258 
felicity of conjectural critici{m, almoft all 
the philofophers, orators, wits, and {cho- 
Jars, of that age, whether in Britain or on 
the Continent. His Sermons againf{t 
Atheifm, which were preached at Boyle’s 
Leéture,. are abfelutely unequalled by any 
thing in the works of ancient or modern 
philofophers, whether confidered in  re- 
gard to force, clearnefs, originality, and 
refinement of reafoning—in regard to 
beauty, fublimity, and impreffivenefs of 
eloquence—or in regard to the extent and 
maiterly precifion of the phyfical and mo- 
ral knowledge which their - illuftrations 
unfold, His book againft Boyle on the 
Epiftles of Phalaris made him known as 
a mafter of Grecian literature, an emen- 
datory critic, a wit, and alogician, tran- 
fcending all the praife of thejScaligers, the 
Cafaubons, the Sylburgii, the Salmafi, 
the Lipfii, and whatever names were the 
moit eminent for the application of fi: it- 
rate genius and univerfal knowledge to 
elucidate tie obfcurities and folve the drt- 
ficulties of claffical erudition. He wasen- 
gaged, at the time of this correfpondence 
with Hemfterhuis, in conduéting his edi- 
tion of Horace through the prefs ; but 
from that tafk he (tole repeatedly an hour 
or two, to gratify the folicitations of his 
young friend. Two of his letters, pre- 
ferved by Hemfterbuis all his life as a pre- 
cious treafure, have been fince publifhed. 
They evince in Bentley an amiable and 
candid fpirit, putting the higheft eftimate 
on the labeurs of another, while they 
evince Hemfterhuis, where he failed in his 
attempts at emendation, to have chiefly fail- 
ed fromthat wantof nice {killin the protody 
of the Greek language, and the meafures 
of its poetry, which was then the com- 
mon faolt of the tcholars on the Continent. 
Hemferhuis being, as it fhould feem, of 
a much more ingenuous temper of mind 
than Boyle, with his prompters, Atterbu- 
ry, Friend, Aldrich, and the other wits af 
Chrift’s Church ; Bentley's adverlaries ou, 
the fubjc&t of Phalais, at once perceived 
and owned that the emendations of the 
great Englifh Critic on the fragments 
from the comic poets w Julius Pollux, 
were incomparably better than thofe 
‘which he had himfelf propoted, ‘* Exizm- 
wero, leis animadverfontbus Bentleianis, 
(fays Ruhnken, with admirable force and 
propriety of Latin expreflion,) widet tna- 
nem operam fuam fuiffe, alteruim omuia di- 
winitus expediife.” He felt fo much fhame 
and contufion, that he fhould, with f@ 
mucit labour, have mifled what another 
ad found fo eafily, and that fo evidently 
sight, that for two months aiter he ceulg 
sa 
Memoir of Proféfor Tiberius Hemfterhuis. 
fApril 1, 
not bear the fight of a Greek book, and 
had even for a time refolved to abandor 
Greck learning entirely, as a thing which 
he was not born tofueceed in, But thefe 
feelings were foon loft in a new ar- 
dour to mafter all that was difficult im the 
language of ancient Greece, with all the 
knowledge which it contained. He uféd 
-atterwards often to {peak of this incident 
of his life among his friends, and to relate 
it to his pupils, as an example both: to 
chetk the prefumption, and to encourages 
the defpondency, of young fludents.— 
“ Nefcio quid alti fentiant, ({ays Rhuoken, 
excellently,) mibt nunquam major, quam 
cum hac de fe ingenue fatebatur, vifus ef? 
Hemflerbufus. 
His firft care, upon his return to his ftu- 
dies in Greek, was to follow Bentley’s 
advice, to make himfelf familiarly and 
accurately acquainted with every princi« 
ple and every anomalous exception in 
Greek profody, and to examine, even with 
minute care, all the varieties of meafure 
ufed in the comic poetry of the Greeks.— 
He fixed his emulation upon Bentley, as 
the model of confummate fkiil and ability 
in Greek erudition, to the excellence of 
which he might be fatisfied if he could 
attain. Of allthecritics of the age, he. 
confidered Bentley as incomparably the 
firft; nor throughout his fubfequent life 
would he ever fuffer any perfon to detract 
from Bentley's praife in his prefence. _ 
The next ftep taken by Hemfterhuis te 
improve his {kill in Greek learning, was 
to read over all the authors in the lan- — 
guage, in chronological order, from Ho- 
mer downwards. In this perufal he lett 
no paflage without afcertaining its proper 
fenie, confidering the genuinenefs of its 
reading, examining the nature of its ex- 
ample in phrafeology and conftruction,, 
marking what light it was adapted te 
throw on the cuftoms, manners, and hif. 
tory, of ancient times, and endeavouring 
deeply to inhale whatever moralor plulo« 
fophical wifdom it might happén to con- 
tain. Nor would he truft the refults of 
this fiudy to memory folely: he made 
written extiaéts from every book which 
he thus read; including in thefe the parti- 
culars which he was tlie moft delirous te 
remember, with whatever was new. and 
peculiar in the refle€tions they had fug- 
gefted tohim. By this courfé of fiudy he 
became fo much a matter of all the earlier 
authors, as well as of the more modern 
ones, that there was in the latter hardly a 
thought or a pbrafe imitated from any of 
the former, where he could rot ealily dif- 
cern. the. imitation, and refer it to its pros 
pe 
