that he had formed his style upon a close imitation of that author. He had as much pleasure in looking at a violin as in hearing it-I have seen him for many minutes survey ing, in silence, the perfections of an instrument, from the just proportion of the model, and beauty of the workmanship. "His conversation was sprightly, but licentious; his favourite subjects were music and painting, which he treated in a manner peculiarly his own. The common to. pics, or any of a superior cast, he thoroughly hated, and always interrupted by some stroke of wit or humour. "The indiscriminate admirers of BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT of DR. ENFIELd. [From the MEMOIRS of the AUTHOR, by J. AIKIN, M. D. prefixed to the first Volume of SERMONS on PRACTICAL SUBJECTS, by W. ENFIELD, LL. D.] HE Rev. William Enfield, LL. D. was born at Sudbury in Suffolk, on March 29, 1741, O. S. In common with many other characters, of moral and literary excellence, it was his lot to come into the world destitute of the advantages of birth or fortune. His parents were in a humble condition of life, which they rendered respectable by their virtues. His early education was probably on the narrow scale marked out by his circumstances. By his amiable disposition and promising parts he recommended himself to the Rev. Mr. Hextall, the dissenting minister of the place, who treated him with peculiar notice, and took pleasure in forming his youthful mind. He particularly awakened in him a sensibility to the beauties of our principal poets; among whom, Akenside, by the charms of bis versification, and the exalted tone of his philosophy, was a pe culiar favourite both with the instructor and the pupil. It appears to me no unreasonable supposition that to his early fondness for this author, Dr. Enfield was indebted, more than to any other single circumstance, for that uniform purity of language, that entire free. dom from any thing like vulgarity, as well in conversation as in wris ting, by which he was ever distinguished. Mr. Hextall's good opinion was probably the chief cause of his being devoted to the christian ministry. In his 17th year he was seat to the academy at Daventry, then then conducted by the Rev. Dr. Ashworth. At this seminary he passed through the usual course of preparatory study for the pulpit. Of his academical character I know no more than that he was always conspicuous for the elegance of his compositions; and that he was a mong the number of those students whose inquiries led them to adopt a less rigid system of christianity than was the established doctrine of the place. "It was a striking proof of the attractions he possessed as a preacher, and as an amiable man in society, that almost immediately on leaving the academy he was invited to undertake the office of sole minister to the congregation of Benn's Garden in Liverpool, one of the most respectable among the dissenters. To that situation he was ordained in November 1763; and in a town abounding with agreeable society, and distinguished by liberal sentiments and hospitable manners, he passed seven of the happiest years of his life. He married, in 1767, Mary, the only daughter of Mr. Holland, draper in Liverpool; and a most cordial union of thirty years gave full proof of the felicity of his Though greatly engaged both in the pleasant intercourses of society, and in the serious duties of his office, he commenced in this place his literary career with two volumes of sermons, printed in 1768 and 1770, which were very favourably received by the public. Their pleasing moral strain, marked by no systematic peculiarities, so well adapted them for general use, that many congregations, besides that in which they were originally preached, had the benefit of the instruction they conveyed. A collection of hymns, for the use of his congregation, and of family prayers of his own composition, for private use, further added to his professional and literary reputation. "On the death of the Rev. 'Mr. Seddon of Warrington, Mr. Enfield was one of the first persons thought of by the trustees of the academical institution founded in that place, to succeed him in the offices of tutor in the belles-lettres, and of resident conductor of the discipline, under the title of Rector Academiæ. With respect to his fitness for the first no doubt could be entertained. The second was an untried exertion, depending for its success upon qualities, of temper rarely meeting in one individual. Whatever could be effected by those amiable endow-' ments which conciliate affection, might be hoped from one who was become the delight of a large circle of acquaintance; but in those emergencies where firmness, resolution, and a kind of dignified severity of conduct might be requisite, there was cause to apprehend a failure. He had his misgivings, but they were overcome by the encouragement and importunity of friends; and the offered situation was in several respects such as might flatter a young man, fond of literary society, and ambitious of a proper field for the display of his talents. He accepted it, together with the office of minister to the dissenting congregation of Warrington. The occupations in which he engaged were extensive and complicated; but no man had ever a better right to confide in his own industry and readiness. "Every one acquainted with the attempts that have been made by the dissenters to institute places of education for the advanced periods of youth, must have been sensible of the extreme difficulty of uniting the liberal plan of a collegiate life C 3 with with such a system of internal discipline as shall secure sobriety of manners, and diligence in the pursuit of study. Those sanctions which, however imperfectly, serve as engines of government in seminaries established by the state, must ever be wanting in private institutions, which cannot annex to the grossest violation of their laws a higher penalty than simple expulsion, followed by no disabilities or deprivations, and probably held extremely cheap by those who have most deserved it. Warrington had a full share of this difficulty; and also laboured under others, which rendered its existence, though at times it appeared flourishing and respectable, little better than a long struggle against incurable disease. The efforts of Dr. Enfield were faithfully joined, with those of his colleagues, to support its credit, and to remedy evils as they occurred. His diligence was exemplary; his services as a public and private tutor were numerous and valuable; his attention to discipline was, at least, uninterrupted; but it may be acknowledged that the arduous post of domestic superintendant, and enforcer of the laws, was not that for which he was best calculated. So sensible, indeed, was he of his deficiency in this respect, and so much did he find his tranquillity injured by the scenes to which he was exposed, that he made a very serious attempt to free himself from the burden, by resigning this part of his charge; and it was only af ter the failure of various applica. tions by the trustees to engage a successor, that he suffered himself to be persuaded to retain it. In fine, the crisis of the institution arrived in 1783, and its embarrass ments were cured by its dissolution. "However toilsome and anxious this period of Dr. Enfield's life might have been, it was that of ra pid mental improvement. By the company he kept, and the business he had to go through, his faculties were strained to full exertion: nor was it only as a tutor that he employed his talents; he greatly extended his reputation as a writer." "On a vacancy in the mathematical department of the academy it was found impracticable to give adequate encouragement from the funds it possessed to a separate tutor in that branch. Dr. Enfield was therefore strongly urged to undertake it; and by the hard study of one vacation he qualified himself to set out with a new class, which he instructed with great clearness and precision; himself advancing in the science in proportion to the demand, till he became a very excellent teacher in all the parts which were requisite in the academical course. "The degree of doctor of laws, which added a new title to his name during his residence at Warrington, was conferred upon him by the university of Edinburgh. "After the dissolution of the academy, Dr. Enfield remained two years at Warrington, occupied in the education of private pupils, a small number of whom he took as boarders, and in the care of his congregation. For the instruction of the latter he drew up a series of discourses on the principal incidents and moral precepts of the gospel, in which he displayed both his talents as a commentator, and his skill in expanding into general lessons of conduct, those hints and particular observations which occur in the sa cred narratives.-This will not be an improper place to give some account of Dr. Enfield's character as a preacher aud a divine. His man ner ner of delivery was grave and impressive, affecting rather a tenor of uniform dignity than a variety of expression, for which his voice was not well calculated. It was entirely free from what is called tone, and though not highly animated, was by no means dull, and never careless or indifferent. As to his matter, it was almost exclusively that of a moral preacher. Religion was to him rather a principle than a sentiment; and he was more solicitous to deduce from it a rule of life, enforced by its peculiar sanctions, than to elevate it into a source of sublime feeling. Despising superstition, and fearing enthusiasm, he held as of inferior value every thing in religion which could not ally itself with morality, and condescend to human uses. His theological system was purged of every mysterious or unintelligi ble proposition; it included nothing which appeared to him irreconcileable with sound philosophy, and the most rational opinions concerning the divine nature and perfections. Possibly the test of rationality might with him supersede that of literary criticism. It will be seen from the subject selected for publication, that moral topics were much more congenial to him than doctrinal ones; and his character as a public instructor must be derived from the manner in which he has treated these. Probably it will be found that scarcely any writer has entered with more delicacy into the minute and less obvious points of moralityhas more skilfully marked out the nice discriminations of virtue and vice, of the fit and unfit. He has not only delineated the path of the strictly right, but of the amiable and becoming. He has aimed at rendering mankind not only mu tually serviceable, but mutually a greeable; and has delighted in painting true goodness with all those colours which it was said of old would make her so enchanting should she ever become visible to mortal eyes. It will, perhaps, be expected that something should be said of Dr. Enfield in the peculiar charac ter of a dissenter. To dissent was by no means a part of his natural disposition; on the contrary, he could not without a struggle differ from those whom he saw dignified by station, respectable for learning and morals, and amiable in the intercourse of society. Nor was the voice of authority, when mildly and reasonably exerted, a signal to him of resistance, but rather a call to acquiescence. It is therefore not to be wondered at, that there was a period in his life when he looked towards the religious establishment of his country with a wish that no insuperable barrier should exist to the exclusion of those who, with out violating the absolute dictates of conscience, might desire to join it. Inclined by temper and system to think well of mankind, and to entertain sanguine hopes of their progress towards truth and reason, he could not bring himself to ima gine that the active efforts (which we may all remember) of many excellent persons to produce a further reform in the English church, and render the terms of entrance into its ministry more easy and liberal, would in the end fail of their ef fect. This idea dwelt long and weightily on his mind, and disposed him rather to regard the conformities, than the differences, between systems which he expected to see continually more nearly ap proaching each other. Moreover, the correct and elegant language, and the manly strain of morality, at a small distance from the city, which then characterised the pulpit and continuing his plan of domes compositions of the most eminent tic education. He first settled at of the clergy, commanded his en- the pleasant village of Thorpe ; but tire approbation; and he thought at length he found it more conve that a mutual oblivion of topics of nient to remove to Norwich itself, controversy might take place, from Though he was eminently happy a consent in all friends of rational in his mode of educating a small religion to confine their public dis- number, of which several striking courses to subjects on which no examples might be adduced, yet, differences existed between them. like most who have adopted that He lived, however, to see all his plan, he found that the difficulty of expectations of this amicable u- keeping up a regular supply of pu nion frustrated-to see hierarchical pils, and the unpleasant restraint aclaims maintained more dogmati- rising from a party of young men, cally than before-and the chief so far domiciliated, that they left stress of religion placed upon those doctrines in which the English church-articles most differ from the opinions of that class of dissenters to which he belonged. He lived, therefore, to become a more decided separatist than ever; and I am sure, that for many years before his death, though all his personal candour and good-will towards the opposite party remained, no consideration would have induced him to range himself under its banners. The rights of private judgment and public discussion, and all the funda mental points of civil and religious liberty, were become more and more dear to him; and he asserted them with a courage and zeal which seemed scarcely to have belonged to his habitual temper. A very manly discourse, which he published in 1788, on the hundredth anniversary of the revolution, sufficiently testifies his sentiments on these important subjects. "It is now time to return to biographical narrative. In 1785, receiving an invitation from the octagon-dissenting congregation at Nor wich, a society with whom any man might esteem it an honour and hap piness to be connected, he accepted it, under the condition of residing neither time nor place for family privacy, more than compensated the advantages to be derived from such an employment of his talents, He finally removed, therefore, to a smaller habitation, entirely declin ed receiving boarders, and only gave private instructions to two or three select pupils a few hours in the forenoon. At length he determied to be perfectly master of his own time, and to give to his family, friends, and spontaneous literary pursuits, all the leisure he possessed from his professional duties. The circumstances of his family confirmed him in this resolution. Ha was the father of two sons and three daughters, all educated under his own eye; and had he had no other examples to produce of his power of making himself at the same time a friend and a tutor of conciliat ing the most tender affection with ready and undeviating obedience -his children would, by all who know them, be admitted as sufficient proofs of this happy art. They became every thing that their pa rents could wish; but the eldest son, after passing with uncommon reputation through his clerkship to an attorney (Mr. Roscoe, of Liverpool), and advancing so far in his profess |