tainments after which he never afpired, artfully depreciates their merit, who, in the paths where the purfues fame, are her chief and moft fuccefsful competitors. Our historian, who needed not thefe low dishoneft tricks, for building his own reputation on the ruin of another's, faw, acknowledged, and admired, the beauties in the hiftories of a Hume, a Voltaire, and a Gibbon. Blinded by the excellencies, and overlooking the defects and blemishes of their compofition, he even fometimes, in a manner too warm, and with too little reserve, beftowed upon them that praife which their careless and partial reprefentations of facts, and their unjuft and malevolent attacks on Chriftianity *, would have vindicated him in withholding.

For feveral years before his death, he feldom wrote his fermons fully, or exactly committed his older fermons to memory, though, had I not learned this from himfelf, I could not have fufpected it; fuch was the variety and fitnefs of his illuftrations, the accuracy of his method, and the propriety of his ftyle. His difcourfes from this place were fo plain, that the most illiterate might eafily understand them, and yet, fo correct, that they could not incur their cenfure whofe taste was more refined. He did not wander from his fubject, or handle it fuperficially, though he often improved incidental occurrences for the purposes of edification. Sometimes he preached on the evidences of Christianity, or fome of its peculiar doctrines: but more frequently on the various duties of religion, on their difficulties, and on the helps for performing them. His expofitory lectures, though they might appear lefs laboured than

* Dr. Macqueen's Letters on Hume's Hiftory, Dr. Finlay's Vindication of the Sacred Books, Lord Hailes's Inquiry into the Secondary Caufes, which Mr. Gibbon affigned for the rapid Growth of Chriftianity; contain clear proofs of this charge not to mention Whitaker, and other able English

writers.

his fermons, were perhaps, more ufeful. In thofe on the Gospels, Acts, and fome of the leffer epiftles, he exhibited a variety of characters, partly for caution, partly for imitation: reprefented in a ftriking light the proofs of Chriftianity, refulting from the inftructions, exhortations, or miracles, which he explained. Few of his expofitory lectures were heard with greater pleasure and profit, than thofe on the book of Proverbs. They ju diciously described the snares and allurements by which error and vice deceive their votaries, and prevent their hearkening to the counfels of heavenly wifdom. They contained exhortations, warnings, and reproofs, highly important to all, but peculiarly neceffary to thofe entering on the journey of life. I regret that he feldom preached on paffages in that book. Sermons on fubjects, which his fagacity, experience, and hiftorical knowledge, peculiarly qualified him for difcuffing, would have given him opportunity of a deeper fearch into the extent and ufefulness of religious and moral maxims, which, when expounding a large paffage of fcripture, he could only hint.

Though, from his earliest to his latest years, he devoted much time to thinking, to reading, and to compofing; yet, this did not four his temper, blunt his relish of focial and domeftic comforts, or unfit him for the common duties of life. To his family and friends, he was the delight of their cheerful hours, and the foother and comforter of their forrows. They gratefully remember what they once enjoyed in him, and deeply lament what they have now loft. May the allfufficient God be a friend to thofe, from whom a dear friend and acquaintance has been taken away, a father to the fatherlefs, a husband to the widow, and the orphan's ftay!

His learning had no tincture of pedantry. Far from affecting to know what he was ignorant of, or vainly afpiring after univerfal learning, he confined his ftudies

to

to branches of science, for which his genius beft qualified him, or which his ftation and office in life rendered neceffary.

He enjoyed the bounties of Providence without running into riot; was temperate without aufterity; cheerful without levity; condefcending and affable, without meannefs; and, in expence, neither fordid nor prodigal. He could feel an injury or affront, and yet bridle his paffion; was grave, not fullen; teady, not obftinate; friendly, not officious; prudent and cautious, not timid.

He bore the fevere and tedious diftrefs which iffued in his death, with remarkable patience and ferenity, and with expreffions of gratitude to God, for the many comforts with which, for a long feries of years, he had been bleffed. Among thefe, he mentioned to me, with peculiar emotion, the tender affection of his wife and children ; their kind and fympathizing attention in his hours of languishing and pain; their refpectable characters in life, and the comfortable fituation in which he left them. In one of his laft converfations with me, he expreffed his joy in reflecting, that his life on earth had not been altogether in vain; and his hopes, that, through the merits of Jefus, the God who had to fignally profpered him in this world, would, in another, and better world, be his portion and happiness,

OF

OF THE

CAVE OF FINGAL, OR AN-UA-VINE,

IN THE ISLAND OF STAFFA.

[Prom Faujas St. Fond's Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides.]

Tonbution, the date of which has been loft in the

HIS fuperb monument of a grand fubterraneous

lapfe of ages, prefents an appearance of order and regularity fo wonderful, that it is difficult for the coldest obferver, and one of the leaft fenfibie to the phoenomena which relate to the convulfions of the globe, not to be fingularly aftonifhed by this prodigy, which may be confidered as a kind of natural palace.

To fhelter myfelf from all critical obfervation on the emotions which I experienced while contemplating the most extraordinary of any cavern known, I fhall borrow the expreffions of him who first defcribed it. Those who are acquainted with the character of this illuftrious naturalift, Sir Jofeph Banks, will not be apt to accufe him of being liable to be hurried away by the force of a too ardent imagination; but the fenfation which he felt at the view of this magnificent fcene was fuch, that it was impoffible to efcape a degree of juft enthufiafm.

"The impatience which every body felt to fee the wonders we had heard fo largely defcribed, prevented our morning's reft; every one was up and in motion before the break of day, and with the firft light arrived at the S. W. part of the island, the feat of the most remarkable pillars; where we no fooner arrived than we were ftruck with a fcene of magnificence which exceeded our expectation, though formed as we thought upon the most fanguine foundations: the whole of that end of the ifland, fupported by ranges of natural pillars, moftly above fifty feet high, ftanding in natural colo

nades,

nades, according as the bays or points of lands formed themfelves; upon a firm bafis of folid unformed rock. In a fhort time we arrived at the mouth of the cave, the most magnificent, I fuppofe, that has ever been defcribed by travellers.

"The mind can hardly form an idea more magnificent than fuch a space, fupported on each fide by ranges of columns, and roofed by the bottoms of thofe that have been broke off in order to form it; between the angles of which a yellow ftalagmitic matter has exuded, which ferves to define the angles precifely, and at the fame time vary the colour with a great deal of elegance; and to render it still more agreeable, the whole is lighted from without; fo that the fartheft extremity is very plainly feen from without, and the air within being agitated by the flux and reflux of the tides, is perfectly dry and wholefome, free entirely from the damp vapours with which natural caverns in general abound.” Let us alfo, for a moment, liften to Mr. Troil upon the fame fubject.

"How fplendid," fays this prelate, "do the porticos, of the ancients appear in our eyes, from the oftentatious magnificence of the defcriptions we have received of them, and with what admiration are we feized on seeing even the colonades of our modern edifices! But when we behold the cave of Fingal, formed by nature, in the ifle of Staffa, it is no longer poffible to make a comparifon, and we are forced to acknowledge that this piece of architecture, executed by nature, far furpaffes that of the Louvre, that of St. Peter at Rome, and even what remains of Palmira and Peftum, and all that the genius, the tafte, and the luxury of the Greeks, were ever capable of inventing ."

Such was the impreffion made by the Cave of Fingal on Sir Jofeph Banks and on the bithop of Linckeeping. I have feen many ancient volcanos, and I have given

* Letters on Iceland, by Mr. Troil.

defcrip