e it not our
object to hasten on and sketch the ministerial model to which our last
number alluded, we could cheerfully halt for half an hour, and entertain
our readers and ourselves with the sweepings of Dr. Doddridge's Kibworth
study.

Suffice it to say that the protege of the good Dr. Clarke rewarded his
patron's kindness. His classical attainments were far above the usual
University standard, and he read with avidity the English philosophers
from Bacon down to Shaftesbury. He early exhibited that hopeful
propensity--the noble avarice of books. In his first half-yearly account
of nine pounds are entries for "King's Inquiry," and an interleaved New
Testament; and a guinea presented by a rich fellow-student, is invested
in "Scott's Christian Life." Nor was he less diligent in perusing the
stores of the Academy Library. In six months we find him reading sixty
volumes; and some of them as solid as Patrick's Exposition and
Tillotson's Sermons. With such avidity for information, professional and
miscellaneous, and with a style which was always elastic and easy, and
with brilliant talent constantly gleaming over the surface of unruffled
temper and warm affections, it is not wonderful that his friends hoped
and desired for him high distinction; but it evinces unusual and
precocious attainments, that, when he had scarcely reached majority, he
should have been invited to succeed Mr. Jennings as pastor at Kibworth,
and that whilst still a young man he should have been urged by his
ministerial brethren to combine with his pastorate the responsible
duties of a college tutor....

From such a catastrophe the hand of God saved Philip Doddridge. In 1729
he was removed to Northampton, and from that period may be dated the
consolidation of his character, and the commencement of a new and noble
career. The anguish of spirit occasioned by parting with a much-loved
people, and the solemn consciousness of entering on a more arduous
sphere, both tended to make him thoughtful, and that thoughtfulness was
deepened by a dangerous sickness. Nor in this sobering discipline must
we leave out of view one painful but salutary element--a mortified
affection. Mr. Doddridge had been living as a boarder in the house of
his predecessor's widow, and her only child--the little girl whom he had
found amusement in teaching an occasional lesson, was now nearly grown
up, and had grown up so brilliant and engaging, that the soft heart of
the tutor was terrib