almost entirely restored. He was able to return to his books, and to read to his family aloud in the evening; and had begun to revise his History of Spain, probably with a view to another edition. These deceitful prognostics had raised the liveliest hopes in the minds of his family and friends. His neighbours again resorted to his house, to enjoy his delightful and improving society; and it was while he was surrounded by these, in the full flow of conversation, even while the unfinished sentence lingered on his lips, that his tongue faltered, his hand sunk, a painful struggle was visible, and the voice, beloved and revered, had ceased for ever. During two days he lingered speechless; and, before his two eldest sons could arrive from College, or the youngest from school, his sufferings were over, and his wife and children were doomed to experience that severe reverse of fortune, so frequent in the clerical profession. A short time after, at midnight, the post-chaise, which contained James and Edward, drove up to the door. Their mother was in bed they flew with filial affection to her chamber, and, kneeling down beside her in speechless grief, mingled their tears with hers. Young and fatherless-just entering into life, and thus rudely checked on the very threshold of it-their lot seemed to me lamentable indeed. Years have since passed away, and other griefs have been allotted to me; but the recollection of that night of sorrow can never be effaced from my mind."

There is certainly no calamity in life more trying to a young family, than the loss of an intelligent and affectionate father. But, perhaps, there is an acuteness of feeling in the preceding description, surpassing the sorrow which such a loss. however grievous, would commonly inspire. Mr. Clarke, it should be observed, had enjoyed a considerable income from his preferment for many years; but he had always lived hospitably and liberally, and had spared no expense in the education of his children. Thus, a severe alteration in the circumstances of the family ensued at his death; and, as his daughter was at that time old enough fully to comprehend the different bearings, and the full extent, of their calamity, we cannot wonder at any strength of expression, which even the remembrance of such a scene may have suggested to her.

CHAPTER II.

Mis education at Cambridge-Studies and occupations there-Bachelor's degreeFirst engagement as private tutor-Tour through England-Publication of his first work.

It is pleasing to record, that, by the blessing of that Providence, to whom the widow and the fatherless are said to be a peculiar care, the evils which the family of the deceased Mr. Clarke had to encounter, were much less serious than they had reason to fear. Comfort sprang up for them on every side, and from quarters where they had little reason to expect it; and that too of a nature calculated not only to soften their actual distress, but to disperse the gloom which hung over their future path. Amidst all their privations there was one species of property which they possessed in ample portion, viz. the good name of those who had preceded them. And who shall pretend to calculate the value of this inheritance? Its benefit is often great when dependent upon no stronger ties than those which accident or relationship have created; but, when it flows from friendships, which have been consecrated by piety and learning; when it is the willing offering of kindred minds to departed worth or genius, it takes a higher character, and is not less honourable to those who receive than to those who confer it. It comes generally from the best sources, and is directed to the best ends; and it carries with it an influence which powerfully disposes all worthy persons to co-operate in its views. Nor is this all. The consciousness of the source from which it springs, is wont to stimulate the exertions, and to elevate the views, of those who are the objects of it: and many instances will occur to our readers, of persons who have laid the foundation of the very highest fortunes both in church and state, upon no other ground than that which this goodly inheritance has supplied.

Of such a nature was the kindness, which this family now experienced. Their father himself had, in the course of his academic life, formed many valuable connexions;-and the virtues of mild William Clarke were still fresh and honoured in the recollection of his surviving friends. Most of these came readily forward upon this distressing occasion, and with equal delicacy and kindness, offered their assistance and advice. Among them may be mentioned with honour, Dr. Bagot, Bishop of St. Asaph; Sir William Ashburnham, Bishop of Chichester; and Dr. Beadon, Master of Jesus College; who. D

not content with interposing that seasonable and friendly aid which the exigencies of the moment required, continued afterward their valuable assistance to the children, upon many important occasions of their lives. Nor were the immediate neighbours and friends of Mr. Clarke less desirous of contributing their portion of comfort. George Medley, Esq. the possessor of Buxted Place, was particularly distinguished by his kindness to Mrs. Clarke, and her family. In addition to other substantial proofs of it, he obtained for her youngest son, George, by the benevolent exertion of his interest, an appointment in the Navy; and it is understood that the same interest was afterward very instrumental in procuring his advancement in that profession.

In Mr. D'Oyly, who was shortly after appointed to succeed Mr. Clarke in the Rectory of Buxted, they found a person ever disposed to treat them with the liberality of a gentleman, and the kindness of a Christian. All claims to dilapidations was waived, and Mrs. Clarke was invited to remain in the rectoryhouse as long as her convenience or comfort might require; a permission of which she took advantage till the ensuing April. when she retired to a small house in the neighbouring town of Uckfield.

In this situation she was enabled for many years to continue her intercourse with many excellent and sincere friends, by whom she was esteemed and beloved; and it is honourable both to her and to them to state, that in her reduced and humble circumstances, she was treated with as much respect, and with more kindness, than in the days of her prosperity. But it was in the bosom of her own family, in the kindness and affection of her children, that she found her best consolation. In this labour of love, Edward was neither the least forward nor the least successful. The buoyancy of his spirits, joined to the delicacy and tenderness of his mind, made him at all times an excellent comforter: and often both at that season and afterward, when he saw his mother's countenance dejected, and her spirits drooping, he would ever suggest some cheerful thought, or practise some playful endearment, to draw her, as it were, away from her sorrows, and to restore her to her former cheerfulness. And seldom were these endeavours vain ; "the few," says his sister," who yet live to recollect him in his maternal dwelling will bear testimony to the charm of his filial affection; they will remember how often the midnight hour passed unheeded, while all were delighted with the witchery of his conversation, and his mother's countenance was lighted up with smiles." Soon after the death of their father, the two eldest sons returned to College; and Edward, having

now acquired a melancholy title to one of the scholarships of the society of Jesus College, founded by Sir Tobias Rustat, for the benefit of clergyman's orphans, was elected a scholar on this foundation immediately upon his return. The emoluments of his scholarship, joined to those of an exhibition from Tunbridge school, and the profits of his chapel clerk's place, amounting in the whole to less than 901. a year, were his principal, indeed it is believed his only, resources during his residence in College and, however well they may have been husbanded, it must be evident, that even in those times of comparative moderation in expense, they could not have been sufficient for his support, especially when it is understood, that he was naturally liberal to a fault. It does not appear, however, that he derived during this time any pecuniary assistance from his father's friends; and as there is the strongest reason to believe that he faithfully adhered to the promise he had made to his mother, that he would never draw upon her slender resources for his support; it may excite some curiosity to know by what means the deficiency was supplied. The fact is, that he was materially assisted in providing for his College expenses, by the liberality of his tutor (Mr Plampin,) who, being acquainted with his circumstances, suffered his bills to remain in arrear; and they were afterward discharged from the first profits he derived from his private pupils.

It was upon his return to college, after his father's death, that the author of this memoir first became acquainted with him. He had just come into residence himself, and there were many coincidences in their College life, which naturally threw them much together. They were of the same age, and the same year; of course occupied in the same public studies, and the same lectures: both orphans of clergymen, and both Rustat scholars; and with this perhaps fortunate distinction only, that being born on different sides of the Trent, they were originally precluded by statute from being competitors for the same college preferments. The acquaintance, begun under this happy concurrence of circumstances, was quickly ripened by youthful confidence into a sincere and ardent friendship; a friendship heightened, not more by pleasures, which a similarity of taste enabled them to enjoy in common, than by a sense of mutual kindness, which the difference of their characters and acquirements furnished perhaps more frequent occasions of indulging: a friendship, in short, which was afterwards carried with them, unimpaired, into the business of the world, confirmed by habit, as well as taste, under

all the occurrences of their lives, and prolonged by the most unreserved intercourse, whether they were together or separate, untii terminated by death.

The three years which Edward Clarke spent in College, before he took his Bachelor's Degree, present few incidents of life, and few points of character, proper to be intruded upon the attention of the reader; nor has there been found a single academical composition written by him at this time, in any department of learning, either in prose or verse, which would be considered worthy of his subsequent fame. Indeed, it is not the least extraordinary circumstance in his history, that this critical period, which generally lays the foundation of other men's fortunes, and exercises the greatest influence upon the conduct of their future lives, was suffered to pass by him, not only without academical honours or distinctions of any kind, but apparently without fixing any character whatever upon his literary views; and evidently without even those moderate advantages which a common mind might have derived from it. The loss itself, however, is much more easy to account for, than the singular vigour of mind, with which he afterwards redeemed it. In Jesus College, as well as in many others, mathematical studies formed then, as they do now, the principal path to College honours and emoluments. To these, of course, the chief attention of the youth, and the principal encouragement of the tutors, would be directed. But Edward Clarke had unhappily no taste for this branch of learning, and therefore made little progress in it; and as for classics, in which, as has been before observed, he came up with a moderate knowledge, there was nothing at that time, either in the constitution or the practice of the College, calculated to encourage a taste already formed for them, much less

create one where nothing of the kind was felt before. All he classical lectures, which it is remembered, were given during the three years of his residence, were confined to the two little tracts of Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, and De Vita Agricolæ; and the only other occasions upon which he was called upon to revive his classical knowledge, were the delivery of a Latin declamation in the chapel once a year, and the usual examinations of the Rustat scholars at Easter, for which latter no great preparations was required. Under these circumstances, with a strong literary passion, and at sea, as it were, without a pilot upon the great waters of mental speculation, it was natural for him to form his own plans, and to steer his own course; and, accordingly, his College life may be said, with a few slight deviations, to exhibit an obvious con