In the course of this year, the learned Grevius published his edition of Callimachus, which was enriched with the notes and animadversions of Dr. Bentley, as well as with his collection of the fragments of that poet. This new edition of Wotton's Reflections appeared just as Mr. Boyle was setting out for Ireland; and the urgency of his business prevented his writing an immediate answer. In the following year, In the following year, however, he published an examination of this dissertation, in which he attempted to vindicate the Epistles of Phalaris, and the Fables of Esop, from the charges of Bentley, and to prove their authenticity. This once famous book, which was perused with such raptures by the learned and the unlearned, is now disregarded. It is still to be found in the libraries of the curious; but, although the book contains some learning, and much wit, it is rare, ly mentioned; and the highest praise that can be justly bestowed on Mr. Boyle's labours, is, that they occasioned a republication, with large additions, of the immortal dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris. This work, in its improved state, appeared in 1699. His adversary now began to feel the strength of those powers which he had slighted; and in order to animate a dying cause, many engines were employed to overturn Dr. Bentley's reputation. Several pamphlets were published: sarcastick reflections were substituted in the place of sound argument. He was accused of plagiary. It was asserted that his observations on Callimachus were borrowed almost wholly from Stanley. Some people of consequence appeared in the lists against him. Smalridge wrote a burlesque paro dy on the dissertation, in order to prove that Bentley was not the au thor of it, by the same arguments which the Doctor had employed to evince that the Epistles of Phala ris were spurious. King, the author of the Journey to London, ridiculed him and his performance, in some " Dialogues of the Dead ;" which, in his preface, he says were the production of a gentleman at Padua, and writ ten by him, on account of the character which he had received of a troublesome critick, whose name was Bentivoglio. In these dialogues there is a small portion of wit, but little genius; and it can hardly be supposed, that the cause could be much aided by so trifling a performance. Dr. Johnson, in his life of King, has mentioned his engaging in this dispute, in the following manner: "In 1697, he mingled in the controversy between Boyle and Bentley; and was one of those who tried what wit could perform in opposition to learning." King's Dialogues of the Dead, however, were not published before 1699. Garth mentioned both the oppo. nents in his Dispensary. "So diamonds take a lustre from their foil, And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle !" Some of the wicked wits, even in his own university, drew the Doctor's picture, with the guards of Phalaris preparing to thrust him into the bull. In Bentley's mouth they put a label, on which was written," I would rather be ROAST. ED, than BoYLED." In the Tale of a Tub, Swift ridiculed our great critick and in the Battle of the Books, he has described Bentley and Wotton defending each other, side by side, until they were both transfixed by Mr. Boyle's triumphant javelin. Bentley, indeed, stood almost deemed unanswerable. They were shown to Bentley. He immediately confuted them, and "unveiled the latent errors." As soon, indeed, as he had perused the answer, he openly declared, that the whole was equally liable to objections. single in the controversy. While Boyle, who was a young man of great expectations and brilliant parts, was assisted by the wits, and by the Literati, while the Learned and the Ingenious enlisted under his banner, Bentley, by choice, remained independent. Several of his friends at Cambridge offered their assistance. The Doctor, however, resolutely rejected their overtures. He was well acquainted with the justice of his cause, and knew that he might rely on the vigour of his own abilities. Several passages in Mr. Boyle's book, even his own friends had The voice of the people, for some years, supported the assertions of Boyle, and his adherents. But the obstinacy of prejudice at length gave way, and the Learned became unanimous in their opinion. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the decision was against the Epistles of Phalaris. To be continued. Illud yıæði ocœuròv noli putare ad arrogantiam minuendam, solum dictum, verùm, ut bona CICERO. by Vanity, and he was sent into the world, as soon as he arrived at the age of manhood, to create a new order of beings. He has not been idle in executing his commission, for few of the present race but can trace some affinity to this ancestor. Several of my acquaintance quarter his arms, and their features too strongly resemble their great progenitor to need the herald's office to prove them genuine heirs. These gentlemen are ever eager to impress strangers with an idea of their own importance, and I seldom recollect meeting them in a tavern or a stage coach, where all enter as equals, that they did not attempt superiority, by informing us of their great connexions, their own consequence, and their large concerns; and, by retailing the hacknied observations of others, endeavour to make us suppose them as familiar with the most noted parts of either continent, as. with the vicinity of their own town. Raised upon this scaffolding they may sometimes succeed in exciting a momentary gaze, but it is seldom sufficient to support the weight of the giant, who press es upon it; and when it sinks. under him, he falls beneath the contempt of those, who would have respected him as an equal. Occasional applause, far from satiating an egotist, only makes him more eager to show his imagined superiority. He resembles himself to the sun, before whose effulgence the smaller luminaries hide their diminished heads, and. those, who are not dazzled by his splendour, he regards as prying philosophers, unable to gaze on his brightness by their own powers, but eager to find by artificial means every dark spot, and maliciously proclaim it to the world, with a suggestion, that ere long his fire shall be consumed,and universal darkness cover his whole disc. With these ideas he expects an implicit assent to every thing he utters; and flatters himself, that, in sounding forth his own merits, he is pouring instruction into minds eager to receive it. For Egotism, though at first but a small seed, yet, cultivated by donting parents and submissive dependents, soon becomes so large a tree, that every fleeting folly may rest thereon. I have known a lady deprived of pleasure for a whole evening, when her new headdress had passed unnoticed; a wit retire chagrined, when he was the only person who laughed at a pun, he had been the whole day studying; and Rosa, with tears in her eyes, vows we have no taste, because she has heard a whisper, while she was exhibiting her powers of execution in musick. People go more into society to display themselves and their talents, than to gain instruction; but as no society will suffer an equal to engross all its honours and pleasures, an egotist is obliged to resort to persons of inferiour talents; and he delights to astonish his Lilliputian companions by a display of his own wonderful powers. But a man. will always approach towards the level of his associates; and low company generally bespeaks a degraded mind. The pleasure we receive from the perusal of the works of Richardson cannot prevent our turning away with disgust, when we see him avoid the society of men of learning, and delight in being surrounded like an Asiatick prince by a crowd of dependent women, who would continually offer incense to his vanity. If egotists would confine themselves. to their inferiours, their folly would be harmless; but they frequently endeavour to assume the same manners among their equals and superiours. From the long intimacy that has subsisted between my family and Mr. Puff's, I frequently meet him in society; and although there are many good points in his character, yet by always endeavouring to make himself the only object of importance, he is universally shunned, as the destroyer of social pleasure. Dining in company with him lately, the conversation turned upon the relative political situation of our country to Europe. Puff appeared uneasy for a moment's pause to put in a word; but at length, being unable longer to bear restraint, he interrupted one of our first political characters by directly contradicting him. Having silenced opposition, he undertook to lay open to our view the inmost recesses of the labyrintă of politicks, although his hearersdid not perceive the connexion between the compliments that Mr. Puff had received at St. Cloud or Madrid, and the political state of France and Spain. As when the leader of a nocturnal riot, exulting at having beaten down the watch, perceives himself deserted; and that those he deemed his friends, ashamed of his outrage, had ranged themselves on the side of his adversary, stands motionless with rage and terror; so stood our hero, when he saw every ear attentive to his vanquished rival, and no one listening to his harangue. Soon after the conversation turn ed upon agriculture, when my friend Puff determined to be revenged, and immediately informed us, that there were no cattle worth raising in the country, but from his breed; and said so much of his improvements in agriculture, that a stranger would have supposed every thing valuable in that art had been introduced here by him. This speech was only received with a contemptuous smile, which so disconcerted Puff, that taking out his watch, he remembered an engagement at that hour, and instantly retired. But Puff's felicity is at moments unbounded. When surrounded by a crowd of inferiours, who flock to his table for his dinners or the credit of visiting him, no peacock spreading his gaudy tail, and strutting among barn-door fowl, swels with more delight; and the smile of ecstacy remains on his cheek, while he relates his own adventures, and the homage that has been paid to his superiour merit. At that moment, benevolence would forbid, that the smooth current should be ruffled by a single pebble. Not long since, I met with another striking instance of egotism in young Chalmers, who has lost the good will of his best friends by a constant inattention to any, but his own feelings. According to the custom of our town, he called to pay a visit of condolence to a lady who had just lost her husband; but unhappily with a face so full of mirth and jollity, that the lady has never recovered the shock it gave her; and soon after he appeared at a wedding with woe and misery depicted in his countenance; but in neither instance from a design to insult the feelings of his friends. He afterwards paid his addresses to a young lady of fortune; but, when the preliminaries were nearly arranged, an unfortunate incident broke off the match. Having been made lieutenant of an independent company, the first day he wore his regimentals, he called to see his Dulcinea; who was at that instant bewailing a beautiful and cherished lock, she had lost in the morning, from the awkwardness of her perruquier. His feelings were tuned too high to accord with her spirits; and as he could not lower them, discord was the consequence. He treated her misfortune with contempt, and observed that a few shillings would more than replace the loss. The lady had already borne too much, she therefore informed him, that she had always thought he could love no one but himself, that she was now convinced of it, and begged never to see him more; and though this affair was made up by the intercession of friends, similar ones soon occurred, which made the breach irreparable. Egotism has been supposed indigenous to our soil; if so, it is the lofty hemlock of our forests, whose slender roots cannot support its towering head against the rude blasts of winter, but overthrown it lies forgotten, and gives place to more useful trees. GENTLEMEN, To the Editors of the Monthly Anthology. "NEAR this place is interred the body of Sir William Phipps, Knight; who in the year 1687, by his great Industry, discovered among the Rocks, near the Banks of Bahama, on the N. Side of His paniola, a Spanish Plateship, which had been under water 44 years, out of which he took in Gold and Silver to the value of 3000001. Sterling; and with a Fidelity equal to his conduct, brought it all to London, where it was divided between himself, and the rest of the Adventurers: for which great Service he was knighted by his then Majesty King James the 2d; and afterward, by the Command of his present Majesty, and at the request of the Principal Inhabitants of New England, he accepted of the Government of the Massachusetts, in which he continued to the time of his Death, and discharged his Trust with that Zeal for the interest of his Country, and with so little regard to his own private Advantage that he justly gained the good Esteem and Affec tion of the greatest and best part of the Inhabitants of that Colony. He died the 18th of February, 1694. And his Lady to perpetuate his Memory, hath caused this Monument to be erected." ORIGINAL. POETRY. For the Anthology. The following lines were written by Mr. Henry Joy, (nephew of a gentleman in Boston) who is pronounced by the friend who communicated them to us to be "truly a most excelJent scholar." He is one of three Etonians who lately published the "Miniature," a period. ical work which was favourably received by the publick, as evincing a wonderful maturity of knowledge and of taste in school boys. The young gentleman has since entered the university at Oxford, and this poem was written in his first term, and gained the prize. Χείρων δεινότατος Κενταυρος. Hospiti immemorem mali dignum Ixiona cœlo, Quum falsâ illusit Junonis imagine nubes, Progenuisse novo Centauros fertur amore Durum immane genus: quos inter mag-' na refulsit Saturni et Philyræ tanto splendore propago, Quanto alias terræ glebas supereminet aurum Corpore semifero natus, sed mente animoque Concipiens divum numen, neque nomine solum Nec genitore viget, sed stirpe perennius omni Ipse sui fortis monumentum condit ho, noris. |