intelligible to the general reader, when circulated apart from the Works, than a mere reprint of the original Memoir could possibly have been.

With regard to conversational anecdotes, however, I have still thought it right to adhere to the principle of close selection, and not to yield to the temptation of story-telling, for which most ample materials have been thrown in my way. Many opinions of theological and other writers have been imputed to Mr. Hall, which he never held, and which are, indeed, completely opposed to his recorded sentiments; much strong and strange language has been repeated as his which he doubtless never uttered; in several instances the sentiment expressed makes an entirely wrong impression when severed from the train of conversation in which it occurred; and even in those cases where the sentiment is clearly his, it is often conveyed in language totally different from that which he was wont to employ. In every such instance, I have thought it alike due to the public, to my venerated friend, and to myself, steadily to apply the rule of suppression. What I have either interspersed in the narrative, or drawn together in a note at the end, will, I hope, suffice to illustrate his character; more than that I do not desire.

ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY,

28th May, 1833.

OLINTHUS GREGORY.

A BRIEF MEMOIR

OF

THE REV. ROBERT HALL, A. M.

ROBERT HALL, whose Works are collected in the volumes now published,* was born at Arnsby, a village about eight miles from Leicester, on the 2d of May, 1764. His father was descended from a respectable family of yeomanry in Northumberland, whence he removed to Arnsby in 1753, on being chosen the pastor of a Baptist congregation in that place. He was not a man of learning, but a man of correct judgment and solid piety, an eloquent and successful preacher of the gospel, and one of the first among the modern Baptists in our villages who aimed to bring them down from the heights of ultra-Calvinism to those views of religious truth which are sound, devotional, and practical. He was the author of several useful publications, of which one, the "Help to Zion's Travellers," has

* The collected Works are published in six volumes 8vo.

B

gone through several editions, and is still much and beneficially read, on account of its tendency to remove various frequently-urged objections against some momentous points of evangelical truth. He was often appointed to draw up the "Circular Letters" from the ministers and messengers of the Northampton Association. One of these letters, published in 1776, presents, in small compass, so able a defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, that it might be advantageously republished for more general circulation. This excellent man died in March, 1791. His character has been beautifully sketched by his son, who, in one sentence, while portraying his father, with equal accuracy depicted himself:-" He appeared to the greatest advantage

*

upon subjects where the faculties of most men "fail them; for the natural element of his mind " was greatness."

She

The wife of this valuable individual was a woman of sterling sense and distinguished piety. died in December, 1776.

Robert was the youngest of fourteen children, six of whom survived their parents. Four of these were daughters, of whom three are still living; the other son, John, settled as a farmer at Arnsby, and died in 1806.

Robert, while an infant, was so delicate and feeble, that it was scarcely expected he would reach maturity. Until he was two years of age he could neither walk nor talk. He was carried

* See Works, Vol. IV. p. 262-267.

about in the arms of a nurse, who was kept for him alone, and who was directed to take him close after the plough in the field, and at other times to the sheep-pen, from a persuasion, very prevalent in the midland counties, that the exhalations from newly ploughed land, and from sheep in the fold, are salubrious and strengthening. Adjacent to

his father's dwelling house was a burial ground; and the nurse, a woman of integrity and intelligence, judging from his actions that he was desirous to learn the meaning of the inscriptions on the grave-stones, and of the various figures carved upon them, managed, by the aid of those inscriptions, to teach him the letters of the alphabet, then to group them into syllables and words, and thus, at length, to read and speak. No sooner was his tongue loosed by this unusual but efficient process, than his advance became constantly marked. Having acquired the ability to speak, his constitutional ardour at once appeared. He was incessantly asking questions, and became a great and a rapid talker. One day, when he was about three years old, on his expressing disapprobation of some person who spoke quickly, his mother reminded him that he spoke very fast; "No," said he, "I only keep at it.”

Like many others who were born in villages, he received his first regular instructions (after he left his nurse's arms) at a dame's school. Dame Scotton had the honour of being his first professional instructor. From her he was transferred to a Mrs. Lyley, in the same village. While under

their care he evinced an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, and became a collector of books.

In

the summer season, after the school-hours were over, he would put his richly prized library, among which was an Entick's Dictionary, into his pinafore, steal into the grave yard, (which, from an early and fixed association, he regarded as his study,) lie down upon the grass, spread his books around him, and there remain until the deepening shades of evening compelled him to retire into the house.

At about six years of age he was placed, as a day-scholar, under the charge of a Mr. Simmons, of Wigston, a village about four miles from Arnsby. At first, he walked to school in the mornings and home again in the evenings. But the severe pain in his back, from which he suffered so much through life, had even then begun to distress him; so that he was often obliged to lie down upon the road, and sometimes his brother John and his other school-fellows carried him, in turn, he repaying them during their labour by relating some amusing story, or detailing some of the interesting results of his reading. On his father's ascertaining his inability to walk so far daily, he took lodgings for him and his brother at the house of a friend in the village: after this arrangement was made they went to Wigston on the Monday mornings, and returned to Arnsby on the Saturday afternoons.

The course of instruction at Mr. Simmons's school was not very extensive; and Robert was not likely to restrict himself, as a student, to its limits. On