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    Letters in&ftted in the ardour and confidence of friendship may naturally be expected to present a ^ true and lively picture of the character of their writer . An author , nevertheless , is not always one and the satne person in his graver works and in his familiar

    correspondence ; and we could mention the names of men the elaborate productions of wbose pens h&ve given the public rather an unfavourable impression of their manners and dispositions , yet w hose letters have shown them to be a-

    miable as well as learned , * houest a / r * d acute . But the volume on which we are animadverting is no contrast , no relief , to the JDivine Legation , Julian , &c . &c .: it demonstrates that in War bur ton ' s

    public and private habits there was little , if any , difference ; 'for , as to the playfulness of his wit iu some instances , and the partiality olf his friendship in many more ^ % e *> halj soon perceive that the shafts of his ridicule are still

    leveled without mercy at his thcologii cal and literary opponents , ami that his friendship was procured and maintained by no common adulation . *

    With a mind of unusual vigour , with considerable powers of ima ; gi nation and expression , War burton united a compass of reading which few scholars have been able *

    to embrace . He was distinguished too , above most men , by a love of knowledge and a desire of pro * mating it in otbefB , which accompanied him through life - His atr tachment to revealed religion was sincere and fervent ; and we arc ? disposed to admit as fully as hi $ warmest friends , the purity of his motives , and the force and grasp

    ? See the notice prefixed to the volume .

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    Review . ' —WarbuTtoTPs Letters ! 351

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    the p relates whose name and friendship they record , or to answer any important purpose of gratification or instruction , may well be questioned .

    No person who is tolerably acquainted with the history of English literature for sixty years past , can be ignorant of the strong mmual attachment which subsisted be .

    tween the late Bishops Warburton and Hurd . Soon after the death of the latter , which took place in May 1 SOS , an advertisement in the newspapers announced the speedy appearance of the letters that are at present in our hands . To the readers of them obvious reasons will occur why they were confined # b Hartlebury library

    during the life of Dr . Hurd : why they have been left for publication , he has distinctly t ^ ld usr ? " These letters give so true a jpieture of the writer ' s character , and are , besides , so worthy , of him ip . all respects , ( I mean , if the teader can forgive the playfulness of his wit in some instances ,

    and the partiality of his friendship in many more ) , that , in honour of his nfiemory , I would have them published afser my . death , and the profits arising from the sale of them , applied to the benefit of the Worcester Infirmary .

    " R . WORCESTER . « Jan . 18 , X 793- * We agree with the deceased prelate , who has thus stamped his imprimatur on flit * letters , tnal they give a true picture of the writer ' s character j and , with the judgment which we have long since formed of that-character , we can even add * that thev are worthy pti him if not in all , yet in nearly all respects . This we grant to be the

    fact : while we subscribe to it as such , let not our readers . suppose that we consider it as the ground *>* an eulogium .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1809, page 391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1738/page/37/