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    sleep , which usually lasted about two hours , he rose to obtain . ap easier position for a short time on the floor or upon two chairs ; and sometimes he had to repeat this more than once . His sufr ferings were so acute , that in his efforts to assuage them , he habituated himself to take the astonishing quantity of one thousand dJ ^ JLJ ^ J-5 ^ cannot be much surprised that his piety had a tincture of moroseness about it ; but it was no ordinary failh and strength of mind that sustained him amid so many sufferings , and filled him with steadfast trust and resignation . He is a rare example of the efficacy of religious principle , and of the power of mind over the body ; and now that his life has become matter of history , will add another and a brighter star to that constellation ot worthies , in which a Dqddridge , a Watts , and a Philip Henry occupy a conspicuous position .

    In his pulpit exhortations , the peculiarities of his theology were not prominently set forward . In speculation , as he said of hirnr self , he was a predestinanan ; but he preached Arminianism . He appealed to ¦ all those motives and considerations which a believer in the divine unity would have recourse to ; another proof in our deliberate conviction , that orthodoxy , in the hands , of wellinstruGted and well-disciplined instructors is often unconsciously smoothed down to the level of Unitarian ism . If he does occasionally insist upon the efficacy of Christ ' s death , the topic seems superadded to his argument , it does not flow naturally from it ; it - appears introduced to save the credit of his orthodoxy ; a clear presumption that the ministers of our denomination hold fast all w the essentials of Christian holiness , and that what they discard are ? only excrescences and incurnbrances .

    His intellectual attainments were equal to his religious ones . Almost every variety of knowledge seems to have gained his attention , lie was an assiduous and even critical reader of the classics to the end of his , life , of whom he specially admired Plato and Demosthenes . He preferred Virgil fat beforeHomer . His forte perhaps lay in metaphysics , and a congenial taste led to a friendship-with Sir James , . Mackintosh , on many accounts highly honourable to both . We see from him that learning , so far from diminishing the usefulness of the Christian pastor , adds to it when rightly applied in an unspeakable degree . One word more , and we will release the patience of our readers . Six large-8 vo . volumes must necessarily be beyond the means of many to purchase ; and of those who could afford it , few would perhaps choose to make in one author so cumbrous an addition to their library , especially as the books contain much that is of confined interest . A single volume ,. or perhaps two volumes , comprising the sermons published by himself , along with the most approved of his other compositions , would be the richest contribution to the - religious world it has received for many a day . And

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    WRITINGS OF ROBERT HTALL . 265

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1833, page 265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2621/page/9/