adapted to excite and bring out those qualities of emulation and ambition which continued always to distinguish him there he laid the foundation of that classical elegance and purity of style, which shine so conspicuously in his writings; there he acquired an early knowlege of character, an anticipated experience of society, which was of great service to him in after life; and there also he formed powerful connexions, which materially contributed to advance him in his profession. Among the friends of his early youth, who became promoters of his future interests, may be reckoned Lord Viscount Townshend, Mr. Pelham, and Sir Robert Walpole; the latter of whom not only entertained, but invariably expressed, the highest opinion of his talent and integrity. Nor was it in the studies of the place only, and at the head of his class, that young Sherlock was seen to advantage: he was equally eminent for his skill in athletic exercises; and never failed to lead his companions in those sports and amusements, over which Hygeia herself may be said to preside, and which, while they strengthen the body, add vigor also to the mental powers. It is always understood that Pope's expression of the plunging prelate,'* in the Dunciad, bears an allusion to those early habits of promptitude and decision, of which he exhibited an example in the exercise of bathing; for when other boys stood hesitating and shivering on the bank of Father Thames,' Sherlock plunged in headlong,

- Foremost to cleave

With pliant arm his glassy wave.

This at least is the interpretation given to it by Warton on the authority of Sir Robert Walpole.

*Book ii. 1. 323.

When he quitted those delightful scenes, so calculated to impress indelibly their images on the youthful mind, he was removed to Cambridge in 1693, and admitted of Catherine Hall, under the tuition of Dr. Leng. What induced his father, who was himself a member of Peter House, to place him at this college, I am unable to determine; but it is a curious circumstance, that the master, and the tutor under whom he was admitted, his great rival and contemporary Hoadley, whom he found there, as well as Sherlock himself, were all promoted to the episcopal bench.*

It redounds much to his credit, that in so small a society, where the incentives to emulation are necessarily curtailed, at a time also when no prizes were instituted, as at present, to call forth the powers and exercise the genius of academic youth, he neglected not the study of those ancient authors, whose very language affords constant exercise to the mind, in struggling with intellectual difficulties, whilst they abound with sentiments and images of the greatest beauty and sublimity. But though that powerful stimulus to exertion which numbers give, was now withdrawn, still even in the circumscribed limits of his present society, Sherlock found one strenuous candidate, who

* Sir W. Dawes, the Master, was made Bishop of Chester, 1707; Archbishop of York, 1714. Dr. Leng, Bishop of Norwich, 1723; Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor, 1715; Hereford, 1721; Salisbury, 1723; Winchester,-1738. Sherlock, Bishop of Bangor, 1727; Salisbury, 1734; London, 1748. The present worthy Master of Catherine Hall, when he showed me the order-book, pointed out to my notice the solitary instance in which Sherlock signed it as Fellow, on occasion of the Audit, Nov. 7. 1798; when the signatures of the three above-mentioned distinguished persons appear with only one other, that of Mr. Thomas Tillson.

started with him in the race of fame, and kept the principle of emulation in full activity. This antagonist, who has been already alluded to, was the celebrated Hoadley, whose religious and political opinions were subsequently attacked by Sherlock with an asperity which makes it probable that the seeds of rivalry, if not of animosity, were thus early sown: a little anecdote indeed is preserved, which seems to show that they never regarded each other with feelings of peculiar complacency. One day, as they came from the tutor's lecture on Tully's Offices, Hoadley observed, Well, Sherlock, you figured away finely to-day by help of Cockman's Translation.'-'No, indeed,' replied Sherlock, 'I did not; for though I tried all I could to get a copy, I heard of only one; and that you had secured.'

There can be but little doubt however of Sherlock's profound knowlege, as well as exquisite taste, in classical literature; since Warburton, who differed from him greatly in opinions, and felt very little affection for his person, took every opportunity of extolling his learning and talent, and submitted portions of the Divine Legation to his inspection, as they were passing through the press.* The following are his sentiments, expressed in a letter to Hurd, in whose favor he had been applying to Bishop Sherlock for a Whitehall preachership: 'It is time you should think of being a little more known; and it will not be the least thing acceptable in this affair, that it will bring you into the acquaintance of this Bishop, who stands so supereminent in the learned and political world. I can overlook a great deal for such a testimony, so willing to be paid to merit.'+

*Nichols's Lit. Anec. Vol. v. p. 544.

+ Warburton and Hurd's Correspondence, p. 20. The following

But Sherlock did not waste his precious hours at the University in wooing even the willing muse,' or 'sporting with Amaryllis in the shade:' his was a character of a very different cast; he cultivated not an exclusive system; and from the severe line of study which he had laid down for himself, no allurements, even of intellectual pleasure, could make him swerve. When he had enlarged his powers of imagination, and refined his taste by the varied stores of Greek and Roman literature, he resolved to keep the balance even in his mind, by cultivating those sciences which impart accuracy, strength, and soundness to the reasoning faculties; and though the studies of the University and the rewards of merit, stood on much lower ground than they do in the present day, still the morning-star of science had risen, and the splendid system of Newtonian philosophy was rapidly advancing in the place which gave it birth.* To those abstruse but invigorating studies Sherlock steadily applied himself; the effect of which became very

passage occurs in the letter from Bishop Sherlock to Warburton, in which he promises to remember his friend: 'I am told we are to expect soon something from your hand in vindication of the miraculous prevention of Julian's attempt to rebuild Jerusalem. I have a pleasure in seeing any thing of yours, and I dare promise myself to see the argument you have undertaken set in a true and clear light' p. 21. Pope, in one of his letters to Warburton, thus speaks of Sherlock, and the kind of intimacy which subsisted between them: 'We are told that the Bishop of Salisbury is expected here daily, who I know is your friend: at least, though a Bishop, he is too much a man of learning to be your enemy.'-Pope's Works by Bowles, vol. ix. p. 389.

* In 1694 the celebrated Dr. Samuel Clarke, then an undergraduate, defended in the schools a question taken from Newton's Principia.

perceptible in the clear reasoning, the logical precision, and the lucid arrangement of his compositions; whilst the more immediate consequence to himself was, that when he took his degree of A. B. in 1697, his name appeared on the Tripos, or list of Honors, in a situation similar to that which Hoadley had obtained two years before,* and the great Bentley in 1679. The place which each of these tria lumina nominally occupied was sixth; but at this time, and for about half a century afterwards, the vice-chancellor and proctors claimed the unworthy privilege of inserting the names of three under-graduates in the list, which were placed immediately below the first man of the year so that virtually the place occupied by Sherlock and his two predecessors was the third.

On the 12th of August, 1798, he was elected Fellow of his college, and his election was signed by his antagonist Hoadley, who had preceded him in this honor by one year. Very soon after he had arrived at the canonical age, he entered into holy orders; and in 1701 proceeded to his degree of A. M., but continued to reside in the University, that he might prepare himself, amid the tranquil scenes of a collegiate life, for the more active duties of the clerical profession: into these he soon entered with great earnestness and alacrity, when a circumstance occurred which was calculated, in a peculiar manner, to draw forth the powers of his naturally strong and cultivated intellect. On the 28th of Nov. 1704, when he was but twenty-six years old, he was appointed to the Mastership of the Tem

* Hoadley was but one year senior to him on the college boards, but it seems that he had seven terms allowed on account of extreme bad health.-Supplement to Biogr. Brit. p. 99.

+ College order book.