This was not the only concern he took in their welfare. He was more especially anxious to make these poor men peaceable, goodhumoured, and content with one another, and more particularly cautioned them in a set charge, and in one or two personal conversations with them, "against wasting the remainder of their days, which were so well and so beneficently provided for, in the indulgence of sloth, quarrelling, drunkenness, idleness, or whatever might pervert the benevolence of the founders."

Dr. Paley appears to have been considered, in the general society of Lincoln, eminent for the union of great talents and plain common sense, joined to a most agreeable and cheerful view of every thing and every body about him. "It was impossible," (says his friend and physician, in a letter to the present writer of this,)" for any one not to be amused and instructed by his conversation. His anecdotes were rendered the more entertaining from the manner in which they were delivered, by a peculiarly animated countenance, and a characteristic curling of the nose. He had nothing of those forbidding and overbearing manners which are too frequent attendants upon superior talents and abilities. On the contrary, whilst he never failed to entertain his hearers, he was courteously attentive to any observation or remark made in return. He had a knack of eliciting information from men of all descriptions. He himself once said, that he never met with but one man, whose brains he could not suck. This was a French refugee, now no more, whom accident had fixed at Lincoln, as a teacher of the French language. That general philanthropy and liberality of sentiment for which Dr. Paley was particularly distinguished, afforded the Catholic priest a frequent seat at his table; and it was owing more to Dr. Paley's ingenious defence of him, than to commiseration, that he remained so quietly at Lincoln; for he had been accused of tampering with the religious tenets and opinions of its inhabitants; and one day in particular it was alleged that he had converted one of our divines, upon which Dr. Paley, who had hitherto remained silent upon the subject, seeing the serious turn such an accusation was taking, exclaimed, He convert any one! he never converted any thing in his life, except a neck of mutton into chops!' Never was the old adage, 'Ridiculum acri fortius,' more clearly demonstrated than upon this occasion, as from that moment a general acquittal was pronounced. The time of Dr. Paley's residence as subdean of Lincoln commenced at Christmas, when his arrival was

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always anticipated by his friends with the most lively pleasure. He kept a hospitable table, which his friends never left without being highly entertained and delighted. Dr. Paley became a member of a literary society, which had been carried on at Lincoln for upwards of half a century, consisting of the residentiaries, and other literary gentlemen. These meetings were held once a fortnight at a principal inn, where, after taking coffee, choosing books, and a little chit-chat, the evening was closed with a barrel of oysters and a rubber of whist, which Dr. Paley highly enjoyed. I have known him come to those meetings after having experienced one of those paroxysms of pain to which he was very subject, when, with spirits unsubdued, he kept the table in a roar. Indeed it was impossible for any one to bear excessive pain with greater resignation and magnanimity than he did. The society, customs, and habits of the inhabitants of Lincoln were so agreeable to Dr. Paley, that he always looked forward with pleasure to the time of his return, and did not quit it without regret. And though the term of his residence expired at Lady-day, he did not leave Lincoln till the beginning of May. It was to him a great delight to see Lincoln, as he used to say, in all its glory, and to view its numerous gardens and orchards in full bloom and blossom. As a preacher, no one expressed himself more strongly, or in words better adapted to his subject. His language was forcible, his reasoning strong, and his doctrine sound; and when it was made known that Dr. Paley was to ascend the pulpit, the cathedral was always well filled."

But this part of his public and private character cannot be very much an object of concern in comparison with what was clearly in his view during the greatest part of this time. His health did not long suffer him to continue his task of preaching from the pulpit, or indeed any of the active duties of a resident clergyman, which might call for great personal exertion. His constitutional ailments increased so much upon him, that about the year 1800 he was obliged to discontinue public speaking or reading altogether, and to avoid, as much as he could be prevailed on to avoid, even any exercise that was likely to produce bodily fatigue. His attention, therefore, was immediately drawn towards usefulness of another kind; and the Bishop of Durham having, as he hints in the dedication to the Natural Theology, suggested to him, that his study might enable him to satisfy those public duties which his church could no longer ex

pect, he did not hesitate at all about the choice of his subject. But it is a fact that could not well be made known by himself, if he was conscious of it, that this, which was his last work, was of all others the most suitable, as well to the prevailing bent of his mind towards contemplation and accurate observation, as to the habits of thought in which he had freely and fully indulged during the whole of his life. It was not only the result of an easy plan of study during his ill health, or the employment of his leisure, when he could ill bear more difficult engagements, but may be said to be the very propension of his mind if left to itself. It has been indeed already hinted that he was more inclined, when at rest, to silent, steady contemplation on the works of nature, than to any other kind of exercise. All his amusements were of this sort. In his walks, his rides, and garden, when his hands were busy, his mind also was at work to some purpose. He had from the natural strength of reason much too strong a conviction of the responsibility of rational creatures, as well as of the importance of time and opportunity, to allow even his amusements to be useless, if any good could be gained from them to any body besides himself. In this view his Natural Theology may be looked upon as at once the most original and most entertaining of his works. In this, the author is at last quite himself. It never was doubted by those of his literary friends who were best acquainted with his mind after he left college, but that it was strongly impressed with a talent for observing, and collecting, and storing up illustrations on this subject. During the time he spent at Carlisle, it was generally conjectured that such a work would appear at some time in some shape, as his more private and confidential conversation generally took that turn, and even the remarks and observations which he was most fond of showed the same line of inquiry. His early friends were at no loss in supposing that his Evidences would not be his last production; and when the Natural Theology appeared, they were much amused in discovering not only his own manner in conversation, but many of his most familiar observations embodied there. He certainly had nothing like lectures to go upon, though something of that kind has been partially noticed, from a distant resemblance of his concluding chapter to Clarke, on the Being and Attributes of God. He seems nevertheless to have used nearly the same mode of collecting from his early sermons some hints that he pressed into his service on this occasion. Independent

of various passages which are scattered about in his other works, and which speak for the tendency of his thoughts, it appears from some of the sermons now published, and composed so early as 1779, that the goodness of the Deity had been prepared, very much in the way in which the chapter on that head now stands. Another sermon also with the date in 1785, contains the Statement of his Argument in the Natural Theology. In one of his Chancellor's Charges to the Clergy of the Diocese of Carlisle, he recommends natural history as a study proper for clergymen. "A way and habit of remarking and contemplating the works and mysteries of nature," he says elsewhere," is a delightful, and reasonable, and pious exercise of our thoughts, and is often the very first thing that leads to a religious disposition." In one of his visitation sermons preached at Durham, amongst other employments of study he observes upon natural philosophy," nor let it be said that this is foreign to Christianity; for the presence in the universe of a Supreme mind being once established upon these principles, (geometry and astronomy, &c.,) the business of religion is half done. Of such a Being we can never cease to think. We shall receive with readiness the history of his dispensations with deeper submission on any intimation of his will. Of the several branches of natural history the application is more obvious. They all tend to the discovery or confirmation of a just theology. They inspire those sentiments which Christianity wishes to find in her disciples." Allowing, however, for much previous inclination, and it may be added some previous preparation for a work of this kind, he was induced by the circumstance of being necessarily debarred from the active duties of his profession to put into execution what had hitherto perhaps been only half formed; and he had employment enough, or made enough, to satisfy him that he was using his time and talents to the furtherance of useful and rational piety. As soon as he began to fix upon this work as an object, nothing escaped his observation which could in any way supply him with a hint or observation. He used to take from his own table to his study the back-bone of a hare, or the pinion of a fowl, or some little bone in the head of a fish; and on coming home from a walk would pull out of his pocket a stone or a plant to illustrate what he had himself found, or seen advanced by others without sufficient minuteness. He collected facts and observations from almost all the common treatises, large or small, upon

his favourite subject. He seems not to have been at all scrupulous about the weight and respectability of the authors from whom he took many of his remarks and observations. Provided the authority was such as satisfied himself, it was of little consequence to him where he got it. Indeed it was not very necessary for his subject, and least of all for his mode of treating it, either to stuff himself with much learning, or to treat of it in any other way than what might be adapted to the most obvious and every-day observation. There is such a compression of thought, and concentration of view, as might lead to the notion that he entered upon his subject with even more scientific views than he laid claim to; and it has surprised many who did not allow for the deep penetration and keenness of view which marked his mind, to find him so well acquainted particularly with the anatomy of the human frame, which, though differing in some immaterial points, such as terms and descriptions, from the modern anatomical writings, is not, it is said, materially affected in the accuracy of its detail. He, however, had little previous acquaintance with what may be called the scientific parts of his subject before the period now spoken of, and his knowledge seems to have been derived from many sources; if we may judge from what remains of his rough draft. There are three or four large manuscript books filled with observations and short substantial hints taken from various authors, and in the order in which they are here set down: Boyle, Gregory, Cheselden, Derham, Ray, Monro, Derham's Astro Theology, Adams, Wilkes's Principles of Natural Religion, Search, Sturm, Goldsmith, Lesser, Smellie, Religious Philosopher, Spectator, Seed, Nature Displayed, Hervey, Addison, Keill, Watson, St. Pierre, Cappe's Causes of Atheism, Memoirs of Natural History, by the Royal Academy of Paris, 1701, Priestley, Maclaurin; and these are headed by the following memorandums made for himself: "N. B. In this collection all marked × are inserted; those marked □ have not got a place found for them; those marked are supposed to be of more value; so with other books of collection." It is clear, therefore, how far he might be said to make choice of a subject, or to have given his thoughts a determinate direction, when, during two or three years, he was giving his particular attention to a course he had already pursued, and to the systematizing of his labours. But if such, almost necessary, preparations for his undertaking led him to take advantage of these second-hand sentiments, and, indeed, if his subject