Dear Sir,—I have begun to read your Juvenal; and you will judge from what I am about to say, how strong is my remembrance of the esteem which I felt for you several years ago, when my intercourse with you and your family was nearer than it is at present.
In one of the notes to the Second
Satire, it is said, in vindication of the character of Socrates, that he believed in an all-powerful
Creator of the universe. I am persuaded, from the general complexion of the
assertion, that you cannot have made a regular inquiry into this part of the
Pagan theology. I am persuaded, too, that, if you had, your mind would have
arrived at the same conviction which I feel. It has happened that, for a
theological purpose, I have looked with some attention into this point; and of
nothing am I more firmly convinced, than that in no Pagan school was ever
taught the doctrine of a proper creation. It happens, too, that, at this very
time, I am engaged in impressing this religious caution upon the King’s
scholars at Westminster, to whom I read term lectures. It is highly probable
that your translation may fall into the hands of such youths; and I should be
extremely unwilling to hear that their
| 90 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. |
I have troubled you with a long letter; but I believe that I know your heart, and that you will take what I have said as a private mark of friendship.
