ago I had the honor of receiving the diploma which bears your signature; and in my view, if the entire value of that document were derived from that revered name, it would be entitled to warmer acknowledgments than my words can convey. I feel, however, greatly indebted to every member of the "Senatus Academicus," as well as to their honored President, for the degree which has been conferred in a manner so kind, and handsome, and indulgent. To you, my Dear Sir, and to the learned body over which you preside, I owe, in some respects, even a greater debt of gratitude than to the University of Glasgow, where I pursued my studies, whose kindness has conferred a similar honor. May I become less unworthy of a distinction which I could never have presumed to solicit!

Through the kindness of our mutual friend, Dr. S., I have had the pleasure of cultivating that kind of acquaintance with you, my Dear Sir, which is rendered practicable by the press. To many of the habitual and powerful workings of your mind I am no stranger. You have assisted me in my feeble efforts to seek a "Heavenly mind." Your Park-st. lectures have given many a vigorous impulse to my thoughts on the great things of God; and this very morning I have perused, with no ordinary emotions, your Murray-st. discourse on "glorying in the Lord." May those energies of intellect which the Father of spirits has awakened and consecrated, long be continued, in unimpaired power, for a blessing to America, to Britain, to the world.

I am beyond expression interested and impressed by the intelligence I have received in reference to the present revivals of religion in your happy and honored country. Oh what a day of glory has dawned upon your churches! Did my family (of four children, now motherless,) and my flock permit, how enraptured I should be to cross the ocean and mingle with you in your joys and thanksgivings and supplications. Oh pray, my Dear Sir, for us, that the blessed influences of the Holy One may thus descend upon the land of your fathers!

With blended emotions, of gratitude, respect, and attachment, believe me to be, Rev. and Dear Sir, very cordially, and faithfully, and obediently, yours,

HENRY FORSTER BURDER.

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE.

It has been the design of the preceding chapters to exhibit Doctor GRIFFIN's general course through life, in connexion with such extracts from his private journal as seemed best adapted to illustrate the various stages of his christian experience. It only remains to present some of the more prominent features of his character a little in detail, and to attempt some general estimate of the extended and diversified influence of his life.

Doctor GRIFFIN was remarkable in his physical conformation. He measured six feet and nearly three inches from the ground, and his frame was every way well proportioned. His gigantic and noble form attracted the attention of strangers as he walked the streets; and when he rose in a great assembly, he towered so much above the rest as to throw around men of ordinary stature an air of insignificance. His countenance was peculiar-expressive both of strong thought and strong feeling; and those who knew him will recognize a faithful delineation, both of his features and his expression, in the engraved portrait prefixed to this memoir. Though he was somewhat feeble in his early child

hood, he ultimately developed a fine constitution, and during much the greater part of his life possessed an uncommon share of physical vigor. It may also be mentioned in this connexion, that he was remarkable, even to the last day of his life, for his habits of personal neatness. "The last sun that shone upon him," says a member of his family, "found him brushing his teeth as thoroughly as he ever did, and his regular shaving and change of apparel were never intermitted."

It is hardly necessary to say that Doctor GRIFFIN was quite as extraordinary in his intellectual character as in his physical powers and proportions. It would perhaps be difficult to say whether the imagination or the reasoning faculty constituted the predominating feature of his mind; for he was one of the rare instances of pre-eminence in both. He seemed equally at home in the heights and in the depths if his mind was prolific of the most magnificent and burning conceptions, it was also capable of pushing the most abstract subject of inquiry to the farthest limit of human investigation. But while his imagination soared high, and his reasoning faculty penetrated far, neither the one nor the other was particularly rapid in its operations. The movements of his mind all partook more of the majesty of the thunder-storm than the impetuosity of the whirlwind.

His intellectual habits were substantially those of every thoroughly disciplined mind. He had no time to devote to useless employments, and his faculties never became rusty from inaction. A do

mestic in his family testifies that she never entered his room without finding him engaged in writing, reading, or prayer. He was also in all things, the smallest as well as the greatest, remarkably attentive to system; and he was never satisfied unless every thing around him occupied its appropriate place, and every thing devolving upon him was done at the proper time. And to these qualities may be added a spirit of uncommon perseverance; a fixed purpose to do well whatever he undertook; to get to the bottom of every subject which he attempted to investigate. During the last year of his life he copied out a little book of hymns, as correctly as if they had been designed for the press; and within a sabbath or two previous to his death, as he was reading some missionary journal, he requested his daughter to hand him his atlas that he might find certain places mentioned in it, and he bent over the map with untiring interest until he had traced the whole course.

Dr. GRIFFIN's dispositions and feelings were so far moulded by the influence of religion, that it was not easy always to distinguish between the man and the christian;-between the elements of nature and the graces of the Spirit. There was, however, a tenderness and generosity and magnanimity about him, which every one felt to be instinctive. He was also naturally of a social turn, and accommodated himself with great felicity to persons of different ages and capacities. In almost every circle into which he was thrown, he was sure to lead the conversation; and yet not in