ADAM CLARKE.

BORN 1762- DIED 1832.

[This eminent divine and oriental scholar | circuit after circuit. He afterwards resided was born in the year 1760 or 1762, in the little village of Moybeg, county of Londonderry. His father belonged to a family which at one time possessed considerable property in Antrim, and his mother, who was of Scotch descent, is described as a woman of excellent character, who early taught her children the importance of religion. At the time of Adam's birth, however, the financial affairs of the family were far from prosperous. Mr. Clarke had received a good college education, but from various adverse causes he had been obliged to betake himself to the then poorly paid profession of a parish schoolmaster, and his income was only what could be derived from the petty fees of the school in the village in which he lived. It soon became impossible to exist upon this income, and farming in a small way was therefore added to teaching. Before and after school hours Mr. Clarke worked hard on his little farm, while the rest of the labour required was performed by his two sons. "This limited their education," we are told; "but the two brothers went day about to school, and he who had the advantage of the day's instruction gained and remembered all he could, and imparted on his return to him that continued in the farm all the knowledge that he had acquired in the day."

At the age of fourteen Adam was taken from farm and school and placed with Mr. Barnett, a linen manufacturer, to learn that business. Evidently the lad did not like it, for he returned home in a few months. Soon after some kind friend recommended him to the Rev. John Wesley, who invited him to become a pupil in the Methodist seminary lately established at Kingswood, Bristol. Here he diligently applied himself to study, and before long we find him buying out of his scanty pocket-money a Hebrew grammar, and beginning to lay the foundation of the high reputation which he afterwards acquired as an eastern scholar. When Mr. Wesley visited Kingswood he asked Clarke if he was willing to become an itinerant preacher. He readily consented, and was accordingly, within a few weeks, appointed to the circuit of Bradford, Wilts, though only nineteen years of age. From this time until 1805, a period of twenty-six years, he laboured assiduously in

chiefly in London, and devoted much of his time to literary research. In 1797 he had issued his first work, A Dissertation on the Use and Abuse of Tobacco. This was followed in 1802 by "A Bibliographical Dictionary, containing a Chronological Account of the most curious Books in all departments of Literature, from the infancy of Printing to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, with an Essay on Bibliography and an Account of the best English Translations of each Greek and Latin Classic." This work, issued in six small volumes, to which two were afterwards added, is possessed of considerable merit, and established the literary reputation of its author. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in 1805 received the diploma of M.A., and the following year that of LL.D. from the University of St. Andrews. He was also chosen a member of the Royal Irish Academy and of other literary societies in this country and in America. In 1804 he published Baxter's Christian Directory Abridged, and in 1805 a new edition of Claude Fleury's History of the Ancient Israelites. In 1807 appeared The Succession of Sacred Literature, in 1808 The Eucharist, and at different periods a new edition of Shuckford's Connection of Sacred and Profane History, Illness and Death of Richard Porson, and Sturm's Reflections on the Works of God and His Providence, translated from the German.

All these works had gained him a high reputation, when, in 1810, the first volume of his great work appeared, The Holy Bible, with a Commentary and Critical Notes, in eight volumes, the last of which was issued in 1826. Of this work we may say that it displayed the most profound erudition and perseverance, and is the work by which the name of the author will live. "It is assuredly a wonderful performance," says Archbishop Lowndes, "carried on as it was in the midst of journeying and privations, of weariness and painfulness, of care and distraction; and carried on too by an unaided and single-handed man, for be himself affirms that he had no mortal to afford him the smallest assistance." In 1815 Dr. Clarke had an estate at Millbrook in Lancashire purchased for him by some friends, and to this place he removed and resided for

several years.

In 1816 he edited Harmer's | strongly attached to her, and ever treated her with high reverence and respect. The injuries she had sustained, and the manner in which she had borne them, could not but excite the esteem of such a mind as his.

Observations with his Life, and in 1818, having received into his house two Buddhist priests, he wrote for their instruction in the Christian religion Clavis Biblica, or a Compendium of Biblical Knowledge, which appeared in 1820.

In 1823 Dr. Clarke removed to London, and afterwards to Haydon Hall, seventeen miles from London, where he resided until his death, which took place Aug. 26, 1832. In addition to the works already mentioned, he also produced Memoirs of the Wesley Family, and the Gospels Harmonized, which was arranged by Samuel Dunn, and published in 1836. In 1807 he was appointed one of the sub-commissioners for the arrangement of the public records, and besides publishing interesting Reports, assisted in preparing for the press the early portion of an enlarged edition of Rymer's Fœdera. A memoir of Dr. Clarke, edited by J. B. B. Clarke, was published in 1833.]

MRS. HALL, SISTER OF JOHN WESLEY.

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(FROM MEMOIRS OF THE WESLEY FAMILY.")

Mrs. Hall could not endure the sight of misery which she could not relieve; it quite overwhelmed her. One day she came to the house of her brother Charles apparently sinking under distress, and looking like a corpse. On inquiry it was found that a hapless woman had come to her and related such a tale of real woe that she took the creature into her own lodgings, and had kept her for three days; and the continual sight of her wretchedness, wretchedness that she could not fully relieve, so affected her, that her own life was sinking into the grave. The case was immediately made known to that son of consolation her brother John, whose eye and ear never failed to affect his heart at the sight or tale of misery. He took immediate charge of his sister's unfortunate guest, and had her provided for according to her wants and dis

tresses.

All Mrs. Hall's movements were deliberate, slow, and steady. In her eye, her step, her speech, there appeared an innate dignity and superiority; which were so mingled with gentleness and good nature, as ever to excite respect and reverence, but never fear; for all children loved her and sought her company.

She spent much time, at his own particular request, with Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was

They often disputed together on matters of Theology and Moral Philosophy; and in their differences of opinion, for they often differed, he never treated her with that asperity with which he often treated those opponents who appeared to plume themselves on their acquirements. He wished her very much to become an inmate in his house, and she would have done so had she not feared to provoke the jealousy of the two females already there, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Du Moulin, who had long resided under his roof, and whose queer tempers much embittered his social hours and comforts. She ventured to tell him the reason; and he felt its cogency, as no doubt the comparison between the tempers would have created much ill-will. As a frequent visitor, even they, cross-tempered as they were, highly valued Mrs. Hall.

It is no wonder that Dr. Johnson valued her conversation. In many cases it supplied the absence of books, her memory was a repository of the most striking events of past centuries, and she had the best parts of all our poets by heart. She delighted in literary discussions and moral argumentations, not for the display, but for the exercise of her mental faculties, and to increase her fund of useful knowledge; and she bore opposition with the same composure as regulated all other parts of her conduct.

The young and inexperienced who had promising abilities she exhorted to avoid that blind admiration of talents which is apt to regard temper and the moral virtues as secondary; and infused an abhorrence of that satire and ridicule which too often accompany wit. Of wit she used to say she was the only one of the family who did not possess it; and Mr. Charles Wesley used to remark that "Sister Patty was always too wise to be witty." Yet she was very capable of acute remark; and once at Dr. Johnson's house, when she was on a grave discussion, she made one which turned the laugh against him, in which he cordially joined, as he felt its propriety and force.

In his house at Bolt Court one day when Mrs. Hall was present the doctor began to expatiate on the unhappiness of human life. Mrs. Hall said, "Doctor, you have always lived among the wits, not the saints; and they are a race of people the most unlikely to seek true

The works of Dean Swift were held in high esteem by all the Wesley family but herself. She could not endure the description of the Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels; and considered it as a reflection on the Creator thus to ridicule the work of his hands. His Tale of a Tub she considered as too irreverent to be atoned for by the wit.

happiness, or find the pearl without price." | and the conduct of the Republicans, she got a I have already remarked that she delighted in little excited, and said, "The devil was the theological discussions. It was her frequent first Independent." custom to dwell on the goodness of God in giving his creatures laws; observing, "that what would have been the inclination of a kind nature was made a command that our benevolent Creator might reward it, he thus condescending to prescribe that as a duty which to a regenerate mind must have been a wish and delight, had it not been prescribed." She loved the name of duties; and ever blessed her gracious Redeemer who enabled her to discharge them. In a conversation there was a remark made, that the public voice was the voice of truth, universally recognized; whence the proverb Vox populi, vox Dei. This Mrs. Hall strenuously contested, and said, the "public voice" in Pilate's hall was "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

She had an innate horror of melancholy subjects. "Those persons," she maintained, "could not have real feeling who could delight to see or hear details of misery they could not relieve, or descriptions of cruelty they could not punish." Nor did she like to speak of death. It was heaven, the society of the blessed, and the deliverance of the happy spirit from this tabernacle of clay, not the pang of separation (of which she always expressed a fear), on which she delighted to dwell. She could not behold a corpse, "because," said she, "it is beholding sin sitting upon his throne." She objected strongly to those lines in Mr. Charles Wesley's funeral hymns:

"Ah, lovely appearance of death, What sight upon earth is so fair," &c. Her favourite hymn among these was:

"Rejoice for a brother deceased," &c.

It excited her surprise that women should dispute the authority which God gave the husband over the wife. "It is," she said, "so clearly expressed in Scripture that one would suppose such wives had never read their Bible." But she allowed that this authority was only given after the fall, not before; but "the woman," said she, "who contests this authority should not marry." Vixen and unruly wives did not relish her opinions on this subject, and her example they could never forgive.

In all her relations, and in all her concerns, she loved order. "Order is heaven's first law" was a frequent quotation of hers; it produces, she would say, universal harmony.

Conversing on the times of Oliver Cromwell

Of her sufferings she spoke so little that they could not be learned from herself; I could only get acquainted of those I knew from other branches of the family. Her blessings and the advantages she enjoyed she was continually recounting. "Evil," she used to say, was not kept from me; but evil has been kept from harming me.”

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Though she abhorred everything relative to death, considering it as the triumph of sin, yet she spoke of her own removal with serenity. When her niece, Miss Wesley, asked her if she would wish that she should attend her in her last moments, she answered, "Yes, if you are able to bear it; but I charge you not to grieve more than half an hour."

ON DREAMS.

(FROM "STURM'S REFLECTIONS.")

The inactivity of the soul during sleep is not so complete as to leave the faculties unemployed. We have ideas and representations, and our imagination is continually at work. This is the case when we dream. However, the soul has but little share in them, except so far as relates to the memory; and perhaps this faculty belongs rather to the animal than to the rational soul. If we reflect upon our dreams and observe why they are so irregular and unconnected-why the events which they represent to us are so fantastic, it will be found that this proceeds chiefly from our being more affected by sensations than by perceptions. Our dreams represent to us persons whom we have never seen, or are long since dead: we see them as alive, and associate with them things which actually exist. If the soul acted in dreams as it does when we are awake, a moment would be sufficient to set these unconnected and confused ideas in order. But commonly its attention is confined to the receiving and following the images which present themselves to it. And although these objects

WILLIAM MARSDEN.

BORN 1754 DIED 1836.

[William Marsden was born at Bray in the | ceived from an elder brother of the youth, who county of Wicklow, on the 16th of November, 1754. His father was a prosperous merchant in Dublin, and had educated his son with a view to the Church. When about to enter him at Trinity College, however, letters were re

was procured for him at the same place, and | Mahometans called the Hegira." He also proearly in 1771, while only sixteen years of age, duced for the same society in 1790 a paper on he left, home and arrived safely at his destina- the "Chronology of the Hindoos." tion in the following May.