XLII. NEWTON:

On Oct. 27, 1831, I met, in company with Hughes, Professor Haviland, at the room of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. He said that Sir Isaac Newton was in confinement for 3 weeks. He learnt the fact from the late Dr Gregory, (who seems to have been a relation); probably he could tell more about Newton.

XLIII. LATITUDINARIANS.

"Many of his sentiments on religious subjects are worthy of a liberal and enlarged mind. He could discern clearly enough the folly and meanness of all bigotry except his own. When he spoke of the scruples of the Puritans, he spoke like a person, who had really obtained an insight into the divine philosophy of the New Testament, and who considered Xtianity as a noble scheme of government, tending to promote the happiness, and to elevate the moral nature of man. The horror, which the sectaries felt for cards, Xtmas-ale, plum-porridge, mince-pies, and dancing bears, excited his contempt. To the arguments urged by some very worthy people against showy dress, he replied, with admirable sense and spirit, 'Let us not be found, when our Master calls us, stripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues. Alas, sir, a man, who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a grey one.' Yet he was himself under the tyranny of scruples as unreasonable as those of Hudibras or Ralpho, and carried his zeal for ceremonies and ecclesiastical dignities to lengths altogether inconsistent with reason, or with Xtian charity. He has gravely noted down in his diary, that he once committed the sin of drinking coffee on Good Friday. In Scotland he thought it his duty to pass several months without joining in public worship, solely because the ministers of the Kirk had not been ordained by Bishops. His

mode of estimating the piety of his neighbours was somewhat singular. Campbell,' said he, 'is a good man,- a pious man. I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years, but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat: this shews he has good principles.' Spain and Sicily must surely contain many pious robbers, and well-principled assassins. Johnson could easily see that a Roundhead, who named all his children after Solomon's singers, and talked in the House of Commons about seeking the Lord, might be an unprincipled villain, whose religious mummeries only aggravated his guilt. But a man, who took off his hat, when he passed a Church episcopally consecrated, must be a good man, a pious man, a man of good principles. Johnson could easily see that those persons, who looked on a dance, or a laced waistcoat as sinful, deemed most ignobly of the attributes of God, and of the ends of revelation. But with what a storm of invective he would have overwhelmed any man, who had blamed him for celebrating the close of Lent with sugarless tea, and butterless buns!" Notice of Croker's Edition of Boswell's Johnson, Edinb. Rev. No 107. Sept. 1831. p. 29.

XLIV. Letter from Godfrey Higgins.

My Dear Sir,

Ap. 6. 1832.

In a late letter you say that my word Ktetosopher is formed against all analogy. I cannot help thinking it has a close analogy to Philosopher. However, it must remain, and will prove at the most only that I am a bad word-maker. Those who find fault may make me a better word for " possessor of wisdom." I suppose you will have received an odd quarto of which you can make no sense. It is altogether a mistake of my printer's I intended him to strike me off a few copies of chapters I and II of Book IX, and he only struck off the first page; and, the press being unset before the mistake was

discovered, it could not be corrected, but along with this you will receive a copy of the two chapters, which I will thank you to return by the same conveyance for me to Mr Smallfield, priuter, Homerton. I am particular, as I do not wish them to be destroyed, as they will destroy two copies of my work. I have got 684 pages printed. I received the large box of books, and also the small parcel a few days afterward.

With best wishes to all your circle yours very truly

Sk[ellow] Gr[ange], 6 Ap. 1832.

Godfrey Higgins.

E. H. Barker esq., along with a parcel, to Mr. Welsh, No 6, New Compton St.

XLV. From the same.

My dear Sir, [Doncaster, Ap. 28, 1832,] I hope before this time you will have received a letter from me along with two sheets of my work. My letter will explain to you the mistake which took place respecting it, I shall be glad to hear from you on the subject both of the hieroglyphics and Sanscrit; and if you note any errors of the press, I will thank you to point them out. I am sorry to say there are several, but I hope and think I have been more unlucky in these sheets than in most others: however they will be of no consequence, if I pursue the plan which I at present think of, namely giving away the whole of my quarto edition, and publishing a new one, in German, in octavo. But on these matters I have come to no determination. You, and every learned man, will allow that all ancient history and theology present nothing but a great Ænigma. I am satisfied I have solved it. It has been the work of twenty years' most diligent search, and of the deepest meditation. After I once found the end of the line, I have had little difficulty in following it, though it has been to follow up a very steep hill, on which I have [been]

* Author of the "Celtic Druids," "Horæ Sabbaticæ," &c.

sometimes out of breath. But I have never met with an obsta cle, which has not given way; and often things, which at first appeared most to oppose me, have proved to be the most useful assistants. I really have never yet met with a single piece of evidence, or a single argument, which seems to me seriously to oppose my theory. Yet I do not pretend to demonstrate the truth of it. On these subjects proof can very seldom be had. A high probability is all that can be expected. Since I thought I had finished my volume, that is the general arrangement of it, I have found what has induced me to add another book, which will treat of the microcosms of the ancients and the feodal tenures. At first I thought these subjects would not be connected with one another, or with my subject, in any way whatever, but to my great surprise I have found that they are not only connected together, but with my subject most intimately, when they come to be examined to their foundation. They in fact form a key-stone to my arch.

I do not write this letter at home, but at my neighbour Mr Cooke's of Ouston, where I have come to dine, and I have made a mistake of an hour in the time of dinner, and while all the party are dressing, I have determined to inflict this letter upon you, as I can get Robert King, Lady Helena's brother, to frank it.

I think I recollect in your last letter, which I have not here, you name Clarkson's lectures on Egyptian antiquities. Are they published, by whom, and what price? I shall be in London on the first of June, and remain there till the sixteenth, when I go to the meeting of philosophers at Oxford on the 18th - always heard of at the Oriental club. I hope your ladies all continue in the best health, to whom I beg my best respects. As I go to London I wish to visit the churches of the Templars at Cambridge, Maplestead, and Northampton. Do you know of any thing Templar about Saxmundam in your county? I am convinced the Templars are much older than the eleventh century and were then only brought into notice in the West. Yours truly G. Higgins.

XLVI. Letter from Boissonade.

BARKERO BOISSONADE S.-Dum sævit Cholera, proximo jam ardente Ucalegone, literis vacamus, dulcibus ægrimoniæ allōquiis.

Iniquior est Kiddius in Miscellaneorum Menagii editorem, querens quod præfationem et versiculos Annæ Fabri inscriptos omiserit. Menagius ipse fuit editor, nec omisit quæ nondum scripserat. Tres sunt Menagii de Terentiana Heautontimorumeno Dissertationis editiones. Prima anni 1640 puto vel 1641; secunda anni 1652, Miscellaneis juncta; tertia anni......, cum præfatione, et versibus Anna Fabræ inscriptis, (quæ fæmina non Kiddio vocanda fuit vernacule Anna Fabre, sed Anne Lefevre; filia scilicet Taneguy Lefevre; et uxor Horatii interpretis Andrea Dacier.) Tertiam editionem, principalem quidem ipsam, non vidi, sed ejus repetitionem, eamque inventu facilem, in tomo secundo libri Abbatis D'aubignac, cui titulus : La pratique du theâtre par l'abbé D'aubignac, &c. Amsterdam, 3 vol, 12mo, 1716.

Campolongi Litholexicon Neapoli prodiit, a. 1782. Lusum esse hominis otio abutentis ne dubites.

Inchoatam epistolam diu seposui, turbis publicis et amicorum calamitatibus distractus. Ad te redeo. Anecdotorum volumen quartum ad te nuper per Treuttelium ac Valpyum curavi. In quinto totus nunc sudo.

Eunapii exemplar cum notis A. Fumæi possidet bibliotheca regia, a tuo, puto, non diversum.

Bibliothecæ Instituti custos mihi promisit se Websterianum Supplementum esse empturum.

Tertius Thesauri Stephaniani fasciculus mox prodibit. Tam lente editores procedunt, ut de voce kaniso ante sex annos tibi non sit cogitandum.

Quod memoras Cantabrigiense museum nondum vidi : interrupto Valpyano Diario, interruptum est meum cum Anglicana philologia commercium.