strength and majesty of age." Every day was a life to him, marked by its own conquests and gains. His "days were bound each to each in natural piety." Dr. Pye Smith had not been what he was to-day, unless his yesterday had been what it was. His past prepared him for, and lifted him on to, his present; and with the momentum of yesterday's achievements he assaulted the difficulties and made the conquests of to-day. His self-culture was constant and well conducted. His brain was a shelf on which were stored the works of almost every valuable writer of ancient and modern times. His receptivity was immense, deep, capacious, retentive, so that what he had once made his own he never lost. He was a Colossus of learning, a complete cyclopædia, a living, breathing Bibliotheca, whom you could never consult in vain. Whatever he did he did thoroughly, and made his splendid attainments auxiliary to all his works. He was prudent, too; he dashed at nothing, but carefully surveyed and explored the ground he had to tread before he entered upon it. He never got entangled in a labyrinth and lost himself.

In Dr. Pye Smith may be seen as good and encouraging an instance of what a man may attain to who is only faithful and honest to himself and his endowments, as in any modern biography. With a mind healthy and sound, with aptness and love for study, with an unprejudiced and inquiring spirit, with sober reflection, with time well spent, with diligence well directed, with a proper use of the results of other men's labours, may most men attain to some greatness. To the possession and exercise of these attributes of mind he owed all that he did or became. He had not the prestige of place or the aid of powerful connections to help him onwards. Had he been a member of either of the Church Establishments of the realm he would have attained a rapid succession of honours and elevations, each one of which would have been an epoch in his life, and a fertile source of biographical dilation. His conscience, which ever ruled him, kept him distinct and apart from these. All the elevations which could be gained in the Nonconformist Church were speedily reached, and these he held through life. As much

justice, however, as the complimentary recognition of his works and worth by members of the Establishments could do him, was accorded to him, and posterity will yet do him much more.

Being a Dissenter, Dr. Pye Smith professed the very "Dissidence of Dissent." State Establishments of religion he looked on as legislative machineries for political purposes; and he took a most determined stand against them. All the organisations that were successively reared to expose the uselessness and mischief of these Establishments received his hearty concurrence and co-operation. The last of these, the Anti-State-Church Association, counted him among its founders and supporters. He was present at the general conference when this society was formed, and spoke warmly in its support.

We very well know that, by some Dissenters, Dr. Pye Smith has been accused of inconsistency in his Nonconformity by becoming and continuing a distributor of the English Rejium Donum, a grant from Parliament for the relief of necessitous Dissenting ministers; but the consistency of the man may be seen even here. He believed that that so-called grant was a debt, and not a gift or an endowment; that the Parliament was only giving a stipulated annuity for which, many years before, it had received an equivalent. This was a fact which Dr. Pye Smith well knew and believed; and, as he conscientiously believed this to be a bargain bona fide made by Parliament, his censors would have done better to admire his sterling integrity than bring a flimsy accusation of inconsistency against him.

One more mental feature may be mentioned, — his entire self-oblivion. He never seemed to be conscious of his own great abilities or services. Meekness and humility absorbed all thought of himself, even a most justifiable one. He was "a lowly, great, good man." His greatness was evident to all but himself. The flow of tributary honours never plunged him into pride, but were worn in an admirable self-possession.

Before we bring this sketeh to a close, there remain some few of his social relationships at which we must throw a hasty glance. We have said that for many years he held a pastorate,

and we must just lock at him in the pulpit. His pulpit was a lofty, commanding watch-tower, from which he took a wide view of everything passing in the world affecting the interests of man. He was not what is generally understood as a popular preacher. The graces of oratory were not practised or studied by him, yet he was never ungraceful. To be popular he was too good, too full. He had too much to give out, and could give no attention to the flimsy, gewgaw style which very often is the secret of the stay of the popular preacher. Among his own people he alone was the man. His discourses were always highly instructive. No candid man could hear them without great benefit. Their structure partook much of the character of class-room prelections. They were made up of large exegesis, rich illustration, and an earnest simplicity and affectionateness of manner. did not come over his audience with those thunder-claps of power, nor startle them with the cataract eloquence, nor sweep across them with the tornadoes of impassioned fervour, that were so observable in the preaching of Chalmers; but his power was calm, dignified, insinuating, and convincing.

He

A stranger to Dr. Pye Smith and his style of preaching would, on hearing him, be sometimes struck, perhaps displeased, with the subjects he introduced into his pulpit. He brought into his discourse any matters that would aid his illustrations of truth, sometimes an allusion to the old classical historians and poets; sometimes a mathematical theorem, which would make one sometimes think he was going to solve some difficult proposition in the higher mathematics; but waiting for its application, it would be found grandly and exquisitely illustrative. He would lay the whole sweep of science, all discoveries, all inventions, all the great thoughts of great thinkers, that were known to him, under contribution, to aid his statement and enforcement of truth. In all these pulpit exercises, his matter and his manner were always manly and massive, and often majestic.

Dr. Pye Smith's pulpit was a great moral training place; there he would discuss great questions in ethics, and show their application to the lives and duties of his hearers. He adopted and

used Cicero's famous aphorism: "Home sum; nihil humani a me alienum puto.” All that concerned man was dear to him, and found its expression in his pulpit. We have known him thence to denounce great historical and existing wrongs and enormities; to state and characterise the royal rascalities of Charles II.; to comment on and rebuke the insidious intrigues of Louis Philippe. When he did become jealous for truth, rectitude, and humanity, his general placidity would exhibit a momentary ruffle; a deep mantling blush would blaze on his amiable countenance; and, with a stinging, withering, blasting torrent of reproach, he would assail the violaters thereof.

In his pulpit he would sometimes exercise a censorship over the public press; would criticise the morality and expose the delinquencies of the Times newspaper; and would sometimes rebuke the too free and forward flippancy of " Punch;" but, in all this was evident his supreme regard for Truth, and earnest labour to make her sovereign in the earth.

As a man, Dr. Pye Smith was a noble patriot. He loved the land of his birth, and was never insensible to the claims which the wellbeing and welldoing of her inhabitants had upon him. From his youth upwards he took a deep interest in the politics of his country. He was a perfect stranger to the somewhat vulgar notion that attention to political matters was inconsistent with his religious duties as a Christian minister. His own idea was, that religious men were the fittest of all to engage in politics; and this he steadily inculcated everywhere. His politics were his religion in action, seeking to give embodiment to his deep moral convictions. He was a reformer of all abuses, a radical extirpater of all wrongs. He took a prominent part in all the great social reforms that were agitated in his day; such as the abolition of slavery, the passing of the Reform Bill, and Catholic Emancipation. We have been informed that on one occasion he felt it to be his duty to appear on the hustings at an election for the Tower Hamlets, to propose that a veteran Reformer should represent that borough in Parliament. We know that on another occasion he preached one Sunday evening, at the Poultry Chapel, and his sermon was an elaborate

exposition and denunciation of the then-existing Corn-laws. Some of the morning papers were mightily of fended at the political preacher. The preacher himself, however, felt that, to be "delivered from blood-guiltiness," he could but do what he did; and he even threatened his censors with a repetition of such service whenever he had the opportunity.

All the benevolent societies that aimed at the moral and social elevation of the masses, found in him a warm advocate and zealous supporter. He, believing that intemperance was one of the greatest foes to the nation's morality and advancement, countenanced, both by his example and precept, the principles of the Temperance Societies, and became the President of one of them in his own neighbourhood, and was no feeble supporter of the cause. He also took great delight in Mechanics' and Literary Institutions, regarding them as valuable levers in upraising the intellectual character of the people. As recently as the early part of the year 1850, he walked, on a dark, wet night, from his own house to a Mechanics' institute in Bethnal-green, to deliver a popular lecture on the science of Geology to the members of that society; thus showing that he did not allow personal inconvenience and even pain to hinder his attempting to do good to his fellow-man when it was in his power;-a beautiful example this of consistent beneficence and veteran patriotism, which seventy-six winters had not succeeded in cooling down.

Widen these manly sentiments, and we have a philanthropist; and such was Dr. Pye Smith. Geography did not circumscribe his affections or sympathies; not merely his countrymen, but his race, shared them to the extent of his ability. The best and nearest example we can find of this, is his fervent attachment to the Peace Congress Movement. We remember, that, two or three years ago, he went to the Congress at Paris, and when he returned to England he was full of the grand idea: his hopes were strong that the influence of the Gospel was widening, and its happy consummation was hastening on when good-will should prevail a n ug men, and war be learnt no more. This students and to his congregation he detailed the proceedings of that body, and endeavoured to

infuse his own benevolent hopefulness into their hearts.

His charity to his fellow-men was in deed, as well as in expression. Owing to his great infirmity of deafness, he sometimes became the subject of imposition from unworthy characters. Once we remember a man made application to him for aid, whom he had very strong grounds to suspect of being an impostor, and to whom he consequently declined to give anything; but, to convince a friend who was with him that he was not hard-hearted (needless pains !), he brought out his cash-book and showed to his friend that he had already given away, in benevolence, the whole of that year's private income, and was maintaining his establishment on his professional

revenue.

After fifty years' public service, Dr. Pye Smith retired from his Professorship in Homerton College, in June, 1850; and his retirement was conteni poraneous with the end of the distinct existence of that Academic Institution. The Jubilee year of the venerable Doctor's professorship called forth a beautiful expression of the regard of his pupils, old friends, and admirers; and a subscription-testimonial was raised of £2,600, to be presented to him on his retirement from public labour. On the 10th January, 1851, a public breakfast was given to the Doetor at the London Tavern. At that assembly he was seen for the last time in public. He was there, but physical infirmities had worn him down. was but a shadow in bodily form, and had need of the kind services of two friends to assist him into the room. Many felt that they were gazing on the good man for the last time; and the deed of that day was appropriate to the circumstance. The last offering of sympathy and affection in the shape of the testimonial was there presented to him, which he in beautiful humility accepted, and in great tenderness of speech acknowledged.

He

For some four or five months previous to this meeting, he had betaken himself to Guildford; where, with his unimpaired mental activity, he was solacing his privacy by reading the Greek poets, and the Hebrew and Syriae Scriptures. After the meeting, he returned thither; but his bodily strength was now waning apace, and

His remains were brought from Guildford to London, and laid in the empty old college at Homerton, now doubly lorn and desolate, itself abandoned, and now for the last time tenanting the mortal frame in which the great spirit had lived that once animated its walls. Some hundreds of grieving friends there flocked to see the honoured remains of him whom they had intensely loved. They looked on him and wept. Here lay the body till Saturday, the 15th February, when it was conveyed thence to the old chapel, where the honoured dead had so long and worthily ministered there, to a thronging, sorrowing audience, the Rev. George Clayton pronounced the funeral oration over the black coffin in much affection, and with wise counsels to those whom he had left behind him. The funeral procession left the chapel, and moved slowly on to Abney Park Cemetery; and, in a vault near the statue of Dr. Watts, the honoured dust of Dr. Pye Smith was deposited as its final resting-place. On the following morning Dr. Harris, as the successor of Dr. Pye Smith, in the Chair of Divinity, in the New College, preached the funeral sermon in the Old Gravel Pits Chapel, from the words, "I have kept the faith,"-words richly appropriate to the career of him who rested from his labours.

The late Dr. Pye Smith twice entered into the matrimonial state. By his first marriage he had two sons and two daughters: one daughter died before her father; his other three children survive him. His two sons occupy honourable positions in the legal and medical professions respectively; and, as there are several Pye Smiths among the grandchildren, we may hope that some one or more of them may catch the mantle of their illustrious grandsire, and connect the name of Pye Smith again with philan

thropy, religion, and progressive theological science. The estimable lady who is now Dr. Pye Smith's widow, became his wife about eight years before his death. She also had been twice married; being, at the time of her union with Dr. Pye Smith, the relict of the Rev. William Clayton, of Mill Hill.

We have written this brief sketch in the tone of admiration for the man and his work. It could not be otherwise. We knew him; and to know him was to love him. Doubtless, like other mortals, he had his failings; but it would puzzle us to enumerate them. In our faint picture, however, we have sought to be faithful and exact; wherein we have failed in our object, we may hope for pardon. If any young man, on reading this sketch, should, by the example, be led to emulate the diligence, zeal, patience, and excellence of our friend, therein we shall have a meet satisfaction for our labour. "Tis a fair and lovely example for all young men. Here is a man of learning, great through labour; of piety, sweet and unaffected; in all matters of moral rectitude, punctilious even in punctilios; a man that adorned and ennobled his age; who now rests from his works; and they will follow him, and embalm his memory among a thankful posterity.

PESTALOZZI.

FOR now nearly a century, have “Captain Sword" and "Captain Pen" been engaged in the most important conflict that the world ever witnessed. Coming forth armed, cap-à-pic, from the middle ages, that gallant warrior employed all his energies to sustain the ancient strongholds of society, which were being gradually undermined by the covert dexterity of his able assailant. In the deadly battles which ensued, and of which the issue, though scarcely uncertain, is not yet finally decided, "Captain Pen" found in the schoolmaster his most effectual ally. More powerful than the philosophers, from Kant to Hegel, Raikes, Lancaster, Bell, and Pestalozzi, hyve sent into the field forces no less imincible in their powers than constoub in their supply. Very imperfe to disciplined were most of those woops, and they were only a

very small contingent of the armies which the schoolmaster has at his command. Great, nevertheless, have been their achievements. Nor have they been less enduring than great. For there is this peculiarity in the conquests of the schoolmaster, that they possess an inherent power of re-production. They are good seed sown in good ground; they spring, bud, bloom, and eventually bring forth a harvest. Yet small, comparatively, has the success of the schoolmaster hitherto been. A love of knowledge he has called forth. A recognition of the necessity of popular education, and a seeking after the means and the method, he has made pretty general. This, though only a beginning, is a great result, a high achievement. It is good in itself; it is full of promise. And to none, more than to the subject of this notice, may we ascribe the credit of having awakened the general interest now displayed on behalf of general education.

Pestalozzi stands in the class of those great men, of recent times, with whose names is connected the origin of great social movements. Of an unattractive exterior, long, in his own country, pitied or derided as a dreamer, unable to carry out his plans with practical effect; ill-treated by his assistants, and vituperated by his adversaries; weighed down and dejected by misconceptions, by failure, by the loss of all his property, he was yet an object of admiration throughout Europe; The received visits from princes; conference with him was accounted an honour by statesmen; his sayings were quoted as authorities by philosophers; around him gathered disciples from all lands, who held it a privilege to sit at his feet; and thousands, who shared not in that happiness, thought no trouble too great if only they could imbibe his spirit from either his writings or his immediate pupils. Nevertheless, Pestalozzi became not great, either by splendid actions, or lofty undertakings, or the establishment of permanent institutions. As little does he owe his fame to systematic principles of education. His real greatness rests on the powerful move,ent to which he gave birth, on a sheect in which, before him, few had nd 'n an earnest and deep concern; it pres on the never-failing zeal with you he

sought means for alleviating the condition of the disesteemed and oppressed members of the humbler classes; it rests still more on the extraordinary humility which was a chief feature in his character; it rests, most of all, on the unusual perseverance with which he devoted, to the accomplishment of his noble purposes, his entire being, all his thoughts, all his deeds, all his possessions.

Johann Heinrich Pestalutz, more generally known by the Italian form of his name, Pestalozzi, was born in Zurich, on the 10th of January, 1746.* His father, descended from a family of gentle blood, practised as an oculist in in the same city, and lived in narrow but respectable circumstances. His maternal grandfather was a Protestant minister in the neighbouring village of Hängg. The visits of the child were frequent in the house of the clergyman, and there he had opportunities of witnessing the detrimental effect on the young peasantry produced by the manufactures in which they were engaged In one of his latest poems, the "Song of the Swan," Pestalozzi says of himself in his early days, "Whatever captivated my heart, weakened the influence of that which should have enlightened my head, and quickened my energy. My imagination soon gained predominance, and operated as a hinderance to my progress in knowledge, and to my skill in everything which did not in a high degree interest my feelings. There ensued a want of reflection, of foresight, and of prudence. What I undertook often failed. Again and again I stumbled at trifling things. No child ever stumbled so much. with all my shortsightedness, I possessed a light heart, and so made nothing of falls which would have been sore trials to other children. What was past, was with me over and gone. Whatever my wish, whatever my fear, as soon as a thing had taken place, however adverse, it was acquiesced in, at least after a night's rest; or rather it was to me as if it had never taken place. This peculiarity finding nutriment in circumstances connected with

But

* Not 1745, as stated by Biber, "Henry Pestalozzi, and his Plan of Education." (London, 1831.) The real date, namely, 1746, is proved by the fact, that, in 1846, a centenary jubilee was celebrated, to commemorato his birth and extend his influence.