account of age. "On Sunday June 16, 1822, Dr. Parr, at Hatton, had the honour to receive from the Rev. Dr. Hook, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, late Dean of Worcester, (says Parr himself,) a letter, of which the following is a copy:" REVEREND SIR, Whippingham Court, Isle of Wight, I have just received a letter from my Registrar at Huntingdon, enclosing your answer to an official request, on my part, that you would undertake the office of preacher at my next visitation. I will say nothing respecting my present regret in being deprived of the honor your attendance on that occasion would have conferred upon me, a regret which is not diminished by the circumstances which compel you to withhold it; but when I recollect that it is just seven years since the present Bishop of Winchester nominated me to the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and now learn from yourself, that within that period you would gladly have complied with my wishes, had they been made known to you, I cannot but reproach myself with an omission, however occasioned, through which I am so severe a sufferer. It would savour of presumption in me to labour at extenuating this apparent inattention by any assurances that it arose not from a want of due respect and veneration for the character of Dr. Parr. I will simply advert to the general rule observed in these cases, of naming the incumbents in succession, to the office of preacher at the archdeaconal visitations, and the very natural conclusion on my part, that this rule had been strictly complied with in your case, as in that of others. It was the casual observation of an individual, when I was last at Huntingdon, who expressed a doubt, whether Dr. Parr had ever preached on such an occasion, that induced me to decide the question, and place it at your option to comply with or decline the invitation, I felt myself deeply interested in making. To you, reverend Sir, this explanation can be of little value, but it is essential to my own satifaction, and your well-known liberality will, I feel confident, pardon my forcing it upon you. As there can be no substitute for Dr. Parr, I have only to request that you will give yourself no further trouble on account of this unseasonable application, as we have only to revert to the roll for the next incumbent in succession. I have the honour to be, reverend Sir, with the most perfect respect, your obedient and faithful humble servant, JOHN HOOK. REVEREND SIR, Dr. Parr's answer: Hatton, June 19, 1822. I beg leave, respectfully and thankfully, to acknowledge the letter with which you have honoured me. The matter and the spirit of that letter, convinced me that I should have had great pleasure in your society, if it had been in my power to attend your visitation in May 1823. Be assured, reverend Sir, that your explanation does not appear to me of little value. On the contrary, I feel myself very much obliged to you for it; and I should be happy to shake you by the hand, at my parsonage, and to thank you personally if you were to come into my neighbourhood. I have the honour to be, reverend Sir, with great respect, your well-wisher, and very faithful, obedient servant, SAMUEL PARR. 700 CHAPTER XVIII. Metaphysical studies-Projected publication of Collier's Clavis Universalis-Hartley-Copleston-Dugald Stewart. PHILOLOGY was one of the favourite studies of Parr-not philology concerned in the weighing of phrases-not philology digging out bare meaning and bald derivations-not philology connected merely with etymology, but occupied with the philosophy of mind itself. As a teacher, the use of words was continually before him. From the beginning of his labours he was accustomed to hear the luminous and elaborate instructions of Sumner, delivered as they were, like lectures to the elder boys. He owed an important part of his mental progress to the hints given in these lectures. But with a more capable and capacious intellect he reaped greater fruit. The philology and etymology of Sumner were converted by him into metaphysics and philosophy. The profound dogmas of religion are nearly allied to the abstruse speculations of metaphysics, and from his early life Parr was a diligent student of theology, and thinker for himself His Norwich sermons are deeply tinctured with this lore, and we may observe in the Bishop of Cloyne's early letters, that he is sometimes laughed at for his doubts and refinements. Those doubts were the serious reflections of a searching mind; and those speculations and refinements, if they were not borrowed from Butler and Waterland, were justified by their hypotheses. Parr's strength lay not merely in transcendental metaphysics. Like every other superior mind, he loved to try his power occasionally on these subjects, and to soar in the upper regions of mystery, or to pursue those wandering mazes in which all human reasoning is finally lost. Such subjects were, however, not his chief study. Benevolence, utility, the vindication of God's ways to man—the virtue of real sincerity, and honest industry to find out what God requires of his creatures to believe-the power of conscience; these were the topics he delighted in, and to make religion practical, he has poured forth the whole riches of his learning and intellect upon them. ALL his Sermons will prove this assertion; and those on Conscience, in the following volumes; on the Habit of Judging unrighteously; on avoiding the appearance of Evil; and on Prayer, and on Benevolence, are of themselves a code. Still philological inquiries, and metaphysical disquisitions were favourite studies. In searching into the meaning of words, and their etymology, he laboured with indefatigable industry to trace the word to its root, and its root he dug out of the soil of intellect in which it had been planted. He investigated the seed from which it sprung, the waters which had nourished it, the support it had received from all adventitious aids, and thus his philology became the history of the human mind, so far as any one word belonged to it. The treatise on Sublime, written in illustration of Dugald Stewart's philosophy of the human mind, will be evidence of his diligence, his zeal, and his learning in this branch of knowledge. Parr's system of metaphysics is unfolded in the Spital Sermon, and the notes: and in the 24th Sermon of vol. vi. more at large than in any of his other publications. All his charity sermons touch upon it; but he has there pointed out the sources he drank most freely of, Locke, *Tucker's Light of Nature, * The following letter of Sir J. Mackintosh was an answer to inquiries about Tucker: MY DEAR SIR, Serle-street, 1st Dec. 1800. I thought it useless to answer your letter till I could answer your inquiries about Tucker, which I now do by informing you that he was of Merton College, Oxford. Whether he took a degree there or not I could not ascertain, but you will easily ascertain that point by inquiries at Oxford. The person whom I employed to make these inquiries was Malthus, the author of the essay on the Principle of Population, who lives in the neighbourhood of what was Mr. Tucker's seat. Sir H. St. John Mildmay, to whom Malthus applied for information, is the grandson of Tucker, and has an intention of publishing a complete edition of his grandfather's works, including some detached tracts, and an unpublished Dissertation on the Logos. He is to send me a sketch of the life of Tucker, written by his daughter Mrs. Tucker. I am very willing to assist him in his edition, and I hope it is not too late to recover more particulars of the life of this great philosopher than are contained in |