ranked among the
class he so loudly denounced, that of "Free-thinkers;" his
mind, warm with imagination, seemed often tinged with
credulity. But from his want of sober-mindedness, we cannot
always prove his earnestness in the cause he advocated. He
often sports with his fancies; he breaks out into the most
familiar levity; and maintains, too broadly, subtile and
refined principles, which evince more of the political than
the primitive Christian. It is certain his infidelity was
greatly suspected; and Hurd, to pass over the stigma of
Warburton's sudden conversion to the Church, insinuates that
"_an early seriousness of mind_ determined him to the
ecclesiastical profession."--"It may be so," says the critic
in the "Quarterly Review," no languid admirer of this great
man; "but the symptoms of that _seriousness were very
equivocal afterwards_; and the _certainty of an early
provision, from a generous patron in the country_, may perhaps
be considered by those who are disposed to assign human
conduct to ordinary motives, as quite adequate to the
effect."

Dr. Parr is indignant at such surmises; but the feeling is
more honourable than the decision! In an admirable character
of Warburton in the "Westminster Magazine" for 1779, it is
acknowledged, "at his outset in life he was suspected of
being inclined to infidelity; and it was not till many
years had elapsed, that the orthodoxy of his opinions was
generally assented to." On this Dr. Parr observes, "Why Dr.
Warburton was _ever_ suspected of secret infidelity I know
not. What he was _inclined to think_ on subjects of
religion, before, perhaps, he had leisure or ability to
examine them, depends only upon obscure surmise, or vague
report." The words _inclined to think_ seems a periphrase
for _secret infidelity_. Our critic attributes these reports
to "an English dunce, whose blunders and calumnies are now
happily forgotten, and repeated by a French buffoon, whose
morality is not commensurate with his wit."--_Tracts_ by
Warburton, &c., p. 186.

"The English Dunce" I do not recollect; of this sort there are
so many! Voltaire is "the French buffoon;" who, indeed,
compares