oetry which he had thus assisted in disarranging. He was
probably glad to escape from inaction, and set himself to parcel out his
Essay into comments for this edition; which, in 1797, was published in
nine volumes. His indiscretion, in adding to it some of Pope's
productions which had been before excluded, has been most bitterly
censured. That it would have been better to let them remain where they
were can scarcely be questioned. But I should be more willing to regard
the insertion of them as proof of his own simplicity, in suspecting no
harm from what he had himself found to be harmless, than of any design
to communicate injury to others. A long life, passed without blame, and
in the faithful discharge of arduous duties, ought to have secured him
from this misconstruction at its close. After all, the pieces objected
to are such as are more offensive to good manners than dangerous to
morality. There are some other of Pope's writings, more likely to
inflame the passions, which yet no one scruples to read; and Dr. Wooll
has suggested that it was inconsistent to set up the writer as a teacher
of virtue, and in the same breath to condemn his editor as a pander to
vice.

He bestowed on his censurers no more consideration than they deserved,
and went on to prepare an edition of Dry den for the press. Two volumes,
with his notes, were completed, when his labours were finally broken off
by a painful disease. His malady was an affection of the kidneys, which
continued to harass him for some months, and ended in a fatal paralysis
on the twenty-third of February, 1800, in the seventy-eighth year of his
age.

He was interred in the cathedral at Winchester, where, by the
contributions of his former scholars, a monument, executed by Mr.
Flaxman, was raised to his memory, of a design so elegant, as the tomb
of a poet has not often been honoured with. It is inscribed with the
following epitaph--

H.S.E.
Josephus Warton, S.T.P.
Hujus Ecclesiae
Prebendarius:
Scolae Wintoniensis
Per annos fere triginta
Informator:
Poeta fervidus, facilis, expolitus.
Criticus eruditus, perspicax, elegans:
Obiit XXIII'o. Feb. M.D.CCC.
Aetat. LXXVIII.
Hoc qualecunque
Pietatis monumentum
Praeceptori optimo,
Desideratissimo,
Wiccamici sui
P.C.

In the frankness of his disposition he appears to have resembled his
brother, but with more liveliness and more love of general society. I
have heard, that in the carelessness of colloquial freedom, he