in this station, preached his famous Sermons at Derby, Aug. 15, 1709; and at St. Paul's, Nov. 5, in the same year; and in one of them was supposed to point at Lord Godolphin, under the name of Volpone. It has been suggested, that to this circumstance, as much as to the doctrines contained in his Sermons, he was indebted for his prosecution, and eventually for his preferment. Being impeached by the House of Commons, his trial began Feb. 27, 1709-10; and continued until the 23d of March; when he was sentenced to a suspension from preaching for three years, and his two Sermons ordered to be burnt. Sir Simon Harcourt, who was counsel for him, received on this occasion a silver bason gilt. This ridiculous prosecution overthrew the Ministry, and laid the foundation of his fortune. He very soon after was presented to a living near Shrewsbury; and, in the same month that his suspension ended, had the valuable rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn, given him by the Queen. At that time his reputation was so high, that he was enabled to sell the first Sermon preached after his sentence expired for the sum of 100l. ; and upwards of 40,000 copies, it is said, were soon sold. We find, by the Journal to Stella, Jan. 22, 1711-12, that he had also interest enough with the Ministry to provide very amply for one of his brothers; yet, as Dr. Swift had said before, Aug. 24, 1711, "they hated, and affected to despise him." In 1716 he prefixed a dedication to "Fifteen Discourses, Occasionally delivered before the University of Oxford, by W. Adams, M. A. late student of Christ Church, and rector of Staunton upon Wye, in Herefordshire." After this publication, we hear little of him, except by quarrels with his parishioners, although he was much suspected to be concerned in Atterbury's plot. A considerable estate at Callow, in Derbyshire, was left to him by his kinsman, George Sacheverell, Esq. He died June 5, 1724; and, by his will, bequeathed to Bishop Atterbury, then in exile, who was supposed to have penned his defence for him, the sum of 500l. By a letter to him from his uncle in 1711, it appears, that he had a brother named Thomas, and a sister Susannah.-The Duchess of Marlborough describes him as "an ignorant, impudent incendiary; a man who was the scorn even of those who made use of him as a tool." Account, &c. p. 247.-And Bishop Burnet says, "He was a bold, insolent man, with a very small measure of religion, himself into popularity and preferment, by the most petulant railings at Dissenters and Low-church men, in several sermons and libels, written without either chasteness of style, or liveliness of expression." History, vol. III. p. 277. 1779, June. J. N. XIV. Hints towards a Life of Dr. BENtley. MR. URBAN, THE following Memoranda relative to Dr. Bentley, are copied from the valuable MSS. of Mr. Baker in the British Museum, and corrected by an intimate friend of the late Dr. Powell. Richardus Bentley de Oulton [a hamlet between Rothwell and Mithley, due Ñ. of Wakefield], filius Thomæ B. defuncti, annos natus 15, & quod excurrit, literis institutus infra Wakefield, admissus est subsizator in coll. Jo. pro M'ro Johnston tutore & fide-jussore ejus, Maii 24, ann. 1676. Idem admissus Magister Coll. Trin. Feb. 1, an. 1699. Ego Richardus Bentley Eboracensis admissus & juratus sum in annum in discipulum hujus coll. [Div. Joann.] pro Doctore Dowman, Nov. 4, 1678. Ego Ric. Bentley Ebor. juratus & admissus sum in discipulum pro D're Constable, 1679, Nov. 4. March 16, 1689. Ric. Bentley, ordained Deacon by the Bishop of London. Dr. Powell used to observe, that it was remarkable Bentley was admitted sizar for his own tutor. Every sizar must be admitted for somebody; but it is entirely a mere form: yet, he said, he never observed such an instance; and that, though they put down the first fellow's name that occurs, yet that he had never put down his own. Had the father been living, his profession would have been mentioned. Dr. B.'s grandson is a scholar, but still more desirous of being reckoned a person of fashion; and as such would be more hurt at the Doctor's condition being debased, than his learning; especially as the former is at least equivocal, the latter not at all. The received opinion in college is, that he was a blacksmith, which, in the country, is nothing very great. But if any body has a mind to see how astonishing a scholar and critic he was, let him only read a letter on Hesychius, in Alberti's noble edition. He succeeded in 1716 to the Regius Professorship, to which Somersham, Pidley, and Colne, all in Huntingdonshire, are annexed; but, though he takes care of them by curates, yet they cannot be called livings in the common acceptation, as he may hold two livings besides, just as if he had not these. From Dr. Powell's Friend. Whilst Bentley was chaplain to Bishop Stillingfleet, it happened that a nobleman, who was dining at Hartlebury Castle, asked the Bishop some question on a learned subject. Bentley, who was at the bottom of the table, took up the arguinent, and harangued on it in a very masterly manner. After dinner, the peer, who had never before seen the young divine, observed to the Bishop, that he had a very ingenious man for his chaplain. "Yes," returned the Prelate," the greatest in Europe, had it pleased God to have given him the grace of humility!" His pride was the reason why he did not go beyond the first year in preaching at Boyle's Lectures. His next sermon, which was ready, he preached at the commencement at Cambridge; and it has since been printed. From Dr. Owen. Dr. Bentley frequently said to his nephew, "Tom, I shall thrash thee;" meaning that he should outlive him and used to compare himself to an old trunk, which, if you let it alone, will stand in a corner a long time; but, if you jumble it by moving it, will soon fall to pieces. From Mr. Markland. It is not generally known that it was to the earnest entreaties and zealous patronage of Dr. Bentley, that the public owe the improvements in the second edition of Sir Isaac Newton's most admirable Principia, in 1713. See Mr. Professor Cotes's Preface to that valuable edition. I will just mention one little publication by this great writer, as I never saw but a single copy of it: "Richardi Bentleii, cum Septem in Theologiâ Doctores crearet, Oratiuncula, Cantabrigiæ in Comitiis habita, Julii 6, 1725." These Doctors were Ellis and Mawson, of Corpus Christi; Mangey, Newcome, and Palmer, of St. John's; T. Waterland, of Magdalen; and Bishop, of Sidney. He wrote the epitaph on Bishop Stillingfleet, in Worcester cathedral; and you may refer your readers for his curious Answer to Mr. Titley's Ode from Horace, to your Magazine for 1740. The following letter was addressed by Dr. Bentley to the author of a translation of Anacreon and Sapphio, published vers François par le Poëte sans fard;" a book which is scarcely to be met with even in France. "D. FRANCISCO GACON S. P. D. RICHARDUS Bentleius. Literas tuas ix. Novembris datas nudius tertius accepi, quibus significas te Anacreonti in metra Gallica vertendo dare operam, et de duobus locis sententiam meam scire cupere. De priore illo num. xiii. quæris, utrumne Attis Cybeles amore in furorem agi dicendus sit, an potius ira Cybeles, quod is aliò amorem verterat. Neutrum ex his verum; quippe locus iste mendo laborat, et in hunc modum corrigendus: οἱ μὲν καλὴν Κυβήβην Quæ sic accipienda sunt: Sunt qui dicunt, formosam Cybeber insaniisse, inclamantem in montibus pulcherrimum "Attin. Ipsa, vides, Cybebe, sive Cybele, amore Attidis percussa insaniit, ut ex Phrygum historia rem diserte narrat Diodorus Siculus libro III. Cybebe ergo hic puella est, nondum scilicet inter deos relata; neque xa est alma; sed ut passim formosa: neque unus est gallus, spado; sed mollibus fœmineisque fere membris præ pulchritudine: ut in illo Ausonii, Dum dubitat Natura, marem faceretne puellam, Pene puella est ipsum illud uus. Hanc nostram emendationem & verborum series constructioque, et Diodori, quem consulas, locus plane efflagitat. Jam illa quæ sequuntur, vide modo antithesin, o pir λéyson, sunt qui dicunt; oi di, alii vero, subaudiendum dicunt; unde necessario, ut vides, nominativos illos πιόντες & μεμηνότες in accusativos immutari oportet. Tu igitur in versione tua, si ad Anacreontis elegantiam adspiras, sic locum adumbrabis: "Alii dicunt, formosam Cybeben in montibus pulchrum Attin invocantem insaniisse. Afi dicunt, eos qui Clari aquam bibunt, furentes clamare." Nisi hoc modo oppositionem expresseris, perit magna pars venustatis. Cæterum in loco altero num. xlv. ubi quæris de istis verbis: ἔλαβεν βέλεμνον Αρης" ὁ δ' Ερως, ἔχ ̓ αὐτὸ, φησί, Utrumne id velint, Amorem suum jaculum in manus modo Marti dedisse, an in Martem contorsisse et eum vulnerasse, Neutra ex his sententia, sed alia inter utramque media vera est. Quippe Cupido non contorsit jaculum, sed manu tantum capiendum tradidit. At repente jaculum, ex vivo scilicet igne et æthereo fulgure constans, in Martis corpus se sponte insinuavit, et reconditum latuit. Inde est illud arákas, gemitum et suspirium ducens, ob vulnus scilicet; et apor autó: tolle quæso; quippe qui in intima corporis penetraverat; vero autó: tecum serva, ait Cupido irridens, qui solus potuit extrahere, sed noluit. Hæc arooxidiasi & αὐτοσχεδιασί ex tempore tibi exaravi, quibus utere tuo arbitratu. Multa quidem in aliis Anacreontis locis emendatione indigent; non pauca etiam sunt spuria, quæ a genuinis dignoscere paucorum erit hominum, &c. Cantabrigiæ, die xx Nov. 1711." This letter to Dr. Gacon is inserted in the last edition of the Dissertation on Phalaris; where is another curious letter of Dr. Bentley, to Dr. Davies, the learned Master of Queen's college in Cambridge, occasioned by Mr. Barnes's edition of Homer; a letter which Dr. Clarke had certainly seen, as appears by his Notes on Hom. II. A. 462. and II. . 101. in which he expresses himself in a strain so unlike himself, that Barnes might justly have replied, had he lived to see them, "Non te dignum C. fecisti; nam si ego dig nus essem hac contumelia quam maxume, at tu indignus qui faceres tamen." Mr. Barnes has been sometimes mentioned in the controversy on Phalaris, (see p. 235, ed. 1777,) as having sufficiently thrust himself into it; but was afterwards much better known by Dr. Bentley than probably he was at the time of writing the letter here referred to; in part of which, it is observed by Dr. Salter, the late excellent Master of the Charter-House, that " Barnes had some knowledge in the Greek language; almost as much, Dr. B. used to say, as an Athenian cobbler; but was, in all |
