at vital light, which the preceding hour had shone in flattering
brightness, promising duration; (such is often _the cunning flattery of
nature_), that light, which through half a century, had diffused its
radiance and its warmth so widely; that light in which penury had been
cheered, in which science had expanded; to whose orb poetry had brought
all her images; before whose influence disease had continually
retreated, and death so often "turned aside his levelled dart!"[95] That
Dr. Darwin, as to his religious principles or prejudices, displayed
great errors of judgment in his _Zoonomia_, there can be no doubt. An
eminent champion of Christianity, truly observed, that Dr. Darwin "was
acquainted with more links in the chain of _second_ causes, than had
probably been known to any individual, who went before him; but that he
dwelt so much, and so _exclusively_ on second causes, that he too
generally seems to have forgotten that there is a first." For these
errors he must long since have been called to his account, before one
who can appreciate those errors better than we can. Though the _Accusing
Spirit_ must have blushed when he gave them in, yet, let us hope, that
the _Recording Angel_, out of mercy to his humane heart, and his many
good and valuable qualities, may have blotted them out for ever.

REV. WILLIAM GILPIN, who, as Mr. Dallaway, in his Observations on the
Arts, observes, "possesses unquestionably the happy faculty to paint
with words;" and who farther highly compliments him in his supplementary
chapter on Modern Gardening, annexed to his enriched edition of Mr.
Walpole's Anecdotes. The Topographer says he "describes with the
language of a master, the artless scenes of uncultivated nature." Mr.
Walpole in his postscript to his Catalogue of Engravers, after
premising, that it might, perhaps, be worth while "to melt down this
volume and new cast it," pays this tribute to him: "Were I of authority
sufficient to name my successor, or could prevail on him to condescend
to accept an office which he could execute with more taste and ability;
from whose hands could the public receive so much information and
pleasure as from the author of the _Essay on Prints_, and from the
_Tours_, &c.? And when was the public ever instructed by the pen and
pencil at once, with equal excellence in the style of both, but by Mr.
Gilpin?"

Had Mr. Gilpin written nothing more than his "Lectures on the
Catechism," that alone would have