most interesting figure." In his demeanour, as in his countenance, "there was a cheerfulness mingled with gravity,-a sprightliness which was the natural result of an unusual flow of spirits, and was yet accompanied by every mark of the most serene tranquillity." Dr Johnson described Mr Wesley's conversation as 'good,' a word sufficiently indicative of his opinion of it; and, on one occasion, having regretted that he spent so little time with him, on a visit, Mrs Hall said, "Why, doctor, my brother has been with you two hours." He replied, "Two hours, madam! I could talk all day, and all night too, with your brother."

As a preacher, he had many qualifications in common with other eminent men, but some peculiar to himself. His attitude in the pulpit was graceful and easy; his action calm and natural, yet pleasing and expressive; his voice not loud, but clear and manly; his style neat, simple, and perspicuous, and admirably adapted to the capacity of his hearers. His sermons were always short: he was seldom more than half-an-hour in delivering a discourse, sometimes not so long. Of the manner and effect of his preaching, the following is an example: The late Rev. Mr Madan was educated for the bar. Some of his companions requested him one evening to go and hear Wesley, who, they were informed, was to preach in the neighbourhood, and then to return to them and exhibit his manner and discourse for their entertainment. With that intention he went to the house of God. Just as he entered the place, Mr Wesley read as his text, Prepare to meet thy God!' Amos iv. 12. with a solemnity of accent which excited his attention, and produced a seriousness which increased as he proceeded in exhorting his hearers to repentance. Madan returned to the coffee-room, and was asked by his companions, "if he had taken off the old Methodist." He replied, "No, gentlemen, but he has taken me off!" and from that time forsook their company, and became an eminently useful minister.

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The following spirited character of Wesley is given by Nichols, in the fifth volume of his Literary Anecdotes: "Where much good is done, we should not mark every little excess. The great point in which Mr Wesley's name and mission will be honoured is this: he directed his labours towards those who had no instructor,-to the highways and hedges,-to the miners in Cornwall, and to the colliers in Kingswood. These unhappy creatures married and buried among themselves, and often committed murders with impunity, before the Methodists sprang up. By the humane and active endeavours of him, and his brother Charles, a sense of decency, morals, and religion, was introduced into the lowest classes of mankind; the ignorant were instructed, the wretched relieved, and the abandoned reclaimed. He met with great opposition from many of the clergy; and unhandsome treatment from the magistrates, who frequently would refuse to check or punish a lawless mob, that often assembled to insult or abuse him. He was, however, one of the few characters who outlive enmity and prejudice, and received, in his latter years, every mark of respect from every denomination. His personal influence was greater than, perhaps, that of any other private gentleman in any country. It was computed that, in 1791, there were in the three kingdoms 80,000 members of this society. He visited them alternately, travelling 8,000 miles every year, -preached three or four times constantly in one day,-rose at four,

and employed all his time in reading, writing, attending the sick, and arranging the various parts of this numerous body of people. Amongst his virtues, forgiveness to his enemies, and liberality to the poor, were most remarkable; he has been known to receive into even his confidence those who have basely injured him; they have not only subsisted again on his bounty, but shared in his affection. All the profit of his literary labours, all that he received, or could collect, (and it amounted to an immense sum, for he was his own printer and bookseller,) was devoted to charitable purposes. Yet with such opportunities of enriching himself, it was doubtful whether the sale of the books would pay all his debts. His travelling expenses were defrayed by the societies which he visited. On a review of the character of this extraordinary man, it appears that, though he was endowed with eminent talents, he was more distinguished by their use than even by their possession. Though his taste was classic, and his manners elegant, he sacrificed that society in which he was particularly calculated to shine,-gave up those preferments which his abilities must have obtained, and devoted a long life in practising and enforcing the plainest duties. Instead of being an ornament to literature,' he was a blessing to his fellow-creatures; instead of the genius of the age,' he was the servant of God.' ”

Bishop Horne.

BORN A. D. 1730.-DIED A. d. 1792.

GEORGE HORNE, bishop of Norwich, was born on the 1st of November, 1730, at Otham, near Maidstone in Kent, where his father was rector. Of a family of four sons and three daughters, he was the second son, and his education was commenced at home, under the instruction of his father. At thirteen, having made a good proficiency, he was sent to school at Maidstone under the Rev. Deotatus Bye, a man of good principles; and, at little more than fifteen, being elected to a Maidstone scholarship at University college, Oxford, he went thither to reside. About the time when he took his bachelor's degree, in consequence of a strong recommendation from his own college, he was elected to a Kentish fellowship at Magdalen. On June 1st, 1752, he took his master's degree, and in the year following he was ordained by the bishop of Oxford, and soon after preached his first sermon for his friend and biographer, Mr Jones, at Finedon in Northamptonshire.

At the early age of nineteen Horne had imbibed a very favourable opinion of the sentiments of Mr Hutchinson, which he afterwards adopted and disseminated without disguise. Supported by the learning and zeal of his friends, Mr Watson of University college, Dr Hodges, provost of Oriel, and Dr Patten of Corpus, he ably vindicated Hutchinson's principles against the invectives to which their novelty exposed them. That part, however, of the Hutchinsonian controversy which relates to Hebrew etymology was discountenanced by Horne, as in a great measure fanciful and arbitrary. His Apology' has been universally admired for its temper, learning, and good sense. The question agitated seems rather to involve the very essence of religion, than to concern Mr Hutchinson or his principles. The pamphlet which called forth the

apology was attributed by the public in general, and by Horne himself, to Mr Kennicott of Exeter college, a man who had distinguished himself by an accurate acquaintance with the Hebrew, and two masterly dissertations, one on The Tree of Life,' the other on The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel.'

Horne next took an active part in the controversy with Kennicott, on the propriety of collating the text of the Hebrew Bible with such manuscripts as could then be procured, in order to reform the text, and prepare it for a new translation into the English language. Horne strongly objected to the proposal, from a persuasion, among other serious reasons, that the wide principle upon which it was to be conducted might endanger the interest of genuine Christianity. He conceived that the unsound criticism to which the text would be liable by this measure, might afford some additional pretexts for the sceptical cavils of those, who, with affectation of superior learning, had already shown themselves active in discovering imaginary_corruptions. About 1756 he had planned and begun to execute his Commentary on the Psalms,' which he did not complete and publish until twenty years after. It was a work in which he always proceeded with pleasure, and on which he delighted to dwell and meditate.

Soon after the publication of this valuable work, Dr Horne, feeling much concern at the progress of infidelity, to which the writings of Hume, now in great repute, seemed in no small degree to contribute, endeavoured to undeceive the world with respect to the pretended cheerfulness and tranquillity of the last moments of this unbelieving philosopher. He addressed an anonymous Letter to Dr Adam Smith,' in which, with clear and sound argument, and the most perfect natural good humour, he overthrows the artificial account given in Mr Hume's life, by allusions to certain well-founded anecdotes concerning him, which are totally inconsistent with it.

In 1784 this letter was followed by his 'Letters on Infidelity,' which abound with instruction and entertainment, and are exceedingly welladapted both to arm the minds of youth against the dangerous tendency of philosophizing infidelity, and to counteract any impressions which its specious garb and licentious easy temper may have already made. The unsoundness of Mr Hume's opinions, and the futility of his arguments, are displayed in so happy a strain of ridicule, "That none," says one of his biographers, "but an unbeliever can be angry, or even feel displeased." The latter part of these letters is employed in attempting to show the fallacy of some miscellaneous objections against Christianity, brought forward by a modern advocate for infidelity.

On a vacancy happening in his college in 1768, he was elected to the office of president of that society. Nearly at the same time he married the daughter of Philip Burton, Esq. of Eltham, in Kent, by whom he had three daughters. The public situation of Mr Horne now made it proper for him to proceed to the degree of D.D.; and he was also appointed one of the chaplains to the king. In 1776 Dr Horne was elected vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford, which office he held for the customary period of four years. In this situation he became known to Lord North the chancellor, and this, it is probable, prepared the way to his subsequent elevation. In 1781, the very year

after the expiration of his office of vice-chancellor, he was made dean of Canterbury, and would willingly have relinquished his cares at Ox. ford to reside altogether in his native county of Kent; but he yielded to the judgment of a prudent friend, who advised him to retain his situation at Magdalen. In 1789, on the translation of Bishop Bagot to St Asaph, Dr Horne was advanced to the episcopal dignity, and succeeded him in the see of Norwich. Unhappily, though he was no more than fifty-nine, he had already begun to suffer much from infirmities. "Alas!" said he, observing the large flight of steps which lead into the palace of Norwich, "I am come to these steps at a time of life when I can neither go up them nor down them with safety!" The diocese was not to be long benefited by his piety and zeal. Even the charge which he composed for his primary visitation at Norwich, he was unable to deliver; and it was printed "as intended to have been delivered." From two visits to Bath he had received sensible benefit, and was meditating a third in the autumn of 1791, which he had been requested not to delay too long. He did, however, delay it too long, and was visited by a paralytic stroke on the road to that place. He completed his journey, though very ill; and, for a short time, was so far recovered as to walk daily to the pump-room; but the hopes of his friends and family were of short duration, for on the 17th of January, 1792, in the sixty-second year of his age, he expired.

It does not often fall to the lot of the biographer to record the life of a man so blameless in character and conduct as Bishop Horne. Whatever might be his peculiar opinions on some points, he was undoubtedly a sincere and exemplary Christian; and as a scholar, a writer, and a preacher, a man of no ordinary qualifications. The cheerfulness of his disposition is often marked by the vivacity of his writings, and the sincerity of his heart is everywhere conspicuous in them.

The works of Bishop Horne amount to a good many articles, which we shall notice in chronological order:—1. The Theology and Philosophy in Cicero's Somnium Scipionis explained, or a brief attempt to demonstrate that the Newtonian system is perfectly agreeable to the notions of the wisest ancients, and that mathematical principles are the only sure ones.' Lond. 1751, 8vo.-2. A fair, candid, and impartial state of the Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr Hutchinson,' &c. Oxford, 1753, 8vo.-3. Spicilegium Shuckfordianum, or a Nosegay for the Critics,' &c. Lond., 1754, 12mo.-4. Christ and the Holy Ghost the Supporters of the Spiritual Life,' &c. two sermons preached before the university of Oxford, 1755, 8vo.-5. The Almighty justified in Judgment.' A sermon, 1756.-6. An Apology for certain Gentlemen in the university of Oxford, aspersed in a late anonymous Pamphlet.' 1756, 8vo.-7. A view of Mr Kennicott's method of correcting the Hebrew text,' &c. Oxford, 1760, 8vo.-8. Considerations on the Life and Death of John the Baptist.' Oxford, 1772, 8vo. This pleasing tract contained the substance of several sermons preached annually at Magdalen college in Oxford, the course of which had commenced in 1755. A second edition in 12mo. was published at Oxford in 1777.-9. Considerations on the projected Reformation of the Church of England. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Lord North, by a Clergyman. Lond., 1772, 4to.-10. A Commentary on the Book of Psalms,' &c. &c. Oxford, 1776, 2 vols. 4to. Reprinted in 8vo. in

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1778, and three times since. With what satisfaction this good man composed this pious work, may best be judged from the following passage in his preface:-" Could the author flatter himself that any one would have half the pleasure in reading the following exposition, which he hath had in writing it, he would not fear the loss of his labour. The employment detached him from the bustle and hurry of life, the din of politics, and the noise of folly. Vanity and vexation flew away for a season, care and disquietude came not near his dwelling. He arose fresh as the morning to his task; the silence of the night invited him to pursue it, and he can truly say that food and rest were not preferred before it. Every psalm improved infinitely on his acquaintance with it, and no one gave him uneasiness but the last, for then he grieved that his work was done. Happier hours than those which have been spent in these meditations on the songs of Sion he never expects to see in this world. Very pleasantly did they pass, and move smoothly and swiftly along; for when thus engaged he counted no time. They have gone, but have left a relish and fragrance on the mind, and the remembrance of them is sweet."-11. A Letter to Adam Smith, LL. D. on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of David Hume, Esq., by one of the people called Christians.' Oxford, 1777, 12mo.-12. Discourses on several subjects and occasions.' Oxford, 1779, 2 vols. 8vo. These sermons have gone through many editions.-13. 'Letters on Infidelity.' Oxford, 1784, 12mo.-14. Duty of contending for the Faith, Jude, ver. 3; preached at the primary visitation of the most reverend John, Lord-archbishop of Canterbury, July 1st, 1786. To which is subjoined a Discourse on the Trinity in Unity, Matth. xxviii. 19.' 1786, 4to. These sermons, with fourteen others, preached on particular occasions, and all published separately, were collected into one volume, 8vo, at Oxford, in 1795. The two have also been published in 12mo by the society for promoting Christian knowledge.-15. A Letter to the Rev. Dr Priestley, by an Under-graduate.' Oxford, 1787.-16. Observations on the Case of the Protestant Dissenters, with reference to the Corporation and Test Acts.' Oxford, 1790, 8vo.-17. Charge intended to have been delivered to the Clergy of Norwich at the primary visitation.' 1791, 4to.-18.' Discourses on several subjects and occasions. Oxford, 1794, 8vo, vols. 3 and 4,-a posthumous publication. A uniform edition of these and his other works, with his life, by Mr Jones, has been printed in 6 vols. 8vo. Besides these, might be enumerated several occasional papers in different periodical publications, particularly the papers signed Z. in the Olla Podrida,'—a periodical work, conducted by Mr S. Monro, a demy of Magdalen college, Oxford.

"Dr Horne," says a recent writer, "was a man of unaffected piety, cheerful temper, great learning, and, notwithstanding his propensity to jesting, dignified manners. He was much beloved in Magdalen college, of which he was president; the chief complaint against him being, that he did not reside the whole of the time in every year that the statutes required. He resigned his headship on being promoted from the deanery of Canterbury to the see of Norwich: the alleged reason was the incompatibility of the duties,-though other heads of houses, when made bishops, have retained their academical situations. He never manifested the least ill-humour himself and repressed it, but with gentleness, in