quently about him young men of his own age, some of whom had been the play-mates of his infancy, and others his class-fellows at college, and all of them, like himself, devoted to literature, and science. Though it made little or no noise at the time, there have, probably, been few associations so limited in number, so totally without pedantry or system, and so avowedly made for the mere purposes of glee and hilarity, as that which existed, with some occasional changes, at the manse of Kilmeny, during the first ten years of the present century; and we could point out many works, both literary and scientific, that never would have existed but for the excitement and play of mind which were called forth there.

Dr. Chalmers was born (about fifty years ago) in the small borough of Austruther-Wester, in the county of Fife. That borough and the neighbouring one of Austruther-Easter have always had a soul of literature. The Doctor's father was a clothier and draper; a man of the most exemplary piety, of well-informed mind, great liberality of sentiment, and the most delightful manuers. He had many sons and daughters, the greater part of whom have fallen victims to disease, at the most promising period of life; and he had to sustain one of the most painful family afflictions to which man can be subjected. But still he was resigned, cheerful, and even playful, and shewed that the most punctual attendance to the duties of religion (for there was religious worship in his family every morning and evening,) instead of damping the pleasure of social intercourse, imparts to it its highest zest. We have deemed it proper to state this circumstance (which we do from the very delightful recollection of our personal knowledge) in order that we may be spared the formal refutation of a calumny which has sometimes been brought against Dr. Chalmers both by the unthinking part of the public, and by those psuedo-religionists who can find no Christianity but in a mysterious and miraculous conversion,-the class of persons whom Chalmers used so well to characterize as "gossiping malignants." Those persons have said that Chalmers was at one time a sceptic, and that he was converted in we know not what wonderful manner. Now, apart from our personal knowledge that such is not the fact, we appeal to the understanding of any unbiassed reader, whether one who had been instructed in his early years by the precepts and the example of such a father, and who continued with him in all the reciprocal affection of a loved and a loving man, could have been a sceptic on those great doctrines of which he witnessed such delightful effects. To have done so he must have been equally destitute of discernment and feeling, qualities without which no man ever was, or ever can be, the tithe of a Dr. Chalmers.

From his earliest years Dr. Chalmers was enthusiastically fond of reading, so that when a little boy in the chimney-corner with his book, he got the name of "the minister," not from any view to his future profession, but from his delight being in books. At the same time he was a most active and energetic boy, and when he did enter into sports he took the lead. In very early life indeed, that restless activity of mind, and that determination to seize and to master all subjects, even the most contrary, which has enabled him to do so

much more than almost any other man of his time, were abundantly conspicuous. His progress at school was rapid; he went early to college, and, while but a youth, he did the duty of mathematical professor. Though above the average, his attainments in classical literature were not very great. The bent of his mind lay more towards subjects of which the practical application was more obvious. He was a mathematician, a natural philosopher, and, though there was no regular professor of that science at St. Andrew's, a chemist.

About the close of the last century he was admitted to orders, and soon after went to assist the Rev. Dr. Charteries, a venerable and eminent preacher near the border. Some years after this the College of St. Andrew's appointed him to the church of Kilmeny, where he set about the discharge of his duties with great energy; but he was not very popular at the outset. This arose, in part, from the want of mental correspondence between the inhabitants of a country parish and a man of so much energy as their pastor, and partly from that very energy itself. He had the utmost dislike of gossiping, cared not much for forms of rustic politeness, and could not find half occupation for his time in his parochial labours. Accordingly, he took to a number of other avocations: he lectured 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 Encyclopedia was projected, he was invited to be a contributor, and engaged to furnish the article "Christianity;" which he afterwards completed with so much ability. These supplemental avocations had nothing improper in them; and yet they were not usual among the Doctor's professional brethren, who generally filled up the intervals of their time in visiting and conversations; but the event has shewn that, instead of the mental activity which Chalmers thus kept up being injurious to the very highest theological powers, they have been the chief means of the development of them. And, though there be not much merit in publishing a prophecy after the event, it was in these very causes of want of village popularity, that the friends of Dr. Chalmers placed their new hopes of the eminence to which he would Even then, he was a most wonderful man. All life and energy, he was here, there, and everywhere, both bodily and mentally. Mathematics, botany, conchology, astronomy, politics, political economy, theology, polemics, he was at them all; and yet his most intimate friends hardly knew when he studied. Indeed the whole of his progress seemed more like the inspiration of heaven, than that of any other man that we ever knew or heard of. Mention a new subject to him, with which you had made yourself familiar, and a week after he would beat you upon it; the cause seemed to be this: he did not plod over books, and become the retailer of recorded opinions. He thought himself, set every one with whom he met thinking, and then generalized the whole. We have often been quite astonished at the quantity of information which we had acquired during a few hours' conversation with Chalmers, upon a subject of which neither of us knew much at the outset.

rise.

As a friend, his attachment and disinterestedness were unbounded;

but he had a great dislike to forms; and though he was very hospitable, his friends very often found him with an empty larder. One day three or four friends called on him; he was just setting out for Edinburgh, but insisted on their dining with him, which was readily agreed to. After giving old Effie (Euphemia) who was the whole of his establishment, her orders, they all sat down to that combination of information and glee, which shortens time most, by actually lengthening it in pleasure and utility. Dinner was soon announced; and two large covered dishes, with a smoking plate of potatoes between, Gentlemen," said Chalmers, appeared on the table. 66 under this cover there is hard fish from Dundee, and under that cover there is hard fish from St. Andrew's; take your choice," We have been at many and various feasts, but we have seldom enjoyed an evening like that one.

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Sometimes there was not even hard fish, but still there was a resource. We have seen John Bouthron's "kail pot," broth, beef, and all, brought over to the manse-we have helped to bring it. John was a retired farmer, a very plain but very pleasant old man.

We mention these traits in the character of Dr. Chalmers, as a most effectual means of refuting and reproving those persons who maintain that formality of deportment is essential to eminence, more especially to clerical eminence, as if dulness were the badge of intellect. Here was the the most effective preacher that the age has produced, as innocent certainly, but at the same time as playful as a child. Nor must it be supposed that he was not the same great man and great preacher then as now. Even in his every-day sermons, which he called " short handers," from their being written in short hand on a slip of paper about double the size of a playing card, there were chains of reasoning, and bursts of imagination and feeling, which we have seldom seen equalled, and never excelled. They were done in no time too; for after a morning's ramble among the rocks and woods in the north of Fife, we have seen him compose a whole sermon in half an hour-aye, in less. Some of his most choice orations were composed thus: as for instance, the matchless charity sermon from the text," Blessed is he that considereth the poor," a sermon in which the line between genuine charity, and that ostentatious alms-giving which so often usurps its place, is more clearly marked than in any other composition with which we are acquainted. To mention the good ones would only be to give a list; there are degrees of excellence; but we never heard a sermon, or even a remark of Chalmers, in which there was not some indication of genius-some touch of the hand of a master.

We shall never forget the arch face of a jolly farmer, and the observation that he made to us upon leaving the church one Sunday. The sermon is throughout an argument for temperance; and if we mistake not, it was composed as a college exercise. The text was, "Look not on the wine when it is red in the cup; for it shall bite as a serpent and sting as an adder." The opening is a very glowing and graphic delineation of the seductions of bacchanalian indulgence; and it began with these words: "There is a pleasure, my brethren, in the progress of intoxication." As we were moving along the churchyard path, the farmer said, "I'm thinking the minister and you have been

taking a glass extra last night; for he gi'es the same account that I myself could have gi'en fifty times."

It was not in the nature of things that a man possessing such talents could remain in concealment. The people began to understand and relish his sermons; some speeches that he made in the General Assembly attracted the notice both of the clergy and of the Scottish barristers, many of whom attended the annual convocations of the kirk in the capacity of ruling elders. From these, and a number of other eircumstances, the popularity of Dr. Chalmers was waxing apace, when about the year 1811 a severe and protracted malady had nearly put an end to all his labours. His constitution never had been of that confirmed strength which a mind of so restless energies would have required; and probably he had exposed himself to fatigue and the inclemency of the weather, in a way which one, who thought less about his mind and more about his body, would have avoided. He was attacked by a very severe and obstinate liver complaint, for the removal of which the administration of a great deal of mercury became necessary. The disease was subdued, but before his system had recovered the requisite tone, he resumed his labours; and having exposed himself to cold, the disease returned with more inveteracy and obstinacy than ever. So alarming was the relapse that his physician had to resort to the boldest means of treatment; and what with the disease, what with the means of cure, he presented for months a spectacle of physical exhaustion which we have seldom seen equalled; nor do we believe that any man of weaker mind could have survived it. In the agony of pain, in the exhaustion of nature, and almost in the absence of hope, the firmness and placidity, nay the chearfulness of his temper never forsook him; and when we have sat by the side of his bed or his couch, in that gloomy mood which steals over one on such occasions, some bright saying, which came but in a half articulated whisper, has compelled us to laugh, at the same time that the undiminished force and lustre of his mind, amid a physical wreck so nearly total, afforded a very strong argument for mental immortality. We have seen Dr. Chalmers in many attitudes; in the glee of social enjoyment, in the sublimity of science, and in the terrible power of a Christian orator; but we are not sure that we ever saw him more truly in the character of a great man, than when, to all appearances, the scale of life was doubtful, and his friends were trembling for his fate. Since that time he has come more before the world, and commanded admiration from quarters which he then little thought of; but physically, he has never been the same man; and mentally, though his experience has been enlarged, his powers did not admit of enlargement.

It has been said, that certain fears which occurred in the course of this illness, led Dr. Chalmers to the study of religion, and produced some change in his opinions on that important subject. We were with him often; and we saw no sign of fear, even of the simple fear of death; we heard his opinions before the illness, and we heard them after: we knew no difference; and, therefore, we can see no foundation for what is alleged, the more so that the allegation originated with those who did not know Dr. Chalmers, then, or previously.

At the same time we do not deny, that there were circumstances

arising out of that illness, which tended both to increase the popularity of Dr. Chalmers, and to cause him to devote a greater portion of his time to the study of theology. The value of many things is found out only when we have been deprived of them; and this was, in a considerable degree, the case with the theological powers of Dr. Chalmers. When he was laid on his sick bed, the people found out that those by whom his place was supplied were far from being equal to him. This made them anxious to have him back again, and also disposed to pay more attention both to his ministry and to himself after he was so far recovered as to be able to discharge his duties. This was the cause of a great increase of local popularity.

Then as to theological study, there were several causes. The time in which he had to complete the article "Christianity" had been much shortened by his illness; and that led him to a closer course of reading, than would otherwise have been necessary. His bodily weakness confined him a good deal to the house, and prevented that range of occupations which he had followed in times of more physical vigour. The joint influence of these circumstances, though it produced no change upon the Doctor's principles, caused the public to view them in a different light; and those very persons who, when they did not hear Dr. Chalmers, imputed to him doctrines which they disliked, but which he never held, now that they thronged to attend him, imputed to him those favourite notions and prejudices of their own, to which he had just as little claim.

The grand feature in the theology of Dr. Chalmers, apart from his power as a practical divine, is his meeting the sceptic on grounds, and combating him with weapons, to which he cannot object. Instead of taking up what is called the internal evidence of Christianity, which is a matter of feeling and not of argument, he rests the whole upon the external, upon that which has the same evidence as any other fact; and the truth being demonstrated upon this basis, cannot be shaken. Now we know, that this was the mode in which he proposed to treat the subject, for we heard him mention it, a long time previous to his illness.

Not very long after his recovery, Dr. Chalmers married a lady whose maiden name was Pratt; with her he got a small addition to his fortune, and a great deal to the comforts of his home; in which there were no more double dishes of salt-fish, or borrowing of John Bouthron's "kail pot ;" and as he had less occasion to go abroad for society, his health was soon, in a great measure, restored.

In a few years he was invited to St. John's Church, Glasgow, (which had just been built,) in a manner highly complimentary to his talents; and though many of his friends dissuaded him, from an idea that the labour would be too much for his bodily strength, and tried to persuade him that he would be more useful living in comparative literary ease at Kilmeny, he resolved, at all hazards, to go. The impression which he made at Glasgow was very great; and his fame soon spread over the whole country. When he visited London, the hold that he took on the minds of men was quite 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