other Extracts from his Mifcellaneous Obfervations upon Authors: and by fuch of the Literati as have read thofe Obfervations, the new matter now introduced will perhaps be confidered as a valuable supplement. His Remarks on Seneca have already been given in periodical publications, which are now. rarely to be met with; and, together with those on Hefiod, Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Jofephus, may furnish no mean affistance to any future Editor of their respective works.

The account of our Author's life, as drawn up by his friend Dr. Heathcote, and prefixed to the late edition of Dr. JORTIN'S Sermons, might well indeed have precluded any other; and yet, in a publication of this mifcellaneous nature, it is prefumed, that the following particulars may not be found unacceptable, as standing in connection with the plan of his ingenious Biographer.

"My father, Renatus, fays Dr. Jortin, was born in Bretagne in France, and ftudied at Saumur, I have

I have his Teftimonial from that Academy, dated A. 1682. He came over, a young man, to England, with his father, mother, uncle, two aunts and two fifters, at the time when the Proteftants fled from France about A. 1687. He was made one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, in the third year of King William, A. 1691, by the name of Renatus Fortin. I have his Patent. After this, and before I was born, he took a fancy to change his name into JORDAIN, and to give it an English appearance; being fond I fuppofe of paffing for an Englishman, as he spoke English perfectly, and without any foreign accent. This gave me fome trouble afterwards, when I went into Deacon's orders under Bishop Kennet, for the register of St. Giles in the Fields wrote my name, as it stood there, Fordain. I gave the bishop an account how it came to pafs. After my father's death, my mother thought it proper to affume the true name of Jortin; and she and I always wrote it fo. My father was fecretary to Lord Orford, to Sir George Rook, and to Sir Cloudefly Shovel; and was caft away with the latter, October 22, 1707.

" I did

"I did not think there was any perfon left of our name, till lately I found in a news-paper, that a Merchantman came to one of our Ports, commanded by a Captain Fortin, from the West Indies."

"I have twice perufed Bacon's ingenious Hiftory of Life and Death. It recommends abundance of things to be taken, and a variety of rules to be observed, with a view to make life healthy and long. But of these prescriptions many are too dear, and almost all too troublefome; and a long life is not tanti. Few perfons could procure all these Subfidia; A Lord Chancellor, or a Lord Bishop, might;-a poor parfon could not afford a hundredth part of the expenfe. But, for their comfort, I will be bold to tell them, that they may fare as well without his regimen. As to myfelf, I never obferved any of his rules, or any rules

* Moft probably in the year 1770, as the above is the laft entry found in the Author's Adverfaria.

at

at all, except the general ones of Regularity and Temperance. I never had a strong conftitution; and yet, thank GoD, I have had no bad ftate of health, and few acute diforders.” *

"Archbishop Herring and I were of Jefus College in Cambridge: but he left it about the time when I was admitted, and went to another. Afterwards, when he was preacher at Lincoln's Inn, I knew him better, and visited him. He was at that time, and long before, very intimate with Mr. Say, his friend and mine, who lived in Ely. House; and Mr. Say, to my knowledge, omitted no opportunity to recommend me to him. he was Archbishop of York, he expected good living would lapfe into his hands; and he told Mr. Say that he defigned it for me. disappointed in his expectation: fo was not I; for

When

that a

He was

* Dr. Jortin lived to his feventy-fecond year; and died in his Parish of Kensington, A. 1770.

I had no inclination to go and dwell in the North, of England. When Mr. Say died, he asked me of his own accord, whether I fhould like to fucceed him in the Queen's Library: I told him that nothing could be more acceptable to me; and he immediately used all his intereft to procure it for me; but he could not obtain it. A perfon, who is not worth the naming, was preferred to me, by the folicitation of it matters not who.

"The Archbishop afterwards affured me of his affiftance towards procuring either the preacherfhip, or the maftership of the Charterhouse, where I had gone to fchool. This project alfo failed; not by his fault, but by the oppofition of it matters not who.

"In conjunction with Bishop Sherlock, he likewife procured for me the preaching of Boyle's Lectures. He alfo offered me a living in the country, and (which I efteemed a fingular favour) he gave me leave to decline it, without taking it amifs in the leaft; and faid, that he would en

deavour