AS SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
pair of spectacles, which enabled him to see and 
enjoy distant objects. About fifteen he became 
very serious, and expressed in writing his solemn 
purpose to devote the remainder of his life to the 
pursuit of wisdom and virtue. The spirit of this 
youthful determination never afterwards forsook 
him ; we may trace its influence in every page of 
his future diary. During a visit at Sheffield, he 
acquired a fondness for heraldry and genealogy 
from his friend Hunter, a gentleman who has 
since attained to high reputation as a topographer 
and antiquarian. Whatever he undertook he fol- 
lowed with great ardour ; and, in the prosecution 
of this new object, he would walk for miles over 
the country, during his intervals of leisure, to vi- 
sit the churches and copy monumental inscrip- 
tions, and collected copious genealogical materials 
from which he made out the pedigrees and em- 
blazoned the arms of many Cheshire families. 
Another example of his industry was a minute 
analysis of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire, filling a thick octavo volume. 
His mind was also much interested in religious 
questions, and he read as largely as his opportu- 
nities would allow on controversial divinity, em- 
bracing then, as the result of his inquiries, the 
