230 
his own vigorous intellect, than to care or 
eutivatson eee to task him- 
self,.in kis own mind he had found the 
master, the lecturer, and the college. 
He watched for instruction: he never 
suifered an opportunity of acquiring in- 
formation to escape; and the habits of 
vigilance and accuracy which insensibly 
he was thus led to form, were more valu- 
able than any he could have drawn from 
academic rules er scholastic discipline. 
. The first stage. ot literary existence 
is, it is well known, consumed in 
doubts and perplesities, the anticipation 
ef difficulties, the experience uf disap- 
pointment—in exploring the avenues to 
fame, or attempting the passes of for- 
tune. In addition to such impediments 
as are incidental to all young writers, Dr. 
Gregory experienced another in his ex- 
treme versatility ;—his first bias was to 
poetry. Some of his poems were pub- 
Nished; and many remain in the posses- 
sion of his friends. He eontributed to a 
periodical work published at Liverpool, 
some miscellaneous essays, in which he 
exposed the inhumanity and impolicy of 
the slave-trade; and as these tracts were 
prior to Mr.Clarkson’s work, they must. 
have preceded the numerous able compo- 
sitions in prose and verse, which the cause 
of humanity has since produced. It is 
pleasing to observe in a young ingenuous 
mind that amplitude of benevolence which 
appropriates to itself not only the con- 
cerns of some few human beings, but the 
best interests of the whole human race. 
It is equally pleasing, and far more rare, 
to discover that the same mind, when ma- 
tured by time and experience, is still 
capable of sympathizing with its former 
feelings, and that its philanthropy has not 
been dissipated in passing over a larger 
track of existence. After an interval of 
‘thirty years, it was a source of joyiul ex- 
ultation to Dr. Gregory, to witness the 
termination of a trafic which he had uni- 
formly reprobated, and which, as far as 
his influence extended, he had laboured 
to abolish. 
In 1782,0n his removal to London, me 
was appointed curate of Cripplegate. 
Fhree years after, he became better 
known by the publication of a volume of 
Essays. The success of this work occa- 
sionéd a demand for two subsequent edi- 
tiens.* In addition to his literary reputa- 
* In this volume the author introduced 
his opinions on the Slave trade. The fol- 
Yowing extra& evinces that he not only 
condemned its inhumanity but its impolicy. 
«¢ There is a public and a private avarice: 
nor would it be difficult to prove. that. the. 
former is by far the more dangerous vice, 
Memoirs of the late Dv. Gregory: 
[April 1, 
tion, Dr.Gregory now attained,in his eleri- 
cal functions, celebrity. From this popu- 
larity, though he derived littleemolument, 
he could not on some occasions fail to re- 
ceive heart-felt pleasure.. The curacy of 
Cripplegate, in consequence of the heavy 
duties attached to it, he had been com- 
pelled to resign; but in 1785 he was re- 
called to this ‘chureh, by the earnest 
wishes of his congregation, who unani- 
mously elected him their morning- 
preacher. At thesame time he officiated 
at St. Luke’s, Botolph-lane; delivered lec- 
tures at the Asylum, and weekly lectures 
at St. Antholin’s. In 1789, he published 
his Translation of Louth’s Lectures .on 
the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, - 
The paucity of good translations is a 
common subject of complaint, and no 
small part: of the corruptions and in- 
novations which have crept into our lan- 
guage, may be fairly traced to this cu- 
cumstance. Those who would be ade- 
quate to the task, are not easily induced 
to undertake it; nor does the present 
state of literature hold out sufficient mo- 
tives of interest to counteract the repug- 
nance which men, conscious of a capacity 
to think for themselv es, must inevitably 
feel in transcribing the thoughts of others. 
To this remark, the translation of Louth 
affords a striking exception. The author 
who writes in a dead language, seems to 
impose on his offspring the hard condition 
of an alien, privation and obscurity: it is 
rendered incapable of popular suifrage, 
and its influence is necessarily restricted: 
to thescholastic circle. In this predica- 
naturalized to our language; and by 
An adminiftration which shall disyrace the 
cabinet by the parsimony of the counting- 
house, which shall guard with a suspicious 
eye the expenditure of fractions, and éndea- 
vour not to improve the virtue and magnani- 
mity, but merely to increase the riches of 
ie nation; such an adminiftration is neither 
uited to the temper, the situation, or even 
sie civil constitution of Britain. It was not 
the name and selfish policy of a Wolsey, a 
Villiers, or a Walpole, that g2ve conse- 
quence, power, and prosperity, t> this king 
dom—it was the deep forecaft of a Burleigh, 
the enlarged patriotism of a Vane, and the 
enterprize of a Chatham. Under the con- 
temptible influence of Machiavelian polities, 
should our riches increase, they will increas 
only, to corrupt, toinjure, and to overwheluy 
us. Should our commerce extend, it will be 
@ commerce not to benefit, but to debilitate 
the nation—to enrich individuals, while the, 
public is oppressed. Should our military power 
apparently ES: ic will be a power not to 
det end but to exterminate public liberty.” 
os 
ment was the bishop’s work, till it was 
Vide Essays Historical and Moral. j 
Dr. 
% 
s 
& 
