and obedience? How is it proved that it may not answer, in some other way unknown to us, a benevolent end, in promoting God's moral government of the universe?"

There is an affecting sermon by our Author, relative to this subject, No. 31, upon the Terrors of the Lord. As the reader's reflection cannot fail to have been excited upon this awful topic, he will pardon me for introducing to him a quotation from Bouhours. "The reason that St. Bernard gives for the eternal punishment of a sin, that sometimes lasts but for a moment, is equally ingenious and solid. The temporal sin of an inflexible and obstinate will is doubtless eternally punished, because though it is short in regard to the time, or the action, it is of long duration in regard to an obstinate will; so that the guilty person would never have ceased to have desired to sin, if he had never died; or rather he would have desired always to have lived, that he might have had always the power of sinning. Therefore one may say of him, adds the saint, that in a little space he filled up the measure of endless time; so that, as he never desired to change his design in any time, he deserved to suffer the punishment of his sin through all time."

Athough Paley carried away the palm of senior wrangler, his honours for some time were but barren and unprofitable to him. It might have been expected, even by those who set no very high value on learning, that the youth, whom Alma Mater had distinguished as one of the first of her scholars, she would not with parental ingratitude have dismissed to toil in the slavery of a school. In the present day, Cambridge, no doubt, could find some more honourable and lucrative employment for a senior wrangler; although many such scholars as the accom plished Gray, she would abandon without compunction to indigence and neglect. In 1763, even the top of the Tripos seems to have been rather a frigid and comfortless elevation; for the first reward of Paley's labours, was only to be recommended by his tutor for the situation of second assistant in an academy at Greenwich, kept by Mr. Bracken. The reader who delights in biography, will recollect that similar occupations of scholastic drudgery were filled even by Dr. Goldsmith and Dr. Johnson, two of the ablest writers in our language. But this took place before the bright talents of these great authors had emerged into notice; and their fate, though severe, is less a subject of wonder, as no university had crowned them with her dusky laurels. However, Paley was happy under circumstances which would have made many scholars miserable. His employment was teaching the Latin language, which gave him what he stood in need of, an opportunity of improvement in classical knowledge. His chief pleasures consisted in visiting the theatres and frequenting courts of justice; tastes which originated early, and abided with him through life. So little was he oppressed with the irksomeness of his situation, and so humble was the sphere of his wishes, that he often declared that "the rank of first assistant in the academy was then the highest object of his ambition."

The subject of an author's first production usually discovers the natural bias of his genius. But the eccentricities of the human mind are innumerable, and imagination would weary itself in divining what was the early birth of Paley's talent. His first known composition, we are assured, was a Poem in the manner of Ossian. It is singular enough to observe the genius, which in maturity relished nothing but the strictest realities of truth, employed in conjuring up the shadowy spectres of imagination; the intellect of Paley, which was all light and clearness, enveloping itself in the dense mistiness of Ossian. His next literary attempt was once more correspondent to our expectations. The representatives of the university give four annual prizes of fifteen guineas each, which are adjudged by the vice-chancellor and heads of colleges, to two senior and two middle Bachelors of Arts, who shall compose the best dissertations in Latin prose. For one of these rewards Paley, who was a senior bachelor, offered himself a candidate in 1765. The subject was, to institute a comparison between the Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, with respect to the influence of each on the morals of a people. Paley gave the preference to the Epicurean philosophy; considered of course in its genuine purity, freed from those calumnies with which its enemies had aspersed + Pensées ingénieuses des P. P. de l'Eglise.

it, and divested of those additions with which it had been encumbered by its friends. The success of the essay was endangered by the English notes that were affixed to it. These gave rise to a suspicion that the Author might have been assisted by his father, some country clergyman, who having forgotten his Latin, had written the notes in English. Dr. Powell, master of St. John's College, gave his verdict in favour of the performance, alledging that "it contained more matter than was to be found in all the others; that it would be unfair to reject such a dissertation merely on suspicion; since the notes were applicable to the subject, and shewed the Author to be a young man of the most promising abilities and extensive reading." The majority of the heads confirming this opinion, the first prize was awarded to Paley.

He shewed both modesty and taste in his choice of a motto for the essay. The following words, which he selected, express the anxious feelings of many a candidate for honours :

Non jam prima peto Mnestheus, neque vincere certo,

Quamquam O!

Eneid. v. 194.

His success was communicated to his friend Mr. Stoddart, in a letter without date or name, and the brevity of which even a Spartan might commend. The whole of it was this: "Io triumphe! Chamberlayne is second.". He had reason to exult at his victory over Mr. Chamberlayne, as this gentleman was an eminent classical scholar, and had gained the first members' prize in the year preceding. The brevity of Paley's epistolary correspondence is thus noticed by one of his friends. "In his younger days, he was very averse to writing letters. I have often paid a penny a line for his correspondence, relating chiefly to college business, and once a penny a word. He used to say in his jocular manner, that 'letters to friends answered no other purpose than to shew a man's wit, or to express the sincerity of his friendship. My friends,' added he, are well convinced that I possess both.""

His bachelor's essay, though not distinguished for elegant Latinity, has been extolled for the vigour of thought and the justness of reasoning which it exhibited. The conclusion contains an imitation of a noble sentence of Locke's,* and pronounces a splendid but just eulogy of our Christian faith.

"Illuxit aliquando religio, cujus auctor est Deus, cujus materia veritas, cujus finis est felicitas, Religio aliquando illuxit, quæ Stoæ paradoxon in principiis verè Epicureis fundari voluit. Sufficit ad felicitatem virtus, virtutis tamen finis est felicitas. Stabile denique quiddam est in quo pedem figamus, petetque nil veterem potuisse disciplinam, nil non perfecisse Christianam." "At length there hath shone upon us a religion, which has God for its author, truth for its matter, and happiness for its end. At length there hath shone upon us a religion, which, on principles truly Epicurean, establishes the Stoical paradox of the sufficiency of virtue. Virtue alone is now sufficient for our happiness in this world; and yet happiness in another world is the proper end and motive of all virtue in this.t We have, therefore, at last, a foundation on which we may firmly rest; and it is evident, that as by the doctrines of ancient philosophy, little or nothing was done for the good of mankind, so nothing has been left undone for it by Christianity." With such sentiments of admiration towards the religion he was to inculcate, Paley entered into holy orders; and served the curacy of Greenwich, under Dr. Hinchliffe, after bishop of Peterborough. Thinking himself injured in the distribution of some money sent by the parents of the pupils, as presents to the different assistants, he quitted the academy of Mr. Braken. In this there was nothing to be regretted except the dissension: sagacity and genius have little scope afforded them in a school; without an uncommon share of patience and temper, they even disqualify a person for the toil of incessant teaching.

* His words are, with respect to the New Testament; "It has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter."-Locke's Works, vol x. p. 306.

+ See the Author's Moral Philosophy, vol. i. chap. 7. Virtue is the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness.

In June, 1766, Paley was elected Fellow of Christ's College; and thus received the reward long due to his 1ank on the Tripos. He was now induced to become resident in the university, and to lend his assistance to Dr. Shepherd in the tuition of the college. His partner in this office was Mr. John Law, a gentleman distinguished for high attainments, and who through life was attached to our Author with all the cordiality of the most intimate friendship. His father was Dr. Edmund Law, master of Peter-House, who, upon his promotion to the see of Carlisle in 1769, shewed his regard for Paley, by appointing him to the station of his chaplain. This prelate's third son, Edward, the late Lord Ellenborough, was aided in no small degree by Mr. Paley, in the successful cultivation of those talents which raised him to the high judicial rank of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In congratulating the judge upon his rapid advancement, our Author paid him rather a quaint compliment: "Your Lordship has risen higher and sooner than any man of whom I have lately heard, except M. Garnerin," the French aeronaut. In 1771, a circumstance took place, that called forth from Mr. Paley, and Mr. Law, a display of virtuous intrepidity, which, considering their youth, no panegyrist can too warmly commend.* "When the hall of Christ's College, which had been promised through the interest of Dr. Shepherd, was fitting up for a benefit concert for Ximenes, a Spainsh musician, warmly patronized by Lord Sandwich; Mr. Paley and Mr. Law peremptorily insisted that the promise should be recalled, unless satisfactory assurance was given that a lady, then living with his Lordship, and who had been openly distributing tickets, should not be permitted to attend. At first the senior tutor, who was in habits of intimacy with Lord Sandwich, objected to the idea of excluding any lady from a public concert; but afterward, when they urged, that, standing in a public situation, as the instructors of youth, it was their duty to discountenance every sort of immorality, and threatened to appeal to the society in case of his refusal, the assurance was given, and the arrangements allowed to proceed."

In April, 1771, Mr. Paley first appeared as one of the preachers at the Royal Chapel, Whitehall. The following year he and Mr. Law were admitted to an equal share, with Dr. Shepherd, of the emoluments as well as labours of college tuition. This was but common justice; for no tutors could be gifted with greater skill in awakening and improving the faculties of their pupils, and few ever shewed such a conscientious regard to their moral purity. endeavour of these upright men, to repair the laxity of college discipline, to place It was the zealous some reasonable control upon youth, and not to allow them, just emancipated from school, and glowing with the vehemence of passion, to adjust their time and pursuits by their own blind inclination. In the distribution of the duties of the lecture-room, the mathematical department was assigned to Mr. Law; his colleague lectured upon ethics, divinity, and metaphysics. In the province of instruction Paley excelled. He was convinced, that although his authority might collect together a certain number of young men, he should have few but listless and indolent auditors, if his art did not stimulate them to take an interest in the subjects of discussion. He used to begin, therefore, by suggesting difficulties, and exciting doubts in their minds; judging that when their curiosity was awakened, that would impel them forward in the direction he desired. The idle and the indifferent were made to undergo a mortifying chastisement. The close, pointed, and persevering questions of the lecturer, aided by the mirth of the pupils, prepared a species of mental torture for the ignorant, which few would be hardy enough to encounter. The metaphysical lectures began with Locke's incomparable Essay; Clarke on the Attributes, and Butler's Analogy, followed: and the abstruseness of all these books he relieved by familiar illustrations, and a free paraphrase in his own perspicuous style. In his ethical lectures he is said to have advanced the leading tenets and principles, which he afterward fully developed in his great work upon Moral and Political Philosophy. Sunday and Wednesday evenings were reserved for explication of parts of the Greek Testament: and it was his custom to recommend to theological students, the perusal of

See Meadley's Life of Paley, which has been consulted all along for facts. In these his accuracy has not been questioned; although every one will not be disposed to concur with him in his inferences and observations.

Locke on the Reasonableness of Christianity, on the Epistles. Some such course of study as this, of which we have given the outline, every man of liberal education might pursue with advantage. It would invigorate his understanding, and increase his powers of thinking and judging, far better than many parts of the mathematics. It would teach him (what men of all professions are concerned to know) the general properties of his own mind, the relations in which he stands to the highest and the lowest of intellectual beings, and the indestructible basis on which he may build his hope of a complete and permanent happiness hereafter. We regret that in the first public transaction with which Mr. Paley's name is connected, his conduct should appear of that equivocal nature, which the most candid person cannot approve. In 1772, a petition was presented to the house of commons, praying for relief from subscription to the thirty-nine articles of the church. This was signed by gentlemen of the professions of law and physic, and by about two hundred clergymen. In the house, the subject created some warm discussion, and the petition was finally rejected by a very large majority. As to the mere abstract question of the propriety or injustice of subscription, it would be unpardonable in this place to revive a dormant controversy; we are concerned only with the conduct of Mr. Paley. "Though personally attached to many of the reforming party, and avowedly favourable to their claims on this occasion, he declined signing the petition for relief. When urged by his friends upon the subject, he used jocularly to allege, that he could not afford to keep a conscience." For any one to defend prevarication by the example of our Author, would be the most wanton injustice. Paley understood the value of conscience as well as the most upright man could do; for there have been few persons who have passed through life with a character so generally estimable for integrity. In the single instance before us, he behaved with more caution than spirit, more reserve than sincerity. It is much easier to justify his apology, than his conduct. For though it would be illiberal to censure his remark as any thing more culpable than one of those flippant speeches, which the wisest men often utter in the levity of conversation; how can we acquit him for subjecting himself to the necessity of evading by a joke, what he could not answer with reason? If he sincerely thought that the repeal of the subscription would be serviceable to the cause of truth and religious liberty; was it manly and honourable to shelter himself from the open dangers of the contest, and leave them to be encountered entirely by others?

In the controversy which ensued upon the subject, Mr. Paley interfered; but with a discretion, of which others set the example, he concealed his name. In January, 1774, a pamphlet appeared, with the title of "Considerations on the Propriety of requiring a Subscription to Articles of Faith;" which, though published anonymously, was discovered to be from the pen of the Bishop of Carlisle. An anonymous reply, called " An Answer to the Considerations," was written by Dr. Thomas Randolph, president of Corpus Christi College; who in a charge given by him as archdeacon of Oxford in 1771, had vindicated the reasonable. ness of requiring subscription. Mr. Paley having now an opportunity of asserting his opinions, and at the same time of maintaining the cause of his venerable friend, published a "Defence of the Considerations." This pamphlet, written with a spirit of contemptuous superiority, and in the boldest tone of latitudinarian inquiry, we ascribe to our Author merely in deference to common opinion, which has so assigned it. What were Mr. Paley's mature and dispassionate sentiments upon the questions in agitation, we may collect from his chapter on Subscription, in the third book of his Moral Philosophy, and from the one upon Religious Establishments, in his last book of the same work.

In June, 1774, he was separated from his coadjutor, Mr. Law, who was advanced to a prebendal stall in his father's diocess. Shortly after, our Author himself tasted the first-fruits of the same bishop's patronage, being inducted in May, 1775, to the rectory of Musgrove, in Westmoreland, a small benefice, not more than 80%. a year in value.

In 1776, some judicious and interesting Observations upon the Character and Example of Christ, and the Morality of the Gospel, were published by Paley at Cambridge. These were originally designed as a summary and appendix to the Bishop of Carlisle's Reflections on the Life and Character of our Saviour.

Mr. Paley soon availed himself of his ecclesiastical preferment, however small, for the purpose of changing his condition. This year, June the 6th, he was married to Miss Jane Hewitt, a young lady of the city of Carlisle, who has been described as both pleasing and handsome. In relinquishing his academical duties, he might reflect with enviable satisfaction upon the conduct he had pursued in the university. A college fellowship had not been to him a post of dozing and unimproving indolence, nor tuition a selfish scheme of personal aggrandizement. He had given his approbation and support to those plans, which were suggested (though without success) for the improvement of university discipline, for diversifying the course of study, and appointing annual examinations. His own college, where his power was less controlled, he raised to an unprecedented eminence by his assiduous, upright, and skilful management. He was now to exchange the office of tutor for the less ostentatious duties of village priest; but great as the transition may seem, it was so far from injuring his comfort, that he often declared that he had passed some of the happiest days of his life at Musgrove. He was an incorrigible disciple of Isaac Walton; and the river Eden flowing near him, offered its stream for the indulgence of his innocent amusement. Exercised by persons of a barren and vacant mind, angling perhaps deserves little milder censure than idling; but when it is followed by one of Paley's ruminating disposition, why may we not honour it with Walton's title of the "Contemplative Man's Recreation?" Our Author certainly was not ashamed of his amusement, for when his portrait was taken by Romney, he was drawn with the insignia of art-rod and line in his hand. He had recourse also to farming for the sake of occupation, but in this project he was quite unsuccessful. "I soon found," said he, "that this would never do; I was a bad farmer, and almost invariably lost."

The Bishop of Carlisle's patronage, though small, descended upon him with rapidity. Before the end of this year (1776,) he was inducted into the vicarage of Dalston in Cumberland, the value of which was about 901. per annum. In September of the following year, he was presented by the dean and chapter of Carlisle to a more substantial benefice, the vicarage of St. Lawrence, Appleby, which produced the annual income of about 2001. Having vacated the rectory of Musgrove, he resided six months alternately at Appleby and Dalston.

Before his presentation to Appleby, he had preached in the cathedral of Carlisle, at the episcopal visitation, a sermon upon the necessity of caution in the use and application of Scripture language. This was afterward published: and his next work is a pleasing proof of the serious attention which he seems to have paid to the humble but important duties of a parochial minister. Those who discharge the sacred functions of religion, find, perhaps, no part of their office more painful at the first trial, than visiting the sick. At the moment they should guide themselves with the greatest composure, sincerity, and affection, they are most liable to be disturbed by their feelings, and lose the power of adapting their prayers and advice to the condition of different sufferers. Feeling, we may believe, such embarrassments in the exercise of his own duties at Appleby, our Author published a very serviceable manual, called, The Clergyman's Companion in visiting the Sick. This work, compiled from the book of Common Prayer, and the writings of eminent divines, was at first printed anonymously, and has passed through numerous editions.

He rendered another service to the ministers of the church, and to the junior part especially, in publishing an admonitory Sermon to the young Clergy of the Diocess of Carlisle, preached at a general Ordination holden at Rose Castle, July 29th, 1781. In this discourse the Author does not dissipate the force of his advice in loose and general exhortation: he is minute enough to be useful, de scending to those particular vices which are most dangerous to the sacred profes sion, and enumerating the habits and qualifications which are its chief ornament. Those who are preparing for holy orders should have recourse to this work, as a correct standard by which they may examine their resolutions. Until they can hope and determine scrupulously to conform their actions to it, they should not venture to assume the gown, which they are likely to dishonour.

Every friend of merit will rejoice to see dignities and emoluments alighting