plume_ of Sir Harry Beaumont, Spence produced a volume of _Moralities or Essays, Letters, Fables and Translations_ (1753), and in the following year an account of the blind poet Blacklock. For a learned tailor, Thomas Hill by name, he also performed a similarly kind office, comparing him in _A Parallel in the Manner of Plutarch_ with the famous linguist Magliabecchi. Spence was made Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1728, and held the post for ten years. His end was a sad one. He was accidentally drowned in a canal in the garden which he had loved so well. FOOTNOTES: [49] _Daniel Defoe: his Life and recently discovered Writings, extending from 1716 to 1729._ By William Lee. 3 vols. [50] Lee's _Defoe_, vol. i., p. 85. Of Defoe's fertility and capacity for work there cannot be a question; but the biographer's stupendous catalogue of his publications--254 in number--contains many which are ascribed to him solely on what Mr. Lee regards as internal evidence. [51] _English Men of Letters--Daniel Defoe._ By William Minto. P. 170. [52] See note on page 248. [53] There can be no doubt, I think, despite Mr. Lee's arguments, that the work is as much a fiction as any other historical novel. That it may be based upon some authentic document is highly probable, although it is not necessary to agree with his biographer, that 'to claim for Defoe the authorship of the _Cavalier_, as a work of pure fiction, would be equivalent to a claim of almost superhuman genius.' [54] Ward's _History of English Dramatic Literature_, vol. ii., p. 597. [55] _Four Centuries of English Letters_, edited and arranged by W. Baptiste Scoones, p. 214. [56] These _Letters_ were not published until after the earl's death, but many of them belong, chronologically, to our period. The first letter of the series was written in 1738. CHAPTER VII. FRANCIS ATTERBURY--LORD SHAFTESBURY--BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE--LORD BOLINGBROKE--BISHOP BERKELEY--WILLIAM LAW--BISHOP BUTLER--BISHOP WARBURTON. [Sidenote: Francis Atterbury (1662-1732).] During the first half of the eighteenth century the position held by Bishop Atterbury was one of high eminence. Addison ranked him with the most illustrious geniuses of his age; Pope said he was one of the greatest men in polite learning the nation ever possessed; Doddridge called him the glory of English orators; and Johnson said that for style his sermons are among the best. Unfortunately Atterbury's literary gifts, like his oratory, lack the merit of permanence, and his sermons, more conspicuous for eloquence than for weightiness of matter, although extremely popular at the time, have long ceased to be read. His prominence among the Queen Anne wits,--and he was admired by them all,--is a sufficient reason for saying a few words about him in these pages.