ESSAYS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

No. I.

DR. WILLIAM NICHOLLS.

Son of John Nicholls, of Donington in Bucks, who was also an eminent Counsellor in London, was born in 1664; and, after an education in St. Paul's school, London, became a Batler or Commoner of Maydalen Hall, Oxford, in 1679; removed afterwards to Wadham College; and, as a member thereof, took the degree of B. A. Nov. 27, 1683 *; was admitted Probationer-fellow of Merton College in October 1684; M. A. June 19, 1688; and about that time, taking holy orders, became chaplain to Ralph Earl of Montagu; and in September 1691 rector of Selsey, near Chichester, in Sussex; was admitted B. D. July 2, 1692; D. D. Nov. 29, 1695.

After a life entirely devoted to piety and study, we find him, in the close of it, thus describing his situation, in a letter to Robert Earl of Oxford:

"Smith-street, Westminster, Aug. 31, 1711, "May it please your Lordship,

"I was in hopes that her Majesty would have bestowed the Prebend of Westminster upon me, being the place where I live, and that I might be nearer to books, to finish my Work on the Liturgy and Articles, for which she was pleased to tell me, with her own mouth, she would consider me. My good Lord, I have taken more pains in this matter than any Divine of our Nation, which I hope may bespeak the favour of a Church-of-England Ministry. Therefore I most humbly beseech your Lordship for your interest for the next Prebend of that Church (if

* Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. II. p. 248; Fasti, p. 231. + The Prebend had become vacant by the death of Dr. Knipe; and was given to Mr. Jonathan Kimberley, Sept. 17, 1711. VOL. I. this

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this be disposed of) that shall be void; for, if I had merited nothing, my circumstances want it. I am now forced on the drudgery of being the editor of Mr. Selden's Books, for a little money to buy other books to carry on my Liturgical Work. I have broken my constitution by the pains of making my collections myself throughout that large Work, without the help of an amanuensis, which I am not in a condition to keep, though the disease of my stomach (being a continual colic, of late attended by the rupture of a vein) might plead pity, and incline my superiors not to suffer me all my days to be a Gibeonite in the Church, without any regard or relief. Pray, my Lord, represent my case to the good Queen; and I shall never be wanting to make my most ample acknowledgment for so great a favour. I could long since have made my way to preferment without taking all this pains, by a noisy cry for a party: but, as this has been often the reproach, and once the ruin, of our Clergy, so I have always industriously avoided it, quietly doing what service I could to the Church I was born in, and leaving the issue thereof to God's Providence, and to the kind offices of some good man, who some time or other might befriend me in getting some little thing for to make my circumstances easy: which is the occasion that your Lordship has the trouble of this application from,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most dutiful,

most obedient, and most humble servant, WILL. NICHOLLS." Dr. Nicholls lived not to finish some things which he designed. What he did are as followeth :

1. "An Answer to an heretical Book, called The Naked Gospel, which was condemned and ordered to be publicly burnt, by the Convocation of the University of Oxon, 19 Aug. 1690, with some Re flections on Dr. Bury's new Edition of that Book, 1691," 4to.

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2. "A short History of Socinianism," printed with the Answer before mentioned; and dedicated to his patron the Earl of Montagu.

3. "A Practical Essay on the Contempt of the World*, with a Preface to the Deists of the Age, &c. 1694," Svo, inscribed to "Sir John Trevor, Master of the Rolls," to whom the Author acknowledges his obligations for "a considerable preferment bestowed in a most obliging and generous manner." 4. "The Advantages of a learned Education," a Sermon preached at a School Feast, 1698," 4to.

5. "The Duty of Inferiors towards their Superiors, in Five Practical Discourses; shewing, I. The Duty of Subjects to their Princes. II. The Duty of Children to their Parents. III. The Duty of Servants to their Masters. IV. The Duty of Wives to their Husbands. V. The Duty of Parishioners and the Laity to their Pastors and Clergy. To which is prefixed a Dissertation concerning the Divine Right of Princes, 1701," 8vo.

6. "An Introduction to a devout Life, by Francis Sales, Bishop and Prince of Geneva; translated and reformed from the Errors of the Romish Edition. To which is prefixed a Discourse of the Rise and Progress of the Spiritual Books in the Romish Church, 1701," Svo.

7. "A Treatise of Consolation to Parents for the Death of their Children; written upon the Occasion of the Death of the Duke of Gloucester;" and addressed to the most illustrious Princess Anne of Denmark, 1701," Svo.

8. "God's Blessing on Mineral Waters; a Sermon preached at the Chapelat Tunbridge Wells, 1702,"4to.

* "Dr. Nicholls esteems Controversy as an useless province, and constantly ill-natured and ungenteel. I guess this is the reason he chooses to shew us The Vanity of the World,' in practical books. He is highly obliged to the contrivance of Nature, for the peculiar turn of his constitution: I might dwell upon this character; for the charms of his pen, and the blameless measures of his conversation, gain him the love of his hearers, and a true veneration from all that know him." Dunton, p. 449. KK 2

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No. II.

MR. WILLIAM WHISTON,

an English Divine of very uncommon parts, and more uncommon learning, but of a singular and extraordinary character, was born Dec. 9, 1667, at Norton near Twycross, in the county of Leicester; of which place his father, Josiah Whiston, was the pious and learned rector from 1661 till his death in 1685.

William was kept at home till he was 17, and trained under his father; and this on two accounts: first, because he was himself a valetudinarian, being greatly subject to the flatus hypocondriaci in va rious shapes all his life long; secondly, that he might serve his father, who had lost his eye-sight, in the quality of an amanuensis.

In 1684, he was sent to Tamworth school; and two years after admitted of Clare hall in Cambridge, where he pursued his studies, and particularly the Mathematicks, eight hours in a day *, till 1693. In 1689, he took the degree of B. A.; and in 1693 became M.A. and fellow of the College. He soon after set up for a tutor; when, such was his reputation for learning and good manners, that Abp. Tillotson sent him

During this time, and while he was under-graduate, an accident happened to him, which may deserve to be related for a caution and benefit to others in the like circumstances. He observed one summer that his eyes did not see as usual, but dazzled after an awkward manner; upon which, imagining it arose from too much application, he remitted for a fortnight, and tried to recover his usual sight by walking much in green fields; but found himself no better. At that time he met with an account of Mr. Boyle's having known a person, who, having .new-whited the wall of his chamber on which the sun shone, and having accustomed himself to read in that glaring light, thereby lost his sight for some time; till, upon hanging the place with green, he recovered it again: and this, he says, was exactly his own case, in a less degree, both as to the cause and the remedy.