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few remarks upon them, which may ferve to kindle in the minds of perfons better informed than myfelf, a refolution of giving more ample and correct memoirs.

1. JAMES PIERCE, Divine.

This learned critic, and eminent controversialist, has been omitted, together with his coadjutor, HALLETT, in every biographical work that has fallen in my way. No two names ftand higher in the clafs of biblical critics, nor any among what are called rational diffenters, and yet they have been strangely neglected. They were both fettled at Exeter, at the head of a large and respectable congregation of prefbyterians; and when Dr. Clarke kindled the controversy respecting the Trinity, they avowed the Arian hypothefis, which raifed a violent diftur bance among the diffenters in the west of England. Mr. Pierce commenced his literary career by a very able, and what is rather unusual in a polemical treatise, a very entertaining book, entitled "A Vindication of the Proteftant Diffenters," which was firft published in good Latin, and afterwards in English, 1717, in reply to Dr. Nicholls's "Defence of the Church of England.” He also printed feveral fingle fermons and tracts, but bis greatest work is his "Commentary on St. Paul's Epiftles." I believe both

he and Mr. Hallett were natives of

Exeter, or its neighbourhood. Sure it is in the power of many now living, to gather fome interesting facts relative to these able scholars, and though the information be but little, it is better to communicate that little to the public through the channel of a refpectable work, than to fuffer men of fuch merit to remain without any memorial.

2. BENJAMIN MARTIN, Mathematician. A meagre notice is given of this extraordinary and indefatigable man in the laft edition of the "General Biographical Dictionary," but no reader can be fatisfied with it; we are left by it totally in the dark as to the birth-place, various fettlements, and even family of this ingenious writer. He was at one time fettled as a schoolmaster at Chichefter, but from the circumftance of his afterwards becoming an itinerant lecturer in experimental philofophy, it feems that his fchool did not answer. He next fet up as a mathematical inftrument maker and optician in Fleet-ftreet, where he failed. The catalogue of his writings is very numerous, and all of them are very refpectable, but he certainly fucceeded better upon philofophical than mathema

tical subjects. The plan of his philofophical grammar is a very excellent one; though it is marked by too much pedantry. His "Magazine of Arts and Sciencies," was a good work, and it excites astonishment and indignation to find that it dropped for want of encouragement. His "Philological Library," is a very judicious compendium, and extremely well fitted for the ufe of young perfons, and those who have not the means of procuring many books. A new edition, with corrections and improvements, would doubtlefs be acceptable at prefent, especially as the book is become rather fcarce. The

fame may be faid of the Philosophical Grammar," and fome of the other productions of this industrious writer. I have been told that his "Young Gentleman's and Lady's Philosophy," which first appeared in his magazine, and was afterwards published in two volumes, owes much of its liveliness to his daughter, who polished the language, and selected the poetical paffages which ornamented the work. If I am not mistaken, a fon of Mr. Martin's is now living; if it should be fo, I hope this fketch will fall in his way, and stimulate him to fend the publifher of this magazine fome information which may be made use of in drawing up a more fatisfactory memoir of his father. The chief particulars defired are his birth place, names and profeffion of his parents, dates of birth, death, &c. place of his education, his different settlements, &c.

3. SAMUEL DUNN, Mathematician.

This gentleman was the contemporary, correfpondent and friend of Benjamin Martin. He was a native of Crediton, in

Devonshire, where he kept a refpectable mathematical school for several years; but afterwards removed to Chelsea, where he was engaged in the fame way. He was deeply verfed in the fcience of calculation, and was a good practical aftronomer; feveral reports of his obfervations being inferted in the Philofophical Tranfactions. He was also the author of fome feparate treatises on mathematical subjects, and published an Atlas in folio which has been held in good estimation. He died in good circumstances, and left an estate of about thirty pounds a year, to fupport a mathematical school in his native town, the first master of which was appointed in 1793.

4. MARTIN MADAN, Divine. This once very popular clergyman was brought up to the bar, and poffeffed extraordinary powers as an orator. He had

a hand

a

handfome income arifing from plantations in the West India Islands, on which account he never fought for, nor would accept any preferment in the church. In the former part of his life he was rather gay and dissipated, and the occafion of his converfion is faid to have been this: Being one evening at a coffee houfe, with fome companions who knew his talent for mimickry, they defired him to go and hear Mr. John Welley, who was then about to preach fome where in the neighbourhood, and then to return to exhibit his manner and difcourfe for their entertainment. Madan accordingly went with this intention, and just as he entered the place, the preacher named as bis text Prepare to meet your God," with a folemnity of accent which truck him with a ferioufnefs that encreafed as the good man proceeded in exhorting his hearers to repentance. On his return to the coffee-houfe his acquaintance asked him whether he had taken off the old methodist, to which he answered "no gentlemen, but he has taken me off," and then left their company altogether. From that time Mr. Madan became an altered character; he frequented places of worship, and affociated himself with Serious people, at the inftant perfuafion of whom, he entered into holy orders, but was never fettled in any particular cure till he became chaplain to the Lock Hofpital, where he obtained an aftofubfcribed largely towards erecting the nihing degree of celebrity. He himself chapel at this hofpital, and when it was built, volunteered his fervices as the chaplain; nor did he ever receive a fhilling for his attendance during the whole time that he officiated in that capacity. He continued to maintain his popularity as a preacher, without the fmalleft diminution, till the year 1780, when he unforunately routed the public refentment against himself, by the publication of a work entitled " Thelypthor, or a treatife on Female Rain" in which he became the earnest but weak advocate for polygamy. His intentions, it is faid, were good, being no more than to oblige every feducer to marry the perfon he has injured, even though he fhould have a wife already living. A haft of writers appeared againit this modern Ochinus, fome ferious and fome fatyrical. The most powerful, however, by far of all his antagonifts, was the late ingenious Badcock, who, in his criticisms on Thelypthora in the Monthly Review, completely demolished. the caufe of polygamy. In confequence

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of this imprudent publication, Mr. Madan was under the neceflity of withdrawing from his fituation at the Lock Hospital, and never after refumed it. Some years afterwards, he published a more useful work, viz. "the Text of Juvenal," with a literal verfion, for young perfons, in two volumes, 8vo. Thefe books, with a collection of pfalms and hymns for the ufe of the Lock Chapel, and a fingle fermon, are all that he ever published.

In his private character, Mr. Madan was a very excellent man ; he was a good husband, an affectionate father, and a firm friend. He was of a very benevolent difpofition, and his charities were extenfive. No ftain was ever affixed upon him, but that which he incurred in the manner just mentioned, and that furely may be pardoned when we confider his motives, and that the excellent Luther himself fanctioned the Landgrave of Hesse's marrying two wives.

All the perfons here noticed, except Benjamin Martin, are entirely omitted in the new edition of the Biographical Dictionary, which is alfo the cafe with a vast number of other eminent and extraordinary names, many of which, with remarks, will be brought forward in the next and following numbers.

J. WATKINS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

ERHAPS it would not have been

very

PR unreasonable to expect that a publication like yours, profeffedly friendly to liberty, fhould, in criticising a work of the fame general tendency and fpirit, have difcovered fomething of the candour, and even the indulgence of fympathy. I am not fenfible, however, that I owe any obligation of this nature, or that the work ftands indebted for the lighteft portion of "celebrity" it may have attained to the conductors of the Monthly Magazine; the laft supplementary number of which contains remarks upon the "Hiftory of the House of Brunfwick," affecting the moral, at leaft as much as the literary character of its author, and therefore demanding on his part fome degree of animadverfion.

With respect to the objections properly literary, I have nothing to fay; the work is before the public, and to the public Į cheerfully entrust the ultimate decifion. But, I conceive myself moft unjustly charged in two inftances of a very different kind, by ftrong infinuation and im

plication

plication, at leaft; which is indeed infinitely the worst mode of preferring an accufation. it. It is faid in confirma tion of an opinion, which you are doubt. lefs perfectly free to entertain, viz. that the characters of the hiftory are often over-loaded, either with cenfure or encomium," William, Prince of Orange, is fo great a favorite, that even the maffacre at Glencoe is not fuffered to disturb his repofe. This expreffion is fo curious and obfcure, that I think it difficult to afcertain its diftinct meaning. If this means any thing to the purpofe, it muft import that I have admitted King William to be the author of the maffacre at Glencoe; and yet, that I have reprefented it as no blemish in his character, a ferious allegation indeed! On the contrary, however, it is not only afferted, but fully proved in the hiftory that King William was grofsly impofed upon in this bufinefs by two very artful and deep-defigning men, Lord Breadalbin and Secretary Dalrymple. The maffacre is every where spoken of in terms of the utmost abhorrence, and the king himself is freely blamed, not as an accomplice in the barbarity, for that would be infamous injustice; but for negligence in fuffering himself to become the dupe of fo execrable a defign, and fupineness in not punifhing with fufficient feverity the contrivers of it. The truth is, that Dalrymple was a man to whom the monarch, not to fay the nation, owed in many refpects fuch high obligation, that the king may on plaufible ground be fufpected of a fecret with of extending too far his mercy to the unmerciful. And to punish fubordinate agents, while the principals were allowed, by a culpable lenity, to efcape, would have reflected no honour on the juftice of the government. But all this is mere fufpicion; the villainy, however enormous, was perpetrated under the forms of law, by the king's own warrant furreptitiously obtained; and the declaimers upon this fubject have never yet fhewn that the king had it in his power to inflict that vengeance upon the parties concerned in this bloody bufinefs, which they load his memory with reproaches for withholding. The fecond allegation, is of a nature more immediately interefting; the charge is, that I have "tained the pages of the Hiftory of the Houfe of Brunswick, by an unbecoming and dangerous latitude of expreffion, or rather virulence of invective;" and this is explained to refer

to what you are pleased to ftile "my decifive hoftility against Mr. HASTINGS at the time that gentleman was under trial. Our opinion, fay you, concerning the delinquency of Mr. H. is perfectly coincident with the opinion of Mr. BELSHAM, but nothing fhould have extorted it from us till a a jury of peers, then fitting in judgment on the prifoner, had pronounced their verdict of acquittal or condemnation." It is well known to the public that Major Scorr has replied, no doubt with the full approbation of Mr. HASTINGS, in two very able pamphlets, to that part of the hiftory which relates to India; and I have moreover before me at this time several letters of Major SCOTT, privately addreffed to me on the fame fubject. It is material to my vindication to contraft his fentiments upon this point with yours, and this muft be my apology for the apparent vanity of the quotation:-(Feb. 16, 1795,) “İde not lay that you ought to have poftponed the publication of your hiftory of the prefent reign until the clofe of Mr. HASTINGS's trial; far from it, I think the miferable and almoft hopeless state of England, unless fome change in her policy fhall take place, rendered your publication highly important indeed at this moment, and particularly your hiftory of the American war. I trust that the public will reap benefit from it; but, fir, as the hiftory of India makes a materiał part of your memoirs, it did behove you to exert your great abilities fairly and honestly, in order to obtain the best poffible information." Major SCOTT does, indeed, impeach, as he had unquestionably a right to do if he faw reafon, the authority of the facts; but he elsewhere acknowledges, that if the facts themfelves are admitted, every one muit allow that the epithets are well applied. To this conclufion there is one, and probably only one exception; for, while you, gentlemen, profefs to concur in opinion with me refpecting the delinquency of Mr. HASTINGS in its fullest extent, your delicacy is fhocked at my "virulence of invective." Your counfel, had I been fortunate enough to have confulted you previous to the publication of the hiftory, would doubtlefs have been "to lafh no fort of vice," but to make that pleasant and playful fatirift my model,

Whofe fly, polite, infinuating tile, Could please at court, and make Auguftus fmile'

Yet viewing the political conduct of Mr. HASTINGS

HASTINGS in the ferious light I do, I fhould have thought myself at once mean and criminal to have fuppreffed the emotions of my indignation. Is this carrying the boldness of historic licence too far?

"So impudent, I own myfelf no knave; So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave." As to the period of publication, I can truly affert, that it never entered into my imagination to conceive that after nine years parliamentary inveftigation of the question, after pamphlets, fpeeches, and reports innumerable, had been circulated relative to it, that any thing I could fay would, in the flightest degree, influence the judicial decifion of the houfe of peers; or that a rule of difcretion adapted to common cafes could poffibly be fuppofed to apply to this. Your opinion might in deed have carried great weight; it might become you, therefore, to be filent; and the cafes you fee are not analogous. I know not whether I ask too grtat a favor in requesting a place in your magazine for thefe remarks. As they relate not to my literary, but moral character, unjustly and ungenerously, as I think, attacked by you, I flatter myself they will not be rejected by perfons entertaining fuch delicate notions of honor; and I dare venture to affirm, that as this is the first, fo it will, in all probability, he the faft and only time that I fhall ever folicit for the privilege of admiffion. I remain, fir, Your most obedient fervant, Bedford, Feb. 18, 1799. W.BELSHAM.*

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*We have inferted this letter entire, becaufe we think that as far as concerns the defenfive part of it, Mr. BELSHAM had a right to require it; and with respect to any mixture of contemptuous acrimony which was not effential to the argument, we lefs fear undergoing its effects, than the imputation of fuppreffing it through a confcioufnefs of deferving it. Mr. BELSHAM's literary talents and exertions in the caufe of liberty, cannot but command our esteem, whether it be returned or not The general character and contents of our miscellany will, we truft, alfo fecure for us that of the public, notwithstanding any individual expreffions of refentment. EDITORS,

being communicated to the public. I therefore fend it to you, that if you think it inerits the notice of your readers, you may give it a place in your valuable mifcellany:

About the middle of my garden stood an old plumb-tree, which had gone to decay, and loft most of its branches. As it produced little, if any fruit, and fhaded the green-houfe, I ordered it to be cut down towards the end of the year

1793. The head and the root were cut

off and burned, with a part of the trunk, the lower part of which, about eight or nine feet in length, lay on the ground all the winter.

In the spring of the year 1794, having occafion to make a boarded fence to fcreen the cucumber-bed, I ordered this

old tree to be put in the ground as a poft, merely to fave the expence of a new one. As the fpring advanced, I obferved feveral leaves fhoot forth toward the top of it, which I expected fhortly to wither away: but they grew confiderably in the fummer; and the next fpring, to my aftonishment, they put forth again, and feveral bloffoms appeared. In the courfe of that year thefe little fhoots became vigorous branches, and the year following much like a damfon, but of a much produced twelve or fourteen fine plumbs, larger fize.

The body of the tree ftill appears old and decayed, but the branches have continued to grow more luxuriant than thofe of any other young tree in the garden. The laft year it was full of bloffoms; but the fharp north-east wind cut them all off. At this time there is the appearance of a fine bloom.

As this tree ftands at the entrance from

the garden into the burying-ground, it has often reminded me of the ftriking contraft, fo finely illuftrated in the book of Job, between "a tree cut down, of which there is hope," and the bodies of men, which, when once laid in the duft, "rife not till the heavens be no more.' See Job xiv. 7-12.

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I fhould be glad to be informed if any of your readers have ever met with an inftance of renovation in a fruit-tree of a fimilar kind, and whether this fact may be applied to any practical use in gardening.

I am, Sir,

Very respectfully, your's, Hackney, March 5, 1799.

S. P.

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

INAR

NARTICULATE founds are infufficient for the mutual communication of the knowledge and the defires of rational and focial beings, fuch as men. Articulate language has been, therefore, invented: Even this is infufficient to commemorate the paft, or to tranfmit information to those who are at a distance. Hence, among even the rudeft nations, arifes the use of moveable, material figns of thought; and of hieroglyphics, paintings, and sculptures.

Hieroglyphics were, in their first invention, imply painted or fculptured imitations of the objects of which the ideas were meant to be conveyed. To this clafs were almost immediately added other painted figns, expreffive of the geftures, attitudes, and fituations, in which different actions were refpectively performed, and meant to communicate, by means of these representations, the notions of the actions themselves. Thofe figures which fcantinefs of idea, paucity of words, inaccuracy of conception, and ardour of fentiment, quickly introduced into speech, were to be expreffed by a correfpondent figurative ufe of the figns of hieroglyphic painting. Such feem to have been the three principal modifications under which hieroglyphics exifted, after they were first enlarged into a fyftem of permanent figns, and before they had yet begun to be, in any confiderable degree, abbreviated for the ends of myfterious concealment, or quicker ufe.

In the progreffive application of thefe hieroglyphic figns, they were gradually altered and abbreviated. Qualities, energiee unconnected with external attitude or gefture, affirmations and all the varied tranfitions of thought, with thofe notions of generalization, in which the mind endeavours to combine into genera and fpecies the individuals of nature, were neceffarily to be marked in hieroglyphical writing by other contrivances than that of fimply painting the object fignified. As in fpeech, as in the alphabetical writing with which we are acquainted, innumerable abbreviations are, from time to time, almost unconsciously introduced by mere ufe alone, unaffifted by any profpective plans of improvement; fo would hieroglyphics, in a manner little diffimilar, be gradually abbreviated in the hands of the priests of India and Egypt, or of the merchants of Phoenicia. Other abbreviations were no doubt ocMONTHLY MAG. No. XLIN.

cafioned by the defire of priests employing thefe hieroglyphic figns to conceal what they recorded in them from the difcovery of the vulgar. By all thefe means would the fyftem of hieroglyphics be at length wrought into a curiously complex and artificial structure; just as fpoken language that, at firft, confifted but of the fimple name and interjection, has been gradually reared into a complex fabric of parts of speech, declinable and indeclinable, of inflexions, numbers, modes, genders, comparisons, and forms of conftruction.

In this progrefs of abbreviation, it was natural that the attention, at least, of the more unlearned among those who made use of hieroglyphics, fhould be at length turned to think more of the relations between thofe painted figns of thought and articulate language, than of their relations to things. Adjectives, pronouns, all the indeclinable parts of speech, even very many verbs and nouns, reprefenting things which were not fufceptible of being painted, and which could fcarcely be, by every understanding, even precifely and definitely understood, muft in confequence of thefe circumftances have been denoted in hieroglyphic painting, by figns having, not a natural, but an arbitrary and pofitive connection with the things fignified. While this connection arole, it was impoffible that the attention of the writers and readers of these arbitrary figns fhould, not be, in very many inftances, fixed particularly upon the relation between the found and the painted fign, and upon that almoft alone. was one grand ftep in the tranfition from the ufe of hieroglyphics to that of alphabetical writing. The converfion of metaphorical terms into fimple ones, the difficulties arifing from the attempt to exprefs different spoken languages by the fame common fyftem of hieroglyphic figns, the merely technical variations and abbreviations of different writers, would all likewife contribute to feparate, in the ideas of thofe by whom hieroglyphic writing was used the greater part of the hieroglyphics, from the things they originally reprefented, and to leave them in affociation, merely with the vocal articulate figns denoting those things in fpeech.

This

After the alliance between founds and hieroglyphic figns has come to be more regarded than the relation between these laft figns and the things fignified, w difcoveries to direct continued abbreviation, are quickly made by the conA a

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