218 Explanation of Plate II.-Religion in Ireland.-Hutchins defended. you, as no drawing of this building has yet been published. This edifice stands upon the ground formerly occupied by the late Earl of Mornington, in Grafton-Street, oppofite the houfe of the provoft of Trinity College; of part of which college, and its library, and a new theatre, thefe houfes command a very pleafing profpect. The building marked with the letter A is that which appertains to the Dublin Society, whofe room, upon the fecond floor from the street, is about 40 feet long, by 20 wide, and near 20 feet high; fitted up all round with 3 fetts of mahogany glaffes, rifing one above the other, a handfome gilt and ornamented chair for the prefiding member; is decorated with an elegant fretted ftucco cieling, and accomodated with two fire-places, with chimney-pieces of Irish marble; on each fide of thefe fire-places, is a large white marble buft of one of the original promoters of this fociety, which was inftituted for the encouragement of agriculture and ufeful arts, and whereof the Prefident and Vice President of the London Society for encouragement of arts are ftanding honorary members. Over the meeting room is a library, and repofitory for mechanical models, fave thofe relative to hufbandry, which are depofited in another place belonging to the fociety. The reft of the building confits of the neceffary offices, and the apartments for the affiftant fecretary. Behind the houfe are the fociety's drawing-fchools, where children of indigent perfons are inftructed, at the fociety's expence, in the arts of drawing, in architecture, ornament, and the human figure. The other building, mark ed B, appertained to the Canal Company, but now belongs to the newly established Royal Irish Society, and is fimilar in design to the Dublin Society's houfe; but the metting room is not finished with equal elegance, although of the fame dinenfions. Should you pleafe to encourage thefe little sketches, I may, from time to time, fupply you with a few others, of edifices in Dublin, which have not as yet been given to the public; and am, Yours, &c. SEVE TOBY TROTTER. MR. URBAN, Dublin, O. 1785. EVERAL good folk in England, feeming to be of opinion that the inhabitants of Dublin if not of all Ireland] are going headlong to the devil, allow ane permiftion to let them right in that particular; and to affure them, that there is fomething, at least, of the appearance of religion amongst us. For this purpofe, I fend you a view of an edifice, just now finished, in Dorset-street, Dublin [plate II. fig. z], one not very confonant, indeed, to any ancient or modern architecture that I know of; but it is a meeting-houfe of the Methodifts, here commonly called Swadlers, who have rules, foundations, and fuper-ftructures, purely of their own. It is called the Betheida Chapel, as built upon the plan of an edifice of that appellation in America, erected by the labours of the reverend Mr. Welley. This chapel is well fupplied by the pious endeavours of a worthy paftor; who, unjustly difcarded by old MotherChurch, in oneof her angry fits, may here laugh at her and her fons, in an elegance of habitation not enjoyed by many of her family in Ireland. I Yours, &c. STEPHEN SLOUCH. March 7 Mr. URBAN, FEEL myself too much interested in the infinuation of the author of Mr. Hutchins's life whom I know; and the challenge of your Bristol correfpondent N. L. whom I do not know*, to let them pafs without fpeaking a word on the fubject in vindication of the author whofe memory appears to be fo much injured by them. The MS. of that divifion of the county of Dorfet in which Milton Abbas is fituate was, without fcruple, handed, by the editors of Mr. H's Hiftory, to the lord of that manor, whe, after keeping it a certain time, returned it with an alteration of the paffage in queftion. His view in that alteration could not be fufpected by the editors, who only acted as the vehicle by which the Hiftory was to be conveyed to the public, who gave it fuch, unexpected patronage. It is now too well known, and all that I can do, in vindication of Mr. H's character, is to declare, in this public manner, that both the author's original manufcript, and the tranfcript of it whence it was printed, end in this article at the words, "near 1201. per ann." (vol.11. p. 440, col. b.). From this anecdote let all country hiftorians take warning how they fuffer truth to be facrificed to the interefts of others. Not that this was Mr. Of the Soul of Man, and the Soul of the Brute.` H's cafe; he, good man, if not dead Mr. URBAN, March 7. A S it is fome time fince we have had a mifcellaneous plate of antiquities, I fend you, herewith, a small ebony figure [plate II. fig. 3.], which was found, fome years ago, on removing the old feats in one of the churches at Coventry. It appears to me of the fame date and ftvie with the cross found in Lichfield Cathedral, and now depofited in Mr. Greene's museum there, to which it may serve as a companion. It is not meant for the V. M. the attributes are not proper, notwithstanding the child. The palm may belong to St. Jofeph, or fome other; but the former is never depicted in that manner. Fig. 4. may ferve as an appendix to thofe you have given us lately concern ing the original coffee, houfes in Lon don. I am obliged to your correfpondent, P 43, for throwing fome light on the MS. of Rob. Thorp; and equally pleafed that the picture which I defcribed (vol. LV. p. 853) has revived the memory of Clement Edmondes ; but the perfon reprefented is yet a myf. tery; perhaps, a relation to him; for what other reafon could his book appear, unless we fuppofe it in very high eftimation at that time? even then it was not a book particularly adapted to the ufe of the Ladies. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, OBSERVATOR. SHOULD be forry to incur the cenfure mentioned in your Index Indicatorius, p. 153, for I am no friend to controverfial writing, it often produces more evil than good. Men will have the pailions and feelings of men, and controverfy frequently generates animøsity. In the multitude, the fincere man, on both ides, is moft liable to be disturbed. He, 219 whofe ways are evil, heeds little, and corrects neither faith nor morals. You will, however, pardon me for taking. notice (without entering iuto tedious and cafuiftical difcuffions) of a subject which is conveyed by one of your poetical correfpondents. A great deal might be faid on this occafion; but, as you do not approve of long differtations, the following brief remarks, I hope, will be admiffible. The author of the verfes to the memory of Sappho feems either much tainted with Pythagorean principles, or inclined to believe in the Metempsycho· fis; if fo, I will not envy him that grand confolation; the thought is not only degrading, but, at the fame time, an abufe of that fuperior reafon, which the Omnipotent Wisdom has given us for more valuable purpofes; nor fhall I renounce my opinion of the higher state of the rational foul of man, over the brute creation. Let him who fixes an limited reason, or rather instinct, of the erroneous attachment to his favourite animals, enjoy the humiliating reflec tion of affociating with them in other fpheres: the idea, fo far from pleasing, is rather derogatory to the exalted nature of man's creation, inferior to that of angels, yet dignified and impressed with a character and emanation from the divine Creator himself. I was dif pofed, on the firft confideration, to view thefe verfes as the fportive fancy of poetic fiction; but, when the letters REV. appeared affixed to the neck of this new Sirius, with a poisonous fting under its tail, I could not help being furprised, that a real clergyman, who fpeaks in the language of a Pagan Philofopher, fhould publish, under fmoothflowing words, fuch grofs abfurdities, inconfiftent with the true clerical function, and not juftifiable upon the principles of revelation this, indeed, tells us, that God has fubjected various parts of the creation to our ufe and benefit; that we are not to abuse any one of them, which to do would no doubt be criminal further, in their regard, he hath not declared unto us: "The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed this 220 Infcription on an old Difh.-Story of Rofamond. It must, therefore, be the fruit of a wild imagination, to suppose that the fpirits of brutes exift after death; as well might we fay, that inanimate beings will fome time rife to life. In fhort, the notion of tranfimigration is, in itfelf, fo ridiculous, fo repugnant to Christianity, there needs no argument to refute it nor will I join in combat with any man who makes natural reli gion, without revelation, the ftandard of his opinions. Yours, &c. THEOPHILUS ANTISOPHISTES. MR. URBAN, Notting. Jan, 16. IF any of your correfpondents, verfed in the study of antiquity, will be fo obliging as to interpret the infcription I fend you, they will fatisfy a part of the world, by elucidating, in foine degree, an ufeful fcience. This infcription (fee plate II. fig. 5.) is round the center, or middle, of a Large circular difh, of brafs, apparently once gilt with gold; the difh is about 16 inches in diameter, it has an emboffment in the middle, and the in fcription, with a mall variation, is four times repeated. I apprehend that it once formed a part of the communion plate belonging to fome Popith church, and has, no doubt, been used in the adminiftration of the facrament, perhaps, in the monastery of Lenton, in which parith, tradition fays, it has remained upwards of a century. I am informed of a dish, now in London, with this legend," Marcus Tullius Cicero, Conful; " with the head of the Conful: it was fhewn to the members of the Antiquarian Society, in London, by Dr. Gifford, who were pleafed to pronounce it a valuable rarity. You will alfo receive (fig. 6,) the plan of a labyrinth, cut on the furface of the earth, about a mile from Nottingham. Deering, who wrote the hiftory and antiquities of the town of Nottingham, fays, that this maze, which is called Shepherd's Race, is more ancient than the Reformation, as is evident from the crofs-croflets in the centers of the four leffer rounds, the path is near a mile in length, and is circumfcribed within 15 fquare yards; he fays it is made fomewhat in imitation of thofe of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who formed fuch intricate courfes for their youths to run on, to acquire agility of body. Dr. Stukeley, in his Itinerary, fpeaks of one at Aukborough, in the county of Lincoin, which is undoubtedly of Po man original, and to this day retains the Mr. URBAN, THE R. D. Oxford, March 13. HE ftory of fair Rofamond, in p. 970, of your volume for 1784, is to be found in Ames's Typographical Antiquities, p 112, 1ft edit. Veritas, in p. 976, will find Dr. Johnson's obfervation on Gray noticed in p. 48, col. 2, of your volume for 1783. In your last volume we fhould, p. 14, 1.-11, 12, read "three of whom died young. One fon and a daughter survived him." Dr. Lawrence thus mentions them, in the elegant Latin Life, referred to in the notes :—“ ex quâ quinque li❤ beros fufcepit; quorum tres tenerâ ætate diem obierunt: de duobus reliquis, filio et filia, fuperfedeo dicere; viventes enim et fentientes laudare vereor." P. 32, col. 2. Alfred the Great died in 900; as Carte has fufficiently proved in his Hiftory of England, vol. 1. p. 316," according to Mr. Granger, in his Biographical Hiftory, vol. I. Clafs I. P. 182. Surely your correfpondent's attention failed him, when he mentioned a Latin Septuagint, in col. 2, 1. 15. P. 251. col. 2. It may be remarked, at, in the New Teftament, we are authorifed, by the original, always to write Solomon. ་ P. 284. Without any invidious or illiberal comparisons, may it not be fuggefted to the Univerfity of Cambrige, that the public has a right to expect from her prefs the remainder of Demosthenes; the fplendid edition of whom, by Dr. Taylor, ftill continues imperfect? Hia: tus valde deflendus! P. 451. col. 1. In Fabricius's Bibli oth. Gr. vol. I. lib. 2. cap. 3, §. 20, a Syriac verfion of Homer is noticed, as ntioned by Abulpharagius. The P. 513. col. 1. The infcription in Dorchefter choir may be feen in Browre Willis's Hiftory of Abbies, II. 176. P. 531. col. 1. "critic of tafte and learning" has need of no fmall Thare of both, for the fupport of his very bold furmife, with regard to the Arundel Marbles. Surmife without argument avails nothing. He himfelf, however, promifes, in p. 603, to take up the gauntlet, and defend his caufe. Will your correfpondent E. in p. 888. of your volume for 1784, and p. 538. of that for laft year, account for another, feemingly, glaring impropriety in the frequent fpelling of the name Nathanael ? The An Alteration in a Line of Virgil inadmisible. The famous Dr. Lardner always writes Nathaniel; and it is really curious to obferve, how carefully Dr. Doddridge has followed the orthography of Nathanael, in his column of our version of John 1, 45, &c. and xxi, 2; and how he has in his own as carefully mifpelled it, after his brother Lardner, Nathaniel. ACADEMICUS. P. S. A friend has juft fent me the following fricture on your Magazine for laft month: " If Gratian's remark, p. 124, col 2, had been made in my hearing, I would have defired an amendment; that, inftead of never gain any credit,' he would say, ever gain great credit; leaving out or altering all that follows, and much that precedes." To what has been remarked in the fame Magazine, as to the redoubted Meffrs HERON and PINKERTON (Alter et idem!), give me leave to add, from Mr. Maty's Review, the following paffage, relative to his "rafh effufions" on the facred volume: "I can allure the readers, who may be ftruck by Mr. P's warm manner, that he knows no thing at all of the matter; as they will find, if they have talte enough to difcriminate between the compofition of Mofes and Ezra; which Mr. P. thinks bear internal marks of being written by the fame author. Deferbeat adolefcentia!" This rafh, precipitate, abfurd," young man infolently pronounces Dean Swift's "ftyle now inferior to that of every newspaper." Falfus bonor juvat. Our "old Correfpondent," we doubt not, will make up his mind about our "regard for him." MR. URBAN, March 12. THOU HOUGH I have read, with pleasure, the remarks of your correfpondent T. H. W. p. 133 of your last Magazine, on Virgil's "affuetumque malo Ligurem" in his fecond Georgic, and am ready to allow him credit for the ingenuity with which he has fupported his conjectural alteration of that paliage; the evidence in favour of the vulgar t.xt and interpretation appears to me too ftrong to be easily fhaken. By continuing the " que," fubjoined to "affuetum," confequently "malo," with the first fyllable fhort, and rendering the words, "accustomed to hardship," we perfectly accord with Dionyfius Halicarnaffenfis, who reprefents the Ligurians as an intrepid and laborious race, indebted chiefly to hunting for their fubfiftence, and 221 inured to lie on the bare ground. The poffibility of an equivocal interpretation need not be confidered as an objection by any means unfurmountable: if, on finding what Virgil fays, liable to be turned into a pup, we are alarmed, left his dignity fhould fink in the reader's eftimation; it will be fufficient to remind him how often we meet with that fpecies of falfe wit in the graveit and moft applauded writers of antiquity. As to any apprehenfion left this part of the Praifes furnishes them with an of Italy" fhould be converted into a farcafm, if "malo" is rendered evil," Catron enters a proteft against it; and tranflators are under a neceflity of here in the beft fenfe, unlels their language following him and Dryden, by taking it fimilar to the original. At the fame ambiguity time, it may not, perhaps, be thought that Virgil was difpofed to with-hold their latitude of interpreting a dubious from his countrymen and contemporaries word artfully cholen, if we only turn to the cleventh book of his Eneid, where Camilla thus infults the Ligurian warrior, who attempts to escape from her by ftratagem: "Vane Ligur, fruftraque animis elate fu perbis, Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus artes.” This is indeed the farcafin of a victo rious enemy; but the Poet, a few lines before, fpeaks in his own perfon, and ftrongly characterifes Liguria, both for the valour and fraud of its inhabitants. "Incidit huic, fubitoque afpectu territus hæfit Apenninicolæ bellatur fillius Auni, Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata finebant." Clear as the fact is, the cause of Vir gil's prejudice against the Ligurians, is not eafily traced, at the diftance of fo many hundred years: his moft voluminous commentator, La Cerda, the learn ed Spaniard, fays only, that he hated them" vel vitio gentis, vel privatâ aliquâ offenfà;" nor can this be wondered at, when we find it by no means feasible to affign explicitly the real motives which give rife to feveral of thofe local or national reflections, which abound in the works of living writers. Your correfpondent winds up his letter, by far too pointedly, in reprefenting the Ligurian" worn out with la bour," as an improper companion to the martial nations enumerated by Virgil' Affuetus can by no latitude be rendered "exhaufted;" but, rather "inured,” which 222 Remarks on Dr. Horfley's Sermon on Incarnation. which comes much nearer to a reverse of that meaning, than any thing fyno- "T. Wartham, M. D. at Durham, jp. 181, col. 2." was, I apprehend," Dr. Thomas Wharton, of Durham," an intimate friend and correfpondent of Gray, to whom a confiderable part of his letters are addressed, and whose name ftands in the red book, as one of the fenior Fellows of the College of Phyficians. "Lieut. Gen. Theodore Day, p. 182, col. 2." No fuch name as Day occurs the officers of that rank in the among Army Lift; but there is Lieut. Gen. Theodore Dury, who, if I mistake not, commanded the Marines in the defcent at St. Cas, about the year 1758. I HAVE juft read Dr. Horfley's Ser mon on the Incarnation, and cannot help mentioning to you, that I am much difappointed in it. In general, it is understood, that fermons are of the more light and fuperficial clafs of compofitions; and, perhaps, the nature of moft audiences requires them to be fo; but when they come to be printed, and offer ed to the public, I humbly think they ought to be retouched; the fstyle should be corrected, and the matter improved. It appears to me that Dr. H. hath done neither. I fhall make fome remarks on the style, and let the reader judge for himself. P. 1. "That fhe, who in these terms was faluted by an Angel, fhould, in after-times, become an object of fuperftitious adoration, is a thing far lefs to be wondered, than that men." &c. The prepofition at ought to have been inferted after wondered. We cannot fav" to wonder a thing." Par. 2d. "Some nine years fince, the Chriftian Church was no lefs aftonifhed," &c. A vulgar ungrammatical phrase. "Firft for the importance of the doctrine," &c.-Inelegant. 66 P. 11. they affirmed that the very principle of perfonality and individual exiftence in Mary's Son, was union with the uncreated word."-It would have been more confpicuous to have written, " that union with the un created word, was the very principle," &c. P. 13. "The incarnation of the Di vine Word, fo roundly afferted by St. John," &c.-A vulgarifm. fhew." Ib. " Ib."-it were not difficult to fhew," Better," it would not be difficult to the miraculous conception, once admitted, naturally brings up after it the great doctrines of the atonement," &c.-Inelegant. P. 16. " by whom the ftory, had it been falfe, bad been eafily confuted.". The repetition of bad is inharmonious. -Better," might or could have been eafily confuted." Ib. 66 the Hebrew congregations, for which St. Matthew wrote, and the Greek congregations, for which St. Luke wrote, fhould find an exprefs record of the miraculous conception, each in its proper gofpel."-Here each and its relate to congregations. But the antecedents are plural, and the relatives fingular. P. 18. "they who were ledde by the Spirit."-There does not feem fufficient reafon for this fingular orthography. Thefe faulty paffages occurred to me on the first perufal; and there are others which are deftitute of perfpicuity, and ill expreffed. Every author is bound to attend to his ftyle; if he neglect it, he is deficient in refpect to the public. In particular, it is to be expected, that the man who is quite at bome in the Greek, should not be quite a franger in the Eng lish Language. With refpect to the matter of the fermon, I think it would not be difficult to fhew, that it abounds with trifling arguments, and inconclufive reafonings; but, I take it for granted, this will be fhewn, by one who ftands in no need of my affiftance in the controverfy. I fhall, therefore, confine nyfelf to a few general remarks. 1. From the beginning to the end of the Sermon, the defire of blackening a certain perfon's opinions is. fo evidently the defign, and fo conftantly flares one in the face, that every candid man must think the author has mistaken his title; and that, in place of a a Sermon on the Incarnation, he ought to have called it a Ser mon againfi Dr. P. 2. Though he often speaks with feverity, of the tenets of certain perfons, he is obliged to draw all his proots of the existence of these tenets, from one author, by which, indeed, he feems to countenance an idea, which experience hath probably |