sumption driven him from regularity of study into that vague and capricious pursuit of miscellaneous information, which has so frequently ended in superficial knowledge and lax principles. The recent deaths of Dr. Townson and Dr. Chandler, afford an opportunity to add their names. With their characters the world will be made still better acquainted by the republication of Dr. Townson's works,† together with his life, by Mr. Churton, and of Dr. Chandler's life of the founder.' The history of the colleges and halls being concluded, we are presented in the next place, with an account of the public buildings attached to the University; viz. the Schools, with the Bodleian Library-the Theatre-the Ashmolean Museum-the Clarendon Printing-house--the Radcliffe Library-the Observatory-the Physic Garden-and St. Mary's, or the University church.—These are surely objects of general interest, and seemed to promise abundance of useful and curious information: but great was our mortification and surprise to find the whole dispatched in about nineteen pages; and that too in so meagre and evidently so hurried a manner, that we are tempted to inflict what Mr. Chalmers cannot but consider as a severe punishment, and transcribe the entire description which he has given of St. Mary's. 'St. Mary's church, an elegant and spacious Gothic edifice, of which Anthony Wood has left a very minute History, is here noticeable chiefly as being the University Church, or that to which the vice Chancellor, heads of Houses, &c. repair for divine service on Sundays and Holidays, except on some particular days, when the sermons are appointed to be preached in certain Colleges; as, on Christmas day in the morning, Good Friday, and Ascension Day, at Christ Church; on the Festivals of St. Mark and St. John the Baptist, at Magdalen; on Lady Day and Trinity Sunday, at New College; and on St. Philip and St. James, and on the first Sunday in August, at Merton. During Lent in the afternoon, and on St. Simon and St. Jude, the sermons are preached in St. Peter's in the east. The public preachers are ten in number, appointed by the vice Chancellor, Proctors, the Regius Professor and Margaret Professor of Divinity; and they must be either Doctors or Bachelors in Divinity or in Civil Law, or Masters of Arts. Of these public preachers five go out of office every year. The eight lectures on the Essential Doctrines of Christianity, and in Defence of Revealed Religion, founded by the Rev. John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury, are also delivered in this church. The room on the north side of the chancel is now the Common Law school, where the Vinerian professor reads his lectures.' Upon the whole, however, though we can only consider the present publication as an enlarged guide, or an abridgement of Wood's History of the Colleges and Halls,' with a continuation to the present time, yet it certainly contains much information which will be useful and amusing to the generality of readers, and which could not be procured, except in works which are now become both * See the next Article, VOL. VI. NO. XI. ↑ See the next Article. G scarce scarce and expensive. It is by no means such a performance as we had reason to expect upon such a subject. We apprehend that Mr. Chalmers, wherever he deviates from Wood, or in points which did not fall under his own immediate observation, has been too easily content with such superficial accounts as he could readily procure. That he would have given us a complete work, 'omnibus numeris absolutum,' is what we never ventured to hope. An university, like that of Oxford, consists of so many separate societies, having their peculiar statutes and customs, and in all internal transactions so distinct from one another, that we doubt whether any individual would be competent to the undertaking. If some intelligent member of each society could be induced to become its historian, and to give a full and unreserved account of his own college, we might then expect to receive an adequate and authentic history of those magnificent establishments. The engravings which accompany the present work, to the number of thirty-one, are executed by Storer and Greig with peculiar neatness and fidelity, though on far too diminutive a scale. In closing our remarks on the present publication, we must repeat our hope that Mr. Chalmers will shortly redeem the pledge which he has here given to the public, and favour us with his promised History of the Rise and Progress of the University as connected with the History of Literature. Such a work, we are persuaded, he is qualified to perform with taste and ability; and we trust that he will not neglect such an opportunity of establishing his reputation as an Oxford historian on a firmer and broader basis than his present publication can possibly supply. ART. VI. The Works of the Reverend Thomas Townson, D. D. late Archdeacon of Richmond, one of the Rectors of Malpas, Cheshire, &c. In two Volumes. To which is prefixed, an Account of the Author, &c. &c. By Ralph Churton, A. M. Archdeacon of St. David's, &c. &c. GREAT divines, from the Fathers downwards, have usually been the most voluminous of writers; a fact, perhaps, to be accounted for, by that which cometh upon them' weekly, the necessity of producing a certain quantity of theological matter, without much regard to style or selection. In the present disposition of mankind, this is one of the few instances in which our old theologians are to be held up as warnings rather than examples. Whoever now sits down to write on scriptural subjects, ought to ask himself in the first place,.Quis leget hæc? and to remember that, if he would engage attention, it must be not by the excellence only, but by the brevity of his compositions. A small impression. (250 copies) of the works of our last great divine' in seven ponde rous quartos, has abundantly satisfied the curiosity of the public: yet if Warburton failed to interest, who shall hope to follow him with success? The novelty and boldness of his hypotheses, the bounding vigour of his style, his powerful argumentation, brilliant wit, and, as a seasoning for modern palates, we may add his audacious scurrility, are qualities of which some far surpass the powers, while the rest consist not with the manners of modern divines. The truth is that, in an age when knowledge multiplies and extends itself with a rapidity unknown in any former period, it has become necessary for those, who wish to maintain a decent port in literary society, to read more or less of every thing. If any science be omitted in the widely extended pursuit of general information, we fear it will be that to which, although, as Cowley observes, ‘it carries its own dignity in its name,' the talking part of mankind are unhappily the most indifferent. Discoveries m this science, however, should above all others, be introduced to notice; and as the fastidiousness of modern taste shrinks from the bulk, the type and the garb in which our old theological writers present themselves, and readers of the present day are no less appalled by Hall, Taylor, and Barrow, than were their forefathers by the dreadful front of de Lyra;' we cannot but wish, in charity, for judicious and tangible selections rather than complete republications of those valuable but redundant writers. At all events, let the modern theologian reverence the public as a great personage, who has many other avocations, and upon whom he can have no demand but for a moderate portion of time and attention: let him moreover suspect the parental fonduess of authorship, and if, on mature examination, he have no important discovery to produce, no old and unfashionable truth, to which by elegance and compression he can hope once more to give currency and splendour, let him forego his purpose, and prudently confine his papers to his own cabinet. This caution is perhaps equally necessary for the zeal and affectionof executors. Death consecrates friendship; and every half formed sketch, every rag and scrap, which escaped the martyrdom of fire while in the possession of the deceased, becomes a relic, first to be preserved with superstitious reverence, and in due time to be presented as a benefaction to the public. Nothing but this blind veneration could have induced a late prelate of exact taste and judgment in other respects, to forget his own delicacy,' and commit the memory of his departed friend, by directing the exposure of many letters, which did little honour to the head, and less to the heart of the writer. To the worthy depositary, however, of Dr. Townson's posthumous reputation, these cautions would have been superfluous. Whether his patron wrote nothing of moment but what is here produced, or whether there were any thing in his writings either less original, or of inferior merit to the volumes volumes before us, is no part of a reviewer's concern: it is enough for us, and for the world, that the theological works of this learned and excellent man have that specific claim which we have mentioned, upon an age in which books are multiplied beyond all bounds, and readers distracted by the demand of universal attention to their contents. They will occupy little time in the perusal; they will convey in a style, simple, correct, and pleasing, much informa tion of the highest value; in other words, they are brief, compact, and original.-Pauca quidem ingenii sui pignora reliquit, sed egregia, sed admiranda! About ninety pages of the first volume are occupied by an account of the author;' a work for which the biographer of Alexander Nowell had already shewn himself well qualified. Yet the manner in which the two subjects are commemorated is strikingly different; and on the whole we find it difficult to pronounce, whether the first object of biographical writing, abstract truth, and strict discrimination of character, be most attainable, when the writer is personally acquainted with his subject, or when the tribute of commemoration is withheld, till prejudices and partialities are no more, and the excellencies and defects of a character can be weighed in the balance of unbiassed justice. On the one side, are the advantages of personal insight into those little incidents and humours of daily life, which recur without preparation, without effort, and without the suspicion of being observed: on the other, are those of coolness and impartiality. Yet,-in the former case, the actions of those with whom we intimately converse, are never wholly indifferent; they are expanded or contracted, brightened or obscured, according to the involuntary and irresistible power of inclination over the mind of the observer: and-in the latter, the biographer labours in point of fact. If his purveyors were not contemporary with the subject of the memoir, they were scarcely in a better condition than himself: if they were, they had their passions and prejudices, and may mislead him. Either mode therefore is attended by opposite, and perhaps equal difficulties; but to a strong understanding, and to well regulated affections, neither the one nor the other will be found insuperable. "The little clerical merit which is left amongst us,' at least that. unobtrusive and most amiable part of it, which consists in the private duties of the pastoral charge is, we fear, shrinking fast into the lower classes of the profession. In this view, a faithful detail of the habits of a modern dignitary, in the situation of a parish priest, cannot fail to make an useful impression on his brethren of the same rank. Ancient examples were never less reverenced than at present, and when produced, an excuse is never wanting to elude their force. It is now become vain to urge what Gilpin and Herbert did, or how they taught :—the sentiments of mankind, we are told, have undergone undergone a total change. Such private applications to the conciences as were employed by them, would no longer be endured. Nay, perhaps a clergyman of superior rank is more reverenced, who is seen by his people for the most part in the elevated station of the pulpit; while an inferior minister, who approaches nearer to the middle and lower orders of the parish in manners, habits, and language, will discharge the more unostentatious and irksome offices of personal inspection and private visitation with greater effect. Every order in society ought to have ministers adapted to its rank, and the principal, in making a judicious choice of a substitute, has consulted, not only his own consequence, but the best interests of his people. By such pernicious sophistry, the most solemn, and we may add, the most personal of all trusts is transferred, nay, frequently, we apprehend, even without the previous ceremony between a man and his own conscience, which such reflexions imply. To awaken more animating thoughts on such a subject, to subdue the pride, the indolence, and levity of which such reasonings are compounded, one modern example of high authority is equivalent to volumes of direct and formal institutions on the pastoral care. In the life of Dr. Townson, we have the history of a contemporary, a scholar, and a gentleman, well educated, travelled, preferred, distinguished by the unsought acceptance of the highest degree, and by the refusal of the most honourable station which an English university could confer, giving himself up with the zeal and assiduity of the most conscientious stipendiary, to the private duties of his parish; so that the same man, who led the conversation of the first companies by his talents, and restrained it by his authority, was more frequently seen in the cottages of the poor, administering at the same time to their bodily and spiritual wants. But on this subject it is time that we should hear his biographer, who calls upon us to attend his venerable patron in the conduct of his household and the care of his flock. On the former head it may suffice to observe, that it was the house of a truly devout and Christian pastor, who summoned all under his roof to morning and evening prayer; and the same sedate and holy fervour, which was so edifying in the church, never failed to animate these less public addresses to heaven. On Sunday evening one hour was devoted to reading the holy Scriptures to his family with some practical comment, and the instructive lesson began and ended with prayer. At the same time it was a rule with him not to encroach on the duties of this day by writing letters, much less by the too frequent practice of travelling.' Yet had the Sunday of this good man nothing of gloom or austerity; on the contrary, 'it was always within his walls a day of peculiar hospitality and sheerfulness. In visiting the sick, a duty to which he was scru G3 pulously |
