Northamptonshire.
_Sir Walter Raleigh._--I find the following remonstrance in defence of this
distinguished man, against the imputation of Hume, in a letter addressed by
Dr. Parr to Charles Butler:
"Why do you follow Hume in representing Raleigh as an infidel? For
Heaven's sake, dear Sir, look to his preface to his _History of the
World_; look at his _Letters_, in a little 18mo., and here, but here
only, you will find a tract [entitled The Sceptic], which led Hume to
talk of Raleigh as an unbeliever. It is an epitome of the principles of
the old sceptics; and to me, who, like Dr. Clarke and Mr. Hume, am a
reader {268} of Sextus Empiricus, it is very intelligible. Indeed, Mr.
Butler, it is a most ingenious performance. But mark me well: it is a
mere _lusus ingenii_."
Mr. Butler appends this note:
"Mr. Fox assured the Reminiscent, that either he, or Mrs. Fox to him,
had read aloud the whole, with a small exception, of Sir Walter
Raleigh's History."--Butler's _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 232.