[1] My copy is the folio volume of the first edition, 1678; but they have recently reprinted Cudworth at Oxford in four volumes.
[2] A remarkable expression, which we supposed was peculiar to the more enlarged views of our own age. But who can affix precise notions to general terms? Cudworth’a notion of “the philosophy of religion” was probably restricted to the history of the ancient philosophies of religion.
[3] In the first edition, the references of its numerous quotations were few and imperfect; Dr. Birch, in the edition of 1743, supplied those that were wanting from Mosheim’s Latin translation of the work. Warburton observed that “all the translations from the Greek are wonderfully exact.”
[4] It may be regretted that this valuable mass of curious erudition is not furnished with an ordinary index. A singular clue to the labyrinth the author has offered, by a running head on every single one of the thousand pages; and a minutely analytical table of the contents is appended to the mighty tome. This indeed impresses us with a full conception of the sublimity of the work itself; but our intimacy with this multitude of matters is greatly interrupted by the want of a ready reference to particulars which an ordinary index would have afforded.
[5] Continuation des Pensées Diverses, iii. 90.
[6] This volume, still read and valued, was fortunately saved amidst the wreck of the author’s manuscripts, and was published from his own autograph copy which he had prepared for the press, so late as 1781, 8vo.
DIFFICULTIES OF THE PUBLISHERS OF CONTEMPORARY MEMOIRS.