vocates--that common sense has
abandoned it altogether; it has by common consent been abandoned to
enthusiasts; and to assert its right to the name of a Science, would now
hazard the title of its advocate to rationality.

The life of Gilbert Wakefield is one among the many instances of
vigorous learning and strong intellect, made a source of misery to their
possessor by a want of common prudence. His whole life might be
characterized in three words--courage, caprice, and misfortune. After
having attained a Cambridge fellowship, acquired distinction in
classical criticism, and entered into the Church, he suddenly began to
entertain notions hostile to the liturgy, and became classical tutor of
the dissenting academy of Warrington. For ten years he laboured in this
obscure vocation, or with private pupils, now chiefly turning his
classical studies to the illustration of the New Testament. At the end
of this period, he became classical tutor of the dissenting College in
Hackney. But even Dissent could not tolerate his opinions; for a volume
which he published, tending to lower the value of public worship, gave
offence, and speedily dissolved the connexion. His classical knowledge
was now brought into more active use, and he published Annotations on
the Greek tragedies, and editions of some of the Roman poets.
Unfortunately, the popular follies on the subject of the French
Revolution tempted him to try his pen as a Pamphleteer; and a letter
written in reply to the Bishop of Llandaff, rendered him liable to a
prosecution: he was found guilty, and sentenced to an imprisonment of
two years in Dorchester jail. This imprisonment was unfortunately fatal;
for whether from his confinement, or the vexation of mind which must be
the natural consequence, his liberation found him exhausted in strength,
though still the same bold and indefatigable being which he had been
through the whole course of his wayward life. Still he had many friends,
and between the spirit of party, and the more honourable spirit of
personal regard, the large subscription of L5000 was raised for his
family. But his career was now rapidly drawing to a close. He had been
but a few months relieved from his prison, when his constitution sank
under an attack of typhus, and he died in his forty-sixth year, at an
age which in other men is scarcely more than the commencement of their
maturity--is actually the most vigorous period of all their powers; and
in an undecay