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merits the highest and most appropriate praise which can be bestowed upon it , viz . —that it is alike worthy of the object , the author , and the occasion on which it was delivered . Other opportunities will , doubtless ^ arise for adverting to the political and moral principles of the great philosopher . We take advantage of that now afforded us for transferring to our pages Dr . S . Smith ' s outline of his private history and habits : —
* Jeremy Bent ham was born at the residence of his father , adjacent to Aldgate church , in London , on the 15 th of February , 1747-8 , and died in Queen-square Place , Westminster , where he had resided nearly half a century , on the 6 th of June , 1832 , being in the eighty-fifth year of his age . He was a precocious child . At the age of three years , he read Rapin ' s History of England as an amusement . At the age of five , he had acquired a knowledge of musical notes , and played on the violin . At the age of seven , he read iMtemaque in French . At the
age of eight , he entered Westminster School , where he soon became distinguished . At the age of thirteen , he was admitted a member of Queen ' s College , Oxford , where he at once engaged in public disputations in the Common Hall , and excited , by the acuteness of his observations , the precision of his terms , and the logical correctness of his inductions , the surprise and admiration of all who heard him . At the age of sixteen he took his degree of A . B . ; and at the age of twenty that of A . lVt ., being the youngest graduate that had at that time been known at either of the Universities . From early childhood , such was
the contemplative turn of his mind , and the clearness and accuracy With which he observed whatever came tinder his notice , that at the age of five years he had already acquired the name of * ' the philosopher , " being familiarly called so by the members of his family ; and such , even in his youth , were the indications of that benevolence to which his manhood and his old age were consecrated , that a celebrated statesman , who at that period had conceived an atfection for him , and with whom he spent most of his time during the interval of his leaving Westminster School and going to Oxford , speaks of him in a letter to his father , in these remarkable words , — ' * Mis disinterestedness , and
his originality of character , refresh me as much as the country air does a London physician . " * iThe qualities which already formed the charm of his character , and which grew with his growth * and strengthened with his strength , were truth and simplicity . Truth was deeply founded in his nature as a principle ; it was devotedly pursued iti his life as an object ; it exercised , even in early youth , an extraordinary influence over the operations of his mind and the affections of his heart *; and it was the source of that moral boldness , energy , and
* Among other striking instances of this on record , the following example of it is related by himself : — " Of the University of Oxford I had not long been a member , when , by a decree of the Vice-Chancellor , ii } his court , five students were ,, under the name of Methodists , expelled from it . Heresy and fiequentatioii of < conventiclcs were the only- offences charged upon them . Taking the word conventicle for the place of meeting , these conventicles were so many private rooms , the small apartments of the several poor students—for poor they were . The congregation consisted of these same poor anc * too pious students , with the occasional addition of one and the flame ancient female . The offence consisted ! h neither more nor less than the rea&tag AM talking over Che Bible . The heresy consisted in this , viz . t that upon being , by persons sent to examine them , questioned on the subject of
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706 Critical Notices . —A Lecture , < $ • .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 706, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/56/
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