diffent from him. But at the fame time, continual additions are made, not only with relation to the hiftory of thofe days, but to the life of Erafmus, especially where Le Clerc grew more remifs, either wearied with the task, or called off from thefe to other labours. At first it was intended to diftinguifh his pro perty from the reft; but it foon appeared, that the thing was hardly practicable, and quite needlefs."

"The work before us being thus the joint produce of two very learned and very ingenious men, it is no wonder that it exhibits fo ample a stock of materials, or that it is executed with uncommon diligence, skill, and accuracy." It has, however, been juftly obferved, that by difpofing his facts and obfervations in the form of annals, Dr. Jortin "has rendered the narration broken and tedious;" and his digreffions have alfo occafioned a want of perfpicuity in fome parts of his performance. Thefe digreffions, indeed, are so frequent, and of fuch a nature, that his compilation may not improperly be termed an epitome of the lives of all the eminent men, in whatever branch of literature, who adorned part of the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries; and upon the whole, "as the work now ftands, it may rather be confidered as an excellent collection of materials for the life of Erafmus, than the hiftory of it."

"Dr. Jortin effentially injured his health, by his application to his Life of Erafmus, as I was affured by a very refpectable friend who knew him well. In his preface to that work he addrefied himfelf to his friends, "recommending him felf to their favor, whilft he was with them, and his name, when he was gone hence; and intreating them in a wifh, that he might país

the evening of a studious and unambitious life in an humble but not a flothful obfcurity; and never forfeit the kind continuance of their accustomed approbation."

"But," as is elfewhere observed, "whatever he or his friends might wifh, he was to live hereafter neither fo ftudioutly, nor fo obfcurely, as his imagination had figured out to him: more public fcenes, than any he had yet been engaged in, ftill awaited him."

"Dr. Hayter, bishop of London, with whom, by the way, Dr. Jortin had always been upon intimate terms, and for whom he had a great efteem, died January 9, 1762; and Dr. Ofbaldifton, who was alfo his friend, and then bishop of Carlifle, was promoted to the fee of London. So early as the 10th of March that year, Dr. Jortin was appointed chaplain to bithop Ofbaldifton, and about the latter end of the fame month was collated by his lordfhip to the prebend of Harlefton, in the cathedral church of St. Paul's. In the following Octo ber, the bishop gave him the vicarage of Kenlington, worth about 300l. a year; foon after which he quitted his houfe in Hatton Garden, and went to refide there.

"In r763, Dr. Jortin affifted Mr. Markland in correcting the proof theets of the "Supplices mulieres" of Euripides, in quarto. He had before done the fame for a little treatife by the fame learned gentleman, entitled, "De Græcorum quintâ declinatione imparifyllabicâ, et inde formatâ Latinorum tertia, Quæftio grammatica," which had been firft printed in 1761, and was now annexed to the "Supplices mulieres."-Of our author, it is faid in an advertisement prefixed, "Abfente auctore, vicem ejus ad prelum fufcepit vir doctillimus Joannes Jor

tinus S. T. P. cujus eruditæ curæ multum debere hanc editionem profitetur commentator.

"Bishop Ofbaldifton gave a repeated proof, about a month before his death, of his determined patronage of our author, by appointing him archdeacon of London in April 1764; and it has been generally faid that the bishop had offered him the rectory of St. James's, Weftminster, upon the death of Dr. Samuel Nicolls in November 1763; but that he chose to continue at Kenfington, that being a fituation he much liked, and better adapted to his then advanced age.

"Mr. Phillips publifhed the "Hiftory of the life of Reginald Pole" in 1764: which is, fays Dr. Neve, "a laboured, plaufible infult both upon the civil and ecclefiaftical liberties of this country;" and which, Dr. Jortin fays, was "undertaken to recommend to us the very fcum and dregs of popery, and to vilify and calumniate the reformation and the reformers, in a bigoted, difingenuous, and fuperficial performance." This defign of writing, "with a view to excite in us a favourable opinion of himself and his party, required fingular qualifications." Such it feems as Mr. Phillips did not abound in. Dr. Neve and Dr. Glocefter Ridley feverally undertook to vindicate the doctrine and character of the reformers from the falfe reprefentations and injurious reflections of Mr. Phillips; the former in fome Animadverfions" upon, and the latter in a "Review" of, the hiftory in question, both published in 1766.

"Dr. Jortin communicated "Some remarks upon Mr. Phillips's Hiftory," to Dr. Neve, which were printed at the end of his work.

"Dr. Jortin continued to live in

the then vicarage house at Kenfington, dividing his time between his paftoral functions and his ftudy, enjoying himself with his usual ferenity, till the 27th of Auguft 1770, when he was seized with a diforder in his breaft and lungs. He grew continually worse, nothwithstanding all medical affistance; and without undergoing much pain, in the courfe of his illnefs, or his underftanding being in the least impaired, he died the 5th of September, in the 72d year of his age. The last words of this defervedly eminent man were expressed in the answer he gave to a female attendant who offered him fome nourishment, a very fhort time before his departure, when he faid, with great compofure, "No! I have enough of every thing."

"He left the following direction in writing for his funeral: "Bury me in a private manner by daylight at Kenfington in the church, or rather in the new church-yard, and lay a flat ftone over the grave, Let the infcription be only this: JOANNES JORTIN

MORTALIS ESSE DESIIT

ANNO SALUTIS [MDCCLXX]
ÆTATIS [LXXII].

He was accordingly buried about
nine o'clock in the morning, in the
new church-yard at Kenfington,
and the above inscription was put
on his
grave stone.

"Dr. Jortin left a widow, [who died June 24, 1778, and was buried in the fame grave,] and two chil dren, Rogers Jortin, efq. of_the Exchequer office, Lincoln's Inn, and Martha, married to the rev. Samuel Darby, formerly fellow of Jefus college, Cambridge, and now rector of Whatfield, near Hadleigh, Suffolk.

"We have various teftimonies which will lead to form a tolerably correct

correct notion of the true character of our author, and thefe may well fpare any laboured delineation from the prefent writer: and more efpecially as the general review of his writings, which will be found in the prefent pages, will qualify every reader to judge of our author for himself.

Befides great integrity, great humanity, and other qualities which make men amiable as well as ufeful, this learned and excellent perfon," fays Dr. Heathcote, "was of a very pleafant and facetious turn, as his writings abundantly fhew. He had nevertheless great fenfibility, and could exprefs himself with warmth, and even fome degree of indignation, when he thought the occafion warranted him fo to do. For inftance, he had a great refpect and fondnefs for critical learning, which he fo much cultivated; and though he knew and allowed it to have been disgraced by the manners of certain proud, faftidious, and infolent critics, fuch as Scaliger, Salmafius, Scioppius, &c. yet he thought the reftoration of letters, and the civilization of Europe, fo much indebted to it, that he could ill bear to fee it contemptuously treated and to this may be imputed the little fatirical ftrokes which fometimes occur in his works, against those who did fo contemptuously treat it.

"For the motto of his Life of Erafmus, he chofe fome words of Erafmus himfelf: "Illud certe præfagio, de meis lucubrationibus, qualefcunque funt, candidius judicaturam pofteritatem: tametfi nec de meo feculo queri poffum." Yet it is certain that he had very flight notions of pofthumous fame or glory, and of any real good which could arife from it; as appears from what he had collected and written

1792.

about it in a note on Milton, at the end of his Remarks on Spencer. He could fometimes complain, and doubtlefs with good reason, of the low eftimation into which learning was fallen; and thought it difcountenanced and difcouraged, indirectly at least, when ignorant and worthlefs perfons were advanced to high ftations and great preferments, while men of merit and abi lities were overlooked and neglect ed. Neverthelefs, he laid no undue ftrefs upon fuch ftations and fuch preferments; but entertained juft notions concerning what must ever conftitute the chief good and happinefs of man, and is himself believed to have made the most of them."

"In addition to what has been already stated, refpecting the character of Dr. Jortin, in the present chapter, and may be found incidentally mentioned in other parts of the prefent volume, I must be indulged with reciting, as I am perfuaded my reader will be gratified by the perufal, the character of our author as drawn by the energetic pen of Dr. Parr. "Jortin," fays he, "whether I look back to his verfe, to his profe, to his critical, or to his theological works, there are few authors to whom I am fo much indebted for rational entertainment, or for folid inftruction. Learned he was, without pedantry. He was ingenious without the affectation of fingularity. He was a lover of truth, without hovering over the gloomy abyfs of fceptifcifm, and a friend to free enquiry, without roving into the dreary and pathless wilds of latitudinarianifm. He had a heart, which never difgraced the powers of his understanding. With a lively imagination, an ele gant tafte, and a judgment most mafculine and most correct, he C

qnited

"His ftyle, though inartificial, is fometimes elevated: though familiar, it is never mean; and though employed upon various topics of theology, ethics, and criticifm, it is not arrayed in any delufive refemblance, either of folemnity, from fanatical cant; of profoundness, from fcholaftic jargon; of precifion, from the crabbed formalities of cloudy philologifts; or of refinement, from the techninal babble of frivolous connoiffeurs.

"At the fhadowy and fleeting reputation which is fometimes gained by the petty frolics of literary vanity, or the mifchievous ftruggles of controverfial rage, Jortin, never grafped. Truth, which fome men are ambitious of feizing by furprize in the tracklefs and dark recefs, he was content to overtake in the broad and beaten path: and in the purfuit of it, if he does not excite our aftonishment by the rapidity of his ftrides, he, at leaft, fecures our confidence by the firmness of his ftep. To the examination of pofitions advanced by other men, he always brought a mind, which neither prepoffeffion had feduced, nor malevolence polluted. He impofed not his own conjectures as infallible and irrefiftible truths, nor endeavoured to give an air of importance to trifles, by dogmatical vehemence. He could fupport his more, ferious opinions,

without the verfatility of a fophift, the fiercenefs of a difputant, or the impertinence of a buffoon-more than this-he could relinquish or correct them with the calm and fteady dignity of a writer, who, while he yielded something to the arguments of his antagonists, was confcious of retaining enough to command their respect. He had too much difcernment to confound difference of opinion with malignity or dullness, and too much candour to infult, where he could not perfuade. Though his fenfibilities were neither coarfe nor fluggish, he yet was exempt from those fickle humours, thofe rankling jealoufies, and that reftlefs waywardness, which men of the brighteft talents are too prone to indulge. He carried with him, into every ftation in which he was placed, and every subject which he explored, a folid greatnefs of foul, which could fpare an inferior, though in the offenfive form of an adverfary, and endure an equal with, or without, the facred name of friend. The importance of commendation, as well to him who beftows, as to him who claims it, he estimated not only with juftice, but with delicacy, and therefore, he neither wantonly lavifhed it, nor withheld it aufterely. But invective he neither provoked nor feared; and, as to the feverities of contempt, he referved them for occafions where alone they could be employed with propriety, and where, by himfelf, they always were employed with effect for the chaftife. ment of arrogant dunces, of cenforious fciolifts, of intolerant bigots in every fect, and unprincipled im poftors in every profeffion. Dif tinguifhed in various forms of literary compofition, engaged in various duties of his ecclefiaftical profeffion, and bleffed with a long and

kohour

honourable life, he nobly exemplified that rare and illuftrious virtue of charity, which Leland, in his reply to the letter-writer, thus eloquently defcribes: "Charity never mifrepresents; never afcribes obnoxious principles or mistaken opinions to an opponent, which he himfelf difavows; is not fo earnest in refuting, as to fancy pofitions never afferted, and to extend its cenfure to opinions, which will perhaps be delivered. Charity is utterly averfe to fneering, the most defpicable fpecies of ridicule, that moft defpicable fubterfuge of an impotent objector. Charity never fuppofes, that all fenfe and knowledge are confined to a particular circle, to a district, or to a country: Charity never condemns and embraces principles in the fame breath; never profeffes to confute, what it acknowledges to be just, never prefumes to bear down an adverfary with confident affertions; Charity does not call diffent infolence, or the want of implicit fubmiffion, a want of common respect."

"This, I cannot help exclaiming in the words of a right reverend remarker-This is the folution of a philofopher indeed; clear, fimple, manly, rational, and ftriking conviction in every word; unlike the refined and fantastic nonfenfe of a writer of paradoxes."

"The esteem, the affection, the

reverence, which I feel for fo profound a fcholar, and fo honeft a man, as Dr. Jortin, make me wholly indifferent to the praise and cenfure of those who vilify, without reading, his writings, or read them, without finding fome incentive to ftudy, fome proficiency in knowledge, or fome improvement in virtue.'

"We will again adduce the ge. neral teftimony of the effayift, whom we have repeatedly quoted, and with that close our prefent inquiry. "A review of the life of the late Dr. Jortin cannot but fuggeft the moft pleafing reflections. As a poet, a divine, a philofopher, and a man, he served the caufe of religion, learning, and morality. There are, indeed, many writers whofe reputation is more diffused among the vulgar and illiterate, but few will be found whose names ftand higher than Dr. Jortin's in the esteem of the judicious.”.

And afterwards he adds,-"The tranfition from an author's writings to his life, is frequently difadvantageous to his character. Dr. Jortin, however, when no longer confidered as an author, but as a man, is far from being leffened in our opinion. A fimplicity of manners, an inoffenfive behaviour, an universal benevolence, candour, modefty, and good fenfe, were his characteristics."

"THE

HE view which I fhall take of our author will be of his intellectual, and of his religious and moral qualities.

"I do not know that genius can be afcribed to Dr. Doddridge, taking that word in its higheft fignifieation, as implying either a great inventive

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