the author of many pious works, some of which obtained great popularity, was born at King's-cliffe, Northamptonshire, in the year 1686. Having completed his school education, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1705; commenced bachelor in 1708; was elected a fellow of his college in 1711; and took his degree of master of arts in 1712. Soon after the accession of George I. being called upon to take the oaths, and sign the declaration prescribed by act of parliament, he refused, and in consequence vacated his fellowship in 1716, after which he was considered as a nonjuror. It appears that he had for some time officiated as a curate in London, but had obtained no ecclesiastical preferment. Soon after his resignation of his fellowship, he went to reside at Putney, as tutor to Edward Gibbon, father of the historian of the same name; but how long he remained in this situation has not been ascertained. In 1727, he founded at Cliffe an alms-house for the reception of two old helpless women, and a school for the instruction and clothing of fourteen girls. The money which he thus applied was, it seems, the gift of an unknown benefactor. Whilst standing at the door of a shop in London, he was accosted by a person he had never seen before, who, having inquired his name, as well as whether he was of King's-cliffe, and received a satisfactory answer on both points, put into his hands a sealed paper, containing a bank note for a thousand pounds. There is no evidence that this money was given him in trust for purposes of charity, and he is therefore fully entitled to the merit of having appropriated it for the benefit of the poor. It appears that, some time before 1740, he was instrumental in bringing about an intimacy between Mrs Hester Gibbon, the sister of his pupil, and Mrs Elizabeth Hutcheson, the widow of a gentleman of the Middle Temple. This circumstance, trifling as it may seem, decided the direction and character of his future life. These ladies, being of congenial sentiments, formed a plan of living together in the country, secluded from the world, and of assuming Mr Law as their chaplain, instructor, and amoner. With this view, they ultimately settled at King's-cliffe, in a house prepared for their reception by Mr Law, and which formed the only property that had been devised to him by his father. Here their whole income, after deducting necessary expenses, was employed in acts of beneficence to the needy and the afflicted, or in donations of larger amount to persons of a somewhat higher grade who had known better days, but whom misfortune had reduced to poverty. In this situation Law remained twenty years, and died on the 9th of April 1761, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

Gibbon, in his Miscellaneous Works, has drawn the character of Law in the happiest manner, and for once commended a man of piety, not only without irony, but even with a feeling approaching to affection. "In our family," says the historian, "he left the reputation of a worthy and pious man, who believed all that he professed, and practised all that he enjoined. The character of a nonjuror, which he maintained to the last, is a sufficient evidence of his principles in church and state; and the sacrifice of interest to conscience will always be respectable. His theological writings, which our domestic connexion has tempted me to peruse, preserve an imperfect sort of life, and I can pronounce with more confidence and knowledge on the merits of the author. His last compositions are darkly tinctured by the incomprehensible visions of Jacob Behmen; and his discourse on the absolute unlawfulness of stage-entertainments is sometimes quoted for a ridiculous intemperance of sentiment and language. But these sallicies of religious phrensy must not extinguish the praise which is due to Mr William Law as a wit and a scholar. His argument on topics of less absurdity is specious and acute, his manner is lively, his style forcible and clear; and, had not his vigorous mind been clouded by enthusiasm, he might be ranked with the most agreeable and ingenious writers of the times. While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme, he entered the lists on the subject of Christ's kingdom, and the authority of the priesthood; against the Plain Account of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, he resumed the combat with Bishop Hoadly, the object of Whig idolatry and Tory abhorrence; and at every weapon of attack and defence, the nonjuror, on the ground which is common to both, approves himself at least equal to the prelate. On the appearance of the Fable of the Bees, he drew his pen against the licentious doctrine that private vices are public benefits, and morality as well as religion must join in his ap- plaus. Mr Law's master-work, the *Serious Call*, is still read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid, but they are founded on the gospel; his satire is sharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life; and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of La Bruyère. If he finds a spark of piety in the reader's mind, he will soon kindle it to a flame; and a philosopher must allow that he exposes, with equal severity and truth, the strange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Christian world."

Mr Law's works amount to nine volumes octavo, comprising, besides a collection of letters, sixteen distinct treatises, which, however, it is unnecessary to enumerate, seeing they are all printed together. Although Law is best known as a devotional writer, and there can be no doubt that his *Serious Call*, and *Christian Perfection*, have proved eminently useful in leading many to think in earnest of religion, yet his merits as a controversial writer are of a very high order, and, in respect of style, wit, and argument, his letters to Bishop Hoadly are amongst the finest specimens of polemical composition to be found in our language.

(A.)