288 
can hardly be given, than that the admirable 
«« Letters on Infidelity’ by the Bifhop were 
all addrefled to Mr. S., under the initials of 
W.S. efq. who appears by the introductory 
letter to heve given his relation the hints 
which gave rife to that mafterly production. 
When they quitted fchoo], Mr. Horne was 
fent to the Univerfity, and Mr. S. went to be 
an apprentice to Mr. Hookham, who, at that 
time, was concerned in a moft extenfive 
wholefale Nottingham warehoufe m Broad- 
ftreet, in the fame houfe in which Mr. S. 
lived and died. At this early age, and dur- 
ing the whole period of his long life, he was 
an example to all who knew him, of the 
frie purity and fobriety, patient induftry , 
and attention to butinefs, and imecorruptible 
integrity. We now come to fpeak of the 
more fingular and difinguifhed features of 
his chara¢ter. Separated in fituation, and ap- 
parently in purfuits, from his excellent rela- 
tive, the congeniality of their fentiments in-’ 
duced them fo keep up a conftant correfpon- 
dence. Mr. Hore informed his friend of 
the ftudies in which he was engaged ; and 
Mr. S. {pent all his leifure time in the acqui- 
fition, by his own labour and induftry, of 
thofe ftores which the academician was 
amaffing, and with which he afterwards cn- 
riched the Chriftian world. By fuch means, 
Mr. S. acquired, not only an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the French language, but 
alto a very confiderable knowledge of Greek 
aud Hebrew literature, and became one of 
the beft Theologiaus of his time. Nor was 
his learning confined merely to himfelf, or 
to the circle of his friends; for he lias, at va- 
rious periods, produced feveral learned works. 
In 1773, he publifhed ** An Eflay om the Na- 
ture and Counttitution of theChriftianChurch ;” 
a work fo found in principle, and fo admira- 
bly adapted for the inftru¢tion of thofe whe 
have thought but little on this important fub- 
ject, that the fociety for promoting Chriftian 
Knowledge have thought it their duty to put 
this work upon their Catalogue, in order to 
promote its extenfive circulation. He, in 
the fame year, publifhed a pamphlet called 
<¢ Curfory Obfervations on a Pamphlet, inti- 
tled, An Addrefs to the Clergy of the’Church 
of England in particular, and to all Chriftians 
in general, by Francis Wollafton, reétor of 
Chifiehurft;” which are written m fuch a 
ftrain of eafy, unaffected pleafantry, accom- 
panied with fuch fohdity of arguinent, as 
have feldom been combined in the fame an- 
thor. His next work was in 1777, intitled, 
«¢ Strictures on a Sermon, mititled, the Prin- 
ciples of the Revolotion vindicated, preached 
at Cautbridge on the 29th May, 1776, by 
Richard Watfon, D D. Regius profefior of 
Divinity;” which was foon foliowed by a 
Tra&, intitled, ‘* The Revolution vindicated, 
and Conftitational Liberty afferted, in ans 
iwer to the Rev. Dr. Watfon’s Accefiion Ser= 
mon, preached at Cambridge 25th OGober, 
a 
Account of the late William Stevens, efq. F.A.S. April 1, 
1776.” Thefe two works have been men- 
tioned together; but about the fame time 
Mr. S. publifhed to the world, “ A Difcourfe 
on the Englifh Conftitution, extraéted from 
a late eminent writer, and applicable to the 
pretent times.” Prior in point of time to thefe 
latter publications, he Had proved his know- 
ledge of, and critical acquaintance with, the 
Hebrew language, by a work, intitled, ** A 
new and faithful Lranflation of Letters from 
M. L’Abbé de——, Hebrew Proteffor in the- 
Univerfity of » tothe Rev. Dr. Benja- 
men Jennicott, &c. &c.”  ‘Thefe various 
pamphlets, which are now out of print, were 
afterwards, at the earneft folicitation of his 
friends, co!leéted into a volume, which, with 
that humility which is often the concomitant 
of great abilities, Mr. S. ftyled Ovd:ves Egya — 
the Works of Nobody ; a name by which he 
was afterwards known amongf his friends. 
And it nay now with propriety be mention- 
ed, that about thirty of thofe friends, who 
admired his virtues, and were defirous of fol- 
lowing his great example, fome of whom 
were members of both houfes of parliament, 
“many of them eminent at the har, in divinity, 
medicine, and the various walks of literature, 
about feven years ago, inftituted a club in 
honour of this diftmguifhed and excellent 
man, and called it Nobody’s club, which 
met three times a year; a fociety of friends, 
whofe congeniality. of fentiment endeared 
them to each other and to their venerable 
head, whote conftant cheerfulnefs enlivened 
their meetings, whofe virtues they revered, 
and whole death they affectionately Jament. 
Ja the year 1792, Mr. S. and the Chrifian 
world were deprived of that illuftrious orna- 
ment and pillar of the church of England, 
Bithop Horne; and though M:. S. was too 
fincerely religious to be forry as one without 
bope ; yet it required all the affe@tionate foli- 
citude of his furviving friends to fill up that 
void, which the death of this his earlieft and 
deareft friend occafioned in his heart. Un- 
der this fevere lols, he confoled himfelf, and 
foothed his affiicted~mind, by prefenting to 
the world, the third and fourth volumes of 
the Sermons, and the volume of occafional 
Ditcourfes of this venerable departed pre- 
late; and by fupplying the learned Mr. 
Jones, of Nayland, with many of the mate- 
rials of the Bifhop’s Life, afterwards pub- 
lifhed by Mr. Jones, and dedicated to Mr. 
S. Some flight attack having been made 
upon the preface to the fecond edition of 
that work on tie Britith Critic, Mr. S. put- 
hithed a fpirited defence of it, in a Letter to 
a Friend, under the fignatureof Ain, the He- - 
brew word for Nobody. The laf work in — 
which he was engaged was an uniform publi- 
cation of the works of the Rev. Wilham 
Jones, of Nayland, in twelve octavo volumes, 
to which he prefixed a life of that venerable 
and faithful fervant of God (enlarged froma 
ketch previoully pubiifhed by him in the An- 
“tjacobia 
