of religious truth, might apply a spur to the willing courser, as it certainly excited, with the publications then current, a variety of conversation and debate upon the controverted points in theology among the undergraduates. But the influence over my mind went no farther. I soon found the truth to lie upon the surface; and was persuaded that a single eye of any acuteness, purged from those films of habitual acquiescence which are superinduced by the operations of timidity, or the suggestions of prudence, would never be a very long time in making the discovery, and then my constitutional frankness and intrepidity would instantly impel me to the practical profession of it." The only transaction of public interest in the university in which Mr. Paley is said to have been concerned with any thing like eagerness or interest, was one on which he published a pamphlet entitled a Defence of Considerations on the Propriety of requiring Subscription to the Articles of the Church of England*: his interest in this question seems to have arisen from his having already made it a subject of attention in his lectures. But he appears, according to general opinion, to have engaged in it so far, as to answer an attack made upon Bishop Law, his friend's father. But on this, as a young performance, which was not made the vehicle for grave opinion, and which reflects more on the tone of his opponent than conveys any additional informa * I have now by me authority enough to enable me to say decidedly that this pamphlet was the production of Mr. Paley.—ED, more. tion or sentiment, it is not necessary to say much Indeed, it is probably as signal a proof of his dislike to party, and much more to the purpose to observe, that he has not left behind him any one hint, or any room for conjecture, how far he was concerned in it. It was made a subject of doubt, even during his life, whether it was his or not, and was admitted after his death into a volume almost foisted into public notice; but he seems to have been still satisfied with his own silence, and might have been much more entertained with the random-shots that have been fired at him since, by its being found out, "that it contains great arrogance and contempt both for his predecessors and his contemporaries, who viewed the matter in a different light, and with much intemperate argument." We are farther told to judge how far he was consistent with himself, by appealing to his chapter on Subscription to the Articles of Religion; but it ought not to be forgotten, that he was using the substance of this chapter in his lectures at the very time. On this subject, and the interest it excited, as well as the general character of Mr. Paley in the university, which may very fairly be drawn from him without suspicion of partiality, something may be collected from the very equivocal bashfulness exhibited so boldly and intemperately by the author here named, who was nearly contemporary. Without noticing any pamphlet of Mr. Paley's in *Wakefield's Memoirs. Defence of Considerations which incline to his own side of the question, he brings forward a difference of view on another part of the argument, and says, "I blush for him, I blush for the degradation of my species, when I see a man like Mr. Paley stain the pages of his incomparable book with such a shuffling chapter on subscription. He has amply gratified the most sanguine expectations raised in his friends by the extraordinary powers of his penetrating and comprehensive understanding, and the glory of his academical career; but has he acted up in this instance to the general simplicity and honesty of his character?" It will confirm what was said before, of the influence of a man's own views in determining him to or from the concerns of a party, if it be recollected that this dissenting Wakefield denominates the articles a "blessed farrago of mere impertinence and absurdity," and therefore is not likely to bear patiently with any one who treats them reasonably; though such an one proves himself to be no advocate of ecclesiastical slavery, having wished to abolish them, as appears by the Defence of Considerations. The truth is, they are treated by Wakefield as matters that deserve but one opinion; by Paley, as points to call forth and fairly exercise a difference of opinion, though he is himself unfavourable to them. This certainly is no shuffling, at least not shuffling for honours. As to his not joining the petition*, and excusing it by * Meadley. saying that he was a coward, and that he could not afford to keep a conscience, or that he would come in with the next wave, or that he was inconsistent with himself in such expressions, is to give his mere sallies of wit and humour a more grave rebuke than such occasions seem to call for. These, like any other expressions uttered with his constitutional vivacity, as is very justly observed, ought not to be too rigidly interpreted*. Those who knew him well can exactly measure the importance of them, and can say, that his character has been entirely misunderstood, if from his being acquainted with men of great learning, and freedom of mind, and boldness in grappling with the mysteries of science, he has drawn upon himself an opinion of his being either a party man, or a partaker in most of the peculiar sentiments of his associates. For himself he would probably have recommended the old woman's recipe, which is given in the said Defence of Considerations, &c. "to leave off thinking for fear of thinking wrong." In the Biographical Dictionary, by Aikin, it is well observed from some periodical work, "that the Bishop of Carlisle's theological opinion fell greatly below the established standard of orthodoxy;" and Dr. Jebb's sentiments were equally obnoxious to the zealous * With Meadley, in spite of this good-natured salvo, Mr. Chalmers is much affronted, because he has not at once saved him from the imputation of great impropriety. His present biographer does not think that there is any occasion to apprehend the least danger, or feel the least affronted. friends of the church on the same account, though what were "his unwearied and intrepid exertions for promoting a reform in the university as well as in the church and state, by which he had incurred their odium," may be partly conjectured from what has just now been said. "The intimate friendship which subsisted between these learned men and Mr. Paley was received with a jealous eye by many who were closely attached to the established systems. Because he was a liberal thinker, it was suspected that he must be a latitudinarian; and they were prepared to discover dangerous tendencies in his moral and political speculations, if they should ever be given to the public." That his opinion, as well as his general character as an author, met with a good deal of this premeditated, preconcerted plan of opposition, may be best left as a matter of uncertainty; but it is a point quite beyond the power of any party to deny, that he seems not to have been at all affected by any such insinuations, so as to be induced to swerve, during a great part of his life, from an open and independent declaration of his sentiments; that he never in truth departed from that true balance of reason which is the best test of independence; and that he supported all sides from the same, and only from the same motives, as he blamed, and ridiculed, and endeavoured to correct all sides. Neither, on the other hand, ought any farther anxiety to be shown about his adherence to party than may withdraw him from the stir and bustle necessarily attendant upon it; because he would not have been |