David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ If his son be really sincere in his new superstition, and sober in his morals, there is some comfort in that; for surely a man may be a papist and an honest man. It is not to be expected that the son should feel much for his father’s sorrows. Religious bigotry eats up natural affection, and tears asunder the dearest bonds. ”

“ Jortin in the esteem of the judicious. His Latin poetry is classically elegant — his discourses and dissertations sensible, ingenious, and argumentative — his remarks on ecclesiastical history interesting and impartial — his sermons replete with sound sense and rational morality, expressed in a style simple, pure, and perspicuous. Simplicity of style is a grace which, though it may not captivate at first sight, is sure in the end to give permanent satisfaction. It does not excite admiration, but it raises esteem. It does not warm to rapture, but it soothes to complacency. ”

“ At the shadowy and fleeting reputation which is sometimes gained by the frolics of literary vanity, or the mischievous struggles of controversial rage, Jortin never grasped. Truth, which some men are ambitious of seizing by surprise in the trackless and dark recess, he was content to overtake in the broad and beaten path ”

“ Convinced that true happiness is founded on a right use of the reasoning powers, he makes it the scope of all his religious works to lead mankind from the errors of imagination, to embrace the dictates of dispassionate reason. ”

“ The same caprice which raises to reputation those trifling discourses which have nothing to recommend them but a prettiness of fancy and a flowery language, will again consign them to oblivion; but the sermons of Dr. Jortin will always be read with pleasure and edification.
“The transition from an author’s writings to his life is frequently disadvantageous to his character. Dr. Jortin, however, when no longer considered as an author but as a man, is so far from being lessened in our opinion, that he excites still greater esteem and applause. ”

“ If we could have designated the modern scholar, whose congenial mind would best have appreciated and entered most fully into the whole life of Erasmus, it would have been Jortin. Jortin had wit, and a kindred quiet sarcasm. ”

“ Jortin had studied the ancients, and perhaps formed himself on the model of Xenophon. He wrote on subjects of morality, and morality is founded on reason, and reason is always cool and dispassionate. A florid declamation, embellished with rhetorical figures and animated with pathetic description, may, indeed, amuse the fancy and raise a transient emotion in the heart, but rational discourse alone can convince the understanding and reform the conduct.
“The first efforts of genius have commonly been in poetry. ”

“ Time, if it does not cool the fire of imagination, certainly strengthens the powers of the judgment. As our author advanced in life, he cultivated his reason rather than his fancy, and desisted from his efforts in poetry to exert his abilities in the disquisitions of criticism. His observations on one of the fathers of English poetry need but to be more generally known in order to be more generally approved. ”

“ Though his sensibilities were neither coarse nor sluggish, he was yet exempt from those fickle humours, those rankling jealousies, and that restless waywardness which men of the brightest talents are too prone to indulge. ”

“ He could support his more serious opinions without the versatility of a sophist, the fierceness of a disputant, or the impertinence of a buffoon — more than this, — he could relinquish or correct them with the calm and steady dignity of a writer who, while he yielded something to the arguments of his antagonists, was conscious of retaining enough to command their respect. ”

“ Bowyer’s edition of the Greek Testament was preparing, and when it was ready for the press, that incomparable scholar and divine, Dr. Jortin, mentioned the work in a mixed company, and in terms of warm approbation. A gentleman present, who was a stranger to Mr. Bowyer’s literary abilities, expressed some surprise that a printer should engage in so arduous a task, and with great simplicity asked Who helped him? Jortin, with his usual spirit, immediately answered, Who helped him? why, he helps himself, and where can he meet with a better assistant? ”

“ As a poet, a divine, a philosopher, and a man, he served the cause of religion, learning, and morality. There are, indeed, many writers whose reputation is more diffused among the vulgar and illiterate, but few will be found whose names stand higher than Ur. ”

“ Unrestrained by the frigidity of argument and the confinement of rules, the young mind gladly indulges the flights of imagination. Cicero, as well as many other ancient philosophers, orators, and historians, is known to have sacrificed to the Muses in his earlier productions. ”

“ Such improvements in persecution were reserved for Christians.”
Some men threaten to take revenge on the persecutions and superstitions of Popery by going over to scepticism or infidelity. What does Archdeacon Jortin say to that? — “Miserable spirit of contradiction! because a man would deprive me of common sense, I must, in resentment, throw away my religion? This is fulfilling, in a very bad way, the precept, If any man will take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also.” ”

“ I should gladly have used my best endeavours upon this melancholy occasion, but, to tell you the truth, my hopes of success would have been small. Nothing is more intractable than a fanatic. I heartily pity your good friend. ”

“ Thus he speaks of himself, Not to his erudition, but to his constant love and pursuit of it, he owes a situation and a station better than he expected, and as good as he ought to desire.
“Since the above remarks were written I have been informed that several of the sermons of Dr. Jortin are translations from the French. He certainly was a great reader of French divinity, and he confessedly borrowed from it freely. It has been suggested to me that he was not so remarkable for genius and invention as industry and learning. His poetry, I think, proves that he possessed genius ”

“ Their writers assure us that Papists are now grown much more mild and moderate, and have none of the ferocity and cruelty which was the temper of former times, and that they condemn persecution for a mere diversity of religious sentiments. ”

“ Osbaldeston became Bishop of London, and immediately made Dr. Jortin his chaplain, and a Prebendary of St. Paul’s, translated him to the Vicarage of Kensington, and, in 1764, made him Archdeacon of London.
The Rev. Thomas Birch inducted him to his new vicarage. Dr. Jortin’s letters to this clerical friend give us some insight into his every-day life. On “Monday, 22nd April 1751,” he wrote:—
“Dear Sir — You and I have sought one another very often to no purpose, being both of us afternoon-ramblers and street-walkers. Mr. Warburton is in town and would be very glad to see you ”