THE Monthly Repository. No. CLVII.] moir was JANUARY, 1819. BIOGRAPHY. Memoir of the late Dr. Cogan. TH THOMAS COGAN, of whom a portrait faces the present volume, was born at Rowell, in Northamptonshire, in 1786, of a respectable Dissenting family, who had been long seated in that place. His father was an apothecary of considerable reputation, who possessed a great fondness for metaphysical studies, and employed his leisure in publishing in several pamphlets the result of his inquiries. The subject of this meplaced under the care of Mr., afterwards Dr. Aikin, who kept a flourishing school at Kibworth, in Leicestershire; and the pupil always spoke of the tutor with affectionate respect, and expressed regret that he had not longer enjoyed his valuable instructions. He was accustomed to speak with peculiar pleasure of the familiar theological lectures which the preceptor was in the habit of delivering to his scholars on the Sunday evening; declaring, that he always looked forward to them with delight, and, though educated in the strictest Calvinism, owed to them his first religious impressions. At fourteen years of age he left school, and passed the two succeeding His years under his father's roof. views were now turned towards the Christian ministry, and he entered the Dissenting Academy, at Mile End, of which Dr. Conder was the Divinity Tutor; but being dissatisfied with the conduct of the institution, he, with one or two others, removed to the academy at Hoxton. Little is now known, even in his [Vol. XIV. own family, of this period of his life. From some of his manuscript sermons it appears, that he was in Holland, in 1759, officiating as a preacher: it is conjectured, that he was assistant to the Rev. Benjamin Sowden, minister of the English Church, on the Dutch establishment, at Rotterdam. 1762 and 1763. We next trace him by his papers to Southampton, where he seems to have exercised his ministry in the years The high tone of opinions, held by the congregation, did not accord with his own state of On original sin and some other points, he was more than suspected of heresy. The consequence was, his withdrawment. mind. He returned to Holland, with the prospect of being junior minister in one of the English churches established in that country, and for a considerable period filled this situation with high credit; but for reasons which cannot at this distance of time be fully ascertained, he at length determined to quit the profession of divinity for that of medicine. He was subject to pulmonary complaints, which might alarm him for the consequences of continuing to exert himself as a public speaker. He had, always, besides, a strong inclination to the medical profession, and whilst he was minister at Southampton had walked the hospitals in London. The change was certainly not owing to any dereliction of faith or decay of religious feeling. Before he commenced his new studies he paid a short visit to England, where, after delivering a few sermons with no small reputation, he dropt the character of a preacher. Returning to Holland, he entered himself of the University of Leyden, then the most celebrated school of medicine in Europe. Having completed his course, he delivered for his degree, a Thesis "On the Influence of the Passions in causing and healing Diseases." This inaugural dissertation may be considered as the first draught of his work on the Passions. Having graduated, he began to practise as a physician in Holland; led, probably, to the choice of this country for his residence by his having obtained in marriage the daughter of an opulent merchant, of the name of Groen, of Amsterdam, with whom he received a considerable fortune. He resided successively at Amsterdam, Leyden and Rotterdam. His growing reputation induced him to try his profession in his own country, and he accordingly came to London and took up his abode in Paternoster-Row. He devoted himself chiefly to midwifery, in which he had, for some years, an extensive practice. The severe duties of his profession, and the confinement of the metropolis brought on a liver complaint; and in the year 1780, he resigned his connexion to Dr. John Sims, who is still a practitioner in high repute. While he was a physician in London, Dr. Cogan had the satisfaction and honour of being instrumental in the establishment of the Royal Humane Society. The idea of such an institution was first conceived in Holland, where accidents by water are frequent. In the year 1767, was formed at Amsterdam, a society, which offered premiums to such as should save the life of a citizen in danger of perishing by water: it also proposed to publish the methods of treatment, and to give an account of the cases of recovery. The first publication of these memoirs excited great and universal interest, and in 1773, Dr. Cogan trauslated them into English," in order to convince the British public of the practicability, in many instances, of recovering persons who were apparently dead, from drowning. No sooner were they translated, than they engaged the humane and benevolent mind of Dr. Hawes. His very soul was absorbed with the animating hope of saving the lives of his fellow-creatures: but, in making the attempt, he had to encounter both with ridicule and oppo sitton. The practicability of resusci tation was denied. He ascertained its practicability, by advertising to reward persons, who, between Westminster and London bridges, should, within a certain time after the accident, rescue drowned persons from the water, and bring them ashore to places appointed for their reception, where means might be used for their recovery, and give immediate notice to him. Many lives were thus saved by himself and other medical men; which would otherwise have been lost. For twelve months he paid the rewards in these cases; which amounted to a considerable sum. Dr. Cogan remonstrated with him on the injury which his private fortune would sustain from a perseverance in these expenses; he therefore consented to share them with the public. They accordingly agreed to unite their strength, and each of them to bring sixteen friends to a meeting at the Chapter Coffee-house, with the express intention of establishing a Humane Society in London: this was happily accomplished in the summer of 1774. The object of this Society was then, like that at Amsterdam, confined to the recovery of persons who were apparently dead from drowning. "For the first six years Dr. Cogan prepared the Reports of the Society from year to year; nor was Dr. Hawes less attentive in aiding the designs and promoting the views of this Institution." ** The Royal Humane Society has, since this period, grown to a pitch of usefulness and prosperity which its wise and benevolent projectors could have scarcely hoped.+ Whilst he lived, Dr. Cogan took a lively interest in its proceedings, and, when opportunity permitted, failed not to attend the annual meetings, where he of all others must have been gratified by the procession of the persons restored to life by the Society's methods. By Annual Report of the Royal Humane Society, 1818, pp. 2-4. + It is stated in the Monthly Magazine, XIV. p. 136, that in the period of ten years, that is from 1774 to 1784, about three thousand persons had been rescued by the Society's means from premature death. his will he bequeathed to his favourite institution the sum of one hundred pounds. The Society, as has been justly remarked, will be a standing monument of what may be accomplished by individual persevering exertions in the cause of humanity; and will transmit the names of Hawes and Cogan to posterity as benefactors to the human race.* In 1780, Dr. Cogan again retired to Holland, where he continued, enjoying himself in literary and philosophical pursuits, and contributing to the enjoyment of others by his amiable manners and pleasant and instructive discourse, until the storm of the French Revolution drove him back, for shelter, to England. During this last residence on the Continent, he had visited Germany, and on his return to this country he collected and revised the notes which he made on his tour, and published them in two Volumes Svo., under the title of "The Rhine." There are few more interesting books of travels than this. The charm of the work is, that the reader feels himself to be a companion of the author's, and enters into his whole character; and Dr. Cogan's was a character that could not be known without being highly esteemed. On his final settlement in England, Dr. Cogan made Bath his first residence. Here he indulged his taste for agriculture. He was an active member of the West-of-England Agricultural Society, and followed experimental farming with so much success on some land which he occupied in the neighbourhood of Bath, that he obtained several of the Society's premiums. He continued this pursuit in his subsequent removals to Clapton and Woodford, and at the time of his decease held a small farm in the vicinity of Southampton, to which he used to retire occasionally from his lodgings in London. His inclination towards agriculture was not prompted by the hope of gain; it was matter of taste; perhaps it was something higher, for he had so active a mind that he could not be content without some object before him, and his principles and feelings induced him to choose such objects as were useful to mankind. Of farming, as a business, he used to say that "it is never profitable, except the farmer drive the plough, his wife be dairy-maid and the children scarecrows." Whilst he lived at Bath, Dr. Cogan published, under the name of "A Layman," the well-known Letters to Mr. Wilberforce on Hereditary Depravity, in which he combats with complete success this favourite tenet of the pious senator. This pamphlet has passed through several editions and has, perhaps, contributed more than any work ever published to correct dark views of human nature, and consequent despondency with regard to the plans of Providence. It merits the praise bestowed by Johnson on Bur. net's Life of Rochester: "the critic may read it for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety.* During his residence at Bath, he published, also, first the Philosophical and then the Ethical Treatise on the Passions, which were followed at long intervals by three other volumes of moral and theological Disquisitions; forming together the complete system of the author with regard to the character of the Creator, and the moral constitution, duties and expectations of man. In the philosophical part of this extended work the arrangement is clear, the definitions correct and the illustrations happy; in the ethical it is proved that virtue and happiness are identical; and in the theological the Jewish and Christian revelations are fully vindicated, and are shewn to be means by which the universal Father is educating his children for final happiness and glory. But excellent as these volumes are, they would probably have been more useful if they had been published as distinct works, aud The writer once heard Dr. Cogan relate that a popular and eloquent Calvinistic minister, on being asked his opinion of the Layman's Letters, made this declaration: "I would not undertake to refute all the author's arguments, but I have this one answer to make to them all, God owns our way of preaching." Is not this equal to saying, that the preacher who has the • Annual Report of the Royal Humane largest auditory has the surest evidence of Society, 1818, p. 5. being in the right? if the latest of them had been announced under somewhat different titles. But an author must be allowed to choose his own plan of writing; and in Dr. Cogan's mind all truth resolved itself into one idea, the moral perfection of God, including by necessary consequence the happiness of all his creatures. He had once proposed to himself to enlarge and repub. lish his letters to Mr. Wilberforce as a part of the series; with which he declared that his design would be complete. The last work that he actually published, the Ethical Questions, which made its appearance in 1817, is evidently a continuation of his subject; and though he seems to soar into the region of metaphysics, he never leaves in reality his favourite province of morals.* Thus employed, Dr. Cogan scarcely felt the advances of old age. His friends found him the same instructive and pleasing companion that he had ever been, and indulged themselves with the hope of enjoying his valuable society for years to come. But there is an "appointed time for man upon the earth." On the last day of the year 1817, he had walked in a very thick fog from his lodgings in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, to visit a friend in St. Mary Axe, which brought on a cough more than usually troublesome; indisposition ensued; and with a presentiment that he should not recover, he went on Saturday, January 24th, to his brother's, the Rev. E. Cogan, at Walthamstow, where he expired on Monday, the 2d of February, in the 82d year of his age. The following account of his death was drawn up by one best fitted by situation and character to describe justly the dignified scene: Many know how he lived, and some may wish to know how he died. For the gratification of such a wish, the following brief sketch is intended: "The closing scene of his life, by * The Ethical Questions are reviewed in our XIIth Vol. pp. 226-236; and in Vol. XIII. pp. 18-20, there is a letter of Dr. Cogan's upon the subject of the review. By a melancholy coincidence, the number containing this letter did not appear till the day of his death. See the obituary of the next No., XIII. p. 142. which I mean the last few days of his illness, exhibited a spectacle such as has not often been witnessed. The vigour of mind which he displayed in his reflections on any subject that came before him, the vivacity with which he made his remarks on the occurrences of the moment, and the dignified composure with which he looked forward to the change which he pronounced to be approaching, excited the wonder of all who saw him, and frequently prompted the involuntary exclamation, What an extraordinary man! "When he first gave up all expectation of a recovery, he said with animation, 'Why should I wish to recover? I should only have all this to endure again. I have had a long and a happy life, and I ought to depart contented. And I have many reasons for considering this as the fittest time for me to die, though I cannot look forward to death altogether without a feeling of awe. I have a firm confidence in the goodness of God; and though I may deserve more of chastisement than I have had in this life, I have no fear whatever for the final result.' "On one occasion he said, 'I shall not die triumphantly, but I shall die happily;' on another, The nearer I advance to the grave, the brighter are my prospects.' "When speaking on the subject of religion, he dwelt chiefly on the benevolence of the Deity, expressing his persuasion of the final happiness of all mankind, and his decided conviction of the falsehood of the Calvinistic system. One of the last things that he said to me (after having commented at some length on a part of the 15th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians) was verbatim as follows: When I could not sleep. last night, I was reflecting on the affecting parable of the prodigal son, which is so beautifully, so beautifully, told. Where is your vindictive justice bere? Where is your personal resentment?' He probably would have proceeded, but was fatigued with speaking. About twelve hours before his decease, he dictated three letters with a solemnity and dignity of manner which none who were present will ever forget. A short paragraph |