of thought, and sentiments and habits are imbibed and formed, which constitute the basis or become the germ of the matured and finished character ;-it was a circumstance peculiarly auspicious in the history of this lamented youth, that he was introduced to the pious and enlightened care of such a man as Mr. Hordle. In his preaching, in his lectures, and in his conversation, he saw most admirably applied, those elementary principles of theological science, the scholastic forms of which must else have been unintelligible or insipid to his mind. In the liberal and sacred current of his habitual thought, Mr. Spencer would find a safe channel for the yet infant stream of his own conceptions; whilst he would imperceptibly form his character upon that mild, correet, and amiable model, constantly before him.

It must be of incalculable advantage to a young man destined for the Christian ministry, as it evidently was to our departed Spencer, to pass a year or two beneath a faithful and enlightened pastor's roof, to be a spectator of his toil, a daily witness of the varied scenes of duty and of trial which the Christian ministry perpetually presents. It is true, that in academies, lectures on the pastoral care are read, and discourses on the duties of the Christian ministry delivered; but one week of actual observation must impress more deeply on the mind all that such lectures can contain, and unnumbered other circumstances, equally important, but which no general analysis can include, than months or years of the most devoted study. And to the diligent improvement of this peculiar advantage, perhaps, may in part he attributed that early maturity at which

Mr. Spencer's capacity for the saered office had arrived. He had the seriousness, the reflection of the pastor while but a student; and when he actually entered on that holy office, the exercises of the pulpit, and the habits of his ministerial life, bespoke the knowledge of long experience, rather than of recent theory, and indicated the presence of a master's, not a learner's hand.

At Harwich his diligence was exemplary: a judicious course of reading was marked out for him by his respected tutor, which he conscientiously and unweariedly pursued; but besides this, he had the use of an excellent library, with rich supplies from which he amply occupied his leisure hours. He had made considerable progress in the Latin; and soon after his introduction to Mr. Hordle, he commenced, under his direction, the study of the Hebrew. With this sacred language he was particularly pleased, and soon demonstrated his attachment and his diligence, by completing, with considerable labour, an abridgment of Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexieon. This work he accomplished in a small pocket manual, which proved of considerable use to him, and was almost his constant companion.**.

Here, too, he first became acquainted with the principles of Moral Philosophy; and whilst from the lectures of Doddridge, and the essays of Locke,

* Of this Manual he made two fair copies, one of which is in possession of his tutor, and the other is amongst the papers from which these Memoirs are supplied. The design is honourable to his judgment, and the execution to his perseverance and his accuracy at that early age.

his mind derived vigour and energy; from the study of the Latin poets, and the classic authors of our own country, it gained amusement, and his compositions gradually assumed an air of elegance and ease.

But not only in literature and science was his progress conspicuous during his residence at Harwich ; but he also made considerable advances in the knowledge and experience of divine things. That in the midst of all his studies, which yet he pursued with diligence and ardour, religion was the ob ject of his chief regard and dearest to his heart, is evident from the uniform strain of his letters to his most intimate and beloved friend Mr. Heward, whose fellow labourer he had been at Mr. Thodey's, and the privation of whose society he seemed deeply to deplore. His views of the Christian ministry became more and more consistent, and the impression of its vast importance more deep and solemn on his mind. The intense desire with which he panted for that sacred and honourable office became tempered, though never checked, by an awe of its vast responsibility, and a consciousness of incapacity for the full discharge of its numerous and laborious duties.

With Mt. Hordle he would sometimes indulge in the most free and unreserved converse on the state of his heart, and his private walk with God. In such conversations he was always much affected, and susceptible, from the constitution of his nature, of the most delicate impressions and the keenest feelings, it may be well supposed that in religion he would deeply feel. Hence the tenderness of his conscience, and the susceptibility of his mind, would often overwhelm his bosom with convictions of guilt,

and agitate him with unnumbered inward conflicts. Yet in the midst of all he evidently grew in spiritual strength-his mind acquired confidence-his principles became daily more and more confirmed-and he had advanced far in a deep and experimental acquaintance with the ways of God at an age when such advancement is rarely to be found.

Whilst at Harwich he regularly shared with Mr. H. the pleasing duty of conducting the devotions of the family, and frequently performed the sacred service with an enlargement of heart, a fervour and. propriety of expression truly astonishing. Bat this was a circumstance he particularly wished should be concealed; his modesty and diffidence shrunk From the observation of men, even of his nearest friends; and in one of his letters to his friend* he writes, "My situation is comfortable, more so than ever; I am considered like one of the family; of an evening I generally, by Mr. H.'s desire, engage in family prayer, he in the morning. O tell it to nobody on any account. When he is out I always do."

To those who knew not the beloved original, the outlines of whose character these pages but imperfectly present, the detail of minute particulars may be uninteresting and insipid; but those who were familiar with him will dwell with pleasure on the faintest lineament that may be here preserved of a dear departed friend, so ardently, so deservedly esteemed; whilst a combination of these varied and retired beauties may form a portrait on which the eye of a stranger may dwell with admiration, and

* Mr. Heward.

the mind reflect with profit. It is in confidence of this that his biographer pauses to record another and a pleasing trait in his character at this early age the peculiar warmth and constancy of his friendship. He seems, indeed, at this period to have had but one bosom friend, except those of his own immediate family; to him his letters breathe an affection the most glowing, spiritual, and pure; and perhaps no little incident more strikingly displays the tender cast of his mind than that which he himself relates, with great simplicity, in a letter to his friend :

"This morning we read (Mr. H. and myself) the second night of Young's Night Thoughts-the very place that treats of friendship; I was rather affected at the reading of it; and after it was finished, and we were alone, I told him (Mr. H.) I was no stranger to Young's sentiments in that place. He asked me if I had lost any friends ?" I told him no-not by death. He asked me if I had by treachery? O no, Sir. How then? Only by separa

tion!""

Thus in pleasant and familiar intercourse with one for whom he mingled veneration with affection, and of whom he never ceased to speak with all the rapturous energy of gratitude and filial love-in exercises and pursuits every way adapted to satisfy his ardent thirst of knowledge-in scenes and in society congenial to the tone and bias of his mind -in conscientious preparation for closer studies and severer labour, previous to his entrance on that saered office long the object of his choice-and in