memory had retained, and relieved at once his own conscience and the poor man's necessities.

On another occasion, having given in haste an obscure direction to some distant part of the city to an elderly country clergyman, who was his guest; as soon as he became aware of it, he snatched up his hat, and in his slippers as he was, ran after him to correct it. These no doubt are trifling incidents for a great man's life, but they speak forth the heart, and show how it was that he won love as well as admiration from all who approached him. But these things were hardly virtues in him: they were rather nature.

'His pity gave ere charity began.'

To these already absorbing engagements of Mr. Hobart was soon added another, a load of public duties from which, through life, he never was afterward free. Through the friendship of Bishop White he had been appointed Secretary to the House of Bishops, during their triennial meeting in Philadelphia, in June, 1799, shortly after his own ordination. Upon the meeting of the Diocesan Convention of NewYork, in 1801, he was chosen to the same office in it, and elected one of the Deputies to represent the Diocese in the General Convention,

which met at Trenton the same year. So well satisfied was the Diocese with their choice, that we find him successively elected to the two following General Conventions, in 1804 and 1808, the only ones which preceded his own elevation to the episcopate, and in both unanimously chosen by the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies as their Secretary.

In the State Convention, from the day of his appearance, he became what may be termed its business man. He was annually chosen its Secretary from 1801 to 1811, when elected to be its Bishop, during the whole of which period its official business rested on him. He was annually also elected upon the Standing Committee of the Diocese, thus becoming one of the Bishop's canonical advisers in all his official acts.

He was regularly chosen, as already said, a Delegate to represent the Diocese in the General Convention. In 1804 he was the originator of the Committee for Propagating the Gospel in the State of New-York, and from that period was annually chosen upon that Committee-serving as its Secretary-corresponding with its missionaries, and making its reports to the Convention; and, in 1808, introduced the plan of annual parish collections for funds for their support. In 1803 we find him preaching the Annual Convention

Sermon, and on all occasions which called for labor, zeal, or talent, standing prominent. It is a coincidence to be noted, that the very first entry of his name on the minutes of the Convention, the first year he sat in it, is in connection with the principle that marked all his subsequent course-Ecclesia est in episcopo.' 'On motion of the Rev. Mr. Hobart, resolved, That this Convention cannot with propriety act upon the memorial while this Church is destitute of a bishop.' This entry follows in the Journal of 1801, immediately after the resignation of Bishop Provoost.

For the duties involved in these honorable offices Mr. Hobart was peculiarly well qualified, He was a fluent speaker and a ready writer, while the confidence reposed in his judgment and practical talent, placed him, even at that early age, among the sagest counsellors of the Church, Having thus introduced him into a higher sphere of labor, we turn over, as it were, a new page in his history.

CHAPTER III.

From 1803 to 1807-28th to 32d year of his age.

Period of his chief didactic Publications, viz. Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of the Christian Church-Companion for the AltarStyle--Criticism upon it-Character it displays-Companion for the Festivals and Fasts-Church Catechism broken into short Questions and Answers-Examination of his Views of Religious EducationCompanion to the Book of Common Prayer-The Clergyman's Com. panion.

We have now to regard Mr. Hobart in a new light-one that connected him more closely with the feelings of the Church at large-that of a faithful expounder and able advocate of her doctrines, discipline, and worship.

The first in the long series of works, original and compiled, by which his name became so widely spread and identified with Church principles, was a republication of Stephen's 'Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of the Christian Church,' with such alteration in form, and addition in matter, as appeared called for by the object he had in view, which was, instructing the young of his communion in the distinctive doctrines of the Church to which they belonged.

This little work was published in 1803, anonymously, partly, we may presume, through

the diffidence natural to a young author, but mainly, no doubt, from that simplicity of character which on all occasions sought the end and not self-glory; for so soon as his name could give weight to his opinions, he scrupled not, with equal simplicity, to annex it.

In the spring of the following year (1804) appeared 'A Companion for the Altar, or Week's Preparation for the Holy Communion.' This work was also, in part, a compilation, especially in the explanatory portions; the devotional part, however, is chiefly original, and bears the impress of its author-ardent alike in thought and language-sometimes verging to an extreme which a rigid taste might condemn, but never wanting in the higher requisite of heartfelt sincerity. But the literary merit of the work is a secondary question, and may be hereafter considered; a greater and more interesting one is, what is its tone of doctrine. Now this being the first occasion on which Mr. Hobart's doctrinal views have come up, or could be made known from his own words, it may be proper to enlarge somewhat more upon this volume than its comparative merits would seem to demand.

The following extract from the preface contains, in few words, the principles of the author,

as exemplified, not only in this, but in all his succeeding writings, for what he had once adopted