Note 850 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

From 1798 on, Bentley’s Diary is replete with ill-tempered and abusive references to Morse. Cf. for example, vol. ii, pp. 278, 291, 296, 302, 329, 334, 384, 391; vol. iii. pp. 9, 32, 141, 149, 217, 218, 342, 357 et seq., 431; vol. iv, pp. 209, 241. Bentley’s enthusiastic devotion to Freemasonry and his rancorous republicanism were largely responsible for his personal feeling towards Morse; but there also appears to have been a disagreeable and petty personal element in the situation. Bentley was peevish and spiteful towards Morse because he believed that the latter had stirred up one of the creditors of the elder Bentley to attempt to collect a debt from the son. Cf. Bentley, Diary, vol. iv, pp. 241 et seq. Even before the Illuminati agitation broke out in New England, Bentley found it impossible to repress his low opinion of Morse as a geographer and as a man. Cf. ibid., vol. ii, pp. 64, 70.