XI. ON MR. GAY, IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1732. OF Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child : With native Humour temp'ring virtuous Rage, NOTES. VER. 1. Of Manners gentle,] "The eight firft lines," fays Johnson," have no grammar; the adjectives are without any fubftantives, and the epithets without a fubject." It is fomewhat fingular that there fhould be an improper expreffion in Bishop Warburton's own epitaph. His genius and learning are called two talents, but learning is an acquirement. WARTON. VER. 2. In Wit, &c.] This feems derived from Dryden's Elegy on Mrs. Anne Killegrew: "Her wit was more than man; her innocence a child." WAKEFIELD. VER. 3. virtuous Rage,] Silius Italicus, v. 652, has the fame expreflion: Virtutis facram rabiem. WAKEFIELD. VER. 12. Here lies GAY.] i. e. in the hearts of the good and worthy.- Mr. Pope told me his conceit in this line was not generally understood. For, by peculiar ill-luck, the formulary expreffion which makes the beauty, misleads the reader into a sense which takes it quite away. WARBURTON. The conceit in the laft line is certainly very puerile, and a falfe thought borrowed from Crafhaw: "Entomb'd, not in this ftone but in my heart." WARTON. XII. INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON, IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY. ISAACUS NEWTONUS: Quem Immortalem Teftantur Tempus, Natura, Cælum : Mortalem Hoc marmor fatetur. Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night: NOTES. VER. 1. Nature] The antithefis betwixt Mortalem and Immortalem is much unfuited to the fubject; and the second English line, "God faid, &c." borders a little on the profane. The magnificent Fiat of Mofes will be always ftriking and admired, notwithstanding the cold objections of Le Clerc and Huet. WARTON. VER. 2. Let Newton be!] He was born on the very day on which Galileo died. When Ramfay was one day complimenting him on his discoveries in philofophy, he answered, as I read it in Spence's Anecdotes, "Alas! I am only like a child picking up pebbles on the fhore of the great ocean of truth." WARTON. And all was Light.] It had been better-and there was Light — as more conformable to the reality of the fact, and to the allufion whereby it is celebrated. WARBURTON. XIII. ON DR. FRANCIS ATTERBURY, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732, (his only Daughter having expired in his Arms, immediately after he arrived in France to fee him.) DIALOGUE. SHE. YES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then we part! May Heav'n, dear Father! now have all thy Heart. Yet ah! how once we lov'd, remember still, Till you are duft like me. HE. Dear Shade! I will: Then mix this duft with thine-O fpotlefs Ghost! NOTES. VER. 1. Yes, we have liv'd-] I know not why this Dialogue fhould be called an Epitaph. Dr. Johnfon fays, "it is contempt. ible, and should have been fuppreffed for the Author's fake." I fee no reafon for this harsh fentence paffed upon it. WARTON. Dr. Johnson fays, "the contemptible Dialogue between He and She,' fhould have been fuppreffed." Many of our old Epitaphs are written in dialogue. In this inftance, nothing could fo well exprefs the ftory of the Daughter and Father meeting in a foreign country, he exiled, and the dying in his arms! O more than Fortune, Friends, or Country loft! -He faid, and dy’d. NOTES. VER. 9. SAVE MY COUNTRY, HEAV'N,] Alluding to the Bishop's frequent ufe and application of the expiring words of the famous Father Paul, in his prayer for the flate "Efto perpetua." With what propriety the Bishop applied it at his trial, and is here made to refer to it in his laft moments, they will understand who know what conformity there was in the lives of the Prelate and the Monk. The character of our countryman is well known; and that of the Father may be told in very few words. He was profoundly skilled in all divine and human learning. He employed his whole life in the fervice of the State, against the unjust encroachments of the Church. He was modeft, humble, and forgiving, candid, patient, and just; free from all prejudices of party, and all the projects of ambition; in a word, the happiest compound of fcience, wisdom, and virtue. WARBURTON. This fevere farcafm would certainly, if he had feen it, been highly difpleafing to Pope, who retained for Atterbury the warmest affection and respect. But from the Letters of Atterbury, printed, in three volumes, by Mr. Nicholls, and particularly from those in p. 148. to p. 168. it almoft indisputably appears that the Bishop was engaged in a treasonable correfpondence, and in the intrigues of the Pretender. WARTON. THE beft illuftration of Pope's Epitaph will be found in the following interefting account: "The exile of the Bishop of Rochester gave occafion to a very interefting exercise of parental tenderncfs on the one part, and of filial duty and affection on the other. What moftly embittered the banishment of the Bishop, was regret at leaving behind him his daughter, Mrs. Morice, in an infirm ftate of health. A mutual longing to fee one another, took faft hold of the father and daughter; and the lady, though very ill, performed, with great difficulty |