Yet with the prospect of seeing her | ing French ambition, "Hitherto again, the privilege meanwhile of epistolary intercourse, the company of a good conscience, and the guidance and blessing of God, he felt that it would be wrong to regard himself as solitary or forsaken. His heart beat tenderly towards his three children. His first-born, claimed by heaven before he left his native country, he could not name or even think of, for some time after her death, without sighs and tears. She was present to his mind when, with what weeping! he composed the well-known hymn: "Thou art gone to the grave, etc." Heber was a loyal and patriotic Englishman. Proud of his country's history, pre-eminence and prospects, he early and earnestly sang her praises in his "Carmen Sæculare." In his "Europe," he apostrophized Albion thus: "Child of the sea, whose wing-like sails are spread, The covering cherub of the ocean's bed! The storm and tempest render peace to thee, And the wild-roaring waves a stern security." When in his "Palestine" he pictured the red-cross warriors," "Their limbs all iron, and their souls all flame," what nation did he distinguish as foremost in the Christian host? "Here in black files, advancing firm and slow, Victorious Albion twangs the deadly bow, Albion, still prompt the captive's wrong to aid, And wield in freedom's cause the freeman's generous blade." He observed that "wide-conquering Edward" and "lion Richard" had worthy successors in modern Syrian war. In brave Sir Sidney Smith he could hear God saying to swell shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." "When he, from towery Malta's yielding isle, And the green waters of reluctant Nile,Th' apostate chief,-from Mizraim's subject shore To Acre's walls his trophied banners bore; When the pale desert mark'd his proud array, And desolation hoped an ampler sway; What hero then triumphant Gaul dismay'd? What arm repell'd the victor-renegade? Britannia's champion! bathed in hostile blood, High on the breach the dauntless Admiring Asia saw th' unequal fight; In 1803, at home from college for the vacation, he wrote at a friend's request, "Honour its own Reward," to be sung next morning at a gathering of some of those volunteers who throughout the country were waiting for the French invader. Nor would the hand that struck the lyre have refused to strike the foe. In a corps of infantry raised by Richard Heber, Esq., on his father's estate, Reginald marched as an officer with the Shropshire volunteers. He feasted with his soldiers when welcomed back from the Continent, and again when called to lay his red coat aside for the habiliments of the clergyman. Still he kept all the patriot's soul, and thenceforth was doubtless regarded as their martial chaplain by the Hodnet youths. On his passage to India, when he met a homewardbound ship, it carried his heart away. In his Eastern diocese, whether by the red tile or the brick wall, the beggar's song or the gipsy's tent, a watery road or a cloudy sky, church-tower or the Union flag, a friend's voice or a newspaper, or, a best of all, letters from fatherland, he was ever happy to be reminded of the dear Western isle. In his "Evening Walk in Bengal," he remarked and reflected, 66 So rich a shade, so green a sod, And bless'd, beneath the palmy shade, To gaze upon her oaks again?" Heber's faithful parents pointed him to heaven, and assiduously helped him in the way thither. The child's lips uttered pure words. He would close a book in a moment if he lighted on a passage or expression that offended his tender conscience. He became a communicant when about fourteen years of age. His mother missing her "Companion to the Altar," Reginald produced the manual, confessing that it had been in his possession for three weeks, and that he had spent many hours in studying it; and, as he now understood and approved its contents, requested permission to accompany her to the Lord's table the next Sacramental Sunday. He was early led into the garden of inspiration, and, by his father's express desire, had the free range of the holy Volume; and he soon made it his rule and refuge. He was not a careless wanderer through the sacred pages, but proceeded regularly, and would stop to converse with God. He was blessedly at home in the shades and walks of wisdom, admiring the flowers and living upon the roots and fruits. Some daringly refer their dislike or indifference to the inspired Book to the way in which they were tasked with it when children. To Heber, as he grew in years, it became increasingly attractive. He would never allow other studies to interfere with his Scripture reading. At college he became a subscriber to the then infant Bible Society, which afterwards he supported, not with his purse only, but in the pulpit, on the platform, and with his pen. He said: "God has given no laws to men which are not contained in the sacred Volume; nothing which is not grounded on Scripture can be necessary to be believed; nothing. which is contrary to Scripture can safely be taught or practised." Such a master did he become of its sentences, that his friends loved to consult him on difficult passages. In unfolding the meaning of Holy Writ, he thought for himself. He urged "that the best means of understanding any single passage of Scripture is to acquire an accurate and long acquaintance with the whole of the sacred Volume." was not a gouty expositor, unable to get up and speak until his humble servants the commentators had handed the accustomed staff. "Read the Bible attentively yourself," he advised, "without the assistance of any commentator; first form your own opinion, and then examine those of others.' He Heber loved prayer. While he thought himself unobserved, he was often overheard, when a child, engaged in devotion. In regard to religious exercises, he held views which do not find favour with every class of Christians. Even in his secret addresses to the Divine Being he used his pen to promote the preparation of his heart, avoided formality by framing original forms, kept himself, by a thoughtful selection of language, from mechanical and "vain repetitions." He had a book in which he entered prayers for immediate use; and from the age of thirty-three it was his " constant custom to consecrate every important occurrence of his life by a short prayer" recorded in his private journal of devotions. Of these brief and pointed petitions, written in Latin before he left his native land, subsequently in English, his widow has published fifteen : on his birthday, the death of his infant, a servant's dismissal, his wife's departure to the sea-side, her recovery, the prospect of rejoining his family, the commencement and close of journeys, landing in Bengal, burying a fellow-traveller, recovering from illness, and thinking of his flock in India. As he felt it his duty to intercede for others, so he regarded it as of the greatest importance that others should pray for him. bidding adieu to his country, he sought the pleadings on his behalf of his personal friends, and the united supplications of his Hodnet congregation. When His piety was practical. As a steward of God, he aimed at being counted faithful. He endeavoured so to receive good at the hand of the Lord as not to render its withdrawal necessary. He was a pattern of temperance, and strove to make his earthly comforts a way to higher happiness. In a path comparatively smooth and flowery, yet-needful medicine, he observed, for his temper-he met with disappointments, bereavements, sufferings and struggles, which made him look up to the hand of God more reverently, and take a firmer hold of His mercy. As a literary man, Heber reached his eminence by laborious and patient climbing. It may be said that, considering his natural talents and disposition, and the solicitude and judgment with which his education was conducted, he began the ascent on pleasant and gentle slopes. Yet there were difficulties in his way at the very starting. He greatly suffered, when a child, from inflammatory disorders; but for his painful seasons of unemployment he made up in his precious hours of convaelscence. When six years old, after a severe attack of typhus, desiring some agreeable occupation, while yet unable to leave his bed, he craved permission, as his first indulgence, to learn the Latin grammar; and it is said that twelve months afterwards he had translated Phædrus into English verse. At school he was remarkably diligent, and at college would tie a wet cloth round his head rather than lose his hours of study in consequence of an evening party. He never habitually mocked the darkness, and insulted day-light. By the use of a box for fines, he broke himself, at Oxford, into the practice of early rising. The fine-box he gave up, when no longer necessary; but to the last he remained an early riser. He did not allow amusements to put a stop to mental application and improvement. His books were not laid aside in the holidays. He was not less busy as a student, when active as a volunteer. "Do not," he wrote, "utterly throw aside the gown for the sabre; I intend to try whether they are not very compatible, as I fag and drill by turns." He would not forego his soldiering; but neither would he miss his academic ordeals and honours. When a country clergyman, he guarded against subsiding into what an acquaintance had defined a country magistrate to be, "a ruminating animal busied about turnpike roads." In every engagement he had an aim. He said he would avoid the necessity of confessing, like Grotius, but with greater reason, Vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo. He spent about seven hours daily in his study. From In in America." It bore the signature "Gilderoy": the author was Reginald Heber. the time he acquired his letters, he | zaboo, on the River St. Lawrence, was an eager and attentive reader. "Take the little book, and eat it up," was a commandment which he found no difficulty in obeying. His brother said that "Reginald did more than read books, he devoured them." So it was at College. "At this time," says an Oxonian who reverenced him there, "his reading was extensive and miscellaneous. He was, indeed, a book-devourer; and in those noble libraries he sat for many a solemn and meditative hour with the mighty dead." the feast of intellect, he had his decided tastes and preferences. With logic, as a science, he was disgusted; and he felt no attraction to mathematical studies. He admired the dead languages, not in their anatomy, but their completeness; and he made himself familiar with most of the living tongues of Europe. He was versed in heraldry, an accomplished draughtsman, and an enthusiast in his devotion to natural history. In brief, he was a thoughtful student, and a philosopher as well as a scholar. His pen was busy from his boyhood. At school his compositions in prose and verse displayed thought and knowledge beyond his years. In some of his first attempts as an author, he wore an unseemly mask, and playfully tried his skill. For a time, much to the entertainment of the initiated, he kept up a droll correspondence with himself in the stately periodical which had admitted Dr. Johnson's fabricated reports of debates in the Houses of Parliament, "The Gentleman's Magazine." In the same publication there appeared, in 1804, a "Sonnet occasioned by the Death of Lieut. Philip Vandeleur, of His Majesty's ship Wagtail, who was killed by the bursting of a bombshot at the surprising of Fort Muz VOL. VI. FIRST SERIES. There was no fortress with that name; and, for anything the author knew, no such hero as Vandeleur. The sole merit of the production, if it possesses any, is its amusing nonsense; and the only beauty of it was that the bard turned out to be a prophet. Taking up the magazine, and turning to the monthly page of "Select Modern Poetry,' the wondering uncle of a certain Philip Vandeleur, who had been missing for some years not only discovered, as he believed, the fact and scene of the young man's death, but an eye-witness's eulogium on his valour, and was so overjoyed that he put his hand in his pocket, and sent a five-pound note to "Sylvanus Urban, Gent.," - the pretended name of the editor,—to be forwarded as a slight acknowledgment to the sonneteer. The prose writings of Heber are various and copious. A college essay on a "A Sense of Honour," for which, the year after he had taken his degree, he gained the University's Bachelor's prize, has been thought worthy of preservation. His letters, of the publication of many of which he never dreamed, bring us into the presence of the scholar, gentleman and Christian. Examples of correct and easy composition, unreservedly expressing his opinions, and some of them containing lengthened dissertations, they furnish pleasant and profitable reading. As a traveller, he wrote diffuse and interesting journals. That of his Continental tour, from which extracts are given as notes in Clarke's "Travels in Russia," was intended, next to his own advantage, for the entertainment of his mother and friends; and his "Indian Journal," 2 G lare.' This Latin poem on the with an eye to future revision and | versity prize for his "Carmen Sæcupublication, was written immediately for Mrs. Reginald Heber. Another posthumous publication, his "History of the Cossacks," owing its existence to a request of Gifford, who affirmed that the world had gone Cossack mad, entitles him to the honour of a diligent and faithful chronicler. In the "Quarterly Review," which from its commencement he felt interested in supporting, eleven articles from his pen appeared. In 1812, as a relaxation and amusement, to which nevertheless he devoted much time and study, he began a "Critical and Historical Dictionary of the Bible," which he did not live to finish. He published, in 1822, a "Life of Jeremy Taylor, with a Critical Examination of his Writings." There have been given to the world three series of his sermons : "Parish Sermons," other "Sermons in England," and "Sermons in India." Making the allowance for some of them that he prepared them not for the press but the pulpit, they command admiration as being plain, pointed, practical, expository, always lively, and occasionally faultless. His "Bampton Lectures," on "The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter," which he himself published, must be looked upon as his most learned and important theological work. Never was a prize poem so successful. It was applauded throughout the university, honoured in the palaces of the land, and welcomed in More than Heber the journalist, the homes of the people; it was set essayist or divine, we love the poet to music, and performed before the Heber. Rhymes were now and then public, as an oratorio; it was transaccidentally discovered which the lated into Welsh; it flew to the child Reginald had carefully put cities of India, heralding and intogether, but as carefully put aside, troducing the bishop. The utternever intending that they should ance of one who loved as a student see the light. Exercises in verse, to roam over Bible countries,some of which have been made public, sometimes startling, but never unhe, at school, undertook with plea- natural, in its transitions,-judisure, and accomplished with pains. cious and well-proportioned in its He was a triumphant competitor for parts and plans,-it holds still, the Oxford laurels. In his first and will continue to hold, a reyear at College he gained the Uni-spectable rank in the realm of |
