fter July 6th in the year of the Revolution, and the fame year commenced author, He had the happiness of being endued with a religious turn of mind †,

"friendship which wants to be tranflated from the Greek."Diogenes's fayings are moft of them puns. He faid oppo"fition was the ftudy of his whole life.-Hypparchia, a wo"man of a good birth and fortune, fell in love with Crates "the nafty Cynick, and would needs marry him, and live after "his fathion. Crates made her brother become his auditor by 66 letting a f―. These Cynicks were nafty brutes.--The logick "of the Stoicks feems to me, as far as I can make any thing "of Laertius, to be nothing but words. They held felfpre"fervation to be the first of all defires infused into all crea"tures.-Erillus maintained there were things indifferent "between virtue and vice."-From thefe Obfervations on Laertius the reader will be able to form a judgment of others. We need not take notice that this method of making remarks upon the authors he read is very far from being peculiar to the Doctor; it is the general way of every ftudent; but nothing discovers the taste and temper of his genius more than the turn and nature of his Adverfaria: it is thefe that fhew how freely the Doctor ranged in the fields of polite learning, as well as what fort of flowers pleased his fancy moft. None of the humorous kind seem to have escaped his notice, especially if dreffed up in verse, of which the following may serve for a fpecimen :

At Paris, at Rome,

At the Hague, they 're at home:

The good fellow is no where a stranger.

+ This was fo much his difpofition, that he would never enter upon any business of the day till he had performed his devotions, and read several portions of Scripture out of the Pfalms, the Prophets, and the New Teftament, on which he would often make his remarks, taking a freth piece of paper

which being joined to the warmest regard for the honour of his country†, prompted him to rescue the

every morning in his hands, on which he always begun with Zuve, By God's permission; and this paper he kept at hand all day, to write down whatever occurred to his mind or pleafed his fancy; these he called Hints, which he could refer to at pleasure: accordingly we find several of these upon the fubject of religion and the church, as well as virtue and morality. Such, for inftance, are thefe: "The fecond of "Efdras feems to me full of tautologies and childish instan"ces of God's power and explanation of his secret defigns. "Chryfoftome speaks exprefsly of Jefus Chrift.-See Bartolus "Agricola de Advocato. Having taught the advocate to be "a good man, he proceeds to make him a good Christian.— "There is fuch an air of piety runs through all Hackluit's "difcoveries that makes it seem as if that alone made them "fuccessful. What fignified all the Buccaneers' prosperity "without virtue? to what authority did all their wars and "conquefts bring them but to make one another rich and vi"cious?"

+ In this fpirit, at the head of a very large number of his Adverfaria we find "Criticisms and remarks in poetry, &c. "as might tend to the honour of the British name and litera"ture." To encourage a collection of this kind our Author recommends a prodigious number of observations on books, manuscripts, and what else he had met with to promote the faid work. Thefe obfervations fill up above twenty pages in octavo, and are most of them exceeding curious. The great number of the valuable smaller poetical pieces referred to and mentioned in them are a confpicuous proof of our Author's judgment as well as diligence. Among other rare pieces he mentions the Polemo Middiano, a Macaronick poem by Drummond of Hawthornden, which, as he intimates, was published by Dr. Gibfon, late Bishop of London. He takes notice alfo of the Bithop of Litchfield's Technical verses for Chronology as a Atupendous work, comprehending that learning through many

character and name of Wicliffe, our first reformer, from the calumnies of Monf. Varillas: the thing had been publickly requested also as a proper undertaking for fuch as were at leifure and would take the trouble. Mr. King therefore deeming himself to be thus called forth to the charge, readily entered the lifts, and with a proper mixture of wit and learning handfomely expofed the blunders of that French

ages fo fhort, that nothing can be a greater inftance memoriam in artem poffe redire. In the fame view having afterwards mentioned the technical verses usually found in the little manuals of logick, he fays it were to be wished that the memorial verfes in all sciences were collected together and printed; and his judgment in this particular has been confirmed, and the defign here hinted actually put into execution by the learned Dr. Richard Gray, in his Memoria Technica, or Art of Memory. Our Poet is particularly inquifitive after many pieces of the author of Hudibras. "If that author," fays he," has " left any Latin behind him it would be the beft in that kind: *his thoughts are so just, his images fo lively, fuch a deep in"fight into the nature of mankind, and the humour of thofe "times, that no true history could be wrote without ftudy"ing that author. It is pity," continues he, "that the finest " of our English poets, especially the divine Shakespeare, had "not communicated their beauties to the world fo as to be "understood in Latin, whereby foreigners have fuftained fo

great a lofs to this day, when all of them were inexcufable "but the moft inimitable Shakespeare. I am so far from be "ing envious and defirous to keep thofe treasures to our"felves, that I could with all our most excellent poets tranf"lated into Latin that are not fo already." Accordingly this hint of the Doctor's was not loft; among other things we have fince feen not only a Latin translation of Prior's Solomon, but even of Milton's Paradife Loft, excellently performed in verfe by Mr. Dobfon, Fellow of New College, Oxford,

author in a piece entitled Reflections upon Mr. Värillas his History of Heresy, book I. tome I. as far as relates to English Matters, more especially those of Wicliffe, London 1688 †.

Mr. Varillas had entitled his book Hiftoire des Revolutions arrivees en Europe en Matiere de Religion, Paris, 6 volumes 4to, 1636, and again in 1687, 12mo. It begins with the year 1 374, and ends in 1650. Dr. King made use of the Amfterdam edition, not being able to procure that of Paris. At the head of the first volume Varillas had put the following advertisement: "In compofing this work I have taken my materials indiffe"rently from Catholick and Proteftant writers, citing these "laft in their own words, as often as I found them ingenuous "enough not to fupprefs or disguise the most important truths; "and it is through their own fault that I have been obliged "to have recourfe to the Catholicks." In like manner Mr.King prefixed an advertisement, wherein he declares "that he was "willing to contribute his thare in expofing Mr. Varillas's "mistakes concerning Wicliffe, having formerly laid together "fome observations conducing to such a defign. Mr. Larroque "had, it is true, gone before him in the attempt, but that in"genious gentleman was not well advised to meddle in a "ftrange country, till time had inftructed him more fully in "the conftitutions and language of it. That he (Mr. King) "has given Mr. Varillas all the law imaginable, having made "no advantage of miftakes which with any reason could be "charged upon the printer, and has contradicted nothing " without express proof on his fide, and in things highly im"probable, which seem to have no foundation in history: un"lefs he can confront them with positive and authentick te"ftimonies he lets the author alone, and fuffers the boldness "of the affertion to be its own fecurity." In the Reflections "he obferves that "the enemies of the Reformation, as they "feem refolved never to leave off writing controverfies, and "being confuted by our divines, fo they are not wanting upon "occafion to turn their style,andfurnish out matter of triumph

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About this time having fixed on the Civil Law for his profeffion, he entered upon that line in the

"to our hiftorians. Saunders and Cauffin heretofore, and of "late Mr. Maimbourg and Monf.Varillas, have thought them"felves qualified for this employment. Among the reft," con→ tinues he, "Mr. Varillas has ufed his pen with such a partial "extravagance, and with fo little regard to modefty and "truth, that he has not only provoked the learned of the re"formed profeffion to chastise his impudence in their publick "writings, but has alfo drawn upon him the fcorn and indig "nation of feveral gentlemen of his own communion, who, "in a fenfe of honour and common ingenuity, have taken "fome pains to lay open the fmooth impotture. Mr. Hofier, "Genealogift to the King of France, in his Epiftle declares

himself to have difcovered in him above four thousand errours. Pere Bohours in a difcourfe of his makes it his bufi! "nefs to expofe him. Even his old friend Mr. Dryden feems "to have forfaken him, and gone over to his adverfary Bo"hours, from whose original he is now tranflating the life of "St. Xavier. To be free, there is almoft as many faults in 66 every single page of Mr. Varillas as in a printer's table of "Errata: and if the Archbishop of Paris would do his duty, "he would find himself bound to put a holy cenfure upon "his penfioner; and as he was lately very forward to compel "thofe of the reformed religion to a recantation of their "faith, fo he ought here to oblige Mr. Varillas to an abjura"tion of his hiftory." We must not omit, in juftice however to Varillas, to obferve, that as to the matter of this pention he abfolutely denied it. It is true Le Long tells us that he was offered fuch by feveral French noblemen as well as fo reigners, which he always refufed; and particularly the States of Holland offered him one in 1669, to engage him to write their hiftory; but he alfo refused this by the advice of Mr. Pompone: he accepted that only of the clergy of France, which Mr. de Harlai, Archbishop of Paris, had procured for him. But Volume I.

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