searching after the beauties of others, I only find occasion to exclaim, with a worthy author of my own stamp, "These ancients have stolen all my bright ideas." An author I must be, but of what kind I am yet unresolved. I lately entertained the project of publishing notes, critical, historical, and geographical, on Robinson Crusoe, with illustrations, but I was prevented from carrying into effect this magnificent plan, by suspecting that the author of Lectures on Bunyan's Pilgrim might be preparing a work on the same subject. The different departments of literature being thus forestalled, my only resource, I perceive, will be to publish" Illustrations of the Horn-book;" in this projected work, I intend, first, to give the etymology of the word, proving it to be a derivative from cornu-copiæ, a horn-book being in reality a horn of abundance, prolific in its offspring of letters. I shall here embody some erudite observations on the singular coincidence of sound betwixt Horn Book, the first alphabetarian, and Horne Tooke, that first rate grammarian, the additional letters in the latter name having doubtless crept in by the negligence of transcribers. I shall then proceed to vindicate the etymological accuracy of the late Dr. Murray, by proving that as, according to that gentleman's ingenious theory, all words in all languages are resolvable to ag, wag, bag, &c. so they are all equally and primarily to be found in the Horn Book, their common parent. The next division of my subject will contain a treatise on the antiquity of Horn Books, shewing that in the patriarchal age the only accredited posts by which the epistolary correspondence of the learned was carried on, were the horned animals of the forest, who were taught to convey the daily intelligence of the antediluvian world, by means of the hieroglyphical characters engraved on their horns. That we still preserve one remnant of this venerable custom, though considerably degenerated in the different sentences and figures stamped on the horn-handles of our knives, forks, and razors. That as another correlative proof of this custom having prevailed in the infant state of the world, we still, in our infant state, adhere to the horn-book as the only accredited inauguration to letters My next subdivision will contain a caballistical account of the forms of the several letters, with ample quotations from Kircherus, Dr. Wilkins, &c. illustrating the whole with beautiful copper-plates, from the original drawings of Westall and Lawrence. In short, Gentlemen, if I have but patience thoroughly to investigate this interesting topic, and should not be anticipated by some learned brother of the age, who may catch the hint from this letter, I doubt not the learned world, and particularly the reviewers, will be presented with a crust which they may nibble at with their accustomed perseverance, and reap as much benefit from, as from many of those recondite publications with which our age labours, and of which I wish I could say it was delivered. If unhappily this promising design should be anticipated, which the taste of the age appears to threaten, I have but one alternative; that is, the publication of my own life. I possess every qualification; I am as obscure as any subject can well be, no one knows me, I scarcely know myself; I am eccentric enough for the Wonderful Magazine; I have tried all professions, and am of none; studied all arts, and learned none. In short, I can write learnedly on all subjects, but instructively on none, as this letter has doubtless proved to your satisfaction. SIMON HORNBOOKIUS. Athenis Novis. HOXTON ACADEMY AND METHODISM was naturally viewed, upon its first appearance in this country, as a theological phenomenon, and its unusual and somewhat eccentric course was eyed by haughty churchmen and cold-hearted dissenters, with all the portentous dread which vulgar minds feel, when a comet is first seen in the heavens, and they sagely predicted that this new visitant was the precursor of a deluge, which would inundate the land with fanaticism and crime. Others preserved more philosophic calmness, while they contemplated the brilliant stranger, and doubted not, but that it was permitted to appear amidst those planets, which had long glittered in the ecclesiastical horizon, for some purpose valuable or necessary, "Perhaps to shake Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs, Thro' which its long ellipsis winds; perhaps To lend new fuel to declining suns, To light up worlds, and feed the eternal fire." The Independents, who retained the attachment of their forefathers to evangelical doctrine and religious feeling, could not view this fourth denomination without interest, for if by the novelty of its appearance many eyes were attracted, so by the brilliancy of its light, the velocity of its movements, and the warmth of its temperament, many hearts were gladdened, and though they saw no reason to leave their own scriptural orbit, to follow the eccentric ellipsis of this stranger, yet they discovered that they might with advantage adopt some of those movements, which the new sect displayed, maugre the dreaded imputation of irregularity. The preaching of laymen was one of those expedients suggested by the necessities of Methodism, and the adoption of which occasioned a dreadful outcry amongst the advocates of what is termed a regular ministry. The Independents were themselves too well educated to become the unqualified patrons of this system, yet they could not fail to perceive, in the labours of many of these teachers, an adaptation to the mental habits of their rude auditors, and a consequent degree of success attending them, which was not often enjoyed by those who possessed the advantages of an academical education. Hence arose a scheme, which it was hoped would secure some of the advantages of each system, namely, to furnish pious and gifted laymen resident in London, who were engaged in business, with the advantages of a course of lectures on the subjects which are most important for those to understand who teach others, and thus to raise the respectability of that effective but irregular class of evangelical labourers. In the month of October 1778, several ministers, pastors of some of the most flourishing Independent churches at that time in the metropolis, associated themselves with Thomas Wilson and B. Mills, Esquires, and a few other opulent and pious laymen, for the establishment of an institution, which was then called THE EVANGELICAL ACADEMY. Its plan was limited to a series of lectures, delivered on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in each week, to students who uniformly resided in their own lodgings, and chiefly maintained themselves by their own occupations. The Rev. Samuel Brewer, B.D., the laborious and affectionate pastor of the church at Stepney, was united with the Rev. Joseph Barber, then of Founders' Hall, as tutors of the new academy. Although the intellectual powers of Mr.Brewer are said not to have been of the first order, yet his aptitude to teach, and the popularity which he rapidly acquired, and permanently retained, as a preacher, must have made his instructions on the great business of the pulpit appropriate and valuable. Mr. Barber's popularity was much below that of his academical colleague; but, for the work of tuition, he was much superior to him. Having acquired a valuable portion of classical learning while a boy, in a distinguished grammar-school, he prosecuted his ministerial studies under the instruction of the Rev. John Kirkpatrick, at Bedworth, Warwickshire; and such was his progress, that his friend who preached his funeral sermon, himself no common scholar, declared, "that Mr. B.'s attainments were entitled to honourable mention, in the classical and mathematical departments, and particularly in his subsequent attention to the original languages, and the critical study of the Scrip The experience of four years was, however, sufficient to prove, that however promising in theory the original plan had appeared, yet that its practical operation was impeded by insuperable difficulties; and therefore, in October, 1782, the Society resolved, that, in future, single men should alone be eligible as students; that they should reside with their tutor, and be under more regular and systematic discipline, both literary and moral; and that a more liberal course of instruction should be pursued. A convenient residence at Mile End, called the Grove House, was secured for the Academy, and Dr. STEPHEN ADDINGTON was invited to become the tutor. * Dr. J. P. Smith's Funeral Sermon for the Rev. J. Barber. This gentleman, a native of Northampton, enjoyed, in his childhood, the pastoral care of Dr. P. Doddridge, to whose church his father was invited; and, at a proper age, he became a pupil in the Academy of that town, over which that eminent man presided. After having sustained, for a short time, the character of a village pastor, he was called to Market Harborough, to preside over the flourishing Independent Church there, to which the friendly solicitude of Dr. Doddridge had strongly recommended him. After unusual activity, in public and pastoral duties at Harborough, for the space of thirty years, he was called, at the close of 1781, to undertake the care of the Independent Church then assembling at Miles's Lane, London, which he accepted, and where he had scarcely been settled a year when he received the earnest request of this Society to undertake the sole tutorship. That the committee should invite a pupil of Doddridge, who possessed much of his courteous manner, unwearied diligence, and popular address, will appear ňatural; especially as he was many years engaged in the work of tuition, succeeding the Rev. Mr. Aikin as master of the celebrated boarding-school at Kibworth, upon the removal of that gentleman to the academy at Warrington; but that Mr. Addington, in a valetudinary state of health, and in the 54th year of his age, should accept their invitation to so responsible an office, can only be explained by the natural activity of his mind, and by his unceasing desire to be useful. In January, 1783, he entered upon the duties of his new office; and, solicitous to make his residence at Mile End beneficial to the populous neighbourhood, he established a weekly lecture, which was numerously attended and extensively useful. Severe personal and relative afflictions very much impeded the success, and embittered the enjoyments of his office; and, at length, an attack of paralysis, in December, 1789, so enfeebled him, that, at the end of the following year, 1790, he terminated his short presidency of seven years by resignation, after having instructed twenty-five students, who were successively placed under his care; and, in February, 1796, he was dismissed to his eternal reward, in the 67th year of his age. The resignation of Dr. Addington gave the managers of the Academy an opportunity of seeking a more eligible situation, and some premises at Hoxton were obtained, by the exertions of the Treasurer, which once formed the peaceful mansion of Dr. Daniel Williams, the munificent founder of the Dissenters' Library in Red Cross Street, and which more recently had been occupied as an academy, by Doctors Savage, Kippis, and A. Rees, the tutors of Mr. Coward's seminary, but which had been dissolved by his trustees in 1785. Besides the general adaptation of this residence to the circumstances of the new institution, the valuable library of the suspended seminary was left by the trustees upon the premises, and permission was granted to use it, with the understanding that it should be restored upon the re-establishment of their own academy. To obtain a suitable successor to Dr. Addington, now became the most anxious duty of the committee. Their attention was directed to the Rev. ROBERT SIMPSON, of Bolton, Lancashire, whose recent visit to London about that time, had brought him into just repute in the metropolis. This gentleman was a native of Kinrosshire, N. B., and had been educated for the work of the ministry by the Rev. James Scott, tutor of the Inde pendent Academy, then at Heckmondwicke, Yorkshire. A correspondence was opened with Mr. S. upon the subject, and in its progress, the convictions of the committee, respecting his adaptation to the work, were much strengthened, and at length the committee having prevailed with the church at Bolton, to acquiesce in his removal, he accepted the office, and on his arrival in London, with his family, in March, 1791, took possession of those premises, which eventually gave the Institution the name of HOXTON ACADEMY. The little academical family, which consisted of only four students, was now transferred from Mile End to Hoxton, and though Mr. Simpson's abrupt and unpolished manner formed a contrast to the courteous address of Dr. Addington not to his advantage, yet when his pupils were brought more intimately to know him, they felt that veneration for his character in which their successors have participated to the close of his academical career. The interests of the Institution were scarcely secured by the settlement of Mr. Simpson as the tutor, when, in 1794, it was called to sustain a heavy loss in the removal of its earliest patron, and active treasurer, Thomas Wilson, Esq., whose solicitude for the prosperity of this Institution was only equalled by the anxiety he manifested through a long and useful life, for the general extension of the gospel. Happily his elder son, who bears his name, inherited a double portion of his spirit, and to him the subscribers naturally looked as their future treasurer, which office he accepted, and thereby more than repaired the loss of his venerated parent, as in a few years he retired from the cares of business, to devote his honourable leisure, and those energies which had not yet attained their maturity, to advance the growing in terests of the Academy, and the cause of evangelical religion in general. As Mr. Simpson was unoccupied with pastoral duties, some friends urged him to engage a small chapel in Hoxton, (now in the occupation of the Wesleyan Methodists,) to which he acceded, and preached there for three years, till it was thought expedient, in 1796, to remove the congregation to a neat place of worship upon the academical premises, capable of holding 400 persons, and which, in fact, was constructed from some out-buildings belonging to the old mansion, but appropriated by consent of the committee to this sacred use. Mr. Simpson relinquished his connection with this little society, upon an invitation to become the pastor of the church then assembling at the meeting-house, Artillery Street, and the future supply of the pulpit was entrusted by the people to the hands of Mr. Wilson. In 1797, the number of students in the Academy was fifteen, and as Mr. Simpson's health was seriously affected by his diligent application to his official duties, it was deemed necessary to choose an assistant. The Rev. GEORGE COLLISON, now the esteemed Tutor of the Academy at Hackney, and pastor of the respectable church at Walthamstow, had then just completed his studies at Hoxton. His diligent application, and respectable acquirements being well known to his tutor, he recommended him to the committee, as qualified for the office, and they consequently appointed Mr. C. as his colleague, which office he continued to hold till his resignation in 1801. In 1799, the Sabbath congregation having so much increased as to render the original chapel incommodious, it was resolved to apply to the Trustees of Dr. Williams, for the renewal of the lease, who generously granted it for a term of 61 years, which warranted the erection of a spacious chapel upon the premises, and the whole sum expended was very liberally advanced by the Treasurer of the Academy. The site chosen for the new building, was a part of the old garden of Dr. Williams, where doubtless he often held social converse with Baxter and Bates, Alsop and Howe, and where he enjoyed, in the solitude which then reigned around the spot, elevated communion with his God and Saviour. Surely if beatified spirits are permitted to visit those scenes on earth, where they once lingered with delight, the spirit of that holy man has been gladdened to find that on the spot where he prayed, a House of Prayer is reared, in which listening multitudes hear those doctrines proclaimed which he defended in life, and valued in death. (To be continued.) QUERY ON THE PRONENESS OF THE JEWS TO IDOLATRY. Ir has often appeared to me exceedingly singular, in the history of ancient Israel, that, previous to the Babylonish captivity, from the moment of their exodus from Egypt, the Israelitish race should have been so prone to idolatry and polytheism, that scarcely any judgments could restrain them; and that, after their return from captivity, the severest persecutions could not induce them to relinquish the worship of the one Jehovah. It seems to me desirable, that some of your learned correspondents should favour us with their opinions on this interesting subject. Your constant Reader, INQUISITUS. |