University of Virginia Library

Letter 3
28 March 1764
NLS: MS 25295, ff. 124-125

I have the honour of yours of the 23^ The specimen is very elegant.

I have not Hales's Sermons by me, and so do not know to what he predicates, eo dulciùs quo secretiùs.[10] But the subject determines the sense. If he says it of devotion, then the sense is, that the more secret & sequestered the acts of it are, the more rapturous they become. if he says it of the spiritual sense of Scripture (as the subject of the sermon would make one think) then I suppose it means, the profounder you dive into the Sacred Writer's meaning, the more delightfull & wonderfull you find it.

The, Coli Deos sanctè magis quam scitè,[11] I suppose means, worship rather in the simple purity of a pious mind, than with the studied elegance of pomp

& magnificence—This, if the external act of worship be meant. But if, by cole, the context leads you to understand the Contemplation of the Deity, than [sic] the meaning must be, search not too curiously into the Divine nature but approach it with reverence & a pious mind.

Des Maizeaux a french Refugé well known in the republic of Letters 30 or 40 years ago wrote the life of Mr J. Hales in the manner of one of Bayle's lives, in a very thin 8°.[12] it is curiously written and I suppose would not be improper to prefix to a compleat Edn.

There is a miserable & enormous heap of stuff, called Biographia Brit. for the composition of which, the undertaking Booksellers called from the way side the lame & the blind &c. yet it suited the People & preserved some little credit with others by means of Mr Cambel a man of sense & industry who has written much for the Booksellers and composed some few lives in this Collection.[13] I suppose Hales's life may be found in it, probably transcribed from Des Maizeaux.[14]

Fowlis of Glascow[15] is an excellent printer but often when the type & paper are excellent he deforms the Edition by too narrow a margin, & a disproportioned letter. I think the success of this Edn, (especially in England, where we are more struck with circumstances than essentials) will depend much on the elegance of the Edition.