1822.]

GUNPOWDER PLOT.

Found human bones in the foundations of the New College, which both Mr. Morell and I preserved in our studies. This circumstance, and the fact that they are human bones and of an infant, buried deep, and not in consecrated ground, throws an air of deep mystery around this venerable pile, the Old College, and may confirm the tradition that it was the residence of one of Charles II. mistresses, and that it has since been haunted !"

About the close of this month, is a record expressive of his concern for the interests of personal religion.

"27. Read Hamilton's Codex Criticus. Prepared

dence, so I, though a Protestant, am also disposed to question the fairness of the representations upon which the common persuasion has rested, and the justice of the commemoration which every 5th of November has witnessed.In plain terms, I believe that the whole concern was a fabrication of the Secretary Cecil, got up with his knowledge, if not under his superintendance; and that the ostensible conspirators, the men who were punished and are now an. nually execrated for this "invention, so inhumane, barbarous and cruel," were as much its inventors as men who are tempted and incited and decoyed by others into a conspiracy, are chargeable with its contrivance. And as to the odium, which the 5th of November serves to stir up against the general body of the Catholic subjects, this is as justly heapedupon them as any other obloquy, which may be extended to a whole body for the crime of a few individuals. And as to the rancour in which some good Protestants indulge on this account, and at this season towards the present generation of Catholics, it is doubtless as just as the contempt, with which an inflated and infidel Jew might regard us Gentiles for the idolatries of our forefathers."

In his Father's papers, there appears the following notice :-" Dr.Butler, in his Sermon on "Christian Liberty," preached before the Duke of Gloucester, &c. at Cambridge, June 30, 1811, ventures (in the Notes) as we have done to question the reality of the Gunpowder Plot."-Month. Review, Dec. 1812.MSS. No. xiii.

STATE OF HIS HEALTH.

[Sect. iv.

Lect. Signified my intention to Dr. S. of becoming a temporary communicant with his church. May a divine blessing attend this step, and may the connexion be productive of real benefit. Attendance on Prayer Meetings may be serviceable, and a greater regularity of attendance on the Sabbath will prevent the wandering disposition, which is too frequently felt."

The state of his health had, for some time, been very precarious. Every attention was given which medical skill could procure, but he continued extremely delicate, nor perhaps indulged sufficiently, in those relaxations which might have recruited his system and infused that energy into it, which was so requisite for his labourious situation. The closing selections from his " Quotidiana," make some painful allusions to this subject, and must be observed with affecting interest and sympathy by every reader.

66

April 17. I have to regret the want of detail and minuteness in my past statements on the subject of my health. When I now look back to the records of two preceding years, I am utterly at a loss to balance the account between those years and this of which I now proceed to write."

"My strength is as yet, tolerably good. I felt more

1823.]

PARTICULARS OF HIS HEALTH.

1

fatigue at walking to town and back yesterday, than I recollect for some time, but still I am tolerable. Of the paleness so appropriate to College walls, I can boast little -but an inferior degree of floridity is observable this week. Of languor I fear to say much, and indisposition to study, inasmuch as it is notorious that I have been shamefully indolent ever since Christmas. But I do think the languor of this week, is something more symptomatic than the laziness of preceding weeks. Lowness of spirits was generally unknown this session, till after Christmas. Since which time, circumstances have occurred in my mind and feelings, to give a pensive turn to my character, when uninfluenced by external objects."

"It would be atheistic to conclude without an express reference to a superior Power, which has the governance of all these things, and which, I doubt not, has in view my religious improvement. May God, my merciful Father, bless me, and give me to love and serve him with a quiet mind, whatever be my bodily condition and if fitting, bestow upon me also the incalculable blessing of health and energy renewed."

:

His correspondence* will again supply some appropriate extracts, as intimately connected with his literary

F

"Homerton, Nov. 22, 1823,"

COMMON-PLACE BOOK.

[Sect. iv.

character, and as pleasingly developing his decided subordinating of every consideration to the high interests and claims of his sacred office. "Your last letter recommended to me, what you have since recommended to Students in general*—an interleaved Bible and a CommonPlace Book. This I have partly put in execution. I have, for some time, used an interleaved copy of the Poetical books of Scripture, and intend to interleave a New Testament as soon as I, meet with one to my mind. I have now, at the binder's, a Quarto Common Place Book for the references. And I hope, in time, by diligence and patience, to amass what may enable me, in some more adequate manner, to understand the Scriptures, which it is to be my profession to explain."

"I think no part of the Old Testament, considering its importance and perpetual use, is so ill criticised and understood as the Psalms. Our class read them two sessions ago, and I was surprised at my own ignorance; at the difficulty which I found, in coming at the first and literal meaning of the Hebrew. What do you take to be the best critical work on the Psalms? I enjoyed the use of Merrick's Annotations at the time, and thought

*

"Education for the Christian Ministry," comprising "Extracts from an Address lately given to the Students of a Provincial Academy, at the close of their Public Examination," in Evangel. Magazine for 1823, p. 321, 322.

1823.]

CRITICISM OF THE. PSALMS.

them admirable; their rarity unfortunately has kept them out of my possession. I have lately met with Dathe's Version, which I think the best I have seen. A Translation in the manner of Lowth, Blayney and Newcome, would be a great accession to our Biblical Criticism.”

The attention, which the subject of these Memoirs gave to the "Psalms" of Scripture, seems to have been considerable. Every critical reader is aware of what immense obscurities attend this portion of the Sacred Writings, and will appreciate the remarks of our Student upon them. He was requested to favour a Periodical, with some of the result of these critical exercises; but he then very modestly declined, though some time afterwards, as a College exercise, one of his Translations did appear in the Scripture Magazine.*

"As to any thing which I could do in the way of criticism on the Psalms, I must profess myself not competently prepared to appear before the public, and too much occupied with other professional duties. I proceeded once as far as Psalm 53, in a new translation, with notes; but that was while the Psalms were our Hebrew ClassBook, and I derived very great advantage from the exer

* "Essay on the Fortieth Psalm: read before a Society of Students."Scrip. Mag. iii. p. 241-248.