far from being an enemy to rational mirth,
and he always exerted himself to entertain and promote the pleasures of
his friends. In all his proceedings he was most open and unreserved:
from selfishness none could be more free. Dr. Kennicot often said that,
of the many he had employed in his great biblical undertaking, none had
shown more activity or more disinterestedness than our author. He was
zealous in the cause of religion, but his zeal was without bitterness or
animosity: polemic acrimony was unknown to him. He never forgot that in
every heretic he saw a brother Christian; in every infidel he saw a
brother man. He greatly admired _Drouen de Sacramentis_, and _Boranga's
Theology_. _Tournely_ he preferred much to his antagonist _Billouart_.
He thought _Houbigant_ too bold a critic, and objected some novelties to
the _Hebraizing friars of the Rue St. Honore_. He believed the letters
of Ganganelli, with the exception of two or three at most, to be
spurious. Their spuriousness has been since placed beyond controversy by
the _Diatribe Clementine_, polished in 1777. _Caraccioli_, the editor of
them, in his _Remerciement a l'Auteur de l'Annee Litteraire de la part
de l'Editeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli_, acknowledges that he filled
sixty pages at least of them with thoughts and insertions of his own
compositions. In the handwriting of a gentleman, remarkable for his
great accuracy, the editor has before him the following {041} account of
our author's sentiments on usury: "Mr. Alban Butler's opinion of
receiving interest for money, in a letter dated the 20th of June, 1735,
but copied anno 1738.--In England, and in some other countries, the laws
allow of five per cent., and even an action at law for the payment of
it. This is often allowable in a trading country; and, as it is the
common practice in England, I shall not blame any one for taking or even
exacting interest-money; therefore will say nothing against it in
general: but, in my own regard, I am persuaded it is not warrantable in
conscience, but in three cases; viz. either for a gain ceasing, as
merchants lend money which they would otherwise employ in trade, _lucrum
cessans_: or, secondly, some detriment the lender suffers by it, _damnum
emergens_: or, thirdly, some hazard in the principal money, by its being
exposed to some more than ordinary danger in being recovered safely.
Some time afterwards the said Alban Butler was convinced there was no
occasion of scru