temperate in the gratification of his passions and appetites.

The death of Mr. Grove was sincerely lamented, not only by his family and most intimate friends, but by all who had received the benefit of his instructions. "Our sorrow for Mr. Grove's sickness," said one of his hearers, alluding to the general grief which his dangerous illness had excited," was not like our concern for other friends when dying, whom we pity and lament; but a sorrow arising as from the apprehension of the removal of one of the higher order of beings, who had condescended to live on earth for a while to teach us the way to heaven, and was now about to return to his native place."

A charity warm and diffusive, a total freedom from ambition, and an undeviating love for truth and free enquiry, were prominent features in the character of Mr. Grove. To these invaluable qualities were added such an ample store of literature, sacred and profane, as rendered him highly respectable and useful; and manners so easy, affable, and unassuming, that to his pupils, relatives, and flock, he was ever an object of the sincerest affection and esteem.

. It is much to be regretted, that Mr. Grove did not contribute more largely to the Spectator; he

appears to have been admirably calculated, both by his style and manner, for the office of a public instructor and periodical writer. The four numbers which he has written in the last volume of the Spectator claim a very distinguished rank in the estimation of the critic and moralist; and Boswell, in his life of Johnson, has recorded a circumstance relative to one of them, which ought not in this place to be forgotten. The Doctor mentioned, relates the biographer, "with an air of satisfaction, what Baretti had told him, that, meeting, in the course of his studying English, with an excellent paper in the Spectator, one of four that were written by the respectable dissenting minister, Mr. Grove, of Taunton, and observing the genius and energy of mind that it exhibits, it greatly quickened his curiosity to visit our country; as he thought, if such were the lighter periodical essays of our authors, their productions on more weighty occasions must be wonderful indeed!"*

Mr. Grove's first two papers, N° 588 and 601, are on self-love and benevolence; and, with the exception of an unjustifiable censure on the private character of Mr. Hobbes, who, however indefensible his philosophy may have been, was

Bowell's Life of Johnson, vol. iv. p. 31, 8vo. edition of 1799.

an amiable and virtuous man, are worthy of much praise, both in their tendency and execution. They insist upon the dignity of human nature, in opposition to what has been termed the "selfish system." It is probable, however, that the modifications of the latter theory by Mr. Gay* and Dr. Hartley,† and which have, in a great measure, silenced the objections which had with great reason been alledged against it, form the nearest approximation toward the truth.

In N° 626, our author has given us an essay on Novelty; from our addiction to which he deduces in a most ingenious and pleasing manner, and in a style of superior force and elegance to that employed in his prior papers, a strong proof of man being destined to immortality. "One of the finest pieces," remarks Dr. Johnson, "in the English language, is the paper on Novelty, yet we do not hear it talked of." I

The concluding number of the Spectator is the composition of Mr. Grove, and it is a termination worthy of the work; a more sublime, a

Vide Gay's Dissertation, " concerning the fundamental Principles of Virtue," which is prefixed to Dr. Law's translation of Archbishop King's Essay" on the Origin of Evil.”

+ Vide Hartley's " Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations,” 2 vols. 8vo.

+ Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. iii. p. 32.

more interesting and impressive paper cannot be found in the series to which it belongs. The expansion of the mental faculties in a future state, though it be an idea over which some obscurity must necessarily hang, is too accordant with our wishes, our hopes, and our religion, to be dismiss ed for any length of time. There is every reason, indeed, to suppose, that the happiness of an immaterial existence will depend upon the perpetual and illimitable progression of intellect; and the of Mr. Grove is, in every respect, paper well calculated to give force and colour to the exhilarating prospect.

9. JOHN BYROM, the younger son of Mr. Edward Byrom, a linen-draper, was born at Kersall, near Manchester, in the year 1691. After the usual grammatical education in his native place, he was sent to Merchant Taylor's School in London, where he distinguished himself by his attention to, and proficiency in, classical literature. So much greater progress indeed had he made than was usual, that, at the age of sixteen, he was thought sufficiently qualified for the University of Cambridge; where, on the 6th of July, 1708, he was admitted a Pensioner of Trinity College.

At this seat of the Muses, Mr. Byrom culti

vated with assiduity a taste for elegant letters, and especially for poetry, to which, even in his earliest years, he had shown a marked propensity. Having taken the usual degrees in Arts, he was, in 1714, elected a Fellow of his College, with the Master of which, the celebrated Dr. Richard Bentley, he had greatly ingratiated himself.by the sweetness of his disposition, and the regularity of his conduct.

In the August of the year of his election to the Fellowship, he commenced a writer in the. Spectator; and in the October following published in that work his first and best poetical effort, a pastoral under the title of Colin to Phabe. It has been said on good authority, that the Phoebe of this pastoral was Joannà, the daughter of Dr. Bentley, and that it was written, not so much from affection to the daughter, as with the aim of securing the interest of the Doctor in promoting the author's views with regard to the fellowship, for which, at the period of its composition, he was a candidate.

The popularity which this poem has enjoyed for a series of ninety years, must be considered as an indication of no inconsiderable merit; the versification is easy and flowing; and the imagery in the seventh and eighth stanzas may be, termed elegantly rural; but there is a fault in