433 
trayed little regard for the improvement 
of all future ages! 
LXIX—-DR. COULTHURST. 
‘The time of taking degrees is allowedly 
@ very ferious period at Cambridge. The 
public examinations, alfo, it is allowed, 
are conducted with fyftem, and with im- 
partiality. An Oxonian, however, who 
was once on a vifit to Sidney College, 
thought otherwife. He was obferving, 
that the bufinefS of taking a degree was 
managed at Oxford with more regularity, 
2nd by one uniform procels; that you faw 
the whole procedure, as it were, at one 
view ; and that the bufinefs was carried on 
with difpatch, and clofed in perfpicuity.— 
Whereas (continued he) in the Senate- 
houfe at Cambridge, there are fo 
many breaks and interruptions, that you 
are troubled to find what they are about; 
at one time the young men are employed, 
at other tithes they are doing nothing. 
The finale is huddled up in darknefs, and 
the honours feem betowed by chances A 
Fellow, whowas fitting by, Dr. Coulthurft, 
aptly replied, 
Chance is dire&ion, which thou canft not fee. 
Pope, 
LXX.—-DR. BENTLEY. 
Dr. Bentley was a man of extenfive 
reading, and obtained a fubftantial repu- 
tation by his critical talents. But a 
man’s tatie is not in exact proportion to 
his reading, nor will his imagination al- 
-ways keep pace with his acutenefs. As 
a proof that Bentley was not greatly gifted 
with tafte, nor extraordinarily enriched with 
fancy, may be mentioned, that he is 
known to have written only one copy of 
verfes, in which is a paflage copied from 
Cowley, though (adds Dr. Johnfon, in 
his Life of Cowley) with the inferiority of 
an imitator. Almoft every critic of emi- 
nence has left behind him fome flowers of 
poefy, as a kind of teftimony, that, if 
he was not qualified to rank among the 
firft performers on the lyre, he knew, 
at leaft, when the inffrument was in tune. 
It does not appear that Dr. Bentley’s ears 
were will hung. 
In a controverfy, where his fuperior 
knowledge of Greek and Roman writers 
could not fail to give him advantage, 
he gained an honourable and eafy 
triumph. But he ftained his laurels by 
his emendations on Milton. Richard 
Dawes, formerly Fellow of Emanuel Col- 
lege, and afterwards Mafter of Newcattle- 
fchool, wrote a learned critical werk, ¢a- 
Cantabrigiana. 
[July 15 
titled Mifcellanea Critica. He tells us in 
his Preface, that he once meditated to 
put the Parapise Lost into Greek 
verfe. He finithed the fir book; but, 
continues he, (and he was allowedly one of 
the beit Greek fcholars of his age,) cum 
jam egomet mea vineta cedere valeam, fo- 
laccifmis featere comperi; and, as a proof 
of his unfitnefs for the work, he produced 
the very paflage which he had formerly 
printed asa f{pecimen. It is a pity that 
the learned Doétor had not praétifed the 
fame ingenuoufnefs on his Emendations. 
The futility of moftof them has been fhewn 
with ability, though with modefty, by 
Bifhop Pearce. a 
Dr. Bentley once put forth propofals for 
publithing a new edition of the Greek 
Teftament. There was a world of flou- 
rifhing, vaunting expreffions, and a iittle 
cant, in thefe propofals. But it was to be . 
Dr. Bentley's Greek Teffament, to faper- 
fede all other editions, and to be the ~ 
great luminary, when the light of all 
the MSS. fhould be extinguifhed! If 
we may draw any conclufions from Dr. 
Bentley’s fkill at emendations, from his 
emendations of Milton, it was, perhaps, 
fortunate for him, and no lofs to the 
world, that this work never made its ap- 
pearance. Dr. Conyers Middleton pub- 
Jithed fome ftinging remarks on Dr. Bent- 
ley’s propofals, and the learned Criti¢ 
fufpended his labours. 
It is Dr. Bentley of whom the follow- 
ing ftory is recorded:—A young man 
having committed fome offence againft the 
College-ftatutes, had a copy of Greek verfes 
fethim as a punifhment by the Doctor. The 
young man finifhed his verfes, and brought 
them forexamination. The Doctor had not 
proceeded far, before he obferved a paflage, 
which, he faid, was bad Greek. ‘The 
young gentleman, bowing, replied, “ Yet, 
Sir, I thought I had followed good au- 
thority ;°* and, taking a Pindar out of his 
pocket, he pointed to. a fimilar ex- — 
preffion in that poet. The Doétor wag 
fatisfied : but, continuing to read on, he 
foon found another paflage, which he faid 
was certainly bad Greek, ‘The young 
man took his Pindar out of his pocket — 
again, and fhewed another paflage, which 
he had followed as his authority. ‘The 
Doétor was here a little nettled: but: he 
proceeded to the end of the verfes, when 
he obferved another paffage at the clofe, 
which he affirmed was not claffical. «* Yet 
Pindar (rejoined the young man) was my 
authority even here;” and he pointed 
out the place, which he had clofely imi- - 
tated 
