s connected with, was published in
the year he died, and mainly written by himself, "The Oracles of
Reason" a favorite title with both American and English Freethinkers. It
consists of sixteen sections; the most interesting being the first four,
containing "A Vindication of Dr. Burnett's Archiologie." The seventh and
eighth chapters (translated) of the same, of "Moses's Description of
the Original State of Man," and Dr. Burnett's "Appendix of the Brahmin's
Religion." We would quote from these sections of the "Oracles," but
intend to form separate "Half-Hours," with sketches of Drs. Brown and
Burnett; it will be more appropriate to use Blount's translation in
describing those quaint, but highly instructive authors. In the general
style of Blount's works, he is not seen to advantage; there is too much
heaviness, enhanced by the perpetual Greek and Latin quotations; but as
his works were intended for scholars, and the time in which they were
written was essentially the most pedantic era of our literary history,
we cannot expect that vivacity and clearness which other writers in
a later age possessed. It was in his character as a man that Blount
excelled--he was the leader of the chivalry of the period, as in the
next age Woolston was his successor. At the Court he was the gayest of
the gay, without the taint of immorality, in a period of the grossest
licentiousness; he defended the honor of his friends, frequently at
the expense of calumny and danger. In witty repartees he was equal to
Rochester; while for abstruse learning he was superior to many of the
most learned theologians. Daintily brave and skilfully alive to the
requirements of friends and foes, he passed through life in the gilded
barge of pleasure, and ended it sailing through a cloud where he
foundered. But the darkness which enveloped his history is now charged
with that sympathetic power which draws the young to his grave, and
compels the gloomiest to shed a tear over his unhappy fate.

At the close of August, in 1693, a few friends met near the grave of
Blount, to join in their last respects to their lost friend. Foremost
amongst them was Charles Gildon, who so soon repented of the part he
had taken in the "Oracles of Reason," but never forgot the kindness he
experienced from Blount. He lived long enough for Pope to be revenged on
his apostacy, by inserting his name in his great satire. At the time we
speak he was mournful and deeply grieved at the loss he ha