Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/110

 more, and his ‘stock of sermons was recurring too rapidly.’ He had published his ‘Reasons for Contentment’ in 1792, as a warning against the revolutionary principles which were then exciting alarm. Paley thought this his best—but it was his least successful—performance. He always refrained from taking any active part in politics or professedly belonging to a party. This little book, though characteristic in its comfortable optimism, dealt too much in generalities to catch popular attention. In 1794, however, appeared his book upon the ‘Evidences of Christianity,’ which succeeded brilliantly. His services as a defender of church and state now clearly entitled him to preferment. In August 1794 Bishop Porteus, who had been a fellow of Christ's College with him, gave him the prebend of St. Pancras in the cathedral of St. Paul's. It was worth about 150l. a year, and did not involve residence. In January 1795 Bishop Pretyman gave him the subdeanery of Lincoln, worth 700l. a year, when he resigned his prebend and the chancellorship at Carlisle. He held the archdeaconry till May 1805. He performed his exercises for the D.D. degree at Cambridge directly after his institution at Lincoln, and amused his audience at a concio ad clerum by lengthening the penultimate of profugus. Before he had left Cambridge Bishop Barrington of Durham offered him the rectory of Bishop-Wearmouth, worth 1,200l. a year. He was inducted 14 March 1795, and vacated Stanwix and Aldingham.

Paley lived from this time at Monkwearmouth, except during his three months' annual residence at Lincoln. He avoided all trouble about tithes, which he had described in the ‘Moral Philosophy’ as ‘noxious to cultivation and improvement,’ by granting a lease for life to the landowners. He congratulated himself upon avoiding the risks of collection, though at some diminution of income. A remark reported by Meadley that he now did not care for bad harvests is denied by his son, and, if made, was no doubt intended as a joke. On 14 Dec. 1795 he married Miss Dobinson of Carlisle. He lived comfortably and hospitably, was a good whist-player, and amused his neighbours by his peculiarities of horsemanship in the park. He was appointed justice of the peace, and is said to have shown himself irascible in that capacity. An attempt to limit the number of licenses to public-houses, in which his brother magistrates failed to support him, brought him some trouble.

In 1800 he was for the first time attacked by a complaint which frequently recurred and involved great suffering. He was ordered to give up all public speaking. He was sent to Buxton in 1802, where he made acquaintance with Dr. James Currie [q. v.] of Liverpool. His physician, John Clark (1744–1805) [q. v.] of Newcastle, spoke highly of the courage which he displayed, and says that he was at that time writing the twenty-sixth chapter of his ‘Natural Theology,’ in which he dwells upon the relief given by intervals of ease. This, his last book, appeared in the same year. He was still able to amuse himself by reading, and spoke with great admiration of Malthus's essay on ‘Population,’ the second edition of which appeared in 1803. In 1805 he began his residence in Lincoln, where he was soon prostrated by a violent attack of his complaint, and died peacefully on 25 May 1805. He was buried in Carlisle Cathedral on 4 June by the side of his first wife. He left ‘a very competent fortune.’

Paley was above the average height, and in later life stout. He was curiously clumsy, made grotesque gesticulations, and talked, as Meadley and Best agree, with broad north-country accent. His son only admits ‘a want of refinement.’ His voice was weak, though deep; and he overcame the awkward effect of his pulpit appearances by his downright sincerity. His son apologises for his abrupt conclusions by saying that he stopped when he had no more to say. The only original portrait is said to be one taken by Romney, after 1780, for his friend Law. In 1862 it was in the possession of Lord Ellenborough, Law's nephew. He is represented with a fishing-rod in his hand. The portrait ascribed to Sir W. Beechey in the National Portrait Gallery is said to be a copy of this (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ii. 388, 416). Lord Ellenborough states that Paley composed his books under pretence of fishing. From the statements of Meadley and his son, he seems to have been a poor angler, satisfied with a nibble in the course of a day's sport. He was given to brooding over his books, often writing and teaching his sons at the same time, and turning every odd moment to account. Though methodical in the distribution of his time, Paley's habit of scrawling down stray thoughts at intervals spoilt his handwriting, which was clear in his youth, but afterwards became almost illegible (a facsimile is given by E. Paley). His notebooks became a ‘confused, incoherent, and blotted mass,’ in which domestic details were mixed with fragments of argument and hints for sermons. He was, however, very particular about punctuation, and the only legible part of his manuscripts was