Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/477

 ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 463

T'ie Life ofEraf/nus. By Dr. Jortin. Whifton and White, Fleet -Jireef, 17^8. ^arto.

THE life of no author is bet- ter calculated to intereft our curiofity than thatof Erafmus. He lived at the firft dawn of literature, and was himfelf one of the prin- cipal lights which difpelled that gloonrt of ignorance and barbarifm, which had overfpread the world for fo many age?. There is alfo feme variety in the events of his life, which was more diverfified than is common with the lives of literary men. And there is the fame va- riety in his charader, that is found in his fortune: a genius, as well as a profound fcholar ; and a man of wit and humour, as well as an able divine. The work before us is the joint produce of two very learned men, Le Clerc and Dr. Jortin. The latter of thefe wri- ters has followed, but he has im- proved and enlarged the plan of the former. It is therefore not to be wondered, that this work is exe- cuted with uncommon diligence, fkiil, and accuracy. It not only contains an account of the life of Erafmus, but of all the eminent men, in whatever branch of litera- ture, who adorned that period. Dr. Jortin has followed Le Clerc, in difpofmg his facts and obferva- tions by the years of the autlior's age, whofe life they write. This, with deference to the learned au- thor's judgment, we do not think the happielt method. Great affairs may be digefted into the form of annals, becaufe they engage by their own importance, and the time in which the^' happened is neceflary

to be known : but in biography, efpecially of this kind, fuch an ar- rangement renders the narration, broken and tedious. In fhort, as the work now (lands, it may ra- ther be confidered as an excellent coUedlion of materials for the life of Erafmus, than the hiftory of his life. Such a hiftory would prove a much more agreeable entertain- ment to the generality of readers, though it may not perh^nps afford quite fo much matter to the inqui- fitive and learned.

It were to be wifhed, that the learned author had been a little more attentive to his flyle, parti- cularly that he had purged it of certain low familiar words and modes of expreffion, fuch as, • The author cf the paraphrafe fo ledajked by Gardner.' * Like the candle's end burning in a focket. Toon ceafe both to blaze and ftink.* ' SeriouHy it is a difagreeable thing to be in the condition of Gil Bias, and connected with one who wili take it in dudgeony if you do not /moke him with as much incenfe as would fatisfy three er thrice three goddefTes.'
 * There was a brace of monks.*

As a fpecimen of the author's general manner of writing we give the following pafTage ; efpecially as it ferves to illuftrate the charac- ter and way of life of Erafmu', which was by no means fo happy and independent, as his great pans and virtues deferved.

'* Collet had told him, that he would give him a fmall matter, if he would beg with humility, and afk with modefty ; had advifed him to imitate Diogenes, and had hinted to him, that he was too (juerulous and greedy. It feemj

they