is, perhaps, the first of his compositions for strength of argument, keenness of reply, and brilliancy of wit. That Mr. Jenyns felt the force of this powerful refutation may be readily supposed; but it were to be wished he had not retained his resentment for so many years, and then given it vent in a paltry epitaph on Dr. Johnson, which his biographer thought worthy of a place in his works.

Other answers appeared to his Inquiry, of less consequence. Johnson's, after having been read with eagerness in the Magazine, was printed in a small volume, of which two editions were very soon sold. To a subsequent edition of the Inquiry, Mr. Jenyns prefixed a preface, containing a general answer to his opponents, but without retracting any of his positions. In 1761, he reprinted it, along with his poems, in two vols. 12mo. and added the papers he had contributed to The World, which are among the first in a collection written by the first wits of their time. There are points in them which prove either the natural purity of his style, and delicacy of his humour, or that he must have “given his days and nights to Addison.” It was in one of those papers that he first expressed an opinion in favour of the doctrine of a pre-existent state, which he afterwards insisted upon more seriously in the third letter on the Origin of Evil.

In 1767, he published a small pamphlet, entitled Thoughts on the Causes and Consequences of the present high Price of Provisions. Various writers at that time had employed their pens on this subject, some arraigning the bounties on corn, and others biaming the practices of forestallers and monopolizers. Mr. Jenyns imputes the high price of provisions to the increase of the national debt, and the increase of our riches, that is, to the poverty of the public, and the wealth of private individuals. These positions are maintained with much ingenuity; but experience has shown that the influence of such causes has not increased proportionally, and that with ten times more debt and more wealth than the nation had at that time, the price of provisions is found to rise and fall in fluctuations which cannot be explained by his theory. If provisions were dear with the national debt and private wealth of 1767, they ought in 1807 to be inaccessible to all but the most opulent classes. The newspapers were filled with answers to Mr. Jenyns's pamphlet, and the return of plenty made it be forgotten.

But the performance which excited most attention was published by our author in 1776, and seems, indeed, to form an important era in his life. In his younger days he had imbibed the principles of infidelity, and, it has been said, was not sparing in his avowal of them. Time and reflection brought him to a sense of his folly. He studied the holy scriptures with care, and probably called to his aid some of the able defences of Christianity which the infidels in the eighteenth century had provoked. It is certain, however, that he had now adopted the common creed, although with some singular refinements of his own, and determined to avow his sentiments in justice to the cause he had neglected or injured.

With this honourable resolution, he published A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, which was at first read as an able defence of Christianity, and the accession of an ingenious layman to the supporters of religion was welcomed by the clergy at large. Others, however, could not help being suspicious of its tendency, and regarded the author as in many points proving himself to be an insidious enemy to the cause he pretended to plead. Those who call themselves rational Christians thought he yielded too much to the orthodox believer, and the orthodox believer was shocked that he had conceded the possibility of certain miracles being forgeries.

2

A controversy immediately took place, and continued for some time, greatly to the advantage of Mr. Jenyns's book, which sold most extensively, while the controversy was kept alive, and disappeared with the last answer. During its circulation, it excited the attention of persons of rank, and probably did good. The great errour is his neglect of the external evidences, and his admitting the use of reason in some instances, while he refuses it in others.

But whatever difference of opinion was excited by this performance, it would be unjust to question the author's sincerity, or in this, however short, sketch of his life to omit the very explicit declaration be has made of his belief. "Should my work ever have the honour to be admitted into such good company (persons of fashion) they will immediately, I know, determine that it must be the work of some enthusiast or methodist, some beggar, or some madman. I shall therefore beg leave to assure them, that the author is very far removed from all these characters; that he once perhaps believed as little as themselves; but having some leisure, and more curiosity, he employed them both in resolving a question, which seemed to him of some importance-Whether Christianity was really an imposture, founded on an absurd, incredible, and obsolete fable, as many suppose it? or whether it is what it pretends to be, a revelation, communicated to mankind by the interposition of some supernatural power? On a candid inquiry, he soon found that the first was an absolute impossibility; and that its pretensions to the latter were founded on the most solid grounds. In the further pursuits of his examination, he perceived at every step new lights arising, and some of the brightest from parts of it the most obscure, but productive of the clearest proofs, because equally beyond the power of human artifice to invent, and human reason to discover. These arguments, which have convinced him of the divine origin of this religion, he has here put together in as clear and concise a manner as he was able, thinking they might have the same effect upon others; and being of opinion that, if there were a few more true Christians in the world, it would be beneficial to themselves, and by no means detrimental to the public."

In 1782, appeared another volume of doubtful tendency, and certainly more abounding in wild paradoxes, which he entitled Disquisitions on several Subjects. These are metaphysical, theological, and political, and in all of them he advances, amidst much valuable matter, a number of fanciful theories, to which he seems to have been prompted merely by a love of novelty, or a desire to show by what ingenuity opinions that contradict the general sense of mankind may be defended. This volume, like the former,

2 The following are the titles of the principal pamphlets written on this occasion. A Letter to Soame Jenyns, esq. wherein the Futility and Absurdity of some Part of his Reasoning in his View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, is set forth and expressed. By a Clergyman of the Church of England.-Observations on S. J.'s View, &c. addressed to its almost Christian Author. By W. Kenrick, LL. D.-A Letter to Soame Jenyns, esq. occasioned by an assertion contained in his View, &c. by G. U. -Short Strictures on certain Passages in a View, &c. By a Layman.-A Series of Letters addressed to S. J. on occasion of his View, &c. By A. Maclaine, D. D. Minister of the English Church at the Hague. An Examination of the Arguments contained in Dr. Maclaine's Answer to S. J. esq. on his View, &c. with general Thoughts and Reflections thereon. By the rev. Edward Fleet, jun. B. A. of Oriel College, Oxford.-A full Answer to a late View, &c. In a Dialogue between a rational Christian and his Friend. By the Editor (the Rev. Mr. Taylor) of Ben. Mordecai's Letters to Elisha Levi.— Philosophical Disquisitions on the Christian Religion. Addressed to Soame Jenyns, esq.-An Address and Reply, &c. By the rev. Edward Fleet.

produced a few answers, and what perhaps disturbed our author's tranquillity yet more, an admirable piece of humour, entitled The Dean and the Squire, by the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers3. The dean was Dr. Tucker, whose opinions on civil liberty approached those of our author. The Disquisitions are however an extraordinary production from a man in his seventy-eighth year. Their style is perhaps more elegant and animated than that of any of his former writings; and if mere eloquence could atone for defect of argument, they would yet continue to be read as models of pure and correct English.

In 1784, while the propriety of a parliamentary reformation was in agitation, he published some Thoughts on that subject, in which he repeated the objections he had already brought forward in his Disquisitions, to any of those innovations which in his opinion tended to anarchy.

This was the last of our author's productions. The infirmities of age were now creeping upon him, and closed his life, Dec. 18, 1787, at his house in Tilney Street, Audley Square*.

Mr. Cole, his biographer, has drawn his character at great length, and with the partiality of a friend. Yet, if we except the unsettled state of his opinions, much cannot be deducted from it. As the magistrate, and as the head of a family, he was exemplary in the discharge of the religious and moral duties, and fulfilled his engagements with the strictest integrity, but with a punctuality which brought on him sometimes the charge of being penurious. As a politician we have seen him giving his uniform support to a succession of ministers; but as he did not conceal his opinions, they could not always be in unison with those of his party, and his integrity at least must have been generally acknowledged, since no party offered to remove him.

In private life he was, says Mr. Cole, a man of great mildness, gentleness, and sweetness of temper: his earnest desire was, as far as possible, never to offend any person. This I find confirmed by the rev. Mr. Cole of Milton, who is not remarkable for the lenity of his opinions respecting his contemporaries. "Mr. Jenyns was a man of lively fancy and pleasant turn of wit, very sparkling in conversation, and full of many conceits and agreeable drollery, which was heightened by his inarticulate manner of speaking through his broken teeth, and all this mixed with the utmost humanity and good-nature, having hardly ever heard him severe upon any one, and by no means satirical in his mirth and good-humour."

Mr. Cumberland, in his Memoirs of his own Life, lately published, gives us some characteristic traits of Mr. Jenyns which correspond with the above. "A disagreement about a name or a date will mar the best story that was ever put together. Sir Joshua Reynolds luckily could not hear an interrupter of this sort; Johnson would not hear, or, if he heard him, would not heed him; Soame Jenyns heard him, heeded him, set him right, and took up his tale, where he had left it, without any diminution of its

* See Mason's Works in this collection. C.

♦ He was interred in Bottisham church, Dec. 27, where, in the parish register, the rev. Mr. Lort Mansel, now master of Trinity College, Cambridge, introduced a very elegant compliment to his memory. C.

5 This alludes to his establishment at Bottisham. He had no issue by either of his wives. C. Cole's MSS. in British Museum. C.