He had for some time previous to his death been subject to palpitation of the heart, arising from a diseased state of that organ, which was doubtless the immediate cause of the fatal catastrophe. He is supposed to have been near sixty; but the date of his birth was a secret which he studiously concealed, as he had the foible of wishing to be thought a younger man than he was in reality.

He had no issue by his wife, who is still living. The chief part of his property he left to a natural son, who has been educated at the university of Cambridge. His will, made about sixteen years before his death, is stated to be a production remarkable for its eccentricity; and it is added that another testamentary deed, making some serious alterations in the disposition of his effects, was prepared by his direction, and was to have been signed on the Wednesday following the night on which he died.*

The literary career of Dr Kitchiner was, as we have already remarked, chiefly distinguished for its singularity, and to that circumstance he owed his success as an author. Sir John Hill and Dr Alexander Hunter had indeed previously exhibited the same combination of the medical and culinary character as was assumed by Dr Kitchiner; but Hill modestly published his lucubrations on cookery under the name of Mrs Glasse; and Dr Hunter in his Culina Famulatrix Medicina' treated his subject with so little gravity, as to leave his readers in doubt whether he was in jest or earnest from one end of his book to the other. He might be supposed to have taken for his model the medical attendant of Sancho in the island of Barataria; for his culinary precepts are accompanied by a medical commentary stating the specific diseases which indulgence in each dainty described is likely to

occasion.

Dr Kitchiner, on the other hand, less prodigal of fame than Sir John Hill, and less squeamish as to the means of attaining it than Hunter, boldly offered to the public the results of his own experience in the noble art of cookery. He professed to have superintended the processes he described, and instead of copying the obsolete receipts of former compilers, he wrote by the fireside, with his watch in his hand, minuting down his observations as they occurred amidst the delightful harmony of sounds produced by the various operations which he was thus philosophically investigating for the benefit of the public. Whimsical as the circum

* His remains were interred in a vault in the church of St Clement Danes, London; and a sepulchral monument is to be erected to his memory in the new church of St Pancras, in which parish he resided at the time of his death.

VOL. I.-NO. I.

H

stance may appear, it is nevertheless true that the name of this learned professor contributed not a little to his celebrity as an author; for when The Cook's Oracle' was announced as the work of Dr William Kitchiner, it seemed as if his surname had been given him by anticipation, and his fame for a while distanced all competition.

This however was not his first publication. In 1815 appeared his Practical Observations on Telescopes,' reprinted for the fourth time in 1825, under the title of The Economy of the Eyes.'

6

The most characteristic perhaps of all his works is The Traveller's Oracle,' which was published just after his death. It is a complete farrago-"De omnibus Rebus et quibusdam aliis," or at least that should have been the motto of the work, which contains chapters with the following titles: How to get a wellfitting Shoe;' The Hobgoblin Dramas of Germany;' The Music of the Universal Prayer;' The Music of Gather your Rosebuds ;' besides a variety of information really useful, and advice completely ridiculous, of which it is scarcely possible to form any conception without consulting the book itself. A writer in the London Magazine' observes, that "It would be an amusing proof of the impracticability of the Oracle's' precepts, were any simple-hearted matter-of-fact person to take it into his head to follow them: he would make a good subject for a farce, with all his pistols, door-fasteners, tucksticks, chronometers, barometers, feet-preservers, peristaltic persuaders, Welsh wigs, paraboues, night-lamps, tinder-boxes, leather-sheets, and canteens; with his memorandum-books for Souvenirs, his suspicions of fellowtravellers, his anxiety about his dinner and his wine, his determination to arrive at his journey's end by day-light, and all the other ridiculous fancies that are laughably strange on paper, but which would be irresistibly ludicrous if collected upon and about the inimitable Liston."

In his private character, Dr Kitchiner is represented as having been an amiable man, respected for his integrity, and esteemed for his conciliatory manners and social virtues; but his literary reputation, derived as it was from accidental circumstances, will hardly entitle him to permanent celebrity.

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF DR KITCHINER.

1. Practical Observations on Telescopes, 1815, 8vo.

2. Essay on the Size best adapted for Achromatic Glasses; with Hints to Opticians and Amateurs of Astronomical Studies, on the Construction and Use of Telescopes in general. (Philosophical Magazine, vol. xlvi. p. 122.)

3. Apicius Redivivus; or, The Cook's Oracle, 1817, 12mo.

4. The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life, by Food, Clothes, Air, Exercise, Wine, Sleep, &c.; and Peptic Precepts. To which is added, The Pleasure of making a Will, 1822, 12mo.

5. Observations on Vocal Music, 1822. 8vo.

6. The Loyal and National Songs of England, selected from Original MSS. and early-printed copies, folio.

7. The Housekeeper's Ledger.

8. The Economy of the Eyes, in Two Parts. I. Precepts for the Improvement and Preservation of the Sight; on Spectacles, Operaglasses, &c. II. Of Telescopes, 1825. 8vo.

9. The Traveller's Oracle, or Maxims for Locomotion; containing Precepts for promoting the Pleasures, and Hints for preserving the Health of Travellers. Part I. Comprising Estimates of the Expenses of Travelling on Foot, on Horseback, in Stages, in Post-chaises, and in Private Carriages; with seven songs, for one, two, and three voices, composed by William Kitchiner, M.D. Part II. Comprising the Horse and Carriage Keeper's Oracle, Rules for purchasing and keeping of Jobbing Horses and Carriages; Estimates of Expenses occasioned thereby, and an easy Plan for ascertaining every Hackneycoach Fare. By John Jervis, an Old Coachman. The whole revised by William Kitchiner, M.D. 1827, 2 vols. 12mo.

REVEREND JOHN EVANS, LL.D.

THE subject of this memoir traced his descent through an almost uninterrupted line of ministers belonging to the Baptist persua sion, from Thomas Evans, who was one of the divines ejected for non-conformity in 1662. JOHN EVANS, was born at Uske, in Monmouthshire, October 2, 1767. After some previous education at a grammar-school at Bristol, he entered in November 1783, as a student into the Baptist academy in that city, where his relative, Dr Caleb Evans, was then theological tutor. Soon after he began to exercise his talents as a public preacher, acting in a ministerial capacity occasionally in small congregations of Baptists who were destitute of a regular pastor. After remaining between two and three years at the academy he went to Scotland; and during three successive winters he studied in the university of Aberdeen, which then numbered among its professors Dr George Campbell and Dr Alexander Gerard. Mr Evans also spent one winter at the university of Edinburgh, and having obtained the degree of M.A. he quitted Scotland in June 1791.

Though principally indebted for his education to an institution supported by the Particular Baptists, whose distinguishing tenets are those of rigid Calvinism, and though he had joined in communion with the religious society of that denomination of which his tutor was minister, his sentiments subsequently underwent such a revolution that he was induced to accept an invitation from the congregation of General Baptists assembling in Worship street, London. After officiating there for a few months, he was chosen pastor, and his ordination to that office took place May 31, 1792.* This, as it was his earliest, proved also to be his only pastoral engagement, which terminated with his existence, after an uninterrupted harmony through the long period of thirty-five years. Animated with the usual zeal of a new convert, Mr Evans thought

The immediate predecessor of Mr Evans, at Worship street, was Mr A. Robinson, for an account of whose life and literary labours, see p. 60–71 of the present number of this Magazine.

it his duty to employ his pen in support of the doctrines which he had embraced; and, immediately after his settlement in the metropolis, he published An Address designed to promote the Revival of Religion among the General Baptists.' In this tract the author exhibits a becoming spirit of candour and liberality. He thus descants on the peculiar tenets professed by the members of the sect to which he now belonged:-"The Universality of Divine Love," says Mr Evans, " is with us a favourite tenet. Persons justly acquainted with the perfections of God admit this as an article of their creed. All sects acknowledge the divine benevolence; but some so circumscribe its extent, that they diminish its amiableness; and others so prescribe its operation, that they deny free-agency, together with the accountableness of moral and intelligent agents. The Divine Benevolence is the crowning attribute of the Deity. It sheds a luminous glory over the perfections of the Godhead. And this goodness or love is impartial and universal. It does not arbitrarily distinguish some from others. It has no favourites except those who are of a broken and contrite heart. It shines through all nature. embraces and blesses the whole creation." From the consideration of the doctrine which distinguishes the General from the Particular Baptists, our author proceeds to notice the discriminating dogma of Anti-Pædobaptism, in which both sects of Baptists are agreed, and which forms their essential point of controversy with other professors of Christianity. This is the Baptism of Adult Persons, by Immersion, which he says, "though of inferior moment to the one described, should, however, be duly regarded. The immersion of the body [in baptism] is warranted by the signification of the original terms, the expressiveness of the mode, and the practice of the primitive ages. The origin of baptism, thus scripturally administered, is noble, the means solemn, the influence permanent and beneficial." He adds"It is lamentable that the controversy concerning the nature of this valuable institution has occasioned much ill-temper. But the want of candour is the want of self-knowledge. Never let difference as to articles of faith prevent the exercise of charity. Thus we preserve the spirit of the Gospel, which is moderation, gentleness and peace."

About the same time he also drew up another tract, which was published under the title of An Address to Young People, on the Necessity and Importance of Religion.'

The ministerial labours of Mr Evans were by no means exclusively confined to his own immediate denomination. For fourteen successive winters, from 1795 to 1800, he engaged with his intimate friend the Rev. Hugh Worthington, and various other ministers, in preaching a weekly lecture on practical sub