almost as they had been excited. Standing on, the bank of the Ganges, he writes I reflected, while looking at the stream gliding by, that all alike are carried down the stream of time.... we are now but just speaking to one another as we are passing along. How should this consideration quell the tumult of anger and impatience, when I cannot convince men!' But the temper of this good man was the most severely tried while travelling through Persia, and especially from Shiraz toward Constantinople. Indeed it cannot easily be denied, that his life was sacrificed by the hardships he met with for some weeks prior to his dissolution. Only five weeks before his death, being much tried with self-willed, hardhearted Turks, he remarked in his journal, as well he might I had to mourn over my impatient temper towards my servants. There is nothing that disturbs my peace so much. How much more noble and God-like to bear with calmness and observe with pity, rather than anger, the failings and offences of others. O that I may, through grace, be enabled to recollect myself at the time of temptation! O that the spirit of God may check my folly, and bring the lowly Saviour to my view at such times.' 2

9. The present century is as remarkable for redundancy of biographical writings as the last was for paucity. The memoirs of some of the greatest lights are compressed within four or five pages. The truly great and learned PARKHURST is an instance in point. It is thus recorded of him: 'Like many other men of infirm and sickly frames,

Mr. Parkhurst was also irritable and quick, warm and earnest in his resentments, though never unforgiving. But whether it be or be not a matter of reproach to possess a mind so constituted, it certainly is much to any man's credit to counteract and subdue it by an attention to the injunc tions of religion. This Mr. P. effectually did: and few men have passed through a long life more at peace with his neighbours, more respected by men of learning, more beloved by his friends, or more honoured by his family.' His second wife died in 1800, at the age of seventy-nine. The following testimony is worthy to be recorded:- Never were modest worth, unaffected piety, and every domestic virtue, more strongly illustrated than in the character of this amiable and excellent woman. Her sweetness of temper, simplicity of manners, and charitable disposition, are seldom paralleled, and never excelled."

10. Dr. Johnson writes of Dr. Watts:-'This excellent man was, by his natural temper, quick of resentment; but by his established and habitual practice, he was gentle, modest and inoffensive.'

11. Bishop Burnet has furnished us with an excellent character of Queen Mary, consort of William III. She had a mild and amiable temper, which appeared to great advantage in her last sickness:- Her bearing so much sickness with little emotion, was for some time imputed to that undisturbed quiet and patience in which she possessed her soul; but when she repeated it so often, that she felt herself well inwardly,' then it

1 See Preface to Parkhurst's Greek Lexicon.

appeared that there was a particular blessing in so easy conclusion of a life, that had been led through a great variety of accidents with a constant equality of temper.'1

12. Of Bishop Burnet himself the Marquis of Halifax writes as follows:- Dr. Burnet, like all men who are above the ordinary level, is seldom spoken of in a medium; he must either be railed at or admired. He has a swiftness of imagination that no other man comes up to. His first thoughts may sometimes require more digestion; not from a defect of his judgment; but from the abun dance of his fancy, which furnishes matter too fast for him. His friends love him too well to heed small faults; or if they do, they think that his greater talents give him a privilege of straying from the strict rules of caution, and exempt him from the ordinary rules of censure. He is not quicker in discerning other men's faults, than he is in forgiving them; and was ever ready, or rather glad, to acknowledge his own. All the repeated provocations of his indecent adversaries, have had no other effect than the setting his good nature in so much better a light, since his anger never yet went further than to pity them. That heat which in most other men raises sharpness and satire, in him glows into warmth for his friends, and compassion for those in want and misery.'

13. It is recorded of Locke: 'He had great knowledge of the world and of its business. He won esteem by his probity. His wisdom, his experience, and his gentle and obliging manners,

History of the Reformation.

gained him the respect of his inferiors, the esteem of his equals, and the friendship and confidence of the most exalted ranks.'

14. Dion, the deliverer of Syracuse, was introduced, with other worthies, in a preceding part, as a man of great wisdom, and of a forbearing and forgiving temper. Defects he certainly had, as Rollin has pointed out, but these were abundantly relieved by better and more prevalent qualities. The historian seems to dwell with lingering delight on this eminent individual: he writes, 'It is not easy to find so many excellent qualities in one and the same person as were united in Dion. I do not consider in this place his wonderful taste for the sciences, his art of associating them with the greatest employments of war and peace, of extracting from them the rules of conduct and maxims of government, and of making them an equally useful and honourable entertainment of his leisure; I confine myself to the statesman and patriot; and, in this view, how admirable does he appear! Greatness of soul, elevation of sentiments, generosity in bestowing his wealth, heroic valour in battle, attended with a coolness of temper and a prudence scarcely to be paralleled, a mind vast and capable of the highest views, a constancy not to be shaken by the greatest dangers or the most unexpected revolutions of fortune, the love of his country and of the public good carried almost to excess: these are part of Dion's virtues... But what I conceive the greatest beauty in Dion's character, the most worthy of admiration, and, if I may so say, the most above human nature, is the greatress of soul and unexampled patience with which he suffered the

He had aban

ingratitude of his countrymen. doned and sacrificed every thing to come to their relief... In return for such great services, they shamefully expel him the city; load him with injuries, and add to their base perfidy the most cruel outrages and indignity. To punish those ungrateful traitors, he had only a signal to give, and to leave the rest to the indignation of his soldiers. Master of their temper as well of his own, he curbs their impetuosity, and without disarming their hands, restrains their just rage, because he could not forget that they were his fellow-citizens and brethren.' Epaminondas, the Theban General, is another brilliant character.

15. The Rev. Rowland Hill is presented to us, by his biographer, the Rev. E. Sidney, in a most interesting view. No attempt is made to conceal either his eccentricities or his foibles. He was, in a sense, blunt in manner and in speech, but it was only the frank expression of truth and sincerity, which far exceeds all the fine, smooth and artificial strokes of mere sound and pretension. He might sometimes give a momentary pain to more refined feelings, or more superficial minds; but his intention was not to offend any one. It was a habit with him to speak out, rather than mince the truth or cherish hypocrisy.

16. Mr. Hill was also an example to every Christian, in the retirement of his family. It was impossible to be the inmate of his house and not love him; he neglected none of those little acts of kindness, which make up the sum of human happiness in private life; and his uniform cheer

1 Rollin, vol. vi. p. 120.