principles and a vigorous understanding, his mind became gradually tranquillized, and regaining its elasticity, renewed its usual habits of industry and rapid acquisition.

Up to this period no evidence had been given that his mind had come under the power of divine truth; and though he was well aware, how gratifying it would be to the minds of his parents, would he devote himself to the work of the ministry; his integrity and uprightness of feeling constrained him to renounce all thoughts of engaging in such a work, knowing, as he did, that he was not possessed of the first and most necessary qualification for the proper discharge of its important functions. Having intimated this decision to his friends, it was suggested that he should turn his thoughts to the legal profession; but as insurmountable difficulties occurred in the way of this suggestion, he was for a season left in a state of uncertainty as to the future direction of his active energies.

At this crisis, it pleased God powerfully to arrest his attention under a sermon preached by Mr. Halley, which awoke in him agonizing convictions of sin and personal demerit. For a brief season he was deeply exercised by doubts and fears, and conflicting emotions; but the gracious dealings of the Spirit prevailed and put to flight the obstinate questionings' which had perplexed him; in the cross of Christ he beheld the means of the sinner's reconciliation to God; his mind received its decisive impulse, and his resolution was thenceforth formed to pursue that career on which he had already partially entered, and dedicate his future life to the ministry of the gospel, a course of action which he never afterwards relinquished for a moment. We can lay no fuller or more satisfactory account of Morell's conversion before our readers. But when we call to recollection the early soundness of his understanding,-the rigour with which he ever scrutinized his own conduct and motives,—and the solemn declaration made by him on his ordination to the Christian ministry, with reference to this juncture in his life, we cannot doubt that he had now become the subject of the renewing energy of the Spirit of God, and that in resolving to devote himself to the ministry, his leading inducement was to promote the glory of God and to save the souls of men.'-p. xvi.

Immediately upon this happy change of mind, Mr. Mackenzie joined the church under the care of Mr. Halley, and very shortly afterwards he became a student in the theological academy at Wymondley, then under the tutorship of the late Rev. Thomas Morell, and the Rev. W. Hull; there he remained for the usual term of four years, prosecuting those studies which in such institutions are generally prescribed for those who are seeking preparation for the work of the ministry; and, combining

with these, come others, to which not only such institutions are strangers, but which we suspect are seldom found amongst the engagements of young students, even in the most learned of our colleges. To have read through all the plays of Sophocles, part of those of Euripides and Eschylus, Pindar, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetic Longinus, Juvenal, Persius, Lucan, Cicero de Oratore, Tacitus's Annals, &c.-to have read through the whole works of Ockham, and several of those of Aquinas and Scotus, besides the writings of metaphysicians and moralists, more easy of access, and all this in addition to the theological studies and preaching exercises of the academy, indicates a mind of such extraordinary activity and powers in one so young, that were not the fact well authenticated, it would be almost incredible. With his correspondence, during the period of his residence at Wymondley, a considerable part of the volume before us is filled; and as it furnishes not the least interesting portion of the whole, we shall draw somewhat copiously upon it, in the way of extracts. His own words will best illustrate the state of his mind at this time; while they will also convey to the reader a most pleasing idea of the mingled vivacity, acuteness, and tenderness, by which he was so conspicuously distinguished.

The following is from a letter to his uncle, the late Dr. Addington, of Bristol, dated 'Wymondley House, Jan. 24, 1826' :

'After spending a most delightful vacation at home, I have again resumed my academic pursuits. I am reading the Greek tragedies with Mr. H. and Thucydides by myself. The farther I advance in the pursuits of Grecian literature, the more I am delighted, and-I hope-improved. Brougham, in his inaugural discourse delivered at Glasgow, strongly recommends the attentive study of those unrivalled models of composition which the genius of the Greeks has bequeathed to posterity. This opinion-especially as it regards the Greek orators, to whom he principally referred-is, I think, correct, and well worthy of the adoption of all public speakers. I finished the plays of Æschylus last session, and I scarcely know how to speak of them in moderate terms. Though deficient in dramatic propriety, they exhibit a daring sublimity and majesty of conception whichat least in my opinion-has never been transcended. Some of the chorusses would suffer little from a comparison with the finest burst even of Shakspeare. In the 'Persæ' he gives a description of the sea fight of Salamis, which throws the reader back two thousand years, and makes him an eye-witness of the combat. No merely human composition ever seized more strongly upon my mind. The poet describes to you first the stillness of the preceding evening, interrupted occasionally by the dash of the Persian oar. But when

the first beam of the morning kindles in the east, the war-cry of the Greeks is raised on high. The crash of the brazen prows,-the

fierce and momentous struggle for empire on the one side, and freedom on the other, are vividly described, till at length the pæan of victory cleaves the heavens. The whole scene is, I think, the most animated, vigorous, and eloquent passage that I ever read.

These literary pleasures, however, and the consciousness that I am endeavouring to prepare myself for future usefulness, are the only enjoyments I possess. From the exquisite delights of social and domestic life I am wholly excluded. I am almost as completely isolated as if I were

'A godly eremite,

Such as on lonely Athos may be seen.'

How often do I recall the few but happy days I spent with you, and my dear aunt, a twelvemonth ago! John Bunyan tells us that the Valley of Ease' was very small, and the pilgrims soon passed through it. The idea is no less true than beautiful. If all my time passed along in as happy and unclouded a manner as it did at your delightful home, I should be too enamoured of life, too unwilling to leave it. A few sunny spots' smile in the wilderness of life; sunny indeed, but few! Yet I must not suffer myself to spend my time in looking back with fond regret upon the past, instead of preparing myself for the high and holy duties of the future. My impression of the difficulty of the undertaking in which I have embarked grows stronger and stronger. If it were a matter which required nothing more than the strenuous exertion of the intellectual powers, it would be comparatively easy. But there are 'principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickednesses in high places.' Against these invisible, yet powerful and malignant foes, the weapons of earth are impotent and useless. Yet, my dearest uncle, it is consolatory to remember that there is likewise the whole armour of God,' whose heavenly force is irresistible. When I think of the feeble instruments which the Omnipotent condescends to employ, I feel comforted and invigorated. If the profession I have chosen be arduous and responsible, it is, at the same time, the most noble and godlike that a created being can engage in. If I am indeed a faithful, humble, and zealous minister of the everlasting Gospel, then am I a fellow-labourer with martyrs and apostles and evangelists, a co-operator with the seraphim of glory, and even with the Redeemer and Intercessor himself. The whole universe seems to smile upon the faithful servant, and also to frown upon the hireling.'-pp. 8-10.

Writing to the same kind and much-loved relative, under date March 16, 1827,' he expresses himself thus:

It has often struck me that it will form no inconsiderable part of the happiness of the future state, to unravel the mysteries that perplex us in this infancy of our existence. My mind kindles at the idea of seeing the shades and mists that surround us in this world rolled away from the prospect of an emancipated spirit, and the

wisdom, harmony, and benevolence of the Divine administration revealed in unclouded light. We shall look back with something like astonishment at the dimness and imperfection of our present knowledge, and exult in the solution of those moral enigmas which now defy our keenest penetration. And there is awful solemnity in the consideration of the future anguish of those who here reject the salvation of God, on account of apparent difficulties which will then be removed,-who stumble at mysteries which will then be clear as the ethereal firmament.' But this is too terrible an idea to be dwelt upon.

In divinity I have read since I saw you, Howe's 'Blessedness of the Righteous,' 'Self-dedication,' and 'Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls.' They are all of them pregnant with interest and instruction, and the first of them is a perfect repertory of grand and magnificent thoughts. One is almost inclined to believe that the incomparable author must have ascended to the paradise on high, and heard the anthems of worshipping seraphim, before he wrote this extraordinary treatise. If you have not read it, you will call this assertion wild hyperbole; if you have, you will probably think it not much above the sobriety of truth.'-ib. pp. 17, 18.

In some of these extracts, and still more in some of the letters we have not cited, there is a tinge of sadness and depression which mingles painfully with the otherwise bright and buoyant stream of the writer's thoughts and feelings. On this head his biographer has some admirable remarks, which, in justice both to him and to his subject, we must cite.

'It is evident (says he) from the passages already quoted, and many others occurring in his correspondence, that he was often visited by very sad and desponding feelings of another class, arising from other sources than the speculative difficulties which so frequently constitute the peculiar trial, and call forth the grave contemplativeness of the well-informed Christian, and which might easily have been pushed to a fatal extreme in the mind of a highly imaginative and susceptible youth unsupported by the higher resources of intelligence and piety. It may be questioned if the deification of the world with which the majority of young men are chargeable, while the dreams and illusions of life are yet unscathed and unbroken, is calculated to produce more disastrous results than feelings such as those which we find for a length of time indicated in Morell's correspondence. While I do not know, and do not desire to know, much less to reveal, all the private sorrows by which his young heart was assailed, I have no idea that, in giving such frequent expression to the pensive melancholy of his soul as Morell has done in his earlier letters, he was prompted by anything falsely fastidious, or by that pride of imaginary grief which leads some young men to pronounce themselves extremely miserable, as Wordsworth has it,

In luxury of disrespect

To their own prodigal excess
Of too familiar happiness.'

He was not one who strains himself to look at every thing from an unnatural point of view. There is a simple earnestness and force in the above and many similar passages which convinces us that they were dictated by the genuine feelings of a sickening and troubled spirit, grown only too familiar with those moods of premature gloom and speculation which so often cloud the dawn of illustrious manhood, and brooding over sorrows which he felt it his duty to keep locked up in the recesses of his own sensitive heart.* But while the grace of God maintained his religious faith unshaken, there were materials stout and solid enough in his mental constitution to resist the evils by which his susceptibilities were now assailed; and desolate and unsupported as his condition appeared to be, he remained 'true to himself.' His present experience doubtless proved, on the whole, a wholesome discipline to his mind, and served to develop and mature in him some of the higher elements of character which might otherwise have been less prominent and decided. It is cheering and instructive to mark in those familiar letters-which, as affording an interesting and undisguised insight into his mind and feelings at this period, we have given nearly entire-that resolute temper, that native force and elasticity of character, which remained with him in every situation, and enabled him successfully to grapple with some of the sternest, saddest realities of practical life; and above all, how the buoyant spirit of Christian confidence still showed itself conquered, even amidst the thickening gloom of worldly cares.

turning the dusky veil

un

Into a substance glorious as her own.' '- pp. xlvii.-xlix.

Mr. Mackenzie left Wymondley in 1829; and in the same year entered the university of Glasgow at the commencement of the winter session. He devoted himself to Greek and logic, under professors Sandford and Buchanan; and at its close he carried away the first prize in the logic class, and the third in the Greek-distinctions all the more valuable that they were gained notwithstanding the formidable competition of some of the ablest students then at Glasgow. Returning from college, the summer and autumn were spent partly in the bosom of his family at St. Neots, and partly at Leicester, where he assisted the Rev. Mr. Mitchell for some weeks. At the commencement of the next session he was again in Glasgow, where he joined the moral philosophy and senior mathematical classes. In the latter class,' says his biographer, 'he exhibited respectable proficiency; but the former, as well from the nature of the studies it prescribed, as from the eminent abilities of professor Mylne, peculiarly interested him. He applied himself to the business of the class, and took the first prizes in it with that easy superiority of genius which rendered

* Sir E, Bulwer in Life of Schiller.