composition, without a personal knowledge of the inward and living man; and though a stranger after a lapse of years, might be led by admiration of his writings to analyse the distinctive merits of the writer, it is only by conversing with him face to face, that those nice discriminations are made, which constitute the essence of any particular character, Of the number of those who might be properly stationed in the seat of judgment, who could appreciate his piety, his learning, his taste, his genius many still survive; and of his pupils, too, many remain who love and follow their master. Whatsoever may be my ability for executing the task which I have undertaken, I may be permitted at least to declare, that I feel none of the deficiencies, which the ardour of friendship can in any way supply. Although I yield to many of my learned friends in the power of recording and delineating his supremacy in classical accomplishments, in diving with him into the depths of metaphysical subtlety, or soaring to the heights of theological sublimity, yet I can appeal to my own recollection, and my own personal knowledge, for such an account, as shall best display him in those different points of view in which it is most useful to contemplate characterin the full vigour of manhood, and in the hoary holiness of age, at home and abroad, in public and in private, in the hours of business and of conviviality, in the bosom of his family and employed with his pupils, or when he was shewing the force of his understanding in public instruction, or in some of the freaks of his humour, among his familiars.

Had I been to seek from garbled memoirs, from the murmurs of spleen, the effusions of vanity, or the crude and malignant productions of hirelings the documents of biography, I should have shrunk from the task. Far different have been the materials for my account of this man- He was the guide of my youth, and the constant friend of my life. For thirty-five years I have seen him in numberless varieties of our imperfect condition. I have rejoiced with him in prosperity and in health, I have sympathized with him in sickness and in sorrow. We have travelled together the wearisome road of life in narrow circumstances, and in abundance; and throughout our course our confidence was mutual. I feel therefore that I have a right to assume a knowledge of the character of Dr. Parr.

I have learnt something concerning him, likewise, from converse with the companion of his childhoods, and the tried friend of his long life, Dr. Bennet, late Lord Bishop of Cloyne; and from correspondence with the Rev. David Roderick, also his tried friend, who followed him from Harrow to Stanmore, and whose admiration of his talents still continues. Gratefully do I acknowledge the assistance I have received during the composition of these Memoirs, from other learned friends of Dr. Parr, and especially from Archdeacon Butler, the Rev. Dr. Maltby, and the venerable President of Magdalen College, Oxford. The labour of selecting from such a multitude of documents has been truly Herculean, but I have found it neither unpleasing or unsurmountable. For in the life of Dr. Parr, there is

diversity enough to amuse, eminences enough to ascend, and ample shade to repose under; and though the path be occasionally intricate and overgrown, yet far more often does it wind clear and smooth, among the loftiest and choicest productions of the intellect.

Dr. Parr was born at Harrow on the Hill January 15th, O. S. 1747.* He was the son of Samuel Parr, by Anne, the daughter of Elizabeth Bates, of Stamford, Lincolnshire, and Leonard Mignard, who was descended from a French refugee family, and related to Mignard the painter, of whom some account is given by Lord Orford. The Doctor's father was the third and youngest son of the Reverend R.

* Extract from a Letter from the Rev, Robert Parr to Samuel Parr, then settled at Harrow on the Hill as a Surgeon, dated January 24th, 1740:

"I hear you meet with good encouragement in your way of business. Skill and good success, civil behaviour, and honest dealing, and, above all, the blessing of God, are sufficient to make a man rich and happy too. I hope all these are your portion, and heartily pray that Almighty God will be pleased to bless you here, and especially hereafter."

Another Letter from the same, dated January 7th, 1746, congratulates him on his marriage.

The entry of Parr's baptism in the register at Harrow is as follows:

"Feb. 17th, 1746. Samuel, son of Samuel and Ann Parr, was baptized. Extracted from the Register Book of Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, 23d March, 1799.

(Signed) WALTER L. WILLIAMS, Vicar." "It seems," Mr. Williams says, in his letter inclosing this certificate, "Mr. Saunders' Register begins the year, according to the ecclesiastical reckoning at that period, 25th of March, which would render that of your age 1746-7."

Parr, Vicar of Hinckley and Stoke Golding, Leicestershire, and Dorothy Brokesby, daughter of a nonjuring Clergyman in Yorkshire, who in 1715 published the Life of the celebrated Henry Dodwell, and who communicated to Mr. Ray, when he drew up his collection of English Proverbs, a very large catalogue, and a very ingenious interpretation, of old words used in the North of England. Mr. Brokesby his grandfather, was certainly a man of profound erudition. Robert Parr, the Doctor's great uncle, who lived at Hinckley, but had preferment in Warwickshire, was an excellent Greek scholar, and a most orthodox divine. The same praise is due to the Doctor's uncle, Mr. Robert Parr. This last stood high in the esteem of that distinguished scholar, Dr. Snape, once Master of Eton, and afterwards Provost of King's College, Cambridge, was himself a Fellow of that Society, and was presented by it to the Rectories of Horstead and Coltishall in Norfolk, where his literary attainments, his unblemished integrity, and his unfeigned piety, will be long remembered.

The Doctor's father succeeded Leonard Mignard as a Surgeon and Apothecary at Harrow on the Hill, and died there January 23d, 1766, having lost his first and justly beloved wife, Anne, who died November 5th, 1762.

Mr. Parr was distinguished by great professional knowledge, by strong common sense, by a correct taste in the English and Latin languages, by fidelity and activity in his business, by the rectitude of his principles, by a manly and dignified independence of

spirit, and by a noble disregard to the accumulation of wealth.

As the Doctor himself was well known in the world by a steady and disinterested adherence to Whigism, it may be proper to remark that his family, in its various branches, and for several successive generations, were firmly attached to Toryism, both in Church and State.

Parr from his infancy gave manifest indications of his thirst for knowledge, and of his ability to acquire it. At Easter 1752, he was admitted on the foundation of the Free-school raised and endowed

John Lyon at Harrow.* He passed through the

* The following Letter of Dr. Parr's father to a friend, dated Harrow, May 23d, 1760, shews that there was an intention to send him to Eton, which did not succeed. His cousin Francis was soon after admitted at Eton, probably by the same interest. SIR,

Presuming much on your friendship, I give you this trouble to let you know that I am in some perplexity about my son. I remember you some time ago hinted to me, that you thought I should make him a scholar, and Dr. Thackeray has since more strongly suggested the same, and encouraged me to do it, by saying, he thinks that if the boy is placed in Eton School, at the next election, as the Doctor thinks the boy deserves, he cannot well fail of getting King's, I hope, therefore, you will please to prevail upon Mr. Barnard of Laton, to write to Dr. Barnard at Eton, to desire the Doctor to appoint a day some time in the middle of next month for me to wait upon him with the boy, for his examination and advice, if it is not contrary to the rules of the school (if it is I shall by no means desire it). I beg you will make my compliments acceptable to the ladies, and to afford me your best assistance on my boy's account, and you will greatly oblige, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

SAMUEL PARR.