tachment and reverence by the students who were his immediate pupils, he became the object of a veneration bordering upon awe among those who were not; and though his delicate state of health prevented his frequent personal intercourse with the students at large, and absolutely precluded his taking part in the ordinary routine of academical discipline, yet this very circumstance gave additional weight to his authority when occasions arose that called for his interference; which was always exercised after a previous cool, clearsighted investigation, which put him in possession of the whole case; after which his decision was made with promptitude and firmness; and the measures dictated by it were declared and executed with a dignity and propriety peculiar to himself, and always perfectly efficient.

It was in the year 1774 that the university of Aberdeen conferred on one who, though but a temporary resident, might well be reckoned among her most distinguished alumni, the honorary degree of D.D. This appears to have been done on the motion of his friend, and former fellowstudent, Professor Thomas Gordon; and it is said that when he obtained his diploma, being totally unapprised that any such thing was in agitation, he was much discomposed, and could scarcely be prevailed on to assume the title. No man, indeed, was ever more averse to parade of any kind.

After Mr. Walker's departure from the academy in 1773, the funds of the institution being not thought adequate to the maintenance of a third tutor, Dr. Enfield undertook the mathematical department, and Dr. Aikin exonerated him of the classical part of his former charge. Though this

unreasonable imposition on two willing and generous minds materially injured the health of both, yet for some time Dr. Aikin was kept in a tolerably comfortable state by great care and regular gentle exercise on horseback. But about the year 1778, his attacks of asthma becoming more frequent and violent, he obtained for a short time the assistance of his late pupil Mr. Houghton; and in 1779 Mr. Wakefield was chosen a regular third tutor. The asthmatic paroxysms, however, increasing, he grew gradually less able to discharge, without great difficulty, the duties of his proper province, and on the 14th of December 1780, he closed a life of honour and usefulness, in a manner becoming his Christian profession. His death was felt as a severe blow by the lovers of truth and learning, but was more especially an irreparable loss to those who were under his immediate care.

His funeral sermon, preached by his friend and colleague, Dr. Enfield, was published, and bears on its title page the following strikingly characteristic and appropriate motto from Cicero:"Erant in eo multæ literæ, nec eæ vulgares, sed interiores quædam et recondita; summa verborum et gravitas et elegantia; atque hæc omnia vitæ decorabat dignitas et integritas. Quanta severitas in vultu! quantum pondus in verbis! quam nihil non consideratum exibat ex ore!"*

The following just and well-merited character of Dr. Aikin forms one of the series of striking and spirited portraits which Mr. Wakefield has sketched of the eminent men who were succes

* Cicero de claris Oratoribus, 76.

sively connected with the Warrington academy, in his memoirs of his own life:

"Our divinity tutor, Dr. Aikin, was a gentleman whose endowments as a man and as a scholar, according to my sincere judgment of him, it is not easy to exaggerate by panegyric. In his life he was rigorously virtuous, and, when I knew him, under as perfect a self-government as a participation of human weaknesses can well allow. He has acknowledged to me his irascible propensities in early life, and the difficulties which he encountered in this discipline of his temper. Religion had brought every wayward idea and irregular passion into subjection to the laws of reason, and had erected her trophy in the citadel of his mind. As his whole conduct was strictly moral, so the influences of religion upon his mind were permanent and awful. He was benevolent; candid in all his judgments on the characters of others; of great hospitality, as I myself experienced; quick to discern, and ready to acknowledge true merit, wherever it resided; not tenacious of his own opinion, but patiently attentive, beyond almost any man I ever knew, to the reasonings of an opponent; perfectly open to conviction; of an affability, softened by a modest opinion of himself, that endeared him to all; and a politeness of demeanour seldom found even in an elevated station.

"His intellectual attainments were of a very superior quality indeed. His acquaintance with all the evidences of revelation, with morals, politics, and metaphysics, was most accurate and extensive. Every path of polite literature had been traversed by him, and traversed with success. He understood the Hebrew and French languages to perfection; and had an intimacy with the best

authors of Greece and Rome, superior to what I have ever known in any dissenting minister from my own experience. His taste for composition was correct and elegant; and his repetition of beautiful passages, though accompanied with a theatrical stateliness and pomp, highly animated, and expressive of sensibility."

It cannot be enough regretted that these rich endowments were never exercised for the benefit of the public at large. The only productions of Dr. Aikin's pen committed to the press were a note in his son's Biographical Memoirs of Medicine, a Latin preface to his son's selections from Pliny, and some occasional articles in the Monthly Review. The consequence of this has been, that the first Dr. Aikin, though a man of really firstrate eminence, is scarcely known to the public, except in connexion with his more celebrated and distinguished descendants. It cannot be necessary to inform any one that this excellent person left a son and a daughter, John Aikin, M.D., and Anna Lætitia Aikin, afterwards still better known as Mrs. Barbauld, who inherited their father's talents, and much more than their father's celebrity; though by no means more than their many excellent productions and valuable services, both to the literary and the youthful public, have well deserved. Nor can it be said, that, in a succeeding generation, the name of Aikin has failed to maintain its honourable place in the general estimation. The living worthies who still bear it are too well known by their excellent writings to require a more particular commemoration in this place. To all the readers of these pages their names must be familiar,

391

MICAIAH TOWGOOD

Is a name which can scarcely fail to be familiar to every one who has taken the slightest interest in the history of Protestant Dissenters, as borne by a distinguished champion of their cause; to whom they owe one of the ablest and most satisfactory vindications, not only of their secession from the church of England, but of the grounds on which they disapprove of all civil establishments of religion, whatever may be their constitution, principles, or tenets. His celebrated Dissenting Gentleman's Letters" have received, and continue to enjoy, a well-deserved popularity; and have, perhaps, done more than any other single work to promote just views of this subject, and to enable the Nonconformists of later times to give a reason for their separation, which might repel objections, satisfy their own minds, and maintain them steady in the public profession of their principles, notwithstanding the many temptations to fall away to a more fashionable religion. But Mr. Towgood has other and not less considerable claims on our respectful remembrance. He knew how not only to assert but to exercise the privilege of enlightened impartial inquiry; and in his search after Christian truth he never forgot to cultivate Christian charity, and to make the principles he professed the means of forming and purifying the best affections of the heart. These views and feelings he carried into all the relations