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March 17, 1780. His father was a shipowner and general merchant in the town, and Thomas, when not twelve years of age was sent to college at St. Andrews. The Scottish universities have been too much regarded as elementary seminaries, and efforts are now making to elevate their character by instituting some preliminary test of admission, and improving the professorial chairs. Chalmers had little preparation, and never attained to critical proficiency as a scholar, but he had a strong predilection for mathematical studies, which he afterwards pursued in Edinburgh under Professor Playfair. He was also assistant mathematical teacher at St. Andrews. Having studied for the Church, he was, in 1803, ordained minister of Kilmany, a rural parish in his native county. Here the activity of his mind was strikingly displayed. In addition to his parochial labours, he lec tured in the different towns on chemistry and other subjects; he became an officer of a Volunteer corps; and he wrote a book on the Resources of the Country, besides pamphlets on some of the topics of the day; and when the "Edinburgh Encyclopædia" was projected, he was invited to be a contributor, and engaged to furnish the article "Christianity," which he afterwards completed with so much ability.' At Kilmany, Dr. Chalmers received more serious and solemn impressions as to his clerical duties, and in an address to the inhabitants of the parish, there is the following remarkable passage:

Inefficacy of mere Mora! Preaching.

And here I cannot but record the effect of an actual though undesigned experiment which I prosecuted for upwards of twelve years amongst you. For the greater part of that time I could expa iste on the meanness of dishonesty, on the villainy of falsehood, on the despicable arts of calumny-in a word, upon all those deformities of character which awaken the natural indignation of the human heart against the pests and the disturbers of human society. Now, could I, upon the strength of these warm expo-tulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing, and the evil-speaker his censoriousness, and the lar his deviations from truth. I should have feit all the repose of one who had gotten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me that all this might have been done, and yet every soul of every hearer have remained in full alienation from God; and that even could I have established, in the bosom of one who stole, such a principle of abhorrence at the meanness of dishonesty that he was prevailed upon to steal no more, he might still have retained a heart as completely unturned to God, and as totely unpossessed by a principle of love to Him, us befor In a word, though I might have made him a more upright and honourable man. I might have left him as destitute of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, that during the whole of that period in which I made nɔ sttempt against the natural enmity of the mind to God, while I was inattentive to the way in which this enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on the one hand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the gospel salvation; whil Christ, throngh whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver whom he has offended, was scares y ever spoken of or spoken of in such a way as stripped him of all the importance of his character and his offices, even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour, and truth, and integrity among my peope; but I never one heard of any such reformations having been effected amongst them. If there was anything at all brought about in this wa it was more than ever I got any account of I am not sensible that all the vebemence with which I ured the virtues and the proprieties of social life had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God;

it was not fill reconcillation to Him became the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerial exertions; it was not till I took the Scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the Flood of Curist was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask him, was se before them as the unceasing object of their dependence and their prayers; it was not, in one word, till the contemplations of my people were turned to these great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interest with God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformatious which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but, I am afraid, at the same time the ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. Ye servants, whose scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice and drawn forth in my hearing a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief you would have done had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been accompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in the prevailing tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowable parloining of your earlier days! But a sense of your heavenly Master's eye has brought another influence to bear upon you; and while you are thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, you may, poor as you are, reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowledgment of the faith. You have at least taught ine that to preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your humble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry with all its simplicity into a wider theatre, and to bring with all the power of its subduing efficacy upon the vices of a more crowded population.

From Kilmany, Dr. Chalmers removed to Glasgow; to the Tron Church in 1815, and to St. John's in 1819. In both, his labours were unceasing. Here his principal sermons were delivered and published; and his fame as a preacher and author was diffused not only over Great Britain, but throughout all Europe and America. His appearance and manner were not prepossessing. Two acute observers —John Gibson Lockhart and Henry Cockburn-have described his peculiarities minutely. His voice was neither strong nor melodious, his gestures awkward, his pronunciation broadly provincial, his countenance large, dingy, and when in repose, unanimated. He also read his sermons, adhering closely to his manuscript. What, then, it may be asked, constituted the charm of his oratory? The magic,' says Cockburn, lies in the concentrated intensity which agitates every fibre of the man, and brings out his meaning by words and emphasis of significant force, and rolls his magnificent periods clearly and irresistibly along, and kindles the whole composition with living fire. He no sooner approaches the edge of his high region, than his animation makes the commencing awkwardness be forgotten, and then converts his external defects into positive advantages, by shewing the intellectual power that overcomes them; and getting us at last within the flame of his enthusiasm. Jeffrey's description, that he buried his adversaries under the fragments of burning mountains," is the only image that suggests an idea of his eloquent imagination and terribe energy.'*

A writer in the London Magazine Chalmers's appearance in London:

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gives a graphic account of Dr. When he visited London, the

* Memorials of his Time, by Henry Cockburn, 1856.

E. L. vi.-11

hold that he took on the minds of men was unprecedented. It was a time of strong political feeling; but even that was unheeded, and all parties thronged to hear the Scottish preacher. The very best judges were not prepared for the display that they heard. Canning and Wilberforce went together, and got into a pew near the door. The elder in attendance stood close by the pew. Chalmers began in his usual unpromising way, by stating a few nearly self-evident propositions neither in the choicest language nor in the most impressive voice. If this be all," said Canning to his companion, it will never do." Chalmers went on-the shuffling of the congregation gradually subsided. He got into the mass of his subject; his weakness became strength, his hesitation was turned into energy; and, bringing the whole volume of his mind to bear upon it, he poured forth a torrent of the most close and conclusive argument, brilliant with all the exuberance of an imagination which ranged over all nature for illustrations, and yet managed and applied each of them with the same unerring dexterity, as if that single one had been the study of a whole life. "The tartan beats us,' said Mr. Canning; "we have no preaching like that in England." Chalmers, like the celebrated French divines-according to Goldsmith-assumed all that dignity and zeal which become men who are ambassadors from Christ. The English divines, like timorous envoys, seem more solicitous not to offend the court to which they are sent, than to drive home the interests of their employers.

The style of Dr. Chalmers became the rage in Scotland among the young preachers, but few could do more than copy his defects. His glowing energy and enthusiasm were wanting. In Glasgow, Chalmers laboured incessantly for the benefit of his parishioners ( ́ excavating the practical heathenism' of the city, as he termed it), and he organised a system of Sabbath-schools and pauper management which attracted great attention. He was strongly opposed to the English system of a legal provision for the poor, and in his own district of Glasgow, voluntary contributions, well managed, were for many years found to be sufficient; but as a law of residence could not be established between the different parishes of the city, to prevent one parish becoming burdened with a pauperism which it did not create, his voluntary system was ultimately abandoned. In 1823 Dr. Chalmers removed to St. Andrews, as Professor of Moral Philosophy in the United College; and in 1828 he was appointed Professor of Divinity in the university of Edinburgh. This appointment he relinquished in 1843, on his secession from the Established Church. He continued an active and zealous member of the rival establishment, the Free Church, until his death, May 30, 1847. His death, like that of his friend, Dr. Andrew Thompson, was very sudden. He had retired to rest in his usual health, and was found

next morning dead in bed, 'the expression of the face undisturbed by a single trace of suffering.'

The collected works of Dr. Chalmers published during his life fill twenty-five duodecimo volumes. Of these the first two are devoted to Natural Theology;' volumes three and four to Evidences of Christianity' five, Moral Philosophy;' six, Commercial Discourses? seven, Astronomical Discourses;' eight, nine, and ten, 'Congregational Sermons;' eleven, 'Sermons on Public Occasions;' twelve, Tracts and Essays;' thirteen, Introductory Essays,' originally prefixed to editions of Select Christian Authors; fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation, more especially with reference to its Large Towns;' seventeen, On Church and College Endowments; eighteen, On Church Extension;' nineteen and twenty, Political Economy: twenty-one, The Sufficiency of a Parochial System without a Poor-rate:' twenty-two to twenty-five, 'Lectures on the Romans.' In all Dr. Chalmers's works there is great energy and earnestness, accompanied with a vast variety of illustration. His knowledge was more useful than profound; it was extensive, including science no less than literature, the learning of the philosopher with the fancy of the poet, and a familiar acquaintance with the habits, feelings, and daily life of the Scottish poor and middle classes. The ardour with which he pursues any favorite topic, presenting it to the reader or hearer in every possible point of view, and investing it with the charms of a rich poetical imagination, is a striking feature in his intellectual character.* It gave peculiar effect to his pulpit ministrations; for, by concentrating his attention on one or two points at a time, and pressing these home with almost unexampled zeal and animation, a distinct and vivid impression was conveyed to the mind, unbroken by any extraneous or discursive matter. His pictures have little or no background-the principal figure or conception fills the canvas. The style of Dr. Chalmers is far from being correct or elegant-it is often turgid, loose, and declamatory, vehement beyond the bounds of good taste, and disfigured by a singular and by no means graceful phraseology. These blemishes are, however, more than redeemed by his piety and eloquence, the originality of many of his views, and the astonishing force and ardour

Robert Hall seems to have been struck with this peculiarity. In some Gleanings from Hail's Conversational Remarks, appended to Dr. Gregory's Memoir, we find the following criticism understood to refer to the Scottish divine: Mr. Hall repeatedly referred to Dr. . and always in terms of great esteem as well as high admiration of his general character. exercising, however, his usual free and independent judgment. The following are some remarks on that extraordinary individual: Pray, sir, did you ever know any man who had that singular faculty of repetition possessed by Dr.? Why, sir. he often reiterates the same thing ten or twelve times in the course of a few pages. Even Burke himself had not so much of that peculiarity, His mind resembles that optical instrument lately invented: what do you call it ?" "You mean. I suppose. the kaleidoscope?" Yes, sir: an idea thrown into his mind is just as if thrown into a kaleidoscope. Every turn presents the object in a new and beautiful form, but the object presented is still the same. His mind seems to move on hinges. not on wheels. There is incessant motion, but no progress. When he was at Leicester. he preached a most admirable sermon on the necessity of immediate repentance; but there were only two ideas in it, and on these his mind revolved as on a pivot.

of his mind. His Astronomical Discourses' (1817) contain passages of great sublimity and beauty. His triumphs are those of genius, aided by the deepest conviction of the importance of the truths he incul cates. After the death of this popular divine, no less than nine volumes were added to his works- Daily Scripture Readings,' Sabbath Scripture Readings,' Sermons,' Institutes of Theology, and Prelections on Butler's Analogy,' &c. These were edited by the son-inlaw of the deceased, the Rev Mr. Hanna, who also wrote a copious and excellent Life of his illustrious relative, extending, with extracts from writings and correspondence, to four volumes (1849-52).

Picture of the Chase-Cruelty to Animals.

The sufferings of the lower animals way, when out of sight, be out of mind. But more than this these sufferings may be in sight, and yet out of mind. This is strikingly exemplified in the sports of the field, in the midst of whose varied and animating bustle that cruelty which all along is present to the senses may not for one moment have been present to the thoughts There sits a somewhat ancestral dignity and glory on this favourite pastime of joyous old England; when the gallaut knighthood, and the hearty yeomen, and the amateurs or virtuosos of the chase, and the full assembled jockeyship of half a province, muster together in all the pride and pageantry of their great e uprise-and the panorama of some noble landscape, lighted up with autunnal clearness from an unclouded heaven, pours fresh exhilar ation into every blithe and choice spirit of the scene-and every adventurous heart is braced and impatient for the hazards of the coming enterprise-and even the highbreathed coursers catch the general sympathy, and seem to fret in all the restiveness of their yet checked and irritated fire, till the echoing horn hall set them at liberty -even that horn which is the knell of death to some trembling victim now brought forth of its lurking-place to the delighted gaze, and borne down upon with the full and open cry of i's ruthless pursuers. Be assured that, ataid the whole glee and fervency of this tumu tnons enjoyment. there might not, in one single bosom, be arght so flendish as a principle of naked and abstract cruelty. The fear which gives its lightning-speed to the unhappy animal: the thickening horrors, which, in the progress of exhaustion, must gather upon its flight; its gradually sinking energies, and, at length. the terrible certainty of that destruction which is awaiting it; that piteous cry which the ear can sometimes distinguish amid the deafening clamour of the blood-hounds as they spring exultingly upon their prey: the dread massacre and dying agonies of a creature so miserably torn-a'l this weight of suffering, we admit, is not once sympathised with; but it is just because the suffering itself is not once thought of. It touches not the sensibilities of the heart; but just because it is never present to the notice of the mind. We allow that the hardy followers in the wild ro mance of this occupation-we allow them to be reckless of pain, but this is not rejoicing in pain. Theirs is not the delight of the savage, but the apathy of unreflecting creatures. They are wholly occupied with the chase itself and its spirit-stirring accompaniments, nor bestow one moment's thought on the dread violence of that infliction upon sentient nature which marks its termication. It is the spirit of the competition, and it alone, which gods onward this hurrying career; and even he who in at the death is foremost in the triumph, although to him the death itself is in sight, the agony of its wretched sufferer is wholly out of mind.

Mon is the direct agent of a wide and continual distress to the lower animals, and the question is, Can any method be devised for its alleviation? On this subject that Scriptural image is strikingly realised: The whole inferior creation groaning and travailing together in pain. because of him It signifies not to the substantive amount of the suffering whether this be prompted by the hardness of his heart, or only permitted through the heedlessness of mind. In either way it holds true, not only that the arch-devourer man stands prominent over the fiercest children of the wilderness as an animal of prey, but that. for his lordly and luxurions appente as well as for his service or merest curiosity and amusement. Nature must be ransacked throughout all her clements. Rather than forego the veriest gratifications of vanity,

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