shelf. God's will be done; that I may submit without a murmur, is my constant prayer."

On another occasion he writes: "I consider myself as being in a very, very doubtful state, to say the least. Prepare, Prepare, ought to be my motto, no doubt, in great letters. What the Divine mercy has yet in store for me, it is not easy to predict. My hope is, that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."" Again: "I am happy to have a God to go to, let other things be as they may. I endeavour to make it my prayer, that as this load is certainly laid upon me for good, it may not be removed till it has done its work. To support this belief, and the prayer connected with it, is no easy task; but as, I thank God, I cannot, I find, be easily driven from this belief, so, I trust, I shall never suffer the buffetings of Satan to drive me from my prayer. The rest must be left with a merciful God."

"The few prayers of Pascal, at the close of his little book, are most charming. I have experienced manifest consolation from the eleventh particularly*. Oh! what a state of mind is implied!"

It should be observed that the foregoing passages occur, not in any formal dissertations of the subject of religion, but in ordinary and, often, hastily written letters on common topics; they are therefore doubly valuable, as displaying, as it were, unintentionally, the real state and bias of the writer's mind.

The November chapter over, Dean Milner once more entertained the hope, that he might be able to accomplish the journey to Cambridge before the ensuing Christmas. His health, however, continued to be very precarious; and the unprecedented severity of the weather contributed to render such an undertaking formidable.

Had Dr. Jowett still lived to urge him to make the attempt; to welcome him on his arrival at College; and to cheer him, as formerly, with his congenial and truly Christian society, he might, perhaps, in some interval of comparative convalescence, have been induced to venture upon the journey: as it was, the year again closed upon him at Carlisle.

* Vide PASCAL, vol. ii., p. 126. Paris, 1812.

CHAPTER XXVII.

New Year's Day.-Tranquil State of Mind.-Amended Health.-Extracts from Correspondence.-Return to College.-Visit to London.-Dean Milner makes his Will.-Returns to Carlisle.-Thunder Storm.-Danger of Lightning.—Busy Summer.—Election of Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge.-Correspondence with the Rev. Charles Simeon.-Extracts from confidential Letters.-Assizes.-Strictness of Principle.-Affability of Manners.-Baptismal Controversy.-Dr. Mant's Tracts.-Proceedings of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.-Bishop of Calcutta.Rev. John Scott.-Dr. Laurence.-General observations on Adult and Infant Baptism.-Remarks on the Rev. J. Scott's Sermon on Baptism.Absence of a dictatorial tone.-Return to Cambridge.-Death of the Princess Charlotte.

A.D. 1816. ÆTAT. 66.

It was very much Dean Milner's habit, at least during the latter years of his life, to take advantage, for the regulation of his conduct, of particular times and seasons. "To turn over a new leaf," at the beginning of each new year, was a maxim which he frequently urged, especially upon young persons; and besides this colloquial advice, he seldom failed, in his doméstic worship on New-year's day morning, to exhort the members of his family to the serious performance of the same duty. The retired and, comparatively, inactive mode of life to which his precarious health at this period restrained him, was, doubtless, unfavourable to the forming of vigorous resolutions; but Dr. Milner was less than most men the creature of circumstances. "If we are but where we ought to be, and employed as we ought to be, all things considered," he used frequently to say, "we may hope for God's blessing upon our undertakings;" and this resigned and tranquil state of mind, bringing along with it, as it always does, its own reward, was highly conducive to that partial restoration to bodily health which he was beginning to experience.

As the spring advanced, he began seriously to contemplate a journey to Cambridge. Many pressing considerations urged him to this undertaking; but alas! the great inducement which would have supported and cheered him in the per

formance of this duty, was withdrawn. To this melan holy topic-a topic which, notwithstanding his constitutional cheerfulness, was never long absent from his mind-he alludes, in a very affecting manner, in the following extract from a letter, dated

"MY DEAR SIR,

"Deanery, April 10th, 1816.

"I know not whether you may have heard, that from long, and in some measure, severe indisposition, I have been compelled to live here in a sort of retirement from College, and from business of almost every kind.

"I assure you, I do not over-state it, when I affirm, that from the day of the decease of our dear and lamented friend Dr. Jowett, all my academical objects have put on a different aspect. To me the loss has been both irreparable and incalculable. I am not, sure that a single day has passed, without my heaving a sigh to his memory; and the melancholy reflection has been kept up and increased by tedious and protracted infirmities for more than two years,

"For many weeks past, I have been meditating a return to Cambridge, where I am much wanted, Alas! Alas! ever since the year 1770, whenever I returned to Cambridge, my first object was invariably to meet Dr. Jowett; and it was usually settled by us, that we should meet on the first night of our coming back to College!"

Never, surely, was strong affection expressed with greater truth!

The ungenial spring of 1816 at length assumed a milder character; and, although obliged to return to Carlisle in order to be present at the June Chapter, and still in very indifferent health, Dr. Milner, in the last week of May, obeyed the call of duty, and, after an absence of nearly two years, returned to College.

Again at Cambridge, and warmly welcomed by numerous friends, his health and spirits visibly revived. He applied himself vigorously to the arrangement of the arrears of College

business, preached in the College chapel, and even attended, as usual, the June meeting of the Board of Longitude.

Still, however, notwithstanding the striking effect produced upon his very impressible and elastic spirits, by the salutary change of climate and scene consequent upon his return to Cambridge, the death of Dr. Jowett had left a blank, which nothing could fill. He was totally unable to profit by the advice of Dr. Johnson, that "a man, as he grows older, should take care to keep his friendships in repair," by supplying vacancies as they occur. The few friends whom Dr. Milner loved, he loved with his whole heart; and the breaches caused by death among such friendships cannot be repaired.

An important affair concluded by Dr. Milner during this short residence at College, was the making of his will.

He left his library, with certain exceptions, to Queen's College; a bequest of peculiar value, on account of the large collection which he had amassed of scarce Tracts on theological and other subjects. He also left a considerable sum of money to be appropriated to the augmenting of the incomes of the aged inhabitants of the Alms-houses belonging to his College -persons over whose comforts he exercised, during the whole period of his Mastership, a benevolent superintendence.

The duty of making a final settlement of all temporal concerns, at such a season, that the mind may not be disturbed by them during the closing scenes of life, was often insisted upon by him as incumbent upon all persons. This duty performed, he again set forth on his return to Carlisle; which city he reached in safety on the 21st of June.

This journey was marked by a tremendous thunder-storm; such a storm as seldom occurs in our climate. In addition to the rational estimate which he formed of the actual danger incurred under such circumstances, a danger which he thought considerably underrated by most persons,-Dr. Milner was constitutionally affected by an electrical state of the atmosphere. It should likewise be added, that he had once, in early life, witnessed an awful scene of death by lightning-the death of several persons. All these circumstances combined, rendered him somewhat intolerant of the air of unconcern sometimes

thoughtlessly assumed by persons ill-qualified to appreciate the perils which surround them, when

Thunders roll around.

"For my part," said an ignorant youth with whom he was once in company during a fearful storm, and who perceived that he exhibited symptoms of anxious apprehension, "For my part, I am never afraid of the piece that is not levelled at me." "Nor I neither," replied the Dean, "if I am but sure of that.”

Whatever may be thought of the view which Dean Milner took of this subject, it is at least certain, that, taking that view, he acted in rational consistence with his opinions. It was his custom, on occasion of a near and dangerous thunder-storm, to call together his family, including his servants, and solemnly to implore the Divine protection from a danger which he conceived to be imminent, and against which there is no other safeguard.

This summer's residence at Carlisle was a busy and an anxious one. First, there was very important Chapter business, and that of a painful and embarrassing nature. Soon afterwards, by the death of Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, the Regius Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge, which he had held nearly half a century, became vacant. A professorship so honourable and important was, of course, an object of great interest, and the candidates were alike anxious to secure the powerful support of Dean Milner. Many were the letters which he wrote upon this subject; and, at length, the day of election being at hand, he formally appointed a member of his own College his Vice-President, and gave him power to vote, on this occasion, as his proxy. Unfortunately, however, some untoward mistakes occurred; and within about eight and forty hours of the time actually fixed for the election, he was surprised by the appearance of a special messenger who had posted with the utmost speed from Cambridge, charged with directions to use his best efforts to persuade the Dean to return with him, without an hour's delay, and vote in person. Unfit as he was for an exertion so great and so sudden, Dr. Milner was far from pronouncing, at once, an absolute negative. He listened attentively to the earnest representations which were made to him: