Ibid. 1390.

Ah, odious EXISTENCE [human life], why dost thou still retain me living here above, and dost not suffer me to depart to the grave?

I notice also the following five instances of pangaior, which may have some influence in elucidating the sense of air. Edip. Tyr. 526.

Ούτοι βίου μοι τοῦ μακραίωνος πόθος.

I have no desire of LONG-ENDURING life.'

Which of the LONG-ENDURING ONES [immortals] begot you?'

Ajax Flag. 195.

Antigone, 999.

paxqaiwv, LONG-CONTINUING.

Τὸν λοιπὸν ἤδη βίοτον εὐαίων ̓ ἔχειν.

'In future to have life a blessed EXISTENCE [state].' Philoctetes, 855.

Υπν

But I have occupied as much space as can be consistently devoted to this inquiry, in one number of the Examiner. I therefore pause here, and wait for a future opportunity to proceed.

Yours, in good will,

E. S. G.

Sandwich, Feb. 7, 1831.

ART. V.The Works of the Rev. ROBERT HALL, A. M. Minister of Broadmead Chapel, Bristol, England. First complete Edition; with a Brief Memoir of the Author. In two volumes. New York. G. & C. & H. Carvill. 1830. 8vo. pp. 439 and 491.

IT is somewhat remarkable, when we consider the reputation of Robert Hall, and the readiness of the English public to welcome and purchase the works of their eminent men, that the first and only complete collection of his writings should have been made, and that only within a few months past, in this country. We greet them with pleasure, because we have been accustomed to welcome whatever bears the name of that eloquent man. Yet we are free to confess, that some of his late controversial works have impaired the respect, which we had felt happy in entertaining for his character. Nor are we sure, that these volumes will add any thing to the permanent fame of Mr. Hall. Nay, we are even disposed to doubt whether, had he been consulted, he would have given his sanction to the whole publication. The fact, that no such collection has been made in England, and that, in one instance at least, the author himself has interdicted the reprinting of an article which on its first appearance attracted much attention, warrants our suspicion, that he had satisfactory reasons for declining it.

In truth, upon a somewhat careful survey of these volumes, and some knowledge of the feelings of the author, we do not believe, he will congratulate himself on the zeal of his American editor. Except those pieces, which are already extensively known, and have conferred upon the name of Robert Hall its deathless renown, they seem to us to contain little, which his admirers or friends would be anxious to preserve. And we find ourselves continually returning with dissatisfaction from the fugitive Polemics,' religious and political, which form no inconsiderable part of this 'complete edition,' and which we verily think the writer himself designed should pass away with the occasion that produced them, to his earlier and, in our view, far higher productions. When Mr. Hall discourses of Infidelity,' and sets forth its presumption, madness, or ruin ;-when he speaks of war with its crimes and desolations, while he inculcates

6

upon fellow-subjects and soldiers the sentiments suited to an alarming crisis'; when he calls upon a 'nation in tears' to stand still and adore the mysterious providence of God in the sudden extinction of its loyal and most cherished hopes, as in his unrivalled discourse on the death of the Princess Charlotte; or when, in the tenderness of private affection, but in the strength also of a Christian's faith, he pours out his heart over the grave of his friend Ryland; or when in a solemn charge, he addresses lessons of evangelic wisdom to the younger Carey, about entering on a distant mission, and destined to be separate from his brethren we listen and we admire. What is much more, we are admonished, quickened, and instructed. There is a grandeur and elevation of conception, an understanding of the mind of Christ,' and an utterance of the true sayings of God,' that command not our assent only, but the best feelings of the soul. We are totally forgetful, or totally indifferent, by what name he is known, or to what party among Christians such a writer belongs. It is enough for us that he is of the truth, and of that truth which makes us free. We go to his pages again and again with fresh delight. But when this great man descends to the troubled field of controversy, and humbles himself to assail, not only what he supposes to be error, but good and upright and illustrious men who hold it, he seems to us no longer of the same nature. He breathes a tainted atmosphere. He betrays the bitterness and uncharitableness of common disputants. And we are forced, not so much in anger as in sorrow, to lament the degradation which controversy can make of the finest powers. We mourn, as did Goldsmith over the eloquent Burke, when that philosopher and scholar consented to mingle himself with the political wranglings of the day, that

'Born for the universe, he narrowed his mind,

And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.'

To the works, to which we have already alluded, we shall have occasion to recur in the course of this notice. Indeed, they cannot be overlooked in any just estimate we can form of their writer. They are his glory; and in comparison of them most of his other pieces are of far inferior value. It will, therefore, be easily seen, that there are two distinct views in which Mr. Hall is to be considered, as a preacher VOL. X. -N. S. VOL. V. NO. I.

9

and as a controversialist. The contents of these volumes also may generally be classed under the heads of practical or exhortatory, including his public Speeches as well as Sermons, and polemical, in the form of Reviews or distinct treatises. Under these heads we shall consider them.

But such of our readers, as have not already learnt, may first be desirous of knowing, something of the history of this eminent man. This is supplied in part by the editor of the collection in a Memoir, chiefly compiled from some brief biographical sketches from foreign journals; which, though certainly wanting in the freshness of delineation that personal friendship, or nearness to the scenes of his labors, might have supplied, may furnish a sufficient account of one, whose genius and eloquence have given him a place with the most distinguished of his profession, and even with the master-spirits of his age.

Mr. Hall, as we learn from this Memoir, is the son of the Rev. Robert Hall, who was in his day an esteemed minister of the communion, known by the name of the Particular Baptists. His fine intellectual powers were early developed, so that, as his father related, he perfectly understood the reasonings in the argumentative pieces of Dr. Jonathan Edwards at the age of nine years! For the writings of this great metaphysician we have ourselves heard him declare his admiration. But this was mingled at the same time with expressions, in his accustomed energetic manner, of abhorrence at the theological system, which theologians of a later day have professed to build upon them. 'I cannot believe,' said he, that that illustrious divine would have given the sanction of his great authority to so crude a mass of presumption and error.'

The education of Mr. Hall was in some respects superior to that usually received by young men preparing for the ministry, among dissenters of his denomination in England. He was first a pupil in the academy of Dr. Ryland of Northhampton; whence he removed to Bristol, and was under the care of Dr. Caleb Evans, whose character for learning, piety, and liberality of sentiment has been held in high esteem. seventeen, he was entered a student of King's College, Aberdeen; where, besides the other benefits of that ancient seminary, he had the privilege of attending, through his whole course, the lectures of Dr. George Campbell, the learned

At

Professor of Theology and Principal of Marischal College, whose valuable translation of the Four Gospels with Notes has given him a place with the most accomplished biblical critics of his own, or indeed of any other age. Here, also, our author formed an intimate friendship with Mr. (now Sir James) Mackintosh, for whose promising genius and virtues he anticipated then, what advancing years have abundantly confirmed the highest distinction. Their friendship seems to have been truly fraternal. The letter of Sir James to his friend after the recovery of the latter from a malady, by which he has been repeatedly visited, cannot be read without lively emotion. And even during the continuance of one of those periods of mental disorder, which Mr. Hall has shared with Browne and Cowper and many other chosen spirits, one of whose most melancholy effects is the forgetfulness of past friendships or the confounding of friends with enemies, he is known to have uttered in some very characteristic terms his profound veneration for the superior wisdom and sagacity of Sir James, the first great man in the world, once judge of Bombay, and my classmate at Aberdeen.'

As a preacher, Mr. Hall early obtained the reputation by which he has ever since been honored. At Bristol, where he was first settled as colleague with his patron, Dr. Evans, as well as assistant in his academy, and afterwards at Cambridge, where he succeeded the Rev. Robert Robinson, in the charge of the Baptist Society in that place, he was eagerly followed and admired. It was here that he preached his memorable sermon on 'Modern Infidelity,' which attracted towards him the attention of some of the students and learned members of the University. It was at this early period too, that he produced many others of his most celebrated compositions, among which was the Apology for the Freedom of the Press,' first published as a Tract, under the title of 'Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom'; concerning which Dugald Stewart expressed an opinion, something similar to which is said to have been pronounced by Mr. Pitt of the discourse on Infidelity, which, if true, might, we think, have disarmed Mr. Hall of his virulence against that statesman that it was the finest specimen of English composition then in existence.'

But the malady, with which he had once before been afflicted at the opening of his ministry, again put a stop to