PRICE OF STOCKS, from MARCH 26, to APRIL 25, 1807, both inclusive. N.B. In the 3 per Cent Consols the highest and lowest Price of each day is given, in the other Stocks the highest only UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. N° XLII.-VOL. VII.] For MAY, 1807. [NEW SERIES, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. DR. PARR. [Concluded from page 301.] Dr. Parr's eminence as a scholar can-not be denied; and even his enemies WE must not judge of the talents allow to him the merit of being a su of so eminent a scholar merely perior Greek and Latin scholar, and of being unrivalled in the art of making good scholars in those languages. They would confine his me rit to these two points, and insinuate, that he was nothing out of this particular walk; and that in fact his excellence in this walk rendered him unfit for any other pursuit. What they allow is no small degree of merit : but we, who knew him well, may be permitted to add some other particu lars, which make him the deserved object of esteem, love, and admiration to his friends. by an epitaph or a monumental inscription: we shall trace them in all his writings, and it is to be wished that the Doctor would either himself make a collection of them, or leave them digested in such a manner, that they may be published by his friends. Among them his celebrated preface to a work of Bellendarius will hold a distinguished place. It shews his knowledge of the Latin language, his skill in the selection of phrases, his judgment in the discrimination of character. But may we venture to proceed a little farther? It shews what may be ex- We say, then, that he is a right pected from writing in a dead lan- good scholar, a staunch whig, and a guage. There is not an expression true protestant. His scholarship is in the preface, which may not be jus- not confined to Latin and Greek, tified by authority, but it savours of but takes in the whole circle of pocourse too much of the midnight oil. lite literature; and in metaphysics he A man who writes in Latin, must is unrivalled. No one excels him in write in shackles, unless he has been the duties of a parish priest, whether by the habit of frequent conversation we view him in the reading desk, and meditation, brought to think en- pouring out the devotion of the heart tirely in that language; and if this before his creator, or in the pulpit de is not to be expected in the present livering his instructions to his flock, days, we do not recommend to any or in his parish promoting harmony one to employ it, except in works of and good neighbourhood, and by a vascience, where elegance of style is riety of affectionate services, gaining not so much to be expected or desired. the hearts of every class of his paThe Doctor married, when he was rishioners. His religion is equally at Stanmore, Miss Marsingale, by removed from superstition and fanatíwhom he had several children, but cism, and he can discuss a doctrinal two only remain. The eldest is mar- point without dooming his opporied to the eldest son of Colonel nent to everlasting perdition for not Wynne, the youngest is single. believing it. The character of Dr. Parr is va- The awfulness of his wig might riously appreciated. A person who at one time of his life, have struck thoroughly understands the princi- a terror in the distant beholder, but ples of civil and religious liberty, and it vanished the moment you beboldly stands forward in their defence, held him in company: and, as the must in times when they are grow- ladies are assuredly the best judges ing out of fashion, have many ene- in this case, if he is universally their mies, and the sycophants of arbitrary favourite, we may be certain, that power will not fail to seize evey op- he is far removed from the spirit of portunity of depreciating talents, if pedantry and supercilious pride, by possessed by their opponents. But which the votaries of learning, from UNIVERSAL MAG. VOL. VII. 3 E want of keeping good company, are Millenium, or the grand deliverance sometimes distinguished. As with of Christendom from civil and ecclethe ladies, he is the favourite of all siastical tyranny would commence. young people, for he can condescend Persons not used to theological ento amuse and instruct them, and in a quiry may bear to be told that this exmoment turn from the profoundest pected æra was generally expected to disquisition to attend to juvenile en- commence with the SECOND COMING quiries. This arises from the gaieté OF CHRIST UPON THE EARTH. du coeur, which the doctor possesses; Sceptics may probably smile, when and that cheerfulness, which is the they recollect the miserable jargon result of goodness of heart and sound- that has been made use of by the ness of head. many sectarians who have endeavourThe doctor is one of the old school, ed to apologize for Christian tenets fond of smoking and Greek.- and traditions; but a little patient inHe is in his element with a pipe in vestigation may soon convince them his mouth, a company of social and that there is more of sound reason well-informed friends, and one to and the fitness of things in these docenter with him into a lively argu- trines than they are aware of. ment-such was Jamie Mackintosh. In my letter upon the Prophetic InThe attack brought forth all the la- dications of the Present Times, in p. tent powers of the doctor's mind: 124 of your Magazine for February, his shield was impenetrable, and his I enumerated some of the astonishing spear, that of Ithureal. Poor Jamie vicissitudes which Providence has Mackintosh! we regret that he lost permitted to be effected by France, the doctor's friendship; but the fault mostly under its present head, viz. was in himself, not with the doctor, the dissolution of the old Gallican Steady to his friends, the doctor was church, the pontificate; the Gernot to be drawn aside by any private manic empire, the principal support interest and if his friends were at- of the Hierarchy both spiritual and tacked, he felt the wound, as if in- temporal, including several Protestant flicted upon himself. kingdoms and states engaged in suc The integrity of the doctor, the cessive coalitions against France; the warmth of his attachments, the good- radical reform of the Roman church; ness of his heart, and his convivial the secularization of the dominions of powers, will ever be deeply fixed in most of the ecclesiastical princes; the hearts and minds of all who knew the abolition of celibacy, monasteries, him. The world will admire his ta- and other religious foundations; the lents; by those, who knew him most intimately, the man will be most beloved. France, an important Object of the New Testament Prophecies. THIS Καὶ εν εκείνη τη ὥρα εγένετο σεισμός μέγας, και το δεκαῖον τῆς πόλεως ἔπεσε, και ἀπεκίανθησαν ἐν τῷ σεισμῷ ονοματα ανθρώπων χιλιάδες επλά. Apoc. Cap. xi. 13. HIS being a subject which was adverted to by some English theological writers nearly one hundred and fifty years since, when appearances little favoured any such speculation, may plead as some apology for reviving the topic at this eventful period. Protestant religion put upon an equal footing with the Catholic; and lastly, the political and moral restoration of the Jews to the free exercise and enjoyment of all their rights, civil and religious. The whole of this wonwithstanding the opposition of al derful change has been effected, notmost all the crowned heads in Europe, within the space of sixteen years! All this, in the language of the New Testament, has occurred in consequence of the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST; the manner in which this important phrase is to be understood, Bishop Hurd will best explain. It has been the peculiar fate of this phrase to be perverted and misunderstood above its fellows. The gross The writers alluded to, as it will be ideas of the first Millenarians, and the gasily conjectured, were persons who had examined the New Testament with a view to ascertain when the opinions attached to the last judgment, no doubt grew out of it. Bishop Hurd, in his Sermons at the Warbur |