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 1797, 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.

ple, on the resignation and through the influence of his father. So high and important a station, with all the jealousy and prejudices that it excited, would have borne down most men at that early age; but Sherlock's vigorous and elastic character raised him above all difficulties: having already laid up vast stores of knowlege, having his judgment ripe, and an ambition equal to his abilities, he soon surpassed the most eminent preachers of the day in true pulpit oratory. For his variety of matter and judicious arrangement of it, for the strength and solidity of his reasoning, for his force of language, for his flow of natural and manly eloquence, we may safely appeal to those admirable Discourses which have long ministered delight and consolation to the Christian: they hold no secondary rank among the writings of our Divines. Nor was it only in the weight of his words and argument that his preaching was with power, but also in the force and energy with which it was delivered for though his voice was not melodious, but accompanied rather with a thickness of speech, yet were his words uttered with so much propriety, and with such strength and vehemence, that he never failed to take possession of his whole audience and secure their attention. This powerful delivery of words so weighty and important as his always were, made a strong impression on the minds of his hearers, and was not soon forgot."* His station at the Temple was held by Sherlock through the different stages of his preferment, almost to the close of life:† he greatly enjoyed the society to which it introduced him,

:

*Extract from his Funeral Sermon by Dr. Nicolls.-Gent. Mag. 1762. p. 23.

+ Almost all his letters that I have met with are dated from his house at the Temple.

was extremely intimate with the most eminent lawyers of the day, and was universally beloved and esteemed among them: he always preached at their church during termtime, and to the early and constant necessity of addressing so polished and acute an audience, may be ascribed in great measure that high tone both of composition and of argument which distinguishes his sermons."

In 1707 he must have resigned his fellowship, for he then entered into the marriage state with Miss Judith Fountaine, a lady descended from a good family in

* The following is the opinion of an able writer in the Quarterly Review on Sherlock's pulpit eloquence: the calm and dispassionate disquisition on some text of Scripture, or the discussion of some theological question, henceforward to be the exclusive object of an English sermon, was carried by Sherlock to a perfection rarely rivalled, unless by Smalridge, nearly his own contemporary, and by Horsley in more recent times. The question is clearly stated and limited; every objection anticipated; and the language is uniformly manly and vigorous. Sherlock, indeed, occasionally breaks out in passages of greater warmth and earnestness,' &c. For Pope's sentiments with regard to his powers of oratory, see Dunciad, B. iii. 203.

'Still break the benches, Henley! with thy strain,

While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain.'

On which passage Warton remarks, that in former editions Kennet was named, not Sherlock:' the latter was then no great favorite with Pope, under the lash of whose satire he fell more than once. The sermons of Sherlock,' Warton goes on to say, ' though censured by Mr. Church, are master-pieces of argument and eloquence. His Discourses on Prophecy, and Trial of the Witnesses, are perhaps the best defences of Christianity in our language.'

+ From the monumental inscription. She was related to the Chesters of Cockenhatch, in Hertfordshire.-Nichols's Lit. Anec. Vol. i. p. 556.