might in his present circumstances require, advising him, at the same time, to a speedy reconciliation with his family." Dr. Paley enjoyed the gratification of having both his parents witnesses of his literary fame and honourable success in life. His mother did not die till the year 1796; the father, who had predicted the eminence of his son, still later. This gentleman, who was one of the most veteran of schoolmasters, was also considered by Dr. Paley as the oldest beneficed clergyman in the kingdom; as he had possessed the vicarage of Helpstone no less than sixty-four years. To the memory of this useful man and his consort, a small brass plate is fixed in Gigleswick church, with the following inscription : Here lie interred, the Rev. WILLIAM PALEY, B. A. who died September the 29th, 1799, aged 88 years. who died March 9, 1796, aged 83 years. Dr. Paley soon received a severe intimation, that the son was hastening to the tomb after the father. In the year 1800, a violent nephralgic disorder, attended with melana, incapacitated him for the performance of his clerical duties. He was seized with a second attack the following spring at Lincoln, and in 1802 his complaint disabled him from keeping his usual residence in that city. He was persuaded to have recourse to the waters of Buxton; and the moments allowed him by every intermission of pain, he cheerfully devoted to the completion of his last work, his Natural Theology. Dr. Fenwick, of Durham, in his Sketch of the Professional Life and Character of Dr. Clarke, has given the warmest testimony to the fortitude of our Author. "That truly eminent man was then engaged in finishing his Natural Theology; but the completion of that great undertaking was frequently interrupted by severe accessions of a painful disorder, under which he had long laboured, and which has since proved fatal. Dr. Clarke often expressed his admiration at the fortitude with which he bore the most painful attacks, and at the readiness, and even cheerfulness, with which, on the first respite from pain, he resumed his literary labours. When it is considered that the twenty-sixth chapter of his work was written under these circumstances, what he has said of the alleviation of pain acquires additional weight. It is not a philosopher in the full enjoyment of health, who talks lightly of an evil which he may suppose at a distance. When Dr. Paley speaks of the power which pain has of shedding a satisfaction over intervals of ease, which few enjoyments exceed; and assures us, that a man resting from severe pain, is, for the time, in possession of feelings which undisturbed health cannot impart the sentiment flowed from his own feelings. He was himself that man; and it is consolatory, amidst the numerous diseases to which the human frame is liable, to find how compatible they are with a certain degree of comfort, and even Enjoyment. Something may indeed be attributed, in Dr. Paley, to a vigour of intellect, which is allotted to very few; but it cannot be doubted, that resignation in suffering is less the gift of great intellectual powers, than of well-regulated religious and moral sentiments." The work, thus concluded amidst the anguish of a painful disease, was published in 1802, with the title of Natural Theology; or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Derty, collected from the Appearances of Nature. This disquisition alone (he reminds us*) was wanted to make up his works into a system, in which works the public have now before them, the Evidences of Natural Religion, the Evidences of Revealed Religion, and an Account, of the Duties that result from both. His Theology may be classed among the most interesting books of the English language. We are carried by the Author, with unceasing delight, through the most prominent wonders and striking contrivances of the whole creation. Where indolence before saw nothing to admire, it suddenly discovers the most ingenious designs and elaborate workmanship; where apathy beheld no cause for affecting sentiments, it sees the most powerful reason to kindle with gratitude, and be awed with reverence to the Deity. It is a small objection * Dedication. to urge, that in his discussions upon the human frame, Dr. Paley is not, according to the modern discoveries of science, always anatomically correct. Truth does not require that any of his conclusions should be retracted on account of this inaccuracy. His arguments against the atheistic schemes cannot be overthrown, even though some of his physiological descriptions may be disputed. If he had been a better anatomist, his reasonings in proof of a Deity would have been even more forcible than at present; because all the improvements in the knowledge of our own bodies, tend to unfold more and more the curious subtilty of their mechanism. For those who do not study the human structure professionally, Paley's delineation is sufficiently correct: others, who are required to be rigid anatomists, will obtain from his book something more interesting than technical knowledge; they will be delighted with acute reflections, and devout speculations, upon universal nature. Dr. Paley's constitution was gradually yielding to the encroachments of sickness. After his return from Lincoln to Bishop-Wearmouth, in the spring of 1805, he was seized with a violent attack of his disorder, which all art and assiduity were unable to repel. None of his faculties were destroyed during his sickness, except, perhaps, his sight, which, it is believed, failed him a few days before his decease. His sufferings did not overcome his fortitude nor disturb his composure of mind, but during the whole scene of his last trials he maintained the greatest serenity and self-possession. He soothed the distress of his family, with those consolations of religion which supported himself, and on the evening of the 25th of May tranquilly expired. His remains were deposited near to those of his first wife, in the cathedral of Carlisle, with this humble inscription: Here lieth interred, the remains of WILLIAM PALEY, D.D. Who died May 25, 1805. Aged 62. For those who delight to be acquainted with the physiognomy as well as the mind of an Author, the portrait of Dr. Paley, by Romney (from which engravings have been published,) will convey a correct idea of his countenance. In person he exceeded the common stature, with a tendency in the latter part of his life to corpulence. He is supposed to have left his family in affluent circumstances; for his income during many years had been ample, the profit of his writings must have been considerable, and though free from parsimony he had always practised, what he recommended to the young clergy of his diocess, economy upon a plan. His eldest son, William Paley, rivalled his father in his successful career at college, being third wrangler, and first members' prize-man, both as middle and senior bachelor. He was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, was distinguished for his abilities, and died in March, 1817, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Dr. Paley's Sermons upon general topics were published after his death, under the following circumstances. In a codicil to his will he remarked: If my life had been continued, it was my intention to have printed at Sunderland, a volume of sermons, about 500 copies, to be distributed gratis, in the parish; and I had proceeded so far in the design, as to have transcribed several sermons for that purpose, which are in a parcel by themselves. There is also a parcel from which I intended to make other transcripts; but the business is in an imperfect, unfinished state; the arrangement is not settled, farther than that I thought the sermon on Seriousness in Religion should come first, and then the doctrinal sermons; there are also many repetitions in them, and some that might be omitted, or consolidated with others." He proceeded to direct, that after the necessary revision of the manuscripts, the sermons should be printed at the expense of his executors, by the Rev. Mr. Stephenson, and distributed in the neighbourhood, first, to those who frequented church, then to farmers' families in the country, and lastly, to such as had a person in the family who could read, and were likely to read them; but he added preremptorily, that they should not be published for sale. His request was complied with, as far as was practicable. A collection of the sermons was printed at Sunderland, in 1806, and given to the inhabitants of BishopWearmouth; but as it seemed impossible to prevent a surreptitious sale, his family afterward consented to their publication. + Ordination Sermon. Having related, as succinctly as possible, the principal occurrences in the life of Dr. Paley, it only remains for us to take a general view of his character. This is a gratifying task, for the history of few men presents so many topics for admiration, and so little ground for censure; such high intellectual talents, dignified with so much strict and unassuming virtue. His whole conduct, free from the bias of interest or caprice, was guided by the soundest principles of integrity, from which he deviated as little as the fallibility of our nature will allow Such was the rectitude of his behaviour, that the Rev. Mr. Hall, one of his college friends, declared that he never knew him guilty of a vicious act, nor inattentive to propriety of moral conduct; and his first patron, Bishop Law, always gave him the eulogy of being a good man, and a good Christian. His independence was inflexible. He never relied upon any arts for his advancement in life, except the conscientious discharge of his duties, and the exercise of his talents for the common benefit. To the mode of seeking preferment by obsequiousness and servility (which he emphatically called rooting,) he always expressed the most hostile antipathy. He warned the young clergy of his diocess from the pulpit, that for once patronage is forfeited by modesty, it is ten times lost by importunity and intrusion. All his own promotions in the church were either marks of the esteem of private friendship, or testimonies of the advantage which had accrued to the cause of religion from his writings. Although his virtue was unimpeachable, he was an enemy to all kinds of moroseness and austerity. In every relation in life, either as father, husband, or friend, he was not only exemplary for the correctness of his demeanour, but amiable for a generous warmth of feeling, and a liveliness of disposition. It was one of his apophthegms that "a man who is not sometimes a fool, is always one." This reminds one of Rochefoucault's maxim," Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body, invented to cover the defects of the mind." The grave man may choose the description of his character either from the English or the French philosopher. Paley accuses him of stupidity, Rochefoucault of knavery; and it is unquestionable, that from one source or the other proceeds that grave and puritanical solemnity, which passes with vulgar judges for superior wisdom and piety. Paley was never grave but upon grave occasions. In company, his vivacity exhi larated all around him. He was fond of cards, but would readily abandon the whist-table for the sake of intelligent conversation; his early predilection also for theatrica. amusements, remained with him to mature age. By such recreations as these, he only relaxed his mind, and enlivened his spirits: his discrimination and self-control easily stopped him at the point where indulgence ceases to be innocent. Those who cannot boast of his judgment and self-discipline, who spend at the card-table countless hours which should be given to more serious employments, and who find at the theatre no stimulus to virtue, but only excitements to profligacy, should not dare appeal to the example of Dr. Paley to justify excesses, which he reprobated and abhorred. The cheerfulness which our Author could so agreeably diffuse amongst others, he enjoyed perpetually in his own mind. He was invincibly contented; nothing could depress him into gloom and despondence. Nor did this disposition proceed from an unthinking insensibility to evil, but from the discipline with which he had subjected his desires, and that pious intuition with which he saw, in the benevolent contrivances of the Deity, unceasing cause for grateful recollection and joyous anticipations. Discontent and ambition are put to the blush, when we read that this highly gifted man was happy in the toil of a school, and the indigence of a living worth only 801. a year. Subsequently, when his fame was established, and admiration was loud in her panegyrics of his merit, he was not elated into arrogance, nor seemed to think, as some of his friends did, that his rewards had been insufficient. He gratefully acknowledged to the Bishop of Durham,* that his munificence, in conjunction with some other excellent prelates, had placed him in ecclesiastical situations, more than adequate to every object of reasonable ambition. In the performance of all his clerical duties, he was regular, assiduous, and devout. The labours of college tutor, and the studies of philosophy, had not given such a learned bias to his understanding, as to create any distaste for the humblest * Dedication to Natural Theology. duties of an ecclesiastic. He was loved by his parishioners for his obliging civilities, for the manner in which he adapted himself to their capacities, and sympathized with their feelings. He left them no inconsiderable token of his personal regard, and of his solicitude for their religious improvement, in the posthumous donation of his sermons. As these compositions were never designed for publication, it would be unfair to make any comparison between them and similar works of our own or foreign divines. In polished eloquence, in sublimity of description, in tenderness of sentiment, no one who considers the congregation to which they were delivered, can expect they should excel. Still the public would have had cause for regret, if they had been withheld; for they are cogent and convincing discourses, unveiling the human heart, exposing its subterfuges, and forcing men, if they are not utterly disingenuous, to reflect with seriousness upon religion. The effect of his sermons was partly aided, partly obstructed, by his delivery; for though he was not free from a provincial dialect, and his voice was harsh and unmodulated, yet he was able to impress his auditors by the energy and obvious sincerity of his manner. His sentiments upon religion were mild and tolerant, and his bosom not heated with animosity against any of the sects that divide our country. As to the charge of heterodoxy (which people often attach to others, without knowing their own or their neighbours' creed,) let those who can, substantiate it against Paley from his Works, for it is manifestly unjust now to infer it from any thing else. the Our Author, we have seen, was not always merely a passive spectator of public occurrences of the day. The part which he took in the controversy respecting the Articles of the church, has been already noticed, and from his whole behaviour and writings we clearly perceive, that he felt subscription to be a galling load; which, when he could not throw it off, he endeavoured with all his casuistry to lighten to himself and others. We may advert with the purest satisfaction to his humane exertions for the suppression of the slave trade. In his Moral Philosophy* he condemned with warmth this nefarious traffic; he assisted with his arguments the committee instituted at London for the abolition, and had several conferences with Mr. Clarkson," the great and active apostle of the cause." At a meeting also of the inhabitants of Carlisle, convened in 1792, to petition parliament upon the subject, he took the chair, and prefaced a series of resolutions that were carried, with a very feeling and argumentative speech. In the political opinions advanced in his Moral Philosophy, he endeavoured to teach his countrymen to value rational liberty, and to practise rational submission. He has exploded Locke's idea of a social compact, and substituted the doctrine of public expediency. Defining civil liberty+ as the not being restrained by any law, but what conduces in a greater degree to the public welfare, he reduces the justice of every particular case of resistance to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other. Changes, he warns, are not to be adventured upon without a comprehensive discernment of the consequences; without a knowledge, as well of the remote tendency as of the immediate design. Applying his own principles, be disputed the advantage of adopting any reform in the house of commons; and by thus advancing upon contested ground, became obnoxious to the hostility of one party of the state. By the freedom of other remarks, he offended also the Tories, and the vehement supporters of existing authorities. Thus, by his opinions he sacrificed the favour of most political partisans, leaving himself to be recompensed by the consciousness of his sincerity, and the applause of the moderate part of the community. It is but just, for persons who inveigh with angry warmth against the different parts of his philosophy, from which they dissent, to consider how impossible it is for any writer to discuss such a diversity of subjects as that work embraces, without coming in collision with the prejudices of individuals, with the opposite theories of statesmen, and the irreconcilable tenets of sectaries. His arguments are always conducted with candour and moderation; and therefore, although we may finally reject thern, they deserve to be weighed with impartiality and attention. 3 It has been a frequent complaint among the friends and admirers of Dr. Paley, that he was not advanced to the highest ecclesiastical dignities, to some episcopal station. We have already hinted at the causes of this neglect; but as the Reviewer is in possession of more secrets than we know, we must permit him to disclose them to the reader, "A cloud of suspicion long hung over him, and the prejudices of a great ecclesiastic in particular are supposed to have obstructed his advancement; but it appears to be unknown to the biographer (for we do not believe the fact to be injuriously concealed) that at a later period Dr. Paley was actually proposed for a high station in the church by that great minister" (Mr. Pitt,)" who in this work” (Meadley's Life of Paley) "has been treated with so much injustice; and that the disappointment proceeded from a higher quarter than before. Homely truths about rulers, uttered in blunt and uncourtly language, are not always, we believe, the first recommendations to high preferment: the peculiarities also of a man of genius render him less producible, and the jealousy entertained of overbearing talents, when they have taken a political direction, leaves the way more open to those against whom nothing can be objected, than those for whom much may be urged.". In our last province, to estimate the literary and intellectual character of Dr. Paley, we have the concurrent testimony of all parties, that he was not encumbered with erudition, but was far from being what is termed a learned man. In classical studies he never delighted, and never made any considerable advances for that array of learning which glitters through his Evidences, was all prepared for him by Lardner and other scholars. Instead of perusing a multiplicity of books, he relied upon the fecundity of his own mind, and the acuteness of his observation, aided by some choice assistances, of which he never scrupled to make the most liberal use. What he remarked of Mr. Fox, is applicable to himself, to Dr. Johnson, and numbers of intelligent men, who think much more deeply than they read. "Why, sir, some men are never idle, and Mr. Fox is one of these; whether engaged in business, in study, or in dissipation, his mind was actively employed. Such men lose no time, they are always adding to their stock of information; whilst numbers, with grave appearance, trifle life away, and pursue nothing with advantage or effect." Paley's chief merits as an author are, his close investigation of truth, and his clear development of it to others. He detects it with the most acute penetration, amidst numberless perplexing errors: he disentangles it of every besetting difficulty, arranges it in the clearest method, expands it through all its proper ramifications, and illustrates it so forcibly, that it becomes as intelligible to the reader as to himself. His writings resemble a beautiful and productive orchard: we are never compelled to regale upon leaves, where we came to search for fruit. In matter he is almost as pregnant as Aristotle, but he never repels us with the dry and uninteresting style of the Stagyrite. On the con trary, his manner is always captivating, his language easy, familiar, and sometimes eloquent. He often for the sake of force uses a quaint phraseology, and, like Socrates, employs homely illustrations and comparisons, which, though they detract from elegance, throw light where light is most wanted. It is often urged in disparagement of Paley's genius, that his most important works are far from being completely original. This charge is not to be denied, nor yet does it carry so much weight as envy would be inclined to attribute to it. In his Moral Philosophy, he derived very essential aid from the speculations of Abraham Tucker,t a gentleman who published, under the assumed name of Edward Search, a work in nine volumes, called The Light of Nature. In the Evi *No. 18, p. 399. Let not this ingenious writer be disparaged, though he has never had the fortune to be popular. The Quarterly Review (No. 18, p. 397.) remarks, "There are some writers of great but disorderly understanding, unable to arrange, to emplify, or to illustrate their own conceptions. Such was Abraham Tucker." Paley observes (Pref. to M. Phil.) "I have found in this writer, more original thinking and observation upon the several subjects that he has taken in hand, than in any other, not to say, than in all others put together. His talent also for illustration is unrivalled. But his thoughts are diffused through a long, various, and irregular work." There can be no doubt that Paley knew Tucker's cha racter better than the reviewer, |