Two Sermons at Norwich; in 1783, a Discourse which is called Philoleutherus Norfolciensis, and which he is said to consider as nearly his best composition; in 1785, a Sermon upon Education, with learned and copious notes; in 1787, the Preface to Bellendenus de Statu; in 1788, the Warburtonian Tracts; in 1792, Irenopolis; in 1801, a Spital Sermon; in 1804, a Fast Sermon ; in 1809, Philopatris Varvicensis. In 1792, and in 1795, the doctor was engaged in controversy with two respectable individuals, whom it is unnecessary to name; and, though the immediate subjects of his pamphlets were unlikely to create a general interest, the fertility of his mind enabled him to interweave many valuable observations upon politics and criticism. The quickness of his resentments is well known to be accompanied by a most amiable placability; and they who have access to the real feelings of his heart, will hear without surprise, that he frequently visits one of the gentlemen, who had formerly given him offence, and speaks with esteem and kindness of the other.

The doctor has occasionally written in the Monthly Review, and the British Critic; and in the last-mentioned publication are inserted some learned observations upon passages in Horace, which the doctor supposes to be spurious. The share he had in the Bampton Lectures, has been

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already stated with fidelity by the very learned Professor White. The doctor has written many Latin epitaphs. Those which have come to my knowledge, were upon the late Dr. Sumner, of Harrow; Dr. Samuel Johnson; Mr. Gibbon, the historian; Mr. John Baynes, a celebrated member of Trinity College, Cambridge; the acute and learned Mr. Daniel Gaches; Dr. Lubbock, a much-respected physician, at Norwich; Dr. Percival, of Manchester ; the late Mr. Felix Vaughan; and Mr. John Smitheman, who died while a pupil of the doctor's at Hatton. The style of these epitaphs is various; some are embellished with the most copious and magnificent diction; and in others the doctor has preserved that plainness and simplicity, which he is supposed to admire in the Latin inscriptions of antiquity, and of which he deserves, perhaps, to be considered the first systematic and professed imitator, that has appeared in this country. The epitaph upon Dr. Johnson in St. Paul's does not retain the same form, in which it was originally composed. In consequence of several objections, which were started by the admirers of Dr. Johnson, some alterations were made, which, in the doctor's opinion, destroyed the uniformity of the style. It has fallen in my way to see two or three English epitaphs, which bear very strong marks of

the doctor's language. But he seems to be particularly successful in that, which he wrote for the late Mrs. Coke, of Norfolk. I have been told, that the whole force of his mind has been employed in Latin inscriptions upon three illustrious statesmen of our own age. But upon the merit of performances, which have not yet seen the light, it is impossible to form any precise opinion. It is not unknown to the doctor's friends, that his papers contain many discussions and observations upon subjects of theology, criticism, and metaphysics; but the strong and peculiar reluctance, which he feels to publication, will, it is thought, prevent him from committing any of those works to the press, however elaborate they may be in themselves, and however worthy they may be of the writer's literary reputation. Men of letters have already formed their judgment upon those writings, which the doctor has laid before the public; and it seems to be generally agreed, that, in their matter and style, they evince the depth of his learning, the correctness of his taste, and the liberality of his principles.

II.

A Sketch of Dr. Parr, by Miss Seward.

"LETTER 59. [vol. 3. p. 195.]

"To MR. SAVILLE,

Wellesbourne, Dec. 17, 1792.

In this interesting* scene of friendship, literature, and the arts, I have been introduced to that intellectual luminary, Dr. Parr. When I had the honour of a visit from Dr. Parr, he staid two days and nights at Wellesbourne. (I was prepared to expect extraordinary colloquial powers, but they exceeded every description I had received of them. He is styled the Johnson of the present day. In strength of thought, in promptness and plenteousness of allusion, in wit and humour, in that high-coloured eloquence, which results from poetic imagination there is

* "The seat of Court Dewes, Esq., near Stratford upon Avon." - S.

a very striking similarity to the departed despot. That, when irritated, he can chastise with the same overwhelming force, I can believe; but unprovoked, Dr. Parr is wholly free from the caustic acrimony of that splenetic being.) Benign rays of ingenuous urbanity dart in his smile, and from beneath the sable shade of his large and masking eyebrows, and from the fine orbs they overhang. The characters he draws of distinguished people, and of such of his friends, whose talents, though not yet emerged, are considerable, are given with a free, discriminating, and masterly power, and with general independence of party-prejudices.

If he throws into deepest shade the vices of those, whose hearts he thinks corrupt, his spirit luxuriates in placing the virtues and abilities of those he esteems, in the fairest and fullest lights; a gratification, which the gloomy Johnson seldom, if ever, knew.

Dr. Parr is accused of egotism; but, if he often talks of himself, all he says on that, as on every other theme, interests the attention, and charms the fancy. It is surely the dull and the envious only, who deem his frankness vanity. Great minds must feel, and have a right to avow their sense of, the high ground on which they stand. Who, that has a soul, but is gratified by Milton's avowal of this kind, when, in the civil