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fent illuftrious Bishop of Salisbury (Douglas). The reader will find it in the note, and I have no higher ambition than that pofterity fhould read this letter and Mr. S.'s en my tomb *.

them up to fay against their best friend; and of clearing my literary reputation, in your life-time, fir, who know the facts, from the cowardly calumnies of fome of my own enemies. This poetical freedom (poetica licentia) taken with me by Mr. S. gives me, alfo, an opportunity I readily embrace, of telling prefent and future times that f have been for many years, my dear fir, your very fincere friend,

HERBERT CROFT. P. S. Even Junius, I remember,

Let me finish with endeavouring to make this egotifm, into which I have been unwillingly dragged, ferviceable to fome who read it: as I have always ftudied to render the pafiages I quote in my Dictionary, ufeful for other purposes than the mere illuftration of a word. No ill ever befalls us in life, ei-grants, either to Sir W. Draper or ther great or fmall (I can anfwer for the former), to which we may not difcover, if we examine fairly and carefully, fome good attached. Milton's Il Penferofo found, almoft, as many joys as his L Allegro; in confequence, too, of a mournful turn of mind: while their immortal poet owed, perhaps, the fecond Epic Poem in the world (if Southey follow Homer, with his Ilias ebria veratro, I fhould fay the third) to his being blind.

Chatterton fays (p. 160 of my book,) "I do not like this uncivilized Briftolian." Now, I do. I thank this fix-weeks-author of Joan of Arc, for the unprovoked injuries he has been, three years, ftudying to do me: because he has afforded me the means of repelling what the enemies of Chatterton's mother and iter have worked

Sir W. Blackftone, that "an injury offered to an individual is interefting to fociety," and that "the public will join in the refentment of him who is injured." Since the opportunity is afforded me juft as I finish this, it may be of confequence to the public to know by what fort of a character fuch a fort of injury has been offered; and who it is that affumes the right to come forward and dictate to the public, as to prefent fubfcription, and as to a tranfac tion with an old woman and her daughter almoft twenty-two years ago, and when Mr. S. was almoft three years old. I fhall quote his life, in Public Characters of 1799 -1800. I do not fpeak unguardedly, when I fay his life; for, though Mr. S. did not let Mrs. N. write her own letters, there is every

I

* 1 was honoured with the following letter, when a refpectable profeffional fituation, which I afterwards delined, was offered me by a public body in Germany; though all that I requested from his Lordship was fome teftimony of my character as a gentleman and a clergyman. The book his Lordship alludes to is my "Letter to the Princefs Royal, on the English and German Languages." May all bishops act and fpeak as liberally towards literature! and may all the fervants of literature merit fuch uncommon kberality more than I pretend to do!

Windsor Castle, June 13th 1797.

"Dear Sir, Your letter of the 2d found me here, but not till yesterday; and I take the earliest opportunity of exprefling my-wishes, that you may be placed in fo desirable a fituation as that of chaplain to &c. the respectable members of which, from what I know of your character, will have every reafon to be fatisfied with fuch a choice.

I thank you for fending me a copy of your late publication on the German language; from the perufil of which I received much entertainment and instruction. In this forall, but very able performance, you have given abundant proofs of your being fingularly well qualified to execute that great national work, on which you have spent so much of your time, and I fear fo much of your money, without meeting with that public encouragement which you had a right to expes, and which, from the fpecimens you obligingly communicated to me (1788), I think it most juttly deserved.

It will give real fatisfaction to hear of your fuccefs, being, dear fir, your faithful and obedient fervant,

SARUM. alpearance

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appearance and probability that he wrote his own life, in which the facts and dates are given more minutely than Plutarch would give them of Homer. As thefe elegant and IMPARTIAL volumes of pantifocratic biography are continued annually; a man, with a mind more wedded to falfehood than the worthy Mr. S.'s, would have a fine opportunity of inventing a life of me, and of adding more untruths to the account of me, given in fome fuch biographical work, publifhed by Faulder, I think eight or

ten years ago.

"his father was an unlucky linendraper" (p. 223, 4)-and that "the fpirit of the father refted on the fon" (p. 223), "who writes almoft-extemporaneous Epic Forms for bread" (p. 228).

Nor is this all. "To this day” (moft fingular! pofterity will with to know what day in the eighteenth century)" our epic-draper ties up his flockings very tight; even unwholefomely" (p. 224)-hence I fear, fo many cramped and fickly lines in Joan of Arc-and that "he is faid" (modeft again !)" never to have undergone any corporal punishment" (p. 225). I rejoice, moft cordially, with our tripple wonder, Homer-Mofchus-Pindar, on this duplicity of happiness: and, that it may never be interrupted, I conjure him to 'transfer a little of his ftraitlacing from his ftockings to his affertions, from his heels to his heart; and, above all, never to hazard fuch attacks as these, upon any but clergymen.

The faid worthy Mr. S. fays publickly of himfelf, or fome very good friend for him (fince I defy any one acquainted with books to doubt for an inftant of it's all coming from the very best authority, independently of the pantifocratic ftyle throughout), that "he, to this day, is proud of being a republican, and not without reafon" P. 225, that "the book that most influenced his judgement was Mr. After all, I could affure Mr. S. Godwin's Political Juftice" (fee p. that I defpife him, notwithstanding 368, for the life alfo of that great- his poetry, his life, and his letter, minded germ. p. 369.)-that "he much lefs than his cool reflection ftill approves his theory of pantifo- may, perhaps, lead him to imagine. cracy, or having all things in comI am perfuaded that it is not his mon:" ib.-that he can fay in- fault, if his rival Chapelain's mif deed but little of his religion" chievous Devil, or even the great (this furely is modeft!); only, Devil, approach nearer to pantifothat though he may have run cratic perfection. Were his powthrough five or fix different beliefs, ers at all equal to what I plainly which he enumerates, he now per- fee of the goodnefs of his heart, haps does not believe any thing" p. and the artlefsnefs of his head, I 226-that he has written one epic fhould be very far from defpiting poem in fix weeks; and is writing fuch a formidable fellow-creature. another, which he will be good One, who is a poet, without thinkenough to keep a little longer un-ing it neceffary to be either an a der correction" (p. 227, 8) that theift or a pantifocrat, fends us, "though now only twenty-five finely, years of age," (p. 227), " he has thought proper to denominate himfelf a Lyric Poet" (p. 229): "he and Mr. Lovel, before he was twenty, affumed the modeft names of Mofchus and Bion" (p. 227); and he has the double claim I mention to rank with Homer and Milton (this, Mrs. N. feems to be dublicity, with a witnefs)-that

"To wonder at a thousand infect-forms, Whofe thape would make them, bad they,

bulk and fize, More hideous foes than fancy can devife; With helmet-heads and "dragon-{cales adorn'd, [SCORN'D

The mighty myriads, Now SECURELY
Would mock the niajefty of man's high
birth,

Defpife his bulwarks, and unpeople earth.”
Cowper's Retivemat «
Examined

Examined by a folar microfcope, I can eafily conceive what a hideous foe Mr. Southey might appear; and then, too, this "almoft-extemporaneous" Homer might, perhaps, feem almoft as large as Blackmore.

Since this Briftol Epic Poet (as we fay Briftol-ftones in oppofition to diamonds) thought proper to, feck my literary death, for the honourable reafons affigned by Chatterton in the lines I have prefixed to Mr. S.'s letter; it will be lefs inhuman on my part, to provide him with an epitaph, against he dies fome kind of death--poftquam defiertuit effe Moonides. I do it, alfo, the more readily, as the mo-. numental infcription may be a memorial to others; however foon the perfon in queftion may be forgotten. The lines are part of what C's Rowley fent to Ladgate, with the fong on Ella

"Remember Stowe, the Bristol Carmalite, Who, when John Clarking, of not mickle lore, [ght, Did throw his gauntlet-pen with him to He fhow'd fall wit, and how'd his venom more."

Mr. URBAN,

A

H. C.

April 8.

S your correfpondent D. H. LI. p. 17, has brought to gether all the accounts of the pillar called Pompey's at Alexandria, and the different mcafures afligned to the whole or the parts, you may not be difpleafed at feeing what M. Sonnini has faid of it.

"Without the South gate of the wall of the Arabs ftands one of the most aftonishing monuments that Antiquity has bequeathed to us. The largest column that ever exifted lifts its head aloft, proud of not having yielded to the tooth of time, nor to the more terrible and more fudden attacks of fuperftitious ignorance. It is of the fineft and hardett granite, and is compofed of three pieces, out of which the capital, the shaft, and the pedeftal, are hewn. I had not the

means of meafuring its height; and the travellers who went before me are not agreed upon that point. Savary reprefents it as 114 feet high, while P. Lucas, who afferts that he measured it carefully, found it to be only 94. The latter opinion was univerfally adopted by the Europeans at Alexandria. The height of the column was estimated there at from 04 to 95 French feet. The pedettal is 15 feet high, the fhaft with the focle 75 feet, and the capital 10, making in all 95 feet. The mean diameter is 74. According to thefe proportions, the folid contents of the column may be eftimated at 6000 cubic feet. It is well known that a cubic foot of red granite weighs 185lb. The weight of the column is confequently 1,100,000lb. avoirdupois. Hard as is the fubftance of which the column confits, it has not ef caped the corroding tooth of Time. The lower part of the fhaft is very much damaged on the Eaft fide, and pieces may easily be fcaled off from the fame fide of the pedeftal. This is probably the effect of the wind from the fea. It is faid that a Greek infeription is diftinguifhable upon the oppofite fide, i. e. to the Weitward, when the fun thines upon it; but, though I examined it with the greatest attention, I was unable to difcover any thing of the kind. The ground on which the column ftands having funk, a part of the plinth which fupports it is left expoied to view. It is a block of only fix feet fquare, on the centre of which refis a pedestal of much larger dimentions than itself. This proves the exact perpendicularity of the whole erection. It is alfo of granite, but of a different kind from that of the column. The people of the country had built round the plinth with the intent of fupporting the pedeftal. This mafonry, which was perfectly ufeleis, was compofed of ftones of different kinds, among which were fome from the ruins of an antient edifice, and carved with beautiful hieroglyphics.

glyphics. While fome were feeking to prevent the fall of the monument, others, who, as I was told, were Bedouins, were endeavouring to throw it down, in hopes of finding a treafure under the foundation. They employed the action of gunpowder; but fortunately they were entirely ignorant of the art of mining, and the explofton deftroyed only a part of the mafonry placed to no purpose under the pedeftal. P. Lucas relates that, in 1714, a mountebank, having afcended to the capital with a facility that furprized every body, afferted that there was a hollow in its upper part. Within these few years were obtained more pofitive information. Some English failors contrived to get upon the top of the pillar by means of a paper kite, which enabled them to affix to it a rope ladder. Like the man of whom P. Lucas fpeaks, they found a large circular hollow on the top of the capital, and alfo a hole at each corner. It is certain then that the capital ferved as a bafe to fome ftatue, the remains of which appear to be irrecoverably loft. Several friends of M. Roboli, who was once interpreter of the French nation at Alexandria, told me they had difcovered near the column fome pieces of a ftatue, which, to judge from its fragments, muft have been of prodigious fize; and that he had them to the houfe occupied by the French; but, not having been able, in fpite of all his refearches, to find the remainder, he had them thrown into the fea near the abovementioned houfe. They were fhewn to me; but I found it impoffible to make out what they were, because they are almoft entirely buried in the fand. I was farther told, that the fragments of the ftatue were of the fincit porphyry. Nothing but conjectures,

more or lefs vague, exift concerning the time and motives of the erection of the Alexandrian column. The name of Pompey's pillar, by which it is generally known, indicates the origin moft commonly afcribed to it. It was Cæfar, fay the vulgar, who erected it, in or der to perpetuate the remembrance of the victory he obtained over Pompey in the famous battle of Pharfalia. Supported by the testimony of an Arabian writer, Savary alerts that it was a monument of the gratitude of the Alexandrians towards Alexander Severus, the Roman emperor; while others at tribute the elevation of the column to Ptolomy Euergetes, king of Egypt. Mr. Montague, celebrated for his extenfive knowledge and his adventures, has formed, during his long ftay in the Eaft, a new opinion upon the fame fubject. He maintained that the pillar was the work of Adrian, another Roman emperor who travelled in Egypt; but of this he had no proof. Wij ing, nevertheless, to accredit his opinion, he was obliged to make nje of a little artifice in order to perfuade others of what he had already "perfuaded himself. I have the fact from a witness of undoubted credit. The learned Englishman made one of his fervants infert a small medal of the Emperor Adrian in a certain place between the ground on which the column ftands and its pedeftal He then repaired to the spot with a large party; and, after a pretended fearch with the blade of a knife, raked out the medal, which he fhewed as an inconteftable proof of the truth of his difcovery. He made it public in his own country, where it did not meet with a great deal of credit; nor could it obtain much from thofe who were acquainted with the pillar. In the time of Adrian, indeed, the Greeks had

carried

With all Mr. M.'s eccentricity, it does not appear very probable that he would intruft the conduct of this juggle to his fervant, or indeed that he needed to have comma ted the artifice to any hands but his own. For, after all, what does the artifice amouit to? The afcertaining by a medal the erection of this pillar to a certain year of a certa

emperor,

carried into Egypt the true principles of beautiful architecture, and elegance in all the arts. Of this a judgement may be formed by the remains of the city which the emperor built, in the upper part of that country, in honour of Antinous, a young man famous in antient history on account of his exquifite beauty, and generous attachment towards a Roman whofe merit has been too highly extolled. The columns which ftill exift at Antinoe are hewn with a

more careful hand, and are of a more elegant form, than that of Alexandria. I do not mean that the latter is not a fine one; but its" principal merit confifts in its being" of prodigious dimenfions, and truly aftonishing on account of its enormous mafs. The fame reafon which makes it unlikely that the column fhould be of the time of Adrian3 removes it ftill further from that of the Emperor Severus. Abul-` feda, who is quoted by Savary, only fays, that Alexandria poffeffes a famous

emperor, whose coin was wrought into its foundation; a practice, we believe, not in; ufe in Antiquity, however frequent in laying the foundations of almost every modern building.

We have, to be fure, heard of waggery practifed on fome learned Societies in our own country; but ean we fuppofe the long beard of Wortley concealed fo much mifchief when he communicated this difcovery to the Royal Society, which they inferted without hefiration in their Tranfactions, No. CCCCXXXVIII. Distance is a defence, against detection; and the farther Jamie Bruce went up the Nile, the more improbabities he reported, however Sonnini vindicates his veracity.

But Mr. S. blunders fo much in the outfet of his ftory, and in the emperor to whom Mr. M pretended to ascribe it, fubftituting Adrian for Vefpafian, that he destroys his own accuracy and credibility. If Vefpafian intended any thing by this ftupendous column, it must be to perpetuate the memory of his vifit to Alexandria, where he pretended to work miracles; and to him was applied the prediction of universal empire, which the Jews afcribe to the Meflish. Were Buonaparte less atheistical, he might, with the transfer of this pillar to Pompey, transfer the fame title of dominion.

2 It is not eafy to determine the meaning of this fentence, unless it alludes to the death of Antinous in the Nile, as devoted for the emperor, that by his death the other might obtain long life, or put to death by him to devine by his entrails. In either cafe, generous attachment of Antinous is miftaken for that of the emperor. But this is an easy glofs of modern refinement.

3 If this pillar has anything to do with Pompey or Adrian, 'why fhould we not fuppofe it a monument erected by the latter to the former when he repaired his tomb; for, though that was at Pelufum, he might add this memorial at Alexandria? This, however, is uncertain. Lord Sandwich fays, the common notion is, that "it was erected by Julius Cæfar, upon his arrival in Egypt, as a memorial of his victory over Pompey; but of this there is no mention in any antient author." Sandys has the fame tradition. Voy. p. 434; which, after all, may have arifen from the name lov till on the infcription. Bp. Pococke fays, "near it are fome fragments of granite pillars, 4 ft. diameter; and it appears from many old traditions that there has been some magnificent building on whofe area this pillar was erected, and which fome Arabian hiftorians call Julius Cæfar's palace."

If we can depend upon Dr. Pococke's fidelity in copying the infcription on the We face of this pillar, and we never heard it impeached, we thall find in the copy taken by Mr. Hughes, who was perhaps not fo converfant in fuch matters, fufficient conformity to convince us, that a very different name from any hitherto mentioned occurs on it, that of Voconius, whoever he be. OCONIOY, Pococke; TONIOY, Hughes. But the whole is in too evanefcent a flate to build any hypothefis on.

4 The paffage of Abulfeda, as tranflated by Michaelis, in his edition of his Defcription of Egypt, Goeting. 1776, p. 17, runs thus: "Alexandria is fituated on the shore of the Mediterranean fea, and has the famous Pharos, and the pillar of Severus, whose height is about 43 cubits." His note on the latter part is as follows (p. 94): “This is the pillar called Pompey's, drawn and engraved by Pococke and Norden, and all who vifit Alexandria. Some fay cannot be Pompey's, because not mentioned by Strabo and other writers of the time of Cæfar and Auguftus, who defcribe Alexandria accu❤ rately. Others afcribe it to Titus Vefpafian or Adrian. The more regard is, therefore, due to Abulfeda, who fays, that in the 13th century it retained the name of Severus, Nor is it improbabis that Severus, who was here, and conferred great favour on this

city,

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