the monuments that remain, or for having been the scene of any great event in classical history. On my reaching England, the change of ministry allowed my most excellent friend Lord Ossory to recommend me to the notice of the late Mr. Fox, under an impression that he had not engaged a private Secretary; he however succeeded in obtaining for me the situation I now hold under the Duke of Bedford. You perceive it is not with impunity you have touched the string of a traveller's history. I only fear that my prolixity may have fatigued you. I have now only to add, that, grateful and proud as I should feel by being honoured with your letters on the subjects to which you allude, I fear I shall be able to make but a poor return. My official occupations here are of such a nature, and so completely occupy my time, as to give me little leisure to attend to the progress of literature in Ireland. Whenever I hear any thing likely to interest you, be assured I will readily avail myself of your permission to communicate it. I have the honour to be, with the most sincere respect, dear Sir, your most faithful and obedient servant, PHILIP HUNT. The Rev. Dr. Ingram, President of Trinity College, Oxford, was warmly patronized by Dr. Parr, when candidate for the Chair of Poetry Professor. The letters, which are merely returns of kindness and compliment, I have not inserted; but that there was mutual respect is proved by the inscription quoted p. 206 of Bibl. Parr. Dr. Parr to the Rev. Dr. Wooll. DEAR DR. WOOLL, First let me discharge a sacred duty, in paying promptly and largely a tribute of praise which is due to the speakers whom it has been my good fortune to hear this day at Rugby. Their bosoms perhaps would glow with honest triumph, if they knew the approbation of my judgment and the sympathy of my soul, from the proofs which they have given me of their taste, their sensibility, and their distinguished proficiency in that erudition which tends to make them good scholars and good men. Have the goodness, Dr. Wooll, to assure your speakers that I was not only satisfied but delighted by their performance of the task assigned to them. And permit me to add, that I was very strongly impressed, not only by the number of your boys, but by their gentlemanlike appearance and decorous behaviour. And now, dear Sir, I entreat you not to let any arbitrary usage, or any puritanical scrupulosity, stand in the way of my very earnest request that you will give your boys a holiday: give it them for my sake, because I was myself an instructor of youth for many years, and to the latest hour of my life my soul will take a warm and serious in their intellectual and moral improvement. Give it them for their sakes, because by their compositions and their recitations they have this day supported, nay exalted, the credit of your school. I should turn away indignantly from any plea that you had refused holiday to peers and peeresses;* they cannot have claims equal to my own upon you for assent. Do not, I beseech you, chill the joy which I feel at this moment upon account of your scholars, and of their parents, and of their instructors. Let me leave your town with a light and cheerful countenance, and let me reflect upon the interesting event of this day with increasing satisfaction, from the consideration that you have granted to me a request which upon many other occasions you thought yourself bound to resist, and have furnished me with an opportunity of manifesting to your scholars my unfeigned good will, good opinion, esteem, and respect. Give my very best compliments to your excellent lady, and believe me, dear Sir, your sincere well-wisher, and very respectful humble servant, SAMUEL PARR. * Dr. James had offended Dr. Parr by not acceding to a like request on this plea. "Dr. James," says Parr, "introduced the excellent plan of education upon the model of Eton into Rugby; and this was judiciously followed up by Dr. Ingles. Dr. Wooll is said not to have disturbed this plan. And I have to state, that he was strongly recommended by the learned Bishop Huntingford; that he is the biographer of the celebrated Dr. Joseph Warton; that he has the inestimable advantage of assistance from three persons most respectable for learning, activity, and fidelity—Mr. Birch, Mr. Philip Homer, and Mr. Logan; and that in a place where nothing is gained by supplies of candidates for the benefits of a regular and splendid foundation, or the authority of long-established fame, the present number of boys, amounting to more than three hundred, ought to be considered as a proof of public confidence, warranted by public experience." DEAR SIR, Dr. James, to Dr. Parr. Harvington near Evesham, Worcestershire, Having just been told by Dr. Johnstone that you intend coming to Worcester some time after Oct. the 7th, and fearing that my concerns here may not permit me to go hence till late in that month at the earliest (both on account of a possible roofing of my chancel, and on account of gathering the fruits of my orchard for winter use, and for making of cyder,) I have thought it right to express my thanks to you by a letter, for the variety of pleasure and information which I have received from your most masterly production upon the nature and principles of Benevolence. The variety of reading you have displayed, and the exquisite choice you have made of quotations (many of which are no less luminous than they are apposite), excited in me an eager desire of visiting the very springs from whence you had drawn so many delicious draughts. I have been truly astonished at what I have observed on every side, at the comprehensiveness of your reading, the fidelity of your memory, and that profound depth of thinking which is manifested both by your reading and writing. From the little conversation I have had with metaphysical authors, you may be sure I have been kept on the full stretch in the perusal of all the philosophical parts of your work; but I assure you I have been entertained and gratîfied in the highest degree almost everywhere, and particularly in your incomparable note about atheism and superstition (in which you must win every heart), and by your most able and satisfactory vindication of Oxford. In both these causes, of religion and her guardians, you have discovered a warmth of feeling, a soundness of reasoning, and a sublimity of expression, that is to be equalled only by the goodness of your heart. The parts I have alluded to are, you well know, among the most popular in your book, and such as will entice the multitude of readers; while such as have a higher relish for literature may sate themselves as with a luscious banquet. Methinks I remember a passage in Cicero (I cannot say where, and here I have no means of inquiry), which, whether I quote it exactly or not, is in my opinion altogether applicable to your book:-" Cùm autem ad præclarum et admirabile ingenium eximia quædam accesserit et exquisita doctrina, tum vero in scribendo existere solet quod in suo genere sit præstantissimum, quod cumulatum, quod perfectum, quod denique omnibus suis numeris et partibus sit absolutum." I have observed some few typographical errors, some of which I shall here take the liberty of noting, because I do not see them among your errata. I cannot prevail with myself to close this letter without assuring you, that I feel myself so highly exalted by your honourable notice of me, that it will add a stimulus to all my future exertions, by creating an endeavour to maintain the rank to which your kind partiality has promoted me. I am, dear Sir, with the greatest respect, and with the compliments of Mrs. James to Mrs. Parr and all your family, your most obliged and fathful servant, T. JAMES. Dr. Parr has particularly applauded Dr. Jowett, Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge, for his liberality and courtesy in rendering back to him Pisacane's Latin version of Justinian's Institutes, a book so rare that at the time he could not procure another copy. Of this restoration he has given an account in the annexed statement. I shall also copy two letters of Dr. Jowett, on account of their introducing Mr. Bloomfield of Tugby, the editor of Thucydides, to him. The following statement is intended, not more to record the value of this book from its scarcity, than the courtesy of a very elegant scholar and a very exemplary Christian, to whom I am indebted for the final possession of it. In the winter of 1783 I met the Rev. Dr. Jowett at Jesus College, Cambridge, and after dinner I gave him this copy of Pisacane, because I thought that the Latin version of Justinian's Institutes was connected with his situation as Professor of Civil Law in the University, and because I was not entirely without the hope of procuring for myself another copy, for I did not then know the book to be so rare. About the year 1780 I bought it from some London bookseller, probably Mr. Lockyer Davis of Holborn Bars, or Mr. Benjamin White of Fleet Street, with whom I had dealt early and largely. I gave it away in 1793. I afterwards made many efforts, at many times and in many places, to get another copy. I employed the learned Mr. Hamley, Fellow of New College, Oxford, the accomplished Countess of Oxford, Mr. Windham the English Ambassador at Florence, and the Russian Ambassador at that place, to examine, or cause to be examined, all the booksellers' shops at Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, &c. Mr. Windham and the Russian nobleman were men of letters, and well acquainted with librarians; but their labours were fruitless. Early in the spring of 1806 I desired Mr. Blount, an ingenious man who was prosecuting his medical studies in Paris, to inspect all the shops, and to inquire of all the scholars, and with the booksellers with whom he might meet in that city. His researches were without effect. I wrote to Mr. Robert Adair, the English Ambassador at Vienna, and from him I had no intimation, either of success or of a chance that he would succeed. |