William Bentley

“ But Sir William, in his ardour, had thrown out an unguarded opinion, which excited the hostile contempt of Bentley. “The oldest books,” he says, “we have, are still in their kind the best; the two most ancient that I know of, in prose, are ‘Æsop’s Fables’ and ‘Phalaris’s Epistles.’”—The “Epistles,” he insists, exhibit every excellence of “a statesman, a soldier, a wit, and a scholar.” That ancient author, who Bentley afterwards asserted was only “some dreaming pedant, with his elbow on his desk.” ”

“ Young Bentley came into the world with excellent faculties and dispositions, but nothing could be less favourable than that society in which they were to be unfolded. It is not the tutor's lessons, it is the manners and opinions which breathe around us, that impart the tone which distinguishes individuals from each other. Young Bentley was formed in a different mould of intellect from all his family, and soon discovered in books, a companionship which was denied in the circle of his immediate relations. ”

“ Bentley during his memorable tenure of the mastership from 1700 to 1742.
The mention of the name of that most masterful of Yorkshiremen and most brilliant of Cambridge scholars and critics inevitably suggests the picture of that long feud between the Fellows of Trinity and their Master which lasted for nearly half a century, for a year at any rate longer than the Peloponnesian war, and was almost as full of exciting incidents. Those who care to read the miserable and yet amusing story can do so for themselves in the pages of Bishop Monk’s “Life of Richard Bentley.” ”

“ I forget how the conversation ended, but it amused me at the time that it happened, and slipped out of my recollection, till having written Mount Prospect, that name revived the remembrance of a combat which diverted us.
I shall pity George Bentley, when he loses so many friends with whom he is accustomed to pass a part of almost every day, but he will bear it better than Frederick would do in the same situation. How wonderfully the good and evil of life are balanced! Sensibility increases every pleasure, but as certainly augments every pain. ”

“ Bentley, I believe that I do think differently from Mrs. Fitzroy and Charlotte on this occasion, and so I dare say that I am wrong; but it strikes me that the more retired the situation in which we live, the more nice do we grow, and the more necessary do we find great congeniality in the people with whom we associate; that is if we want to love them. In the world where every variety of talent and disposition is to be found, one can choose, and if disappointed in one instance, try in another; but in retreat, we must make the best of the given ingredients. ”

“ Bentley, with his peculiar idiom, had censured “all the 387 stiffness and stateliness, and operoseness of style, quite alien from the character of ‘Phalaris,’ a man of business and despatch.” Boyle keenly turns his own words on Bentley. “Stiffness and stateliness, and operoseness of style, is indeed quite alien from the character of a man of business; and being but a library-keeper, it is not over-modestly done, to oppose his judgment and taste to that of Sir William Temple, who knows more of these things than Dr. Bentley does of Hesychius and Suidas. ”

“ I must tell you, that nothing could exceed the admiration which these amiable, unartificial sisters of mine have excited in Hampshire. How is it that people can relinquish all right and title to understanding or good feeling, in their own case, and yet retain enough of each to admire both when they have met with them in others?
I hope that George Bentley has received all my letters, and that he may turn in his thoughts the proposal which I made in my last, that he should meet us at Turin. ”

“ Bentley," answered his adversary, "your abuse is wholesale, and spreads over too large a surface to cut deeply. I do not agree with you; and I repeat, that such is my preference for the people of this country, that I shall beg my friends Mrs. Douglas and Mr. Otway to be on the look out for a cottage [Pg 133] to suit me in their vicinity at Glenalta."
"No, no, madam, you will do no such thing," retorted the cynic; "you are acting more wisely. Believe me, that the most knowing people are those who travel about, if society be their object. ”

“ Soon after the promotion of Stillingfleet to the see of Worcester, Bentley was made domestic chaplain to that learned prelate, with whom he continued on the terms of confidential intimacy incident to that connexion, till his Lordship’s death. Dr. William Lloyd, at that time Bishop of Lichfield, was equally alive to the uncommon merit of this rising scholar; and his two patrons concurrently recommended him as a fit person to open the lectures founded by the celebrated Robert Boyle, in defence of natural and revealed religion. Bentley had before this time embarked largely in literary pursuits. ”

“ The record of Bentley's life is chiefly a list of the books which he published, the majority consisting of works of fiction, travel, history, and biography. He prided himself on giving no book to the world which he considered unworthy of being read, and he was as careful about the external appearance of a book as about its contents. As editor of 'Temple Bar' he carefully selected works of fiction for publication in monthly instalments. ”

“ George Bentley employed the chasm in his course, chiefly in reading every thing upon which he could lay his hands in the region of fiction and romance. His college studies were ended before he had passed that awkward time of life, when neither child, nor man, the youth not knowing how to dispose of the disproportioned length of legs and arms by which he is encumbered, often flies from polished society in which he cannot expect to receive much notice ”

“ I must speak of George Bentley before I [Pg 231] conclude; and, to answer your inquiry in the first instance, I am wholly unconscious of any ground for his uncle's apprehensions, though had I been aware of any such before we set out, I should not have consented to his being of our Killarney party; however, as Mr. Bentley followed us, my anxiety was removed. The young man is a fine and uncommon character: you shall have a sketch of it as far as I can trace its peculiarities. ”

“ Boyle replied, that the bookseller’s account was quite different from the doctor’s, who had spoken slightingly of him. Bentley said no more.
Three years had nearly elapsed, when Bentley, in a new edition of his friend Wotton’s book, published “A Dissertation on the Epistles of the Ancients;” where, reprehending the false criticism of Sir William Temple, he asserted that the “Fables of Æsop” and the “Epistles of Phalaris” were alike spurious. The blow was levelled at Christchurch, and all “the bees” were brushed down in the warmth of their summer-day. ”

“ Bentley; "but a wise man removes the veil from his eyes as soon as possible, and endeavours to see through the mists of folly and prejudice which obscure his horizon. He directs all his energies to the pole star of truth, which will quickly place the things of this world in their just light to his understanding, and teach him that what is called society is a foul cheat; a dishonest compact, by which people agree to jockey each other, and pass, like counterfeit coin, for the things that they are not ”

“ Bentley was a member of the Stationers' Company and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was very conservative in his tastes and his feelings, his firm being the last to continue the custom, dating from the end of the seventeenth century, of an annual trade dinner, to which the principal booksellers were invited, and at which new and standard publications were offered for sale after the cloth was removed. ”

“ No, no, sir, preachers must be doers, or they will only be laughed at."
"Whom else do you think well of in our great National Assembly, Ned?" asked Bentley.
"Sir, I like Mr. Robinson. He knows his [Pg 61] business. He found things in a bad condition, and it is more troublesome to mend than to make. He is going the right way to work, and he is not frightened by opposition. Mr. Huskisson too, sir, is a sensible man, and knows what he is about." ”

“ He is a fine honest-hearted fellow, and has a great deal of taste; but he surely knows it rather too well, or at least he shews that he does so, too much. Perhaps, more [Pg 242] truth-telling than his neighbours, he only expresses what others have art enough to conceal. You will say that I am catching infection, and growing acrid in the society of old Bentley: it may be so; but I tell you all my remarks.
Frederick and I got up to see the travellers off at cock-crow on the morning of their departure, and they left a blank which was felt by us all. ”

“ I am sure that he has a very snug store laid up somewhere or other; that being an old batchelor, George is his object, and that had he found reason for his conjecture in any confirmation afforded by me, he would have taught himself to be very well pleased, while he can, as sincerely, turn the current of his thoughts into another stream, in which he hopes that a larger quantity of the precious metals may be found. How comically people who are accustomed to employ a little cunning in their devices, betray themselves. Old Bentley, however, is a worthy man ”

“ The eye accustomed only to painting, does not come at once to criticise sculpture; and a surgeon, who knows the whole anatomy of the living subject, which either is employed to represent, may be a dunce in both. The things are different, and will remain so, unless early habit and natural tact familiarize the mind in applying them to each other, and seeking similitudes between them. Young Bentley's mind and manners in fine do not amalgamate ”

“ He reasons more than he feels, is more solid than brilliant, and wants that beautiful lightning of the mind which plays sometimes round characters not half so intrinsically valuable as his, with fascinating illumination. Such is my brief sketch of 'poor George,' as his uncle calls him. The future is concealed in mist. If a child of mine ever love young Bentley well enough to marry him, she shall have my full consent, for I am sure of all [Pg 238] the essentials that give security for substantial peace. ”

“ To the Vallies he would go, and perhaps the real motive may never be fully revealed to his own mind, though we lookers on could not help perceiving very clearly, that the devoted and mutual attachment of Falkland and Emily Douglas, had been the true pivot on which his purposes turned. Love, in its common acceptation, never found a place in Bentley’s breast. ”

“ Led on from one topic to another, in which this excellent man discovered so much knowledge of life as perfectly to amaze me, I turned to young Bentley, and said, "I have often heard people obtain credit for extraordinary acquaintance with the world, and wherever this has been the case, such skill has been attributed to travelling, and a widely spreading communion with various classes of men ”

“ Fairies are out of date, and we must be resigned. Worthy Mr. Bentley takes the approaching departure of my uncle so much to heart, that I shall not be surprised if Mount Prospect, like Birnam Wood, should put itself in march, and come to Turin instead of Dunsinane. Mrs. Fitzroy used to be very entertaining in her attacks on our good friend Mr. Bentley, and asked him one day, when he had said something that provoked her, what could possess him to give such a name to his place; adding, “I assure you, Mr. Bentley, that sort of name is quite generic ”

“ But, as every man has his evil, as well as his friendly genius, rumour has spread to the winds that poor Bentley's thoughts being unpleasantly occupied, he wished to drown them, and swallowing a more liberal potation than was his ordinary custom, of native spirit, diluted with warm water, and seasoned with lemon and sugar, experience confirmed the proverb of 'in vino veritas,' the half-muttered sounds of 'rejected addresses,' and stimulated the curiosity of Mr. ”

“ Violent, pugnacious, and unscrupulous, Dr. Bentley survived these storms and agitations, and remained, though suspended from his degrees and deprived of his mastership, seated at the Lodge imperturbably. Wearing a broad-brimmed hat indoors to protect his eyes, smoking his pipe, enjoying his port, and expounding to his friends his doctrine of the digamma, Bentley lived those eighty years which, he said, were long enough “to read everything which was worth reading”, “Et tunc”, he added, in his peculiar manner,
Et tunc magna mei sub terris ibit imago. ”

“ Bentley was a source of inspiration to a following generation of scholars. Himself, he sprang from the earth without forerunners, without antecedents. Self-taught, he created his own science. It was his misfortune that there was no contemporary gild of learning in England by which his power could be measured, and his eccentricities checked. In the Phalaris controversy his academical adversaries had not sufficient knowledge to know how absolute their defeat was. ”

“ Having so handily brought his errand to a successful termination Sir Richard, of Worcestershire, fell into great good humor.
"Faith!" cried he, sheathing his bloodless sword, "'tis a merry gathering for my Lord of Salisbury to look upon. Four plump birds ready for the axe man, and four and one knocking at the gate of hell. Rare sport, in truth, hath been the taking of so ill a brood; therefore, gentlemen, to London and the Tower with the nine. Though some be dead, their necks are ready for the axe, I warrant. 'Tis a brave sight will greet the populace, anon." ”