effective. They are the chosen band who must man the breach; let them then be trebly armed to resist the assault!—In this point of view many valuable hints may be gathered from the Doddridge Correspondence.

It will there be observed that the nonconformist Pastors in the reign of George the Second were well grounded in classical learning, and familiar with general studies. But their happy freedom from spiritual assumption, although in a great degree the result of extended knowledge, was also very much owing to the judicious constitution of dissenting Academies at that period. Those establishments were then open to lay pupils, a circumstance presenting the best defence against the sectarian feeling, so likely to arise where a number of young men are cloistered up together under the same circumstances, and with the same object in view.

The settlement and ordination of dissenting ministers are also points on which these letters will throw light. And here the introduction of some fresh regulations, suited to the improved state of general society, would tend so much to prevent schism in congregations, and add to the dignity and usefulness of Pastors, that it may be hoped the subject will meet with consideration.

To the peculiar duties of the sacred function

many allusions occur; and some passages of the Diary will in that view be found to present the highest claims to attention. And here as a collateral remark I would observe, that those ministers who are not occupied in the useful work of tuition would frequently find the prosecution of the practical sciences, and of general literature, as the employment of their leisure, of more value, in adding to their usefulness and influence, than they at present seem to imagine.

In accordance with such leading impressions, the materials have been selected and arranged so as to present a minute and faithful history of the public and private life, and opinions of Dr. Doddridge, the sentiments of his contemporaries, and the state of ecclesiastical questions at that period.

With regard to each of these objects individually, I have impartially chosen from the mass of original papers the most curious and interesting documents. The reader will therefore have an opportunity of seeing the undisguised sentiments of the parties, and will draw his conclusions unfettered by that indirect influence in favour of some peculiar system, which by a partial suppression of evidence so many works of this nature are contrived to produce.

The correspondence is arranged in its natural

chronological order, which, it is hoped, will prove most satisfactory, not only as unfolding the personal history of Dr. Doddridge in a simple and direct manner, but as affording increased interest from the ever varying character of the matter as to style and sentiment. Some particulars, as might be anticipated, are not duly explained by the relative letters of the period; and in such instances I have thought it advisable to supply the deficiency by the introduction of original matter, and have taken such opportunities to divide the work into sections. A few biographical and other notes are also added, which, it is hoped, may not be unacceptable.

As some devotional impressions of unusual character entertained by Dr. Doddridge appear most evidently in his Diary, I have thought it best not to diminish their interest by an anticipation of the curious facts from which they arose. And as the Diary itself is rather a series of meditations upon the state of his private feelings, and the more striking incidents of his life than that minute recapitulation of daily occurrences, generally known under that title, it has been deemed most judicious to place it after the Correspondence. This arrangement became indeed almost imperative, from the circumstance of the Doctor's early Efe being most fully detailed in his letters; and

indeed to an extent which has in that particular superseded the Diary.

Of this interesting portion of the work, the early correspondence which occupies the two first volumes, and a part of the third, it may be desirable to speak a little more at large.

The perfect regularity in point of succession of the letters in question arises from their having been originally copied in shorthand by Dr. Doddridge, and thus preserved in a body. This curious autograph-manuscript constitutes a very small book, and is subdivided into three volumes. The margins are ruled off with red ink, and the character is not only written with that peculiar neatness for which Dr. Doddridge was remarkable, but so minutely as sometimes. to require a lens to decipher it.

These copies were evidently taken from the originals as soon as they were written, the Doctor having in some instances referred to this manuscript in corroboration of former statements; and as these letters are regularly numbered, as well as dated in the usual way, it would appear that at this period of his life he scarcely transmitted a single line, a copy of which was not thus preserved.

From this circumstance it may be anticipated that many of these letters are of a domestic and confidential character, and when it is added that they are almost wholly so, no

surprise will be felt that their publication has been deferred until time had obliterated those recollections, which to some parties might have occasioned feelings of anxiety.

To have an opportunity of minutely tracing the growth of a virtuous mind, under the vivid impressions and cordial emotions of early youth, could not but be interesting were the individual the most obscure of our species. And if the common sympathies of humanity are sufficient for this purpose, it may at least be supposed that, in the instance of Dr. Doddridge, this laudable curiosity will be infinitely heightened.

To render such a picture satisfactory it is, however, not only necessary that it should be painted with truth and spirit under the glowing impressions of the moment, but that it should meet the eye of the spectator with such advantages of light and distance as may best display its tints and reveal its details. In the present instance the analogy will be found to hold good in both particulars, for the letters were written with perfect candour, and are published without any of those reservations which might warp the judgment of the reader.

Mutilations in a literary point of view often defeat the intention, and rather attract public curiosity to the very points they were made to conceal. Suspicion at least, as surely as the shadow follows the substance, must always