The National Register.
London, England, 1813-12-19 00:00:00

OF THE LIFE OF

NV.

-B. C*L*Y*R, D. D.

OTHERWISE DISTINGUISHED AS. THE ANGELICAL DOCTOR.

Seldom are the labours of the biographer now gratified
with a subject like the present. Since the days when the
splendour of catholicism was at its height,--when the
loveliest of our species, subdued by the appeals of the
preacher, were amongst the most ardent vo:aries of faith,—
no era has, in this respect, equalled tliLi in which we have
the hon►►ur to live. Every where is the young minister of
our day hailed

4 In. language soft as adoration breathes,
Pone(' forth by Beauty f,plendid and polite!'
The distinguished personage here selected as the subject
of contemporary bi(igraphy, has long been pre-eminently es-
timated by the fairest and to % elieit portion of the religious
world. Not only has he stood well with this sex, however, but
he has also attracted, in no ordinary degree, the consideration
of men; who must be accordingly interested in the following
sketch.

Respecting this angelical Doctor,' then, it appears that:
he drew his first breath near " Deptford Broadway," some--
where about the year 78 1 . His parents were poor ; and he
was, adopting the language of poetry, a low-born youth.'
Acquirinng friends, however, at the age of eight years he
entered a public school at Lewisham, in Kent, where, says
one of his frie-nds, " he laid, deep and broad, the foundation
of a classical education." He was afterwards, about the age
Of thirteen, consigned, as a private pupil, to the super-
intendance of the Rev. John Pell ; till, at the age of sixteen,
he was entered as a student at the Old College, Homerton,
where he remained the prescribed term of four years. This
detail is now pronounced to be of importance in the Doctor's
life. Rumour at one time misreFoiled him to have been
evangelically educated at Iloxton, instead of Homerton ;
though, it would seem, those who " know any thing of the
interior of Homerton and I loxton, must he aware that the
difference is essential," Ilomerton Old College being, as its
imports, "a truly venerable institution !"
During the latter years of his residence at Ilomerton Old
College, the subject of this meatoir in fact entered on his
public career, with such (chat as presently entitled him to
the distinction of the Angelical Doctor! ' Referring to
this event, it has been pointedly obs,arved, by the. Rev.
Thomas Raffles, the Doctor's friend, that the villages of
Haltivay, Street, and Lez:•:shain, in Kent, *ill derive some ce-
letrity, in the religious world, from having been the scenes of
ministerial foliour, when a youth, to a preacher who, fc‘r these
twelve years, hos held the delighted audituries of the Metro-
polis the willing captives q This Eloquence ! " Surely that
preacher has acquired some right to distinctive comm,..nda-
tion, who, for the long term of twelve yeins,—throgh all
the seasons, " the smiling Spring, the latighing Summer, ti7e
sober Autumn, and the frowning Winter,"—has continued
to fascinate the refined auditories of our metropolis and its
environs.

• " Venerable Institutiou "—I/octors will, notwithstanding,
stilt disagree. Spencer, according to him Let ter-, ptiblished since
his tleccae, e•idently peseii•ired lioxton to liumerton, notwith-
standing the iiitcsitor stiteriority of the hitter College. Ile p;:ttly
makes this electioti; as to limxton Academy, tir'st 6; oil the arcoont.
of its pleasantne.s ;" and next, principally, on account of the
thu ivx views uf jta Siiiipoi tens.'----ice Itatiles*6 Life viSpcilver. .•