tical and villainous !-Nor was either of these pretenders difappointed in his aim, as will presently be feen. But before we proceed with the narrative, it may not be improper here to take notice, that this pious Mr. [afterwards Dr.] Innes, was the worthy Gentleman whose name stands with honourable diftinction in the title-page of a well-esteemed book, entitled A modeft Enquiry after moral Virtue; which he had the impudence to publifh as the production of his own pen, and for which, befide the credit of the work, and the profits of the fale, he was rewarded, by the Bishop of London, with a good living in Effex. The fraud, however, did not pafs undetected. The real Author, a Scotch Divine, obliged him publicly to difclaim the performance in print; and alfo to compromife with him for the profits of the edition. We have mentioned the hurry in which Innes prepared, with impious mockery, to baptife his pretended Convert. The ceremony was accordingly performed in the prefence of the Governor, and several other Officers and Gentlemen, in the public chapel; and the name given him was George Lauder, in compliment to the Governor, whofe name it was, and who was prevailed on to ftand Godfather, on this folemn occafion. Soon after this, arrived the Bishop of London's answer to Innes's letter. It was full of commendations of the Chaplain's zeal, befides a very kind invitation to George, to repair to England. On this, the Governor was induced to get his hopeful godfon a difcharge; while Innes took care to procure a certificate, figned by that Gentleman, and a number of other Officers of the garrison, and even by feveral Minifters, much more in the Convert's commendation than he deferved: after which this righteous pair fet out together for Rotterdam. Here George was introduced to fome perfons eminent for their piety and learning, particularly the celebrated Mr. Bafnage, Author of the Continuation of the Jewish History; likewife to fome of the Minifters and Gentlemen of the English church, and to several of the French Proteftants there: among whom he was fo much careffed, that he began to look upon himself as a very confiderable perfonage.-Yet in the midft of all this, he was not a little mortified by the fhrewd queftions put to him by feveral Gentlemen, which convinced him, that they did not give entire credit to his account of himself. But as to any real remorse or fhame, for the fraudulent part he was acting, he found it, he fays, fit lighter on his mind, in proportion to the many things he met with to encourage his scheme and flatter his vanity. At this time it was, that his genius for impofture led him to a whimsical expedient, in order to increase the peculiarity of his character, 9 447 character, and the public amazement, viz. that of living upon On their arrival at London, Innes introduced his Convert to the Bishop; by whom he was received with great humanity; and he foon after gained a number of friends among the clergy and laity; many of them perfons of worth and piety. Nevertheless, it was not long ere he had a greater number of oppofers to combat with, who put him under a neceffity of having his fenfes and memory about him more than ever, to avoid detection. Among others, that arch Sceptic, Dr. Halley, together with Dr. Mead, and Dr. Woodward, were very active in endeavouring to difcover his impofture; but their eagerness to expofe him, produced the common effect in fuch cafes, only ferving to make others think the better of him, and to efpoufe his caufe with the more zeal. In fhort, the oppofition of the three learned Gentlemen above-named, was generally imputed, not to the true caufe, but to their fuppofed difregard for Chriftianity; the honour of which, fome thought, was not a little concerned in this notable converfion. It was, therefore, the luckieft thing that could have happened for George, that the Free-thinkers were his firft declared oppofers. Thofe oppofers, however, were much at a lofs how to find out his real country, either by his idiom or his pronunciation of the Latin, French, Italian, or any other language he was mafter of; for his idiom and pronunciation were, defignedly, fo mixed and blended by the various languages he had learned, and the many nations he had been converfant with, that it was impoffible for the most curious judge to discover in it any thing like an uniform refemblance to any European tongue whatever. They were also as unfuccefsful in the conjectures drawn from his complexion; and, on the whole, he declares, he never met, nor heard of, any perfon who gueffed right, or any thing near it, with refpect to his native country. Mean while his friends were ready to take every advantage for him, that could be drawn from the fpecious regularity of his behaviour. Fortunately for him, many falfehoods were spread abroad concerning him, in order to defame his character; fuch as his being a drunkard, gamefter, fornicator, &c. and these reports, which by no means hit upon his real vices, being eafily refuted, operated greatly in his favour. At the fame time, the the plainnefs of his drefs and diet, the little trouble he appeared to give himself about wealth, preferment, or even fecuring a bare competency, his good-natured and charitable demeanour, his averfion to drinking and the company of lewd women, the warmth he always expreffed for religion, and the delight he feemed to take in its public offices,-altogether feemed fuch convincing proofs of his fincerity, that thofe of his friends to whom he was moft intimately known, were the most impatient and difpleased to have it called in question. For, who could imagine, as they often urged, that a youth of fo much sense and learning, for his years, fo feemingly free from ambition, and other vices, could be fo abandoned as to be guilty of such abominable imposture and impiety, for the fake of a little plain, homely, food and raiment, beyond which he neither makes the leaft effort, or feems to have the leaft wifh ?— -Thefe friends of our Author went ftill farther; they even challenged his accufers, by feveral advertisements in the Gazette, to prove any of the afperfions thrown out against him, or to produce any one folid proof or objection against the account he had given of himfelf. And thus, by fuch charitable efforts on his behalf, and the Candid Vindication they printed fome months afterwards, did this Impoftor triumph in his impious deceit, and defy the whole world to detect him! But inftances of such flagrant impofition on the credulous public are not rare, even in these infidel times; and we have seen how difficult it is to come at the truth of fuch tales as that of Elizabeth Canning, the cafe of Ashley and the Jew, and the Cock-lane Ghoft. There was likewise a variety of judgments formed about our Convert, by those who thought him a cheat. Those of the church of Rome faid, that he was bribed by fome English Minifters, on purpose to expofe their church. The Proteftants in Holland faid, he was hired to expose their doctrine of Predeftination, and cry up the Epifcopacy of the Church of England, in derogation of their prefbyterian government. Here fome reprefented him as a Jefuit or Prieft in difguife, others as a Tool of the Non-jurors, among whom Mr. Innes had introduced him, and of whofe principles he had conceived a favourable opinion.—As to his good friend Innes, he wifely disregarded these rumours, and feduloufly followed his own plan. Pfalmanazar, for that was the name our Convert ftill went by, had not been above two months in London, before Innes perfuaded him to tranflate the Church Catechifm into his pretended Formofan language, and then made him prefent it to the unfufpecting Bishop of London; who received it with candour, rewarded it with generofity, and carefully laid it up among his other curious manufcripts. The Catechifin was wrote in one column, in Roman character, character, with an interlineal Latin verfion, in Italick, and in the invented character on the oppofite column. As Innes faw him fucceed fo well in this Catechifm, he next prevailed on his Difciple to write the Hiftory of Formofa; as a thing which would bring both credit and profit to the writer, and be very acceptable to the public. One might have imagined, that a task so arduous and dangerous would have startled fuch a raw young fellow, then scarce twenty years old, and an abfolute ftranger to all that part of the world. But he was an enterprifing Genius, and not to be daunted by difficulties. He had picked up fome imperfect notions of thofe countries, from a few books which had fallen in his way, as well as from conversation with people who had either been in thofe parts, or had read more about them than he had. One thing greatly relieved him. We had then no accounts of the inland of Formofa that could be at all depended upon. The Latest was a book written by one Candidus, a Dutch Clergy.. man, who had been there; but even his work being stuffed with abfurdities and monftrous details, was found worthy of no regard; fo that Pfalmanazar was left quite at large to exercife his rare talent at inventing, and to hatch whatever he pleased out of his own fertile fancy: for the place, upon the whole, was fo totally unknown to the Europeans, even to thofe who had been in China and Japan, that he might eafily make whatever he should say of it, pafs current with the generality of mankind. In short, without much hefitation, he undertook the work, refolving to give fuch a defcription of his pretended native country, as would be wholly new and furprizing; and fhould, in most particulars, clafh with all the accounts other Writers had given of it. And this he was left to hammer out of his own brain, with no other affiftance than Varenius's defcription of Japan, which Innes put into his hands. The greatest difficulty he had to ftruggle with, was the eagernefs with which both Innes and the Bookfellers preffed him to difpatch the work, while the town was hot in expectation of it; fo that he was scarcely allowed two months to write the whole: notwithstanding his many interruptions from frequent visitors, and invitations abroad. Hence it is no wonder that the book came out in fo crude and imperfect a manner as the first edition appeared in; and the Author tells us, that it would have abounded with more abfurdities, had not the perfon who Englished it from his Latin, affifted him to correct the more glaring improbabilities; but the Tranflator alfo was fo hurried by the Bookfellers, that he had not fufficient time for confulting his original Writer. However, when the book appeared, the most weighty REY, Dec. 1764. objection Gg 1 objection to it arofe, not from its imperfections, but from the very contrary circumftance, viz. how fuch a ftripling as he muft have been when he left that country, could give fo large and particular account of it, as could hardly have been expected from a man of twice his age! To obviate, in fome degree, this difficulty, honeft Dr. Innes advifed him to affume three years more than belonged to him, and to pretend that he was nineteen when he came away, and near twenty-three at the writing of the book. However, it gave him much trouble to vindicate these monftrofities, as he himself juftly calls them, both in company and in a new preface to the fecond edition of the book, which was foon called for, and in which he made fuch improvements as were most likely to increafe the fale, and fatisfy the public. While he was preparing the fecond edition, he was fent, by the good Bishop of London, and other friends, to Oxford, in order to purfue fuch ftudies as he was fit for, or inclined to. When he arrived there, he found that learned univerfity divided into two parties, with respect to his performance; one for, and the other against him; and among the latter, he fays, were men of the beft character, for candour, probity, and learning. Our Author had an apartment affigned him, in one of the most confiderable colleges. He was not, indeed, matriculated, but had all the other advantages of learning which the univerfity could afford him, either by accefs to the libraries, or by acquaintance with the learned. A Tutor was affigned him, who not only gave him leave to attend all the lectures he read to his other Pupils, fome of whom were Gentlemen of high birth and fortune, and greatly advanced in learning, but invited him to make fuch objections as occurred to his mind, or even to chufe the fubjectwhether the Newtonian philofophy, logic, poetry, or divinity; which laft, he tells us, was, of all others, his favourite study. His ftay at Oxford was not above fix months. At his return to his old lodgings in Pall-mall, he learned, that his worthy friend, Dr. Innes, was departed for Portugal, being appointed Chaplain-general to the English forces in that kidgdom, through the means of Dr. Compton, the good Bifhop of London, on whom he had fo egregioufly impofed, and at whofe hands he thus obtained but too great a reward for his unrighteous industry. I had no realon, fays Pfalmanazar, to regret his abfence, for he had, before I went to Oxford, been guilty of fuch notorious and bare-faced immoralities, as well in this as in a former lodging in the Strand, both in fober and reputable families, that his character had greatly fuffered by it.-He had almost an unfurmountable propenfity to wine and women, and when fraught with the former, fell immoderately foul on the latter, whether |