Le Clerc was

satisfaction to the opposite party. for rhyme without metre, a scheme more untenable, in the opinion of Bishop Lowth, than any other. He had some followers, but was opposed by Calmet and Dacier.*

In England Bishop Hare was the first who entered deeply into this subject; and after having examined it to the bottom, he proposed a new theory of Hebrew metres, which he fondly imagined would reconcile all differences, and restore the poetry of the Bible to its pristine dignity and perfection. When he published his Psalter, however, with a full exposition of his scheme, he had the mortification to find, that it was coldly received by the public. In Psalmanazar's Memoirs it is said, that five hundred copies only were printed. Two hundred and fifty of these were distributed by the author among his friends, and the remaining copies slowly deserted the shelves of the booksellers.† The work has not been republished in a separate form, although it is contained in the thirty-first volume of Ugolini's Thesaurus. It was reprinted in this country with selected notes, but without the scheme of metres.

Notwithstanding the little attention which Hare's hypothesis attracted at first, it was regarded with great respect by the learned, as is manifest from

* Jebb's Sacred Literature, Sect. 1. + Ibid.

the testimony of Bishop Lowth, who deemed it worthy of a laboured confutation. "The arguments advanced in its favour," says Lowth, " appeared so conclusive to some persons of great erudition, as to persuade them, that the learned prelate had fortunately revived the knowledge of the true Hebrew versification, after an oblivion of more than two thousand years; and that he had established his opinion by such irresistible proofs, as to place it beyond the utmost efforts of controversy."* Lowth undertook to prove this a delusion, and to overthrow the scheme itself. Public sentiment has for the most part acquiesced in his arguments and decisions. Hare's hypothesis found a strenuous advocate in Dr Edwards, who wrote a Latin treatise in its defence, to which Lowth replied in what he called his Larger Confutation.

Dr Hare's most celebrated performance is a treatise entitled, "The Difficulties and Discouragements, which attend the Study of the Scriptures, in the Way of Private Judgment." This was published without his name soon after his return from Holland, and took so well with the public, that it speedily ran through several editions. It was accounted the finest specimen of irony in the language; and, if we except Hoadly's Dedication

* See A Brief Confutation of Bishop Hare's System of Hebrew Metres, appended to Lowth's Lectures.

to the Pope, which came out shortly after, no piece in its way has probably since appeared, which would not suffer by a comparison. Some persons affected not to understand him; they were disposed to take his irony in earnest, and forward to whisper suspicions and discontent in the ears of the convocation. It is not known, that any evils ensued to the author; he had clearly stated it to be his object, by showing the discouragements attending the study of the Scriptures, to impress on individuals and religious societies the important duty of removing these discouragements. His concluding remarks abundantly evince his sincerity, and are uttered in a tone of seriousness, and with a concern for the interests of religious knowledge, which it would seem impossible to misapprehend.

In the notice here given of Bishop Hare and his works, I have said nothing of his manner of life, his habits, or his peculiarities, which usually add so much interest to the delineation of a character. Concerning these I do not find that any thing has been transmitted. His writings seldom reveal a personal incident; they never betray his designs, nor acquaint you with his pursuits; you may converse with his mind, grow familiar with his thoughts, and trace his opinions; there you must stop; the man is invisible, and not to be approached. He died 1740; and his works were collected by Owen, the printer, and published 1746, in four volumes octavo.

He that shall judge Bishop Hare by his writings will heartily respond to the eulogy of Blackwall, who calls him a "sound critic, consummate scholar, and bright ornament of the church and nation."* It is presumed there have been few better classical scholars, although he may have towered to the height of his gigantic rival, Dr Bentley. His latinity claims the praise of elegance and purity, and if his Epistola Critica were not so much disfigured with hostile attacks and undignified personalities on his great antagonist, it would be a most honourable monument of his erudition and critical skill. His political tracts bear marks of a vigorous intellect, and an acuteness in some of the deeper principles of government. In controversy we have seen that he is less successful; we are oftener fatigued than convinced; verbal disquisitions come upon us in the guise of arguments; learning is expended to show the extent of learning; materials abound, knowledge, mental energy, force of language, but they are awkwardly applied.

Whiston intimates that Hare was skeptical, but seemingly without proper foundation. He speaks of his treating the Scriptures with levity, talking in a trifling manner about the fulfilment of prophecy, and manifesting a willingness to conceal, that he was the author of the "Difficulties and Discourage

* Sacred Classics, Vol. II. p. 76.

ments," when he found this circumstance was likely to be a bar in his way to preferment.* Whoever reads Hare's sermons, and his other theological writings, will not listen to the charge of skepticism from any quarter, if he regards his understanding and sense of justice. Whiston was the last man to report a thing, which he did not believe; but, like many other good men, it was his foible, in the honesty, frankness, and simplicity of his heart, to tell all he had thought or heard, and, what was still more unfortunate, to believe it all. In the present instance, as in some others, it is fair to conclude that he was mistaken.

Hare was a professed friend of toleration and religious freedom in the protestant sense of the terms; but in defending the church he occasionally ran counter to his own principles. Silence and submission were essential requisites in his notion of religious liberty; that is, Christians are free to believe truth, but not to oppose error, free to live without molestation under a church establishment, but not to meditate any change merely because they are dissatisfied. Hoadly drove him from this ground; and it is not surprising, that he should be embarrassed in attempting to reconcile the powers and immunities of a church established by law with an unrestrained liberty of opinion, and the simplicity of scriptural order and discipline.

* Whiston's Memoirs, Vol. 1. p. 110-114.