SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Btosaarar, Memoirs of the late James Halley, A.B., Student of Theology. Jelaistene,Rilisberyk.

2101LICULT11111, The Book of the Farm. By Henry Stephens. Editor of " The Quarterly Journal of

Agriculture." Part I ' Blackwood and Soar. A Popular Treatise on Agricultural Chemistry: intended for the Use of the Prac- tical Farmer. By Charles Squarey, Chemist. Ridgway.

POETRY,

Byrnes and Roundelayes. By T. Noel Smith. The Cottager's Sabbath ; a Poem. By Samuel Mallen. With seventeen steel Vignettes, engraved by W. R. Smith, from designs by H. Warren Paonvevrvz ARM On the Production of Isinglass along the coasts of India, with a Notice of its Fisheries. By J. F. Royle, M.D., &c. &c. Author of an Essay on the Productive Resources of India, &c Allen and Co.

MEMOIRS OF JAMES HALLEY.

ALTHOUGH the editors of these Memoirs have overrated the im- portance of their subject, and overdone their work, the volume is not without attraction or utility. The character of HALT Fr, who if not a wonder, was by no means an every-day person, is a sub- ject of contemplation in itself; his career is not devoid of interest or moral ; his case in a medical point of view is suggestive of useful instruction ; and his correspondence affords a variety of glimpses of the climate, country, and society of Madeira, more frequent, if not fuller, than could be furnished by a mere tourist.

Jesics HALLEY was born at Glasgow, in 1814. His parents,

though persons in humble life, paid great attention to the educa- tion of their children ; and JAMES, after passing through the Gram- mar-School with credit, but not with much distinction, entered the University in 1826. Here his industry was great, and his success proportional ; carrying off, in the course of six or seven years, prizes in all the different classes, but especially excelling in Greek. In addition to the regular studies of the place, he engaged in teach- ing to maintain himself; wrote occasionally for the Presbyterian Review; and became a member of various societies, political, cha- ritable, and religious : his mode of life, either in itself or the turgid narrative of his reverend biographers, furnishing a singular picture of an active persevering student, of a University genius conceiting himself a most important man, and of youths hardly beyond the age of English schoolboys volunteering themselves into public characters, and carrying on with ludicrous gravity " the form of mock debate." After about ten years' residence at Glasgow, during the latter part of which time he finally determined on entering the holy ministry, JAMES HALLEY departed for Edinburgh, in order to get rid of the impediments to regular study which his numerous Glasgow acquaintances and engagements created. The habit of excessive labour, which he had followed at Glasgow, he continued at Edinburgh : his health in consequence soon began to fail, his constitution having been previously undermined ; and within little more than a twelvemonth (1837) he was ordered to Madeira, as the only chance of preserving life ; a subscription of some Glasgow friends furnishing the funds. Here he lingered about three years, in a most surprising state, his right lung having wasted away, and the left being so extensively diseased that not above one third of it was supposed to be working. In this condition, he not only bore the voyage home and seemed to improve by it, but lived nearly eight months after his return to Glasgow : he died on the 16th March 1841.

In this account, it may be said, there is little peculiarly differing

from others who annually work themselves to death. If the case of JAMES HALLEY be closely looked at, however, it will be seen that there is this distinction : Krim WHITE and many others appear to have been predisposed to consumption ; their brief exer- tions only developed a latent disease, which the excitement or cares of business, or some unlucky atmospheric exposure, might have equally produced. On the other hand, HALLEY'S constitution Weems to have been remarkably vigorous : it sustained him through more than ten years of excessive application ; stimulated, increased, and at last enforced by solemn compacts with himself entered in his journal, each one more stringent than the last, as to the hours he should devote to different kinds of employment. One of these self-engagements, entered into at Glasgow, furnishes a good enough example of the character of the person and his course of study- ., 1 have found too minute a subdivision of time generally an evil, begetting a constraint of which one is impatient, and rendering it so difficult to act up to the prescribed scheme, that one is often tempted altogether to give up exertion in sullen despair. I shall therefore state generally what I am to do in a week ; giving myself full latitude to apply on one day to this, and another to that, as convenience or necessity shall dictate.

" In sleep I shall spend six hours daily, and no more ; in meals one hour. These, multiplied by five, and deducted from the days between Monday and Friday inclusive, will leave in these days, 85 hours. These shall be disposed as follows—

81

" The first five of these departments are to have at least the time above spe- cified ; the last five, at most. Saturday shall be spent in the preaching society, a) Devotion, and reading the Scriptures 6) Divinity and sermon-writing

c) Inquiry into the Scripture meanings of " Pride " d) Inquiry into the Poor-law question .. 10 e) Copying old essays, (the reward of indolence,) practical read-

ing, and miscellanea Att., 15

(f) Teaching (during September)

y) Divinity Hall library h) Meetings of Church and Sabbath School Societies, &c 0 Church and Sabbath school business ) German

Hours.

5 10 10 7 4 6 4 10

in preparing for my Sabbath classes, and in making up for deficiencies during the week.

" Every evening, beginning with tomorrow, (Friday the 11th,) before going to bed I shall insert in this book a statement of the books read by me, and of the work done; and every Saturday evening I shall sum np the whole, and compare the result with my plan. I shall also inscribe in the other end of this book a list of the books breed, with their sizes, and the date on which I finished them or left off reading them. " And may I have grace given me to be found faithful; and the praise shall be ((not mine, but) His, who worketh all things according to the counsel of his J. H." He appears to have found no little difficulty in keeping up to the spirit of these engagements;. and shortly after, at Edinburgh, he entered into another- " Cat it down ; why cumbereth it the ground.' Acknowledging how justly this sentence might have gone forth against me, and praising that grace which has hitherto spared me amidst unparalleled unfruitfulness, I have sat down this evening seriously to consider my ways. The record contained in the preceding pages might give ample grounds for the humiliation of a whole lifetime. I pray that God the Spirit would use it, and all my past shortcomings, as the means of making me truly broken and contrite in heart. And now, after so- lemnly requesting His guidance, and in dependence on His strength alone for the fulfilment of my resolutions, in order, for the future, to walk more worthy of my calling as an aspirant to the holy ministry, I resolve,

" 1. To read through the entire Scriptures—the New Testament in Greek— in six months, beginning from Monday next the 21st November. " 2. To read, with special prayer, every Monday morning (when at home) the Scripture denunciations which I have collected against indolence.

"3. To be occupied in study eight hours every day, (except Saturday, on which some relaxation may be taken,) exclusively of the six hours devoted to classes and teaching; or, failing the eight hours, at least to come as near it as sitting till four in the morning will make me.

"4. To beware more of the snare of visiting.

" 5. To endeavour habitually to remember that ' the time is short,' and that outer darkness' is reserved for the servant who buries his talent.

" These things, by God's help, I promise to do. J. H."

As his health began imperceptibly to fail, sleep (and no wonder) seems to have been that portion of the time in which he found it most difficult to keep his engagements. It was not merely waking and getting up, but when up he was listless, till he had roused himself by pouring cold water over his head,—a temperance mode of dram-drinking.

If these sort of exertions are necessary to excellence, they must of course be persisted in by those who desire to attain it, health and life being chanced : but we cannot think that they are. We do not believe that, for regular study, the mind can continue at- tentive for any profitable purpose such a length of time. It is crammed, not fed by nutriment. A man who has made some pro- ficiency in a subject, may do a great deal at a long spell, provided the stimulus be sufficient ; but we doubt the utility of long-sua• tained efforts in systematic acquirement, or even in general reading. We believe the books which eventually profit most, are those which are read leisurely and with thorough digestion, and recurred to again and again. But it needs only to glance at the first table, to see that some of the things which HALLEY pursued might have been dis- pensed with, and others postponed. The omission of the Poor-law study would have 'given an hour and a half a day to recreation, and with that of German and the meetings of societies three hourti and a half In these times of competition and sedentary habits, we fancy it is not so much exhortation to excessive study that is needed, as advice to young men how to study, so as to prevent them from degenerating themselves into hothouse plants.

Nor did HALLEY'S constitution break up suddenly : he was warned by indigestion some time before consumption developed itself; and when it was confirmed he acted without due discre- tion. His medical advisers had forbidden much study at Madeira; and with the letter of this be appears to have complied, but only to throw himself into the excitement and lungs-exertion of prayer- meetings, Scriptural expositions, psalm-singing, and private religious visiting. Had this been a solitary error, it might have been passed unnoticed ; but it is lamentable to glean from his correspondence and diaries, that other invalids resorting to Madeira were ex- posed to similar injurious influences. One of his coadjutors in this course was an invalid clergyman of the Anglican Church ; and we infer that his indiscreet exertions increased his complaint, if they have not led to a fatal result. Some members of the Church of Scotland wished to send out a divine, the English minister being a Puseyite, and preaching " Popery." They pitched upon a man who had been ordered to a warmer climate for his health : the result that might have been foreseen took place—the minister was unable to continue his duty ; whether he was able to stop in time does not appear. Nor is this evil, we should infer, confined to professors of theology, but extends to the lay visitants ; a point to be considered by a medical adviser in recommending Madeira, as this general excitement of the system and forced exer- tion of the lungs may in some cases do more harm than the climate could do good, unless the patient be emphatically warned against it. The case of HALLEY furnishes a remarkable instance of an able individual lost to his friends and society by an injudicious course of life,—needless over-exertion in study, and equally needless exer- tion in ministering without a call ; if indeed calling requires life to be sacrificed on casual instances, when proper rest might secure many years of life to be regularly exercised in works of usefulness. We do not, however, agree with the editors of these Memoirs in the estimate they seem inclined to put upon their hero. Had JAMES HALLEY lived, he would have attained collegiate reputa- tion, or some distinction among the section of a sect ; but we doubt if he could have risen beyond this. He had a wonderful memory, untiring industry, great accuracy of mind, or, as the phre. nologists would phrase it, the organ of order; together with no small share of self-opinion and resolute will,—qualities whisk-urban

they meet together, subdue lesser minds that come into contact with them. These powers do well enough for a commentator, a college principal, or the head of a section ; but the elements of greatness or popularity are wanting. Though writing so much, we do not see in this selection from the cream of his papers, any thing denoting depth of thought and strength of diction, or even their germ. His incessant reading gave him many subordinate ideas, but not the essential ones decisive of the matter, which must be struck out by meditation : his constant practice in writing produced a fluent outpouring of sufficient words, but no force, delicacy, or refinement of style ; which can only be attained by slow and care- ful efforts.

In imagination, and that adaptability which excites popular feeling by showing it, he was deficient. Of this deficiency he was painfully conscious, but attributed it to a wrong cause. At Madeira, his coadjutor LANGFORD used to exhort from texts at the prayer- meetings, and HALLET to expound them, his precise reason and somewhat frigid temperament unfitting him for enthusiastic bursts: but he assigned his failing to a want of grace,—a cause which he sometimes feared would prevent him from entering the ministry even had he survived. A similar condition attended him to the last. His intellect was convinced of the truths of Christianity, but his temperament prevented him from feeling those ecstacies which accompany a more sanguine and excited constitution ; and though the want of this sometimes raised misgivings,- yet the con- clusions of his reason supported him in confidence at the last great triaL