v V 



460 



BENTLEY.* 



Eentley. arranged, and in the other live columns, all the va- 

 <" "' rious interpretations of those words to be found in 

 the Chaldee, Syriac, Vulgate, Latin, and Septuagint, 

 as well as in Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodosian. 

 At the same time, he had compiled for his own pri- 

 vate use another volume in quarto, containing all the 

 various readings and emendations of the Hebrew text, 

 collated from these ancient versions. In 1681 he left 

 the university, and taught a school at Spalding. Soon 

 after he was chosen as preceptor to the son of Dr 

 Stillingfleet, dean of St Paul's, who appointed him 

 likewise to be his domestic chaplain. The first work 

 which he published, was a Latin epistle to Dr John 

 Mill, containing critical observations on the chroni- 

 con of Malala, the Greek historiographer. This work 

 appeared in 1691 ; and about the same time, he had 

 the honour of being appoipted as the first person to 

 . preach the lecture founded by Mr Boyle, for the vin- 

 dication of the fundamental principles of natural and 

 revealed religion. The sermons which he delivered 

 in this capacity, were published at the desire of the 

 respectable trustees to whom he owed his appoint- 

 ment, and contain the best confutation of the absur- 

 dities of atheism ever given to the world. Literary 

 honours, accompanied with more substantial advan- 

 tages, now began to crowd upon him. In December 

 1693, he was appointed keeper of the Royal Library 

 at St James's ; and such was his zeal and activity in 

 this new situation, that before his patent was signed, 

 he had enriched the library with about a thousand 

 volumes due to it, in virtue of a neglected act of Par- 

 liament, which directs, that one copy of every book 

 printed in England should be presented to St James's, 

 and to each university. Soon afterhis nomination to this 

 office, he became involved in a controversy, which, 

 though trivial in itself, derived considerable import- 

 ance from the character of the parties by whom it 

 was carried on, and attracted for a long time the at- 

 tention of the literary world. The honourable Charles 

 Boyle applied to Dr Bentley, by means of a London 

 bookseller, for a manuscript copy of the Epistle of 

 Phalaris, which he intended to publish. It was ob- 

 tained after much solicitation and many delays, and 

 had not been above six days in the hands of MrBoyle, 

 when it was re-demanded by the Doctor, with some 

 expressions of contempt both for the work and the 

 editor. This insult was resented by Mr Boyle in his 

 preface to Phalaris ; Bentley in return, wrote a dis- 

 sertation on the Epistles of Themistocles, Socrates, 

 Euripides, Phalaris, and the fables of jEsop, main- 

 taining, and indeed proving in the most satisfactory 

 manner, that the epistles ascribed to Phalaris are spu- 

 rious, and that Mr Boyle, by a very bad edition, had 

 only rendered them more contemptible. Boyle re- 

 torted ; a warm contest ensued ; the literati ranged 

 themselves under the standards of the different com- 

 batants ; all the artillery of wit and learning was play- 

 ed off on both sides ; till, as usually happens in sucli 

 controversies, the immediate subject in dispute was 

 relinquished for ill-natured sarcasm, and personal in- 

 fective. Bentley was unfortunate in having all the 

 contemporary wits, by whom he was dreaded, as his 

 avowed enemies ; but when the heat of irritation 

 passed off, it was almost universally agreed, that he 

 tad the decided advantage over his antagonist in eru- 



dition and argument, and was but little inferior to Bentley. 

 him in refined raillery, and pointed wit. He was not ~Y~-" 

 so much occupied by this squabble, as not to find 

 60me leisure for his favourite employment of collating 

 and commenting upon the classics. At the earnest 

 request of his friend Grsevius, he drew up animad- 

 versions and remarks on Callimachus, with a collec- 

 tion of some scattered pieces and fragments of that 

 poet, which were published by Grsevius on the con- 

 tinent in 1697. In 1700, he was made master of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, an office worth about 

 j1000 a-year; and soon after was collated Arch- 

 deacon of Ely. He was now placed in the situation of 

 all others most suited to his habits and his wishe3, 

 and engaged, with new ardour, in the exercise of il- 

 lustrating the classics. The two first comedies of 

 Aristophanes, with his annotations, were published at 

 Amsterdam in 1710; and about the same time, the 

 fragments of Menander and Philemon appeared at 

 Rheims, with his comments and emendations, under 

 the feigned name of Phileleuthcrus Lipsiensis ; a 

 character which he again assumed in his attack upon 

 Collins's Discourse on Freethinking. The most im- 

 portant of his critical performances, however, is his 

 celebrated edition of Horace, which was published in 

 171 1 ; and is pronounced by Dr Hare to bethecom- 

 pletest work produced by criticism since the restora- 

 tion of learning. In 1716, he was appointed Regius 

 Professor of Divinity in Cambridge ; and in the same 

 year, circulated proposals for a new edition of the 

 Greek Testament, with St Jerome's Latin version. 

 Few men could seem better qualified for such an un- 

 dertaking. The greater part of his life had been 

 spent in the critical study of the learned languages, 

 with which he was most profoundly acquainted. His 

 professional situation afforded him all the facilities! 

 which could be enjoyed in Britain ; he had sent his 

 nephew, Dr Thomas Bentley r , in search of every ma- 

 nuscript which could be obtained on the continent ; 

 and was actually in possession of twenty different 

 manuscripts, when his proposals appeared. They 

 were received in the most flattering manner by all 

 true lovers of learning ; till Dr Conyers Middleton, 

 always an inveterate enemy to Bentley, published re- 

 marks, paragraph by paragraph, upon his proposals, 

 endeavouring to prove that he possessed ne:ther 

 the talents nor materials requisite for the underta- 

 king. These animadversions chagrined Dr Bentley so 

 much, that he determined the work should not appear 

 during his lifetime ; and the subscription money which 

 he had received, amounting to about 2000, was 

 immediately refunded to the subscribers. The last 

 twenty years of his life were spent in a state of dig- 

 nified ease. His only productions dining all that 

 time, were his editions of Terence, Vhadrus, and 

 Milton, His peace was considerably interrupted, 

 however, at one period, by a quarrel in which he was 

 engaged with the members of the college over which 

 he presided. By reforming some abuses which had 

 long existed, and curtailing salaries for which little 

 was performed, he provoked those who thought 

 themselves aggrieved, to enter a complaint, accompa- 

 nied by a proposal for his removal, to the bishop of 

 Ely, as visitor of the college. This gave rise to the 

 question, whether the visitorial power belonged to 



