Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/396

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

dency to the ‘damnable heresy’ of Arianism Smalridge satisfactorily cleared himself in a letter to Bishop Trelawny dated from Christ Church but four days before his death. Smalridge's mind, cultured though it was, was not really of a speculative turn, and once when Whiston had fairly puzzled him, he said, ‘with great earnestness, that even if it were as his companion had said, he had no wish to examine it and to find that the church had been in error for so many hundred years.’

Many single sermons and charges were published during Smalridge's lifetime, and seven years after his death his widow collected and put forth ‘Sixty Sermons, preached on several occasions, published from the originals’ (London, 1726, folio, 2nd ed. 1727; Oxford, 1824, folio, with fine engraved portrait after Kneller; 1832, 2 vols. 8vo; 1853, 8vo; London, 1862; a detailed list is given in Darling's Cycl. Bibl.) His sermons were placed by Dr. Johnson in the first class of those preached by English divines. In 1728 John Oldmixon brought against Smalridge, in conjunction with Aldrich and Atterbury, the charge of having interpolated certain passages and epithets into the original manuscript of Clarendon's ‘History of the Rebellion’ in the interests of the party views which they entertained. The charge was an utterly random one, made against two deceased persons and an exile, and it was fully rebutted by Atterbury's ‘Vindication,’ issued at Paris and reprinted in London in 1731. Dr. Grabe bequeathed his ‘Adversaria’ in eighteen bulky volumes to Smalridge, from whose hands they passed into the Bodleian. Extracts from a number of letters from Smalridge to Dr. Charlett, Walter Gough, and others, are given in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations’ (iii. 241–283), where is also printed Freind's epitaph.

A fine portrait of Smalridge by Kneller is in Christ Church hall. This was engraved by Vertue in 1724 (Bromley, Engraved Portraits, p. 220).

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 667; Wood's Life and Times, iii. 302, 314, 349, 472; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Welch's Alumni Westmon. pp. 195–6; Le Neve's Fasti; Harwood's Hist. of Lichfield, pp. 230, 445, 447; Boyer's Hist. of Queen Anne, pp. 427, 490, 492, 665, 682; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Narration, v. 128, 137, 608; Kennett's Wisdom of Looking Backwards, pp. 68, 76, 91, 104, 115, 141, 257, 323; Whiston's Memoirs, and Life of Clarke, pp. 30 sq.; Atterbury's Correspondence, ed. Nichols; Lady Cowper's Diary; Wentworth Papers, p. 383; Swift's Works, passim; Nicolson's Letters, p. 438; Skelton's Works, v. 542; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 923; Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, i. 304, 442, 784, iii. 444–9; Newton's Life and Works, i. 12; Secretan's Life of Nelson, pp. 116, 275; Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ii. 169; Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble, passim; Ballard's Collections (Bodleian), vols. vii. and viii. passim; Boswell's Johnson, ed. Hill, iii. 248; Johnson's Lives, ed. Cunningham, iii. 165; Monk's Life of Bentley, i. 88, 104; Barker's Memorial Life of Busby; Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. iii. 225–232 (with portrait engraved by P. Audinet after Kneller, and facsimile autograph); Rapin's Hist. of England, iii. 516, 580; Tatler, Nos. 72, 114; Noble's Contin. of Granger, iii. 83; Wyon's Hist. of Queen Anne, ii. 170, 465; Abbey's English Church in Eighteenth Century, ii. 26 sq.; Craik's Life of Swift, pp. 69, 113; Biographia Britannica; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Simms's Biblioth. Staffordiensis; Macaulay's Life of Atterbury; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

T. S.


SMART, BENJAMIN HUMPHREY (1786?–1872), author, was born about 1786. He resided in London, and employed himself in teaching elocution. On 4 Feb. 1850 he was elected a member of the Athenæum Club, from which he withdrew on 1 Jan. 1869. He died on 24 Feb. 1872.

Smart's principal works were: 1. ‘A Grammar of English Pronunciation,’ London, 1810, 8vo. 2. ‘Rudiments of English Grammar Elucidated,’ London, 1811, 12mo. 3. ‘Grammar of English Sounds,’ London, 1812, 12mo. 4. ‘The Theory of Elocution,’ London, 1819, 8vo. 5. ‘The Practice of Elocution,’ London, 1820, 8vo.; 4th edit. 1842. 6. ‘Practical Logic,’ London, 1823, 12mo. 7. ‘An Outline of Sematology,’ London, 1831, 8vo. 8. ‘Walker Remodelled: a new Critical Pronouncing Dictionary,’ London, 1836, 8vo. 9. ‘Sequel to Sematology,’ London, 1839, 8vo. 10. ‘A Way out of Metaphysics,’ London, 1839, 8vo. 11. ‘Beginnings of a new School of Metaphysics,’ London, 1839, 8vo. 12. ‘Shakespearian Readings,’ London, 1839, 12mo. 13. ‘The Accidence and Principles of English Grammar,’ London, 1841, 12mo. 14. ‘Grammar on its True Basis,’ London, 1847, 12mo. 15. ‘A Manual of Rhetoric,’ London, 1848, 12mo. 16. ‘A Manual of Logic,’ London, 1849, 12mo. 17. ‘Memoir of a Metaphysician,’ London, 1853, 8vo. 18. ‘Thought and Language,’ London, 1855, 8vo. 19. ‘The Metaphysicians,’ London, 1857, 12mo.

[Information kindly given by H. R. Tedder, esq.; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; Waugh's Members of the Athenæum Club, p. 133; Times, 28 Feb. 1872.]

E. I. C.