The Sun.
London, England, 1827-09-08 00:00:00

LITILRATURE.

PIIILIOTHECA PARRIANA.
VOI,-- J. Peas. London, 1827.
The celebrated Library of which this corpulent
eloarto is the catalogue, was collected by the late
Dr. Purr with infinite expense, after years of the
most assiduous perseverance. It was said, by
those who had seen it, and devoutly believed by
those who had not, to contain accumulated
treasures in almost every department of litera-
ture ; scholars coveted it, antiquarians dreamed
of it,. authors meditated petty larcenies upon it,
Feetriots proposed purchasing it for the public,
and even Sir .Thomas Lethbridge, though there
were not two hooks in the whole that he could
read, and not one that he could understand, was
heard to pronounce_ it a rather creditable collec-
tion for a Whig parson. Yet what after all is
ehe fact ? Why this, that though voluminous it
is far from valuable, consisting tor the most part
of dull, obsolete, verbal criticisms (MSS. and
otherwise), on the classics ; musty, theological,
and philological tracts, bound up in quaint
volumes ; editions of Latin and Greek writers,
selected as much with a view to their scar-
ci.ty as their value ; and curious old manu-
eeripte picked up, no matter at what cost, in
order that Doctor Parr might be enabled to
say " I am the only scholar in Europe who pos-
seseee them."
it .was well observed by the late C. Mills, that
1119,111 S mind. may,in,nine cases out of ten be
judged.of.:byhis library ; apply the wet to Dr.
Psrr, and it will prove him just what he really
was, an erudite but net an enlarged scholar, an
eeemplary grammarian, a shrewd verbal critic, a
conscientious but useless party man. There was
no book in the 'Greek, Latin, or English lan-
geages, that he had not read or could not in some
degree discuss..
.His memory was a vast store-
house of facts,, opinions, and anecdotes, all
which he retailed in the same dry faithful manner
that La had received them. Hence his conversa-
tion, replete with matter, was delightful, but
wanted that inexpressible charm which learning,
when v: aimed by genius, never fails to impart.
He would sit for hours, busily engaged smoking
his pipe, and entertaining his admiring listeners
(for the Doctor, we should premise, had all that
pride of conversation so characteristic of the
Johnsonian school) with anecdotes or opinions of
;ais most distinguished contemporaries ;language
and correctness of fact were never wanting to
Lend them importance ; .yet he knew not how to
da-aw rn inference, or to render his stories
illustrative of peculiar theories or arguments :
he technically related one, then paused, shsok
the ashes from his pipe, and proceeded to ano-
there As a scholar he possessed a vigorous ap-
petite, but a weak digestion. He com-
mitted whetic volumes to memory, yet rarely
meditated upon one. They oppressed, not
nourished his mind, like the food of the Ana-
-sondes, beneath the weight of which he lies inert
and Useless. Look, for instance, at his far-famed
Preface to Bellendenus. Though correct, in-
ieed, almost faultless in composition, it is merely
ingenious patch-work, every word, every sen-
lence, every peculiar or striking paseege, being
modelled on, and selected from Cicero. Look
again, to his Spiral Sermon, which the Edin-
burgh Reviewers so humourously handled. It is
replete with learning, full even to an overflow
with quotation, yet where is the thought,
where the pewee of imagination, which should
teens such acqtrizeths,nts to account, convert them
intoaa healthy Mental chyle, and then send
them .forth regenaratvi, streOgtened, and
W
hall-informed, with the readers on eeuliar
p
ideas? Dr. Parr, though a boici man and ex-
emplary scholar, was but a shallow thinker ; he
cuirelv adopted opinions as he fourld them in
.books. unmodified and unamended, and without
l•eferezics to time or circumstance.
. On running through the present catalogue, we
- find shat it fully warrants us in our notion of
,Dr. • Parr as a scholar. It is voluminouS
itercrigh for a public library, yet abounds for the
naost part in trash. The classical and theolo-
gic portion are decidedly the best ; yet
even here there is an immensity of lumber, such
as ,6 C. T. Ammon Summa Theologice Christie-
nok"—a Treatise filled with the common places
.of thehlogy " Apthorpe's Observations on
-Gibboet"—dull enough to be episcopal; " Bella-
tny's remarks upon his translation of the Bible:"
" 'Various readings on the textsof the Apoca-
lepse ;" and " Sermons by Matthew Booker"
childish and feeble tied somewhat grandiloquent ;
together with an infinity of others of the same
s.;alibre in point 44 value. In the classical de-
-nerineent we find first and .foreenoet tragedies
and frexgments, edited by Dr. Butler,mani-
festly praised on
sentation copy, account of their being a pre-
to which a flaming inscrTtion iuhonor ‘, Oretatissimi Samueli Parr, is at-
tached, such, in fact, was the Doctor's vanity
—such his inordinate swallow, that he could
liment Two friends
aegl: eat the most brazen 4-4. imp
but a vile
classic,
of ours, one -ate exceiiere,
'writer of:English tragedies, the G.:4er a compiler
of .ethids,- 'dispatched tr,,,eir respective v,,,,prks to
Batton, ~~itli hyperbolical compliments (paaM
hem . Nfeanwhile a bet
in joke). attached to t .
was made between the parties that e.:e• Doctor's
eeatitutle would, if possible, exceed than- admi-
ration; and accordingly a few days post }vane-lit
-them both the expected answers ; in one the
'Doctor made use of the terms " learned, ornate,
g'octuent, . and transoendant," in the other he
Ipoite'of.hie beings" almost a proselyte to the
exquisite poweie.of.logie.posseased by his gifted
friend." N•- -
'To resume —Under the imposing lead of
itetory," we find shell trash as " The
His-
tory of Birmingham ;"—...“.;,?nath,an Boucher 's
American Revolution,' a compound
Vieve of tse
of re udico
And stupidity Chateothriand's
Travels to the
Holy La nd (a work fillet; with
affected piety sad maudlin sentiment,turn where
tinsel politician h every thing by arid
nothing long," drivels through nearly. half a volume'
over thec. crusade-struck Lewis, his own birth-
clay on board ship, and the nettle which. grew
on the tomb of Leonidas—a workws with his, in
first lonshort,
which a :school-boy .oettgroi-
tailed coat)—an Abridgement of Bruce's
Travels," for schools ;—are " Account of the
Opinions of the most Distinnpi.shed English
writers on the French Revolutiene," pub-
lished before Burke's noble reflect ens ap-
- geared--a wretched " Translation of Froissart,"
" the most chivalrous and untransferable
chroniclers—" Ilawkesworth's Voyages," a book
mis-statements, and written solely for the
trade``. Maurice's History of Hindostan," a
'*°Tr'SP"us but superficial production—" Street's
4-reign of:Lcuis XVI.," the vary quintessence of
rti jrCIT,OII-1113.ce, both in style and: matter—" Tay-
lor (dia.-Platonist:so
Dissertation on the Eleue
einiate.
es, a work more mysterious
than the MYstaties themselves—"i,,. A Guide to
.Exeter Cathedra;".—,, s History of
lasznwlP Gibson of a Speech delivered
at Maideubeta ~43„,0„.....„ pocet