eighteenth 
 century to do' with the ignorance of the ninth, 
 the fuperftitionf of the twelfth, or the fanatici&n 
 of the fixteenth ? let who will paint the phrenCy 
 of the Crufades, the horrors of the Valdenfian 
 perfecution,, the fury of the French league, the 
 3 
 
478 
 
 barbarity of the Irifil maflacre, arid all the other 
 common-place topics of party declamation^ As a 
 lover of truth, I might be provoked to ftrip the 
 piece of a part of its colouring, where I v/ere con- 
 vinced it were overcharged; but as a chriflian and 
 a catholic, I am no further concerned, than feri- 
 oufly to lament, that ever there fhould have ex- 
 ifted chriftians and catholics fo forgetful of their 
 own principles, as to aft in diametrical oppofition 
 to them. 
 
 " What need have we to be informed, by every 
 pulpit rhetorician and polemical fcribbler, that 
 there have been haughty, imperious, domineering 
 piopes; avaricious and iimoniacal bifhops; diflblute 
 and diforderly monks; a licentious and libertine 
 clergy? Have not our own Bernards, and Bennos, 
 and Gerfons, and Guicciardinis, and Eadmers, and 
 Ortuins, defcribed all that infamy, with equal ac- 
 curacy, .and much more eloquence? We read 
 their inveftives with aftbnifliment and indigna- 
 tion, we bewail the misfortune of thofe who lived 
 in times of fuch corruption and depravity, and 
 blefs ourfelves that Providence has call our lot in 
 better days; but we cannot be fo unjuft as to 
 charge ourfelves with crimes and abominations, in 
 ■which neither we nor our fathers had any ftiare. 
 
 " Nor are we any more accountable for the 
 large crops of fpiritual cockle that have been, at 
 
479 
 
 different times, ' while men flept,' fown> by the 
 enemy in the wide field of the catholic world; and 
 which, at certain periods, feem almbft to have 
 choked the good grain — I mean the ejiervation 
 of ancient church difcipline; the fabrication of 
 falfe decretals; tlie multiplication of appeals, dif- 
 penfes, exemptions, immunities and enormous 
 privileges; the rage of idle: pilgrimages; the bafe 
 traffic of indulgences ; the propagation of lying 
 legends; feigned miracles and apocryphal revela- 
 tions ; the doftrines - of the pope's infallibility, 
 temporal jur;ifdi8;i6n and depofing power! AH 
 thofe tares have either happily been rooted out by 
 the vigilance of zealous paftors, or, if there ftill 
 remain fome undergrowths, 
 
 ...... Prifcae yeftigia fraudis 
 
 Pauca ....... 
 
 they are, for the moft part, fuch as it were, per- 
 haps, better to leave till the laft great harveft, 
 when the divine Mafter will ordain of them ac- 
 cordingv to his good pleafure. 
 
 " I muft alfo further declare, that I will not, in 
 this Apology^, pay the leaft attention to any argu- 
 ments or objeftidns drawn from the various opi- 
 nions and decifions of our fcholaftic divines or ca- 
 fuifts, againft which any catholic may argue as 
 ftfongly as any proteftant^ and for which, they 
 only who defend them are refponfible. 
 
4&0 
 
 " This will at once lop ofF from my ftibjedl a 
 large portion of extraneous matter, with which it 
 is not yieceflkrily connedtd ; and, by reducing the 
 Enes to a narrower compafs, render the poft I have 
 taken more tenable againft a delperate attack. 
 And, indeed, who would encumber himfelf with 
 any thing not abfolutely neceflar) for his de- 
 fence? ijjuch. lefs with what might endanger his 
 fafety? 
 
 " It would be bard, indeed, if I were obliged 
 to defend and reconcile the jarring fyftems of ca- 
 tholic theologues j Tranfalpine ideas of papal def- 
 potifm with the liberties of the Gallican church 
 and declarations of the Gallican clergy, Thomiifes 
 with Scotifts, Rigorifts with Probabilifts, the pre- 
 determination of the Dominicans with the con- 
 gruifm of the Jefuits, Bellarmine witli Barclay, 
 Flavigny with Morinus, Knott with Petrus Aure- 
 Eus, Parfons with Witherington, &c. 
 
 " I repeat it, then ; I will have nothing to do 
 with all that. My bufmefs is to defend, or, if 
 ye will, excufe the; real and confeffed principles 
 of the catholic religion, which were at all times, 
 and in all places, the indifputable principLs of ca- 
 tholics, which every catholic will acknowledge, 
 and which no catholic can reafonably deny." 
 
 His fubje£t he divides into three feftions. " Ift 
 the firft," fays he, *' I fhall lay before the reader 
 
481 
 
 thgfe articles of catholic belief, -ahput- which l;here 
 is, or ought to be, nq difpute ;, ^ becaufe they are 
 articles in which we are. pef feftly agreed, with aU 
 proteftants : ai^d it will appear, I apprehend, tha| 
 thofe articles are much, more numerous and im- 
 portant than it is generally imagined ; at leafl: than 
 pragmatical fomenters of divifion are willing to 
 Jiave, it known. 
 
 " In the fecond feftion, I .Ihall mark more par- 
 ticularly the points-in which we are either perfectly 
 agreed, or nearly coincide, with fome one or oiher 
 proteftant communion ; efpecially with the efta- 
 blilhed church of England. • . 
 
 " In the third feftion, I Ihall fairly and can- 
 didly fum up all the tenets that are peculiar to ca- 
 tholics; afcertain what is certain, remove what is 
 doubtful, and. determine the llrifl: fenfe in which 
 a Britifh catholic receives them : and, which is the 
 principal part of this undertaking, defend, or apo- 
 logize for thofe tenets, the belt I can; and endea- 
 vor to fhov/ that they merit neither profcription 
 nor perfecutiori, nor even the privation of a fmgle 
 privilege that other Britons enjoy. ' 
 
 The firft fefliioh needs not detain us except to no- 
 tice that the different denominations of proteftants 
 to whom the author- principally refers, are the 
 church of England, the Lutherans, the Calvinifts, 
 and the Socinians. In feftion the fecond, he ob- 
 
 2 I 
 
4S2 
 
 J^es that the citholic church is perfeaiy agreed 
 with th6 church of England in the do&ines of the 
 trinity, of the incarnation of the Word, of the fuf- 
 ferihgs, death, and raediatorfliip of Jefus Chrift, 
 ahd of the perfonality and efficacy of the Half 
 Ghoft. The catholic, he proceeds to affert, caii 
 cdrdially fubfcribe a confiderable number of the 
 thirty-nine articles of the church of Englan'd : h^^ 
 believes that the vifiblfe church of Chrift is a con- 
 gregation of faithful meii, &c.* : that this " church 
 hath power to di^cree rites and ceremonies, and au- 
 thority ill controVerfies of faithf;" yet fo, that it is 
 not lawful for her to ordain any thing which is con- 
 trary to God's word ; and that " every national 
 church hath authority to ordain, change, and abo- 
 lifh church rites or ceremonies ordained only by 
 man's authority |." With the church of England 
 he admits a fpiritual hierarchy, confifting of 
 bifhops, priefts, and deacons, together with the 
 general principles upon which fuch a hierarchy is 
 founded, as advanced in articles xxiii. and xxvi. 
 He unites with the fame church in her articles 
 upon the facraments of baptifm and the Lord's 
 fupper§ : in acknowledging the utility of a public 
 liturgy, and the expediency of fubjefting it to occa- 
 
 • Art. 19. t Art. 20. t Art. 34. 
 § Art. 2j, 27, 28. 
 
483 
 
 tionalalter'ations * : and he fees that the liturgy of 
 each church is fo nearly allied, that with very 
 little variation the one ihight bie fuTsfliituted for the 
 other, 
 
 " Our ecclefiaftic polity," feys the author, 
 *' was the platform oh which that of the church of 
 England's was laid — -our canon law is flill, in a 
 great meafure, the rule of her judicatories. — She 
 has her fpiritual confiftorial courts, her decrees, 
 her cenfures, from us. — She has her Tubordinate 
 church government, her- primates, her prelates, . 
 her archbilhops and bifliops, her deans, preben- 
 daries, 'canons, and other dignitaries — her diocefes, 
 pariflies, cathedrals, and common churches; her 
 benefices, her tythes, her perquifites, her Eafter- 
 dues, and free-will offerings ; her very ftirplices, 
 lawn-fleeves and mitres — all from us. In thefe 
 refpefts we are fo refemblant, that other proteft- 
 ant fefts confider us as two fifters of the fame fa- 
 mil^; wliich, like Ovid's fea-nymphs, have fome- 
 what different traits of countenance, but not dif- 
 fimilar facesf; and on this account abufe them 
 both alike." 
 
 "What then are the real or apparent differences 
 
 * See " Concerning the Service of the Church," and i' The 
 Preface." 
 
 -j- "Facies non omnibus una, 
 
 Nee diverfa tamen, qualem decet effe fororum. " 
 
484 
 
 ivhich a,£i:ually fubfift between Englilh Roman 
 catholics and the ' proteftants of the eflablifhed 
 church of England ?l^nd here the firft our author 
 advances is the rule of faith : the church of 
 Rome appealing to TRADITION, and the church 
 of England to scripture. But what is at laft; 
 the refult of all thofe violent controverfies and dif- 
 putes that have been difplayed by the two parties 
 upon this very point ? The former, which at one 
 time contended for tradition only, now admits that 
 the rule of faith is derived from the word of God 
 whether written or unwritten, that is from tradi- 
 tion in conjunftion with scripture; while 
 SCRIPTURE, which in an earlier sera was folely 
 combated for by the latter, is now owned, in the 
 language of Stillingfleet, " to be our rule; and 
 univerfal tradition the evidence on which we 
 receive the books.*. 
 
 But WHO IS THE JUDGE OF RELIGIOUS CON- 
 TROVERSIES ? Here is another difference which 
 has often been regarded as extreme : the church 
 of England profeffing to appeal to Jcripture alone j 
 and the church of Rome, perfuaded that fcripture 
 cannot interpret itfelf, and apprized that it is equally 
 appealed to by chriftians of the moft oppofite opi- 
 nions—maintaining that ihe alone is the arbitrator. 
 
 * Anfwer to Sergeant's Catholic Letters, p, 16. 
 
485 
 
 *' One of the greatefl controverfies which ever 
 difturbed chriftianity," fays our author, " was that 
 concerning the divinity of Jefus Chrift. How was 
 it ultimately, decided? Not by feripture: for both 
 parties equally appealed to it; and, in my humble- 
 opinion, the Arians brought more plaufible argu- 
 ments from' that repofitory than the Athanafians. 
 Nor was the queftion decided by tradition : for 
 both quoted the earlier chriftian writers, as favour- 
 able to themfelves; and it mufl be confeffed, I 
 think, that the Antinicene fathers are, at moft, am- 
 biguous witneffes. — How then vsfas the queftion, 
 at length, refolved? Why, by a majority of fuf- 
 frages in a council of 318 bifliops; by whom the 
 conjubftantidity of the Son with the Father was 
 declared to be an article of chriftian faith: and this 
 article of chriftian faith makes a part, a principal 
 part of the proteftant as well as of the catholic 
 creed. In the proteftant church of England, in 
 particular, the creed of Nice is as much a ftand^ 
 ard of belief as in the church of Rome; and is 
 publicly recited in the liturgies of both. 
 
 " I know' it has been faid, that the church of 
 England receives the article of conjubftantiation 
 and the other articles contained in the Nicene 
 creed, not on the authority of the Nicene, or any 
 other council, but becaufethey are feripture doc- 
 trines, But is not this evidently begging the quef". 
 
486 
 
 tion? Many proteflants, and thefe not the leaft 
 Itsarned, find no fuch dodlrine as conjuhftantiation 
 in the fcriptures ; and the whole body c& ancient 
 Arians, who once divided the chriftiah world, afr 
 firmed that no fuch doftrine could be proved 
 from fcripture. — Scripture, then, cannot be a de^ 
 ^ifiye judge of controverted points : and fome 
 other tribunal muft be fought, if a decifion is to 
 be made in matters of religious controverfy. — 
 " In truth," continues he, " I cannot Veil con- 
 ceiye how any confeffion, or profejjion of faith, cr^d. 
 or catechijm of any kind, could be impofed on the 
 members of any fociety as a tell of orthodoxy, if 
 the impofers did not confider themfelves as com- 
 petent and lawful judges." 
 
 Qur author therefore concludes, that the Ro- 
 man catholic tenet " that the churchy not the Bible, 
 is the ultimate judge in religious controverjies" is, if 
 repugnant to the principles, certainly not to the 
 praftice of proteftants. 
 
 But IS THE CHURCH AN INFALLIBLE JUDGE? 
 
 " She is," fay the catholics; " fhe is not," fay 
 the proteflants : to which laft anfwer our author 
 feems moft difpofed to incline. As to the per? 
 fonal infallibility of the pope, he totally rejefts it, 
 as it is alfo rejefted by the great body of the En- 
 glifh catholics, as well as by moft of the catholic 
 churches on |Jie continent:. Allowing, however. 
 
tb^t infallibility is -vefted in die chiirch, he pro" 
 ceeds to affert that the Romanifts have feldom or 
 never coincided in their idea of what fort of a 
 church has a right to fuch a cl^im. " In triith," 
 fays he, " when we confider that we ourfelves are 
 not agreed about the feat of infallibility, any more 
 than pfychologifts are about the feat of the foul — 
 and that, wherefpever we place it, it has never 
 been determined what are its boundaries, and how 
 far its influence extends? how decifions about 
 matters of faith are to- be diftinguilh|ed from deci- 
 fions concerning difcipline ? what councils arg 
 eecumenical, what not? when councils aft conci- 
 liariter or otherwife — or when a pope fpeaks eX 
 cathedra, or as a private divine, &c.— in a word, 
 what conditions and circumftances are neceffaryto 
 conftitute an infallible tribunal?— : we can hardly 
 help agreeing with an anonymous writer on what 
 is called the ^opjh controverfy^ ' That after all that 
 has been written on the church's infallibility, it at, 
 laft dwindles away into fome arbitrary nates and 
 marks* of a church; and is at beft but a /moral 
 
 ** " Our theologians labour to prove that the Romifh church 
 ^s not only a true church, but the only true church ; becaufe* 
 fay they, ftve alone has the marks of the true church : unity, 
 holinefs, univerfaltty, and qppJioUctly. But here the onus pro- 
 ^andi grows exceffively heavy on their {houlders : and even 
 the gigantic Bellarminc himfelf fuccumbs under the load." 
 
488 
 
 certainty*.' Or, with bifhop Burnet, ' That the 
 church's authority is rather an authority oi order '^ 
 *lhan oi infallibility.' In which fenfe, I beKeve, every 
 church, as well as the Roman church, without 
 pretending to be infallible, afts as if flie were fo." 
 The difference refulting from the supre- 
 macy, POWER, AND PREROGATIVES ASCRIBED 
 
 TO THE POPE, involves our author, as he can- 
 didly acknowledges, in a difEcult tafk. ■ He does 
 not conceive, however, that this tenet rightly un- 
 derftood, and fuch as it is at prefent generally held 
 by the catholics of Great Britain, as well as thofe 
 of mofl other countries, has any thing in it dan- 
 gerous to any ftate or government. " When cir- 
 cumvefted," fays he, *' with fuppofed infallibility, 
 - uncircumfcribed by canons, and in the hands of 
 an afpiring apibitious pontiff, fuch a power could 
 not but be dangerous : and fo it proved. — From it, 
 as from the Trojan horfe, jfTued forth an Iliad of 
 evils, which, for a time, deftroyed all lawful fub- 
 crdination, and fubje£ted crowns and tiaras to 
 the will and pleafure of one abfolute ghoftly def- 
 pot, who governed a great portipn of the world 
 with fov^yeign fway. 
 
 " Yet this ufurp'ed empire was neither uni- 
 verfal, nor, in its higheft altitude, of long duration. 
 
 * " Difcourf? concerning the Judge of Conlrovetfies," 
 1689 p, 6%. '■> •■ 
 
489 
 
 It fell more rapidly than it fofe, and is now almoft 
 totally annihilated. Kings no more dread the 
 efFedts of pontific rage ; Vatican fulminations are no 
 longer formidable; Roman infallibility is laughed 
 at even in Rome itfelf ; and a pope's bull, or 
 breve, is, as fuch, as little regarded at Paris, Vienna; 
 Madrid, and Lifbon, as ifwotild be at Peterfburgi 
 Berlin, Copenhagen, or London. 
 
 " ' Still (it will be urged) the pope's supre- 
 macy is a Roman catholic tenet— it was once, 
 confeffedly, a dangerous tenet — what was once 
 dangerous may become fo again — and, therefore, 
 every froteftant ftate fhould be careful to prevent 
 it from ever recovering its former pernicious influ- 
 ence.' — Undoubtedly — and fo, too, fliould every 
 catholic ftate: and, in reality, there is not, I be- 
 lieve, any catholic ftate in Chriftendom that is 
 not as jealous of papal influence as we can be. — 
 But, jealous as they are, they fee no danger from 
 acknowledging the biftiop of Rome to be in rank, 
 honour-, and dignity, the firft prelate in the chriftian 
 church — a privilege which was early conferred on 
 him, partly from his being the fuppofed fucceflbr 
 of two gref^t apoftles, but chiefly from his see 
 being in the capital of the Ronian enipire ; a pri- 
 vilege acknowledged by the councils of Nice, 
 Conftantinopl'e, and Chalcedon', and admitted even 
 ]3y the Greeks themfelves in the council of Flc 
 
49p 
 
 rence; although they foon repented, and retradled 
 tl\p concefiion." 
 
 The remaining difFerences, and which conftitute 
 the laft divifion of the Apology, regard chiefly, 
 *' The number and nature of the Chriftian Sacrar 
 ments — Grace — Good Works — Works of Super- 
 erogation — Invocation of Saints — Veneration of 
 Images and Relics — Purgatory, and Prayer for the 
 Dead-T-Clerical Celibacy — Religious Orders — 
 Pilgrimages — Confecration of Churches, Bells, 
 Crucifixes, Images, Holy Water, Oil, Candles, 
 Palm-Branches, Beads, Rofaries, Medals, Agnus 
 Deis, &c. &c. of all which," fays our author, " I 
 mean to give a fair and candid ftatement, and leave 
 to my proteftant readers to determine whether any 
 of them be dangerous to civil fociety, fo as to 
 merit the profcription of thofe who believe, or 
 praftife them." 
 
 In the confi deration of thefe minor differences 
 I Ihall not follow our apolbgifl:. From the ana- 
 lyfis I have already given, the reader may per- 
 peive the path he is likely to take ; and will, I 
 apprehend, be as ready as himfelf to admit that 
 they contain nothing dangerous to civil fociety. 
 In general, he makes an ingenious effort to affimi- 
 late, wherever he c^in, the dodrines and praftices 
 here adverted to, with a variety of rites and prin- 
 ciples in different proteft^t churches; and in every 
 
4911 
 
 snftarice of the former afcribes far lefs importance 
 to them than they are commonly conceived to 
 poffefs; and on many occafions, far lefs than the 
 body of catholics ar^ difpofed to allow; the great 
 idefefl: of this excellent and admirable defence 
 being, that it difcriminates with too little precifioi^ 
 the opinions of its author as an individual man 
 from thofe of the general communion of which 
 he was an individual member; a defe£t for which 
 I have often heard it condemned by feveral of our 
 apologift's warmeft catholic friends; who, in every 
 other confideration, were ardent in its praifes. It 
 neverthelefa advanced him very highly in the ge- 
 neral eftimation of his own community; and, not- 
 withftanding the freedom with which he has uni- 
 formly delivered his opinions, was regarded as a 
 moft valuable and. elaborate performance even at 
 the Vatican. / 
 
492 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 General ohfervattons — Death of lord Vetre — -Deep dif- 
 irefs of Dr. Geddes — Kindnefs and condolence of his 
 Jriends — Elegy on lord Peire — Bequeji of his lordfhip 
 — Generous offer ofT. Brown, Efq. — Munificent fa- 
 lary of the prefent lord Petri^~Dr. Geddes endeavors 
 to refume his accuflomed cheerfulnefs — hh temporary 
 amufements — Battle of the Bards — Ode on the Return 
 of Peace — Illnefs and gradual decay — Alternations 
 from extreme pain to moderate eafe — Elegy to the Shade 
 of Gilbert Wakefeld — Laft intervieiv between the bio- 
 grapher and Dr . Geddes — his death. A. D. 1800 
 —1 80a. 
 
 Dr. Geddes had at this period (1800) entered in- 
 to his fixty-fourth year; yet the vigor, a£livity, 
 and even fprightlinefs of youth ftill accompanied 
 him, and with the recovery of his health he feemed 
 to have obtained a nevs^ leafe of his exiftence. 
 Without " overftepping the modefty of nature" 
 he was imifcirmly playful with the young and fe^ 
 date with the old, jovial at the dining table, and un- 
 conftrained in the drawing room; the fpirit of every 
 party and the Ufe of every converfation. Among 
 the members of his own community he had re- 
 acquired feme degree of popularity by the able 
 
, 493 
 
 apology he had 'written in their behalf, and the 
 fame of his talents had induced feveral learned 
 foreigners, and efpecially in Germany, to be foli- 
 ci!ous of the honor of his friendfhip and corre- 
 fpondence*,.and occafionally even of vifiting him 
 in his own country". To the former he unbo- 
 fomed himfelf with courteoufnefs and fmcerity : 
 while he uniformly received the latter with frank- 
 nefs and affability. Among the foreigners for 
 whom he, at this period, difcovered the greatefl 
 degree of attachment were, if I millake not, pro- 
 feffor Timseus, of the royal college at Liineburg; 
 general Mkanda, who is well known for the ta- 
 lents and heroifm he difplayed in the courfe of the 
 late war, during the firft fucceffes of the French 
 army in Italy under the command of Bonaparte, 
 but who, from an honeft avowal of his diflike to 
 the violence which was afterwards manifefted by 
 the revolutionary government, was fuperfeded, and 
 
 * In the lift of his more intimate coi'refpondents and 
 highly efteemed friends were profeflbr Paulus of Jena, and the 
 juflly celebrated M. Eickhornof Gottingen. From a variety 
 of autograph letfers from thefe very able critics, now in my 
 pofleflion, I have feletted two or three, as affording fpeclmens 
 of the fincere regard they entertained for Dr. Geddes, and 
 the high value at which they appreciated his talents. The 
 reader will find them introduced at the end of the voliime ia 
 the form of an Appendix. ^ 
 
 3 
 
494 
 
 even fufpefted of royalifm, and cbfti^elled to find 
 an afylum in England; and his own brother j the 
 Rev. John Geddes, a monk of the order of St. 
 Bennet, whofe ftated refidence was in the Scotch 
 monaftery at Wiirzburg, but who could not re- 
 frain from paying the doftor a vifit of congratula- 
 tion upon his recovery from the fevere illnefs to 
 which he had been fo long a viflim. 
 
 Towards the clofe of this year he publifhed 
 another Macaronic Poem in Latin, which he af- 
 terwards tranflated into Englifli, having been fe- 
 duced, by what was certainly a tempting fubjeft, 
 the abfurd, but at that time celebrated battle be- 
 tween two brother bards, in Mr. Wright's Ihop in 
 Piccadilly. The poem appeared under the title of 
 " Bardomachia, or the Battle of the Bards;" but 
 as the fubjedt itfelf was temporary and produftive 
 of no honor to either party, I fhall not attempt to 
 arreft it in its flight to oblivion, towards which I 
 ftioft heartily wifti it good fpeed, by copying a 
 fingle verfe from either the Latin or Englifh which 
 employed our author's pen on this dccafion. There 
 are many of his unpubliflied jeux d'efprit written 
 about the fame period, which are far better en- 
 titled to notice. From thefe I have been permitted 
 to felect the following, which is well known to 
 have been written impromptu, during a momen- 
 
495 
 
 tary fufpicion that the lady to whom they are ad- 
 dreffed had/prgotten hex promife to breakfaft with 
 him, and at leaft prove the fluency and facility 
 "with which he wrote : 
 
 THE TRANSIENT FIT OF ANGER. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO MISS D' ; 
 
 Ungbateful giri ! is this the way 
 
 My love and friendftiip you repay ? 
 . Did you not fay, and fwear by heav'a 
 
 You would be with me at eleven, 
 
 With all your male* and female train ? 
 
 I hop'd you would— but hop'd in vain. 
 Was it for this I got for thee i 
 
 A full half pound of Schotifong tea? 
 
 And then, that Schoufong tea to fweeten, 
 
 A pound of fugar the beft in Britain : 
 
 With cre^m as white as any fnow. 
 
 And fweet as any flow'rs that blow ! 
 
 Butter from Epping ! bifcuits rare, 
 , Some round, fome oval, others fquare! 
 
 New radifhes from mine own garden. 
 
 Each worth, at leaft, a penny farthing ! 
 
 With Noiajix de Martinique, 
 
 Tq raife a blufh in the pale cheek j 
 
 Whence, as a little bit of blifs, 
 
 I might h%TO ftol'n a little kifs. 
 
 Bjit all this blifs and all my plan 
 Have been o'ertumed by treach'rous Fan ! 
 
496 
 
 Thefe words I mutter'd in my mind. 
 And call'd (hee twenty times unkind; 
 When lo ! I hear my fervant roar : 
 " The gentle folks aie at the door!" 
 " 'Tis well," — I faid, and quick forgot. 
 The tran/ient ire that made me hot." 
 Apil ^o, 1800, 
 
 How unflable is the foundation of human hap- 
 pinefs ! how brittle the thread from which the 
 comforts of life are fufpended! It may be trite 
 thus to moralize ; but it is natural ; and the heart 
 which, upon any fudden and violent reverfe of for- 
 tune, though not immediately interefted itfelf, does 
 not feel the fentiment, is at leaft cold, if not crimi- 
 nal. In the midft of this heighday of health and 
 happinefs, of friendlhip and augmenting fame. 
 Dr. Geddes was abruptly called upon tofuftain a 
 lofs, in comparifon of which every lofs and difap*- 
 pointment he had before encountered was light 
 and diminutive, and from the eifefts of which he 
 never fully recovered — he loft his patron, who 
 died fuddenly of an attack of the gout, July 2, 
 1801, aged 68, equally lamented by the lower 
 ranks of life, which he benefited, and the higher, 
 which he adorned. 
 
 Confolation was now almoft in "vain : for in the 
 firft agony of his grief he refufed to be -comforted. 
 
497 
 
 lie had loft a benefador who, for twenty years,, had 
 iupported, a counfellor who had advifed, a protec- 
 tor who had defended him, and a friend to whpfe 
 houfe and whofe heart he could at all times ap- 
 ply, with a ready welcome, upon every doubt or 
 emergency, and whence, upon etery appUcation, 
 he was fure to derive benefit. He felt the void 
 hereby produced in his happinefs, and almoft in his 
 exiftehee, to be irreparable^ and it was long before 
 his mind' recovered any fufficiency of calmnefs to 
 reafoh upon the fubjeft, or admit the f^inpathies 
 of furViving friendlhip. He at length yielded 
 howevei^i to the kind efforts of obtrufiive. condo- 
 lence; his grief affumed a milder charafter; and as 
 ibon as his fhattered fpirits would allow, veinted its 
 feelings in the following plaintive Elegy : 
 
 ■ ' m OBITUM 
 
 '^ '■ , . ' ' 
 
 ftONESXisSIJJI, INTEGERRI^l, MElaUE AMICISSlMt VIKI, 
 
 ■ DOMINI DE PETRE. 
 
 EaGJOtiE abripuit tnibi mors crudelis atnicum, 
 Dulce decuSi columen prxfidiumquemeuml 
 . Abripuit, medio vix lapfo temporis jevo 
 
 Quod dare terrigenis fata benigna folent,' 
 Heu-! heu! quam fubito mortalis labitur jBtas; 
 
 Cluaiii celeri greffu'nex inopina venit ! 
 Nexatrox! nuUi parcens, et nefcia fledli ! 
 Sic mihi delicias tu, truculenta! rapis ? 
 2K 
 
500 
 
 1 undertook it for him; and, having obtained his 
 promife to dine with me on the enfuing day, pre- 
 fented him with the following' ftanzas, which, 
 whatever be their demerit, had at leaft the fatis- 
 
 faftion of obtaining his approbation. 
 
 / ■ ' 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE. 
 
 LORD PETRE. 
 
 * 
 Has cruel death,.then, robbed me of my friend ! 
 
 My guide, my guard, my firft and deareft boaft ! 
 Hobbed — ere he fcarce had half-way reached'his end. 
 
 Had Heaven allowed the days allowed to moft ? 
 
 How fwil^, alas! this mortal being flies ; 
 
 How eager Death hia heedlefs prey to gain ! 
 Dread Death ! rertiorfelefs ! deaf to human fighs ! 
 
 Thou, barbarous ! thou ! who all my fweets hail {lain. 
 Vain Fetjie's wifties ; vain the holy ftrife 
 
 Of fervent prayers to fave him from the dead : 
 ' The prefent fates, relenllefs, claimed his life. 
 
 And from the flefh his generous fpirit fled. 
 
 How, how fevere, O Julia, then thy grief. 
 
 Widowed fo young» fo vaft the lofs fuftained! 
 But in thy childi"en {halt thou find relief; 
 
 Thefeare thy balm, the pledge of love unfeigned. ' 
 What felt the fon ! how deep his filial grpan 
 
 When the laft pang he fawhis father feize ! 
 Yet wife beloved, yet offspring are his own j 
 
 And wife and offspring (hall his wound appenk. 
 
501 
 
 But nought of balm does Heaven to me aflign ; ' 
 No folace fweet, with healing influence, flows j 
 
 No fmiling infants, bland companion, mine, 
 With deeds of love to mitigate my woes. 
 
 Spoufe, fire, companion — he was all .to me j 
 
 Though but a friend : — a friend? yet, ^b/how dear! 
 
 E'en with lefs joy my brother's face I fee, 
 Lefs feels my heart affinity fo near, 
 
 And well my utmoft love did Pet re claim, 
 "Who, rich himfelf, my poverty endowed— 
 
 Twice ten times traced the Sun th' ethereal frairte, 
 While Heaven to me his tender love allowed : 
 
 'Twas mine perpetual — long as life remained ; 
 
 Mine, e'en in death, till ceaftd his heart to beat; 
 His foftering hand, my ftudies that fuflained. 
 
 Gave to thofe ftudies recreation fweet. 
 
 W^ep, Mufes ! weep — ^long fighs your bofoms fill ! 
 
 Patron of verfe was Petre ever fqund ; 
 But chiefly thou,0 Mufe of Zion-hill, 
 
 Groan with my groans, and lopd our griefs refound. 
 Who now (hall footh me ss my path I wind. 
 
 Thy fqotfteps following, throi^gh entangling briars ?— • 
 ■\yhen, fainty at times the tafk I half refigned. 
 
 He cheered my foul, and roufed its latent fires. 
 
 .-,,'-■■ J- .■ ' 
 
 When malice grinned, with fang Co oft that daunts. 
 When bigots, blind, o'erflowed with frantic foam, 
 
 •' Spurn, fpurn," faid he, " thefe vile opprobrious taunts, 
 " Care but for this — to clofe th' important tome." 
 
 P ! that, while Heaven allowed' thee yet to be, , 
 This utnjoft work my utmoft hand had paftj 
 
504 
 
 tnily virtue, and will, I truft, be propagated to the 
 lateft generation of the name. The noble heir of 
 his lordfhip no fooner learned the expediency of 
 continuing the ftipend to Dr. Geddes in the lati- 
 tude to which |ie had been accuflomed to receivq 
 it, than he wrote to hint in the moft polite and 
 friendly itianner, and ftated t^iat it was his inten- 
 tion to add a falary of 100/. to the annuity of 
 equal value bequeathed bim by hi§ father's will, 
 fo as to render the joint fum adequate to what 
 he had hitherto been in the habit of enjoying. 
 
 It cannot be fuppofed that fijch repeated and 
 afFedionate proofs' of attention fhould fail to ope- 
 rate on a heart Uke that of Dr. Geddes, overflow- 
 ing, with fenfibility. He exeirted himfelf to reco- 
 ver his accuflomed cheerfulnefs, and though he 
 did not fully fucceed, and prophefied but too truly 
 when he declared in his Elegy, 
 
 ^i flendi finem non feret ulla dies— 
 for me, my forrows never Jhall fubfide— 
 
 he neverthelefs acquired a tranquillity of mind, 
 which was only occafionally interrupted by obtru- 
 five rfemenlbrances of the paft; and at times, in- 
 deed, exhibited' proofs that the embers of his ha- 
 bitual hilarity ftill glowed with a few vital fparks. . 
 He did not, however, feel his powers at any period 
 
505 
 
 fijflGcIently collefted for a regular profecutipn of 
 Jiis favorite undertaking. At the requeft of his 
 friends, who, on his own account, and from the 
 moft benevolent motives,, wifhed to fliiiiulate him 
 to his accuftomed habits of ftudy, he confented to 
 prepare for the prefs a fepar^te volume of the 
 Pfalins, of which I have already taken notice j but 
 the mere veriion of which he never live^ to finilh, 
 and the Critical Remarks upon which he never at- 
 tempted to begin. His life was now, therefore, a 
 feiies of forced amufement rather than of volun- 
 tary ftudy. Among other friends, I had occa- 
 fionally .the pleafure of his vifits ; and when we 
 have been alone, he has gone fo far as to requeft 
 a,perufal of a manufcript tranflation of Lucretius, 
 which he well knew I had completed, and which, 
 in conjunction with its annotations, will fliprtly pay 
 its refpefts to the public. This I cheerfully al- 
 lowed, and he feemed to derive gratification from 
 our perufing it together. The Mufe was indeed at 
 this time, as in former affliftions, his chief folace, 
 whether he joined her in her vifits to another pe- 
 titioner, or found her at liberty and complacently 
 difpofed to attend upon his own entreaties, for he 
 Itill entreated her, and on the eftablifliment of the 
 prefent peace publifhed an ode inLatinSapphics, en- 
 titled " Paci feliciter reduci Ode Sapphica, Auc- 
 tore A.G.'' which was not only written, but 
 
$12 
 
 *' ^eygaigiturquovis, et quafvis eli'ge fedes i 
 " Cb)les, convalles — omnia aperta patent. 
 
 " Si Sophia lubeat claris te jungere alumnis, 
 " En Tibi Pherecydes, Atticas atque fenex ! 
 
 '^f Hos prope Pythagoras, Thalcf, doAufque Epicurus | 
 " Magnus Ariftoteles, major et ipfe Place. 
 
 ••• Nee defunt LatJae notifiSma nomina gentis j 
 " Tullius infignis, Brutus, uterque Cato : 
 
 " Ph'nius, et Seneca, ac Marcus cognomine Dirufff 
 "; Cui nomen virtus, non diadeUia,- dedit. 
 
 " Hqs inter veftras Qaconus, Lockius, atque 
 " Nevtto, Britannorum gloria, fama, decus ! 
 
 " Quodfi oratorum tenearis dulce, loquentuia 
 " Flexanimisi verbis, lenibUs atque, fonis ) 
 
 " ^olidis liceat niveas hauiire; loquelas ; 
 " Neftoris et liquido meljg fluente favis 
 
 " Dulpius eloqaium — PericHs retonantia difta,' 
 " Q^ueis Hellas totie^ territa, quaifa, f^uit ! 
 
 " Vim Demoftheneam miraberis— et Ciceronis 
 •' Aurea yerborum copia grata fluet 
 
 ** Auriculis avidis— Cum illis, fimul, et tuus, oUihi 
 
 " Sedes nonimas Foxius ipfe premet. 
 *' Sin ma:vis tete facris fociaire poetis,' 
 
 " In vita iludio deliciifque tuis ; 
 
 "' Linusj et Hefiodos; Mofchus, divinus Homerusj 
 
 ' " Pindarus altivolans, Hiellifluufque Bion> 
 " jEfchylus, et grandis Sophocles, caftique cothur»i 
 " Princeps Euripides — ifta vireta colunt. 
 
 " Illic et Siculusjucundaidylliacantat; 
 
 " Ludit et argutis Teia Mufa jocis. 
 '• IlUc Virgilius, Flaccufquc, et Lufor Amorum, 
 
 " Jn^enio peri'tt qui mi/er i^jejuo. 
 
513 
 
 " lUic fublimiifpedabilis umbra Lucreti, 
 " Magnifice fcrip^is jam decorata,tuis. 
 
 " pic Miltonus, Fopius, Drydenus, et illc > 
 
 " Natura potuit qui referare unus 
 
 " Shakfperlus — ^fecus ac Cowperus, flebilis ifte, 
 
 ■i' Oreo quern ante diem bilii acerba dedit ! 
 " Hos: — illos— iftos adeas : Nam nulla cupido 
 
 " Vifendi heroas te capit — ipfe fcio : 
 " Sunt generis vani, ac inflati.pe£lo,ra fallu ; 
 
 " Semper geftantes trifte fupercilium." 
 Sicfatus, tacuit — Cumtu, Gilberte, vigiffim, 
 
 Solvere fis vifus talibus ora modis : 
 
 " Si mibi permiffum eil optata fidere fede, 
 " Sit cum philofophis faepe fedile meum : 
 
 " Philofophis, inquam, veris ; minimeque fophiftisi 
 " Ifthaec mi Temper .turba odipfa fuit. 
 
 " Rhetoribusraro jungar : nam garrulagens eft, 
 
 " Vendere quae fumum vanaque verba folet : 
 " Qualia multiloquus.fuevit depromere Pittui ! 
 
 " Quali% fpumofo Windhamus ore vomit ! 
 *' Skpius all: inter lim claros nomine vates; 
 
 " Cumque niis liceat fundere molle melos : 
 *' Inter fim vates — vates mea peAora fuavi 
 
 " Carmine Isetificent, blandifanifque modis. 
 
 " Nil mihi cum veftris heroibus — Arma gerebant 
 " Impia mente inopi, fanguineaque manu ! 
 
 " Sacram libertatem fternentes cufpide Martis, 
 " Cudebant miferis non toleraiida juga. 
 
 " Ah ! procul, ah ! femper procul a me eflote pro&nj. 
 
 " Nemo tyrannorum proximus efto mihi !'• 
 Optanda optafii, Wakefield ! — O ! fors mihi tandem 
 
 Sit fimilis— tecum et carmina facra canam : 
 2l 
 
Carmina fsera cairann', chordas et pe&iae pulfem, 
 
 IndoAi (ftiafifv^" ac trepidante manu, 
 Carmina fafcra- canam', .^veat modo Mufa canenti 
 
 Suavis TetpScK^i, faavior aut Erato : 
 
 Me nam deleAant dukes ante omnia Mufe : 
 
 Mufa mihi cun'(Sis eft medi'cina malis. 
 Harum c6Uo(|uttB blandis; Gilberte, fruaris ; 
 
 At^ue his-cum Uceat fandere moQe meloa. 
 
 Nee ventiira dies diftat qira, ftamine vitae 
 Truncate, celerJ te pede, Amice, fequar. 
 
 Moibificus'Iahguor jam felFos occupat artus. 
 Paulatim embrior— Sed fatis — ITmbra, vale' 
 
 Londini, Prid. Non. 09. 1801. 
 
 Of this Elegy bo Engliih tranflatiori has hi- 
 therto been offered to the public ; the reader may 
 therefore accept of the following : 
 
 TO'^Hf SHADE OP 
 
 GfiLBEftT WAKEFIELD. 
 
 Theb tooy thel^baft of.evcfy critic tongue. 
 
 Has fate fe:^ere fnatchea headlong from Qur eyes \ 
 
 Snatchc^ from a, weeping wife, ao oQspring young, 
 Friends'dearfy loved, and all the good aiid wife. 
 
 How h'ard^ the doom ! — Iji dungeons long enthralled^ 
 
 Scarp^ tf^^sthy joyouc fpot their dreary bourn. 
 When lo ! "to Perth's .dark m^nfipns art thou, called. 
 
 Whence man returns not— "nor can e'er return. 
 True— ep9.d and bad, wife, iimple, rich and poor, 
 
 Who.e|.er has^dra^k th^ etjiereai^flood of day. 
 Kings, courtiers, beggars, muft alike explore. 
 
 Soon, or more laie^ ih' irremeable way : 
 
But who laments nQt that, yhile fpolsfurviv^ 
 While guilt grows old iff inlatny and ^"^(Sjg 
 
 Worth, wifdom, pietyj,that <;hief (hopld thrive. 
 Fall like the rofe-bud weltering in its prime I , 
 
 But though toa fliort the date to thee ,al&gaed, < 
 Not fhort the genuine l^a^f jiifl,lieaven jtva^ti : 
 
 Yes ! thou baftlived — and long fiiall livej j^ehiRd, 
 Thy fplendid imag?, W4.fEriE^D 1 jn our hearts. 
 
 Meanwhile fietake thee to the fields of hlifs, 
 Th,' Elyfiaft plains no qUo^iid can e:'er eclipfe : 
 
 For not for thee yawns Erieb's dread abyfs. 
 Nor pitchy Fhl«getoit,fhall foil thy lips. 
 
 No gray-beard judge (hall now thy caufe deeide; 
 
 Impartial' l^inos here the balance holds : > 
 Hark ! as he fees thy fiMrit oiuward'i glide,, , 
 
 His tongue the rsiady plaudit thiis: unfolds; 
 " Year not, pure fhade !' |by if^i^qrin^ ;al]^ we know ; 
 
 "> Thefe Hermes long has jhaftened to reveal : 
 " Though right and wrong be oft mifnained bdow, 
 
 " Stibftantialjuftice,' here, alone we deal. 
 
 " flere rank is nought, and nought imperious power ; 
 
 " "Tis" VIRTUE, VIRTUE only can avail. 
 " Go — ^^choofe thy lot<— command each future hpur, 
 " All, all is thine,' plain, woo^and, hill and dale. 
 
 " Wouldft thou with Wifd^m's fons divide thefcene ? 
 
 " Lo 1 Pherecvbes, SaMjj at thy will; 
 " The Sa'mian, Thales^ Epicurus keen, 
 
 1' Si'AGiK.A's'fage, and Plato fagier ilill. 
 
 " There, pride of Rome I th' iUuftfioiis Catos fliine ; 
 
 " Brutus andPujWY, Tuely fweet of found} 
 " T^ere Seneoa and-MAKCVrS namfd divinq 
 
 "By rank imperial leb than virtue crownedt 
 
516 
 
 •* CoiKipatnot with thyfelf, amid the throng, ' 
 " See LockK, fee Bacon^ of icoequdlboaft ; 
 
 " See Newton, firft the fapient train among, 
 " The fame and gloi-y of the Eritifh coaft. 
 
 " Or does thine ear fweet oratory pleafe, 
 " With foothing found, and foul-compelh'ng power; 
 
 " Lo ! where ^otiOEs fufpends the breeze j— 
 " The honeyed fiream from Nestor's lip devour : 
 
 " Feaft on the tones that Pericles of old, 
 " Like thunderj threw o'er deep-diftraded Greece > 
 
 " The torrent of Demosthenes behold; 
 " The golden periods, none would wifh to Ceafe, 
 
 "Drink from the Ciceroni aw fount that flows 
 " Copious and calm : there Fox, in future time, 
 
 " Not meanly feated, mid them fliall repofe, 
 " Or break in tones as cogent and fuUime. 
 
 " Or wduldll thou mid thy favorite bards retreat, 
 " And hear them ftill their melodies refume i 
 
 " Lo ! Linus, Hesiod, Moschus, Bion fweet, 
 " Homer divine, and Pindar bold of phime. 
 
 " Euripides, the drama's petfeft type, 
 
 " ^scHYLUS there, and'SopHocLEsrefort ; 
 " The fwain Sicilian tunes his oaten pipe, 
 - " And, mid his fnows, Anacreon ftill would fport. 
 " There Maeo, Flaccus, and the Jard who fell 
 
 «« ViAim to love — ^to love the art he taught ; 
 " Sublime Lucretius, whom thy toils, fo well 
 
 " Spent while on earth, with fplendor new have fraught. 
 " Thert roam they all confociate ; and with thefe 
 
 " The Britifli bards, ethereal Milt«n, Pope, 
 " Drydew, and he, who moft the foul could feize 
 
 " With mimic terror, orceleftial hope. 
 
517 
 
 "{lumortal Shakesfere : nor remotely roves 
 " Pale CpwPER, ftill by many a friend bewailed j 
 
 *• Whom melancholy to th' infernal groves 
 " Sent immature, e'er nature half had failed. 
 
 " Bards, fages, patriots — go, attend at will j 
 " For thee the train of heroes boafts no charm ; 
 
 " Spurn them — a race whom bafeft pafliqns fill, 
 " Vain, proud, perverfe, intent on human harm.' 
 
 He ceafed. And ftraight thy favored (hade, I thought. 
 Thus, Gilbert! tq the righteous judge replied : 
 
 " Since mine the boon to^choofe my future lot, 
 " Oh 1 mid the fages let me e'er refide : 
 
 " Mid genuine fages, not the fophift race, 
 
 " Whom now, as ever, from my heart I hate; 
 
 '• Nor give me oft mid orators a place, 
 
 " Vain, fenfelefs wranglers, full of fume and prate. 
 ' ' ' 
 
 " Such, mid the fenate, feemed loquacious Pitt ; 
 
 " To pour the wordy torrent never loth : 
 " Such Windham, when, by paflion roufed, he fpit 
 
 " His bnrfting vomica of bilious froth. 
 " O ! let me oftener mid the bards renowned 
 
 " My ilation take and join their dulcet lay : 
 "' O t let the bards, with fqft melodious found, 
 
 " Soothe .me, revive, and all my bofom fway. 
 
 " But from your heroes ever let me fly — 
 
 " Arms, impious arms, their hands barbarian wield; 
 
 " Unawed by all the terrors of the (ky, 
 " To all the charities of nature fteeled. 
 
 " Struck by their fpear, lo ! heavenly freedom falls, 
 '" And countlefs burdens crufli the crowds around: 
 " Hence, ye prophane ! your fight my foul appals ; 
 " Let never tyrant near my paths be found." 
 
518 
 
 I 
 
 Moft wife thy choice, dear Wakkpield ! Such tome 
 Should fate vouchfafe, thy harpings I will join ; 
 
 Yea, to thy heavenly harpings will I flee, 
 And ftrike^ with trembling hand, the ftrings divine. 
 
 Loud will I ftiike them if the Mufes fmile. 
 
 Sweet Terpficore, Erato fweeter ftill : 
 The Mufes — every grief that beft beguile. 
 
 To roe an antidote for every ill. 
 
 Hear them, my friend ! and with them oft unite; 
 Soon Ihall I join thee as thefe tremors tell ; 
 
 Faint are my limbs — already Death's in fight- 
 But 'tis enough—- refpe|ted Shade, farewell I 
 
 Our learned but unfortunate friend, Gilbert 
 Wakefield, die4 Sept. 9, in the prefect year 
 (1801); an(},,|h,e ?iboye El§gy was wnttien Qfto- 
 ber 12, about a month ajt^ hss d^eMe. The 
 laft two couplets cont^n all the truth of pro- 
 phecy or aftual prefentiment. 
 
 Kec vent:Un3. im diftat qua, ft^m^ yits 
 Truncato, celfii te ped?, Amic?, £aquar. 
 
 Mojrbifiieus languor ^'^ fefibf pccupat artus. 
 Faulatirpt emor.Ier. .... 
 
 Soon fliall I join thee as thefe tremors tell'; 
 Faint are my limb»>— already Death's in iight. 
 
 Ib efFeflj, it was not more than a day or two af- 
 terwards that the bed on which he died was re- 
 moved from his own chamber on the fecond floor 
 into the front room, or chief library, on the firft, in 
 
519 
 
 confequence of his tjeing now inca,pable of moving 
 ejtjher up or dqwn ftairs wjitbout extreme pain j 
 and from this , bed he fcarcely ever rofe after- 
 wards, ' To this aiTertion I neverthelefs remeinber 
 one exception, and ijt affords a ftrong proof of the 
 occa&onal triumph, of the mind, wJhe^ roufed tq^ a 
 high degree of excitement, over all tj^e. pains and 
 infirmities of the body. I called at his houfe-one 
 morning, doubtful whetj^er I ihoiil^ find him alive 
 or dead :, He had not aftually expired, bjiiit hkd re- 
 fufed admittance to all. except his firofefrional 
 friends. . He was alone, apd requefted to fee me. 
 He was lying on his .bed agohi?ed with - torture, 
 ghaftly in countenance, and, extremely^deprefled 
 in his fpirits* He feized my Jiand with,, avidity ; 
 *' Forgive me, my dear friend I" faid ftp abruptly, 
 while the tears ftarted'from his eyes — " Forgive 
 me this weaknefs ! I did think J fhoyid^aye l^e^ 
 able to have endured fuffering witk more fortitude 
 and refignation J but I canijot fuppojrt it, ^^ ^m 
 impatiently wifliing fordeatjh." I ^nde^ypiired to 
 confole him — and added,jtjbatii^l^d pf apcuijng 
 him of weaknefs, all his friends wer;eaftoniflied,at 
 the general tranquillity and fl:renjgt^.,of n^ind 'WJA 
 whic|i he .fubmitted to his afflidUon. By degre^ss 
 I drew him into a converfation upon pne or two 
 fubje^ks which I knew lay neareft his heart. I ^- 
 troduced his verfion of the Bible j I requefted in- 
 
S20 
 
 formation upon a paflage in the Song of Soloraanj 
 •which I was then in the a£l of tiranflatJiig: our 
 ideas upon this p'afTage did not altogether coincide ; 
 he became animated in the defence of his own 
 opinion^hfe forgot the difeafe he was laboring 
 under — ^fuddenly rofe from his bed— ^and to my 
 utter aflonilhment ran rapidly up ftairs in purfuit 
 of fome annotations of his Own, which he had for- 
 merly written upon the controverted queftion. I 
 remained with him for about half an hour after- 
 wards, and he ftill continued to enjoy himfelf : he 
 fuffered me to depart with great reludance, and 
 thanked me moft cordially for the good I had 
 done him. He foon, however, relapfed, and died 
 a few days afterwards, February 26, 1802, in 
 the fixty-fifth year of his age ; the rites of his own 
 communion having been regularly adminiftered to 
 him, and received with great confolation on Ids 
 own part, by M. St. Martin, a catholic clergyman 
 and confidential friend. 
 
 It has been infmuated, in a Journal of extenfive 
 circulation, and infinirated moreover in terms 
 equally uncandid and untrue, that on his death- 
 bed he recanted many of his opinions, and that 
 fuch recantation has been Jludioujly concealed. 
 What the opinions may be which are here re- 
 ferred to, or to what incident fuch a rumor owes 
 its birth, I have not been able to learn, although I 
 -4 
 
531 
 
 have fpared no pains in the inveftigation*. On the 
 day anterior to his deceafe he was, as ufual^ vifited 
 by his friend M. St. Martin, profeffor of theology 
 
 * The paiTage I refer to is in the Gentleman's Magazine for 
 May 1803, page 44.2 ; and poiTefTi^ a fuperior authority as 
 not introduced in the form of a cafual or anonymous letter, 
 but conftituting a part of the fe<?tion allotted by the proprie- 
 tor to the review of new publications. It isas follows : 
 
 " ReTelation was never attacked by a more uncandid, dif- 
 ingenuous, and artful opponent thaii Dr. Geddes. It mufl: 
 be matter of wonder how he drew in fo many perfons of emi- 
 nence in facred literature and criticjfm to efpoufe his la- 
 boursj all of whom, as well as his patron, a peer of his own. 
 communion, we hefitate not to fay, he beguiled ; and, though 
 he excited a civil war among the catholic party, who held 
 bim in deferved deteftation, his dying recantation, like that of 
 Voltaire, has been lludioufly concealed." 
 
 Having never witneffed the remoteft difpolition to any re- 
 cantation whatever, nor heard the fmalleft intimation of fuch 
 a fa£l from any of Dr. Geddes's friends, I could not but be 
 extremely aftoniftied at the perufal of this very novel intelll' 
 gence; and, among other perfons to whom I applied for infor- 
 mation^ I addrelTed myfelf to M. St. Martin, frorn whom I 
 received the detailed account inferted in the text : a (hort 
 flatement of thisi I immediately communicated by letter to 
 Mr. Nichols, who, with a candor and liberality for which I 
 am obliged to him, inferted the communication in his Journal 
 for the enfuing month. In this letter 1 not only indeed re- 
 iquefted fuch infertion, but entreated that I might be pri- 
 vately informed of the bafis on which this extraordinary in- 
 
522 
 
 and a doQior of the Sorbonne, who Irad officiaUy 
 attended him as his prieft during the whole of .h^ 
 illnefs. I have bee|i minute in my inquiries of thi? 
 
 telligence repofed, and pledged myfelf to introduce it into 
 this work the momeat it fhould be rendered even probable. 
 It becomes tne now therefore to date, that not a fyllable of 
 any explanation upon the fubje£l^ whatever has fince been 
 comDiiinicated, either privately or publicly; whence it is ob- 
 vious, without any reference to the detailed account abov^ 
 that inftead of Dr. Geddes, the reviewer himfelf has recanted, 
 his opinion anA^udwu/ly concealed his recantation. 
 
 I have not the fmalkA ides that this paragrapk was inferted 
 either with the confent or knowledge of Mr, Nichols, whoni 
 I readily acquit of every degree of blame that attaches to it : 
 but I cannot avoid obferving that more apparent malevolence, 
 as well as more pofillve errors, was never crowded into fo 
 flibrt a fpace. It is a triple fiaader, equally afperfing the 
 character of Dr. Geddes, of his patron lord Fetre, and of hi$ 
 friends who yifited him on his death-bed ; and it is in every 
 refpeft equally unfounded. So far as Veilates to himfelf, I 
 have'already proved it to be falfe j^ and cbflfequently fo far ds 
 relates to his friends : for if he never recanted, thete never 
 could be any Jludled concealment of fuch recantation. And 
 as to the late trufy noble and public-fpirited lord Petrt, I am 
 authorized to fay, tliat inAead of his ha'ving been b'e^uiUt\i^ 
 any of the peculiar fentiments of Dr. Gedldes, h^ never for a 
 moment afforded his patronage to the do£tof from the fmall- 
 'elftjlfpofition to embrace them, but becaUfe he believed hifn 
 to be an honeft and deferving man, as well as a mod excelteftt 
 biblical fcholar ; and tliat for himfelf he lived and died in the 
 avowed profefiion of the common arttdes of the catfeolic creed ; 
 affording to bi'gotty and illiberalit'y an iiliiftrious proo^<h'at it 
 
5sa 
 
 gentleman as to the converfation. that occurred in the 
 courfe of this and foriiver interviews, that I might 
 have thefuller opportunity of proving the grofefalfe- 
 
 is poiKble f(^ a tnunificenbanc} enlightened man of Qne clafi 
 of tenets to prpteA andpatronize an indigent man of another| 
 upon the fole grounds of individual merit and general utility. 
 
 The reviewer'!!' motive for refelnbling the dying Geddcs to 
 the dying Voltaire can be more eafily conceived than the re* 
 femblance itfelf can be traced ; for never were two cafes more 
 oppofite and unlike. The former was a profeffed chriftian j 
 the latter a profelTed infidel.. The whole life of the one was 
 occupied in what he conceived to be an illuftration and re- 
 commendation of the gofpel : the whole, life of the other 
 in turning the gofpel into iridict)le and contempt. The houfe 
 of the firft, during his dying iicknefs, was open to all parties, 
 .both catholic iand proteftant^ and hjs own creed was in many 
 paints different from the common creed of either : the houfe 
 of the fecond was barricadoed by his friends alone," every one 
 of whom was of his own infi(^el perfuafion. An avowed 
 change in the fentiments of Geddes muft have neceflarlly been 
 aifceptable either to'the one or the oiker clafs of his Vtjit^HitS, 
 and^ in fome infiances, might li^ve been accieptable torb.Qth: 
 a, change in .the, fentiments of Voltaire was th^ gtgnd point 
 ■which was dreaded by his attendants^ and which 'they endea- 
 vored to prevent by every poflible exertioir and diffuafivc. 
 Voltaire died in a ftate of agony and defperatiod, Geddes. iii 
 p,erfe£t tranqHiUity arid the very aft of ben^iftiop,— It may 
 reafonably be queftroned whethei; revelation cd^ijJd ?ve;: fuflain 
 fo nvuchjinjury from what the writer of the above paragraph 
 terms the attacks ef fo dijingenuous and artful aiCopportent, as 
 from the pious frauds, the malignant and unfounded iafino- 
 stions of foiBjudkiQus a friend. 
 
52 4^*^ 
 
 hood of the charge thus advanced. On entering the 
 room, M. St. Martin found the doctor extrfimely 
 comatofe," and believed him to be in the litmoft 
 danger: he endeavoured to roufe him from his 
 lethargy, and propofed to him to deceive abfolu- 
 tion. Dr. Geddes obferved that, in fuch cafe, it 
 was neceflary he fliould firfl: make his confeffion. 
 M. St. Martin was fenfible that he had neither 
 llrength nor wakefulnefs enough for fuch an ex- 
 ertion, and replied that in extremis this was not 
 neceflary : that he had only to examine the ftate 
 of his own mind, and to make a fign when 
 he was prepared. M. St. Martin is a gentleman 
 of much liberality of fentiment, but ftrenuoufly 
 attached to what are denominated the orthodox 
 tenets of the catholic church : he had long beheld, 
 with great grief of heart, what he conceived the 
 aberrations of his learned friend; and had flattered 
 himfelf, that in the courfe of this laft illnefs he 
 ihould be the happy inftrument of recalling him 
 to a full belief of every doflirine he had rejeded; 
 and with this view he was aftually prepared upon 
 the prefent occafion with a written lift of quef- 
 tions, in the hope of obtaining from the do£lor an 
 accurate and fatisfa£tory reply. He found howi 
 ever, from the lethargic ftate of -Dr. Geddes, 
 that this re;gular procefs was jraprafticable. He 
 could not avoid, neverthelefs, examining the 
 
52^5 
 
 ftate of his mind as to feveral of the more im-: 
 portant points upon which they differed. " You 
 " fiilly," faid he, believe in the fcriptures ?" He 
 roufed himfelf from hisfleep, and fdd," Certainly." 
 — " In the doftrlne of the trinity?" — " Certainly, 
 but not in the manner you meap." — " In the 
 mediation of Jefus Chrift?"'^ — " No, no, no — not as 
 you mean: in Jefus Chrifl: as our faviour — but not 
 in the atonement." I inquired of M. St. Martin 
 if j in the courfe of what had occurred, he had any 
 reafon to fuppofe that his religious clreed either 
 now, or in any other period of his illnefs, had fuf- 
 tained any ihade of difference from what he had 
 formerly profeffed. He replied, that he could not 
 pofitively flatter himfelf Xvith believing it had : 
 that the moft comfortable words he heard him 
 utter were immediately after afhortpaufe, and be- 
 fore the adminiflration of abfolution, " I con- 
 fent to all ;" but that to thefe he could affix no 
 definite meaning. I fhowed him the paffage to 
 which I now refer, in the Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine : — he carefully perufed it, and immediately 
 added that is \}Z& fdje in every rejp5i. " It 
 would have giyen me great pleafure," faid he, 
 ** to have heard him recant, but I cannot with 
 certainty fay that I perceived the leail difpofition 
 in him to do fo' j and even the expreffion, ** I con» 
 
526 
 
 fern to all," was rather, perhap, Uttered from 
 a wifh to oblige me as his friend, or a d^fire 
 to Ihorten the converfation, thah from ajiy change 
 In his opinions. After having thus examined, 
 himfelf^ • however, for fonie minutes, he gave a 
 , fign of being ready, and j-eceired- abfolutioi* as I 
 had propofed to him. I th«a left him: he fliook 
 my hand heartily upon, quittii^ him, and ifeid that 
 he was happy he had fqen 4ae." 
 
 It was the intention of this excellent prieft to 
 have vifited him again in the eveningj. and. to have 
 paffed the whole of the night in his room. On 
 returning to the houfe, however, he was infomii^ 
 that the doSop's- phyficians had ftriftly prohibited 
 his being feen by any of his friends, tiiat eveni^^ 
 in confequeSfce of which.'M. St. Martin retarraed 
 home with much reluftance; anid on cenawing his 
 vifit the next mortiing found he. was jufl: dead« 
 A domeftie of the catholic peifuafibii who lived 
 in an adjoining houfe, and hid beeii fisquent in, 
 her inquiries concerning the dqdSor, knocked at his 
 door as he was in the very gfli;'af.dying; and his 
 confidential. fervant, terrified at the iqipeairaiiEiDf 
 het mafter, readily opened the doom^nad'jreqiteftedr 
 her to- walk ap- ftairs. Shef^beh^d^hinxsdmoftaf 
 his laft gafp5 and- iituiie^ardy iiepeateds,'Ia(^nrdii^ 
 to the rites'of h«r ehilitb, the Creeds dSatBraoflier, 
 
and Ave Maria: Dr. Geddes juft opened his eyes 
 as flie had concluded, gave her his benediftion, 
 and expired. 
 
 I am forry I km compelled to add, that the con- 
 du£t of the iiberal-ttlinded, the truly catholic, and 
 truly ehriftian M. St. Martin was not folbwed by 
 his clerical ftiperiors ; and that the ceremony of 
 faying puHic mafs for the deceafed was prohibited 
 by an exprefs interdidt of Mr. Douglas, his vicar 
 apofliofic*. Let not the reader, however, con- 
 demn the ■«?hole body of Englilh catholics for 
 thfe a£t of malevolent bigotry; a bigotry which 
 would follow with its perfecution an honeft and 
 confcientioufr man into the next world, aftfer hav- 
 ing contributed all that was in its power to curtail 
 his days in the prefent. I know, and am authorized 
 to fay, that this malignant prohibition was lamented 
 and objefted to by many of the moft refpeftable 
 laymen of the catholic church : and whatever be 
 its blame therefore, it only attaches to that intole- 
 rant and contrafted fpirit which has been uniformly 
 more obvious in the catholic priefthood than in the 
 
 * It is hence alfo obvious, that the catholic church itfelf 
 never for one moment beh'eved him to have recanted: the very 
 prohibition indeed having been grounded upon a full perfua- 
 fion, that Dh Geddes died v?ith the fame fentiments with 
 which he had lived. 
 2 
 
528 ■ 
 
 people at large, from the fanaticlfm imbibed in 
 the courfe of a foreign education, and which ftre- 
 nuoufly oppofed and had nearly fruftrated the 
 two laft very important ftatutes in favor of its own 
 commimity. Such an interdid^ might, perhaps, 
 have beenjuftified had Dr. Geddes been formally 
 excommunicated from the catholic pale-r-but its 
 vindication requires arguments not readily to be 
 advanced by the keeneft cafuift in the cafe of a 
 member, who, like the deceafed, had neither 
 voluntarily withdrawn himfelf, nor been forcibly 
 rejefted by his community — ^who had avowed, 
 through the whole of his life, a zealous attach- 
 ment to the catholic church, and in death had . 
 duteoufly complied with her raoft folemn requifi- 
 tions. 
 
529 
 
 CONGLUSIbNT. 
 
 ■Such, as ht as 1 have teen able to cdlledl it, 
 is thehiftory Of the late Doftor Geddes ; a man of 
 nocbmmon charadier, and whofe energy of mind 
 and a9:ivity of body "feemed engaged in a perpe- 
 "tua;l conteft for the mailery. In his corporeal 
 make he was flender,' and in the bold and formi- 
 dabie outlines t»f his countenance not highly pre* 
 'pofleffing on a firft interview : but never was there 
 a face or a form through which the foul developed 
 itfelf more completely than through his own. Every 
 feature, and indeed every limb, "was in harmony 
 with die entire fyilem, and di^layed the reftlefs 
 and indefatigable operations "of the interior of the 
 machine. A play of cheerfulnefs beamed uni- 
 formly from his cheeks, and his animated eyes 
 ' rather darted than looked benevolence. Yet fuch 
 was the irritability of his nerves, that a flight de- 
 gree of oppofition to his opinions, and efpecially 
 when advanced by perfons whofs' mental powers 
 did not warrant-fuch oppofition, put to flight in a 
 
 ' ''2 M 
 
530 
 
 moment the natural charafter of his countenance, 
 and cheerfulnefs and benevolence were exchanged 
 for exacerbation and tumult. Of this phyfical and 
 iri-efiftible impulfe in his conftitution no man was 
 more thoroughly fenfible than himfelf; and if no 
 man ever lefs fucceeded in fubduing it, no man ever 
 took more pains to obtain a yiftory. Let us, how- 
 ever, fairly'ftrike the balance, and we fhall find, 
 that if fuch a peculiar copftruSion pf body had 
 its evil, it alfo had its advantage ; and that the 
 very irritability of foul, which occafionally hurried 
 him, againft his confent, into a violence of contro- 
 verfy not perfectly confillent with the polifhed 
 manners of the day, hurried him a thoufand times ' 
 oftener, and with a thoufand times .more rapidity, 
 becaufe affifled inftead of oppofed by his judg- 
 ment, into afts of kindnefs and benevolence. The 
 moment he beheld the poffibality of doing good 
 by his own exertions the good was inftantly done, 
 although it were to a man who, perhaps, had caufe- 
 lefsly quarrelled with him a few hours before. It 
 was not in his nature to paufe with our academic 
 and cold-blooded philofoph^rs of the prefent day, 
 that he might firft weigh the precife demand of 
 moral or political juftice, and inquire into the ad^ 
 vantage that would accrue to himfelf, or in what 
 manner the world at large might be benefited ei- 
 
i53l 
 
 tKe^ by a good a£tion dr a good example — it was 
 ftimulus enough for hiiii that diftrefs exifted, arid 
 that he knew it— and it afterwards afforded him 
 fatisfaftidn enough that he had removed or miti- 
 gated it. 
 
 In intellefl:ual talents he had few equals, and 
 fewer ftill who had imjifoved the joffeffion of 
 eiqilal talents in an ecjual degree. To an ardent 
 thirft after knowledge in ^all its multitudinous ra- 
 mifications he added an aftoniflling facility in ac- 
 quiring and retaining it ; and fo extenfive was his 
 erudition, that it was difficult to ftart a fubjefl: into 
 which he could not enter, and be heard with both 
 attention and profit. But theology was the prime' 
 objefl: of his^ purfuits, the darling fcience of his 
 heart, which he had indefeitigably ftudied from his 
 infancy, and to which every other acquifition was; 
 made to bend. From his verbal knowledge of the 
 Bible he might have been regarded as a living con- 
 cordance ; and this not with refpeft to any indivi- 
 dual liuiguage alone, or the variovis afld rival ren- 
 derings of any individual language, but a concord- 
 ance that fliould comprife the beft exemplars of 
 the moft celebrated tongues into which the Bible 
 has ever been tranflated. As an interpreter of it,, 
 he was ftridly faithful and honeft to the meaning, 
 or wbat he apprehended to be the meaning, of his 
 original' ; and though in his critical remarks upon 
 
533 
 
 the text he allowed himfelf a latitude antj a boldnefil 
 which injured his popularity, and drew down upon 
 his head a torrent of abufive appellations* ^ how 
 feldotn have we feen a man fyftematically edu- 
 
 * Thefe did not altogether ceafe with his death. In the obi- 
 tuary of a Journal I have already had occalioj'n to advert to, 
 the Gentleman's Magazine for the month of March i8o2j— , 
 his biographer, after noticing his deceafe, adds, " How far 
 it may be permitted to intereft Providence in fuch events 
 others will determine ; it may not be unworthy ferious reflec- 
 tion, that this libertine in religious and political fentiments is 
 removed, after having been permitted tb concur with the Au- 
 thor of all Evil in exercifing the faith and patience of the 
 faints." Th^re can be little doubt that the writer of this pa- 
 ragraph is the writer of that I have been compelled to notice 
 in page 521. The caufe ofthis inextinguiihable hatred I 
 know not ; but the ccDfor fhould at leaft have Lad mefcy upon 
 Mr. Nichols the proprietor of the Journal, if he could have 
 found no mercy for Dr, Geddes. The world at large is not 
 capable of difcriminating between the owner of a work and 
 the work itfelf, and too generally vents its wit or its anger 
 upon the former, for abufe of which he is totally incapable, 
 and of wbofe exiftence he is altogether ignorant. Thus it 
 feems to have happened in the prefent cafe : a letter of a dif^^ 
 ferent complexion, addreffed to Mr. Nichols under the cha« 
 rafter of Mr. Urban, was, with the accuftomed liberality of 
 this gentleman, admitted into the fame Journal the enfuing 
 month ; it was dated from Pandemonium, and aftually (igned 
 'Satan: in it the prince of darfenefs inftrufts the journalift, that 
 he knew nothing of Dr. Geddes perfonally, and was only ac- 
 quainted with his name by having been informed that he was 
 his implacable and irreconcileable* enemy; This Jiuthar of all 
 Evil addf, that to prevent any deception upon this point 
 
^33 
 
 cated in the charafleriftic tenets of any eftabliflied 
 community whatfoever, and efpeciaUy of the 
 church of Rome, who when he has once begun 
 to feel his independence, and has determmed to 
 
 he had himfelf " called for and examined the attefted re- 
 turns of the incfeafed population of his kingdom — and had 
 fummoned his. officers wKofe. attention and vigilance have 
 never been queftioned" — and he could pofitively anCwer; 
 therefore, that neither v?as his name on the public rolls of 
 his court, nor was •' the fuppofed fugitive in any part of his 
 dominion." 
 
 This oppofitioh of evidence, or rather recantation of o^i- 
 nion, was the fiibjeft of much converfation at thJ time among" 
 the dofkor's friends. Mr. Nichols himfelf was, as ufual, fup- 
 pofed to have written both accounts ; and among other epi- 
 grams which were ci'rculat4d''upon the oc'cafion, I remember 
 having feen the following ; ' - 
 
 ISICK AND 3S1CH0LS. 
 
 Says' Nichols to Nick^ — " ""rtsSvell known to all earth 
 " That this biblical Geddes in hellhad his birth j 
 " Permitted by heaven, void of pains or reftraints, 
 •' To try for a fpace the pure faith of the faints." 
 
 Says NicK'to John Nichols^— "You err, mydear friend! 
 " Search the lifts of our hpH? — no.fuch name there is penn'd : 
 •' None our forges, I grant, than yourfelf better knows, 
 " But this Geddes, des.r John ! was our fierceft of foes." 
 
 In another Englifh journal however (the Mputhly Maga- 
 zine, April i8oa) he is liberally allowed his merits in terms 
 which I believe have been followed by no drawback, or fi- 
 piilar oppofition of evidence, and is defcrihed as " a man. 
 
5S4 
 
 fh-ake off his fefters, and to think for hjmfelf, ht^ 
 not flown much further from the goal at which 
 he ftaTte4! The general ambition, corruption, and 
 
 who by his acute and penetrating genius-r-his various, ' pro- 
 found, and extenfive erudition — his deep refearch— ^his inde- 
 fatigable application — and his independent, digni^ed, and 
 unfettered fpirit, rifing fuperior to the prejudices of educa- 
 tion, nobly difdainiflg the fliackles of fyftem ; fpurning the 
 petty tempofizing arts of unmanly accominodatioi} and fet. 
 tingatrdefianCe allthe terrors of malignity, bigotry, and into- 
 lerance, was fupereminently (qualified for the great, laborious^ 
 and important work iii which he had, .for a long feries of 
 years been engaged, of giving an £ii'gli(h verfion of the ve- 
 nerable literary rema:ins of facred antiquity — the ficriptures of 
 the Old and New Teftament.*' ■ ■ - 
 
 Nor were many of the foreign journals lefs forward- to 
 teftify, in their notice of bis deceafe, his vgrioijs literary ta- 
 lents, and his unblemifhed' moral virtues. To copy all thofe 
 which I have m'yfelf perufed would be to fwell the prefent 
 note to a nio ft immoderate bulkj as a fpecimen of the ge- 
 neral efleem in which he was held on the centinent, I lhall 
 therefore confine myfelf to a fingle eitraft from Ethmger's 
 Gothaifche Gelehrte Zeitungen, No. 29, Apr, 10, iSozt. . 
 
 " Am. 26 Feb. IHt die thebl, Liter&tur in England, und 
 di^ Wiffenfchaft ueberhaupt, einen hochft empfindlichen 
 und in mehr als einer hinficht unerfetzlichen verluft durch 
 den tod des gelehrten und wahrhaft verdienftvolen DoAors 
 Alexander Gcddes, der auch im Auflande fehr vortheilhaft 
 bekannt ift. Er war ein Mann von feltenen talenten, und ge- 
 hbrte zu den aufgeklarteften, gelehrteften und fcharffmig- 
 ften Theologen und Fhilologen in England. Seine bis zum 
 
SS5 
 
 profligacy of the catholic hierarchy — of thofe very 
 pontiffs who claim to be' the dire£l fuccefTors of the 
 apoftles — and through whofe medium alone he 
 
 driften bande erfchieneiiCi Bibeluberfetzung, nebft dem kri- 
 tifcli-philqlogifchen Cpmraehtat', feine vielen kleincn Schrif. 
 ten, lateinifche — englifche-j-und frandzSfifche — Gedichte,., 
 und Flugblater, welche nur wenigen als feine arbeit bekannt 
 wurden, find das fchonfte denkmal fein'es hellen kopfes/ 
 feiner gelehrfatnkeit, femes gefchmaks und- des fejn'ften le-' 
 bendigften witzes, dev ihn bei dem fanfteften, wohlwoUend-; 
 fien herzen und eddileii charakter zu dem liebenfwiirdig- 
 ften gefellfchafter, und alien die ihn naher kannten Unendlich- 
 theuer machte." ' 
 
 " On the twenty-fixth of February, theological fcience in; 
 England, and literature in every quarter, futtained a deep,, 
 a fenCble, and in more than one refpeiH an irreparable lofs by ^ 
 the death of the learned, honefl, and highly meritorious Doc- 
 tor Alexander Geddes, whofe labors are well known to have 
 been extenfively ufeful even to foreign countries. He was a 
 man of lingular talents, and liftened to by the, moft enlight- 
 lened, erudite, and fagacious .theologians and philofophers in. 
 England. The three volumes of his Tranflation of the Bible 
 which have already appeared, together with liis critical and 
 philological Commentary, his numerous Kttle pieces in Latin,' 
 Englifh, and French ; - his fugitive and fanciful publicatioi|s, ' 
 which add in no trivial degree to his labors, are the faireft mo- 
 nument of his clear head, of "his erudition, of his tafte, and of 
 the keen vivacious wit, which, in conjunftion with a foft, be- 
 nevolent heart, and an unblemiihed charafter, perpetually en- 
 deared him to men of real worth, and efpecially to all who 
 were intimately acquainted with him." 
 
believed himfelf capable of being rc^cnowledged a 
 member of Chrift's vifible church -h^whofe perfons- 
 he was bound to revere, and whofe ordinances; 
 implicitly to obey — became the firll flumbling- 
 block to his faith : and let thofe who conceive that 
 the fituation of a mind thus liberated from the 
 bondage of its former creed, and all afloat in pur-' 
 fuit of a new and a better, is not in the higheft 
 degree critical' and perilous— who find no difficulty 
 in fixing the precife point betweein blindly believ-: 
 mg too much and philofbphically believing toa- 
 little, once more return to' the hiftory of Voltairej^- 
 D'Alembert, Diderot, and their fellow encyclo- 
 pedifts, who, inflfrufted in revealed religion, from 
 the fame fource, difgufted with 'the fame crimi- 
 nalities and contradiftions, and refolved, upon 
 fimilar grounds, to aft and determine for them- 
 felves — fled, from catholicifm. to infidelity, and 
 confounded the truthsahd fimplicity of thegofpel 
 'A'ith the frauds, fuperilitions, and mumm'eries, 
 with which in their own country, they had been 
 too generally interwoven. 
 
 To an univerfal knowledge. of the Bibje,.' Dn 
 Geddes added a deep and elaborate acquaintance 
 with the hiftory of his own church; and fo tho- 
 roughly was he verfed in its annals, in its jurifpru- 
 dence, in its polemics, that I have good autho- 
 rity for aflferting that even, at the Vatican it was , 
 
SS7 
 
 doubted whether the- papal dorniniohs themfelves 
 could produce his fuperior. 
 
 His claffical attainments, if not of the firft rate, 
 were of a very diftinguiflied charafiter; and, when 
 in his own language, he wrote with cdolnefs and 
 circumfpediori, his diftion, which was always per- 
 fpicuous, was peculiarly elegant and correft. His 
 ftyle is neverthelefs extremely variable : he often 
 compofed precipitately, and occafionally in a ftate 
 of high mental irritation; and though there be a 
 charafter which ftill adheres to what he wrote 
 and fully deciphers the writer, his compolitions 
 uniformly partake of the predominant fenfation of 
 the moment. In few words he was a benevolent 
 man, an accompliftied fcholar, an indefsitigable 
 friend, and a fincere chriftian. 
 
 At his own particular defire his remains w?re in- 
 terred in Paddington church-yard, being the parifh 
 in which he died ; and his funeral was attended by 
 a long proceffion of carriages, not indecently empty 
 and fent for the merepurpofe of external parade, 
 but filled with friends who were ftrenuoufly at- 
 tached to his perfon, and will long venerate his 
 memory; and who, though divided by different 
 tenets into almoft every clafs of chriftian and even 
 political fociety, here confented ;to forget every 
 nominal feparation, and to unite in taking one 
 common and affeftionate farewel of a man who 
 
S3B 
 
 ingdheen. an hcjnbr to the generation in ■wrhich ha 
 lived. '■•( 
 
 /. A f)I^n iharbje pionument., iwith a fliort infcrip- 
 liori engraven on it, feleQ:ed from his own works, 
 has been.erefted to his memory by his patron lord 
 Petre, and is affixed to the outfide of the entrance 
 int6 the church. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 T^e following is a selection from t^e correBpondence referred to 
 in the note at the foot of page 493. It might havg been ex- 
 tended, but the specimen here offered is deemed sufficient., 
 
 ~M. ]?AULUS TO Dr. GEDDES. 
 
 ^ , Jenejuhjimm Marti i?0Q. 
 
 WoLi> qusefo^^ ylr cel^berrlme atque amiciifime, unquam fuf- 
 picari^ gratiflimam recordationem virorum omnium^ qui de me 
 in Anglia commorato bene meriti funtj mea memoriapoile ex- 
 cidere. Immo vero quotidie beiievolentias memini^ qua homi- 
 nemjuvenem atperegrinum excijJere dignati funt viri crudi-- 
 tiffimi, muneribus atque au£toritate inter fuos graviflimi 3 in- 
 ter quos quanti inprimis Te non poffim non facere, non doc- 
 trlnae folum copia fed ingenii potifllmum elegantia, ubettate, 
 fubtilitate, morumqjie candore, fuavitatCj liberalitate infignem, 
 Tua ilia me filere jubet taodeftia. Faciem TuaBi omncmque 
 illam ingenuitatem^ quS me primA ftatim occafione, cum Te 
 adirem., amplexus es, adhuc ante oculos habeo laetufque fsepe 
 recoUigo. .^ed is ell Jenas notlrae fitus mediterraneus^ fea a 
 inan', quod vos, Britanni, jam ubique foli tenetis, disjiln£lio, 
 ut per hoc, quod Jena; tranfegi, decennium de coinmercio litC", 
 rarum non nimis interrupto cogitare non potuiffem. Etiam 
 mtinera, quse fubieram, academica magno erant impedimento. 
 Poftqaam nimiriim literas orientales per aliquot annos docu-^' 
 eram, nunc ex preparatis banc in rem fludiis otium aliquod 
 mihi captaturus, ecce ad Theologise Frofeffionem ordinariam 
 tranfire permotus tanquam de novo in ftadium fere immenfum 
 in* immitfere cogebat. In noftris Aca.demiis quovis die binas 
 
S4Q 
 
 vel tres leftiones diverfi argument! exponere, praterea mritos, 
 cum nimis multi inter nos edantur, Hbros legere debemus, vit 
 recentiffimarum in re theologica difquifuionum feriem et 
 filum manu quafi teneanrus minime abrumpendum. Et IB 
 philofophicis apud nos multa de novo pertraftan.tur, quae noo 
 perpendiffe Academico Theologo ignominia: foret. Quae q.ui- 
 dem omria eo potiffimum fine commemoraffcliceat, ut mihi 
 Bon Anglice ad Te perlcriben^i jacilius ignofceres. Non n€- 
 glexi Unguam veftram, qua Ubtos leftitans ooa paucos, veftrls 
 'nfniis of the dear old England propius femper mihi admotus 
 videpr. Sed loquendi facult^s, qua?, ut bene nofti, perexigua 
 fnit, deficiejite exercuatione nitiiis, eheu, deminuta £e mihi 
 ftibtraxit incauto. Quae tamen Ut optimo velut incitainento- 
 nutriatvir,; rogo etiam atque etiam, velisj Vir Amicillirae 1 
 femper vernacula veftra ad me fcribere, qu^ h6\k Tuos ego. 
 jbnosplacido&fuavefque iterura aiifcultare mihi videbor. 
 
 QusEris ex me : "Did you ever receive the iii ft two volumes 
 of my Bibls I "They were fent to you laft year (1797), about 
 this time." 'Dpleo admoduni, me non poiTe non refpondere : 
 " Never, Sir ! ,1 have not feen any ftieet of yours.'' De ja£lur^ 
 tranfmiflbrum cxemplarium efl,. cur eo magis doleam,. cum 
 femper optalTeni, in noftra AUgemeine Litteratur Zeitung^ 
 operis cximii Tuique ipfius mentionem facere earn, quam ani- 
 mus in Te meus efflagitaflet, Jamdudi^m etiam Qel. Holmelii 
 interim editos jieceunls et de vafto illo fuo coUationis Septua- 
 gintabiralis molirpine, atque editum pqilea illlus psimum volu<- 
 jnen in JeneCm me non acccpiffe, dolui.. Inde evenit, ut alius, 
 nefcio quis in -ei iplk Allg. Litteratuifeitung recenfionem 
 primi ex G^nefi Specimenis, quod ego atihucdum non vidi^ 
 jnferendam darct non fane aquam fatis» fed iUiberalem. 
 Cujus cenfurjE ut ne forte me auftorem fufpicetur Vir, cui 
 mukas debeo gratias ac femper habebo, hifce meis verbis ut 
 fignificare veils, Vir amicffime, enixe a Te petp. .Qua data, 
 opportuuitate reliquiS etiam, qui Oxonii mihi favcrunt, viiis 
 
541 
 
 ^oaiffimisVut Dr. Ford, Mr. Wik^anleyiBlhlloihecaTmyiu 
 Price, memorem mentera gratiflimamque teftari pofife vellm 
 Do£tiff. H^/jite an partem anni degat Oxonii, nefcio, Vir op- 
 tima: indolis etiam in me animo fuit benevolentiffimo Britaa- 
 niaque Veftra di'gniffimo, cujus rei in me fupereffe fenfus vlra- 
 ciffimos, fi forte ex Gloceflria fua Londinum adit, meo no- 
 mine ipfi tefleris-enixeobfecro. 
 
 Osonii etiam familiaritas mihi magna fuit cum Mr. y»i» 
 Barham, qui poft meum abitum uxorem duxit virjginem JUl: 
 per Helvetiam peregrJnatus eft, Jenam vero non attigit, fed 
 m Britanniaih redux vivit in proviacii nefcio quS. Utinam 
 fellx fortunatufque ! - 
 
 Nunc per DoailT. et Amiciff. Prof. Tmaum voVifcum 
 aliquamcommunicandi viam mihi aperiri, quam maximelaitor. 
 Accipe mea " Selena Capita Introduftionis in N. T." nee 
 non •' Commentarii in N. T. primam partem," junSo alio 
 Scljediarmatequalicunque. Doleo ceffafle Veftrum Analytical 
 Review. Optarem fane, Tuo beneficio ut libelli hi etiam 
 in AngWa poffent innotefcere. Exegefeos enipj fundamentis 
 mere hiftoricis nixae Syftema aliijuod per hofce conatus incho- 
 are fufcepi, abfquc haerefeos, quae ingeri fortaffis poHet, metu." 
 Multa fane hoc in genera non nifi per conjefiuram poni pof- 
 funt. Sed etiam " poflibilitates,^' quas vocant, exponi debere 
 videntur, de rebus, qus nimis feftinanter pro miracuh's omn! vi 
 naturae leges habere folent, earn unice ob caufara, quod pauci 
 vujv TteiirccSscuv hiftorias naturales, caufas et phyfiologicas et 
 phychologlcas in medium proferre audent hsereGomafllgnra 
 fomidine taiflL Explicatio alicujus pqffibUiiath, licet forte rem 
 geHam non acu tetigerit, oftendit certe, veri nominis miraco- 
 lum, hoc eft, faftum per omnem naturse -vim et cOncurfum 
 pJane non poj^bile ihi minime effe priefumendum. 
 
 Vinarias (Weimar) qujE metropolis hujusDucatus Saxonic} 
 non nifi 4 horis diftat Jen», nunc deraum inftTtuItur blblib- 
 yolium cum Anglia refta via communicatiirura. Spero, fore. 
 
S42 
 
 atjltbc JaftituW foccedentft,inihi etiam vobifcutn faepiiir aliqtiiS^ 
 commanicandi ae veftra accipiendi aperlatur opporttinitaa^r 
 Liondmi vir doftus, Hitmrt qui peregrinationi in Chinam Ma- 
 eartneyanae inittivat, eft the correfpondent of this In^itute/ 
 called the " Induftrie Comtoir zu Weimar." Alio tempore 
 plora. Vale Vir Amtciti^ et Do£lrin4 mihi Venerabilis atcjud! 
 .^Iftumatiffime, et me, ut facis> araare perge. 
 
 H. E. G. PAULUS. 
 
 M. EICHHORN TO Dr. GEDDES. 
 
 Tandem aliquaado, amiciffime Geddes, ad Utteras tuas per- 
 bujnaniter ad me datas refpondeo ; not), quod (ilentii, quod 
 ^gre tenui, rationes jam remotae fint, vernm ne ingratus tibi 
 videaf . £x quo operis tui biblici partes adhuc editas, qua: in< 
 terioris tuse linguarum orientalium cognitionis, aique criticae 
 tuae fagacitatis infignia documenta continent, tibi tuxque li- 
 Beralitati debeo, ferio cogitavi, ut veftigia tua legerem, li- 
 brumqueUnum atque alterum'cognatum elaborarem, quoali- 
 quid haberem, quod grati animi teftandi caufa et tibi traderc 
 poffem. Verum belli difScultates, quae Germaniara premunt, 
 earumque perlcula, in dies latius fefe extendentia, bibliopolas 
 Teutonicos a redimendis libris ad litteraturam antiquam et 
 biblicam pertinentibus abfterrent, quoniam et paucas emtores 
 babent, et magnos fumtus poAulant, ut adeo ad hunc ufque 
 diem bibliopolam nullum habeam, qui per ipfa belli tempera 
 abrerumnoftrisetateincertitudinem et inconftantiamcoramen- 
 tariis meis biblicis, tam Veteris qiiam Novi Tcftamenti, quos 
 lingua Latlna exarare conftitui, in vulgus emittendis fumtus 
 erogare velit. Ne tamenper hos annos, qui Mufis parum fa- 
 vent, donee meliora tempora illuxerint, ftudiis biblicii plane, 
 deeffem, unum atque alterum poetam Hebraeum in Genra- 
 nicam linguam tranftuli ; cujus verfionis fpecimcnper xftatem 
 
5451 
 
 praetcritam typis exprimendum curand, ejufqne exefi<{)laf hi* 
 Htteris acljuxi, ut meum i^ualem cunque labgrem tue judicio 
 fubuiitterem. Tu enim fere unisus w, quem, ^ liceMyjudicem 
 mihi expeterem ; quandequidfmtuin liiteris biblids habit as, in 
 todemjiadw magnd cum inude decmris, vmnejque dtj^cuJtktes'et 
 mohflias, quee tdlem curfum impediunP, iffd eaperkiH'id edoffus', 
 nojlt, ut adeo nemo facile ad judicium tarn eequius quam reSiui 
 ferendurn cogitari poffit. 
 
 Interea fi mihi contingetet ^Et tarn felici, ut trecenta ex^ 
 cmplacommcntariorum meorumab AngKsemerentur,fine mora 
 eorutn ad finem perducendorum et t^is tradendonim- operam 
 in me fufcripeaun. Griefijachianee Novi Teftamenti editioni 
 rara haec et fingularis contigit fortuna^ ut magna pars exem- 
 plarium ab unJco dynafe A^gHco (Lord) emeretur, quae in« 
 tcr eccjefraeminiftros, quibus res angufta donji efl, dividenda cui 
 raret. Infigne omnino liberalitatis pise documeutuiii;, cujus ta^ 
 men fru£lus non nifi dubii et incerti efie poiTunt, cum ilia edt- 
 tio intra angullos criticos limites^fefe contineat, nee ipii tex» 
 tui explicando quicquam lucis afferat ; mei vero commentarii 
 hanc rationem fequerentur, ut et tectum quam accuratiflime 
 recenferentj et prolixo commentario multifque epjpxetris et ex> 
 curfibus illuftrarent ; et, nifi omnia me fallunt, infinitis locis et 
 omnibus fere pericopis novam Ineem acoenderent, ex ea fere 
 ratione, eujus fpecimina plura in bibliotheca litteraturae bibli- 
 cae, quam adlmc edidi, leguntur. , Verum omijem fere fpem 
 abjicio, fore ut aliquando ad hoc- opus, quod dfu prxparavi, 
 perficiendum, pcrppliendum et typis Biandandum me accingere 
 poffim, quandoquidem per vegetiores vitae m^a? annos belli 
 molefliis et difficultatibus impedior, atque cum incertum fit, 
 an futuro feculo litteris feverioribus meliora tempora'inftent, 
 nolim tenipus meum, oleum et operam libris exarandisperdere, 
 qui futuro etiam tempore' in publicam lucem prodeundi oppor^ 
 tunitate carerent. 
 
 Adjunxi, Jus litteris, quas tibi a ciirfore, publico Hannovef 
 
rano, qualibet quarta anni parte in Angliam profirifcente 
 {[Quartal Conrir) perferenturj fafciculum iik Part ix. biblio- 
 thecae meae biblicx, in qui ad leAores meoi retuli de magnis 
 Anglorum de interiori Africi delegendi promeritis. Nufpiam 
 adhuc talis recenfus exftat^ ut adec^ in fpem ^ngrediar^ fore 
 ut nee Africans: Societati^ inprimis perolluftri Bankfio mea 
 de itineribus ad hue in Africam fufceptis relatio difpliceat. 
 
 ValCj amieiffime Geddes, meque, ut ad hue feciAi, porro 
 ama ; tibique perfuade, meam erga te obfervantiam nuUi 
 temporuni ac rerum viciflitudini ciTe obnoxiam adeoque fore 
 perpetuam. Script Gottings^ d. i Sept. i Soo. 
 
 F, G. EICHHORN. 
 
 Scriptae jam erant hse litterae, cum mihi afFerretur liber 
 tuus apologeiicus, novum tux erga me amicitiae pignus. 
 Accipe, quas tibi refero gratias, quas poffum maximas : No- 
 vam mihi parafti voluptatem, qak proximis diebus librum 
 tuum perlegendo fruar. Legi ante annum et quod excur- 
 rit, parari Introduftionis meae in V. T. ver&onem Anglicam : 
 an in publicum prodierit, comperiri nondum potui. Iterum 
 iterumque ^.''''P^- 
 
 Dr. GEDDES to M. EICHHORN. 
 
 -L'lTTEK* tua: mellitiflimae, Calend, Septembr. datx, ad me 
 tandem viii. Calend. Decembr. perlatae funt : cum duobus pre- 
 tioiis opufculis, prq quibug gratias habeo maximas. Jobum 
 tuum, magna cum aviditate, fummaque voluptate perlegi, et 
 contuli cum verfione Theotifca Michaelis, Miror virum cele- 
 berrimum Redemptorem et <uitam alteram inveniiTein cap, xix. 
 2 5, &c. maxime cum ipfe Jobum antiquiorem Mofe exiftumet. 
 In tua, mi Eichho'rni, bujufce perlco^ea yerlione, difpliCet, 
 
545 
 
 quod 7£|J^ afakos effe Jobv putei. Metaphora nimis dura mihi 
 videtuT, ut et Dathio vifa eft. Sed hoc modefte fit didtum :' 
 Tibi forfitan toeayerfi0>-q.uodariimodo mihi proprkj non mi*' 
 nus difpliceblt. 
 
 Optavi fespius, ut! tii te ad fenbendos perpetuos in fcriptu- 
 ras ton Veteris turn Novi Teffiamenti- commentarios conver-' 
 teres; ddleoi^ deefle biblio^olas, qui eos praelo mandent. 
 Spero tamep fore, ut dies fauftiores videamus : cum Bellona, 
 faturata fenguiite,; locum Minervae fit ceffura. Hos eomnien- 
 tarios te Latine fcripfiffe gaudbo :• *ix etenim eft credibile, 
 q;uam parici eic rioftratibus Teutohicam Calient. Trecenta ex- 
 emplaria- in Britannia totK emptum irf, non aufim affirmare : fed 
 fi veltS' ttiihi Condi^nes (Propifals) tranfmittere, in noftris; 
 dtai'iis imprimantui', curaboj fenfus expldratum publicos. 
 Hoc unum fpondeioi, me pro te et nomina et nummus receptu- 
 I'Um ; fed ti^eo ut honiines noftri praenumerare velint. 
 
 Quod ad Ifs^gbgeu' tuam attinet, fi mea valuiffent vota, 
 jjiBfldudum Anglicatia veUe induta evafiffet : et memet, 
 fi p"er otium Ucmffotj interpretera haberes. Sed iter longum, 
 ■vilabfevis :-.6t- 
 
 Non oinnia poffumus emiies. 
 
 - JJaydiae,. quidein, in Academia Cantabrigenfi Heb. I. pro- 
 
 feifor; hoeiHiiJjer, meditatus eft opus, fed'num perficiat, du- 
 
 bito. Is, anno proxime elapfo, ad me fcripfit fe verfionem 
 
 Angjiicanl Introdmftioiii Eicbhornii pararej rogavitque, ut 
 
 fibi-per fcriptas licteras fignificarem, an gratum mihi laborem 
 
 fubiturus ©ffet. Refpondi : oihir mihi poffe fieri gratius — hor- 
 
 tatus fum, ut tam utili laboH fe extemplo daret — centum 
 
 promifi nomini/uh/criientium. Adhuc hominem non videram : 
 
 nam rarifiime ab urbe difcedo. Ille meis excitatus letteris hue 
 
 ^ ad^olaJ:— Profpeftum itiiprirtiit — epiftolas ad Ecclefias prjefules 
 
 aliofque doftbres mittit : nil dubitans, omnes, uno ore, votis 
 
 iaii fuffragaturos, et nomina daturos. — Ego vero : " Noli 
 
 sN 
 
546 
 
 " inquebani, nimis effe- credulus : in tuis fautorib.tisi nott' 
 '* eruntj fi qujd fciam, epifcopi: nolunt illi opera Eichor- 
 f niana idiomate Anglico donari." — Rifit intemperantius J 
 Subrisi tantum, dicens : " videhimuB." 
 
 Elapfo vix menfe, ad me rediit, anhelans : " Tii, inquit, 
 noftras prsefules refkius noviflii quam ego novi,"-r^Scilicet 
 refponfa tulerat frigidiflima. Duo tantum epifcopi nomina 
 4ederant, quae poAea fubtraxere. RofFenfis (Horfley) laete- 
 dedit refponfum quale non eA datum, ab origine mundi, a 
 Yiro honefto, honefto altel-i, Sed non tantum cum Epifcopis, 
 et EpifcopicoUs, erat Lloydio lu£tandum. Solent univerfi4 
 tates noArae opera profeffornm typis academicis gratis im- 
 primere : hoc Lloydio negatum eft. An contra ftimulos 
 calcitret, et repngnantibus Epifcopis et Academiae primori- 
 bus, verfionem fuam public! juris faciat, dubito. 
 
 Dynafta, Griefbachii patronus, eft Dux de Grafton ; vir- 
 quidetn bonarum litterarum amantillimus, fed minime locu- 
 ples. Fuit quondam Regis noftri Miniftef primarius; fed. 
 dfu eft, quo curias valedixit ; et nunc otio cum dignitate, five 
 rure five urbe, fruitur. Is chartam Griefbachio fubpeditavit 
 pro certo numero Exemplarium N. T. Graeci : fed haec ex- 
 emplaria non omnia gratis diftributa funt. Plura funt vendita, 
 mediocri qufdem pretio : fed tamen funt vendita. — Quoad re- 
 ligionem. Dux eft Soc'inianus ; feu, ut nos loquimur, Unita- 
 rianus ; liberalis tamen, fiquis alius j et, ut verbo dicam, vere 
 Chriftianus. Solus eft, opinor, qujverfionem meam Pentatcu- 
 chi cum Septuaginta exemplari contulit (nam Hebr. non no- 
 vit) legente Anglicamuna ex filiabus, ipfo infpiciente Grjecam, 
 
 Kara avis in terris, nigroque fimillima cygno \ 
 
 Obfervationes meae critics, pofl multas moras, jam lucem 
 viderunt. Earum exemplar te quam primum falutabit : una 
 
^ 547 
 
 cum aliis quibufdam lucubratiunculis, quas diverfis teiiiporu 
 busj-lufitandi gratis fcripfi. — ^Nam illud 
 
 lijterpone tuis interdum gaudia curis 
 
 sempfcr in honore habui : nee fenefcenti difplicet, quod pla- 
 cuit adolefcenti, 
 
 Mihi faepe fcribaa oro : etquidem per tabellarium publicum 
 ordinarium : nunquam enim libentius zonam meam parvam fol' 
 TO quam ciim amicorum epiftolas redimo. Inter amicos autem 
 meos nullum plurisfacio quam amiciflimum mlhiEichhornium. 
 
 Vale, et me, ut amas, ama. 
 
 A. GEDDES. 
 Datajunt 6 CaU Jan. 
 AiMo Mt'u Ckri/.iSoi. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 ruIN ILI> m K. WILIlS, CUANC£I1Y-LAN£. 
 
Juftpuhlifhed by the XvT^oji of this Folme, 
 
 1. SONG of SONGS: or SACRED lUVl-S. , Ti;apBl^4 
 from the original Hebrew, in Prose arid Verse, with Notes criti- 
 cal and explanatory. Printed for G. Kearsley, Fleet-stjreet. 
 
 Likewise puilished bt) the same AxsTH.0^, • 
 2. SKEXCH of the REVOLUTION in 1^88, with Obser-. 
 vatrons 09 th0 Events thatt occurj-ed. .Second Edition, enlafged 
 ^nd Mn^trated. 1703. > 
 
 5. DISSERTATION on the DISEASES of PRISONS and 
 POOR-HOUSES. Publisined ^ the Request of ,)t|he ]VJ^4i<ai So- 
 ciety of London. Printed for C. Dilly, Poultry, 1795> 
 
 4. CASE of PRiETERNATURAL FETATION, with Obser- 
 vatior^ oB the Phenomena that occurred. .Printed for C. Dilly, 
 Poultry, 1795. ' ■''■■"' -' 
 
 5. HISTORY of MEDICINE, Sec. fiom the earBest Accounts 
 to the present Period. Published at the Request of the General 
 Pharmaceutic Association of Great Britain. Second Edition. 
 Printed for C. Dilly, Poultry, 1796. 
 
 6. DISSERTATION on the best MEANS of maintaintng and 
 employing the POOR in PARISH WORK-HOUSES. Pubhshed 
 at the Request of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
 Manufactures and Commerce. Cadeil and Davies, Strand, 1798, 
 
 7. SECOND ADDRESS to the MEMBERS of the COR- 
 PORATION of SURGEONS of LONDON. Published by Re- 
 quest of the Committee of the Corporation, 1799. 
 
 Speedily . -01111 he puUi/hed by the fame AuTHOU;, 
 
 In Three Volumes, 4 to. ' 
 
 8. THE NATURE of THINGS, a Poem in Six Books, 
 translated from the Original of 
 
 TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS, 
 Accompanied •with a large Body of Notes, Critical and Ex- 
 planatory.