288 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTER TO A FRIEND, ON JORTIN, 
ee nee AND HurRp. 
My dear F. ; 
io ‘has often, you will récillest in our 
focical converfations with aaa other, 
been a fubjeét of remark, how very aif- 
ferent the fame action appears in dif- 
erent circumftances ; taking its colour, 
while the fubftance remains unaltered, 
entirely from the character, the fiston, 
the profeffion, or perhaps, not feldom 
even from the temper and difpofition of 
the agent. 

~“© One murder made a villain, 
«€ Millions a hero. 
Thus you read, in an elegant poem of 
a rifing genius; which, as the blofloms of 
the {pring, gave early promife of thofe 
matured abilities, and venerable virtues, 
which now add dignity to a ftation of the 
higheft order in the Church. 
This partial eftimation cf merit and 
demerit, or rather this wonderful tranf- 
mutation of virtue into guilt, and guilt 
into virtue, merely by the influence ‘of 
the medium through which they inci- 
dentally pafs, was brought into my mind 
by a paragraph which I lately read in an 
evening paper*. Poor Chatterton! A 
few years ago, he fent into the world, 
you know, fome excellent poems, faid to 
have been found in a cheft, in Radcliffe 
church, at Briftol ; and fuppofed to have 
been written by Thomas Rowley, a prieft, 
of the fifteenth century. I will not en- 
ter into the queftion, which has divided 
the literati of the prefent day, whether 
thefe poems be the genuine works of 
Rowley or not. Be it granted, if you 
pleafe, that they are not. What is the 
confequence? For this the poor boy 
has been abufed as a profigate and unprin- 
e/pled impofior ; a vagrant, who lived by 
expedients. The deception which he 
endeavoured to pafs upon the world, has 
been confidered as a wicked forgery / nay, 
fo ftrangely perverted by this fort of 
fathionable prejudice are the moft trivial 
and indifferent aétions, that, when he 
at firft defired, and afterwards, what he 
had an undoubted right to do, demanded 
the return of fome MSS. which, in the 
fimplicity of his heart, he had entrufted 
to a perfon whofe rank gave credit to 
every thing he chole either to do or fay, 
leled -infiance of 
it was deemed an urparall 

* See St. James’s Chronicle fr¢ 
fan. 14, to Saturday, 16, 1796 
m Thurfday, 
Fortin, Warburton, and Hurd. 
[ May 
impudence and affurance. Thus fared it 
with this ill-ftarr’d genius; wll, driver 
to defperation by the cruel ulage he mer 
with; he fought refuge, at laft, in the’ 
fanétuary of the grave. Read how pa- 
thetically one of kindred fenfibilities de~ 
{cribes and laments his fate : 
Ina chill room; within whefe wretched wall, 
No chearing voice replies to mifery’s call : 
Near a vile bed, too crazy to fuftain 
Misfortune’s watted limbs, convuls’d with pain ; 5 
On the bare floor, with heav’n-directed eyes, 
The haplefs youth in fpeechlefs horror lies. 
The pais’nous vial, by diftraétion drain’d, 
Rolls from his hand, in wild contortion ftrain’d, . 
Pale with life-wafting pangs, its dire effect, 
And ftung to madnefs by the world’s negle&, 
In keen abhorrence of the dang’rous art, 
Once the dear idol of his glowing heart, 
See ! from his harp he tears the hated wires, 
And in the phrenzy of defpair expires. 
HAYLEy. 
Now mark the difference. In an ac- 
count, publif/bed at laf?, of the life, writ- 
ings, and character, of a late celebrated 
prelate, by a friend of the fame order, 
we have a narrative of a fimilar impo- 
fition planned between the two friends ; 
one, at that time, profeffor, the other 
bachelor of divinity ; both afpiring to 
reputation-and preferment. The RR. 
biographer .appears animated beyond 
his uiual temperament of manner on 
this part of his fubjeét ; and conduéts his 
reader, with evident marks of fatisfac- 
tion, through the whole progrefs of this 
myfterious tranfaction. The original 
contrivance, as appears by a letter in- 
ferted in the account, belongs to the great 
man himfelf; which, I doubt Bo the 
RR. biographer confidered as an* wa7- 
common fetch of wit, worthy, at leatt, to 
be recorded amongft the other Seca 
nary performances of this extraordinary 
man. He it was who fuggefted the title 
for the pamphlet intended to be printed. 
‘* Remarks on Mr. Hume’s late effay, 
called The Natural Hiftory of Religion, by 
a Gentleman of Cambridge, ina Letter 
to the Rev. Dr. Warburton.” ‘Then 
going on to explain, in his own way, the 
effect and operation of the fallacy he was 
meditating, ‘* The addrefs, he adds, 
will remove it (the Remarks—you mutt 
not boggle ata little inaccuracy in gram- 
mar; fuch flips are pardonable in the free- - 
dom and hurry of epiitolary correfgon- 
dence, efpecially in a genius)—‘ The 
Ks addre{s will remove 7‘ from me; the 

 * See Appendix to Jortin’s Remarks on 
Ecclehattical Hiftory, p. 380. v3 
‘© author 
