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PREFATORY EPISTLE

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WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THE works of the late Bishop Horne are in many hands, and

will be in many more. No reader of any judgment can proceed far into them, without discovering, that the author was a person of eminence for his learning, eloquence, and piety; with as much wit, and force of expression, as were consistent with a temper so much corrected and sweetened by devotion.

To all those who are pleased and edified by his writings, some account of his life and conversation will be interesting. They will naturally wish to hear what passed between such a man and the world in which he lived. You and I, who knew him so well and loved him so much, may be suspected of partiality to his me mory; but we have unexceptionable testimony to the greatness and importance of his character. While we were under the first impressions of our grief for the loss of him, a person of high distinction, who was intimate with him for many years, declared to you and to me, that he verily believed him to have been the best man he ever knew. Soon after the late Earl of Guildford was made Chancellor of the University of Oxford, another great man, who was allowed to be an excellent judge of the weight and wit of conversation, recommended Dr. Horne, who was then vicechancellor, to him in the following terms; " My Lord, I question "whether you know your vice-chancellor so well as you ought; "When you are next at Oxford, go and dine with him; and, when you have done this once, I need not ask you to do it again.

YOL. VI.

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you will find him the pleasantest man you ever met with." And so his lordship seemed to think (who was himself as pleasant a man as most in the kingdom) from the attention he paid to him ever after. I have heard it observed of him by another gentle*man, who never was suspected of a want of judgment, that, if some friend had followed him about with a pen and ink, to note down his sayings and observations, they might have furnished out a collection like that which Mr. Boswell has given to the public; but frequently of a superior quality; because the subjects which fell in his way were occasionally of an higher nature, out of which more improvement would arise to those that heard him: and it is now much to be lamented, that so many of them have run to waste*.

An allusion to the life of Dr. Johnson, reminds me how much it was wished, and by Dr. Horne in particular, who well knew and highly valued him, that Johnson would have directed the force of his understanding against that modern paper-building of philosophical infidelity, which is founded in pride and ignorance, and supported by sensuality and ridicule. A great personage was of opinion, that Johnson, so employed, would have borne them down with the weight of his language: and he is reported to have expressed his sentiment with singular felicity to a certain person, when the mischievous writings of Voltaire were brought into question: "I wish Johnson would mount his dray-horse, and "ride over some of those fellows." Against those fellows Dr. › Horne employed much of his time, and some of the most useful of his talents: not mounted upon a dray-horse to overbear them; but upon a light courser to hunt them fairly down; with such easy arguments, and pleasant reflections, as render them completely absurd and ridiculous: an account of which will come before us in the proper place. His Considerations on the Life and Death of St. John the Baptist, and his Sermon preached in St. Sepulchre's church at London, for the benefit of a Charityschool for girls, on the Female Character, seem to me, above all the rest of his compositions, to mark the peculiar temper of his mind, and the direction of his thoughts. When I read his book on John the Baptist, I am persuaded, there was no other

* A collection of his thoughts on various subjects is preserved in a manuscript. written with his own hand.

man of his time, whose fancy, as a writer, was bright enough, whose skill, as an interpreter, was deep enough, and whose heart, as a moralist, was pure enough to have made him the author of that little work. His Female Character, as it stands in the sermon above-mentioned, now printed in his fourth volume, displays so much judgment in discriminating, such gentle benevolence of heart, and so much of the elegance of a polished understanding, in describing and doing justice to the sex; that every sensible and virtuous woman, who shall read and consider that singular discourse, will bless his memory to the end of the world.

While we speak of those writings which are known to the public, you and I cannot forget his readiness and excellence in writing letters; in which employment he always took delight from his earliest youth; and never failed to entertain or instruct his correspondents. His mind had so much to communicate, and his words were so natural and lively, that I rank some of his letters among the most valuable productions of the kind. I have therefore reason to rejoice, that, amidst all my interruptions and removals, I have preserved more than a hundred of them; in reviewing of which I find many observations on the subjects of Religion, Learning, Politics, Manners, &c. which are equally in structive and entertaining; and would certainly be so esteemed, if they were communicated to the world; at least, to the better part of it: for there were very few occurrences or transactions of any importance, either in the church, or the state, or the literary world, that escaped his observation; and in several of them he took an active part. But in familiar letters, not intended for the public eye (as none of his ever were) and suggested by the incidents of the time, some of them trivial and domestic, there will be of course many passages of less dignity than will entitle them to publication: yet, upon the whole, I am satisfied that a very useful selection might be made out of them; and I will not despair of making it myself at some future opportunity *.

From an early acquaintance with Greek and Latin authors, and the gift of a lively imagination, he addicted himself to poetry;

* In the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1793, p. 688, I threw out a letter of Bishop Horne, as a specimen both of the style and of the usual subjects of his epistolary writings. It was the first that came to hand on opening a large parcel of them and I may leave every reader to judge whether that letter be not curious and important. Compared with the present times, it seems prophetical,

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and some of his productions have been deservedly admired. But his studies were so soon turned from the treasures of classical wit to the sources of christian wisdom, that all his poetry is either upon sacred subjects, or upon a common subject applied to some sacred use; so that a pious reader will be sure to gain something by every poetical effort of his mind. And let me not omit another remarkable trait of his character. You can be a witness with me, and so could many others who were used to his company, that few souls were ever more susceptible than his of the charms of music, especially the sacred music of the church: at the hearing of which, his countenance was illuminated; as if he had been favoured with impressions beyond those of other men; as if heavenly vision had been superadded to earthly devotion. He therefore accounted it a peculiar happiness of his life, that, from the age of twenty years, he was constantly gratified with the service of a choir; at Magdalen College, at Canterbury, and at Norwich. His lot was cast by Providence amidst the sweets of cloystered retirement, and the daily use of divine harmony; for the enjoyment of both which he was framed by nature, and formed by a religions education. Upon the whole I never knew a person, in whom those beautiful lines of Milton*, of which he was a great admirer, were more exactly verified :

But let my due feet never fail

To walk the studious cloyster's pale;
And love the high embower'd roof
With antique pillars massy proof;
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full voic'd quire below;

In service high, and anthems clear,

As may, with sweetness through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasiés,

And bring all heav'n before my eyes.

You, who are so perfectly acquainted with the discourse delivered at Canterbury, 1784, when the new organ was opened in the great church, may guess how refined his raptures were: by what he has there said, it may be known what he felt. And I

In the Il Penseroso.

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