Lyttelton, and Lord George Sackville, have been successively fixed upon as the writer; and the mingled glory and shame — glory for the high merits of the composition, and shame for the atrocious spirit of calumny have been transported by successive demonstrations to one or to the other. Among the numerous claimants to the doubtful honor Sir Fhilip Francis appears to have the strongest suffrages: the opinion of Macaulay, whose knowledge of the history of the time was unrivalled, is unconditionally in favor of Francis: but a recent investigator has brought forward some ingenious arguments in favor of Lyttelton. It is hardly probable that this curious and much-vexed question will now ever be settled by anything more conclusive than more or less strong presumptive evidence; and the authorship of the Letters of Junius will remain a singular example of an unsolved political mystery, like the Man in the Iron Mask or the Executioner of Charles I. However this may be, the letters themselves will ever be a monument of the finest but fiercest political invective.

§ 11. ADAM SMITH (1723–1790) was the founder, in England, of the science of Political Economy. He was a Scotchman, and exhibited in a high degree that aptitude for moral, metaphysical, and economic investigation which seems to be so general in his country. He was successively Professor of Logic and of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At one period of his life he lectured with success at Edinburgh on rhetoric and belles lettres, and was persuaded to travel with the young Duke of Buccleuch, whose education he superintended. His most important work is the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the fruit of ten years of study and investigation, and which laid the foundation for modern economic science. It was the first systematic treatise produced in England upon a most important subject, and though not free from erroneous deductions, was the most valuable contribution ever made to a science then almost in its infancy, and which was destined, thanks in a great measure to his clear and logical reasoning and abundant and popular illustration, to exert an immense and beneficial influence on legislation and commerce. The fundamental principles taught by Adam Smith are chiefly, that gold and silver are by no means wealth either to individuals or communities, being only symbols and conventional representatives of value; that labor is the true source of riches, and that any state interference with the distribution or production of commodities can only aggravate the evils it is intended to cure. He was the first to show, by apt and picturesque illustration, the wonderful results of the division of labor, both as regards the quantity and quality of the product. His moral and metaphysical theories are now nearly forgotten, but his Inquiry will ever remain the alphabet or text-book of the important science of which he was the pioneer.

§ 12. Something similar to what Adam Smith performed for political economy, SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE (1723-1780) did for the vast and complicated study of the Constitution and the Laws of England. He was by profession a lawyer, though he mingled a strong taste for ele

gant literature with the graver studies of his profession: and he ultimately became a Justice of the Common Pleås. His Commentaries on the Laws of England gave the first example of a systematic work combining and popularizing all the elementary and historical knowledge requisite for the study; and this book, which is written in a singularly easy and pleasant style, is the groundwork of every legal education, nay, the accidence, so to say, of the grammar of English law. Numerous editions have been published, bringing up the work to the existing state of legal knowledge, and showing such modifications as from time to time have been made in our legislation; and Blackstone's Commentaries still continue the best and completest outline of the history and principles of English law. The great questions of right and property which lie at the bottom of all social organization are lucidly treated, and the mingled web of Teutonic, Feudal, Parliamentary, and Ecclesiastical legislation is carefully unravelled and disposed with luminous distinctness.

§ 13. The most prominent names in the English theological philosophy of the eighteenth century are those of BISHOP BUTLER (1692-1752) and WILLIAM Paley (1743-1805). The former is more remarkable for the severe and coherent logic with which he demonstrates his conclusions, the latter for the consummate skill with which he popularized the abstruser arguments of his predecessors. Butler's principal work is his Analogy between Natural and Revealed Religion, in which, neglecting the question of the historical credibility of the miracles, he examines into the resemblance between the existence and attributes of God, as proved by arguments drawn from the works of Nature, and shows that that existence and those attributes are in no way incompatible with the notions conveyed to us by Revelation. The writings of Butler have filled the greatest thinkers with admiration, and their study has contributed to form some of the most accomplished dialecticians : but the closeness of his reasoning, which necessitates an unusual degree of attention and a rare faculty of following his analysis, places his writings out of the reach of ordinary readers. His moral theory is mainly based upon the existence, in every mind, of a guiding and testing principle of conscience, furnishing an infallible and supreme criterion of the goodness or wickedness of our actions.

Many of Butler's arguments are rendered more accessible in the easy and animated pages of Paley, who was, like Butler, an ornament of the Church. His books are numerous, and all excellent: the principal of them are Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy, the Hora Pauline, the Evidences of Christianity, and the wonderful production of his old age, the Treatise on Natural Theology. It will be seen from the titles of these books over what an immense extent of moral and theological philosophy Paley's mind had travelled; for in the first of the above books he investigates the principles of human action whether exhibited in the individual or the community; in the second he examines questions of specific theology by the light of Scripture; and in the third he demonstrates the inherent credibility of the Christian miracles,

and of the inspired narrative of those miracles, defending them against the arguments of scepticism, and in particular against the scepticism of Hume. The Natural Theology deduces the existence and the benevolence of God from the evidence afforded by the phenomena of nature in favor of design, power, and beneficence: and to supply himself with materials, Paley studied physiology, and has described the structure and functions of animated beings with a vivacity and a knowledge that give him a very honorable place among writers on anatomy. For clearness, animation, and easy grace, the style of Paley has rarely been equalled.

§ 14. If the palm of merit is to be awarded less to the pretension of a literary work than to a universal popularity arising from a consummate charm of execution, then the fame of GILBERT WHITE (1720-1793) is to be coveted little less eagerly than that of Izaak Walton. The greater portion of his life was passed in the sequestered village of Selborne, in Hampshire, which he has immortalized in one of the most enchanting books in the world. White was educated at Oxford, where he became a student of Christ Church, but succeeding to the living of Selborne, which had been held by his father, he devoted his happy and tranquil life to the observation of nature. In a series of letters to Pennant and Daines Barrington, he has registered every phenomenon both of animal and vegetable life as well as of scenery and meteorology which came under the eye of a most curious, patient, and loving observer, and a thousand details so slight or so familiar as to escape the attention of previous naturalists, have been chronicled with exquisite grace, and form valuable contributions to science. Every change of weather, every cumstance in the habits of birds, beasts, and insects, were noted by him with an interest and enthusiasm that captivates the dullest reader; and the Natural History of Selborne has made at least as many naturalists as Robinson Crusoe has made sailors. The benevolent playfulness which overflows in White's remarks, the pleasant touches of credulity, as in his obstinate desire to find proofs that swallows hibernate under water, the intense personality with which he is associated with the beautiful scenes he loved so well, the ardent fondness for natural objects every feature of his character heightens the charm of this most fascinating book.

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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THEOLOGICAL WRITERS.

DR. HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX (1648–1724), one of the best known and most valuable theological writers, author of the Connection of the Old and New Testaments, 1715-17. He was a scholar of great research, and professor of Hebrew at Oxford.

DR. WILLIAM NICHOLSON (1655–1727), an Irish prelate and learned antiquary, wrote on Border Laws, Laws of Anglo-Saxons. In 1706 he produced a catalogue of books and MSS., the Historical Libraries of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

DR. BENJAMIN HOADLEY (1670-1761) occupied successively the sees of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He espoused the cause of the Whigs, and was a great controversialist on the more liberal side both in the Church and in politics. His chief works were On the Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ, which gave rise to the celebrated Bangorian controversy; Reasonableness of Conformity; Terms of Acceptance; Treatise on the Sacrament.

CHARLES LESLIE (1650-1722), a clergyman and controversialist, chiefly known for A Short and Easy Method with the Deists. The whole of his works were published at Oxford in 1832.

WILLIAM WHISTON (1667-1752), a mathematician of the school of Newton, whom he succeeded as professor at Cambridge. He was at first a clergyman, but was expelled the Church on account of his Arian opinions, became lecturer on astronomy in London, and before his death held the principles of the Baptist body, and the millenarian doctrines. His chief works are- Theory of the Earth, 1696; Essay on the Revelation of St. John, 1706; Sermons, 1708; Primitive Christianity Revived, 1712; Memoirs, 1749-50.

REV. WILLIAM LAW (1686-1761), a Jacobite Nonconformist, whose Serious Call to a Higher Life deserves mention, not only from its being popular, but also because the reading of it is said by Dr. Johnson to have been "the first occasion of his thinking in earnest of religion after he became capable of rational inquiry."

DR. RICHARD WATSON (1737-1816), Bishop of Llandaff, and author of replies to Paine and Gibbon. The Apologies for Christianity and the Bible are well known.

DR. SAMUEL HORSLEY (1733-1806), Secretary of the Royal Society, and successively Bishop of St. David's, Rochester, and St. Asaph. His principal works are translations of the Psalms, and his controversial writings with Priestley.

DR. JOHN JORTIN (1698-1770), Prebendary of St. Paul's and Archdeacon of London, author of works on Ecclesiastical Histor", 1751–4; Life of Erasmus, 1758; which are written in a striking, lively style.

DR. RICHARD HURD (1720-1808), successively Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and of Worcester, a great friend of Warburton, and an elegant scholar, wrote, among other things, Discourses on the Prophecies, and a Life of Warburton.

DR. GEORGE HORNE (1730-1792), Bishop of Norwich, wrote the well-known Commentary on the Psalms, 1776.

DR. NATHANIEL LARDNER (1684-1768), a Presbyterian divine, the author of a very learned work on The Credibility of the Gospel History, 1730-57. He also wrote a work similar to the above entitled A Large Collection of Ancient, Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion.

DR. PHILIP DODDRIDGE (1702-1751), one of the most distinguished Nonconformist divines. He was born in London, was educated among the Dissenters, became minister at Northampton, and died at Lisbon, whither he had departed for the benefit of his health. Doddridge was a man of learning and earnest piety. He was beloved and admired by all the religious bodies of the country. His style is plain, simple, and forcible. He was a critic of some acumen, and a preacher of great distinction. But his name lives from his practical works and expository writings, the chief of which are- Discourses on Regeneration, 1741; Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, 1745; and his greatest and most extensive work, The Family Expositor, one of the most widely circulated works of its class.

BISHOP WARBURTON (1698-1779), one of the celebrated writers of his day; but the value of his works was ephemeral, and, with the exception of his Divine Legation of Moses, they are almost forgotten. He was born at Newark, received no education for the Church, yet, by assiduous and brilliant use of the pen, obtained presentations to livings, and at last was raised to the See of Gloucester. He enjoyed the friendship and assistance of the leading men of the day; but his love of paradox and startling hypotheses did much to lessen the lasting value and influence of his writings. Warburton was a man of force and genius, but spoiled his efforts for real success by his display and arrogance. A mod- DR. GEORGE CAMPBELL (1709-1796), Professor ern critic applies Gibbon's epithet of the Legation of Divinity at Aberdeen, was one of the most celeto the life and works of the author: "A splendid | brated of the clergymen of the Scotch Church. His ruin"-"not venerable from cherished associaDissertation on Miracles was in reply to Hume. tions, but great, unsightly, and incongruous." The Philosophy of Rhetoric is one of the ablest DR. ROBERT LOWTH (1710-1787), successively works that has appeared on that subject. He also Bishop of St. David's, Oxford, and London, was a man of great learning. His chief works areTranslation of Isaiah and Prelections on Hebrew Poetry, the latter being in Latin, delivered by him when he was Professor of Hebrew at Oxford

wrote A Translation of the Four Gospels, and Lectures on Ecclesiastical History. Few men have shown greater skill in polemical writing, combined with a gentleness and regard for the opponent; and a modern critic places him next to Robertson the

historian at the head of the clergy of the Scottish | consist in the fitness of things, or a "congruity of Church. relations," and neglects the distinction and prior The following are authors of works of no high discernment of good ends from bad, has been conliterary value, but yet have been of great service in demned by the Butlerian school and modern moralshaping the moral and religious thought of theists as too limited and confined. Dr. Clarke's style country.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714–1770).

JOHN WESLEY (1703–1791), the founder of the sect of Wesleyan Methodists, and author of several practical works, chiefly homiletic.

is simple, and free from meretricious adornment, vigorous, and at times really eloquent, a model of philosophical and controversial writing.

DR. ADAM FERGUSON (1724-1816), a native of Perthshire, educated at St. Andrew's, Professor of

JAMES HERVEY (1714–1758), author of The Medi- Natural and Moral Philosophy in the University tations, Theron and Aspasia, &c.

of Edinburgh, author of several works on philoso

EBENEZER ERSKINE (1680-1754); and RALPH phy and history, the chief of which are- A History ERSKINE (1685-1752).

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITERS.

DR. FRANCIS HUTCHESON (1694-1747), a native of Ireland, studied at Glasgow, and became Professor of Moral Philosophy in that University. He did much to restore the study of philosophy in Scotland, and is considered as the founder of the Scotch School of Metaphysics. In 1726 he published an Inquiry into Beauty and Virtue. His chief work was A System of Moral Philosophy, which was given to the world by his son after his death.

DR. MATTHEW TINDAL (1657-1733) turned Roman Catholic under James II., but afterwards became an unbeliever, and is well known for his attack on Christianity, entitled Christianity as old as the Creation. Dr. Tindal's nephew, NICHOLAS TINDAL (1687-1774), was the continuer of the History of England left incomplete by Rapin.

of the Roman Republic, 1783; Principles of Moral and Political Science, 1792.

JAMES BURNET, LORD MONBODDO (1714-1799), a Scotch Judge, and an eccentric but learned writer, author of an Essay on the Origin and Progress of Language, 1771-3, and a Work on Ancient Metaphysics, 1779. Monboddo is best known for his theory of mankind having at one time possessed tails like other monkeys, but which by a long course of sitting have been worn away.

DAVID HARTLEY (1705-1757), was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and practised medicine. He was the founder of a school embracing at one time a large number of English thinkers. He explained the various states of the mind by the principle of association. His chief work was servations on Man, &c., which appeared in 1749.

DR. RICHARD PRICE (1723-1791), a Nonco...ormist minister and writer on morals, who endeavored in his Review of the Principal Questions and DifiHENRY HOME, LORD KAMES (1696-1782), a law-culties in Morals, 1758, to revive the Cudworth yer, judge, and mental philosopher, resided in Ed-school, which traced moral obligation to the perinburgh, and there drew round him many of the leading thinkers and writers. His chief works were · Essays on the Principles of Morality and Religion; Introduction to the Art of Thinking; The Elements of Criticism; Sketches of the History of Man; the last of which works is a collection of anecdotes and miscellaneous facts picked up in the course of his reading.

DR. SAMUEL CLARKE (1675-1729), one of the ablest metaphysicians that England has produced. He was a native of Norwich, was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and became chaplain to Bishop Moore of Norwich. In 1704 he delivered the Boyle Lectures, in which he brought forward his celebrated argument a priori for the being of a God, grand in conception, but, like all arguments of that class, really resting on the à posteriori expressed or implied. He wrote on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, and translated Newton's Optics into Latin. In 1709 he was presented to the rectory of St. James's, and was appointed one of the Queen's chaplains. His controversies with the Trinitarians arose from his espousal of the Arian doctrine in his treatise on the Trinity. He defended the Newtonian philosophy against Leibnitz, and in 1717 the papers were published. In 1724 he published seventeen sermons, partly metaphysical and partly practical. He refused the offer of the Mastership of the Mint in 1727. He died on the 17th of May, 1729. He has not the extensive grasp and original views of Locke, but he exhibits more of the accuracy of the dialectician.. Many of his speculations are too refined. His moral system, which makes the rule of virtue

ceptions of the understanding. He wrote several able works on financial subjects, and was invited by the United States, in 1778, to settle in America, in order to assist them in regulating their finances. He was a warm advocate of civil and religious liberty, and is best known in the history of literature by the attack made upon him by Burke, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France.

ABRAHAM TUCKER (1705-1774), an English country-gentleman, who devoted himself to metaphysical studies. He held for the most part the Hartleian doctrines, and received the praise of Paley and Mackintosh. His celebrated work was entitled The Light of Nature Pursued, 1768.

DR. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY (1733-1804), an eminent Nonconformist minister, who went over from the Calvinistic school of theology to the Unitarian. He was settled in Birmingham for some time, and it was there that the rioters set fire to his house at the time of the French Revolution in 1791. His philosophical opinions were opposed to the Scotch school. In Matter and Spirit (1777) he inclined to materialism and necessity. A large number of tracts issued from his pen, which was ever kept at work from the assiduity of his opposers. Priestley shines most, however, in experimental physics. He was one of the fathers of chemistry, and made several discoveries in relation to light and color. He left England for America in 1794, and died in Northumt erland, Pennsylvania, in 1804.

DR. THOMAS REID (1710-1796), one of the found. ers of the Scotch School of Metaphysics, was 6 Presbyterian elergyman, and Professor of Moral