dividual. I faw, with pain, when last in London, that the clofenefs of that over-grown town, your want of exercise, and your intenfe literary application, appear to have had an unfavourable effect on your health. Confider, madam, that, notwithstanding all your paft meritorious fervices, you are ftill a debtor to fociety. You owe yourself to your country. If you do not take care of its beft citizen, you will be guilty of the higheft injuftice to the public. Say not, "How does this advice comport with your doctrine of predeftination ?" For I hope, you are predeftinated to take the advice; and that a predeftinated old age will be the refult. Our friend, Mr. Northcote, fometimes fays, "Mr. Toplady believes abfolute predeftination; and yet he is loth to ride on horseback, for fear of breaking his neck." I anfwer, "True" and, perhaps, that very fear may be an appointed means of preferving my neck unbroken. The corollary from the whole, is; let Mrs. Macaulay, by coming down foon into Devonshire, confult her health, gladden her friends in the west, and fhew herfelf just to the community. We fet too high a value on the productions of your pen, to wish you to lay it afide entirely, while you are with us. We will allow you to devote your mornings to study; and I am pretty certain, that Mr. N. and myself together, can furnifh you with most, if not with all the books which you may wish to confult, relative to the period on which you are now employed. If invitation will not prevail, I fhall have recourfe to threats. I told you, when I faw you last, that I would fo pefter you with letters, that you fhould be glad to vifit us, in your own defence: and I mean to be as good as my word. The prefent piece of prolix expoftulation is a difagreeable fample of what you have to expect, from, madam,

your's, &c.

Augufius Toplady.

LETTER

LE

Broad-Hembury, July 13, 1773.

ET a lady alone for dexterity. The king has loft by you. Your late much efteemed favour, madam (doubly valuable, for being double in fize), was fo ingenioufly folded, as to elude the vigilance of the poft office, and be charged only as a fingle letter. The circumftance, however, of poftage, is an article that I fhall never think of, when Mrs. Macaulay's improving favours are the freight. It is in obedience to your own defire, that I trouble you with an incident, in all other refpects, too trivial for notice. But, as I am on the fubject, I must requeit you, once for all, never to let a deficiency of franks lay the fhorteft embargo on your correfpondence hither. I imagine them to be (what, confidered in this relation, they indeed are) mere things of nought.

Of all the letters, madam, with which you have vouchfafed to honour me, I fet the higheft value on your laft. Should you ask why? My anfwer would be, because it is the longeft. That a perfon of your eminence, and engaged by fo many avocations of ufefulness and importance, fhould oblige me with fo much of your time and attention, is an inftance of condefcending friendship, which reflects as much honour on your own politenefs, as I can receive from its effects.

Doubtlefs, the character of Cromwell, when contrafted with the fhining benevolence and exemplary dilinterestedness of Antonius Pius; or with that gentleness, yet fteadiness of wifdom, that felf-denying fimplicity, that difcreet but noble liberality, that unrelaxing

N 4

unrelaxing adherence to juftice, truth, and equity, which (ftill more than even his writings) have ftamped greatness and immortality on the name of Marcus Aurelius; the maxims and conduct of the English ufurper, when weighed against fuch characters as thofe, cannot but appear, on the comparison, black as darkness, and lighter than emptiness itself. Much lefs will Cromwell's meafures bear to be paralleled with the humane, the juft, the wife, the improving administration of our own Alfred: who, perhaps, both as an individual, and as a chief magiftrate, came the nearest to moral and political perfection, of any regal character, which adorns the page of fecular hiftory. I know of but one prince who would, probably, have out-fhone Alfred; I mean, Edward VI.

Yet, after all, I queftion if it be ftrictly fair, to bring Cromwell to the teft of fuch very exalted ftandards. Antoninus Pius, Antoninus the philofopher, Nicocles of Salamis, Alfred and Edward VI. of England, Louis XII. of France, and (perhaps) one or two more individuals, who were formed for the good of mankind, and for the honour of monarchy; are examples, too feverely bright, for Cromwell's competition. Inexcufable, as many of his principles feem to have been, and unjustifiable as the main of his conduct undoubtedly was; the peculiar exigencies of his fituation might ftill, in fome degree, oblige him to avail himself of maxims he detefted, and to purfue a courfe of action which his heart might difapprove. In fhort, much allowance must be made for the times in which he lived; much for the fituation, in which he was gradually placed; much for that teeming train of events, which appear to have drawn him in ftep by step; much for the embarraffment arifing from thofe diftreffing alternatives, to which public perfons are fometimes reduced, and which frequently pofe the fhallownefs of human wisdom; and much for the depravity of human nature itself, which it is fufficiently plain, was

not

not lefs operative in Cromwell, than in the rest of the fpecies. To which we may add, that perfons who are actually parties in the busy scenes of political. tranfaction, are often hurried and perplexed into measures, which the cool fpeculative politician would justly condemn; and at either the profpect or the retrofpect of which, the delinquents themfelves would fhudder. But to clofe this amicable controverfy, with a fingle queftion. What a figure would the generality of English hiftorians (though many of them have great merit) make, if fet in competition with Mrs. Macaulay's noble and fpirited performance? Or, to vary the query; how fhould I dwindle to a fpan, to an inch, to a point, to nothing, if compared with a Witfius, a Turretin, a Spanhemius, a Gurnall, a Hervey! Think on this, when you are for contrafting Cromwell with the two

Antoninus's and Alfred.

Sorry I am to learn, that your health is not improved, fince I had the honour of feeing you in the fpring. But, though deeply concerned, I cannot wonder. The heat of the feason, for some time past, has been intenfe, even at Broad-Hembury.

At

London, it must be fcarce fupportable. You, whose conftitution is almoft as delicate as your mind is elegant, must have fuffered much by it, aided as, I fear, it has been, by confinement, and application. Would to God, you would receive, with your usual attention in other matters, the hint I took the liberty to give you, at our laft interview, viz. Write little, that you may write much.

If no entreaties can prevail with you to fee the west this fummer; yet be fo kind to your friends and to the world, as to fpare yourself all you can. When you perceive fatigue and languor approaching, lay down your pen for that day; and imagine that I am at your elbow, requefting and adjuring you, with all the earnest importunity of refpectful friendship, to be tender of that exquifite machine which Provi

dence

dence has formed into the diftinguished tenement of fo much exalted reafon and virtue. Nothing exhaufts the fpirits, and impairs the health, more, than the continued labour of deep hiftorical refearches. It engages, for the time, all the powers of the foul, and engroffes the whole collective force of the nerves. What can be more dangerous, what more pernicious to the human fabric? Timotheus, the Athenian, is justly admired for having faid, that, "being at the head of an army, he took care not to expofe himfelf rafhly to danger: for the life of a general is of too much confequence, to be needlessly thrown away." Valuable as your hiftory is, it is not of equal value with the hiftorian. Befides: fhould the hiftorian fail, what would become of the remainder of the hiftory? I fear, I should be the means of detaining you too long from the exercise and relaxation I recommend, were I not to cut fhort this free lecture, by fubfcribing myfelf, with great respect, Madam, your obliged and moft obedient fervant, Auguftus Toplady.

LETTER XXIII.

To the Rev. Dr. GIFFORD.

Broad-Hembury, July 14, 1773.

I AM often reminded of my much valued and refpected friend, by the highly efleemed plates of English coins, with which he favoured me. I confult them very frequently: and, partly, on their own account, but more on his, I defervedly number them amongst my choiceft literary spendix.

I hope, dear fir, you have, long fince, received the Danish fword (for, Danish it more probably was),