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of literary industry which has often gratified the public, and is likely to prove so useful to the rising generation. One of the first employments in which he was thus engaged was as a coadjutor of the late Dr. George Gregory, in his compendious Cyclopedia; and, the great success of that work having excited the avidity of other booksellers, Mr. Joyce was engaged by the body of them, who then met at the Chapter coffee-house, to compile a new work on the plan of Gregory's, and it appeared under the name of the late William Nicholson. Both works having rapidly succeeded each other, and being completed within thirty months, the co-labourer in one, and the sole compiler of the other, became justly celebrated for his industry and learning, and we may add, for his zeal and integrity; but such great exertions brought on a severe attack of disease, from which he never fully recovered. Soon after, Mr. Joyce completed his popular Elements of Arithmetic,' of which repeated editions of 10,000 have been sold, and it has long been adopted in the principal schools, as the best in the language. His next publication was his well-known 'Scientific Dialogues,' followed in the same line of composition, by his 'Dialogues on Chemistry and on the Microscope. His other works were his 'Letters on Natural Philosophy,' his 'Introduction to the Arts and Sciences;' and lastly, he cooperated with Messrs Shepherd and Carpenter, in a well-planned work, called 'Systematic Education,' which has been favourably received. For many years he contributed the meteorological report to this magazine, even that in the present number, and often illustrated its pages by his contributions on matter of fact and useful subjects. One of his last communications was the account of his late brother, in our magazine for May; and at that time, and till within two hours of his death, he was in as good health as he had been for several years past. The qualities of his mind are to be estimated by the variety and extent of his labours; and in regard to those of his heart, we, who knew him well, can assert, that an honester or better man never lived. He has left an amiable widow, and a large young family, to deplore their irreparable loss in the produce of his unceasing industry, in the example afforded by his virtuous character, and in the valuable precepts and instructions with which he was so well-qualified to guide them to happiness."

Thomas Cogan.

BORN A. D. 1736.-DIED A. D. 1818.

THOMAS COGAN was born in the year 1736, at Rowell, in Northamptonshire, and was a descendant of an old and respectable family in that place. His father was an apothecary, a man of repute in his profession, and respected for his good character. To literature and

books he was much inclined, and had a particular fondness for metaphysical inquiries. A few pamphlets on some of the abstruser topics of mental philosophy, published at different times, prove the extent of his researches, and the industry and zeal with which he pursued them. With these propensities in the father, it is to be supposed that he would feel a lively interest in the education of his son. After being

initiated into some of the simpler rudiments of learning, young Cogan was sent to Kibworth, in Leicestershire, and put under the charge of Dr Aikin. At this school he remained till he was fourteen years of age, when he returned to his father's house, and continued at home during the two or three succeeding years. About this time he began to think of preparing himself for the Christian ministry; and with the design of prosecuting a course of theological studies, he entered the academy at Mile End, where Dr Conder was teacher in divinity. For some reason, however, growing out of the management of the institution, Cogan soon became dissatisfied, and removed to Hoxton academy. How long he remained in this seminary, or at what time he entered the ministerial office, is not known. In the year 1759, we find him preaching in Holland; and it is supposed that he acted as an assistantpreacher with Mr Snowden, at Rotterdam, who was minister of an English church founded there on the principles of the Dutch establishment. This station, however, he did not retain long, for in 1762 he had returned to his own country, and was settled over a congregation in Southampton. What length of time he held this situation is uncertain, but it seems that difficulties arose between him and the people concerning some of his opinions, which ultimately induced him to request a dismission. By his parents he had been taught the principles of Calvinism, but he subsequently embraced Unitarian sentiments, and perceiving his congregation troubled with suspicions of his heresy, he followed the dictates of wisdom and prudence in desiring to be released from the pastoral connexion.

Being thus freed from engagments at home, he went over again to Holland, where he filled the office of colleague with a clergyman in a congregation, composed of English residents. At this period the symptoms of a pulmonary complaint, with which he had been long slightly affected, began to exhibit a more alarming aspect, and to admonish him of the danger to which he was exposing himself by the exertions required in public speaking. In looking around for a new pursuit congenial with his inclination, and suited to his health, his thoughts were turned to the medical profession. After his mind had become settled in this choice, he commenced his new studies with a zeal and devotedness, which could hardly fail to insure him success. He made a short visit to England, where he gratified his friends by preaching a few discourses, and then went back to Holland, and became a regularly matriculated student of medicine at the university of Leyden. He completed the usual course at Leyden, and, when he took his degree, exhibited a thesis on the Influence of the Passions in causing and heal ing diseases.' This dissertation was the basis of his future works on the passions, which have given him considerable fame as a practical metaphysician and ethical philosopher.

Being thus qualified for entering on his profession, he commenced practice in Holland, where he seems already to have formed an extensive acquaintance, and contracted intimate friendships. He married the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Amsterdam, by the name of Groen, and established himself for a time as a practising physician in that city. Encouraged by his growing reputation, however, he went over to London, where his practice became so extensive, and his labours so burdensome, that he found his health gradually impaired, and he yielded

again to what he deemed the call of duty, in relinquishing the active employments of his profession. In 1780 he went to Amsterdam whe e he devoted himself to literary and philosophical studies, and to such employments as were suited to the state of his health and the bias or his inclination.

During his residence in London, Dr Cogan was instrumental in establishing the Royal Humane society, one of the most efficient schemes of benevolence which have been devised for the relief of suffering humanity. The reports of the society for the first six years were drawn up by Dr Cogan, who also contrived instruments for taking drowned persons out of the water, and suggested various improvements in the means of resuscitation.

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After retiring from his profession in London, Dr Cogan lived a studious and quiet life in Holland till the French Revolution, when he resolved to quit the continent and take up his final residence in England. During a part of his absence he had passed his time in travelling over Germany and the Netherlands, and had made notes of the incidents and reflections that occurred to him in his wanderings. When he returned to England, he revised his journal, and published it in a work consisting of two volumes, entitled The Rhine.' He now took up his residence at Bath. Here his attention was turned to agriculture; he made experiments in farming, and was so successful as to gain several premiums from an agricultural society to which he belonged. While residing at Bath, he published his Philosophical and Ethical treatises on the Passions.' These were received with approbation, and have been several times republished. At the same place, also, his letters to Mr Wilberforce on Hereditary Depravity' made their first appearance. Next in succession were his 'Theological Disquisitions,' in two volumes, embracing a view of the Jewish dispensation, and of Christianity. These are made to harmonize with his previous ethical treatises, and are intended with them to constitute a general system of morals and religion. Dr Cogan's last work, the Ethical Questions,' appeared in 1817, and treats chiefly of metaphysical subjects.

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The author's latter years were mostly passed in London. He exp‍red in the 2d of February, 1818, in the eighty-second year of his age.'

Vicessimus Knox, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1752.-DIED A. D. 1821.

THIS learned divine and popular writer was born at Newingtongreen, in Middlesex, on the 8th of December, 1752. His father, the Rev. Vicessimus Knox, LL. B. was a master of Merchant-tailor's school. The subject of this memoir became a member of St John's college, Oxford, in which his father had preceded him. His early compositions in Latin were much admired for their wit, taste, and purity of diction. The president of St John's, Dr Dennis, soon discovered in Mr Knox indications of superior genius, and, as a mark of honourable distinction, appointed him a speaker, with Mr Bragge, the earl of Dart

Abriged from Memoir by Jared Sparks.

mouth, Sir George Shuckburgh Evelyn, and others, at the Enconia. when Lord North first presided in person as chancellor of Oxford. Before he left the university, and previous to his taking his bachelor's degree, he composed several essays as college exercises. These he subsequently transmitted to Mr Dilly, a London publisher, by whom they were published anonymously in 1777, under the title of Essays Moral and Literary.' The success of this volume was great; and a second edition being soon called for, the author was induced, not only to add another volume, but also to prefix his name. These essays are written in a very elegant style; but we should hesitate to say of it what has been said, that "it has the nerve of Johnson without the pomposity."

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From college, after having taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, Mr Knox was elected, in the year 1778, master of Tunbridge school. Shortly after, he accepted the degree of doctor of divinity confered upon him by diploma from Philadelphia, United States.

Dr Knox next appeared to the world as an author, by publishing his celebrated treatise on Liberal Education,'-a subject which, of course, must at this period have much engrossed his attention, but the strictures which it contained on the discipline and mode of tuition pursued at Oxford, raised no little clamour against the author. "Abuse at Oxford had taken such fast hold by long continuance, that it required the strong'est exposition to effect any reformation: Dr Knox, therefore, arraigned it with all the force of ridicule, learning, and argument combined; and did not content himself with adducing merely general charges, but entered with a minute precision of inquiry into the sources of the corruptions which prevailed, so injurious to the whole nation. Whether in his ardent zeal for the promotion of learning, and the improvement of the rising generation, he might not have been hurried in one or two instances beyond the strict limit of candour, is now not worthy of inquiry, since beyond all question the public at large, as well as the university itself, lie under infinite obligations to him for having 'caused many improvements, which-since his representations were publishedhave been made in the discipline of Oxford. This work was universally read, and the Oxonians were extremely galled by the celebrity with which it was received, not only in Britain, but through Europe and America. In a subsequent edition the author subjoined a letter to Lord North, chancellor of the university of Oxford. Being hopeless of doing any good in his place as a member of the academical senate, the author adopted this mode of address, with a view of exciting the chancellor's attention to the abuses which he there enumerated. The evils specified in this letter were so palpable, that it is surprising any thing like an apology for them should have been suffered to appear from the public press of the university. Yet so it was: from the university press issused A Letter to the Rev. Vicessimus Knox, on the Subject of his Animadversions on the University of Oxford, by a resident Member of that University.' Report at the time gave this furious, declamatory, but weak and affected performance, to a college-tutor of no mean reputation; but it was soon found and acknowledged, even in the university itself, that he rather injured the cause than supported it." About the year 1787 Dr Knox published a series of miscellaneous

'Public Characters, 1803-4. London, 8vo.

papers, under the title of Winter Evenings,' &c., in three volumes octavo. They have gone through several editions. 'The Elegant Extracts,' in prose and verse; 'Family Lectures, or, a Collection of Sermons,' in two large volumes octavo; and 'Elegant Epistles,' though compilations merely, nevertheless confer no small credit upon Dr Knox, the editor, for their judicious selection and arrangement. On the downfall of the aristocracy in France, Dr Knox published a work entitled, 'Personal Nobility,' in a series of letters to a young nobleman.

In 1793 an event occurred in the life of Dr Knox, which made considerable noise at the time. A sermon which he preached at Brighton, at the period when the country was in a general ferment in consequence of the French revolution, gave offence to some obscure persons, militia officers of inferior note, whose very names were not discovered, but who in a most unmanly way showed their resentment by making a riot at the theatre, to which the doctor had accompanied his lady and family of young children a few nights afterwards. The immediate subject of this celebrated sermon was, that "offensive war is a high crime against humanity and Christianity." No allusion was made to the measures pursuing in this country, and the sermon was certainly more in opposition to the spirit prevailing in France than here. Dr Knox followed up the subject of the sermon by giving to the world a translation of Erasmus's celebrated comment upon 'Bellum dulce inexpertis,' inserted among his adages. The translator gave this tract the title of 'Antipolemus.'

A volume of Sermons upon Faith, Hope, and Charity,' by Dr Knox, appeared in 1794; they met with a very favourable reception. As an antidote to Paine's pernicious writings, Dr Knox published his 'Christian Philosophy,' in two volumes 12mo, in 1796. 'Considerations

on the Nature and Efficacy of the Lord's Supper' was published in 1800. In this treatise Dr Knox argues that "special benefits are annexed to the reception of the eucharist," in opposition to the opinions advanced on this subject by Bishops Hoadley and Pearce, and Drs Sykes, Balguy, and Bell.

Dr Knox died in 1821.

Bishop Watson.

BORN A. D. 1737.-DIED A. D. 1816.

RICHARD WATSON was born at Heversham, a delightful village in Westmoreland, in August, 1737. His father was a respectable schoolmaster, whose family had long been settled at Shap in the same county. The bishop's ancestors were of the class usually known in those parts by the name of states-men, that is, small proprietors who cultivated their own land with their own hands. The elder Watson having been compelled to relinquish his master-ship of Heversham school on account of bad health, before his son was born, and having been succeeded in that office by an inferior teacher, the subject of our memoir did not receive that grammar-education which is required in early life to make an accomplished classical scholar according to English notions on this subject. This circumstance-although he always regarded the art of prosody as a very trifling attainment-he confesses proved a

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