INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR.

In preparing a volume for public notice, under a title so conspicuous as that of "Remains of Bishop Lowth," the writer cannot but feel particularly anxious that his object should not be misunderstood, nor more expected at his hands than he has either attempted or desired to perform. For many years past it has been a source of occasional amusement with him to collect every fragment he could find, that bore, either directly or indirectly, on the history of that distinguished prelate. These have now amounted to a considerable number of volumes, and testify how wide the surface over which the literary influence of such a man imperceptibly extended, even in an age presenting far less facilities than the present for rapid and promiscuous popularity. At the same time, the greater part of the collection afforded only detached and insignificant notices, contributing after all in a very slight. degree to illustrate the life and writings of the person on whose account they had been amassed. Nor were the researches of the Compiler crowned with much

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more success, by the discovery of new materials 1. With the exception of ten of the Bishop's unpublished sermons, the former six delivered at St. James's Church, London, the latter four in that of St. Martin in the Fields, and which have been most kindly and liberally granted to his use by the Rev. James Hews Bransby, of Carnarvon, little of particular value has been brought to light'. Still, a volume like the present had been long and repeatedly called for. The larger publications of the Author were in the hands of every one; but a collection was wanted of such scattered pieces, as

1 It is a circumstance much to be regretted, that a variety of unpublished MSS. both of the Bishop and of his father, were sold by auction, together with the family library, in 1823. Many of them passed through the catalogues of the London booksellers during that and the succeeding years, but are now dispersed abroad beyond all hope of recovery. One of the printed books, a College prize conferred on the Bishop's eldest son, contained an elegy on his untimely death, which the editor of this volume has in vain endeavoured to

secure.

2 The most important accession rendered of late years to the little previously known of the correspondence of Bishop Lowth, is provided in Dr. Chandler's" Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson," president of King's College, New York; reprinted in London, 1824. 8vo. By a communication inserted in the "Christian Observer" for April, 1833, it appears that many of these letters still remain unpublished in the archives of Yale College. His correspondence with Dr. Warton may be seen in Dr. Wooll's Memoirs of that divine: a work which will probably now remain for ever an odd volume. Mr. E. R. Poole announced, some years ago, the correspondence of the Rev. Jonathan Toup, including some letters of Lowth; but the work has not as yet been published. Others are said to exist among the extraordinary collections of Mr. W. Upcott, Librarian to the London Institution. An interesting specimen of Lowth's autograph appears in the second volume of "Lambeth and the Vatican," 1825. 12mo.: it is an entire letter, without any superscription, but apparently addressed to his friend, Mr. Duncombe, editor of a translation of Horace, 1757-9, 2 vols. 8vo.

had long ago received the sanction of high approval, but had become, chiefly from their smallness of bulk, of rare and difficult attainment. For one of the sermons already printed (on occasion of the Durham assizes, in 1758), Dr. Parr has left on record that he searched in vain for thirty years; of another (preached for the Irish Schools 1, in 1773), a transcript was kindly furnished by Mr. E. H. Barker, of Thetford, after every inquiry for a printed copy had failed; while of the Letter to the London Clergy', no other copy has been discovered, but that in the library of the British Museum. The Poems, and other trifles, lie scattered here and there, many of them entirely unknown, many not appropriated at all, or appropriated to other writers, though now satisfactorily ascertained to be the property of Lowth.

And what is thus premised of the Bishop's literary Remains, may be repeated with still more force in reference to the ensuing Memoir. It pretends to very little novelty; almost the whole of what is here compiled has appeared in print before. But the litter of biographical fragments is now for the first time collected and arranged,

1 A small portion of this sermon is most incorrectly printed in the Monthly Magazine for 1798; and is there said to be unpublished.

2 Lowth, when Bishop of London, in 1781, had refused to institute the Rev. Mr. Eyre to the rectory of Woodham-Walter, in Essex, because he well knew that person had given the patron, Lewis Disney Ffytche, Esq. a bond of resignation. By this decision the Bishop was involved in a law-suit, which, after it had been decided against him in the Courts of Westminster, he removed, by a writ of error, into the House of Lords, where the appeal terminated in his favour by a majority of a single vote. From these circumstances arose the said Letter, on the laws of simony.

and will perhaps be found to have been digested into something more like a regular and harmonious narrative. The subject is one in which the writer has felt an interest, even from the days of boyhood. While engaged, in the same school where Lowth imbibed the rudiments of sacred and profane literature, on the pages of the "Prælectiones Poeticæ," it was a frequent topic of his hope, that he might one day do an act of tardy justice to the memory of the Author, by rescuing his forgotten relics; and that he might thus offer, at the same time, a humble acknowledgment of his own obligations to that seat of charity and learning, by a tribute to the memory of one of the most famous of her sons.

And having observed thus much of the particular contents of the volume now in hand, it may likewise be adviseable to add a few words on their general character and value. Lowth was by no means a spiritual divine. Of the fundamental doctrine of Christian faith,—the glory of God manifested in the salvation of his people by the blood of Christ,-we hear but too little, even in his best and latest sermons. A profound veneration for the sublimity of the word of God, especially the mysterious and solemn language of prophecy, may be sometimes found to exalt the capacities of the mind, without either purifying the corruptness of human will, or softening the asperities of human temper. With the exception of the fifth of the sermons now first printed (which contains an earnest, though very general invitation to repentance), but few of his addresses from the pulpit are