MEMOIRS,

&c.

PART II.

I Daniel understood by Books.-Daniel ix. 2.

I MUST proceed to the enumeration and analysis of MR. RICHARDS' publications; these hold up the best image of his enlightened, honest, and generous mind. His productions elucidate his principles, and embalm his memory.

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

Nor numbers nor example with him wrought,
To swerve from truth.

MILTON.

I. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.

His HISTORY OF LYNN, in two large octavo volumes, embellished with engravings, was an elaborate work. It is not only well written, the style perspicuous and manly, but it is replete with

information as well as entertainment. Few were more conversant with the records of the English nation, and in the course of the work, its remarkable periods are dwelt upon with a lucid precision. Enamoured of Civil and Religious Liberty, he lashes tyranny, both ancient and modern, under every form which the wily monster assumes for the oppression of the people. The Historian of Lynn, by the statement of certain "disagreeable truisms,' drew upon him indecorous attacks, which he repelled with intrepidity. Indeed the more liberal class of his townsmen, were so far from being offended, that they admired his discernment and applauded his integrity.

His HISTORY OF LYNN, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Political, Commercial, Biographical, Municipal, and Military, is introduced by a copious and interesting ACCOUNT of Marshland, Wisbeach, and the Fens, which must render the work invaluable to the inhabitants of that peculiar district of Great Britain. It ranks the author among the antiquarians as well as topographers of the age, and will convey his name to posterity. It is a production of copious research and of sterling information. MR. RICHARDS may be said to have taken a circuitous route, but ample amends are made by the introduction of historical anecdote and literary biography. Here indeed his genius shone forth to advantage. He never exercised his memory at the expense of his judgment he admitted nothing without examination.

Few topographical works are fraught with such stores of individual BIOGRAPHY. The statesman and the divine, the philosopher and the poet, pass under review. Their merits and demerits are scanned with impartiality. Anecdotes are adduced illustrative of private character, whilst facts are recorded demonstrative of the good which in their days and generations they rendered to society. The Biography includes the names of the most distinguished personages, either natives or inhabitants of LYNN-among whom was his truly respectable countryman, Dr. David Lloyd, Master of the Grammar School, and Minister of the Church of England. Here is also a very interesting account of the Rev. John Rastrick, of whom Mr. Richards remarks, that "he had too much moderation and too little of a sectarian spirit to be admired by any existing party." His Epitaph shall be transcribed-he lies buried in St. Nicholas' Chapel-it is in Latin, and is thus translated by the late Dr. Gibbons :-" Here lie the remains of the REV. JOHN RASTRICK, A. M., born at Hackrington, near Sleaford, in the county of Lincoln, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was formerly vicar of Hickton, in the same county, fourteen years, and afterwards, as he could not comply with some requisitions of the Church of England with a safe conscience, was an indefatigable preacher of the gospel in this town twenty-six years, to a Christian tion from the Establishment.

Church in separa-
He was a man of

eminent piety, charity, and modesty, of approved integrity, of remarkable study and pains, and an adept in almost every part of learning, but especially the mathematics. He was a pleasant companion, a truly Christian divine, an eloquent and powerful preacher, a faithful and vigilant pastor, an intrepid reprover of vice, and as warm an encourager of virtue. Having finished his course, embittered, alas! with many trials, he joyfully yielded up his soul to God, August 8, 1727, aged 78." Mr. Rastrick left behind him some manuscripts in prose and poetry. The following lines have some fine thoughts and energetic expressions, also the hymn is fraught with devotional simplicity, both probably a new year's present to his daughter, Martha Rastrick, whose name is inscribed at the foot of the piece.

THE DISSOLUTION.

Happy the man to whom the sacred Muse
Her nightly visits pays,

And with her magic rod

Opens his mortal eyes;

He nature at one glance surveys,

And past and future, near and distant, views!

I'm mounted on Fancy, and long to be gone
To some age or some world unknown—
Swifter than time, and impatient of stay,
To the west, to the uttermost limits of day,
To the end of the world I'll hasten away-

Where I may see it all expire,
And melt away in everlasting fire!

"Tis done I see a flaming seraph fly,
And light his flambeau at the Sun,
Then hast'ning down to the vast globę
His blazing torch apply-

See! the green forests crackling burn,
The oily pastures sweat

With miserable heat;

The mines to hot volcanos turn,
Their horrid jaws extended wide,
The sulphurous contagion spread.
Why do the aged mountains skip,
And little hills, like their own sheep,
Like lambs, which on their grisly head
Once wanton play'd?

Expanded vapours, struggling to the birth,

Roar in the bowels of the earth,

And now the Earth's foundations rend asunder, Burst with subterraneous thunder;

Dusky flames and livid flashes

Rend the trembling globe to ashes!
Fiery torrents rolling down,
The naked valleys drown,

And with their ruddy waves supply
The channels of th' exhausted sea :
Seas to thin vapours boil'd away,
Leave their crooked channels dry,