made him easy to himself and agreeable to others,

and had its reward

in a cheerful life, a serene old age, a composed death. His excellent pattern

was a continual lesson of goodness and wisdom, and remains in his ever reverable memory

an illustrious object of praise and imitation.

Edmund Gibson*.

BISHOP OF LONDON, DEAN OF HIS MAJESTY'S CHAPEL ROYAL, AND ONE OF THE LORDS OF H. M. MOST HONORABLE

PRIVY COUNCIL, &c.

1669-1748.

"Genius is patient labor."--Buffon.

ETTE goutte de semence, de quoy nous sommes produits, porte en soy les impressions non de la forme corporelle seulement, mais des pensements et des inclinations de nos pères ? Cette goutte d'eau où loge elle ce nombre infinì de formes ? et comme port-elle des ressemblances d'un progrez si téméraire, et si desréglé, que l'arrière-fils respondra à son bisayeul, le nepheu à l'oncle ?" Montaigne, (one of the best and oldest of the French moralists) pursues these philosophical inquiries by ascribing

There is a very fine portrait of him in the Library at Fulham Palace by Vanderbank. Amongst other arms in the windows are, Az. 3 Storks rising Arg. for Gibson impaled with the See of London. In another window Gibson impaled with the See of Lincoln. There is also a portrait of him in the Hall of Queen's College, Oxon.

his qualité pierreuse to hereditary causes; as the descendant of Boltfolt of Harden did his own deformity*; and as the world at large do a like one in the Greys of Howick to Grey of Berwick, surnamed de torto pede. Indeed the frequency of the fact makes the philosopher's expression intelligible, and is more or less exemplified in some shape or other in every family in the kingdom from the prince to the peasant. Whether he reasoned like a philosopher in thus passing from matter to mind, from finite to infinite, we need not now stop to inquire; it is enough to say, that he thought the laws of the two analogous, and remember that he was Montaigne ! Run, thou sceptic, sceptic, to Hanwell and to St. Thomas', and there learn wisdom! The lunatic asylum will teach thee the laws of the one, the hospital the laws of the other! Indeed, if self-knowledge does not teach thee this all but self-evident truth-that talent runs in families-go and search the family history of any distinguished man; consult the family history of Edmund Gibson; in few channels have the ennobling currents of the soul run deeper, in none more uniformt. Edmund Gibson !

"Clarum et venerabile nomen,

Gentibus et multum nostræ quod proderat urbi.”

* Sir Walter Scott, and transmitted it to one of his grandchildren.Lockhart's Life, 64-90.

+ Thomas Gibson, author of Gibson's Anatomy, M. D., Fellow of the College of Physicians, Physician General to the Army, and

Ye craggs, and gills, and tarns, and fells, wherein our boyish childhood strayed-a stranger yet to pain! though lost to sight to memory dear! and still dearer for those sublime and hallowed associations thrown around you, by the industry of your stalwart sons, sent forth to run the great career of life, themselves impatient to be free! Men whose noble rage chill penury could ne'er repress, on wings plumed with the dews of Heaven (all, perhaps, they could truly call their own) bounding forth and sweeping through the boundless firmament of intelligeuce, amazing the world with the vigor of their wing and the boldness of their flight! Now asserting eternal Providence, and justifying the ways of God to man; now amidst the army of martyrs braving the dungeons of the Tower and the fires of Smithfield; here in the sacred robes of Justice administering her decrees; there bleeding in their country's cause; now unfolding the arcana of Nature's laws; now, like the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle, flinging from the living lyre thoughts that wander through eternity; there embracing into life the dull, cold marble; there throwing over the lifeless canvass

Husband of Anna Cromwell, sixth daughter of Richard Lord Protector. He died in 1704; she in 1727. John and Edmund were his nephews: John was Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, and Edmund Bishop of London; and last, though not least, of the same family, Willy Gibson, alias "Willy at Hollins," the distinguished mathematician, author of, &c. &c.

-See Life.

the mystery of colours. But, as no praise can be lasting but what is rational, let us subdue our tone awhile, that the facts may, in living language, speak for themselves. Thus far, however, we will venture to predict in Edmund Gibson's case, that the reader of his life will say of him that he was at once a great and candid Churchman, an industrious and accomplished scholar, a profound antiquary, a respectable lawyer, an active man of business, and, above all, emphatically an honest man. As a pastor he was most exemplary, as a bishop affable and dignified. A most unflinching champion of the rights of the Established Church; yet withal, neither an enthusiast nor a bigot. In public or private matters no prospects of advantage could ever shake his integrity, no temptations corrupt his heart; and to these noble qualities may be added, the tenderest sentiments of generosity, benevolence, and compassion. When outraged morality demanded his aid and protection, with admirable fearlessness he rebuked, in turn, his sovereign and the people. Hence his high reputation, and the universal esteem for him ; hence too, his Wolsey-like power in Church and State-power withal borne so meekly, that Princes respected him, and Ministers thought they loved him. Though beyond the reach of fortune, he was not free from its malice, especially in matters of church discipline; all assaults upon him, however, were no more than Xerxes' arrows-they darkened the day, but they could not strike the