possibly sometimes have led him astray. It was hard for him to do a harsh or a severe thing. Yet, "e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side." They were the faults of one who loved men, and pitied human infirmity, and could not bear contention and disturbance. Perhaps this may have led him, sometimes, to prefer temporary expedients that would still contention and prevent scandal, to more painful, but far-reaching and effectual remedies. He was familiar, affable, playful, but never undignified or light. His social affections were strong, and he greatly enjoyed life and its blessings; and there was never anything morose, querulous, or forbidding about him.

As he grew old, the sunshine brightened around him. His was a beautiful old age. He loved men as his children; men loved him as a father. There was no jealousy, no repining, no littleness in his soul. "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, kept his heart and mind, through Christ Jesus." Well and beautifully has the Bishop of Maine said :—

"We must adore the blessed Spirit, Whose fruits are love and joy and peace, for the example which, in that foremost place, we so long have witnessed of all that was kindly, forbearing, compassionate, generous, conciliating, of gratitude towards God, and benevolence towards mankind; of the beatitude of the meek and the peace-maker; of a conversation of which the memory of much intercourse can recall no word that seemed to indicate an uncharitable thought; and of a conduct which scarcely, at any time, drew on itself a severer reproof than that of an unwillingness to wound. Wise he was, and learned and able and honored, yet the first title which will attend him to his grave, springing everywhere from the lips of those who saw him most nearly, will be that of the good Bishop; and for the love and the peace which dwelt in him, and to which that spontaneous tribute bears witness,-God's holy name be praised."

Under such a genial influence, the Diocese of Connecticut has thriven and made progress, scarcely conscious of the blessing it was enjoying, till the fruit is matured and the work is ended; as the flower thinks not of the sun and dew, that have, nevertheless, blessed its springing, and given to its petals their beauty and their fragrance. And now, that the good man is gone, the Diocese remains his best memorial before the eyes of the world. He needs no "labor of an age in piled stones :" "si quæris monumentum, circumspice."

THOMAS CHURCH BROWNELL, D. D., LL. D., third Bishop of Connecticut, was "born at Westport, in the State of Massachusetts, on the 19th day of October, in the year 1779," in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the oldest of eleven children. His "father was the fourth in descent from George Brownell," by whom the land on which he was born was purchased from the Narraganset Indians. His mother was a descendant of the celebrated Col. Benjamin Church, famous in the Indian Wars, and the conqueror of King Philip; and from his maternal grandfather he derived his Christian name. He grew up on his father's farm in Westport, enjoying such advantages of education as the common country schools of that day afforded. In his boyhood, the amiability and fondness for peace, which through life distinguished him, displayed themselves so strongly, that he became known as a peace-maker, and the boys of his acquaintance fastened upon him the sobriquet of "Old Smoothing Plane." At the very early age of fifteen, when no teacher could be obtained for the school in his district, he consented to act as schoolmaster; and, as he himself states, in a brief sketch of his early life which he left behind him, "succeeded in securing the respect of his former schoolmates," no small testimony both to his mental development, and his excellence of character. What a foreshadowing is here of the man in the boy's daily life? Who does not see the embryo Bishop in the young pupil and teacher of the New England country school?

When he was about eighteen years old, after a few months' study with the Pastor of the village congregation, he went to Bristol Academy, Taunton, to prepare for College. In September, 1800, he entered the Freshman Class in the College of Rhode Island, now known by the name of Brown University. Two years after, Dr. Maxcy, who was then the President of the Institution, removed to Schenectady, as President of Union College. Young Brownell accompanied him, drawn by a strong personal attachment, and a desire to preserve the benefit of his highly valued instructions. Here he graduated in 1804, at the head of his Class, and with its highest honors. His mind had, before this time, been drawn to the study of 23*

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Theology; but the difficulties of the Calvinistic System soon began to perplex and repel him. He placed himself under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Nott, then a prominent Presbyterian Clergyman in Albany, and since, the distinguished President of his Alma Mater. For a solution of his difficulties, Dr. Nott put him upon the study of the early history of the Church. He read Mosheim, and this awakened in him a desire for fuller and more minute information. Dr. Nott referred him to Echard. But Echard's Early Church was plainly not Congregational or Presbyterian, but much nearer to the Episcopal scheme. Dr. Nott made light of his perplexity, and "jocuularly" sent him to Dr. Beasley, the Episcopal Minister. Dr. Beasley gave him "Potter on Church Government." "The perusal of this work," says the Bishop himself, "was like the opening of a new world to me." His head was convinced, but his heart found it hard to break away from old attachments, and go among strangers. He had no Episcopal relatives or friends. He went home to his father's, to give himself time for reflection and inquiry.

But soon Dr. Nott was elevated to the Presidency of his College, and he was made Tutor in Latin and Greek. Two years later, he was appointed Professor of Belles Lettres and Moral Philosophy; and, after two years, was transferred to the Chair of Chemistry and Mineralogy. To qualify himself for the duties of his office, and obtain the requisite apparatus, he went abroad. He sailed for Europe in the Autumn of 1809, and spent a year in attending Lectures and travelling over Great Britain, chiefly on foot. And it was during these pedestrian peregrinations, that he, with a companion, was, on one occasion, arrested on suspicion of being concerned in a robbery and murder; a charge ludicrously inconsistent with his harmless and amiable character.

In 1810, he returned to America, and entered on the duties of his Professorship. The year after, he was married. This brought him into closer association with Churchmen, and gave his previous bias a more determinate form. Up to this time he was unbaptized, having been reared under the narrow notions of Congregationalism. He received baptism in St.

George's Church, Schenectady, Sept. 5th, 1813, at the hands of the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins, then the Rector of that Church ; and shortly after was confirmed and admitted to the Holy Communion. Now, his attention was again drawn to the study of Theology; and on the 11th of April, 1816, he was ordained Deacon, by Bishop Hobart, in Trinity Church, New York, and soon after, in the same place, by the same Prelate, was

admitted to the Priesthood. Retaining his position in the College, he officiated in various Parishes, as there was a call for his services. The year after, his health failed, and by the advice of physicians, he spent the Winter at the South, travelling extensively through the country, and visiting the principal cities. On his return from this tour, he was chosen an Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, New York, and soon entered upon the duties of his place.

Here he thought he had reached the ultimate goal of his life; but God had other thoughts concerning him. In June, 1819, he was chosen Bishop of Connecticut. And on the 27th day of October, 1819, he was consecrated to the office of a Bishop in the Church of God, in Trinity Church, New Haven, by the venerable Bishop White, assisted by Bishops Hobart and Griswold, only three and a half years after his admission to the Diaconate. While he remained in connection with Union College, he exerted a decided and useful influence in secular affairs, as a man of science, and of public spirit, and was an adviser and coadjutor of DeWitt Clinton, in projecting that great work of internal improvement, the Erie Canal.

We will not trace, minutely, the course of his Episcopal administration. Its general character has been already portrayed. Two points in it stand out with special prominence. In the infancy of our Domestic Missions, he undertook and prosecuted successfully an extensive survey of the country bordering on the Mississippi, down to New Orleans. His researches and reports gave a new impetus to the Missionary work; and in this way, as well as in many others, his influence was felt for good beyond his own immediate field of labor.

In 1824, by his exertions, he established Washington, now Trinity College. Of this institution, he was emphatically the

father; and to the last day of his life he regarded it with a truly paternal solicitude and affection. It has given to the Church a large number of her ablest and most useful Ministers. And though it has never received at the hands of Churchmen the support and patronage it has deserved, it has been a source of incalculable good, and its founder, in the enlightened and far-reaching wisdom that projected it, would be, on that account alone, entitled to the lasting and grateful remembrance of the Church. He was, till 1831, its President, and when the pressing duties of the Episcopate compelled him to relinquish that office, he was made its Chancellor, and continued to occupy that dignity up to the time of his death.

At last, in 1851, when he had passed far on in his seventysecond year, the burden of age and the sense of growing infirmities admonished him to retire from active service, and devote his remaining years to setting his house in order, and preparing for the last great change. At his request, an Assistant Bishop was chosen, and, in entire accordance with his wishes, the Rev. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D., was selected for that Office. He was consecrated in St. John's Church, Hartford, Oct. 29, 1851, and is now the fourth Bishop of Contecticut. Perhaps, a trying and delicate relation was never more beautifully filled, than this, by both the parties. The older Bishop cherished, towards the younger, a truly paternal confidence and affection; and the younger repaid the elder, with a truly filial respect and tenderness. Bishop Brownell was never distrustful, or jealous, or peevish, or captious, or dictatorial. He said, without a murmur, what so few can say cheerfully and gracefully, as the Baptist did of our SAVIOUR, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Soon after, the death of Bishop Chase elevated him to the dignity of Presiding Bishop, and he held it thirteen years. But he soon began to withdraw from the active duties of his Office; and during the last years of his life, he ceased to officiate altogether. In the bosom of his family, soothed by their affectionate attentions, the evening of his life glided serenely and pleasantly away, in favor with God and in perfect charity with men. When, at last, the summons came, he had nothing