After the bier, methought he had a pair
Of legs and feet, so clean and fair,
That all my heart I gave unto his hold.”
ON THE TENDENCY OF SECTS
No. 19 of the Round Table series.
PAGE [49]. Note 1. The Freedom of the Will of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was published in 1754. Edwards was, of course, an American, as Flower reminded Hazlitt in his letter referred to below (49, note 2). ‘Hid from ages.’ Colossians, i. 26. Note 2. Benjamin Flower, in a reply which he wrote to this essay (The Examiner, October 8, 1815), pointed out the ‘phenomenon’ of a Quaker poet ‘appeared about thirty years since, Mr. Scott of Amwell, whose volume of poetry obtained the marked approbation of our acknowledged best critics.’ Johnson said of John Scott of Amwell’s (1730–1783) Elegies, ‘they are very well; but such as twenty people might write’ (Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 351). Another correspondent, signing himself ‘B. B.,’ wrote a letter to The Examiner (September 24, 1815), protesting against Hazlitt’s sketch of Quakerism. This was no doubt Bernard Barton (1784–1849), another Quaker poet, and afterwards the friend of Lamb. [50]. ‘There is some soul of goodness,’ etc. Henry V., Act IV. Scene 1. ‘Evil communications,’ etc. 1 Corinthians, xv. 33.
ON JOHN BUNCLE
No. 20 of the Round Table series.
The Life of John Buncle, Esq., by Thomas (not John) Amory (1691?-1788), was published in two volumes, 1756–1766. A new edition in three volumes was published in 1825, very likely on Hazlitt’s recommendation. See Memoirs of William Hazlitt, ii. 198. A quotation from the present essay faces the title-page of the new edition (vol. i.). A volume containing the most readable parts of the book, and happily entitled ‘The Spirit of Buncle,’ was published in 1823. The book was a great favourite of Lamb’s as well as of Hazlitt’s.
PAGE [52]. Botargos. ‘Hard roes of mullet called botargos.’ Urquhart’s Rabelais, I. xxi. [53]. ‘Man was made to mourn.’