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Article THE LIFE OF BISHOP WARBURTON. ← Page 2 of 2
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The Life Of Bishop Warburton.
which were in confidence communicated to him in a series of private letters . What followed upon this , and what use he made of these friendly communications , need not be repeated , as the account is given by-Mr . Warburton himself in the lively preface to his and Mr . Pope ' s edition of Shakspeare , of which something more will be said in its place .
Mr . Warburton was so much taken up with his studies , and found so much delight in them , that he rarely stirred from home ; which , he would often say , there was no good reason for doing , except necessary business , and the satisfaction of seeing a friend . Yet he sometimes found himself obliged to go to London ; as he did in the spring of the year 1740 ; and betook that opportunity of making his first
visit to Mr . Pope , of which he immediatel y * gave Dr . Middleton the following account : ' I passed about a week at Twickenham , in the most agreeable manner . Mr . Pope is as good a companion as a poet ; atid what is more , appears to be as good a man . '
The last was indeed the consideration that so much endeared Mr . Pope to him . He found him an honest and well-princi pled man ; zealous to promote the interests of virtue , and impressed with an awful sense of reli gion , natural and revealed . In short , he found an image of himself in his new acquaintance : no wonder , their esteem and affection grew so fast as to give umbrage , in no long time , to a certain noblemanwho had taken to himsell the honour of beinj- the ' o-uide
, and philosopher of Mr . Pope . ' On the 6 th of April in this year he lost his friend and patron , the excellent Bishop Hare . Speaking of the Bishop ' s death to Dr . Midpleton , in a letter , he says— ' He has cot left his fellow behind him , for the love and encouragement of learning . I have had a great loss in his death . He honoured me with his esteem and friendshi This
p . 1 esteemed a great obligation . I never ceased to increase it by any other dependence upon him ; and by the terms on which we kept up a correspondence , he did me the justice to believe I expected no other . In May , 1741 , was published the second volume of the ' Divine Legation , ' which completed the argument , although not the entire plan of that work . A work , in all views , of most transcendant merit , whether
we consider the invention or the execution . A plain simple argument , yet perfectly new , proving the divinity of the Mosaic law , and laying a sure foundation for the support of Christianity , is there drawn out to , a great length , by a chain of reasoning so elegantly connected , that the reader is carried along b y it with ease and pleasure ; while the matter presented to him is so striking for its own importanceso embellished by a livelfancyand illustratedfrom
, y , , all quarters , by exquisite learning , and the most ingenious disquisition , that , in the whole compass of modern or ancient theology , there is nothing equal or similar to this extraordinary performance . [ TO BE CONCLUDED I . \ - OVR KF . XT . ]
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life Of Bishop Warburton.
which were in confidence communicated to him in a series of private letters . What followed upon this , and what use he made of these friendly communications , need not be repeated , as the account is given by-Mr . Warburton himself in the lively preface to his and Mr . Pope ' s edition of Shakspeare , of which something more will be said in its place .
Mr . Warburton was so much taken up with his studies , and found so much delight in them , that he rarely stirred from home ; which , he would often say , there was no good reason for doing , except necessary business , and the satisfaction of seeing a friend . Yet he sometimes found himself obliged to go to London ; as he did in the spring of the year 1740 ; and betook that opportunity of making his first
visit to Mr . Pope , of which he immediatel y * gave Dr . Middleton the following account : ' I passed about a week at Twickenham , in the most agreeable manner . Mr . Pope is as good a companion as a poet ; atid what is more , appears to be as good a man . '
The last was indeed the consideration that so much endeared Mr . Pope to him . He found him an honest and well-princi pled man ; zealous to promote the interests of virtue , and impressed with an awful sense of reli gion , natural and revealed . In short , he found an image of himself in his new acquaintance : no wonder , their esteem and affection grew so fast as to give umbrage , in no long time , to a certain noblemanwho had taken to himsell the honour of beinj- the ' o-uide
, and philosopher of Mr . Pope . ' On the 6 th of April in this year he lost his friend and patron , the excellent Bishop Hare . Speaking of the Bishop ' s death to Dr . Midpleton , in a letter , he says— ' He has cot left his fellow behind him , for the love and encouragement of learning . I have had a great loss in his death . He honoured me with his esteem and friendshi This
p . 1 esteemed a great obligation . I never ceased to increase it by any other dependence upon him ; and by the terms on which we kept up a correspondence , he did me the justice to believe I expected no other . In May , 1741 , was published the second volume of the ' Divine Legation , ' which completed the argument , although not the entire plan of that work . A work , in all views , of most transcendant merit , whether
we consider the invention or the execution . A plain simple argument , yet perfectly new , proving the divinity of the Mosaic law , and laying a sure foundation for the support of Christianity , is there drawn out to , a great length , by a chain of reasoning so elegantly connected , that the reader is carried along b y it with ease and pleasure ; while the matter presented to him is so striking for its own importanceso embellished by a livelfancyand illustratedfrom
, y , , all quarters , by exquisite learning , and the most ingenious disquisition , that , in the whole compass of modern or ancient theology , there is nothing equal or similar to this extraordinary performance . [ TO BE CONCLUDED I . \ - OVR KF . XT . ]