HURD, Richard, an eminent and learned English prelate, was born at Congreve, in the parish of Penkrich, Staffordshire, on the 13th of January 1720. He was the second son of John and Hannah Hurd, whom he describes as “plain, honest, and good people, farmers, but of a turn of mind that might have honoured any rank and any condition and they appear to have been solicitous to give their son the best and most liberal education. Young Hurd received his elementary education at the grammarschool of Brerewood, and, in 1733, was admitted of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, though he did not go to reside there until a year or two afterwards. He took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1739, and that of master in 1742; the same year he was elected a fellow, and ordained deacon in St Paul s Cathedral, London; and in 1744 he was admitted into priest’s orders at Cambridge. Dr Hurd’s first literary production was Remarks on Weston’s Inquiry into the Rejection of the Christian Miracles by the Heathens, published in 1746; and, in 1748, upon the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he contributed some verses to the university collection for 1749. In the same year he took the degree of bachelor of divinity, and published his Commentary on the Ars Poetica of Horace, in which he laboured to prove that the Roman poet has treated his subject with systematic order and the strictest method; an idea which has been strenuously combated by several eminent critics. In the preface to this Commentary he took occasion to compliment Warburton in a manner which won him the favour of that learned dogmatist, and procured for him a return in kind in the bishop’s edition of Pope’s works, where Hurd’s Commentary is spoken of in terms of the highest approbation. This commerce of flattery gave rise to an intimacy between these persons, which continued unbroken during their lives, and is supposed to have exercised considerable influence on the opinions of Hurd, who was long considered as the first scholar in what has been termed the Warburtonian school. This Commentary was reprinted in 1757, with the addition of two Dissertations, one on the drama, the other on poetical imitation, and a letter to Mr Mason on the Marks of Imitation; in 1765, a fourth edition, corrected and enlarged, was published in three vols. 8vo, with a third Dissertation on the idea of universal poetry; and the whole was again reprinted in 1776. This work fully established the reputation of Hurd as an elegant and acute, if not always a sound and judicious critic. In May 1750, he was appointed by Sherlock, bishop of London, one of the Whitehall preachers. About this period the university of Cambridge was disturbed by internal divisions, occasioned by an exercise of discipline against some of its members who had been wanting in respect towards those invested with authority. The delinquents having refused to submit to the punishment awarded, and appealed from the vice-chancellor’s jurisdiction to that of the senate, the [7:11:759]right of the university, and those to whom its power was delegated, became thus a subject of discussion, and several pamphlets appeared on both sides of the question. Amongst those who signalized themselves on this occasion may be mentioned Hurd, who wrote The Opinion of an eminent Lawyer (the Earl of Hardwicke) concerning the Right of Appeal from the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge to the Senate, supported by a short historical account of the Jurisdiction of the University; in answer to a pamphlet, entitled An Inquiry into the Right of Appeal from the Vice Chancellor, 1751, in 8vo; a production which passed through three editions, and was defended in a Letter to the Author of a Further Inquiry, 1752, in 8vo, by whom it had been attacked. In 1751, he published a Commentary on the Epistle to Augustus; in 1753, a new edition of both commentaries, with a dedication to Warburton; and the same year two occasional sermons, one preached at the Norwich assizes, and the other in behalf of the charity schools at Cambridge, but neither of which has been retained in his works. The friendship he had formed with Warburton continued to increase by mutual good offices; and, in 1755, Hurd eagerly embraced an opportunity which offered of evincing the warmth of his attachment. Dr Jortin having, in his Dissertations, spoken of Warburton with less deference and submission than the exactions of an overbearing and insolent superiority could easily tolerate, Hurd wrote a bitter satire, entitled the Delicacy of Friendship, a seventh Dissertation, addressed to the author of the sixth, 1755, in 8vo; a production in which he was betrayed into too close an imitation of Warburton’s manner, and displayed a degree of warmth far beyond any thing that the supposed offence could either call for or justify. Hurd accordingly took pains to suppress the pamphlet; but, in 1788, it was republished in a volume entitled Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian. Hurd continued to reside at Cambridge, in learned retirement, if not learned ease, until 1756, when, on the death of Dr Arnold, he succeeded, as senior fellow of Emmanuel College, to the rectory of Thurcaston, to which he was instituted in 1757, and where, having entered into residence, he continued to prosecute his studies, which were principally confined to subjects of elegant literature. The Remarks on Hume’s Essay on the Natural History , of Religion appeared soon afterwards. But Warburton appears to have had the chief hand in the composition of that tract, which, accordingly, we find republished by Hurd in the quarto edition of that prelate’s works, and enumerated in the list of them. It appears to have occasioned some uneasiness to Hume, who, in the account of his own life, notices it with a degree of acrimony quite unusual in his compositions. In 1759, Hurd published a volume of Dialogues on Sincerity, Retirement, the Golden Age of Elizabeth, and the Constitution of the English Government; and this was followed by his Letters on Chivalry and Romance, which, with his Dialogues on Foreign Travel, were republished in the year 1765, with the author’s name, and a preface on dialogue writing. In the preceding year, he published another of those zealous tracts in vindication of Warburton, which have added little to his fame as a writer, and procured him the reputation of an illiberal and discourteous polemic. It was entitled a “Letter to the Reverend Dr Thomas Leland, in which his late Dissertation on the Principles of Human doquence is criticised, and the Bishop of Gloucester’s idea of the nature and character of an inspired language, as delivered in his Lordship’s Doctrine of Grace, is vindicated from all the objections of the learned author of the Dissertation.” This, with Hurd’s other controversial tracts, has been republished in the eighth volume of the authorized edition of his works, where we find prefixed to it, by way of advertisement, the following lines, written by the author not long before his death: “The controversial tracts which make up this volume were written and published by the author at different times, as opportunity imited, or occasion required. Some sharpness of style may be objected to them, in regard to which he apologises for himself in the words of the poet:

Me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci juventa Fervor nunc ego mitibus Mutare quaero tristia.”

In 1762, the sinecure rectory of Folkton was conferred on him by Lord Chancellor Northmgton; in 1765, he was chosen preacher of Lincoln’s Inn; and in August 1767, he was collated to the archdeaconry of Gloucester by Bishop Warburton. In July 1768, he was admitted doctor of divinity at Cambridge; the same day he was appointed to open the lecture founded by Warburton for the illustration of the prophecies; and the Twelve Discourses which he preached there were published in 1772, under the title of an Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies concerning the Christian church, and in particular concerning the church of Papal Rome. This volume drew from Gibbon, under a fictitious name, a private letter to the author respecting the book of Daniel, which Dr Hurd answered; but it was not until the appearance of the historian’s Miscellaneous Works, in which Dr Hurd’s answer was printed, that the latter knew the name of his correspondent. In 1769, he published the Select Works of Abraham Cowley, with a preface and notes, in two vols. 8vo; an edition which has been condemned as interfering with the totality of Cowley’s works, and which certainly is not the most judicious of Dr Hurd’s undertakings. In 1775, he was, by the recommendation of Lord Mansfield, promoted to the bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry, consecrated early in that year, and, soon after entering on the episcopal office, he delivered a charge to the clergy of the diocese, as well as a Fast Sermon for “the American rebellion,” which was preached before the House of Lords. In May 1781, Bishop Hurd received a gracious message from his majesty, conveying to him an offer of the see of Worcester, with the clerkship of the closet, both of which he accepted. Nor did his majesty’s kindness stop here. For, on the death of Dr Cornwallis, in the year 1783, he was offered the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, with many gracious expressions, and even pressed to accept it; but he humbly begged leave to decline it, “as a charge not suited to his temper and talents, and much too heavy for him to sustain in these times,” alluding, we presume, to the distractions arising from the conflict of political parties. In 1788, Hurd published a complete edition of the works of Warburton, in seven vols. 4to; but the Life did not appear until 1795, when it came forth under the title of a Discourse by way of General Preface to the quarto edition of Bishop Warburton’s works, containing some account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author. This work excited considerable attention, and the style is equally remarkable for its purity and elegance; but the stream of panegyric is too uniform not to subject the author to the suspicion of long-confirmed prejudices. Even the admirers of Warburton would have been content with less laborious efforts to magnify him at the expense of all his contemporaries; and, conscious that imperfection is the common lot of all men, they conceived that age and reflection should have abated, if not wholly extinguished, the unworthy animosities of times gone by. But in all this they were disappointed. Hurd was a true di aeiple of the great dogmatist; and hence it was with regret they observed the worst characteristics of Warburton, his inveterate dislikes, his fierce contempt, and his sneering rancour, still employed to perpetuate his personal antipathies, and employed too against such men as Secker and Loŵth. If these were the feelings [7:11:760]of the friends who venerated Warburton and esteemed Hurd, others, who never had much attachment to the Bishop of Gloucester or his school, found little difficulty in accumulating against his biographer charges of gross partiality and illiberal abuse. The remainder of Hurd’s life appears to have been spent in the discharge of his episcopal duties, and in studious retirement. He died on the 28th of May 1808, being then in his eighty-ninth year. As a writer, his taste, learning, and talents have been universally acknowledged; and though, like his master, contemptuous and intolerant, he was nevertheless shrewd, ingenious, and original. In his private character he is said to have been in all respects amiable; nor were the relations of life in any degree embittered by the gall and wormwood which so frequently flowed from his pen. (a.)