[ 146 ] [FEB. 



MR. FIELD'S MEMOIRS AND OPINIONS or DR. PARR.* 



" My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man!" SHAKIPEARK. 



IT is perhaps the strongest possible illustration of the extent to which 

 what is called a " reading public," exists in this country, the number of 

 useless books that are published (and that bold and well-informed book- 

 sellers make their fortunes by publishing) every year. Dr. Parr was an 

 honest man, and a good schoolmaster : or, to borrow Byron's description 

 of him " he was a sound teacher, and an expert flogger" (or " an 

 expert teacher, and a sound flogger") for we forget the exact arrange- 

 ment of the words but nothing else. Nevertheless, the need of the cir- 

 culating libraries was great ! and, the moment the breath was out of the 

 doctor's body, a whole field of authors started helter-skelter whip and 

 spur neck and neck to make a great man of him ! First there came 

 a hasty volume, of condensed sagacity merely for pocket circulation . 

 called his " Aphorisms." Then the Bibliotheca Parriana ! that school- 

 boys read of; and blessed themselves, to think how much learning they 

 had escaped. Then came articles innumerable, terrible in the matter of 

 " Reminiscence," in all the magazines, and literary papers (not excepting, 

 we are afraid, our own publication) ; and even in the newspapers better 

 matter running short. And last (not least) comes the heavy four hun- 

 dred page octavo of the Rev. William Field even this the first only of 

 two volumes which the writer hopes " may prove gratifying to the 

 friends and admirers of Dr. Parr, and not altogether uninteresting or 

 uninstructive to others :" a hope which nevertheless we should be 

 flattering him exceedingly, if we were to say seemed to us to be by any 

 means well-founded. In fact, the worthy doctor was, as Byron ex- 

 pressed it " a sound teacher, and an expert flogger" (or " an expert 

 teacher, and a sound flogger") but nothing else. And, without sup- 

 plying one word from our own knowledge or opinions, upon a subject 

 which has already been debated till all the world is sick of it, we shall 

 just glance over a few of the statements of the memoir before us, and 

 see how far even the biography of his friends can succeed in making 

 any thing else of him. 



Dr. Samuel Parr was born in the village of Harrow, in the year 1747 ; 

 and was the eldest son of Mr. Samuel Parr, surgeon and apothecary, and 

 Miss Ann Meynard, the daughter of a gentleman in the same profession. 

 We pass over a rather lengthy pedigreee which traces both these fami- 

 lies back not quite as far as the Conquest : and come at once to the 

 history of the really excellent scholar, whose weak points all the world 

 seem to be in a conspiracy to expose. 



The memory of Dr. Parr appears to have been one of the most extra- 

 ordinary gifts bestowed upon him : and there are persons who will be 

 struck with, its early development : as his biographer relates, that " he 

 has sometimes been heard to declare, that he recollected being suckled at 

 his mother's breast !" It appears, moreover, that the failure in after life, 

 too commonly the fate of precocious persons, did not befal him : and on 

 this point, again, we have the best of evidence himself : for " he often 

 observed" (Mr. Field continues) "that his mental faculties were unfolded 

 very prematurely ; but added, that, with him, prematurity did not, as 

 years advanced, sink into imbecility :" an opinion, which we have the 



* Memoirs of the Life/ Writings, and Opinions of Dr. Samuel Parr ; by the Rev. 

 William Field ; 2 vols. Colburn. 1828. 



