cessisset e vita, tum denique victurus esset: quod quidem ni ita se haberet, ut animi immortales essent, haud optimi, cujusque animus maxime ad immortalitatis gloriam niteretur. Quid, quod sapientissimus quisque æquissimo animo moritur, stultissimus iniquissimo?-Nonne vobis videtur animus is, qui plus cernat et longius, videre se ad meliora proficisci: ille autem, cui obtusior sit acies, non videre? Equidem efferor studio patres vestros, quos colui et dilexi; videndi, neque vero eos solos convenire aveo, quos ipse cognovi; sed illos etiam, de quibus audivi, et legi, et ipse conscripsi. O præclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum consilium cœtumque proficiscar! cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! proficiscar enim non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi; sed etiam ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior natus est, nemo pietate præstantior, cujus a me corpus crematum est: quod contra decuit ab illo meum; animus vero non me deserens, sed respectans, in ea profecto loca discessit, quo mihi ipsi cernebat esse veniendum: quem ego meum casum fortitur ferre visus sum; non quod æquo animo ferrem; sed me ipse consolabar, existimans non longinquum inter nos digressum, et discessum fore."

The version of Hughes is correct and energetic:

"But, I know not how, my soul has always raised itself, and looked forward on futurity, in this view and expectation, that when it shall depart out of life, it shall then live for ever; and if this were not true, that the mind is immortal, the soul of the most worthy would not above all others have the strongest impulse to glory.

"What besides this is the cause that the wisest men die with the greatest equanimity, the ignorant with the greatest concern? Does it not seem that those minds which have the most extensive views, foresee they are removing to a happier condition, which those of a narrow sight do not perceive? I, for my part, am transported with the hope of seeing your ancestors, whom I have honoured, and loved, and am earnestly desirous of meeting not only these excellent persons whom I have known, but those of whom I have heard and read, and of whom I myself have written; nor would I be detained from so pleasing a journey. O happy day, when I shall escape from this crowd, this heap of pollution, and be admitted to that divine assembly of exalted spirits! when I shall go not only to those great persons I have named, but to my Cato, my son, than whom a better man was never born, and whose funeral rites I myself performed, whereas he ought ra ther to have attended mine. Yet has not his soul

(

deserted me, but, seeming to cast back a look on me, is gone before to those habitations to which it was sensible I should follow him. And though I might appear to have borne my loss with courage, I was not unaffected with it; but I comforted myself in the assurance, that it would not be long before we should meet again, and be divorced no more."

In N° 467, Hughes is supposed to have paid a tribute of gratitude and respect to his illustrious friend and patron, Lord Cowper; for whom the character of MANILIUS, from a strong resemblance to that accomplished nobleman, in its leading feature, appears to have been designed.

The Essays on the Immortality of the Soul, and on Divine Providence, in Nos. 210 and 237, exhibit the piety of Hughes in a pleasing light. In the paper on Providence in particular, he has arranged the arguments for the constant superintendance of the Deity with great perspicuity and force; and he has happily illustrated his reflections by an apologue founded on a Jewish' tradition.

To the Guardian our author furnished but one essay in N° 37, which is an ingenious and moral criticism on Othello, and the passion of Jealousy; to which he has annexed, as a still further instance of its frequently dreadful consequences,

VOL. III.

a very tragic event which occurred in Spain, and of whose authenticity he ventures to assure the reader. To this number, in the late editions, have been added three letters on loquacity and masquerading, intended by Hughes for the Guar dian, and which were first published in Duncombe's Collection of Letters, printed in 1772.

All the periodical Essays of Hughes are written in a style which is, in general, easy, correct, and elegant; they occasionally exhibit wit and humour; and they uniformly tend to inculcate the best precepts moral, prudential, and religious.

3. GEORGE BERKELEY, D.D. the celebrated Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, was the son of William Berkeley of Thomastown, in the county of Kilkenny, and was born on the twelfth of March, 1684, at Kilcrin, near the native town of his father. After receiving a competent education at Kilkenny school, under the care of Dr. Hinton, he was entered, at the age of fifteen, a pensioner of Trinity College, Dublin, under the tuition of Dr. Hall; and, on the 9th of June, 1707, he was admitted a fellow.

In the same year that he attained this promotion in his college, he published his first literary effort, entitled, Arithmetica absque Algebra aut Euclide demonstrata; a little tract which he had

written at the age of twenty, and which strongly evinces an early partiality for mathematical science, and the subtleties of metaphysical discussion.

It may be considered as an able prelude to his elaborate work on "The Theory of Vision," which made its appearance in 1709, and is the first attempt, observes Mr. Nicholson, "to distinguish the immediate operations of the senses from the conclusions we habitually deduce from our sensations. The author clearly shews, that the connection between the sight and touch is the effect of habit; insomuch that a person born blind and suddenly made to see, would at first be utterly unable to foretel how the objects of sight would affect the sense of touch; or, indeed, whether they were tangible or not; and that until experience had repeatedly taught him what events were concomitant with his sensations, he would be incapable of forming any notion of proximity or distance." These positions, which threw new light upon the nature of vision, and explained many phenomena in optics before deemed inexplicable, were singularly confirmed by the well-known case in Cheselden's Anatomy, of the young man who was born blind and couched at the age of fourteen years.

* Aikin's General Biography, vol. ii. p. 127.