appears. It
mortifies the lovers of genius to discover how a natural character may
be thrown into a convulsed unnatural state by some adopted system: it
is this system, which, carrying it, as it were, beyond itself,
communicates a more than natural, but a self-destroying energy. All
then becomes reversed! The arrogant and vituperative Warburton was
only such in his assumed character; for in still domestic life he was
the creature of benevolence, touched by generous passions. But in
public life the artificial or the acquired character prevails over the
one which nature designed for us; and by that all public men, as well
as authors, are usually judged by posterity.

FOOTNOTES:

[141] One of his lively adversaries, the author of the "Canons of
Criticism," observed the difficulty of writing against an
author whose reputation so much exceeded the knowledge of his
works. "It is my misfortune," says EDWARDS, "in this
controversy, to be engaged with a person who is better known
by his _name_ than his _works_; or, to speak more properly,
whose _works are more known than read_."--_Preface to the
Canons of Criticism._

[142] Aristotle's Rhetoric, B. III. c. 16.

[143] The materials for a "Life of Warburton" have been arranged by
Mr. NICHOLS with his accustomed fidelity.--_See his Literary
Anecdotes._

[144] It is probable I may have drawn my meteor from our volcanic
author himself, who had his lucid moments, even in the
deliriums of his imagination. Warburton has rightly observed,
in his "Divine Legation," p. 203, that "_Systems_, _Schemes_,
and _Hypotheses_, all bred of heat, in the warm regions of
_Controversy_, like meteors in a troubled sky, have each its
turn to _blaze_ and _fly_ away."

[145] It seems, even by the confession of a Warburtonian, that his
master was of "a human size;" for when Bishop LOWTH rallies
the Warburtonians for their subserviency and credulity to
their master, he aimed a gentle stroke at Dr. BROWN, who, in
his "Essays on the Characteristics," had poured forth the most
vehement panegyric. In his "Estimate of Manners of the
Times," too, after a long _tirade_ of their badness in regard
to taste and learning, he thus again eulogizes his mighty
master:--"Himself is abused, and his friends insulted for his