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Now gliding remote on the verge of the sky,
The moon, half extinguished, her crescent displays;
But lately I marked, when majestic on high

She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze.
Roll on, thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue
The path that conducts thee to splendor again :
But man's faded glory what change shall renew?
Ah fool! to exult in a glory so vain!

'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more;
I mourn, but ye woodlands I mourn not for you;
For morn is approaching, your charms to restore,
Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glitt'ring with dew:
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn;
Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save:
But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn!
O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave!'

'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed-
That leads, to bewilder; and dazzles, to blind—
My thoughts wont to roam, from shade onward to shade,
Destruction before me, and sorrow behind.

'O pity, great Father of Light,' then I cried,

'Thy creature, who fain would not wander from thee; Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride:

From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free!

And darkness and doubt are now flying away;
No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn :

So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.

See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending,

And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom!

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending,
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

WILLIAM PALEY, 1743-1805.

"No writers are rewarded with a larger share of immediate celebrity than those who address themselves to the understandings of general readers, who investigate truths, develop principles, and convey instruction in that popular style, and that plain, expressive language, which all read with pleasure, and comprehend with ease."1 Such was eminently the characteristic of Dr. William Paley. He was the son of the head-master of Giggleswick grammar-school, in Yorkshire, and was born in July, 1743. After having

Read two articles on Dr. Paley in the "Quarterly Review," vol. ii. p. 75, and vol. ix. p. 388; and another in the "Edinburgh Review," vol. i. p. 287.

acquired the rudiments of learning under the tuition of his father, he was admitted, in November, 1758, a sizer of Christ's College, Cambridge. For some time he attracted notice only as an uncouth but agreeable idler. "I spent," he says, "the first two years of my under-graduateship 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 bedside, and said, 'Paley, I have been thinking what a fool you are. I could do nothing profitably were I to try, and can afford the life I lead : you could do everything, and cannot afford it. I have had no sleep during the whole night on account of these reflections, and I 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 a great part of the day and formed my plan." The result was that he changed his whole habits, became a close student, and at the close of his college course was the first in his class.

Soon after taking his degree, he obtained the situation of usher at a private school at Greenwich; but being elected, in June, 1766, a fellow of the college to which he belonged, he fixed his residence at the university, became a tutor of his college, and delivered lectures on metaphysics, morals, and the Greek Testament. His reputation, in this situation, rose extremely high, as he was remarkable for the happy talent of adapting his lectures singularly well to the apprehensions of his pupils. In 1775, he was presented to the rectory of Musgrove, in Westmoreland; and in the following year he vacated his fellowship by marrying. He was soon advanced by his friend Dr. Law, then Bishop of Carlisle, to various preferments, until he was finally, in 1782, made archdeacon and chancellor of that diocese. Here he digested and prepared his celebrated work, the "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy," which appeared in 1785. His "Hora Paulina" followed in 1790, and his "Evidences of Christianity" in 1794. Soon after this, he became so infirm as to be incapable of preaching, and he devoted his attention almost exclusively to the preparation of his "Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of a Deity, collected from the Appearances of Nature," which was published in 1802. He died on the 25th of May, 1805, leaving a wife and eight children.

“Dr. Paley was, in private life, a cheerful, social, unassuming character, and of an equable temper. He entered with great zest into the common enjoyments of life, and was anxious to promote good humor and harmless mirth on all occasions. His conversation was free and unreserved: he had a strong relish of wit, a copious fund of anecdote, and told a story with peculiar archness and naïveté."

"As a writer, he did not possess a comprehensive and grasping genius, nor was he endowed with a rich and sparkling imagination. His mind was well informed, but not furnished with deep, extensive, ponderous erudition. His distinguishing characteristic is a penetrating understanding, and a clear logical head: what he himself comprehends fully, that he details luminously.

He takes a subject to pieces with the nice skill of a master, presents to us distinctly its several parts, and explains them with accuracy and truth."

Few writers have obtained greater popularity than Dr. Paley. Ten editions of his "Moral Philosophy" were sold during his lifetime; his "Evidences of Christianity" was reprinted seventeen times in twenty-seven years; and his "Natural Theology" reached a tenth edition in the short space of three years from the time of its first publication. His "Horæ Paulinæ," decidedly his most ingenious and original work, was not so popular, though exceedingly valued by scholars, and students of divinity. Its object is to open a new department of evidence in favor of Christianity, by comparing the Epistles of Paul with his history as recorded by Luke in the Acts, and by marking what he designates as the "undesigned coincidences" of the one with the other. In this way he shows the genuineness of both, and thus furnishes a novel and ingenious, and at the same time a very conclusive, species of testimony in behalf of Revealed religion.

The most exceptionable of all Paley's works is his "Moral Philosophy." In it he takes the ground that "whatever is expedient is right"-a doctrine true, indeed, if man could see all things, and look into futurity; but a most dangerous one to a being so short-sighted as he who "knows not what a day may bring forth." Indeed, in many parts of this work may be found sentiments altogether too loosely expressed, and principles of action of too compromising a character laid down, which at once remind us of his remark, when he was a fellow at Cambridge, and had been requested to sign a petition for relief in the matter of subscription to the "Thirty-nine Articles" of the Church of England, that he "was too poor to keep a conscience." In other words, that, where his conscience and his worldly interests came in conflict, the former must give way to the latter. So also, about the same time, he offered, as a subject which he intended to discuss, "The Eternity of Future Punishment contradictory to the Divine Attributes:" but, finding that it would be very displeasing to the master of his college, he concluded to insert the word "NOT" before "contradictory."

But, if there is much that is exceptionable in his Moral Philosophy, there is also much that is truly valuable; while all his other works are, without any qualification, eminently subservient to religion and sound morals.

"Quarterly Review," vol. ii. p. 86.

Literally, "Pauline Hours;" that is, hours spent in comparing numerous facts, which the apostle Paul incidentally states of himself in his Epistles, with what is narrated of him in the Acts of the Apostles.

3 For a triumphant refutation of the dangerous doctrines of his Moral Philosophy, read the "Essays on Morality," by that clear-headed, conscientious Christian and Quaker moralist, Jonathan Dymond-the best work on the subject extant. But a clergyman of the Church of England has come to the rescue of Paley, in a work with the following title, "A Vindication of Dr. Paley's Theory of Morals from the Objections of Dugald Stewart, Mr. Gisborne, Dr. Pierson, and Dr. Thomas Brown, &c., by the Rev. Latham Wainewright, MA." His arguments, if not conclusive, are certainly very ingenious.

HUMILITY.

The habit of contemplating our spiritual acquirements, our religious or moral excellences, has very usually, and, I think, almost unavoidably, an unfavorable effect upon our disposition towards other men. A man who is continually computing his riches, almost in spite of himself grows proud of his wealth. A man who accustoms himself to read, and inquire, and think a great deal about his family, becomes vain of his extraction. A man who has his titles sounding in his ears, or his state much before his eyes, is lifted up by his rank: these are effects which every one observes, and no inconsiderable degree of the same effect springs from the habit of meditating upon our virtues. Now humble-mindedness is a Christian duty, if there be one. It is more than a duty; it is a principle; and its influence is exceedingly great, not only upon our religious, but our social character. They who are truly humbleminded have no quarrels, give no offence, contend with no one in wrath and bitterness; still more impossible is it for them to insult any man under any circumstances. But the way to be humbleminded is the way I am pointing out, namely, to think less of our virtues and more of our sins. In reading the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, if we could suppose them to be real characters, I should say of them, that the one had first come from ruminating upon his virtues, the other from meditating upon his sins: and mark the difference, first, in their behavior; next, in their acceptance with God. The Pharisee is all loftiness, and contemptuousness, and recital, and comparison; full of ideas of merit; views the poor publican, although withdrawn to a distance from him, with eyes of scorn. The publican, on the contrary, enters not into competition with the Pharisee, or any one. So far from looking round, he durst not so much as lift up his eyes, but casts himself, hardly indeed presumes to cast himself, not upon the justice, but wholly and solely upon the mercies of his Maker"God be merciful to me a sinner." We know the judgment which our Lord himself pronounced upon the case: "I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." The more, therefore, we are like the publican, and the less we are like the Pharisee, the more we come up to the genuine temper of Christ's religion.

6*

THE WORLD WAS MADE WITH A BENEVOLENT DESIGN.

It is a happy world after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. In a spring noon or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. "The insect youth are on the wing. Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without use or purpose, testify their joy and the exultation which they feel in their lately-discovered faculties. A bee amongst the flowers, in spring, is one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment; so busy and so pleased: yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. The whole winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon their proper employments, and, under every variety of constitution, gratified, and perhaps equally gratified, by the offices which the Author of their nature has assigned to them. But the atmosphere is not the only scene of enjoyment for the insect race. Plants are covered with aphides, greedily sucking their juices, and constantly, as it should seem, in the act of sucking. It cannot be doubted but that this is a state of gratification: what else should fix them so close to the operation, and so long? Other species are running about with an alacrity in their motions which carries with it every mark of pleasure. Large patches of ground are sometimes half covered with these brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to what the waters produce, shoals of the fry of fish frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, and of the sea itself. These are so happy that they know not what to do with themselves. Their attitudes, their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it (which I have noticed a thousand times with equal attention and amusement), all conduce to show their excess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that excess. Walking by the sea-side in a calm evening upon a sandy shore and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather very thick mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height, perhaps, of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards, stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and always retiring with the water. When this cloud came to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much space filled with young shrimps in the act of bounding into the

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