ght conduct him to the highest civic honours, and to boundless
wealth, has nothing to require apology; but even if it had, such a
reproach was not very gracious on the part of a clergyman, nor
graceful on that of a gentleman. The allusion to "_Christian_
criticism" is not particularly happy, especially where Mr. Gilchrist
is accused of having "_set the first example of this mode in
Europe_." What _Pagan_ criticism may have been we know but little;
the names of Zoilus and Aristarchus survive, and the works of
Aristotle, Longinus, and Quintilian: but of "Christian criticism" we
have already had some specimens in the works of Philelphus, Poggius,
Scaliger, Milton, Salmasius, the Cruscanti (versus Tasso), the French
Academy (against the Cid), and the antagonists of Voltaire and of
Pope--to say nothing of some articles in most of the reviews, since
their earliest institution in the person of their respectable and
still prolific parent, "The Monthly." Why, then, is Mr. Gilchrist to
be singled out "as having set the first example?" A sole page of
Milton or Salmasius contains more abuse--rank, rancorous,
_unleavened_ abuse--than all that can be raked forth from the whole
works of many recent critics. There are some, indeed, who still keep
up the good old custom; but fewer English than foreign. It is a pity
that Mr. Bowles cannot witness some of the Italian controversies, or
become the subject of one. He would then look upon Mr. Gilchrist as a
panegyrist.

In the long sentence quoted from the article in "The London
Magazine," there is one coarse image, the justice of whose
application I shall not pretend to determine:--"The pruriency with
which his nose is laid to the ground" is an expression which, whether
founded or not, might have been omitted. But the "anatomical
minuteness" appears to me justified even by Mr. Bowles's own
subsequent quotation. To the point:--"_Many facts_ tend to prove the
peculiar susceptibility of his passions; nor can we implicitly
believe that the connexion between him and Martha Blount was of a
nature so pure and innocent as his panegyrist Ruffhead would have us
believe," &c.--"At _no time_ could she have regarded _Pope
personally_ with attachment," &c.--"But the most extraordinary
circumstance in regard to his connexion with female society, was the
strange mixture of _indecent_ and even _profane_ levity which his
conduct and language often exhibited. The cause of this particularity
may be sought, pe