But the love of TRUTH breaks all my measures; imperiosa trahit veritas; and I am once more borne away into the deep and troubled torrent of Antiquity.'* The capitals in this extract are Warburton's own. Possibly, in speaking of 'picking out some poor critic or small philosopher,' he had his thoughts on Bentley's exposure of Collins. Bentley, as Monk observed, he is, while acknowledging his abilities, at times inclined to disparage; and in Warburton's remarks on Collins's Grounds of the Christian Religion,' in the sixth book of "The Divine Legation,' the Bishop thinks he discovers a desire to outshine the answer of Phileleutherus to the Discourse on Freethinking.' But for this notion there seems to be but little foundation. I might have noticed, in my remarks on the first part of The Divine Legation,' in specifying the authors whom Warburton quotes in proof of the absence of a future state from the legislation of Moses, that a passage which he afterwards+ adduces, with some qualification of his own, from Maimonides, pointing out the difference between divine and human laws, might seem, to those who do not consult the original, to indicate that Warburton took the idea of his work from the Jewish expositor. Ea tibi explicabo, says Maimonides to his disciple, ut planè non ampliùs dubitare queas, et differentiam habeas quâ discernere possis inter ordinationes legum conditarum ab hominibus et inter ordinationes legis divinæ. Maimonides,' adds Warburton, saw nothing in the law but temporal sanctions, and was struck with the splendour of divinity which this light reflected back upon the law.' But the truth is, that Maimonides makes no allusion to temporal sanctions; the difference which he specifies between divine and human laws is, that human laws concern * Book iv. sect. 2; Works, vol. iv. p. 79. † Ib. sect. 6; Works, vol. iv. p. 362. 6 More Nevoch. Part II. c. 40, Buxtorf's Transl. 6 1741.] MAIMONIDES. DR. JOHNSON. 199 themselves only with civil affairs, while divine laws, affording instruction about God and celestial concerns, seek to render men better and more heavenly-minded. 6 It may be observed, too, that Dr. Johnson, in his tenth sermon, expresses his concurrence in the opinion that the knowledge of a future state was but partially granted to the Jews. The Jews,' says he, enjoyed a very ample communication of the Divine will, and had a religion. which an inspired legislator had prescribed. But even to this nation, the only nation free from idolatry, and acquainted with the perfections of the true God, was the doctrine of a future state so obscurely revealed, that it was not necessarily consequential to the reception, or observation, of their practical religion. That any man could be a Jew, and yet deny a future state, [as was the case with the Sadducees,] is a sufficient proof that it had not yet been clearly revealed, and that it was reserved for the preachers of Christianity to bring life and immortality to light.' ΤΟ OXFORD -PROPOSAL ΤΟ CONFER DOCTORS' DEGREES ON THEM, AND DISAPPOINTMENT CONSEQUENT ALLUSIONS TO OXFORD IN THE 'DUNCIAD - POPE INVITES WARBURTON, ON ALLEN'S PERMISSION, TO PRIOR PARK-NOTICE OF RALPH ALLEN-PRAISES OF HIM BY HURD, WARBURTON, FIELDING SLIGHT ILLNESS OF WARBURTON AT PRIOR SUGGESTS TO POPE THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE DUNCIAD 'WRITES NOTES ON POPE'S ETHIC EPISTLES THIRD EDITION OF THE ARRANGEMENTS WITH PARK FIRST VOLUME OF THE DIVINE LEGATION BOOKSELLERS LETTER FROM HON. CHARLES YORKE ON THE DIVINE -LETTER TO RICHARDSON. W HEN the second volume of "The Divine Legation' had received its last touch, Warburton proceeded to visit Pope at Twickenham, where he stayed some time, and then joined the poet in a summer ramble into the country. They terminated their excursion at Oxford, when Pope, after staying there a day, went westward, and Warburton, who remained a day after him, to call on Dr. Conybeare, the Dean of Christchurch, returned to London. On the latter day a message was sent to Warburton by Dr. Leigh, the Vice-chancellor, to know if a Doctor's degree in Divinity would be acceptable to him; and Warburton returned a courteous answer, not declining the honour. About the same time a similar communication was made to Pope, offering him a Doctor's degree in Law; and Pope gave a similar reply. Both, therefore, expected 1741.] REFUSED A DOCTOR'S DEGREE AT OXFORD. 201 As to receive their degrees; but the intrigues of two or three individuals, ill affected to Warburton, contrived to throw some impediment in the way; the party favourable to Warburton was outvoted; and, as Warburton was refused his degree, Pope would not accept his. 'I have received some chagrin,' he writes to Warburton on August 12, at the delay of your degree at Oxford. for mine, I will die before I receive one, in an art I am ignorant of, at a place where there remains any scruple of bestowing one on you, in a science of which you are so great a master. In short, I will be doctored with you, or not at all. I am sure, where honour is not conferred on the deserving, there can be none given to the undeserving, no more from the hands of priests than of princes.' Warburton, however, begged him not to slight, on his account, the honour offered by the University. But Pope obstinately adhered to his determination. We shall take our degree together in fame,' said he, 'whatever we do at the University; and, I tell you once more, I will not have it there without you.' '* 6 It was from resentment at this affair, as some suppose, that the sneer at the Oxford Dons, as Apollo's Mayor and Aldermen,' was introduced into the Fourth Book of the Dunciad,' and that the poet said of the sons of Dulness, receiving their titles, The last, not least, in honours or applause, Isis and Cam made Doctors of her Laws.' † Concluding a letter to Warburton the following year, he says, Call me any title you please but a Doctor of Oxford.' In the following November, Pope paid a visit to Allen at Prior Park, and obtained Allen's permission to invite Warburton to join them. In a letter to him from Prior Park, he says, 'I am here in more leisure than I can * Pope's Works by Warburton, vol. ix. pp. 341, 343. possibly enjoy, even in my own house, vacare literis. . . If it were practicable for you to pass a month or six weeks from home, it is here I could wish to be with you; and if you would attend to the continuation of your own noble work, or unbend to the idle amusement of commenting upon a poet who has no other merit than that of aiming, by his moral strokes, to merit some regard from such men as advance truth and virtue in a more effectual way; in either case, this place and this house would be an inviolable asylum to you from all you would desire to avoid in so public a scene as Bath. The worthy man, who is the master of it, invites you in the strongest terms; and is one who would treat you with love and veneration, rather than what the world calls civility and regard. He is sincerer and plainer than almost any man now in this world; antiquis moribus. . . . . You will want no servant here; your room will be next to mine, and one man will serve us. Here is a library and a gallery ninety feet long to walk in, and a coach whenever you would take the air with me. Mr. Allen tells me you might, on horseback, be here in three days; it is less than a hundred miles from Newark, the road through Leicester, Stow-inthe-Wold, Gloucestershire, and Cirencester, by Lord Bathurst's. I could engage to carry you to London from hence, and I would accommodate my time and journey to your conveniency. Is all this a dream? Or can you make it a reality? Can you give ear to me? Audistin'? an me ludit amabilis Ralph Allen, whom Pope, in the epilogue to his Satires, first called 'low-born,' and afterwards humble,' in the couplet, 'Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame,' |