naval biography; and we have also lengthy Memoirs of Lord St. Vincent, Lord Collingwood, Sir Thomas Munro, Sir John Moore, Sir David Baird, Lord Exmouth, Lord Keppel, &c. On the subject of biography in general, we quote with pleasure an observation by Mr. Carlyle: If an individual is really of consequence enough to have his life and character recorded for public remembrance, we have always been of opinion that the public ought to be made acquainted with all the inward springs and relations of his character. How did the world and man's life, from his particular position, represent themselves to his mind? How did co-existing circumstances modify him from without-how did he modify these from within? With what endeavours and what efficacy rule over them? with what résistance and what suffering sink under them? In one word, what and how produced was the effect of society on him? what and how produced was his effect on society? He who should answer these questions in regard to any individual, would, as we believe, furnish a model of perfection in biography. Few individuals, indeed, can deserve such a study; and many lives will be written, and, for the gratification of innocent curiosity, ought to be written, and read, and forgotten, which are not in this sense biographies.' We have enumerated the most original biographical works of this period; but a complete list of all the Memoirs, historical and literary, that have appeared would fill pages. Two general Biographical Dictionaries have also been published: one in ten volumes quarto, published between the years 1799 and 1815 by Dr. Aikin; and another in thirty-two volumes octavo, re-edited, with great additions, between 1812 and 1816 by Mr. Alexander Chalmers. An excellent epitome was published in 1828, in two large volumes, by John Gorton. A general Biographical Dictionary, or Cyclopædia of Biography,' conducted by Charles Knight (1858), with Supplement' (1872), has been published in seven volumes. In Lardner's Cyclopædia,' Murray's 'Family Library,' and the publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, are some valuable short biographies by authors of established reputation. The Lives of the Scottish Poets' have been published by David Irving (1804-1810); and a 'Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen,' by Robert Chambers, in four volumes octavo (1837), to which a supplemental volume has been added. A more extended and complete general biographical dictionary is still a desideratum. OLOGIANS AND METAPHYSICIAN S. I and biblical literature have made great progress within the ry, but the number of illustrious divines is not great. The hers of the Protestant Church had indeed done so much in heology and practical divinity, that comparatively little was eir successors. DR. PALEY. eatest divine of the period is DR. WILLIAM PALEY, a man kable vigour and clearness of intellect, and originality of . His acquirements as a scholar and churchman were n a homely, shrewd, and benevolent nature, which no cires could materially alter. There was no doubt or obscurity out the man or his works; he stands out in bold relief s brother-divines, like a sturdy oak on a lawn or parterrehard and cross-grained, but sound, fresh, and massivehis neighbours with his weight and bulk, and his intrinsic e. He shall be like a tree that grows Near planted by a river, Which in his season yields his fruit, And his leaf fadeth never. Our old version of the Psalms with respect to the fate of a sman, and Paley was a righteous man whose mind yielded fruit, and whose leaves will never fade. This excellent as born at Peterborough in 1743. His father was afterwards Giggleswick, Yorkshire, and teacher of the grammar-school At the age of fifteen he was entered as sizar at Christ's Colnbridge, and after completing his academical course, he be or in an academy at Greenwich. As soon as he was of sufe, he was ordained to be assistant curate of Greenwich. He wards elected a Fellow of his college, and went thither to ngaging first as tutor. He next lectured in the university on hilosophy and the Greek Testament. Paley's college-friend, -Bishop of Carlisle, presented him with the rectory of MusWestmoreland, and he removed to his country charge, ly £80 per annum. He was soon inducted into the vicarage n, in Cumberland, to a prebend's stall in Carlisle Cathedral, to the archdeaconry of Carlisle. In 1785, appeared his long Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy;' in 1790 his Paulinæ;' and in 1794 his 'View of the Evidences of ChrisFriends and preferment now crowded in on him. The Bishop on (Porteus) made Paley a prebend of St. Paul's; the Bishop In presented him with the sub-deanery of Lincoln; and the uld never grow up to sheep and cows, because the first person that met ld reflect that he had better take them as they are than leave them for prevents contests. id waste, tumult and confusion, must be unavoidable and eternal where ot enough for all, and where there are no rules to adjust the division. improves the conveniency of living. does two ways. It enables mankind to divide themselves into distinct ms, which is impossible, unless a man can exchange the productions of his For what he wants from others, and exchange implies property. Much of atage of civilised over savage life depends upon this. When a man is, from , his own tailor, tent-maker, carpenter, cook, huntsman, and fisherman. it Obable that he will be expert at any of his callings. Hence the rude habitaniture, clothing, and implements of savages, and the tedious length of time their operations require. ewise encourages those arts by which the accommodations of human life are - by appropriating to the artist the benefit of his discoveries and improveithout which appropriation ingenuity will never be exerted with effect. these several accounts we may venture, with a few exceptions, to pronounce the poorest and the worst provided, in countries where property, and the ences of property, prevail, are in a better situation with respect to food, houses, and what are ca led the recessaries of life, than any are in places cost things remain in common. Dalance, therefore, upon the whole, must preponderate in favour of property hanifest and great excess. ality of property, in the degree in which it exists in most countrics of Europe, edly considered, is an evil; but it is an evil which flows from those rules conthe acquisition and disposal of property, by which men are incited to indusby which the object of their industry is rendered secure and valuable. If any great inequality unconnected with this origin, it ought to be corrected. n the same work we give another short extract: Distinctions of Civil Life lost in Church. distinctions of civil life are almost always insisted upon too much, and urged Whatever, therefore, conduces to restore the level, by qualifying the dispohich grow out of great elevation or depression of rank, improves the character sides. Now things are made to appear little by being placed beside what is In which manner, superiorities, that occupy the whole field of the imaginal vanish or shrink to their proper diminutiveness. when compared with the e by which even the highest of men are removed from the Supreme Being, s comparison is naturally introduced by all acts of joint worship. If ever the an holds up his head, it is at church: if ever the rich man views him with ret is there and both will be the better, and the public profited, the oftener they a situation, in which the consciousness of dignity in the one is tempered and ed, and the spirit of the other erected and confirmed. 1802 Paley published his Natural Theology,' his last work. He ed himself in the country with his duties and recreations; he articularly fond of angling; and he mixed familiarly with his bours in all their plans of utility, sociality, and even convivial He disposed of his time with great regularity: in his garden he ed himself to one hour at a time, twice a day; in reading books usement, one hour at breakfast and another in the evening, and or dinner and his newspaper. By thus dividing and husbandHe died on is pleasures, they remained with him to the last. 5th of May 1805. works of a theological or philosophical nature have been so exvely popular among the educated classes of England as those of Paley. His perspicacity of intellect and simplicity of style are almost unrivalled. Though plain and homely, and often inelegant, he has such vigour and discrimination, and such a happy vein of illustration, that he is always read with pleasure and instruction. No reader is ever at a loss for his meaning, or finds him too difficult for comprehension. He had the rare art of popularising the most recondite knowledge, and blending the business of life with philosophy. The principles inculcated in some of his works have been disputed, particularly his doctrine of expediency as a rule of morals, which has been considered as trenching on the authority of revealed religion, and also lowering the standard of public duty. The system of Paley certainly would not tend to foster the great and heroic virtues. In his early life he is reported to have said, with respect to his subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, that he was too poor to keep a conscience;' and something of the same laxness of moral feeling pervades his ethical system. His abhorrence of all hypocrisy and pretence was probably at the root of this error. Like Dr. Johnson, he was a practical moralist, and looked with distrust on any high-strained virtue or enthusiastic devotion. Paley did not write for philosophers or metaphysicians, but for the great body of the people anxious to acquire knowledge, and to be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them.' He considered the art of life to consist in properly setting our habits,' and for this no subtle distinctions or profound theories were necessary. His Moral and Political Philosophy' is framed on this basis of utility, directed by strong sense, a discerning judgment, and a sincere regard for the true end of all knowledge-the well-being of mankind here and hereafter. Of Paley's other works, Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced the following opinion: The most original and ingenious of his writings is the "Hora Pauline." The "Evidences of Christianity" are formed out of an admirable translation of Butler's "Analogy," and a most skilful abridgement of Lardner's "Credibility of the Gospel History." He may be said to have thus given value to two works, of which the first was scarcely intelligible to most of those who were most desirous of profiting by it; and the second soon wearies out the greater part of readers, though the few who are more patient have almost always been gradually won over to feel pleasure in a display of knowledge, probity, charity, and meekness unmatched by an avowed advocate in a cause deeply interesting his warmest feelings. His "Natural Theology" is the wonderful work of a man who, after sixty, had studied anatomy in order to write it.' This is not quite correct. Paley was all his life a student of natural history, taking notes from the works of Ray, Derham, Nieuwentyt, and others; and to these he added his own original observations, clear expression, and arrangement. |