as was Bentley's reading, none of it was superfluous, for he turns it all to account; his felicity in fixing his eye at once on what he needed, in always finding the evidence that he wanted, often where no one else would have thought of looking for it, is almost preturnatural. His learning suggested all the phrases that might be admitted in any given passage; but his taste did not always lead him to select the best.-COLERIDGE, HARTLEY, 1833, Biographia Borealis, p. 120. Speaking of Bentley's readings in the mass, one may say that Horace would probably have liked two or three of them -would have allowed a very few more as not much better or worse than his ownand would have rejected the immense majority with a smile or a shudder. JEBB, RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE, 1882, Bentley (English Men of Letters), p. 128. In this work the editor puts too strict a limit to the author's poetic fancy, and thus too often reduces the poetry of Horace to the level of precise and logical prose. But even the very errors of so great a critic are often instructive, and the commentary abounds in unquestionably valuable hints on grammar and metre, while in the preface we have a serious attempt to deal with the chronology of the poet's works. SANDYS, J. E., 1896, Social England, ed. Traill, vol. v, p. 65. REMARKS ON A LATE DISCOURSE OF FREE-THINKING 1713 Whereas the Reverend Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity College, besides his other labours published from our press, to the great advancement of learning and honour of this University, has lately, under the borrowed name of "Phileleutherus Lipsiensis," done eminent service to the Christian Religion, and the Clergy of England, by refuting the objections and exposing the ignorance of an impious set of writers, that call themselves Freethinkers-May it please you that the said Dr. Bentley, for his good services already done, have the public thanks of the University; and be desired by Mr. Vice Chancellor, in the name of the whole body, to finish what remains of so useful a work. -UNIVERSITY GRACE BOOK, 1715, Jan. 4. Nothing can be more judicious, or effectual than the manner in which the Doctor takes to pieces the shallow but dangerous performance of the infidel. Not satisfied with replying to particular arguments, he cuts the ground from under his feet, by exposing the fallacious mode of reasoning which pervades them all, and the contemptible sophism which represents all good and great men of every age and country to have been "free-thinkers," and consequently partizans of his own sect. But the happiest of the Remarks are those which display the mistakes and ignorance of Collins in his citations from classical writers. By a kind of fatality, his translations are perpetually inaccurate, and his conception of the originals erroneous and though most of his blunders are the effects of ignorance, yet not a few seem to arise from a deliberate intention of deceiving his readers. Never was the advantage more conspicuous of a ripe and perfect scholar over a half-learned smatterer: while the latter searches book after book in pursuit of passages favourable to his own theory, the former, familiar with the writings and characters of the authors, and accurately versed in their language, is able to take to pieces. the ill-assorted patchwork of irrevelant quotations. These parts of Bentley's work are not only effectual in demolishing. his adversary, but are both entertaining and useful to the reader; and to them it is owing that the book has experienced a fate so different from that of other controversial writings: even the ablest and best-written of such pieces generally fall into oblivion along with the dispute which gave them birth; but the "Remarks of Phileleutherus" are still read with the same delight as at their first appearance. -MONK, JAMES HENRY, 1830-33, Life of Richard Bentley, vol. 1, p. 345. Another, perhaps the only other, book of this polemical tribe which can be said to have been completely successful as an answer, is one most unlike the "Analogy" in all its nobler features. This is Bentley's "Remarks upon a late Discourse of Freethinking, by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis," 1713. Coarse, arrogant, and abusive, with all Bentley's worst faults of style and temper, this masterly critique is decisive. It is rare sport to Bentley, this rat-hunting in an old rick, and he lays about him in high glee, braining an authority at every blow. When he left off abruptly, in the middle of a "Third Part," it was not because he was satiated with slaughter, but to substitute a new excitement, no less congenial to his temper a quarrel with the University about his fees. A grace, voted 1715, tendering him the public thanks of the University, and "praying him in the name of the University to finish what remains. of so useful a work," could not induce him to resume his pen. The "Remarks of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis," unfinished though they are, and trifling as was the book which gave occasion to them, are perhaps the best of all Bentley's performances. They have all the merits of the "Phalaris" dissertation, with the advantage of a far nobler subject. They show how Bentley's exact appreciation of the value of terms could, when he chose to apply it to that purpose, serve him as a key to the philosophical ideas of past. times, no less than to those of poetical metaphor. The tone of the pamphlet is most offensive, "not only not insipid, but exceedingly bad-tasted." We can only say the taste is that of his age, while the knowledge is all his own.-PATTISON, MARK, 1860-89, Religious Thought in England; Essays, ed. Nettleship, vol. II, pp. 95, 97. EDITION OF PARADISE LOST 1732 Our celebrated author, when he composed this poem, being obnoxious to the Government, poor, friendless, and, what is worst of all, blind with a gutta serena, could only dictate his verses to be writ by another. Whence it necessarily follows, that any errors in spelling, pointing, nay even in whole words of a like or near sound in pronunciation, are not to be charged upon the poet, but on the amanuensis. But more calamities, than are yet mentioned, have happened to our poem: for the friend or acquaintance, whoever he was, to whom Milton committed his copy and the overseeing of the press, did so vilely execute that trust, that Paradise, under his ignorance and audaciousness, may be said to be twice lost. A poor bookseller, then living near Aldersgate, purchased our author's copy for ten pounds, and (if a second edition followed) - for five pounds more; as appears by the original bond, yet in being. This bookseller, and that acquaintance, who seems to have been the sole corrector of the press, brought forth their first edition, polluted with such monstrous faults as are beyond example in any other printed book. -But these typographical faults, occasioned by the negligence of this acquaintance, (if all may be imputed to that, and not several wilfully made) were not the worst blemishes brought upon our poem. For this supposed friend (called in these notes the editor), knowing Milton's bad circumstances; who (vii. 26) "Was fall'n on evil days and evil tongues, With darkness and with dangers compass'd round And solitude; thought he had a fit opportunity to fost into the book several of his own verses, without the blind poet's discovery. This trick has been too frequently played; but especially in works published after an author's death. And poor Milton in that condition, with threescore years' weight upon his shoulders, might be reckoned more than half dead.-BENTLEY, RICHARD, 1732, Edition of Milton. Did Milton's prose, O Charlos, thy death defend? A furious foe unconscious proves a friend. On Milton's verse does Bentley comment.Know A weak officious friend becomes a foe. While he but sought his Author's fame to further, The murderous critic has aveng'd thy murder. -POPE, ALEXANDER, 1732, Epigram Occasioned by seeing some sheets of Dr. Bentley's edition of Milton's "Paradise Lost." As to Dr. Bentley and Milton, I think the one above and y° other below all criticism.-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1732, Letter to Jacob Tonson, June 7, Pope's Works, ed. Courthope, vol. 1, p. 530. The generality of my scheme does not admit the frequent notice of verbal inaccuracies; which Bentley, perhaps better skilled in grammar than in poetry, has often found, though he sometimes made them, and which he imputed to the obtrusions of a revisor, whom the author's blindness obliged him to employ; a supposition rash and groundless, if he thought it true; and yile and pernicious, if, as is said, he in private allowed it to be false. JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Milton, Lives of the English Poets. The classical learning of Bentley was singular and acute, but the erudition of words is frequently found not to be allied to the sensibility of taste.-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1791-1824, "Critical Sagacity," and "Happy Conjecture;" or, Bentley's Milton, Curiosities of Literature. The great Bentley, when he undertook the editing of Milton, was far advanced in age, and soon after this work, which formed his last publication, his faculties discovered very evident decline. In many of his former works he has displayed a vigour and sagacity of mind, an extent and accuracy of erudition which are truly wonderful, and which, perhaps, have never been exceeded. But his edition of Milton, But his edition of Milton, though it exhibits many characters of the great critic, must be pronounced to be altogether an egregious failure.-SYMMONS, CHARLES, 1809-10, The Life of John Milton, p. 536, note. His edition of Milton had the same merits as his other editions; peculiar defects it had, indeed, from which his editions of Latin classics were generally free; these, however, were due to no decays in himself, but to original differences in the English classic from any which he could have met with in Pagan literature. The romantic, or Christian, poetry was alien to Bentley's taste; he had no more sense or organs of perception for this grander and more imaginative order of poetry than a screaming peacock may be supposed to have for the music of Mozart. Consequently, whatsoever was peculiarly characteristic in it seemed to him a monstrous abortion; and, had it been possible that passages in the same impassioned key should occur in the austere and naked words of the Roman or Grecian muse, he would doubtless have proscribed them. as interpolations of monks, copyists, or scholiasts, with the same desperate hook which operated so summarily on the text of "Paradise Lost." With these infirmities, and this constitutional defect of poetic sensibility, the single blunder which he committed was in undertaking such a province. The management of it did him honour; for he complied honestly with the constitution of his own mind, and was right in the sense of taking a true view, though undoubtedly from a false station.-DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, 1830-57, Richard Bentley, Collected Writings, ed. Masson, vol. IV, p. 191. it was much too late to qualify himself for the commission he had received.—— ELWIN, WHITWELL, 1872, ed., The Works of Alexander Pope, vol. VIII, p. 293, note, Of inspiration, of refined intelligence of delicacy of taste, of any trace of sympathy with the essentials of poetry, his emendations are totally devoid. If, as is sometimes the case, they are felicitous-ingenious, that is to say, without violating poetic propriety-it is by pure In many instances they literally beggar burlesque.-COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, Essays and Studies, p. 284. accident. GENERAL That new and brilliant light of Britain. -GRAEVIUS, JOHN GEORGE, 1697, ed. Callimachus, Preface. A certain Bentley, diligent enough in turning over lexicons.-ALSOP, ANTHONY, 1698, ed. Esop. To answer the reflexion of a private Gentleman with a general abuse of the Society he belong'd to, is the manners of a dirty Boy, upon a Country-Green.-ATTERBURY, FRANCIS? 1701, A Short Review. While Bentley, long to wrangling schools confin'd, And but by books acquainted with mankind, Nor are their graves a refuge for the dead: Such was his doom impos'd by Heav'n's decree, With ears that hear not, eyes shall not see; Mistress! dismiss that rabble from your throne: Avaunt-is Aristarchus yet unknown? Turn what they will to Verse, their toil is vain, Author of something yet more great than Letter; While tow'ring o'er your Alphabet, like Saul, Stands our Digamma, and o'ertops them all. -POPE, ALEXANDER, 1742, Dunciad, bk. iv., v. 209-218. To have it said and believed that you are the most learned man in England, I would be no more than what was said of Dr. Bentley.-CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE EARL, 1750, Letters to his Son, Nov. 1. Giant as he was in learning, and eagleeyed in criticism.-COWPER, WILLIAM, 1790, Letter to Samuel Rose, Feb. 2. Its editor, [of Julius Pollux] Hemsterhuis, (for who at the age of eighteen under values himself?)—was well content with his work. In a short time he received a letter from Bentley, the British Aristarchus, in which the labor bestowed upon the edition by Hemsterhuis was highly commended, and at the same time Bentley's emendations were given of the citations made by Pollux from the comic authors. In restoring these passages Hemsterhuis himself had spared no pains, justly deeming it the most important part of his editorial duty. But, on the perusal of Bentley's emendations, he perceived his own labor to have been in vain, and that Bentley had accomplished the task with almost superhuman sagacity. And what do you suppose were the feelings of Hemsterhuis under these circumstances? He was so disturbed, so dissatisfied with himself, that he resolved to abandon the study of Greek for ever; nor did he, for two months, dare to touch a Greek author. WOLF, FRIED. AUGUST, 1816, Litterarische Analecten. A name dreaded as well as respected in literature.-SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1824, Richard Cumberland. In his emendations, as he calls them, both of Milton and of Horace, for one happy conjecture he makes at least twenty wrong, and ten ridiculous. In the Greek poets, and sometimes in Terence, he, beyond the rest of the pack, was often brought into the trail by scenting an unsoundness in the metre. But let me praise him where few think of praising him, or even of suspecting his superiority. He wrote better English than his adversary Middleton, and established for his university that supremacy in classical literature which it still retains.-LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE, 1828, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series, Southey and Landor, p. 466. the In conclusion, I will venture to pronounce Dr. Bentley the greatest man amongst all scholars. In the complexion of his character and the style of his powers he resembled the elder Scaliger, having the same hardihood, energy, and elevation of mind. But Bentley had the by the advances of his age. He was, also, advantage of earlier polish, and benefited in spite of insinuations to the contrary, issuing from Mr. Boyle and his associates, favourably distinguished from Scaligers, father and son, by constitutional good-nature, generosity and placability. I should pronounce him, also, the greatest of scholars, were it not that I remember Salmasius. Dr. Parr was in the habit of comparing the Phalaris Dissertation with. that of Salmasius "De Lingua Hellenistica." For my own part, I have always compared it with the same writer's "Plinian Exercitations." Both are among the miracles of human talent: but with this difference, that the Salmasian work is crowded with errors; whilst that of Bentley, in its latest revision, is absolutely without spot or blemish.-DE QUINCEY, THOMAS, 1830-57, Richard Bentley, Collected Writings, ed. Masson, vol. IV, p. 234. His scheme for an edition of Homer was abandoned, but the germ of all the modern theories on the subject is distinctly developed in his writings. In an article. on the Homeric writings, we have ventured to enter our dissent against the prevailing hypothesis of Wolf; but who, at all deeply interested in the writings of the great poet of antiquity, will refuse to acknowledge how infinitely their knowledge has been increased, their delight in the Homeric writings heightened, by the inquiries of that eminent scholar, of Heyne, and of Payne Knight; and what are all these but the acknowledged disciples of Bentley? The whole modern theory of the Homeric versification rests on his discovery of the digamma; and independent of this groundwork of his system, and however imperfect the success of Mr. Knight, who, before the time of Bentley, would have imagined, as he has done, the possibility of restoring the original language in which the Iliad and Odyssey were composed? - BLOOMFIELD, C. J., 1831, Bishop Monk's Life of Bentley, Quarterly Review, vol. 46, p. 165. Many things now familiar to young academics (thanks to the labours of Dawes, and Burney, and Parr, and Porson, and Elmsley) were utterly unknown to scholars like Bentley, and to Scaliger before him; and though it might seem an ungracious task, it would not be void either of pleasure or of profit to give select specimens of errors in metre and syntax committed by these illustrious men. -TATE, JAMES, 1834, Introduction to the Principal Greek Tragic and Comic Metres. differ. Whether his name could be safely placed above that of Erasmus, Scaliger, and Hemsterhuys, not to mention any of the renowned scholars of the last generation, may be a question on which the learned of England and other countries might But this we think may be safely said, that if Bentley, in all other things the same, had passed his life in the quiet of a University in Holland or Germany;if he had redeemed to those studies for which he was born, the time and the talents which he wasted in the petty squabbles of his College mastership, he would unquestionably have made himself, beyond all rivalry, the most celebrated scholar of modern times. . . . Bishop Monk bestows on him the epithet of the Prince of Scholars, and, if we were disposed to deny his title to this proud appellation, we should be at a loss to say who better deserves it. . . . But it cannot be denied by his warmest admirers, that his talent and learning were, even in his literary studies, most wofully misapplied. Of that small portion of leisure for tranquil study, which his contentious spirit left, the greater part was wasted in propping up, with boundless learning and a tact never surpassed, his arbitrary changes in the text of Latin poets. forte was unquestionably Greek; and His though he possessed an acuteness of verbal criticism, which has never been equalled, it is greatly to be deplored, that he has not devoted himself to the elucidation of the really great questions, that present themselves in the compass of Grecian literature.-EVERETT, EDWARD, 1836, Richard Bentley, North American Review, vol. 43, pp. 458, 494. Bentley, relying upon his own exertions and the resources of his own mind, pursued an original path of criticism, in which the intuitive quickness and subtility of his genius qualified him to excel. In the faculty of memory, so important for such pursuits, he has himself candidly declared that he was not particularly gifted. Consequently he practised throughout life the precaution of noting in the margin of his books the suggestions and conjectures which rushed into his mind during their perusal. To this habit. of laying up materials in store, we may partly attribute the surprising rapidity with which some of his most important works were completed.-HALLAM, HENRY, 1837-39, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iv, ch. i, par. 19. He stands undoubtedly the very first among all the philological critics of every age and nation, "in shape and gesture proudly eminent." No single individual ever contributed so much to the actual stores of the learned world, or gave so strong an impulse to the study of the ancient classics. With little either of sensibility or imagination, he possessed an understanding which for compass, strength, and subtlety, has rarely been matched. CUNNINGHAM, G. G., 1840, ed., Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, vol. IV, p. 286. The greatest scholar that had appeared in Europe since the revival of letters.MACAULAY, THOMAS MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1843, Francis Atterbury, Critical and Historical Essays. For Bentley he [Porson] preserved through life an unbounded veneration. He calls his work on Phalaris, immortalis illa de Phalaridis Epistolis Dissertatio, and omitted no opportunity of praising him. When, in after life, he had made. many emendations in Aristophanes, and Bentley's copy of that poet was shown him, containing a number of his corrections in the margin, he is said to have |