and moral philosophy; but in 1778 he was called from the sequestered pursuits of science to the cure of souls, as chaplain to the Neapolitan ambassador at the British court. Before a small but respectable congregation he soon attained celebrity; but he was then only qualifying himself for greater exertions, and with that view assiduously attended those splendid exhibitions of public speaking which were at that time so often made in the senate and at the bar. Amidst this blaze of eloquence, the church alone continued cold, and, however enlightened by an improved philosophy, had seldom been warmed but by the fiery breath of polemical divinity. To rouse devotion from this profound lethargy, was a daring novelty, which demanded the powers of a Kirwan. Fortunately for the interests of humanity, he felt his force, and seized the glorious opportunity. After two years' retirement in the bosom of his family, he in the year 1787 resolved to conform to the established religion,—a determination which was greatly promoted by the conviction-as he himself declaredthat he should thus obtain more extensive opportunities of doing good. He was, in consequence, introduced by the Rev. Dr Hastings, archdeacon of Dublin, to his first Protestant congregation in St Peter's church, where he preached on the 24th of June in that year. The first sermon of so distinguished a convert naturally attracted an overflowing congregation, who expected that, according to immemorial usage, he would reprobate the doctrine and practices of the church from which he had withdrawn, but, instead of "pulling down the altar at which he had sacrificed," he exhibited an example of Christian meekness, liberality, and conciliation, in the choice of a subject utterly unconnected with controversy. Nor did he, upon any subsequent occasion, profane the pulpit by religious or political intolerance, or even in his most confidential communications, breathe a syllable of contempt or reproach against any religious persuasion whatever. For some time after his conformity, he preached every Sunday in St Peter's church, and the collections for the poor on every occasion rose four or five fold above their usual amount. Before the expiration of his first year, he was wholly reserved for the distinguished and difficult task of preaching charity sermons, and on the 5th of November 1788, the governors of the general daily schools of several parishes entered into a resolution-"That from the effects which the discourses of the Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan, from the pulpit, have had, his officiating in the metropolis was considered a national advantage, and that vestries should be called to consider the most effectual method to secure to the city an instrument, under Providence, of so much public benefit." In the same year he was preferred by the archbishop of Dublin, to the prebend of Howth, and in the next to the parish of St Nicholas-without, the joint income of which amounted to about £400 a-year. These were his only church-preferments, until the year 1800; when the late Marquis Cornwallis, then lord-lieutenant, preferred him to the deanery of Killala, worth £400 a-year, at which time he resigned the prebend of Howth. His ardour was not abated by promotion, nor his meekness corrupted by admiration; though, whenever he preached, such multitudes assembled, that it was necessary to defend the entrance of the church by guards and palisadoes. He was presented with addresses and pieces of plate from every parish, and the freedom of several corporations; his portrait was painted and engraved by the most eminent artists, and what was infinitely more grateful to his feelings, the collections at his sermons far exceeded any that ever were known in a country distinguished for unmeasured benevolence. Even in times of public calamity and distress, his irresistible powers of persuasion repeatedly produced contributions exceeding a thousand or twelve hundred pounds at a sermon ; and his hearers, not content with emptying their purses into the plate, sometimes threw in jewels or watches, as earnest of further benefactions. The native warmth of his character breathed through all his discourses, and animated his conversation. His action was various and emphatic, without seeming studied or outrageous; his voice full and melodious, and his utterance successively solemn, earnest, melting, and impassioned, without the least appearance of affected modulation. His glance was piercing, his countenance austere and commanding, and his whole delivery was in perfect unison with the evangelical style and spirit of his discourses, which bore a strong impression of vigorous original conception and glowing zeal, illuminated by sound judgment and a profound knowledge of human nature. He seems cautiously to have abstained from polishing any part of his sermons too highly, to blend with such extemporaneous effusions as occasional circumstances suggested, many of which burst from him with a rapid and overwhelming impetuosity, that hurried away the passions of his auditory in resistless ecstasy. From this masculine strain of impassioned exhortation, conveyed in diction not florid, but elevated, and with a voice and manner not theatrical, but impressive, resulted effects proportionably solid; and contributions-amounting almost to prodigality-produced foundations which promise to be permanent monuments of national beneficence. The following beautiful panegyric was pronounced by Mr Grattan in the Irish parliament, on the 19th of June 1792" And what has the church to expect? what is the case of Dr Kirwan? This man preferred our country and our religion, and brought to both, genius superior to what he found in either. He called forth the latent virtues of the human heart, and taught men to discover in themselves a mine of charity, of which the proprietors had been unconscious. In feeding the lamp of charity, he has almost exhausted the lamp of life. He came to interrupt the repose of the pulpit, and shakes one world with the thunder of the other. The preacher's desk becomes the throne of light., Round him a train, not such as crouch and swagger at the levee of princes; not such as attend the procession of the viceroy, horse, foot, and dragoons; but that wherewith a great genius peoples his own state,-charity in ecstasy, and vice in humiliation,vanity, arrogance, and saucy empty pride, appalled by the rebuke of the preacher, and cheated, for a moment, of their native improbity and insolence.. -What reward? St Nicholas-within, St Nicholas-without! The curse of Swift is upon him: to have been born an Irishman and a man of genius, and to have used it for the good of his country." This excellent man died, with signal piety and resignation, at his house at Mount Pleasant, near Dublin, on the 27th of October, 1805. His funeral was attended to his own church of St Nicholas-without, by the children of all the parish schools in Dublin, and his pall was borne by six gentlemen of the first distinction. Sir Jonah Barrington attributes to him a want of philanthropic qualities, a high opinion of himself, which overwhelmed every other consideration, and an intractable turn of mind entirely repugnant to the usual means of acquiring high preferment. He describes his figure and countenance as having been unprepossessing; his air discontented; and his features so sharp as to be almost repulsive. "His manner of preaching," continues Sir Jonah, "was of the French school: he was vehement for a while, and then becoming, or affecting to become, exhausted, he held his handkerchief to his face; a dead silence ensued; he had skill to perceive the precise moment to recommence,-another blaze of declamation burst upon the congregation, and another fit of exhaustion was succeeded by another pause. The men began to wonder at his eloquence; the women grew nervous at his denunciations. His tact rivalled his talents, and, at the conclusion of one of his finest sentences, a 'celestial exhaustion,' as I heard a lady call it, not unfrequently terminated his discourse-in general, abruptly." William Paley, D. D. BORN A. D. 1743.-DIED A. D. 1805. THIS very eminent man was born in the neighbourhood of Peterborough, in July, 1743. His father was then incumbent of Helpstone, but soon afterwards accepted the mastership of Giggleswick school, near Settle in Yorkshire. Young Paley remained under his father's tuition until his sixteenth year, when he was sent to Cambridge, and admitted a sizar of Christ college. During the first period of his undergraduateship he was remarkable more for indolence and drollery than for genius and application; but he acquired great celebrity by the ability which he displayed in keeping his first act. "I spent," says he, "the first two years of my undergraduateship happily, but unprofitably. I was constantly in society, where we were not immoral, but idle, and rather expensive. At the commencement of my third year, however, after having left the usual party at rather a late hour in the evening, I was awakened, at five in the morning, by one of my companions, who stood at my bed-side, and said, 'Paley, I have been thinking what a fool you are. I could do nothing, probably, were I to try, and can afford the life I lead you could do every thing, and cannot afford it. I have had no sleep during the whole night, on account of these reflections; and am now come solemnly to inform you, that if you persist in your indolence, I must renounce your society !' I was so struck with the visit, and the visitor, that I lay in bed great part of the day, and formed my plan. I ordered my bed-maker to prepare my fire every evening, in order that it might be lighted by myself. I arose at five, read during the whole of the day, except such hours as chapel and hall required, allotted to each portion of time its peculiar branch of study; and, just before the closing of the college gates, (nine o'clock,) I went to a neighbouring coffeehouse, where I constantly regaled on a mutton chop, and a dose of milk punch; and thus, on taking my bachelor's degree, I became senior wrangler." favoured me with a copy of, abundantly convinces me that you were indeed under a divine guidance in that resolution. And I cannot but look on it as a great token for good to the church, that a gentleman of your distinguished abilities, (of which the pamphlet you sent me is a valuable specimen,) and of your elevated circumstances in human life, should be willing to engage in so laborious a work as the ministry, in the midst of the various discouragements which attend it. I hope God will abundantly bless your labours for the good of souls; and I will venture to tell you from my own experience, that if he does so, instead of repenting of your choice, you will rejoice in it through the course of your life, and in the nearest prospect of eternity." The anonymous pamphlet referred to in this letter, was written by Dr Erskine when he was little more than twenty years of age, and more than two years before he was licensed to preach. It was entitled, The law of nature sufficiently propagated to the heathen world; or, an inquiry into the ability of the heathens to discover the being of a God, and the immortality of human souls, in some miscellaneous reflections, occasioned by Dr Campbell's (the professor of divinity in the university of St Andrews) late treatise on the necessity of revelation : 1741.' The work of Dr Campbell's, to part of which this is a reply, though written professedly to serve the cause of Christianity, was considered by many a covert attack upon it. It produced a considerable ferment in the church of Scotland, and an attempt was made to convict the professor of heresy; but which was defeated by the strength of those whom Warburton terms, the paganized divines, in the general assembly. The position examined by Dr Erskine, is not, perhaps, the most dangerous of Campbell's doctrines; but as a part of his system, which maintained, "that the religion of nature is our most valuable property, and the only sure means of our lasting happiness," it deserved consideration. Whether Dr Erskine has succeeded in his attempt to overthrow the argument of his opponent or not, it must be admitted that his pamphlet discovers a large portion of solid learning, extensive reading, and acute reasoning. This treatise was the means of leading to a correspondence with Warburton, to whom Dr Erskine had sent it, which continued at intervals during the whole period of that prelate's life, and through the entire course of which, the bishop treated his presbyterian correspondent with a degree of respect and kindness, he scarcely showed to any other individual. Dr Erskine was licensed to preach the gospel, by the presbytery of Dunblane, in the year 1743, and preached his first public sermon in the church of Torryburn, of which parish he was afterwards patron, from Psalm lxxxiv. 10, a passage remarkably suitable to his own circumstances and feelings. He had before this communicated his determination to enter into the ministry to Warburton, and some time after received from him an answer, part of which we shall extract, as an illustration of the kind of intercourse that subsisted between two individuals, the opposite of each other in almost every thing but acuteness and strength of mind; and to show the opinion which Dr Erskine seems to have entertained of some of the doctrines of his own church. It is dated Newark, February 20th, 1744. "I heartily felicitate you on your choice of the better part. You have an advantage that numbers may envy, in going to divinity from the study of civil law. Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain; In May, 1744, Dr Erskine was appointed to the charge of the parisu of Kirkintulloch, containing a large population, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. In the year 1741, 2, and 8, Mr Whitefield had visited Scotland, in consequence of pressing solicitation; and here, as in all other places, he was received with distinguished attention. He was admitted to the pulpits of many of the established clergy, (a privilege he could not now enjoy,) and, among the rest, to that of Dr Erskine. The doctor was well acquainted with his labours, while he had been student of divinity at Edinburgh. He warmly espoused his cause, and considered himself bound to defend the character and principles of that much injured man. On a visit to the west country, where his labours at a former period had been eminently blessed, he was cordially welcomed to the pulpit of Dr Erskine, and of some of his pious friends on the same side of the church. This liberality was not relished by some of his clerical brethren. A motion was made at a meeting of the synod at Glasgow, in October, 1748, with special reference to Mr Whitefield, who had just been in that district, That no minister in their bounds should employ a stranger of doubtful character, till after consulting his presbytery. This produced an animated and prolonged debate, in which Dr Erskine took an active part, and of which he afterwards published a short account, without his name. No circumstance relating to Dr Erskine is more interesting than the extensive correspondence which he maintained with eminent men in all parts of the world, about the state and progress of religion and learning, and particularly of divine knowledge. With America, his intercourse began at a very early period, and perhaps there were few of its most celebrated writers, or preachers, or men of eminence in civil life, with whom he did not exchange books and letters. For more than half a century he was the centre of one of the most extensive religious circles in Great Britain, or perhaps in the world. This was the effect of his |