a maxim, That exile is the greatest punishment to men of virtue, be. caufe virtue confifts in loving our country. Examine the nature of this love, from whence it arifes, how it is nourished, what the bounds and measures of it are: and after that, you will difcover, how far it is virtue, and where it becomes fimplicity, prejudice, folly, and even enthufiafm. A virtuous man in exile may properly enough be ftiled unfortunate; but he cannot be called unhappy. You remember the reafon, which Brutus gave, becaufe, wherever he goes, he carries his virtue with him. There is a certain bulky volume which grows daily, and the title of which muft, I think, be Noctes Gallica. There you may perhaps one day or other fee a dif fertation upon this fubject and to return you threatening for threatening, you shall be forced to read it out, though you yawn from the firft to the last page.

The word Ireland was ftruck out of the paper you mention; that is, to fatisfy your curiofity, and to kindle it anew, I will tell you, that this anecdote, which I know not how you came by, is neither the only one, nor the most confiderable one of the fame kind. The perfon you are fo inquifitive about returns into England the latter end of October. She has fo great a mind to fee you, that I am not fure fhe will not undertake a journey to Dublin. It is not fo far from London to Dublin, as from Spain to Padua; and you are as well worth feeing as Livy. But I had much rather you would leave the humid climate, and the dull company, in which, according to your account, a man might grow

old between twenty and thirty. Set your foot on the continent; I dsre promife, that you will, in a fortnight, have gone back the ten years you lament fo much, and be returned to that age, at which I left you. With what pleasure should I hear you inter vina fugam Stellæ marere protervæ ? Adieu.

Extract from Lord Bolingbroke's will, in which bis writings are be queathed to Mr. Mallet.

A

ND whereas I am the author of the feveral books or tracts following; viz.

Remarks on the hiftory of Eng. land, from the minutes of Hum, phrey Oldcastle. In twenty-four letters.

A differtation upon parties. In nineteen letters to Caleb D'Anvers, Efq;

The occafional writer. Number 1, 2, 3.

The vifion of Camilik.

An answer to the London Journal of December 21, 1728, by John Trot.

An answer to the defence of the enquiry into the reasons of the conduct of Great Britain.

A final Anfwer to the remarks on the Craftman's Vindication.

All which books or tracts have been printed and published; and I am alfo the author of

Four letters on history, &c. Which have been privately print. ed, and not published; but I have not affigned to any perfon or perfons whatsoever the copy, or the liberty of printing or reprinting any of the faid books, or tracts, or letters. Now I do hereby, as far as by law I can, give and affign to

David Mallet, of Putney, in the County of Surry, Efq; the copy and copies of all and each of the before mentioned books, or tracts, or letters, and the liberty of reprinting the fame. I alfo give to the faid David Mallet, the copy and copies of all the manufcript books, papers, and writings, which I have written or compofed, or fhall write or compofe, and leave at the time of my decease. And I further give to the faid David Mallet all my books, which, at the time of my decease, fhall be in the room called my library.

Lord Bolingbroke died on the 15th of December, 1y51; and Lord Hyde having heard at Paris that he had left all his writings, printed and manufcript, to Mr. Mallet, wrote him the following letter, the original of which was fent by the widow Mallet, with the manufcript of Lord Bolingbroke's philofophical works, to the British Museum, in order to juftify her husband's integrity in the edi.

tion of them.

this laft inftance, because you are fuch by the defignation and choice of the author himself.

What works of his you may have for the public, I know not. That, for which I was folicitous, because I believe it would be moft inftructive to the world, and might be moft for his honour, he told me himself he had laid afide; I mean the hiftory of the great tranfactions of Europe from the time when he began to confider and know them. There remains of that, I believe, no more than a fummary review, which I had the good fortune fome time ago to draw from him, upon an application which I made to him to direct me in the ftudy of hiftory. You will probably have feen that fummary review, which is in a collection of letters upon hiftory, which he did me the honour to write me.

It is but a sketch of the work he had proposed to himfelf; but it is the ketch of Lord Bolingbroke. He will probably have told you, that thofe letters were by his direction delivered up by me to Mr. Pope, who burnt, as he told me, the manufcripts, and printed off by a private prefs fome very few copies, which were to be confidered ftill as manufcripts, one of which Mr. Pope kept, and fent another to Lord Bo lingbroke. Sir William Wynd. ham, Lord Bathurst, Lord March. mont, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Lyttelton, I think, had each one. do not remember to have been told of any copies given, except to myfelf, who have always preferved mine, as I would a MS. which was not my own, obferving not only the restrictions which Lord BolingU 3

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broke

broke himself had recommended to me, but fecuring likewife, as far as I could, even in cafe of my death, that this work should never become public from that copy, which is in my poffeffion. I enlarge upon this, because I think myfelf particularly obliged, out of regard to Lord Bolingbroke, to give this account of that work to the perfon whom he has entrusted with all his writings, in cafe you might not have known this parti cularity. And at the fame time I think it my duty, to the memory of Lord Bolingbroke, to myfelf, and to the world too, to fay fomething more to you in relation to this work.

It is a work, Sir, which will inftru&t mankind, and do honour to its author and yet I will take up. on me to fay, that, for the fake of both, you must publish it with caution.

The greatest men have their faults, and fometimes the greateft faults but the faults of fuperior minds are the least indifferent, both to themfelves and to fociety. Humanity is intere fled in the fame of thofe who excelled in it; but it is interested before all in the good of fociety, and in the peace of the minds of the individuals that compofe it. Lord Bolingbroke's mind embraced all objects, and looked far into ali; but not without a trong mixture of paffions, which will always neceffarily beget fome prejudices, and follow more. And on the fubject of Religion particularly (whatever was the motive that inflamed his paffions upon that fubject chiefly) his paffions were the moft ftrong; and I will venture to fay, when called upon, as I

think, what I have faid more than once to himself, with the deference due to his age and extraordinary talents, his paffions upon that fubject did prevent his otherwife fuperior reafon from feeing, that, even in a political light only, he hurt himfelf, and wounded fo. ciety, by ftriking at establishments, upon which the conduct at least of fociety depends, and by ftriving to overturn in men's minds the fyftems which experience at least has juftified, and which authority at leaft has rendered respectable, as neceffary to public order and to private peace, without fuggefting to their minds a better, or indeed any fyftem.

You will find, Sir, what I fay to be true in a part of the work I mentioned, where he digreffes upon the criticiim of church-history.

While this work remained in the hands only of those I have mentioned (except, as I have been telling you, to himself and to them in private converfation), I have otherwife been filent upon that subject; but I must now fay to you, Sir, that for the world's fake and for his, that part of the work ought by no means to be communicated further. And you fee, that it is a digreffion not neceffary to that work. If this digreffion fhould be made public, it will be cenfured, it must be cenfured, it ought to be cenfured. It will be criticifed too by able pens, whofe erudition, as well as their reafonings, will not be eafily answered. In fuch a cafe, I fhall owe to myfelf and to the world to disclaim publickly that part of a work, which he did me the honour to addrefs to me; but I owe to the re

gard

gard which he has fometimes expreffed for me, to difclaim it rather privately to you, Sir, who are intrufted with his writings, and to recommend to you to fupprefs that part of the work, as a good citizen of the world, for the world's peace, as one intrufted and obliged by Lord Bolingbroke, not to raise new ftorms to his memory.

1 am,

Sir, your very humble fervant, HYDE.

David Mallet, Efq; to Lord Hyde. My Lord,

I

Received a very real pleasure, and at the fame time a fenfible concern from the letter your Lordfhip has honoured me with. Nothing could be more agreeable to me than the favourable opinion of one, whom I have long admired for every quality that enters into an eftimable and an amiable character; but then nothing can occafion me more uneafinefs than not to be able to fupprefs that part of a work which you would have kept from public view.

The book was printed off before your Lordship's letter reached my hands; but this confideration alone would have appeared trifling to me. I apprehend, that I cannot, without being unfaithful to the truft repofed in me, omit or alter any thing in those works, which my Lord Bolingbroke had deliberately prepared for the prefs, and I will publish no other. As to this in particular, his repeated commands

to me were, that it should be printed exactly according to the copy he himself, in all the leisure of retirement, had corrected with that

view.

Upon the whole, if your Lordfhip fhould think it neceffary to difclaim the reflections on facred hiftory, by which I prefume is meant fome public and authentic declaration, that your notions on this head differ entirely from those of your noble friend; even in this cafe I am fure you will do it with all the delicacy natural to your own difpofition, and with all the tenderness to his memory, that the particular regard he always bore you can deferve.

I am, with the greatest respect,

My Lord, &c.

The publication, however, of Lord Bolingbroke's works, though it leaves him without apology, as, whether his notions were er roneous or true, he did what he profeffes he ought not to have done, has yet eventually done rather good than harm; it has fhewn that the world gave him credit for powers, which he did not poffefs, and undeceived thofe who imagined he had defended Deifm, by a feries of clear, deep, and folid reafoning: his work is found to be lively, flight, and unconclufiye; its reputation has declined in proportion as it has been known, and great part of the impreffion, which was to enlighten the world, and enrich Mallet, is now rotting unfold in the warehoufe.

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Mona

Mona Antiqua Reftaurata: An Archeological Difcourfe on the Antiquities natural and hiftorical of the Isle of Anglesey; by Henry Rowlands, Vicar of Llanidan in the Isle of Anglesey. The fecond edition.

TH

He first edition of this work was very incorrectly printed at Dublin in the year 1723; the prefent editor is Dr. Owen, who has removed many inaccuracies ; and fome improvements have been added by the late ingenious Mr. Lewis Morris, the author of a curious work, intitled, Celtic Remains, not yet published.

Mr. Rowlands, as the title of his book, an Archeological Difcourfe, implies, has endeavoured to trace the inhabitants of the island of Anglefey back to the origin of nations after the deluge, which he fuppofes to have been univerfal, not only upon the credit of. Scripture, but becaufe, allowing, as it is generally allowed, that it rofe to the tops of the highest mountains of Afia, it could not but be univerfal, by the known laws of matter and motion, and the principles of gravity.

Anglesey was anciently called Mona, from Mon, or Tir-Mon, fignifying the fartheft, or loweft country of that part of Britain to which the firft colonifts latt found their way *.

Thefe colonists, the author fuppofes to have been the progeny of Japhet, not more than five descents from Noah, who, having moved weftward to the Belgic and Gallic fhores, came at length into Albion, on that fide farthest from Anglesey in Wales.

Their language, the Celtic†, he fuppofes to be one of the pri mary vocal modes after the dif perfion of Babel, which, with fome gradual improvements, principally by the Druids, is the fame that is now fpoken in this part of Wales. This language, he fays, has its portion of Hebrew words, in common with all the ancient languages in the world, in which the relics and ruins of that original language are to be found.

As the first colonists in Anglefey were not more than five de fcents from Noah, they certainly brought with them the mode of worship by facrifice; and as fo awful an event as the destruction' of the world, was then recent, and

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