is more force than we had apprehended in the arguments for heterodoxy we have so triumphantly wielded: and even if our principles are not actually subverted, there is apt to be induced, by the very habit of defending error, an unsettled, speculative, sceptical turn of mind. Thus, often speaking what we do not think, may end in our thinking what we do not choose to speak: our minds becoming the dupes of what is no more than sophistically specious, but has derived a convincing power over them from adventitious circumstances. The whole practice, indeed, unless managed with a discretion which is hardly to be expected at that period of life, is, to say the least of it, of very questionable propriety.

In the present instance, the consequence was serious, but not strange. From the causes which have been mentioned, the feelings of not a few of his fellow-students towards him were not of the most complacent description. "He was ill-sorted "with the majority, as to attainments, tastes, and years." They did not understand him; and he, in conscious superiority, and with a portion of youthful self-will, was not so forbearing and conciliatory as might have been wished, especially on the part of a junior, in his behaviour towards them. The fact of his so frequently supporting the heterodox side of debated questions, was associated, in their representations of him, with hints of pride, and temper, and the neglect of external religious duties; all which coming to the knowledge of the committee, and being naturally viewed by them under the biassing influence of the circumstances attending his admission, the result was, that his curriculum in the academy was cut short at the close of the first year. There were not a few, however, by whom this measure was regarded as one of "extreme harshness;" and I cannot but avow the conviction, that, had his character been rightly apprehended, and a mode of treatment pursued better adapted to its peculiar elements, the result might have been widely different. was a spirit that would draw, but not drive. If it must be admitted, that conscious superiority rendered him at times somewhat supercilious, and more sensitively indignant than was becoming when his merits were not duly appreciated and

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allowed; if it tempted him on some occasions to the undue expectation and exaction of deference;-it is not less true, that he was exquisitely sensible to kindness,-that some of the dispositions with which he came into collision were not probably of the most refined description, such as would touch the sensitive plant with a very delicate hand; and that had there been, on the part of those with whom lay the superintendence, less of the authoritative and more of the winning, -less of the dictatorial and more of the persuasive,—less of the severity of censorship and more of the allowance of candour towards youthful but remediable faults,—he might have been spared this second mortification, and the hazard to which it exposed both the tempers and the principles of a mind constituted like his. I would not, however, forget that I am judging of the case by the after-lights that have been thrown upon it; and that such a judgment is a much easier matter than a right decision at the time. Had the future been foreseen, the decision would have been different. It is most gratifying to have to record, how the minds of those who, acting conscientiously according to the light in which the case at the time appeared, felt it their duty to decide against him, were subsequently turned in his favour, justly estimating and admiring his excellencies, and "esteeming him very "highly in love for his work's sake." In the letter of the worthy treasurer and most constant and generous patron of the institution before referred to, after mentioning the satisfactoriness of his application for admission, he adds, "He "only remained one year, having indiscreetly manifested, in "his intercourse with the students, too great a propensity to "disputation, and thus excited in their minds a fear that his

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theological sentiments were not fully established. Future "years clearly proved that there was no solid ground for "such apprehensions; so that none could have more sincere pleasure than the tutors and committee of the college had, "on his entering the ministry a devoted servant of Christ, a "distinguished scholar, and a first-rate preacher of evangeli"cal truth."-It is, moreover, a singular and interesting fact, that the very youth, to the soundness of whose principles and

the piety of whose character the stigma of suspicion was thus affixed, should, at a later period of his life, have been invited to the theological presidency of the very seminary from which he was ejected!

I have spoken of the hazard to his principles which a treatment so summary and severe was fitted to induce.

In such a mind, the sentiment of indignant disgust, whether justifiable or otherwise, could hardly fail to be the result. And no one who knows aught of human nature need be told, how such a sentiment, in such a mind, operating in connexion with an inquisitive spirit of curiosity,-a spirit thirsting for knowledge, fond of metaphysical research, disposed to take nothing upon trust, but to have conviction settled upon sifted evidence, and withal tinctured with a secret contempt for the timid apprehension discovered by some about the safety of principles, as if any sound principle could suffer by the freest and fullest investigation, and for the shallowness of some of the reasonings by which truth had been defended, of which he had had so many opportunites of marking and exposing the weak points,-how such a sentiment, I say, was calculated to throw the youthful subject of it adrift on the wide and unsettled sea of sceptical speculation.—And there cannot be a doubt, that, whether from these causes or from others, the stage of his progress immediately subsequent was marked by a considerable measure of such speculative unsettlement.

This important and interesting period of his history I must be allowed to give in the words of one, to whom, at the crisis of his leaving Hoxton, he owed much, and towards whom, while he lived, he cherished all the fervour of a grateful and generous attachment. I cannot but regard it as an arrangement of providence most kind and salutary, that at a period so critical, when his spirit was wounded, his heart sunk, and his prospects darkened, he should have fallen into such hands, -hands that, like his divine Master's, would not "break" but bind "the bruised reed."_" When Mr. M'All left Hoxton," says the Rev. Dr. Collyer, "he came immediately to "my house; where he resided almost uninterruptedly, a year "and a half. It was under my own roof, and at this early

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period, that I had opportunity to appreciate the mighty "powers and the vast resources of his mind, as well in mo"ments of youthful levity, as when engaged in serious pur"suits. These Dr. Raffles has described, when ripened by "time and enlarged by severe study and unremitting appli"cation, with a felicity which leaves me nothing to add, "except the testimony that in his brilliant and feeling de"scription of them there is not the slightest tint of exagger"ation. Then all the elements of his future greatness were distinctly visible, and rapidly unfolded their growing mag"nificence. His extraordinary mental faculties were so equipoised with the finest qualities of the heart, as to produce a beautiful harmony; and when these were disciplined by experience, and purified by spirituality, they formed a "character such as I shall never look upon again. Already "he displayed that creative power which properly constitutes "genius, and is discovered in unaffected originality of thought, "and manner of communicating it to others. He possessed, "at that time, a rich imagination, regulated by the most "delicate taste,-and the rare combination, as in Robert Hall, "of a metaphysical mind and the closest reasoning with com"mand of language supplying him at will with the finest " and most powerful eloquence, the astonishing flights of "which, on some occasions, seemed following his spirit into "the region to which it was soaring, and to be alone capable "of embodying his conceptions. His mind was never at "rest. Intensity of thought characterized his studious pur"suits. His very recreation was thought. He wrought all "that he read into his own mind, and tried every thing by "his own intellectual powers. Whatever came before him

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was weighed in these balances; and, while he had the "highest appreciation of talent in others, he never admitted. "their representations without scrutiny, nor adopted their opinions without conviction. His conclusions were drawn "from the closest examination. He delighted only in that "which was intellectual. He had a quick perception of all "that was beautiful and sublime in nature, and a correspond"ing taste for whatever was graceful and magnificent in art;

"but mind was his world,—a reverence for science and know"ledge in others, and an inextinguishable thirst for the in"creasing attainment of them himself. The disproportion "between his unwearied mental labour and unceasing appli"cation, and the delicate texture of his frame and feebleness "of his constitution, early awakened my worst apprehensions, "and led me to anticipate, with many an aching heart, even "a more premature close of his career than that which actually "occurred. To use a familiar but expressive figure- the "sword was too surely, at a very early period- wearing "out the scabbard.' His constitutional temperament added "to this mental excitement. With one of the sweetest "tempers that ever graced a human being, he was subject "to great nervous irritability. His feelings were singularly "quick and sensitive, and produced an almost morbid sensi"bility. His affections were warm and sympathetic, and his "attachments as unalterable as they were sincere. The “tenderness and fidelity of his character were alike displayed, "as a son, a brother, a husband, a parent, a friend, and a "minister,—and diffused an indescribable but irresistible in"fluence over all these important relations. His sense of "kindness was most acute, and his gratitude unbounded and "inextinguishable. He never forgot one single act of friend"ship, nor ever failed to acknowledge it on every opportunity. "While he was with me, the pulpits of the Rev. George "Clayton and the Rev. Thomas Russell, together with my "own, were opened to the young candidate for the ministry, "and under peculiar circumstances, which have been alluded "to; and the impression made upon him by this timely at"tention could never be obliterated. What I have said of "him might, for the most part, be inferred from the testimony "of his brethren, and especially of Dr. Raffles, who well "knew him:—but none were so intimately acquainted with "him as myself. By none, therefore, was the development "of his mind and character so well known, from the spring "of his youth to the summer of his age, when his public 66 career commanded universal admiration. I traced the progress with delight, and comprehended the whole. For this