Mr. Coke to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Sir James,

Holkham, Oct. 2, 1827.

I cannot think of sending you the inclosed letter without accompanying it with one line to say that our friend, in his letter to me, writes in excellent spirits, and holds out hopes of my seeing him in the spring. Pray God his health may be sufficiently restored to enable him to do so, is my sincere wish.

With our tour into Scotland Lady Anne was delighted: but not being able to leave home so early by a fortnight as we had intended, owing to Lady de Clifford's kind and unexpected visit, we did not go beyond Blair Athol. We visited all the principal manufactories in our way through England,-Manchester, Bolton, &c. &c. In our way to Glasgow I saw the establishment at Lanark, and returned by Lord Rosebery's, which was by far the most picturesque and beautiful place we visited in Scotland; and upon our return home had the happiness to find our children in perfect health.

The sporting season having now commenced, I have taken the liberty of sending you a little game. Lady Anne unites with me in all kind remembrances to yourself and Lady Smith.

Ever, my dear Sir James,

Faithfully yours,

THOS. WM. COKE.

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the religious, social, and scientific Character of Sir J. E. Smith.

WHEN the religious opinions and principles of a man have been such as to support him through the trials of life and in the hour of death, they form a part of his history deserving our notice this memoir therefore would be imperfect without giving such a statement of Sir James's as may be relied upon for containing the most essential points.

His principles were these,-"That a man can be no Christian, as to faith, who does not judge for himself; nor as to practice, who does not allow others to do so without presuming to censure or to hinder them."

His opinions were formed from the same source whence many, with equal sincerity, derive very different ones. His creed was the New Testament, and he read it as a celebrated divine* recommends; that is, "as a man would read a letter from a friend, in the which he doth only seek after what was his friend's mind and meaning, not what he can put upon his words."

He was a firm believer in the divine mission of Jesus Christ; and in maintaining the doctrine of the strict unity of God, as one of the truths our great Master was commissioned to teach, he considered his opinion truly apostolical.

* Whichcot.

"I look up," he says in a letter to a friend," to one God, and delight in referring all my hopes and wishes to him; I consider the doctrine and example of Christ as the greatest blessing God has given us, and that his character is the most perfect and lovely we ever knew, except that of God himself. This is my religion; I hope it is not unsound.” *

He considered opinions and principles very distinct, though often confounded. The latter he looked upon as very important; the former no otherwise so, than as conducing to good principles, and he esteemed one virtuous act, one honest determination, to be more worthy in the sight of God than any notion or discovery concerning the essence of that Great Being who is raised far above all human comprehension.

The writer has often heard him observe, that whatever in the sacred writings is not clear to the capa city of the humblest, most unlettered rustic, cannot be essential to salvation; and he was of the same opinion as our immortal Wickliffe, the morningstar of the Reformation, who contended "that wise men should leave that as unimportant which is not plainly expressed in Scripture."

With regard to opinions, he also agreed with the amiable Lindsey, "that Christians have yet to learn the innocency of error, from which none can plead exemption, and to bear with each other in their dif fering apprehensions concerning the nature of the First Great Cause and Father of all, and the person of Christ, and the manner and date of his deriving his * Letter to Davall, April 25, 1790.

being and high perfections from God; and surely it must also be owned to have been left in some obscurity by God himself in the writings of the Apostles, (otherwise so many men, wise and good, would not have differed, and still continue to differ concerning it,) and so left, it should seem, on purpose to whet human industry and the spirit of inquiry in the things of God, and to give scope for the exercise of men's charity and mutual forbearance of one another, and to be one great means of cultivating the moral dispositions, which is plainly the design of the holy spirit of God in the Christian Revelation, and not any high perfection in knowledge, which so few can attain."*

Let it not be supposed that Sir James was indifferent to opinions, and considered all systems equally good; on the contrary, he preserved his own through good report and evil report, and no temptation of interest ever made him swerve one moment from the maintenance and vindication of those he had adopted: but among these, the first was charity; exclusiveness he considered as the very characteristic of Antichrist and pride. There was no sect of Christians, among the good and sin

* "In matters of eternal concern," says the biographer of Sir William Jones," the authority of the highest human opinions has no claim to be admitted as a ground of belief; but it may with the strictest propriety be opposed to that of men of inferior learning and penetration: and whilst the pious derive satisfaction from the perusal of sentiments according with their own, those who doubt or disbelieve should be induced to weigh, with candour and impartiality, arguments which have produced conviction in the minds of the best, the wisest, and most learned of mankind."

cere, with whom he could not worship the Great Spirit to whom all look up, enter into their views, excuse what he might consider as their prejudices, and respect their piety; and whether it were in the pope's chapel, or the parish church, he felt the social glow,

"To gang together to the kirk,

And all together pray;

Where each to his great Father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,

And youths and maidens gay."

The affection he thus felt for others, he in general had the happiness of finding reciprocal, "for love must owe its origin to love." No one had less of a sectarian spirit; nor did he ever attempt to make converts, except to christian charity.

Where speaking, in his Tour, of some customs in the catholic church, "The stocks and stones," he observes, “which the people are taught to worship, are dressed out to their imagination with attributes of rectitude and benignity, borrowed from the pure idea of an intellectual Deity; for so congenial are virtue and benevolence to the human mind, that no system of worship could support itself without their semblance; and even those most corrupt in principle could have little success in practice, without a constant appeal to the eternal law written in our hearts-as to forms, the mind will associate its conceptions with visible objects. The devotion of some persons is best excited in a choir, of others in a conventicle, and of others in the holy house of Loretto; but one is their Father, even God'."