not a scholar, nor a man of fashion with the attainments of a scholar, who knew Mr. Nicholls intimately, who would not willingly have adopted the words of the poet of Syracuse, and hailed him as the

Τον Μωσαις φίλον ανδρα, τον 8 Χαρίτεσσιν απέχθη.

He was passionately, perhaps rather too much, devoted to musick. He had studied it accurately as a science, under some of the greatest masters; and in the pursuit and cultivation of it he was untired and indeed indefatigable. But he generously communicated his knowledge and his taste to congenial, and particularly to young, minds, in which he saw and marked the promise of genius and the ardour of application.

His manners, his habits, and his inclinations, naturally led him to frequent the most polished society; but study and letters rendered the intervals of solitude useful and agreeable. In his

* "Friend of each Muse, and favourite of each Grace."

sphere of life and action, by his instruction, by his influence and by his example, he diffused over an extensive district an elegance and a refinement unknown before he resided in it. As a county magistrate (one of the most important offices which a private gentleman can undertake) he was diligent and regular in his attendance; and in the discharge of his duty in that function, which is indeed the unbought defence of civilized society and unknown to other countries, he was useful, discerning, temperate, and impartial.

To those friends who visited Mr. Nicholls, and partook of his refined hospitality and of his entertainments at Blundeston, it may possibly have appeared that his mode of life required a large command of fortune, and that an ample patrimony could alone supply the display of such generosity. Yet his inheritance, which was inconsiderable, and his professional income, which was not large, defrayed the whole. He had indeed the most discerning œconomy which I ever observed in any

man; an œconomy, which neither precluded liberality to his equals nor, what is far more important, charity to his inferiours. The fidelity, the attachment, and the conscientious services of his valuable domesticks, some of whom had grown old under his roof, made them rather humble friends than servants; and, by the faithful discharge of their several duties, they relieved him from attentions which otherwise must have been required. But his eye, his mind, and his heart pervaded all his concerns. In no private duty was he deficient; nor was any thing considered as too minute for his own inspection, if he thought it necessary; and he was aware of the wisdom which dictated this important aphorism, that "he who despiseth little things shall fall by little and little." In the direction of his house, in the embellishment of the rural scenery, in his library, in his studies, and in all things which produced that integrity, order, and harmony, which proved that all was well within, and that every end, which he

wished, was accomplished; in all these, I would repeat it with earnestness, he relied invariably on that " magnum vectigal," that possession in reserve, that subsidiary strength, the parent of peace, the guardian of private life, and the support of all publick government, DISCREET ECONOMY.

In that sacred and bounden duty, which is owing from a son to a parent, he was eminently exemplary. Having lost his father, so very early in life as scarcely to have seen him, his attention and reverential attachment to his mother, to her extremest age, was singularly affectionate, unremit ting, and unvaried: and, with the pious choice of his illustrious friend Mr. Gray, " in death he was not divided." He always expressed his intention, and he directed it by his will, that one grave should enclose their remains; and it does enclose them. I myself, in company with another friend, solemnly attended them through the church-way path, with christian resignation and with quiet

obsequies, to the house appointed for all living.

Yes; it is finished:

Nihil oh tibi, amice, relictum:

Omnia solvuntur jam Matri, et funeris umbris !

If such a desire be indeed a weakness, it is at least honourable to our common nature, and I envy not the heart of him who is disposed to censure it.

Of his higher and important professional duties Mr. Nicholls was neither unmindful nor neglectful. He was regular in the discharge of his sacred offices as a clergyman in his parishes, in which he generally resided between nine and ten months every year, and during his residence he read prayers and preached twice every Sunday. There was a peculiar propriety and decorum in his manner of reading, and though his mode of preaching was not peculiarly eloquent, it was impressive and often affecting. The matter of his sermons tended more to the discussion and en