the lively Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. There is the greatest reason to believe that his conversion was occasioned by a quite different event, and that his amour with the lady and his accidental visit to her chamber is a fabulous relation altogether, as Lady M. and Dr. Dodd would have found had they consulted his biographers; however, it is but justice for publishers to retract their mistakes, as the best of human beings are by no means infallible. I would have given the Doctor a line on this occasion, but I fear am no longer in his good graces, and am content to remain in my obscure recess, not being conscious of having wilfully offended him. He might deem me impertinent for the information.

"The Nomenclator Classicus is now in great forwardness. I think to print the author's advice to his pupils in Latin by way of supplement, but am in doubt whether to add the Greek or entirely omit it: some would esteem it a desirable addition, but perhaps the generality might think it superfluous.

"My friend Lettsom is better, though by no means quite well. He applies to his physical studies, and has nearly finished his Treatise, to which if one tenth part only of the users of the exotic beverage in question subscribe, the Doctor will not have any cause to complain. The engraving is well done by Fougerson, from a drawing of the plant in Kew-gardens *. Dr. Fothergill is also in possession of a tea-plant, and his gardens are stored with curiosities from different parts of the globe, though their master has little time to gratify his botanical inclination.

'My account of the Catalpha was printed at Miss Farley's press during my stay at Bristol; but she has not yet been kind enough to transmit the copies, and indeed, as the engraving is not finished, they are not wanted. Mr. Miller has given us no figure of this species of Bignonia among his curious plates. Kæmpfer, in his Amanitates, tells us it is found in Japan, an account by no means improbable, as many of the plants of Louisiana and Carolina may be indigenous to that island.

"I have lately received some entertainment, and let me add no slight instruction, from our late Archbishop's [Secker] edifying writings; and find some additional volumes to those already published are advertised. In him the polite gentleman, learned critic, and exemplary Christian, appear to have been joined; or rather the two first are swallowed up in the latter. A principle of consistent piety seems to have actuated his whole conduct; and as his life was amiable his death was not without fervour. The good Miss Talbot scarcely survived him; her Week's Reflections † are worth attention. She seems to have copied the

* A new edition, printed by John Nichols in 1794, has five engravings, well executed, and four of them beautifully coloured. See vol. III. of this Work, p. 678.

Now circulated among the tracts of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Bishop's manner, whose living example must have been an incentive to religion.

63.

J. C."

"Upton, Sept. 16, 1771. "The edition of the Nomenclator goes on but slowly. Like the rest of mankind, I am easily diverted from an undertaking by other pursuits, and have had this summer much writing business on my hands, having engaged in a work, the manuscripts of which when finished will fill an octavo volume. It is designed as a companion to the botanist in his useful researches. Many pieces on the subject; which would enrich the collection, are out of print; I am in possession of some scarce articles. Should any one deem this labour a work of supererogation or a misemployment of time, I can only urge that the blessed Messiah recommended the lilies of the field to the meditation of his followers, and that an ingenious writer of our own country has offered some apology for such pursuits: Hisce ego studiis et inquisitionibus memet recreo et oblecto. Quod alii venationibus, aucupiis, confabulationibus, lusibus insumunt, illud ego Stirpibus indagendis, colendis, contemplandis impendo *.' My correspondent may expect a present of the Nomenclator when published, and I shall be obliged to him for his recommendation among his acquaintance. I never desire to write or publish for profit, but I would be sorry to employ my time uselessly or to no good effect.

"The writer of the account of the Monastery de la Trappe is no friend to monastic institutions himself. It is in the sphere of active life that the true Christian must move; the solitary cell, the bead-roll, and the crucifix may suit a religious drone, but such an one is ill acquainted with the sweet and social precepts of Christianity which command us not to bury ourselves alive in deserts and forests, but to be useful to our fellow creatures in our generation, feeding the indigent, aiding the sick, and keeping ourselves in the world unspotted. O excellent religion, indeed! happy if the benign influence were more and more spread! happy if thy votaries, less anxious about meats, and drinks, and observances merely ritual, would labour more after innocence of life and purity of conversation; then should they tell the same to their children, and induce them to an imitation of their example.

"Has Dr. Dodd seen the Life of Rouée in the Magazine, and is he willing to adopt the other narrative of his conversion in the next edition? I cannot think it admits of any great dispute whether a writer should be apprised of what has appeared in print on any subject before he takes pen in hand to write on it. If I was to engage in a History of Religion in England, I

*This was but a version of Cicero's nobler boast: "Quantum alii tribuunt intempestivis conviviis, quantum denique aleæ, quantum pilæ, tantum mihi egomet ad hæc studia recolenda sumpsero.' Cic. Oratio pro Archia Poeta.

should be much to blame were I to consult no other writer in an account of the Moravians than Remius, or of the Methodists than Bishop Levington. No; I would converse freely with the members of both fraternities; I would consult all their own authors; and thence form my conclusions of their peculiar tenets. Against an account drawn up with candour and impartiality, even bigots and zealots themselves can have little, with any plausibility of reason, to object. Adieu ! J.C."

REV. CHRISTOPHER HUNTER, B. D.

Christopher Hunter was born in High-street, Margate; where in very early life his townsman Mr. Butler was his school-fellow, and the generous friendship then and there contracted lasted throughout their lives. Mr. Hunter went at the usual age to Sidney-Sussex college, Cambridge, and proceeded B. A. 1766, being fourth Senior Optime of that year; M. A. 1769; and B. D. 1776. By due gradations he obtained first a scholarship, next a fellowship, &c. &c. till he advanced through every inferior office of honourable trust and toil to the station of Senior Fellow, Dean, and Head-tutor in that Society; and at length his diligence, zeal, and fidelity in the discharge of his various confidential functions met with their professional reward, for in 1796 he was presented by the Master and Fellows to the College Rectory of Gayton in Northamptonshire at the death of its incumbent Mr. Griffith, who was there buried. This rural living (parvam quidem sed amatam) he held without additional preferment; and educated in its parsonage the sons of neighbouring respectable families, to the satisfaction of their parents, until his very unexpected decease after an indisposition of some hours only, in London, May 20, 1814, aged sixty-eight; when he was succeeded in his living by one of his former college-pupils, the younger son of his correspondent in the fol

lowing pages, the Rev. George Butler, D. D. Headmaster of Harrow-school.

In 1791 Mr. Hunter edited, in two neat 12mo vols. the Poems of his maternal uncle and godfather, the celebrated Christopher Smart, M. A. Fellow of Pembroke-college, Cambridge, consisting of Prize-poems, Odes, Sonnets, and Fables, Latin and English translations, together with many original compositions not included in a prior quarto edition. To this publication, which he sedulously revised, Mr. Hunter prefixed, from authentic family documents, a succinct account of his uncle's life, never before printed, together with a very sensible review of the whole work. Amongst many affecting particulars thus preserved, the Life by Mr. Hunter contains a most generous and delicate narrative from the powerful pen of Dr. Hawkesworth respecting the Doctor's own friendly interview with the Poet in 1764, and gently describing the patient's irritable symptoms of temper, together with the faint glimmerings of consciousness of still latent powers of genius amidst the gloomy halos of his mental state. It is addressed to Mrs. Hunter:

"DEAR MADAM, London, October 1764. "I am afraid that you have before now secretly accused me, and I confess that appearances are against me; I did not, however, delay to call upon Mr. Smart, but I was unfortunate enough twice to miss him. I was, the third day of my being in town, seized with a fever that was then epidemic, from which I am but just recovered. I have, since my being in town this second time, called on my old friend, and seen him; he received me with an ardour of kindness natural to the sensibility of his temper, and we were soon seated together by his fire-side. I perceived upon his tabie a quarto book in which he had been writing, a prayer-book, and a Horace. After the first compliments I said I had been at Margate, and had seen his mother and his sister, who expressed great kindness for him and made me pro- · mise to come and see him. To this he made no reply, nor did he make any inquiry after those I mentioned; he did not even mention the place, nor ask me any questions about it or what carried me thither. After some pause and some indifferent chat, I returned to the subject, and said that Mr. Hunter and you would be very glad to see him in Kent. To this he replied very

quick, I cannot afford to be idle.' I said he might employ his mind as well in the town as in the country; at which he only shook his head, and I entirely changed the subject. Upon my asking when he should print the Psalms, he said they were going to press immediately. As to his other undertakings, I found he had completed a translation of Phædrus in verse for Dodsley at a certain price; and that he is now busy in translating all Horace into verse, which he sometimes thinks of publishing on his own account, and sometimes of contracting for it with a bookseller; I advised him to the latter plan, and then he told me he was in treaty about it, and believed it would be a bargain. He told me his principal motive for translating Horace into verse was to supersede the prose translation which he did for Newbery, which he said would hurt his memory. He intends, however, to review that translation, and to print it at the foot of the page in his poetical version, which he proposes to print in quarto with the Latin, both in verse and prose, on the opposite page. He told me he once had thoughts of printing it by subscription; but, as he had troubled his friends already, he was unwilling to do it again, and had been persuaded to publish it in numbers, which, though I had rather dissuaded him, seemed at last to be the prevailing bent of his mind. He read me some of it; it is very close, and his own poetical fire sparkles in it very frequently; yet, upon the whole, it will scarcely take place of Francis's, and therefore, if it is not adopted as a school-book, which perhaps may be the case, it will turn to little account. Upon mentioning his prose translation I saw his countenance kindle, and snatching up the book, What,' says he, 'do you think I had for this? I said, I could not tell; Why,' says he, with great indignation, thirteen pounds!' I expressed very great astonishment, which he seemed to think he should increase by adding, 'But, Sir, I gave a receipt for a hundred,' My astonishment, however, was now over, and I found that he received only thirteen pounds, because the rest had been advanced for his family; this was a tender point, and I found means immediately to divert him from it.

"He is with very decent people in a house most delightfully situated, with a terrace that overlooks St. James's Park and has a door into it. He was going to dine with an old friend of my own, Mr. Richard Dalton, who has an appointment in the King's Library, and if I had not been particularly engaged I would have dined with him. He had lately received a very genteel letter from Dr. Lowth; and is by no means considered in any light that makes his company as a gentleman, a scholar, and a genius, less desirable. I have been very particular, dear Madam, in relating all the particulars of this conference, that you may draw any inference that I could draw from it yourself.

"I should incur my own censure, which is less tolerable than all others, if I did not express my sense of the civilities I received