and of the other eighteen hours, all, except the time of going to, and being at Divine Service, was spent in my studies and learning." That he was, moreover, weak and wrong headed, that he lived in a sort of continual childhood, and that he was all but an ideot withal, may be easily deduced from the same source: I was out of St. John's College, chosen to be one of the Fellows of Trinity College, at the first erection thereof by King Henry VIII. I was also as signed there to be the Under Reader of the Greek tongue, Mr.Pember being Chief Greek Reader then in Trinity College. Hereupon I did set forth, and it was seen of the University, a Greek comedy of Aristophanes, named in Greek Eipryn, in Latin Pax, with the performance of the Scarabous [Scarabæus], or beetle, his flying up to Jupiter's palace with a man and his basket of victuals on her [his] back, whereat was great wondering, and many vain reports spread abroad, of the means how that was effected." This magnanimous exploit was nearly paralleled by another of the same sort, which was performed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; who, on her visit to the University of Cambridge, was offered the representation of Sophocles's Electra in Greek, which she, with her usual politeness, declined, or (as it would be understood now-a-days,) intimated her desire or determination to be excused the torture of hearing; thereby placing in the scale her own good sense against the combined sense of the whole University, and preponderating too. The spirit (we should suppose), which suggested the acting of the Electra, was much of the same sort with that which prompted Mamma to tease and pester Doctor Johnson to hear her little boy repeat Gay's Fables. -Dee, however, was the sufferer by his oddities; for, what with mathematical instruments, and what with acting Greek Plays, he had well nigh been hanged for a conjuror. He was an honest, inoffensive, and well-meaning sort of man, I dare say; and ught to rank high among that 'speof beings termed Wisemen; of m every village, in the North of nd at least, produces one. I collect being once entertained terview with a creature of who, determined to kill two birds with one stone, had the sagacity to unite breeches-making with astrology. When visible, he was ever discovered up to the knees in compasses, scissars, triangles, and washleather. 2. Doctor Lempriere's Classical Dictionary (a book, which would have been just twice as good, if its compiler had properly availed himself of Lloyd's edition of Charles Stephens's Dictionarium Poëticum, &c.) is, as every schoolboy knows, interspersed with anecdote as well as instruction. We recommend to our growing poets to study well what is said of that versifier, who received, from Alexander the Great, a piece of gold for every good line in a certain composition, but for every bad one a box on the ear. If this system of reward were introduced into our schools, in which boys are forced to write verse, whether it be in their nature or not, we should be not a little apprehensive of the speedy appearance of a new distemper, which might, not improperly, go by the name of febris auricularis.-Several other facts, there recorded, are admirably well-calculated to try a man's belief; as, for instance, where we are told that* Calchas died through grief, because he found himself unable to number the figs on a certain fig-tree; and that one Drusus, an historian of great promise and high notions (though G-d knows who he was), being one day, during his infancy we suppose, missing from his cradle, was on the next found on the highest part of the house, with his face turned towards the sun. Poor man! he was determined to get as near to it as possible. But, alas! like the rest of us, he could not do more than he could.The story of Parrhasius and the curtain may be entitled to some degree of belief; but he must be a man of sworn credulity and unqualified deglutition, who can swallow, whole, or by piece-meal, the account of a lamp burning 1500 years in Tulliola's tomb. And yet I h heard even this defended as f and supported with instan ed to be authentick. Gent. May, Sept. 1814. Pl. I. p. 209. B. Howlett sculp dires The Seat of the late Edmund Burke Esq. at Beaconsfield, Budos. Mr. URBAN, Stapleton, Feb. 26. HE inclosed sketch of the re Tidence of that good and great man, Edmund Burke, at Beaconsfield, is at your service. I flatter myself, it will afford pleasure to many of your Readers who enjoyed his friendship, to contemplate a view of the mansion where they partook of the hospitality, and enjoyed the conversation, of a man whose wonderful abi lities were through life dedicated, in public to the service of his country, and in private to the delight of his friends. I lament to add, this house was destroyed by fire, on the 23d of April 1813, not long after the death of Mrs. Burke, it being then the residence of Mr. Dupree. The loss was estimated at 30,0001. Dr. Carver was appointed Archdeacon in 1782. I have lived in the County many years, and have yet to learn when he visited any parish in his jurisdiction; when he inquired into the state of any church or parsonage-house; and when he inquired whether the duty was regularly performed, or whether any part of the service was discontinued, in any church within his jurisdiction. The conclusion of his friend's account of the death of this Reverend Clergyman is, that he conversed on his dissolution in the most philosophic manner -it is not said in a Christian-like manner. A. Mr. URBAN, Kensington, Aug. 31. Yours, &c. CHAS. J. HARFORD. YOUR Correspondent H. 45.31. HEN one who has long filled letter, dated May 22, you inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1814, p. 550, "believes that most persons who are in the habit of hearing the Psalms appointed for Wtuation, in the due exe- Afternoon Service, have great repug cution of which, the publick at large, and the interest of the Church of England in particular, are deeply interested, dies; if the mistaken zeal of an imprudent friend shall hold him up as a pattern for imitation, as one who in the execution of his office acted from motives of conscience, that friend must not be offended if he occasions some anamid version. In giving an account of the death of the late Archdeacon of Surrey, p. 198, it is stated, that he had resigned two Livings from motives of Conscience-because he could not reside. Whether Conscience was also his motive for resigning a stall in the Cathedral Church of Worcester, is not said. Nor is it said that his Conscience troubled him for retain ing an office of great public importance, without discharging any part of the duty. The duty of an Archdeacon is, to assist the Bishop in making those inquiries which the Bishop himself cannot well do in person; to visit the parishes within his jurisdiction, examine the state of the church and church-yard, and of the parsonage house; to inquire whether there is any resident Clergyman, and whether Divine service is regularly performed, and other offices of the Church duly attended to. GENT. MAG. September, 1814. nance at joining in the CIXth Psalm,' &c. Allow me to invite him, for his own satisfaction, to read the same Psalm in the Geneva Bible of 1805, where he will find it translated according to his own sense. Your Correspondent would certainly be still more pleased in reading the explanation of the CIXth Psalm given by Doctor Gilbert Gerard, in his excellent Institutes of Bibl. Criticism, p. 466. a Allow me also, Mr. Urban, to put. question to you and to your numerous Correspondents.-Abp. Newcome wrote on "the Expediency of Revising by Authority our present Translation; and the means of executing such a Revision.” Is there any Committee in Great Britain, appointed to undertake that work? The simple knowledge of its existence would be a satisfaction to pious Christians (such as your Correspondent H.) who find now and then difficul ties which stagger them, but who would be soon reconciled, if they might conceive that they are errors of the Translators, which will disappear in the prepared Authorised New Version. It has been experienced that such was the case at Geneva, where the Bible published in 1805 had been expected for eighty years. As I have received many Letters to inquire where the Geneva Bible of 1905 |