he made a rapid and very successful proficiency in the study of literature and jurisprudence, at the university in his native city. The first preferment which he received, was a canonry of Bologna; after which he was appointed professor of civil and canon law at the university. In this situation he acquired such high fame by his lectures and publications, that he was commonly called the new Alciati, since he seemed to keep that eminent civilian constantly in his view, as a model for his imitation, and to be distinguished by similar judgment and good taste. Being led on some occasion to visit Rome, cardinal Alexander Farnese, who had been his fellow-student at Bologna, and was just appointed perpetual legate of Avignon, nominated him governor of Vaisson in the county of Venaissin. While Paleotti was on the road to his government, receiving intelligence of the death of his mother, he returned to Rome, and, after apologising to the cardinal for declining it, from the necessity that he was under of attending to the affairs of his family, resumed the professor's chair at Bologna. The Farnese family, however, were resolved to make his fortune, and obtained for him the post of auditor of the rota, when he was only thirty-three years of age. When pope Pius IV. opened the council of Trent, he sent Paleotti thither in the capacity of proctor and counsellor to his legates, who took no step of importance without his advice. Of this council Paleotti wrote a "History," still remaining in manuscript, of which Pallavicini freely availed himself in his work on the same subject. After the breaking up of this council, he returned to his office at Rome, which he held till the year 1565, when pope Pius IV. raised him to the dignity of the purple. By pope Pius V. he was created bishop of Bologna, and that see was erected into an archbishopric by the same pope, to do honour both to Paleotti and his native country. On his conduct in this dignity the highest commendations are bestowed by his biographers, who observe that a kind of rivalship seemed to exist between him and the great cardinal Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, who should most diligently discharge the duties of a good pastor. So useful and exemplary was Paleotti in his diocese, that it was not without reluctance that the popes summoned him from it to attend consistories, or other business, at Rome. He died at Rome in 1597, when about seventythree years of age. He was the author of several works of considerable merit, on subin antiquities, jurisprudence, and mo jects a PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA, very a very eminent composer of church-music, was born in 1529, at Palestrina in Italy, the ancient Præneste. His instructor in the musical science is said to have been one Gaudio Mell, a Fleming, in which name some have recognized Claude Gondimel, a musician of Franche Comté; but the identity of these is a point of uncertainty. Of Giovanni's early life nothing: is known; but it appears, that in 1555 he was admitted into the pope's chapel in kome. He had already formed that simple, grave, and noble style for which he became so famous; for we are told that the pope and conclave having been scandalized at the light and injudicious manner in which the mass had been usually set and performed, had determined to banish music in parts entirely from the church; but that Palestrina, at the age of twenty-six, during the pontificate of Marcellus Cervinus, interceded with his holiness to suspend the sentence till he should have heard a mass composed in a different style. Accordingly, at Easter 1555, he presented before the pope and cardinals his celebrated composition, entitled, "Missa Papæ Marcelli," which was heard by them with so much pleasure and admiration, that music in divine service was restored to favour. In 1562 Palestrina was elected chapel-master to the church of SantaMaria-Maggiore; and in 1571 was appointed to the same office at St. Peter's. He opened a school of music at Rome in conjunction with his friend and fellow-pupil Gio. Maria Nanino, and greatly contributed to establish the superior reputation of the Italian musicians. He died in 1594, and was interred at St. Peter's, whither his funeral was attended by all the musicians at Rome, and a great concourse of other persons. His own composition, "Libera nos Domine," was performed on the occasion. No musician has been mentioned with more honour by writers on the same science than Palestrina, who was undoubtedly a great and original genius. Although the inventions of fugue, canon, and other elaborate compositions, have been banished from dramatic music, they have been retained in the church, on account of their gravity and solemnity; and this composer, by his fine taste and admirable skill in harmony, brought choral music to a degree of perfection that, (says Dr. Burney,) has never been exceed ed. The best church compositions since his time, have, indeed, been proverbially called alla Palestrina, as professedly imitations of his manner. His works were numerous, and most of them are still extant. The principal of them are masses and motets. Hawkins's and Burney's Histories of Music.-A. the most important and useful truths, by argu ments and illustrations which were equally forcible, perspicuous, and pleasing. His lectures on moral philosophy and on the Greek Testament, contained the outlines of the works by which he afterwards so much benefited the world and extended his own reputation; and those works may be said to have owed their origin to the situation which imposed upon him the duty of delivering the lectures. Mr. Paley had the happiness of acting with a brother-tutor of distinguished abilities, and at the same time one of his most intimate friends; Dr. John Law, the present bishop of Elphin, and son of Dr. Edmund Law, late bishop of Carlisle. The talents and exertions of two such men, rendered Christ's-college extremely popular; and while they retained their offices, that society rose to a flourishing state, unequalled, perhaps, in the history of the university. To his engagements as a public tutor, Mr. Paley added others still more numerous, as a private, and by these united labours was in the receipt of a very considerable income. PALEY, WILLIAM, a learned English divine and celebrated philosopher in the eighteenth century, was the son of a clergyman who held a small living near Peterborough, where the subject of this article was born, in the year 1743. Soon afterwards his father removed to Giggleswick in Yorkshire, where he was elected master of the grammar-school in that place. Under his tuition our author was carefully instructed in the learning requisite to qualify him for entering upon a course of academic studies; and in the year 1759, he was transplanted from this seminary to the university of Cambridge, where he was enter- Our author maintained an intimate acquainted a student of Christ's-college. Here he dis- ance with almost every person of celebrity in tinguished himself by his diligence and profi- the university. Among his most particular ciency; and he attracted considerable notice friends were Dr. Waring, the celebrated in the university, at the first opportunities mathematician, and Dr. John Jebb, well known which he enjoyed of displaying his talents in by his talents, his integrity, and his zeal in rethe public schools. According to the system ligious and political controversy. Through of education followed at Cambridge, students his friendship with Dr. Law, he became acabout the middle of their third year, who are quainted with his father, Dr. Edmund Law, then called senior sophs, dispute in the schools who was master of Peter-house, and continued on questions of natural and moral philosophy. chiefly to reside in the university, after he was In these exercises Mr. Paley discovered such created bishop of Carlisle. This connection extraordinary quickness and sagacity, that had an important influence on Mr. Paley's life, whenever he was expected to enter the lists, as he owed to it an establishment in the church the schools were crowded with auditors. In which induced him to abandon all the advan1763, he was admitted to the degree of B. A. tages of his academic situation, and as it provhaving had the honour of appearing the ed the introduction to many of his subsequent first man of his year in the previous ex- preferments. The bishop's theological opiaminations. After he had thus become a nions fell greatly below the established standgraduate, being too young to enter into holy ard of orthodoxy; and Dr. Jebb's sentiments orders, he obtained the place of assistant in a were equally obnoxious to the zealous friends school at Greenwich, which he retained about of the church, on the same account. He had three years. In 1766, he proceeded M. A. likewise incurred their odium, by his unweariand was elected a fellow of his college; which ed and intrepid exertions for promoting a reelection was soon followed by his appointment form in the university, as well as in church to the office of one of the college-tutors. The and state. The intimate friendship which duties of this appointment Mr. Paley discharged subsisted between these learned men and Mr. with uncommon assiduity and zeal. Not con- Paley, was viewed with a jealous eye by many tented with following the usual method of col- who were closely attached to the established lege-lectures, by which the progress of a stu- systems. Because he was a liberal thinker, they dent is left to depend chiefly on his own in- suspected that he must be a latitudinarian; and dustry, or private assistance, he endeavoured to they were prepared to discover dangerous tenintroduce his pupils to an acquaintance with dencies in his moral and political speculations, if they should ever be given to the public. After our author had spent about ten years in discharging the laborious duties of a tutor at Cambridge, he quitted the university in 1776, and entered into the matrimonial connection. At what period he took orders we are not in formed; but he was now first inducted into a small benefice in Cumberland. His next preferment was the living of Appleby in Westmoreland, worth about three hundred pounds a year; and in a short time afterwards, he was promoted to a prebendal stall in the cathedral church of Carlisle, together with the living of Dalston, a pleasant village in the vicinity of that city. In the year 1782, upon the resignation of his friend Dr. John Law, who was created an Irish bishop, he was made archdeacon of the diocese; and not long afterwards, he succeeded Dr. Burn, the author of the "Justice of the Peace," &c. in the chancellorship. For these different preferments he was indebted either to the venerable bishop of Carlisle, or to the influence of Dr. John Law with the dean and chapter of the cathedral church. While his residence was divided between Carlisle and Dalston, Mr. Paley engaged in the composition of his first and most generally celebrated work, "The Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy." This production, however, would probably never have been completed and presented to the public, had not the instigations of Dr. John Law urged him to the undertaking. That gentleman, while they were connected together at college, had frequently received high gratification from the perusal of Mr. Paley's lectures, and was early impressed with the idea that they might be expanded into a most useful treatise, by the great abilities of the author. This he had often suggested, and often urged his friend to carry such a work into execution. But Mr. Paley always brought forwards as an objection, the little attention which the public paid to the most eminent writers on those subjects; and after his marriage, he thought it his duty not to print a book which would not find purchasers. To remove this objection, a living having become vacant of which Dr. Law had the disposal, he gave it to Mr. Paley, on receiving a promise that he would consider it as a compensation for the hazard of printing, and immediately set about preparing his work for the press. In the year 1785, our author published his "Elements of Moral and Political Philosophy," in quarto, with an excellent dedication to the bishop of Carlisle, bearing honourable testi mony to the purity of the motives by which that prelate was actuated in his religious researches, and avowing sentiments which refleet the highest credit on the author's ingenuousness and liberality. Concerning this work it was well observed, by the most respectable of our periodical critics, that "those who are fond of novelty, of ingenious theories, curious speculations, abstract and metaphysical notions, will find, indeed, little in it to amuse or entertain them: but those who are solicitous to have their consciences properly directed in the general conduct of human life, to see their duties and obligations delineated with perspicuity and accuracy, will be fully gratified." That the prevalent opinion of the public was also strongly in favour of the value and utility of these Elements, may be presumed from the numerous impressions of them which were speedily demanded. The sixteenth now lies before us. That, when deciding on the questions which have most divided and agitated mankind, the author should have excited considerable opposition, was naturally to be expected; and that some of the definitions and principles maintained in his ethics and politics are open to exception, has been shewn by more than one ingenious opponent. However, whatever is objectionable in his work, is infinately counterbalanced by its very high general merits. The author's political speculations, in which his talents are most eminently displayed, have been studied and admired by the most illustrious statesmen of modern times: and it was an enviable compliment which was paid him by the late Mr. Fox, during the debate at the house of commons on the catholic question in May 1805, after reading two passages from his work, "that no man who valued learning, no man who valued genius, no man who valued moderation, could hear his opinions without deference and respect." One prominent excellence of this performance, is the unrivalled simplicity and pertinence of illustration with which it familiarizes the subjects discussed in it to the most common understanding. The next work which Mr. Paley presented to the public, places him in a high rank among the advocates for the truth of the christian scriptures. It is entitled, "Hora Pauline; or, the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul evinced, by a Comparison of the Epis tles which bear his Name, with the Acts of the Apostles, and with one another," 1790, octavo. The design of the author in this work was, not to repeat stale arguments, nor to pursue the beaten track which other defenders of Revelation had trodden before him; but to bring together, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from the different Epistles, excepting the Epistle to the Hebrews, such passages as furnish examples of undesigned coincidence. He has also so far enlarged his plan, as to take into it some circumstances found in the Epistles, which contributed strength to the conclusion, though not strictly objects of comparison. In stead of requiring the truth of any part of the apostolic history to be taken for granted, he leaves the reader "at liberty to suppose these writings to have been lately discovered in the library of the Escurial, and to come to our hands destitute of any extrinsic or collateral evidence whatever." This design is unquestionably entitled to the claim of originality; and it has been carried into execution by the author, with that acuteness of investigation and solidity of reasoning, which warrant his conclusion that, upon the whole, there is good reason to believe the persons and transactions spoken of to have been real, the epistles authentic, and the narration true. The admirable paragraph with which he closes his arguments, we shall reserve for our life of St. Paul. It is proper, however, to observe in this place, that the Hora Paulina will furnish the biblical student with ingenious criticisms and remarks, which will greatly assist him in the right understanding of St. Paul's epistles. May we not add, that, from Mr. Paley's having taken no notice whatever of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he seems to have coincided in opinion with those critics who have entertained doubts of its genuineness? Soon after the appearance of this work, Dr. James Yorke, the present bishop of Ely, made an offer to Mr. Paley of the mastership of Jesus-college, Cambridge, which was at his disposal in right of his see. This offer was a singular instance of honourable and disinterested patronage, since his lordship had never seen. Mr. Paley, and had no knowledge of his friends. In making it, he was solely influenced by the reputation of our author's extraordinary talents, and by a wish to render them serviceable in a high academical situation. Such a respectable and lucrative station was not hastily to be refused; and it was not till after a long hesitation, that his preferments in the north of England, and the engagements which they imposed upon him, induced him to decline the bishop's offer. His gratitude fe his lordship's "kindness flowing from public principles," our author expressed in a dedication prefixed to the next of the valuable writings communicated by him to the public. The work to which we have alluded made its appearance in 1794, under the title of "A View of the Evidences of Christianity, in three Parts. Part I. Of the direct historical Evidence of Christianity, and wherein, it is distinguished from the Evidence alleged for other Miracles. Part II. Of the auxiliary Evidences of Christianity. Part III. A brief Consideration of some popular Objections,” in three volumes, 12mo. These volumes contain a very judicious popular view of the arguments for the truth of the christian religion, drawn up with the same perspicuity and candour which recommended the author's preceding writings. It has not improperly been called "the most complete summary of the evidences of christianity that has ever appeared ;" and to these evidences, which it might be imagined had been before brought forwards in every possible point of view, he has given an interesting and pleasing air of originality. It also possesses the merit of offering a defence of christianity which every christian may read, without seeing the tenets in which he has been brought up attacked or decried. While writing it, Mr. Paley freely availed himself of the indefatigable labours of Dr. Lardner, to whom he has made all due acknowledgments, justly pronouncing him to be "the most candid of all advocates, and the most cautious of all enquirers." We quote this encomium from the eleventh edition of our author's work, which, like several of the preceding impressions, is in two volumes, octavo. Hitherto Mr. Paley had not received any patronage from the episcopal bench, excepting in the instances of Dr. Edmund Law, bishop of Carlisle, his successor Dr. Vernon, now archbishop of York, who gave him a living, and the bishop of Ely, who made him the offer mentioned above. The publication of the "Evidences of Christianity," however, seems to have roused others of them from their apparent insensibility to our author's merits. The first prelate who after this bestowed preferment upon him, was Dr. Pretyman, bishop of Lincoln, who offered him the subdeanery of that see, but upon condition that he should resign his prebend at Carlisle, and procure for the bishop the nomination of his successor; with which Dr. Vernon enabled him to comply. Soon afterwards Dr. Barrington, bishop of Durham, promised him the valuable living of Bishop-Wearmouth, in the county of Durham, provided that his lordship had the presentation to two other livings then held by Mr. Paley on which occasion Dr. Vernon, and the dean and chapter of Carlisle, who were the patrons, readily transferred their rights to Dr. Barrington. What Mr. Paley owed to the bishops of Lincoln and Durham, was the difference between what he received, and what was given up in exchange to their disposal; and although that difference was considerable, the fact deserves to be mentioned, in honour to the superior disinterestedness of his other patrons. In this number we have to mention the name of Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, who presented our author to a prebend of St. Paul's, which was but of small value. In the year 1795, the university of Cambridge paid a proper tribute of respect to our author, by conferring on him the degree of doctor of divinity; and henceforwards he divided his residence between Lincoln and BishopWearmouth, spending his summers at the latter, and his winters at the former of those places.. He now undertook, and proceeded slowly with the composition of the last of his valuable works, entitled, "Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the Appearances of Nature," 8vo. which did not issue from the press before the year 1802. From his dedication of the volume to the bishop of Durham we learn, that having been deprived, by a weak and painful state of health, of the power of discharging the public duties of his profession in a manner at all suitable, either to his sense of those duties, or to his most anxious wishes concerning them, it was only in his study he could repair his deficiencies in the church: it was only through the press that he could speak. When, therefore, the bishop called upon him for the only species of exertion of which he was capable, these circumstances disposed him without hesitation to obey the call in the best manner that he could. "In the choice of a subject," he observes, "I had no place left for doubt: in saying which, I do not so much refer, either to the supreme importance of the subject, or to any scepticism concerning it with which the present times are charged, as I do to its connection with the subjects treated of in my former publications. The following discussion alone was wanted to make up my works into a system; in which works, such as they are, the public have now before them, the evidences of natural religion, the evidencos of revealed religion, and an account of the duties that result from both. It is of small importance that they have been written in an order the very reverse of that in which they ought to be read." In this masterly performance, the author's powers of perspicuous reasoning, and happy illustration, are exercised with distinguished advantage. He has traced and shewn the marks of wisdom and design in various parts of the creation; but he has dwelt principally on those which may be discovered in the constitution of the human body. His book contains almost a complete treatise of anatomy, which, by the observations that he has interspersed, and by the excellence of his descriptions, he has contrived to render interesting even to those who read without any previous knowledge of the science. From nature and man he has advanced to nature's God, and by a train of argument and illustration, equally forcible and beautiful, established the most satisfactory evidence of the personality, natural attributes, unity and goodness of the Deity. Of the very favourable reception which this work met with from the public, our readers will be able to form some conception when we state, that in quoting the author's reason for the choice of his subject, we made use of the tenth edition, which was printed within the short period of three years. In the year 1805, Dr. Paley was seized with a violent illness, which proved-fatal to him on the twenty-fifth of May, when he was about the age of sixty-two. He had been twice married, and left eight children by his first wife, four sons and four daughters. "In private life he had nothing of the philosopher. He enter ed into little amusements with a degree of ardour, which, when contrasted with the superiority of his mind, had a pleasing effect, and constituted a very amiable trait of his character. He was fond of company, which he had extraordinary powers of entertaining; nor was he at any time more happy, than when communicating the pleasure he could give by exerting his unrivalled talents of wit and humour. No man was ever more beloved by his particular friends, or returned their affection with greater sincerity and ardour. That such a man, and such a writer, should not have been promoted to the bench of bishops, cannot be esteemed creditable to the times in which we live. It is generally understood that Mr. Pitt recommended him to his majesty some years ago for a vacant bishopric, and that an opposition was made from a very high quarter of the |