dental allusion to the blood which "cleanseth from all sin," or to the mediation ceaselessly and successfully carried on by the risen Jesus before THE THRONE. It is a strange and (as penned by his daughter, we must presume) authentic statement.

There is a manifest reluctance to die. There is an evident wish to live; and a consciousness of the final struggle being imminent is conveyed in the homely expression, "there is only one pinch more to come!" But there is no recognition of Eternity, and no acknowledgment of a Redeemer.

And yet Hutton was no common-place man. He was provident, sagacious, far-sighted, an adept in the world's arithmetic, gifted with considerable insight into character, and master of the secret-How to acquire wealth and retain it.

Was he a semi-Sceptic?

Had he thoroughly adopted his own strange confession of faith, "Every religion upon earth

is right?"*

"I am not only a Presbyterian,

but a Churchman, a Quaker, a Baptist, a Roman Catholic, a Muggletonian, nay all the religions in the alphabet; admissions

which drew upon him reproof even from Dr. Priestley!

"You are candid, I think, to an extreme, and seem to consider all religions as alike, which will make many persons imagine you are an unbeliever. Two opposite systems cannot both be true; and whatever any man may deem to be important truths, he must wish that others would embrace." †

What did he believe? and where was his hope? Ample reason had he for abounding gratitude to THE MOST HIGH. A singularly vigorous constitution-an extraordinary share of health—unusual length of days — signal success in life- dutiful and attached children,

* Hutton's Narrative of the Riots in Birmingham. July 14th, 1791.

† Letter from Dr. Priestley to Mr. Hutton, July 7th,

1792.

U

—these blessings had all been his: were they remembered and acknowledged? We seek in vain for their humble and grateful enumeration. The dying man, and those around him, alike are mute. No reference is made to Jesus. No hope is expressed of going to him. No lowly mention is made of his pardoning blood. No aspiration uttered for his all-powerful intercession. On all these points there occurs the most chilling and ominous silence.

Was he at heart a Sceptic?

Did he think all religions equally plausible and equally hollow?

Or did he belong to that class-it numbers many whom earthly prosperity hardens? The world is their all, and they are loath to leave it.

Alas!

"Lean not on earth; 'twill pierce thee to the heart : A broken reed at best, but oft a spear;

On its sharp point, Peace bleeds, and Hope expires."

291

CHAP. XVII.

The Man of Birth, the Poet, and the Atheist.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

"There are those who live in this world as though it was never to have an end; and for the next, as though it was never to have a beginning.". ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

"So walk, that the parting day may be sweet."GURNALL'S Christian Armour.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, a being destined to a sad celebrity, was born August the 4th, 1792. Till his eighth year he was brought up with his sisters in the retirement of Field Place, Sussex; where he received an education similar to that bestowed on them. This will explain his utter distaste for boyish sports or amusements: a peculiarity which exposed him to innumerable annoyances in after years. His school-boy days were passed, partly at

Sion House, Brentford; and partly at Eton. Thither he was sent at thirteen. To him Eton was a place of bitter punishment. Its distinctions were principally reserved for proficiency in Latin verse, an attainment which Shelley could never grasp. His first English poem was founded on the story of the "Wandering Jew." He was then about fifteen. It extended to six or seven cantos in broken and

irregular metre. The poem was never completed; but the "Wandering Jew" continued to be a favourite subject to the last. At sixteen he wrote a tale, entitled "Zastrozzi," an extravagant and improbable fiction, with passages here and there of singular force and beauty. At seventeen he was at Oxford, the scene of bitter degradation and disgrace. He was expelled the University for his reprehensible religious views. This, and no other, was the cause of the abrupt termination of his collegiate career. He himself thus announced it to a friend, "I am expelled I am expelled for Atheism." Great and sincere was the re