Granger was informed by Dr. Pearce, who named for his authority Mr. Lowndes of the treasury, that Butler had an yearly penfion of an hundred pounds. This is contradicted by all tradition, by the complaints of Oldham, and by the reproaches of Dryden; and I am afraid will never be confirmed, About fixty years afterwards, Mr. Barber, a printer, Mayor of London, and a friend to Butler's principles, beftowed on him a monument in Westminster Abbey, thus infcribed: M. S. SAMUELIS BUTLERI, Vir doctus imprimis, acer, integer; Deeffet etiam mortuo Tumulus, Hoc tandem pofito marmore, curavit JOHANNIS BARBER, Civis Londinenfis, 1721. After After his death were published three small volumes of his pofthumous works: I know not by whom collected, or by what authority afcertained; and, lately, two volumes more have been printed by Mr, Thyer of Manchefter, indubitably genuine. From none of thefe pieces can his life be traced, or his character discovered. Some verfes, in the laft collection, fhew him to have been among thofe who ridiculed the inftitution of the Royal Society, of which the enemies were for fome time very numerous and very acrimonious, for what reafon it is hard to conceive, fince the philofophers profeffed not to advance doctrines, but to produce facts; and the most zealous enemy of innovation muft admit the gradual progrefs of experience, however he may oppofe hypothetical temerity. In this mift of obfcurity paffed the life of Butler, a man whofe name can only perish with his language. The mode and place of his education are unknown; the events of his life are varioufly related; and all that can be told with certainty is, that he was poor. *They were collected into one, and published in 12mo 1732. H. THE THE poem of Hudibras is one of those compofitions of which a nation may justly boaft; as the images which it exhibits are domeftic, the fentiments unborrowed and unexpected, and the ftrain of diction original and peculiar. We must not, however, fuffer the pride, which we affume as the countrymen of Butler, to make any encroachment. upon juftice, nor appropriate those honours which others have a right to fhare. The poem of Hudibras is not wholly English; the original idea is to be found in the history of Don Quixote; a book to which a mind of the greatest powers may be indebted without difgrace. Cervantes fhews a man, who having, by the inceffant perusal of incredible tales, fubjected his understanding to his imagination, and familiarifed his mind by pertinacious meditations to trains of incredible events and fcenes of impoffible existence, goes out in the pride of knighthood to redress wrongs, and defend virgins, to refcue captive princeffes, and tumble usurpers from their thrones; at tended tended by a fquire, whofe cunning, too low for the fufpicion of a generous mind, enables him often to cheat his mafter. The hero of Butler is a Prefbyterian Juftice, who in the confidence of legal authority and the rage of zealous ignorance, ranges the country to reprefs fuperftition and correct abufes, accompanied by an Independent Clerk, difputatious and obftinate, with whom he often debates, but never conquers him. Cervantes had fo much kindnefs for Don Quixote, that, however he embarraffes him with abfurd diftreffes, he gives him fo much fenfe and virtue as may preferve our esteem; wherever he is, or whatever he does, he is made by matchlefs dexterity commonly ridiculous, but never contemptible, But for poor Hudibras, his poet had no tenderness; he chufes not that any pity fhould be fhewn or refpect paid him: he gives him up at once to laughter and contempt, without any quality that can dignify or protect him. In forming the character of Hudibras, and defcribing his perfon and habiliments, the author feems to labour with a tumultuous confufion of diffimilar ideas. He had read the hiftory of the mock knights-errant; he knew the notions and manners of a Prefbyterian magiftrate, and tried to unite the abfurdities of both, however diftant, in one perfonage. Thus he gives him that pedantic oftentation of knowledge which has no relation to chivalry, and loads him with martial encumbrances that can add nothing to his civil dignity. He fends him out a colonelling, and yet never brings him within fight of war. If Hudibras be confidered as the reprefentative of the Presbyterians, it is not easy to say why his weapons fhould be represented as ridiculous or ufelefs; for, whatever judgement might be paffed upon their knowledge or their arguments, experience had fufficiently shown that their fwords were not to be dispised. The hero, thus compounded of swaggerer and pedant, of knight and juftice, is led forth to |