wherein their zeal was more conspicuous by the impiety of the neighbourhood.' From this worthy stock thus planted, came forth a great company of preachers. Peter Hobart, his son, was among the eminent men of his age, at least in the new world. Educated in all the learning of his father's land, he quitted the University of Cambridge, (England,) to take Orders in the Established Church, into which he was admitted by the Bishop of Norwich. After a few years, however, political or religious bias threw him into the ranks of dissent; as a Puritan divine, he sought the shores of New-England; and joining his father's settlement at Hingham, became the pastor of a patriarchal establishment. With these words he begins his journal: 'June 8th, 1635. I, with my wife and four children, came safely to New-England, for ever praised be the GoD of heaven, my GoD and King.' But this exclusive tone was the language, we may believe, rather of the sect than the individual, since though he was characterized as 'a bold man that would speak his mind,' yet we are also assured by the same annalist, that he would admire the grace of God in good men, though they were of sentiments contrary to his :' and that when he beheld some pragmatical in controversies, and furiously set upon having all things carried their way, and yet destitute of the life and power of godliness, he would say, 'Some men are all Church and no CHRIST.' He was noted also as a morning student, and a great example of temperance,' while his well studied sermons are said to have been like their author, bold and independent, and fuller of exhortation than of doctrine.' Such a man was well suited to build up the new colony on the surest of all foundations; and there, according to the custom of those more abiding times of ministerial service, he continued to labour for forty-three years, until called to his reward. Where he first pitched his tent, there he set up his rest.

Of his eight sons, (for it seems to have been also in this sense a patriarchal race,) six were graduated at Harvard,

the newly founded university of the colony; where, if they failed to acquire all the learning of their father, they at least inherited his evangelical spirit; five of the eight becoming Gospel preachers. But his mantle of power seems rather to have fallen upon his grandsons, among whom we find the names of Brainerd, the apostolic missionary of the Indians, and the Rev. Noah Hobart, of Connecticut, one who is described as having had in his day 'few equals for greatness of genius and learning.' The next generation brings us down to our own day; and in it we find, in addition to the subject of our memoir, the name of the late Hon. John Sloss Hobart, Judge of the District Court in the State of New-York, of whom the tablet raised to his memory by the bar over which he presided, gives this high testimony of inherited virtues,— 'As a man firm, as a citizen zealous, as a judge discriminating, as a Christian sincere.'

Among the numerous descendants of this Abraham' of our land in the third generation, we find Captain Enoch Hobart, who following the creed of his mother, and returning, it may be added, to that of his fathers, attached himself to the Protestant Episcopal Church established in Philadelphia, a city which, through his father's early removal, had become the place of his birth. His labours in life, though more worldly than those of his immediate predecessors, do not seem, however, to have been wanting in that spirit which alone had sanctified them, the spirit of vital piety,-the patriarchal memory of the venerable Bishop White enabling him to recall 'the very pew in Christ Church, Philadelphia, where he was an habitual attendant with his wife and children,' while a reputation for strict integrity honourably gained and long remembered in the West India islands with which he traded, shows that his religion was one of practice as well as profession. From the labours of the sea he retired in middle life to the enjoyment of domestic peace, and a very moderate competency. He died October 27th, 1776, leaving to his wife the usual inheritance of widowed sor

row, and to his children little beside a father's blessing, and the legacy of a good name. But happily for them their mother was not wanting in the energy requisite to her desolate condition. She fulfilled her duties toward them as has been well said, with the prudence of a father's judgment, and the tenderness of a mother's love".' Out of nine children, four had preceded their father to the grave; five remained, two sons and three daughters, to awaken a mother's solicitudes, as well as console her solitary griefs. The youngest of these, an infant of eleven months, who had been baptized in Christ Church at the primitive age of four weeks, under the name of John Henry, was the subject of the following narrative, and on him, as there naturally rested a double portion of her cares, so also perhaps of her widowed affections. As years advanced, under her pious instructions he was trained to that simple but truest wisdom, which mothers can best teach; 'from his youth,' it is said, 'he knew the Scriptures by means of the godly counsels which she so faithfully inculcated.' Of such a picture it is pleasing here to anticipate the result, and to learn not only that her labours were blessed in his eminent usefulness, but also that she herself lived to witness the fruit of them; that she was spared not only to follow him with her prayers in his preparation for the Church, but for five happy years to be herself an attendant upon his ministry -to be herself instructed by lips which she had first taught to utter the words of heavenly wisdom, and to be comforted amid the sorrows of age, by the watchful kindness and the Christian consolations of one, over whose infant head she had once wept and prayed the tears and prayers of a disconsolate widowed mother. Such is the boon with which Heaven rewards those whom in love it chastens, and such too we may add, looking at his future course, is the blessing which a good mother may, in the providence of GOD, be the means of conferring upon the Christian Church.

a. Memoir,' p. 6.

Of early indications of talent or character, little can be told, because little has been recorded; but by such as knew Bishop Hobart in after life, it will readily be conceived that even in earliest childhood he must have been no vulgar boy;' that warmth of heart which no intercourse with a cold and selfish world could tame or lessen, and that prompt and fearless energy which through life despised all danger in the path of duty, are traits of nature which must have appeared even from the cradle, and made him as a child both lovely and interesting. But whatever were the hopes he inspired, they were confined to a narrow circle, laid up,' probably, only in the heart of his mother. That they were not, however, wholly unnoticed by others, we have the testimony of one early friend. I have learned,' says Dr. B., from one who knew him in early youth, and who was intimate with his family, that his deportment, conversation, opinions, and habits, were the frequent and favourite theme of their discourse; and that they often dwelt with delight on those incidents which shadowed out the very character that he finally established.'

h

His first instruction after quitting his mother's knee, was in the school of a Mr. Leslie, one who is described as 'a respectable teacher, and held deservedly in esteem.' His acquisitions here were, however, dearly purchased, if as he himself thought, and often said, was then laid in his constitution, through the strict confinement of the school, and the short time allowed for relaxation and meals, the foundation of that dyspeptic malady under which he always laboured, and eventually fell a victim. But this charge may be doubted. The habit of 'bolting his meals,' as he himself termed it, lest he should be too late for recitation, was no doubt very unfavourable to a healthy digestion; but the blame we may well imagine did not rest altogether on the teacher. The boy who did all things ardently, was not likely to waste much time at the

The Rev. F. W. Beaseley, D. D.

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table even when left to himself; for he devoured his books it would seem, as pertinaciously as he did his food, hastily, and paid but the natural penalty of exchanging them too rarely for bat and ball. 'I have ever felt,' says he, in one of his early letters, an almost insatiable desire after knowledge.' In his ninth year, (1784,) he came into higher hands. An academy was organized in Philadelphia in that year, under Episcopal influence, with a view to unite what in education is too often divided, religious instruction to form the character, and intellectual instruction to furnish the mind. To this institution young Hobart was at once removed, coming under the charge, if not immediately, at least shortly after, of the Rev. Dr. Andrews, subsequently Vice-Provost, and eventually Provost of the University of the same city. Here he entered upon classical studies, starting ex limine,' says one of his surviving companions, with his Latin Grammar and Accidence.' How strikingly in accord were the characters of teacher and scholar, has been well noticed by Dr. B., and the probable influence of such associations on the susceptible heart of the latter. But it is due to the memory of Dr. Andrews, to give the sketch of the teacher, as struck off by the pen of one who shared in the benefit of his instructions. Dr. Andrews was known to be one of the ripest classical scholars in the country. He had great skill and experience in teaching, and never spared himself in the performance of duty; besides, in his very manners and appearance, there was that which 'bespoke a man'-all that conciliates affection and esteem, and challenges profound respect. He was a Churchman by education and conviction, of exalted piety, and of that loftiness of character which was above the reach of the grovelling or crafty. No man was at a loss to infer his motives or purposes, either from his speech or actions. He was consistent, open, and direct, for he was never of that school of time-serving philosophers, with whom policy is of more

William Meredith, Esq. of Philadelphia.