Richard Hurd (bishop)

Bishop Hurd, as painted by Thomas Gainsborough.

Richard Hurd (13 January 1720 – 28 May 1808) was an English divine and writer, and bishop of Worcester.

Quotes

• The spirit of Chivalry was a fire which soon spent itself: but that of Romance, which was kindled at it, burnt long, and continued its light and heat even to the politer ages.
  The greatest geniuses of our own and foreign countries, such as Ariosto and Tasso in Italy, and Spenser and Milton in England, were seduced by these barbarities of their forefathers; were even charmed by the Gothic Romances. Was this caprice and absurdity in them? Or, may there not be something in the Gothic Romance peculiarly suited to the views of a genius, and to the ends of poetry? And may not the philosophic moderns have gone too far in their perpetual ridicule and contempt of it?
  • Letters on Chivalry and Romance: Serving to Illustrate Some Passages in the Third Dialogue (1762), quoted in The Works of Richard Hurd, D.D. Lord Bishop of Worcester, Vol. IV (1811), p. 239

• In this awfully stupendous manner (at which reason stands aghast, and faith herself is half confounded), was the grace of God to man, at length, manifested: and thus it is, when we come a little to unfold the record, or testimony of the Gospel, that God hath given to us eternal life; and that this life is in his Son.
  • Sermon XXX. Preached 19 December 1773, quoted in The Works of Richard Hurd, D.D. Lord Bishop of Worcester, Vol. VII (1811), p. 23

• Nobody...ought to be punished for religious opinions.
  • Letter to Rev. Dr. Balguy (12 May 1779), quoted in Francis Kilvert, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Richard Hurd, D. D., Lord Bishop of Worcester; With a Selection From His Correspondence and Other Unpublished Papers (1860), p. 135

• As to Gibbon, I have read a part of his third volume. Though a writer of sense, parts, and industry, I read him with little pleasure. His loaded and luxuriant style is disgusting to the last degree; and his work is polluted every where by the most immoral as well as irreligious insinuations.
  • Letter to Rev. Dr. Balguy (7 July 1788), quoted in Francis Kilvert, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Richard Hurd, D. D., Lord Bishop of Worcester; With a Selection From His Correspondence and Other Unpublished Papers (1860), p. 167

• Mr. Burke's book [Reflections on the Revolution in France] is very entertaining, and, what is better, contains much truth and sound political reflection, though sometimes dressed in a fantastic mode of expression. I hope the innovating humour will decline among us, and that men will be satisfied in being happy after the old way.
  • Letter to Bishop Butler (30 December 1790), quoted in Francis Kilvert, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Richard Hurd, D. D., Lord Bishop of Worcester; With a Selection From His Correspondence and Other Unpublished Papers (1860), p. 321

• Toleration should be allowed to those who dissent from an Establishment, & that such Establishment should be guarded by a Test Law. Both these things are provided for in our happy Constitution, & it is not easy to see what should incline wise & good men to think otherwise.
  • Letter to George III (16 February 1801), quoted in The Later Correspondence of George III, Volume III: January 1798 to December 1801, ed. Arthur Aspinall (1967), p. 501

Quotes about Richard Hurd

• Of Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, Johnson said to a friend, "Hurd, Sir, is one of a set of men who account for every thing systematically; for instance, it has been a fashion to wear scarlet breeches; these men would tell you, that according to causes and effects, no other wear could at that time have been chosen." He, however, said of him at another time to the same gentleman, "Hurd, Sir, is a man whose acquaintance is a valuable acquisition."
  • James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales, Vol. IV.—Life (1780–1784), ed. George Birkbeck Hill (1887), pp. 189-190

• The learned and ingenious Prelate it is well known published at one period of his life Moral and Political Dialogues, with a woefully whiggish cast. Afterwards, his Lordship having thought better, came to see his errour, and republished the work with a more constitutional spirit. Johnson, however, was unwilling to allow him full credit for his political conversion. I remember when his Lordship declined the honour of being Archbishop of Canterbury, Johnson said, "I am glad he did not go to Lambeth; for, after all, I fear he is a Whig in his heart."
  • James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales, Vol. IV.—Life (1780–1784), ed. George Birkbeck Hill (1887), p. 190

• His appearance and air are dignified, placid, grave, and mild, but cold, and rather distancing. He is extremely well bred, nevertheless, and his half-hour's visit passed off without effort or constraint.
  • Frances Burney, diary entry (23 December 1786), quoted in Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, Author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c. Vol. III. 1786 & 1787 (1842), p. 250

• Mr. Hurd, the supposed author of this performance, is one of those valuable authors who cannot be read without improvement. To a great fund of well-digested reasoning, he adds a clearness of judgment, and a niceness of penetration, capable of taking things from their first principles, and observing their most minute differences. I know few writers more deserving of the great, though prostituted name, of critic; but, like many critics, he is better qualified to instruct, than to execute. His manner appears to me harsh and affected, and his style clouded with obscure metaphors, and needlessly perplexed with expressions exotic, or technical. His excessive praises (not to give them a harsher name) of a certain living critic and divine, disgust the sensible reader, as much as the contempt affected for the same person, by many who are very unqualified to pass a judgment upon him.
  • Edward Gibbon, 'Examination of Dr. Hurd's Commentary upon the Epistles of Horace addressed to the Pisos and to Augustus', in Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Vol. II, ed. Lord Sheffield (1796), p. 27