of public sympathy on the part of universal Manchester-the most important city in the island next after London. No men could have been found who were less fitted to act as champions in a duel on behalf of Christianity. Mr. H—— was dreadfully commonplace; dull, dreadfully dull; and by the necessity of his nature, incapable of being in deadly earnest, which his splendid antagonist at all times was. His encounter, therefore, with Mrs. Lee, presented the distressing spectacle of an old, toothless, mumbling mastiff, fighting for the household to which he owed allegiance, against a young leopardess fresh from the forests. Every touch from her, every velvety pat, drew blood. Far different was Mr. Clowes: holy, visionary, apostolic, he could not be treated disrespectfully. No man could deny him a qualified homage. But for any polemic service, he wanted the taste, the training, and the particular sort of euridition required. Neither would such advantages, if he had happened to possess them, have at all availed him in a case like this. Horror, blank horror, seized him upon seeing a woman, a young woman, a woman of captivating beauty, whom God adorned so eminently with gifts of person and of mind, breathing sentiments that to him seemed fresh from the mintage of hell. He could have apostrophized her, (as long afterwards he himself told me,) in the words of Shakespeare's Juliet

• Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical !'

for he was one of those who never think of Christianity as the subject of defence. Could sunshine, could light, could the glories of the dawn, call for defence? Not a thing to be defended, but as a thing to be interpreted, as a thing to be illuminated, did Christianity exist for him. He, therefore, was even more unserviceable as a champion against the deliberate impeacher of Christian evidence, than my reverend guardian.

“Thus it was that he himself explained his own position, in after days, when I had reached my sixteenth year, and visited him on terms of friendship, as close as can ever have existed between a boy and a man already grey-headed. Him and his noiseless parsonage, the pensive abode for sixty years of religious reverie and anchoritick self-denial, I have described further on. In some limited sense he belongs to our literature; for he was, in fact, the introducer of Swedenborg to this country; as being himself partially the translator of Swedenborg; and, still more, as organising a patronage to other people's translations; and also, I believe, as republishing the original Latin works of Swedenborg. To say that of Mr. Clowes was, until lately, but another way of describing him as a delirious dreamer; at present (1858) I presume the reader to be aware that Cambridge has, within the last few years, unsettled, and even revolutionised our estimates of Swedenborg as a philosopher. That man indeed whom Emerson ranks as one amongst his inner consistory of intellectual potentates, cannot be the absolute trifler that Kant (who knew him only by the most trivial of pretensions) eighty years ago, supposed him. Assuredly Mr. Clowes was no trifler, but lived habitually a life of power, though in a world of religious mysticism and of apocalyptic visions. To him, being such a man by nature and habit, it was in effect the lofty Lady Geraldine from Coleridge's 'Christabelle,' that stood before him in that infidel lady. A magnificent witch she was, like the Lady Geraldine; having the same superb beauty; the same power of throwing spells over the ordinary gazer; and yet at intervals unmasking to some solitary, unfascinated spectator, the same dull blink of a snaky eye; and revealing through the most fugitive of gleams, a traitoress couchant, beneath what else to all others seemed the form of a lady, armed with incomparable pretensions--one that

was

'Beautiful exceedingly,

Like a lady from a far countrie.'"

NO. XXXVII.-VOL. IV.

5

Thomas De Quincey was the son of a merchant engaged in foreign commerce, and was born at Manchester, in 1786. His father died of pulmonary consumption before Thomas was seven years old. His education, however, was not seriously affected by the occurrence. He passed through a succession of schools, and was distinguished by his eminent knowledge of Greek. At fifteeu he was pointed out by his master to a stranger, in the remarkable words "That boy could harangue an Athenian mob better than you or I could address an English one."

The Daily News, in a recent notice of De Quincey, says, "he set his heart upon going to college earlier than his guardians thought proper; and, on his being disappointed in this matter, he ran away from his tutor's house, and was lost for several months-first in Wales, and afterwards in London. He was then sixteen. His whole life presents no more remarkable evidence of his constant absorption in introspection, than the fact that while tortured with hunger in the streets of London for many weeks, and sleeping (or rather lying awake with cold and hunger) on the floor of an empty house, it never once occurred to him to earn money. As a classical corrector of the press, and in other ways, he might no doubt have obtained employment; but it was not till afterwards asked why he did not, that the idea ever entered his mind. How he starved, how he would have died but for a glass of spiced wine in the middle of the night on some steps in Soho-square, the Opium Eater told all the world above thirty years since; and also, of his entering college; of the love of wine generated by the comfort it had yielded in his days of starvation; and again, of the disorder of the functions of the stomach which naturally followed, and the resort to opium as a refuge from the pain. During a long course of years De Quincey went on dreaming always-sometimes scheming works of high value and great efficacy which were never to exist; promising largely to booksellers and others, and failing through a weakness so deep-seated that it should have prevented his making any promises. When his three daughters were grown up, and his wife was dead, he lived in a pleasant cottage at Lasswade, near Edinburgh—well known by name to those who have never seen its beauties, as the scene of Scott's early married life and first great achievements in literature. There, while the family fortunes were expressly made contingent on his abstinence from his drug, De Quincey did abstain, or observe moderation. His flow of conversation was then the delight of old acquaintance and admiring strangers, who came to hear the charmer, and to receive the impression, which could never be lost, of the singular figure and countenance and the finely modulated voice, which were like nothing else in the world."

The late J. E. Hawkins, C. E.

In the February No. of the Intellectual Repository for 1859, was a notice of the removal to the spiritual world of Mr. G. B. Flowers, in which he is mentioned as being an acquaintance of Mr. J. I, Hawkins; and the Editor, in a foot note, remarks:"If some friend could supply us with a notice of this truly ingenious and excellent man [Mr. Hawkins], we should feel much obliged."

Upon this intimation a gentleman has exerted himself to obtain the information required, and has sent to the Repository the result of his labours; he has also favoured us with a copy of his communication, and in it, with his permission, we have incorporated some particulars with which we were acquainted. Our Correspondent signs "G. C."

John Isaac Hawkins was the son of Isaac Hawkins, watch and clock-maker, of

Taunton, Somersetshire. The father belonged to the Wesleyan connexion, and during the son's childhood, the celebrated Rev. John Wesley was always a welcome guest when visiting that part of the country on his ministerial circuits. When about 21 years of age, Mr. Hawkins left his father's home to "seek his fortune" in the United States of America, and settling in Philadelphia, entered one of the Colleges, (supposed to be the University of Pennsylvania) as a student of Medicine. His natural bent and talents, however, lay in mechanical and scientific pur. suits; and his medical studies appear soon to have been abandoned. While in America, in 1798, he married an American lady, and five years afterwards he came over with his wife on a visit to England, where she died in 1838. This visit lasted much longer than was originally intended, for circumstances not favouring his return, he remained in this country somewhere about fifty years! When he did return, he took with him a second wife; who, by his departure into the spiritual world at New York about three or four years ago, is left a widow, but without any family. During his long stay in England, Mr. Hawkins' mechanical and scientific bias manifested itself in many inventions, some of a useful and lasting character, and some of minor importance, which have fallen into desuetude. Among the various results of his ingenuity, was an instrument for taking profiles, which he afterwards improved, and adapted to the art of sculpture, but which is now in a great measure superseded by the introduction of photography, &c. ;—a pentagraph, or instrument for multiplying copies of manuscripts at the time of writing, which may have been the origin of the present so-called manifold-writer ;--also improvements in the construction of pianofortes, to which he for some time devoted his special attention;-the claviole, a musical instrument of the organ-kind, played on by keys, and by a combination of very ingenious mechanism, was made to perform as a full band of stringed instruments; a machine for filtering water through charcoal; -the present improved method of refining sugar;—the ever-pointed pencil;-the everlasting gold pen;-a new method of writing music so as to afford greater facility in the reading of it; artificial ears to assist the deaf;—a beer-tap by which a servant could draw only the quantity of liquor ordered;-an instrument for writing in the dark; and numerous other useful and curious contrivances; and of which he formed a museum, and publicly exhibited them at his then residence, No. 79, Great Titchfield Street; but, as is too often the case with men of fertile imagination and inventive genius, his discoveries tended but little to his own pecuniary benefit. To see their ideas realized and brought into ultimates, seems, with them, to be the very height of their ambition.

It is not certain, if the idea of the Thames Tunnel did not originate with him, for it is known that he was at about the time engaged in something of the kind, in which brick-built cylinders or tubes, of certain lengths, were sunk and united under water, with the view of forming a tunnel; but as they got damaged by anchors being dropped upon them, and were subject to other inconveniences, the scheme was abandoned for some years; but eventually resulted in the adoption of the elder Brunel's plan, (with whom Mr. Hawkins was intimately acquainted,) of boring under the Thames, and thus of forming The Thames Tunnel. We have a vivid recollection of hearing Mr. Hawkins state that he had dined under the bed of the Thames on meat cooked there.

Mr. Hawkins was especially fond of music and sculpture; and indeed of every pursuit in the arts and sciences which presented novelty; and he was ever good-naturedly ready to impart his knowledge to others, whatever their age or condition. He was for many years a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers; of the British Association for the advancement of Science; of the Phrenological Society, and of

others; and took a lively interest in their proceedings. During all the period of which we have been speaking, he was engaged in his professional duties as a civil engineer and as an agent for patents.

Mr. Hawkins's connexion with the New Church, dates from a very early period: for Mr. Hindmarsh writes, that "Mr. Isaac Hawkins, afterwards an ordained "minister of the New Church, and his son, John Issac Hawkins, a distinguished "mechanist and engineer," were among the gentlemen who attended the society, called The Theosophical Society, which met at chambers in New Court, Temple, London, in 1783. The father attended the Conference in 1789; and the son became a very active member of the church generally, as well as of the society of which the late Rev. M. Sibly was minister, where he frequently performed the duties of organist as well as of Committee-man. He was also a member of the Printing Society, and the other Institutions of the Church. He was also an able and diligent student of the Writings. At the building of the first place of worship in the Waterloo Road, he afforded much assistance; but some new plan of construction, which he introduced, did not prove so successful as he anticipated, and the building had to be pulled down and another erected in its place. The interesting particulars in page 244, of Mr. Noble's Appeal, in reference to the well-known communication from Swedenborg to John Wesley, were furnished by Mr. Hawkins, who had ample means of vouching their authenticity. It is known that he has written some account of his long and active life, which is believed to be in the possession of his widow. It is hoped that it will be forthcoming, as its publication would no doubt give light to many interesting particulars connected with the early days of the church.

Departure into the Spiritual World.

ON Sunday, December 18, 1859, at Brighton, Mr. WILLIAM FULLFORD, Surgeon to the Public Dispensary, in Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn, aged 44. Mr. Fullford had been attacked with an inflammatory internal complaint, from which he was supposed to have recovered; and under advice he proceeded to Brighton to regain his health and strength; but in vain. He was the second son of Mr. Edmund Fullford, an active member of the Church, belonging to the Society under the ministration of the late Rev. M. Sibly; and well known as a useful member of some of the Committees of the Institutions of the Church, and who was removed hence about eight or nine years since. In his early years, Mr. William Fullford accompanied his father to the services in Friar Street Chapel; and though by circumstances withdrawn from his earlier connections, he always retained a favourable impression of the doctrines, and frequently attended the anniversaries of the Society for the Printing and Publishing the Writings of Swedenborg.

Wedding.

Nov. 13th, at All Saints' Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by the Rev. Mr. Parker, Mr. CHARLES W. LEADBEATER, Chemist, &c., of Limekiln Lane Society Liverpool, to Miss DRYDEN of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

ERRATA.

Page 415, line 8, for Prince (King) of Prussia read Prince of Prussia

A SERMON BY THE LATE REV. M. SIBLY.

PERHAPS no subject has more occupied the mind of the humble Christian, than the one now before us, it being no uncommon thing for persons in soul distress, to judge themselves included amongst the deplorable and unhappy who have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, which can never be forgiven in this world, nor in that which is to come.

The variety of opinions, hitherto formed on this point, are too numerous to enter into here, nor perhaps would it be of any essential use; suffice it to say, that this subject, as to its true and genuine import, together with the rest of the Word, could not be known but by a previous knowledge of the science of correspondences, now revived to the church in the Lord's second advent; without which, the whole of the Word, notwithstanding men's fanciful interpretations of it, is a sealed book; and though volume has been written upon volume, as expositions of the sacred oracles, for want of that knowledge, they have only served to interrupt and foul the pure streams of heavenly truth, flowing from the Lord through the Word, in its entrance into the heart of the poor and needy; who, although they may have sought earnestly and constantly for water, found none; and instead of simple

* "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come."-Matt, xii. 81, 82.

NO. XXXVIII.-VOL. IV.

7