Affistance which they could have hoped for from the nearest Relation.

It being judged neceffary by Mr. SECKER'S Friends that he should have a Degree at Oxford; and he having been informed that if he should previously take the Degree of Doctor in Phyfic at Leyden, it would probably help him in obtaining the other, he went a little before Christmas from London to Rotterdam, and thence to Leyden. He took his Degree there, March 7, 1720-1, and, as Part of his Exercise for it, compofed and printed a Differ tation de Medicina Staticâ, which is ftill extant, and is thought, by the Gentlemen of that Profeffion, a fenfible and learned Performance. GORTER, in his Treatife de perfpiratione infenfibili, printed at Leyden in the Year 1736, makes a short but respectful Mention of it in his Preface. After paying a Visit to Amfterdam he returned by the Way of Helvoetfluys and Harwich to London, and on the Ift of April, 1721, entered himself a Gentleman-Commoner of Exeter College in Oxford; about a Twelvemonth after which he obtained the Degree of Batchelor of Arts in that Univerfity, without any Difficulty, in Confequence of the Chancellor's recommendatory Letter to the Convocation.

He

He now spent a confiderable Part of his Time in London, where he quickly gained the Efteem of fome of the most learned and ingenious Men of thofe Days, particularly of Dr. CLARKE, Rector of St. James's, and the celebrated Dean BERKELEY, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, with whom he every Day became more delighted and more closely connected, He paid frequent Vifits of Gratitude and Friendship to Mrs. TALBOT, Widow of Mr. EDWARD TALBOT, by whom she had a Daughter five Months after his Decease. With her lived Mrs. CATHARINE BENSON, Sifter to Bishop BENSON, whom in Remany fpects fhe greatly refembled. She had been for feveral Years Mrs. TALBOT's infeparable Companion, and was of unfpeakable Service to her at the Time of her Hufband's Death, by exerting all her Courage, Activity, and good Senfe, (of which he poffeffed a large Share) to fupport her Friend under fo great an Affliction; and by afterwards attending her fickly Infant with the utmost Care and Tendernefs, to which, under Providence, was owing the Preservation of a very valuable Life.

Bishop TALBOT being in November 1721 appointed to the See of Durham, Mr. SECKER was in December 1722 ordained Deacon by

him in St. James's Church, and Priest not long after in the fame Place, where he preached his firft Sermon, March 28, 1723. The Bishop's domestic Chaplain at that Time was Dr. RUNDLE, a Man of warm Fancy, and very brilliant Conversation, but apt fometimes to be carried by the Vivacity of his Wit into indifcreet and ludicrous Expreffions, which created him Enemies, and on one Occafion produced difagreeable Confequences. With him Mr. SECKER was foon after afsociated in the Bishop's Family, and both taken down by his Lordship to Durham in July 1723.

On the Death of Sir GEORGE WHELER, in 1723-4, the Bishop gave his Prebend of Durham to Mr. BENSON, and the Rectory of Houghton le Spring to Mr. SECKER. This valuable Piece of Preferment putting it in his Power to fix himself in the World in a Manner agreeable to his Inclinations, he foon after made a Propofal of Marriage to Mrs. BENSON abovementioned; which being accepted they were married by Bishop TALBOT in KingStreet Chapel, October 28, 1725. At the earneft Defire of both, Mrs. TALBOT and her Daughter confented to live with them, and the two Families from that Time became

one.

Not

Not long before this, Bishop TALBOT had given the Rectory of Haughton near Darlington, to Mr. BUTLER. There was a Neceffity for rebuilding a great Part of the ParfonageHouse, and Mr. BUTLER had neither Money nor Talents for that Work. Mr. SECKER therefore, who had his Friends always in his Thoughts, and was now in great Favour with his Patron, perfuaded him to give Mr. BUTLER, in Exchange for Haughton, the Rectory of Stanhope, which was of much greater Value, and without any fuch Incumbrance. In the Winter of 1725-6 Mr. BUTLER published the first Edition of his incomparable Sermons. Mr. SECKER took much Pains to render his Stile more familiar, and his Meaning more obvious. Yet they were at last by many called obfcure. But whatever requires Attention is not of Course obfcure. No one (as Dr. CLARKE rightly obferved on this Occafion) ever imputed Obfcurity to Euclid's Elements. Difficulties they may have, but Difficulties foon mastered by the Degree of Attention which fuch Subjects require.—Mr. SECKER gave his Friend the fame Affiftance in the Difcourfe prefixed to the Second Edition, and alfo in that noble Work, which he afterwards published, The Analogy of Religion, Natural

and

and Revealed, to the Conftitution and Courfe of Nature.

1

He now gave up all the Time he poffibly could to his Refidence at Houghton. He applied himself with Alacrity to all the Duties of a Country Clergyman, and fupported that useful and refpectable Character throughout with the stricteft Propriety. He omitted Nothing which he thought could be of Ufe to the Souls and Bodies of the People entrusted to his Care. He brought down his Converfation and his Sermons to the Level of their Understandings; he vifited them in private, he catechifed the young and ignorant, he received his Country Neighbours and Tenants kindly and hofpitably, and was of great Service to the poorer Sort of them by his Skill in Phyfic, which was the only Ufe he ever made of it. Though this Place was in a very remote Part of the World, yet the Solitude of it perfectly suited his studious Disposition, and the Income arifing from it bounded his Ambition. Here he would have been content to live and die; here, as he has often been heard to declare, he spent fome of the happiest Hours of his Life; and it was no Thought or Choice of his own that removed him to a

higher and more public Sphère. But Mrs.

SECKER'S