impressive voice, and a fine person, which, as age advanced, was, especially in the pulpit, venerable and interesting. His favourite model of style

was Massillon, a translation of whose sermons he once contemplated publishing. A firm believer in the truths of the gospel, he held tenaciously its essential doctrines; nor was he more decided in his belief of the need of the Redeemer's atonement for the salvation of the sinner, than of the utter inability of man to commence or carry on a religious life without the influence of the Holy Spirit. His ministry was often very serviceable. In one instance, it aided in leading a physician of accomplished mind, who had unhappily been ensnared by unbelief, to a consideration of those evidences which finally established him, as they will every sincere inquirer, upon that rock of ages, which is the only resting-place where the heirs of mortality can place their foot in security and peace.

In 1816 he was nominated by Mr. Curtis to the chapel of St. Bartholomew, in Birmingham, and about the same time, he was presented by the Earl of Abergavenny to the rectory of Bryngwyn, in the county of Monmouth; neither of which preferments was however of great value.

Possessed through life of the blessing of sound health, his constitution first gave way in the year 1827, when a serious illness compelled him to retire for some months to the mild climate of Torquay, in Devonshire. Although, upon his return, he renewed his duties, and appeared sometimes even to have regained his former strength, his bodily powers were evidently undermined. At the moment when advanced years and declining energy appeared to involve the necessity of relinquishing a station so arduous as that of head master of King Edward's school, he was unexpectedly presented in September, 1833, to the valuable rectory of Northfield, in Worcestershire. Here he contemplated passing the remnant of his days with his family, in the quiet retirement of a country parish. But the Divine Will ordained otherwise. His health rapidly declined; and on the 26th of April, 1834, he quietly resigned his spirit to the merciful disposal of his Redeemer, in the 78th year of his

age.

The manners of Mr. COOKE were remarkably simple, unaffected, and unpretending. In religion, as well as in politics, though ardently attached to the constitution in church and state,

he was a man of extreme liberality, not in the modern, but in the christian sense of the term: and being ill-adapted by temperament, inclination, and conviction, for contentions of any kind, he was a sworn foe to the violence of party and the prejudices of bigotry. Though living in Birmingham during different periods of universal excitement and controversial strife, he maintained the even tenor of his way; and, though at peace with all, he was never accused of indifference or dereliction of principle by any. Retired, and even absent, in large circles, few men more relished the advantages and charms of intellectual converse and social friendship; and few were more attractive to those who enjoyed these intimacies with him. His mind was accomplished, in the real meaning of the expression. To what is strictly called classical erudition, he added the elegancies of an accurate French and Italian scholar. The study of botany was his peculiar delight, and he was deeply versed in it. With chemistry he was thoroughly acquainted. He was a scientific musician: he had an exquisite taste as an artist: his knowledge of architecture was not limited: nor was his genius untuned for poetry. His acquirements, though thus diversified, were, in no respect, superficial: they were

not attained for display, but for enjoyment. With a mind perhaps more richly endowed than that of any other individual in the great community in which he lived, he was the least known as such, and would have been pointed out as the most unostentatious. Ever seeking retirement, and systematically shunning publicity, though respected by all, he was fully appreciated by that small circle of friends alone whom he esteemed and loved, and in the bosom of that family to whom he was endeared by every obligation of duty and affection.