very much that of Messala, of whom Cicero says, addressing himself to Brutus

"Do not imagine, Brutus, that, for worth, honour, "and a warm love of his country, any one is com

parable to Messala: So that his eloquence, in which " he wonderfully excels, is almost eclipsed by those "virtues. And even in his display of that faculty, "his superior good sense shews itself most: with so "much care and skill hath he formed himself to the "truest manner of speaking! His powers of genius "and invention are confessedly of the first size; yet "he almost owes less to them, than to the diligent and studious cultivation of his judgement

In the commerce of private life, he was easy, friendly, and agreeable; extremely sensible of merit in other men, and ready on all occasions to countenance and produce it. From his early youth, he had attracted the notice, and obtained the friendship and applause, of our great poet.

Mr. ALLEN was a man of plain good sense, and the most benevolent temper. He rose to great consideration by farming the cross-posts; which he put into the admirable order in which we now find them; very much to the public advantage, as well as his own. He was of that generous composition, that his mind enlarged with his fortune; and the wealth he so

* "Cave putes probitate, constantiâ, curầ, studio reipub* licæ, quidquam illi simile esse; ut eloquentia, quâ mi"rabiliter excellit, vix in eo locum ad laudandum habere

videatur. Quanquam in hâc ipsâ sapientia plus apparet : "ita gravi judicio multâque arte se exercuit in verissimo

genere dicendi. Tanta autem industria est, tantumque "evigilat in studio, ut non maximè ingenio, quod in eo summum est, gratia habenda videatur." Cic. ad Brutum, I. 15. honourably

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honourably acquired, he spent in a splendid hospitality, and the most extensive charities. His house, in so public a scene as that of Bath, was open to all men of rank and worth, and especially to men of distinguished parts and learning; whom he honoured and encouraged; and whose respective merits he was enabled to appreciate, by a natural discernment and superior good sense, rather than any acquired use and knowledge of letters. His domestic virtues were above all praise. With these qualities he drew to himself an universal respect; and possessed, in a high degree, the esteem of Mr. Pope, who, in one of his moral essays, has done justice to his modest and amiable character.

To these two incomparable persons Mr. Pope was especially anxious to introduce his friend; and it was not long before he experienced the most substantial benefits from this recommendation.

In the mean time, his attention was turned towards that numerous host of answerers, which the D. L. of Moses had brought down upon him. The extensive argument, and miscellaneous nature of that work, had led him to declare his sentiments on a multitude of questions, on which he thought differently from other writers, and of course to censure or confute their opinions. Whole bodies of men, as well as individuals of the highest reputation, were attacked by him; and his manner was to speak his sense of all with freedom and force. So that most writers, and even readers, had some ground of complaint against him. Not only the free-thinkers and unbelievers, against whom the tenour of his book was directed, but the heterodox of every denomination were treated without much ceremony; and of those, reputed orthodox, some

tenet

tenet or other, which till then they had held sacred, was discussed and reprobated by him. Straggling heresies, or embodied systems, made no difference with him; as they came in his way, no quarter was given to either: "his end and manner of writing," as Dr. Middleton truly observed, "being to pursue truth, wherever he found it, and, from the midst "of smoke and darkness, to spread light and day "around him *.”

Such a writer (independently of the envy, which ever attends superior genius) must needs have innumerable enemies. And as all could not receive, nor the greater part deserve, his notice, he determined to select a few of the more respectable, out of the gross body of assailants, and to quit his hands of them at once, in a general comprehensive answer. This was done by Remarks on several occasional Reflections, in two parts; the former published in 1744, and the second (which he styles the last) in 1745; and both, executed in such a manner as was not likely to invite any fresh attacks upon him t.

Yet the rage of his answerers was not presently subdued. Writing to a confidential friend from PriorPark the year following [July 15, 1746] he tells him" I have a deluge of writers against me. But two great men have made me promise to answer none of them. They said- You imagine the world takes as much notice of your answerers, as you yourself do. You are mistaken. The names of none of them were ever heard of in good company. And the world wonders you should so misemploy your time.' To

*Letter VII. in Dr. Middleton's Works, Vol. II.

+ See Vol. XI. of this Edit.

this I said, 'It was true. But that there was another body to which some regard should be had, the inferior Clergy. They said, if such writers misled them, it was in vain for me to think of them. And indeed I begin to think Aristotle mistaken when he defined man to be a rational animal. Not but I know the source of all this opposition is rather to be attributed to a bad heart, than a bad head. And you would be surprized at the instances of envy I could give you. Had I the complaisance to die to-morrow, it would all be over, before the end of the week. I am in this condition of a dead man, already, with regard to the Indies, there being, at this immense distance, no room for envy, as you will see by the following extract of a letter I received from one of the Governors of Virginia :"

"I never had so much profit from any book, except "the Bible, as from your's. The flood of infidelity "has reached us. The blessing of GOD upon your "excellent pen will, I hope, preserve us from the "evil influence. Pennsylvania seems to be over-run "with Deism. The Quakers are generally infected, " and it being their constitution to have no established religion, their too-universal toleration receives all "without distinction. And they who worship GOD, "and they who do not, are in the same esteem.

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"Your first and second volumes of the Divine "Legation came over to their public library. I "recommended it strongly. It soon became the "subject of all conversation. Never were such

struggles about any book, who should first read it. "The reasonable were convinced; the obstinate were "astonished. A friend of mine, of learning and station "there, spoke of it with the warmest praise: he said,

"it

"it had made him ten times more a Christian, than he "had ever been."

These reflexions were consolatory to him, and made him bear with more temper the petulance of his adversaries; whom he seems to have neglected, till one of high fame and confident pretensions forced him again into the field of controversy. But this was not till some years afterwards.I now go on with my narrative from 1745.

Mr. Pope had very early introduced his friend to the notice of Lord Chesterfield; who going this year Lord Lieutenant to Ireland, was desirous of taking Mr. Warburton with him, as his first Chaplain. He had his reasons for declining this offer; but he had a proper sense of the civility, and made his public acknowledgements for it in a dedication of the Alliance, reprinted with many corrections and improvements in 1748. The style of compliment in this piece will perhaps be censured as too high. But the truth is, that specious Nobleman had the fortune to be better thought of, in his lifetime, than he has been since. The general opinion therefore (which came confirmed to him by Mr. Pope) very naturally inflamed the expression of his gratitude, in that panegyrical epistle.

After an acquaintance of some years, Mr. Allen had, now, seen so much of his friend, that he wished to unite him still more closely to himself by an alliance of marriage with an accomplished Lady of his own family*.

This event took place in the beginning of the year 1746; and soon after, the preachership of Lincoln'sInn happening to become vacant, Mr. Murray, then

* Miss Gertrude Tucker, Mr. Allen's favourite niece. Solicitor