communication of it liberal and unassuming; and, though he had written but little himself, he had

Church in Hull. She added withal, that The Decay of Christian Piety' was her Mother's also; but disowned any of the rest to be her Mother's. This is a true copy of what I wrote from Mr. Caulton's mouth two days before his decease.

Witness my hand, Nov. 15, 1798, JOHN HEWYT." ["I forget whence I copied the above, but how are the particulars it contains to be reconciled with what Dr. Fell says in the Preface to the Folio Edition? thus, They were all written by the excellent Author at several times; and the Author did publish them apart in the same order as they were made. M. L.]

"It may be worth while to transcribe a little more from this Preface: The Whole Duty of Man had its first and most correct edition in Life and Practice, and the Tongue was governed, and Contentment gained, before they were described; nor was there any thing in this whole Volume wrote by guess or adventure, but from long experience, and evidence of fact.'-'To those who expect an account of the person and condition of the Author,' he says, it is an ill-mannered thing to pry into what is studiously concealed. From this concealment all men must see and allow, that neither faction nor interest, nor pride nor covetousness, nor other temporal advantage, was sought for by the time and pains employed in these Discourses.-Let the Reader be wise and humble, temperate and chaste, patient, charitable, and devout, live a whole age of great austerities, and maintain an undisturbed serenity in the midst of them; and then he will himself become a lively picture of our Author.'

"Atterbury, who was well acquainted with the history of the Oxford Press, and the Works that had issued from it, yet knew not this Author. In his Sermon on 1 Tim. vi. 1, he has this paragraph, speaking of the best Christians being least known, And of this there is one, though a very late, yet so remarkable an instance, that, for the honour of our holy faith, I think it may deserve to be particularly mentioned. The instance I mean of the Author of 66 The Whole Duty of Man," who took not more care to do good to the world than he did to conceal the doer of it, being contented to approve himself to him, and to him only, who seeth in secret, resolved that the praise of men, whether in life or after his death, should be no part of his reward.'

"In p. 74 of Oldfield's Divine Discourses' it is said, that Mr. FULMAN, a native of Penshurst in Kent, and amanuensis to Dr. Hammond, was the Author of The Whole Duty of Man.'

"Answer. Fulman was born in 1632, as appears from A. Wood, II. 823. The Whole Duty of Man' was put in Dr. Hammond's hands 1657, and certainly written some years before. "Very probably Fulman was employed by Dr. Hammond to transcribe the MS.; so that his and Lady Pakington's title seem to rest on the same foundation.

"In Dr. Prideaux's Life, printed 1748, p. 7, it is said Dr. Prideaux always looked on Bp. FELL as the Author of the Book

called

been of great assistance to some of the most ap proved writers of his time, by his communication,

called The Decay of Christian Piety,' which came out in the name of the Author of The Whole Duty of Man;' and his reasons for it were, that in the summer 1676 he visited Sir William Morrice, at Warrington in Devonshire, who had married his father's sister, who told him he thought Dr. Fell was the Author of that Book; for that whilst he attended at Court as Secretary of State, a little after the Restoration, he heard the Bishop preach a Sermon in the King's Chapel, with which he was so much pleased that he desired to have a copy of it; which was accordingly given him; and that some years after, on the publication of the Book called The Decay of Christian Piety, He found the Sermon in the very same words in that Book; and thence concluded, that the person who preached the one was the Author of the other.

"Dr. Prideaux was afterwards confirmed in this opinion; for, as he attended the Press in the Theatre at Oxford, whilst another of the Books ascribed to the same Author was printing there he often found whole lines, and sometimes two or three together, blotted out, and interlineations in their stead, which he knew to be of Bishop Fell's hand-writing; and this was a liberty which it was unlikely any but the Author should have taken. So that his opinion on the whole was, that the Book called 'The Whole Duty of Man' was written by an Author still unknown; but that all the other Books assigned to the same Author were written by Bp. Fell and Dr. Allestree; and that, whereas the first of them, either by design or mistake of the Bookseller, came forth under the name of the Author of The Whole Duty of Man,' they suffered all the others to come out under the same disguise, the better to conceal what they intended should be a secret. And, as to what Bp. Fell says in a Preface to a Folio Edition at Oxford, in which all these Books are comprised together, where he mentions the Author as lately dead, it was generally understood to be meant of Dr. Allestree, who was then lately deceased.

And

["This is indeed a very singular account from Dr. Prideaux by an anonymous Author. In the preface to 'The Decay of Christian Piety' the Editor H. E. expressly says, that it was written by the excellent Author of The Whole Duty of Man.' Bp. Fell, in the Preface to the Folio Edition, gives it as a complete Edition of all that Writer's Works, and expressly separates and distinguishes others that were not so. Of Dr. Allestree's writing there is a folio volume of Sermons, which may be compared with these Treatises. M. L.]

66

Bp. CHAPPEL, of Cork in Ireland. The Author of this most excellent Book The Whole Duty of Man' was Bp. Chappel; who, dying in 1648, at Derby, was buried at Bilstrop in Nottinghamshire. The MS. of it was transmitted by Dr. Sterne, afterwards Archbishop of York, to Dr. Fell, Dean of Christ Church, to publish; who, having read it beforehand to his

pupils,

advice, and his correction. His hospitality to his friends was constant and unostentatious; and · he received them at his house and at his table with that cordiality which most plainly evinced the pleasure their company afforded him. In conversation he was no less desirous of receiving than of giving information. To all that had the happiness of being related to him, he was kind and liberal. The whole tenour of his life was strictly conformable to the precepts of that holy Religion in which he most firmly believed, and as strenuously defended; and though, in the practice of his own life, his piety was strict and exemplary, yet he was ever ready to make a proper allowance for the failings of others.

He died Nov. 5, 1799, in Savile-row, in consequence of an accident in the preceding August *.

pupils, occasioned several to say, that the said Dr. Sterne was the Author; as others did also, by reason of a copy of Bp. Chappel's MS. being found in the Lady Pakington's closet after her death, that she wrote it."

[See the Biographia Britannica. M. L.] "ABRAHAM WOODHEAD. Many stick not to say (which is a wonder to me) that he was the Author of The Whole Duty of Man,' and of all that go under the name of this Author."

Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. II. p. 617. "Francis Peck, in a pamphlet he published, called Twentynine Letters of R. H. Hammond, 1739,' says, 'Some thought "The Whole Duty of Man" had been written by Dr. William Chappel, Bishop of Cork; then by the famous OBADIAH WALKER. But Dr. Clavering, now Bishop of Peterborough, assures me that it was written by one BASKET, a clergyman of Somersetshire. [I think it probable that the Author of The Whole Duty of Man' published nothing with his name to it. M. L.]

* In going from Colchester (at which place he was on a visit to Mr. F. Smythies, who married Mrs. Lort's sister), in a onehorse chaise, accompanied by Mr. Smythies, the horse going down the North Hill in that town (which is very steep, and paved) slipped down; and the Doctor was thrown out of the chaise, upon the pavement. Being advanced in years, and very heavy, he was considerably hurt in his loins; but recovered sufficiently in a few days, so as to return to London. There were, however, some indications of his kidneys being injured. He had been subject to violent attacks of asthma for some time previous to this accident: and about two months after his return to London, he was seized with a paralytic affection, which soon destroyed him.

He

He was buried at his church in Friday-street. Mrs. Lort survived him but a short time, and was buried near him *.

Among a variety of curious articles which Dr. Lort had amassed from his first entering on a Collegiate life, and which his extensive acquaintance with men of letters enabled him to pursue to the last, those Books on our Natural History and Antiquities, enriched with the MS notes of his friend, that well-known Antiquary, the Rev. George North, rector of Codicote in Hertfordshire, were not the least interesting. The Doctor's notes in his Books were chiefly references to authors who had treated the same subjects, or keys to particular publications.

His Library was not remarkable for external splendour; but it contained a great number of books rarely to be met with elsewhere; particularly of rare Tracts on the subjects of British Antiquities, and of curious Books and Pamphlets of every description, many of them enriched by his marginal observations; and it was always open to his friends.

*Their monumental tablet is thus inscribed:.

"Near this place are deposited the remains of Michael Lort, D. D. F. R. S. A. S. for twelve years Professor of the Greek language in the University of Cambridge, and for nineteen years rector of this parish. To the purest simplicity of character he united great talents and great virtues; his learning was as extensive as his communication of it was liberal and unassuming; the whole tenor of his life was a practical commentary on the precepts of that holy Religion in which he devoutly believed. He died Nov. 5, 1790, aged 65.

"His widow, Susannah Lort, who survived him only fifteen months, and whose remains are deposited in the same vault, ordered this monument to be placed as a faithful record of her affection and sorrow. She died Feb. 5, 1792, aged 50."

+ The auction,, by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby, began April 5, 1791, and continued 15 days. It was resumed on May 4 ensuing, and lasted ten days. By the Sale Catalogue it appears to have consisted of 6665 lots; and the produce was 12691. His prints sold for 4011. 1s. 6d.

‡ See some specimens in Dibdin's

548-551.

Bibliomania, 1911,7 pp.

No. IX.

No. IX.

NATHANAEL HOOKE.

THE great abilities of this eminent Historian, and the high rank he jus ly holds in the Republick of Letters, demand a much more particular account of him than I am able to supply; and which I should be glad to see enlarged.

The earliest particulars of his life that I have met with are furnished by himself, in a modest, but manly address to the Earl of Oxford, Oct. 17, 1722:

My Lord, The first time I had the honour to wait upon your Lordship since your coming to London, your Lordship had the goodness to ask me what way of life I was then engaged in; a certain mauraise honte hindered me at that time from giving a direct answer. The truth is, my Lord, I cannot be said at present to be in any form of life, but rather to live extempore. The late epidemical distemper seized me*: I endeavoured to be rich, imagined for a while that I was, and am in some measure happy to find myself at this instant but just worth nothing. If your Lordship, or any of your numerous friends, have need of a servant, with the bare qualifications of being able to read and write, and to be honest, I shall gladly undertake any employments your Lordship shall not think me unworthy of. I have been taught, my Lord, that neither a man's natural pride, nor his self-love, is an equal judge of what is fit for him; and I shall endeavour to remember, that it is not the short part we act, but the manner of our performance, which gains or loses us the applause of him who is finally to decide of all human actions. My Lord, I am just now employed in translating,

*The South Sea infatuation.

from