46S ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
- able; we (hould put their fin-
- cerity to hard trial. Now
' things are come to fuch a pafs (that is, A. 1700) ' that, as we
- are informed, the Bookfeller at
- Pari?, who defigns to print ma-
' dam Dacier's tranflation of Ho-
- mer, dares not join the original
- to it, left the very fight of Greek
- fhould difcourage and difgull his
- cuftomers. Judge by this of
- the reigning talte, and conclude
- that the commentary upon Apol-
- lodorus would be hifled off the
- ftage at Paris. It contains too
- much erudition.' Boyle Meziriac,
not. c.
In Erafmus we behold a man, who in the days of his youih, lying under nofmall difadvantages of birth and education, depreffed by poverty, friendlefs and unfup- ported, or very flenderly fup- ported, made his way through all thefe obllacles, and, by the help of bright parts and conftant applica- tion, became one of the moll con- fiderable fcholars of the age, and acquired the favour and the pro- teftion of princes, nobles, and pre- lates of the greatell names in church and ftate.
Every man of letters muft not indulge the vain hope, though he Hiould be as learned, as ingeuious, and as induftrious as Erafmus, to be as much favoured and encou- raged as he was But this is not
afufficientcaufe to deter anyperfon from a ftudious life. Learning is in many refpei^b its own reward : learning applied to ufeful purpo- fes, and adorned with good man- ners. Without thefe, though it may be of feme fervice to the public, it will be of fxnall comfort to the pro feffor.
' After perfonal merit (faysBru- yere) * it muft be confeffexi that
- high ftations and pompous titles
- are the principal and the moft
- fplendid marks of diftinftion :
- and he who cannot be an
- Erafmus, muft think of being a
- biOiop.'
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Thomas More, nuith his hijiory of Utopia ^ tranjlated into Englijh by Ferdi- nando Warner, LL. D, London , printed for Davis and Reymers. Octavo.
THERE are no fort of books more ufeful towards form- ing the mind and manners, than the lives of good and eminent men. The book before us, is one of thofe. The fubjedl of it. Sir Thomas More, though a man ad- didedmuch tocontemplativepiety, lived much in the world, and fill- ed with great credit for abilities and integrity the higheft offices in the ftate ; he refigned them too with a dignity no ways inferior to that in which he held them, and at length gave up his life, as he had his employments, rather than fubjefl his confcience to the will of an arbitrary prince. We are obliged to Dr. Warner for a well-digefted and fatisfaftory ac- count of this great man. Nothing of the kind had been executed before. The learned hiftorian be- fore us is interefting in his nar- rative, makes a good choice, and apt diilribution of his fafts, and interfperfes them with feveral per- tinent and ufeful reflexions. It were to be wifhed indeed, that he had entirely foreborn all thofe that might be confidered as perfonal in- vedlives; and that he had confined his thoughts to the times of which ixe wrote.
Sir
