this distance of time. This I know, that he used to think anxiously with himself day and night, in what manner he should address this unhappy man, and what kind of spiritual counsel would be most likely to succeed with him; for he found him, though ready and sensible enough in all common things, deplorably destitute of all religious knowledge. To the best of my remembrance he always chose to be quite alone with him when he attended; and by repeated applications, and constant prayer, recommended by his mild and engaging manner, thought he had made some considerable impression upon his mind In the last conference before his execution, he thanked Mr. Horne very heartily for his goodness to him, and used these very remarkable words: "Sir, you may, "perhaps, wonder at what I am about to tell 66 you; but, I do assure you, I feel at this mo"ment no more sense of fear, than I should "do if I were going a common journey." To this Mr. Horne answered, that he was indeed very much surprised; but he hoped it was upon a right principle. And so let us hope though the criminal was scarcely explicit enough to give due satisfaction, whether this indifference proceeded from Christian hope or constitutional

hardness.

hardness. The conversation between the Ordinary and the prisoner the evening before he suffered (as Mr. Horne related it, who was present at the interview) consisted chiefly in an exact description of all the particulars of the ceremonial, which the prisoner was to go through in the way to his death; and of course had very little either of comfort or instruction in it. The feelings of that gentleman, who had attended the executions for several years, were very different from those of his assistant; and he spoke of the approaching execution with as little emotion, as if Mr. Dumas had taken a place for the next morning in an Oxford coach. He even amused himself with telling them the story of another unhappy criminal, who had nothing of the fortitude of Mr. Dumas; a person of the law, put to death for forgery, whose heart had failed him at the time of his execution: "There "was poor Paul," (said he) "we could not "make him rise in the morning-he would not

get up-I thought we should never have got "him hanged that day," &c. Such is the ef. fect of custom and habit upon some minds!

Thus was Mr. Horne initiated early into the most difficult duty of the pastoral charge, the visitation of the sick and dying: a work of ex

treme charity; but for which all men are not equally fit; some, because they have too little tenderness; others, because they have too much. It is a blessing that there are many helps and directions for those who wish to improve themselves. The office in the Liturgy is excellent in its kind, but it doth not come up to all cases. Among the posthumous papers of Bishop Horne, I find an inestimable manuscript, which it is probable he might begin to compile for his own use about this time, and partly for the occasion of which I have been speaking. He was by no means unacquainted with the matter and the language of prayer; having shewn to me, as we were upon a walk one summer's evening in the country, when he was a very young man, that precious composition of Bishop Andrews, the first copy of which occurred to him in the library of Magdalen College; on which he set so great a value during the rest of his life, that, while he was Dean of Canterbury, he published, after the example of the excellent Dean Stanhope, his predecessor, a handsome English edition of it. The original is in Greek and Latin; and it happened some time after Mr. Horne had first brought the work into request, that a great number of copies of

the

the Greek and Latin edition were discovered in a warehouse at Oxford, where they had lain undisturbed in sheets for many years. In the copy published after Dean Stanhope's form, the Manual for the Sick, though the best thing extant upon its subject, is wholly omitted: but in the posthumous manuscript I speak of, the whole is put together, with improvements by the compiler; and I wish all the parochial clergy in the nation were possessed of it.

We are now coming to a more busy period of Mr. Horne's life, the year 1756, when he was called upon to be an apologist for himself and some of his friends, against the attack of a literary adversary.

In the controversy about Hebrew names, and their doubtful interpretations, in which the learned Dr. Sharp of Durham was prevailed upon (as it is reported, much against his will) to engage, Mr. Horne never interfered; as being of opinion, that, if all that part of Mr. Hutchinson's system were left to its fate, the most useful and valuable parts of it would still remain, with their evidences from the Scripture, the natural world, and the testimony of sacred and profane antiquity. He was likewise of opinion, that where words are the subject, words

may be multiplied without end: and the witnesses of the dispute, at least the majority of them, having no competent knowledge of so uncommon a subject, would be sure to go as fashion and the current of the times should direct. That a zealous reader of the Hebrew, captivated by the curiosity of its etymologies, should pursue them beyond the bounds of prudence, is not to be wondered at. Many Hebrew etymologies are so well founded, and throw so much light on the learning of antiquity, and the origin of languages, that no man can be a complete Philologist without a proper knowledge of them. The learned well know how useful Mr. Bryant has endeavoured to make himself of late years by following them: and yet, it must be confessed that, with all his learning, he has many fancies and peculiarities of his own, which he would find it difficult to maintain. If Mr. Hutchinson and his followers have been sometimes visionary in their criticisms, and carried things too far, it does not appear that the worst of their interpretations are so bad as those of some learned critics in the last century, who, from the allowed primævity of their favourite language, applied it without discretion to every thing. All the names in Homer's