bishopric of York, was offered by the Duke of Portland to Dr. Zouch, and refused. Delicacy alone prevents the Compiler of this Memoir from stating at large how arduous, even under the most favourable circumstances, it must have appeared to succeed a Prelate, who had united in the highest degree the reverence and the affection of every respectable Clergyman in his diocese. Before he finally resolved, however, to decline the mitre, he suffered (as he himself states in a Letter to a friend, dated College, Durham, December 7, 1807') "much agitation and disquietude of mind." The expanded sphere of utility which such an exaltation implies, as well in the weightier influence of example upon those whose examples are to influence the rest of the community, and the more authoritative inculcation of Christian doctrines and precepts, as in the enviable privilege of patronising unfriended genius and virtue, presents a combination of such praise-worthy objects to sway the choice; that the wisest and the best, in the full possession of their faculties, will not shrink from accepting it, however aweful a responsibility it may impose. But Dr. Zouch, who had truly pleaded great bodily infirmities in 1805, as a reason for being indulged in the non-performance of humbler duties, was too virtuous a man to sacrifice upon the altar of ambition his consistency and his truth. During the lapse of nearly three years those infirmities, he felt, had considerably increased: the importance and the anxieties of the episcopal office, the entire change of his professional situation, an abode in London

preferments, the rectory of Bishop-Wearmouth and the Sub-deanery of Lincoln. And the judgement and generosity, exerted thus honourably for both parties in appreciating and rewarding the Divine, to whom English Theology is under such deep obligation, have not overlooked or neglected his descendents.

as contrasted with the habits of a life previously spent in privacy, his attachment to his Durham residence where he gratefully admitted he enjoyed every comfort and convenience-these, and perhaps additional and unrecorded, motives drew from him a decisive Nolo Episcopari; and the judicious determination was recompensed by the return of his accustomed serenity.

At a period subsequent to this, he preached the Annual Visitation-Sermon at Scarborough; but, though strongly urged by the worthy Archdeacon (Dr. Waddilove, Dean of Ripon) and the Clergy to publish it, he declined complying with their solicitations. It contained a beautiful description of the innocent pleasures within the easy reach of almost every country-resident, the rapture arising out of the conscientious discharge of professional duty, and the delightful occupations of an elegant and learned leisure:* and it was

* Few have presented this object in a stronger light than the Rev. Sydney Smith, in his above quoted Visitation-Sermon, delivered at Malton before the Archbishop of York in 1809.-"When a Minister has fairly and conscientiously discharged the duties of his profession, a great portion of time must still remain on his hands: how is he to employ it? The Love of Knowledge will make him happy, by filling up his life-the hours fly before it--it produces eternal variety—it makes a man cheerful-it throws through his heart a wholesome current of passion-it gives an object, and a goal-it satisfies him, that he has done his best-it sweetens his temper with well-earned praise-it elevates his mind by constant exertion--it improves, and adorns, his whole nature. I am astonished that any reflecting man can trust himself in the solitude of the country, without clinging to the Love of Knowledge as his sheet-anchor. It must, necessarily, be the lot of many of us to live a good deal alone: and the effects of solitude upon his character, without such safeguard to recur to, no man can calculate. Fanaticism is often engendered in solitude, so is discontent; madness often broods there; low habits are sometimes formed there; incurable indolence naturally grows there," &c. &c.

And, again, with what emphasis and eloquence does he proceed :-Think how the Church is honoured by the honour of her Ministers; of the splendor

more particularly affecting, as the Preacher furnished at once the lesson and the example, and might have been correctly apostrophised in the lines of Flatman ;*

Happy old man! whose worth all mankind knows,

Except himself; who charitably shows

The ready road to virtue and to praise,

The road to many long and happy days!

Like his own Walton, indeed, he found by blessed experience that "a life of temperance, sobriety, and cheerfulness is naturally rewarded with length of days. Est enim quietè, et purè, et eleganter actæ ætatis placida ac lenis senectus. He came to the grave,

.........not shaken by the wind,

But ripely dropping from the sapless bough."+

After possessing to a high degree, and for a period considerably exceeding the ordinary duration of human

dor from time to time reflected upon the Establishment by the exertions of illustrious men, who have at one time been as obscure and as unknown as any of us. What the world principally expects of us is, Religion-religion in our lives, religion in our doctrines: but Knowledge has ever been graceful, and ornamental, in our profession; we have the most leisure for it's cultivation, and it is always expected from us. Knowledge, too, does not only adorn the Church, but it defends it: it produces that cogent reasoning, that luminous eloquence, and that classical purity, with which the Ministers of the Church have so often repelled the attacks of ignorant and presumptuous sectaries; and with which, I trust in God, they will ever be prepared to meet their assailants. No man should say, "How can I do this?" or, "How can I venture upon this, living in an obscure corner of the world!" If a man has it in him, he can do any thing any where," &c.

* Addressed to his "worthy friend, Mr. Isaac Walton, on his editing of Chalkhill's Thealma and Clearchus."

See, also, his last note on the Life of Bishop Sanderson.

life, Simonides' * quadruplet of enjoyments, and (what does not always accompany them) a "cheerful heart" disposing him to "taste them with joy," he died December 17, 1815, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was twice married, but left no issue. His first wife, Isabella, daughter of the Rev. John Emerson, Rector of Winston in the county of Durham, to whom he was united in 1772, he lost in 1804. His second, Margaret, sister of Mr. Brooke, late Somerset Herald, whom he married in 1807, survives to cherish the memory of his virtues.

The following short character of him is drawn up from a paper supplied by the piety of a valued friend.

- Dr. Zouch never exercised his abilities except with a view to the amelioration of his species, and the consequent glory of his Maker. In Biography, which was his favourite employment, he selected for illustration, or for original inquiry, the lives only of the wise and the virtuous. But it was not in this manner only, that he studied the good of mankind. To the numerous applicants for information and advice, of whatever age or condition of life, he always cheerfully opened his extensive stores of experience and information; and we have reason to know, that many of his literary contemporaries, who have since gone to a happier world, were indebted to his labours for a portion of their fame.

This oft-cited tetrastich some ascribe to Epicharmus: By Plato and Anaxandrides, as quoted in Athenæus, it is deemed anonymous. But Clement of Alexandria, and after him Theodoret, agree with the Scholiast on Lucian in referring it to Simonides.

Though as a divine he conscientiously deemed it to be his duty, no less than it was his delight, to devote the greatest part of his time to the Hebrew Scriptures, with which he mingled a certain portion of Chaldee and Arabic learning, few possessed a more elegant taste for classical literature, or a happier talent (in consequence of his extraordinary memory *) of applying passages from the ancient poets and historians, both to the important and the familiar incidents of the day. With the French and Italian languages, also, he was intimately acquainted, and occasionally drew largely upon them for the amusement of his leisure-hours.

"By a deafness, which began in early life and increased with age, wisdom was to him at one entrance almost "quite shut out:" yet such (unlike the common disposition of the deaf) was his cheerfulness in society, of which he was naturally very fond, that few ever found it irksome to assist in communicating to him the subjects of conversation; while in solitude his companions were those who speak to the eyes, not to the ears. And it having pleased God to bless him with abundant means of exercising hospitality, he deemed it a virtue which, as one of the most elegant of the Roman writers has observed, etiam studia ipsa præcipiunt.

'Sensible of the blessings of our Civil and Ecclesiastical Establishment, he was ever a strenuous opponent of innovation and fanaticism; but he considered mildness and argumentation, as the only legitimate means of supporting either religion or government. Of these he deemed the connexion so beautiful and necessary, and

* Tantas insuper memoriæ vires, ut per omnem vitæ decursum atque in maximá varietate studiorum, nullo ad eam adjumento aut uteretur aut desideraret; quasque res alii literarum moninuentis consignare volunt, ille in animo penitùs haberet insculptas. (Barford.)