by the periodic eloquence of their followers. | vulgar error. The more eminent of the Her annual outbursts of self-applause are Clapham sectarians thought of it but as one not quite justified by any success which wheel in that elaborate mechanism, by this great Protestant propaganda has hith- which they believed that the world would erto achieved over her antagonists. Rome at length be moved. Bell and Lancaster still maintains and multiplies her hostile were both their welcome guests-schools, positions-heathen and Mahomedan tem- prison discipline, savings' banks, tracts, ples are as numerous and as crowded as village libraries, district visitings, and before-ignorance and sin continue to scat- church buildings-each, for a time, rivalled ter the too fertile seeds of sorrow through their cosmopolitan projects. But of their a groaning world-and it is no longer subordinate schemes none were so dear to doubtful that the aspect of human affairs them as that of prepossessing, in favor of may remain as dark as ever, though the their opinions and of their measures, the earth be traversed by countless millions of young men who were then preparing for copies of the Holy Text. The only won-ordination at Cambridge. Hence they held der is, that such a doubt should ever have in special honor Isaac Milner, whose biogarisen-that reasonable people should have raphy lies before us, and Charles Simeon, anticipated the renovation of man to the whose life is shortly to be published—both higher purposes of his being by any single unavoidably residing at the university as agency-without an apparatus as complex their appointed sphere of labor; but both as his own nature-or without influences men of Clapham as frequent visitors, as as vivifying as those which gave him birth. habitual associates, and as zealous allies. To quicken the inert mass around us, and The biography of Isaac Milner, as reto render it prolific, it is necessary that the corded in this dense volume, occupies a primeval or patriarchal institute of parental space nearly equal to that which the extant training should be combined with an assid- writers of antiquity have devoted to the celuous education; with the various disci- ebration of all the worthies of Greece and pline of life; with the fellowship of domes- Rome and Palestine put together. tic, civil, and ecclesiastical society; and, yet of those who have still to reach the meabove all, with the re-creative power from ridian of life, how few are aware, either on High devoutly implored and diligently that such a man was famous in the last cherished. The wicked habitations by generation, or what was the ground of his which our globe is burdened, might, alas! celebrity? Oh! ye candidates for fame, be wicked still, though each of them were put not your faith in coteries. See here converted into a biblical library. And yet how lavishly applause may be bestowed in with the belief of the inspiration, whether one age, and how profound the silence into plenary or partial, of the Scriptures, who which it may die away in the next. See how can reconcile a disbelief of the momentous a man may have been extolled, not thirty results with which the mere knowledge of poor years ago, as a philosopher, historian, them by mankind at large must be attend- divine, and academic, on whom' young Enged? Who will presume to estimate the land' has not one passing remembrance to workings of such an element of thought in bestow. And although the present effort such a world?-or to follow out the move- to revive and perpetuate his glory be made ments resulting from such a voice, when by a kinswoman, prepared for that underraised in every tongue and among all peo- taking by knowledge, by ability, and by ple, in opposition to the rude clamor from without, or the still harsher dissonance from within?—or who will take on him to measure the consequences of exhibiting amongst all the tribes of men one immutable standard of truth-one eternal rule of duty-one spotless model for imitation?

zeal; yet how avoid the conviction that the monument itself, like the name to which it is erected, is already becoming a premature ruin, and preaching one more unheeded sermon on the text which proclaims the vanity of all things?

If the several tendencies of Isaac Milner If this vast confederacy of the Protestant to moral and intellectual greatness had been and Greek churches was regarded by the permitted to act freely, and if Fortune had less initiated with some degree of supersti- not caressed and enervated him by her too tious awe, and extolled beyond the severe benignant smiles, his name might have been limits of truth, the founders of the society now illustrious in the Fasti Cantabrigienwere too well instructed in spiritual dynam-ses. But she bestowed on him the rewards ics, to be themselves in bondage to that of eminence, such as wealth, leisure, repu

tation, and authority, without exacting the versational throne, none appeared to have appointed price of toil and self-denial. Hum- a fairer title than himself. Parr, with his ble as was his hereditary station, he scarce- pipe and his pedantry, was offensive. Bishly ever felt the invigorating influence of de- op Watson was pompous and tiresome. pending on his own exertions for subsist- Lord Ellenborough, the first of that name, ence, for comforts, or even for enjoyments. was but an eminent phrase-manufacturer. He soon obtained and soon resigned a fel- But Isaac Milner, however inferior to the lowship at Queen's College, Cambridge, to sage of Bolt Court in genius, in wit, in become the president of that society; an practical wisdom, in philology, and in critical office to which ere long were added the discernment, ranged over a wider field of deanery of Carlisle, and the mathematical knowledge; with a memory as ready and chair once occupied by Newton. Three retentive, with higher animal spirits, a such sinecures were a burden, beneath broader humor, a less artificial style, and which the most buoyant spirit could scarce- an enjoyment so cordial and sociable of his ly have moved with freedom. A splendid own talk, as compelled every one else to enpatrimony in the three per cents, or the joy it. If less contentious than his great golden repose of Lords Arden or Ellenbo- prototype, he was not less authoritative. rough, might agree well enough with the But his topics were more out of the reach pursuits of a scholar or a statesman. Not of controversy, his temper more serene, and so the laborious idleness of a deanery and a his audience far more subservient. In the mastership, with their ceaseless round of whole of his career, he was probably never chapters, and elections, and founders' feasts, once surrounded by such a circle as that and enclosure questions; and questions which at the Club' reduced the dominion about new racks for the stables, and new of Johnson to the form of a limited monrollers for the garden; and squabbles with archy. At Carlisle, the Dean was the life contumacious canons and much-digesting of an otherwise lifeless amalgam of counfellows. Newton himself could not, at the same time, have given laws to the butteries and explored the laws of the universe; and therefore it happened that Newton's successor was too busy for the duties of his lucrative professorship. Dalilah bound the strong man with cords supplied by Mammon for the purpose.

try squires and well endowed prebendaries. At Cambridge, the Master was the soul of dinner and tea parties, otherwise inanimate. At London he was the centre of a circle, ever prompt (as are all London circles) to render homage to literary and intellectual rank; especially when it can condescend to be amusing and natural, and can afford to disclaim all pretensions to the elaborate refinements of metropolitan society. Thus the syren Fortune raised her most alluring strain-the flattery which rewards colloquial triumphs-that so she might induce the warrior to relax his grasp of the weapons by which she might have achieved an enduring reputation.

From such toils he might have broken away, if the wily courtezan had not thrown around him the more seductive bondage of social and colloquial popularity. The keen sarcasm, that'science is his forte-omniscience his foible,' though of later date, could never have been aimed at any of the giants of Cambridge with more truth, or with greater effect, than at the former pres- Lashing himself to the mast, he still ident of Queen's. He had looked into might have pursued his voyage to permainnumerable books, had dipped into most nent renown, if the Enchantress had not subjects, whether of vulgar or of learned raised up in his course certain fog-banks, inquiry, and talked with shrewdness, ani- to seduce him into the belief that he had mation, and intrepidity, on them all. What- already reached the yet far distant haven. ever the company and whatever the theme, The moderators, arbiters of Cantabrigian his sonorous voice predominated over all honors, had not only assigned to him the other voices, even as his lofty stature, vast dignity of senior wrangler, but with it the girth, and superincumbent wig, defied all title of Incomparabilis; the comparison competition. He was equally at home on being made with his competitors of the a steeple-chase, and on final perseverance; year 1774. Among the Transactions of and explained with the same confidence the Royal Society, the curious may disthe economy of an ant hill and the policy of cover three or four contributions bearing the Nizam. During the last half of his the name of Isaac Milner, which, though life the Johnsoni-latria was at its height; little noticed at the time, and wholly forand among the aspirants to the vacant con- gotten now, were allowed to establish, in

renown. Adulation whispered to them both that such glory was already theirs, and in her harlotry and her blandishments betrayed them into the belief of that too welcome assurance.

favor of one who sat in Newton's seat, a station among men of science; which, in an age not propitious to such studies, few had the wish, and fewer still the power, to contest. No scientific work or discovery illustrates his name, except the discovery, But Isaac Milner was no ordinary permuch insisted on by his biographer, and son. His body (the very image of the much rejoiced in by himself, that the in- informing mind) was athletic and capavisible girl of Liecester Square was not a cious, yet course and clumsy withal, and Fairy enshrined in the brazen ball from alive, far more than is usual with the giant which her speaking trumpets issued; but brood, to every vicissitude of pleasure and an old woman in the next room squeaking of pain. His muscular and his nervous through hidden tubes, the orifices of which structure seemed to belong to two different were brought into nice contact with corre- men, or rather to be of different sexes. sponding apertures in the lips of those The sense of vast physical power was unmagical trumpets. On the opposite side attended by animal courage; and the conof the same Square rose an observatory, sciousness of great intellectual strength where, a hundred years earlier, his great animated him to no arduous undertakings. predecessor had investigated enigmas of Robust as he was and omnivorous, he was greater significance. In literature, Dr. haunted by imaginary maladies and ideal Milner was chiefly known as the Editor dangers; shuddering at the east wind, and of the two last volumes of his brother's flying to a hiding-place at the sound of Church History, which apparently received thunder. In the pursuit of knowledge, he great additions and improvements from his was as an elephant forcing his way through hands. They have been extolled as con- saplings, and bending them to his purpose taining the most comprehensive and au- with a proboscis alike firm and flexible; thentic account of the Reformation in yet at the next moment obeying the feeblest Germany, and of the character of the great hand, alarmed by the most transient blaze, German Reformer;-a praise to which it and turned out of his way by the first is impossible to subscribe, for this, if for mournful gong or joyous cymbal. He was no other reason, that neither the Author a kind of Ajax-Andromache, combining nor the Editor had ever seen, or would such might with such sensibility as made have been able to read, one line of the him at once admirable, loveable, and inmany volumes written by Luther in his efficient. Call at the lodge at Queen's in mother tongue, and even yet untranslated the evening, and you heard him with steninto any other. A biographical preface of torian lungs tumbling out masses of knowa few pages, prefixed to a posthumous vol- ledge, illuminated by remarks so pungent, ume of the same brother's sermons, with and embellished with stories, illustrations, two controversial pamphlets, complete the gestures, and phrases, so broad and uncerecatalogue of the literary labors of more monious, that you half expected the appearthan half a century of learned and well-ance of the Lady Margaret, to remind the beneficed leisure. Of those pamphlets master of the house that she had built that one was an assault on the ecclesiastical his- long gallery, and those oriel windows, for tory of the late Dr. Haweis. The other meditation and studious silence. Call made havoc of the person and writings of again in the morning, and you found him Herbert Marsh, the late Bishop of Peter- broken-hearted over some of the sorrows to borough. Marsh had denounced the sin which flesh is heir, or agitated by some and danger of giving people the Bible to collegiate controversy, or debating with his read unyoked to the prayer-book; and apothecary how many scruples of senna Milner answered him by an examination, should enter into his next draught, as much more curious than civil, into the though life and death were in the balances. question- Who, and what is Dr. Herbert Thus erratic in all his pursuits, and reMarsh?' The indignant liturgist replied sponsive to every outward impression, he by an equally courteous attempt to deter- failed in that stern perseverance, without mine the who, and the what, touching Dr. which none may become the teachers, the Isaac Milner. With cassocks torn, and rulers, or the benefactors of mankind, and reputations not much exalted, the combat-with which perhaps but few can be much ants retired from the field, and never again courted as companions, or much loved as appeared among the aspirants to literary friends.

on the ears of Lord Archibald Hamilton, who, in all the pride of pugilism, had defied the assault of unscientific knuckles; or grandiloquent, as when he reviewed the glories of his first vice-chancellorship, in which he had expelled from the Senate Lucius Catalina Frend; or the triumphs of his second consulate, when, having thundered his philippics against Marcus Antonius Brown,he was hailed as Pater Academic. Well! he is gone, and Alma Mater has still her heads of houses, men of renown; but if once again the table could be spread in that hospitable old dining-room at Queen's, with the facetious Dean at the head of it, there is not among the incomparable wranglers, and conversing Encyclopædias of them all, any one who would be fit to sit over against him as Croupier.

But to be so loved and courted, should] to bring back responses, oracular, authorinot be regarded as a mere selfish luxury. tative, and profound. Nor could they have A wise and good man, and such was Isaac made a better choice; for to his capacity, Milner, will regard popular acceptance an learning, and colloquial eloquence, he addadvantage convertible to many excellent ed a most absolute sincerity and good uses; and so he considered it. His great faith. He had an instinct which could talents were his social talents. In talk, detect at a glance, and a temper which ever ready, ever animated, and usually loathed all manner of cant and false prepregnant with profound meaning, he found tension; and he estimated at their real the law and fulfilled the end of his subluna- worth, the several kinds of religious thery existence. He talked with children (his atricals, liveries, and free-masonries. chosen associates) inimitably. It was like Kind-hearted, talkative, wise, old man! a theological lecture from Bunyan, or a from the slumbers of many bygone years geographical discourse from De Foe. He how easy is it to raise his image-joyful, talked with the great and the rich, as one as when he exulted over his exorcism of who was their equal in wealth, and their the clothes-tearing ghost of Sawston; or superior in worship. He talked with pu- jocund, as when he chuckled over the regilists, musicians, and graziers, at once to membrance of the hearty box he inflicted learn and to interpret the mysteries of their several crafts. He talked with physicians to convince them that their art was empirical. He talked with politicians to rouse them to the dangers of Catholic emancipation. He talked on paper to his correspondents pleasantly and affectionately, though, on the chapter of his own affections, too abundantly. He talked also to his chosen and intimate friends, but not in the same fitful strain. To them, from the abundance of the heart, he spoke on the theme which alone gave any unity of design to the otherwise incongruous habits of his life; and which alone harmonized the passages, droll and melancholy, pompous and affectionate, bustling and energetic, of which it was composed. It was that theme which engages the latest thoughts of all men-the retrospect and As a member of the Confederation of the the prospect; the mystery within, and the Common, the Dean of Carlisle adminisdread presence without; the struggle, and tered the province assigned to him rather the triumph, and the fearful vengeance; by the weight of his authority, than by any and whatever else involved in the relations active exertions. Under the shelter of his which subsist between mortal man and the name, his college flourished as the best eternal Source of his existence. To search cultured and most fruitful nursery of the into those relations, and into the duties evangelical neophytes of Cambridge.and hopes flowing from them, was the end From a theological school maintained at which Isaac Milner still proposed to him- Elland, in Yorkshire, at the charge of the self, under all his ever-varying moods. Clapham exchequer, an unbroken succesFrom his brother he had derived the theo- sion of students were annually received logical tenets, for the dissemination of there; destined, at the close of their acawhich the History of the Church had been written. Reposing in them with inflexible constancy, he drew from them hopes which, notwithstanding his constitutional infirmities, imparted dignity to his character and peace to his closing hours. He was the intellectual chief of his party, and the members of it resorted to him at Cambridge, there to dispel doubts, and thence

demical career, to ascend and animate the pulpits of the national church. But if to the President of Queen's belonged the dignity of Præpositus of the evangelical youth of the University, the far more arduous and responsible office of Archididasculus was occupied by a fellow of the adjacent royal college.

Long Chamber at Eton, has been the

dormitory of many memorable men, and feelings for which it could find no other King's has been to many a famous Etonian utterance. To the charge of hypocrisy, little better than a permanent dormitory. they replied, that it was related to truth in But about seventy years ago was elected, that sense only in which opposites and confrom the one to the other of those magnifi- tradictions are related. They maintained cent foundations, a youth, destined thence- that even the superficial weaknesses of their forward to wage irreconcilable war with teacher ministered to his real designs; just the slumbers and the slumberers of his age. as the very offal of the Holocaust feeds the Let none of those (and they are a great sacred flame by which the offering is conmultitude) who have enshrined the memory sumed. Here, they said, was a man beset of Charles Simeon in the inner sanctuary by difficulties enough to have baffled the of their hearts, suppose that it is in a trifling whole school of Athens, as brought togethor irreverent spirit that the veil is for a mo- er by the imagination of Raphael D'Urbino ment raised, which might otherwise con--by inveterate affectations, by the want of ceal the infirmities of so good a man. He learning, by the want of social talents, by was indeed one of those on whom the im- the want of general ability of any kind, by press of the divine image was distinct and the want of interest in the pursuits of his vivid. But the reflecting glory of that image (such was his own teaching) is heightened, not tarnished, by a contrast with the poverty of the material on which it may be wrought, and of the ground from which it

emerges.

neighbors, by their want of sympathy in his pursuits, by the want of their good-will, nay, by the want of their decided and hearty animosity. Yet thus unprovided for the contest, he gained a victory which the sternest cynic in that glorious assemblage They who recollect the late Mr. Terry, might have condescended to envy, and the the friend of Walter Scott, may imagine most eloquent of the half-inspired sages the countenance and manner of Charles there, to extol. Slowly, painfully, but with Simeon. To a casual acquaintance he unfaltering hopes, he toiled through more must frequently have appeared like some than fifty successive years, in the same nartruant from the green-room, studying in row chamber and among the same humble clerical costume for the part of Mercutio, congregation-requited by no emolument, and doing it scandalously ill. Such adven- stimulated by no animating occurrences, turous attitudes, such a ceaseless play of the aud unrewarded, until the near approach facial muscles, so seeming a consciousness of old age, by the gratitude or the cordial of the advantages of his figure, with so respect of the society amidst which he seeming an unconsciousness of the disad- lived. Love soaring to the Supreme with vantages of his carriage-a seat in the sad- the lowliest self-abasement, and stooping to dle so triumphant, badinage so ponderous, the most abject with the meekest self-forstories so exquisitely unbefitting him about getfulness, bore him onward, through fog the pedigree of his horses or the vintages or sunshine, through calm or tempest. of his cellar-the caricaturists must have His whole life was but one long labor of been faithless to their calling, and the un-love-a labor often obscure, often misapder-graduates false to their nature, if pen-plied, often unsuccessful, but never intercil, pen, and tongue, had not made him mitted, and at last triumphant. their prey. Candid friends were com- At the close of each academical year, a pelled (of course by the force of truth and crowd of youths, just entering into the busiconscience) to admit that he was not alto- ness of life, received from Charles Simeon gether clear of the sin of coxcombry; and his parting counsels and benediction.the worshippers of Bacchus and of Venus They had been his pupils, his associates, gave thanks that they were jolly fellows, and his grateful admirers. Without money and not like this Pharisee. and without price he had sedulously imparted to them a science, which to many a simple mind compensated for the want of any other philosophy; and which to the best and ripest scholars disclosed the fountains whence all the streams of truth are salient, and the boundless expanse of knowledge towards which they are all convergent. It was the science of which God himself is the author, and men sent of God

To the reproach of affectation and conceit, his disciples made answer, that their master had shed his original manner as soon and completely as his original teeth; and that the new or artificial manner was not only more deeply rooted than the old, but was in fact as natural; being but the honest though awkward effort of the soul within, to give vent to the most genuine